US09705049B2
A phosphor is provided which is represented by the general formula MxCeySi6-zBzN8+w. M is at least one element selected from the group consisting of La, Y, Tb and Lu. And w, x, y, and z satisfy 2.0
US09705047B2
A method according to embodiments of the invention includes providing a wafer of semiconductor light emitting devices, each semiconductor light emitting device including a light emitting layer sandwiched between an n-type region and a p-type region. A wafer of support substrates is provided, each support substrate including a body. The wafer of semiconductor light emitting devices is bonded to the wafer of support substrates. Vias are formed extending through the entire thickness of the body of each support substrate.
US09705042B2
The disclosed technology provides micro-assembled micro-LED displays and lighting elements using arrays of micro-LEDs that are too small (e.g., micro-LEDs with a width or diameter of 10 μm to 50 μm), numerous, or fragile to assemble by conventional means. The disclosed technology provides for micro-LED displays and lighting elements assembled using micro-transfer printing technology. The micro-LEDs can be prepared on a native substrate and printed to a display substrate (e.g., plastic, metal, glass, or other materials), thereby obviating the manufacture of the micro-LEDs on the display substrate. In certain embodiments, the display substrate is transparent and/or flexible.
US09705031B2
A semiconductor wafer comprising a substrate; a first AlGaN layer on the substrate; a second AlGaN layer on the first AlGaN layer; a GaN layer on the second AlGaN layer; and a plurality of crystalline GaN islands between the first and second AlGaN layers.
US09705030B2
An ultraviolet (UV) light emitting structure, a UV light emitting device, and a method of making a UV light emitting structure or device, wherein the UV light emitting structure or device has an AlN or AlGaN injection layer with high aluminum content between the light emitting active region and the p-doped layers and wherein the injection layer has a thickness such that holes can tunnel from the p-side of the semiconductor-based ultraviolet light emitting diode structure through the injection layer in the active zone and also reducing leakage electrons out of the active zone.
US09705021B2
A solar pod system, comprising of an oval transparent enclosure. The oval transparent enclosure encapsulates a circular paraboloidal reflector mounted on solar cell. The solar cell extends over the circular parabolic reflector to place the focus of the paraboloidal reflector on the solar cell, whereby the solar cell receives light reflected by the circular parabolic reflector.
US09705019B2
Disclosed are a solar cell module and a method of fabricating the same. The solar cell module includes a back electrode layer disposed on a support substrate and having a first separation pattern, a light absorbing layer disposed on the back electrode layer and having a second separation pattern, and a plurality of solar cells disposed on the light absorbing layer and formed with a front electrode layer including an insulator.
US09705007B2
A thin film transistor and a fabrication method thereof, and a display device are provided. The thin film transistor comprises an active layer, wherein, a target oxide is formed at a portion of the active layer where an oxygen content is higher than oxygen contents of other portions of the active layer, and a carrier mobility of the target oxide is greater than that of other portions of the active layer.
US09705006B2
A semiconductor device with high aperture ratio is provided. The semiconductor device includes a nitride insulating film, a transistor over the nitride insulating film, and a capacitor including a pair of electrodes over the nitride insulating film. An oxide semiconductor layer is used for a channel formation region of the transistor and one of the electrodes of the capacitor. A transparent conductive film is used for the other electrode of the capacitor. One electrode of the capacitor is in contact with the nitride insulating film, and the other electrode of the capacitor is electrically connected to one of a source electrode and a drain electrode of the transistor.
US09705003B2
The threshold voltage is shifted in a negative or positive direction in some cases by an unspecified factor in a manufacturing process of the thin film transistor. If the amount of shift from 0 V is large, driving voltage is increased, which results in an increase in power consumption of a semiconductor device. Thus, a resin layer having good flatness is formed as a first protective insulating film covering the oxide semiconductor layer, and then a second protective insulating film is formed by a sputtering method or a plasma CVD method under a low power condition over the resin layer. Further, in order to adjust the threshold voltage to a desired value, gate electrodes are provided over and below an oxide semiconductor layer.
US09705001B2
The semiconductor device includes an oxide semiconductor layer including a plurality of channel formation regions arranged in the channel width direction and parallel to each other and a gate electrode layer covering a side surface and a top surface of each channel formation region with a gate insulating layer placed between the gate electrode layer and the channel formation regions. With this structure, an electric field is applied to each channel formation region from the side surface direction and the top surface direction. This makes it possible to favorably control the threshold voltage of the transistor and improve the S value thereof. Moreover, with the plurality of channel formation regions, the transistor can have increased effective channel width; thus, a decrease in on-state current can be prevented.
US09704991B1
Embodiments are directed to a method of forming a semiconductor device and resulting structures having self-aligned spacer protection layers. The method includes forming a first sacrificial gate adjacent to a second sacrificial gate on a substrate. A dielectric layer is formed on the substrate and above top surfaces of the first and second sacrificial gates. A self-aligned protection region is formed to cover a first portion of the dielectric layer and a second uncovered portion of the dielectric layer is removed. The first portion of the dielectric layer defines a spacer after the second portion of the dielectric layer is removed.
US09704990B1
A transistor in an integrated circuit device is formed using fabrication processes that include techniques to create a strain in the channel material, thereby improving the performance of the transistor. In one or more embodiments, an initial transistor structure is formed including a substrate, a dummy fin, and a hard mask. The dummy fin structure is narrowed. A channel is epitaxially grown on the dummy fin structure to create a strain on the channel. A first gate stack is formed over the channel. The hard mask and dummy fin are removed. A second gate stack is formed over the channel. Excess material is removed from the second gate stack. The formation of the transistor is finalized using a variety of techniques.
US09704988B2
A transistor may include a source region and a drain region separately formed in a substrate, a trench defined in the substrate between the source region and the drain region, and a buried gate electrode formed. The buried gate electrode includes a high work function liner layer having a bottom portion which is positioned over a bottom of the trench and sidewall portions which are positioned on lower sidewalls of the trench; a low work function liner layer positioned on upper sidewalls of the trench, and overlapping with the source region and the drain region; and a low resistance layer contacting the high work function liner layer and the low work function liner layer, and partially filling the trench.
US09704983B2
A lateral trench MOSFET comprises an insulating layer buried in a substrate, a body region in the substrate, an isolation region in the substrate, a first drain/source region over the body region, a second drain/source region in the substrate, wherein the first drain/source region and the second drain/source region are on opposing sides of the isolation region, a drift region comprising a first drift region of a first doping density formed between the second drain/source region and the insulating layer, wherein the first drift region comprises an upper portion surrounded by isolation regions and a lower portion and a second drift region of a second doping density formed between the isolation region and the insulating layer, wherein a height of the second drift region is equal to a height of the lower portion of the first drift region.
US09704980B2
An insulated gate bipolar transistor includes: a drift layer having a semiconductor substrate with N-type conductivity; a collector layer having P-type conductivity at a surface layer of the semiconductor substrate at a back surface side; and a field stop layer between the drift layer and the collector layer that has a higher impurity concentration than the drift layer. In a thickness direction of the semiconductor substrate, a lifetime control layer is arranged with a predetermined half value width by helium ion implantation; and the field stop layer is arranged with a predetermined half value width by hydrogen ion implantation. Further, a half value width region of the lifetime control layer and a half value width region of the field stop layer overlap each other.
US09704979B2
A semiconductor device and an electronic device are improved in performances by supporting a large current. An emitter terminal protrudes from a first side of a sealing body, and signal terminals protrude from a second sides of the sealing body. Namely, the side of the sealing body from which the emitter terminal protrudes and the side of the sealing body from which the signal terminals protrude are different. More particularly, the signal terminals protrude from the side of the sealing body opposite the side thereof from which the emitter terminal protrudes. Further, a second semiconductor chip including a diode formed therein is mounted over a first surface of a chip mounting portion in such a manner as to be situated between the emitter terminal and the a first semiconductor chip including an IGBT formed therein in plan view.
US09704971B2
A method of controlling the facet height of raised source/drain epi structures using multiple spacers, and the resulting device are provided. Embodiments include providing a gate structure on a SOI layer; forming a first pair of spacers on the SOI layer adjacent to and on opposite sides of the gate structure; forming a second pair of spacers on an upper surface of the first pair of spacers adjacent to and on the opposite sides of the gate structure; and forming a pair of faceted raised source/drain structures on the SOI, each of the faceted source/drain structures faceted at the upper surface of the first pair of spacers, wherein the second pair of spacers is more selective to epitaxial growth than the first pair of spacers.
US09704962B1
A method of forming a GAA MOSFET includes providing a substrate having source, drain and channel regions, the substrate doped with one of a p-type and an n-type dopant. Disposing an etch stop-electric well (ESEW) layer over the substrate, the ESEW layer doped with the other of the p-type and the n-type dopant. Disposing a sacrificial layer over the ESEW layer, the sacrificial layer doped with the same type dopant as the substrate. Disposing a channel layer over the sacrificial layer. Patterning a fin out of the ESEW layer, sacrificial layer and channel layer in the channel region. Selectively etching away only the sacrificial layer of the fin to form a nanowire from the channel layer of the fin while the ESEW layer of the fin functions as an etch stop barrier to prevent etching of trenches in the substrate.
US09704960B2
A structure with which the zero current of a field effect transistor using a conductor-semiconductor junction can be reduced is provided. A floating electrode (102) including a conductor or a semiconductor and being enclosed by an insulator (104) is formed between a semiconductor layer (101) and a gate (105) so as to cross the semiconductor layer (101) and the floating electrode (102) is charged, whereby carriers are prevented from flowing from a source electrode (103a) or a drain electrode (103b). Accordingly, a sufficiently low carrier concentration can be kept in the semiconductor layer (101) and thus the zero current can be reduced.
US09704959B2
A field effect transistor that has a source, a drain, a gate, a semiconductor region, and a dielectric region. The dielectric region is located between the semiconductor region and the gate. Negatively charged ions are located within the dielectric layer underneath the gate.
US09704950B2
A method of fabricating non-tilted, electrically isolated fins from a bulk substrate is provided. A plurality of semiconductor fins is formed extending upwards from a remaining portion of a bulk semiconductor substrate. Each semiconductor fin includes a hard mask cap. A sacrificial dielectric material portion is formed between each semiconductor fin, wherein each sacrificial dielectric material portion has a topmost surface that is vertically offset and located below a topmost surface of each hard mask cap. An anchoring structure having an opening is then formed atop each sacrificial dielectric material portion and each hard mask cap. Next, an entirety of each sacrificial dielectric material portion is removed by etching through the opening. An oxide layer is then formed within an upper portion of the remaining portion of the bulk semiconductor substrate, wherein a portion of the oxide layer extends beneath each semiconductor fin. Next, the anchoring structure is removed.
US09704949B1
A charge-balanced (CB) diode may include one or more CB layers. Each CB layer may include an epitaxial layer having a first conductivity type and a plurality of buried regions having a second conductivity type. Additionally, the CB diode may include an upper epitaxial layer having the first conductivity type that is disposed adjacent to an uppermost CB layer of the one or more CB layers. The upper epitaxial layer may also include a plurality of junction barrier (JBS) implanted regions having the second conductivity type. Further, the CB diode may include a Schottky contact disposed adjacent to the upper epitaxial layer and the plurality of JBS implanted regions.
US09704926B2
An organic light-emitting display apparatus is provided. The organic light-emitting display apparatus includes: a display substrate including a non-pixel area and a plurality of pixel areas including a first pixel and a second pixel having a shortest distance from the first pixel among pixels of the plurality of pixel areas; an encapsulation substrate facing the display substrate; and a spacer in the non-pixel area of the display substrate to maintain a space between the display substrate and the encapsulation substrate, wherein the spacer is between the first pixel and the second pixel.
US09704917B2
A display panel including: a cathode electrode formed in a cathode region of the display panel, the cathode electrode entirely covering an active region of the display panel a plurality of pixel units in columns and rows in the active region of the display panel; a ring-shaped edge negative voltage line formed in a ring-shaped edge portion of the cathode electrode configured to supply a negative power supply voltage to the cathode electrode; and a plurality of compensation negative voltage lines connected to the ring-shaped edge negative voltage line, the compensation negative voltage lines extending along a column direction of the display panel and arranged along a row direction of the display panel.
US09704913B2
Embodiments related to the manufacturing of an imager device and an imager device are disclosed. Embodiments associated with methods of an imager device are also disclosed.
US09704910B2
A device including a gate structure formed over a semiconductor substrate, the gate structure having extensions, a device isolation structure formed into the semiconductor substrate adjacent the gate structure, wherein the extensions are over a portion of the device isolation structure, and source/drain regions on both sides of the gate structure, the source/drain regions being formed in a gap in the device isolation structure and being partially enclosed by the extensions of the gate structure.
US09704900B1
A MCP photodetector assembly includes an anode plate including a plurality of electrical traces positioned thereon, a plurality of MCPs and a plurality of grid spacers. The MCPs are positioned between the grid spacers. The grid spacers have a grid spacer shape defining at least one aperture. A plurality of shims are positioned between the grid spacers and the MCPs so as to form a stack positioned on the anode plate. Each of the plurality of shims have a shim shape which is the same as the grid spacer shape such that each of the plurality of shims and each of the plurality of grid spacers overlap so as to define at least one MCP aperture. At least a portion of the plurality of MCPs are positioned within the MCP aperture. The shims are structured to electrically couple the MCPs to the anode plate.
US09704890B2
A display substrate including a lower common electrode disposed on a substrate, an insulating layer disposed on the lower common electrode, a gate pattern including a gate electrode disposed on the insulating layer and a common electrode contact part and a direct contact part spaced apart from the gate electrode, a gate insulating layer disposed on the gate pattern, a semiconductor layer disposed on the gate insulating layer, an etch stopping layer disposed on the gate insulating layer, source and drain electrodes disposed on the etch stopping layer, pixel part extending from the source and drain electrodes, a first conductive layer connected to the common electrode contact part, a second conductive layer connected to the direct contact part, and a passivation layer disposed on the source and drain electrodes, the first conductive layer, and the second conductive layer.
US09704886B2
A plurality of writing transistors are connected in series, and a gate of a pass transistor, an input terminal of an inverter, or the like is directly or indirectly connected to each connection portion of the writing transistors. For example, a signal processing device includes first to third pass transistors, one semiconductor layer, and first to third wirings that overlap with the semiconductor layer and do not overlap with each other. Potentials of the first to third wirings can each change conductivities of at least portions of the semiconductor layer that overlap with the respective wirings. Gates of the first to third pass transistors are electrically connected to the semiconductor layer and are brought into a floating state depending on the conductivities of the portions of the semiconductor layer. Conduction between sources and drains of the pass transistors is controlled by potentials of the gates in the floating state.
US09704884B2
An array substrate comprises a substrate, a common electrode formed on the substrate, a light shielding layer disposed on the common electrode, an insulating layer disposed on the light shielding layer and the common electrode, a poly-silicon layer, a gate insulating layer, a gate connected with the common electrode by a hole, a medium layer and a source drain. A method for manufacturing the array substrate comprises forming a transparent conductive layer and a first metallic layer on the substrate, forming patterned common electrode and light shielding layer by multiple steps of etching so that a process of photomask can be saved, and forming holes connecting with the common electrode and the gate by a photomask etching process, then manufacturing a medium layer and a source drain. The method adopts seven processes of photomask so that the process is simplified, and the cost is lowered.
US09704883B2
A fin structure on a substrate can have a lower portion formed from the substrate, a middle portion, and an upper portion. The middle portion can include a dielectric region having a dielectric composition and a concentrated region of a first material. The first material can be an element of the dielectric composition. The concentrated region can be located at an interface of the middle portion and lower portion. The structure can also include isolation regions in the substrate on opposing sides of the fin. The structure can also include a gate structure over the upper portion of the fin that are exposed from the isolation regions. The gate structure can include a gate dielectric and gate material over the gate dielectric. The structure can also include source/drain regions extending laterally from the upper portion and the middle portion of the fin.
US09704881B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device is provided including providing a semiconductor substrate with a semiconductor layer, forming a first gate electrode over the semiconductor layer, forming a second gate electrode over the semiconductor layer, forming a mask layer between the first and second gate electrodes, etching a cavity into the semiconductor layer between the first and second gate electrodes using the mask layer as an etching mask, and forming a semiconductor material in the etched cavities.
US09704867B2
A technique for forming a semiconductor device is provided. Sacrificial mandrels are formed over a hardmask layer on a semiconductor layer. Spacers are formed on sidewalls of the sacrificial mandrels. The sacrificial mandrels are removed to leave the spacers. A masking process leaves exposed a first set of spacers with a second set protected. In response to the masking process, a first fin etch process forms a first set of fins in the semiconductor layer via first set of spacers. The first set of fins has a vertical sidewall profile. Another masking process leaves exposed the second set of spacers with the first set of spacers and the first set of fins protected. In response to the other masking process, a second fin etch process forms a second set of fins in semiconductor layer using the second set of spacers. The second set of fins has a trapezoidal sidewall profile.
US09704864B2
Semiconductor devices are provided. A semiconductor device includes a fin protruding from a substrate. Moreover, the semiconductor device includes first and second gate structures on the fin, and an isolation region between the first and second gate structures. The isolation region includes first and second portions having different respective widths. Related methods of forming semiconductor devices are also provided.
US09704862B2
According to example embodiments, a semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing the same are provided, the semiconductor device includes a substrate including a PMOSFET region and an NMOSFET region, a first gate electrode and a second gate electrode on the PMOSFET region, a third gate electrode and a fourth gate electrode on the NMOSFET region, and a first contact and a second contact connected to the first gate electrode and the fourth gate electrode, respectively. The first to fourth gate cut electrodes define a gate cut region that passes between the first and third gate electrodes and between the second and fourth gate electrodes. A portion of each of the first and second contacts overlaps with the gate cut region when viewed from a plan view.
US09704861B2
An integrated circuit (IC) device comprises a substrate having a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) region; a gate region disposed over the substrate and in the MOS region; and source/drain features in the MOS region and separated by the gate region. The gate region includes a fin structure and a nanowire over the fin structure. The nanowire extends from the source feature to the drain feature.
US09704850B2
An electrostatic discharge protection device including a silicon controlled rectifier. In one example, the silicon controlled rectifier includes a first n-type region located in a semiconductor substrate. The silicon controlled rectifier also includes a first p-type region located adjacent the first n-type region in the semiconductor substrate. The silicon controlled rectifier further includes an n-type contact region and a p-type contact region located in the first n-type region. The silicon controlled rectifier also includes an n-type contact region and a p-type contact region located in the first p-type region. The silicon controlled rectifier further includes a blocking region having a higher resistivity than the first p-type region. The blocking region is located between the n-type contact region and the p-type contact region in the first p-type region for reducing a trigger voltage of the silicon controlled rectifier.
US09704849B2
An ESD protection device comprising an SCR-type circuit including a PNP transistor and NPN transistor incorporates a Zener diode which permits the circuit to operate at comparatively low trigger voltage thresholds. Zener diode breakdown voltage is controlled by doping levels in a doped area of an N-type well. One or more diodes connected in series between the SCR circuit and the input/output terminal of the device advantageously raises the snapback voltage of the SCR circuit. The use of nitride spacers between doped regions instead of gate oxide technology significantly reduces unwanted leakage currents.
US09704848B2
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) devices and methods of manufacture are provided. The method includes forming a plurality of fin structures and a mesa structure from semiconductor material. The method further includes forming an epitaxial material with doped regions on the mesa structure and forming gate material over at least the plurality of fin structures. The method further includes planarizing at least the gate material such that the gate material and the epitaxial material are of a same height. The method further includes forming contacts in electrical connection with respective ones of the doped regions of the epitaxial material.
US09704846B1
The present invention relates to IC chips containing a mixture of standard cells obtained from an original set of design rules and enhanced standard cells that are a variant of the original set of design rules and methods for making the same.
