US09769391B2

Provided is an imaging device capable of expanding the dynamic range and eliminating differences in level occurring in low luminance regions between segments having different transmittances.A number of high luminance pixels calculation section calculates the number of high luminance pixels for each segment, on the basis of pre-image data obtained through pre-imaging while all the segments of a light modulation element have high transmittances. A main control section determines, as a dimming target segment, a segment having a number of high luminance pixels equal to or greater than a first number of pixels. A low luminance pixel specifying section specifies low luminance pixels among the pixels corresponding to the dimming target segment. A gain correction section performs gain correction on pixel signal values of the low luminance pixels, with a gain value corresponding to a ratio of the high transmittance to the low transmittance.
US09769389B2

In some embodiments, a first camera unit of a multifunction device for capturing a first image of a first visual field includes a first actuator for moving a first optical package. A second camera unit includes a second actuator for moving a second optical package. The second camera unit includes a second central magnet array situated along the axis between the first optics package of the first camera unit and the second optics package of the second camera unit. In some embodiments, the second central magnet array includes a second central upper magnet having a first polarity and a second central lower magnet having a polarity antiparallel to the first polarity. In some embodiments, the second camera unit includes a second distal magnet array situated opposite the second central magnet array with respect to the second optics package of the second camera unit.
US09769388B2

Provided are an image zooming method and an image zooming apparatus for optical zooming by using a plurality of lenses with different focal lengths. The image zooming method includes capturing an identical scene via a plurality of lenses; obtaining a first image and a second image of the identical scene that have different resolving powers; determining a first area of the first image and a second area of the second image which corresponds to the first area; and generating a composite image the second area and a remaining area of the first image from which the first area is excluded.
US09769381B2

A vision system for a vehicle includes a plurality of cameras having respective fields of view exterior of the vehicle. One of the cameras functions as a master camera and others of the cameras function as slave cameras. Responsive to processing of captured image data, the vision system is operable to synthesize a composite image derived from image data captured by at least two of the cameras, at least one of which is a slave camera. Operating parameters of the master camera are used by slave cameras. An electronic control unit sends via Ethernet connection operating parameters to a slave camera so that image sections of the composite image, when displayed to a driver of the vehicle by a display device of the vehicle, appear uniform in at least one of (i) brightness at the borders of the sections and (ii) color at the borders of the sections.
US09769371B1

An phase detect (PD) module including a phase detect (PD) lens, PD image sensor, and a PD controller is disclosed. The PD module may be configured to provide a control signal to an electromechanical device, such as a voice coil motor (VCM), of an image capture module to move a lens assembly to focus an image of an object to be imaged onto a primary image sensor. The PD module may direct the capture of a PD image by the PD image sensor and perform a phase detect (PD) technique on the captured AF image to identify a focus point of the lens assembly. This determined focus point may be used to displace the lens assembly relative to the primary image sensor to achieve focus of the object onto the primary image sensor.
US09769357B1

Systems and methods for border detection on videos are disclosed herein. The system can include a refinement component that updates a variable as a function of a change in line number, wherein the change in line number is ascertained in response to a change in luminance values and/or chroma values associated with a border and a video area included in a frame associated with an original video. Further, the system also includes a trimming component that, as a function of the variable, crops the border from the frame that includes the video area of the resized original video.
US09769344B2

An information processing apparatus capable of preventing a user from unnecessarily taking a wasteful action. Whether a communication line is connected to the information processing apparatus and an off-hook state in the information processing apparatus are detected. Whether to turn on a display unit is controlled. When connection of the communication line to the information processing apparatus and the off-hook state are detected the display unit is controlled to turn on. When non-connection of the communication line to the information processing apparatus and the off-hook state are detected, the display unit is controlled not to turn on.
US09769343B2

To provide a sleep mode control system restricting power consumption while an image forming apparatus (ifma) is in a sleep mode (slm) and allowing a user to deactivate the sleep mode without impairing his/her convenience. The sleep mode control system includes the imf entering the slm to reduce power consumption and a power generator provided below a passage floor on which the imf is mounted. The power generator has a power generation unit, when stepped, provides a private power generation and an electromotive force detection unit detecting an electromotive force generated at the power generation unit successively, generating a pulse signal using the resulting electromotive force, and outputting the resulting pulse signal successively. The ifma has a sleep control part deactivating the slm, while the ifma is being in the slm, based on a signal pattern of the pulse signal outputted from the electromotive force detection unit.
US09769341B2

An image forming apparatus (100) includes an image reading portion (2), an image forming portion (3), an in-body discharge portion (7), an information reading portion (6), a reading cover (61), and an operation portion (5). The information reading portion (6) is stored in a front of the image reading portion (2) and reads information of a user. The reading cover (61) covers the information reading portion (6). A first area including surfaces of the reading cover (61) and the operation portion (5) and a second area including surfaces of the image reading portion (2), the image forming portion (3), and the in-body discharge portion (7) are substantially different in outer appearance.
US09769333B2

A server includes: a storage; and a control device which determines whether the server is permitted to collect data of the image forming device when receiving inquiry information; transmits to the image forming device first permission information for checking whether a user permits data collection; transmits active information when receiving second permission information representing that data collection is permitted; when the server receives device identification information for identifying the image forming device of which data collecting function is activated, stores the received device identification information in the storage, and transmits instruction information for instructing the image forming device to transmit the data which should be collected, to the image forming device; and when receiving the collection data for generating the notification data from the image forming device, stores the received collection data in the storage in association with the device identification information.
US09769327B2

An image forming apparatus, in which a method of positional adjustment performed in image forming, includes an image bearer, a transfer device to transfer an image formed on the image bearer onto a recording medium having a first side and a second side, a recording medium conveying path along which the recording medium travels to the transfer device, a first detector and a second detector to detect positional information of the recording medium on or near the recording medium conveying path, in which the first detector being disposed closer to the transfer device than the second detector to the transfer device in a sheet conveying direction on the recording medium conveying path, and an adjuster to adjust a position of the image based on at least one of former positional information obtained by the first detector and current positional information obtained by the second detector.
US09769325B2

In one aspect of the teachings herein, an Application Function (AF) in a wireless communication network is configured to support online charging for the consumption of content that has been pre-fetched to a wireless device via the network. The AF functionality thus provides a mechanism by which content may be pre-fetched to a wireless device in advance of charging for that content, while reliably conditioning the later consumption of that content at the wireless device on the online charging decisions made by an online charging system. In another aspect, a wireless device is configured to send a consumption request for pre-fetched content towards such an AF and condition its consumption of the pre-fetched content on the consumption response returned to it.
US09769323B2

Techniques for zero rating through redirection are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus may comprise a client proxy component operative to receive a proxy network packet from a local gateway application on a client device, the proxy network packet containing an application network packet for delivery to a network server device; and forward the application network packet to the network server device based on a determination that a local user application is authorized to use the proxy server device; and a proxy access component operative on the processor circuit to determine that the application network packet is associated with the local user application on the client device; and determine that the local user application is authorized to use the proxy server device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09769306B2

A system, method, and computer program is provided which monitors a plurality of digital media devices that are at a remote location. Each of the plurality of digital media devices is associated with a respective plurality of functions. While monitoring the plurality of digital media devices, data is received indicating that a lock mode is to be enabled for the plurality of digital media devices such that a subset of the plurality of functions is disabled. Based on the received data indicating that the lock mode is to be enabled, a command is transmitted to at least one of the plurality of digital media devices to disable the subset of the plurality of functions.
US09769304B2

A player terminal controlling method includes receiving a do not disturb setting instruction transmitted from a target control terminal, which carries a time period and an identity of the target control terminal; setting a do not disturb time period as the time period and setting an identity of an authorized control terminal as the identity of the target control terminal within the do not disturb time period; determining whether an identity of a control terminal is identical to the identity of the authorized control terminal; and executing an operation corresponding to the control instruction when the identity of the control terminal is identical to the identity of the authorized control terminal. As can be seen, the present disclosure can increase the ability of a user terminal to take exclusive control of the player terminal at a specific time period.
US09769302B2

A connecting system is provided for machine vision operations using a mobile device. The connecting system can include a machine vision system with an imaging device, as well as an identification feature associated with the machine vision system. The identification feature can include at least one of: a symbol for communicating identification information for the machine vision system to the mobile device via an imaging of the symbol by a camera associated with the mobile device, and an electronic identification device for communicating the identification information to the mobile device via electronic transmission to the mobile device. The identification information, when received at the mobile device, can facilitate connecting of the mobile device with the machine vision system for interoperation of the mobile device and the machine vision system.
US09769301B2

In response to receiving an application for operation on an accessory device and an interface definition, a computer device produces an application package that includes a companion application, a companion extension, and the application and interface definition. The application package components are configured to interoperate in accordance with an application identifier that is mutually recognized among all the package components. When the application package is installed at the companion device, the companion device automatically unpacks the components and sends the accessory device application and interface definition to the accessory device.
US09769295B2

A mobile terminal including a wireless communication unit configured to provide wireless communication; a touch screen having a front surface and a lateral surface, wherein the touch screen is bent in the lateral surface; and a controller configured to associate first identification information identifying a first external terminal with a first display color unique to the first external terminal and a first display location the first external terminal on the lateral surface, associate second identification information identifying a second external terminal with a second display color the second external terminal and a second display location unique to the second external terminal on the lateral surface, wherein the second display color is different than the first display color and the second display location is different than the first display location, detect an occurrence of a first event related to the first identification information of the first external terminal, display a first notification object with the first display color at the first display location on the lateral surface in response to the occurrence of the first event, detect an occurrence of a second event related to the second identification information of the second external terminal, display a second notification object with the second display color at the second display location on the lateral surface in response to the occurrence of the second event while the first notification object is displayed with the first display color at the first display location on the lateral surface, receive a first drag touch input applied to the first notification object, display information related to the first event on the touch screen in response to the first drag touch input, receive a second drag touch input applied to the second notification object, and display information related to the second event on the touch screen in response to the second drag touch input.
US09769294B2

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to monitor mobile devices are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a shell having a form factor dimensioned to receive a mobile device; and a near-field interceptor coupled to the shell, the near-field interceptor to capture data communicated via a near-field energy field between a first near-field communication device of the mobile device and a second near field communication device external to the mobile device.
US09769292B2

Among other things, a node is enabled to participate, with other nodes, in forming and using transport layer features in a communication network, the transport layer features being extensible to support ten million or more simultaneous reliable conversations between or among applications running on respective participant nodes.
US09769285B2

A method and system for improving access to network content are described. Aspects of the disclosure minimize the delay between a navigation event and a network response by prerendering the next navigation event. For example, the method and system may predict a likely next uniform resource locator during web browsing to preemptively request content from the network before the user selects the corresponding link on a web page. The methods and systems describe a variety of manners for prerendering content and managing and configuring prerendering operations.
US09769282B2

A mobile terminal for performing a weight-based function with military purposes according to the present invention includes an interface unit configured to receive a control policy controlling intent, and information deciding a weight for the intent, and a controller configured to determine whether or not a use authority for the intent is provided, decide a weight based on the control policy and the information when the use authority is not provided, and execute one of a log generation, an immediate notification and a terminal lock by comparing the decided weight with a preset boundary value, whereby multiple stages of blocking levels can be provided upon blocking intent, thereby allowing for setting access and blocking with respect to various users or applications.
US09769279B2

Systems and methods for controlling pre-delivery of content to user devices, such as mobile devices, from remote content servers (e.g., content delivery nodes over a network) are described. In some embodiments, the systems and methods receive an indication that a content item at a remote content server is available for pre-delivery to a mobile device over a mobile network, determine the mobile device is associated with sufficient content delivery credit to pre-deliver at least a fraction of the content item to the mobile device, and cause the at least fraction of the content item to be pre-delivered to the mobile device based on the determination.
US09769277B2

A method for replacing, refreshing, and managing content in a communication network is provided. The method defines an object policy mechanism that applies media replacement policy rules to defined classes of stored content objects. The object policy mechanism may classify stored content objects into object groups or policy targets. The object policy mechanism may also define metric thresholds and event triggers as policy conditions. The object policy mechanism may further apply replacement policy algorithms or defined policy actions against a class of stored content objects. The media replacement policy rules are enforced at edge content storage repositories in the communication network. A computing device for carrying out the method, and a method for creating, reading, updating, and deleting policy elements and managing policy engine operations, are also provided.
US09769276B2

A hardware device for monitoring and intercepting data packetized data traffic at full line rate, is proved. In high bandwidth embodiments, full line rate corresponds to rates that exceed 100 Mbytes/s and in some cases 1000 Mbytes/s. Monitoring and intercepting software, alone, is not able to operate on such volumes of data in real-time. An exemplary embodiment comprises: a data delay buffer with multiple delay outputs; a search engine logic for implementing a set of basic search tools that operate in real-time on the data traffic; a programmable gate array; an interface for passing data quickly to software sub-systems; and control means for implementing software control of the operation of the search tools. The programmable gate array inserts the data packets into the delay buffer, extracts them for searching at the delay outputs and formats and schedules the operation of the search engine logic.
US09769270B2

Disclosed in some examples is a method of providing a bookmarking service on a social networking service, the method including receiving, over a network, an indication that a member of the social networking service interacted with an item of content; associating the item of content with a skill using a computer processor; and storing an indication in a storage device that the member interacted with the item of content and the skill associated with the item of content.
US09769269B2

Methods, systems and devices for selecting an end-user device from a plurality of end-user devices to satisfy a user request. The method comprises storing at a portal aggregator data identifying a user device group comprising a plurality of end-user devices, wherein the data identifying the device group comprises the capabilities of each end-user device. When the portal aggregator receives a request from the user the portal aggregator generates a list of end-user devices from the device group that are capable of satisfying the user request. The portal aggregator then selects an end-user device from the list of capable end-user devices and then transmits a command to the selected end-user device to satisfy the request. In some cases the list of capable end-user devices may be sorted and/or filtered prior to selecting an end-user device from the list.
US09769268B2

A method for selecting a consensus protocol comprises separating a consensus protocol into one or more communication steps, wherein the consensus protocol is useable to substantially maintain data consistency between nodes in a distributed computing system, and wherein a communication step comprises a message transfer, attributable to the consensus protocol, in the distributed computing system, and computing an estimated protocol-level delay based on one or more attributes associated with the separated communication steps of the consensus protocol.
US09769267B2

Of a plurality of tenants that form a hierarchical structure, a first tenant that manages management information to be transferred between tenants and a second tenant to serve as a transfer destination are designated. Second management information, of the management information managed by the first tenant, that is shared with another tenant is specified in accordance with a sharing relationship for the second management information. Of the management information managed by the first tenant, third management information except for the specified second management information is transferred to the second tenant. The sharing relationship for the specified second management information is changed to a sharing relationship in which the second management information is shared between the second tenant and a tenant in a level above or below the second tenant in accordance with a new hierarchical structure formed after the transfer.
US09769260B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for cross-system storage management for transferring data across autonomous information management systems. Data may be transferred from one information management system to another information management system without interfering with or overriding each system's autonomy. For example, a secondary copy of production data (e.g., backed up data) is transferred from a first information management system that originated the data to a component of another “foreign” information management system. A first storage manager that manages the first information management system also manages the cross-system data transfer operation to a “foreign” client computing device, which remains under autonomous management as a component of the foreign information management system.
US09769256B2

Some embodiments provide a system for interacting with a web browser. During operation, the system establishes a network connection with the web browser from a portable electronic device. Next, the system provides data to the web browser using a web server on the portable electronic device. Finally, the system sends a set of control instructions from the web server to the web browser, wherein the control instructions direct the web browser to obtain and display the data.
US09769255B2

Apparatuses and methods for distributing and/or receiving buffer content advertisements continuously to and/or from a plurality of neighboring peer apparatuses joined in a network are described. The buffer content advertisements identify the stored packets of data in a packet buffer. The continuously distributed and/or received buffer content advertisements may include incremental updates of content of the packet buffer piggybacked to every outgoing and/or incoming packet of data. The apparatus may determine packets of data advertised by a plurality of neighboring peers that the apparatus does not have in its packet buffer, and may request packets of data, of the advertised packets, from at least one of the plurality of neighboring peers. The apparatus may include a communication module to communicate buffer content advertisements continuously to the plurality of neighboring peers.
US09769252B2

Embodiments of the systems described herein can implement one or more visitor stitching processes. Visitor stitching can include, among other things, one or more processes by which multiple visitors that may appear distinctly independent may be merged into a new single united visitor profile due to the leveraging of one or more unique persistent identifiers.
US09769231B1

Systems and methods can operate to manage the shared network bandwidth usage for media content streams. Through the bandwidth management of an individual media content stream while taking other media content streams into account a media stream server can achieve a stable bit rate across all streams to improve the quality of experience (QoE) of media content streams displayed at client devices.
US09769229B2

An information processing apparatus capable of simultaneously executing a reproduction function of content data and a communication function with an external apparatus includes a reproduction section configured to execute the reproduction function, a communication control section configured to execute the communication function using a communication section, an operation input allocation section configured to allocate an operation input from a first operation section to the reproduction function or the communication function, an operation input acquisition section configured to acquire an operation input from a second operation section, and a display control section configured to cause a display section to display information relating to the reproduction function or information relating to the communication function.
US09769223B2

Systems and methods for recording full quality audio and/or video from a plurality of parties, while also facilitating a real-time conversation or other interaction over low-bandwidth network links are provided. A voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) conversation, or other type of session, is facilitated between two or more parties using methods that reduce sound or video quality to achieve a low-latency connection. During the VoIP conversation, or other type of session, the audio and/or video from each party is recorded directly onto a storage medium of their respective device and stored as one or more data files. These data files can be generally unmodified, or merely lightly modified or compressed, resulting in a higher quality recording of the audio and/or video as compared to the audio and/or video that was transmitted to the other party during the session. The data files are then merged to create a final merged high-quality composite recording of the session.
US09769220B2

A control apparatus determines one of a plurality of relay devices as a representative relay device to manage a relay destination of content data in a session to be established. In response to receiving a request for starting relay of content data, from a communication terminal, the control apparatus transmits, with a request for starting relay of content data, relay device identification information for identifying the representative relay device to a relay device connected to the communication terminal, to cause the relay device to further transmit the request for starting relay of content data to the representative relay device identified with the relay device identification information of the representative relay device.
US09769219B2

A terminal management system transmits identification information for identifying a first communication terminal to one or more of a plurality of communication terminals, in response to receiving from the first communication terminal a notification that the first communication terminal is waiting to be registered as a candidate counterpart communication terminal. In response to receiving, from a second communication terminal of the one or more of the plurality of communication terminals, a request for adding the first communication terminal as a candidate counterpart communication terminal of the second communication terminal, the terminal management system stores the identification information of the first communication terminal in association with identification information of the second communication terminal to register the first communication terminal as a candidate counterpart communication terminal of the second communication terminal.
US09769217B2

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes receiving a first request from a first user equipment by a first transport layer proxy located within an access network The first request includes a request to establish a user session between the first user equipment and a remote server. The method further includes establishing a first transport layer session between the first user equipment and the first transport layer proxy, establishing a second transport layer session between the first transport layer proxy and the remote server, and establishing a first control channel between the first transport layer proxy and a transport layer function manager within a core network. The method further includes sending session state parameters associated with the first transport layer session and the second transport layer session to the transport layer function manager using the first control channel.
US09769214B2

Embodiments include providing reliable Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling for Web Real Time Communications (WebRTC) interactive flows, and related methods, systems, and computer-readable media. In one embodiment, a method for providing reliable SIP signaling for WebRTC interactive flows comprises establishing, via a stateless SIP user agent executing on a first web server, a WebRTC interactive flow between a WebRTC client executing on a computing device and a remote endpoint. The method further comprises receiving, by the WebRTC client, a call state from the stateless SIP user agent, the call state indicating a current state of the WebRTC interactive flow. The method also comprises storing, by the WebRTC client, the call state. In this manner, the call state of the WebRTC interactive flow may be accessible for restoring the WebRTC interactive flow in the event of an unexpected termination of the WebRTC client and/or the stateless SIP user agent.
US09769213B1

A system and method for secure data object management system comprising a cloud-based host environment and a local secure container. The cloud-based host environment creates a controlled digital object from a master digital object, and activates a tether associated with the controlled digital object. The tether includes an access permission, and optionally an operation permission (e.g., view, delete, store, edit, and copy) and a command (e.g., timeout, destroy). The controlled digital object is stored to an isolated storage of the secure container. The tether contents control access and manipulation of the controlled digital object. Certain conditions (e.g., timeout period reached, anomalous data access pattern detected), cause the controlled digital object to be destroyed and/or the tether to be inactivated. In accordance with applicable law, the cloud-based host environment utilizes the tether to detect, identify, and/or thwart unauthorized host environments in possession of the controlled digital object.
US09769210B2

A management entity imports information included in security policies from security devices configured to operate in accordance with respective ones of the security policies. The information is classified into security policy classifications based on commonality in the information across the security policies. The security policy classifications are displayed as selectable security policy classifications. An entry of a policy template name and selections of multiple security policy classifications are received. The security policies in the multiple selected security policy classifications are assigned to a security policy template identified by the entered policy template name.
US09769208B2

Techniques for inferring security policies from semantic attributes are provided. In one aspect, a method for building a query component executable by a processor is provided. The method includes the steps of: (a) providing subjects and permissions related to making a security policy decision, as well as a training set of permission-to-subject assignments, as inputs to the security policy query component; (b) extracting semantic attributes from natural language freeform text descriptions of the subjects and the permissions; and (c) using machine learning to build the security policy query component based on the permission-to-subject assignments in the training set and the semantic attributes extracted in step (b).
US09769207B2

A uniform wireless network service selection information exchange interface system is provided to facilitate a consistent user experience across multiple wireless networks that may have different service plan activation or service plan purchase processes. Network detection of service usage anomalies based on device-based data usage reports is provided to enable the network to determine whether an end-user device is likely operating in accordance with the established policy, or whether the end-user device may be operating fraudulently.
US09769203B2

Methods, systems, computer program products, and articles of manufacture for mitigating a network-based attack are described. A first request associated with a transaction is obtained and a tracking identifier of the first request is associated with the transaction. A count of outstanding requests associated with a user is compared to a throttling limit. If the count of outstanding requests associated with the user is greater than the throttling limit, processing of the first request may be denied.
US09769201B2

A method and system for controlling multi-tiered mitigation of cyber-attacks. The method comprises monitoring at least availability and load of each protection resource in a multi-tiered communication network, wherein each tier in the multi-tiered communication network includes a plurality of protection resources having capacity and security capabilities set according to the respective tier; for each protection resource, computing a current aggregated load metric (ALM); determining based on at least one of the computed ALM and security capabilities of a respective protection resource, if the respective protection resource assigned to a protected entity can efficiently handle a detected cyber-attack against the protected entity; and selecting at least one new protection resource to secure the protected entity, upon determining the protection resource cannot efficiently handle the detected cyber-attack, wherein the selection is based on at least one of the computed ALM and a security capabilities of the at least one protection resource.
US09769200B2

A method for detecting malware includes the steps of identifying a one or more open network connections of an electronic device, associating one or more executable objects on the electronic device with the one or more open network connections of the electronic device, determining the address of a first network destination that is connected to the open network connections of the electronic device, receiving an evaluation of the first network destination, and identifying one or more of the executable objects as malware executable objects. The evaluation includes an indication that the first network destination is associated with malware. The malware executable objects includes the executable objects that are associated with the open network connections that are connected to the first network destination.
US09769194B2

Implementations of accessible content reputation lookup are described. In one implementation, before a user activates a link in a document, such as a hyperlink on a webpage, the user can designate the link. For example, the user can float a cursor over the link or interact with an icon placed proximate to the link. By designating the link, the user can request reputation information associated with the link, including information as to whether or not content associated with the link, an application used to access the content, and/or source(s) on which the content resides, are known to be dangerous or risky. If the reputation information indicates that the link is safe to activate, the user can activate the link and access the content. Alternately, if the reputation information indicates that the link is unsafe to access, the user can choose to forego activation of the link.
US09769189B2

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for behavior-based automated malware analysis and classification. Aspects relate to platforms and techniques which access a set of samples of malware, and extract or capture a set of low-level behavioral artifacts produced by those samples. The low-level artifacts can be used to organize or identify a set of features, based upon which the sample can be classified and/or clustered into different labels, groups, or categories. The artifacts and/or features can be analyzed by one or more selectable algorithms, whose accuracy, efficiency, and other characteristics can be compared to one another for purposes of performing a classification or clustering task. The algorithm(s) can be selected by a user to achieve desired run times, accuracy levels, and/or other effects.
US09769186B2

Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to monitor network traffic to and from a device, compare the monitored network traffic to characteristics of the device to determine if the monitored traffic is outside the characteristics of the device, and take remedial action if the monitored traffic is outside the characteristics of the device.
US09769184B2

A method and system for discovering inappropriate and/or illegitimate use of Web page content, comprising: monitoring access to a first Web page by a user; comparing information from the first Web page to information from a second known legitimate Web page; and determining whether the first Web page is legitimate based on the compared information.
US09769180B2

Methods, apparatus, systems, and computer program products are disclosed for sharing data of an online social network. In some implementations, a selection of data of an information feed is received. The information feed includes a plurality of feed items configured to be stored on one or more storage mediums and capable of being displayed in a presentation on a display device. The selected data includes at least a portion of one or more of the feed items. A first network communication including the selected data is generated. The generated first network communication is sent to a designated network address via a network.
US09769179B2

A user credential comprising a user password and a one-time password (OTP) may be provided to access a computing system. The user password is authenticated and the network connection status of the computing system is determined. If the computing system is offline, the user password and the OTP are stored in memory and the user is granted a first level of access to the computing system. Upon detecting that the network connection status of the computing system has changed to online, the user password and the OTP are provided to an authentication server for authentication. If the authentication of the user password and the OTP is successful, the user is granted a second level of access to the computing system, the second level of access being higher than the first level of access.
US09769177B2

A method for controlling access to a plurality of computing resources in a distributed computing environment can comprise the steps of: an application role server, responsive to receiving a certificate request, authenticating the requester and issuing a digital certificate to the requester; an access control node, responsive to receiving a resource access request, granting access to the computing resource to the requester upon ascertaining the requestor's access privileges, or forwarding the resource access request to another access control node.
US09769173B1

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for allowing users to access information from a plurality of external systems utilizing a user interface. In use, a plurality of external systems with which to communicate are identified. Additionally, a connection type associated with each of the plurality of external systems is identified. Further, information associated with each of the plurality of external systems to access is identified. In addition, a plurality of logical modules are configured based on the identified information. Furthermore, user groups are identified for each of the plurality of logical modules. Moreover, access levels associated with each of the plurality of logical modules are defined for each of the identified user groups.
US09769167B2

