US08858382B2
A gear arrangement for a planetary gearbox includes a planet carrier, a planet pin, a planet gear, bearing means located between the planet pin and the planet gear, the bearing means including a bearing ring, a retainer secured to the planet carrier by one or more bolts, and one or more shims located between the retainer and the planet pin. The planet pin is hollow and is in fluid communication with an inside surface of the bearing ring and with an inlet. This means that a fluid forced via the inlet and the hollow planet pin applies a radial force to the bearing ring, reducing the contact friction between the bearing ring and the planet pin and allowing an axial position of the planet pin to be adjusted to provide a correct preloading to the bearing means. This means that the bearing can be pre-set, in-situ using hydraulic actuator and oil injection.
US08858381B2
An axle assembly having an axle housing that includes arm portion for receiving an axle. A dam may be disposed in the arm portion and may cooperate with the arm portion to define a reservoir that is configured to retain a volume of a lubricant. A conduit may deliver lubricant to the reservoir.
US08858380B2
A speed reduction device includes front and rear stage speed reduction mechanisms. The speed reduction device includes a connecting shaft that connects the front stage speed reduction mechanism to the rear stage speed reduction mechanism; bearings that support the connecting shaft; an oil supply port that is formed on one side of front and rear stage sides of the bearings; and communication passages that make a receiving section, which is closer to the front stage speed reduction mechanism than the bearings in a casing of the speed reduction device, communicate with a receiving section, which is closer to the rear stage speed reduction mechanism than the bearings.
US08858378B2
A shift by wire control for a multi-speed vehicle transmission is provided. The control includes a shift by wire shift valve in fluid communication with other shift valves and clutch trim valves to provide double blocking features in the neutral range and a reverse range. The shift by wire valve is configured with multiple differential areas to provide failure modes for all forward ranges.
US08858374B2
A mechanism for pretensioning a cable, or like tension element, of a tension-element drive selectively engages the motor drives of the cable for pretensioning. The mechanism uses a sleeve on which a portion of the cable is wound, with another portion of the cable wound in an opposed direction on a drive shaft on the motor. A clutch connects the sleeve to the motor output shaft. An initiator mechanism selectively stops rotation of the sleeve and the cable portion wound on the sleeve while allowing the motor torque to act on the other end of the cable wound on the drive shaft.
US08858363B2
This invention provides a hollow golf club head including a face portion, a crown portion, a sole/side portion which includes a sole portion and a side portion, and a weight member. The golf club head includes a recessed portion which is formed in the sole/side portion, and has an outer surface to which the weight member is attached, and a rib which is formed on the inner surface of the sole/side portion, and traverses the recessed portion across the peripheral edge defining the recessed portion.
US08858360B2
A golf club providing improved golf ball launch conditions is disclosed herein. The golf club includes a face component and a sole comprising an elongated recess disposed proximate the face component. The elongated recess preferably is tube shaped, and preferably has an opening with a smaller width than an innermost surface of the elongated recess. Some embodiments of the golf club also comprise a cover affixed to the sole and at least partially covering the opening of the elongated recess.
US08858357B2
A golf club head with an improved Moment of Inertia (MOI) is disclosed herein. More specifically, the present invention relates to a golf club head with a releasable hosel mechanism that is leaner and more lightweight, it allows a significant amount of weight to be saved from the hosel portion of the golf club head and used to improve Center of Gravity (CG) location of the golf club head; which contributes to the improvement of the MOI of the golf club head.
US08858354B2
A golf putter ball-marker handling system uses distance of a magnet from the marker to control whether the marker is captured or dropped. The golf putter preferably also has a ball-handling system that captures a ball in an aperture in the club head by sliding a ball-engagement pin into the aperture and underneath the ball. Both the marker-handling system and the ball-handling system are actuated at generally the same time by an actuation system that is controlled by a single handle at or near the club grip.
US08858352B2
A wrist guard for bowling is provided. The wrist guard is capable of easily swing-adjusting (laterally adjusting) or tilt-adjusting (longitudinally adjusting) while a user is putting on the wrist guard, thereby proving a stable posture and convenience of use, also providing a beautiful exterior obtained by covering an angle adjusting unit swing-adjusting or tilt-adjusting using a cover, and preventing holding a cloth in such a way that the user is able to concentrate on a bowling game while throwing a bowling ball.
US08858349B2
The present document describes a padding layer for a multi-layered sports playing field. Various improvements are proposed for enhancing athlete's safety, surface hardness, water drainage, heat management, ease of assembly/installation, durability/longevity, uniformity, resistance to change in weather according to seasons, and stability. The improvements include: matching (multiple-wise) of spacing between rows of backstitches of the top layer and the drainage channels on top surface of the padding layer; a slit in the external tab portion of the padding layer panel, a slit near the lateral part of the tab or blank portion providing a hinging effect thereto, and/or protrusions at various positions on the tab or blank portions to account for change in size of the padding layer panel; drainage holes within the drainage channels; and various configurations of drainage channels on the bottom surface of the padding layer to improve evacuation of water toward the sides of the playing surface.
US08858342B2
Flexibly configurable button panels for electronic devices and dynamic display systems for wager based gaming machines are disclosed. Button panels include a flexible cable, surface mount or other cable connectors spaced along and coupled thereto, and button assemblies coupled thereto via the cable connectors to provide electrical access from buttons to circuit lines. Relative physical locations of buttons are then reconfigurable to form different button panel configurations while the buttons remain coupled to the flexible cable. A dedicated dynamic button panel controller for processing button functions and a button panel identification device having an identification code can also be provided. Buttons can be removably coupled to the cable connectors, and can also include dynamic displays thereupon. Other gaming machine dynamic displays can also be provided. Separate dynamic display controllers can be provided to control dynamic displays directly to alleviate processing burdens on the master gaming controller.
US08858339B2
The invention disclosed herein relates to a video game system comprising a video game console and an object or toy used in connection with the video game console, wherein the object or toy has a rewritable data storage device, and wherein the video game console stores information in the rewritable data storage device in response to game play events occurring in a first gaming session. The stored information is subsequently retrieved by the video game console in a second gaming session, and the retrieved information is used to conduct the game play of the second gaming session.
US08858337B2
A game system including a plurality of mobile game apparatuses, and a mobile game apparatus that can communicate with another game apparatus that exists within a communicable range by use of a radio communications unit. When a communicated state is established, exchanging conditions for exchanging game data are received and transmitted, and in a case the exchange conditions are coincident with each other, the game data are exchanged.
US08858336B2
A game apparatus is capable of controlling infrared radiation emitters for radiating infrared light. The game apparatus executes game processing using imaging information on the infrared light obtained from an input device. The input device takes an image of the infrared light radiated by the infrared radiation emitters, and also receives an input from a user. The game apparatus comprises pattern storage means; selection means; and radiation control means. The pattern storage means stores at least one signal pattern of an infrared signal usable by a control target device. The selection means selects at least one of the at least one signal pattern stored by the pattern storage means, using the input received by the input device. The radiation control means causes the infrared radiation emitters to output an infrared signal of the signal pattern selected by the selection means.
US08858333B2
Various embodiments provide a motion-based media control system comprising a motion-based controller comprising a motion sensor; a media center comprising a display; a network in communication with the media center and a server; a network in communication with the motion-based controller and the server; and an application configured to execute on the motion-based controller and to capture movement coordinates from the motion sensor of the motion-based controller, and to send the movement coordinates to the server. Various embodiments provide an optical-based media control system comprising an optical-based controller comprising a touch screen and an image sensor on a surface opposite of the touch screen.
US08858330B2
A video game maps each of a plurality of outputs to inputs associated with a video game controller. In some embodiments, the plurality of outputs represent the various potential outputs of a drum set. Combinations of video game controller inputs are used to generate the outputs. Video game controller inputs include traditional input devices such as button inputs, as well as input signals generated from positioning and movement of the video game controllers. In some embodiments, a video game console provides a video representation of the outputs generated by input combinations received from the video game controllers.
US08858320B2
A slot machine according to the present invention comprises: a symbol display capable of scroll-displaying a symbol array that includes a plurality of symbols; and a controller programmed to execute the processing of: (A) executing a normal game in which the symbol array is scroll-displayed in a single direction and then stop-displayed to the symbol display, and in which game media are paid out in an amount corresponding to the stop-displayed symbol or a combination of the stop-displayed symbols; and (B) displaying an extra symbol being added to the symbol array, while scrolling the symbol array in a direction opposite to the single direction, when a predetermined condition has been satisfied in the normal game executed in the processing (A).
US08858298B2
A method of forming a polishing pad with a polishing layer having a polishing surface and a back surface. A plurality of grooves are formed on the polishing surface, and an indentation is formed in the back surface of the polishing layer. A region on the polishing surface corresponding to the indentation in the back surface is free of grooves or has shallower grooves.
US08858296B2
A process control system is provided for use with a processing tool for thin film patterning by a material removal processing system. The system includes an optical end-point detector operable within a working area defined by the processing tool when the processing tool is applied to an article, the optical end-point detector performing in-situ measurements of parameters of patterned thin film on the article. An optical integrated monitoring tool is installed with the processing tool and operable outside the working area for measuring parameters of the patterned thin film on the article. A control unit is connected to the end-point detector and to the integrated monitoring tool, and includes processing and computational intelligence responsive to data received from the end-point detector and to the measured data received from the integrated monitoring tool for analyzing data and generating a signal for terminating the patterning of the thin film on the article.
US08858295B2
A brassiere that can be worn during a mammogram is devoid of metal and has stretch cups. The brassiere permits a woman to remain at least partially clothed above the waist during a mammogram. In various embodiments, the brassiere includes one or more additional features, in any combination, including a compression band, wide shoulder straps, a bra band, and releasable breast cups. Some of the additional features are expected to reduce the pain experienced by some patients undergoing a mammography.
US08858294B2
An apparatus includes a base, a drive mechanism attached to the base for causing the base to move across a support surface, a bobble head rotatably coupled to the base and rotatable about at least one axis, and a vibrating mechanism adapted to cause the bobble head to oscillate about at least one axis.
US08858287B2
A sealing substrate is arranged to oppositely face an element substrate on which organic EL layers are formed in a matrix array with a sealing material sandwiched therebetween. A gel-state desiccant is filled in an inner space surrounded by the element substrate, the sealing substrate and the sealing material. Since the gel-state desiccant is in a gel state, the gel-state desiccant is flexibly filled in the inner space of the organic EL display device thus completely eliminating a gap. Since the inner space is filled with the gel-state desiccant, moisture hardly intrudes into the inner space from the outside and, at the same time, a mechanical strength of the organic EL display device is also enhanced.
US08858284B2
An aquatic exercise device comprising a base arranged to be held in particular with a foot or with a hand, and webbing, in particular corolla-shaped webbing, that is secured to the base and that is suitable for deforming under pressure from the water that is exerted while the device is moving.
US08858282B2
A marine propulsion system is for propelling a marine vessel in water. The system comprises a marine vessel and an outboard motor that is coupled to the marine vessel. The outboard motor has a first inlet that receives intake air for combustion. A second inlet is located on the hull of the marine vessel and a conduit conveys the intake air from the second inlet on the marine vessel to the first inlet on the outboard motor.
US08858278B2
A method for controlling a marine vessel having a first steering nozzle, a reversing deflector and at least one of a bow thruster and a second steering nozzle is disclosed. The method comprises any of the acts of inducing a net transverse thrust to the marine vessel in response to a transverse thrust component signal, without substantially inducing any forward-reverse thrust or rotational thrust to the marine vessel, or inducing a net forward-reverse thrust to the marine vessel in response to a forward-reverse thrust component signal without substantially inducing any transverse thrust or rotational thrust to the marine vessel, or inducing a net rotational thrust to the marine vessel in response to the rotational thrust component signal without substantially inducing any forward-reverse thrust or transverse thrust to the marine vessel.
US08858276B2
A terminal strip includes a number of terminals and a strip connecting the terminals. The terminal has a body, a soldering portion extending downwardly from the body and a spring beam extending upwardly from the body. The strip has a number of slots defined during punching the soldering portion thereof. The body has a bottom edge and a connecting portion connecting with the soldering portion. A breaking cut is formed in the connecting place between the bottom edge and the strip. The breaking cut is distributed into a number of slots connecting with each other. The configuration of the breaking slot can make several slots each with a short tearing journey when the terminals are separated from the strip, that can improve the efficacy of the product yield.
US08858275B2
A crimp-style terminal (10) which includes a base plate (13); a conductor crimp unit (12) which is formed, to have a substantially U-shaped cross section, from a pair of conductor swage pieces (14) which extend to both sides of the base plate (13) and are swaged to encase conductors (Wa) of a wire (W), the wire being arranged on the inner surface of the base plate (13), and which is crimped and connected to the terminals of the conductors (Wa); and a plurality of serrations (16) which are on the inner surface of the conductor crimp unit (12) and which are formed from cylindrical concave sections having identical radii. The depth of the serrations (16) formed at the rear end-side inner surface of the conductor swage pieces (14) is shallower than that of the serrations (16) formed at the front end-side inner surface of the base plate (13).
US08858274B2
An electric terminal 1 comprising a terminal body 2 and a box-shaped hood 3 enclosing at least partially the terminal body 2, said hood 3 being bent from a sheet-metal part into the box-shaped design wherein the sheet-metal part has a first connecting end 20 and a second connecting end 21 both being bent towards each other, wherein said connecting ends 20, 21 of the sheet-metal part are form-fittingly connected to each other.
US08858273B2
An object of the invention is to provide a press bond terminal capable of easily ensuring compatibility between electrical connection performance and mechanical connection performance in the case of connecting a terminal to an electric wire. In a press bond terminal (10) having a conductor press bond part (13) connected by being pressed and bonded to a distal end of a conductor (Wa) of an electric wire, the conductor press bond part (13) being formed in substantially a U-shaped cross section by a base plate (13A) and a pair of conductor crimp pieces (13B) which is extended upward from both right and left lateral edges of the base plate (13A) and is crimped so as to wrap the conductor (Wa) disposed on an inner surface of the base plate (13A), an inner surface of the base plate (13A) of the conductor press bond part (13) is provided with a projecting bar (22).
US08858269B2
The invention relates to a spring-cage terminal block, having a bus bar and a leg spring for connecting a stripped conductor end piece of an electrical conductor, wherein the conductor end piece is inserted into a material passage of the bus bar and is clamped by means of the leg spring. According to the invention, the contact surface on the metal collar inner wall surface of the material passage has contact ribs extending along the insertion direction in order to form a linear contact pattern which extends in the insertion direction.
US08858258B2
The invention relates to a plug element (2) for a sealed high-voltage plug-and-socket connector (1), by means of which, in particular in an automobile, an electrical conductor (11) can be connected in electrically conductive manner to a mating contact element (46) of a mating plug element (3), with a housing body (7) which has a plug section (4) which can be fitted together with the mating plug element (3) in a direction of insertion (S) and a conductor receptacle section (6) remote from the plug section (4) with at least one conductor entry opening (10), and with at least one contact element (33) which has an insertion member (35) which is arranged spaced apart from the at least one conductor entry opening (10) in the plug section (4) and can be fitted together with the mating contact element (46), and a conductor fastening section (36) for connecting the at least one electrical conductor (11). Furthermore, the invention relates to a conductor end piece (26) for fastening an end section (55) of the electrical conductor (11) in the plug-and-socket connector (1) and also a modular system for the plug element (2), and to a method for assembling the plug element (2). In order to make the assembly of the plug element (2) simpler and more reliable, provision is made according to the invention for the conductor fastening section (36) to be designed as a plug contact (37) which is flush with the at least one conductor entry opening (10) in a direction of introduction (E) for the at least one electrical conductor (11) and for a conductor latching element (57, 57′) to be arranged in the housing body (7), which element in a projection in the direction of introduction (E) overlaps the at least one conductor entry opening (10) at least in sections.
US08858242B2
An electronic device includes a first housing, a second housing disposed on the first housing, and a connecting component. The connecting component includes a connecting body and an elastic conductive element. The connecting component is located between the first housing and the second housing. The elastic conductive element with an elastic restoring force is movably disposed in the connecting component. When a part of the elastic conductive element protrudes beyond the connecting body, the elastic conductive element is connected to the second housing and the connecting body.
US08858236B2
A rotatable electrical plug assembly for a volatile material dispenser includes a support block having first and second opposing lateral sides and electrical plug pins extending from the support block and including terminals connected to the plug pins. The plug assembly further includes a wire extending from one of the terminals toward the first side of the support block, wherein the wire forms a loop between the terminals and the first side and further extends toward the second side of the support block.
US08858230B2
An artificial root for dental implantation comprises a neck portion, an end portion opposite the neck portion, a body portion and a multiplex thread structure which is formed on the body portion. The multiplex thread structure comprises a first thread and a second thread in which the first thread forms a root portion with a specific first width for the second thread, which has a crest portion of a specific second width, to be accommodated into the root portion. The multiplex thread structure is partially configured in such a way that the second width of the crest portion is simultaneously increased when the first width of the root portion is gradually increased.
US08858229B2
An apparatus for treating organic tissue includes: (i) a flash lamp defining a bore; (ii) a current source adapted for providing current to the flash lamp and operating at a current density adapted for forming a volume of optically transparent plasma within the bore, where the volume of optically transparent plasma is capable of emitting electromagnetic radiation and allowing the transmission of the electromagnetic radiation through the volume of optically transparent plasma; and (iii) a delivery system adapted for employing at least a portion of the electromagnetic radiation to treat the organic tissue.
US08858222B1
A new approach for igniting an air-fuel mixture in a turbine or other engine is disclosed. Resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) is used to generate volume ionization within an air-fuel flow and induce an ignition arc. The output of a relatively low energy single pulsed ultraviolet laser is aimed across an electric field inside a volume of air to create a pre-ionized channel so that a smaller voltage electric field is sufficient to create an electrical arc that follows the pre-ionized channel and will ignite an air-fuel mixture. Because the arc follows the pre-ionized channel, it can be directed to an optimal location inside an ignition volume for igniting the air-fuel mixture. A specific example embodiment is described using a 287.5 nm wavelength pulsed ultraviolet laser to excite ground state oxygen molecules to a specific excited state having a coincident term energy with a specific nitrogen molecule excited state.
US08858201B2
A fluid transporting device includes an elastic tube, a tube frame that holds the elastic tube in an arc, a rotary push plate arranged in the arc for facilitating fluid flow inside the elastic tube, and a plurality of push pins disposed between the elastic tube and the center of the arc. Each push pin includes a semispherical end portion that contacts the rotary push plate, a pushing end portion that places a bias on the elastic tube, and adjacent end portions of at least two push pins close the elastic tube when the semispherical end portions are pushed by an outer circumference arc of the rotary push plate.
US08858199B2
A sump pump reservoir is disclosed, the sump pump reservoir having a housing of oblong cross-section having an interior arranged for housing at least two level-activated water pumps supported on adjacent floor areas thereof for non-interfering operation, the housing having a length substantially greater than its width and the housing having a top oblong reinforcing rim; and a cover section enclosing the interior.
US08858195B2
A central flow double diaphragm pump controlled by an operating fluid distribution module with a pivoting sealing member and protruding wing, that pivots on a low friction seal. The pump also includes a central pump body having an inlet and discharge manifolds, and two pumped fluid chambers in the central pump body each including a pumped fluid chamber inlet port and outlet port; within each chamber the inlet port is positioned higher than the outlet port. Two suction check valves are located in the central body, close to the suction inlet, above the pump's shaft, and these valves' outlets connect directly to the pumped fluid chamber inlet ports. Two discharge check valves are located in the central pump body, close to the discharge outlet and below the shaft, and the pumped fluid chamber outlet ports connect directly to these valves' inlets. Removable access caps are included above the check valves.
US08858177B2
A turbine for extracting power from a flowing fluid comprises a blade for interaction with the fluid, the blade being rotatable both about a primary axis and a blade axis. The blade axis is proximate to the blade, substantially parallel to the primary axis and spaced therefrom. Rotation actuating means is provided to rotate the blade about the blade axis in dependence upon the rotation of the blade about the primary axis such that the rotation angle of the blade about the blade axis is a function of the rotation angle of the blade about the primary axis. The rotation of the blade about the blade axis is in the same direction of rotation as the blade axis about the primary axis.
US08858175B2
An article is disclosed that comprises a thermal material having a first surface and a second surface. The thermal material defines a film hole between the first surface and the second surface, and the film hole includes a metering portion adjacent the first surface and a diffuser portion adjacent the second surface. The metering portion defines a metering hole axis, and the diffuser portion defines a trench. The trench extends substantially parallel to a metering hole axis.
US08858167B2
A gas turbine engine component has an airfoil and a squealer tip. The airfoil has a pressure side and a suction side. The squealer tip is located at one end of the airfoil to engage with an adjacent surface and thereby form a seal. The squealer tip terminates in a squealer tip apex with an arched cross-sectional profile in a plane extending from the pressure side to the suction side of the airfoil. A method for producing an airfoil seal for the gas turbine engine component is also provided.
US08858163B2
A ventilation inlet comprising a ventilation pipe to receive flow from a first flow zone and to deliver the flow to a second flow zone; a divider arranged to divide a portion of the ventilation pipe into a static pressure zone and a total pressure zone; and a deflector arranged to direct flow from the total pressure zone at least partially across the static pressure zone to restrict delivery of the flow from the static pressure zone to the second flow zone dependent on the pressure of the flow in the first flow zone.
US08858150B2
A door detection system includes a robot arm unit and a movable unit. The robot arm unit includes at least one bearing platform and at least one level sensing structure disposed on the at least one bearing platform. The level sensing structure includes a plurality of contact sensors, and the wafer carrier device is disposed on the at least one level sensing structure. The movable unit includes at least one movable structure disposed on the robot arm unit. The wafer carrier device has a wafer pick-and-place opening corresponding to the door, and one end of the at least one movable structure can selectively contact the door of the wafer carrier device or been inserted into the wafer carrier device from the wafer pick-and-place opening.
US08858133B2
Cutting apparatus includes a pilot arrangement which has a tip. The tip engages a workpiece to form a pilot recess to engage the workpiece and prevent the apparatus skidding across the surface of the workpiece. The tip can retract against the action of a spring. Accordingly, the apparatus is prevented from skidding across the workpiece, but wear on the tip is minimized.
US08858130B2
An indexable, invertable cutting insert has radially-oriented positioning segments on a front face of the insert and radially-oriented positioning segments on the back face of the insert. The radially-oriented positioning segments are shifted on the front face relative to those on the back face such that, when the cutting insert is engaged within the toolholder, the cutting segment utilized on the front face will never be directly opposite the cutting segment utilized on the back face. A toolholder system is made up of the cutting insert and a toolholder capable of securing and indexing the cutting insert.
US08858124B2
An excavation system utilizes a vacuum truck having a vacuum system in combination with a small backhoe to which an excavator assembly is affixed to the backhoe extendable and articulating arm whereby manipulation of the excavator assembly can be controlled by an operator positioned in the backhoe operator cab. The vacuum assembly and the excavator assembly are operatively attached by an elongated, at least partially flexible vacuum hose operatively attached to the vacuum truck pump to permit material that is excavated to be transported from the excavator assembly to the vacuum assembly for storage or disposal.
US08858123B2
An injection system for solid particles comprises a conveying hopper (11) located at an upstream location (1), a fluidizing device (21) for fluidizing the solid particles at the outlet of the conveying hopper (11) and forming a solid-gas flow, a pneumatic conveying line (15) for conveying the solid-gas flow from the fluidizing device (21) to a downstream location (2) and a static distribution device (17) with a plurality of injection lines (19), connected thereto. An upstream flow control system controls the mass flow rate in the pneumatic conveying line (15) at the upstream location (1) by controlling the opening of an upstream flow control valve (35) responsive to the solid material mass flow measured in the pneumatic conveying line (15) at the upstream location (1). A downstream flow control system controls the mass flow rate in the pneumatic conveying line (15) at the downstream location (2) by controlling the opening of a downstream flow control valve (51, 79i) responsive to the instantaneous mass flow rate sensed by a main downstream mass flow rate sensor (53).
US08858122B2
A method for reinforcing an ecological greening fabric, including steps of: forming a trench (2) in an area to be afforested; laying a first ecological fabric (3) on the surface (1) of the area and in the trench (2); refilling a first soil layer (4) in the trench (2) to press the first ecological fabric (3); and fastening a second ecological fabric (5) on the first soil layer (4) to hold the first soil layer (4) by the second ecological fabric (5), so that the first and second ecological fabrics (4) and (5) in the trench (2) and the trench (2) jointly form a bag structure for fixing the first soil layer (4). A structure for reinforcing an ecological greening fabric is also disclosed.
US08858121B2
An arrangement on board a vessel to be able to strap at least one cable to a pipeline during continuous and contemporary deployment of the strapped pipe bundle into the sea is shown. The arrangement includes at least a strapping machine which is arranged to be moved forward together with the cable and pipeline in order to perform a strapping operation in concert with the forward advancement thereof. The strapping machine is also moveable rearwards relative to the cable and pipeline for the repositioning to the next strapping operation such that the application of a strap or straps takes place intermittently under the continuous deployment of the pipe bundle. Means for continuous motorized advancement of the respective pipes and cables towards the strapping machine and further into the sea is also arranged.
US08858113B1
A tire deflation device includes a support rod disposed longitudinally within a housing, a plurality of T-shaped positioners spaced along the length of the support rod, a pair of spikes attached to each of the T-shaped positioners, each spike of the pair arranged in an opposite direction to the other, and a plurality of filler portions disposed between each of the pair of spikes. The housing includes a main housing portion, a first end portion and a second end portion. The main housing portion has three lateral sides. The positioners position the pairs of the spikes such that for every three pairs of the spikes, the first is arranged substantially parallel to the first lateral side, the second is arranged substantially parallel to the second lateral side, and the third is arranged substantially parallel to the third lateral side, wherein the pairs of spikes are spaced apart.
US08858110B2
A quick connect/disconnect coupling for securing an agricultural implement, such as a stalk stomper, to a tool bar assembly on a tractor, without the need for any tools. The tool bar assembly includes a bracket having a pair of spaced-apart arm members. Each arm member has a recess therein, and a hole spaced therefrom. The recesses and the holes are generally transversely aligned. A pin is adapted to be received in the holes. The agricultural implement assembly includes a plate member. Provided on the plate member is a cross bar. The cross bar is adapted to be engaged in the recesses. To connect the agricultural implement assembly to the tool bar assembly, the cross bar is engaged in the recesses and the agricultural implement and the pin can be inserted into the transversely aligned holes to connect the agricultural implement to the tool bar assembly. A spring member biases the implement to pivot away from the plate member.
US08858101B2
An image pickup apparatus which can provide a rotational operation member around a lens barrel formed with a bayonet coupling section without increasing the apparatus size. Three female pawl grooves and three open grooves are formed in a mount base. A first ring member is formed with three male pawl portions for being engaged with the female pawl grooves and open grooves. An operation ring member is rotationally operated, and a second ring member rotates in unison therewith. Photo reflectors detect rotation of the second ring member. A restriction unit restricts rotation of the first ring member when the mount base and the operation ring member are bayonet-coupled. A rotation locking member restricts rotation of the operation ring member and the second ring member with respect to the first ring member in accordance with an operation for releasing rotation restriction of the first ring member.
US08858098B1
A camera slider system that supports a camera for longitudinal sliding. The camera sliding system comprises a pair of longitudinal rail members and a carriage system. The rail members are spaced at a substantially constant distance apart. The carriage system further comprises of a base plate upon which a camera mounting plate is fixed, along with a pair of wheel support assemblies. Each wheel support assembly engages the corresponding rail member to support longitudinal movement. Each wheel assembly further comprises of three rollers, wherein two rollers engage the interior surface of the corresponding rail member, and one roller engages the exterior surface of the same rail member. The arrangement of rollers is coplanar with the plane of the rail members. The exterior roller of each wheel assembly is adjustable relative to the corresponding rail member to accommodate any flaw in the rail profile.
US08858097B2
A miniature tripod assembly adapted to mount to the bottom of a camera, or other device, and to be small enough to fit within the profile of the device. The miniature tripod assembly may use a ball joint which allows for multi-axis movement of the device relative to the legs of the tripod.
US08858094B2
A fiber optic connector system is described which includes a plug and a socket. The optically active surfaces of the plug and socket are automatically protected from soiling as soon as the connection is opened.
US08858093B2
An optical connector includes a jumper, optical fibers and an optical-electric coupling element. The jumper includes a first side surface and a second side surface. A locating flange extends from the first side surface. The locating flange includes a first vertical surface. The jumper defines receiving holes through the first and second side surfaces and the first vertical surface. Each of the optical fibers is received in a respective receiving hole. The optical-electric coupling element includes a third side surface defining a locating cavity. The locating cavity includes a second vertical surface forming coupling lenses. The locating cavity also includes a lower sidewall and an upper sidewall defining an opening. The second vertical surface is substantially perpendicular to the upper sidewall. The locating flange is inserted into the locating cavity, with each coupling lenses aligned with a respective optical fiber.
US08858086B2
A bearing includes an inner ring, an outer ring, and a plurality of rolling elements. In the bearing, each of an inner ring raceway surface and an outer ring raceway surface has a contact area that comes into contact with the rolling elements, and a non-contact area that is formed adjacent to an outer side of an end portion of the contact area and does not come into contact with the rolling elements. A lubricant retaining portion having a recessed portion and a large number of non-uniform projections and depressions is formed at the non-contact area of at least one of the inner ring raceway surface and the outer ring raceway surface.
US08858084B2
A rotating device includes a fixed body having a base and a shaft, a hub, and a rotating body having a rotating-body-side encircling member fixed to the hub and encircling the shaft. A lubricant is present between the fixed body and the rotating body. The rotating-body-side encircling member and the shaft are each formed with a radial dynamic pressure generating groove. The fixed body includes a base-side encircling member having a disk part encircling the base-side portion of the shaft and a cylinder part encircling the rotating-body-side encircling member. The base-side encircling member has the disk part fixed to the shaft by interference fitting, and has the cylinder part fixed to the base. An air-liquid interface is located in a gap in the radial direction between the inner periphery of the cylinder part and the outer periphery of the rotating-body-side encircling member.
US08858083B2
The motion guide device includes: a raceway rail; a moving block including an endless circulation path for rolling elements; and spacers interposed in the endless circulation path of the moving block. The moving block includes: a block body including: a load rolling element path for the rolling elements; and a rolling element return path parallel to the load rolling element path; and turning path forming members fixed to the block body. The turning path forming member includes a direction turning path for coupling the load rolling element path and the rolling element return path to each other. The direction turning path includes: a turning portion for continuously varying a rolling direction of the rolling elements; and a preliminary turning portion which allows the spacers to move in a curved form while linearly guiding the rolling elements.
US08858075B2
Disclosed herein is an apparatus and method for remote monitoring that includes immersing a first temperature sensor at least partially into a heat transfer material situated in a thermo-well of a mobile container housing a material for transport, wherein the first temperature sensor includes a conductor routed through a first passage of a fitting, while providing access to the thermo-well for the insertion of a second temperature sensor through a second passage of the fitting, and receiving a signal from the first temperature sensor at a remote communication unit secured at least indirectly to the mobile container, wherein the signal is representative of the temperature of the material being transported.
US08858070B2
A system and method for measuring a glass transition temperature of a hydrophobic polymer having a surface tagged with an atmospheric plasma.