US09704840B2
The present invention provides an optical semiconductor device for improving minimization and increase of detection precision. An optical semiconductor device A1 of the present invention includes: a substrate 1, including a semiconductor material, and including a main surface 111 and a back surface 112; a semiconductor light-emitting element 7A at the substrate; a semiconductor light-receiving element 7B at the substrate; a conductive layer 3, conducting the semiconductor light-emitting element 7A and the semiconductor light-receiving element 7B; and an insulating layer 2 between at least a portion of the conductive layer 3 and the substrate; wherein the substrate 1 includes a recess 14 recessed from the main surface 111 and including a bottom surface 142A of a light-emitting side recess where the semiconductor light-emitting element 7A is disposed, and a bottom surface 142B of a light-receiving side recess where the semiconductor light-receiving element 7B is disposed; a light-emitting side transparent portion 18A for light from the semiconductor light-emitting element 7A to pass through the bottom surface 142A of the light-emitting side recess to the back surface 112; and a light-receiving side transparent portion 18B for light from the back surface 112 to pass through the bottom surface 142B of the light-receiving side recess to the semiconductor light-receiving element 7B.
US09704830B1
A semiconductor structure in the form of a die comprises a silicon-containing core having a first surface, an opposite second surface and a peripheral edge surface. A circuit structure on the first surface is circumscribed by a peripheral crackstop structure which stops short of the second surface, thereby leaving an accessible portion of the peripheral edge surface free of the crackstop structure. One or more angular or orthogonal edge connector through-silicon conductive vias (“edge connector TSVs”) connect the circuit structure to the accessible portion of the peripheral edge surface without penetrating the crackstop structure. A method of making the structure includes forming the edge connector TSVs in the silicon wafer from which the semiconductor structures, i.e., dies, are cut.
US09704825B2
Chip packages and method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. In an embodiment, a chip package may include: a redistribution layer (RDL); a first chip including a plurality of first contact pads, the plurality of first contact pads facing the RDL; a second chip disposed between the first chip and the redistribution layer (RDL) wherein a portion of the first chip is disposed outside a lateral extent of the second chip; and a conductive via laterally separated from the second chip, the conductive via extending between the RDL and a first contact pad of the plurality of first contact pads, the first contact pad located in the portion of the first chip disposed outside the lateral extent of the second chip.
US09704823B2
Consistent with example embodiments, a wafer substrate undergoes processing in which a resilient material is applied to the front-side and back-side surfaces of the wafer substrate. By defining trenches in saw lanes between active device die, additional resilient material may be placed therein. In an example embodiment, after the active device die are separated into individual product devices, the resulting product device has coverage on the front-side surface, back-side surface, and the four vertical faces of the encapsulated active device die. The front-side surface has exposed contact areas so that the product device may be attached to an end user's system circuit board. Further, the resilient coating protects the encapsulated active device die from damage during assembly.
US09704821B2
A stamp for micro-transfer printing includes a body and one or more posts extending from the body. At least one of the posts has a non-planar surface contour on the distal end of the post having a size, shape, or size and shape that accommodates a non-planar contact surface of a micro-transfer printable device.
US09704816B1
An active region structure includes a device region, an active layer and a shallow trench isolation (STI) layer. The device region is defined on a substrate. The active layer is formed by a top portion of the substrate and has a plurality of device cells within the device region and a border structure surrounding the device region. The border structure has at least one branch extending into the device region and is between a portion of the device cells. The STI layer has a first part formed within the border structure to insulate the device cells from one another and a second part surrounding an outer periphery of the border structure. The second part of the STI layer isolates the device cells from a peripheral active region.
US09704803B2
A semiconductor structure and a method for forming the semiconductor structure are provided. In various embodiments, the method for forming a semiconductor structure includes following steps. A structure on a semiconductor substrate is received, which the structure includes at least two conductive lines and a shorting bridge, and the conductive lines electrically connected to each other through the shorting bridge. The shorting bridge is insulated to make the conductive lines electrically isolated to each other.
US09704787B2
Disclosed is a power semiconductor package including a power transistor having a first power electrode and a gate electrode on its top surface and a second power electrode on its bottom surface. The second power electrode is configured for attachment to a partially etched leadframe segment, where the partially etched leadframe segment is attached to a substrate. A conductive clip is situated over the first power electrode and extends to the substrate in order to couple the first power electrode to the substrate without using a leadframe.
US09704779B2
A semiconductor module cooler for reducing a pressure loss of a coolant includes a first plate mounted with a first semiconductor module; a jacket disposed under the first plate and having a distribution portion, and first and second through-holes separated from each other to be disposed at end portions of the depression respectively; an inlet-side header disposed to cover the first through-hole from under the jacket; an outlet-side header disposed to cover the second through-hole from under the jacket and extending in parallel to the inlet-side header; and a plurality of cooling fins disposed in the depression and extending from above a distribution portion of the inlet-side header to above a water collection portion of the outlet-side header.
US09704773B2
A method and system for selectively dissipating thermal energy are provided. The system includes a heat-generating structure, a first heat sink, a second heat sink, and a heat transfer element. The heat-generating structure generates thermal energy. The first heat sink is in thermal communication with the heat-generating structure. The heat transfer element is configured to be selectively positioned between the first heat sink and the second heat sink to establish a path for the transfer of thermal energy between the first heat sink and the second heat sink. Upon positioning the heat transfer element between the first heat sink and the second heat sink, at least a portion of the thermal energy from the heat-generating structure is allowed to travel through the first heat sink and through the heat transfer element to the second heat sink.
US09704770B2
An electronic component module includes a substrate, an electronic component mounted on the substrate, and a resin sealing portion that seals the electronic component and covers a principal surface of the substrate. The resin sealing portion includes a film-shaped resin layer that covers upper and side surfaces of the electronic component and the principal surface of the substrate, and an embedding resin layer that covers the film-shaped resin layer. The embedding resin layer has a smaller coefficient of linear expansion than that of the film-shaped resin layer. A portion of the film-shaped resin layer covering the side surfaces has a smaller thickness than either of a thickness of a portion of the film-shaped resin layer covering the upper surface and a thickness of a portion of the film-shaped resin layer covering the principal surface.
US09704769B2
A semiconductor device has a semiconductor die and an encapsulant around the semiconductor die. A fan-in interconnect structure is formed over the semiconductor die while leaving the encapsulant devoid of the interconnect structure. The fan-in interconnect structure includes an insulating layer and a conductive layer formed over the semiconductor die. The conductive layer remains within a footprint of the semiconductor die. A portion of encapsulant is removed from over the semiconductor die. A backside protection layer is formed over a non-active surface of the semiconductor die after depositing the encapsulant. The backside protection layer is formed by screen printing or lamination. The backside protection layer includes an opaque, transparent, or translucent material. The backside protection layer is marked for alignment using a laser. A reconstituted panel including the semiconductor die is singulated through the encapsulant to leave encapsulant disposed over a sidewall of the semiconductor die.
US09704764B2
A method comprising forming on a common support (6) one or more series of multi-layer electronic devices (covering the areas 2a, 2b respectively), and then separating the electronic devices; wherein the devices comprise one or more organic layers (9), and the method comprises depositing one or more of the organic layers (9) as a respective continuous layer extending at least from one end of the one or more series of devices to an opposite end of the one or more series of devices.
US09704756B2
Semiconductor devices and methods of manufacture thereof are disclosed. In one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes an array having at least one first region and at least one second region. The at least one first region includes at least one first device oriented in a first direction. The at least one second region includes at least one second device oriented in a second direction. The second direction is different than the first direction.
US09704750B2
A method of forming a semiconductor device and a semiconductor device are provided. The method includes providing a wafer stack including a carrier wafer comprising graphite and a device wafer comprising a wide band-gap semiconductor material and having a first side and a second side opposite the first side, the second side being attached to the carrier wafer, defining device regions of the wafer stack, partly removing the carrier wafer so that openings are formed in the carrier wafer arranged within respective device regions and that the device wafer is supported by a residual of the carrier wafer; and further processing the device wafer while the device wafer remains supported by the residual of the carrier wafer.
US09704745B2
A sacrificial layer is formed to cover the gate structures. The sacrificial layer is patterned to form a first opening in the sacrificial layer. A preliminary contact is formed in the first opening and the sacrificial layer is selectively removed. An insulating layer is formed to cover the gate structures and to expose the preliminary contact. The preliminary contact is removed to form a second opening in the insulating layer, and then a contact is formed in the second opening.
US09704742B2
An Al wiring film having a tapered shape is obtained easily and in a stable manner. An Al wiring film has a double-layer structure including a first Al alloy layer made of Al or an Al alloy, and a second Al alloy layer laid on the first Al alloy layer and having a composition different from a composition of the first Al alloy layer by containing at least one element of Ni, Pd, and Pt. The second Al alloy layer is etched by an alkaline chemical solution used in a developing process of a photoresist, and an end portion of the second Al alloy layer recedes from an end portion of the photoresist. Thereafter, by performing wet etching using the photoresist as a mask, a cross section of the Al wiring film becomes a tapered shape.
US09704736B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device comprises providing a preformed spalled structure comprising a stressor layer stack on a first surface of a semiconductor substrate; forming an interfacial release layer on an exposed second surface of the semiconductor substrate; adhesively bonding the interfacial release layer to a rigid handle substrate using an epoxy; removing at least a portion of the stressor layer stack from the first surface of the semiconductor substrate; processing the semiconductor substrate; and removing the semiconductor substrate from the interfacial release layer to impart flexibility to the semiconductor substrate.
US09704733B2
The present invention is to provide a storing container wherein Si does not drop onto a single crystal SiC substrate, and Si pressure distribution in an internal space can be made uniform. This storing container stores therein a single crystal SiC substrate to be etched by means of a heat treatment under Si vapor pressure. The storing container is formed of a tantalum metal, and has a tantalum carbide layer provided on an internal space side, and a tantalum silicide layer provided on the side further toward the internal space side than the tantalum carbide layer. The tantalum silicide layer supplies Si to the internal space. Furthermore, the tantalum silicide layer is different from adhered Si, and does not melt and drop.
US09704732B2
An apparatus for bonding semiconductor chips may comprise transfer rails configured to transfer substrates, loading members configured to load the substrates onto the transfer rails, unloading members configured to unload the substrates from the transfer rails, a first wafer supply unit configured to supply a first wafer including semiconductor chips, and/or a bonding unit configured to bond the semiconductor chips to the substrates. An apparatus for bonding semiconductor chips may comprise a transfer rail configured to transfer substrates, loading members configured to load the substrates onto the transfer rail, unloading members configured to unload the substrates from the transfer rail, a buffer member at a side of the transfer rail configured to temporarily receive the substrates loaded by the loading members, a first wafer supply unit configured to supply a first wafer including semiconductor chips, and/or a bonding unit configured to bond the semiconductor chips to the substrates.
US09704730B2
A cleaning liquid and a gas are discharged in sequence to a central portion of a substrate while the substrate is being rotated, and after nozzles that discharge them are moved to a peripheral edge side of the substrate, discharge of the cleaning liquid is switched to a second cleaning liquid nozzle set at a position deviated from a movement locus of the first cleaning liquid nozzle. Both of the nozzles are moved toward the peripheral edge side of the substrate while discharging the cleaning liquid and discharging the gas so that a difference between a distance from the discharge position of the second cleaning liquid nozzle to the central portion of the substrate and a distance from the discharge position of the gas nozzle to the central portion of the substrate gradually decreases.
US09704727B2
An EFEM includes a housing 3 that constitutes a wafer transport chamber 9 that is substantially closed by connecting load ports 4 to an opening 31a provided on a wall 31, and connecting a processing apparatus 6; a wafer transport apparatus 2, and transports a wafer between the processing apparatus 6 and the FOUPs 7 mounted on the load ports 4; a gas delivery port 11; a gas suction port 12; a gas feedback path 10; and a FFU 13 that includes a filter 13b that is provided in the gas delivery port 11, and eliminates particles contained in the delivered gas, wherein the gas in the wafer transport chamber 9 is circulated by generating a downward gasflow in the wafer transport chamber 9 and feeding back the gas through the gas feedback path 10.
US09704723B2
Systems, chambers, and processes are provided for controlling process defects caused by moisture contamination. The systems may provide configurations for chambers to perform multiple operations in a vacuum or controlled environment. The chambers may include configurations to provide additional processing capabilities in combination chamber designs. The methods may provide for the limiting, prevention, and correction of aging defects that may be caused as a result of etching processes performed by system tools.
US09704713B1
In one aspect, the present invention provides undoped and doped siloxanes, germoxanes, and silagermoxanes that are substantially free from carbon and other undesired contaminants. In a second aspect, the present invention provides methods for making such undoped and doped siloxanes, germoxanes, and silagermoxanes. In still another aspect, the present invention provides compositions comprising undoped and/or doped siloxanes, germoxanes, and silagermoxanes and a solvent, and methods for forming undoped and doped dielectric films from such compositions. Undoped and/or doped siloxane compositions as described advantageously provide undoped and/or doped dielectric precursor inks that may be employed in forming substantially carbon-free undoped and/or doped dielectric films.
US09704707B2
Provided is an oxide with a novel crystal structure, an oxide with high crystallinity, or an oxide with low impurity concentration. An oxide has a hexagonal atomic arrangement in the case of a single crystal. The oxide has a homologous structure of indium, an element M (aluminum, gallium, yttrium, or tin), and zinc. The oxide has a lattice point group observed through an analysis of a first region in a transmission electron microscopy image of a top surface of the oxide. In a Voronoi diagram having a plurality of Voronoi regions obtained through a Voronoi analysis of the lattice point group, a proportion of hexagonal Voronoi regions is higher than or equal to 78% and lower than or equal to 100%.
US09704697B2
Mass spectrometry cells include one or more interleaved magnetostatic and electrostatic lenses. In some examples, the electrostatic lenses are based on electrical potentials applied to magnetostatic lens pole pieces. In other alternatives, the electrostatic lenses can include conductive apertures. Applied voltages can be selected to trap or transport charged particles, and photon sources, gas sources, ion sources, and electron sources can be provided for various dissociation processes.
US09704695B2
A backing plate integrated sputtering target includes a flange part having a Vicker's hardness (Hv) of 90 or more and a 0.2% yield stress of 6.98×107 N/m2 or more. Enhancing the mechanical strength of only the flange part of the target inhibits the target from being deformed during sputtering, and further, does not vary the original sputtering characteristics. Consequently, the target can form a thin film having excellent uniformity. This can improve the yield and the reliability of semiconductor products, which have been progressing in miniaturization and integration.
US09704691B2
The invention relates to devices intended for treatment of materials in gas discharge plasma of low temperature, namely the induction plasma generator, placed inside the process volume (working chamber). The technical problem to be solved by the proposed invention is to increase the efficiency of the device; to improve the reliability of the device, increase purity of plasma environment and increase density of plasma generated; increase the life of device; reduce the level of noise; reduce the size of the device.
US09704690B2
A plasma apparatus includes a chuck disposed in a process chamber, a gas supply unit supplying a process gas into the process chamber, a plasma generating unit configured to generate plasma over the chuck, a direct current (DC) power generator applying a DC pulse signal to the chuck, and a sensor monitoring a state of the plasma and providing a sensing signal to the DC power generator. Each period of the DC pulse signal includes a negative pulse duration, a positive pulse duration, and a pulse-off duration. If a signal disturbance of the sensing signal occurs in an nth period of the DC pulse signal, the DC power generator changes a magnitude of a positive pulse and/or a length of the positive pulse duration of an n+1th period of the DC pulse signal, where “n” denotes a natural number.
US09704686B2
An electric alignment device and an alignment method for a birefringence grating are disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention. The electric alignment device comprises: an alignment platform provided with at least two stripe electrodes, the at least two stripe electrodes are parallel to each other so as to generate an electric field for aligning liquid crystal polymer in the birefringence grating.
US09704684B2
A circuit breaker crossbar assembly includes an elongate crossbar having a longitudinal axis, a first end and a second end, and having at least one support portion disposed therebetween. The crossbar is rotatable with respect to the longitudinal axis between a first rotational position and a second rotational position. The crossbar is coupleable to a plurality of moveable contacts of the circuit breaker. The support portion includes a first stop wall and a second stop wall defining a recess therebetween. A support structure is disposed in the recess, and comprises a support end pivotally coupled to the crossbar. The support structure has a first wall arranged to engage the first stop wall upon rotation of the crossbar toward the first rotational position, and a second wall arranged to engage the second stop wall upon rotation of the crossbar toward the second rotational position.
US09704681B2
The conduction breaking device includes a conductive body, a fixed blade, an arc-extinguishing chamber, a gas generator, a cutting member, and a cutting delaying portion. The fixed blade and the arc-extinguishing chamber are located on one side of the cuttable portion with respect to a thickness direction of the cuttable portion in the conductive body. The gas generator is located on the opposite side of the cuttable portion with respect to the thickness direction. The cutting member is arranged between the cuttable portion and the gas generator and includes a movable blade. The cutting delaying portion is provided at the movable blade and configured to allow a part of an area of the cuttable portion that is, in the width direction, closer to the center than the edges are to the center to be cut after the other parts are cut.
US09704679B2
A gas circuit breaker including a pair of main contacts is openable inside an insulating tank. A pair of arc contacts is arranged on the inner side of the main contacts, and a puffer cylinder has the main contacts and the arc contacts at an end. A puffer chamber is formed inside the puffer cylinder, and a puffer piston is provided on the inner periphery of the puffer cylinder. An insulating nozzle part is mounted on an end of the puffer cylinder to surround the arc contact. The insulating nozzle part includes a split nozzle base part and a split nozzle end part, and the split nozzle base part has a throat part.
US09704672B1
A backlit keyboard includes light guide plates; an opaque support plate including spaces each with the light guide plate disposed therein; a plurality of light emitting elements disposed on the concavity and embedded within the light guide plate; a circuit board secured onto the support plate to cover the light guide plates; keycaps above the circuit board and each including two limit members at two sides respectively; and a housing frame including openings each with the keycap slidably disposed thereon, and spacers each formed at either side of the opening of the housing frame. The spacer is fitting between two adjacent limit members that belong to each adjacent keycap and urges against the circuit board.
US09704663B2
An accessory may be provided with a button controller having a microphone and switches. Plastic structures for the accessory may be formed by injection molding. Plastic structures may be molded around a printed circuit and wiring. The wiring may have a plastic jacket. The molded plastic structures may bond with the plastic jacket to retain the wiring. The molded plastic structures may be molded directly to the printed circuit board. Protrusions on the molded plastic structures may mate with openings in a metal clip. Housing structures may be mounted to the metal clip. The metal clip may be provided with a spring to short the metal clip to a trace on the printed circuit. The metal clip may also have a portion that receives electrostatic charge during electrostatic discharge events and that discharges the charge through the spring to the trace on the printed circuit.
US09704662B2
A switch system includes a snap action switch, an operating plunger, and an actuator. The snap action switch is configured to move, with snap-action, from a first switch position to a second switch position. The operating plunger is disposed adjacent to the snap action switch and is coupled to selectively receive an actuating force. The operating plunger is configured, upon receipt of the actuating force, to retain the snap action switch in the first switch position. The operating plunger is further configured, upon removal of the actuating force, to allow the switch to move from the first switch position to the second switch position. The actuator contacts the operating plunger and is configured to selectively supply the actuating force to, and remove the actuating force from, the operating plunger. The operating plunger comprises a dielectric material having low thermal conductivity.
US09704660B2
The disclosure relates to an electrical switching device, which switches stroke-dependently, with extended switching hysteresis, including a switching element with a contact lever, the switching element cooperating with an actuating element movably guided in a holding device. The actuating element has a step-shaped portion for actuating the contact lever of the switching element and the actuating element has an opening in which an engagement element designed as a bolt or a pin engages when a switching action is initiated. The opening provided in the actuating element is formed as an elongated hole, in which the engagement element engages in order to achieve a switching stroke and a defined hysteresis is thus set depending on the design of the elongated hole.