A method includes authenticating a user of a client device and sending a response to the client device. The response includes browser code configured to retrieve respective first values for a plurality of device properties from the client device. The method also includes storing session information for the user in a memory. The session information includes the first values and criteria for triggering validation of the client device. The method further includes receiving a request, sent from a requesting device, to access a protected resource and determining whether the request is authenticated by determining that the request is associated with the session information and determining that the criteria has been met. Determining whether the request is authenticated also includes retrieving respective second values for the plurality of device properties from the requesting device, and determining whether the second values match the first values to authenticate the request.
US09769166B1

A system, method and computer program product for real-time recognition of individuals. The method comprises: receiving at a hardware processor, a first sensor data associated with the individual. The first sensor data associated with the individual is processed to determine an activity the individual is currently engaged in. Additionally, a second sensor data associated with the individual is received and processed to determine a feature associated with a muscle of said individual while engaged in activity. Based on the received sensor data and determined activity and muscle features, the method generates a model that correlates determined activities and corresponding muscle features of the individual user with the individual's identity. The model is subsequently used to identify the individual. By receiving and inputting real-time, sensor data from an individual into said generated model, the model generates and determines: an activity and a muscle feature for use in identifying the individual.
US09769158B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide an automated process for enrolling and logging in with a token. In particular, a security client detects when the user has inserted their token. In response, the security client then notifies the enterprise security system and provides information about the token. The enterprise security system performs a profile lookup and authorizes use of the token.
US09769154B2

The present invention relates to a passcode operating system, to a passcode apparatus, and to a super-passcode generating method, which are capable of protecting user authentication information from external hacking. The passcode apparatus of the present invention comprises: one or more processors; a memory; and one or more programs stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors. The program includes: a data safekeeping module for storing user-specific passcode data; an input window module for displaying an input window on which multiple icons are arranged; and a passcode-generating module for checking, when icons are selected through the input window module, the character string corresponding to each selected icon on a virtual keyboard contained in the passcode data, generating a seed passcode in which the checked character strings are combined, and generating a super-passcode for each website using the seed passcode and a site code.
US09769148B2

A proxy server receives a synchronization request from an application program resident on a user device. The proxy server determines that the user device requires removal of application program data and synchronizes the application program resident on the user device with a null account that is associated with application program.
US09769144B2

A method for logging of a remote control session, for use in a remote control system comprising a session initiator operable to initiate a remote control session having a session identifier between a first computer and a second computer and a generator for generating a secure data structure comprising a data structure identifier, the method comprising the steps of: in response to generation by the generator of the secure data structure, initiating an associated first remote control session having a first session identifier; capturing data associated with a remote control function executable by a first computer for control of the second computer during the remote control session; obtaining the data structure identifier; and using the data structure identifier and the first session identifier to store the captured data in the secure data structure associated with the remote control session.
US09769143B2

Example methods and systems for content-based association of a device to a user are presented. In an example method, data corresponding to each of a plurality of items of content stored within a user device are accessed. A device identifier for the user device is generated based on the data. The device identifier is transmitted from the user device to a service device to associate the user device with a user.
US09769137B2

An extensible mechanism for providing access control for logical objects in a network environment. A security broker is able to dynamically register one or more claims providers, each of which can assert one or more claims about logical objects. The claims providers may be purpose built or may be third party applications which expose data or business rules for use. Claims may be augmented by additional claims providers after the original claim is asserted. The applicability of claims may be scope limited either at the time the claims provider is registered or when the user requests that a security token be issued.
US09769132B2

A control system which protects a control program securely and improves a convenience for a particular user in reading and writing an execution-use control program from and into a PLC. The control system includes: a controller which controls a production apparatus; a development-use computer which converts a control program that describes control of the production apparatus, into the execution-use control program that can be executed by the controller, and encrypts the execution-use control program converted, thus generating an edit-use key for editing and an execution-use key for execution; and a management server which manages information on the user. The development-use computer registers the edit-use key in a user management table of the management server, and transmits the execution-use key and the execution-use control program to the controller.
US09769131B1

An example method includes receiving an indication of a selection of a first application environment that includes a first virtual environment associated with a first security domain and is configured to isolate execution of software applications within the first application environment, suspending execution of a second application environment that includes a second virtual environment associated with a second security domain different from the first security domain, initiating execution of the first application environment, identifying information associated with the first security domain and provided by the first application environment that is to be sent to an external computing device associated with the first security domain, selecting communication network(s) from one or more communication networks that are each available to the mobile computing device for data communication, encrypting, based on the first security domain and network(s), the information, and sending, to the external computing device via the network(s), the encrypted information.
US09769127B2

Systems and methods for a smart card accessible over a personal area network (PAN). An example method may include: communicatively coupling a device to the PAN, storing a digital certificate that identifies a user, logging the user on to an additional device within the PAN, and providing an encryption service for the additional device, by: receiving a message to be encrypted, encrypting the message, sending the encrypted message to the additional device via the PAN, receiving an encrypted version of an additional message, decrypting the additional message using the private key associated with the user to produce an unencrypted version of the additional message, and sending the unencrypted version of the additional message to the additional device via the PAN.
US09769115B2

Systems and methods for increasing layer 2 visibility of layer 3 network devices so as to facilitate implementation of device-oriented policy actions by layer 3 network devices are provided. According to one embodiment, unique physical addresses of one or more host devices are retrieved by a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) agent that is operatively coupled with a DHCP server. The physical addresses are mapped to corresponding Internet Protocol (IP) addresses assigned by the DHCP server to the one or more host devices. The mapping is relayed directly or indirectly to a network security device. Network traffic management/security policies are defined within the network security device corresponding to at least one of the unique physical addresses.
US09769113B1

Systems and methods for assigning unique network identifiers in a packet-switched wireless network are provided. A request for a unique network identifier for a wireless device is received. A socket-based unique network identifier, including an IP address and one or more ports, is assigned to the wireless device. The unique network identifier is created by combining an IP address and one or more ports. This allows multiple unique network identifiers to be created from a single IP address, where each unique network identifier consists of the same IP address combined with a different group of one or more ports.
US09769112B2

A method of operating a hypercube network of processing devices includes determining that a plurality of the processing devices are storing data to be processed at a single processing device, obtaining the addresses of the plurality of processing devices storing the data to be processed, determining the most common number for each digit of the addresses of the plurality of processing devices storing the data to be processed, generating a new address comprising the determined most common number for each digit, and transferring the data to be processed to the processing device with the generated new address.
US09769107B2

Techniques for lifestyle-based social groups are described. A user device can learn movement patterns of the user device. Based on the movement pattern, and a user activity history, a computer system can determine a lifestyle of a user, or a meaning of a location. The system can create a social group based on the lifestyle and the meaning of location. The system can designate the lifestyle or meaning as a theme of the social group. The social group can be an ad hoc social network. For example, the social group can be created without an explicit user request, can be anonymous, and can be lifestyle and location based.
US09769105B2

In an implementation, a selection of a program is received by a computing device. The program is associated with a duration of time. In response to the selection, a plurality of messages is retrieved by the computing device. Each message is associated with a time during the duration of time. Playback of the selected program is caused by the computing device on a display associated with the computing device. One or more of the retrieved plurality of messages are presented on the display at the times associated with the messages during the duration of time associated with the program by the computing device.
US09769101B2

A message or system may receive a message, and may determine contents and metadata associated with the message. The contents and metadata may be used to identify another user device, such as a device located at a different entity. A notification message or a copy of the message may be forward to the other device. The copy may be formatted to be compatible with the other device. The notification message or the copy of the message may be forwarded to the other device. Additionally, an interface may be forwarded to the other device to enable the other device to access data regarding the message or other messages.
US09769098B1

Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for analyzing behavior of Internet forum participants. Various embodiments comprise receiving or retrieving information or data of a particular post of interest and other information or data relating to the first post or the Internet forum; analyzing the data or information received or retrieved to determine the behavior of the user who initiated or created the post; determining whether the particular post is of interest; and determining user behavior patterns. Some embodiments may also comprise determining or identifying one or more actions for the behavior of the user or determining or predicting likely effects of the particular post on the Internet forum. In some embodiments, the method or the system presents a report or recommendation to a moderation team for review, approval, or decision.
US09769095B2

A method, computer program product, and computer system for defining, at a first computing device, at least a portion of a display area associated with the first computing device. A specialized communication from a second computing device is received at the first computing device. The specialized communication is rendered at the first computing device in at least the portion of the display area. Use of an application within at least the portion of the display is prevented at least while the specialized communication is accessed.
US09769090B2

Novel system and methodology for adjusting a current limit threshold in a Power over Ethernet (PoE) system in accordance with requirements of a Powered Device (PD). A system for supplying power to a PD over a communications link has a requirement determining circuit for determining a PD's requirement, and a control circuit for setting a parameter restricting an output signal of the PSE in accordance with the determined PD's requirement. The control circuit may set a current limit threshold of the PSE and/or the PD in accordance with the determined PD's requirement, such as a power requirement.
US09769078B2

In one embodiment, a next set of packets in a first flow may be identified. A counter may be incremented, where the counter indicates a first number of initial sets of packets in first flow that have been identified. The identified next set of packets may be prioritized such that the first number of initial sets of packets in the first flow are prioritized and a sequential order of all packets in the first flow is maintained. The identifying, incrementing, and prioritizing may be repeated until no further sets of packets in the first flow remain to be identified or the first number of initial sets of packets is equal to a first predefined number.
US09769067B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a Multiprotocol Label Switching traffic engineering tunnel establishing method and device. A tunnel establishing method includes: receiving, by a second routing device, an identifier, which is sent by a first routing device, of an MPLS TE tunnel from a first VPN instance to a second VPN instance; acquiring, by the second routing device according to the identifier, path information of the MPLS TE tunnel from the first VPN instance to the second VPN instance; and establishing an MPLS TE tunnel from the second VPN instance to the first VPN instance according to the acquired path information. Therefore, forward and reverse bidirectional tunnels are co-routed or partially co-routed, thereby solving a problem caused by non-co-routing during BFD.
US09769066B2

A label switched path (LSP) establishing method that includes receiving a first path message from a network node outside of a topology-transparent zone (TTZ) along a path for the LSP, computing a TTZ path through the TTZ from the network component to an egress TTZ edge node along the LSP, sending a second path message to a TTZ internal node along the TTZ path, receiving a first reservation (RESV) message from the TTZ internal node that includes a label allocated for the egress TTZ edge node, and sending a second RESV message that includes a label allocated for the network component and the label allocated for the egress TTZ edge node to the network node.
US09769063B2

A wireless mesh network includes mesh access points (mesh APs) and a root access point (RAP) forming a root of a tree of the mesh APs in which the mesh APs are linked back to the RAP through parent-child relationships over wireless backhaul links. A mesh AP provides access to the mesh network via connections to wireless clients in one or more wireless local area networks (WLANs) served by the mesh AP. The mesh AP stores mappings between the one or more WLANs served by the mesh AP and one or more virtual local area networks (VLANs) configured on a wired network and to which the WLANs are assigned. The mesh AP receives mappings between the VLANs configured on the wired network and WLANs served by the mesh AP as known by the RAP. If the stored mappings and the received mappings differ, the mesh AP updates the stored mappings with the received mappings that differ from the stored mappings.
US09769055B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for generating a route entry, including: receiving, by a first BGP speaker, a first route message and a second route message that are distributed respectively by a second BGP speaker by using a first distribution path and a second distribution path; determining, by the first BGP speaker, that a quantity of next hops in a first next hop list attribute is less than a quantity of next hops in a second next hop list attribute; and generating, by the first BGP speaker, a route entry according to path attributes, of a path towards a destination, in the first route message. In addition, the embodiments of the present disclosure further provide a first BGP speaker. The foregoing technical solution helps reduce a workload in configuring route preference policies.
US09769052B2

Implementations provide for a system testing framework for computer systems. A method of the disclosure includes building representations of resources of a product to be tested, the resources built from source code of the product and revisions to the source code, initializing, on a single computing device, virtual resources from the representations, installing software of the product on the initialized virtual resources, saving a clean state of the initialized virtual resources and of the installed product on the initialized virtual resources, causing a test scenario to be performed on the installed software of the product executing on the virtual resources, and reverting the virtual resources and the installed software of the product to the clean state.
US09769045B2

A kit for modifying a preformed swimming pool, including a fluidic access port for positioning through a preformed swimming pool body, a first conduit for fluidically connecting to the fluidic access port and extending away from the preformed swimming pool body, a first hydrostatic valve defining a hydrostatic fluid inlet and a hydrostatic fluid outlet and connectable in fluidic communication with the first conduit for passing water from the hydrostatic fluid outlet into the first conduit and through the fluidic access port, a second conduit connectable in fluidic communication with the first conduit and with the hydrostatic valve outlet, and a third conduit connectable in fluidic communication with the hydrostatic fluid inlet, wherein the third conduit is water permeable.
US09769040B2

There is provided a monitoring apparatus including a monitoring unit that monitors an operating situation of nodes over a network based on a predetermined monitoring parameter, a memory that records the operating situation monitored by the monitoring unit, and a changing unit that changes the monitoring parameters based on a past operating situation recorded by the memory.
US09769035B2

Systems and methods for scoring a domain including analyzing counter data and information obtained from a web site associated with the domain. Methods may include receiving requests to resolve the domain at an authoritative domain resolution server. A counter may be incremented for the domain based on the received requests. Information may be obtained from a web page associated with the domain. For example, obtaining information from the web page may include obtaining quantitative, qualitative, and/or functional information from the web page, such as link information, a status of network links corresponding to the link information, and associated ratios. The status of link information may include searching for functional details and/or results, such as, domain redirections, domain errors, mirror content, and commonly linked sites. A score may be calculated for the domain based upon the counter data and the information obtained from the web page associated with the domain.
US09769031B2

A device may obtain first information related to a digital service that may identify a digital path. The digital path may include digital nodes and optical links, of an optical network, to provide the digital service. The device may determine second information based on the first information. The second information may describe a relationship between one or more digital services and one or more digital paths. The device may provide a graphical representation, via a user interface, of the one or more digital paths. The device may provide the second information in relation to the graphical representation. The device may detect a user interaction with the graphical representation. The user interaction may relate to one or more of the digital services and/or one or more of the digital paths. The device may cause the digital nodes and/or the optical links to be configured.
US09769022B2

A mechanism is provided for updating a timeout value of an application in a computer system. Hardware and software configuration data of the remote computing device is determined. A local computing device in the server system is provided in accordance with the determined hardware and software configuration data. An application on the local computing device is executed for determining the execution time of the application. An echo request packet is sent to the remote computing device. A current network time delay is determined from the elapsed time between sending and receiving a response to the echo request packet from the remote computing device. The timeout value from the current network time delay and the execution time is calculated. The sending, determining, and calculating steps are repeated during execution of the application by the remote computing device for repeatedly updating the timeout value using the calculated timeout value.
US09769009B2

The invention relates to a method and system of service preparation of a residential network access device from one or more remote provisioning devices to prepare said residential network access device to receive a network service over a communications network. The method comprises the steps of receiving a line identifier indicating a physical line used by said residential network access device to connect to said communication network; transmitting an IP address from said one or more provisioning devices to said residential network access device for which said line identifier has been received, said IP address being a source address for said residential network access device, and transmitting software code portions to said IP address of said residential network access device, said software code portions being required for receiving said network service.
US09769001B2

A technique for de-mapping a point in a constellation diagram into a bit sequence is presented. The de-mapping provides for each bit of the bit sequence an output value with a sign of the output value indicating a bit value and a magnitude of the output value indicating probability information in the form of a distance to a decision boundary in the constellation diagram. A method aspect of the technique presented herein comprises receiving a signal indicative of a constellation point, wherein the constellation point represents a bit sequence having a most significant bit and at least one next significant bit, deriving a first output value for the most significant bit based on a first decision boundary, receiving a priori information, and deriving a second output value for the next significant bit based on the first output value, the a priori information and a second decision boundary.
US09768995B2

A broadcast signal transmitter is disclosed. A broadcast signal transmitter according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises an input formatting module performing baseband formatting and outputting at least one Physical Layer Pipe (PLP) data; a BICM module error-correction processing the PLP data; a framing & interleaving module interleaving the PLP data and generating a signal frame; and a waveform generating module inserting a preamble into the signal frame and generating a broadcast signal by performing OFDM modulation.
US09768994B2

A method for generating a variable-band modulated signal (x) where the modulating digital signal (X) of the modulated signal (x) includes at least one component (C, S, P); the digital information (r) about the variable band is repeatedly or periodically superimposed on the at least one component (C, S, P) or on the modulating signal (X). While processing the received modulated signal (x″), the modulated digital signal (X″) is extracted, the superimposed digital information (r) is obtained, and the extracted digital information (r) is used to determine the band of the modulated signal (x″) and to complete the demodulation and decoding of the modulated signal (x″).
US09768989B2

A simplified but accurate soft-symbol determination process represents one of the advantages provided by the example embodiments disclosed herein. In this regard, a mapping function “maps” symbol estimates to corresponding soft symbol values, which may be used in interference mitigation, joint detection processing, etc. Whether the mapping function is implemented on-the-fly as a live calculation or is embodied in a look-up table, it advantageously operates on the symbol estimates directly, rather than requiring the derivation of corresponding soft bit values or the like, and it maps each symbol estimate to its “expected value,” i.e., the weighted sum of constellation point probabilities. Moreover, the mapping function may be changed dynamically—e.g., by using different look-up tables—to account for changing reception conditions and/or different modulation schemes or other signal parameters associated with the symbols being estimated and mapped to soft symbol values.
US09768985B2

An apparatus includes an antenna that is configured to transmit a radio frequency signal across a transmission media having a channel response impairment. A transmission path includes an encoder circuit that encodes data on a carrier signal; and a pre-equalizer circuit that is configured to pre-distort the encoded data according to equalizer coefficients representing the channel response impairment. A first equalization path includes circuitry that generates the equalizer coefficients based upon transients resulting from a presence change event for the carrier signal. A second equalization path includes circuitry that generates the equalizer coefficients based upon knowledge of encoded data on the carrier signal. Selection circuitry selects between the first equalization path and the second equalization path.
US09768978B2

A method and system for providing pulsed power and data from a main control unit to slave units via a first bus. The main control unit has an AC signal generator for providing a plurality of first pulses (P1) on the bus for providing the power to the slave units. Each slave unit is AC-coupled to the bus via a first series capacitor arranged for converting the first pulses (P1) into second pulses (P2). Data communication from the main control unit to the slave units is established by modulating the first pulses (P1), and by demodulating the second pulses (P2). The modulation may be based on Pulse Position Modulation, Pulse Width Modulation, Pulse Count Modulation, Pulse Amplitude modulation. Zero, one or more bits may be communicated per first pulse. Optionally the slave units may communicate to the main control unit via a second bus.
US09768962B2

The subject disclosure is directed towards credential verification for accessing a service provider. A user may prove to the service provider the validity of the credential by communicating a non-revocation component that is based upon a prime-order cryptographic group without a bilinear pairing. In order to authenticate the user, a verification mechanism within an identity management system applies private cryptographic data, including a verifier-designated private key to the non-revocation component, which proves that the user's identity and therefore, the credential is not revoked. The presentation proof includes a hash value that is computed using the credential's commitment and the prime-order cryptographic group. By verifying that the hash value was computed using that commitment, the verification mechanism validates the credential and permits access to the service provider.
US09768961B2

A method and apparatus including units configured to send a request from a first network entity to a user equipment for an identifier and receive a message indicating that a public key is required from the user equipment by the first network entity. The method and apparatus also includes units configured to send, by the first network entity, the public key to the user equipment and receive an encrypted identifier by the first network entity, wherein upon authenticating the public key, the user equipment encrypts at least part of the identifier using the public key, thereby enabling further processing between the network entity and the user equipment.
US09768956B2

Methods and systems for facilitating communications between a vehicle and a service provider are provided. A first address of a vehicle communication device and a second address of a service provider communication device are obtained at a remote location that is remote to both the vehicle and the service provider. A set of keys, including a first key and a second key, is generated at the remote server. The first key is for use by the vehicle in establishing communications with the service provider, and the second key is for use by the service provider in establishing communications with the vehicle. The first key is provided to the vehicle, and the second key is provided to the service provider.
US09768953B2

A processor-based method for secret sharing in a computing system is provided. The method includes encrypting shares of a new secret, using a previous secret and distributing unencrypted shares of the new secret and the encrypted shares of the new secret, to members of the computing system. The method includes decrypting at least a subset of the encrypted shares of the new secret, using the previous secret and regenerating the new secret from at least a subset of a combination of the unencrypted shares of the new secret and the decrypted shares of the new secret.
US09768949B2

A hybrid numeric-analog clock synchronizer, for establishing a clock or carrier locked to a timing reference. The clock may include a framing component. The reference may have a low update rate. The synchronizer achieves high jitter rejection, low phase noise and wide frequency range. It can be integrated on chip. It may comprise a numeric time-locked loop (TLL) with an analog phase-locked loop (PLL). Moreover a high-performance number-controlled oscillator (NCO), for creating an event clock from a master clock according to a period control signal. It processes edge times rather than period values, allowing direct control of the spectrum and peak amplitude of the justification jitter. Moreover a combined clock-and-frame asynchrony detector, for measuring the phase or time offset between composite signals. It responds e.g. to event clocks and frame syncs, enabling frame locking with loop bandwidths greater than the frame rate.
US09768938B2

A communication method of a terminal apparatus that performs communications with a base station using a plurality of frequency channels, comprising the steps of: measuring reception quality; selecting part of frequency channels as selection channels from the plurality of frequency channels; generating first information for specifying the selection channels, second information indicating reception quality of the selection channels, and third information indicating one reception quality of whole of the plurality of frequency channels, and transmitting each of the first, second and third information to the base station, wherein the second information indicating the reception quality is information for specifying at least one of a modulation scheme and a coding rate.
US09768936B2

A method includes transmitting, at an access point configured to transmit data over an unlicensed band, a message to user equipment. The user equipment transmits to the access point an acknowledgement message indicating whether data provided within the message was successfully received in response to the message. The method further includes determining, at the access point, whether a buffer associated with the user equipment is empty. The method further includes retransmitting, from the access point to the user equipment, the message in response to determining the buffer of the user equipment is empty.
US09768934B2

A base station includes a transmit path circuitry to transmit DL grant, data streams, and a control signal to configure a number of uplink transmit antenna ports PUCCH to a subscriber station. The base station also includes a receive path circuitry to receive ACK/NACK modulation in response to the data streams. If the subscriber station is configured to transmit ACK/NACK using one uplink transmit antenna port and channel selection with PUCCH format 1B, a modulation symbol is transmitted on one (PUCCH) i determined based at least partly upon a channel selection mapping table. If the subscriber station is configured to transmit ACK/NACK using two uplink transmit antenna ports and channel selection with PUCCH format 1B, the ACK/NACK modulation symbol is transmitted on two PUCCHs.
US09768928B1

A device comprises a memory that stores instructions executed by one or more processors to obtain a plurality of received signals transmitted by a user equipment from a plurality of antenna elements in a cellular network. A plurality of complex channel values are calculated in an angle domain for a horizontal arrival angle and a vertical arrival angle per a received ray in a plurality of received rays in response to the plurality of received signals. A frequency-offset estimation is calculated and applied to the plurality of complex channel values. The plurality of offset complex channel values are transformed to a plurality of channel values in a time domain. A time-offset estimation is calculated and applied to the plurality of channel values. An expected value of the plurality of channel values is obtained to obtain a power angle delay profile for the geographical location of the user equipment.
US09768926B2

Disclosed is a method for receiving control information, one embodiment of the present invention, in which a terminal receives control information by means of an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) in a wireless communication system, comprising the steps of: estimating a channel in subframe N, and blind-decoding on the basis of the result of the channel estimation; and blind-decoding in subframe N+L (L>=1), wherein, if subframe N and subframe N+L are included in a single subframe bundling group (SBG), then the reference signal associated with the channel estimation in subframe N is also used for the channel estimation for blind-decoding in subframe N+L.
US09768922B2

Disclosed are a communication system, a base station apparatus, a mobile station apparatus, and a method for communication, which facilitate efficient administration of information for settings maintained by base station apparatuses and mobile station apparatuses in a system involving a plurality of component carriers. A mobile communications system including the base station apparatus and the mobile station apparatus administers the system information of one or more component carriers possessing select spectrum width from the system spectrum. When a component carrier is added to the mobile station apparatus, the system applies the system information belonging to the component carriers already connected to the system to the component carrier added thereto.
US09768919B2

Provided is a terminal device with which deterioration in hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmission performance can be inhibited by continuing a downlink (DL) HARQ process for DL data before and after changing the uplink link-DL configuration. In this device, a decoder stores, in a retransmission buffer, DL data transmitted from a base station, and decodes the DL data, and a wireless transmitter transmits a response signal generated using a DL-data-error detection result. A soft buffer is partitioned into a plurality of regions for each retransmission process on the basis of the highest values among retransmission process numbers respectively stated in a plurality of configuration patterns which can be set in the terminal.
US09768917B2

A communication control method to be executed by a communication device, includes: transmitting, to one or more communication devices coupled to the communication device, a packet in which a destination is set; and determining, based on the number of paths that are among paths extending through the one or more communication devices to the destination and through which a response to the packet is received from the destination, the number of times of retransmission in the transmission of another packet to the destination.
US09768916B2

A method for detecting a signal by a signal receiving apparatus is provided. The method includes detecting a part of block diagonal matrices included in a diagonal matrix based on at least one channel impulse response (CIR) for a received signal, detecting remaining block diagonal matrices excluding the part of block diagonal matrices from among block diagonal matrices included in the diagonal matrix, estimating modulation symbols from the received signal based on the diagonal matrix, generating a block diagonal matrix by multiplying one of second matrices included in a first matrix, which is generated by applying a circular extension scheme to a fourth matrix including third matrices, by a fast Fourier transform (FFT) matrix, generating a third matrix for one of the estimated modulation symbols, the third matrix includes vectors for channelization codes, and generating a vector based on the channelization codes or the at least one CIR.
US09768912B2

A process capable of employing compression and decompression mechanism to receive and decode soft information is disclosed. The process, in one aspect, is able to receive a data stream formatted with soft information from a communication network such as a wireless network. After identifying a set of bits representing a first logic value from a portion of the data stream in accordance with a predefined soft encoding scheme, the set of bits is compressed into a compressed set of bits. The compressed set of bits which represents the first logic value is subsequently stored in a local memory.
US09768909B2

In at least one aspect, a device for Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) based optical communication includes a first spatial light modulator configured to down-convert a first plurality of higher-order OAM modes from a communication signal to a second plurality of higher-order OAM modes and a first Gaussian mode, a second spatial light modulator configured to drop the first Gaussian mode and add a second Gaussian mode to the second plurality of higher-order OAM modes, and a third spatial light modulator configured to up-convert the second plurality of higher-order OAM modes and the second Gaussian mode to a third plurality of higher-order OAM modes for further communications.
US09768902B2