US08858066B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products and implementing techniques for mixing liquid components. Quantities of two or more liquid components are transferred from pressurized source reservoirs to one or more destination locations by means of a fluid outlet that includes a dispense valve, and the two or more liquid components are mixed in the destination locations to create a plurality of fluid mixtures. Two or more dispensing technologies can be combined to provide for increased efficiency in the dispensing of high volume liquid components. The amounts of liquid components being dispensed can be monitored during the dispensing to provide feedback control of the dispensing.
US08858056B2
The present invention relates to a light guide plate and a corresponding backlight module. The light guide plate has a plate body, a light-exiting prism structure and a reflecting prism structure. The reflecting prism structure is mounted on a reflecting area on a light-exiting surface of the plate body. The light guide plate and the corresponding backlight module can reduce light leakage at the junction between the light guide and a fixing plastic frame by the reflecting prism structure mounted at sides of the light guide plate.
US08858055B2
The present invention provides a backlight module and a display apparatus. The display apparatus comprises the backlight module and a display panel. The backlight module comprises a back bezel, a light guide plate and a plurality of light sources. The back bezel includes a plurality of bezel convex portions and a plurality of corresponding bezel concave portions. The light guide plate includes a plurality of recesses, and the bezel convex portions of the back bezel are fitted into the recesses of the light guide plate. The light sources are disposed at one side of the light guide plate. The present invention can use the bezel concave portions of the back bezel to improve a heat-dissipation effect.
US08858053B1
The present disclosure provides a recessed luminaire and recessed luminaire frame. The recessed luminaire frame includes a curved inner surface design in which the entire inner surface receives light from the luminaire and thus can be seen. The disclosure further provides a hydrographic printing process in which various desired designs can be printed onto a base material of the frame.
US08858048B2
A vehicle lighting unit that utilizes a semiconductor laser light source can suppress color unevenness of a light distribution pattern while ensuring the usefulness of the semiconductor laser light source. The vehicle lighting unit can include a semiconductor laser light source, a phosphor configured to receive blue light emitted from the semiconductor laser light source and emit white light by excitation, and a reflector configured to reflect the light emitted from the phosphor so that the light can be diffused wider in a right-to-left direction than in a vertical direction on the basis of a posture when the lighting unit is mounted on a vehicle body. Part of the blue light that is emitted from the semiconductor laser light source and reflected off a surface of the phosphor can be incident on the reflector with an elongated area in the right-to-left direction.
US08858045B2
An LED based illumination module includes a thermal interface surface that is coupled to a thermal interface surface of a reflector using engaging members that generate a compressive force between the thermal interface surfaces. The engaging members may be, e.g., protrusions that interface with recesses, spring pins, formed sheet metal, magnets, mounting collar, etc. The reflector may include a vented portion that is not optically coupled to the LED based illumination module to allow air to pass through the reflector.
US08858042B2
A detachment-resistant shell of light bulb includes a base and a cover. The base has a lower end forming a first coupling section where has a thread is circumferentially formed. The cover has an upper end forming an opening that forms a second coupling section where has a counterpart thread is circumferentially formed to correspond to and be engageable with the thread. The second coupling section has forms at least one resiliently deflectable member which is provided with a counterpart tooth that corresponds to and is engageable with the teeth of the base. The counterpart tooth includes a counterpart straight side corresponding to the straight side of the teeth and is selectively engageable with the straight side of one of the teeth to constrain reverse rotation.
US08858039B2
Provided is a lighting apparatus that is suitable as a substitute for a conventional halogen lamp when positively utilizing leaked light. The lighting apparatus comprises: a heat dissipator 12 that is in one of a bottomed cylindrical shape and a bowl shape, and that has a bottom portion, a circumferential wall portion, and an opening; and a light-emitting device 18b that is provided inside the heat dissipator 12 at the bottom portion and is operable to emit light, wherein the heat dissipator 12 has one or more windows 19 for leaking the emitted light outside the heat dissipator 12.
US08858037B2
An LED illumination system includes a plurality of LED modules and a plurality of corresponding collimating lenses to provide increased brightness. Each LED module has at least one LED chip having a light emitting area that emits light and a recycling reflector. The reflector is positioned to reflect the light from the light emitting area back to the LED chip and has a transmissive aperture through which the emitted light exits. The collimating lenses are arranged to receive and collimate the light exiting from the LED modules.
US08858028B2
The present invention relates to a LED lighting apparatus, comprising a quadrilateral-shaped casing with side walls inclined; a LED lighting module array disposed inside the casing and composed of a plurality of LED lighting modules lined up to emit light; a converter formed on a portion of the outside of the casing supplying power to the LED lighting modules; and a multi-bending reflection minor reflecting light emitted from the LED lighting modules, wherein the LED lighting module array comprises a LED module base combined with a portion of the upper inside surface of the casing; a plurality of LED module brackets connected to a lower portion of the LED module base; a plurality of metal PCB boards combined with a lower portion of each LED module bracket; a plurality of LED chips mounted on the metal PCB boards; and a plurality of lenses concentrating rays of light emitting from the LED chips into focus. Further, the lenses of the LED lighting apparatus according to the present invention have either a plurality of curved surfaces or various curvatures.
US08858022B2
A lamp includes a single emitter structure having a substrate with 25 or more light emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged thereon and a power rating of 80 Watts or more, a total internal reflection (TIR) lens with a plurality of refractive surface regions disposed on the step-shaped upper surface of the optical body, and a holder having a plurality of tabs disposed along an inside rim of the holder and configured for radial compression fit with a flange of the lens, and three or more support members configured for centering the optical body member with respect to the single emitter structure. A low weight ratio of hardener over base resin below 6 is used, for example, between 1.5:1 to 2.5:1.
US08858021B2
A LED lighting device includes a LED module and a diaphanous cover. The LED module includes a circuit board and a plurality of LED lamps. Each of the LED lamps includes a lens unit and a LED package. The lens unit includes a lens body, a frame and at least one pillar. The frame extends from a periphery of the lens body and is mounted on bottom of the circuit board. The pillar extends downward from a bottom surface of the frame. The LED package is mounted in the frame, and has a light emitting surface facing the lens body and a back surface joined to the bottom of the circuit board. The diaphanous cover abuts upward against all distal ends of the pillars of the LED lamps and is secured on the circuit board of the LED module.
US08858010B2
A display apparatus includes a display panel, a plurality of spaced apart point light sources outputting light and each having an orientation angle greater than or equal to about 50° and less than about 90°, and an optical plate interposed between the display panel and the point light sources. The optical plate has a base comprising front and rear surfaces and a plurality of convex sections formed on the front surface of the base. Each convex section has a cross section perpendicular to the front surface in which the cross section has a form of a segment of an ellipse including an arc of an ellipse and a chord linking both ends of the arc while satisfying an equation, 1.0 < b a < 2.5 , when a minor axis of the ellipse has a length of 2a, and a major axis of the ellipse has a length of 2b.
US08858007B2
A display device may include a chassis, a flexible printed circuit board on the chassis, a semiconductor device on the flexible printed circuit board, and a supporting element on the flexible printed circuit board. The semiconductor device may be spaced apart from the supporting element. The supporting element may be configured to maintain contact between the chassis and the flexible printed circuit board.
US08858002B2
A door mirror includes a mirror housing incorporated with a mirror holder fixed with a mirror, and a mirror surface angle adjusting unit for adjusting an angle of the mirror holder. The mirror housing is provided with a partition wall for partitioning an inner space of the mirror housing to a first space on a front side and a second space on a rear side, and the mirror holder and the mirror surface angle adjusting unit are accommodated in the second space. The partition wall is formed with an insertion hole for inserting a fastening component from a side of the first space, and the mirror surface angle adjusting unit is provided with a fixing hole for fastening the fastening component inserted into the insertion hole.
US08858001B2
In one embodiment, a mirror comprising a squeegee and a slot for receiving the squeegee blade is used in steamy environments. The mirror may include a reservoir to be filled with hot water to prevent the mirror from fogging.
US08857996B2
An illumination optical system include a first lens array including multiple lens cells that split a light beam emitted from a light source into multiple light beams, a second lens array including lens cells that the light beams split by the lens cells of the first lens array are incident thereon, and an optical element configured to illuminate an image display element by superposing light beams emerging from the second lens array on the image display element. At least one of the first lens array and the second lens array includes at least two lens cells each having a curved surface that is formed so as to be continuous with a curved surface of an adjacent lens cell, the at least two lens cells being decentered, and at least two lens cells of the first lens array have different radii of curvature.
US08857995B2
The present invention is a light source system for stereoscopic projection, wherein the light source system has a light source module, a color wheel module, two reflectors and a multiband filter. The light source module is disposed at a first side of a rotary wheel of the color wheel module. Opposite to the light source module, the two reflectors and the multiband filter are disposed at a second side of the rotary wheel. Furthermore, the multiband filter is disposed between and is optically coupled with the two reflectors. With the above arrangements, in different time sequences, the light source system could provide different light beams of different wavebands to a light valve of a projector, which could thus project a right-eye view angle image and a left-eye view angle image to the viewers to form a stereoscopic image.
US08857993B2
An ophthalmologic apparatus including a measurement unit configured to measure a subject's eye, a sliding substrate configured to slide the measurement unit with respect to a base via a guide shaft, a plurality of shaft guide members provided on the base and configured to guide the guide shaft in an axial direction thereof, and an inclination reduction unit provided between the plurality of shaft guide members and configured to reduce inclination of the guide shaft with respect to the base.
US08857991B2
A method and an apparatus are presented for determining ocular motor function in a patient. The patient is instructed to wear a pair of test glasses comprising a first lens having a first color and a second lens having a second color, where the first color and the second color differ. A light comprising a first color is projected onto a vertical surface, where the location of the light can be moved on the vertical surface. For each value of (i), an (i)th fixation point is then projected on the vertical surface, where the (i)th fixation point is one of (N) total fixation points and comprises the second color. For each value of (i), a perceived location is recorded upon receiving a signal that the (i)th fixation point is illuminated by the light. Finally, the (N) perceived locations are transformed into an ocular motor function map.
US08857987B2
An ophthalmic apparatus comprising: a fundus observation optical system; a designating part for designating an area of the fundus other than a macular area from a fundus image displayed on a monitor to make alignment of the fundus area of the fundus image displayed on the monitor with the fixation target displayed on a LCD display; a judging part for detecting an approaching state of the fixation target projected on the fundus and the designated fundus area based on positional information of the fundus area designated by the designating part on the monitor after movement and positional information of the fixation target displayed on the LCD display, and judging based on a detection result, whether or not the designated fundus area and the fixation target projected on the fundus are coincident in a predetermined allowable range; and a display control part for changing the display state of the fixation target based on a judgment result of the judging part.
US08857982B2
A contact lens is provided. It is a rigid gas permeable, corneal-scleral progressive, multifocal, vision lens that covers the cornea and a portion of the sclera of an eye. It is particularly beneficial for use on patients who have undergone refractive surgery and/or on patients experiencing presbyopia. The lens is designed to have dual touch contact with an eye. One contact point is the central portion of the cornea and the other contact point is a portion of the sclera.
US08857976B2
An image forming apparatus includes a medium that is a long roll wound around a core member; a feeding unit configured to feed the medium; an image forming unit configured to form an image on the medium; a fixed roll end detecting unit configured to detect an end of the medium whose end is fixed to the core member; a determining unit configured to determine whether to stop, for a time period, the medium on which the image has been formed by the image forming unit, when the fixed roll end detecting unit detects the end of the medium; and a control unit configured to stop an operation of the feeding unit when the determining unit determines to stop the medium for the time period, and to cause the feeding unit to perform an operation of winding back the medium when the time period has elapsed.
US08857973B2
A sheet conveying device having a rolled-sheet supporting unit, a conveying unit, a driving unit, a tension applying unit, and a control unit. The rolled-sheet supporting unit supports a continuous sheet rolled up into a roll. The conveying unit conveys the continuous sheet from the rolled-sheet supporting unit as driven by the driving unit. The tension applying unit applies tension to the continuous sheet downstream of the conveying unit in a conveying direction. The control unit controls a driving amount of the driving unit per unit conveyance distance as the conveying unit conveys the continuous sheet. The driving amount is larger in a case where a first tension is applied by the tension applying unit compared to a case in which a second tension, that is larger than the first tension, is applied.
US08857971B2
An approach is provided for curing an image applied to a substrate by way of a printing process. The approach involves causing, at least in part, one or more portions of the image to be cured to a predetermined degree to form one or more pinned portions. The approach also involves causing, at least in part, other portions of the image different from the pinned portions to reflow among the pinned portions to level the image. The approach further involves causing, at least in part, the reflowed portions of the image to be cured.
US08857970B2
A water-based ink for ink-jet recording includes a dye represented by a general formula (1), water, a water-soluble organic solvent, and 0.5% by weight to 4% by weight of a cationic polymer; wherein in the general formula (1): n1 is 1 or 2, each of three Ms is sodium or ammonium and the three Ms may be same or different from one another, and R0 represents a monoalkylamino group substituted by a carboxyl group and having a number of carbon atoms of 1 to 8.
US08857965B2
Disclosed are an ink composition at least containing a porphyrazine compound or a salt thereof and an aromatic compound having a carboxy group and/or a salt thereof, an ink jet recording method using the ink composition and a recorded material recorded by the recording method.
US08857962B2
An image forming method of the present invention including applying a pretreatment liquid to a recording medium, and discharging an inkjet recording ink dropwise according to an image signal to form an image on the recording medium on which the pretreatment liquid has been applied, wherein the recording medium is regular paper which has no coat layer, the pretreatment liquid contains a cationic polymer compound, a surfactant A, water and a water-soluble organic acid, and the inkjet recording ink contains a water-dispersible colorant, a water-soluble organic solvent, a surfactant B, a penetrating agent and water, and wherein the pretreatment liquid has a static surface tension of 20 mN/m to 30 mN/m.
US08857960B2
A fluid supply housing includes a fluid chamber, a fluid slot distanced from the fluid chamber and a head surface. The fluid supply housing includes a fluid channel between the fluid chamber and the fluid slot. The fluid channel has a passageway that is straight and has a constant slope with respect to the head surface.
US08857946B2
A method of cooling at least one electrical component of a printing system includes establishing a fluid flow path by a fluid flow generator from a print zone to the at least one electrical component. The method also includes obtaining fluid including aerosol and air from the print zone to be transported along at least a portion of the fluid flow path. The method also includes filtering the aerosol from the air transported along the at least a portion of the fluid flow path by a filter unit to form a filtered fluid. Further, the method also includes directing the filtered fluid to the at least one electrical component by a duct unit to cool the at least one electrical component.
US08857943B2
A duplex printer system includes a double-sided label web and a duplex printer operable to print both sides of the label web. The label includes exposed adhesive on a first side thereof. The duplex printer includes a printer frame and a pair of print heads arranged to print respective sides of the label web. One of the print heads is shiftably mounted relative to the printer frame for movement into and out of a printing position, in which the print head is operable to print within a printable region of the first side. The print head is selectively shifted out of the printing position so as to avoid contact with exposed adhesive during label web advancement.
US08857925B2
A mounting bracket includes a metal chassis and a metal cover. The metal chassis includes two opposite side plates, a top plate, a bottom plate, and a middle plate connected between middles of the top plate and the bottom plate, parallel to the side plates. Two receiving spaces are divided in the metal chassis by the middle plate, for receiving two power supply units. A first end of the metal cover is pivotably connected to a middle of a front end of the metal chassis. When the metal cover is rotated towards one of the receiving spaces, the metal cover covers the front end of the one of the receiving spaces, for shielding radiation and preventing air turbulence.
US08857912B2
A seat element comprising a frame, a seat associable to said frame, wherein the frame and the seat are made separately from each other and can be engaged and disengaged from each other. Advantageously, the frame comprises at least one lateral plate and the seat comprises at least one tab which, in an assembled configuration, couples at least partially onto said lateral plate in a shaped coupling. Between the at least one tab and the at least one plate a snap coupling element is positioned, which is flexible in relation to the plate and to the tab so as to block the seat to the frame in an assembled configuration of the element.
US08857892B1
A combination camp and utility trailer is disclose comprising a trailer frame having a trailer floor, and a first and second trailer side extending longitudinally along opposing sides of the trailer floor. A first and second bed support are detachably carried by the first and second trailer sides. A pair of front pivotal gates and a pair of rear pivotal gates are carried by the first and second trailer sides at the front and rear of the trailer. The front and rear pivotal gates pivot approximately 180° to locate beneath the first and second bed supports in the pivot position. The first and second bed supports may be removed and stored to provide a utility space in a utility trailer configuration.
US08857890B2
A hypocycloid reducer 70 for reducing rotation of a flat motor 60 to output the speed-reduced rotation to a drum is provided between the drum and the flat motor 60, a rotor shalt member 65 which is rotated with the same rotation number as the flat motor 60 is axially aligned with the drum is provided on the same side as the flat motor 60. An output rotation body 74 for outputting the speed-reduced rotation is axially aligned with the drum and provided on the same side as the drum. Since the rotor shaft member 65 and the output rotation body 74 are axially aligned with the drum, turning force can be transmitted bi-directionally between the rotor shaft member 65 and the output rotation body 74. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate an electromagnetic clutch to reduce the driving apparatus in size and weight, and since wires and control logic of the electromagnetic clutch are not needed for the driving apparatus, the driving apparatus can be reduced in production cost.
US08857888B2
A car having: a frame provided with two external vertical posts, which are arranged facing each other on opposite sides of the car, and two internal vertical posts, which are arranged between the two external vertical posts and at a given distance from the external vertical posts; a passenger compartment; a sun roof, which is supported by the frame and can be set in an open position or a closed position with respect to the passenger compartment; a housing for containing the sun roof when the sun roof itself is set in the open position; a movable cover for closing the housing; and a rear window, which is mounted in a sliding manner so as to move between an extracted position, in which the rear window projects from the car body, and a withdrawn position, in which the rear window is housed inside the car body.
US08857886B2
Added openings are provided for sport utility vehicles (SUV), pick-up trucks, two and four door vehicles, vans, minivans, sedans, station wagons, or other vehicles. The opening(s) may utilize doors, gates, windows, sunroofs, or lids that provide more physical and/or visual access to the interior space, cargo, and/or seating within the vehicles that currently are not easily accessible, viewed, seen-by, or displayed-on conventional opening means. These openings may also provide the ability to place cargo within the space of the vehicle that current vehicles prohibit from being carried therein, or they may provide decorative, descriptive, or electronic displays for such vehicles, for example, advertising on taxi cabs. Among the embodiments, this invention results in a new 2 door or a 4 door SUV vehicle having added rear side doors, and a new 2 door or 4 door sedan that in effect functions likes a pick-up.
US08857879B2
The invention relates to a fastening of a longitudinal beam lining (1) on a longitudinal beam (2) of a motor vehicle, comprising a retaining element (3), which is fastened to the longitudinal beam (2). On the end region facing the retaining element (3), the longitudinal beam lining (1) comprises a detent element (4), with which the longitudinal beam lining (1) is latched to the retaining element (3). To reduce the volume of the fastening in comparison with the prior art, the detent element (4) comprises a thickness-reducing indent (5) with respect to the adjoining surface (6) of the longitudinal beam lining (1) that is visible in the installed state of the longitudinal beam lining (1), and the detent element (4) comprises a detent hook (8) on the surface (7) of the longitudinal beam lining (1) that is opposite of the indent (5) and not visible in the installed state of the longitudinal beam lining (1).
US08857875B2
A robot includes a robot arm. A robot hand is disposed at a distal end of the robot arm and grips an object. The robot hand includes an air chuck device including a pair of pistons and an air cylinder. The air cylinder opens and closes the pistons in parallel to one another. A pair of first gripping members are disposed at a first side of the pistons and move close to and apart from one another within a first movable range on a movable plane. A pair of second gripping members are disposed at a second side of the pistons and move close to and apart from one another within a second movable range different from the first movable range on the movable plane. The robot hand pivots relative to the distal end of the robot arm about a pivot axis approximately perpendicular to the movable plane.
US08857871B2
A clay target magazine comprising a wall of cylindrical shape, said wall having at least one sight window provided therein, said magazine having slots provided in said wall proximate to said walls lower end to accept a retaining means therein, said magazine sized to hold a plurality of clay targets, said magazine further sized in order to be loaded into the carousel of a clay target trap.
US08857868B2
An engaging mechanism of a closing device includes an engaging block, a positioning hook and a pin. The engaging block has a contact surface and a guide surface extending from the contact surface. The positioning hook is connected to the engaging block and has a resilient portion and a stop which extends from the resilient portion. The stop is located adjacent to the contact surface and located at a distance from the guide surface. The pin is located corresponding to the engaging block and slidably contacts the contact surface and the stop of the positioning hook. The pin moves over the stop and is disengaged from the contact surface by contacting against the stop and the deformation of the resilient portion.
US08857850B2
A cushioned barrier for a pet in a vehicle comprising a central body, where the central body includes a first vertical surface and a second vertical surface, and where the central body is covered in a textured cover; a first protrusion on the first vertical surface; and a second protrusion on the second vertical surface, where the first protrusion and the second protrusion wedge the cushioned barrier between a front seat and a seat cushion of a backseat. The first protrusion may be an angled support and the second protrusion may be a square support where each are attached with Velcro® to the central body to enable adjustments of the protrusions along the central body.
US08857840B2
The present invention is an improved drive system for a personal vehicle comprising: a frame with a steerable front wheel and rear wheel connected to a drive axle connected to a crank arm by a drive linkage; a roller rotatably attached to the crank arm; a pedal pivotally attached to the frame having a cavity for receiving the roller; a contoured wear bar carried by the cavity for contacting the perimeter of the roller; a major arch included in the contoured wear bar contacting the roller when the pedal is on a down stroke; a minor arch included in the contoured wear bar for providing additional power when the pedal is near the end of its down stroke; and, a major front slope included in the wear bar for contacting the roller when the pedal is in its upstroke to place the pedal at its highest most position.
US08857836B2
A sub frame attached to a vehicle-body rear portion from below comprises a pair of right-and-left side members and a front cross member which interconnects substantially respective central portions, in a vehicle longitudinal direction, of the side members. As attachment portions for attaching lower links, there are provided a central attachment portion which is provided at an interconnection portion between the side member and the front cross member, a front attachment portion which is provided at the side member at a position located in front of the interconnection portion, and a rear attachment portion which is provided at the side member at a position located in back of the interconnection portion. Thereby, a sub frame structure of an automotive can be superior in the light weight, ensuring the support rigidity of the suspension links.
US08857831B1
A skateboard tensioning system has a pair of risers that are each shaped and sized to be positioned between a board body and trucks of the skateboard. Fastener holes through each of the risers are positioned to correspond with mounting holes of the trucks. Extended fasteners fit through the board body, the fastener holes in the riser, and the mounting holes of the base plate. The system also includes a cable that connects the pair of risers, and a tensioning mechanism for providing tension so that the risers are pulled towards one another, thereby adjusting the suspension of the skateboard.
US08857830B2
The present invention relates to a stroller comprising a first passenger support and a second seat positioned behind the first passenger support, the second seat having an in use position and a stowed position, where the second seat can be moved between its in use and stowed positions and back again without need to reposition the first passenger support. An associated method for folding the stroller is also disclosed, the method for collapsing the stroller including the steps of moving the second seat from its in use position to its stowed position, and then folding the stroller. The method for erecting the stroller being the reverse of the method for collapsing this.
US08857806B2
An apparatus and method for transporting flat products and for orienting such products for applying printed indicia while the products are transported, comprises a conveyor system which transports flat products in a first direction while holding the products in a first orientation generally orthogonal to the first direction, and, during transport, orients at least a peripheral portion of the product in a direction opposite the first direction, in an orientation and position for applying printed indicia on the peripheral portion of the product. The apparatus and method are particularly applicable for use in applying address information to the upper right corner of newspapers.
US08857796B2
A post-cable connection for releasably connecting a cable to a post, for example in a roadway cable barrier system. A hairpin shaped post-cable connector is hung from the top end of a post whereby when the post is impacted and urged toward ground level the cable is released from the post. The hairpin shaped post-cable connector has an elongated section forming a loop disposing a cable and a top section extending between the elongated section and a hook end section.
US08857791B2
The invention provides a balancing valve. The balancing valve (1) is provided with a body (2) that has two connector pipes (3 and 4). In the body (2) a seat (5) is housed which is closed with a head (6) mounted on a stem (7) where the stem (7) is seated in a gland (9). Outside the gland (9) there is a knob (10) engaged with the stem (7). The head (6) is made of plastics and it is connected with an adjustment ring (12) which is made of plastics.
US08857789B2
A solenoid type electromagnetic valve is configured such that an attraction force arises between an attracting side face of a solenoid core power supply body and an attracted side face of an armature which is facing the attracting side face when a current is conducted through a solenoidal coil, while the attraction force is released between the attracting side face and the attracted side face when the current conducted through the solenoidal coil is cut off, wherein at least one plate member of nonmagnetic material comprising nonmagnetic stainless steel, aluminum alloy or ceramic material is fitted to the attracting side face of the solenoid core power supply body, and fluid insulation resin is filled therein, thereby the fluid insulation resin is solidified and secures the plate member thereto.
US08857786B2
A lavatory system is provided that includes a first wash station having a first fluid dispensing fixture and a first drain, a second wash station having a second fluid dispensing fixture and a second drain, a support structure extending between the first wash station and the second wash station and at least one array of photovoltaic cells supported at the support structure. The at least one array of photovoltaic cells is configured to provide power for operating both the first fluid dispensing fixture and the second fluid dispensing fixture.
US08857782B2
A formwork system comprising a supporting girder for the support girders that receives the support of floor slab formwork boards. The upper face of the supporting girder is provided with a plurality of successive housings for receiving the girders, arranged one after another forming a series of housings along the entire length of the upper face without interruption, such that the girders can be transversely arranged and, where appropriate, overlapped with one another for their extension, in any position along the supporting girder. The housings can have identical transverse dimensions, therefore the supporting girders can also be overlapped with one another to extend their length.
US08857772B1
A bag holder that has a lower frame member with a curved surface that substantially conforms to the curvature of a first circle. An upper frame member has a curved surface that substantially conforms to the curvature of a second circle, with the radii of the circles being substantially the same. First, second and third vertical support members are fixed to the upper and lower frame members. A centermost vertical support member is substantially equidistant from the other vertical support members. An elastomeric pad extends along the upper frame member and wraps around the upper frame member.
US08857768B2
A drainmast which releases water into an airstream traveling in a fore-aft direction includes a water-discharging exit on its underside for communicating with the airstream, a post-exit stage on its underside situated aft of the water-discharging exit, where the water-discharging exit is vertically offset downward from the post-exit stage. The drainmast also includes a fairing having a mounting flange and a mast projecting downward from the mounting flange, the mast having a main body with a window and a door fastened to the main body to close the window.
US08857759B2
Cone tower based facility and method for launching an atmospheric sounding device under strong winds
A facility and method for launching an atmospheric sounding device (ASD) under strong winds are provided. The ASD includes an instrumental box connected to a balloon through a string. To avoid collision with the ground, the ASD is launched from the top of a cone tower by means of at least one sliding loop connected to the ASD and fitted around the cone tower. The loop connected to the string slides off from the top of the cone tower thereby releasing the ASD into a free flight. In one embodiment, the lower portion of the cone tower is placed inside a shelter protecting an operator from strong winds at all stages of the ASD launch. The shelter has a sliding roof with an opening to enable release of the ASD into a free flight by means of the cone tower in communication with two sliding loops.
US08857753B1
A split-flange reel and a system and method for disassembling and transporting the same are provided. The split-flange reel comprises two left-side flange-halves that are connected together to form a left-side flange and two right-side flange-halves connected together to form a right-side flange. A bolt-in drum is connected between the flanges, and an arbor tube is connected to the left-side flange-halves and passes through the left-side flange, the bolt-in drum, and the right-side flange. A disassembly/transport rack comprises a base, a number of upright members, and an alignment tube and is configured to hold the split-flange reel for disassembly and to store the left-side and right-side flange-halves of the disassembled split-flange reel for transport.
US08857752B2
A line body take-up device takes up the line body around an outer circumferential surface of a winding body of the bobbin at a predetermined take-up pitch with aligned winding while moving the bobbin to traverse. A winding position of the line body is sequentially changed in the axial direction, to form a wound line body layer; inverting the direction of traverse when the line body is wound up to an inner edge of the flange of the bobbin; and winding the line body around an outer circumferential surface of the previous wound line body layer, formed by winding the line body so far, in an aligned manner at the take-up pitch to form a subsequent wound line body layer, by use of a line body turn part by which the previous wound line body layer is transferred to the subsequent wound line body layer; the line body take-up device.
US08857748B2
A grinding tool for impinging a material includes a tool body having a top surface and a bottom surface, the tool body defining a pocket at a leading edge of the top surface and the pocket having a mounting surface. The grinding tool also includes a plurality of inserts mounted on the mounting surface of the pocket of the tool body, wherein each of the plurality of inserts includes a base mounting surface adjacent the mounting surface of the pocket of the tool body, a main cutting face generally opposite the base mounting surface, and a leading face positioned adjacent the leading edge of the top surface of the tool body. The leading face terminates in a protective base flange that is structured and arranged to substantially cover the mounting surface of the pocket of the tool body adjacent the leading edge of the tool body.
US08857744B2
In a sprinkler head hose adapter, a swivel adapter is rotatably coupled to a head adapter. The swivel adapter defines a bore that extends therethrough and that is in fluid communication with a conduit coupled to the swivel adapter. A coupler is positioned in an end of the conduit and includes a bore in fluid communication with the conduit. A portion of the coupler extends outwardly from the coupler and can be attached to a hose or other apparatus forming part of a sprinkler system.
US08857743B2
The objective of the present invention is to realize the structure, of a fuel injection valve, in which bouncing of the needle can be suppressed and the armature position can be fixed while the valve is closed, without increasing the number of components and the number of processes. In a fuel injection valve including an armature that is repelled or attracted by a core, by de-energizing or energizing a coil, a needle that opens or closes a valve seat in accordance with a reciprocal travel of the armature, and a valve-closing spring that biases the needle so as to close the valve, when the coil is de-energized, the valve-closing spring is disposed on the armature, and the needle and the armature are fixed in such a way that the armature can travel in an axis direction by a predetermined amount with respect to the needle.
US08857741B2
A topical spray composition and a system for containing and applying the composition is described. The composition has liquid emulsifiers that unexpectedly result in a superior product suitable to be applied homogeneously.
US08857740B2
A two-fluid nozzle is provided. The two-fluid nozzle includes a main nozzle, a mixing chamber and a nozzle orifice connected to the mixing chamber and positioned downstream of the mixing chamber. A ring of secondary air nozzles surrounding the nozzle orifice is also provided.
US08857728B2
An arrangement for supporting a rail extending in the longitudinal direction and having curvature, which is configured to vary, in the vertical or horizontal plane. The arrangement comprises at least one support beam extending in the longitudinal direction, the support beam having a support surface extending along its length, the support surface being curved along the length of the support beam. The arrangement further comprises at least one rail extending in the longitudinal direction and supported over the support surface of the at least one support beam.
US08857727B2
A system (10) for generating an incrementally completed 3D security mark (20′″) includes a computer-readable medium encoded with a computer program. The computer program has computer readable code for selecting a color transformation process at each stage in a workflow associated with the 3D security mark (20′″); computer readable code for selecting a scrambling technique for data to be placed into a carrier object (20, 20′, 20″, 20′″) of the 3D security mark (20′″) at each stage in the workflow; computer readable code for selecting a manner in which a state change of the carrier object (20, 20′, 20″, 20′″) at each stage in the workflow results in a predictable change in the 3D security mark (20′″); and computer readable code for weighting writing schemes at each stage in the workflow. The system (10) further includes further includes memory and a processor operatively coupled to the memory and to the computer-readable medium.