US09704646B2
Apparatus, system and methods for transferring of a ferromagnetic metal ribbon from a roll mounted on a mandrel to another mandrel, including a mandrel located around electrical coils of a transformer. The system includes an apparatus for securing a free end of a ribbon roll including a reel onto which the ribbon roll is mounted and a ribbon retention mechanism having retaining elements movable between a retaining position in which the free end of the ribbon roll is secured on the reel and a releasing position in which the free end of the ribbon roll is free from the reel. An apparatus and method for rolling up a cuttable ferromagnetic ribbon on a mandrel are also disclosed. An apparatus and method for rolling up a cuttable ferromagnetic ribbon on a mandrel are also disclosed. An apparatus and method for manipulating and displacing ferromagnetic material along a path are also disclosed.
US09704644B2
An embedded device 105 is assembled within a flexible circuit assembly 30 with the embedded device mid-plane intentionally located in proximity to the flexible circuit assembly central plane 115 to minimize stress effects on the embedded device. The opening 18, for the embedded device, is enlarged in an intermediate layer 10 to enhance flexibility of the flexible circuit assembly.
US09704638B2
One end of a bus bar for leading an output voltage output from a switching power supply to the outside is a connection terminal connected to an output end associated with the switching power supply, while the other end is an output terminal VO. A ferrite core has a through-hole through which the bus bar is disposed. Electromagnetic coupling from the switching power supply is suppressed between the output terminal VO of the bus bar and at least a part of the ferrite core on the output terminal VO side along the bus bar. In this way, electromagnetic coupling of a part of a choke coil including the ferrite core with the bus bar penetrating therethrough on the output terminal VO side and the switching power supply is suppressed, whereby propagation of noise to the output terminal VO is suppressed.
US09704634B2
A linear actuator (20, 20′, 20″) comprises a plunger receptacle (22); a coil (24); a magnetic plunger (26); a magnetic base (28); a return spring (30); and a lock spring (32, 32′). The coil (24) is wound about at least a portion of an exterior surface of the plunger receptacle (22). The magnetic plunger (26) is at least partially disposed within a cavity at least partially formed by an interior surface of the plunger receptacle (22) for linear motion along a plunger axis (34). The magnetic base (28) is radially disposed relative to the plunger (26). The return spring (30) is disposed to bias the plunger (26) to a plunger extended position. The lock spring (32, 32′) is configured and oriented to lock the plunger (26) in the plunger extended position when power is not applied to the coil (24) but to be attracted to the magnetic base (28) and thereby permit movement of the plunger (26) to a plunger retracted position when the power is applied to the coil (24).
US09704628B2
A water based double surfacted ferrofluid having magnetite nanoparticles (2-18 nm) coated with primary and secondary surfactants is synthesized. On the other hand, an aqueous dispersion of functionalized MWCNT (diameter=14-18 μm, length=1.6-2.5 μm) is prepared by acid treatment. A hybrid solutions in different v/v ratios yielded stable dispersions having both nanoparticles and nanotubes in itself behave as one system. The synthesized hybrid fluid show magnetic response and self-sustained homogeneity of in presence of magnetic field. In addition, the hybrid fluids exhibits a long term sedimentation and magnetic stability which enables one to use them for various applications like MRI, EMI shielding, energy conversion etc.
US09704621B2
A chip resistor includes a base member, a resistive element formed on the base member, a first inner electrode held in contact with a first end portion or the resistive element, a second inner electrode held in contact with a second end portion of the resistive element, a first reverse surface electrode reaching a first end portion of the base member, and a second reverse surface electrode reaching a second end portion of the base member. The length of the first and the second reverse surface electrodes is in a range of 2/10 to 3/10 of the length of the base member. Also, the length of the first and the second reverse surface electrodes is greater than the length of the first and the second inner electrodes.
US09704620B2
The cable gland with pressure indicator of the present invention comprehends a scale (12) disposed on the sleeve (5) that fits in a body (4), the referred body (4) comprising an optical element box (14) with an optical element (13) inserted in section of its outer surface (16), the positioning of the referred section being determined in a way that the optical element box (14) is positioned above the scale (12) disposed on the sleeve (5), the outer body surface section (4) comprising a reference ring (16).
US09704616B2
To provide a fluorinated elastomer composition which is excellent in flexibility and oil resistance to lubricant oil such as automatic transmission oil, is less susceptible to heat discoloration and is excellent also in moldability, and a molded product, cross-linked product and covered electric wire, using such a fluorinated elastomer composition. A fluorinated elastomer composition comprising a tetrafluoroethylene/propylene copolymer (a), an ethylene/tetrafluoroethylene copolymer (b) and an ethylene copolymer (c) containing epoxy groups, wherein the mass ratio [(a)/(b)] of the tetrafluoroethylene/propylene copolymer (a) to the ethylene/tetrafluoroethylene copolymer (b) is from 70/30 to 40/60, and the mass ratio [(b)/(c)] of the ethylene/tetrafluoroethylene copolymer (b) to the ethylene copolymer (c) containing epoxy groups is from 100/0.1 to 100/10.
US09704612B2
A composition of a silver-conjugated compound composite containing (1) a silver-conjugated compound composite containing a silver particle with a Feret diameter of 1,000 nm or less and a conjugated compound having a weight average molecular weight of 3.0×102 or more being adsorbed to the silver particles and (2) an ionic compound. The ionic compound may be a compound having a structure represented by the following Formula (hh-1): [Chem. 1] Mm′+aX′n′−b (hh-1) wherein Mm′+ represents a metal cation, X′n′− represents an anion, a and b each independently represent an integer of 1 or more, and when Mm′+ and X′n′− are each plurally present, they may be the same as or different from each other.
US09704605B2
An integrated storage, transportation and disposal system for used fuel assemblies is provided. The system includes a plurality of sealed canisters and a cask sized to receive the sealed canisters in side by side relationship. The plurality of sealed canisters include an internal basket structure to receive a plurality of used fuel assemblies. The internal basket structure includes a plurality of radiation-absorbing panels and a plurality of hemispherical ribs generally perpendicular to the canister sidewall. The sealed canisters are received within the cask for storage and transportation and are removed from the cask for disposal at a designated repository. The system of the present invention allows the handling of sealed canisters separately or collectively, while allowing storage and transportation of high burnup fuel and damaged fuel to the designated repository.
US09704596B1
A method for operating a non-volatile memory device initially includes supplying an erase voltage to the memory cells. The memory cells are in cell strings in a three-dimensional structure. The method further includes performing a first read operation of the memory cells, performing a second read operation of the memory cells, and then performing a first erase verify operation based on results of the first and second read operations. The first erase verify operation may include performing a first exclusive-or (XOR) operation on the first and second read operation results.
US09704595B1
Techniques are provided for non-volatile storage self-detecting that a heating event has occurred to the non-volatile storage. One example of the heating event is an Infrared (IR) reflow process. In one aspect, a block of memory cells in a memory device are put through a number of program/erase cycles. A group of the memory cells in the cycled block are programmed to a reference threshold voltage distribution. Some time may pass after programming the cycled block. The memory device self-detects that there has been a heating event in response to a shift in the reference VT distribution being more than an allowed amount. The memory device may switch from a first programming mode to a second programming mode in response to detecting that the heating event has occurred.
US09704594B1
The present disclosure relates to apparatus, systems, and methods that address the migration of least significant in memory cells due to inter-cell interference (ICI). The disclosed embodiments include a control unit that is configured to characterize the vulnerability of memory cells to ICI, and appropriately encode data stored in the vulnerable memory cells to address ICI. This encoding scheme, referred to as “stuck-at” encoding scheme, can be separate from the generic error correcting code encoding. The stuck-at encoding scheme can decrease the bit error rate of flash memory devices.
US09704591B2
Disclosed herein are techniques for generating a temperature independent reference current, which may be used during calibration. The temperature independent reference current may be generated based on a current through an on-chip calibration resistor. This alleviates the need for an off chip calibration resistor, which can be costly and cause slow calibration. A voltage at one terminal of the on chip calibration resistor may be modulated to substantially cancel a temperature coefficient of the on chip calibration resistor. This may result in the current passing through the on chip calibration resistor being temperature independent. The temperature independent reference current may be based on a reference voltage and a target calibration resistance.
US09704588B1
Reduced errors when sensing non-volatile memory are provided by applying a current spike or preconditioning current for a group of memory cells included a selected cell. During a sense operation, a preconditioning current can be passed through a group of non-volatile memory cells. The preconditioning current is provided prior to applying at least one reference voltage to a selected word line. The preconditioning current may simulate a cell current passing through the channel during a verification phase of programming. The preconditioning current can modify a channel resistance to approximate a state during verification to provide a more stable threshold voltage for the memory cells. Preconditioning currents may be applied selectively for select reference levels, select pages, and/or select operations. Selective application of preconditioning currents based on temperature is also provided.
US09704584B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a first block including a first memory string that includes a first memory cell and a first select transistor, a second block including a second memory string that includes a second memory cell and a second select transistor, a source line that is connected to the first memory string and the second memory string, and a controller that applies a source line voltage to the source line and a first voltage to a gate of the second select transistor during a program operation in which data is written to the first memory cell, the first voltage being greater than ground voltage and less than or equal to the source line voltage.
US09704572B2
A non-volatile memory is described that includes a sense amplifier that maintains a bit line voltage and output of the sense amplifier at a substantially constant voltage during read operations. During a preset phase, an output of the sense amplifier that is coupled to a selected bit line is grounded. At least one capacitor is precharged during the preset phase. During a sense phase, the sense amplifier output is disconnected from ground while the memory array is biased for reading a selected memory cell. A resulting cell current is integrated by the at least one capacitor. The integrated cell current discharges a sense node from the precharge level to an accurate voltage level based on the resulting cell current.
US09704571B2
A method of operating a memory device includes writing cell data having one of at least three states to a memory cell; amplifying a voltage level of a bit line connected to the memory cell; determining that the cell data is in a first state when the voltage level of the bit line sensed at a sensing point is equal to or greater than a first reference voltage; determining that the cell data is in a second state when the voltage level of the bit line sensed at the sensing point is equal to or less than a second reference voltage which has a lower voltage level than the first reference voltage; and determining that the cell data is in a third state when the cell data is not in the first or second states.
US09704570B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes first and second memory cells, a word line, and first and second bit lines. The first and second bit lines are electrically connected to one ends of the first and second memory cells, respectively. In retry reading, a voltage applied to the first bit line is different from a voltage applied to the second bit line.
US09704568B1
Embodiments herein describe a SRAM that selectively flips received chunks of data from a high power state to a low power state before storing the chunks of data. The SRAM generates a flip bit for each of the data chunks stored in memory. The state of the flip bit varies depending on whether the corresponding data chunk was flipped before being stored in the SRAM. In one embodiment, the SRAM flips the bits in a data chunk before storing the bits only if all the bits are in the high power state. If so, the SRAM sets the flip bit for the data chunk to a first state and changes all the bits to the low power state before storing the data chunk. If not, the SRAM sets the flip bit to a second state and stores the data chunk without changing the states of the bits.
US09704564B2
A structure includes an SRAM cell includes a first and a second pull-up MOS device, and a first and a second pull-down MOS device forming cross-latched inverters with the first pull-up MOS device and the second pull-up MOS device. A first metal layer is over the gate electrodes of the MOS devices in the SRAM cell. The structure further includes a first metal layer, and a CVss landing pad, wherein the CVss landing pad has a portion in the SRAM cell. The CVss landing pas is in a second metal layer over the first metal layer. A word-line is in the second metal layer. A CVss line is in a third metal layer over the second metal layer. The CVss line is electrically coupled to the CVss landing pad.
US09704560B2
An integrated circuit includes a physical layer interface having a control timing domain and a data timing domain, and circuits that enable the control timing domain during a change in power conservation mode in response to a first event, and that enable the data timing domain in response to a second event. The control timing domain can include interface circuits coupled to a command and address path, and the data timing domain can include interface circuits coupled to a data path.
US09704558B2
Provided is a method of refreshing a memory device by controlling a self-refresh cycle according to temperature. In the method, first self-refresh and second self-refresh are performed according to inner temperature of the memory device and a self-refresh cycle is controlled such that an all-bank-refresh (ABR) operation is not performed simultaneously with the start of the second self-refresh. The ABR operation is performed at the start of third self-refresh when the sum of a section of the first self-refresh in which the ABR operation is not performed and a section of the second self-refresh in which the ABR operation is not performed corresponds to a self-refresh cycle.
US09704555B2
A two transistor ternary random access memory (TTTRAM) circuit includes an voltage/current input, an input/output switch, a first transistor, a first pull up resistor, a second transistor, and a second pull up resistor. The first transistor has a first emitter, a first collector connected to the input/output switch, and a first base. The first pull up resistor is connected to the first emitter and the voltage/current input. The second transistor has a second emitter connected to ground, a second collector, and a second base connected to the input/output switch. The second pull up resistor is connected to the first base, the second collector, and the voltage/current input.
US09704554B2
An amplifier circuit is disclosed having an amplifier with first and second input terminals coupled to receive an input signal. A first compensation circuit is coupled to the first input terminal, and a second compensation circuit is coupled to the second input terminal. A programmable latch circuit is arranged to select one of the first and second compensation circuits.
US09704551B2
Thermal-spin-torque (TST) in a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) is demonstrated by generating large temperature gradients across ultrathin MgO tunnel barriers, with this TST being significant enough to considerably affect the magnitude of the switching field of the MTJ. The origin of the TST is attributed to an asymmetry of the tunneling conductance across the zero-bias voltage of the MTJ. Through magneto-Seebeck voltage measurements, it is estimated that the charge-current that would be generated due to the temperature gradient would give rise to spin-transfer-torque (STT) that is a thousand times too small to account for the observed changes in switching fields, indicating the presence of large TST.
US09704550B2
To provide a magnetic element that controls generation and annihilation of a skyrmion. A magnetic element is provided, and the magnetic element comprises: a magnetic body that has a spiral magnetic structure in a stable state; a skyrmion control unit that generates skyrmion in the magnetic body by supplying energy to the magnetic body that has the spiral magnetic structure. Also, the magnetic element in which the skyrmion control unit brings the magnetic body into an unstable state by supplying thermal energy pulses to the magnetic body is provided. Furthermore, a skyrmion memory comprising the magnetic element is provided.
US09704548B1
A semiconductor memory apparatus includes a first mat, a second mat, a column driver, and a connection circuit. The first mat may include a first mat column line. The second mat may include a second mat column line. The column driver may drive the first mat column line in response to a mat selection signal and a column decoding signal. The connection circuit may electrically couple or separate the second mat column line to or from the first mat column line in response to the mat select signal.
US09704536B2
According to one embodiment, a video display device configured to play contents including audio includes: a controller configured to receive a request for a condensed version of the contents and to search the contents based on audio characteristics information corresponding to a condensing criterion in order to output the condensed version; and a display configured to display the contents. The condensing criterion includes at least a specific word, a name of a main character, an original sound track, a sound effect or a voice print of an actor.
US09704535B2
Described herein are systems and methods for enabling interaction with multi-channel media files. For example, embodiments include computer implemented methodologies that are implemented in the context of media editing software (for example a video editing suite). In some cases the methodologies are performed by way of a plug-in, which modifies the operation of pre-existing media editing software. In other cases the methodologies are integrated into media editing software. Alternate implementation approaches may also be used thereby to achieve corresponding functionalities.
US09704528B2
In one embodiment, a system for treating a magnetic layer includes an ion source to generate an ion beam containing ions of a desired species. The system may also include a magnetic alignment apparatus downstream of the ion source and proximate to the substrate, wherein the magnetic alignment apparatus is operable to apply a magnetic field to the magnetic layer in the substrate along a direction out of plane relative to the magnetic layer.
US09704525B2
The magnetic tape includes a magnetic layer containing ferromagnetic hexagonal ferrite powder, abrasive, and binder on a nonmagnetic support, wherein the ferromagnetic hexagonal ferrite powder exhibits an activation volume of less than or equal to 1,800 nm3, and inclination, cos θ, of the ferromagnetic hexagonal ferrite powder relative to a surface of the magnetic layer as determined by sectional observation by a scanning electron transmission microscope is greater than or equal to 0.85 but less than or equal to 1.00.
US09704512B2
The present invention relates to an electromagnetic data storage device comprising a data storage medium including a magnetic material, and a write head including an electromagnetic element operable to generate a magnetic field that impinges on a selected portion of the magnetic material of the data storage medium adjacent the write head, so as to affect the magnetization direction of the selected portion of magnetic material. The electromagnetic element includes a magnetic structure including a matrix material, and a plurality of magnetic nanoparticles held in the matrix material.
US09704503B2
A command handling method, apparatus, and system. The method includes receiving multiple voice instructions sent by a voice parsing server, where the multiple voice instructions are generated after the voice parsing server parses source voice commands that are from different voice control devices; separately determining whether any two voice instructions in the multiple voice instructions are similar instructions, where the similar instructions are voice instructions corresponding to source voice commands that are obtained by the different voice control devices by collecting same voice information; and when two voice instructions that are similar instructions exist in the multiple voice instructions, discarding one voice instruction in the two similar voice instructions. The embodiments of the present invention further provide a command handling apparatus and system. The embodiments eliminate a control error caused by repeated execution of a command.
US09704484B2
Provided is a speech recognition device that executes a speech recognition method capable of improving speech recognition accuracy. The speech recognition device includes a trigger generation unit for generating a trigger signal on the basis of at least mouth movement and a speech recognition unit which extracts a sound signal on the basis of the trigger signal and starts speech recognition for speech in the extracted sound signal. When the trigger generation unit is generating a trigger signal solely on the basis of opening of the mouth, the trigger generation unit generates the trigger signal so as to precede the opening of the mouth by a predetermined period. Alternatively, when the trigger generation unit is generating a trigger signal on the basis of opening of the mouth and changes in eye orientation, the trigger generation unit generates the trigger signal from the moment any of the above occurs.
US09704478B1
Features are disclosed for filtering portions of an output audio signal in order to improve automatic speech recognition on an input signal which may include a representation of the output signal. A signal that includes audio content can be received, and a frequency or band of frequencies can be selected to be filtered from the signal. The frequency band may correspond to a desired frequency band for speech recognition. An input signal can be obtained comprising audio data corresponding to a user utterance and presentation of the output signal. Automatic speech recognition can be performed on the input signal. In some cases, an acoustic model trained for use with such frequency band filtering may be used to perform speech recognition.
US09704477B2
A method is disclosed that provides text-to-speech (TTS) functionality to a telematics unit of a telematics-equipped vehicle. The method includes: receiving text content to be played back by an audio system of the telematics-equipped vehicle; determining, by a processor, a TTS rendering process to be used for the text content from a plurality of TTS rendering processes, wherein the plurality of TTS rendering processes include local TTS rendering using a local TTS engine at the telematics-equipped vehicle and remote TTS rendering using a remote TTS engine at a communications center; and causing, by the processor, the text content to be rendered as an audio signal for playback by the telematics-equipped vehicle using the determined TTS rendering process.
US09704476B1
In a distributed text-to-speech (TTS) system, a remote TTS device, such as a TTS server, may experience increased loads of TTS requests, which may result in delayed processing of TTS requests. To avoid such delays, upon indication or prediction of an increased load, a TTS server may adjust unit selection TTS processing by altering unit selection techniques to speed processing, at the expense of potential result quality. Such techniques may include use of a reduced size unit database, a narrow Viterbi beam search, and/or a reduced size candidate unit graph.
US09704472B2
Systems and methods of the present disclosure include analyzing and comparing transfer functions associated with a plurality of electro-acoustic paths for transducers of a personal audio device to determine proximity of the transducers to respective ears of a listener of the personal audio device, quality of acoustic seals associated with the transducers, and for one or more other purposes.
US09704471B1
The technology described herein can be embodied in a computer implemented method that includes detecting, by one or more processing devices, onset of an unstable condition in an active noise control system. The method also includes obtaining, responsive to detecting the onset of the unstable condition, updated filter coefficients for a system-identification filter configured to represent a transfer function of a secondary path of the active noise control system. The updated filter coefficients are generated using a set of multiple subband adaptive filters, wherein filter coefficients of each subband adaptive filter in the set are configured to adapt to changes in a corresponding portion of a frequency range associated with potential unstable conditions in the active noise control system. The method also includes programming the system identification filter with the updated coefficients to affect operation of the active noise control system.