Systems and methods to control optical signals in a spectrally overlapped, flexible grid spectrum system include receiving measured power within a control bandwidth for an optical signal, wherein the control bandwidth is less than a spectral occupancy of the optical signal and equal to or greater than a resolution bandwidth of a measurement device configured to measure the measured power; and controlling the optical signal based on the measured power and a target power within the control bandwidth. The optical signals can include Nyquist spaced or super Nyquist spaced signals in a media-channel.
US09768895B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a multipath time delay estimation apparatus and method and a receiver. Time delay is divided into at least two subzones according to cross-correlation values of the transmission signal and the received signal, and time delay estimation is performed on each path in each subzone respectively, thereby efficiently improving resolution of the time delay estimation. And in performing time delay estimation on each path in each subzone, cross-correlation values of other subzones are set to be predefined values, so as to lower influence of strong paths of other subzones on the time delay estimation on each path in the current subzone, thereby efficiently improving accuracy of time delay estimation of weak paths.
US09768883B2

An optical receiver includes an equalizer to generate a plurality of equalization coefficients corresponding to a plurality of frequencies of an optical signal received by the optical receiver. The equalizer zeroes out a first subset of the equalization coefficients corresponding to a first subset of the plurality of frequency components and applies a second subset of non-zero equalization coefficients to the first signal. The optical receiver may also include a chromatic dispersion compensator to generate inverse chromatic dispersion coefficients corresponding to the plurality of frequency components, and to zero out a first subset of the inverse chromatic dispersion coefficients corresponding to the first subset of the plurality of frequency components and further to apply a second subset of non-zero inverse chromatic dispersion coefficients to a second optical signal.
US09768879B2

A transmission device includes: a plurality of modulators that respectively generate multicarrier signals from given data; a distributor that distributes input data to the modulators; an optical circuit that multiplexes the multicarrier signals to generate a WDM optical signal; and a controller that obtains allocation information from a receiver of the WDM optical signal and generates a distribution instruction to control the distributor and a bit allocation instruction to control the modulators according to the allocation information. The allocation information is calculated based on transmission characteristics of each subcarrier of the respective multicarrier signals and the allocation information indicates a number of bits of data allocated to each of the subcarriers. The distributor distributes the input data to the modulators according to the distribution instruction. The modulators respectively allocate data distributed from the distributor to the subcarriers according to the bit allocation instruction to generate the multicarrier signals.
US09768875B2

A method of transmitting a data signal using an optical transmitter of an optical communications system. The optical transmitter is configured to modulate an optical carrier in successive signalling intervals to generate an optical signal. A modulation scheme is provided which comprises a multi-dimensional symbol constellation. The modulation scheme is designed such that an average degree of polarization of a modulated optical signal output from the optical transmitter has a first value when averaged across a first signalling interval, and has a second value when averaged across more than one and fewer than 100 signalling intervals. The second value is less than 10 percent of the first value. During run-time, an encoder of the optical transmitter encoding a data signal to be transmitted as symbols of the constellation, and a modulator of the optical transmitter modulating available dimensions of the optical carrier in accordance with the symbols.
US09768865B2

An optical system includes an optical transmitter and a controller that determines a particular wavelength for a channel of the optical transmitter. The controller causes the optical transmitter to transmit a first optical signal with a first data sequence that is determined based on the particular wavelength, and determines a first optical power that is generated based on the first optical signal and the first data sequence. The controller causes the optical transmitter to transmit a second optical signal with a second data sequence that is determined based on the particular wavelength, and determines a second optical power that is generated based on the second optical signal and the second data sequence. The controller calculates a power difference between the first optical power and the second optical power, and causes the particular wavelength for the channel to be modified based on the calculated power difference.
US09768864B2

Embodiments of the invention include a phase adjustor for adjusting a phase angle of a local oscillator relative to a phase angle of a signal input of a Device Under Test (DUT). Some embodiments include a laser source for a lightwave component analyzer and an optical phase adjustor. The lightwave component analyzer drives a first test input to the DUT. An output of the DUT drives an output of the optical phase adjustor adapted to couple to an oscillator input to the DUT. A monitor selector is also included that accepts at least two outputs of the DUT and is structured to transmit a selected output of the DUT to the phase adjust driver. The phase adjust driver is structured to drive the optical phase adjustor with a control signal based on the output of the DUT that is selected by the monitor selector.
US09768860B2

A system and method for body channel communication is provided. The system includes a transceiver which encodes multiple bits per symbol when operating in a high data rate mode by selecting a first Walsh code in response to a first set of multiple bits of data and selecting a second Walsh code in response to a second set of multiple bits of data, both Walsh codes selected from a multiple-bit Walsh code sequence. The transceiver also generates a multi-level transmission signal having a predetermined symbol frequency by stacking the first Walsh code onto the second Walsh code, and transmits the multi-level signal having the first predetermined symbol frequency through the body channel. The transceiver also has additional modes of operation which include a normal mode and a low power mode, the low power mode decoding the multiple bits from the signal in response to harmonic energy from a harmonic frequency generated by the multiple-bit Walsh code sequence. Also, the transceiver modulates an M-Sequence code with the multi-bit Walsh code sequence up to a desired frequency band associated with the predetermined frequency in order to improve auto-correlation after passing through the body channel.
US09768859B2

Methods and systems for calibrating the return and forward links of a satellite communication system are provided according to embodiments of the invention. The phase and/or amplitude variations caused by the return and forward links are calculated and/or estimated to aid in beamforming, such as ground-based beamforming. Calibration earth stations, distributed within one or more beam patterns, may be used to transmit calibration codes to the gateway to calibrate the return link. Return links variations may be estimated using a weighted minimum mean square algorithm at the gateway. Forward links may be calibrated with calibration codes transmitted from the gateway through a hybrid matrix to at least one calibration station. Forward calibration links may also calibrate for temperature-dependent signal variations such as diplexer variations at the satellite.
US09768854B2

In some embodiments, a first RF signal is received at a wireless repeater, a signal quality is determined based on the first RF signal, the signal quality is analyzed based on a parameter, an operation mode is auto selected based on analysis of the signal quality, and a second RF signal based on the first RF signal is generated for transmission according to the selected operation mode. Under one mode, a first RAC of the wireless may generate data based on a first IF signal downconverted from a first RF signal. Based on the data, a second RAC of the wireless repeater may generate a second IF signal, which can be used to generate a second RF signal for transmission. Under another mode, the first RAC may provide the IF signal to the second RAC, which provides the IF signal for generation of the second RF signal.
US09768845B2

A method for detecting operation state of a mobile terminal to adaptively adjust antenna state, comprises: step 1, outputting a detecting result when the external object is detected to be in proximity to or contacting a predetermined location of the mobile terminal; step 2, acquiring the operation state of the mobile terminal based on the detecting result; step 3, adjusting the antenna state based on the operation state. The present invention also discloses a sensing system capable of determining the usage scenario of the mobile terminal used by users; by using a design of integrating a sensor unit to the complete device, it can correctly determine a present method and scenario of a hand-held mobile terminal being used by user, so that the adjustable antenna can make a selection for a present user scenario better, and improve the radio-frequency performance of the complete device and the user experience.
US09768843B2

Systems and methods for enabling a wireless backhaul network between access points (APs) in a wireless network are provided. In an embodiment, the wireless backhaul network is enabled using a Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) radio access technology (RAT). In another embodiment, the wireless backhaul network is established using the same RAT as used by the APs to serve user devices, and can utilize the same time and frequency resources used for user communication.
US09768836B2

A device for supplying electrical energy and/or supplying data to an electronic module, comprising a transmitting coil that has a coil axis and at least two energy receiving parts that are arranged side by side and have receiving coils, the coil axes of which run in the same direction or run parallel to the transmitting coil axis. Each of the coils is integrated in resonance circuits. The energy receiving parts supply electronics and, together with the same, are galvanically separated from one another by an insulating area of separation which is bridged by a data signal coupling line.
US09768835B2

A method is provided that establishes a communication link of a common wireless communication function between a first electronic equipment and a second electronic equipment, the first electronic equipment having a common wireless communication function to access a near field communication (NFC) tag using the second electronic equipment, the second electronic equipment having the common wireless communication function and an NFC function. The method further includes acquiring, by the second electronic equipment, data stored in the NFC tag through a close approach operation, and transmitting the data from the second electronic equipment to the first electronic equipment by using the common wireless communication function.
US09768834B2

A system, according to one embodiment, includes a first portion having a first interface configured for coupling to a cable and a second portion having a second interface configured for coupling to the cable. The first portion has circuitry configured to send a data testing signal through a data lead of the cable via the first interface, and circuitry configured to send a power signal through a power lead of the cable via the first interface. The second portion has circuitry configured to receive and analyze the data testing signal from the data lead of the cable via the second interface, and circuitry configured to receive and analyze the power signal through the power lead of the cable via the second interface.
US09768830B2

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a controller to: determine crosstalk coupling characteristics between a plurality of lines of a digital subscriber line system connected to a plurality of modems based on a transition between a full power mode and one or more other modes, and provide the determined crosstalk coupling characteristics to one or more of the plurality of modems for performance of at least one of pre-coding a transmitted signal and processing a received signal along a line of the plurality of lines, where the pre-coding and processing is performed based at least in part on the determined crosstalk coupling characteristics, and where the pre-coding of the transmitted signal and the processing of the received signal reduce effects of fluctuating crosstalk. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09768829B2

A method for processing audio signals is provided comprising outputting an audio signal; receiving the output audio signal via a first receiving path as a first received audio signal; receiving the output audio signal via a second receiving path as a second received audio signal; determining an echo suppression gain based on the first received audio signal and the second received audio signal; and filtering echo suppression of the audio signal based on the first received audio signal and the echo suppression gain.
US09768820B2

The present invention relates to a clip-type mobile terminal which can be conveniently placed on various parts of the body and other objects. The clip-type mobile terminal comprises a case defining the exterior of the mobile terminal, a display panel disposed on the front surface part of the case, and a battery disposed on the rear surface part of the case. The case comprises a first frame supporting the display panel, a second frame supporting the battery, and a connection frame connecting one side of the first frame and one side of the second frame. Here, the first frame and the second frame may be spaced apart from each other by a certain gap.
US09768814B1

An apparatus and method is disclosed with embodiments of a: 1. digital to analog and reference time converter; 2. analog and reference time to digital converter; 3. Sheahan non-linear time-varying, analog and digital control system; and 4. Sheahan Communication Channel are described in detail herein. Some embodiments use time stamp having 72 bits of time data sufficient to identify each clock pulse of a 9.192631770 GHz clock signal plus an additional 8 bits representing 28=256 interpolated clock phases in order reach a resolution of approximately 0.425 picoseconds per clock phase. Thus an 80 bit time stamp is generated and used as described herein.
US09768811B2

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a pre-distortion system, including a pre-distortion circuit, a transmission circuit, a power amplifier, a feedback circuit, and a learning circuit. The pre-distortion circuit acquires an in-band intermodulation distortion model coefficient vector, a cross-band modulation distortion model coefficient vector, and an out-of-band intermodulation distortion model coefficient vector that are learned by the learning circuit according to an output signal of the power amplifier, and performs pre-distortion processing on an input digital intermediate frequency signal. Correspondingly, the embodiments of the present invention further disclose a pre-distortion method, which can eliminate impact caused by out-of-band intermodulation distortion on the power amplifier.
US09768801B1

A method for compressing flow data, including: constructing multiple line segments according to flow data and a predefined maximum error that are acquired; obtaining a target piecewise linear function according to the multiple line segments, where the target piecewise linear function includes multiple linear functions, and an intersection set of value ranges of independent variables of every two linear functions among the multiple linear functions includes a maximum of one value; and outputting a reference data point according to the target piecewise linear function, where the reference data point includes a point of continuity and a point of discontinuity of the target piecewise linear function. In this way, a maximum error, a target piecewise linear function is further determined according to the multiple line segments, and a point of continuity and a point of discontinuity of the target piecewise linear function are used to represent compressed flow data.
US09768799B1

An analog to digital converter is provided. The analog to digital converter includes: an arithmetic operator combining an analog input signal with a feedback signal; a loop filter filtering an output signal of the arithmetic operator; a quantizer quantizing an output signal of the loop filter to output a digital signal; and a feedback converting the digital signal to output a feedback signal, in which the quantizer includes: a plurality of VCOs each receiving a positive output signal and a negative output signal of the loop filter and outputting VCO signals; a plurality of samplers receiving the VCO signals output from the plurality of VCOs, respectively and outputting sampled signals; and a phase detector detecting a phase difference in the sampled signals output from the plurality of samplers, respectively, to detect a phase difference in two VCO signals output from the plurality of VCOs, respectively.
US09768797B2

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for receivers. In one aspect there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus may include an in-phase sigma delta receiver coupled to a radio frequency input port providing at least a first carrier aggregation signal and a second carrier aggregation signal; and a quadrature phase sigma delta receiver coupled to the radio frequency input port providing at least the first carrier aggregation signal and the second aggregation signal, wherein the in-phase sigma delta receiver and the quadrature phase sigma delta receiver each include a resonator stage circuitry including at least one variable capacitor that varies notch frequencies to provide passbands for the first carrier aggregation signal and the second carrier aggregation signal. Related apparatus, systems, methods, and articles are also described.
US09768794B1

An analog-to-digital converter includes a switched capacitor circuit, an analog-to-digital conversion circuit, and a constant current circuit. The switched capacitor circuit includes first and second input terminals for a differential input, and is configured to sample an analog voltage of the differential input. The analog-to-digital conversion circuit is connected to output terminals of the switched capacitor circuit, and configured to convert the sampled analog voltage into a digital signal and output the digital signal. The constant current circuit is connected to at least one of the first and second input terminals.
US09768793B2

For continuous-time multi-stage noise shaping analog-to-digital converters (CT MASH ADCs), quantization noise cancellation often requires accurate estimation of transfer functions, e.g., a noise transfer function of the front end modulator and a signal transfer function of the back end modulator. To provide quantization noise cancellation, digital quantization noise cancellation filters adaptively tracks transfer function variations due to integrator gain errors, flash-to-DAC timing errors, as well as the inter-stage gain and timing errors. Tracking the transfer functions is performed through the direct cross-correlation between the injected maximum length linear feedback shift registers (LFSR) sequence and modulator outputs and then corrects these non-ideal effects by accurately modeling the transfer functions with programmable finite impulse response (PFIR) filters.
US09768791B2

An atomic oscillator includes a gas cell into which alkali metal atoms are sealed, a light emitting portion that emits excitation light including a pair of resonance light beams for resonating the alkali metal atoms toward the alkali metal atoms, a coil that is provided to surround an outer circumference of the gas cell with an axis of the excitation light as an axial direction, and a shield case that stores at least the gas cell and the coil and contains a metal material, in which the shield case is constituted by a plurality of tabular portions, and, among the plurality of tabular portions, a main surface of one of two adjacent tabular portions faces a side surface of the other tabular portion.
US09768789B2

The CDR (Clock Data Recovery) device may include at least one or more CDR channels configured to receive input data stream; and a global clock generator configured to provide a frequency locked clock to each of the at least one or more CDR channels, wherein each of the at least one or more CDR channels creates a reference clock signal for the global clock generator.
US09768772B1

Described are devices for automatically adapting electrical polarity from a power source to a specified output polarity for use by an electrical load. In one implementation, power adaptation circuitry comprising one or more bridge circuits accept electrical power of unspecified polarity and output specified polarity. The bridge circuit may comprise a plurality of field-effect transistors (FETs) configured such that a particular subset of the FETs are energized to conduct electric current to the outputs when a particular polarity is applied at inputs.
US09768736B2

A power amplifier cell (401) comprising: a first power amplifier (410), a second power amplifier (416) and a balun (422). The balun (422) comprising: a first transmission line (430); a second transmission line (432); a third transmission line (434); a fourth transmission line (436); and a biasing circuit (438) connected between (i) a reference terminal, and (ii) a second end of the second transmission line and a second end of the fourth transmission line.
US09768732B2

A radio frequency (RF) amplification system or transmitter includes one or more power amplifiers and a controller that is configured to adjust amplitudes and phases of RF input signals of the one or more power amplifiers and supply voltages applied to the one or more power amplifiers. The system may include a single digital-to-RF modulator and a power divider to drive multiple power amplifiers. A power combiner may also be provided to combine outputs of the power amplifiers. In at least one implementation, amplitude adjustment of the RF input signals of the one or more power amplifiers may be used to provide transmit power control and/or power backoff.
US09768727B2

An adjustable mixer is disclosed that is capable of operating in different modes in order to satisfy the mixing requirement of multiple radio access technologies (RATs). The adjustable mixer includes a LO signal generating portion and a mixing portion. Depending on the mixing requirements of the RAT, the adjustable mixer can operate in any one of multiple modes, each mode having a specific configuration for the LO signal generating portion and the mixing portion. The LO signal generating portion generates a LO signal having a particular duty cycle, depending on the selected mode, for use by the mixing portion. The mixing portion has an adjustable circuit configuration that can be dynamically reconfigured based on the selected mode, and which allows the mixing portion to successfully mix received signals using the corresponding LO signals generated by the LO signal generating portion.
US09768726B2

A magnetoresistive mixer, comprising a spiral coil, a bridge-type magnetoresistive sensor and a magnetic shielding layer, wherein the spiral coil is located between the bridge-type magnetoresistive sensor and the magnetic shielding layer. Four tunnel magnetoresistive sensor units forming the bridge-type magnetoresistive sensor respectively contain N array-type magnetic tunnel junction rows. The magnetic tunnel junction rows are connected in series, parallel, or combination of series and parallel connections to form two port structures. The four tunnel magnetoresistive sensor units are respectively located in two regions of the spiral coil having opposite current directions, sensing axes of magnetic tunnel junctions are perpendicular to the current directions, and in addition, the distribution characteristics of magnetic fields in directions of the sensing axes of the tunnel magnetoresistive sensor units to the magnetic field in the two regions are opposite, and the distribution characteristics in a single region are the same. The first frequency signal is input through the two ends of the spiral coil, the second frequency signal is input between the power and -ground ports of the bridge-type magnetoresistive sensor, and mixing signals are output through a signal output end of the bridge-type magnetoresistive sensor. The magnetoresistive mixer has the characteristics of good linearity, good input signal isolation, and low power consumption.
US09768717B2

A driver device for driving a DC motor using PWM modulated drive signals includes comparator circuits for producing digitalized Back-EMF signals having first and second values as a function of the Back-EMF signals being above or below a respective threshold, and an inverter for driving the PWM modulated drive signals in a phased relationship with the digitalized Back-EMF signals. The driver device also includes controller circuits configured for controlling the respective threshold by minimizing the error between a time measured between two consecutive opposed edges of the digitalized Back-EMF signal and half a time measured between two consecutive homologous edges of the digitalized Back-EMF signal.
US09768714B2

This invention concerns an electric drive system (200) for driving an output. The electric drive system comprises: a first electric motor (250) arranged to drive a first input shaft (230) at a first angular velocity, ω1, and a second electric motor (260) arranged to drive a second input shaft (240) at a second angular velocity, ω2. A gear mechanism (210) is provided and is arranged to transmit angular rotation of the first (230) and second (240) input shafts to drive the output (220) at an output angular velocity, ωout, such that ωout is proportional to aω1-bω2, where a and b are constants. The electric drive system (200) further comprises a controller (270) arranged to control operation of the first (250) and second (260) electric motors. When the output (220) is to be driven from ωout=0, the controller (270) is arranged to control the first (250) and second (260) electric motors to drive the first (230) and second (240) input shafts. The input shafts are driven in a first phase to primary first and second angular velocities, ω1,p and ω2,p, such that aω1,p≈bω2,p. The input shafts are also subsequently driven in a second phase in which the first angular velocity, ω1, or the second angular velocity, ω2, or both are varied such that aω 1≠bω2 and the output is driven from ωout=0. The result of this is that the motors run in a more efficient part of their output profile, even whilst the vehicle is at rest, pulling off (especially in situations of high output load such as on off-road or otherwise difficult terrain), or moving at low velocity.
US09768712B2

A power conversion device includes: a power converter to perform output to an output line connected to a single-phase power system; and a control device to control the power converter so it operates as a virtual synchronous generator. The control device includes: a voltage and current measurer to obtain, from a single-phase system voltage, an angular velocity and a phase of the system voltage by an estimation operation that uses the phase of the system voltage as a parameter; a power obtainer to obtain active power and reactive power; a governor model to calculate a phase difference; an AVR model to calculate an absolute value of an induced voltage of a virtual synchronous generator; a generator model to calculate current command values corresponding to an armature current of the virtual synchronous generator; and a current controller to generate and output a PWM signal to the power converter.
US09768708B2

An adaptive power distribution system is presented for extending the dynamic range of AC/RF rectifiers. The power distribution system distributes the AC/RF input power amongst several different rectifier cells adaptively based on input power level. Consequently, high rectification efficiency can be maintained over a very wide dynamic range.
US09768705B1

An AC power converter converts power from an AC power source to an AC load. A DC power holding source is coupled to an input half-bridge switch, a common half-bridge switch and an output half-bridge switch. A controller is coupled to the input half-bridge switch, the common half-bridge switch, and an output half-bridge switch to generate at least two control signals at a common switching frequency, wherein the controller generates the at least two control signals with a phase difference there between chosen to cause a ripple frequency in both the input low pass filter and the output low pass filter to be double the common switching frequency. An input low pass filter can eliminate switching frequency energy from entering the AC power source. An output low pass filter can eliminate switching frequency energy from entering the AC load.
US09768703B2

The disclosed embodiments provide a system that operates a flyback converter. During activation of a synchronous rectifier (SR) controller on a secondary side of the power converter, the system temporarily disables driving of a gate of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) by the SR controller to enable synchronization of the SR controller to a switching frequency on a primary side of the power converter. After driving of the gate of the MOSFET by the SR controller has been disabled for a pre-specified period, the system enables driving of the gate of the MOSFET by the SR controller.
US09768702B2

A converter for converting an input-side alternating current into an output-side DC current, with a power factor correction being provided, wherein the converter comprises a transformer having at least two serially arranged primary windings, a first switch is used to switch a storage capacitor unit in series with a first primary winding to the alternating current in a clocked manner via rectification elements and a second primary winding is switchable to the storage capacitor unit in a clocked manner by a second switch.
US09768698B2

Method and apparatus for converting DC input power to DC output power. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a plurality of flyback circuits, coupled in parallel, for providing DC-to-DC conversion; and a controller for automatically adjusting activation timing of each flyback circuit in said plurality of flyback circuits to achieve a balanced operation.
US09768697B2

In accordance with an embodiment, a method of controlling a switched-mode power supply includes operating the switched-mode power supply in a first operating mode by monitoring a feedback signal from an output of the power supply using a feedback interface circuit in a first configuration. The method further includes determining when the feedback signal crosses a first threshold in a first direction, and transitioning the switched-mode power from the first operating to a second operating mode by switching the feedback interface circuit from the first configuration to a second configuration.
US09768693B2

The present disclosure relates to a compensation circuit for independently controlling turn-on and turn-off of a power electronic switch through a gate driver. The compensation circuit includes a circuit path sampling a first portion of a voltage induced across an inductance of the power electronic switch at turn-on. Another circuit path samples a second portion of the voltage induced across the inductance of the power electronic switch at turn-off. The compensation circuit further includes a gate driver reference connection configured to respectively supply the sampled portions of the voltage during turn-on and turn-off of the power electronic switch. A compensation circuit controlling a first power electronic switch in parallel with a second power electronic switch, a commutation cell and a power converter having a pair of parallel legs, in which each power electronic switch is provided with the compensation circuit, are also disclosed.
US09768690B2

A method of optimizing the number of output stages of a switched mode power supply features a dynamically-updated lookup table (LUT) storing historic output stage configuration data per system operating performance point (OPP). Upon entering an OPP, a margin is added to the historic optimal configuration. During operation at the OPP, the current drawn by the load is periodically monitored, and the number of output stages is dynamically adjusted, as needed (with low pass filtering to ensure stability). When the system exits the OPP, a running average of the optimal number of output stages for the OPP is updated with the actual number of output stages enabled in this iteration of the OPP. A running average of the deviation, or change in number of output stages enabled, is also maintained. The updated values are written to the LUT, for use in setting the initial output stage configuration the next time the same OPP is invoked. This methodology is adaptive and self-learning, and automatically accounts for variations such as temperature, aging, process variation, software changes, and the like.
US09768687B2

A bootstrap power supply circuit generates a constant voltage VCCBST for charging a bootstrap capacitor. An output transistor is configured as an N-channel MOSFET arranged such that its drain is connected to an input line and such that its source is connected to an output line. A constant voltage circuit connected to the gate of the output transistor stabilizes the gate voltage VG to a constant value. A variable impedance circuit is arranged between the input line and the gate of the output transistor, in order to provide a variable impedance. An impedance controller controls the impedance of the variable impedance circuit according to the state of a step-down DC/DC converter.
US09768684B1

One aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for operating a charge pump. The method includes comparing a drain voltage of a current sink transistor of the charge pump with a drain voltage of a current reference transistor, and adjusting a gate bias voltage of the current sink transistor and the current reference transistor in a direction that reduces a difference between the drain voltage of the current sink transistor and the drain voltage of the current reference transistor. The method also includes comparing a common-mode voltage of a loop filter with a reference voltage, and adjusting a gate bias voltage of a current source transistor of the charge pump in a direction that reduces a difference between the common-mode voltage of the loop filter and the reference voltage.
US09768674B2

The present document discloses motors and motor components that are constructed on a planar substrate. In some implementations, the planar substrate is made from rigid or semi-rigid sheet material, such as a printed circuit board (“PCB”). One or more coils are formed using spiral-shaped conductive traces that overlay the front and/or back surfaces of the substrate. In one implementation, a plurality of alternating right-hand and left-hand spiral-shaped conductive traces are separated by insulating layers, and connected with conductive vias to form inductive coils. Alternative coil-configurations include single-drive counter-wound coils and coils having a central ferrous or magnetic core.
US09768660B2

An air purge system includes an electric motor having an air purge device which supplies air to a space around the outer peripheral surface of an output shaft, an information acquisition unit which acquires operation information of the electric motor, and an air control unit, which controls the amount of air supplied from the air purge device in response to the acquired operation information. The air control unit increases the amount of the air supplied from the air purge device when the information acquisition unit acquires deceleration operation information of the electric motor.
US09768656B2

A three-phase alternating current electric motor wherein when a number of pole pairs of a rotor is P and a number of slots in which stator windings are inserted is N, N/(6P) becomes an irreducible fraction with a value of a denominator of 4 or more and wherein the relation of N>3P stands, in which the motor, for the layout of one layer of windings arranged in the slots, the UVW three-phases are arranged so as to have rotational symmetry of ±120 degrees in terms of mechanical angle from each other and, for the layout of the second layer, the windings are arranged reversed in direction by 180 degrees in electrical angle from the phases of the first layer of windings which have rotational symmetry and offset by M number of slots from the first layer, where T is a particular odd number for the relationship of 4/35≦|T−2PM/N|≦ 8/35 is given.
US09768655B2