US08857719B2
A method of decoding a barcode includes generating a first illumination towards a target object with a first illumination level, capturing a first image during a first exposure time period, and determining a first location and a second location on a scan line in the first image to find a switchover condition. If the switchover condition indicates the presence of a mobile display device, the method further includes generating a second illumination towards the target object with a second illumination level, capturing a second image during a second exposure time period, and decoding the barcode in the second image. Here, at least one of the second illumination level and the second exposure time period is determined based on values of pixels on the scan line between the first location and the second location.
US08857714B2
A system can include a camera configured to mount to a firearm and a scope configured to mount to the firearm. A display can be configured to show an image from the camera. The scope can be configured to view the display. The image from the camera can be electronically movable relative to scope and camera to facilitate compensation for bullet drop and windage. Moving the image can allow use of higher scope magnification and/or electronic camera zoom.
US08857711B2
A method for tracking customer loyalty information using an incremental information object (IIO) includes capturing an information object (IO), wherein the IO include a number of tiles, and wherein the number of tiles include a standard code. The method also includes analyzing the IO to identify the standard code and analyzing the IO to determine if the IO is an IIO containing a progressive code, wherein the progressive code does not interfere with the reading of the standard. The method further include confirming the progressive code and, if the progressive code is successfully confirmed, obtaining customer loyalty data from the progressive code within the IIO.
US08857698B2
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing at least one portion of a seal ensuring gas-tightness between at least one first and one second glass panel in a glazing system, the method including the following steps: depositing a first adhesive layer on a first peripheral area of the first panel and a second adhesive layer on a second peripheral area of the second panel; welding a first metal seal element to the first adhesive layer; welding a second metal seal element or said first metal seal element to the second adhesive layer. According to the invention, the first and second adhesive layers are deposited using a high-speed oxy-fuel flame-spraying method.
US08857696B1
The tool for friction stir welding is a tool adapted to operatively engage a tube and a tubesheet to form a sealed joint. The tool has two components. The first component is a shoulder having orthogonal faces for simultaneously engaging the sheet and the tube, the shoulder defining a bore terminating in an aperture at the junction of the faces. The second component is a stir welding probe that is insertable into the bore and has an end exiting the aperture at the end of the bore. A forging pressure urges the shoulder against the junction of the tube and tubesheet. The probe is rotated about its axis, penetrating the tube and tubesheet and generating heat through friction to weld the tube to the tubesheet, while the shoulder is rotated about the tube so that the weld forms a seal about the circumference of the tube.
US08857695B2
A friction stir processing tool is formed from a Ni-based dual multi-phase intermetallic compound alloy containing rhenium(Re). The Ni-based dual multi-phase intermetallic compound alloy is preferably formed by casting, while gradually cooling, a melt containing all the components of the composition and is preferably heat treated after casting. Moreover, in a method for friction stir processing, a work is softened by friction heat generated when the friction stir processing tool, while rotating, is pressed against the work to be processed. The friction stir processing tool includes the Ni-based dual multi-phase intermetallic compound alloy, and therefore further high hardness is exhibited to improve abrasion resistance, so that even a long period of friction stir processing can be endured.
US08857687B1
An aftermarket vehicle mount for an electronic device (e.g., a tablet computer) consists of an extensible mounting base, one end of which removably attaches to a windshield, the other end of which rotatably attaches to an electronic device holder. The electronic device holder grasps an electronic device with spring-loaded arms. The extensible mounting base has a folded configuration, in which the electronic device rests flat on the top of a dashboard, and an unfolded configuration, in which the electronic device drapes over the front of the dashboard, at an appropriate viewing angle for a passenger. In either configuration, the electronic device may be easily rotated between landscape and portrait orientations, but unwanted motion of the electronic device from sudden accelerations (e.g., from encountering a pothole) is minimized. Embodiments suitable for home and office are also contemplated.
US08857686B1
A rack for mounting on a bicycle, comprises a platform, having a top surface, and structure for removably mounting the platform with respect to the frame of a bicycle. A post is mounted on the platform so that it can extend above said top surface of said platform. Left and right skirts are also mounted on the platform, and are deployed position to inhibit grocery bags engaged on the post from engaging the rear wheel of the bicycle. The skirts are mounted on the platform so that they can be carried on the platform in a stored position. A storage back is positioned over the platform and skirts, the storage bag having inside facing pockets for accommodating at least a part of the skirts.
US08857681B2
A load carriage connector and system for rapid mounting and demounting of a user-carried load. The connector utilizes two mating halves comprising a male connector half and a female connector half. The connector is configured to allow mating under various angles of approach, allowing the user to reliably couple the system even under conditions in which the user is unable to view the orientation of the connectors. Additionally, the configuration of the connector system allows the user to quickly and efficiently decouple the connector halves, even while under tensile or shear load.
US08857672B2
A carriage assembly for a dispensing tool includes a carriage having an attachment end that is attachable to the dispensing tool and an opposite dispensing end, at least one of an axial opening in the carriage oriented substantially normal to a longitudinal axis of the carriage and a radial opening through which a material-containing cartridge is insertable, a clamp member coupled to a peripheral wall of the carriage and having a portion that protrudes toward the longitudinal axis and that is engageable with a rear end of the cartridge, and a biasing member that exerts a force on the clamp member for biasing the cartridge toward the dispensing end.
US08857656B2
A system for a beverage holding device according to various aspects of the present invention is configured to provide a receiving section for a beverage container and at least one accessory receiving area. In one embodiment, the system for a beverage holding device comprises a center receiving portion and two accessory receiving areas disposed opposite each other along an exterior surface of the center receiving portion. A stabilizing device for securing the beverage holder to the ground may extend downwardly from a base of the center receiving portion.
US08857655B2
The container produced in a coextrusion-type blow molding process, which consists of a substantially rigid outer container and an easily deformable inner bag, with the inner bag being closed by a bottom weld seam when excess material is squeezed off at the bottom of a blow mold, and said bottom weld seam being clamped in a likewise closed bottom weld seam of the outer container, at least one pressure compensating opening being formed on both sides of the bottom weld seam, and all pressure compensating openings being formed at points of the outer container that are offset in the circumferential direction from the intersection lines of a plane extending through the bottom weld seam and through the longitudinal center axis of the container with the circumferential wall of the outer container and of the inner bag so that the inner bag contracts only from two sides when the container contents is dispensed, is characterized in that the wall thickness of the inner bag is greater in the area of the intersection lines than in the interposed circumferential portions.
US08857653B2
A dinner plate of conventional size and shape includes within its substantially planar bottom a coaxial central region having coupling means in the form of diametrically opposing, chordal grooves that mate with the outwardly curled rim of commonly available, flexible plastic drink cups. The coupling means holds the cup snugly against the bottom of the plate, enabling a user confidently to hold both in one hand, freeing his other hand and allowing considerable acentric loading of the plate with foods. Inserting the cup rim into the grooves requires squeezing it slightly and temporarily into an oval shape. Once released, the cup's resiliency enhances the snugness of the fit and the security of the coupling. In a preferred embodiment, the central region forms a slightly raised island in the center of the plate, the island creating a recess substantially flush with the bottom of the plate, thereby abetting use of the plates on horizontal surfaces and optimizing the nesting of multiple plates for storage and stacking. Segments of the walls of the recess include radially inward-extending lugs that fit under the cup rim and secure it against the bottom surface of the recess.
US08857651B2
A spherical hollow filling body is provided for filling containers for combustible and inflammable liquids or gases. The filling body is used for preventing explosive combustion processes and explosions, for extinguishing fires, as protection against corrosion in tanks, for separating fuels and water, as protection against bacteria and fungi in fuel tanks, as protection against theft, for reducing hydrocarbon emissions, for increasing the stability and safety of tanks in the event of a crash, for reducing the boil-off effect of hydrogen, for applications in the chemical industry, for deriving static electricity from fuel containers, for protection against electromagnetic interferences, for reducing the B.L.E.V.E. effect, for increasing the filling quantity of gas containers, for heating and cooling liquids and gases, and for reducing evaporation loss. The filling body has a plurality of disk-type circular vertical surfaces and a plurality of disk-type circular horizontal surfaces which are parallel to each other.
US08857643B2
A vessel for storing a fuel and/or operating medium for vehicles, in particular, for utility vehicles, having a filler neck for receiving a pump nozzle and a magnet configured to prevent erroneous tank filling. The vessel is formed from a plastic and has a filler neck holder formed in one piece with the vessel. The filler neck holder is shrink-fitted onto the filler neck. The filler neck has an annular chamber in which the magnet is captively accommodated.
US08857640B1
An easy-fill water bottle system features a water bottle. A bottle first end features a tapering hollow neck with a neck aperture and a bottle second end features a cylindrical channel with a first shoulder located close to a channel midpoint and a second shoulder located close to a channel second end. The channel features threads from the channel midpoint to a channel first end. The system features a flush cylindrical lid having a first lid shoulder located close to a lid midpoint and a second lid shoulder located close to a lid second end. The lid features threads located from the lid midpoint to a lid first end. The lid second end features a plurality of indentions. The system features a water dispenser adapted to receive and fluidly connect to the bottle first end.
US08857637B2
A plastic container is provided that includes a hollow body portion including a lower supporting base portion; a sidewall portion extending upwardly from the base portion; and a neck portion extending upwardly from the sidewall portion. The neck portion includes a support flange having an upper and lower surface, a tamper-evident formation, and a dispensing opening at the top of the neck portion. In an embodiment, the dispensing opening has an inner diameter that is at least 22 mm, and the vertical distance from the top of the dispensing opening to the lower surface of the support flange is 0.580 inches or less. A preform and method for making a container are also disclosed.
US08857629B2
A polymeric membrane includes an active layer on a support. The active layer includes at least two chemically distinct crosslinked, polyamide films, and the films are crosslinked with each other at an interface.
US08857628B2
A filter including a housing for receiving a filter medium and a filter medium received therein. In a lower region of the filter there is a discharge opening for discharging liquid from the filter. A spacer serves to form a collecting chamber for liquid and defines the liquid collecting chamber. The spacer is provided with webs which lead to an eye, and the eye has liquid channels.
US08857626B1
An adjustable vacuum pan assembly [190] for a belt filter [900] is disclosed. The adjustable vacuum pan assembly [190] comprises an arm [140] configured to be attached to a frame portion [930] of the filter [900], a vacuum pan [150] adjustably connected to the arm [140], and a cam [170] operatively coupled to the arm [140]. The cam [170] is rotatable with respect to the arm [140] and has a peripheral surface which contacts a portion [157] of the vacuum pan [150]. The assembly [190] further comprises a locking member [169] which serves to hold the cam [170] against rotation with respect to the arm [140]. Varying an angular rotational position of the cam [170] effectively varies a spacing between the vacuum pan [150] and the arm [140], thereby providing an amount of misalignment compensation therebetween. Retrofit kits for a preexisting conventional filter [900] and methods of providing increased adjustability to a filter [900] are also disclosed.
US08857625B1
A sorting system configured to sort materials by size, and/or weight is disclosed herein. The sorting system is configured to operate in a smaller footprint as compared with conventional sorting systems. For instance, a main sorting track of sorting system is configured to deliver sorted material to either side of the main sorting track. Additionally, the sorting system is configured to reduce mechanical damage imparted on the material to be sorted by sorting system by a sliding and/or rolled delivery. Aspects of the sorting system may be mounted on a mobile platform.
US08857619B1
Embodiments of mechanisms of a wafer pod including a pod door are provided. The pod lock includes a rotating element pivoted on the pod housing and having an anchor element disposed on the rotating body. The pod lock further includes a locking element including a locking body slidably disposed on the pod housing. The pod lock also includes an elastic element disposed on the locking body, and adjacent to the anchor element. When the rotating element is rotated, the rotating element pushes the locking element to move, and the elastic element applies an elastic force on the anchor element.
US08857612B2
A length adjustable chain carrying device includes a base member having a fixed length. First and second adjustment members are positioned on an upper surface of the base member and configured to move linearly thereon. An actuator is rotatably mounted to the base member upper surface and situated intermediate the first and second adjustment members, the actuator being operatively coupled to the first and second adjustment members and configured to move the first and second adjustment members in opposite linear directions along the base upper surface when actuated. The chain carrying device includes first and second chain holding members coupled to distal ends of the first and second adjustment members, respectively. Each first and second chain holding member includes an upstanding cylindrical configuration defining a plurality of slots configured to receive a chain thereabout.
US08857602B2
A method of adjusting a lateral position of an endless belt that is passed around at least two rollers, comprising the steps of: controlling a tilt position of a first roller of the at least two rollers; and adjusting a lateral position of the first roller, wherein the lateral position of the first roller is adjusted in combination with controlling the tilt position of the first roller.
US08857598B2
There is provided a paper sheet conveying device of the present invention has: at least three or more conveying paths that are for conveying paper sheets and at each of which at least a partial segment is formed in an arc shape; and at least one or more switching portions for switching the conveying path that conveys the paper sheets, wherein the plural conveying paths are disposed such that two connection positions of each of the arc-shaped segments are connected to the connection position of the arc-shaped segment of a respectively different one of the conveying paths such that outer sides of arcs face one another, and the switching portion switches the conveying path that conveys the paper sheets, at a place of connection of the plural conveying paths.
US08857594B2
A friction drive clutch includes a hub, a thrust plate that rotates with and is axially slidable on the hub, a first housing rotatable with respect to the hub and including at least two first ramped members each having a sloped face, a second housing rotatable with respect to the thrust plate and axially movable together with the thrust plate, the second housing including at least two second ramped members each having a sloped face, a third housing rotatable with respect to the hub, and a spring assembly biasing the thrust plate and second housing axially toward the first housing, wherein when the second housing is rotated in one direction, the sloped faces of the first and second members slide over each other to urge the second housing and thrust plate axially in opposition to the spring assembly to bring the thrust plate into frictional engagement with the third housing.
US08857591B2
The invention is a torque-limited coupling element including an input and output rotatably mounted about a common rotational axis, at least one Connection which is transferred from a first position into a second position upon exceeding a settable limit torque acting between the input and the output wherein in the first position the at least one connection connects the input and the output in a rotationally fixed manner, and in the second position, the input and the output are rotatably mounted relative to one another. A displacement body is movably mounted within a chamber filled with a magnetorheological fluid with the position of the displacement body resulting from a holding force provided by the magnetorheological fluid being under influence of a magnetic field.
US08857589B2
A bi-directional overrunning clutch includes a housing and first and second hubs substantially coaxially aligned within the housing. A roll cage positions a plurality of rollers in an annular space between each of the hubs and an inner cam surface of the housing. The rollers are adapted to wedgingly engage between the hub and the inner cam for transmitting torque therebetween. End caps are attached to the housing adjacent to the hubs. A friction disk mechanism located on each side of the roll cage includes a roll cage plate attached to the roll cage, an inner hub friction member attached to the hub, a slip disk, and a spring compressed between the slip disk and the inner hub friction member biasing the inner hub friction member into frictional contact with the roll cage plate.
US08857579B2
A shock absorber comprises a tubular housing (10), a cover (14), and a piston (34) defining within the tubular housing (10) a working chamber (W) 34g 34h and an accumulator chamber (A). A first fluid pathway (34p, 42, 34g) and a second fluid pathway (46, T, 34f) arranged in parallel connect the working chamber (W) to the accumulator chamber (A). The first fluid pathway establishes a permanent fluid communication between the working chamber (W) and the accumulator chamber (A). A valve assembly comprises an obturating element (44) arranged around the piston (34) and slidable along an axial length of the piston (34). The second fluid pathway comprises a first pathway section (34f) formed through the piston and a second pathway section (46, T) formed between the piston (34) and the obturating element (44). The second fluid pathway is able to selectively assume an open configuration and a closed configuration, and it has a lower fluid resistance than the fluid resistance of the first fluid pathway.
US08857578B2
A magnetic brake has an outer stator surrounding an inner stator with a circumferential slot between the outer stator and the inner stator. A coil is provided in the inner stator adjacent to the circumferential slot. A drag plate is attached to a rotatable shaft extending centrally through the inner stator. A drag ring joined to the drag plate extend into the circumferential slot. The drag ring may be an annular cylindrical ring section separate from the drag plate. Vent holes pass through the inner stator adjacent and parallel to the shaft. The magnetic brake uses both hysteresis and eddy current braking.
US08857577B2
A damped brake rotor has at least one friction disk connected to a hat portion. At least one cavity in located in the friction disk. An insert is located within the cavity. A braze ring is located within the cavity and radially outward from the insert. A braze located within the cavity and radially outward from the braze ring.
US08857569B2
An elevator access control system monitors a secure area, including an elevator landing, and controls an elevator system with at least one elevator car that is accessible from the elevator landing. Each elevator car of the elevator system has a door at the landing that provides access between the elevator car and the landing. The system includes an access monitoring device that detects the presence of non-authorized individuals within the secure area and produces a breach signal upon detecting one or more non-authorized individuals within or entering the secure area. Upon receiving the breach signal, an access system controller in communication with the access monitoring device initiates a security alert phase.
US08857566B2
The bandwidth or acoustical range of a nacelle or other type of acoustic structure is increased by acoustically coupling honeycomb cells together to form pairs of acoustic cells that have an effective acoustic or resonator length that is up to twice that of either acoustic cell taken alone.
US08857554B1
A transaxle assembly is provided which is configured to be mounted to a frame of a vehicle. The transaxle assembly includes a transmission that has two separately attached pivotable knuckle assemblies. Each pivotable knuckle assembly can be independently steered and includes an axle driven by the transmission. Each axle drives a wheel of the vehicle. In another configuration, the two pivotable knuckle assemblies are joined by an integrally formed crossmember.
US08857550B2
An electric bicycle having an enhanced fixing structure of an electronic control unit, the electrical bicycle having an electronic control unit built in an a center frame along with a generator in a state of the electronic control unit is directly fixed at an upper portion of the generator, the electronic control unit is effectively be protected, as the fixing structure of the electronic control unit is simplified.
US08857543B2
In a motor vehicle having an internal combustion engine disposed in an engine compartment provided with a hood, and also an electrical machine for at least assisting in driving the vehicle and generating electric energy, and a power electronics system for controlling the electric power supply to, and from the electric machine during operation of the motor vehicle by the internal combustion engine and/or the electrical machine, the power electronics system is arranged in the engine compartment above the internal combustion engine and below the hood.
US08857541B2
An insert for a drill bit may include a metallic carbide body; an outer layer of polycrystalline diamond material on the outermost end of the insert, the polycrystalline diamond material comprising a plurality of interconnected first diamond grains and a first binder material in interstitial regions between the interconnected first diamond grains; and at least two transition layers between the metallic carbide body and the outer layer, the at least two transition layers comprising: an outermost transition layer comprising a composite of second diamond grains, first metal carbide or carbonitride particles, and a second binder material; and an innermost transition layer comprising a composite of third diamond grains, second metal carbide or carbonitride particles, and a third binder material wherein a thickness of the outer layer is lesser than that of each of the at least two transition layers.
US08857540B2
An apparatus for releasing gas pressure from a drill string includes a tubular housing having a circumferential sidewall, an axis, a first end, a second end and a central passage extending between the first end and the second end. A pressure member is positioned in the central passage along the axis of the housing. The pressure member is movable from a first position retracted within the housing to a second position extending past the second end of the housing. An actuator is provided to move the pressure member from the first position to the second position, where the pressure member exerts a force to move a valve member of a float valve to an open position, thereby allowing gas trapped in the drill string to flow through the central passage.
US08857539B2
A drill for excavating a bore in the earth includes a steerable boring tool configured to excavate a bore and sensors coupled to the boring tool. The sensors are spaced apart from one another at multiple azimuthal locations around the steerable boring tool and the sensors are configured to detect a mineral property in the earth adjacent the steerable boring tool.
US08857536B2
The invention describes a hand-held power tool having a drive train, which includes a motor with a rotor, a drive shaft, and a transmission. According to the invention, at least one flywheel mass is provided that is positionable rotationally symmetrical to the drive shaft and connectable to the drive shaft for co-rotation therewith.
US08857532B2
A method and a device are provided for locking the operation of a power wrench to the location of an unacceptably tightened screw joint or object with a sensor for at least one tightening parameter. A position sensing system is provided for indicating continuously the position of the power wrench during tightening operations, and a control unit includes a unit for comparing obtained tightening parameter values with predetermined limit values and to provide an OK or a NOK signal in response to those limit values being passed or not for each screw joint. A locking device is provided to lock the power wrench operation to the very position of the screw joint or the object for which a NOK signal has been issued until the unacceptably tightened screw joint has been attended to and the NOK signal is removed.
US08857528B2
A flame-blocking system includes flame retardant foam having at least one through hole and at least one flame retardant tube passing through the through hole. Both the flame retardant foam and the flame retardant tube comprise graphite, aluminum hydroxide and ammonium phosphate in addition to a base resin. The flame-blocking system prevents flames and toxic gases generated during a fire or a similar accident from being spread through holes through which a wire, a cable or a pipe is installed across a wall of buildings or ships, which can reduce damage to life and property.
US08857524B2
Apparatus (14) for supporting a cable (16) in a fluid-filled pipe (10) extending through an underground borehole, comprising a body for connection to an end of the cable extending along the pipe, the body being buoyant in the fluid filling the pipe, such that when the body is connected to the end of the pipe, it floats at or near the surface (15) of the fluid in the pipe. A method of supporting a cable in a fluid-filled pipe using such apparatus, comprises connecting the cable to the body, and dropping the body into the pipe so as to float on the surface of the fluid filing the pipe.
US08857519B2
A subsea production and separation system comprising a subsea well drilled into a sea floor; a subsea tree located on the sea floor at a top portion of the subsea well; a manifold located on the sea floor; a well jumper connecting the subsea tree and the manifold; a first sled located on the sea floor; a second sled located on the sea floor; a separator located on the sea floor; a first flowline jumper connecting the manifold to the separator; a second flowline jumper connecting the manifold to the separator; a third flowline jumper connecting the separator to the first sled; a fourth flowline jumper connecting the separator to the second sled; a liquid export line connected to the third flowline jumper; and a gas export line connected to the fourth flowline jumper.
US08857514B2
A method for performing an operation in the wellbore may include at least partially separating a wellbore tubular while reducing a compression in a section of the wellbore tubular using a force applicator in the wellbore. An apparatus for performing the downhole operation may include a cutter configured to at least partially sever a wellbore tubular; and a force applicator configured to reduce a compression in a section of a wellbore tubular proximate to the cutter.
US08857509B2
Disclosed is a drag block assembly for use on a downhole tool for location in a cased wellbore. The tool has a hollow mandrel for suspension from a tubing string. The drag block, slips and packing elements mounted on the mandrel are moveable between the run and set positions by movement of the drag block, while engaging a lug on the mandrel. The drag block assembly comprises longitudinally spaced rings comprising resilient material connected together by longitudinally extending members.
US08857508B2
A downhole valve assembly including at least one membrane permeable to a flow of a downhole fluid, the at least one membrane defining a passage through a chamber. A quantity of particles is disposed in the chamber and the at least one membrane is impermeable to the particles. The particles are responsive to a magnetic field. At least one magnetic element is operatively arranged to produce the magnetic field for enabling the at least one magnetic element to selectively move the particles between a first position at which the particles impede the flow of the downhole fluid through the at least one membrane and a second position at which the particles do not impede the flow of the downhole fluid through the at least one membrane. A method of controlling a flow of fluid is also included.
US08857501B2
Entrainment heat sink devices and methods of forming entrainment heat sink devices are described herein. One or more method embodiments include forming an opening through a first material, forming a dimple having a trapezoidal-cross section in the first material such that the opening is located on a side wall of the trapezoidal cross-section, and attaching the first material to a second material, wherein the first material or the second material has a trench formed therein and the first material is attached to the second material such that the trench is in fluidic communication with the dimple.
US08857496B2
The invention relates generally to partitioning devices and methods for partitioning space. A device is presented comprising: at least one partition body; at least one motility assembly operably adapted to at least one partition body; and at least one interconnect, where the at least one interconnect is used to interchangeably link the at least one partition body in multiple configurations with another partition body. A method for partitioning space is presented comprising: providing a first partitioning device, where the partitioning device includes at least one interconnect, where the interconnect is used to interchangeably link the partitioning device body with a second partitioning device body; providing at least a first removably attachable portion on the first partitioning device; removing the removably attachable portion; and replacing the removably attachable portion with a second removably attachable portion, where the removably attachable portion is different than the first removably attachable portion.
US08857489B2
A triangular-shaped can be held in an upright posture to be stuck to an outer peripheral surface of a bead core and a leading end and a trailing end can be butted against each other a crack. A filler rubber is held uprightly to be wound around an outer peripheral surface of a bead core supported by a rotary support body, and in joining a leading end and a trailing end of the filler rubber cut to a predetermined length, the neighborhood of the leading end and the neighborhood of the trailing end, respectively, are interposed by first and second interposing means and one of the interposing means is displaced toward the other from a state, in which the leading end and the trailing end are opposed to each other whereby end surfaces of the leading end and the trailing end are butted against each other.
US08857487B2
A room temperature bonding apparatus includes: an angle adjustment mechanism that supports a first sample stage holding a first substrate to a first stage so as to be able to change a direction of the first sample stage; a first driving device that drives the first stage in a first direction; a second driving device that drives a second sample stage holding a second substrate in a second direction not parallel to the first direction; and a carriage support table that supports the second sample stage in the first direction when the second substrate and the first substrate are brought into press contact with each other. In this case, the room temperature bonding apparatus can impose a larger load exceeding a withstand load of the second driving device on the first substrate and the second substrate. Further, the room temperature bonding apparatus can use the angle adjustment mechanism to change a direction of the first substrate such that the first substrate and the second substrate come into parallel contact with each other, and uniformly impose the larger load on a bonding surface.
US08857473B2
An apparatus and method for thawing frozen lines. Water is heated and supplied under pressure to the inside of a frozen line such as a frozen plastic or metal pipe. In one non-limiting embodiment the invention comprises an air compressor, a plurality of tanks, a water heater element located in one tank, and a reel of flexible tubing. In a preferred embodiment the complete kit is mounted on a carrying device, which can be maneuvered manually through standard size doorways. In one embodiment a water delivery nozzle made of heat conducting metal is fitted to one end of the tubing. The compressor can be an electrically powered air compressor thus allowing the invention to be used inside buildings. In another embodiment deicing agent is directed into a frozen pipe in controlled pulses to further aid thawing of frozen lines.
US08857470B2
A connection device for connecting a first reservoir with a second reservoir, includes a first section for arranging the first reservoir closed with a seal; a second section for arranging the second reservoir; and a piercing element which penetrates with a piercing end the seal of the first reservoir when the first reservoir is arranged at the first section. In some embodiments, the piercing element can be moved from a first position into a second position, wherein it blocks in the first position a flow connection between the first and the second section, while in the second position it allows for a flow connection between the first and the second section.
US08857468B2
Expansion reservoir (1) for a coolant circuit, having a fill opening (3) that can be closed by a lid (2) and is located in the geodetically upper region of the expansion reservoir (1), wherein a differential-pressure-controlled valve (4) having at least two switching positions is integrated into the lid (2), and having at least one inlet port (5) which opens into a lid region (10), and an outlet port (6) in the geodetically lower region of the expansion reservoir (1), wherein the inlet port (5) is closed by the valve (4) in a first switching position and is opened in at least one second switching position, thus allowing the inlet port (5) to vent into the expansion reservoir (1).
US08857467B2
The 4-way valve used to control the operation of a pneumatic motor can be pneumatically operated such as by a pilot valve. The pilot valve (20) works by creating a restriction at the high-pressure air/signal port (22) regardless of the pressure drop up-stream of the pilot valve (20) while still allowing for adequate flow once the valve (20) is actuated. An additional slide valve (24) is added to the pilot valve (20) that restricts the inlet 30 of the pilot valve (20) above the poppet valve (28) that creates a pressure drop, see FIG. 3. The extra pressure drop forces the valve (20) to snap open once the actuator pin (32) contacts the poppet valve (20) to create the hysteresis. Once the valve (20) snaps open, the slide valve (24) moves to uncover the high-pressure ports (22), removing the restriction to ensure that the main 4-way (10) fully actuates.
US08857465B2
The invention relates to a method for realizing a vacuum in at least one vacuum chamber. The method comprises providing an arrangement comprising a plurality of vacuum chambers, wherein each vacuum chamber is connected to a shared vacuum system. The shared vacuum system comprises a plurality of turbo molecular pumps, at least one common fore pump, and a piping system comprising one or more pipes for connecting the at least one common fore pump to each of the plurality of turbo molecular pumps. Each turbo molecular pump is separately connected to a corresponding vacuum chamber. The piping system further comprises flow regulators for controlling a flow within the piping system. The method further comprises selecting at least one vacuum chamber for pump-down, and separately pumping down the at least one selected vacuum chamber by means of the shared vacuum system.
US08857457B2
There is disclosed a system adapted to transport two fluids, comprising a nozzle comprising a first nozzle portion comprising the first fluid; and a second nozzle portion comprising the second fluid, wherein the second nozzle portion has a larger diameter than and is about the first nozzle portion; and a tubular fluidly connected to and downstream of the nozzle, the tubular comprising the first fluid in a core, and the second fluid about the core; the first fluid comprising a crude oil having a total acid number greater than 1, and the second fluid comprising a basic solution having a pH greater than 8.
US08857453B2
The structure of the motor-operated umbrella is made to degrease rotation damage caused by a motor and to be light weight of the umbrella for using easily by a hand.A planetary gear mechanism consists of a sun gear, planetary gears and an internal gear that is arranged at border position between an upper middle shaft and a lower middle shaft, a lower end of a driving shaft inside the lower middle shaft is connecting to a motor rotating axle through a thrust bearing for transmitting a rotation of a motor, an upper end of the driving shaft is fixed to the sun gear, the outer cylinder is fitted with a cylindrical male thread is fixed to the internal gear, a male thread cover pipe is fitted with a supporting rib holder and an inner peripheral surface of the supporting rib holder is formed with a cylindrical female thread.
US08857452B2
A spray device for cleaning residue from a filter member. In one embodiment, the spray device includes a tubular stem telescopically slideable in a sleeve. A coil spring surrounds the stem and resists movement of the stem out of the sleeve. A tubular halo with nozzles is fastened to the end of the tubular stem so that when a pressurized fluid is applied to the stem, the stem is forced out of the sleeve against the spring force, thereby causing the halo to travel along a cylindrical filter surface. The pressurized fluid is also jetted from the nozzles and cleans the cylindrical surface. When the pressurized fluid is removed from the spray device, the spring retracts the stem and the halo back to a rest position. In another embodiment, the halo is replaced with a nozzle head that moves within a cylindrical filter surface to be cleaned.
US08857451B2
An article of manufacture suitable for cleaning the top of a vehicle, comprising: at least one blower: and a support for said blower, wherein said support positions the blower to blow snow or debris from the top of a vehicle. This invention improves on prior art by using blowers to remove snow from large vehicles.