US09704468B2
The embodiments herein provide an apparatus and method for cancelling signal noise. According to one embodiment, an apparatus for cancelling signal noise has a sensor or receiver to capture the undesirable signals. A transducer converts the energy of the captured signals and modulates the captured undesirable signals. A signal inverting circuit is connected to the transducer to generate the inverse of the captured undesirable signals by inverting the amplitude of the undesirable signal while maintain the frequency at the same level. The generated inverse of the undesirable signal transmitted by a transmitter is received by a receiver and output through a speaker so that the output inverse of the undesirable signal is combined with the undesirable signal to produce a desired signal environment.
US09704467B1
A panel for attenuating noise includes a core, which forms a plurality of cavities vertically between a perforated first skin and a second skin. The core includes an array of corrugations that include a first baffle, a second baffle and a first septum. The cavities include a first cavity that is formed longitudinally between the first baffle and the second baffle and is fluidly coupled with perforations in the first skin. The first septum extends from the first skin and the first baffle to the second skin and the second baffle, and divides the first cavity into fluidly coupled sub-cavities. The first baffle includes a lateral array of baffle ribs. The first septum includes a lateral array of septum ribs that are laterally offset from the baffle ribs.
US09704466B2
A sound control apparatus capable of improving the quality of the reproduction sound output from an electronic apparatus includes a sound control mat, and a support unit for supporting an electronic device having a speaker on the sound control mat. The sound control mat has a sound controlling structure configured to control the resonance of sound output from the speaker of the electronic apparatus when it is supported by the sound control mat. With this sound control apparatus, it is possible to enjoy a good tone directly output from a television, a stereo system or any other device having a small speaker without needing a special devising.
US09704461B2
A stand for a stringed instrument includes a base, a post, a lower support, and an upper support. The post extends between a lower end portion and an upper end portion, the lower end portion is proximally located relative to the base, and the upper end portion is distally located relative to the base. The lower support is disposed relative to the lower end portion of the post. The upper support is disposed relative to the upper end portion of the post. The lower support is selectively moveable relative to the upper support, between a receiving position and a locking position. The lower support is biased toward the locking position.
US09704455B2
An information display apparatus includes an image pick-up unit configured to picking up an image, a display unit configured to display the image picked up by the image pick-up unit, a first correcting unit configured to correct the image picked up by the image pick-up unit to generate a first image, a second correcting unit configured to correct the image picked up by the image pick-up unit to generate a second image, a recognizing unit configured to recognize the second image generated by the second correcting unit, and a display control unit configured to display an additional information according to a result of the recognition performed by the recognizing unit with superimposing the additional information on the first image generated by the first correcting unit on the display unit.
US09704454B2
A display control device including: an input control unit which receives a scrolling start indication and a scrolling stop indication from a user; a scrolling control unit which, if the scrolling stop indication is received, decelerates a scroll rate by a predetermined function and pre-calculates a location of a displayed area when the scrolling of the displayed area stops; and a focus control unit which superimposes a focus on an object closest to a predetermined position within the displayed area at any time from when the location of the displayed area when the scrolling stops is determined to when the scrolling stops, the focus representing that the object is being selected.
US09704449B2
The gate driving circuit includes an (m−1)-th stage externally receiving a first dummy signal for a first time period to control a turn-off, an m-th stage externally receiving a second dummy signal for the first time period to control the turn-off, an (m−2)-th stage receiving an m-th carry signal for a second time period from the m-th stage and externally receiving the second dummy signal for the second time period to control the turn-off, and an (m−3)-th stage receiving an (m−1)-th carry signal for the second time period from the (m−1)-th stage and externally receiving the first dummy signal for the first time period to control the turn-off, wherein the first time period is longer than the second time period.
US09704441B2
Systems, methods and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for displaying images with consistent color performance on display devices including display elements that have multiple primary colors under different illumination conditions are described. The systems, methods and apparatus described herein can be configured to select between different sets of primary colors for different illumination conditions.
US09704440B2
The present invention provides a field sequential color LCD, which includes a LCD panel and a backlight module. The LCD panel includes a color filter of a first color subpixel and a color filter of a second color subpixel, a field sequential cycle of the LCD panel includes a first sub-frame period and a second sub-frame period. The backlight module provides backlight, including red, cyan, blue and green backlights, to the LCD panel. The backlight module provides two of the four backlights in the first sub-fame period, and provides another two of the four backlights in the second sub-frame period. The above LCD can cover the pointer's gamut entirely in the natural world, only color filters of subpixels of two colors are required to achieve tetra-color (RGBC) display, no additional subpixel is required, the manufacturing process of color filter of LCD panel is simplified, and the cost is reduced.
US09704437B2
A gate driving circuit, an array substrate, and a display device are disclosed. The present disclosure relates to the technical field of display, and the technical problem of poor quality of the waveform of the gate driving signal that is output by the traditional circuit manufactured through GOA technology can be solved. The gate driving circuit is used for outputting the gate driving signal to Gn and comprises a pull-up circuit, a download transistor, and a pull-down circuit. The pull-up circuit is used for outputting a high-level signal to a reference point of said gate driving circuit, a first input end of said pull-up circuit is connected with Gn−1, a second input end thereof is connected with Gn−2, and an output end thereof is connected with said reference point.
US09704435B2
An Organic Light Emitting Diode pixel compensation circuit is disclosed. The circuit includes first through fifth transistors, and a storage capacitor. The first transistor is coupled to a first scan signal, a power supply voltage, and a first electrode of the storage capacitor. In addition, the second transistor is coupled to the first scan signal, a data signal, and the third transistor. The third transistor is coupled to the power supply voltage, and the fifth transistor. Furthermore, the fourth transistor is coupled to a second scan signal, the third transistor, and the storage capacitor, and fifth transistor is coupled to a light emitting signal, and the OLED. In addition, the storage capacitor is coupled to the fifth transistor, and a low-level signal and emits light based on a drive current generated by the third transistor.
US09704432B2
A luminance compensation method and a luminance compensation device of a display device, and the display device are provided. The luminance compensation method of the display device, includes: obtaining an input grayscale value of one of a plurality of sub-pixels corresponding to the display device of an input image, and obtaining a functional relationship between a compensated grayscale value and the input grayscale value corresponding to the sub-pixel; obtaining the compensated grayscale value corresponding to the sub-pixel by using the functional relationship, and performing luminance compensation on the sub-pixel according to the compensated grayscale value; and executing the above operations repeatedly for each of the plurality of sub-pixels of the input image.
US09704431B2
Disclosed is a display device and a method of driving the display device. The display device includes a display panel, a scan driving unit, and a timing control unit. The display panel displays an image. The scan driving unit supplies a scan signal to the display panel. The timing control unit controls the scan driving unit. The scan driving unit includes a correction circuit unit that detects whether a clock signal output by the timing control unit is normal or abnormal, and corrects the detected abnormality.
US09704429B2
A display device includes: a display panel having a display area and a non-display area; a plurality of pixels on the display area to emit light, wherein pixels arranged along a first direction are defined as first pixel groups and pixels arranged along a second direction are defined as second pixel groups; gate driving units on the display area to generate gate signals, wherein the gate driving units include first and second gate driving units corresponding one-to-one with each other; a data driver on the non-display area to generate data signals; a plurality of first lines to transmit the data signals to the plurality of pixels; and a plurality of second lines to transmit driving start signals from the first gate driving units to the second gate driving units respectively corresponding to the first gate driving units, wherein the first or second lines are between the first groups.
US09704427B2
The disclosure discloses a method and device for adjusting grayscale brightness and a 3D display device. In the present disclosure, an initial gray level and a target gray level are determined, and it is determined whether the target gray level is too low or too high, so that it is determined whether over-voltage driving can be applicable, and in the case that it is not appropriate to adjust grayscale brightness through over-voltage driving, a backlight brightness adjustment table is searched, and backlight brightness is adjusted up or down using a found adjustment parameter to thereby adjust the grayscale brightness so as to reduce crosstalk in liquid crystal display.
US09704424B2
The disclosure relates to a field of display technology and discloses an array substrate and a display device, which improves quality of a displaying picture of a display device. The array substrate includes a plurality of pixel units arranged in an array, sub-pixels of each pixel unit are arranged in an ACBC-type array or a Delta-type array. The array substrate further includes a set of data lines configured to output data signals to the sub-pixels of the plurality of pixel units, the set of data lines each drives the sub-pixels of the same color. Compared with the prior art, the technical solution of the present disclosure avoids displaying errors caused by different corresponding relationship curves between the data output signals and the pixel grey levels for different colors, thereby improving quality of a displaying picture of a display device including the array substrate.
US09704421B2
A display device in which pixels constituted by light emitting elements arranged on a substrate are arranged in a matrix, the substrate comprises: a canopy disposed at the upper or lower end of the pixels; and at least two kinds of anti-reflective components that are formed at a peripheral edge of the light emitting element and with different reflection angles with respect to incident light.
US09704417B2
A breadboard includes a panel having a top side and a bottom side, a first and second plurality of spaced component receiving openings extend through the top side surface and communicate with a larger first and second terminal receiving open surfaces extending from the bottom side surface which are configured to receive a first and second conductive terminals, respectively, and on a side of at least one of the first and second plurality of spaced openings in the top side surface is formed a raised surface and spanning a length approximate the larger terminal receiving open surfaces and parallel thereto and which forms part of the top side surface thereby defining a row of said plurality of spaced component receiving openings in which the conductive terminals lie.
US09704407B2
An aircraft system includes a processing unit configured to receive navigation data and notice to airmen (NOTAM) information and to generate display signals based on the navigation data and the NOTAM information. The system further includes a display device coupled to the processing unit and configured to render an image according to the display signals with a first area depicting a navigation display based on the navigation data and a second area depicting a list of NOTAM text messages.
US09704406B1
A flight management system device and method. The method includes determining a ground track for a flight leg based on a spherical earth model. The flight leg includes two waypoints that are specified with an ellipsoidal earth model. The method includes determining that a parameter associated with the ground track exceeds a threshold. The method includes inserting an anchor point between the two waypoints on a geodesic to effect a course change to the ground track between the two waypoints such that an intended flight path is within specified thresholds. The geodesic is associated with the ellipsoidal earth model. The method includes modifying the ground track to include two spherical earth model path segments spanning from the first waypoint through the anchor point to the second waypoint. The two spherical earth model path segments are computed based on the spherical earth model. The method includes storing modified ground track data.
US09704402B2
A vehicle indicator system includes a sensor provided on a base vehicle to measure a distance of an adjacent vehicle from the base vehicle, and an indicator provided on the base vehicle at a position to emit an indicator signal displayed towards the adjacent vehicle, which indicator signal can be ascertained by an operator of the adjacent vehicle. An intensity of the indicator signal is inversely proportional to a distance of the adjacent vehicle from the base vehicle. The vehicle indicator system also includes circuitry provided at the base vehicle and configured to receive an input signal from the sensor and to provide an output signal to the indicator for generating the indicator signal.
US09704400B1
A vehicle presence detection system for effectively detecting the presence of a vehicle in a location based upon a measured radio wave signal strength by a receiver. The vehicle presence detection system generally includes a main receiver adapted for receiving a radio wave signal from a transmitter and a control unit in communication with the main receiver that determines a signal strength of the radio wave signal received by the main receiver. The control unit determines that a vehicle is near the transmitter or the main receiver when the signal strength of the radio wave signal is reduced by a threshold loss.
US09704398B2
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, determining, by a system comprising a processor, a driver profile according to a driver identity for a driver of a vehicle, selecting a driver-specific enforcement scenario for the vehicle according to the driver profile and traffic enforcement information that is associated with a vehicle location, and presenting an in-vehicle alert to convey the driver-specific enforcement scenario to the driver. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09704393B2
Integrated intelligent system adapted for any operating system and/or multi-OS computing environment seamlessly having sensory input/data acquisition cum recording server group and/or analytics server group enabling fail-safe integration and/or optimized utilization of various sensory inputs for various utility applications. Also disclosed as added advancements include intelligent method/system for cost-effective and efficient band adaptive transferring/recording sensory data from single or multiple data sources to network accessible storage devices, fail safe and self sufficient server group based method for sensory input recording and live streaming in a multi-server environment, intelligent and unified method of color coherent object analysis, face detection in video images and the like, resource allocation for analytical processing involving multi channel environment, multi channel join-split mechanism adapted for low and/or variable bandwidth network link, enhanced multi-color and/or mono-color object tracking and also an intelligent automated traffic enforcement system.
US09704390B2
There is provided a remote control system including a controlled device and a remote device. The controlled device has a light source and moves according to a control signal from the remote device. The remote device is adapted to be operated by a user and includes an image sensor. The remote device determines a moving direction of the controlled device according to an imaging position of the light source in the image captured by the image sensor and a pointing position of the user, and outputs the control signal.
US09704384B2
A thermal management system is integral to a battery pack and/or individual cells. It relies on passive liquid-vapor phase change heat removal to provide enhanced thermal protection via rapid expulsion of inert high pressure refrigerant during abnormal abuse events and can be integrated with a cooling system that operates during normal operation. When a thermal runaway event occurs and sensed by either active or passive sensors, the high pressure refrigerant is preferentially ejected through strategically placed passages within the pack to rapidly quench the battery.
US09704382B2
Disclosed is a method for calculating an error rate of alarm that reports a failure of facility, calculating a true probability and a false probability of alarms generated for each time zone by a past failure record data and calculating the error rate of the alarm at a rate of the false probability to the true probability of the alarms generated for each time zone.
US09704381B2
Methods for creating high quality alarms raise EMS operator awareness to abnormal conditions in monitored assets across multiple sites in a single EMS software platform. An embodiment includes steps for accessing an alarm designer software tool that contains a library of alarm definitions and the ability to create new alarm definitions, clone and edit existing alarm definitions, lock alarm definitions and delete alarm definitions. Applicable data is defined using channel attributes identifying which channel or channels associated with the multiple monitored sites are to be evaluated for alarming conditions. The alarm frequency, trigger conditions, pending open duration, close conditions, and pending close duration are also defined. Alarms can trigger upon one or more channels' behavior over periods of time and conditional relationships between multiple channels. Close conditions for an alarm can be, but are not required to be, the resolution of the trigger conditions.
US09704369B2
A system, a method and an apparatus for autonomous monitoring, detecting and tracking of at least one of movement and orientation of a body or portion of a body. The apparatus comprises a device configured to monitor the translational movement and/or rotational movement of the body; and an altimeter including at least one pair of opposed high sensitivity sensors configured to measure changes in height of the body. An alert condition is determined based on the translational and/or rotational movement of the body and changes in height of the body or portion of the body. The alert condition may comprise a hard fall event, a soft fall event, a susceptibility to a fall, or a near fall event.
US09704360B2
Integrating a direct current (DC) voltage motion sensing alarm with an alternating current (AC) voltage light source is presented herein. An apparatus can include a voltage conversion component that generates, within a wall switch box, a DC voltage from an AC voltage that is higher in magnitude than the DC voltage, and a motion sensing component that detects, from the wall switch box using the DC voltage, a motion of an object. The motion sensing component can detect the motion using an infrared and/or ultrasonic based DC sensor. The apparatus can further include a security component that generates, from the wall switch box using the DC voltage, an alarm signal and/or wireless alarm signal based on the motion, and a power component that switches, from the wall switch box using the DC voltage based on the motion, the AC voltage from a first contact to a second contact.
US09704359B2
Lighting control for location finding is disclosed. According to embodiments, lighting control can include determining, using a group of location detectors, a first location of a computing device of a user, and obtaining, from the computing device, a target location for the user. Lighting control can include determining a path from the first location to the target location, the path determined at least based on a lighting system including a group of light emitting diode (LED) arrays, and indicating, using a first LED array of the group of LED arrays, a first portion of the path to the target location. The first portion of the path can be indicated by determining, for the plurality of LEDs of the first LED array, at least one LED that is visible at the first location, and outputting light from the at least one LED that is visible at the first location.
US09704351B2
A gaming system comprises a display, a symbol determiner for determining, for each of a plurality of game instances corresponding to respective ones of a plurality of display areas on a display, a set of symbols for display at a plurality of display positions arranged in an array in the respective display area, wherein determining the set of symbols comprises a symbol selector selecting one or more of the symbols and wherein selecting one or more of the symbols by the symbol selector can result in the selection of a replicating symbol, a symbol replicator for, upon a replicating symbol being selected at a display position of at least one game instance that satisfies one or more adjacency criteria with respect to a corresponding display position of another game instance, replicating the replicating symbol at the corresponding display position of the other game instance, and a symbol evaluator for evaluating symbols, including the replicated replicating symbol, displayed at the display positions of the other game instance to determine whether to make an award.
US09704347B2
A method of providing a keno game for plays with duplicate draws is provided. A keno game including a keno game board having a first predetermined number of keno board spots is displayed. A player selection of a second predetermined number of keno board spots is received. Drawn balls for a plurality of ball sets are determined. The determined drawn balls are displayed with one or more paylines overlaying at least some of the drawn balls in the plurality of ball sets. A player award based at least in part on evaluation of each payline is calculated.
US09704346B2
There is described herein an online video game having a news network module for generating news feeds for broadcasting inside and outside of the video game. The news feeds may comprise virtual world news and/or real world news and may be customized as per individual player settings or operator settings.
US09704344B2
Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for limiting transfer of virtual currency in an online game. One method includes an operation for receiving, at a server, a purchase order for virtual currency from a first player. The purchase order is made with legal currency, and the virtual currency is usable within a computer-implemented gambling game. Further, the method includes operations for crediting an account of the first player with virtual currency, and for enabling the first player to make transfers of the virtual currency to other players. The transfers of virtual currency from the first player to other players are then limited, such as by limiting the amount, the frequency, or the recipients of the transfers.
US09704340B2
The disclosed embodiment relates to methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media for enabling real-time competition. An exemplary computer-implemented method executed by one or more computing devices for enabling real-time competition between users according to the disclosed embodiment includes, for example, receiving information from a first user computing device associated with a first user corresponding to the first user's competitive position regarding a real-time event, transmitting information to a second user computing device associated with a second user identifying the real-time event, receiving information from the second user computing device corresponding to the second user's competitive position regarding the real-time event, and transmitting information to the first user computing device and the second user computing device regarding an outcome of the real-time event relative to the first user's competitive position and the second user's competitive position.
US09704331B2
Embodiments of the present concept provide means to control the payback percentage of games being played on gaming devices. In one example, a gaming device includes a processor configured to initiate a payback-controlling event and determine a game outcome to display on the game display in response to a gaming event being initiated. Here, the determined game outcome is a payback-controlling outcome when the payback-controlling event satisfies the payback-controlling criterion, and the determined game outcome is a game outcome determined from the base-game paytable when the payback-controlling event does not satisfy the payback-controlling criterion.
US09704324B2
A money handling device for accepting, storing and dispensing valuable documents in exchange for goods or services includes a validation module (100), a recycler module (200) and a note storage module (300). The validation module determines acceptable and non-acceptable valuable documents, and the storage module stores acceptable valuable documents. The recycler is arranged to dispense a temporarily stored valuable document to the validation module for dispensing as change or to dispense a temporarily stored valuable document to the note storage module.
US09704323B2
A coin discrimination apparatus capable of discriminating the denomination and authenticity of coins including bimetallic coins. A first coin detection sensor, located near a guide, obtains a physical characteristic of a peripheral part of a coin moved on a carrying path. A second coin detection sensor, located apart from the guide, obtains a physical characteristic about a central part of the coin. A third coin detection sensor, located on a downstream side of respect to the first sensor, obtains a physical characteristic about the peripheral part of a coin. A fourth coin detection sensor, located downstream of the second sensor and apart from the guide, obtains a physical characteristic about a central part of the coin. An additional physical characteristic about the peripheral part of the coin is obtained by cooperation of the second and third sensors when the coin reaches the third sensor.