An alternator includes a housing, and a stator fixedly mounted relative to the housing. The stator includes a stator winding. The stator winding includes at least five stator leads extending from the stator in an arc that is less than about 90°. A terminal assembly is mounted to an outer surface of the housing and connected with the at least five stator leads. The terminal assembly includes a body formed from a non-electrically conductive material, and a plurality of conductive members at least partially covered by the body. The plurality of conductive members is associated with the stator winding. Each of the plurality of conductive members includes plurality of input connectors spread out along the body in an arc that is greater than 90°.
US09768653B2

Each lamination of the lamination stack comprises at least one assembly of coupling elements, said assembly comprising one insertion clamp, one receiving clamp and at least one receiving window, said coupling elements maintaining the same relative positioning from one another, the insertion clamp and the receiving clamp being defined by respective portions of the lamination axially projecting to the same side of the latter, each insertion clamp of a lamination being fitted, by interference, in the interior of a receiving clamp of an adjacent lamination, and each receiving clamp of a lamination being housed in the receiving window of at least one lamination of the stack.
US09768649B2

An electric motor (10) has a stator (20) having a number S of stator poles (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26); a rotor (40) having a rotor magnet (40′), which rotor magnet (40′) has a number R of rotor poles (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46), R being equal to S, and the rotor (40) or the stator (20), or both, exhibiting a magnetic asymmetry. The asymmetry facilitates startup. The electric motor has a single-phase winding arrangement (30) with first (11), second (12) and third (13) terminals. Current can be made to flow, selectively, from either the first or the second terminal, through certain coils, to the third terminal (13). There is an output stage (50), preferably an H-bridge. The W total coils comprise a plurality of subgroups (TG1, TG2) of coils. A method for current flow through an electric motor utilizes these sub-groups (TG1, TG2) for current flow.
US09768648B2

Rotor, in particular permanent magnet rotor, for an electric machine, having a magnet support, a plurality of magnets which are arranged on the magnet support, and a rotor core which is arranged between a shaft and the magnet support, wherein the rotor core comprises plastic.
US09768647B2

A wireless power receiver according to an exemplary embodiment in the present disclosure may include a resonant tank receiving a power signal and varying a resonant frequency in response to a control signal; and a determining unit determining a wireless power transmission mode on the basis of the power signal and outputting the control signal depending on a determination result.
US09768639B2

The vehicle-mounted power source device comprising: a low-voltage battery; a high-voltage battery; a boost unit that boosts electrical power for charging the high-voltage battery; a solar panel that converts solar light to electrical power; a bi-directional buck-boost unit that boosts/bucks the electrical power converted by the solar panel; and a control unit that performs control in a manner so as to charge the low-voltage battery by means of electrical power of which the voltage has been altered by the buck-boost unit. When the amount of stored electrical power at the low-voltage battery is at least a predetermined value, the control unit performs control in a manner so that the electrical power stored at the low-voltage battery is boosted by the boost unit and the bi-directional buck-boost unit, and the high-voltage battery is charged by means of the boosted electrical power.
US09768637B2

An apparatus and method are provided for permitting a wireless power receiver to be charged by a wireless power transmitter. The method includes generating a Power Receiving Unit (PRU) control signal including permission information indicating charging permission for the wireless power receiver; and transmitting the PRU control signal to the wireless power receiver.
US09768635B2

A mobile computing device has a processor and storage, connected to the processor and storing computer program instructions for an operating system for the computing device. The mobile computing device also may include a display and a communications radio. An electrical connection is provided for connection to a removable battery that provides power to the components of the mobile computing device. The mobile computing device also includes an auxiliary power source configured to provide power to the components of the mobile computing device when the removable battery is not supplying sufficient power. In response to the auxiliary power source being used, the operating system performs a set of actions that prioritize processes executed by the processor, manage power utilization by those processors, communicate information to the user about available power and, in some instances, gracefully degrade operation of the processes.
US09768633B2

An external battery and a driving method thereof are disclosed. In one aspect, the external battery includes a battery, a charging unit, a detecting unit and a main controller unit (MCU). The charging unit generates a charging current using external power supplied from an external charger to an input stage, and provides the charging current to the battery or to an external device. The detecting unit detects whether the external charger and the external device are both coupled to the external battery. The MCU controls the charging current to be provided to the external device, when the external charger and the external device are both coupled to the external battery. Accordingly, when the external charger and the external device are both coupled to the external battery, the external device can be directly charged using the charging current applied from the external charger.
US09768631B2

A voltage control method for a fuel cell may include: interrupting electrical connection between the fuel cell and a load in a low load state; supplying oxygen to the fuel cell in accordance with a preset condition during the electrical connection is interrupted; detecting an OCV of the fuel cell after oxygen is supplied to the fuel cell in accordance with the preset condition; reducing an amount of oxygen supplied to the fuel cell when the OCV is higher than a target voltage by a first value or larger; increasing the amount of oxygen when the OCV is lower than the target voltage by a second value or larger; and keeping the amount of oxygen when the OCV is lower than a sum of the target voltage and the first value and higher than a value obtained by subtracting the second value from the target voltage.
US09768630B2

A battery charging circuit includes a power management IC, a controller, and a feedback circuit. The power management IC is configured to manage the power charging to a battery. The controller is configured to provide a preset value of current and a preset value of voltage. The feedback circuit is coupled to the power management IC and the controller and the battery. The feedback circuit compares the preset value of current with a charging current to the battery, and compares the preset value of voltage with a charging voltage to the battery to obtain results of comparison, and provides a feedback signal to the power management IC according to the comparisons. The power management IC decreases or increases power output upon the comparisons.
US09768613B2

In one embodiment, a layered/distributed grid-specific network services system comprises grid sensors in the utility grid configured to generate grid data values such as raw grid data values, processed grid data values, and/or any combination thereof, and to communicate the grid data values using a communication network. Distributed grid devices in the utility grid may be configured to receive the grid data values, and one or more of the grid devices may be configured to convert raw grid data values into processed grid data values. Application devices in the utility grid may be configured to access the grid data values from the distributed grid devices, and to further process the grid data values according to a particular grid application operating at the corresponding application device into application data values.
US09768609B2

A protection system for an electrical variable speed doubly fed induction machine having a stator and a rotor, comprising: instrument transformers capable of measuring low frequency signals from the rotor and stator, in particular low frequency signals in the range of 0.1 Hz to 6 Hz; a protection relay which is configured to receive measurement values from the instrument transformers and to sample said measurements values at a constant sampling rate.
US09768602B1

A cable housing system includes a housing positioned below a travel path having a crown surface. A plurality of surface lid sections are connected to the housing. The surface lid sections generally lie flush with the surface crown of the travel path when in a closed position and define gaps between the surface lid sections when in an open position. A surface lid interlocking mechanism connects at least two adjacent surface lid sections, and an attachment mechanism provides for the surface lid sections to be selectively moved relative to the housing.
US09768600B1

A branch box (100) includes: a branch portion (21) branching a power path (205A) into at least two branch paths (206A, 207A); a fuse (60) located on at least one of the branch paths; a conductive member (33) connecting the branch portion and the branch path having the fuse; a first housing portion (11) receiving the fuse and closing its opening with a lid portion (81) to define a housing space; and a second housing portion (12) receiving the branch portion. The first housing portion is sealed with a first sealing material (85) filling a gap between the lid portion and the opening and is out of contact with the fuse. The second housing portion is sealed with a second sealing material (86) independent from the first sealing material. The conductive member passes through a partition wall (25) separating the first housing portion and the second housing portion.
US09768598B2

A rail for a cable tray having opposite longitudinal ends includes a generally vertical web having opposite upper and lower ends, an upper flange at the upper end of the web, and a lower flange at the lower end of the web. A splice plate retention groove outboard of the vertical web and generally adjacent at least one of the opposite longitudinal ends of the rail is configured to receive a splice plate therein to facilitate positioning of the splice plate on the rail.
US09768593B2

Electrical enclosure including circuit breaker, exterior panels defining a volume, wall separating compartments defined in the volume, and cooling channel component. Cooling channel component includes first plate coupled to wall. First plate includes first end and a second opposite end coupled to wall, the first plate covering an opening defined in wall and having a first aperture defined therethrough, first aperture having a first shape and a first orientation. Cooling channel component also includes electrically conductive second plate coupled to first plate and having a first end coupled to first plate first end and a second opposite end coupled to first plate second end, the second plate having at least one second aperture defined therethrough, the second aperture having a second shape and a second orientation, where a hollow cavity is defined between the first and second plates, and where the first and second apertures are arranged in a non-overlapping configuration.
US09768588B2

A spark plug includes a ceramic insulator having an axial hole formed in an axis direction of the spark plug, a center electrode inserted in a front side of the axial hole, a metal shell disposed around the ceramic insulator and a ground electrode joined to a front end portion of the metal shell, wherein the ground electrode has a cross-sectional area of 2.0 mm2 or smaller in any arbitrary cross section thereof taken in a direction perpendicular to a center line of the ground electrode; the ground electrode is made of a metal material containing 93 mass % or more of nickel; and the ground electrode has a Vickers hardness of 130 to 260 Hv.
US09768585B2

A parallel cavity tunable laser generally includes a semiconductor laser body defining a plurality of parallel laser cavities with a common output. Each of the parallel laser cavities is configured to be driven independently to generate laser light at a wavelength within a different respective wavelength range. The wavelength of the light generated in each of the laser cavities may be tuned, in response to a temperature change, to a channel wavelength within the respective wavelength range. The laser light generated in each selected one of the laser cavities is emitted from the common output at a front facet of the laser body. By selectively generating light in one or more of the laser cavities, one or more channel wavelengths may be selected for lasing and transmission.
US09768583B2

Provided herein is a multi-channel optical module including a plurality of laser diodes emitting light with different wavelengths, a thermoelectric cooling device including the plurality of laser diodes, a TO-can including the thermoelectric cooling device, and a holder combined with the TO-can and including a plurality of optical lenses focusing the light with different wavelengths and a multiplexer gathering focused light into a single optical fiber, wherein the holder has a shape in which the TO-can is cut along an axis of a path of the light with different wavelengths for active alignment of the plurality of optical lenses.
US09768582B2

The embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and an apparatus for determining a gain of a Raman optical amplifier and a Raman optical amplifier. The method includes: acquiring present gain parameter information of a Raman optical amplifier; and determining a present gain of a monitoring channel of the Raman optical amplifier according to the present gain parameter information and a correspondence between a gain of the monitoring channel of the Raman optical amplifier and gain parameter information. According to the method and apparatus for determining a gain of a Raman optical amplifier and the Raman optical amplifier that are in embodiments of the present invention, a present gain of a monitoring channel can be accurately determined; therefore, a gain spectrum of the Raman optical amplifier can be accurately monitored, and the gain of the Raman optical amplifier can be accurately adjusted to a target gain.
US09768576B2

An apparatus and method is provided for a shotgun stick for manipulating, removing and installing clamps and other devices to electrical connectors on electric power distribution systems. The shotgun stick includes an elongated, electrical insulating, support rod having a working end and a holding end. An electrical insulating head mounted on the working end of the support rod. A clamping mechanism is mounted within the head for extension from the head and retraction into the head. An actuating mechanism is mounted within the head for extending and retracting the clamping mechanism. A control module is mounted within the head for controlling the actuating mechanism to extend and retract the clamping mechanism. The control module including a receiver for receiving a control signal. A remote controller is operable by the operator holding the holding end to generate the control signal.
US09768569B1

This document describes a bracket assembly for reinforcing connectors on printed circuit boards. In some aspects, an apparatus is described that includes a device chassis with a stopper feature, a printed circuit board (PCB) attached to the device chassis, and an extended connector assembly mounted to the PCB. The extended connector assembly includes a connector and a connector reinforcing bracket. The connector reinforcing bracket increases a length of the connector to reduce the magnitude of a bending moment induced in the PCB by a connector insertion force. The connector reinforcing bracket also limits deformation of the PCB caused by the connector insertion force.
US09768560B2

An electrical connector includes an insulative housing, a number of terminals disposed in the insulative housing, a metallic shielding plate, a shielding shell defining a mating cavity, and a metal shell. The insulative housing defines a base portion and a tongue portion extending forwardly from the base portion. The base portion includes a front side, a rear side opposite to the front side, at least one retaining slot located in the front side of the base portion. The shielding shell includes at least one front stopping portion protruding into the mating cavity and received in the retaining slot, the at least one front stopping portion includes a front surface located beyond the front side of the base portion to prevent damage the base portion when a mating connector inserting into the electrical connector.
US09768550B2

The invention relates to a lever-type connector for facilitating the connection. The connector includes a housing on which a cable guide cover is mounted. A lever is rotatably mounted on the cable guide cover and displaces a slide. In the course of the rotation of the lever, the slide cooperates with the cable guide cover in order to maintain the cable guide cover on the housing with greater force and in a better-adapted manner.
US09768548B2

A cable includes an electric line having a plurality of cores with contacts being attached to ends of the cores. A plug connector has a contact carrier which accommodates the contacts in such a manner that the contacts are disposed in the contact carrier with a directional component that is oriented in parallel to a first direction. A collar is integrally formed on the contact carrier. The collar fixes the electrical line in position and bends the cores such that the cores have a directional component that is oriented in parallel to a second direction. The first direction is orthogonal to the second direction.
US09768541B1

A plug receptacle comprises a receptacle housing having a passage configured to receive at least a part of a plug of a plug connector, a front side having a first opening and a top side having a second, elongated opening that intersects the first opening, the passage opening to the front side via the first opening and to the top side via the second opening. The plug receptacle comprises at least one plug receptacle cover that is configured to move between a cover position and an elevated position. In the cover position, the at least one plug receptacle cover covers the second opening at least partially. In the elevated position, the at least one plug receptacle cover is elevated outwards along its entire length, so that the at least the part of the plug partially extends through the second opening.
US09768538B1

In various embodiments, an electronic band for a wearable device having: a first band segment including a first affixing structure configured to couple the first band segment to the wearable device when inserted into a first channel of the wearable device, a processing unit, and a first electrical connector having a plurality of contact pins at least some of which are electrically connected to the processing unit; where the first electrical connector electrically connects the processing unit of the first band segment to a second electronic component positioned within the wearable device when the first affixing structure is inserted into the first channel.
US09768537B2

A connecting terminal device may include: a bottom plate; a movable part provided on a rear surface of the bottom plate that is configured to be electrically connected to an external object as the movable part is pressed or raised; one or more protective walls provided on side surfaces of the bottom plate; pressing preventing parts provided at ends of the protective walls and provided between the bottom plate and the movable plate to restrict a pressing movement of the movable part; and rising preventing parts provided on side surfaces of the protective walls to restrict a rising movement of the movable part.
US09768534B2

Electromagnetic shielding about a part connected with a wiring substrate is easily and reliably carried out by a simple configuration without impairing productivity. A fixed shield plate provided at a shield shell member of an electric connector mounted on a wiring substrate is disposed to be opposed to a vicinity of a substrate connecting leg portion of a contact member. A movable shield plate covering a shell opening by a moving operation is provided. At least the substrate connecting leg portion of the contact member is covered from an outer side by fixed and movable shield plates, thereby well carrying out electromagnetic shielding (shielding) with respect to the part connected with the wiring substrate. Until the movable shield plate is subjected to the moving operation, the part connected with the wiring substrate can be checked well through the shell opening.
US09768524B2

An electrical crimp contact that crimps onto an electrical cable has a conductor crimp region for an electrical connection of a conductor of the cable, the conductor crimp region having a fixing device for fixing the conductor. In a blank of the contact, the fixing device of the conductor crimp region extends at an oblique angle with respect to a longitudinal axis of the contact.
US09768522B2

A method of forming a joint between a coaxial cable and, a coaxial connector includes the steps of: preparing a cable having an inner conductor, a dielectric, a corrugated outer conductor surrounding the dielectric layer, and a jacket such that an end of the inner conductor is exposed, an end of the outer conductor is exposed arid is flattened to form a ring devoid of corrugations, and a portion of the dielectric layer is cored out to form a solder chamber between the inner conductor and the ring of the outer conductor; preparing an assembly comprising a coaxial connector comprising an inner contact, a dielectric spacer, and an outer conductor body having a tail, with a solder preform encircling the tail; inserting the tail and solder preform into the solder chamber; and melting the solder preform to create a joint between the ring and the tail.
US09768507B2

Antenna devices and techniques that provide specific control of the spatial distributions of DC and RF signals at various positions in a wireless apparatus are disclosed. The wireless apparatus includes various device components each having specifications for achieving desired operations in antenna devices.
US09768501B2

Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, devices systems and/or methods of steering an antenna array. For example, an apparatus may include a baseband processor including a plurality of baseband processing chains to process signals to be communicated via a plurality of antenna modules of an antenna array, wherein the baseband processing chains include a plurality of frequency domain delay modules, a frequency domain delay module of the delay modules is to apply a time delay to a signal to be communicated via an antenna module of the plurality of antenna modules.
US09768491B2

An electronic device may have wireless circuitry with antennas. An antenna resonating element arm for an antenna may be formed from peripheral conductive structures running along the edges of a device housing. Elongated conductive members may longitudinally divide openings between the peripheral conductive housing structures and the ground. The elongated conductive members may extend from an internal ground to outer ends of the elongated conductive members that are located adjacent to the gaps. Transmission lines may extend along the elongated conductive members to antenna feeds at the outer ends. The elongated conductive members may form open slots that serve as slot antenna resonating elements for the antenna.
US09768479B2

A hybrid system for producing electricity by a metal-air cell and for utilizing hydrogen released during the operation of the metal-air cell for producing energy in the form of electricity, mechanical power or heat energy. The hybrid electric energy system includes at least one metal-air cell and at least one hydrogen conversion unit.
US09768477B2

A secondary battery abnormality notification system includes a module string formed by stacking two or more modules in a vertical direction, the modules each being formed by containing a large number of secondary battery cells, a conduit pipe extending from an upper position to a lower position of the module string, a detection unit provided at a lower position of the module string and configured to draw in a measurement target gas from the conduit pipe to detect concentration of active material contained in the measurement target gas, and a notification section configured to detect occurrence of an abnormality at least based on an output of the detection unit and notify that the abnormality has occurred.
US09768473B2

Disclosed is a battery pack configured such that a plurality of battery modules is connected to each other in series in a state in which the modules are in contact with each other or stacked adjacent to each other, the pack being fixed such that a stacked state of the modules is maintained even when volume of the modules is changed during charge and discharge, the pack including a cut-off portion connected in series to an electrical connection circuit between modules, a fixing member to fix a circuit breaker to at least one outer surface of the pack, and the breaker configured to be electrically conducted when an outer surface of at least one module expands by a reference volume value or more, the breaker being connected in series to the electrical connection circuit to short-circuit the cut-off portion when electric conduction is performed due to swelling of the modules.
US09768471B2

A rechargeable lithium battery includes a positive electrode including a positive active material, a negative electrode and an electrolyte including a lithium salt, an organic solvent and an additive. The positive active material includes a compound represented by Chemical Formula 1, and the additive includes about 0.5 to about 2 parts by weight of lithium difluorophosphate (LiPO2F2) and about 0.5 to about 3 parts by weight of vinylene carbonate, based on 100 parts by weight of the organic solvent. LiaNixCoyMnzO2  Chemical Formula 1.
US09768458B2

A fuel cell has an electrolyte membrane of 5 to 10 μm in thickness. A control device for this fuel cell comprises: a controller configured to control an amount of power generation by the fuel cell according to a required amount of electric power; and a power generation reducer configured to reduce the amount of power generation by the fuel cell at a humidity of an electrolyte membrane of 95 to 98% RH to be lower than the amount of power generation at the humidity of the electrolyte membrane of lower than 95% RH.
US09768457B2

A driving control method and system of a fuel cell system are provided. The method includes determining, by a controller, a dry state of a fuel cell stack and stopping an air blower, which supplies air to the fuel cell stack, using different processes based on whether the fuel cell stack is in the dry state. Accordingly, the time for which an open circuit voltage (OCV) is maintained is reduced and durability of the fuel cell is improved by preventing dry-out of the fuel cell stack.
US09768456B1

A fuel cell control method includes calculating an amount of water in a humidifier using a production amount of water at a cathode of a fuel cell, a discharge amount of saturated vapor and a discharge amount of water at an anode, judging whether or not a vehicle is in a driving state using state information of the vehicle, judging humidity of air in the fuel cell stack upon judging that the vehicle is in the driving state, increasing RPM of an air blower and activating the air blower when the amount of water is greater than a first threshold and a second condition is satisfied, if first conditions are satisfied, and activating a heater when the amount of water is greater than a second threshold, if the first conditions are not satisfied.
US09768451B2

A battery includes an electrolyte disposed on a substantially planar substrate. The electrolyte has a first surface extending from the substrate and in contact with a cathode. The electrolyte has a second surface extending from the substrate and in contact with an anode. The second surface is opposite the first surface. The anode and the cathode are non-overlapping. The battery additionally includes a biocompatible protective layer that covers the electrolyte and at least portions of the anode and cathode. The battery can be disposed in an eye-mountable device or other device to power electronics in the device. The battery can be configured to be rechargeable.
US09768442B2

Provided are a carbon electrode particularly suitable to be used as a negative electrode of an energy storing apparatus and the like and a method for manufacturing the same by forming the carbon electrode by heat-treating a natural carbon material such as a natural fiber sheet including a natural fiber or cellulose sheet including a natural cellulose fiber which is a natural material other than a petroleum-based material or a petroleum-based synthetic material to reduce manufacturing cost, shorten a manufacturing process, minimize discharge of a hazardous substance, and uniformly maintain storage capacitance even in repeated charging and discharging when being applied to the energy storing apparatus. The carbon electrode includes any one of an alkaline metal particle and an alkaline earth metal particle having an average particle size of less than 100 nm which is formed on a surface in a process of carbonizing a natural carbon material.
US09768440B2

Provided is a method of manufacturing an electrode assembly which is different from a stack folding method and a stack method. The method includes forming a unit structure, which comprises a stacked structure formed by sequentially stacking a first electrode, a first separator, a second electrode, and a second separator, or a structure formed by repeatedly forming the stacked structure a plurality of times (operation S10), forming the electrode assembly by repeatedly stacking the unit structure into a plurality of layers (operation S20), and discharging gas interposed between the layers by pressing the electrode assembly (operation S30).
US09768439B2

The present disclosure provides an apparatus for preparing an electrode assembly, comprising a printing unit including a charging mean for bringing polymer particles into electric charging to obtain electrically charged polymer particles, and a transferring mean for coating the electrically charged polymer particles by way of transferring on at least one surface of a substrate for an electrochemical device to form an adhesive layer on the substrate, the substrate being at least one of a cathode, an anode and a separator; and a laminating unit that applies heat and pressure to the substrate having the adhesive layer formed thereon so as to obtain the electrode assembly comprising the cathode, the anode and the separator interposed therebetween.
US09768438B2

A device for injecting a liquid electrolyte into a battery addresses a problem that the injection amount of the liquid electrolyte becomes excessive because the liquid electrolyte volatizes at injection if remaining in a chamber. The device has a liquid injecting pump for injecting the liquid electrolyte into the battery positioned inside the chamber which has been sealed in a depressurized state and a vacuum pump for depressurizing the inside of the chamber. A vacuum attainment time until a pressure of the inside of the chamber becomes in a predetermined vacuum state is measured, and if this vacuum attainment time becomes longer than a predetermined value, the injection amount of the liquid electrolyte is corrected downwards.
US09768436B2

A rechargeable battery includes a case accommodating an electrode assembly; a cap plate coupled to the case and having a short-circuit hole; a first electrode terminal and a second electrode terminal extending through the cap plate and electrically connected to the electrode assembly; a membrane fixed to the cap plate in the short-circuit hole and configured to electrically connect the first electrode terminal and the second electrode terminal to cause a short circuit; a connection plate electrically connected to the first electrode terminal and spaced from a side of a short-circuit member; a top insulating member located between the connection plate and the cap plate; and a fixing member fixed to the cap plate and supporting the top insulating member.
US09768434B2

A rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly including a first electrode and a second electrode, a case, a cap assembly including a cap plate, a first terminal outside the cap plate and electrically connected to the first electrode, and a second terminal outside the cap plate and electrically connected to the second electrode, a first connection terminal passing through the cap assembly and including one end connected to the first terminal and an other end positioned inside the case, a first current collecting member including one side connected to the first electrode and an other side rotatably coupled to the first connection terminal and electrically connecting the first connection terminal and the first electrode, and a rotation restriction member between the cap plate and first current collecting member, the rotation restriction member stopping rotation of the first current collecting member according to a predetermined angle of the rotation.
US09768432B2

A cell connector for making electrically conductive contact with a plurality of battery cell terminals comprises a plurality of sections positioned next to each other including a plurality of first sections composed of an electrically conductive metal material, and at least one second section composed of an electrically insulating plastic. The at least one second section is positioned between a respective two of the plurality of first sections. The present disclosure further relates to a method for producing a cell connector, in which the at least one second section is connected to the at least two first sections by means of a nano-moulding method. The present disclosure furthermore relates to a battery module having a plurality of battery cells with terminals connected by at least one cell connector.
US09768430B2

A non-woven fabric base material for a lithium ion secondary battery separator composed mainly of a polyethylene terephthalate fiber, characterized in that the non-woven fabric base material comprises a polyethylene terephthalate binder fiber and a crystallized polyethylene terephthalate fiber, and the content of a polyethylene terephthalate binder fiber having a fiber length of 2.5 mm or less is 10 to 60 mass %.
US09768421B2

An electrode assembly includes an electrode stack structure including a first electrode assembly sheet having flexibility and a second electrode assembly sheet having flexibility, where and the first and second electrode assemblies are alternately disposed one on another, and a binding unit which binds a portion of the electrode stack structure. The first electrode assembly sheet includes first and second separator films disposed to face each other, a first electrode sheet which is disposed between the first and second separator films and includes a first electrode collector and a first active material layer, and a first confining unit which restricts a movement of the first electrode sheet with respect to the first and second separator films.
US09768417B2

A single display panel and an electronic device are provided. The single display panel comprises an upper substrate; a lower substrate including a display area and a stepped area; and a frame adhesive disposed between the upper substrate and the to a substrate, and surrounding the display area, wherein there is no blank area around the display panel. The single display panel is obtained from an array substrate comprising OLED display panels to be separated from each other through a cutting, wherein the display panel includes a display area, at least two adjacent display panels are connected through the frame adhesive disposed at an edge frame surrounding the display area but not covering the display area, and there is no cutting headroom between at least one side of the at least two adjacent display panels.
US09768401B2

A transistor and a fabrication method thereof. A transistor includes a channel region including linkers, formed on a substrate, and a metallic nanoparticle grown from metal ions bonded to the linkers, a source region disposed at one end of the channel region, a drain region disposed at the other end of the channel region opposite of the source region, and a gate coupled to the channel region and serving to control migration of at least one charges in the channel region.
US09768391B2