US08857448B2
A tunnel washer that includes fluid exhaust paths that are optimized to minimize fluid transfer between chambers of the washer and minimize heat loss from each chamber of the washer. The fluid exhaust paths also facilitate uniform vapor evacuation from each chamber of the washer. The tunnel washer also includes spaced-apart double wall curtains for isolating chambers of the tunnel washer to prevent fluid and heat transfer therebetween, and to the exterior of the tunnel washer. The double wall curtains include surfaces that inhibit the curtains from sticking together during operation of the tunnel washer. The tunnel washer also includes an air manifold that provides uniform drying efficiency for articles of varying dimensions.
US08857445B2
A bi-directional multiple-layer extension cigar holder comprises a receiving body mounted on extension tubes which are adapted for adjusting the length of the holder for holding different lengths of cigars. The cigar holder can be combined with a lighter, enhancing the use convenience. In addition, elastic retaining rings in the cigar holder which are used to avoid disengagement are big-area C-shaped plates, such that the assembly convenience can be enhanced, synchronously enhancing the effect of preventing the disengagement of the extension tubes.
US08857443B2
Selection of an appropriate intraocular lens (IOL) and/or the applicable surgical parameters for optimizing the results of refractive procedures on the eye. Features of the IOL are crucial for the selection and/or adjustment of the optimal IOL, but so is the IOL selection method (and parameters) from a surgical perspective. For the method, corresponding output parameters are determined from predetermined, estimated, or measured input parameters and/or their mean values, wherein at least two input parameters are varied with one another and which have at least one input parameter as a distribution function. The resulting function is optimized by means of corresponding target values and the determined distribution function of one or more output parameters is used as a decision aid. The present solution is used for selecting an appropriate IOL and/or the applicable surgical parameters and is applicable in the field of eye surgery for implanting IOLs.
US08857436B2
An orotracheal intubation device (1) for intermittent low-pressure ventilation of a patient provided with an inflatable cuff (3) including two lines of holes (2,5) communicating with the inflatable cuff and a one-way round valve (4) preventing air flow during inspiration and allowing air flow during expiration.
US08857433B1
The disclosure discloses an eye protection adjunct that provides protection to a person's eyes and resembles a normal pair of eyewear, but contains a hidden facepiece that deploys into a face protection system for the eyes, face, nasal and pharyngeal openings.
US08857432B2
A manually operated ventilating element such as a bellows for administration of artificial respiration, for example, during anesthesia, has wall sections or pleats of different diameters. When the element is actuated through a small stroke length, the smaller section is actuated. A small volume of gas is delivered and the change in delivered volume per unit stroke length is small, so that the operator can precisely control the delivered volume. When the element is actuated through a larger stroke length, a larger volume per unit stroke length is delivered. The same element can be used to treat children and adults.
US08857423B2
A jet type gas cooker includes a burner head having a mixing chamber therewithin, wherein a grid element is disposed at a bottom side of the mixing chamber of the burner head; a flame controller seated on top of the burner head; a fuel gas pipe extended to the bottom side of the burner head for ejecting fuel gas into the mixing chamber; and a gas flow disturbing mixer supported within the mixing chamber of the burner head for mixing the fuel gas with air to form a combustion gas within the mixing chamber.
US08857421B2
A handheld engine-driven cutter is provided with a disk blade and a main body that drives the disk blade by an engine. A guard surface for repelling chips of a workpiece that scatter from the disk blade to below the main body is formed on the main body. The guard surface has an asymmetric shape with respect to a boundary that is a rotating plane of the disk blade.
US08857399B2
A balancing system configured to be applied to an inline-four internal combustion engine is disclosed. The balancing system comprises counter rotating eccentric masses (22, 23, 24, 25) projecting from the opposite side of a support (21). The support (21) is placed centrally under the driving shaft, being fixed by screws to the wall of the engine.
US08857392B2
In a motor vehicle camshaft adjusting device which comprises an open- and/or closed-loop control unit for adjusting the camshaft phase position in a normal operating mode to a temporarily intermittently constant phase position, the open- and/or closed loop control unit has an engine start operating mode in which the camshaft phase position is advanced during opening of the valve so as to provide a valve opening angle range which is smaller than a geometric normal opening angle range based on a crankshaft angle range.
US08857390B2
A method of joining multiple powder metal components to form a powder metal component assembly using an adhesive is disclosed. By machining at least one of the powder metal components prior to the adhesive joining, otherwise difficult to machine features can be more easily machined for less cost and at higher production rates. Unlike high temperature joining techniques, the adhesive joins the powder metal components at room temperature. This room temperature adhesive joining eliminates the thermal distortions in pre-joined machined features common to high temperature joining techniques such as brazing or welding that bring these features out of specification during joining.
US08857385B2
A cylinder head including an integrated exhaust manifold (IEM cylinder head) is coupled to a cylinder block of an engine. The IEM cylinder head comprises an exhaust collector coupled to cylinder exhaust valves, an exhaust port coupled to the exhaust collector, and a coolant jacket for cooling the cylinder head. An upper wall of the cylinder head at a region above the exhaust collector and proximal to the exhaust port may include a degas valve and a temperature sensor. The degas valve may be coupled at a top most dome portion of an upper coolant core of the coolant jacket to direct accumulated steam and/or gas out of the upper coolant core to a degas bottle.
US08857384B2
A construction machine includes a main body portion that has an engine compartment formed therein, a cooling unit arranged in the engine compartment, an inlet formed as opening in a side surface of the main body portion so that the cooling air is drawn into the engine compartment by the cooling fan through the inlet, an exhaust gas after-treatment device arranged on an upper side relative to the engine on the downstream side relative to the cooling fan on a flow path of the cooling air, an engine hood that covers the exhaust gas after-treatment device, and an upper outlet arranged immediately above the exhaust gas after-treatment device and formed in at least one of a top surface of the engine hood and a side surface of the engine hood in a front-and-rear direction of the main body.
US08857375B1
A litter box system comprises an imitation bed of loose cat litter that includes a layer of actual cat litter granules bonded to a sheet of flexible material. In some examples, the relative thicknesses of the sheet of material and the layer of cat litter is such that the imitation bed of loose cat litter has substantial urine holding capacity yet remains sufficiently flexible. In some examples, the sheet of material includes an image of loose cat litter underneath the bonded layer of cat litter so that if some of the cat litter layer is scratched off, the imitation bed will still appear to be fully covered with cat litter granules. In some examples, the sheet of material includes integrally formed bumps that resemble cat litter granules.
US08857369B2
A pointer assembly includes a guide, a helical drive member supported in the guide, a motor for axially rotating the helical drive member, a follower carried by the helical drive member, and a pointer coupled to the follower and movable relative to the guide for indicating a measured value, wherein axial rotation of the helical drive member in a clockwise rotation causes the follower and the pointer to move in a first direction relative to the guide and axial rotation of the helical drive member in a counterclockwise rotation causes the follower and the pointer to move in a second direction relative to the guide.
US08857364B2
A wakesurfing boat and a hull for a wakesurfing boat. The hull includes a bottom having a preselected length extending from a bow to a stern. The bottom includes a central ridge and port and starboard ridges extending below respective port and starboard bulwarks to define a substantially M-shaped bottom with concave portions to port and starboard of the central ridge. Port and starboard sponsons extend below the port and starboard bulwarks proximate the stern. A trim wedge projects below the stern. Two rounded stern portions are provided proximate the stern. In a dynamic surfing mode, with selectively-fillable ballast tanks partially or fully flooded, water flowing through the port and starboard concave portions, combined with the ballast, increases resistance to the hull, resulting in a larger wake wave. Water passing around the structural features proximate the stern is directed toward a convergent zone in the wake, resulting in an improved wake wave shape.
US08857356B1
A Method and Apparatus for Insta Fill Wake System have been disclosed. By using a gate that can be positioned as closed, flood, and drain and deployable on a boat, controlled filling/emptying/holding of water in ballast tanks is possible without the use of pumps.
US08857353B2
A system and method for controlling air flow to a metering system is provided. One agricultural cart for distribution of an agricultural product in a field includes a metering system having a plurality of metering sections. At least one metering section is selectively controllable to not meter product while at least one other metering section is metering product. The agricultural cart also includes an air conveyance system having a blower and a conduit for producing and directing an air stream for moving the metered product toward a distribution device. The agricultural cart includes control circuitry configured to alter operation of the air conveyance system based upon whether the at least one metering section is metering or not metering product.
US08857351B2
A modular support assembly generally comprising vertical support members and a horizontal support member, such as a shelf, for supporting objects. The horizontal support member includes a main panel portion and flange portions connected along the sides of the panel for fortifying same. The vertical support members have cavities on their inner surfaces, and the horizontal support members have protrusions at their ends corresponding to the cavities. In some embodiments, the flanges are hingedly connected to the panel such that they pivot between a flat position and a supporting position perpendicular to the panel. In certain embodiments, the protrusions are integrally formed with extend out from the flanges. In some embodiments, the assembly is blow-molded article.
US08857349B2
A table may be sized and configured to nest with one or more adjacent tables to reduce a height of the table in a nested configuration. The table may include a table top constructed from molded plastic and the table top may include a receiving portion sized and configured to receive an engaging portion of a frame of an adjacent table in the nested configuration. The table may also include a metal frame connected to the table top and the frame may include an engaging portion sized and configured to be disposed in a receiving portion of an adjacent table in the nested configuration. If desired, an outer surface of the engaging portion may be visible and exposed in the recess in the lip.
US08857340B2
Provided is a simulant material including a primary explosive and a carrier.
US08857338B2
Apparatus for providing electrically initiated and/or controlled combustion of electrically ignitable propellants is provided. In one example, the apparatus includes a volume of electrically ignitable propellant (liquid and/or gas) capable of self sustaining combustion, and electrodes operable to ignite the propellant. The apparatus may further include a power supply and controller in electrical communication with the electrodes for supplying a potential across the electrodes to initiate combustion of the propellant and/or control the rate of combustion of the propellant. Various configurations and geometries of the propellant, electrodes, and apparatus are possible. In one example, the electrodes are supplied a direct current, which causes combustion of the propellant at the positive electrode. In another example, the electrodes are supplied an alternating current, which initiates combustion of the propellant at both electrodes.
US08857326B2
An electric servo press machine is configured to convert a rotation of an electric servomotor into a reciprocating linear motion of a slide to perform press working on a workpiece. The machine includes a clutch mechanism interposed in a power transmission path between the servomotor and the slide, and a brake mechanism for applying a brake onto the slide under a disconnected state in which the servomotor and the power transmission path are decoupled from each other by the clutch mechanism. The machine brings the clutch mechanism into the disconnected state and applies the brake onto the slide upon an immediate stop request, and recovers from immediate stop under a state in which a phase shift between the servomotor and the power transmission path ranging from the clutch mechanism in the disconnected state to the slide is eliminated under a connected state of the clutch mechanism.
US08857324B2
Water leakage of a steam oven provided on an aircraft for heating ingredients is to be prevented.Two solenoid valves 6 and 7 are inserted in series in a water supply circuit of a steam oven. A power switch 12 supplies a 15 V direct current to the solenoid valves 6 and 7. A controller 1 transmits a command to driving circuits 4 and 5 of the solenoid valves according to a signal of a temperature sensor 10 in the oven. An output of a clock generator 14 is counted by a frequency counter and a time in which the valves are opened is counted. When count of a valve opening time becomes longer than a predetermined value, the power switch 12 of the solenoid valves is disconnected to prevent water leakage.
US08857317B2
Nutritional delivery system using single-serve capsules comprising: a dispenser for a nutritional composition comprising means for providing water into a single-use capsule containing a portion-controlled serving of a nutritional formula; different types of capsules (10,11,12,13,14,15,16) being designed according to a nutritional feeding plan corresponding to persons or categories of persons to be fed, each type comprising capsules containing a nutritional formula; the capsules of different types having at least one differentiating characteristic so that each type of capsules corresponds to a feeding time period determined by the feeding plan; control operation means associated to each type of capsules, said means comprising information relating to at least one differentiating operational parameter relevant to produce and deliver a differentiated nutritional liquid in the dispenser according to the feeding plan.
US08857313B2
An actuation system (200) is provided. The actuation system (200) includes a fluid operated actuator (211) and a control valve (230). The control valve (230) is movable between a first position and a second position and is adapted to open a fluid flow path from a pressurized fluid supply (240) to the actuator (211) when the control valve (230) is in the first position. A diverting fluid conduit (246) is provided that is adapted to divert a portion of the pressurized fluid supplied to the actuator (211) when the control valve (230) is in the first position. The pressurized fluid diverted through fluid conduit (246) biases the control valve (230) towards a second position.
US08857312B2
In some embodiments, an adapter for attaching a handheld firearm to an unmanned air vehicle comprises a mounting assembly configured for attachment to said firearm and to the unmanned air vehicle, and an actuation assembly comprising an actuation device configured to actuate a trigger of the handheld firearm.
US08857311B2
An apparatus for providing protection from ballistic rounds, projectiles, fragments and explosives. The apparatus includes a core, grinding layer and bonding layer. The core is shaped and configured as a structural truss of the apparatus, in which the core includes a plurality of parallel, adjacent rows and the core distributes and dissipates force impacting on the apparatus. The grinding layer is positioned on at least one side of the core facing towards potential threats, in which the grinding layer grinds rounds, projectiles, fragments or other materials impacting the apparatus, helping to dissipate the impacting material and its momentum. The bonding layer bonds the grinding layer together and the grinding layer to the core and provides an outer coating to the apparatus on a side of the apparatus facing potential threats and through which rounds, projectiles, fragments or other materials impact and penetrate the apparatus.
US08857309B2
A device and a method for protecting objects against rocket-propelled grenades having a hollow nose cone includes a netting of knotted and coated superstrong fibers disposed in front of the object, in such a manner that the nose cone of a rocket caught in the netting will penetrate one of the meshes of the netting and be deformed through strangulation, thereby disabling the detonator.
US08857297B2
A manufacturing method of an elastic C-shaped steel block is described, which includes the following steps. An ordinary steel is cut into a round steel tube. The round steel tube is processed into a ratchet hex socket steel tube. The ratchet hex socket steel tube is cut into a ratchet hex socket block. The ratchet hex socket block is transformed into an elastic ratchet hex socket block by a thermal treatment. An opening is formed in the elastic ratchet hex socket block to change the elastic ratchet hex socket block into a C-shaped elastic steel block.
US08857286B2
A machine tool transmission system includes a driving assembly, a driven gear and at least one transmission gear, at least two positioning gears and at least two retaining gears. The driving assembly includes an input unit and a driving gear driven by the input unit. The transmission gear, positioning gears and retaining gears have respectively a plurality of transmission teeth, positioning teeth and retaining teeth that include respectively a front end tooth and a rear end tooth connecting to the front end tooth and formed at a thickness greater than that of the front end tooth.
US08857282B2
A method and sample holding assembly are described for use in the preparation of samples for analysis. The method comprises the steps of collecting a sample in a concentration tube which is open at one end and closed at the other, the closed end being selectively openable. A vial is coupled to the open end, the tube is inverted, the closed end is opened, and then solvent is evaporated from the sample via the opened end until the concentrated sample is confined to the vial. A sample holding assembly for use in the present method is also described. It comprises a concentration tube, and an adaptor arrangement for coupling a vial to the open end of the tube and defining a fluid path between the tube and the vial.
US08857277B2
The present invention provides a pressure detecting circuit, which is electrically connected to a coil to receive an induced electromotive force from the coil, including a movement detecting unit electrically connected to the coil to receive the induced electromotive force from the coil and find a distance of the movement of the magnetic device according to the induced electromotive force; and a converting unit electrically connected to the movement detecting unit to generate the voltage signal to indicate the distance. In addition, the present invention further provides a pressure gauge incorporated with the pressure detecting circuit.
US08857275B2
An apparatus, system, device, and method provide the ability to measure forces a cell exerts on its surroundings. A platform is suspended across an opening using support legs. The platform is able to move horizontally in a plane of the opening. A piezoresistive strain sensor is integrated into the platform and measures strain induced in the support legs when the platform moves horizontally thereby measuring displacement of the platform.
US08857272B2
Method for determining torque of an electric motor on a vehicle, a torque being generated by an electric motor rotor and being transmitted from a drivetrain to at least one drive wheel, including: measuring the rotor rotation angle, determining the torque generated by the rotor, the at least one drive wheel driven by the rotor being fixed, the stationary rotor not generating any torque and a first rotation angle of the stationary rotor being measured, subsequently a torque applied by the rotor to the drivetrain, so that the rotor performs rotational movement due to the drivetrain stiffness, and subsequently, in an equilibrium state between the torque generated by the rotor and a counter torque of the drivetrain, a second rotation angle of the rotor being measured, the torque generated by the rotor and/or the total stiffness of the drivetrain being ascertained from the measured values of the rotor rotation angles.
US08857264B2
A catheter die is provided and includes an elongate body having first and second opposing end portions and an end face at the first one of the first and second opposing end portions. The elongate body defines a cavity within the first end portion with an interior facing surface of the cavity disposed to extend alongside at least a portion of the first end face. At least one or more piezoresistive pressure sensors are operably disposed proximate to the cavity.
US08857263B2
An ultrasonic probe and a method for the nondestructive testing of a test specimen are described, which are activatable individually or in groups as phased array for the emission or reception of ultrasonic plate waves in a predefinable propagation direction in the test specimen wall to be tested. At least one ultrasonic transducer segment with at least two segment parts emits an ultrasonic plate wave field into the test specimen and which are activatable jointly and simultaneously as a phased array. The at least two segment parts are arranged along a common plane so that the ultrasonic wave fields provided from or received by the at least two segments mutually overlap and each have a main propagation direction which encloses an acute angle α in a projection of the plane.
US08857258B2
An inertial force sensor includes a detector element, a supporting body supporting the detector element, and a case holding the detector element via the first supporting body. The supporting body has flexibility and has a plate shape. The detector element includes a weight, a flexible coupling portion extending along a plane and supporting the weight, a fixing portion holding the weight via the coupling portion, and a detector detecting angular velocities about at least two axes non-parallel to each other. The supporting body extends in parallel with the plane from the detector element, and bends at a bending portion in a direction away from the plane. This inertial force sensor can detect the angular velocities while preventing erroneous detection caused by external impacts and vibrations.
US08857255B2
An air data probe includes a probe head. The probe head defines a longitudinal axis with a forward tip and aft base and includes a wall tap port inlet defined in the probe head aft between the forward tip and the aft base. The wall tap port inlet opens on an angle relative to the longitudinal axis, wherein the wall tap port inlet has an elongated inlet perimeter configured to resist the formation of a meniscus, or otherwise reduce moisture induced pressure errors.
US08857244B2
The present invention is directed to a cartridge device for a measuring system for measuring viscoelastic characteristics of a sample liquid, in particular a blood sample, comprising a cartridge body having at least one measurement cavity formed therein and having at least one probe element arranged in said at least one measurement cavity for performing a test on said sample liquid; and a cover being attachable on said cartridge body; wherein said cover covers at least partially said at least one measurement cavity and forms a retaining element for retaining said probe element in a predetermined position within said at least one measurement cavity. The invention is directed to a measurement system and a method for measuring viscoelastic characteristics of a sample liquid.
US08857236B2
A forging device capable of producing a high-quality forged article while simplifying the structure is provided. The forging device of the present invention includes a punch 1, a die 2 having a shaping hole 22 and a helical blade portion 23 formed on an inner peripheral surface of the shaping hole, a back pressure generation mechanism 15, and a back pressure transmission mechanism. The back pressure transmission mechanism includes a rotation-side transmission member having a back pressure plate 40 and a non-rotation-side transmission member. The back pressure plate 40 is arranged in the shaping hole 22 in a fitted manner. When a forging material W1 is driven into the shaping hole 22 and the back pressure plate 40 is pressed downward by the metallic material, the back pressure plate 40 is guided by the blade portion 23 of the shaping hole 22 and thereby descends while rotating about the axis and a back pressure by the back pressure generation mechanism 15 is applied to the metallic material via the back pressure transmission mechanism.
US08857235B2
The present invention relates to a rolling mill 20 which defines a rolling axis X and comprises at least two rolling stations 22. At least one rolling station comprises a fixed structure 40, a roll-holder cartridge 24 and three actuators 32. The cartridge is connected removably to the fixed structure and comprises three rolling rolls 26. The rolls are movable radially and rotatable about three respective axes arranged at 120° from each other. The three actuators are mounted on the fixed structure and comprise pistons 50 movable along respective radial axes t arranged at 120° from each other. Each of the actuators is able, during use, to act on one of the rolls so as to impart a radial force suitable for rolling the article 44. The rolling mill 20 according to the invention is characterized in that the three actuators are of the single-stroke type and are arranged so that, when the pistons of two actuators are completely retracted to the end-of-travel stop of the working stroke, a path P is created free from obstacles and parallel to the axis of the third actuator. The path P which is created is such that allows the cartridge to pass out laterally on the opposite side to that where the third actuator is situated.
US08857233B2
An object of the invention is to provide a compact and inexpensive pipe bending processing apparatus. To attain this object, provided is a pipe bending processing apparatus which positions a pipe with respect to a bending roll in response to the rotation of a rotary shaft, and bends the pipe by moving the pipe along the bending roll while pressing the pipe against the bending roll, wherein an outer cylinder in which a linear slit is formed along a bus line and a circumferential slit extending in a circumferential direction is formed at an upper end of the linear slit is arranged in a machine casing, an inner cylinder formed with a spiral groove is rotatably arranged inside the outer cylinder, the rotary shaft is inserted into the inner cylinder so as to be vertically movable and rotatable, a pin is provided in a protruding manner at the rotary shaft and is inserted into the spiral groove of the inner cylinder and into the linear slit of the outer cylinder, the inner cylinder is linked to an output shaft of a rotary actuator, and the rotary shaft is lifted and is also rotated at an uppermost position by the rotary actuator.
US08857225B2
A washing machine with a direct drive motor system including a tub, a drum rotatably mounted inside the tub, a shaft connected to the drum, and a direct drive motor comprising a rotor assembly fastened to the shaft and including magnets positioned in a circumferential direction, and a stator assembly. The stator assembly includes a plurality of magnetic cores and a disc-shaped element including a plurality of finger-shaped portions. Each of the finger-shaped portions has one of the plurality of magnetic cores secured thereto.
US08857222B2
A washing machine including a vibration reduction member formed in a stator is provided. Therefore, when a motor rotates according to operation of the washing machine, delivery of a vibration due to a repulsive force of the stator to a bearing housing can be efficiently reduced. Further, a vibration of a tub fastened to the bearing housing due to the vibration is prevented and noise due to the vibration of the tub is reduced.
US08857220B2
Methods of making a stub lens element and assemblies for coherence tomography (OCT) applications are disclosed. The method of making the stub lens element includes drawing a rod of optical material and processing the drawn rod to form a lens integrally connected to a stub section. The methods also include operably supporting an optical fiber and a stub lens element in a cooperative optical relationship to form a stub lens sub-assembly. The methods also include operably supporting the stub lens sub-assembly and a light-deflecting member in a cooperative optical relationship to form a probe optical assembly that has a folded optical path.
US08857217B2
Disclosed is a mold used as a bottom mold for manufacturing glass molded bodies by accepting molten glass droplets that are dripped in and by compression molding of the molten glass droplets in conjunction with a top mold. The mold is provided with a base material that has a mold surface for compression molding of molten glass drops, and a coating layer formed on the mold surface. The surface of the coating layer formed on the mold surface has a rough surface region that comprises the center of the mold surface, and a mirror finished region that surrounds the outside of the rough surface region and has a lower arithmetic mean roughness Ra than the rough surface region.
US08857205B2
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for freezing an alcoholic beverage, including placing an alcoholic beverage into a beverage receptacle; dispensing a predetermined amount of the alcoholic beverage into a plurality of freezing cavities; transferring liquid nitrogen from a coolant reservoir to a plurality of coolant chambers; exposing the plurality of freezing cavities to the liquid nitrogen to freeze the alcoholic beverage; and removing the frozen alcoholic beverage from the freezing chamber.
US08857204B2
A computer server enclosure (such as in a server farm) evaporative cooling system. The system includes multiple cooling towers and includes cooling coil heat transfer equipment locally associated with a server enclosure or group of server enclosures, with the system subject to command and control equipment.
US08857203B2
A personal thermal regulation system includes a personal liquid cooling garment, wherein the personal liquid cooling garment is configured to circulate a working fluid therein, a membrane evaporator configured to receive circulated working fluid from the personal liquid cooling garment, wherein the membrane evaporator is further configured to evaporate a portion of the received circulated working fluid, and a chemical absorber in fluid communication with the membrane evaporator, wherein the chemical absorber is configured to receive a controlled flow of the evaporated portion of the received circulated working fluid from the membrane evaporator.
US08857202B1
A module is provided having a foundation and a skeleton that are structural and modular in design. The skeleton can be constructed on top of the foundation. The skeleton supports an HVAC assembly. Equipment racks, such as a server racks, can be housed within the module and independently movably supported by translation assemblies. The translation assemblies are embedded within the foundation and skeleton. Any number of modules can be attached end to end to form a system of a desired length, side to side to form a system of a desired width, or vertically to form a system of desired height. The entire system, once assembled and wired, can easily be conjoined or moved to a desired destination. The air flow path within the module is selected by the operator. The system is expandable in size and capacity as the operational needs increase.
US08857200B2
A compressor may include a fluid-injection source, a shell, and first and second scroll members. The shell may define a suction pressure region. The first scroll member may include a first end plate and a first scroll wrap extending therefrom. The second scroll member may include a second end plate and a second scroll wrap extending therefrom. The first and second scroll wraps may cooperate to define a plurality of fluid pockets. The second end plate may include a first passage and a second passage. The second end plate may also include a first port and a second port extending through the second end plate and communicating with at least one of the fluid pockets. The first passage may be in communication with the suction pressure region. The second passage may be in communication with the fluid-injection source.
US08857190B2
A highly durable, high-strength thermal shield element is provided for the interior lining of the combustion chamber of a gas turbine. For this purpose, the thermal shield element comprises a base produced from a solidified cast ceramic material into which a plurality of reinforcing elements are integrated, to increase the tensile strength of the thermal shield element.
US08857189B2
In a gas-turbine combustion burner which is provided, at a distal end thereof, with a fuel spraying hole that sprays fuel into a combustion region formed inside a combustion cylinder of a gas-turbine combustor and in which a fuel flow path that guides the fuel, which is supplied from a fuel source, to the fuel spraying hole is formed in the interior thereof, the impedance of a fuel supply system that guides the fuel from the fuel source to the fuel spraying hole is set so that propagation of pressure fluctuations from the combustion region to the fuel supply system becomes an allowable level or less.
US08857185B2
An example power generation system includes a vapor generator, a turbine, a separator and a pump. In the separator, the multiple components of the working fluid are separated from each other and sent to separate condensers. Each of the separate condensers is configured for condensing a single component of the working fluid. Once each of the components condense back into a liquid form they are recombined and exhausted to a pump that in turn drives the working fluid back to the vapor generator.
US08857182B1
A method and apparatus for transporting a fluid wherein a pressure difference for causing transport of the fluid to occur is generated by membrane, which may include a network of pores, preferably arranged in artificial leaves, in fluid communication with the fluid and in contact with an environment facilitating vaporization of the fluid via the membrane, the apparatus including a mechanical apparatus for recovering useable energy from the transport of the fluid across the membrane.
US08857176B2
An engine provided with a variable parallel supercharging system (9) comprising a first supercharger (10) which is driven by exhaust gas which flows in a first exhaust gas route (41) and which pressurizes intake air which flows in a first intake air route (3) and also comprising a second supercharger (20) which is driven by exhaust gas which flows in a second exhaust gas route (42) and which pressurizes intake air which flows in a second intake air route (4), a supercharging pressure sensor (63) for detecting the pressure of the pressurized intake air, a first supercharger rotation sensor (61) for detecting the rotational speed of the first supercharger (10), a second supercharger rotation sensor (62) for detecting the rotational speed of the second supercharger (20), a first variable actuator (14) for adjusting the capacity of the first supercharger (10), a second variable actuator (24) for adjusting the capacity of the second supercharger (20), and a control device for controlling each of the variable actuators (14, 24). The control device controls the first variable actuator (14) based on detection signals from the supercharging pressure sensor (63) and the first supercharger rotation sensor (61) and controls the second variable actuator (24) based on detection signals from the supercharging pressure sensor (63) and the second supercharger rotation sensor (62).
US08857175B2
The present invention provides an improved two-stage actuator (20) that broadly includes: a first cylinder (21); an intensifier piston (22) mounted in the first cylinder for sealed sliding movement therealong, the intensifier piston having a large-area surface (26) exposed to ambient pressure, and having a small-area surface (30); a second cylinder (23) having an end wall (36); an actuator piston (24) mounted in the second cylinder for sealed sliding movement therealong; an actuator rod (39) connected to the actuator piston for movement therewith and having an intermediate portion sealingly penetrating the second cylinder end wall; the actuator piston having a large-area surface (27) and a small-area surface (37), an intermediate chamber (35) communicating the intensifier piston small-area surface with the actuator piston large-area surface; and an incompressible fluid in the chamber; whereby ambient pressure (i.e., the pressure of sea water at the depth at which the device is submerged) will create pressure in the intermediate chamber for urging the actuator piston to move toward the second cylinder end wall.
US08857169B2
A main relief valve 13 includes a biasing force altering unit 60, which constitutes, in combination with a gate lock valve 23 and a gate lock lever 24, relief pressure altering means for manually switching the relief pressure of the main relief valve 13 between a first pressure (a standard pressure of 25 MPa, for example) and a second lower pressure for engine start-up (e.g., 3.0 MPa). This allows the main relief valve 13 to return the hydraulic fluid discharged from a hydraulic pump 2 to a tank T in conjunction with an unloading valve 9 when multiple actuators 5a, 5b, . . . are not in operation under the ambient temperature below freezing point. As a result, it is possible to reduce the load on the hydraulic pump during cold engine start-up without compromising the anti-hunting characteristics of the unloading valve, thereby improving the engine start-up performance.
US08857166B2
The invention relates to a hydropower plant having a flow pathway, which has an upper water level and a lower water level; having two turbines, which are connected in series in the flow pathway, each comprising a rotor, a housing, and a draft tube. The invention is characterized by the following features: the first machine viewed in the flow direction is a radial or semi-axial or axial flow turbine; the second machine viewed in the flow direction is a radial, semi-axial, or axial flow turbine.
US08857159B2
An exhaust system includes main line that runs through a three way converter (TWC) and then a lean NOx trap (LNT). The exhaust system further includes a bypass line configured to bypass the TWC. The LNT includes catalyst that is non-uniformly distributed along the longitudinal axis. The catalyst is distributed such that storage sites are weighted toward the upstream end of the LNT and oxidation and reduction sites are weighted toward the downstream end of the LNT.
US08857146B2
Metal cord of K×(L+M) construction. K elementary strands assembled in a helix, with pitch PK, each having a cord with L wire inner layer of diameter d1, and M wire outer layer of diameter d2, in a helix with pitch p2 around the inner layer; with (in mm): 0.10
US08857141B2
A harvesting machine includes a harvesting header with a header frame, a flexible cutterbar assembly attached to the header frame along the length thereof and configured to cut a crop, and a draper assembly positioned behind the cutterbar assembly and operable to receive severed crop material from the cutterbar assembly. The draper assembly includes a fore-and-aft draper and side drapers, with at least part of the draper assembly being rigidly supported on the header frame. A center section of the cutterbar assembly is rigidified so as to be restricted from flexing, while the side sections of the cutterbar assembly flex and follow the changes in terrain.