US09704322B2
The present disclosure relates to a money handling apparatus including: a money storage unit configured to store money; a locking unit configured to limit access to the money storage unit; and a control unit configured to give unlock permission to unlock the locking unit to at least one of a plurality of qualified persons who are qualified to unlock the locking unit, and to perform a process involving change of the qualified person.
US09704318B2
A system and method are described for implementing a wireless IoT lock. For example, one embodiment of a system comprises: an IoT lock configured to unlock a door in response to a wireless signal; a system calibration module to collect signal strength data indicating signal strength between a wireless device and the IoT lock and signal strength between the wireless device and one or more Internet of Things (IoT) devices and/or IoT hubs when the user is known to be outside of the door, the system calibration module to associate the signal strength data with the user location outside of the door in a location database; and a signal strength analysis module to determine whether the user is outside of the door by comparing the signal strength data in the location database with current signal strength data indicating signal strength between the wireless device and the IoT lock and the one or more of the plurality of IoT devices and/or IoT hubs; wherein the IoT lock is to be unlocked responsive to determining that the user is located outside of the door.
US09704317B2
An access control system having one or more system antennas that are configured to emit a first signal having a first frequency that is detected by the credential device. The credential device is configured to harvest electrical power from at least a portion of the detected first signal. At least a portion of the harvested electrical power may be used by the credential device to transmit a second signal to a reader device, the second signal containing information indicative of a credential stored on the credential device. Further, the second signal has a second frequency that is different than the first frequency of the first signal. The reader device and/or a server may evaluate the transmitted credential to determine whether the credential is associated with an authority to operate the reader device, such as, for example, an authority to unlock a lock mechanism of the reader device.
US09704316B2
An embodiment of an electronic access control system includes an electronic access apparatus, an electronic lock, and an access control administration program. The electronic access apparatus provides a wireless power signal and a wireless digital data signal to the electronic lock. The wireless power signal can be the only source of power used by the electronic lock to actuate an electronic lock mechanism. In some embodiments, the lock mechanism includes a piezoelectric latch.
US09704314B2
A Bluetooth/WiFi bridge system has one or more bridges in a dwelling. Each bridge includes a computing device in an interior of a dwelling with an internet-facing radio, and a second radio communicating with one or more Bluetooth LE devices. One or more Bluetooth devices or Bluetooth peripheral devices, collectively, Bluetooth devices, are in communication with the bridge. An intelligent door lock system is in communication with the bridge and the one or more Bluetooth devices. The bridge uses detection of a Bluetooth device that is associated with a person to track signal strength between the bridge and the Bluetooth device to determine where the person is at the exterior of the dwelling.
US09704302B2
Operation of self-propelled mining equipment in the field can be accurately recognized at a remote position of the equipment. A management center for controlling a dump truck receives signal from sensors in order to show detection data for the working status of the operation instruments and warning indication data based upon the detection data. The warning indication data and the detection data for the working status of the operation instruments are displayed on the same display. Alternatively, in place of the detection data for working status of the operation instruments, related information from a data base concerning the record of maintenance previously conducted may be displayed, or a graph of the detection data for the working status of an operation instrument of another dump truck which is operating in the same working field may be displayed.
US09704299B2
Techniques are disclosed for rendering an anamorphic projection of 3D scene geometry on a handled device using a correct asymmetric perspective geometry projection. Once pose of the handheld device is determined, a relative eye position may be inferred when the device is tilted away from an initial or default pose, based on data supplied by accelerometers. Thus, embodiments of the invention result in a holographic style display without the need for glasses or external sensing attachments.
US09704298B2
Systems and methods for generating a 360 degree mixed virtual reality environment that provides a 360 degree view of an environment in accordance with embodiments of the invention are described. In a number of embodiments, the 360 degree mixed virtual reality environment is obtained by (1) combining one or more real world videos that capture images of an environment with (2) a virtual world environment that includes various synthetic objects that may be placed within the real world clips. Furthermore, the virtual objects embedded within the 360 degree mixed reality environment interact with the real world objects depicted in the real world environment to provide a realistic mixed reality experience.
US09704292B2
A virtual site survey method at a cell site utilizing three-dimensional (3D) models for remote performance includes obtaining a plurality of photographs of a cell site comprising one or more of a cell tower and one or more buildings and interiors thereof; subsequent to the obtaining, processing the plurality of photographs to define a three dimensional (3D) model of the cell site based on one or more objects of interest in the plurality of photographs; and remotely performing a site survey of the cell site utilizing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the 3D model to collect and obtain information about the cell site, the cell tower, the one or more buildings, and the interiors thereof.
US09704290B2
A method may include receiving a plurality of objects from a 3-D virtual scene. The plurality of objects may be arranged in a hierarchy. The method may also include generating a plurality of identifiers for the plurality of objects. The plurality of identifiers may include a first identifier for a first object in the plurality of objects, and the identifier may be generated based on a position of the first object in the hierarchy. The method may additionally include performing a rendering operation on the plurality of objects to generate a deep image. The deep image may include a plurality of samples that correspond to the first object. The method may further include propagating the plurality of identifiers through the rendering operation such that each of the plurality of samples in the deep image that correspond to the first object are associated with the identifier.
US09704284B2
A medical image diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment includes a setting unit, a rendering unit, and a display controller. The setting unit sets a viewpoint position and a calculation terminal position different from the viewpoint position on an image of a subject. The rendering unit performs rendering processing on, as a target, a range ahead of the calculation terminal position in a direction toward the calculation terminal position from the viewpoint position based on volume data of the subject so as to generate a rendering image. The display controller causes the rendering image to be displayed on a display unit.
US09704282B1
Systems and methods for rendering a view-dependent texture in conjunction with a three-dimensional model of a geographic area are provided. A view-dependent texture can be rendered in conjunction with at least portions of the three-dimensional model. A base texture can be rendered for portions of the three-dimensional model in the same field of view that are viewed from a slightly different perspective than a reference direction associated with the view-dependent texture. For instance, a stretching factor can be determined for each portion of the three-dimensional model based on the reference direction and a viewpoint direction associated with the portion of the three-dimensional model. A base texture, a view-dependent texture, or a blended texture can be selected for rendering at the portion of the three-dimensional model based on the stretching factor.
US09704277B2
An input graph is decomposed into a graph topology component and a graph properties component. A matrix representation is generated for each of the graph topology component and the graph properties component. Each of the graph topology matrix representation and graph properties matrix representation are partitioned into one or more sub-matrices. A forward pass comprising one or more vectorized operations is performed over the one or more sub-matrices. An output matrix is generated in response to the performing step.
US09704275B2
Microwave imaging apparatus and method for completely imaging the human body (or portions thereof) in sufficient detail to render a timely and accurate medical diagnosis by trained medical professionals. The data conversion processes presented will not require physicians and radiologists to learn to use image data in a format they are not familiar with. Hounsfield encoded and/or MRI intensity encoded medical images in the DICOM format are provided from reconstructed dielectric images obtained from raw scattering data. This allows for the exchange of information created from microwave imaging techniques to be implemented with existing diagnostic tools and analysis techniques. Furthermore, methods are presented for converting image data with Hounsfield encoded units to an image with dielectric encoded units.
US09704260B2
Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed herein. An example method to improve object detection and false alarm rate over image segmentation includes overlaying a first object of a first image onto a second image. A first score based on a first chamfer distance between first edges of the first object and second edges in the second image is determined. A second score corresponding to a second chamfer distance between the second edges and a mathematical representation of a plurality of shapes is determined, the second score representing a similarity between the second edges and the plurality of shapes observed simultaneously. A normalized score is determined by normalizing the first score based on the second score. A presence of the second object in the second image matching the first object is detected based on whether the normalized score satisfies a threshold score.
US09704259B2
A people counting device includes an edge extracting unit configured to extract an edge from a planar image of a target area, and a circle candidate detecting unit configured to detect a circle candidate included in the planar image based on the edge extracted by the edge extracting unit. The people counting device further includes a person determining unit configured to calculate a brightness gradient for each edge pixel constituting an edge of each circle candidate detected by the circle candidate detecting unit and determine that a circle candidate whose uniformity of brightness gradients for the edge pixels of the circle candidate is higher than a reference is a person's head portion, and a people counting unit configured to count the number of circle candidates determined to be a person's head portion by the person determining unit.
US09704258B2
An image segmentation method includes displaying, through a display component, an image; receiving, through a user input component, a user command relative to an original designation region of the image; shrinking the original designation region according to first depth information corresponding to the image to generate a shrunk designation region of the image; generating a plurality of seeds according to the shrunk designation region and the user command; and segmenting the image according to the seeds to obtain at least one segmented region.
US09704250B1
A plurality of depth planes corresponding to a scene within a field of view of a camera of a computing device can be computed based on stereographic techniques, infrared transceivers, ultrasonic transceivers, among other approaches. The depth planes can be utilized to independently meter subject matter of interest (e.g., person, object, region, etc.) corresponding to each depth plane to obtain image statistics for each depth plane. The image statistics can be analyzed to determine optimal settings (e.g., focus, exposure, white balance, etc.) for each depth plane, and a camera can be configured to acquire image data according to the optimal settings for one or more of the depth planes. Further, the image statistics can be leveraged for processing portions of the image data that are not optimized during capture. Thus, a final image can reflect optimizations for multiple subject matter of interest located at various distances from a computing device.
US09704245B2
A method and system for determining a user's location in a pre-mapped environment from one or more images of the user's vicinity is provided. The method includes providing a probabilistic data structure derived from a second data structure, querying the second data structure for corresponding feature characteristics stored in the second data structure that respectively correspond to each feature characteristic from a plurality of feature characteristics, which may be a subset of an initial plurality of feature characteristics extracted from the one or more images from the user's vicinity, and identifying the user's location from the corresponding feature characteristics. The plurality of feature characteristics is determined by querying the probabilistic data structure.
US09704244B2
A method generates a three-dimensional map of a region from successive images captured from different camera poses. The method includes a camera capturing images of the region; designating a subset of captured images as a set of keyframes each having respective sets of image position data representing image positions of landmark points detected as feature points in that image; for a newly captured image, generating a camera pose prediction; selecting an ordering of the landmark points; detecting whether an image region of the new image approximately matches an expected image position of a landmark point based on the predicted camera pose by detecting whether the image region is substantially identical to the image information associated with that landmark point; and refining the pose prediction from the detecting step. The selecting includes performing a statistical test on the landmark points and selecting the ordering according to the statistical test results.
US09704240B2
An intravascular imaging system includes a transducer capable of generating raw data representative of the structure of a patient's vasculature. The system includes an imaging engine for receiving the raw data and generating enhanced data for presentation to a user. The imaging engine includes a coherence filter, an envelope detection module having one or more envelope detectors, and a spatial filter for processing data in various stages. Such stages of processing in the imaging engine act to reduce high frequency noise, generate low frequency data, reduce low frequency noise, and display low frequency data with an improved signal-to-noise ratio. The system can include an image generator for generating an image based on enhanced data and a display for displaying the generated image.
US09704236B2
A method for detecting printing defects includes, with a physical computing system, creating a matched reference image from a digital image, colors of said matched reference image being closer matched to a scanned image of said digital image. The method further includes, with said physical computing system, determining a color difference between corresponding points on said matched reference image and said scanned image; and with said physical computing system, identifying points that have said color distance greater than a predefined threshold as potential defects.
US09704234B2
Methods and systems for detecting defects on a wafer using adaptive local thresholding and color filtering are provided. One method includes determining local statistics of pixels in output for a wafer generated using an inspection system, determining which of the pixels are outliers based on the local statistics, and comparing the outliers to the pixels surrounding the outliers to identify the outliers that do not belong to a cluster of outliers as defect candidates. The method also includes determining a value for a difference in color between the pixels of the defect candidates and the pixels surrounding the defect candidates. The method further includes identifying the defect candidates that have a value for the difference in color greater than or equal to a predetermined value as nuisance defects and the defect candidates that have a value for the difference in color less than the predetermined value as real defects.
US09704232B2
A method for automatic, stereo vision based, in-line solder ball height and substrate coplanarity inspection includes providing an imaging setup together with an imaging processor for reliable, in-line solder ball height measurement. The imaging set up includes a pair of cameras mounted at two opposing angles with ring lighting around each camera lens, which allows the capture of two images of an electronics package in parallel. The lighting generates features on solder balls located on a substrate of the electronics package, which are then used to determine height. Specifically, points with the same intensity on each solder ball surface are grouped, which allows for the formation of curves, also known as iso-contours, which are then matched between the two views. An optimized triangulation is then performed to determine the height of each one of the solder balls.
US09704231B1
Implementations relate to visualizing and measuring impact of image modifications. In some implementations, a method to measure and indicate impact of image modification includes applying an edit operation to a first image, including modifying one or more pixels of the first image to provide a modified image. The method determines an impact score associated with the edit operation and indicative of a degree of visual impact of the edit operation to the first image. The method provides, based on the impact score, the modified image in a visualization of image modification for the first image, and provides the visualization for display by a display device.
US09704227B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and apparatus for image enhancement. In particular, there is provided a method for image enhancement, the method comprising: estimating unsharpness of the image (S201-S204); determining a protection level of at least one pixel in the image based on the unsharpness (S205); and modifying a value of the at least one pixel to enhance the image, an amount of the modifying being determined at least in part based on the protection level (S206-S210). A corresponding apparatus and user device are disclosed. The invention may be applied to fog or haze removal from images or video without producing over-removal artifacts. In some embodiments, the invention may also be used to remove noise from low-light images.
US09704223B2
Cone beam artifacts arise in circular CT reconstruction. The cone beam artifacts are substantially removed by reconstructing a reference image from measured data at circular source trajectory, generating synthetic data by forward projection of the reference image along a pre-determined source trajectory, which supplements the circular source trajectory to a theoretically complete trajectory, reconstructing a correction image from the synthetic data and applying a scaling factor whose value is adaptively determined and optimized based upon the minimization of a predetermined cone beam artifact metric. Ultimately, the cone beam artifact is substantially reduced by generating a corrected image using the reference image and the correction image that has been optimally scaled based upon the adaptively determined scaling factor value.
US09704221B2
An image processing apparatus includes an input unit to input image data. A first correction unit performs a first type of correction for the input image data, based on a result of analysis of the image data. A storage unit stores the corrected image data. A second correction unit performs a first type of manual correction for the stored image data using a correction parameter in accordance with a user instruction. A third correction unit performs a second type of correction for the input image data, based on a result of analysis of the image data in a case when a second type of correction instruction based on an image analysis is input, after the first type of manual correction is performed by the second correction unit. The second type of correction is different from the first type of correction.
US09704218B2
The present technique relates to an image processing device, an image processing method, and a program for obtaining a high-quality panoramic image when a 360-degree panoramic image is generated.A projected image generation unit generates projected images by mapping, on a cylindrical surface, captured images taken by a camera being rotated 360 degrees. A cumulative difference value calculation unit calculates a cumulative difference value in each position between the adjacent projected images. Based on the projected images and the cumulative difference values, a diagraph generation unit generates a diagraph reflecting the cumulative difference values in the energies of edges. Based on the diagraph, the path search unit searches for such projected image joining positions as to minimize defects when a panoramic image is generated by joining the respective projected images. A panoramic image generation unit joins the projected images based on a result of the search, and generates a panoramic image. The present technique can be applied to image processing devices.
US09704214B2
A method, video processing system, and information handling system (IHS) provides rendering of video data. The method includes triggering a management controller to generate a virtual monitor that is accessible by a host. The method further includes, in response to the processor writing video data to the video driver, the video data is converted to bulk video data. The bulk video data is transmitted to the management controller, and the management controller causes a virtual monitor driver corresponding to the virtual monitor to convert the bulk video data to a re-converted video data.
US09704208B2
Healthcare appointment information system and method enabling a patient to manage multiple accounts with third party sources through a single account. A user account is created for storing individual user healthcare data such as user preferences (e.g., Monday morning appointments or willingness to be placed on waiting lists), user names and passwords (for accessing third-party sources), contact information (phone, email, text), insurance plans, gender, age, medications, existing appointments and other healthcare information enabling the system to book an appointment on behalf of the patient on one or more availability sources. In addition to booking on the patient's behalf, the account information also enables patient communications with the various sources to be conducted through the system. For example, notifications from other availability sources can be transmitted through the system, which may reformat the message and communicate the reformatted message to the patient. The patient response may then be transmitted via the system to the source. These communications or their content may also be used to update the user account information.
US09704207B2
Administering medical digital images including receiving a request for an image processing transaction to process the medical digital image; storing the medical image in one or more medical image caches; creating a medical image business object representing the business transaction; storing the medical image business object in the medical image metadata database; selecting, in dependence upon workflow selection rules and the attributes of the medical image business object, one or more clinical workflows to process the medical image; processing the medical image of the request with the clinical workflows, thereby creating a resultant business object and resultant medical image; routing the resultant medical image to a destination.
US09704206B2
Systems, methods, and apparatus embodiments for electric power grid and network registration and management of physical and financial settlement for participation of active grid elements in supply and/or curtailment of power, wherein Internet Protocol (IP)-based messages including IP packets are generated by transforming raw data content into settlement grade content. Settlement is provided for grid elements that participate in the electric power grid following initial registration of each grid element with the system, preferably through network-based communication between the grid elements and a coordinator, either in coordination with or outside of an IP-based communications network router. Messaging related to settlement is managed through a network by a Coordinator using IP messaging for communication with the grid elements, with the energy management system (EMS), and with the utilities, market participants, and/or grid operators.
US09704205B2
Event planning using social networking enables an efficient implementation of planning an event, as well as minimizing network traffic and optimizing other technological aspects of life. Additional information acquired by sensors and other technology is able to improve the quality of the event planning. Social network information as well as the additional information is able to be used to select aspects of the event such as time, location, and/or many other aspects of the event.
US09704202B1
A method is provided for blending device-based recommendations. A request is received from a device to recommend a group activity for a plurality of individuals. A plurality of device user profiles is accessed, each device user profile associated with one of the individuals. At least one group activity is recommended based on applying a plurality of rules to the device user profiles. The at least one recommended group activity is output to the device.
US09704188B1
A method and apparatus are disclosed that create an electronic form based on table data provided by Internet searching operations. One example may include determining at least one search term, querying, via a server, information provided by at least one network based on the search term, and copying at least one data table resulting from the information discovered during the querying operation. Additional operations may include parsing the at least one data table and storing the information in the server, displaying the data table to an end user so that the end user may select whether the data table should be included in the electronic form, and providing the user with the option to select and edit the contents of the data table. Upon the user's approval the data table may be copied into the electronic form.
US09704185B2
In an approach to determine a product rating a computer receives a user request for a product rating. The computer retrieves from on-line sources, product information on the product and analyzes the product information to determine a first product rating. The analysis includes at least a sentiment, and a trend of the sentiment. The approach includes a computer identifying products similar to the product and retrieving from on-line sources product information on similar products. A computer extracts comments on the product from the similar product information and determines an adjustment to the first product rating based on an analysis of the comments and references to the product in the similar product information. The adjustment to the first product rating includes using a sentiment, a trend of the sentiment over time, and a frequency of comments and references to the product over time in the retrieved plurality of similar product information.
US09704182B2
Systems and methods to selectively block calls from reaching destinations based on an input received from a callback connection. One embodiment includes a web server to receive a selection of an advertisement from an customer and to obtain a communication reference from the customer in response to the selection; a session border controller to interface with a packet switched network; and one or more telecommunication servers coupled to the session border controller and the web server, the one or more telecommunication servers to establish a connection for real time communications using the communication reference, to initiate a connection for real time communications with an advertiser of the advertisement after receiving an indication of acceptance of the connection established using the communication reference; where the advertiser is charged an advertisement fee in response to establishing a connection for real time communications between the advertiser and the customer.
US09704176B2
Methods and apparatus to determine efficiencies of media delivery across platforms are disclosed. An example method includes measuring, with a sensor, first neuro-response data from a person when exposed to media output via a first media delivery platform type. Measuring second neuro-response data from the person when exposed to media output via a second media delivery platform type, different than the first media delivery platform type. Accessing a first and second performance metric for the respective media delivery platform type, the performance metrics based on a first and second reach of the respective media delivery platform types with respect to a target group of audience members. Accessing a first and second effectiveness metric for the respective media delivery platform types, the effectiveness metric based on the respective neuro-response data. Rating at least one of the first or second media delivery platform types based on the first and the second platform metrics.