The present invention relates to certain fluorenes, to the use of the compounds in an electronic device, and to an electronic device comprising at least one of these compounds. The present invention furthermore relates to a process for the preparation of the compounds and to a formulation and composition comprising one or more of the compounds.
US09768385B2

The present invention relates to a compound of a formula (I) or (II), to the use of this compound in an electronic device, and to an electronic device comprising one or more compounds of the formula (I) or (II). The invention furthermore relates to the preparation of the compound of the formula (I) or (II) and to a formulation comprising one or more compounds of the formula (I) or (II).
US09768382B2

The present disclosure relates to the field of display technology, and provides a display substrate, its manufacturing method, and a display device. Pixel partition walls of the display substrate include first pixel partition walls for defining first pixel regions and second pixel partition walls for defining second pixel regions. Each first pixel partition wall is of a height greater than each second pixel partition wall, and a plurality of adjacent second pixel regions is located at an identical first pixel region.
US09768380B2

According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes fin-type stacked layer structures. Each of the structures includes semiconductor layers stacked in a perpendicular direction. Assist gate electrodes are disposed in an in-plane direction and divided on a surface in the perpendicular direction of the structures.
US09768375B2

Provided is a piezoelectric material that is free of lead and potassium, has satisfactory insulation property and piezoelectricity, and has a high Curie temperature. The piezoelectric material includes a perovskite-type metal oxide represented by the following general formula (1): General formula (1) (NaxM1-y)(Zrz(Nb1-wTaw)y(Ti1-vSnv)(1-y-z))O3 where M represents at least any one of Ba, Sr, and Ca, and relationships of 0.80≦x≦0.95, 0.85≦y≦0.95, 0
US09768373B2

A switched resonant power amplifier system for ultrasonic transducers is disclosed. The system includes an amplifier that receives and processes a driver output signal for generating a drive signal that is provided to an ultrasonic device for controlling output of the ultrasonic device. An output control circuit receives and processes a signal related to a feedback signal generated by the ultrasonic device and a divider reference signal, and generates a compensated clock signal that is adjusted for at least one of phase and frequency differences between the received feedback signal and the divider reference signal. A compensated drive circuit receives and processes the compensated clock signal for generating the divider reference signal, and for generating the driver output signal.
US09768371B2

Various techniques and apparatus permit fabrication of superconductive circuits. A niobium/aluminum oxide/niobium trilayer may be formed and individual Josephson Junctions (JJs) formed. A protective cap may protect a JJ during fabrication. A hybrid dielectric may be formed. A superconductive integrated circuit may be formed using a subtractive patterning and/or additive patterning. A superconducting metal layer may be deposited by electroplating and/or polished by chemical-mechanical planarization. The thickness of an inner layer dielectric may be controlled by a deposition process. A substrate may include a base of silicon and top layer including aluminum oxide. Depositing of superconducting metal layer may be stopped or paused to allow cooling before completion. Multiple layers may be aligned by patterning an alignment marker in a superconducting metal layer.
US09768367B2

A light emitting device in which a bonding pad is soldered to a mounting substrate, wherein the bonding pad may be formed in various shapes that can minimize the occurrence of voids during soldering or heat fusion.
US09768365B2

A light emitting device includes a flexible substrate, at least one light emitting element, a sealing resin and an adhesion layer. The flexible substrate includes a flexible base member and a plurality of wiring portions disposed on one surface of the base member. At least one light emitting element is arranged on a first surface of the flexible substrate and electrically connected to the wiring portions. The sealing resin seals the light emitting element. The adhesion layer is arranged on a second surface of the flexible substrate different from the first surface of the flexible substrate. The adhesion layer has a non-adhesive region corresponding at least to a region on the first surface where the at least one light emitting element is arranged. The non-adhesive region is covered with a non-adhesive layer.
US09768363B2

Embodiments provide a light emitting device module including a circuit board, a light emitting device bonded to a conductive layer on the circuit board via a conductive adhesive, a phosphor layer disposed on a side surface and an upper surface of the light emitting device, and a lens on the circuit board and the phosphor layer. A void is generated between the light emitting device and the circuit board.
US09768361B2

This disclosure describes various modules that can provide ultra-precise and stable packaging for an optoelectronic device such as a light emitter or light detector. The modules include vertical alignment features that can be machined, as needed, during fabrication of the modules, to establish a precise distance between the optoelectronic device and an optical element or optical assembly disposed over the optoelectronic device.
US09768357B2

A device including a first semiconductor layer and a contact to the first semiconductor layer is disclosed. An interface between the first semiconductor layer and the contact includes a first roughness profile having a characteristic height and a characteristic width. The characteristic height can correspond to an average vertical distance between crests and adjacent valleys in the first roughness profile. The characteristic width can correspond to an average lateral distance between the crests and adjacent valleys in the first roughness profile.
US09768354B2

A light emitting diode chip including a substrate and a light emitting diode element layer is provided. The substrate has a growth surface and a plurality of microstructures on the growth surface. An area of the growth surface occupied by the microstructures is A1 and an area of the growth surface not occupied by the microstructures is A2, such that A1 and A2 satisfy the relation of 0.1≦A2/(A1+A2)≦0.5. The light emitting diode element layer is disposed on the growth surface of the substrate.
US09768353B2

A light emitting diode device has a bulk gallium and nitrogen containing substrate with an active region. The device has a lateral dimension and a thick vertical dimension such that the geometric aspect ratio forms a volumetric diode that delivers a nearly uniform current density across the range of the lateral dimension.
US09768340B2

This invention relates to field photodiodes based on PN junctions that suffer from dark current leakage. An NBL is added to prove a second PN junction with the anode. The second PN junction is reversed biased in order to remove dark current leakage. The present solution requires no additional masks or thin films steps relative to a conventional CMOS process flow.
US09768339B2

Optoelectronic detectors having one or more dilute nitride layers on substrates with lattice parameters matching or nearly matching GaAs are described herein. A semiconductor can include a substrate with a lattice parameter matching or nearly matching GaAs and a first doped III-V layer over the substrate. The semiconductor can also include an absorber layer over the first doped III-V layer, the absorber layer having a bandgap between approximately 0.7 eV and 0.95 eV and a carrier concentration less than approximately 1×1016 cm−3 at room temperature. The semiconductor can also include a second doped III-V layer over the absorber layer.
US09768332B2

This infrared detection element includes a buffer layer (InAsSb layer) 3, a buffer layer (InAs layer) 4, and a light absorption layer (InAsSb layer) 5. A critical film thickness hc of the InAs layer satisfies a relation of hc
US09768328B2

A transparent electro-conductive laminate comprising: a substrate film made of a polyimide; and a thin film made of an electro-conductive material and stacked on the substrate film, wherein the polyimide is a polyimide containing at least one repeating unit represented by the following general formula (1): [in the formula (1), R1, R2, and R3 each independently represent one selected from the group consisting of a hydrogen atom, alkyl groups having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, and a fluorine atom, R4 represents an aryl group having 6 to 40 carbon atoms, and n represents an integer of 0 to 12], having a glass transition temperature of 350° C. to 450° C., and having a linear expansion coefficient of 30 ppm/° C. or less, the linear expansion coefficient being determined by measuring change in length under a nitrogen atmosphere and under a condition of a rate of temperature rise of 5° C./minute in a temperature range from 50° C. to 200° C.
US09768319B2

A modulation circuit includes a load and a transistor serving as a switch. The transistor has an oxide semiconductor layer in which hydrogen concentration is 5×1019/cm3 or less. The off-state current of the transistor is 1×10−13 A or less. A modulation circuit includes a load, a transistor serving as a switch, and a diode. The load, the transistor, and the diode are connected in series between the terminals of an antenna. The transistor has an oxide semiconductor layer in which hydrogen concentration is 5×1019/cm3 or less. An off-state current of the transistor is 1×10−13 A or less. On/off of the transistor is controlled in accordance with a signal inputted to a gate of the transistor. The load is a resistor, a capacitor, or a combination of a resistor and a capacitor.
US09768318B2

A miniaturized transistor, a transistor with low parasitic capacitance, a transistor with high frequency characteristics, or a semiconductor device including the transistor is provided. The semiconductor device includes a first insulator, an oxide semiconductor over the first insulator, a first conductor and a second conductor that are in contact with the oxide semiconductor, a second insulator that is over the first and second conductors and has an opening reaching the oxide semiconductor, a third insulator over the oxide semiconductor and the second insulator, and a fourth conductor over the third insulator. The first conductor includes a first region and a second region. The second conductor includes a third region and a fourth region. The second region faces the third region with the first conductor and the first insulator interposed therebetween. The second region is thinner than the first region. The third region is thinner than the fourth region.
US09768313B2

An embodiment is a structure including a first active device in a first region of a substrate, the first active device including a first layer of a two-dimensional (2-D) material, the first layer having a first thickness, and a second active device in a second region of the substrate, the second active device including a second layer of the 2-D material, the second layer having a second thickness, the 2-D material including a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD), the second thickness being different than the first thickness.
US09768312B2

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a manufacturing method of a thin film transistor, a thin film transistor, an array substrate and a display device. The manufacturing method of a thin film transistor includes a step of forming an active layer, and the step of forming an active layer includes: forming a first poly-silicon layer and a second poly-silicon layer on the first poly-silicon layer separately, and adding dopant ions into the second poly-silicon layer and an upper surface layer of the first poly-silicon layer. By using the manufacturing method of a thin film transistor, defect states and unstable factors of interface in the thin film transistor can be reduced, thereby improving stability of the LTPS thin film transistor and obtaining an array substrate and a display device having more stable performance.
US09768307B2

An object is to provide a structure of a transistor which has a channel formation region formed using an oxide semiconductor and a positive threshold voltage value, which enables a so-called normally-on switching element. The transistor includes an oxide semiconductor stack in which at least a first oxide semiconductor layer and a second oxide semiconductor layer with different energy gaps are stacked and a region containing oxygen in excess of its stoichiometric composition ratio is provided.
US09768296B2

Metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors with reduced subthreshold conduction, and methods of fabricating the same. Transistor gate structures are fabricated in these transistors of a shape and dimension as to overlap onto the active region from the interface between isolation dielectric structures and the transistor active areas. Minimum channel length conduction is therefore not available at the isolation-to-active interface, but rather the channel length along that interface is substantially lengthened, reducing off-state conduction.
US09768295B2

In one embodiment, the semiconductor devices relate to using one or more super-junction trenches for termination.
US09768293B1

A laterally diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor (LDMOS) transistor with a vertical channel region is provided. A first semiconductor region is formed over a second semiconductor region and with a first doping type. The second semiconductor region has a second doping type different than the first doping type. A gate electrode is formed laterally adjacent to the first semiconductor region and extending along a side boundary of the first semiconductor region. A first source/drain contact region and a second source/drain contact region are respectively formed on opposite sides of the gate electrode and with the second doping type. The first source/drain contact region is further formed over the first semiconductor region. A method for manufacturing the LDMOS transistor is also provided.
US09768290B2

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, a body region of a first conductivity type in the substrate, a source region of a second conductivity type adjacent the body region, and a trench extending into the substrate. The trench contains a polysilicon gate electrode insulated from the substrate. The device further includes a dielectric layer on the substrate, a gate metallization on the dielectric layer and covering part of the substrate and a source metallization on the dielectric layer and electrically connected to the source region. The gate metallization includes two spaced apart fingers. The source metallization is spaced apart from the gate metallization and covers a different part of the substrate than the gate metallization. A metal-filled groove in the polysilicon gate electrode is electrically connected to the two spaced apart fingers, and extends along a length of the trench directly underneath at least part of the source metallization.
US09768289B2

A uni-terminal transistor device is described. In one embodiment, an n-channel transistor having p-terminal characteristics comprises a first semiconductor layer having a discrete hole level; a second semiconductor layer having a conduction band whose minimum level is lower than that of the first semiconductor layer; a wide bandgap semiconductor barrier layer disposed between the first and the second semiconductor layers; a gate dielectric layer disposed above the first semiconductor layer; and a gate metal layer disposed above the gate dielectric layer and having an effective workfunction selected to position the discrete hole level below the minimum level of the conduction band of the second semiconductor layer for zero bias applied to the gate metal layer and to obtain p-terminal characteristics.
US09768279B2

To provide a transistor formed using an oxide semiconductor film with reduced oxygen vacancies. To provide a semiconductor device that operates at high speed. To provide a highly reliable semiconductor device. To provide a miniaturized semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes an oxide semiconductor film; a gate electrode overlapping with the oxide semiconductor film; a gate insulating film between the oxide semiconductor film and the gate electrode; and a protective insulating film that is above the oxide semiconductor film, the gate electrode, and the gate insulating film and includes a region containing phosphorus or boron.
US09768275B2

An array substrate for a liquid crystal display (LCD) device includes a common line and gate lines. The array substrate includes a first, second, and third passivation layer and thin film transistors (TFTs). The second passivation layer includes first and second holes respectively corresponding to a drain electrode and the common line. A common electrode on the second passivation layer includes a first opening corresponding to the TFTs and a second opening in the second hole. A drain contact hole through the third and first passivation layers exposes the drain electrode. A first common contact hole through the third passivation layer exposes the common electrode in the second hole. A second common contact hole through the third and first passivation layers exposes the common line, and a pixel electrode includes a third opening and a connection pattern connecting the common electrode to the common line on the third passivation layer.
US09768271B2

Methods of manufacturing device assemblies, as well as associated semiconductor assemblies, devices, systems are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method of forming a semiconductor device assembly includes forming a semiconductor device assembly that includes a handle substrate, a semiconductor structure having a first side and a second side opposite the first side, and an intermediary material between the semiconductor structure and the handle substrate. The method also includes removing material from the semiconductor structure to form an opening extending from the first side of the semiconductor structure to at least the intermediary material at the second side of the semiconductor structure. The method further includes removing at least a portion of the intermediary material through the opening in the semiconductor structure to undercut the second side of the semiconductor structure.
US09768262B2

Carbon-doped germanium stressor regions are formed in an nFET device region of a germanium substrate and at a footprint of a functional gate structure. The carbon-doped germanium stressor regions are formed by an epitaxial growth process utilizing monomethylgermane (GeH3—CH3) as the carbon source. The carbon-doped germanium stressor regions that are provided yield more strain in less volume since a carbon atom is much smaller than a silicon atom.
US09768254B2

A semiconductor device includes an extremely thin semiconductor-on-insulator substrate (ETSOI) having a base substrate, a thin semiconductor layer and a buried dielectric therebetween. A device channel is formed in the thin semiconductor layer. Source and drain regions are formed at opposing positions relative to the device channel. The source and drain regions include an n-type material deposited on the buried dielectric within a thickness of the thin semiconductor layer. A gate structure is formed over the device channel.
US09768251B2

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure comprises the steps of: providing a substrate including a first semiconductor material; forming a dielectric layer on a surface of the substrate; forming an opening in the dielectric layer having a bottom reaching the substrate; providing a second semiconductor material in the opening and on the substrate, the second semiconductor material being en-capsulated by a further dielectric material thereby forming a filled cavity; melting the second semiconductor material in the cavity; recrystallizing the second semi-conductor material in the cavity; laterally removing the second semiconductor material at least partially for forming a lateral surface at the second semiconductor material; and forming a third semiconductor material on the lateral surface of the second semiconductor material, wherein the third semiconductor material is different from the second semiconductor material.
US09768247B1

A semiconductor device includes a charge-compensating region with a first structure disposed adjoining an end portion of the charge-compensating region. The first structure is configured to reduce charge-imbalances present in the charge-compensating region. In one embodiment, the first structure includes a trench that extends along the vertical depth of the charge-compensated trench so that the final charge-compensating region is provided without corner portions. In one embodiment, a material, such as a dielectric material and/or a polycrystalline semiconductor material, may be disposed within the trench and at least along the end portion of the charge-compensating region. Among other things, the first structure improves device electrical performance and manufacturing yields.
US09768245B2

A microelectronic device contains a high voltage component having a high voltage node and a low voltage node. The high voltage node is isolated from the low voltage node by a main dielectric between the high voltage node and low voltage elements at a surface of the substrate of the microelectronic device. A lower-bandgap dielectric layer is disposed between the high voltage node and the main dielectric. The lower-bandgap dielectric layer contains at least one sub-layer with a bandgap energy less than a bandgap energy of the main dielectric. The lower-bandgap dielectric layer extends beyond the high voltage node continuously around the high voltage node. The lower-bandgap dielectric layer has an isolation break surrounding the high voltage node at a distance of at least twice the thickness of the lower-bandgap dielectric layer from the high voltage node.
US09768244B1

A semiconductor device includes a first electrode layer and a second electrode layer. The first electrode layer extends in a first direction. The second electrode layer extends in the first direction for a different length from the first electrode layer, and is symmetric with respect to a center line of the first electrode layer in a second direction. The second electrode layer defines a capacitor with the first electrode layer.
US09768242B2

An organic light emitting diode display includes: a plurality of pixels including a first pixel, a second pixel, and a third pixel connected to the plurality of scan lines and the plurality of data lines, wherein each pixel includes a switching transistor connected to the scan line and the data line, a driving transistor connected to the switching transistor, an organic light emitting diode connected to the driving transistor, and a light emission control transistor between the driving transistor and the organic light emitting diode and configured to be turned on by the light emission control signal, and at least one pixel from among the first pixel, the second pixel, and the third pixel further includes a bypass transistor configured to bypass a portion of a driving current transmitted by the driving transistor.
US09768236B2

An organic light emitting diode display panel and a manufacturing method thereof. The display panel includes a plurality of pixel units arranged in arrays, each pixel unit has a first electrode layer, a second electrode layer and at least three light emitting layers. Each light emitting layer includes a planar light emitting layer and at least two annular light emitting layers disposed concentrically with the planar light emitting layer. The first electrode layer has a planar first electrode at a location that corresponds to the planar light emitting layer, and the first electrode layer has an annular first electrode at a location that corresponds to each annular light emitting layer.
US09768234B2

Providing a high-density two-terminal memory architecture(s) having performance benefits of two-terminal memory and relatively low fabrication cost, is described herein. By way of example, the two-terminal memory architecture(s) can be constructed on a substrate, in various embodiments, and comprise two-terminal memory cells formed within conductive layer recess structures of the memory architecture. In one embodiment, a conductive layer recess can be created as a horizontal etch in conjunction with a vertical via etch. In another embodiment, the conductive layer recess can be patterned for respective conductive layers of the two-terminal memory architecture.
US09768231B2

Multi-time programmable (MTP) random access memory (RRAM) devices and methods for forming a MTP RRAM device are disclosed. The method includes providing a substrate. The substrate is prepared with at least a first region for accommodating one or more multi-programmable based resistive random access memory (RRAM) cell. A fin-type based selector is provided over the substrate in the first region. A storage element of the RRAM cell is formed over the fin-type based selector. The fin-type based selector is coupled in series with the storage element of the RRAM cell.
US09768220B2

Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a deep trench isolation structure. This deep trench isolation structure is formed on a semiconductor substrate having an upper semiconductor surface. A deep trench, which has a deep trench width as measured between opposing deep trench sidewalls, extends into the semiconductor substrate beneath the upper semiconductor surface. A fill material is formed in the deep trench, and a dielectric liner is disposed on a lower surface and sidewalls of the deep trench to separate the fill material from the semiconductor substrate. A shallow trench region has sidewalls that extend upwardly from the sidewalls of the deep trench to the upper semiconductor surface. The shallow trench region has a shallow trench width that is greater than the deep trench width. A dielectric material fills the shallow trench region and extends over top of the conductive material in the deep trench.
US09768209B2

A display apparatus includes a base substrate, a pixel on the base substrate, and a color filter part between the base substrate and the pixel. The pixel includes a cover layer defining a TSC (Tunnel Shaped Cavity) on the base substrate, an image display part provided in the TSC, and first and second electrodes which apply an electric field to the image display part.
US09768196B2

A flexible display motherboard is disclosed. The motherboard includes a first group of flexible display units, where the first group includes at least one flexible display unit. The motherboard also includes a second group of flexible display units, where the second group includes at least one flexible display unit. The motherboard also includes one or more first grooves between the first and second groups.
US09768193B2

A three-dimensional (3D) semiconductor device includes a stack of conductive layers spaced from each other in a vertical direction, the stack having a staircase-shaped section in a connection region, and ends of the conductive layers constituting treads of the staircase-shaped section, respectively. The 3D semiconductor device further includes buffer patterns disposed on and protruding above the respective ends of the conductive layers, an interconnection structure disposed above the stack and including conductive lines, and contact plugs extending vertically between the conductive lines and the buffer patterns and electrically connected to the conductive layers of the stack via the buffer patterns.
US09768187B2

To provide a semiconductor device having improved performance. A method of manufacturing the semiconductor device includes forming, after formation of a control gate electrode and a memory gate electrode, a conductive film on an insulating film made of a high-dielectric-constant film via a metal film; patterning the conductive film and thereby forming a gate electrode including the metal film and the conductive film in a high-voltage MISFET region, while forming a metal film portion and a conductive film portion in a low-voltage MISFET region; and then, removing the conductive film portion from the low-voltage MISFET region, forming another conductive film on the metal film portion, and forming a gate electrode including the metal film portion and the another conductive film.
US09768183B2

An initial etch forms a trench over first contact areas of a plurality of NAND strings, the initial etch also forming individual openings over second contact areas of the plurality of NAND strings. Material is added in the trench to reduce an area of exposed bottom surface of the trench while maintaining the individual openings without substantial reduction of bottom surface area. Subsequent further etching extends the trench and the plurality of individual openings.
US09768181B2

Ferroelectric memory and methods of forming the same are provided. An example memory cell can include a buried recessed access device (BRAD) formed in a substrate and a ferroelectric capacitor formed on the BRAD.
US09768177B2

A method of forming conductive material of a buried transistor gate line includes adhering a precursor comprising tungsten and chlorine to material within a substrate trench. The precursor is reduced with hydrogen to form elemental-form tungsten material over the material within the substrate trench from the precursor.
US09768163B2

A semiconductor device includes a first gate pattern and a second gate pattern on a substrate, the first gate pattern having a first height and the second gate pattern having a second height, an insulating pattern on the substrate covering the first and second gate patterns, the insulating pattern including a trench exposing the substrate between the first and second gate patterns, a spacer contacting at least a portion of a sidewall of the insulating pattern within the trench, the spacer spaced apart from the first and second gate patterns and having a third height larger than the first and second heights, and a contact structure filling the trench.
US09768157B2

Disclosed herein are systems and method for voltage clamping in semiconductor circuits using through-silicon via (TSV) positioning. A semiconductor die is disclosed that includes a silicon substrate, a bipolar transistor having collector, emitter, base and sub-collector regions disposed on the substrate, and a through-silicon via (TSV) positioned within 35 μm of the sub-collector region in order to clamp a peak voltage of the bipolar transistor at a voltage limit level.
US09768156B1

An IC includes first and second designs of experiments (DOES), each comprised of at least two fill cells. The fill cells contain structures configured to obtain in-line data via non-contact electrical measurements (“NCEM”). The first DOE contains fill cells configured to enable non-contact (NC) detection of side-to-side shorts, and the second DOE contains fill cells configured to enable NC detection of chamfer shorts.
US09768148B2

A stacked memory with interface providing offset interconnects. An embodiment of memory device includes a system element and a memory stack coupled with the system element, the memory stack including one or more memory die layers. Each memory die layer includes first face and a second face, the second face of each memory die layer including an interface for coupling data interface pins of the memory die layer with data interface pins of a first face of a coupled element. The interface of each memory die layer includes connections that provide an offset between each of the data interface pins of the memory die layer and a corresponding data interface pin of the data interface pins of the coupled element.
US09768147B2

Systems and methods are described for improved heat dissipation of the stacked semiconductor dies by including metallic thermal pads between the dies in the stack. In one embodiment, the thermal pads may be in direct contact with the semiconductor dies. Heat dissipation of the semiconductor die stack can be improved by a relatively high thermal conductivity of the thermal pads that directly contact the adjacent silicon dies in the stack without the intervening layers of the low thermal conductivity materials (e.g., passivation materials). In some embodiments, the manufacturing yield of the stack can be improved by having generally coplanar top surfaces of the thermal pads and under-bump metallization (UBM) structures.
US09768144B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an apparatus comprising a semiconductor substrate having a first surface, a second surface that is disposed opposite to the first surface, wherein at least a portion of the first surface is recessed to form a recessed region of the semiconductor substrate, and one or more vias formed in the recessed region of the semiconductor substrate to provide an electrical or thermal pathway between the first surface and the second surface of the semiconductor substrate, and a die coupled to the semiconductor substrate, the die being electrically coupled to the one or more vias formed in the recessed region of the semiconductor substrate. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09768134B2

A method of forming a conductive material on a semiconductor device. The method comprises removing at least a portion of a conductive pad within an aperture in a dielectric material over a substrate. The method further comprises forming a seed material at least within a bottom of the aperture and over the dielectric material, forming a protective material over the seed material within the aperture, and forming a conductive pillar in contact with the seed material through an opening in the protective material over surfaces of the seed material within the aperture. A method of forming an electrical connection between adjacent semiconductor devices, and a semiconductor device, are also described.
US09768131B2

A wiring (3) comprising electrical conductors (4, 5, 6, 7) is formed in a dielectric layer (2) on or above a semiconductor substrate (1), an opening is formed in the dielectric layer to uncover a contact pad (8), which is formed by one of the conductors, and a further opening is formed in the dielectric layer to uncover an area of a further conductor (5), separate from the contact pad. The further opening is filled with an electrically conductive material (9), and the dielectric layer is thinned from a side opposite the substrate, so that the electrically conductive material protrudes from the dielectric layer.
US09768129B2

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor die, a semiconductor integrated circuit and a three-dimensional crack detection structure. The semiconductor die includes a central region and a peripheral region surrounding the central region. The semiconductor integrated circuit is formed in the central region. The three-dimensional crack detection structure is formed in a ring shape in the peripheral region to surround the central region. The three-dimensional crack detection structure is expanded in a vertical direction. Using the three-dimensional crack detection structure, the crack penetration of various types may be detected thoroughly.
US09768122B2

An electronic part embedded substrate is disclosed. The electronic part embedded substrate includes a first substrate, a second substrate, an electronic part, an electrically connecting member, and a sealing member. A method of producing an electronic part embedded substrate is also disclosed. The method includes mounting an electronic part onto a first substrate, laminating a second substrate on the first substrate through an electrically connecting member; and filling a space between the first substrate and the second substrate with a sealing member to seal the electronic part.
US09768121B2

Stacked microelectronic devices and methods for manufacturing such devices are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a stacked microelectronic device assembly can include a first known good packaged microelectronic device including a first interposer substrate. A first die and a first through-casing interconnects are electrically coupled to the first interposer substrate. A first casing at least partially encapsulates the first device such that a portion of each first interconnect is accessible at a top portion of the first casing. A second known good packaged microelectronic device is coupled to the first device in a stacked configuration. The second device can include a second interposer substrate having a plurality of second interposer pads and a second die electrically coupled to the second interposer substrate. The exposed portions of the first interconnects are electrically coupled to corresponding second interposer pads.
US09768118B1