US08857137B2
A vegetation cutting apparatus including a movable carriage having a conveyance system for facilitating conveyance of the carriage over ground. The conveyance system can have conveyance members for facilitating such conveyance. A cutting system can be mounted to the carriage for cutting vegetation. The cutting system can include at least one cutting member which is positionable laterally around the periphery of at least one conveyance member for enabling cutting of vegetation laterally around the at least one conveyance member.
US08857132B2
In an anchor installation in lightweight construction panels including first and second cover plates with a support core structure disposed between the cover plates, wherein the anchor is installed in a bore extending through the first cover plate, the support core structure and into the second cover plate, the anchor includes engagement components firmly engaging the first cover plate, the intermediate support core structure and also the second cover plate so that the anchor is safely and firmly held in position in the lightweight construction panel.
US08857127B2
Floor covering (10) including panels (12,14; 112) having a core (24) of a plastic material and at least one cover layer (28,30) covering the upper side of the core, the panels being provided with complementary and mutually engaging locking profiles (20,22; 120) at their connected lateral edges (16,18). For forming a groove between two connected panels (12,14; 112) at least one of these panels is provided with a milled-out portion (60,160) at the upper side of its lateral edge, with the cover layer (28,30) excavated completely over the width of the milled-out portion (60,160) so that the bottom (62,162) of the milled-out portion (60,160) is formed by the material of the core.
US08857124B2
The invention relates to a weatherproof building shell, especially a pitched roof, comprising a plurality of rectangular weatherproof shingles which are laid diagonally to mutually overlap in a scale-type fashion in relation to a line of slope. Shingles that overlap in an edge zone at a right angle to the line of slope are set off in relation to each other. The shingles are connected to a supporting structure in a lower corner zone of the shingle in relation to a line of slope, respective sealing elements being arranged on said corner zone of the shingle and obturating a gap between shingles that are arranged on the same level at a right angle to the main direction. The rectangular shingles have respective through-openings for fastening elements in two opposite corner zones so that the shingles are connected to the supporting structure in their lower and upper corner zones in relation to the main direction.
US08857119B2
Wooden member to be easily joined to another member, with good appearance of decreased size fixation structure for tensile member to improve the load bearing performance. Metal screw members including cylindrical shaft portions having an axial direction through hole and blade spirally protruding from the shaft portion are axially threaded into wooden member at two locations. Groove or hollow hole is between the two screw members, and steel rod extends from the through hole of one of the screw members through the groove or hollow hole into the through hole of the other. Both ends of the steel rod with tensioning force are locked to the screw member by nuts. Cutout recesses are formed in the wooden member, and the screw members are threaded into the wooden member through the recesses and the steel rod is locked to the screw members.
US08857113B2
A locking apparatus is used for mounting a photovoltaic module to a rack. The rack includes a base plate, two sidewalls extending from opposite sides of the base plate, and two limiting plates extending in from tops of the sidewalls respectively. An opening is defined between the limiting plates. The locking apparatus includes a pressing member, a mounting member, and a bolt. The mounting member includes a base, a neck portion, a head portion formed on a top of the neck portion, and two arms extending out from opposite sides of the head portion. The base is received in the rack and abuts bottoms of the arms. The arms are blocked by the limiting plates respectively. The bolt extends through the pressing member and the opening to screw into the mounting member, to fix the photovoltaic module between the pressing member and the rack.
US08857112B2
Disclosed is a lightweight modular structure that can be transported to the surface of a celestial body in one rocket payload, and assembled rapidly by two robots. The structure is airtight, thermally insulated, resistant to micro-meteoroid penetration, provides radiation shielding, includes an airlock, and is capable of being pressurized and equipped with life support systems. When assembled on celestial bodies with gravity up to 40% of Earth's gravity, the structure can be buried under two meters of extraterrestrial material to provide additional thermal insulation, radiation protection, and protection against micrometeoroid penetration. The structure can be assembled in different configurations, and may include windows, modular walkways to connect a plurality of structures, and hangar-style doors to accommodate passage of large items. The structure can also be configured for use on Earth in areas of chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) contamination, and in areas subject to extreme temperatures.
US08857106B2
A shutter is disclosed having plural substantially similar louvers, including a first louver having a first louver end, with a first end cap molded with a first gear projecting away from the louver. The louver includes a second louver end, widthwise opposing the first end, having a retractable boss projecting away from the louver. A frame includes a first stile and a widthwise opposing second stile, a top rail and a height-wise opposing bottom rail, defining a shutter fenestration. The first stile has a first widthwise inner-facing wall, which has plural height-wise spaced gear openings, each releasably receiving one gear and having a diameter that is at least as large as an addendum circle for the gear. The second stile has a second widthwise inner-facing wall, which has plural height-wise spaced boss openings for releasably receiving one retractable boss. Accordingly, the louvers are removably disposed in the shutter fenestration.
US08857105B2
Door systems including racking spacers located between the sill and the door that can be removed after installation and methods of installing the door systems.
US08857099B1
Method and apparatus for a fishing lure having the basic design of a spinner bait which has an elongated main shaft having an eye for connection to the fishing line on one end and a second eye on the other end which is configured to be attached to a lure body that may have a hook, skirt and tail thereon. A main feature is that the spinner shaft is rotatably attached at approximately a 90 degree angle to the main shaft so that the spinner blade is 360 degrees rotational in the water which allows the spinner bait to remain upright after the lure is cast into the water and is sinking in the water.
US08857091B2
Kit-form locking device that may be fitted to a firearm (11), which comprises a trigger (23), included within a firing chain of the firearm, which includes a first, exterior trigger lever (231) that can be actuated by a potential user, and a second, interior trigger part (232) that can be mechanically associated with a manual safety device (22) of the firearm; the locking device comprises a movable locking component (20) adapted for entering into mechanical contact with the second, interior trigger part (232) and with the first, interior part (222) of the manual safety device located in the release position thereof when the locker (20) is in a locking position.
US08857088B1
A collectibles display case includes a durable frame, a front window, a rear window, and a placeholder. The front window includes a picture-frame type transparent front securely attachable to a front inside location of the frame. The back window includes a transparent back window similar to and removably located opposite the front window. The placeholder includes a corresponding pair of flat, durable frame-shaped mats with exterior perimeters of the same shape as the frame. The pair of mats each has a central rectangular opening. The placeholder is securely and removably mounted within a middle portion of the frame between the windows. The rectangular openings allow a packaged collectible having a thickness, such as a blister packed item to be “sandwiched” between the frame components and viewable housed between the windows.
US08857081B2
A quick hitch coupler having an arrangement for releasably coupling a tool such as an excavator tool to the quick hitch coupler. The arrangement for releasably coupling the tool to the quick hitch coupler has tool pin engaging members on spaced apart portions of the main body of the quick hitch coupler. One of the tool pin engaging members has an associated latching member movably mounted on the main body of the quick hitch coupler between a tool pin locking position and a tool pin releasing position. The latching member has a lock movably mounted on the latching member for locking a tool pin onto the latching member quick hitch coupler in normal use.
US08857070B2
A device for determining the angular position of a compressor guide vane pivotable about the longitudinal axis thereof disposed in a compressor, associated with a synchronously rotating, flat measuring surface is provided. In order to allow particularly reliable, simple, and nearly error-free detection of the angular positions by means of a robust device, the angular position of the compressor guide vane rotatable about the longitudinal axis thereof is semi-automatically determined by means of the device. To this end, the device includes at least one mounting unit for temporarily fastening the device in alignment on the compressor, and a measuring unit including an angle measuring device having a rotary plate rotatable about the rotary axis, on which rotary plate a vertically protruding measuring arm extending parallel to the rotary axis is provided for making planar contact, via the free end thereof, with the measuring surface.
US08857066B2
A power saw includes an electric motor, an impact assembly, and a blade retaining assembly. The impact assembly is coupled to an output shaft and includes a hammer member and an anvil member. The blade retaining assembly is coupled to the impact assembly and includes a blade coupling configured to connect to a saw blade. The impact assembly is configured to operate in a first mode when a mechanical load on the blade retaining assembly is below a threshold value. The impact assembly is configured to operate in a second mode when the mechanical load on the blade retaining assembly is greater than or equal to the threshold value. The hammer member is maintained in a fixed position relative to the anvil member when the impact assembly operates in the first mode. The hammer member intermittently impacts the anvil member when the impact assembly operates in the second mode.
US08857064B2
A cutter apparatus includes a housing sized to be hand-held, the housing including a channel and openings adjacent to the channel at three different sides of the housing, and a blade carrier sized to fit within and slide along the channel, the blade carrier including three engaging portions that extend from the openings such that a force bearing upon any of the portions can cause the blade carrier to slide along the channel.
US08857062B2
A sealed rolling bearing is proposed which makes it possible to reduce the torque loss while ensuring high sealing performance. Seal lips of seal members secured to the outer ring of the bearing at both ends thereof are in sliding contact with both ends of the outer periphery of the inner ring of the bearing. These portions of the inner ring that are in sliding contact with the seal lips are subjected to minute shot peening in which minute shots of molybdenum disulfide having a particle diameter of 20 to 200 micrometers are struck against these portions at a high speed of 50 meters per second. This decreases the friction torque attendant to sliding contact of the seal lips and makes it possible to decrease the torque loss of the bearing even if the contact pressure of the seal lips is increased sufficiently to ensure high sealing performance.
US08857060B2
A center section for a crossmember of a vehicle chassis comprises a driveshaft hoop, crossmember attachment areas extending generally from opposing sides thereof, and trailing arm mounts on either side of the driveshaft hoop for attachment of one or more trailing arms to the center section. The crossmember attachment areas have heights that allow attachment of crossmember portions to the center section at offset heights. A method of constructing a crossmember of a vehicle chassis comprises providing a center section having crossmember attachment areas of predetermined heights extending generally from opposite sides of a driveshaft hoop, and attaching crossmember portions within the crossmember attachment areas at heights that are offset from each other.
US08857048B2
A method for forming a lead or lead extension includes forming an arrangement of elongated conductors. Each of the conductors extends from a proximal end of the arrangement to a distal end of the arrangement. Each of the conductors includes a layer of insulation disposed over a conductive core. A conductor-separating element is disposed over either the proximal end or the distal end of the arrangement. The conductor-separating element includes a plurality of ablation windows defined in a body. An end of at least one of the elongated conductors is radially extended over a portion of the conductor-separating element such that a portion of the at least one elongated conductor extends across at least one of the ablation windows. Insulation from the portion of the at least one conductor extending across the ablation window is ablated to expose a portion of the conductive core of the elongated conductor.
US08857047B2
An apparatus for incorporating a metallic foil into a semiconductor package includes a carrier embossed with a multiplicity of cavities. Each of the cavities define a pedestal recessed with the cavities which penetrate only partially through the thickness of the carrier. A metallic foil overlying a pattern with the pedestals in direct contact and help support the metallic foil with the metallic foil pressed into at least some of the cavities. In other embodiments, a gap is between the metallic foil and bottoms of the cavities in a substrate. Integrated circuit dice are attached to the foil. Each die is attached to the foil in a region of the foil overlying a portion of the at least one device area pattern. Bonding wires electrically connect the integrated circuit dice to the foil.
US08857045B2
A method of assembling a circuit board assembly is provided. The circuit board assembly includes a circuit board assembly fixture and a plurality of fixed circuits. The method includes coupling the plurality of fixed circuits to the circuit board assembly fixture. The plurality of fixed circuits includes at least one of a fully flexible circuit, a flexible circuit having stiffeners, and a rigid circuit. The fixture includes a plurality of supporting surfaces each including a first side, configured to receive at least one of the fixed circuits, and an opposite second side. The fixture includes at least one hinge, at least one fastening mechanism extending from the first side, and at least one retainer coupled to at least one of the plurality of supporting surfaces. The method includes folding the circuit board assembly fixture into a desired alignment.
US08857044B2
An system for manufacturing a field emission structure is provided that involves a magnet supplying device and a magnet placement device for placing each of a plurality of magnets at a corresponding location of a plurality of locations of the field emission structure. The corresponding location and a corresponding orientation of each of the magnets relative to each other are defined in accordance with a code that specifies at least one magnet of the plurality of magnets having a first polarity orientation and at least one other magnet of the plurality of magnets having a second polarity orientation that is opposite from the first polarity orientation.
US08857042B2
Disclosed is a method for producing a stator for a rotary electric machine, which involves preparing a stator core having a plurality of slots. Each of a plurality of coils is provided with a pair of coil ends, a first side, and a second side. The first side and/or the second side is inserted into the retaining groove of a jig, and each coil is set on the jig in a manner such that both coil ends extend further to the outside than the end surfaces of the jig in the axial direction thereof. The jig is disposed inside the stator core in the diameter direction. The space between the first side and the second side of the coil is expanded by applying pressing force to both coil ends from the axial direction of the stator core by means of a pressing member.
US08857037B2
A method for producing a product includes the steps of taking heated and cooled extrusion, preferably aluminum, and reheating a selected area of the extrusion. There is the step of requenching the extrusion. There is the step of forming the reheated area into a desired shape. A method for producing a ladder.
US08857034B2
A method for manufacturing a dishwasher appliance is provided. A set of interchangeable tubs with a metal tub and a plastic tub and a set of interchangeable of inner door panels with a metal inner door panel and an outer door panel are provided. One of the set of interchangeable inner door panels is mounted to one of the set of interchangeable tubs to assemble the dishwasher appliance. The method can provide a dishwasher appliance with a metal inner door panel and a metal tub, a metal inner door panel and a plastic tub, a plastic inner door panel and a metal tub, or a plastic inner door panel and a plastic tub.
US08857032B2
A coupling device provides a pre-tensioned coupling between a first member and a second member. The members are arranged to define a sealed compartment. A piston is housed within the compartment and is translated between the first member and the second member. A first ratchet lock is mounted within the second member and on translation of the piston, the first ratchet lock engages with the piston. A second ratchet is mounted within the second member and, on translation of the piston into the second member, the piston engages with the ratchet. The second ratchet is mounted on a piston, and translation of the second ratchet on the piston applies a tensile force to the first piston to tension or pre-tension the piston. As the ratchets substantially prevent reverse movement of the piston, the tensile force is retained.
US08857031B2
Method for producing an objective, in which the outer mounting includes an outer surface that is, at least in sections, limited by a plane which extends inclined toward the optical axis or which extends at a distance from the optical axis.
US08857028B2
A virtual image (VI) device displays an image that appears to lie above or below the plane of the device. A method of manufacturing a VI display device includes calculating an initial VI flux pattern based on an object and then fabricating a substrate having a VI array pattern based on the initial VI flux pattern. A plurality of lenses may then be applied over the VI array pattern. The VI substrate may be static or dynamic, and may show grey scale information. A photomask may be used as an intermediate element in the manufacture of the VI substrate, or may act as the VI substrate itself. A method of producing the initial VI flux pattern includes virtually tracing rays generated by different points of the object to an image plane and ii) summing the rays from the different points. The rays may be traced through a lens array.
US08857013B2
A vacuum cleaning device comprises a unit (1) in which an oscillating airflow is generated which substantially zero net flow and an asymmetry between the suction and the blowing phases, such that in the blowing phase a jet is generated. A generator (31) which is needed for generating the oscillating airflow comprises a movable surface (30) which is integrated in a wall (12) of a housing (10) having an internal space (11) and at least one opening (13) for allowing air to flow to and from the internal space (11). The jet can be generates when the so-called Strouhal number, being the frequency of the movement of the movable surface (30) multiplied by a characteristic dimension of the opening (13) and divided by the velocity of the air in the opening (13), is not higher than a predetermined maximum.
US08857008B2
A clip member for mounting various types of wiper arms including: a main body; a combination groove unit that is detachably combined with a lever member; a first mounting unit that is a concave groove formed in an upper surface of the main body, and is combined with a slide-arm wiper arm; a second mounting unit that is a hole passing through a sidewall of the main body in the width direction of the main body to be combined with a pin unit of a slide-arm wiper arm or a pin-arm wiper arm; and a third mounting unit that is formed on an outer side from one of both side surfaces of the main body opposite the wiper arm and that wraps around a sidewall of the clip in the manner of a hat.
US08857007B2
A vehicle wiper device includes a drive device, a drive shaft rotated back and forth about a first axis by the drive device, a wiper arm pivoted back and forth along a wiping surface as the drive shaft rotates back and forth, and a wiper arm biasing mechanism that biases the wiper arm toward the wiping surface. The wiper arm biasing mechanism includes a swing member, a tilting member, and a biasing member. The swing member is integrally pivotal with the drive shaft. The tilting member is supported by the swing member so as to tilt about a second axis. The tilting member includes a wiper fixing portion. The biasing member, which includes a first end supported by the swing member, and applies a biasing force to the tilting member.
US08857006B2
A cleaning tool has a cleaning element which includes a pair of right and left elongate split cleaning parts, each having an insert hole for receiving a holding element. A space is provided between the split cleaning parts for receiving an object to be cleaned. A third bonded part defines an outer side of the insert hole. The third bonded part includes a bonding line which extends straight in the longitudinal direction of the cleaning element in a front end region of the cleaning element, a bonding line which is formed rearward of the bonding line in the cleaning element and extends straight in the longitudinal direction of the cleaning element, and a bonding line which is formed rearward of the bonding line in the cleaning element and extends straight in the longitudinal direction of the cleaning element.
US08856999B2
The machine is made up of an upper scraping device R (FIG. 7) and a lower contrast and drawing device T (FIG. 7), both independent even in motorization, and connected to each other by respective side frames FI and FS (FIG. 7) through a contrast screw and spring system 2,8 (FIG. 1); wherein both the scraping device and the contrast and drawing device are simultaneously operated, wherein when the ticket passes between them, the simultaneous interaction of the two devices R and T clean the ticket 20 of its removable paint.
US08856978B2
A lightweight urinal designed for low water use and intended to be used adjacent to a toilet in a household residence. Device connects to existing water source and waste lines with minimal effort by a homeowner or professional installer. Push button control in combination with the shape of the urinal flushes contents automatically after use while using just 15 ounces of water.
US08856976B1
A urine shield comprising a unified single piece flexible plastic sheet with a width that are sufficient to permit the sheet to partly encircle the bowl of the toilet and compression-fitted to the inside of the bowl without any use of fixtures. The sheet includes a left portion having a bottom left end, a center portion, a right portion having a bottom right end. The sheet also comprises two flanges that slope outward from the bottom of the left portion and right portion with a length that decreases as the flange extends from the bottom end of each portion to the center portion. The flanges also extend at an angle less than perpendicular but more than parallel from the each portion. A method of using this urine shield is also provided.
US08856975B2
The invention relates to a headband means (1) used for applying a breathing mask (2) in a user's facial area. Said headband means (1) comprises a flexible band body that is provided with upper and lower band portions (3, 4) and is used for transmitting the mask holding forces required for applying the breathing mask. At least some portions of the band body are made of a foamed plastic material. The invention further relates to an application device (102) for a breathing mask, comprising a headband means which extends around the back of a user's head. The headband means encompasses a supporting structure (S) made of a material that can at least once be temporarily brought into a state in which at least some portions of the headband means can be individually adjusted to the shape of the back of the user's head.
US08856969B2
Garments are provided that include feltable fibers in selected areas to provide high durability. Garments are manufactured with feltable fibers is selected areas, such as high wear or high impact areas, and are then subjected to the felting (or fulling) process to produce a garment having partially felted fibers on the selected areas. Such a garment may be a sock with felted areas selected in the heel and toe areas. Such socks have enhanced resistance to wear in these high wear areas, and therefore are useable for longer periods of time for the user of the sock.
US08856964B2
Thermal garments with reduced weight and bulk and improved packability include targeted zones of increased thermal resistive properties. Such garments may include: (a) a first garment region extending along a central back portion of the garment from the waist area of the garment to the neck area; (b) second and third garment regions extending along the sides of the garment from the waist area to the underarm area; and (c) a fourth garment region extending between the first and second garment regions, between the first and third garment regions, and between the second and third garment regions. The fourth garment region includes a thermal material having a lower thermal resistive value than the thermal resistive values of the thermal materials associated with the first, second, and third garment regions. Methods of making such garments also are described.
US08863311B1
An RF reflectometry scanning tunneling microscope is suitable for observing a surface of an object, and includes a probe that cooperates with the object to form a tunneling resistor therebetween, an RF resonant circuit that cooperates with the tunneling resistor to form a LCR resonant circuit including an inductor connected to a parallel connection of a capacitor, a resistor and the tunneling resistor, an RF signal generator that outputs an RF signal via a directional coupler to the LCR resonant circuit, and an RF signal measuring device that generates a scanning result associated with the surface of the object based on a reflected RF signal resulting from reflection of the RF signal by the LCR resonant circuit.
US08863309B2
A computer system is provided that comprises a processor and a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) module coupled to the processor. The BIOS module stores a Core Root of Trust for Measurement (CRTM), wherein the CRTM selectively unlocks itself.
US08863305B2
In a file-access control system according to an embodiment of this invention, control data in accordance with actions made is imparted, as an obligation-type policy, to a document file. Next, a policy evaluation control unit evaluates and executes the obligation-type policy imparted to the document file in accordance with the action to the document file. The execution of the obligation-type policy includes the controlling of a document application on the basis of an obligation fulfillment action. Therefore, an active control can be performed in accordance with any manipulation made to the document, and the access to the document can be changed.
US08863297B2
A virtual file management system provides user access to managed content on mobile devices. The system comprises storage domains storing the managed content distributively using file systems, and a data infrastructure that organizes the managed content into a virtual file system that maintains information of storage domain specific file system primitives for accessing corresponding portions of the managed content. The data infrastructure, which maintains metadata of the storage domains and the mobile devices, comprises a policy definition and decision component that maintains policies defining controls for permissible operations on the managed content, the permissible operations including the file system primitives. A client application hosted on the mobile devices is coupled to the data infrastructure and the storage domains and includes an enforcement component that communicates with the policy definition and decision component to retrieve and enforce the policies by applying the controls on the mobile devices.
US08863284B1
Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for determining a security status of at least one potentially malicious file in a customer network. An example method comprising receiving, by a client computer system, client heuristics information from a server system for determining a security status of client data generated by at least one client application; monitoring and identifying at least one suspicious file of the client data as a potentially malicious file by analyzing metadata associated with the at least one suspicious file using the client heuristics information; collecting threat-identification information of the potentially malicious file to exclude confidential information associated with a content of the potentially malicious file; transmitting the threat-identification information to the server system for determining a security status of the potentially malicious file; and receiving security tools from the server system to block or remove the potentially malicious file.
US08863273B2
A method of using an account agent to access a superuser account shell of a computer device is disclosed. The method includes receiving an authentication request; verifying whether an identity authentication is passed; when the identity authentication is passed, establishing a secure channel between the account agent and a normal user account shell; and allowing controlling the superuser account shell of the computer device through the normal user account shell.
US08863271B2
A method of authenticating a user of a computing device is proposed, together with computing device on which the method is implemented. In the method a modified base image is overlaid with a modified overlay image on a display. At least one of the modified base image and modified overlay image is moved by the user. Positive authentication is indicated in response to the base image reference point on the modified base image being aligned, at least one of the base image reference point and the overlay image reference point having coordinates in three dimensions.
US08863270B2
According to one embodiment, a computer system executing a computer program is coupled to multiple secure network domains configured in a multi-level security architecture. The computer program simultaneously establishes a voice connection with a first terminal configured on a first secure network domain and a second terminal configured on a second secure network domain. The computer program may then selectively couple an electroacoustical transducer to the first terminal or the second terminal, and generate an indicator on a user interface indicating the security level of the selected terminal.
US08863267B2
A subscriber network can provide services. External applications can use the services on the subscriber network. A service access gateway can control application access to services of the subscriber network. The service access gateway can filter requests from an external application to access services on the subscriber network based on the customer for which the external application is accessing the service.
US08863263B2
A server apparatus includes an analyzer unit which analyzes log-in information for a server received from a client, determines an authentication scheme of the server, and extracts, from the log-in information, provisional authentication information in a form representative of variable information. The analyzer unit stores, in the storage device, information representative of the authentication scheme and the provisional authentication information as the variable information. The analyzer unit also stores, in the storage device, as the variable information, authentication information of a user for the server that is associated with representative authentication information of the user.
US08863261B2
A user authentication apparatus, a user authentication method, and a computer readable recording medium are provided. The user authentication apparatus includes: an information collection unit which collects authentication information on a plurality of portable devices of a user through a communication network; and a control unit which identifies whether each of the plurality of portable devices is registered for the user or not based on the collected authentication information, determines whether an amount of information collected from the plurality of portable devices that are identified is greater than a threshold value, and authenticates the user.
US08863260B2
A mechanism is provided for enhancing password protection. A combination password that comprises dynamic text interspersed within a static user password is received from a user. A determination is made as to whether the combination password is to be verified without the dynamic text. Responsive to identifying that the combination password is to be verified without the dynamic text, the dynamic text is filtered from the combination password based on an identified dynamic suggestion issued to the user prior to the combination password being received thereby forming a filtered password. The filtered password is then authenticated using information stored for the user. Responsive to validating the filtered password, access is granted by the user to a secured system.
US08863258B2
A system includes a location look-up module that determines a current location for a user log-on to the network, and determines a next location of the user log-on to the network. An analyzer module analyzes at least one portion of the network for potential future location information for authenticating with the determined next location by an authorization module. The authorization module authenticates the next log-on to the network based on a comparison with the potential future location information.
US08863257B2
Securely connecting a virtual machine in a public cloud to corporate resources. A cloud computing system is coupled to an enterprise computing system via a network. The enterprise computing system includes a management server, an authentication server and a virtual private network (VPN) server. A cloud engine runs on the management server. The cloud engine starts an exchange with the authentication server that leads to a state in which both parties know a one-time password (OTP) and an identifier (ID) of a virtual machine (VM) hosted by the cloud computing system. The cloud engine sends the OTP and the ID to the VM. The VPN server then receives credentials from the VM. If the credentials are successfully authenticated against the OTP and the ID, a secure connection is established between the enterprise computing system and the VM.
US08863251B1
There are provided mechanisms and methods for managing a risk of access to an on-demand service as a condition of permitting access to the on-demand service. These mechanisms and methods for providing such management can help prohibit an unauthorized user from accessing an account of an authorized user when the authorized user inadvertently loses login information. The ability to provide such management may lead to an improved security feature for accessing on-demand services.
US08863240B2
Methods and systems are disclosed for transitioning an existing in-use phone number between an first smart card and a second smart card.
US08863236B2
There is disclosed a method, and a communication system, and a communication node for implementing the claimed method, for attempting to enhance legitimacy assessment and thwart a man-in-the middle or similar false-location attack by evaluating the topology of a communication-session requesting node relative to the proposed communication path through a network between the requesting node and the requested node. Upon receiving the request, a PRD (Prefix Reachability Detection) protocol is initiated, either after or during a secure key exchange, if any, which if performed preferably includes an ART (address reachability text). The PRD is executed by sending a message to the communication node challenging the location-authenticity of the requesting device. The communication node, which may be for example an access router through which the requesting node accesses the network, determines if the requesting node is positioned behind the communication node topologically, and reports the result to the requested node. The requested node may then make a decision on whether to permit the communication. If so, the PRD may be repeated one or more times while the communication session is in progress.
US08863229B2
The disclosure provides a method for resource and admission control of a home network, the RACF of an NGN retail service provider formulates an initial policy rule according to a resource request after receiving the resource request sent by an SCF; a CPN performs authorization check on one or more resource requests after receiving them, each of which includes the initial policy rule and is sent by an RACF of a respective NGN retail service provider, formulates a final policy rule after the authorization check is passed, and executes the final policy rule. The disclosure further provides a system for resource and admission control of a home network correspondingly, since a CGPE-FE executes corresponding operation according to the decision result of an HPD-FE, the disclosure can avoid resource control errors such as resource desynchrony or resource inconsistence, and can improve system stability.
US08863217B2
A device for and a method of decreasing the data rate of a digital return path link in a Cable Television Hybrid Fiber-Coax system (CATV system) is disclosed. At the node of the CATV system, the bandwidth of the a digital data stream representative of an analog return signal is limited to a desired frequency band. The bandwidth-limited data stream is then digitally re-sampled at a predetermined multiple of a center frequency of the frequency band. The re-sampled data stream is then separated into two data streams. Then, these separate data streams are digitally decimated to a lower data rate, interleaved and serialized for transmission to a head end of the CATV system. A reverse process reconstructs the original analog return signal's signal components within the desired frequency band at the head end.
US08863205B2
Disclosed herein is a method and system for multimedia viewership surveying of an end-user's set-top-box (STB). The multimedia information may be received from at least one satellite via a satellite receiver. The satellite receiver may convey the multimedia information to a service provider location. At the service provider location, a content server may receive a request for transmission of multimedia information. The request may be validated to determine whether the request is authorized. The method may also include monitoring channel requests, and channel viewing times. The method may also include recording and/or logging the channel requests and information associated with the requested program in a user log. The user log may be evaluated to facilitate targeted marketing of end-user subscribers based upon demonstrated television viewing habits.
US08863197B2
A digital television (DTV) signal for use in a DTV receiver includes an extended text table (ETT) which includes a header and a message body. The header includes a table identification extension field which serves to establish uniqueness of the ETT, and the message includes an extended text message (ETM). If the ETT is an event ETT, the table ID extension field includes an event identification which specifies an identification number of an event associated with the ETT. On the other hand, if the ETT is a channel ETT, the table identification extension field includes a source identification which specifies a programming source of a virtual channel associated with the ETT. A section-filtering unit included in the DTV receiver is able to use table identification extension fields of a plurality of ETTs for section-filtering a pertinent event or channel ETT from the ETTs.
US08863195B2
A content processing device within a customer premises is connected to a first network internal to the customer premises and is also connected to a second network external to the customer premises. The content processing device is configured to download via the second network, and then to execute, instructions to detect a computing device within the first network and then to request selectively specified media content from the computing device, whereby the specified media content is retrieved from the computing device via the first network.
US08863193B2
According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a first receiver, a second receiver, an extractor and a display module. The first receiver is configured to receive first program information for a plurality of programs from a first external apparatus connected via a network. The second receiver is configured to receive a channel identifier of a first program from a second external apparatus. The extraction module is configured to extract, from the first program information, second program information for a single program associated with a channel indicated by the channel identifier, and a time point. The display module is configured to display information that is based on the second program information.
US08863190B1
Techniques to deliver targeted advertisements and multimedia contents to viewers. Various types of advertisements are encoded and transmitted. The advertisements may be targeted for different coverage areas (e.g., national and local levels) and may further include various categories (e.g., kids, sports, business, and so on). At the terminal, one or more advertisements may be selected for display based on various selection schemes. The particular advertisement to be selected for display at a terminal may be based on the terminal's assigned profile or user interaction at the terminal. The profile may be assigned based on the last program viewed at the terminal, a particular filter icon selected at the terminal, the observed television viewing habits of the viewer at the terminal, and so on. The techniques may also be advantageously used for delivery of other multimedia contents and for other applications.
US08863182B1
Systems and methods are provided herein relating to video editing and more particularly to stitching an insert video within a target video without transcoding. Through dynamically stitching a video, such as an advertisement, within a video, a content provider can transmit a stitched video instead of separate content videos and advertisement videos that a local uncontrolled video player would be responsible for combining and playing. Systems and methods herein provide for receiving a target video and an insert video and dynamically stitching the insert video within the target video to create a stitched video. The stitched video can then be transmitted that plays both the target video and the insert video within the target video, irrespective of the player on which a user views the stitched video.