US09704175B2
Systems and method for conversation management and opinion tracking systems, whereby a conversation management engine can generate on-line conversations based on rules sets such that the generated conversation and the content submitted by participants conforms to a conversation or debate style. The conversation management engine can further implement curation policies that can curate content presented to a conversation such that the presented conversation fits curation rules of the policies. An opinion tracking engine can identify opinions regarding conversation topics based on the submitted contents and detect differences or changes in opinion.
US09704174B1
A computer converts a first quantity of loyalty program points of a loyalty program possessed by a member held in a first account to a second quantity of different loyalty program points possessed by the member held in a second account in accordance with a fixed ratio. The loyalty program points and the different loyalty program points are non-fungible, non-negotiable units of exchange. A mutual agreement exists between program operators to permit the conversion. Responsive to the converting: the first quantity of loyalty program points is subtracted from the first account; the second quantity of different loyalty program points is added to the second account; and the entity compensates the commerce partner in accordance with mutual agreement. A transformation results in the different loyalty program points that are subject to terms, conditions, or restrictions of the different loyalty program and not of the loyalty program.
US09704170B2
Tools for forecasting financial instrument transfers are provided. The tools may include a funds processing system. The funds processing system may be established at a client location. The funds processing system may receive a plurality of items. The items may include one or more financial instruments. The items may include one or more attachments. The items may be processed using the funds processing system. Data corresponding to the items may be transmitted to a financial institution. The data may be used to compute a forecast. The forecast may be based at least on part on data received via the funds processing system. Data analytical models may forecast future requirements. The requirements may be pickup requirements. The pickup requirements may be financial instrument pickup requirements. The forecast may be a time forecast. The time may be an estimated arrival time. The estimated arrival time may be at the financial institution.
US09704169B2
A digital publication monitoring by geo-location is disclosed. A server system obtains publication information from one or more server devices of one or more publication data providers, for example, via respective APIs of the publication data providers. The publication information includes geo-location data. The server system stores the publication information in a database in association with the geo-location data. The server system authenticates a client and receives a query initiated by the client. The query indicates a geo-location or a geo-region of interest. The server system references the database to retrieve applicable publication information based on and responsive to the query for the geo-location or geo-region of interest. The server system responds to the query by initiating a response to the client containing response information that includes or is based on the retrieved publications for the geo-location or geo-region of interest.
US09704167B2
Service management methods for use in an electronic device are provided, including the steps of: providing a record including at least one first event and possible probability parameters corresponding thereto, each having a weight; collecting device status information regarding information of current status of the electronic device, user operation behavior information and event triggering information using a data collector; evaluating a first evaluation value according to the device status information regarding information of current status of the electronic device, user operation behavior information and event triggering information, the possible probability parameters and respective weights of the record; and inferring that the first event reoccurs and performing a service corresponding to the first event when the first evaluation value has exceeded a threshold value.
US09704138B2
Calendar overlay features are provided. A first calendar that includes a schedule for occurrence of a first event is provided, and second calendar that includes a schedule for occurrence of a second event is provided. A unified calendar interface presents for display the scheduled first event and scheduled the second event. The unified calendar interface is configured as an overlay with the first calendar and the second calendar.
US09704134B2
In one embodiment the present invention includes a computer-implemented method of reducing a quantity of business application programming interface (BAPI) calls in a hardware client-server environment. The method includes configuring a centralized provisioning system on a hardware server with access definitions for systems. The method further includes receiving, by the centralized provisioning system, a provisioning request for a user of a client to access the systems. The method further includes determining a collected BAPI call according to the access definitions. The method further includes providing access to the user according to the collected BAPI call.
US09704128B2
A method and apparatus for iterative computer-mediated collaborative synthesis and analysis synthesizes a first focus topic in accordance with ideas collected from a plurality of cooperating users. The first focus topic triggers an analysis of that focus topic. The conclusions of this analysis indicate shortcomings in the first focus topic and trigger a further synthesis of the first focus topic. The further synthesis results trigger further analysis, and so on, on an iterative basis. The cooperating users follow a process template comprises of a scripted series of synthesis and analysis activities. Facilitation support is provided to the cooperating users to assist the cooperating users in accomplishing each activity in sequence. In further embodiments, a second focus topic is synthesized in response to the conclusion implied by the analysis of the first focus topic, and an analysis of the second focus topic is triggered.
US09704122B2
A computationally implemented system and method that is designed to, but is not limited to: electronically receiving monitoring information related to one or more farming related production factors involved with farming related production of one or more ingestible materials; and electronically associating at least a portion of said monitoring information one or more farming related production factors involved with farming related production of one or more ingestible materials with one or more identifiers accessible through one or more tracers, said one or more tracers logged as being at least momentarily in physical proximity with said one or more ingestible materials. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure.
US09704120B2
Stored inventory balance information in a first format for use by a first computerized system is transformed to readily make the stored inventory balance information available for use in a second computerized system that utilizes a second format in a cost-efficient and time-efficient manner.
US09704112B2
A system and method may provide standardized application programming interfaces that enable global entity-to-entity communications, such as to enable a process associated with one entity to access multiple systems at another entity. Some benefits of a global, standardized API-based entity-to-entity data exchange and integration platform include reduced cycle times by accelerating service delivery through automated and streamed data collection processes and an improved overall interface experience by embedding data collection processes into existing tools and improving accuracy by reducing manual data entry errors. For example, the standardized APIs may be used to generate a service request sent from a first service provider to a second service provider to ask the second service provider to provision a service to a customer of the first service provider.
US09704105B2
Various embodiments select features from a feature space. In one embodiment, a set of training samples and a set of test samples are received. A first centered Gram matrix of a given dimension is determined for each of a set of feature vectors that include at least one of the set of training samples and at least one of the set of test samples. A second centered Gram matrix of the given dimension is determined for a target value vector that includes target values from the set of training samples. A set of columns and rows associated with the at least one of the test samples in the second centered Gram matrix is set to 0. A subset of features is selected from a set of features based on the first and second centered Gram matrices.
US09704100B2
An information conversion method includes: first moving positions of a plurality of particles on a unit sphere according to a value of a probability density function, defining a positional vector of a particle on the unit sphere in a multidimensional space, as a normal vector of a hyperplane configured to divide a feature vector space, defining a predetermined evaluation function configured to evaluate the hyperplane, as the probability density function configured to indicate a probability of existence of a particle on the unit sphere, by a processor; and converting the feature vector to a binary string, considering a positional vector of the moved particle as a normal vector of the hyperplane, by the processor.
US09704098B2
A computer device for generating a classifier for performing a query to a given knowledge base is provided. The given knowledge base includes predicates, subjects and objects related to each other. The computer device includes a selection entity for selecting one of the predicates, and a triple generation entity for generating, based on the given knowledge base, triples. Each of the triples includes the one selected predicate, and a subject and an object related to the one selected predicate. The computer device also includes a candidate generation entity for generating a list of properties. Each property of the list of properties is correlated to the subject and the object of one of the triples by performing a context-based query within the given knowledge base. The computer device includes a classifier generation entity for generating a classifier having the list of properties related to the selected predicate.
US09704095B2
A method for transcribing an odor or an aroma into a colorimetric description comprises: physico-chemical analysis of said odor or of said aroma in order to associate with it a physico-chemical description comprising a physico-chemical vector, comprising proportions associated with a predetermined set of respective volatile molecules; physico-chemical analysis of a set of so-called test odors and/or aromas in order to assign to each test odor or aroma of said set a so-called test physico-chemical description comprising a so-called test physico-chemical vector comprising test proportions associated with said predetermined set of respective volatile molecules; assigning to the test odors and/or aromas respective test colorimetric descriptions comprising so-called test proportions associated with a set of respective colors; assigning to the odor or to the aroma a colorimetric description comprising proportions associated with said respective colors.
US09704094B2
One embodiment of the invention provides a method comprising defining a brainlet representing a platform-agnostic network of neurons, synapses, and axons. The method further comprises compiling the brainlet into a corelet for mapping onto neurosynaptic substrate, and mapping the corelet onto the neurosynaptic substrate. The corelet is compatible with one or more conditions related to the neurosynaptic substrate.
US09704089B2
A payment card (e.g., credit and/or debit card) or other device (e.g., mobile telephone) is provided with a magnetic emulator operable to communicate data to a magnetic stripe read-head. Data may include the type of reward that a user would like to earn as a result of making a purchase or the type of reward that a user would like to utilize to at least partially pay for a purchase.
US09704087B2
An apparatus and method is provided to shield contactless portable electronic consumer devices such as radio frequency identification devices (RFID), tokens, mini-cards, key fobs, cellular phones, smartcards, etc. from wireless interrogation. In one embodiment, a contactless portable consumer device which includes a first antenna is shielded from unauthorized wireless interrogation with a radio frequency (RF) shield. The RF shield includes electrically conductive, non-ferromagnetic material and is configured to prevent unauthorized data transfer between a second antenna external to the portable consumer device and the first antenna.
US09704083B2
Techniques related to optical communication including techniques for communicating barcodes using differential images.
US09704069B2
The present invention discloses an image processing evaluating apparatus and image processing method. The processing apparatus comprising: a confidence generation means for generating a classification confidence for each region in the image, the classification confidence represents the probability of an region belonging to a predefined class; and a classification means for classifying the regions in the image, which are obvious to be classified by their classification confidences, to respective classes based on the calculated confidences. The image processing apparatus further comprising: a fuzzy region extraction means for extracting one or more regions, which are not obvious to be classified by their classification confidences, as fuzzy regions; and a confidence update means for updating the classification confidence for each fuzzy region based on the classification confidences of adjacent regions thereof, wherein the classification means further classifies the fuzzy regions to respective classes based on the updated classification confidences.
US09704066B2
Techniques are described for performing multi-stage image classification. For example, multi-stage image classification can comprise a first classification stage and a second classification stage. The first classification stage can determine an overall classification for an input image (e.g., based on a relative entropy result calculated for the input image). The second classification stage can be performed by dividing the image into a plurality of blocks and classifying individual blocks, or groups of blocks, based on a classification model that is specific to the overall classification of the image determined in the first classification stage.
US09704062B2
An apparatus for warning an obstacle of a vehicle includes an image obtaining device configured to take an image around the vehicle through image sensors. An image segmentation device is configured to segment a current reference image obtained in blocks of an object. A motion estimator is configured to estimate two dimensional motion information of the object. A variation estimator is configured to estimate distance information between the object and the vehicle. A relative motion estimator is configured to estimate three dimensional relative motion information of the object by combining the two dimensional motion information and the distance information. A collision time estimator is configured to estimate a collision time between the object and the vehicle by using the three dimensional relative motion information. An image processor is configured to adjust a brightness of a corresponding segmented block. A display is configured to display the image.
US09704060B2
The present invention relates to a technical field of traffic monitoring, and more particularly to a method for detecting traffic violation. The present invention includes firstly localizing vehicle salient parts through salient features including vehicle license numbers and vehicle rear lights, and representing a vehicle with the vehicle salient parts, then tracking the vehicle with a Kalman filter based on the vehicle salient parts, and finally detecting vehicle violation through moving trajectory analysis and setting violating detecting areas. The present invention solves vehicle violation detection problems in complex engineering application conditions such as illumination change and detection noise, and is suitable for city traffic management under complex conditions.
US09704056B2
Methods, systems, computer-readable storage media, and apparatuses for efficiently computing a computer vision operation are presented. In certain aspects, techniques are disclosed for receiving values from one or more pixels from a pixel array and representing those values for facilitating computer vision operations, such as Haar-like feature computations. In one implementation, the pixel values are represented as a hierarchy of computations; each level above the lower level of the hierarchy of computations comprises one or more values representing a computation of the values from a lower level of the hierarchy. The computation can include a simple sum of the values for the lower level of the hierarchy, a weighted sum of the values for the lower level of the hierarchy, an average of the values for the lower level of the hierarchy, a local binary pattern based on the values for the lower level of the hierarchy, a histogram of oriented gradients based on the values for the lower level of the hierarchy, or other computer vision feature computation based on the values for the lower level of the hierarchy. In such an implementation, the computer vision operations, such as Haar-like feature computations, may be performed using the hierarchy of averages.
US09704050B2
Provided are a speckle-based authentication apparatus, an authentication system that includes the speckle-based authentication apparatus, and an authentication method using the speckle-based authentication apparatus. The speckle-based authentication apparatus includes an optical source configured to radiate light onto an object that is placed apart from the optical source; and a detector configured to detect a speckle pattern generated from the object in response to the light being radiated onto the object and detect location information of the object. Thus, the object is authenticated by comparing the speckle pattern detected by the detector with a speckle pattern stored in advance.
US09704049B2
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus configured to adjust a processing function for image data for a vehicle control system. The apparatus comprises an image sensor configured to capture the image data corresponding to a field of view. The image sensor is in communication with a controller which is further in communication with an accelerometer. The controller is operable to receive the image data from the image sensor and receive an acceleration signal from the accelerometer. The accelerometer signal may be utilized to identify a direction of gravity relative to the image sensor.
US09704047B2
To provide a moving object recognition apparatus that earlier detects a moving object crossing a road, the moving object recognition apparatus includes a left imaging unit 101, a right imaging unit 102, a moving object detection unit that detects a moving object based on images imaged by the left imaging unit and the right imaging unit, wherein, suppose that non-overlap regions in which an imaging region of the left imaging unit 101 and an imaging region of the right imaging unit 102 do not overlap are first regions 203, 204 and an overlap region in which the imaging region of the left imaging unit and the imaging region of the right imaging unit overlap is a second region 205, the moving object detection unit uses different methods of detecting the moving object between the first regions and the second region.
US09704032B2
Embodiments include systems and methods of detecting a blocked aperture in an image device. In certain embodiments, the system and method is used in mail processing of letters and flats. In certain embodiments, the image sensor captures an image of the front of an item. If the aperture of the image sensor is obstructed, a void will appear on the image of the item. The system can detect the void and increment an alarm count until a pre-defined threshold is reached wherein the system signals an alarm so that the blockage can be removed and the affected items can be re-introduced for correct processing. In another embodiment, images obtained when the aperture is expected to be clear of any items.
US09704026B1
Computer-implemented systems and methods for identifying an object in an image are provided. In one example, the method includes identifying a first object related to an electronic image. The image includes at least a second object. Based at least in part on the identity of the first object, social networking information related to the first object is used to programmatically identify the second object. The first object and/or the second object may be a person. In some embodiments, metadata associated with the image may be used to identify the second object. Based at least in part on the identifications, social networking information may be associated between the first object and the second object.
US09704008B2
A computer includes an application that expects to receive data via a unidirectional communication interface. The computer also includes a background service having a first thread and a second thread. The computer additionally includes device management client software. A barcode reader scans one or more barcodes to generate scanned data. The scanned data is sent to the computer via the unidirectional interface. The first thread of the background service reads the scanned data from the unidirectional interface and sends the scanned data to the application. The second thread of the background service enables the device management client software to perform management operations on the barcode reader via a bidirectional communication interface.
US09704007B2
A machine-readable symbol reader can include a housing, a window, an illumination source, a wedge-shaped optical element, and a sensor array. Illumination can be coupled into the optical element through a base surface of the optical element and out of the optical element through a leg surface of the optical element. Illumination beams coupled out of the optical element through the leg surface can be parallel or substantially parallel to one another, and can exit the machine-readable symbol reader at a grazing angle to illuminate a machine-readable symbol at a grazing angle.
US09704003B1
Control of an apparatus is provided according to determination of positioning of information pieces with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. In embodiments, an apparatus may include one or more pieces, wherein each piece may be positionable in one or more piece positions of a region and may include a passive RFID tag that stores information relating to a characteristic of the piece. An arrangement of RFID antennas may be positioned proximal to the region, and a RFID reader may provide reads of the pieces near the RFID antennas. One or more processors may determine the piece positions of the one or more pieces from the reads and may provide control of the apparatus according to the one or more pieces and their piece positions.
US09703995B2
A portable terminal having a wireless local area network (WLAN) communication module configured to perform wireless communication in a WLAN and a near field communication (NFC) module configured to read written data written to an integrated circuit (IC) tag includes: a memory configured to record format identification data for identifying a data format of the written data; and a control unit configured to detect whether the written data read using the NFC module has a predetermined format based on the format identification data, detect whether the written data is WLAN setup data for use in an imaging-apparatus-side WLAN module, and write command data for instructing to activate an access point (AP) function of the imaging-apparatus-side WLAN module to the IC tag using the NFC module when it is detected that the written data detected as having the predetermined format is the WLAN setup data.
US09703991B2
There is provided a programmable multiplier circuit for multiplying an input voltage signal by a binary coefficient, the multiplier circuit including a transconductor including a first amplifying transistor configured to convert the input voltage signal to a current signal, the first amplifying transistor having a gate configured to receive the input voltage signal, and a coefficient multiplier coupled to the transconductor and configured to multiply the current signal by the binary coefficient to generate an amplified current signal.
US09703981B1
Mobile device data encryption is disclosed. A file is divided into a plurality of data blocks. The data blocks are encrypted. An authentication value is generated for each encrypted data block. The encrypted data blocks are stored in a tree data structure including the encrypted data blocks and a header block. The header block includes a set of authentication values and an aggregate authentication value. Each authentication value in the set of authentication values is derived from one or more of the encrypted data blocks. The aggregate authentication value is generated based at least in part on the set of authentication values. In various embodiments, the tree data structure may include one or more levels of internal nodes including authentication blocks.
US09703979B1
The described embodiments relate to encryption methods and computer program products. An encryption application is used to determine a keystore seed with a seed bit set having seed bits in an ordered sequence. A plurality of key derivation sets are determined and a selected key derivation set is selected randomly. A key bit sequence is generated from the seed bit set using the selected key derivation set. An encryption key is generated using the key bit sequence, and corresponding keying information is determined from the selected key derivation set such that the latter is also derivable from the former. The keying information discloses zero information about the encryption key absent knowledge of the keystore seed. Plaintext data is encrypted using the encryption key to generate ciphertext data, and the keying information is stored with the ciphertext data. The encryption key may then be deleted.
US09703977B2
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for managing applications in non-cooperative environments. Embodiments of the invention provide the ability to manage non-cooperative applications and operating systems. For example, applications and operating systems at a user's (e.g., an information worker's) personal device (e.g., smartphone) can be appropriately managed to provide more secure access to a corporate IT infrastructure. An IT worker can programmatically repackage an application, deploy it to a user's personal device, and manage the user's ability to use the application through policy.
US09703975B2
An individual area controller of an industrial equipment management system controls access to an individual area which is a storage area that is associated with an individual ID on a server, based on the individual ID. A group area controller controls access to a group area which is a storage area that is associated with a group ID on a server, based on the individual ID that belongs to the group ID. A copy restrictor restricts copying of equipment information about an industrial equipment that is stored in the group area to the individual area.
US09703965B1
Techniques are provided for protecting encryption key(s) and other protected material on devices, such as mobile devices. A device stores an encrypted container received from an online authentication service, wherein the encrypted container is encrypted using a first key stored by the online authentication service, wherein the encrypted container comprises a data item stored on the device. The device transmits the encrypted container using an online connection to the online authentication service to decrypt the encrypted container using the first key, wherein the encrypted container is decrypted by the online authentication service to provide a decrypted container only if the online connection satisfies one or more predefined online connection criteria. The device then receives the decrypted container from the online authentication service and obtains the data item from the decrypted container. Online secure containers are also disclosed that are optionally protected using a multi-layer encryption scheme.
US09703964B2
A communication channel between a first processor of a receiver and a second processor of a battery assembly is provided. The battery assembly requests a public key from the receiver. The receiver combines the public key with a private key stored in memory to form a first combined public key, applies a first hash function to the first combined public key, stores the resulting first hash value in memory and transmits the public key to the battery assembly. The battery assembly combines the public key with a corresponding private key to form a second combined public key, applies a corresponding hash function to the second combined public key and transmits the resulting second hash value to the receiver. The receiver compares the first hash value to the second hash value and enables operations of the receiver when the first hash value equals the second hash value.