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, and a dielectric layer on an upper surface of the semiconductor substrate. A contact stack is formed in the dielectric layer. The contact stack includes an electrically conductive contact element, and a contact liner on first and second opposing sidewalls of the contact element. A first air gap is interposed between the dielectric layer and the contact liner on the first side wall, and a second air gap interposed between the dielectric layer and the contact liner on the second side wall.
US09768112B2

According to an exemplary embodiment, a semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device includes a first seal ring and a first circuit. The first circuit includes a first capacitor and a first inductor connected in series. The first circuit is connected between the first seal ring and a ground.
US09768106B2

A chip-on-film (COF) package includes a base film, a semiconductor chip mounted on a chip mounting region of a top surface of the base film, a plurality of top inner output conductive patterns, a plurality of bottom inner output conductive patterns and a plurality of landing vias. The top inner output conductive patterns are formed on the top surface of the base film and respectively connected to chip inner output pads formed on a bottom surface of the semiconductor chip. The bottom inner output conductive patterns are formed on a bottom surface of the base film. The landing vias are formed to vertically penetrate the base film and to respectively connect the top inner output conductive patterns and the bottom inner output conductive patterns. The landing vias are arranged within the chip mounting region to form a two-dimensional shape.
US09768105B2

System and method are disclosed for creating a rigid interconnect between two substrate mounted packages to create a package-on-package assembly. A solid interconnect may have a predetermined length configured to provide a predetermined package separation, may be cylindrical, conical or stepped, may be formed by extrusion, casting, drawing or milling and may have an anti-oxidation coating. The interconnect may be attached to mounting pads on the top and bottom packages via an electrically conductive adhesive, including, but not limited to solder and solder paste. A solder preservative or other anti-oxidation coating may be applied to the mounting pad. A package-on-package assembly with solid interconnects may have a top package configured to accept at least one electronic device, with the solid interconnects mounted between the top package and a bottom package to rigidly hold the package about parallel to each other.
US09768102B2

A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit packaging system includes: forming a one-layer substrate with a symmetrical structure, the one-layer substrate having a redistribution pad and an insulation, the redistribution pad only at an insulation top side of the insulation; mounting an integrated circuit over the one-layer substrate; and forming an encapsulation over the integrated circuit.
US09768086B2

The invention provides methods and devices for fabricating printable semiconductor elements and assembling printable semiconductor elements onto substrate surfaces. Methods, devices and device components of the present invention are capable of generating a wide range of flexible electronic and optoelectronic devices and arrays of devices on substrates comprising polymeric materials. The present invention also provides stretchable semiconductor structures and stretchable electronic devices capable of good performance in stretched configurations.
US09768083B1

A process for making and using a semiconductor wafer includes instantiating first and second designs of experiments (DOEs), each comprised of at least two fill cells. The fill cells contain structures configured to obtain in-line data via non-contact electrical measurements (“NCEM”). The first DOE contains fill cells configured to enable non-contact (NC) detection of merged-via opens, and the second DOE contains fill cells configured to enable NC detection of snake opens. The process may further include obtaining NC measurements from the first and/or second DOE(s) and using such measurements, at least in part, to selectively perform additional processing, metrology or inspection steps on the wafer, and/or on other wafer(s) currently being manufactured.
US09768078B2

An integrated circuit is formed by removing a sacrificial gate dielectric layer and a sacrificial gate to form a gate cavity. A conformal dielectric first liner is formed in the gate cavity and a conformal second liner is formed on the first liner. A first etch removes the second liner from the bottom of the gate cavity, leaving material of the second liner on sidewalls of the gate cavity. A second etch removes the first liner from the bottom of the gate cavity exposed by the second liner, leaving material of the first liner on the bottom of the gate cavity under the second liner on the sidewalls of the gate cavity. A third etch removes the second liner from the gate cavity, leaving an L-shaped spacers of the first liner in the gate cavity. A permanent gate dielectric layer and replacement gate are formed in the gate cavity.
US09768074B2

A method of forming a transistor can include forming a gate mask on a substrate having a vertical location aligned with that of a transistor control gate; implanting first conductivity type dopants with the gate mask as an implant mask to form a first shallow halo region; implanting first conductivity type dopants with at least the gate mask as an implant mask to form a first deep halo region having a peak dopant concentration profile at a greater substrate depth than the first shallow halo region; forming an epitaxial layer on top of the substrate; forming a first control gate structure on the epitaxial layer; and forming a first source or drain region, of a second conductivity type, in at least the epitaxial layer to a side of the first control gate, and over the first shallow halo region and the first deep halo region.
US09768069B2

A method for forming a semiconductor device is provided. The method includes providing a semiconductor substrate with an insulating layer formed thereon. The method includes forming a gate dielectric layer in the first opening and the second opening. The method includes forming a film over the gate dielectric layer. The method includes forming a first work function metal layer in the first opening. The method includes depositing a second work function metal layer in the first opening and the second opening and in direct contact with the first work function metal layer in the first opening and the film in the second opening. A first deposition rate of the second work function metal layer over the first work function metal layer is greater than a second deposition rate of the second work function metal layer over the film.
US09768046B2

A wafer storage container includes a shell body including a first side body and a second side body that face, an upper body connected with upper parts of the first side body and the second side body, a rear body connected with an end of one side of each of the first side body and the second side body, and a lower body connected with lower parts of the first side body and the second side body, and configured to define an internal space together with the first side body, the second side body, the upper body, and the rear body.
US09768036B2

A power semiconductor substrate comprising an insulating planar base, at least one conductor track and at least one contact area as part of the conductor track, wherein a layer of a metallic material is disposed on the contact area by means of pressure sintering. The associated method comprises the steps of: producing a power semiconductor substrate that includes a planar insulating base, conductor tracks and contact areas; arranging a pasty layer, composed of a metallic material and a solvent, on at least one contact area of the power semiconductor substrate; and applying pressure to the pasty layer.
US09768021B2

Methods of forming metal oxide structures and methods of forming metal oxide patterns on a substrate using a block copolymer system formulated for self-assembly. A block copolymer at least within a trench in the substrate and including at least one soluble block and at least one insoluble block may be annealed to form a self-assembled pattern including a plurality of repeating units of the at least one soluble block laterally aligned with the trench and positioned within a matrix of the at least one insoluble block. The self-assembled pattern may be exposed to a metal oxide precursor that impregnates the at least one soluble block. The metal oxide precursor may be oxidized to form a metal oxide. The self-assembled pattern may be removed to form a pattern of metal oxide lines on the substrate surface. Semiconductor device structures are also described.
US09768010B2

A liquid treatment apparatus includes a substrate holder (21) that holds a substrate horizontally and rotates the substrate, a treatment liquid nozzle (82) that supplies a treatment liquid to the substrate held by the substrate holder, a cup (40) that is arranged outside of a peripheral edge of the substrate held by the substrate holder and receives the treatment liquid which has been supplied to the substrate by the treatment liquid nozzle, a top plate (32) that covers the substrate held by the substrate holder from above, a top plate rotation driving mechanism that rotates the top plate, and a liquid receiving member (130) that surrounds a peripheral edge of the top plate and has a circular liquid receiving space (132).
US09768005B1

A device and method are disclosed to apply ESI-based mass spectroscopy to submicrometer and nanometer scale aerosol particles. Unipolar ionization is utilized to charge the particles in order to collect them electrostatically on the tip of a tungsten rod. Subsequently, the species composing the collected particles are dissolved by making a liquid flow over the tungsten rod. This liquid with dissolved aerosol contents is formed into highly charged droplets, which release unfragmented ions for mass spectroscopy, such as time-of-flight mass spectroscopy. The device is configured to operate in a switching mode, wherein aerosol deposition occurs while solvent delivery is turned off and vice versa.
US09768004B2

The invention provides interfaces between analytical instruments, e.g., between chromatography systems and mass spectrometers. In an exemplary embodiment, an ion source is provided for connecting a carbon dioxide-based chromatograph device to a mass spectrometer. The ion source includes a first conduit for receiving eluent from the chromatography device, a heater for heating at least a portion of said first conduit, a second conduit in fluid communication with the first conduit, an inlet for receiving eluent from said second conduit and introducing the eluent into an ion source region to form a plume of gas and/or liquid in the ion source region, and an ionization promoting inlet for injecting an ionization promoting fluid into the ion source region to interact with the plume to promote ionization of at least some of the plume.
US09768001B2

A method of quantifying a target analyte by mass spectrometry includes obtaining a mass spectrometer signal comprising a first calibrator signal, comprising a second calibrator signal, and potentially comprising a target analyte signal from a single sample comprising a first known quantity of a first calibrator, comprising a second known quantity of a second calibrator, and potentially comprising a target analyte. The first known quantity and the second known quantity are different, and wherein the first calibrator, the second calibrator, and the target analyte are each distinguishable in the single sample by mass spectrometry. The method also includes quantifying the target analyte in the single sample using the first calibrator signal, the second calibrator signal, and the target analyte signal.
US09767988B2

Systems, methods and apparatus for regulating ion energies in a plasma chamber and chucking a substrate to a substrate support are disclosed. An exemplary method includes placing a substrate in a plasma chamber, forming a plasma in the plasma chamber, controllably switching power to the substrate so as to apply a periodic voltage function (or a modified periodic voltage function) to the substrate, and modulating, over multiple cycles of the periodic voltage function, the periodic voltage function responsive to a defined distribution of energies of ions at the surface of the substrate so as to effectuate the defined distribution of ion energies on a time-averaged basis.
US09767971B2

An electronic apparatus is disclosed. An electronic apparatus comprises a housing, a press switch, a push button, and a cable. The press switch is located in the housing. The push button is a button for pressing the press switch. The cable connects a first electronic part located in the push button to a second electronic part located closer to the inside than the first electronic part and located in the housing. The cable has a fixed portion that is part of the cable between the first electronic part and the second electronic part and that is fixed to the housing. The push button does not face the fixed portion in a direction in which the push button moves by being pushed.
US09767970B2

A key structure includes a connecting plate, a keycap, a triggering element, a scissors-type connecting element, a membrane switch circuit member, and a supporting plate. The keycap includes a protrusion part. The supporting plate includes an accommodation part and an elastic structure. The elastic structure is aligned with the protrusion part and disposed within the accommodation part. When the keycap is depressed, the protrusion part is moved with the keycap to push the triggering element. Consequently, the membrane switch circuit member is triggered by the triggering element. Moreover, as the protrusion part is moved with the keycap, the protrusion part collides with the elastic structure to generate a sound.
US09767967B2

A switch unit includes a current switching device drivable by an electromagnetic actuator for opening/closing an electric circuit associated with the switch unit, a first energy storage for storing electric energy for the electromagnetic actuator, and electronic controller means which are supplied by an external power line and control a supply of the electric energy from the energy storage means to the electromagnetic actuator. The switch unit includes emergency procedure operating means associated with the electronic controller means and provided with a second energy storage means. The emergency procedure operating means are configured for enabling driving of the current switching device and opening the associated electric circuit in an emergency condition in which a lack or drop or irregular supply of the external power line is experienced.
US09767963B2

A solid electrolytic capacitor that comprises an anode that contains a dielectric formed on a sintered porous body is provided. The sintered porous body is formed from a valve metal powder having a specific charge of about 100,000 microFarads*Volts per gram or more. The solid electrolyte overlies the anode, and includes an intrinsically conductive polymer containing repeating units having the following formula (I): wherein, R is (CH2)a—O—(CH2)b; a is from 0 to 10; b is from 1 to 18; Z is an anion; and X is a cation.
US09767934B2

A method, system, and apparatus for the thermoelectric conversion of nuclear reactor generated heat including thermoelectrically converting gas cooled nuclear reactor generated heat to electrical energy and supplying the electrical energy to an operation system of the nuclear reactor system.
US09767922B2

Provided is a memory device including a memory cell array including a normal area in which a plurality of memory cells are arranged, and a redundancy area in which a plurality of redundancy memory cells are arranged, and a repair controller configured to control a repair operation on a defect cell from among the plurality of memory cells according to a first repair unit, and switch a repair unit from the first repair unit to a second repair unit different from the first repair unit when the repair operation based on the first repair unit is completed.
US09767916B2

The present disclosure relates to a shift register and a display apparatus, wherein the shift register comprising an input module, a pull-down module, an inversion module and a first pull-up module; wherein, the input module supplies an input signal voltage to a pull-down node in response to a first clock signal, wherein the pull-down node is an output node of the input module; the pull-down module stores the input signal voltage and supplies a second clock signal to an output terminal in response to the pull-down node; the inversion module supplies a positive power supply voltage or a negative power supply voltage to a first pull-up node in response to the pull-down node; and the first pull-up module supplies the positive power supply voltage to the output terminal in response to the first pull-up node. Some or all the floating nodes in the shift register are not floated any more by improvement; as an alternative, the sources/drains of the TFTs subjected to the effects of the floating nodes are controlled so that the output stability of the shift register is improved.
US09767912B2

An method of operating a memory system including a plurality of memory cells includes changing an operation mode at least some of the memory cells which operate based on a first operation mode to operate based on a second operation mode; and performing a change erase operation on the memory cells for which an operation mode is changed on the basis of a change erase condition when the operation mode is changed. When memory cells operate in the first operation mode, a normal erase operation is performed based on a first erase condition, and when memory cells operate in the second operation mode, a normal erase operation is performed based on a second erase condition. The change erase condition is different from at least one of the first and second erase conditions.
US09767908B2

A non-volatile semiconductor memory device includes a first memory cell above a substrate and electrically connected to a first word line, a second memory cell above the first memory cell and electrically connected to a second word line, and a controller. The controller is configured to execute a write operation that includes a first step in which a first voltage is applied to a selected word line and to a non-selected word line, a second step after the first step in which a program voltage is applied to the selected word line, and a third step after the second step in which a second voltage higher than the first voltage is applied to the non-selected word line. A time period between a start of the second step and a start of the third step is different depending on whether the first or second memory cell is being written.
US09767905B2

A bit scan circuit includes N scan blocks corresponding with an N-bit string of binary data. The string is scanned using an input clock signal to count the number of bits having a predetermined binary value. Each scan block includes a single latch to transfer the corresponding bit and to indicate reset. The scan blocks are organized into groups. Each group is enabled by a corresponding token signal. The token signal for each group is asserted after each preceding scan block indicates a pass value. When enabled by its token signal, the first scan block in a group is reset by a first clock signal. A second scan block in the group is enabled for reset after the first scan block indicates the pass value. The second scan block in the group is reset by a second clock signal having pulses that precede corresponding pulses from the first clock signal.
US09767903B2

A memory module includes a nonvolatile memory device and a volatile memory device connected to a first data channel through a first input/output port and to a second data channel through a second input/output port. The volatile memory device activates one of the first and second input/output ports based on an operation mode. The memory module includes a registering clock driver that transmits a first control signal for data exchange through the first input/output port and a second control signal for data exchange through the second input/output port, to the volatile memory device. A memory controller of the memory module generates the second control signal, exchanges data with the volatile memory device through the second data channel, and controls the nonvolatile memory device. The memory controller detects a request from a host or a power status and generates the second control signal based on the detection result.
US09767897B2

A memory cell including a memory element comprising an electrolytic insulator in contact with a conductive metal oxide (CMO) is disclosed. The CMO includes a crystalline structure and can comprise a pyrochlore oxide, a conductive binary oxide, a multiple B-site perovskite, and a Ruddlesden-Popper structure. The CMO includes mobile ions that can be transported to/from the electrolytic insulator in response to an electric field of appropriate magnitude and direction generated by a write voltage applied across the electrolytic insulator and CMO. The memory cell can include a non-ohmic device (NOD) that is electrically in series with the memory element. The memory cell can be positioned between a cross-point of conductive array lines in a two-terminal cross-point memory array in a single layer of memory or multiple vertically stacked layers of memory that are fabricated over a substrate that includes active circuitry for data operations on the array layer(s).
US09767890B2

A static random-access memory is described. The SRAM includes a storage cell and a voltage supply to supply the storage cell with a reduced voltage during a write operation. The SRAM cell includes a first pass gate and a second pass gate. A first resistor is coupled between the first pass gate and a first side of the storage cell. A second resistor is coupled between the second pass gate and a second side of the storage cell.
US09767889B1

A die is provided having an unterminated endpoint that capacitively loads its input impedance with a capacitance from capacitor while acting as a receiving endpoint and that isolates its output impedance from the capacitance while acting as a transmitting endpoint.
US09767887B2

A memory device includes a first memory cell, a second memory cell, a precharge circuit, a sense amplifier, a switch circuit, and a controller. The first memory cell is connected to a first bit line, the second memory cell is connected to a second bit line, and the precharge circuit connected between the first bit line and the second bit line. The sense amplifier includes a first input terminal and a second input terminal. The switch circuit is connected to the first bit line and the first input terminal and to the second bit line and the second input terminal and is configured to control a connection between the first bit line and the first input terminal and a connection between the second bit line and the second input terminal in response to a switch signal. The controller is configured to generate the switch signal in response to a command.
US09767886B2

A technique to increase transfer rate of command and address signals via a given number of command and address pins in each of one or more integrated circuit memory devices during a clock cycle of a clock signal. In one example embodiment, the command and address signals are sent on both rising and falling edges of a clock cycle of a clock signal to increase the transfer rate and essentially reduce the number of required command and address pins in each integrated circuit memory device.
US09767882B2

A method of refreshing a memory device includes performing normal refresh operations on memory cell rows in response to a refresh command and performing self-refresh operations on the memory cell rows according to a refresh clock signal in response during a self-refresh mode of the memory device between a self-refresh enter command and a self-refresh exit command. The refresh clock signal has a first self-refresh cycle before the self-refresh begins and a second self-refresh cycle, which may be longer than the first self-refresh cycle, after the self-refresh begins. In some examples, no self-refresh may be performed by the memory device during a self-refresh mode.
US09767879B2

A method of setting the reference voltage for sensing data states in integrated circuits including ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) cells of the one-transistor-one capacitor (1T-1C) type. In an electrical test operation, some or all of the FRAM cells are programmed to a particular polarization state. A “shmoo” of the reference voltage for sensing the data state is performed, at one or more worst case electrical or environmental conditions for that data state, to determine a reference voltage limit at which the weakest cell fails to return the correct data when read. A configuration register is then written with a reference voltage based on this reference voltage limit, for example at the limit plus/minus a tolerance.
US09767875B2

A method uses a memory that includes a plurality of non-volatile memory (NVM) cells; a plurality of word lines; a plurality of bit lines; and an amplifier having an inverting input, a non-inverting input, and an output; and a capacitance coupled to the inverting input includes. A reference is coupled to the non-inverting input. The output of the amplifier is coupled to the inverting input of the amplifier while the non-inverting input receives the reference. The output is decoupled from the inverting input to store a voltage on the inverting input of the amplifier. A non-volatile (NV) element of a first NVM cell of the plurality of NVM cells is coupled to the non-inverting input. An output signal representative of the state of the NVM cell is provided.
US09767868B2

Providing memory training of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) systems using port-to-port loopbacks, and related methods, systems, and apparatuses are disclosed. In one aspect, a first port within a DRAM system is coupled to a second port via a loopback connection. A training signal is sent to the first port from a System-on-Chip (SoC), and passed to the second port through the loopback connection. The training signal is then returned to the SoC, where it may be examined by a closed-loop training engine of the SoC. A training result corresponding to a hardware parameter may be recorded, and the process may be repeated until an optimal result for the hardware parameter is achieved at the closed-loop training engine. By using a port-to-port loopback configuration, the DRAM system parameters regarding timing, power, and other parameters associated with the DRAM system may be trained more quickly and with lower boot memory usage.
US09767867B2

A computer system is disclosed including a printed circuit board (PCB) including a plurality of traces, at least one processor mounted to the PCB to couple to some of the plurality of traces, a heterogeneous memory channel including a plurality of sockets coupled to a memory channel bus of the PCB, and a memory controller coupled between the at least one processor and the heterogeneous memory channel. The heterogeneous memory channel includes a plurality of sockets coupled to a memory channel bus of the PCB. The plurality of sockets are configured to receive a plurality of different types of memory modules. The memory controller may be a programmable heterogeneous memory controller to flexibly adapt to the memory channel bus to control access to each of the different types of memory modules in the heterogeneous memory channel.
US09767864B1

The present disclosure includes apparatuses and methods related to storing a data value in a sensing circuitry element. An example method comprises sensing a first data value with a sense amplifier of a sensing circuitry element, moving a second data value from a first storage location of a compute component to a second storage location of the compute component, and storing, in the first storage location, a third data value resulting from a logical operation performed on the first data value and the second data value. The logical operation can be performed by logic circuitry of the sensing circuitry element.
US09767863B2

According to one embodiment, a memory device includes: a first storage area configured to store data; a first sense amplifier; a first data latch; a first selector configured to select either connection between the first data latch and the first sense amplifier or connection between the first data latch and another sense amplifier; and a second selector configured to select either connection between the first storage area and the first sense amplifier or connection between another storage area and the first sense amplifier.
US09767861B2

A circuit provides a regulated voltage supply for other circuits. The circuit includes a bias current source and a reference voltage source. The circuit includes a pass transistor and a feedback transistor. The pass transistor receives input from the feedback transistor that generates a regulated voltage at a terminal of the pass transistor. The feedback transistor receives inputs from the regulated voltage of the pass transistor and the reference voltage source. The feedback transistor provides voltage for the input of the pass transistor, thereby controlling the regulated voltage generated by the pass transistor. The regulated voltage generated by the pass transistor is provided as a regulated voltage supply to other circuits.
US09767857B2

Subject matter disclosed herein relates to methods and apparatus, such as memory devices and systems including such memory devices. In one apparatus example, a plurality of block configurations may be employed. Block configurations may include an arrangement of similarly doped semiconductor switches. Block configurations may select a respective tile of a memory array, a particular memory cell of the respective tile, and select a memory operation to apply to the particular memory cell. Immediately adjacent block configurations within a particular slice of the memory array may be substantially mirrored and immediately adjacent block configurations in separate immediately adjacent slices of the memory array may be substantially similar. Similarly doped diffusion regions for similarly doped semiconductor switches in substantially mirrored block configurations may be arranged to electrically share a common potential signal value level. Other apparatus and methods are also disclosed.
US09767856B2

The present disclosure provides a chassis housing an increased density of smaller storage devices. The chassis houses one or more power supplies, one or more input/output modules, and hot swappable, front accessible field replaceable units. The field replaceable units have a depth that is greater than their width and height, so as to accommodate dual storage devices one in front of the other. The proximal storage device connects to a midplane of the chassis via an interposer card situated between the proximal and distal storage devices. The interposer card conditions any signals that exhibit signal integrity problems after traversing between the midplane and the interposer card. The interposer card connects to the midplane via a bridge card and a flexible connector running underneath the distal storage device. Each field replaceable unit is placed into the front end of the chassis in a vertical orientation with respect to the chassis.
US09767852B2

Systems and methods determine, identify and/or detect one or more audio mismatches between at least two digital media files by providing a group of digital media files to a computer system as input files. Each digital media file comprises digital audio and digital video signals previously recorded at a same performance by a same artist, and the digital media files are previously synchronized with respect to each other and aligned on a timeline of the same performance and provide a first multi-angle digital video of the same performance. The systems and methods compare audio features based on the audio signals of each digital media file and detect at least one audio mismatch between at least two digital media files of the group based on compared audio features, wherein the at least one audio mismatch is generated by, caused by or based on one or more previously edited digital media files present within the group.
US09767850B2

A software application for mobile devices enables users to easily create a fully-edited short video by combining video clips of various lengths to form a final video that resembles a Hollywood-style, professionally edited video clip. The videos are automatically edited to the music cuts using pre-programmed storyboards and transitions that align with the user's thematic selection. There are few steps involved in the process making for a user-friendly experience. The professional style video clip is produced on a user's phone in only 45 seconds and can then be shared with friends via email, YouTube, Facebook and other forms of social media.
US09767845B2

Providing a method for browsing portions of videos called video previews. The video previews may be associated with a link or predefined duration of a full video, such that the video preview is generated from a portion of the full video and viewed by a user. The video previews are configured to play a series of images associated with images from the portion of the full video when the video preview is activated.
US09767844B1

An information recording method of recording information is provided in an information recording medium having a plurality of recording layers including a first recording layer and a second recording layer located to be closer to a surface than the first recording layer, each of the plurality of recording layers includes a user data area for recording user data, a spare area for alternatively recording data of failed recording into the user data area, and a management information area for recording management information. The first recording layer is used as a recording object layer at start of recording. When any one of the user data area, the spare area, and the management information area of the first recording layer runs short of a free space, then the recording object layer of the user data area, the spare area, and the management information area is switched over to the second recording layer.
US09767840B2

The disclosed embodiments provide a system that drives a display from a computer system. During operation, the system writes graphical output to protected memory and drives the display from the protected memory. If the graphical output lacks protection, the system discontinues the driving of the display from the protected memory. In particular, upon detecting a lack of protection in the graphical output, the system continues to drive the display from the protected memory during a grace period associated with the lack of protection in the graphical output. The system then discontinues driving of the display from the protected memory if protection of the graphical output does not resume during the grace period.
US09767830B2

An apparatus according to one embodiment includes a magnetic sensor structure, a magnetic shield having at least one laminate pair comprising a magnetic layer and an electrically nonconductive nonmagnetic layer, and a nonmagnetic spacer layer between the sensor structure and the magnetic shield. In one embodiment, a deposition thickness of the nonconductive nonmagnetic layer in each laminate pair is about 10% or less of a total deposition thickness of the laminate pair. In another embodiment, a deposition thickness of the nonconductive nonmagnetic layer in each laminate pair is between about 1 and about 12 nanometers. In yet another embodiment, the magnetic shield has at least one second laminate pair, and a nonlaminated magnetic portion sandwiched between the at least one laminate pair and the at least one second laminate pair.
US09767829B2

A speech signal processing apparatus and a speech signal processing method for enhancing speech intelligibility are provided. The speech signal processing apparatus includes an input signal gain determiner to determine a gain of an input signal based on a harmonic characteristic of a voiced speech, a voiced speech output unit to output a voiced speech in which a harmonic component is preserved by applying the gain to the input signal, a linear predictive coefficient determiner to determine a linear predictive coefficient based on the voiced speech, and an unvoiced speech preserver to preserve an unvoiced speech of the input signal based on the linear predictive coefficient.
US09767826B2

Method and apparatus to determine a speaker activity detection measure from energy-based characteristics of signals from a plurality of speaker-dedicated microphones, detect acoustic events using power spectra for the microphone signals, and determine a robust speaker activity detection measure from the speaker activity measure and the detected acoustic events.
US09767822B2

An electronic device configured for encoding a watermarked signal is described. The electronic device includes modeler circuitry. The modeler circuitry determines parameters based on a first signal and a first-pass coded signal. The electronic device also includes coder circuitry coupled to the modeler circuitry. The coder circuitry performs a first-pass coding on a second signal to obtain the first-pass coded signal and performs a second-pass coding based on the parameters to obtain a watermarked signal.
US09767816B2