US08863175B2
A system and a method for using the system for targeted commerce in network broadcasting are provided. The system includes an interface device configured to receive a multimedia stream from a network, wherein the multimedia stream includes a close captioning string and wherein the interface device is further configured to process the multimedia stream by providing advertisements in the multimedia stream according to a correlation between the close captioning string and a plurality of vendor keywords; and a viewing device configured to receive the processed multimedia stream and display to a viewer.
US08863166B2
A method and system for identifying tune data from set top boxes associated with televisions, video monitors, or other video playback devices that are likely powered off. In some embodiments, survival curves are constructed that predict a length of time before a video playback device is powered off after a tuning event. The survival curves are used to predict the likelihood that a video playback device is powered off. Viewership estimates made from tune data reported from set top boxes can be adjusted to take account of the video playback devices that are predicted to be powered off.
US08863163B2
An electronic program guide (EPG) may include entries that enable access to one or more images. In some implementations, when an image-related entry is selected by a user, a device presents the one or more images that are associated with the selected entry. In some implementations, portions of the EPG are presented as links. Selection of a link effectuates a search and may be followed by the visual presentation of one or more images resulting from the search. Additionally, in some implementations, an image can be communicated with an electronic communication. In response to the electronic communication, an image entry may be added to the channel lineup of the EPG. Selection of the image entry in the EPG may cause the device to visually present the image.
US08863150B2
A system and method for providing a device agnostic framework between two or more computing platforms. The system includes a protocol for creating device agnostic messages including data from a message generated by an application on the first computing platform, as well as identification and targeting data to enable the message to be sent to the intend target computing platform. The intended target computing platform responds via a callback, thereby establishing a communication protocol between the first and second computing platforms regardless of different computing languages or hardware being used.
US08863140B2
A resource credit tree for resource management includes leaf nodes and non-leaf nodes. The non-leaf nodes include a root node and internal nodes. Resource management includes initializing a operation corresponding to a resource pool, selecting, using a hash function, a leaf node of a resource credit tree, and identifying a number of available credits of the leaf node. Resource management may further include traversing, using a backward traversal path, from the leaf node to a non-leaf node based on determining that the number of available credits is less than a required number of credits or determining that capacity of the leaf node is less than the summation of the number of credits to free to the resource credit tree and the number of available credits. Resource management may further allocating and freeing credits from and to the resource credit tree.
US08863135B2
The invention relates to a personal token running a series of applications, wherein said personal token includes a thread controller which transmits data from the applications to an external device in a cyclic way, a cycle being constituted of a series of data transfers from the applications and to the external device, a cycle comprising a respective number of data transfers dedicated to each respective application which is different according to the respective application, the number of data transfers for a respective application in a cycle corresponding to a priority level of the application as taken into account by the thread controller.
US08863133B2
Embodiments are directed to managing and verifying licenses in a cluster computer system environment. In an embodiment, a license management application running on a computer system cluster manager receives a job that has multiple job tasks as well as portions of job information. The license management application determines from the job information how many licenses and computer nodes are to be assigned to the job. The license management application checks out the determined number of licenses from a license distributing application on behalf of the received job. The license management application indicates to a scheduler of the computer system cluster manager that one job task is to be run per checked out license.
US08863114B2
A client version control system (VCS) accesses a remote VCS to retrieve the difference between current metadata stored locally representing a first version of the software packages currently installed and newer metadata representing a second version of the software packages available from a server for distribution, without having to download the entire newer metadata. The client VCS generates the newer metadata based on the current metadata and the difference of the current and newer metadata retrieved from the remote VCS. A package manager coupled to the client VCS to download the second version of the software package from the server based on the newer metadata then installs or updates newer releases of software packages as available from the distribution server.
US08863113B1
A method and system for an unattended installation of any type of a guest operating system (GOS) on a Virtual Machine (VM), or a nested VM. Proposed method and system allow users to create an executable script, which provides automation of any GOS or application installation on the VM. User actions, such as mouse clicks, gestures, touch commands and keyboard strokes, performed during GOS/application installation are recorded. The delays, time periods between clicks and strokes are recorded as well. All of this information is incorporated into an executable script. The script, when executed, simulates/reproduces GOS/application action sequence. This sequence reflects the behavior of GOS/application itself executed on a VM.
US08863111B2
A production upgrade is described for a multiprotocol gateway. This upgrade allows various modules and components within the gateway to be upgraded independently without impacting traffic flow in the gateway. The upgrade can be performed by deploying a new version of the module alongside an older version of the same module. New client requests can then be directed to the new version, while requests requiring the older module can be continued to be serviced by the prior version. A distinction is made between stateless and stateful conversation during the upgrade of various components. For stateful conversations, request traffic can be versioned according to the session to which each request belongs. A highly available state storage scheme allows new versions of the module to consume state information used by the older versions. For stateless conversations, all new requests can be immediately routed to the new version of the module.
US08863108B2
A library controller that determines if a software is supported by an operating system is described. In one embodiment, the library controller receives the software and extracts library usage details from that software of a library that is provided by the operating system. In addition, the library controller compares the library usage details with library provisioning details of that library. Furthermore, the library controller presents results of the comparison.
US08863107B2
Embodiments of a workflow-based user interface for defining and managing functions implemented on mobile devices are described. A method under an embodiment utilizes a workflow-based mobile device management user interface. The method utilizes a pluggable workflow framework to achieve mobile device management externalization. The mobile device management platform is required to implement a set of basic action blocks that are used as primitives for further management policy composition. The method provides a development environment integrated with a mobile device management platform that allows assembling management (monitoring) primitives into meaningful management policies without changes to a core management platform infrastructure. The method claims addition of new primitives deployed as add-on products to enable new and advanced management policies, best integration practices with a carrier operational support system. The method enables debugging and tracing mobile device management policies in real time to minimize development and testing efforts.
US08863091B2
A computer is programmed with multiple software programs to record structures including (a) unstructured information to denote a transition between portions of code, and (b) metadata related to one or more attributes of the information. In addition, the computer writes two additional types of structures: section type, and dump type. The section type structure has metadata to indicate a beginning and an end, to bracket a group of structures located therebetween. The dump type has a dump header and a dump body. The dump header includes a symbol to indicate it's of dump type. The dump body is a set of values of an object used by the software program(s) during execution by the computer. A group of structures, within a section type, may include structures of each of the trace record type, dump type and section type.
US08863086B2
A system and method are provided for data collection and analysis of information related to applications. Specifically, the developer of the application may install analytic software, which may be embodied as a software development kit (SDK), on an integrated development environment (“IDE”) associated with the developer, wherein the analytic software may be installed with a wizard-like interface having a series of easy to follow instructions. Once installed, the application, with the analytic software incorporated therein, may be provided and installed on a plurality of end user devices. Thereafter, the analytic software may work in conjunction with analytic processing logic to assist the developer in obtaining pertinent information related to bugs associated with the application that is being executed on an end user device.
US08863067B1
Some embodiments provide a method of designing an integrated circuit (IC). The design is expressed as a graph that includes several nodes that represent several IC components. The nodes include a first set of nodes that represent a set of clocked elements. The method creates a second set of nodes by removing all nodes in the first set from the nodes that represent the IC components. The method identifies a set of edges that connect two nodes in the second set without encompassing a third node in the second set. The method assigns an event time to each node in the second set. The method assigns a cost function based on the event times of the nodes connected by each edge and the number of nodes in the first set encompassed by each edge. The method optimizes the cost function and places the components based on the cost function optimization.
US08863063B2
A first gate level feature forms gate electrodes of a first finfet transistor of a first transistor type and a first finfet transistor of a second transistor type. A second gate level feature forms a gate electrode of a second finfet transistor of the first transistor type. A third gate level feature forms a gate electrode of a second finfet transistor of the second transistor type. The gate electrodes of the second finfet transistors of the first and second transistor types are electrically connected to each other. The gate electrodes of the second finfet transistors of the first and second transistor types are positioned on opposite sides of a gate electrode track along which the gate electrodes of the first finfet transistors of the first and second transistor types are positioned.
US08863062B2
Methods and apparatus of performing floorplanning and routing for function blocks within a die and among multiple die are disclosed. Multiple die together with function blocks within each die may be represented by a flexible hierarchical (FH) tree. An initial floorplan for multiple die may be generated and hot spots between die or among function blocks within a die may be identified. Spacer blocks may be inserted between die, and block inflation may be performed, to remove hot spots. More perturbation of the block positions can be performed on the FH tree to rearrange the blocks and die. After the multiple die floorplanning, a plurality of micro bumps may be mapped to a plurality of pins of blocks of the plurality of die, placement and routing may be performed for the plurality of blocks within each die and connections for the plurality of dies.
US08863055B2
A method and apparatus to provide a capacitance to a design an integrated circuit is described. In one embodiment, the method receive a layout of the integrated circuit and applying canonical hierarchical models to the layout, wherein the canonical hierarchical models include a first type canonical model to capture a first capacitance of a device having a plurality of first conductors and a second type canonical model to capture a second capacitance between at least a portion of the device and one or more second conductors of the integrated circuit. The method further includes determining a capacitance for the layout based on the applying.
US08863054B1
A circuit verification method for a logic circuit is presented. The method includes developing a first hardware description language (HDL) code representative of the logic circuit and, for an embedded portion of the logic circuit, developing a second HDL code representative of the embedded portion. The second HDL code includes a process of forcing inputs of the embedded portion to one or more known values. The method further includes operating a processing device in conjunction with the first and second HDL codes and verifying operation of the embedded portion in response to forcing the inputs to the logic circuit.
US08863043B1
An inspection data generator generates inspection data used to inspect a pattern transferred onto the same material layer using exposure processes. An input part of the generator receives first layout data for a mask used in a first exposure process and second layout data for a mask used in a second exposure process, and receives a measured value of a misalignment between a first transfer pattern actually transferred onto the material layer in the first exposure process and a second transfer pattern actually transferred onto the material layer in the second exposure process. A processor unit generates the inspection data by shifting the first layout data and the second layout data from each other by an amount corresponding to the measured value and then combining the first layout data with the second layout data. An output part outputs the inspection data to inspect the pattern transferred onto the material layer.
US08863040B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for gesture-based selection. In one aspect, a method includes displaying, on a user interface, information referencing a first set of data items, and at least one control that references multiple values, identifying a first gesture input by a user using the control, selecting a first value based on the first gesture, identifying a second gesture input by the user using the control, selecting a second value based on the second gesture, selecting a second set of data items to display based on the first and second values, and displaying information referencing the second set of data items.
US08863023B2
A system and method displays a compass control with a map or other image. The compass control displays locations that may be displayed on the map, as well as locations that are outside of the map area being displayed, to allow the user to view such locations and interact with them.
US08863020B2
A method includes displaying one or more selectable features on a touch-sensitive display of a portable electronic device, detecting a gesture on the touch-sensitive display, identifying at least one of the selectable features based on a direction of the gesture, and increasing a size of the at least one of the selectable features.
US08863018B2
A system for filtering items to be displayed on a graphical user interface provided to a client and for interaction by a user, the graphical user interface for a building automation system, is provided. The system includes a processor and memory communicably coupled to the processor. The memory includes computer code for allowing the user to create a filter definition via a computer based form. The memory further includes computer code for saving the created filter definition to memory and computer code for applying the saved filter definition to a set of building automation system data items. The memory yet further includes computer code for generating the graphical user interface, the graphical user interface including results of the applied filter definition.
US08863016B2
A computing device with a touch screen display simultaneously displays on the touch screen display a plurality of user interface objects and at least one destination object. The computing device detects a first input by a user on a destination object displayed on the touch screen display. While continuing to detect the first input by the user on the destination object, the computing device detects a second input by the user on a first user interface object displayed on the touch screen display. In response to detecting the second input by the user on the first user interface object, the computing device performs an action on the first user interface object. The action is associated with the destination object.
US08863015B2
A method and system are provided which allows enhanced support to graphical user interface (GUI) displays on multiple monitors. An extended markup language file provides code to configure each GUI. GUI software need not be re-compiled in order to implement changes in the layout of displays or to accommodate additional monitors. Potential display event handling delays are minimized by providing multiple Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) for GUIs. In one aspect, one JVM is provided for each GUI.
US08862998B2
A method for displaying storage network information in a user interface. The method includes identifying a topology map for a storage network and gathering operating information, which is processed to determine a performance parameter, such as utilization. A performance monitoring display is generated including a topology map and a graphical representation of the performance parameter, which is positioned in the display relative to the components for which the parameter applies. The graphical representation can be a pair of parallel dashed lines between communicating components. The dashes in the lines are moved using a speed coding scheme representative of the performance parameter, e.g., with faster speeds used to show higher ranges of utilization, and the direction of movement matches data flow. The dashed lines are colored using a color coding scheme and the line segment lengths vary in association with the performance value.
US08862997B2
A network management system which is capable of easily identifying devices, and enhancing the operability of a device management application used by a manager. The network management system includes devices, and a server connected to the devices via a network. The server is configured to be capable of communicating with the devices by SNMPv1, SNMPv3 and SLP. When SNMPv1 can be used for a device, the server acquires device information from the device by SNMPv1. When SNMPv1 cannot be used but SNMPv3 can be used for a device, and an SNMPv3 password is registered, the server acquires device information from the device by SNMPv3. When SNMPv1 cannot be used but SNMPv3 can be used for a device, and a SNMPv3 password is not registered, the server acquires device information from the device by SLP.
US08862995B1
Systems, methods, and computer storage mediums for rendering a geo-referenced interactive tour using media objects associated with a user. An exemplary method includes collecting the media objects from one or more selected user profiles associated with the user. Each media object is collected based on an associated time value. The collected media objects are organized into one or more trip segments based on velocity value associated with each collected media object, the velocity value indicating the velocity of travel between two media objects. At least one trip segment is rendered into the interactive tour. The trip segment is rendered to include its media objects and geo-referenced data. The geo-referenced data is determined from at least one geolocation associated with a media object included in the trip segment. The media objects and geo-referenced data are rendered according to a presentation style that is selected based on the included media objects.
US08862994B2
Multimedia content of exchangeable storage media, such as optical discs, may be extended by bonus content that is downloaded via Internet connection and stored on a local storage device. An improved method for integration of different menu items relating to on-disc content and downloaded content provides flexibility and a simple, low cost solution. The method for integration of downloaded bonus content into a menu comprises defining one or more placeholders within a menu, determining a storage location or naming convention for bonus content, declaring for each placeholder an attribute providing a unique association to a specific type of bonus content, providing a button image, detecting presence of bonus content data, replacing the associated placeholder by the associated button image and enabling an associated action to be taken when said button is selected.
US08862982B2
A system of forming a help file in a computer system, including an external configuration file containing information about a computer application running on the computer system, a help file having at least one page of help and an internal configuration file, and a control element to generate the at least one page of help according to the internal configuration file, wherein the control element incorporates the information from the external configuration file to the at least one page of help upon activation of the pages of help.
US08862981B2
A system includes a database, and a server, the server including a messaging module to generate one or more email messages, one or more of the one or more email messages each having attached thereto a form script file, and to send the one or more email messages over a communications network to a portable device, the one or more form script files including definitions of a form interface to be used by the portable device to render the form interface.
US08862965B1
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with decoding codewords are described. According to one embodiment, a read channel includes a set of memories and a decoding logic. The set of memories is configured to decode a plurality codewords. At least one memory is classified as an inactive memory for use when a failure occurs. The remaining memories of the set of memories are classified as active memory for decoding. The decoding logic is configured to decode the plurality of codewords using the active memory of the set of memories. When the decoding logic fails to decode a codeword, which is stored in a memory of the active memory, resulting in a failed codeword, the memory of the active memory is reclassified as a memory of the inactive memory.
US08862955B2
An embodiment is directed to extended test coverage of complex multi-clock-domain integrated circuits without forgoing a structured and repeatable standard approach, thus avoiding custom solutions and freeing the designer to implement his RTL code, respecting only generally few mandatory rules identified by the DFT engineer. Such an embodiment is achieved by introducing in the test circuit an embodiment of an additional functional logic circuit block, named “inter-domain on chip clock controller” (icOCC), interfaced with every suitably adapted clock-gating circuit (OCC), of the different clock domains. The icOCC actuates synchronization among the different OCCs that source the test clock signals coming from an external ATE or ATPG tool and from internal at-speed test clock generators to the respective circuitries of the distinct clock domains. Scan structures like the OCCs, scan chain, etc., may be instantiated at gate pre-scan level, with low impact onto the functional RTL code written by the designer.
US08862950B1
An API testing component is provided that is configured to deploy test suites to one or more test virtual machine instances. The test suites include an API test. The API tests are periodically executed on the test virtual machine instances, and test results generated by the API tests are collected and stored. The API testing component also provides a user interface for viewing the test results using a user interface specification that defines a visual layout for presenting test results generated by one or more test suites. The API testing component might also generate one or more alarm messages utilizing the test results and an alarm specification.
US08862937B2
An approach is provided for migrating data. Data is received from a plurality of source systems. The received data is processed for conversion to a target system. A failure condition associated with the processing is detected. An action is selectively initiated from a point of failure corresponding to the detected failure condition. The action includes either retrying the processing, aborting the processing, initiating simulation of the process, forcing completion of the processing, or a combination thereof.
US08862933B2
Embodiments of apparatus, systems and methods facilitate the running a distributed computing application on at least one of a plurality of cloud infrastructures. In some embodiments, the processor implemented method comprises: deriving an infrastructure independent representation of the distributed computing application; and running the distributed computing application on one of a plurality of cloud infrastructures by utilizing a cloud-specific implementation of the infrastructure independent representation of the distributed computing application. The cloud-specific implementation of the infrastructure independent representation corresponds to the cloud infrastructure on which the distributed application is run.
US08862932B2
The described embodiments include a processor that handles faults. The processor first receives a first input vector, a control vector, and a predicate vector, each vector comprising a plurality of elements. For each element in the first input vector for which a corresponding element in the control vector and the predicate vector are active, the processor then performs a read operation using an address from the element of the first input vector. When a fault condition is encountered while performing the read operation, the processor determines if the element is a first element where a corresponding element of the control vector is active. If so, the processor handles/processes the fault. Otherwise, the processor masks the fault for the element.
US08862930B2
A computing system stores actual memory usage data in a user memory space. The actual memory usage data represents memory usage of a plurality of device drivers that are loaded by a first kernel. The computing system generates an estimate of memory space to be reserved for a second kernel based on the actual memory usage data for the plurality of device drivers that are loaded by the first kernel and reserves memory space for the second kernel using the estimate.
US08862927B2
A computer-implemented method for fault recovery in multi-tier applications may include: 1) identifying a plurality of clusters, 2) identifying a multi-tier application that includes a plurality of components, each cluster within the plurality of clusters hosting a component, 3) identifying a fault of a first component within the plurality of components on a first cluster within the plurality of clusters, the fault requiring a first recovery action, 4) identifying at least one dependency relationship involving the first component and a second component within the plurality of components on a second cluster within the plurality of clusters, 5) determining, based on the fault and the dependency relationship, that the second component requires a second recovery action to ensure that the multi-tier application operates correctly, and 6) performing the second recovery action on the second component. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US08862920B2
A method of regulating power states in a processing system may begin with a processor component reporting a present processor power state to an input-output hub, where the present processor power state corresponds to one of a plurality of different processor power states ranging from an active state to an inactive state. The input-output hub receives data indicative of the present processor power state and, in response to receiving the present processor power state, establishes a lowest allowable hub power state that corresponds to one of a plurality of different hub power states ranging from an active state to an inactive state. The method continues by determining a present hub power state for the input-output hub, wherein depth of the present hub power state is less than or equal to depth of the lowest allowable hub power state.
US08862908B2
An information processing apparatus includes an information storage to store information indicating a state of the information processing apparatus; an information writing processor to write the information to the information storage; a main power source and an auxiliary power source to supply power to the information writing processor; and a discharge controller to control a discharge speed of the auxiliary power source. When a voltage output of the main power source becomes a reference voltage, the discharge controller switches a power source for the information writing processor from the main power source to the auxiliary power source, and then after completing information writing to the information storage by using the information writing processor and the auxiliary power source, the discharge controller controls the discharge speed of the auxiliary power source to decrease a voltage output of the auxiliary power source to a given voltage within a given time period.
US08862901B2
A memory subsystem and method for loading and storing data at memory addresses of the subsystem. The memory subsystem is functionally connected to a processor and has a first mode of address encryption to convert logical memory addresses generated by the processor into physical memory addresses at which the data are stored in the memory subsystem. The memory subsystem is adapted to pull low a write enable signal to store data in the memory subsystem and to pull high the write enable signal to load data in the memory subsystem, wherein if pulled high the write enable signal alters the address encryption from the first mode to a second mode. The memory subsystem is adapted to be coupled to a local hardware device which supplies a key that acts upon the address encryption of the memory subsystem.
US08862898B2
The invention relates to the switching from a first mode of operation to a second mode, of a first and a second cores of a processor of a processing device further comprising a controller. The controller sends a first message to the cores. Upon reception of the first message, sensible data handled by the cores are stored securely. The second core sends, to the first core, a second message indicating the completion of the step of storing its sensible data. Upon reception of the second message, the first core stores securely, in a storage unit, other sensible data, and, when finished, sends to the controller a third message. Upon reception of the third message, the controller sends to the first core a fourth message. Then, the first core sends a fifth message to the second core. Upon reception of the fourth and the fifth messages, the cores enter into the second mode.
US08862879B2
An encryption based method of enabling a plurality of parties to share, create, hide, or reveal message or token information over a network includes a commutative group cipher (CGC), where the underlying CGC is secure against ciphertext-only attack (COA) and plaintext attacks (KPA), and is deterministic. The protocols do not require a trusted third party (TTP), and execute rapidly enough on ordinary consumer computers as to be effective for realtime play among more than two players. Protocols are defined which include VSM-L-OL, VSM-VL, VSM-VPUM, and VSM-VL-VUM, wherein the letters V, O, SM, P, and UM represent, respectively, Verified, Locking Round, Open, Shuffle-Masking Round, Partial, and Unmasking Round.
US08862877B2
A method and system for providing data anonymously is provided. The method involves receiving an encrypted operator match ID by a client device from a first entity, where the encrypted operator match ID is encrypted using a first encryption key; decrypting the encrypted operator match ID using a first decryption key, associated with the first encryption key, by the client device to obtain a decrypted operator match ID; encrypting the decrypted operator match ID using a second encryption key by the client device to obtain a re-encrypted operator match ID; and sending the client device usage information with the re-encrypted operator match ID by the client device to a second entity through an anonymous channel, where the second entity decrypts the re-encrypted operator match ID using a second decryption key, associated with the second encryption key, to obtain the operator match ID.
US08862876B2
A computer system having at least first and second documents, a plurality of decryption keys, and a plurality of data segments stored therein, is provided. Each of the plurality of data segments is decryptable by a selected one of the decryption keys. The decryption keys include a first set of decryption keys associated with the first document and not associated with the second document, a second set of decryption keys associated with the second document and not associated with the first document, and a third set of decryption keys associated with the first document and the second document. The first document is deleted, and in response, the first set of decryption keys is rendered unusable, and the second set of decryption keys and the third set of decryption keys are not rendered unusable.
US08862875B2
A method and system are provided for secure messaging on mobile computing devices. The method and system provide for an indication of a security trust level associated with a security method used with an electronic message.
US08862868B2
Embodiments of the disclosure relate to proxying one or more email resources in transit to the client devices from the email services, removing one or more email attachments from the email resources, and encoding the stripped email attachments based at least in part on one or more cryptographic keys.
US08862865B2
Methods, systems, and physical computer-readable storage media are now provided that reduce latency and improve efficiency of a system after reboot of an Infiniband (IB) cluster. A method of rebooting an Infiniband cluster includes preserving routing table configurations of each switch of the Infiniband cluster, rebooting endpoints of the Infiniband cluster, activating physical links at each endpoint, setting local identifier (LID) locally at each endpoint of the IB cluster, and activating logical links locally at each endpoint of the IB cluster.
US08862861B2
Techniques are disclosed relating to a processor that is configured to execute control transfer instructions (CTIs). In some embodiments, the processor includes a mechanism that suppresses results of mispredicted younger CTIs on a speculative execution path. This mechanism permits the branch predictor to maintain its fidelity, and eliminates spurious flushes of the pipeline. In one embodiment, a misprediction bit is be used to indicate that a misprediction has occurred, and younger CTIs than the CTI that was mispredicted are suppressed. In some embodiments, the processor may be configured to execute instruction streams from multiple threads. Each thread may include a misprediction indication. CTIs in each thread may execute in program order with respect to other CTIs of the thread, while instructions other than CTIs may execute out of program order.
US08862849B2
Multiple storage area groups into which multiple storage areas provided by multiple storage devices are classified with reference to storage area attributes are managed. The multiple logical volumes to which, in accordance with a write request to at least one address included in multiple addresses in the logical volume, at least one storage area included in the multiple storage areas is allocated are provided. In accordance with the access condition of the at least one address in the logical volume, the data written to the at least one address by the write request is migrated from the at least one storage area included in one of the multiple storage area groups to at least one storage area in another storage area group included in the multiple storage area groups.
US08862843B2
A storage system includes a first storage apparatus and a second storage apparatus including a second controller for sequentially transferring a copy of the part of the segments of data from a second buffer into a second storage device segment by segment in the same sequence as the second buffer have received a copy of the part of segments of data from a first buffer of the first storage apparatus. The second controller producing a backup copy in a backup data storage portion by copying a copy of one of the segments of the data stored in the second storage device that has been transferred from the second buffer into the second storage device while transferring a copy of the subsequent segment of the data next to said one of the segments of the data in the sequence from the second buffer to the second storage device.
US08862835B2
In an embodiment of the invention, a multi-port register file includes write port inputs (e.g. write address, write enable, data input) that are pipelined and synchronous and read port inputs (e.g. read address) that are asynchronous and are not pipelined. Because the write port inputs are pipelined, they are stored in pipelined registers. When data is written to the multi-port register file, data is first written to the pipelined registers during a first clock cycle. On the next clock cycle, data is read from the pipelined registers and written into memory array registers. When the read address is identical to the write address stored in the pipelined memory, the result of a bit-wise ANDing of data stored in pipelined synchronous data registers and data stored in pipelined synchronous bit-wise registers is presented at the output of the multi-port register file.
US08862814B2
A method, an apparatus and an article of manufacture for placing at least one object at least one cache of a set of cooperating caching nodes with limited inter-node communication bandwidth. The method includes transmitting information from the set of cooperating caching nodes regarding object accesses to a placement computation component, determining object popularity distribution based on the object access information, and instructing the set of cooperating caching nodes of at least one object to cache, the at least one node at which each object is to be cached, and a manner in which the at least one cached object is to be shared among the at least one caching node based on the object popularity distribution and cache and object sizes such that a cumulative hit rate at the at least one cache is increased while a constraint on inter-node communication bandwidth is not violated.
US08862810B2
A solid state device (SSD) write operation management system including a file system that incorporates SSD status information into its operational logic is disclosed. By incorporating SSD status information, the system achieves various advantages over conventional systems, such as enhanced write performance and extended SSD lifespan. The system processes various criteria to select the optimal virtual device (“vdev”) for data allocation in response to a write request. The first criterion utilizes Program/Erase counts of physical blocks contained in the SSDs. Another criterion is the number of physical free blocks of a drive. If the average of the selected vdev's physical free blocks is higher than the OP threshold, then the system selects for data allocation the vdev with the greatest amount of logical free space. In the instance that the average is lower, the system schedules garbage collection for the vdev.
US08862801B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for receiving a non-coherent atomic request from a device coupled to an agent via a non-coherent link, accessing a mapping table of the agent to convert the non-coherent atomic request into a coherent atomic request, and transmitting the coherent atomic request via a coherent link to a second agent coupled to the agent to cause the second agent to be a completer of the non-coherent atomic request. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08862789B2
An electronic device comprises a plurality of memory components, a connector, a receiver, and a communication component. The connector is configured to operatively connect the electronic device to an external device. The external device is capable of individually recognizing the memory components one at a time or simultaneously recognizing only a few of the memory components. The receiver is configured to receive a select instruction that specifies which of the memory components will be recognized by the external device. The communication component is configured to automatically communicate with the external device to permit the external device to automatically recognize at least one of the memory components as a predefined memory component. The communication component is further configured to communicate with the external device when the receiver receives the select instruction to permit the external device to recognize at least one memory components according to the select instruction.
US08862785B2
A method for redirecting I/O (Input/Output) sequences. A computer platform is initialized. If the computer platform is enabled for command packet rerouting, the platform firmware may be used to install a runtime enable block I/O interface and a standard UNDI (Universal Network Device Interface) interface for routing I/O requests to a network controller or an out-of-band processor may be used to route I/O requests to a network interface controller. The routing of the I/O requests to the network controller or network interface controller enables the computer platform to boot from a remote block I/O storage device.
US08862780B2
Methods of providing published content are presented. Content providers, including advertisers, can have their network addresses become black listed through no fault of their own. Content providers can utilize one or more intermediary providers each having their own distinct network address, possibly a registered domain name. An advertiser or other content provider can engage members of a distribution channel to disseminate promotional information to consumers where the promotional information comprises a network address of the intermediary provider. Upon a request directed toward the network address, the intermediary transforms published content obtained from the primary provider to make the content appear as though it originated from the intermediary provider. Should a black listing event occur, only the intermediary provider would be affected. An updated or new intermediary provider having a new, distinct network address can be instantiated to replace the black listed provider.
US08862777B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for detecting mobile devices. In one implementation, a system includes a web server. The web server receives mobile device detection strings from a DNS server in response to a DNS request and stores the mobile device detection strings on the server. The web server uses the mobile device detection strings to determine if a client device making a request to the web server is a mobile device. The web server may determine if the client device is a mobile device by comparing a user agent string in the request to the mobile device detection strings. The web server may determine whether the client device is a mobile device before sending the client device's request to any server-side scripts stored at the web server.
US08862773B2
A network apparatus is provided that may include one or more security accelerators. The network apparatus also includes a plurality of network units cascaded together. According to one embodiment, the plurality of network units comprise a plurality of content based message directors, each to route or direct received messages to one of a plurality of application servers based upon the application data in the message. According to another embodiment, the plurality of network units comprise a plurality of validation accelerators, each validation accelerator to validate at least a portion of a message before outputting the message.
US08862772B2
A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes determining whether a first network element with which a second network element is attempting to establish an adjacency is a client type element. If the first network element is determined to be a client type element, the method further includes determining whether the first and second network elements are in the same network area. If the first network element is a client type element and the first and second network elements are determined to be in the same network area, the adjacency is established. Subsequent to the establishing, a determination is made whether the first network element includes an inter-area forwarder (IAF).
US08862771B2
Methods and systems for distributed push-to-storage with redundancy. One method includes the steps of setting at least two storage groups according to a required storage redundancy; registering a plurality of peer-to-peer devices; associating the peer-to-peer devices with at least one of the storage groups; receiving a first content having a large size to be stored in the at least two storage groups; fragmenting the first content into a plurality of first content fragments having a small size; and distributing the first content fragments approximately homogenously between the peer-to-peer devices associated with each storage group according to a first distribution function associated with each storage group.