US09703960B2
Provided are an electronic system, an integrity verification device, and a method of performing an integrity verification operation. The electronic system includes: a memory device; a processor configured to provide a plurality of configuration records corresponding to a plurality of verification data stored in the memory device, each of the configuration records including a start address, a data length, and a reference hash value for a corresponding verification data; and an integrity verification device configured to: store the configuration records, select a configuration record, directly access the memory device to read verification data, corresponding to the selected configuration record, based on the start address and the data length included in the selected configuration record, perform a hash operation on the verification data to obtain a verification hash value, and output an interrupt signal based on the verification hash value and the reference hash value comprised in the selected configuration record.
US09703956B1
The disclosed computer-implemented method for categorizing virtual-machine-aware applications for further analysis may include (1) identifying a plurality of virtual-machine-aware applications, where each of the plurality of virtual-machine-aware applications exhibits different behavior when the virtual-machine-aware application detects that the virtual-machine-aware application is executing in a physical computing environment rather than in a virtual computing environment, (2) identifying a plurality of non-virtual-machine-aware applications that do not exhibit different behavior when executed in the physical computing environment rather than in the virtual computing environment, (3) determining at least one characteristic that differentiates the virtual-machine-aware applications from the non-virtual-machine-aware applications, (4) analyzing an uncategorized application to determine whether the uncategorized application includes the characteristic, and (5) preventing the uncategorized application from evading complete analysis by sending the uncategorized application to the physical computing environment for further analysis. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09703955B2
The present application discloses method and system for detecting potential security attacks against a vehicle networking through an OBD-II port. The system establishes an inbound OBD-II CAN message whitelist and an outbound OBD-II CAN message blacklist, respectively. Upon receipt of a CAN message command, the system updates statistics for the command and determines whether the command is inbound or outbound. In response to an inbound command from a device external to the vehicle, the system compares the inbound command with the whitelist and forwards the inbound CAN message command to the vehicle via the vehicle's OBD-II port when inbound command appears in the whitelist. In response to an outbound CAN message command from the vehicle, the system compares the outbound command with the blacklist and prevents the outbound command from being sent to an external vehicle via the vehicle's OBD-II port when the outbound command appears in the blacklist.
US09703946B2
A method of pairing an intelligent input device with an electronic device includes transmitting a start pairing identifier and receiving a unique identifier that identifies the intelligent input device. The method further includes authenticating the unique identifier using authentication information stored in the electronic device and transmitting a pairing successful identifier responsive to the unique identifier being authenticated to thereby pair the intelligent input device and the electronic device.
US09703940B2
A computing system such as a game console maintains and updates a biometric profile of a user. In one aspect, biometric data of the user is continuously obtained from a sensor such as an infrared and visible light camera, and used to update the biometric profile using a machine learning process. In another aspect, a user is prompted to confirm his or her identify when multiple users are detected at the same time and/or when the user is detected with a confidence level which is below a threshold. A real-time image of the user being identified can be displayed on a user interface with user images associated with one or more accounts. In another aspect, the biometric profile is managed by a shell on the computing system, where the shell makes the biometric profile available to any of a number of applications on the computing system.
US09703934B1
A system is configured to receive a task. The task is received over a first network, includes authentication credentials, and is processed using an application. The system is further configured to send the authentication credentials to a licensing server. The authentication credentials are sent over a second network, and are sent prior to processing the task using the application. The system is also configured to receive an authorization. The authorization is received over the second network, and authorizes the application to process the task.
US09703929B2
A method for diagnosing and treating an immune microbial dysfunction in a subject, the method comprising: receiving an aggregate set of biological samples from a population of subjects; generating at least one of a microbiome composition dataset and a microbiome functional diversity dataset for the population of subjects; generating a characterization of the immune microbial dysfunction based upon features extracted from at least one of the microbiome composition dataset and the microbiome functional diversity dataset, wherein the characterization is diagnostic of at least one of Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), ulcerative colitis, and celiac disease; based upon the characterization, generating a therapy model configured to correct the immune microbial dysfunction; and at an output device associated with the subject, promoting a therapy to the subject based upon the characterization and the therapy model.
US09703923B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide efficient systems and methods for creating an optimal set of partitions across replica blocks using two checkpoints during the design process. The two checkpoints group a set of macros according to a timing constraint and a location proximity to the other macros. Clustering of the macros is iteratively performed until a distance parameter exceeds a pre-defined threshold.
US09703914B2
A method, executed by one or more processors, for optimizing placement of a logic network, includes partitioning a logic network into a set of logic partitions, launching a set of placement optimization threads that correspond to the logic partitions, and allocating memory that is accessible to the placement optimization threads to provide a globally accessible placement memory for reserving placement locations on the integrated circuit. Each placement optimization thread may be configured to conduct the operations of determining a desired location for a logic element, reserving a set of potential locations for the logic element, determining a best location from the set of potential locations, and placing the logic element to the best location. Each placement optimization thread may also be configured to release each of the potential locations that are not the best location. A corresponding computer program product and computer system are also disclosed herein.
US09703913B2
Aspects of the present disclosure relate to determining a layout of a racetrack that forms part of an RF isolation structure of a packaged module and the resulting RF isolation structures. The racetrack layout can be determined based on identifying low radiating areas of a module and/or areas of a module that are less sensitive to external radiation. The racetrack can be disposed below a surface of a module on which a radio frequency component is disposed. The racetrack and a conductive layer over the radio frequency component can form part of a radio frequency isolation structure around the RF component.
US09703910B2
Embodiments relate to power down processing including control path power adjustment. An aspect includes receiving, by a power down engine, chip layout data corresponding to a chip design. Another aspect includes determining a confluence point of a data path and a control path in the chip layout data. Another aspect includes determining the presence of a positive slack window in the control path of the confluence point. Yet another aspect includes powering up the control path to reduce the positive slack window.
US09703908B2
A method to generate a reduced delay twinaxial SPICE model is provided. The method may include measuring near-end S-parameter components and far-end S-parameter components of a twinaxial cable, reducing an original time delay of the far-end S-parameter components by multiplying each of the far-end S-parameter components by a complex exponential based on an equivalent delay length, a signal frequency, and an effective dielectric constant, simulating a signal transmitted across a twinaxial cable by running a 4-port SPICE model using the near-end S-parameter components and the multiplied far-end S-parameter components, and recording a magnitude and a phase of the transmitted signal with respect to frequency as outputs of the reduced delay twinaxial SPICE model.
US09703905B2
The present invention provides a method and a system for simulating multiple processors in parallel, and a scheduler. In this embodiment, the scheduler maps debug interface information of a to-be-simulated processor requiring debugging onto the scheduler during parallel simulation of multiple processors, so that the scheduler is capable of debugging, by using a master thread, the to-be-simulated processor requiring debugging via a debug interface of the to-be-simulated processor requiring debugging pointed by the debug interface information, thereby implementing debugging during parallel simulation of multiple processors.
US09703904B2
Systems include a well having a production casing and a production tubing positioned therein, forming an annulus there between. A packer is positioned in the annulus at a position sufficient to separate the annulus into a first portion and a second portion. The well further includes a tie-back conduit positioned in the first portion of the annulus and configured to allow heat transfer between a working fluid flowing through the first portion of the annulus and a production fluid flowing through the production tubing, thus separating the circulating working fluid from fluids in the second portion of the annulus. A working fluid loop is fluidly connected to the first portion of the annulus. Co-production methods, methods of modeling, and computer-readable media including the methods of modeling are disclosed.
US09703898B2
A three-dimensional object (1) made by way of a stereolithography process, includes a plurality of supports (3) that are connected to the body (2) of the object through joining elements (4) in each one of which it is possible to identify a shaped area (5), recessed with respect to the external surface of the joining element (4) and having the bottom corner (6) that delimits a pre-established fracture area (7) for the detachment of the support (3). Each one of the joining elements (4) includes a first body (8) projecting from the external surface that delimits the body (2) of the object and a second body (9) projecting from the support (3), the bodies (8) and (9) being connected to each other so as to define the shaped area (5) whose bottom corner (6) delimits the pre-established fracture area (7). Each one of the bodies (8, 9) has its convex curved external surface that constitutes part of the external surface of a sphere or an ellipsoid.
US09703896B2
A system for generating custom modular objects is described. The custom modules form part of a modular construction set from which an object can be created by a user. The object acts as a user input device for an interactive software experience. To generate a custom (i.e. non-standard) module, a virtual 3D shape is received by a module generation service. The service converts this shape into a derived 3D shape for the module, for example, ensuring that the module is shaped such that it is compatible with other modules from the modular construction set to which it will be connected for form an object and/or by adding an aperture for receiving a connector and/or electronics core. Once generated, the derived 3D shape is sent to the user in physical form or virtual form and a virtual representation of the module is provided to the interactive software experience.
US09703890B2
The current document is directed to methods and systems that determine whether or not two graph-like representations of two physically or temporally distinct computer systems or computer-system configurations are equivalent. The currently described methods and systems extract a first and second ordered set of subgraphs from each of a first and second graph-like representation of a first and a second computer system. The ordered sets of subgraphs are logically aligned, forming a set of subgraph pairs. The currently described methods and systems transform the first and second subgraph of each subgraph pair into a corresponding first and second set of trees, label the trees, and then compare labels at each level of the trees to determine whether or not an isomorphic tree can be found in the second set of trees for each tree in the first set of trees.
US09703888B2
An electronic obsolescence registry holds network user-searchable obsolescence information. End users and component manufacturers can post obsolescence information using hashtags to it. The registry has different entries for different pieces of component obsolescence information. Each entry employs a respective component specific hashtag. End-users search the registry for component obsolescence information relating to a certain component by using one or more hashtags associated with the certain component.
US09703886B2
A system and method for formatting an electronic document. Format preference information related to the format of a user network site associated with a user is received. Document format criteria based on the format preference information and format performance information is automatically determined. An electronic document associated with the user network site is output according to the document format criteria.
US09703878B2
A first user computing device is identified as being collocated with a second user computing device and an invitation is sent over a wireless communication channel for delivery to the first user computing device. The invitation invites the first user computing device to join a collaborative search session with the second user computing device. A first one of a plurality of search contexts is selected for use by the second user computing device within the collaborative search session. The first user computing device uses a second, different one of the plurality of search contexts during the collaborative search session, and presentations of search results within the collaborative search session are organized according to the first search context on the second user computing device and organized according to the second search context on the first user computing device.
US09703870B2
In one embodiment, a method includes a search engine of an online social network crawling a first webpage of a first web domain, where the first webpage includes links to one or more second webpages, each of which may be within a second web domain, accessing a domain ranking for each second web domain, where for each second web domain the domain ranking may be based on one or more domain-quality signals associated with the second web domain, where the domain-quality signals may include a measure of activations of social plug-ins of the online social network associated with webpages of the second web domain, selecting one or more of the second webpages to crawl based at least in part on the domain ranking of the second web domain associated with the second webpage, and the search engine of the online social network crawling each selected second webpage.
US09703866B2
A management software process establishes management sessions with DAW processes and controllers on a network. Further, control sessions are established between the DAW processes and controllers, respectively. Thus, the control sessions between DAW processes and controllers included in one music system can be managed together by the management software process via a dedicated management session.
US09703863B2
Data is received that characterizes each of a plurality of documents within a document set. Based on this data, the plurality of documents are grouped into a plurality of stacks using one or more grouping algorithms. A prime document is identified for each stack that includes attributes representative of the entire stack. Subsequently, provision of data is provided that characterizes documents for each stack including at least the identified prime document to at least one human reviewer. User-generated input from the human reviewer is later received that categorized each provided document and data characterizing the user-generated input can then be provided. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.
US09703858B2
According to an aspect, storing and querying conceptual indices (CIs) includes creating a conceptual inverted index (CII) from the CIs. The CII includes CII entries, each of which corresponds to a concept in a concept graph. Creating the CII includes populating each entry with pointers to documents selected from the CIs having likelihoods of being related to the concept that are greater than a threshold value, and the corresponding likelihoods. An aspect also includes receiving a query that includes a concept in the concept graph, and generating query results from a search that include at least a subset of the pointers to documents. Each of the CIs is associated with a corresponding document and includes a CI entry for each concept in the concept graph, and each of the CI entries specifies a value indicating a likelihood that the document is related to the concept in the concept graph.
US09703857B2
A content management system for creating a digital catalog raisonné includes at least one computer, a public user interface, a private catalog raisonné manager, and a private user interface. The private catalog raisonné manager is configured to instruct at least one object-oriented database to store first digital data for at least one artist, the first digital data including at least one of an image of an artwork of the at least one artist and a description of the artwork. The private user interface is configured to receive the first digital data, transmit information permitting a user to provide a command to the content management system to make available, at the public user interface, a public catalog raisonné including the first digital data, and receive the command to make available the public catalog raisonné.
US09703851B2
A system and method for optimizing the computation of metrics facilitating monitoring of service level agreements (SLA) in an IT-enabled framework to reduce computational overhead. A receiving module receives data associated with activities performed by one or more service providers. A transforming module transforms the data into a user-defined data structure using a transforming technique. A selecting module selects an attribute and parameters associated with a key performance indicator (KPI) of the one or more service providers. A view creating module creates a materialized view of the user-defined data structure based on the selected attribute. A query generating module m generates a query to be executed on the materialized view. A metric executing module executes the query on the materialized view in order to compute the metric.
US09703848B2
A method and associated systems for caching linked queries for optimized compliance management. A user requests that a local application perform an operation upon a local dataset. The processor, in response, determines that the operation requires access to remote auxiliary data that is managed by a remote application. The processor reads from a local cache a set of provisional links that identify past sources of the auxiliary information, and displays information associated with those links to the user, clearly identifying the links and associated information as being provisional. If the user requires direct access to the auxiliary information, the system obtains from the remote application updated, verified versions of the links, replaces the provisional links in the cache with the verified links, and displays to the user the verified links and updated versions of the associated information, clearly identifying the links and information as being verified.
US09703846B1
Methods, systems, and media for presenting content based on a generic rating are provided. In some implementations, the method comprises: receiving search results; determining country-specific content ratings associated with the search results; converting the country-specific content ratings to generic content ratings associated with the search results; determining that at least one search result is to be blocked based on the generic content ratings and a user-selected generic content rating restriction; in response to determining that a search result is to be blocked, removing the search result from the search results to create modified search results; causing the modified search results to be presented; receiving a selection of content from the presented search results; determining a country-specific content rating associated with the selected content; converting the country-specific content rating to a generic content rating; determining that the selected content is not to be blocked based on the generic content rating and the user-selected generic content rating restriction; and causing the selected content to be presented.
US09703845B2
Identity data collected from network flows is managed and graphed according to a hierarchical schema that reduces data storage requirements and enhance database querying efficiencies. Preferably, the schema comprises a set of objects, such as a “source” object, a “time” object, and an “identity” object. A source object represents a source of an identity, namely, where an identity comes from. A time object represents a time bucket along a particular time frame corresponding to when an identity appears on the network. An identity object represents the actual identity itself. As each distinctive identity data is detected, it is added to the graph, preferably just once, and relationships between particular pairs of identities are identified. The resulting graph has significantly-reduced storage requirements, and it facilitates the discovery of linked identities much more efficiently, even when the identities are not directly connected.
US09703844B2
In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges, receiving a structured query that includes references to selected nodes and edges, and generating search results corresponding to the structured query, where the search results include at least one snippet that includes references to the selected nodes and edges of the structured query.
US09703841B1
A computer-implemented method to coordinate output of an application over a single computing device, according to one embodiment, includes receiving a feed of importance scores for each of the plurality of applications, and normalizing the importance scores of each feed for each of the plurality of applications. At least some applications with feeds of importance scores are selected. A prioritization score is assigned to the selected applications based on a function of the normalized importance scores of the selected applications. The normalized importance scores of the selected applications are combined into a single feed, and the single feed of normalized importance scores of selected applications is provided in order of priority to a subscribing application. An output of the subscribing application is coordinated based on the normalized importance scores of selected applications with a high priority in the single feed.
US09703840B2
A question-answering (QA) system first receives input questions. Each question is then assigned to a first question category of a plurality of question categories. The QA system then identifies a set of candidate answers to each question using a core information source. A set of confidence scores, including a confidence score for each candidate answer, is then calculated. The QA system then determines that the first set of confidence scores fails to satisfy confidence criteria. In response to this determination, an updated information source is ingested.
US09703828B2
The present invention is a system that performs a real time on-demand searching for items such as goods or services with specific search criteria, and returns a set of search results that are deduped and can be updated when modifications to the search results occur. The functionality is provided by a idempotence search system having a user agent that asynchronously receives search results from user's remote computing devices, a set of fetchers for retrieving search results from associated external site and organizing the results in a results queue, a plurality of parser operating in parallel, a broadcaster wherein the user agent includes retrieving the difference from the delta queue, retrieving the results associated with the difference and displaying the results for the user.
US09703821B2
A method facilitates auditing of database transactions by maintaining logical consistency between a source database table and a shadow database table. A bulk command is received that specifies edits to a plurality of rows in the source database table. The bulk command is executed on the source database table. The shadow database table is queried to obtain an indication of the plurality of rows edited by the bulk command. The indication is stored as part of an audit trail for the source database table.
US09703810B2
In managing a relational database, a relational manager sets a foreign key lookup value to an unavailable state in a source table row containing each of a foreign key value and the foreign key lookup value in a source table in a relational database, wherein the foreign key value references a primary key value in a referenced row in a separate destination table in the relational database. The relational manager, responsive to looking up, for the foreign key value, in a data structure separate from the source table, a location of the referenced row in the relational database, when the foreign key lookup value is set to the unavailable state, updating the foreign key lookup value with the location, wherein the foreign key lookup value in the source table is looked up for identifying the location of the referenced row for subsequent retrievals of the referenced row for the foreign key value.
US09703809B2
Methods and apparatuses are disclosed that assist in correlating subsequent geophysical surveys. In some embodiments, geophysical data may be generated including a first set of data from a monitor survey that is matched with a second set of data from a baseline survey. An attribute value may be generated for each datum in the first set of data, and the generated attribute value may be associated with the datum from the first set of data and at least one of a plurality of bins. In some embodiments, the attribute values may be based upon the geometric closeness of sources and receivers in the baseline and monitor surveys.
US09703806B2
Architecture for centralized photo storage for user profiles with consent and cardkey system integration. A picture picker can connect to a cardkey/security badge photo system to allow users to choose from badge photos. Consent is also captured by the picker to allow user photos to be used in other applications. Other applications can interact with the photo storage using standard web services and APIs for the user profile and user profile change log services. Centralized storage and insured accessibility enable applications to consume from the photo storage. The photo storage can also function as a virtual directory with distributed storage as utilized for geographical deployments. Extensions of the photo storage can include an add-in for a personal information manager application and a management agent for web-based collaboration and document management to copy photos from/to other directory structures.
US09703795B2
While discharging a data chunk the chunk is compressed into a storage block. If the chunk is found to be too large to be able to be completely compressed into the storage block certain characteristics of the data chunk are examined to determine whether or not the data chunk should be split. If the data chunk should be split, a remaining portion of the data chunk is compressed to a storage block that is next in chronological order to the original storage block. If the data chunk should not be split, all of the data chunk is moved to the next chronological storage block while leaving any remaining space in the storage block as unused.
US09703792B2
Technology is disclosed for organizing, managing and sharing data files as pages of an online binder (“the technology”). In various embodiments, the technology stores multiple data files received in multiple formats from multiple sources as pages of the online binder. The pages of the online binder are of a common format. The common format allows the pages, that is, the data files corresponding to the pages, to be accessed using a variety of devices regardless of a platform of the devices. The online binder is platform agnostic. The technology provides tools to create notes for the pages of the online binder. The notes can include text annotations, drawings, or audio visual annotations, including a recording of the user actions as presented on the device of the user. The technology provides a collaboration service for sharing the online binder with multiple users asynchronously or in real-time.