According to an aspect of the present invention, a method for reconstructing an audio signal having a baseband portion and a highband portion is disclosed. The method includes obtaining a decoded baseband audio signal by decoding an encoded audio signal and obtaining a plurality of subband signals by filtering the decoded baseband audio signal. The method further includes generating a high-frequency reconstructed signal by copying a number of consecutive subband signals of the plurality of subband signals and obtaining an envelope adjusted high-frequency signal. The method further includes generating a noise component based on a noise parameter. Finally, the method includes adjusting a phase of the high-frequency reconstructed signal and obtaining a time-domain reconstructed audio signal by combining the decoded baseband audio signal and the combined high-frequency signal to obtain a time-domain reconstructed audio signal.
US09767815B2

Provided are a voice audio encoding device, voice audio decoding device, voice audio encoding method, and voice audio decoding method that efficiently perform bit distribution and improve sound quality. Dominant frequency band identification unit identifies a dominant frequency band having a norm factor value that is the maximum value within the spectrum of an input voice audio signal. Dominant group determination units and non-dominant group determination unit group all sub-bands into a dominant group that contains the dominant frequency band and a non-dominant group that contains no dominant frequency band. Group bit distribution unit distributes bits to each group on the basis of the energy and norm variance of each group. Sub-band bit distribution unit redistributes the bits that have been distributed to each group to each sub-band in accordance with the ratio of the norm to the energy of the groups.
US09767809B2

A method of compressing the audio dynamics of an audio signal. The method includes a step of acquiring an audio signal; a step of selecting a first instant of the audio signal; a step of calculating a plurality of partial gains corresponding, respectively, to a plurality of observation windows of the audio signal that are centered on the first instant, the width of the observation windows following a geometric progression with a rate and first term that are predefined; a step of summing the partial gains calculated in a first corrective term; and a step of applying the first corrective term to the audio signal at the first instant.
US09767805B2

The present disclosure provides a voice recognition method for use in an electronic apparatus comprising a voice input module. The method comprises: receiving voice data by the voice input module; performing a first pattern voice recognition on the received voice data, including identifying whether the voice data comprises a first voice recognition information; performing a second pattern voice recognition on the voice data if the voice data comprises the first voice recognition information; and performing or refusing an operation corresponding to the first voice recognition information according to a result of the second pattern voice recognition. The present disclosure also provides a voice controlling method, an information processing method, and an electronic apparatus.
US09767793B2

The technology of the present application provides a speech recognition system with at least two different speech recognition engines or a single engine speech recognition engine with at least two different modes of operation. The first speech recognition being used to match audio to text, which text may be words or phrases. The matched audio and text is used by a training module to train a user profile for a natural language speech recognition engine, which is at least one of the two different speech recognition engines or modes. An evaluation module evaluates when the user profile is sufficiently trained to convert the speech recognition engine from the first speech recognition engine or mode to the natural language speech recognition or mode.
US09767789B2

Techniques disclosed herein include systems and methods that improve audible emotional characteristics used when synthesizing speech from a text source. Systems and methods herein use emoticons identified from a source text to provide contextual text-to-speech expressivity. In general, techniques herein analyze text and identify emoticons included within the text. The source text is then tagged with corresponding mood indicators. For example, if the system identifies an emoticon at the end of a sentence, then the system can infer that this sentence has a specific tone or mood associated with it. Depending on whether the emoticon is a smiley face, angry face, sad face, laughing face, etc., the system can infer use or mood from the various emoticons and then change or modify the expressivity of the TTS output such as by changing intonation, prosody, speed, pauses, and other expressivity characteristics.
US09767787B2

A method for speaker verification is disclosed. The method comprises using at least one hardware processor for: providing a development set comprising multiple voice samples of multiple speakers uttering a predefined development text, prompting a test text to a target speaker, wherein the test text is different from the development text, and recording a test sample of the target speaker uttering the test text, synthesizing a set of artificial voice samples based on the multiple voice samples, wherein each of the artificial voice samples simulates a different speaker of the multiple speakers uttering the test text, and verifying an identity of the target speaker based on the set of artificial voice samples and on the test sample of the target speaker.
US09767786B2

A system and method for quieting unwanted sound. As a non-limiting example, various aspects of this disclosure provide a system and method, for example implemented in a premises-based or home audio system, for quieting unwanted sound at a particular location.
US09767781B2

Disclosed technology allows a whistle to be magnetically detachable from a base portion, such as a finger grip. Some embodiments comprise a whistle component comprising a first magnetic member and a base component comprising a second magnetic member, such that the first and second magnetic members are magnetically attracted to each other. The whistle component can be detachable from the base component by breaking a magnetic bond between the first and second magnetic members. At least one of the first and second magnetic members can be at least partially covered by a non-magnetic material such that the non-magnetic material separates the first and second magnetic members when the whistle component is magnetically coupled to the base component. The first magnetic member can be contained within a cavity of an adaptor that is attached to the whistle, or within the whistle itself.
US09767779B2

A switch is constituted by a movable conductive portion and a pair of fixed conductive portions. The fixed conductive portions are arranged on a substrate, and are each constituted by at least one strip member. A first main conductive pattern and a second main conductive pattern are arranged on the substrate in correspondence with the fixed conductive portions. The movable conductive portion electrically shorts the pair of fixed conductive portions upon coming into contact with both of them. The strip members that constitute the fixed conductive portions each have a first end portion and a second end portion in the extending direction, and the end portions are electrically connected to the corresponding main conductive patterns.
US09767771B2

The invention relates to an attachment arrangement for the strings of a stringed instrument, especially a guitar. To the body of the stringed instrument is attached a bridge body, first restraining means for restraining the strings from the first end area, second restraining means, which are arranged in conjunction with the bridge body for restraining the strings from the second end area. Lever means are arranged in conjunction with the bridge body in order to move the second restraining means for temporarily loosening and/or tightening the strings by means of a lever part included in the lever means. The lever means are provided with moving means comprising at least one moving mechanism, which is a mechanism separate from the lever means. One or more second restraining means are arranged to move with respect to the bridge body. The moving means are arranged to transmit the movement of the lever means into the desired movement of one or more restraining means.
US09767760B2

A driving device for a display device wherein the display device and a source driver are connected by a plurality of external lines. A bias voltage generating part generates a bias voltage for controlling internal operating current of the plurality of amplifiers in the source driver to supply to each amplifier via a bias voltage supply line. The bias voltage supply line is laid out such that for the amplifier connected to the external line of a longer length, the length of the bias voltage supply line from the bias voltage generating part to the amplifier is shorter so as to raise a bias voltage supplied to the amplifier.
US09767753B2

A scan driver includes a plurality of stages configured to supply scan signals to scan lines. An ith (i is a natural number) stage of the stages at one side of a panel includes: a first transistor connected between a first input terminal and a first node, and including a gate electrode connected to a second input terminal; a second transistor connected between a third input terminal and a first output terminal for outputting an ith scan signal of the scan signals, and including a gate electrode connected to the first node; a third transistor connected between the first output terminal and a first power input terminal configured to receive a first off voltage, and including a gate electrode connected to the second input terminal; and a first capacitor connected between the first node and the first output terminal.
US09767750B2

The present disclosure discloses a GOA unit for co-driving a gate electrode and a common electrode, including: a trigger; a first selective input circuit; a second selective input circuit which is used to respectively gate the high level input for common electrode and the high level input for gate electrode to the clock end of the trigger in different time sequences to pull up the voltage on the trigger output end; a third selective input circuit which is used to select level signals or edge signals on gate line n+1 and gate line n+4 to serve as the reset signal of the trigger; a fourth selective input circuit which is used to pull down the voltage thereon; a selective output circuit with the input being connected to the trigger output end, for selectively outputting a gate electrode driving signal or a common electrode driving signal.
US09767748B2

An object is to provide a convenient display device which consumes sufficiently small amount of power and a method for driving such a display device. The display device can be in an off state with a still image displayed in a still image display mode in which a pixel electrode and a common electrode which are for applying a voltage to the display element are brought into a floating state so that a voltage applied to the display element is held, and a still image is displayed without further supply of a potential. The display device is put to an off state with a desired image displayed in the still image display mode, whereby the display device can have a higher level of security and can be more convenient.
US09767744B2

The present invention provides a polarity inversion driving method for a liquid crystal display panel. The polarity inversion driving method comprises a step of performing polarity inversion on groups of pixel units according to a preset period, wherein each group of pixel units comprises rows of pixel units sequentially arranged in a same column, and a gate on-state duration of the first row of pixel unit in each group of pixel units is longer than the gate on-state duration of the remaining rows of pixel units in the group of pixel units. Correspondingly, the present invention further provides a polarity inversion driving device for a liquid crystal display panel. According to the present invention, when N-dot inversion driving is performed on the liquid crystal panel, charging times of respective rows of pixel units in each group of pixel units are closer.
US09767738B2

A projection system is provided that uses an additional light valve in series with at least one color sub-assembly and respective light valve in order to increase the contrast of a projected image, wherein bit sequences are generated for the additional light valve that do not result in interference with the respective light valve bit sequences.
US09767729B2

An organic light emitting display device includes pixels divided by scan lines and data lines, and including first transistors for controlling the amount of current flowing from a first power source to a second power source through organic light emitting diodes, first feedback lines and second feedback lines formed in parallel to the data lines, control lines formed in parallel to the scan lines, and a sensing unit configured to extract at least one of voltage drop of the first power source and deterioration information of the first transistor from the pixels via the first feedback lines and the second feedback lines.
US09767720B2

A see-through, near-eye, mixed reality display apparatus providing a mixed reality environment wherein one or more virtual objects and one or more real objects exist within the view of the device. Each of the real and virtual have a commonly defined set of attributes understood by the mixed reality system allowing the system to manage relationships and interaction between virtual objects and other virtual objects, and virtual and real objects.
US09767714B2

A label assembly including one or more dissolvable thermal direct adhesive labels and methods of assembly and use. According to one embodiment, each label includes a base layer, a thermal direct layer, an adhesive layer, and a barrier layer. The base layer, which has an upper surface and a lower surface, is water-dissolvable and may be made of a water-dissolvable paper. The thermal direct layer is positioned directly over the upper surface of the base layer and functions in the conventional manner to produce markings therein in response to heat. The adhesive layer is water-dissolvable and is positioned below the lower surface of the base layer. The barrier layer, which is positioned directly below the lower surface of the base layer and directly over the adhesive layer, serves to prevent migration of the adhesive layer through the base layer and into contact with the thermal direct layer.
US09767708B2

In one embodiment, a medicament system configured to communicate information about a medicament device or about a use of a medicament device, or a combination thereof, to a user, is provided. The medicament system may include a medicament device including a housing, and a collateral device, wherein the collateral device may include an information detecting and/or receiving component configured to receive information from the medicament device and/or a sending component configured to send information to the medicament device, and optionally at least one of: a) a signal output component; b) a microprocessor; c) a storage medium component; and d) a power source, and wherein the medicament device may be configured to generate information detectable by the collateral device, or transmit information to the collateral device, wherein the collateral device may be configured to detect and/or receive information about the medicament device from the medicament device and provide information about the medicament device and/or a feedback about a use of the medicament device to a user of the system. The medicament device may further include a transmitter configured to communicate information and/or signals from the medicament device to the collateral device and/or a remote device, and/or receive information and/or signals from a collateral device and/or a remote device.
US09767707B2

An optimization engine builds a set of test forms, called a pallet for use in a qualification test setting. The pallet is generated using a optimization engine programmed with constraints and goals for each test form in the pallet and for the pallet in general. A test information floor is set at the cut point of the test which causes test items to be focused at the area of the test where the pass/fail decision is made. The test items may be separated into families by assigning test items selected for a test form in each test generation cycle to one of several families. Because each family has unique test items compared to other families, a person re-taking a qualification test from a particular pallet may be given a test form from another family, ensuring that no item from the first administration will appear on the subsequent test.
US09767706B2

Bowing platforms are disclosed for use in playing a bowed musical instrument without reliance on strings. A bowing platform includes a support and a track that replace the strings, bridge, and tailpiece on a conventional bowed instrument, to provide an alternative vibrational bowing surface. The bowing platform can be attached to a conventional fingerboard or to the body of the instrument. In one aspect, the bowing platform is useful as a bow guide to improve bow technique by restricting the player's bow angle to be within a desirable range, while still allowing for natural arm movement. The bowing platform can be further equipped with piezoelectric sensors to sense bowing motion and to create sound electronically in response to the sensed motion. A stringless bowed instrument includes a bowing platform, bowing sensors, and pitch sensors that sense finger placement along the fingerboard.
US09767699B1

An apparatus and method can provide a warning of a drone or unmanned aerial vehicle in the vicinity of an airport. The apparatus can include at least one antenna directionally disposed at an along the approach or departure path and a detector configured to provide a warning of a presence of sense an unmanned aerial or drone. The warning can be provided in response to a radio frequency signal received by the at least one of the antenna being in a frequency band associated with a transmission frequency for the unmanned aerial vehicle or drone or in a frequency band associated with interaction from receive circuitry of the unmanned aerial vehicle or drone.
US09767697B2

A method for automated enrollment and activation of a mobile telematics system comprising receiving a customer data record of a customer at a communication services database, determining a command signal based on the customer data record, sending the command signal to a telematics unit of a vehicle, enrolling the customer in a telematics-unit access system based on the command signal and activating the telematics unit of the telematics-unit access system based on the command signal.
US09767692B1

An apparatus is adapted to be in electro-mechanically communication with a vehicle and configured to record information related to crash investigation and early warning. The device records and stores information as well as analyzes it to provide an occupant of the vehicle early warning as to potential hazards that arise.
US09767691B1

The invention includes a vehicular sensor node, circuit apparatus and their operations. Power from power source is controlled for delivery to radio transceiver and magnetic sensor, based upon a task trigger and task identifier. The radio transceiver and the magnetic sensor are operated based upon the task identifier, when the task trigger is active. The power source, radio transceiver, magnetic sensor, and circuit apparatus are enclosed in vehicular sensor node, placed upon pavement and operating for at least five years without replacing the power source components. Magnetic sensor preferably uses the magnetic resistive effect to create magnetic sensor state. Radio transceiver preferably implements version of a wireless communications protocol. The circuit apparatus may further include light emitting structure to visibly communicate during installation and/or testing, and second light emitting structure used to visibly communicate with vehicle operators. Making filled shell and vehicular sensor node from circuit apparatus.
US09767690B2

A system includes a model generating component to generate a prediction tree model based on training data and an input component to receive input data including a destination in a geographical area. A computation component identifies at least one parking venue or at least one parking space near the destination in the geographical area and to generate at least one parking prediction corresponding to the at least one parking venue or the at least one parking space based at least in part on applying the input data to the prediction tree model. A presentation component presents the at least one parking venue or the at least one parking space and to present the at least one parking prediction to a user.
US09767679B2

According to systems and methods for testing alarm initiating devices of a fire alarm system, a control panel of the fire alarm system is placed into test mode. Then, during a walkthrough test, an inspector activates an inspector-activated mechanism of a device. This sends a test mode signal to the control panel, which places the device into a test mode. The inspector or inspector then manually activates the device. The control panel initiates a fire alarm condition in response to a received device signals while the control panel not initiating a fire alarm condition when the device signals are indicative of a fire if the device signals were from alarm initiating devices in the test mode. Alternatively, the control panel places a group of alarm initiating devices into test mode on a rolling basis. As the inspector tests the devices, additional devices are added to the group and previously tested devices are returned to normal operation mode.
US09767672B2

Techniques for locating and identifying mobile devices are described. According to various embodiments, an ambient sound signal may be detected using a microphone of a mobile device. Thereafter, it may be determined that the ambient sound signal corresponds to a predefined user query for assistance in locating the mobile device. For the, a predefined response sound corresponding to the predefined user query may be emitted, using a speaker of the mobile device.
US09767663B2

A GPS directed intrusion system with data acquisition is provided. Some methods can include detecting a threat event associated with a monitored facility, collecting data relevant to the threat event, and transmitting the data relevant to the threat event to a mobile device of an authority figure dispatched to the monitored facility. Some methods can also include placing a surveillance device associated with the monitored facility in a tracking mode, tracking motion captured by the surveillance device, and transmitting data representative of the motion to a mobile device of an authority figure dispatched to the monitored facility.
US09767661B2

An audio surveillance system includes a plurality of nodes and each node includes a microphone, a speaker, and a control unit. The microphone is configured to detect sound and the speaker is configured to provide sound. The control unit is configured to receive a plurality of inputs from the plurality of nodes and the plurality of inputs are based on a detected sound; determine a location of the source of the detected sound based on the plurality of inputs; classify the detected sound according to predefined alert conditions and based on the location of the source of the detected sound; provide an alert to a monitoring device regarding the detected sound based on the classification of the detected sound; and control at least one node from the plurality of nodes to provide an audio response to the detected sound.
US09767646B1

A networked game and method for entry of a non-winning game ticket in a second opportunity random draw game using a computer device that communicates with the game provider, each game player having a unique identifier and a determined balance of chips for selective use during game play shown on a display and at least one control feature selectively operative by the game player to play to an outcome for obtaining additional chips or not, with additional chips awarded to the player upon registering a non-winning ticket of a random draw game in the second opportunity game.
US09767640B2

A system includes a first server and a second server. The second server receives a value from a first device, possibly via the first server, and stores the value. In response to a request from a second device, the second server then determines the value and sends the value to the second device. In this fashion, verification can be made that the first device is in communications with the first server.
US09767631B2

Methods, systems, and devices are described that are directed to status and control of a garage door system via an alarm system controller. A garage door system may include one or more garage doors and at least one sensor configured to sense data indicative of a status of a garage door of the one or more garage doors. The at least one sensor may further be configured to convey the sensed data to an alarm system controller.
US09767630B1

Disclosed are systems and methods for performing entry access over two or more networks. The two or more networks are leveraged to accelerate the entry access and provide redundancy. Performance over each of the two or more networks is tracked in order to allow a mobile device to exchange entry access messaging over the particular network providing fastest start-to-unlock time. The mobile device can alternatively exchange the entry access messaging simultaneously over the two or more networks to create a race condition whereby the fastest start-to-unlock time is obtained without monitoring network performance. Performing the entry access messaging exchange over the two or more networks also ensures reliability in the event a particular network is down or congested, an authorization device on a particular network is down or overloaded, a radio of a mobile device communicating over a particular network is disabled or slow performing.
US09767627B2

Apparatus, systems and methods are disclosed that utilize a vehicle user's input to provide logical context of legitimate vehicle usage through a remote access device to defend the vehicle from theft. As such, an additional level of security is employed and may be used in addition to other security and theft prevention technologies of the vehicle. In one example, a legitimate automobile operator signals the context of the vehicle's state to a hardware security module in the vehicle. The states include, for example, to disallow all diagnostic system access or to allow diagnostic access for servicing.
US09767626B2

A mobile device may authorize with a paired telematics control unit of a vehicle to ensure the vehicle is in a remote service mode; send a command request to the telematics control unit requesting an operation to be automatically performed by a vehicle electronic control unit in place of manual input by an assistant; and receive diagnostic data from the vehicle electronic control unit via the telematics control unit. The telematics control unit may query electronic control units of the vehicle to identify whether the vehicle is in a mode in which commands from a remote service application of a mobile device can be processed; indicate the mode to the application; and receive the command request requesting a service operation to be automatically performed by one of the electronic control units.
US09767624B2

The present invention relates to a device, system and a method for obtaining and monitoring vehicular parameters and in particular, to such a device, system and method in which vehicular parameters are sniffed and automatically ascertained from a vehicle controller data bus.
US09767618B2

A user equipment (UE) includes a memory element and a processor. The memory element is configured to store a plurality of head-related transfer functions. The processor is configured to receive an audio signal. The audio signal includes a plurality of ambisonic signals. The processor is also configured to identify an orientation of the UE based on physical properties of the UE. The processor is also configured to rotate the plurality of ambisonic signals based on the orientation of the UE. The processor is also configured to filter the plurality of ambisonic signals using the plurality of head-related transfer functions to form speaker signals. The processor is also configured to output the speaker signals.
US09767614B2

In accordance with an example aspect, there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one processing core and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the apparatus at least to obtain a movement context of a user, rank, based at least in part on the movement contest, at least two objects based on their visibility to the user, and determine, based at least in part on the ranking, at least one of the at least two objects as a placement object for an augmented reality information element.
US09767613B1

The technology disclosed relates to a method of interacting with a virtual object. In particular, it relates to referencing a virtual object in an augmented reality space, identifying a physical location of a device in at least one image of the augmented reality space, generating for display a control coincident with a surface of the device, sensing interactions between at least one control object and the control coincident with the surface of the device, and generating data signaling manipulations of the control coincident with the surface of the device.
US09767606B2

For automatic modification of augmented reality objects, a processor identifies an object of interest displayed by an augmented reality device. The processor identifies an obstruction object that obscures viewing the object of interest within the augmented reality device. The processor further selects one or more of the obstruction object and the object of interest to modify in accordance with a mitigation policy. In addition, the processor modifies the selected object in accordance with the mitigation policy.
US09767605B2

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to cause different multi-dimensional representations of an image to be presented upon a display and to facilitate changing from one multi-dimensional representation of the image to another multi-dimensional representation of the image, such as in response to a change in the shape of the display. In the context of a method, a first, multi-dimensional representation of an image is caused to be presented upon the display while the display has a first shape. The method also causes a second, multi-dimensional representation of the image, different than the first, multi-dimensional representation of the image, to be presented upon the display while the display has a second shape, different than the first shape. The method also determines the shape of the display such that the corresponding representation of the image is caused to be presented in response thereto.
US09767604B2

A method of object recognition and/or registration includes receiving a point cloud, arranging the points of the point cloud into a hierarchical search tree, and determining geometric information of the points located within a region, by identifying a highest level tree nodes where all of descendent leaf nodes are contained within the region and selecting the leaf nodes for the points where no sub-tree is entirely contained within the region, such that the points falling within the region are represented by the smallest number of nodes and performing statistical operations on the nodes representing the points in the region. The geometric information includes descriptors of features in the point cloud. The method further includes comparing the feature descriptors with a database of feature descriptors for a plurality of objects.
US09767603B2

In order to process 3D input image data for a display of images on at least one display unit, the 3D input image data are provided scene-by-scene in accordance with an associated 3D image scene. The 3D input image data are each fed to a scene processing unit for management and processing. The 3D input image data are processed scene-by-scene in the scene processing unit, wherein at least two 3D image scenes are at least partially superposed and a whole 3D scene is formed and managed. Several 3D output scenes are derived from the whole 3D scene, for which 3D output scenes the superposition occurs in accordance with different perspective locations of observation and 3D output image data are produced in the process. The 3D output image data are fed to at least one rendering unit, which is associated with the display unit, for the production of target image data adapted to the display unit.
US09767602B2

Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for reducing processing demands of shading primitives in rendering a 2D screen image from a 3D model. A device includes a clipping component to clip a visible primitive of a 2D screen image derived from of a 3D model within a first area of the screen image covered by a shading pixel to form a polygon representing an intersection of the first area and the visible primitive; a first interpolation component to interpolate at least one attribute of vertices of the visible primitive to each vertex of the polygon; and a second interpolation component to interpolate color values of the vertices of the polygon to a point within a second area covered by a screen pixel of the screen image, the second area smaller than the first area and at least partly coinciding with the first area. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09767595B2

A tile-based graphics processing pipeline 1 comprising a rasteriser 3, a renderer 6, a tile buffer 10, a write out stage 13 and a programmable processing stage 14. The tile buffer 10 stores multiple render targets for a deferred shading operation and the programmable processing stage 14 is operable to, under the control of graphics program instructions, read data from two or more of a set of multiple render targets for a deferred shading operation stored in the tile buffer 10, perform a deferred shading processing operation using the read data, and to write the result of the processing operation to an output render target in the tile buffer 10, or to external memory.
US09767590B2

The present techniques relate to transforming a multi-frame asset, such as a time-lapse video or panoramic view, into a single image. The technique generally involves displaying a frame from the multi-frame asset on a display, and compressing the multi-frame assent into a single image based on a relation of pixel locations on the display to a path disposed on the display.
US09767589B1

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method is disclosed for providing geographic imagery. The method may include receiving, at a computing device, a request for a geographic image, wherein the geographic image depicts at least a portion of a selected location within a geographic area. In addition, the method may include presenting, with the computing device, the geographic image and superimposing a map including normalized travel way data associated with the geographic area over at least a portion of the geographic image.
US09767588B2

A method for image processing is provided comprising: detecting a rectangular image region (RIR) in one of a plurality of images while the plurality of images is being received; obtaining a coordinate corresponding to the detected RIR; and storing in a memory the coordinate and a link associating the coordinate with the image in which the RIR is detected.
US09767583B2

A method and apparatus are provided for packing a plurality of images. A number of cells of a canvas on which the plurality of images having different aspect ratios are to be packed is determined. The cells on the canvas are merged such that a number of the plurality of images is equal to the number of the cells. Each of the plurality of images are placed in a corresponding one of the plurality of cells of the canvas, according to respective aspect ratios of the plurality of images, when the number of the plurality of images is equal to the number of the cells.
US09767579B2

An information processing apparatus includes a memory, an accepting unit, a determining unit, and a selecting unit. The memory stores a template collection. The memory associatively stores, for each template, the template and a degree of first impression similarity indicating an impression of the template. The accepting unit accepts an image. The determining unit determines an impression of the accepted image. The selecting unit selects, from the template collection, a template that is in harmony with the image by using a degree of second impression similarity indicating the impression of the image, and the degree of first impression similarity.
US09767577B2

The described technology regards an augmented reality system and method for estimating a position of a location of interest relative to the position and orientation of a display based upon a retroactive adjustment of a previously rendered position and orientation of the display, by means of an adjust-update-predict (AUP) cycle, and calculating the location of interest relative to the position and orientation of the display. Systems of the described technology include including a plurality of sensors, a processing module or other computation means, and a database. Methods of the described technology use data from the sensor package useful to accurately render graphical user interface information on a display.
US09767564B2

A method, computer program product, and computer system to determine viewing patterns of persons captured by image or video is provided. A processor retrieves one of more video feeds, wherein the one or more video feeds capture one or more people. A processor determines a viewing area for at least one person of the one or more people, wherein the viewing area is based, at least in part, on a position and viewing direction of the at least one person. A processor determines a viewed object for the at least one person of the one or more people based, at least in part, on one or more objects in an area covered by the viewing area for the at least one person of the one or more people. A processor generates a report including (i) the viewed object and (ii) the at least one person.
US09767555B2