US08862763B2
A method may include downloading a first segment of a video in a first bit-rate quality at the first bit rate and storing the downloaded first segment of the video in the first bit-rate quality. The method may further include downloading a second segment of the video in a second bit-rate quality at the second bit rate, wherein the second bit rate is greater than the first bit rate and storing the downloaded second segment of the video in the second bit-rate quality. The method may also include downloading the first segment of the video at the second bit-rate quality using excess bandwidth while downloading the second segment of the video in the second bit-rate quality at the second bit rate and storing the downloaded first segment of the video in the second bit rate-rate quality.
US08862760B1
A system and method to support the transmission of static media, originating from an HTTP source, as a Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) stream to a caching proxy. A server-side gateway accepts RTSP requests, loads a requested resource from the HTTP source, and streams requested portions of a file via RTSP. A RTSP proxy caches received portions of media to avoid re-requesting those portions. The RTSP proxy may receive a RTSP TEARDOWN command to trigger removal of cached media and passes the RTSP TEARDOWN command to the server-side gateway. Further, the server-side gateway may receive a RTSP TEARDOWN command to trigger the server-side gateway to remove media loaded from the HTTP source.
US08862753B2
Aspects of the present disclosure relate to providing secure access to resources of a private network. For example, a client device may transmit a request identifying the protected resource to an authentication server. The authentication server queries a network address lookup table to identify a network address of the protected resource based on the identifying information of the request. If the network address denotes a network location that is not generally accessible, the authentication server generates a resource record that identifies a bastion host, a port, and a connection method for accessing the protected resource. The resource record and the network address may then be transmitted to the client device. In response, the client device may use the information in the resource record to establish a tunnel connection with the bastion host, and the client device uses the tunnel connection to access the protected resource via the bastion host.
US08862752B2
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for conditionally preventing the transfer of data. In use, a request to transfer data is identified. In addition, a location of the data is determined. Further, the transfer of the data is conditionally prevented based on the location.
US08862739B2
A method of assigning resources to an input/output adapter having multiple ports may include determining a first port of the input/output adapter that includes a first bandwidth availability. A first number of resources assigned to the first port may be modified. The method may further include comparing a total count of resources assigned the ports to a maximum number of resources, where the total count includes the modified first number of resources. At least a portion of the modified first number of resources to the first port may be allocated to the first port.
US08862738B2
In general, the embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for rebalancing/reallocating cloud resource capacities between resource pools that provide variable customer assurances and delivery penalties when assurances are not met. The variables that are considered hereunder include, overall ‘reservations’, total current capacity, remaining capacity against unused reservations and penalties that apply for failing to satisfy ‘reservation’ commitments. The approach uses a rate of capacity consumption to calculate the risk of consuming the available capacity in each resource pool (e.g., resource pools allocated to satisfy different levels of service with different SLA failure penalties). Based on the relative available capacity in each pool (as determined by the pool rate of consumption), resources are reallocated to maximize revenue (e.g., reduce financial penalty) across a resource pool set.
US08862736B2
A method and system for connecting mobile users to the Internet using cooperative interconnection. A node consists of a network element that has two connections methodologies—typically a node will have a radio link and a wired link to the Internet. To obtain a connection, a member of the service located themselves in proximity to a network node which is commonly provided by another member and the cooperative tunneling agent requests a secure link. All members of the service agree to give connection to the Internet upon request from another member.
US08862733B2
A system may include a server device. The server device may receive, from a device, a media item in a first format associated with the device, and determine a transcoding priority to be associated with transcoding of the media item based on information regarding a transcoding job request for one or more other media items received from the user and at least one of information associated with the media item or information associated with a user of the device. The server device may also select, based on the transcoding priority and at least one of the information associated with the media item or the information associated with the user, the media item, from among a number of media items, associated with one or more users, to be transcoded, and transcode the media item to a transcoded media item in a second format that is different than the first format.
US08862731B2
An apparatus for coordinating data sharing in a computer network with at least one physical display device is provided. The apparatus includes a code generator generating at least one unique temporary session connection code (SCC), and a storage device storing associations between each of the at least one SCC and one or more of the at least one physical display device. An interface receives requests from one or more source computers to establish communications sessions for sharing data, and a processor in response to a request establishes a communications session between the requesting source computer and at least one physical display device only in the event that at least one condition is met. The at least one condition includes that a valid SCC is received with the request. The establishing is based on the received SCC. Related methods and computer programs are disclosed.
US08862726B1
A method for profiling user activity in a mobile network, including extracting user identifiers from application sessions identified from a mobile network, analyzing the application sessions to determine session blocks based on shared IP address and a minimum separation time threshold, extracting a traffic marker from the session blocks based on a user identifier, identifying a first portion of the session blocks based on the user identifier, wherein the first portion is associated with first mobile network activities of a user identified by the user identifier, identifying a second portion of the session blocks based on the traffic marker, wherein the second portion is associated with second mobile network activities of the user, and analyzing the first portion and the second portion to determine a measure of a mobile network activity of the user.
US08862723B2
A system and method are presented for monitoring handheld devices in a testing environment. At least one handheld device is provided, typically several, that is capable of performing a first plurality of functions in a non-test mode, and a more limited number of functions in a test mode. In a test environment the handheld device should be set to perform in the test mode. In the event of the handheld device mode being changed from the test mode to non-test mode, the handheld device generates a non-test mode signal. A monitoring software application records the non-test mode signal. In one aspect, the monitoring application is embedded in a remote proctor device. The remote proctor device monitoring application may send a mode interrogation message to the handheld device, and the handheld device generates the non-test mode signal in response to the mode interrogation message.
US08862717B2
A computer-implemented method for the management of online content in a network is described, wherein all online content is organized in a container or seed that is accessible by users via said network and that consists of main data and at least one metadata attached to the main data.
US08862714B2
An apparatus for virtualizing network equipment provides at least one virtualized network equipment by virtualizing the network equipment, schedules the pieces of virtualized network equipment, and executes a relevant program. Here, the virtualization apparatus performs context switching according to the scheduling in the time unit of context switching and switches to another program.
US08862712B2
Methods and apparatus for using a browser history file to determine web site reach are disclosed. An example method includes accessing Web site access history information stored at a client computer, accessing a user setting corresponding to a duration of time for retention of the Web site access history information, and sending the Web site access history information and the user setting to a collection computer different from the client computer.
US08862711B2
A management server having a function of confirming status information of devices, a method of confirming status information of devices, and a device capable of providing status information. A first writer writes a status information request list necessary to confirm statuses of devices if the management server is turned on. A first communicator transmits the status information request list to the devices and receives status information response lists from the devices. A first parser parses the status information response lists. A server controller confirms statuses of the devices using parsing results. Thus, a list necessary to confirm statuses of devices can be written in an XML file, parsed, and provided to a manager.
US08862707B2
A server for an operation system includes a monitor to monitor a status of another server, a first storage to retain a first network configuration information, a second storage to copy the first network configuration information when an abnormality is detected in the another server, a third storage to retain a first update history information including update information of a network configuration information obtained from a client in the operation system, and an operation configuration manager to update the first network configuration information and a second network configuration information retained in the another server when the another server recovers from the abnormality. The operation configuration manager is configured to update the first network configuration information and the second network configuration information based on the first update history information and a second update history information retained in the another server.
US08862702B2
A method of discovering addressing information of one or more upstream devices to respond to specific messages by a second device on behalf of the one or more upstream devices in a network includes acquiring the addressing information in an upstream direction from one or more downstream devices to the one or more upstream devices. The method further includes acquiring the addressing information in a downstream direction from the one or more upstream devices to the one or more downstream devices. The method further includes responding to specific messages using the acquired addressing information about the one or more upstream devices.
US08862701B2
A communication network utilizing email or web addresses that describe a physical location includes a network for communicating a message to a user, the message having an electronic address that identifies a physical location; a module to send the message to the user utilizing the electronic address; a module for the user to read the message utilizing the electronic address; and a module to identify the user utilizing the physical location. The electronic address may be an email address or a website address, and the description of the physical location may be a nine-digit zip code or a latitude and longitude.
US08862697B2
An IP-based KVM (IKVM) switch system includes a plurality of control centers connected by a network via respective routers. A group of IKVM switches is connected to each router. Each IKVM switch is connected to a plurality of remote computers. Each control center stores system configuration information regarding all other control centers, including their IP addresses, port information, information about the IKVM switches managed by them, and (optionally) the remote computers connected to each IKVM switch. The control centers use a master-slave scheme to share the configuration information among them. When a client logs on to any control center, all IKVM in the system are displayed on a UI so that the client can select any IKVM or (optionally) remote computer for access. The control centers perform necessary functions to facilitate the access to the select IKVM or remote computer by the client.
US08862695B2
In one embodiment, a method displays images from a remote desktop of a desktop GUI on a client device. The method receives a plurality of image blocks for a frame update of an image of the desktop GUI being displayed on the client device. The remote desktop is being run on a host. The client device determines that one or more missing image blocks have not been received for the frame update and determines if the frame update should be performed without the one or more missing image blocks. If the frame update of the desktop GUI should be performed without the one or more missing image blocks, the client device performs the frame update of the desktop GUI using the plurality of image blocks without using the one or more missing image blocks.
US08862689B2
The present invention provides a way to use flash memory to keep backup copies of the recently modified data. The recently modified data is stored on a local hard drive and replicated (usually with versions) on a local flash drive when the network connectivity does not exist or not sufficient. As soon as the network connectivity is established the accumulated data is sent to the remote CDP server and the whole space of the flash drive can be reused again. As a result, the data is always replicated: one data copy is stored on the hard drive and the other copy is stored (usually with versions) either on a remote server or a local flash drive. Therefore, the combination of the data on the CDP server and the flash drive can be used to reconstruct the data stored on the hard drive.
US08862684B2
Method and apparatus for remotely controlling a computer with peer-to-peer command and data transfer
A remote access session is established between client and host computers with the assistance of a gateway. The gateway requests the host computer to send a plurality of data packets to different external addresses and monitors the network ports used for these outgoing packets. The gateway then uses the network port information to predict which port the host will use to transmit future outgoing data packets. A similar process is performed on the client computer. The gateway then directs the client computer to send further data packets to the network address and the predicted port of the host computer. Similarly, the host computer is directed to send further data packets to the network address and predicted port of the client computer. The computers are then directly connected together so that further data communications bypass the gateway.
US08862679B1
Technology is directed to a social networking application for sharing secrets anonymously. A user can share content (“secret”) with other users of the social networking application anonymously. The other users may not know who posted the secret. A secret can include multimedia content, e.g., text or an image. Users can “love”/“heart” and/or comment on a secret. The social networking application assigns an unique avatar to each of the users who comment on a secret. In some embodiments, the avatars are assigned on random basis. An author of the secret is assigned a specific avatar. In some embodiments, authors of any of the secrets are assigned the same specific avatar. Each of the comments is displayed with an avatar assigned to the user who posted the corresponding comment. The avatars can also be assigned based on a theme, occasion, etc.
US08862674B2
A rating is received, from a first user of an electronic messaging system, pertaining to a use by a second user of a reply-to-all function provided by the electronic messaging system. An etiquette value associated with the second user is updated based on the rating. An access by the second user to the reply-to-all function is controlled based on the updated etiquette value associated with the second user. The electronic messaging system may comprise an email messaging system, for example. Systems and apparatus are also described.
US08862670B1
A pool of messages, e.g., e-mails and/or other electronic documents that each correspond to a communication from a sender to a recipient, is analyzed to identify communication chains between a source and a target. Sender and recipient identifiers extracted from the messages are used to detect direct and indirect communication links between pairs of entities. Information related to the identified communication chains can be presented to a user via an interactive network graph that supports iterative analysis of the communication-chain data.
US08862667B2
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for providing network-based audience measurement are provided. Data packets are intercepted between a client computer and a content server. Unique subscribers and content names are identified based on the data packets. One or more audience measurement metrics are computed based on the unique subscribers and the content names.
US08862657B2
Serving user selected content in accordance with a service policy is disclosed. The user may select content from a content source to be accessed at a mobile device. The desired content is modified as necessary such that transmission of the content complies with a policy. Alternatively, only content that complies with the policy may be made available for selection. The manner in which a policy is defined and the content provided may be determined by various factors including mobile device capabilities, user preferences, and network conditions.
US08862656B2
A technique for benchmarking performance outcomes is disclosed. In one embodiment, the technique is realized by creating and managing feedback reports for a benchmarking process. More particularly the technique includes acquiring primary data at the source, compiling the data in an analytically meaningful manner for benchmarking, preparing web-based reports and maintaining and managing cumulative historical data and reports.
US08862649B2
A smoothing apparatus for peak windowing includes an operator for generating a first input signal for smoothing using an input signal for peak windowing and a predetermined clipping threshold level. The apparatus also includes a subtractor for subtracting a feedback signal from the first input signal, and a maximum operator for generating a second input signal. The apparatus also includes a feedback path for generating a feedback signal for a next smoothed input signal by multiplying samples of the second input signal by window coefficients in a first window coefficient combination and a predetermined gain and summing up the multiplication results. The apparatus further includes a convolutional operator for generating a smoothed signal by multiplying samples of the second input signal by window coefficients in a second window coefficient combination for low pass filtering and summing up the multiplication results.
US08862648B2
A fast filter calibration system includes a multi clock generator, an analog filter including a variable capacitor and a fast calibration apparatus. The fast calibration apparatus further includes a phase comparator, a frequency detector and a fast calibration unit. The fast calibration unit stores a binary code corresponding to a bandwidth frequency of a filter and initiates a fast filter calibration by calibrating the filter from a binary code close to a guaranteed-by-design binary code for the bandwidth frequency to be calibrated.
US08862647B2
Provided is a semiconductor integrated circuit and an exponent calculation method that, when normalizing a plurality of data by a common exponent, speed up exponent calculation and reduce circuit scale and power consumption. When normalizing a plurality of data by a common exponent, a semiconductor integrated circuit calculates the exponent of the plurality of data. Included is a bit string generator that generates a second bit string containing bits having a transition value indicating that values of adjacent bits are different or a non-transition value indicating that values of adjacent bits are not different for each pair of adjacent bits of a first bit string constituting the data, and an exponent calculator that calculates the exponent of the plurality of data based on bit position of the transition value of a plurality of second bit strings generated from a plurality of first bit strings respectively constituting the plurality of data.
US08862638B2
Embodiments relate to systems and methods for generating an interpolation data template to normalize analytic runs. A database can store sets of operational data, such as financial, medical, climate or other information. For given data, a portion of the input data can be known or predetermined, while for a second portion can be unknown and subject to interpolation. The interpolation engine can generate a conformal interpolation function and interpolated input sets that map to a set of target output data. In aspects, an interpolation history database can stores results of a variety of interpolation studies or results, from which a set of interpolation templates can be derived. The templates can reflect trends or patterns discovered or displayed in the historical interpolation results, for instance, to produce expected values for different variables based on averages, thresholds, or other criteria applied to the historical results. New interpolation studies can apply data-selected templates chosen to match their operative data, and produce normalized data as the interpolation results themselves, or provide a starting point for further interpolation processing.
US08862628B2
A method allows one to store in a parallel way branches and nodes of a hierarchy into a database by creating queues. Each queue has a status and a unlock item indicating if a superior node has already been stored. A process looks up these indicators and performs according to commands received from a first process control of the queues.
US08862625B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide hardware-friendly indexing of databases. In particular, forward and reverse indexing are utilized to allow for easy traversal of primary key to foreign key relationships. A novel structure known as a hit list also allows for easy scanning of various indexes in hardware. Group indexing is provided for flexible support of complex group key definition, such as for date range indexing and text indexing. A Replicated Reordered Column (RRC) may also be added to the group index to convert random I/O pattern into sequential I/O of only needed column elements.
US08862623B2
A communication terminal provides at least two modes of operation. When a first mode (child mode) is selected, predetermined functions such as search queries are restricted. In a second (normal, adult mode), a search query is transmitted from the communication terminal to an external search server that returns results of the search query to the communication terminal for display. In the first mode, the search query is not transmitted to the external search server. Instead, information associated with the search query is extracted from dictionary data that is stored in a memory within the communication terminal. The extracted data is displayed on the communication terminal as the search result. The dictionary data may include general terms and information that is biographic, geographic, pictorial, encyclopedic, etc., that is installed as an initial setting or is later downloaded with administrative permission.
US08862616B2
Various aspects described or referenced herein are directed to different methods, systems, and computer program products relating to multi-media management and streaming techniques implemented over a computer network. In one embodiment, a Multi-Media Management and Streaming (MMMS) System may be configured or designed to provide online users with “location based” streaming radio functionality. Users from different geographic locations may access a variety of MMMS System GUIs to access information relating to one or more artists/bands, songs, venues, and/or events such as live music performances. Users may also access a variety of MMMS System GUIs to search for, create, and/or share customized streaming radio stations which may be configured to identify, present information relating to, and/or play/stream music associated with one or more artists/bands, songs, venues, and/or events.
US08862615B1
This invention relates generally to software and computers, and more specifically, to systems and methods for providing information discovery and retrieval. In one embodiment, the invention includes a system for providing information discovery and retrieval, the system including a processor module, the processor module configurable to performing the steps of receiving an information request from a consumer device over a communications network; decoding the information request; discovering information using the decoded information request; preparing instructions for accessing the information; and communicating the prepared instructions to the consumer device, wherein the consumer device is configurable to retrieving the information for presentation using the prepared instructions.
US08862614B2
Methods and software for automatedly answering dynamic queries requiring fusing of data from various ones of multiple available heterogeneous data sources. The data sources are characterized and interrelated using a suitable ontology. In one implementation, each dynamic query is analyzed to determine the data items required to answer that query, along with their levels of detail. The data items and levels of detail are used to determine which ones of the multiple data sources are needed to answer the query. The data items, levels of detail, and the ontology of the data sources are then used to automatedly develop a data-fusing plan for fusing data from the needed data sources in a manner that answers the query. The data-fusing plan is executed, and the query is answered.
US08862596B2
A method and apparatus to identify names, personalities, titles, and topics that are present in a repository and to identify names, personalities, titles, and topics that are not present in the repository, uses information from external data sources, notably the text used in non-speech, text-based searches, to expand the search terms. The expansion takes place in two forms: (1) finding plausible linguistic variants of existing search terms that are already comprehended in the repository, but that are present under slightly different names; and (2) expanding the existing search term list with items that should be there by virtue of their currency in popular culture, but which for whatever reason have not yet been reflected with content items in the repository.
US08862584B2
A method for enabling a user to submit proposed photos of the user, remotely, and in confidence, to a peer user to have the peer user review and rank each of the photos in order of preference, and to receive the results of the review and ranking made by the peer user. The peer user feedback may be then considered in assisting the user in determining which photos the user should upload to a given social media website to portray the user.
US08862582B2
Disclosed are a system, method and computer-readable medium for organizing images. A method aspect relates to receiving an image into a device, receiving incidental information associated with the image, organizing the image and the incidental information into a data structure such as a sparse array, classifying the received image with an image classifier and storing the classified image in an image database, receiving a search query and responding to the search query by searching for and retrieving matching images in the image database based on a comparison of the image search query to the data structure.
US08862577B2
Sentiment analysis of user feedback is performed, using uncertainty rules. Different levels of uncertainty associated with sentiment results of the sentiment analysis are determined, where the sentiment results identify user sentiments contained in the user feedback. At least one visualization of the sentiment result is provided, where the visualization has first visual indicators to represent respective user sentiments, and second visual indicators associated with the first visual indicators to represent respective levels of uncertainty associated with the respective user sentiments.
US08862576B2
A method includes: displaying a map, a first field configured to receive a first query input, and a second field configured to receive a second query input; receiving the first query input in the first field; receiving the second query input in the second field; initiating a search that uses the first query input and a search that uses the second query input; concurrently displaying on the map a first plurality of search results for the first query input and a second plurality of search results for the second query input; detecting selection of a first search result in the first plurality of search results; detecting selection of a second search result in the second plurality of search results; and displaying a route on the map from the first search result to the second search result.
US08862573B2
A search system with a user interface module that generates a search engine results page including a listing of reference documents, each with a hyperlink to at least one secondary document relevant to the reference document. The search system also includes a text function tagger that parses text excerpts of the documents, and applies text function tags thereto. A secondary processing module is provided which identifies those secondary documents that have a text function tag that matches a text function tag of a reference document, so that selection of the hyperlink generates a display of secondary documents that are determined to at least have a text function tag that matches a text function tag of the reference document for which corresponding hyperlink was selected. A method and computer readable medium are also provided.
US08862565B1
Disclosed is a method and device for finding documents, such as Web pages, for presentation to a user, automatically or in response to a user expression of interest, which documents are part of a Web site being accessed by the user, and which documents relate to a document, such as a Web page, being accessed in the Web site. The method takes advantage of information retrieval techniques. The method generates the search query to use to find documents by reference to the text of the document in the Web site being accessed by the user. The method further uses a weighting function to weigh the terms used in the search query.
US08862564B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, and including a method for providing content. The method comprises receiving a request from a mobile device to load a resource and determining a transmission cost for loading the resource over a metered network. The method further comprises identifying sponsored content items for delivery with the resource, the sponsored content items being included in slots for presentation along with third-party content associated with the resource, each sponsored content item having an associated bid that represents an amount that will be paid by the sponsor for presentation of a given sponsored content item. The method further comprises determining a credit to be awarded toward load costs based on the bid, and providing a label that indicates a reduced cost to load the resource when a load of a resource is partially or entirely sponsored based on the credit.
US08862556B2
A method for difference analysis in file sub-regions includes determining a start location in each of a first file and a second file. The start location is defined from a start indicator. The method includes determining a stop location in each of the first file and the second file. The stop location is defined from a stop indicator. The method includes defining a first difference region in the first file and a second difference region in the second file. The first and second difference regions include portions of the first and second files respectively. The portions are between the start location and the stop location in the first and second files. The method includes performing a difference analysis between the first difference region and the second difference region, including identifying differences between the first difference region of the first file and the second difference region of the second file.
US08862555B1
One embodiment relates to a computer-implemented method for generating difference data between reference and target files. A difference engine performs a first procedure to generate difference data representing the difference between the reference and target files if the reference and target files are sequences of sorted data records. The first procedure may compare a lexical order of a record from the reference file against a lexical order of a record from the target file. An entry may be added to a copy list if the records are the same, and an entry may be added to an add list if that the record from the reference file is lexically greater than the record from the target file. Another embodiment relates to an apparatus for generating difference data.
US08862550B1
A method for upgrading software in a shared data store comprises a reliable, safe in-place method of transformation of metadata in which a metadata catalog is cloned, stored in the data store, and the cloned metadata is transformed in-place using the data store engine and SQL declarative language. The original and transformed cloned catalog files are swapped atomically, and the system upgrade is validated using the new version of software. If errors are encountered during the upgrade, the original catalog can be swapped back and the system returned to its original state.
US08862546B1
A method, system, and program product for data replication comprising, building a virtual image of a point in time in a Data Protection Appliance (DPA), taking a storage array based snapshot of a current image, creating a hot pull session and exposing a LUN containing the point in time image at the DPA.
US08862544B2
Provided are techniques for replication in a grid based environment. Grid control structures, including a grid command structure, are created. At an authorized node in a grid of nodes, a Data Definition Language (DDL) operation is received, the DDL operation is inserted into the grid command structure, and the DDL operation is propagated from the authorized node to one or more other nodes in the grid of nodes at the end of a transaction that inserted the DDL operation into the grid command structure.
US08862538B2
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a method and technique is disclosed for maintaining a network connection during transfer of the workload from a global environment of a logical partition to a workload partition of the logical partition and during any subsequent transfer(s).
US08862529B1
A method and system for predicting a next navigation event are described. Aspects of the disclosure minimize the delay between a navigation event and a network response by predicting the next navigation event. The system and method may then prerender content associated with the next navigation event. For example, the method and system may predict a likely next uniform resource locator during web browsing to preemptively request content from the network before the user selects the corresponding link on a web page. The methods describe a variety of manners of predicting the next navigation event, including examining individual and aggregate historical data, text entry prediction, and cursor input monitoring.
US08862526B2
Systems and methods generate a risk score for an account event. The systems and methods automatically generate a causal model corresponding to a user, wherein the model estimates components of the causal model using event parameters of a previous event undertaken by the user in an account of the user. The systems and methods predict expected behavior of the user during a next event in the account using the causal model. Predicting the expected behavior of the user includes generating expected event parameters of the next event. The systems and methods use a predictive fraud model to generate fraud event parameters. Generation of the fraud event parameters assumes a fraudster is conducting the next event, wherein the fraudster is any person other than the user. The systems and methods generate a risk score of the next event to indicate the relative likelihood the future event is performed by the user.
US08862520B2
Methods, systems and media are taught utilizing ranking techniques in machine learning to learn a ranking function. Specifically, ranking algorithms are applied to learn a ranking function that advantageously minimizes ranking error as a function of targeted ranking order discrepancies between a predetermined first ranking of a training plurality of data elements and a second ranking of the training plurality of data elements by the ranking function. The ranking algorithms taught may be applied to ranking representations of chemical structures and may be particularly advantageous in the field of drug discovery, e.g., for prioritizing chemical structures for drug screenings.
US08862516B2
Some embodiments provide multi-tenant billing systems and methods whereby data network usage fees that are associated with delivering select content of different content providers over a data network are passed to the content provider that originates or is the source for that select content instead of the end users that request and receive the select content. A deep packet inspection server or a billing server may be configured with a list of identifiers to distinguish between the network usage that is related to the delivery of the designated free content from the network usage that is not related to the delivery of the designated free content. The network usage can be distinguished by filtering or processing usage logs that track the network usage using the configured list of identifiers. Such filtering or processing can be done in real-time or in a delayed manner in a standalone or integrated system.
US08862515B2
A device is enabled to display Internet TV by accessing a management server with a secret unique ID and receiving back from the server, assuming the ID is approved, a user token and a service list of content servers with knowledge of the user token. A user can select a content server which causes the device to upload its user token and in response receive a content list from the content server, from which content can be selected for display. Neither list may be modified by the device and the device can access only content on a content list. The service list may be tailored for the geographic location of the device.
US08862506B2
A method for user directed collection and pricing data for trading or sale. The method enables the user to capture field labels and entries for assignment to one or a plurality of domain categories and processing classes. The user retains control over the data as it is captured, categorized, priced, and packaged for sale to participants in a data supply chain.
US08862499B2
This invention provides an information distribution system comprising an image data processing device (11), a server (12), and a portable telephone unit (15 having image data acquisition means for acquiring image data with a destination address attached thereto and display means for displaying the image data, wherein the image data is distributed from the image data processing device (11) to the portable telephone unit (15), and advertisement information based on user information is extracted from an advertisement information storage unit (29) and appended to image/text data by an advertisement information appending unit (30) provided in the server 12.
US08862496B2
The present invention applies gaming theory and well-understood sales processes and techniques to allow the operator of an interactive sales medium to control what is displayed to a user of the medium in a manner that signals their intentions (e.g., looking for a lower price, looking for a particular incentive, etc.) so that the “strategies” being used by the consumer can be identified and exploited to lead the consumer to a desired end choice. In particular, upon identification of the strategies being used by the consumer, incentives (e.g., gradually increasing rewards and/or decreasing “punishments”) are presented to the consumer in such a way that the margins achieved by an eventual sale are slowly decreased with each presentation of the incentives to the consumer. Since the presentation of each incentive increases the likelihood the consumer will make a purchase, margins are maximized for the seller.
US08862495B2
A method and data carrier programmed with instructions for the method for recycling products includes recording through a mobile device that a product to be recycled has been brought to a collection point. The mobile device includes an identification module for identifying the mobile device and/or a user. A deposit is credited by the recycling of the product or a recycling fee is debited by the recycling of the product on an account linked with the identification module. Another aspect includes recording that a product to be recycled has been brought to a collection point. A code identifying the product is recorded by the collection point, and a first signal is sent to a mobile device that the product is to be recycled. A reward or debiting linked with the recycling of the product is automatically determined and credited or billed on an account linked with the identification module.
US08862488B2
Method and system for providing and administering online rental vehicle reservation booking services
A system and method is disclosed herein for customizing pages of a rental vehicle reservation booking website with deep-links for specialized rental vehicle reservations. The specialized rental vehicle reservations may comprise reservations for a division of a customer entity and/or promotional offer reservations. Multi-division and multi-offer pages can also be defined for the website through an administrative tool.
US08862485B2
A system and method for automated quality assurance including a quality assurance application server for managing quality assurance. The quality assurance application server includes an application configuration module which has a data configuration module configured to define configurable reference fields to be captured and reviewed during the processing of the records. The application configuration module also has a rules configuration module to receive, create or modify a set of rules where the configurable reference fields are selectable when the rules are defined. The system also includes a portal module for processing the received records and applying the set of rules to the record. The portal module includes a quality assurance records review module configured to evaluate and validate the received records and to generate an output utilized to validate the record to ensure compliance with a data recipient, for example payer billing, standards.
US08862484B2
A method and apparatus for providing reports of medical procedures includes a biometric data recorder to record and transmit biometric data of a patient, the biometric data being transmitted with a medical report of the medical procedure. The medical report and biometric data are transmitted as an encrypted transmission to an information center for storage. The medical reports of steps in the medical procedure for a patient are linked using the biometric data even if performed by different medical service providers. Medical reports of plural patients undergoing the procedure are stored, linked according to patient using the patient biometric data. Reports generated from the linked data anonymously report a given patient's status following the procedure. Statistical reports are generated on plural patients undergoing the procedure, and competing procedures are compared using the statistical reports.
US08862481B2
Methods and systems for collecting, managing and reporting feedlot data and feed additive consumption data are provided. More particularly, methods of determining effects of feed additives on livestock and methods of determining a number of doses of animal health product provided to livestock are disclosed. One method of determining effects of a feed additive on livestock includes steps: determining feed additive consumption by correlating feed consumption data to additive levels contained in feed; and matching feed additive consumption to a live performance record, a harvest performance record, and/or an animal health performance record. In another embodiment, a method of determining a number of doses of animal health product provided to livestock includes steps: determining a total quantity of animal health product provided to the livestock; determining a dose amount for the animal health product; and dividing the total quantity of animal health product provided by the dose amount.
US08862477B2
A method and a processing device for managing an interactive speech recognition system is provided. Whether a voice input relates to expected input, at least partially, of any one of a group of menus different from a current menu is determined. If the voice input relates to the expected input, at least partially, of any one of the group of menus different from the current menu, skipping to the one of the group of menus is performed. The group of menus is different from the current menu include menus at multiple hierarchical levels.
US08862474B2
A computer-implemented method of multisensory speech detection is disclosed. The method comprises determining an orientation of a mobile device and determining an operating mode of the mobile device based on the orientation of the mobile device. The method further includes identifying speech detection parameters that specify when speech detection begins or ends based on the determined operating mode and detecting speech from a user of the mobile device based on the speech detection parameters.
US08862472B2
The present invention is related to a method for coding excitation signal of a target speech comprising the steps of: extracting from a set of training normalized residual frames, a set of relevant normalized residual frames, said training residual frames being extracted from a training speech, synchronized on Glottal Closure Instant(GCI), pitch and energy normalized; determining the target excitation signal of the target speech; dividing said target excitation signal into GCI synchronized target frames; determining the local pitch and energy of the GCI synchronized target frames; normalizing the GCI synchronized target frames in both energy and pitch, to obtain target normalized residual frames; determining coefficients of linear combination of said extracted set of relevant normalized residual frames to build synthetic normalized residual frames close to each target normalized residual frames; wherein the coding parameters for each target residual frames comprise the determined coefficients.