US09703789B2
An apparatus comprising a processor component to: receive metadata of data organization within a data set; receive indications of which node devices will be storing the data set as multiple data blocks within a data file; and receive, from each node device, a pointer request to a location within the data file for storing a data set portion as a data block. In response to the data set including partitioned data, for each request for a pointer: determine the location within the data file; generate a map data map entry for the data block; generate therein a sub-block count of data sub-blocks within the data block; generate therein a sub-entry for each data sub-block including size and a hashed identifier derived from a partition label; and provide a pointer to the node device. In response to successful storage of all data blocks, store the map data in the data file.
US09703787B2
A data storage management apparatus in an industrial plant is configured to communicate with a first data storage location which is configured to be a primary data storage location. The apparatus is further configured to communicate with a storage parameter configuration database, and a storage data configuration database. The apparatus is configured to determine if a utilization parameter in the primary data storage location is the same as or greater than a utilization limit. When the utilization parameter is determined to be the same as or greater than the utilization limit, the apparatus is configured to identify from the primary data storage location stored data having a storage duration which is the same as or greater than a retrieved data retention policy. The identified stored data is deleted.
US09703786B2
Systems and methods for reclaiming storage space are described, including detecting a user input indicating removing a corresponding copy of each media file of a group of one or more media files; selecting the group of one or more media files; identifying the corresponding copy of each media file of the group of one or more media files; and removing from storage space the corresponding copy of each media file of the group of one or more media files.
US09703785B2
A method for dynamically updating content in a live presentation. The method includes a computer processor determining a first content of a live presentation. The computer processor monitors a plurality of data sources and determines at least one of the plurality of data sources includes the first content and a second content. The computer processor retrieves information related to the second content. The computer processor then updates the live presentation with the information related to the second content.
US09703780B2
Disclosed are a system and a method for implementing an XDM forward function described in [XDM2_RD] and [XDM2 AD]. The method includes the steps of: transmitting, by the XDM forward requesting user a forward request message for forwarding a desired XML document to the XDMS; receiving, by the XDMS the forward request message, determining if the XDM forward requesting user has been granted a forward authority for a forward-requested target XML document forwarding the requested XML document to the XDM forward receiving user when the XDM forward requesting user has been granted an authority to forward the target XML document, performing receiver authorization for determining if an XDM forward receiving user can accept the forwarded XML document, and confirming that the XDM forward receiving user owns the forwarded XML document and storing the possessed XML document in a user directory when the receiver authorization has been successfully performed.
US09703776B2
Disclosed are methods, systems, and computer-readable mediums for automatic training of a syntactic and semantic parser using a genetic algorithm. An initial population is created, where the initial population comprises a vector of parameters for elements of syntactic and semantic descriptions of a source sentence. A natural language compiler (NLC) system is used to translate the sentence from the source language into a target language based on the syntactic and semantic descriptions of the source sentence. A vector of quality ratings is generated where each quality rating in the vector of quality ratings is of a corresponding parameter in the vector of parameters. Quality ratings are evaluated according to specific criterion, which comprise parameters such as a BLEU score and a number of emergency sentences. A number of parameters in the vector of parameters are replaced with adjusted parameters.
US09703772B2
A method for providing a sensitive text alert includes monitoring a key selected on a keyboard of a computer system. The key selected is reported to a key-logger application executing on the computer system. The reported key selected is appended to a string file. At least one portion of the string file is compared to a database of sensitive words/phrases. An alert is generated when it is determined that the compared at least one portion of the string file matches an entry in the database of sensitive words/phrases. The generated alert is superimposed on a display device of the computer system.
US09703766B1
Systems and methods are provided for generating tables from print-ready digital source documents. A document is received and one or more text fragments are identified on a rendered page of the document. A wrapping region collection is generated, comprising one or more wrapping regions. A tabular, narrative and label score is generated for each wrapping region. A block type is assigned to each wrapping region based on the scores. A wrapping region group and a block set are generated. One or more tables are generated based on text fragments corresponding to one of the one or more blocks. The text fragments are organized into corresponding fields of the one or more tables.
US09703760B2
Systems and methods for rendering an annotation graphic user interface (GUI) that encompasses external information related to a book term in a structured frame. An ebook includes pre-selected terms embedded with hyperlinks directing to an article contained by an external information source. Upon a user interaction with such a pre-selected term, raw information from the one or more articles is accessed and fed to a wireframe. The raw information is mapped to respective sections of the wireframe based on the field identifications attached to different segments of the raw information. As a result, an annotation GUI including the external information can be displayed in a consistent and orderly format.
US09703752B2
There is described a method for optimizing the distribution of data objects between caches in a cache domain of a resource limited network. User requests for data objects are received at caches in the cache domain. A notification is sent from each cache at which a request is received to a cache manager. The notification reports the user request and identifies the requested data object. At the cache manager, object information including the request frequency of each requested data object and the locations of the caches at which the requests were received is collated and stored. At the cache manager, objects for distribution within the cache domain are identified on the basis of the object information. Instructions are sent from the cache manager to the caches to distribute data objects stored in those caches between themselves. The objects are classified into classes according to popularity, the classes including a high popularity class comprising objects which should be distributed to all caches in the cache domain, a medium popularity class comprising objects which should be distributed to a subset of the caches in the cache domain, and a low popularity class comprising objects which should not be distributed.
US09703751B2
An apparatus and plurality of sensors where the apparatus includes a plurality of coupling elements; a plurality of attachment portions configured to enable a plurality of sensors to be removably attached to the apparatus; at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program instructions; wherein the at least one memory and the computer program instructions are configured to, with the at least one processor, enable the apparatus to individually address each of the plurality of coupling elements to obtain a reading from each of the plurality of sensors attached to the apparatus.
US09703744B2
In a storage subsystem adopting HDD and PCIe-SSD as storage media, as a method for preventing the complication of having to select a removal method while considering the drive type inserted to the drive slot since the method for removing the HDD differs from the method for removing the PCIe-SSD according to the prior art, the present invention provides an LED for displaying whether it is possible to remove the HDD or the PCIe-SSD inserted to the slot of a drive enclosure, wherein when an HDD is inserted in the drive slot, the LED displays that removal of the HDD is enabled when power supply to the HDD is stopped, and when PCIe-SSD is inserted to the drive slot, the LED displays that removal of the SSD is enabled when Downstream Port Containment (DPC) is triggered in the downstream port of the PCIe switch to which the SSD is connected.
US09703743B2
A high-performance, scalable and drop-free data center switch fabric and infrastructure is described. The data center switch fabric may leverage low cost, off-the-shelf packet-based switching components (e.g., IP over Ethernet (IPoE)) and overlay forwarding technologies rather than proprietary switch fabric. In one example, host network accelerators (HNAs) are positioned between servers (e.g., virtual machines or dedicated servers) of the data center and an IPoE core network that provides point-to-point connectivity between the servers. The HNAs are hardware devices that embed virtual routers on one or more integrated circuits, where the virtual router are configured to extend the one or more virtual networks to the virtual machines and to seamlessly transport packets over the switch fabric using an overlay network. In other words, the HNAs provide hardware-based, seamless access interfaces to overlay technologies used for communicating packet flows through the core switching network of the data center.
US09703740B2
A host system may couple to a PCIe subsystem. During setup of the PCIe subsystem, the BIOS in the host system may first be informed that the devices to be coupled are not PCIe devices, and certain amount of memory is required for these devices. The BIOS may therefore not attempt to configure the devices, and may instead allocate the required memory space. When the operating system boots up, it may not attempt to configure the devices, loading a custom driver instead of an existing PCI driver to configure the bus. Once loaded, the custom driver may configure the devices, then inform the OS that there are PCIe devices in the system at the specified addresses, which may cause the OS to load and execute existing PCIe device drivers to operate/use the devices. The proprietary driver may also be used to handle traffic between the PCIe drivers and the OS.
US09703735B2
A data communication system includes a master and a slave. The master transmits a first subject signal including a first subject data to the slave via a transmission line. The slave extracts a clock signal from the first subject signal by performing a clock data recovery process and determines the first subject data based on the first subject signal. The slave transmits a second subject signal including a second subject data to the master during an existing period of the first subject signal without interfering an extracting of the clock signal and a determination of the first subject data. The master receives the second subject signal and cancels a waveform component of the first subject signal from a waveform of the second subject signal, and then determines the second subject data based on the second subject signal.
US09703733B2
Instructions and logic interrupt and resume paging in secure enclaves. Embodiments include instructions, specify page addresses allocated to a secure enclave, the instructions are decoded for execution by a processor. The processor includes an enclave page cache to store secure data in a first cache line and in a last cache line for a page corresponding to the page address. A page state is read from the first or last cache line for the page when an entry in an enclave page cache mapping for the page indicates only a partial page is stored in the enclave page cache. The entry for a partial page may be set, and a new page state may be recorded in the first cache line when writing-back, or in the last cache line when loading the page when the instruction's execution is being interrupted. Thus the writing-back, or loading can be resumed.
US09703729B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure are related to identifying the orientation of a multimedia link connected between a source device and a sink device. A sink device includes a plurality of pins that are configured to interface with a plurality of pins of the multimedia link. The sink device identifies based on the values of one or more pins of the plurality of pins of the sink device whether the multimedia link is connected to the sink device. Further, the sink device determines an orientation of the multimedia link connected to the sink device. The multimedia link can be in one of two orientations, straight or flipped. The sink device may communicate the orientation of the multimedia link to the source device. The source device may perform lane mapping based on whether the multimedia link is in the straight or flipped orientation.
US09703720B2
An apparatus and method for efficient guest EPT manipulation. For example, one embodiment of a apparatus comprises: a hypervisor to create extended page table (EPT) mappings between a guest physical address (GPA) space and a host physical address (HPA) space; the hypervisor to create an EPT edit table and populate the EPT edit table with information related to permitted mappings between the GPA space and HPA space; a guest to read the EPT edit table to determine information related to the permitted mappings between the GPA space and HPA space, the guest to use the information to map one or more pages in the GPA space to one or more pages in the HPA space.
US09703718B2
Managing cache evictions during transactional execution of a process. Based on initiating transactional execution of a memory data accessing instruction, memory data is fetched from a memory location, the memory data to be loaded as a new line into a cache entry of the cache. Based on determining that a threshold number of cache entries have been marked as read-set cache lines, determining whether a cache entry that is a read-set cache line can be replaced by identifying a cache entry that is a read-set cache line for the transaction that contains memory data from a memory address within a predetermined non-conflict address range. Then invalidating the identified cache entry of the transaction. Then loading the fetched memory data into the identified cache entry, and then marking the identified cache entry as a read-set cache line of the transaction.
US09703714B2
Systems and methods for managing cache configurations are disclosed. In accordance with a method, a system management control module may receive access rights of a host to a logical storage unit and may also receive a desired caching policy for caching data associated with the logical storage unit and the host. The system management control module may determine an allowable caching policy indicator for the logical storage unit. The allowable caching policy indicator may indicate whether caching is permitted for data associated with input/output operations between the host and the logical storage unit. The system management control module may further set a caching policy for data associated with input/output operations between the host and the logical storage unit, based on at least one of the desired caching policy and the allowable caching policy indicator. The system management control module may also communicate the caching policy to the host.
US09703712B2
A method and apparatus for preserving memory ordering in a cache coherent link based interconnect in light of partial and non-coherent memory accesses is herein described. In one embodiment, partial memory accesses, such as a partial read, is implemented utilizing a Read Invalidate and/or Snoop Invalidate message. When a peer node receives a Snoop Invalidate message referencing data from a requesting node, the peer node is to invalidate a cache line associated with the data and is not to directly forward the data to the requesting node. In one embodiment, when the peer node holds the referenced cache line in a Modified coherency state, in response to receiving the Snoop Invalidate message, the peer node is to writeback the data to a home node associated with the data.
US09703711B2
A computer system has a plurality of processors with non-blocking memory caches. A controller sets an upper limit of allowed snoop commands for the computer system. The controller adjusts, using real-time bandwidth data of the computing system, the limit of snoop commands to a new numerical value. The controller detects that the snoop limit is being adjusted between snoop rates more than a threshold number of times. The controller designates an overriding limit of snoop commands in response to detecting the snoop limit being adjusted more than the threshold number of times. The overriding limit of snoop commands is fixed for a period of time. The controller delays snoop commands which exceed the overriding limit of snoop commands during the period of time.
US09703701B2
A group address range is mapped to a memory address range of a nonvolatile memory. A first memory address of the memory address range is to be copied to a volatile memory if the first memory address is mapped to the group address range and a write access is requested for the first memory address. The group address range is transferred from a first node to a second node in response to a synch command. The copied address is to be written the NVM after the group address range is transferred.
US09703699B2
In a cache policy for a hybrid drive having a magnetic storage device and a non-volatile solid-state device, the hybrid drive is configured to write the most recent version of data associated with a logical block address to the non-volatile solid-state device when the logical block address is associated with previously written data and is overlapped by a subsequent disk write operation. Advantageously, the most recent version of data associated with the overlapped logical block address is stored in cache in the non-volatile solid-state device, even when the subsequent disk write operation results in the overlapped logical block address being trimmed from cache or otherwise invalidated. Consequently, data associated with the overlapped logical block address can be accessed more quickly than data written to the magnetic storage device.
US09703696B1
Systems and methods for explicit organization of memory allocation on an integrated circuit (IC) are provided. In particular, a programmable logic designer may incorporate specific mapping requests into programmable logic designs. The mapping requests may specify particular mappings between one or more data blocks (e.g., memory buffers) of a host program to one or more physical memory banks.
US09703693B1
Methods and apparatuses are described for testing a modified version of a software application. A recorder module stores production incoming messages received by the software application and associated timing data; production outgoing messages sent by the software application and associated timing data; a sequence of random number values and associated timing data; and a plurality of production event registrations by the software application and associated dispatch timing data based on an actual dispatch time associated with the production event registration. A playback module sends production incoming messages to the modified software application; receives and validates test outgoing messages from the modified software application; sends the sequence of random number values to the modified software application; receives and validates test event registrations from the modified software application; and sends to the modified software application a dispatch message to dispatch an event associated with a test event registration.
US09703692B2
Provided is a development supporting system that extracts important test cases in accordance with development statuses of a program, test statuses, etc. The development supporting system according to a representative embodiment includes a configuration managing unit that retains and manages the program and each of the test cases in a repository, and a test executing unit that executes the test case and stores a test result in the repository. The test case is managed in the repository in association with information of a type thereof, the configuration managing unit judges a development status of the program and sets a priority for each of the test cases based on the development status, and the test executing unit extracts the test case to be executed based on the priority.
US09703687B2
A monitor that monitors an application is provided herein. The monitor provides a monitor function that monitors an application. The monitor embeds the monitor function in meta data of a code base of the application. The monitor function embedded in the code base is activated. The monitor function is used to monitor data associated therewith during deployment of the application.
US09703682B2
Replicating on a test server a production load of a production server. The production load can be created on the production server by processing client requests received from clients. While the client requests are processed, in real time, the production load can be replicated to generate a replicated production load that represents the client requests and defines state information representing unique states formed between the production server and the respective clients. In real time, the replicated production load can be communicated in order to replicate the production load on the test server.
US09703681B2
Assistance is given to aid in optimizing a program's performance during initial development while the program's features are still being implemented and/or debugged, without interfering with that development, by providing easy-to-ignore yet accurate tips about a program's performance inside a debugger. Raw performance information for a software program which is being debugged in a debugger is adjusted by removing from it a measured debug overhead or other diagnostic overhead. Some factors considered when measuring overhead include pauses, context switches, debug versus release build presence, bounds checking, funceval, and call stack analyses. The debugger is enhanced to display the adjusted program performance measure in a graphical user interface, next to the corresponding source code. The enhanced debugger updates the adjusted program performance measure value and keeps its screen location current as the developer moves through the source code, providing more detailed performance information upon request.
US09703680B1
A developer analytic module executing on an integrated development environment provides location tracing of a software development toolkit and automatic updates of the SDK. The developer analytic module further provides a user interface that enables a developer to select one or more functional modules to be included in a SDK to be installed at the developer's IDE.
US09703679B2
A method, computer program product, and system is described. A continuous integration environment is identified. A first software test associated with the continuous integration environment is identified. A probationary status for the first software test is determined, the probationary status indicating, at least in part, a potential lack of reliability for the first software test.
US09703669B2
One disclosed embodiment provides an integrated circuit that has a plurality of processors and a plurality of processor trace collection logic units. Each processor trace collection logic unit corresponds with, and is operatively coupled to, one of the processors. A separate filtering logic unit is operatively coupled to the plurality of processor trace collection logic units. In some embodiments of the integrated circuit, each processor trace collection logic unit is operative to continuously collect processor trace information from a corresponding operatively coupled processor. Each filtering logic unit is operative to monitor the continuous processor trace information for occurrence of a predetermined condition, and to store some of the processor trace information to memory in response to occurrence of that condition.
US09703664B1
Techniques are described data storage optimization that determine predicted values for I/O statistics using an ARIMA (auto-regressive integrated moving average) model. The ARIMA model may be used to capture periodic patterns and trends of workload I/O access to predict the future load demand. A current set of I/O statistics is collected for a current time period T. Using the current set and one or more ARIMA models, a predicted set of I/O statistics is determined for a next time period T+1. Each of the ARIMA models is characterized by model parameters including P denoting a number of auto-regressive terms, D denoting a number of nonseasonal difference needed for stationarity, and Q denoting a number of lagged forecast errors of prediction. A data storage optimizer may determine one or more data portions for movement from a current storage tier to a target storage tier using the predicted set of I/O statistics.
US09703658B2
Systems and techniques for identifying failure mechanisms based on a population of scan diagnostic reports is described. Given a population of scan diagnostic reports, a mixed membership model can be used for computing a topic distribution for each portion of each scan diagnostic report and a feature distribution for each topic. The failure mechanisms can be identified based on the topic distributions for the portions of the scan diagnostic reports and the feature distributions for the topics.
US09703649B2
A method for managing a secondary storage system, the method may include performing a failover update, by the secondary storage system, of a status of at least one secondary path that couples a host computer to the secondary storage system thereby causing the host computer to prioritize sending IO requests to the secondary storage system over sending the IO requests to a primary storage system; wherein the failover update is triggered by a determination made by the secondary storage system that (a) the secondary storage system is, when making the determination, at an acceptable synchronization level with the primary storage system, and (b) the primary storage system is disconnected from the host computer; receiving, from the host computer, IO requests; and responding, by the secondary storage system, to the IO requests.
US09703639B1
Journaling technology, in which a tool, that is separate from a journaling process executed by a server system, causes display of an interface that enables user selection of information derivable from journaling data collected by the journaling process. The tool receives, through the displayed interface, user input selecting desired information derivable from the journaling data collected by the journaling process. Based on the user input, the tool determines one or more commands that are understood by the journaling process and that control the journaling process to retrieve journaling data needed to derive the desired information. The tool controls the journaling process to execute the one or more commands, accesses journaling data retrieved through execution of the one or more commands, and reformats the accessed journaling data into a presentable format of the desired information.
US09703636B2
The various embodiments described herein include systems, methods and/or devices used to enable firmware reversion triggering and control in a storage device. In one aspect, the method includes: (1) detecting a reversion trigger, the reversion trigger identifying a set of one or more controllers of a plurality of controllers on the storage device, and (2) in response to the reversion trigger, initiating recovery actions for each controller in the set of one or more controllers, including: for each controller in the set of one or more controllers: (a) asserting a revert signal to the controller to execute a firmware reversion for the controller, and (b) resetting the controller subsequent to asserting the revert signal to the controller.
US09703628B2
Disclosed is a memory device including: a plurality of memory blocks suitable for storing data; peripheral circuits suitable for temporarily storing data read from a selected memory block, performing a randomization operation to the read data, and performing an ECC decoding operation to the randomized data; and a control logic suitable for controlling the peripheral circuits to repeat the randomization operation and the ECC decoding operation until the ECC decoding operation is successful, and a system including the same.