US08862468B2
A system and method of refining context-free grammars (CFGs). The method includes deriving back-off grammar (BOG) rules from an initially developed CFG and utilizing the initial CFG and the derived BOG rules to recognize user utterances. Based on a response of the initial CFG and the derived BOG rules to the user utterances, at least a portion of the derived BOG rules are utilized to modify the initial CFG and thereby produce a refined CFG. The above method can carried out iterativey, with each new iteration utilizing a refined CFG from preceding iterations.
US08862460B2
System, method and program product for text processing using object coreference technology. In particular, the invention provides a text processing method which includes, acquiring text to be processed; extracting subject words and entity words corresponding to the subject words from the text; grouping the subject words; determining entity words that reference a same concerned object according to the grouped subject words; and generating processing policy for entity words that reference a same concerned object. The invention also includes a system with means for carrying out the method. The invention generally realizes automatic, more comprehensive, accurate, efficient analysis and processing on text data. The invention can be used to dig a large amount of comment data about some entity, and the invention can also be used to suggest insertion place in an article where embedded advertisement is inserted.
US08862453B2
Methods for generating waveforms with realistic transitions, controllable timing jitter, and controllable amplitude noise in a computer-based simulation environment are disclosed. A first method includes obtaining signal information for one or more parallel data signals. In one embodiment, signal information for the one or more parallel data signals is mapped from an HDL format to a new time scale, and during this operation, timing jitter is added independently to the parallel data signals. These jittery parallel data signals may then be returned to the original HDL format, or another format, for simulation. In another embodiment, rather than mapping to a single time vector, information from each signal is modified to have a time scale commensurate with noise and jitter to be added. Timing jitter is superimposed onto each transition, rise and fall times are incorporated, and missing voltage and timing information for each data signal is interpolated into vectors representing the signals. Each data signal may additionally be scaled to one or more true voltage values and filtered. Finally, amplitude noise is added to each signal, and one or more final signals are output to a desired format for simulation.
US08862448B2
The present invention provides an integrated health care surveillance and monitoring system that provides real-time sampling, modeling, analysis, and recommended interventions. The system can be used to monitor infectious and chronic diseases. When faced with outbreak of an infectious disease agent, e.g., influenza virus, the system can identify active cases through pro-active sampling in high risk locations, such as schools or crowded commercial areas. The system can notify appropriate entities, e.g., local, regional and national governments, when an event is detected, thereby allowing for proactive management of a possible outbreak. The system also predicts the best response for deployment of scarce resources.
US08862443B2
This specification describes systems, methods, and software relating to geomechanical modeling of a subterranean region (104). In some aspects, finite difference (FD) grid data (200a) and finite element (FE) mesh data (202a) are received. The FD grid data include FD grid node locations (210) and FD grid values. The FD grid values include values of a subterranean formation property for each FD grid node location. The FE mesh data include FE mesh node locations (212) and spatial domains (214) for each of the FE mesh node locations. Values of the subterranean formation property are generated for each of the FE mesh node locations. The value for a given FE mesh node location is generated based on the FD grid values for FD grid node locations within the spatial domain about the given FE mesh node location. The generated values are assigned to the FE mesh node locations of the FE mesh data (202b) for geomechanical modeling of the subterranean region.
US08862435B2
An intelligent electronic device (IED) has enhanced power quality and communications capabilities. The power meter can perform energy analysis by waveform capture, detect transient on the front end voltage input channels and provide revenue measurements. The power meter splits and distributes the front end input channels into separate circuits for scaling and processing by dedicated processors for specific applications by the power meter. Front end voltage input channels are split and distributed into separate circuits for transient detection, waveform capture analysis and revenue measurement, respectively. Front end current channels are split and distributed into separate circuits for waveform capture analysis and revenue measurement, respectively.
US08862434B2
Provided is a measuring instrument for measuring an object to be measured, including: a CPU (9) including a plurality of internal timer counters and having a function of calculating a measured value of the object to be measured based on detection values of various sensors; a power supply circuit (3) for supplying power to the CPU (9); a detector (4) for detecting a state of the object to be measured; a display unit (5) for displaying detection input data input from the various sensors and the state of the object to be measured, which is obtained through a calculation; a real-time clock IC (RTC) (11) for measuring an elapsed time; an EEPROM (12) for storing data input to the CPU (9); and an FeRAM (13) for storing input values from the various sensors, and storing a calculation result obtained through a calculation performed by the CPU (9) based on the input values from the various sensors.
US08862433B2
An example method of partitioning turbomachine faults includes using a modeling computer to model a system, to establish a modeled gas path parameter, and to establish a modeled subsystem parameter. The method then determines a gas path condition representing a difference between an actual gas path parameter and the modeled gas path parameter. The method also determines a subsystem condition representing a difference between an actual subsystem parameter and the modeled subsystem parameter. The method diagnoses a sensor failure based on the gas path condition and the subsystem condition.
US08862432B2
A computer processor implemented method of determining system configuration information of a monitored electrical system without the need for user input by constructing a data set of a standard performance curve for at least one system type; defining at least one characteristic feature for each system type; determining the required data to identify at least one system type according to at least one of the standard performance curve and characteristic feature; remotely acquiring the required data; comparing system acquired electrical system data to at least one system type and correlated standard performance curves and correlated characteristic features to provide system configuration information for at least one monitored electrical system to provide the specific type of monitored electrical system.
US08862431B2
An apparatus for determining and retrieving positional information including a surface having a plurality of first elements and a plurality of second elements, a first detection element connected to at least one of the plurality of first elements, and a second detection element connected to at least one of the plurality of second elements. The detection elements may include pulse detection elements or current sensing circuits. The plurality of first elements and the plurality of second elements may include conductive and non-conductive threads, and the conductive threads may include piezoelectric crystals embedded within conductive plastic.
US08862429B2
At least a rotation speed of a rotary shaft and a vibration acceleration in a frequency domain are stored as an operating history, and the operating history is stored not only when the rotation speed of the rotary shaft varies, but also when a maximum value of the vibration acceleration in the frequency domain exceeds a predetermined threshold. Therefore, variation in the rotation speed of the rotary shaft and the chatter vibration occurrence state can be stored in association with each other. Hence, an operator can learn the rotation speed of the rotary shaft and the chatter vibration occurrence state in association with each other. As a result, chatter vibration can be suppressed easily and effectively.
US08862428B2
The present invention relates to methods and systems for monitoring of one or more machines or devices, such as washers and dryers, for a change of state and indicating when the change of state has occurred. In one aspect, the system comprises a monitor and alert unit which generates a signal indicative of the change of the state of the machine or device being monitored and a device or system to produce an alert notification based upon the signal. The monitor and alert unit includes an operational state sensor, a signal conditioner, and a comparator.
US08862422B2
Sensors (1) for sensing accelerations are provided with accelerometers (11) for measuring accelerations, with magnetometers (12) for measuring magnetic fields, and with processors (13) for, in response to acceleration measurements and magnetic field measurements, judging the accelerations. The processors (13) may comprise acceleration units (14) for comparing acceleration signals with acceleration thresholds, and magnetic field units (15) for comparing changes of magnetic field signals per time interval with rate thresholds. The processors (13) may further comprise decision units (17) for, in response to comparison results from the acceleration units (14) and the magnetic field units (15), deciding whether a total acceleration forms part of a tumbling free-fall or a non-tumbling free-fall or not. The processors (13) may yet further comprise distinguishing units (18) and control units (19). Devices (2) may comprise sensors (1).
US08862421B2
There is provided a system and method for automatically calibrating a temperature sensor. More specifically, there is provided a system including a temperature sensor that includes a first resistance configured to indicate a temperature of the temperature sensor and a second resistance, in series with the first resistor, wherein the second resistance is adjustable to calibrate the first resistance, and a calibration circuit, coupled to the temperature sensor and configured to automatically calibrate the first resistance.
US08862415B1
A method and system can provide building energy performance metrics that can help identify specific zones within a building which may have energy efficiency problems. The method and system can collect data from: indoor temperature sensors and humidity sensors present in each zone of a building; one or more temperature sensors and humidity sensors present outside of the building; one or more utility meters; and one or more HVAC devices. This data from the sensors can be aggregated and formed into a first profile. The energy efficiency calculation system can analyze the first profile to provide various energy performance metrics which can include, but are not limited to, energy efficiency ratios for air conditioners, the R-value or thermal resistance of the building, an amount of heat loss for the building, energy consumption by the building, current HVAC performance parameters, and utility usage comparisons.
US08862414B2
An apparatus and method providing for detecting and responding to high voltage electrolysis within an electric vehicle battery enclosure to limit possible excessive thermal condition of the battery cells and modules. The present invention includes embodiments directed towards detection algorithms and apparatus for promoting the use of voltage, current, humidity, temperature, and pressure sensors for the purpose of detecting high voltage electrolysis. Additionally, the present invention includes response processes and structures to address high-voltage electrolysis.
US08862411B2
A method and apparatus for determining at least one flow parameter of a fluid flowing within a pipe, which fluid contains particles entrained within the fluid flow is provided. The method includes the steps of: 1) determining a velocity of the fluid flow within the pipe; 2) sensing the impingement of particles on a surface wetted with the fluid flow, and producing a signal relating to the impingement; and 3) determining the at least one flow parameter of the fluid flow utilizing the determined fluid flow velocity and the sensor signal relating to impingement of the particles on the surface wetted with the fluid flow.
US08862405B2
A method and system for producing look-ahead profiles measurements includes positioning an energy transmitter, such as a transmitting antenna, proximate to a borehole assembly tool. One or more energy receivers, such as receiving antennas, are positioned along a length of the borehole assembly. Next, energy is transmitted to produce look-ahead scans relative to the borehole assembly tool. Look-ahead graph data with an x-axis being a function of a time relative to the position of the borehole assembly tool is generated. The look-ahead graph is produced and displayed on a display device. The look-ahead graph may track estimated formation values based on earth models. The estimated formation values are displayed below a tool position history line that is part of the look-ahead graph. The estimated formation values in the look-ahead graph may be based on inversions of resistivity data from the look-ahead scans.
US08862404B2
A system and method for obtaining an emergency recharge in an electric vehicle is provided. The system may leverage a network of electric vehicle owners and drivers to facilitate a peer-to-peer emergency recharge of an electric vehicle unable to reach a charging station before its energy storage device is depleted. A list of potential rescuers willing to provide portable charging assistance may be generated. Out-of-range rescue vehicles may be filtered from the list. The list of potential rescuers may then be sorted based on drive time to an intercept location. Potential rescuers from the list may be sequentially contacted according to the sort order until a request for portable charging assistance is accepted. Drivers of both the soon to be stranded vehicle and the rescue vehicle may receive route guidance from navigation systems to a mutually agreeable intercept location where the peer-to-peer emergency recharge can take place.
US08862400B2
A computer-implemented method and system for determining navigation/positional data, implemented in a computing system programmed to perform the method. The method includes receiving a plurality of signal strength measurements and user ID data from a hand-held user device, determining user navigation/position data using the plurality of signal strength measurements from the hand-held user device, and transferring the user navigation/position data to the hand-held user device in response to a request signal associated with the user ID data. The user navigation/position data can include 2-D position, 3-D position, relative position, heading, orientation, speed, bearing, and the like. Benefits of this method and system include user hardware independence, reduced computational load on user hardware, and network-level tracking of aggregated traffic patterns.
US08862397B2
Disclosed is an article transport facility in which interference between an article transport vehicle and an interfering object is prevented. A position detector is provided on the ground side for detecting the position of an interfering object, and an external managing device issues a deceleration command to the article transport vehicle if the distance from the article transport vehicle to the interfering object becomes less than or equal to a predetermined low speed distance, based on position information for the interfering object and travel position information for the article transport vehicle. A vehicle side travel controller changes a target travel speed from a normal travel speed to a reduced travel speed which is lower, or less, than the normal travel speed while the target travel speed is set to the normal travel speed, if the deceleration command is issued from the external managing device.
US08862395B2
A navigation system and method for determining a location of a navigator in a navigation environment using coded markers located within the navigation environment. In one example, the navigation system includes a camera apparatus configured to obtain an image of a scene containing images of at least one coded marker in a navigation environment, video analytics configured to read the at least one coded marker, and a processor coupled to the video analytics and configured to determine a position fix of a navigator based on a known location of the at least one coded marker.
US08862389B2
Display systems, methods, and programs generate and display an arrow object superimposed on an actual image of a road ahead of a vehicle. The systems, methods, and programs access information about a lane change route for guiding the vehicle when changing from a travel lane to a recommended lane. The systems, methods, and programs generate and display a travel lane part of the arrow object, a crossing part of the arrow object, and a recommended lane part of the arrow object, each as a superimposed image on the recommended lane. As remaining distance from a current position of the vehicle to the junction becomes smaller, a distance of a directional component along the travel lane for at least one of the travel lane part, the crossing part, and the recommended lane part is shortened.
US08862387B2
In some implementations, a mobile device can be configured to provide navigation instructions to a user of the mobile device. The navigation instructions can be graphical, textual or audio instructions. The presentation of the navigation instructions can be dynamically adjusted based the importance of individual instructions and/or environmental conditions. For example, each navigation instruction can be associated with an importance value indicating how important the instruction is. The volume of important audio instructions can be adjusted (e.g., increased) to compensate for ambient noise so that a user will be more likely to hear the navigation instruction. The timing and/or repetition of the presentation of important instructions can be adjusted based on weather conditions, traffic conditions, or road conditions and/or road features so that a user will be less likely to miss an important navigation instruction.
US08862384B2
A self-learning map or a device for creating and storing a digital map for a transport unit on the basis of environmental sensors, vehicle-to-X communication and satellite navigation systems. The self-learning map and device create and store the digital map without the use of data from navigation maps. The obtained digital map is iteratively improved and can be used for the validity check of an existing digital map for a driver assistance system.
US08862382B2
A method for collision monitoring for a motor vehicle, in which a surrounding area is monitored, including: providing a reference state for at least one first object situated in the surrounding area, as reference object in a first stop operation, the reference state including reference position data of the at least one first object; in a second stop operation, determining whether the motor vehicle has traveled a predefined minimum distance between the first and second stop operations, and/or whether a predefined minimum time has elapsed; if it is determined that the motor vehicle has traveled a distance that is greater than the predefined minimum distance between the first and second stop operations, and/or that a time that is greater than the predefined minimum time has elapsed, the reference state is updated with position data of at least one second object situated in the surrounding area, as reference object; if subsequent drive-off is intended, determining actual position data of the at least one second object as actual state; and detecting a potential collision when the actual state and the reference state indicate a distance of more than a predefined value.
US08862379B2
In the present disclosure, systems and methods for preventing collisions between a ground services vehicle and other objects are described. In one embodiment, a system includes a digital three dimensional map of the outer dimensions of the ground vehicle, a micro radar device, a comparator, and an indicator. The micro radar device is secured to the ground vehicle. A comparator signals when an object is within a predetermined envelope around the outer dimensions of the ground vehicle. The comparator receives signals from the micro radar device, and includes dimension data from the three dimensional map. The indicator is responsive to the signal from the comparator. The indicator alerts of possible and pending collision when the predetermined envelope is breached. The indicator may also activate a brake mechanism to stop the ground vehicle. Methods for carrying out the invention by sensing a breach of the envelope and stopping the vehicle are also disclosed.
US08862376B2
A cruising distance calculation apparatus for a hybrid vehicle that includes a motor and an engine for driving a generator is disclosed. The cruising distance calculation apparatus includes a traveling mode decision unit that decides in which one of traveling modes the vehicle is traveling, the traveling modes including at least EV traveling mode and series traveling mode, an electricity consumption calculation unit that calculates, when the traveling mode is the EV traveling mode, an electric power consumption amount Ec of the battery based on electric power consumption of the battery whereas the electricity consumption unit calculates, when the traveling mode is the series traveling mode, the electric power consumption amount Ec based on output power of the motor, an electric mileage calculation unit that calculates an electric mileage Eef, and a cruising distance calculation unit that estimates a first cruising distance Dp1.
US08862372B2
Provided is an apparatus and method for automatically creating stopping rates of vehicles at signal-equipped intersections. A signal-equipped intersection to be subjected to specifying of stopping rates at signal-equipped intersections is selected from a signal-equipped-intersection information storage unit as a target intersection, a pass-through-intersection extraction that extracts a signal-equipped intersection that was passed-through just before reaching the target intersection as a pass-through intersection is conducted according to a prescribed rule, driving-history data of a probe car is classified for each of the routes that start from the pass-through intersection and pass through the target intersection, and the rate at which the probe car stopped at the target intersection is specified as a stopping rate, for each of the classified routes.
US08862369B2
The invention relates to a method for controlling an exhaust gas recirculation circuit (2c) for an internal combustion engine (M) of a motor vehicle. The engine (M) is linked to an air intake circuit (2a) and to a gas exhaust circuit (2b) linked to the air intake circuit (2a) by the recirculation circuit (2c). A first valve (15) controls the flow of air upstream from the recirculation circuit (2c), and gases that are recirculated within the a second valve (16) controls the flow of exhaust recirculation circuit (2c). In the method of the invention, the recirculation of the exhaust gases is in particular controlled by means of measuring a pressure difference across the terminals of the second valve (16). The method comprises the following steps: a) the first and second valves (15, 16) are closed, the first valve (15) being arranged so as to allow, in a closed position, the passage of an air leak current; b) the first and second valves (15, 16) are concomitantly opened so as to provide a sufficient pressure difference across the terminals of the second valve (16) so as to enable the measurement of the pressure difference in the terminals thereof. Due to the invention, the pressure difference across the terminals of the second valve (16) remains sufficiently high so as to allow the efficient measurement of said pressure difference.
US08862361B2
A method of controlling a gas turbine engine in a vehicle having an automatic system configured to control fuel flow includes determining whether a vehicle operator is requesting to manually control fuel. A pre-relinquishment value of an engine operating condition is determined while fuel flow is controlled by the automatic system. Fuel flow control is relinquished to the vehicle operator if the vehicle operator is requesting to manually control fuel flow and the pre-relinquishment value is within a predetermined range. A post-relinquishment value of the engine operating condition is determined while fuel flow is controlled by the vehicle operator. Fuel flow control is returned to the automatic system if the post-relinquishment value is not maintained within the predetermined range.
US08862356B2
In a vehicle equipped for regenerative and non-regenerative braking, regenerative braking only is applied to predetermined wheels in response to braking demand when the driver attempts to slow the vehicle at a first rate (
US08862346B2
A mobile computing apparatus simulates the performance of a virtual vehicle using the route, driving behavior and loading experience of a baseline vehicle. The baseline vehicle is instrumented and operational data is collected, forming a data set. The apparatus includes simulator logic configured to construct a duty cycle from the data set representative of the operation of the baseline vehicle during travel along the route (e.g., a loading duty cycle). The data set includes route data with distance and vehicle speed information, engine data associated with the engine, and operational element data. The logic defines a virtual vehicle that is the same as the baseline vehicle but that includes a virtual operational element, such as a transmission, that is different than that in the baseline vehicle. The logic determines a performance characteristic, such as fuel economy, of the virtual vehicle using the constructed duty cycle.
US08862334B2
A vehicle has a device for setting an open position of a tailgate, which can be pivoted upwards and, after an opening command to a first control unit, can be adjusted into a predefined open position via an adjusting device. The vehicle has a device for setting a predefined vehicle height, which device includes a second control unit for actuating an active wheel suspension system. Lowering of the vehicle height is performed at the same time as the opening of the tailgate, by way of a communications link between the first control unit and the second control unit and by way of corresponding programming of at least one of the two control units. The simultaneous opening of the tailgate and lowering of the vehicle height are prevented if a blocking command for this function is present in one of the two control units.
US08862328B2
A system and a method for determining an absolute position of a motor shaft in an electric power steering system during an ignition off state are provided. The system includes a microprocessor that energizes first and second position sensors to generate first and second signals, respectively, at a first time, and third and fourth signals, respectively, at a second time. The microprocessor determines a first relative position value based on the first and second signals, and a second relative position value based on the third and fourth signals. The microprocessor determines an amount of relative rotation of the shaft during the ignition off state based on the first and second relative position values, and determines a current absolute position value based on a previously stored absolute position value and the amount of relative rotation of the rotatable shaft.
US08862325B2
The invention relates to a Method so control a steering apparatus comprising following steps: (A) Checking at every time whether there is a straight run state of the vehicle or not; (B) If the straight run state of vehicle is reached, determines the instantaneous rack position (R) and calculates a new offset as to a difference between the instantaneous rack position (R) and the first position (R0) of said rack (7); (C) Checking in a first justify operation, whether the new offset of the rack position in the straight run state of vehicle to the first rack position differs to an old offset, which where determined as the new offset at an earlier time, and set in this case the first justify result as to true and otherwise as to false; (D) Checking in a second justify operation, whether the pull situation value exceeds a threshold value and set in this case the second justify result as to true and otherwise as to false; (E) If the first and second justify results are true, set a suspension device status as to a “suspension damaged” status; (F) If the first justify result is true and the second justify result is false, set a belt jump status as to a “belt jumped” status.
US08862324B2
A control system for controlling an electric power steering system is provided. The control system includes a first module that estimates a damping force based on an assist torque and a handwheel velocity. A second module generates a control signal based on the estimated damping force.
US08862323B2
A motor controller controls a motor including a rotor and a stator opposed to the rotor. The motor controller includes an electric current driving unit which drives the motor with an axis electric current value defined in a rotating coordinate system defined with respect to a control angle that is a rotation angle for control, a control angle computing unit which computes a current value of the control angle by adding an addition angle to a previous value of the control angle in each predetermined computing cycle, and an addition angle computing unit which computes the addition angle according to a torque to be generated by the motor or a response of the motor to the axis electric current value.
US08862320B2
A system includes a processor configured to receive settings for one or more vehicle ambient lighting activation sequences. The processor is further configured to receive a signal relating to a notification for which an audio sound could be played. The processor is additionally configured to recognize that an ambient light activation has been enabled. Also, the processor is configured to output a sequence of activated ambient lights within a vehicle, based on the settings and responsive to the received signal.
US08862312B2
A device controls a person protection system of a motor vehicle having a sensor system which, for detecting an object colliding with the motor vehicle, includes a hose arranged along a body section width of the vehicle and closed-off by a pressure sensor on at least one end. In the event of an impact with an object, a pressure change is caused in the hose interior due to deformation of the hose and is detectable as a pressure signal of the pressure sensor by an evaluating unit connected with the pressure sensor. The evaluating unit detects vibrations originating from the motor vehicle during a driving and testing operation and coupled into the hose, which vibrations result in pressure fluctuations in the hose interior which are lower than a pressure fluctuation caused by an impacting object, and evaluates these vibrations for a predefined time period for diagnostic purposes.
US08862308B2
In a dialog system for a motor vehicle having a plurality of control keys of which at least one can be occupied by several functions, one such control key can be occupied by several functions of a hierarchical menu structure that, when the control key is operated, as a function of an operating status of a use system coupled with the dialog system, precisely one of several functions is executed, and the occupation of the at least one control key by several functions takes place in that certain functions of the menu structure are assigned to a function group comprising several functions, and in that the control key is occupied by all functions assigned to the function group when one of the functions assigned to the function group is allocated to the control key by an operating action of the user.
US08862306B2
A method for controlling movement of travelling carriers includes performing data communication between front and rear adjacent travelling carriers, an on-board communication device provided to the travelling carrier and performing data communication with a ground-based communication device, and the ground-based communication device sending a movement permission signal at one end of a work area to the on-board communication device of a passing travelling carrier; and transmitting the movement permission signal to all of the travelling carriers within the work area from the ground-based communication device via the on-board communication device and the data communication means.
US08862304B2
A network of collection, charging and distribution machines collects, charges and distributes portable electrical energy storage devices (e.g., batteries, supercapacitors or ultracapacitors). Vehicle diagnostic data of a vehicle using the portable electrical energy storage device is stored on a diagnostic data storage system of the portable electrical energy storage device during use of a respective portable electrical energy storage device by a respective vehicle. Once the user places the portable electrical energy storage device in the collection, charging and distribution machine, or comes within wireless communications range of a collection, charging and distribution machine, a connection is established between the collection, charging and distribution machine and the portable electrical energy storage device. The collection, charging and distribution machine then reads vehicle diagnostic data stored on the diagnostic data storage system of the portable electrical energy storage device and provides information regarding the diagnostic data.
US08862303B2
An industrial vehicle has a vehicle travel mode including a vehicle speed control mode. The industrial vehicle includes an acceleration control member, a target vehicle speed calculator, a direction indicating member, a vehicle direction calculator, a vehicle speed calculator and a controller. The target vehicle speed calculator calculates a target vehicle speed based on an operation amount of the accelerator control member. The vehicle direction calculator calculates an instructing travel direction of the industrial vehicle based on a position of the direction indicating member. The vehicle speed calculator calculates an actual vehicle speed of the industrial vehicle. In the vehicle speed control mode, when the instructing travel direction is the same as an actual travel direction of the industrial vehicle and the target vehicle speed is lower than the actual vehicle speed, the controller maintains the vehicle travel mode in the vehicle speed control mode for controlling the traveling.
US08862300B2
To suppress a change in a vehicle's attitude due to a pitch motion during vehicle braking, a pitch control device for an electric vehicle can prevent discontinuous negative acceleration from occurring at a moment of the vehicle stopping by appropriately controlling a braking force of the vehicle, thereby effectively controlling the pitch motion of the vehicle, and can enhance steering stability while ensuring riding comfort for passengers, even when traveling resistance significantly changes according to road surface gradient and when the vehicle weight significantly changes with increases/decreases in the number of drivers and in the quantity of goods loaded.This pitch control device for an electric vehicle, configured to conduct pitch control for suppressing the change in the attitude of the vehicle due to the pitch motion of the electric vehicle, controls the vehicle so that a braking/driving torque command value that is output to a motor for driving the vehicle when the vehicle stops will be a traveling resistance equivalent torque that is a value obtained by converting a force needed to stop the vehicle on a sloped road surface and maintain the vehicle in a stopped condition, into a torque of the driving motor.
US08862297B2
A method for determining a preferred engine speed and a preferred engine torque of a selected operating range state of an electro-mechanical multi-mode transmission configured to transfer torque among an engine, at least one electric machine and a drive includes selecting between of a first search window and a second search window. Each of the first and second search windows includes a two-dimensional search window definable by a first axis having minimum and maximum engine speed values and a second axis having minimum and maximum engine torque values. A plurality of candidate operating points within the selected one of the first and second search windows is iteratively generated. One of the plurality of candidate operating points within the selected one of the first and second search windows is iteratively determined as an optimum operating point.
US08862295B2
A method of controlling a supercapacitor energy storage unit (12), included in a motor vehicle micro-hybrid system, is disclosed. The storage unit is suitable for performing the functions of an alternator, starter and automatic stop-restart of the vehicle heat engine, regenerative braking and torque assistance. The energy storage unit (12) is a plurality of supercapacitor elementary cells connected in series (C1 to C10) and capable of delivering information (Vmax, Temp and DeltaV) on its internal status. The method includes various stages of: comparing a maximum elementary voltage (Vmax) with a first voltage threshold (Vmax1); comparing a temperature (Temp) with at least one temperature threshold (ST1=55° C., ST2=65° C. and ST3=70° C.); and, deciding on limitations of the availability of functions of the unit when the (Vmax) information reaches threshold (Vmax1) for a predetermined duration (T) and/or when the (Temp) information reaches the temperature threshold (ST1=55° C., ST2=65° C. and ST3=70° C.).
US08862294B2
A method is described for operating a hybrid drive system which has a first drive unit, in particular an internal combustion engine, and a second drive unit, in particular an electric motor, which includes activating the first drive unit and the second drive unit in such a way that the first drive unit and the second drive unit each provide an output variable for the purpose of providing a total output variable; limiting the output variable provided by the first drive unit to a limiting value which is less than a maximum output variable which may be provided by the first drive unit; canceling the limitation if the output variable provided by the second drive unit corresponds to a maximum output variable which may be provided by the second drive unit.
US08862288B2
A vehicle base station comprises a platform on which a vehicle may be positioned, a first battery bay located on a first side of the platform, a battery replacement assembly to remove a battery from the vehicle and to replace the battery with a new battery, and a power source adapted to provide power to the vehicle while the vehicle is positioned on the platform.
US08862277B1
A method and system for monitoring the dynamic response of soil moisture and setting a threshold in relation to the field capacity of a soil area is disclosed herein. By measuring the dynamic response of soil moisture under wet soil conditions, one can determine a practical field capacity for the soil, in-situ, based solely on the soil moisture sensor output. Essentially, by looking at how the soil moisture level varies with time one can determine the field capacity.
US08862260B2
The invention relates to a process or device for the production of a three-dimensional object by layer-wise solidification of a material which is solidifiable under the application of electromagnetic irradiation by means of mask illumination, wherein the mask is produced using an image forming unit having a prescribed resolution, which is formed from a constant number of image forming elements (pixels) being discrete and being arranged in a spatially mutually fixed manner. For the improvement of the resolution along the outer and inner contours of the sectional areas of the object to be generated layer-wise in the sub-pixel range, a multiple illumination per layer is performed, which consists of a series of multiple images that are mutually shifted in the sub-pixel range in the image/construction plane, wherein a separate mask/bitmap is produced for each shifted image.
US08862252B2
This invention is directed to an audio menu provided in an electronic device having no display. The electronic device can further include an input interface having only a single sensing element (e.g., a single button) for controlling audio playback of the device and for accessing and controlling the device audio menu. In response to a particular input detected by the single sensing element, the electronic device can enable an audio menu mode and play back audio clips associated with different menu options. The user can provide selection instructions using the single sensing element during the playback of an audio clip to select the menu option associated with the played back audio clip. In some embodiments, the audio menu can be multi-dimensional (e.g., the device plays back audio clips for sub-options in response to a selection of a menu option). Suitable menu options can include, for example, groupings of audio (e.g., playlists), options to toggle (e.g., a shuffle option), or options associated with particular metadata tags associated with audio available to the device.
US08862250B2
A computer-implemented integrated expert system for the identification of abnormal events in an industrial plant. The expert system integrates a model-based expert system with a rule-based expert system. The model-based expert system receives data on the operating conditions of a process unit in the industrial plant and calculates one or more results that determine whether the process unit is operating abnormally. The rule-based expert system also receives data on the operating conditions of the process unit and applies its rules to the process data. The rule-based expert system also applies its rules to the one or more results generated by the model-based expert system. The integrated system may also suppress any redundant messages generated by the model-based expert system.
US08862248B2
A control apparatus capable of improving the control accuracy and stability when controlling a controlled object with a predetermined restraint condition between a plurality of model parameters, or a controlled object having a lag characteristic, using a control target model of a discrete-time system. The control apparatus has an ECU which arranges a control target model including two model parameters such that terms not multiplied by the model parameters and terms multiplied by the same are on different sides of the model, respectively. Assuming the different sides represent a combined signal value and an estimated combined signal value, respectively, the ECU calculates onboard identified values of the model parameters such that an identification error between the signal values is minimized, and calculates an air-fuel ratio correction coefficient using the identified values and a control algorithm derived from the control target model.
US08862247B2
The invention relates to a device for the electrostimulation therapy of the human body, comprising several electrodes (1) that contact the body surface and apparatuses (3-5) for applying voltage to the electrodes (1). According to the invention, the electrodes are arranged in a line and the apparatuses are provided to apply voltage to the electrodes (1) consecutively along the line.