Methods and apparatus associated with distinguishing invasive adenocarcinoma (IA) from in situ adenocarcinoma (AIS) are described. One example apparatus includes a set of logics, and a data store that stores three dimensional (3D) radiological images of tissue demonstrating IA or AIS. The set of logics includes a classification logic that generates an invasiveness classification for a diagnostic 3D radiological image, a training logic that trains the classification logic to identify a texture feature associated with IA, an image acquisition logic that acquires a diagnostic 3D radiological image of a region of tissue demonstrating cancerous pathology and that provides the diagnostic 3D radiological image to the classification logic, and a prediction logic that generates an invasiveness score based on the diagnostic 3D radiological image and the invasiveness classification. The training logic trains the classification logic using a set of 3D histological reconstructions combined with the set of 3D radiological images.
US09767554B2

Various aspects of a method and system for detection of surgical gauze during anatomical surgery are disclosed herein. In accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure, the method is implementable in an image-processing engine, which is communicatively coupled to an image-capturing device that captures one or more video frames. The method includes the determination of a set of pixel characteristics based on color filtering of at least a portion of a video frame. Thereafter, one or more blocks of pixels of a portion of a surgical gauze are detected in the video frame based on the set of pixel characteristics. Further, additional pixels that correspond to a remaining portion of the surgical gauze are identified based on a plurality of metrics. The surgical gauze is recognized in the video frame based on the detection of the one or more blocks of pixels and the identification of the additional pixels.
US09767543B2

A user equipment (UE) includes a receiver and a processor. The receiver is configured to receive a standard dynamic range (SDR) image and metadata related to an HDR image. The processor is configured to identify relevant portions of the SDR image to be enhanced based on the metadata related to the HDR image. The processor is also configured to increase an intensity of the relevant portions of the SDR image to create an enhanced SDR image. The processor is also configured to output the enhanced SDR image to a display.
US09767542B2

The invention relates to a method for selecting an image dynamic range conversion operator from among a set of image dynamic range conversion operators by optimizing a quality criterion, each image dynamic range conversion operator being applied to an original image to obtain an image, called the modified image, whose dynamic range is lower than that of the original image, wherein said quality criterion is calculated, for each image dynamic range conversion operator, as a function of a distortion calculated from a reconstructed version after coding and decoding the original image modified by said image dynamic range conversion operator.
US09767537B1

An inspection system that includes a memory; a configurable acquisition channel; a controller that is adapted to: (a) determine, in response to a first frequency wise relationship between the first noise power spectrum and the first signal power spectrum, a first configuration of the configurable acquisition channel; and (b) determine, in response to a second frequency wise relationship between the second noise power spectrum and the second signal power spectrum, a second configuration of the configurable acquisition channel; and wherein the configurable acquisition channel is adapted to: (a) acquire the image of the first area of the inspected object while being configured according to the first area configuration, and (b) acquire the image of the second area while being configured according to the second area configuration.
US09767530B2

An image forming apparatus as an image displaying apparatus displays a preview image of the first page at a first resolution. The image forming apparatus enlarges and displays the preview image of the first page when receiving an operation to enlarge the preview image of the first page. The image forming apparatus stores a history of the resolution of the preview image being enlarged of the first page. The image forming apparatus determines a second resolution based on the history of the resolution, when receiving an operation to display a preview image of the second page. The image forming apparatus generates the preview image of the second page at the second resolution.
US09767529B1

A method for storing data of an image frame into a frame buffer includes at least the following steps: dividing the image frame into a plurality of access units, each having at least one encoding unit, wherein each encoding unit is a unit for data compression; and performing the data compression upon each encoding unit of the image frame, and generating an output bitstream to the frame buffer based on a data compression result of the encoding unit. A processing result of each access unit includes each output bitstream of the at least one encoding unit included in the access unit; a plurality of processing results of the access units are stored in a plurality of storage spaces allocated in the frame buffer, respectively; and a size of each of the storage spaces is equal to a size of a corresponding access unit.
US09767522B2

Systems and methods for monitoring and tracking usage of a lamp and, in one example, assigning a monetary value that can be billed to an end user are provided. Examples of the lamps can communicate wirelessly in order to receive and to transmit information related to initialization, authorization, electrical power consumption monitoring, and combinations thereof. In one embodiment, the lamp transmits data a usage parameter to a service provider via a network. The service provider can aggregate the data and, in one example, assign a usage fee that describes a monetary value based on the usage parameter and generate an output that includes that usage fee.
US09767512B2

An apparatus for validating entitlement capabilities, and determining, based on the entitlement capabilities, whether an account request associated with the entitlement capabilities qualifies for Straight Through Processing is provided. The apparatus may include a receiver. The receiver may receive entitlement authorization for a signatory and a client request to open an account. The apparatus may also include memory configured to: store, in a centralized repository, entitlement capabilities for the authorized signatory. The centralized repository may provide access to one or more signature documents associated with the authorized signatory. The centralized repository may link the signatory to one or more signature documents associated with the signatory's authorization. The apparatus may also include a display configured to display a hierarchal map of the one or more authorized signatories. The hierarchal map illustrates lines of authority from the authorized signatories to each of their respective authorizers.
US09767511B2

A system, method, and computer program product for automating an online auction service and bidder interacton including receiving a keyword searching based on the keyword product auctions of a plurality of auction sites; and may include using a search agent or a meta-search agent, and providing returned auctions, and may include presenting current status of product auctions. The method can monitor temporal progression of auctions, and can notify users of changes in status. A bid proxy can be activated as an auction nears completion placing bids until the auction is won or lost. In the event of a counter offer, a higher bid can be made.
US09767505B1

Techniques are disclosed to provide an item recommendation service in an electronic marketplace. Recommendations may be provided to a user of an electronic marketplace to offer an item via the electronic marketplace based on identifying requests for items from other users. In at least one embodiment, the request for an item from the other users may be identified as an item other than a plurality of items offered by the electronic marketplace or by the user. One or more sellers who offer items similar to the requested item may be identified based on a category of the requested item. A recommendation may be provided to an identified seller to offer the requested item via the electronic marketplace.
US09767494B2

Organizing data in a cloud computing environment having a plurality of computing nodes is described. An authorization to service a request is received. The request may be from a user for launching an instance. In response to receiving the authorization and based on the request, an image list is determined. The image list includes information corresponding to a plurality of machine images. At least one machine image is identified from the image list associated with a functional requirement of the request. The instance is launched at the at least one computing node. The at least one machine image is updated after the instance has been launched.
US09767492B2

The present disclosure discloses a method and an apparatus for ranking and searching based on interpersonal distances. The method includes: obtaining, by a ranking server, objects queried by a query request based on the request initiated from a user client and obtaining reference user groups corresponding to the queried objects; obtaining, by a ranking server, an interpersonal distance between each user in the reference user groups and a user who initiates the query request, and obtaining rating scores of the objects queried by the request that are given by each user in respective reference user groups; determining, by a ranking server, user relationship ranking indices of the objects based on the interpersonal distances and the rating scores, and ordering the objects based on the user relationship ranking indices of the objects. Compared with the existing technologies, the example ranking server performs ranking based on interpersonal distances between a user and reference users as well as rating scores associated with the reference users, quantifies a reference value of choices associated with a social network of the user with respect to shopping choices of the user, and provides a ranking method that is based on characteristics of the user.
US09767489B1

When a content item is initially served to a client device, the content item may result in an impression effect. As time elapses, the initial impression may fade. Such a decay of the impression effect may be predicted through the use of a predictive model. In some implementations, one or more impression effect parameters may be accessed and used with the predictive model to determine a decay factor or predicted value that incorporates the impression effect decay for a content item. A value, such as a score, may be determined based on the decay factor or the predicted value and a bid associated with a content item. A content item may be selected based on the determined value and data to effect presentation of the content item may be provided.
US09767480B1

Systems and methods are provided for discovering advertisements on publisher web pages and for identifying placement pathways by which discovered advertisements have been placed on the publisher web pages. An advertisement tracking and discovery system may use multiple web crawler applications to explore multiple publisher websites. The web crawler applications may gather advertisement data that includes times associated with each request made by the web crawler application. The system may use the gathered advertisement data and the times associated with each request to determine the placement pathways by which discovered advertisements have been placed. Each placement pathway may include one or more advertising channels or combinations of advertising channels. The system may accumulate and aggregate advertising data associated with the advertisements and the placement pathways and display the aggregated advertising data to a customer.
US09767478B2

A system determines an extent to which advertisements are presented or updated within a document, a quality of an advertiser associated with an advertisement provided within the document, whether an advertisement in the document relates to an advertising document that has more than a threshold amount of traffic, and/or an extent to which an advertisement provided within the document generates user traffic to an advertising document related to the advertisement. The system generates a score for the document based, at least in part, on the extent to which advertisements are presented or updated, the quality of the advertiser associated with the advertisement, whether the advertisement relates to an advertising document that has more than the threshold amount of traffic, and/or the extent to which the advertisement generates user traffic to the advertising document. The system ranks the document with regard to at least one other document based on the score.
US09767473B2

A structure and method includes a detector to determine that a caller is waiting for service. A presentation module presents an advertisement to the waiting caller, wherein a compensation is paid to have the advertisement presented to the waiting caller.
US09767465B2

Methods and Systems for facilitating caching of advertisements are described. The methods include receiving an ad request and generating a serving plan in response to said receiving the ad request. The serving plan includes multiple cache lines that identify corresponding advertisements. Each of the cache lines is associated with a corresponding expiration. Also, each cache line is readable by logic to display one of the advertisements corresponding to the cache line. The cache lines include a first cache line. The first cache line includes ad information, which is associated with a first one of the advertisements. Moreover, the ad information includes one or more parameters for expiration of the first cache line of a client device. The client device is configured to display the plurality of advertisements. The method includes sending the serving plan to the client device to store in the client device.
US09767463B2

In at least one aspect, methods and corresponding systems are provided herewith for mixing media and advertising content on demand. The systems preferably include at least one computing device coupled over a communication network to a plurality of other devices. The at least one computing device is preferably operable at least to: receive a request for media content from a user of a device, retrieve a media file associated with the media content requested and product placement data, and mix the media file with product placement data such that the product placement appears in the media content disposed in at least a portion of a defined null space within the media file.
US09767447B2

A computer-implemented method for providing a product to a user includes determining that an item obtained by a mobile computing device corresponding to the user is indicative of an oversized item. A first notification is generated indicating the oversized item and retrieval information related to the oversized item. The first notification is transmitted to a first facility computing device corresponding to a first facility attendant. When the user completes a transaction for the purchase of the oversized product at one of the point of sale terminal, terminal information related to the point of sale terminal is obtained. A second notification is generated related to the terminal information. The second notification is transmitted to a second facility computing device corresponding to a second facility attendant.
US09767442B2

Systems and methods for person-to-person and person-to-merchant remittances from a person having a closed loop system account to merchants who are not members of the closed loop system. In an embodiment, a payment gateway computer receives a remittance transaction request from a payment services provider (PSP) computer associated with a closed-loop system, maps an alias identifier into a shadow account number assigned to the sender in an open-loop payment authorization system, determines that the alias identifier mapped into a valid shadow account number, debits a stored value account for the remittance transaction amount, credits a shadow account in the open-loop payment authorization system for the remittance transaction amount, generates an authorization request for an open-loop payment transaction and transmits it to the open-loop payment authorization system, receives an authorization response from the open-loop payment authorization system, and transmits an approval response.
US09767441B2

Systems and methods are provided for monitoring one or more lift devices, such as elevators and escalators. A server obtains code events about a lift device controller via a web services application. The code events are in a first format. The server reformats the code events into a second format using a mapping table, outputting reformatted code events. The server populates a graphical user interface (GUI) with the reformatted code events. The GUI is accessible by another computing device over the Internet.
US09767440B2

A system and method for student attendance management are disclosed. A particular embodiment includes: installing a site-resident data collection module in a site location; using the site-resident data collection module to collect student information, attendance data, and other site data from the site location; transferring the site data to a host location; performing data transformation and normalization operations on the site data to convert the site data to a common format, the data transformation and normalization operations including district-specific data transformation rules; performing district configuration operations to configure rules specifying how and when alerts can be sent to recipients based on the site data; and performing scheduling and reporting operations to generate and distribute alerts, including attendance letters, to recipients based on the site data and the configured rules.
US09767438B2

The system provides a method and process for displaying and sorting messages in a communication system. The system allows multiple folders of messages to be opened simultaneously. The system also displays sent and received messages in the same display when desired. The system includes automatic and/or custom color coding of messages for ease of identification of message types, sent or received messages, root sender, cc messages, responsive messages, etc. The system also includes a unique navigation system to allow the user to more easily move through related messages, threads, and folders. The navigation system can be used in situations where the prior art would have required a search to be executed.
US09767437B2

Disclosed is a method of matching job seekers with job providers. The method may include receiving a plurality of job seeker values and a plurality of job provider values corresponding to at least one attribute. The method may further include receiving a job seeker priority associated with a job seeker value. Furthermore, the method may include receiving a job provider priority associated with a job provider value. Subsequently, matching between job seekers and job providers may be performed based on comparison between job seeker values and job provider values. Additionally, the matching may be based on a comparison of job provider priority and job seeker priority.
US09767435B1

A facility for collecting distinguished information relating to an engagement of a first organization by a second organization is described. The facility provides an interface usable by at least one user affiliated with the second organization to provide the distinguished information. Only after the interface is used by a user affiliated with the second organization to provide the distinguished information, the facility permits at least one user affiliated with the second organization to perform a distinguished process.
US09767432B1

An inventory management system is described. The inventory management system may be configured to use thermal image data to determine that an item was successfully placed in a storage structure. As part of this process, thermal images may be processed to identify instances of temperature differences that correspond to the item. These temperature differences may be evidence of a recent touch by an operator or may be generated by temperature changing devices during item placement.
US09767421B2

Determining a True Value Index™ (TVI™) for a petroleum production capital project provides a novel indicator and metric that is designed to quickly assess the economics of undertaking the petroleum production capital project. The TVI™ can be determined according to the following equation: TVI=NPV+(β*Reserves) where, NPV=Net present value of a project; β=Reservoir Management Factor (RMF™)=absolute value (sum of Coefficient of Reserves and Coefficient of Production) derived from multivariable correlation=to reflect the market value premium on increased reserves if the producer was public; and Reserves=Barrels of proven reserves to be created by the project.
US09767417B1

Techniques for providing category predictions may be provided. For example, a process may attempt to improve a user experience when the user provides a search query. The process can predict the category associated with the search query, even when the category is not a keyword in the search query. Once the category is determined, data may be provided for the particular category, including data that enables an adjustment of a user experience. For example, when the category is apparel, the user experience may include an image-heavy layout and, when the category is books, the user experience may provide more text.
US09767405B2

A radio frequency identification (“RFID”) antenna structure such as may be found on a tag, label or inlay for use with consumer products that has a conductive surface. The RFID structure of the present invention can be attached to the conductive surface without significantly modifying the performance of the RFID device. The RFID device has first and second portions, with the first portion having a first antenna pattern and the second portion including an elongate section for attachment to the consumer item.
US09767398B2

An information processing apparatus includes a receiving unit configured to receive output object information on an object to be output; a storage unit configured to store therein output device information on different types of output devices; and a determining unit configured to determine an output device based on the output object information and the output device information.
US09767396B2

A method of selecting optimal inks from a plurality of ink candidates for a given color is provided, said method including a) obtaining a measure of spectral reflectance of a print substrate; b) obtaining a measure of the spectral reflectance of a first candidate ink of a first color; c) predicting a color gamut for the first candidate ink based on the spectral reflectance of the ink and the spectral reflectance of the substrate; d) repeating steps b) and c) for a second ink candidate of the first color; e) selecting the ink candidate for which the predicted color gamut includes the most target spot colors as the optimal ink for the first color.
US09767377B2

A pattern extracting device, an image projecting device, a pattern extracting method, and a program capable of extracting all the feature points by interpolating defective feature points even when there are defective feature points of an image pattern. The pattern extracting device extracts feature points to be interpolated based on a captured image of a projected image pattern, and interpolates the feature point to be interpolated by using near-by feature points that are located near the feature point, divides the near-by feature points into groups, calculates extrapolation coordinates of the groups, and calculates coordinates of the feature point to be interpolated in view of significance of the extrapolation.
US09767375B2

A delivery processing apparatus has a recognition unit and a determination unit. The recognition unit executes recognition processing for recognizing information that is provided on a delivery target item based on an image obtained by shooting an image of the delivery target item. The determination unit determines whether or not to extend the recognition processing performed by the recognition unit, based on a degree of progress of the recognition processing that has been performed by the recognition unit in a period from when the information recognition processing was started by the recognition unit until a predetermined time has elapsed, and an extension rate, which indicates a ratio of the number of times that the recognition unit has extended the recognition processing to the number of times that the recognition unit has performed the recognition processing.
US09767368B2

A method and a system computationally performs scene analysis of semantic traffic spaces based on an adaptive spatio-temporal ray-based approach. The method includes acquiring a spatial semantic environment map including semantic context data, calculating at least one feature for at least one location on the spatial environment map taking into account the semantic context of the location and determining a category for the at least one location based on the at least one calculated feature. A feature is a ray based feature calculated by integrating input values along at least one ray extending in least one of a space dimension and a time dimension. The ray may have a ray shape corresponding to a general shape of a road and/or the at least one spatially extending ray follows a course of the road and/or is perpendicular to a surrounding road segment orientation.
US09767367B2

An object estimation apparatus estimates a position and a speed of an object in images based on the images taken by an image taking means from different positions. The object estimation apparatus includes a shift information taking means that takes temporal shift information of a position of a corresponding pixel from frames arranged in time series in a reference image, which is a reference between the images, a parallax information taking means that takes parallax information of each corresponding pixel from the images with reference to the reference image, an estimated value taking means that estimates estimated values of the position and the speed of the object in three-dimensional space by using a filter based on the shift information taken by the shift information taking means and the parallax information taken by the parallax information taking means, a determination means that determines whether or not each of the shift information taken by the shift information taking means and the parallax information taken by the parallax information taking means is an abnormal value, and a correction means that corrects the estimated value taken by the estimated value taking means based on a determination result of the determination means. The correction means corrects the estimated value taken by the estimated value taking means by using different methods between a case where the determination means determines that the shift information taken by the shift information taking means is an abnormal value and a case where the determination means determines that the parallax information taken by the parallax information taking means is an abnormal value.
US09767360B2

An image processing method and an electronic device implementing the method are provided. The method includes the electronic device sequentially receiving an image captured by a camera and determining whether a frame of the received image satisfies a predetermined condition. If the predetermined condition is satisfied, the electronic device recognizes an object in the frame. Then the electronic device tracks the object in the frame through tracking data created based on a feature extracted from the recognized object.
US09767356B2

A system including an interface for receiving inspection image data of an inspection image of an inspection object. The inspection image data includes information of an analyzed pixel of the inspected image and of reference pixels of the inspected image. The system further includes a memory and a processor device operatively coupled to the interface and the memory to obtain an inspected value representative of the analyzed pixel of the inspected image, and a reference value for each of the reference pixels of the inspected image. For each reference pixel, the processor devices calculates a difference between the reference value of a respective reference pixel and the inspected value of the analyzed pixel, computes a representative difference value based on the differences and determines a presence of a defect in the analyzed pixel based on the representative difference value.
US09767340B2

This document relates to systems and method for latent fingerprint detection using specular reflection (glare). An exemplary system may include a light source alignment portion configured to align a light source at an illumination angle relative to a sample surface such that the light source illuminates a sample surface so that the surface produces specular reflection. The system may also include a specular reflection discriminator that directs the produced specular reflection to an optical detector aligned relative to said sample surface at an alignment angle that is substantially equal to an angle of reflection of the produced specular reflection. Preferably, the directed specular reflection does not saturate the optical detector; and the optical detector captures the specular reflection from the sample surface and generates image data using essentially only the specular reflection.
US09767338B2

A method for operating of an electronic device is provided. The method includes: sensing an input on an input device, detecting one axis direction of a fingerprint input or to be input to a fingerprint sensor, based on the sensed input, determining whether the one axis direction of the fingerprint is consistent with a reference direction of a reference fingerprint, when the one axis direction is not consistent with the reference direction, making the one axis direction consistent with the reference direction, and determining whether the fingerprint is consistent with the reference fingerprint.
US09767336B2

Methods, computer program products and systems for providing video tracking. The method includes receiving a first signal from a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. A location of the RFID tag is determined in response to the first signal. An image that includes the location of the RFID tag is recorded. The location of the RFID tag is marked on the image, resulting in a marked image.
US09767321B1

Systems and methods are disclosed for allowing security features to be selectively enabled during device configuration. For example, a programmable integrated circuit device is provided that receives configuration data and security requirement data. Control circuitry compares enabled security features in the device against the security requirements, and can configure the programmable integrated circuit device with the configuration data or prevent such configuration. Control circuitry may also use the security requirement data to set security features within the device.
US09767316B1

Methods and systems for scrubbing confidential insurance account information are provided. According to embodiments, a scrubbing server can receive a request to scrub confidential insurance data that includes the contents of an insurance account information database and an indication of the category of confidential data stored in the database. The scrubbing server can scrub the valid data contained in the received database, replacing confidential information with “scrambled” data that is not confidential. The scrubbing server can transmit the contents of the scrubbed database back to the requesting party.
US09767314B2

A system and method for hosting a social network that enables entities to particularly manage the privacy level of content posted on the social network. This may enable an entity to distribute news, congratulations, accolades, invitations, and/or other internal information within the social network to members, employees, students, investors, and/or other parties.
US09767305B2

Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can detect a set of images locally stored on a computing system. The computing system can be associated with a first user. One or more facial recognition processes can be applied to the set of images. It can be determined, based on the one or more facial recognition processes, that a subset of images, out of the set of images, is associated with a second user. One or more options for the first user to share the subset of images with the second user can be provided.
US09767302B2

Activity data is analyzed or evaluated to detect behavioral patterns and anomalies. When a particular pattern or anomaly is detected, a system may send a notification or perform a particular task. This activity data may be collected in an information management system, which may be policy based. Notification may be by way e-mail, report, pop-up message, or system message. Some tasks to perform upon detection may include implementing a policy in the information management system, disallowing a user from connecting to the system, and restricting a user from being allowed to perform certain actions. To detect a pattern, activity data may be compared to a previously defined or generated activity profile.
US09767297B2

A computer system with multiple security levels, the system comprising a high-power processing device (130), a low-power processing device (110), and an interface unit (120) comprising functions for moving classified information between the high-power device (130) and the low-power device (110) according to formal rules for confidentiality and/or integrity. Additional security aspects, e.g. availability, may readily be accommodated. A method for implementing multiple levels of security along a number of independent security axes on the system is also disclosed.
US09767296B2

A method for requesting access rights for an object of a computerized system, comprising invoking in a remote computer linkable to the computerized system an add-on program configured for notifying an owner of the object of the computerized system according to received contact data of the owner of the object, thereby requesting from the owner of the object access rights to the object independently of the computerized system, and an apparatus for performing the same.
US09767293B2

At least one hardware security module out of a plurality of hardware security modules is assigned to a guest system. The at least one hardware security module out of the plurality of hardware security modules is configured with a master key. A data pattern is used for a challenge protocol adapted to prove that the at least one hardware security module out of the plurality of hardware security modules is configured with the master key. The at least one hardware security module including the master key is assigned to the guest system based on a positive outcome of the challenge protocol.
US09767292B2

Using various embodiments, methods and systems for computing a self-assembling indirect control flow graph based on one or more function types and function pointer types are described. In one embodiment the indirect control flow graph is computed by finding one or more function types and function pointer types in source code and/or binary code, computing one or more identifier tags for each type, classifying functions and function pointers based on the computed tags. In one embodiment, the classification tags can be used in a tag check based Control Flow Integrity system. In another embodiment, the classification tags can be used to convert indirect function calls into direct function calls. Yet in another embodiment, tag checks can be eliminated in a Control Flow Integrity system.
US09767291B2

Provided herein are systems and methods for monitoring and assessing the security and risk presented by applications deployed in a complex computing environment. An exemplary application security system includes a server having a processing device in communication with storage systems, computing devices executing application instances configured to receive and transmit information over a network, and a security testing system including a first test module that is associated with a first application, which is associated with one or more of the application instances. The processing device of the server retrieves information about the first application, including current dependency information of the first application, calculates a security risk score for the first application based on the information, determines a security priority level associated with first application, and associates the security priority level of the first application with the first application in a database of application security information.
US09767286B2

An electronic module that includes means for determining an operating system targeted by a message received by a transmitter-receiver of an electronic device, from among at least a Rich-OS operating system and a trusted operating system executed on a chipset of the electronic device, so that the message becomes accessible to the targeted operating system. The determining means may be set in operation in response to receipt of the message by the transmitter-receiver.
US09767285B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for categorizing a process using crowdsourcing are described. The methods include the action of receiving data indicating resources allocated upon execution of each of one or more processes. The methods further include the action of receiving data indicating a configuration of the client device. The methods further include receiving data indicating a user selection whether to execute each of the one or more processes. The methods further include the action of determining a risk score that reflects a likelihood that the process is a malicious process. The methods further include the action of identifying a particular process. The methods further include the action of performing additional processing on the particular process. The methods further include the action of determining an updated risk score for the particular process.
US09767274B2

Approaches for providing a guest operating system to a virtual machine. A read-only copy of one or more disk volumes, including a boot volume, is created. A copy of a master boot record (MBR) for the one or more disk volumes is also stored. The read-only copy may be, but need not be, made using a Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). A virtual disk, for use by the virtual machine, is created based on the read-only copy of the one or more disk volumes and the copy of the master boot record (MBR), wherein the virtual disk comprises the guest operating system used by the virtual machine. In this way, a single installed operating system may provide both the host operating system and the guest operating system.
US09767272B2

In one embodiment, a processor comprises: a first register to store a first bound value for a stack to be stored in a memory; a second register to store a second bound value for the stack; a checker logic to determine, prior to an exit point at a conclusion of a function to be executed on the processor, whether a value of a stack pointer is within a range between the first bound value and the second bound value; and a logic to prevent a return to a caller of the function if the stack pointer value is not within the range. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09767260B2

In various example embodiments, a system and method for managing supplemental content relating to a digital good are presented. The supplemental content relating to the digital good may be received, where the supplemental content may be for presentation to a consumer. The supplemental content may be stored in accompaniment with the digital good. Ownership criteria associated with ownership rights of the supplemental content may be determined. The ownership rights corresponding to the supplemental content may be transferred from a first entity to a second entity based, at least in part, on the determined ownership criteria. The second entity may be authorized to access the supplemental content based, at least in part, on the determined ownership criteria. The supplemental content may be caused to be distributed to the second entity.
US09767252B2

A computer-readable recording medium stores a rendering program that causes a computer to execute process that includes acquiring an internal organ model that is a set of elements having physical values according each position of an internal organ; setting a plurality of planes that form given angles with a line of sight from a viewpoint position, and intersect the internal organ model; assigning among the set of elements, a physical value of an element intersected by a plane set at the setting, to an element cross section that is a plane where the plane set at the setting intersects the element; and rendering, based on the physical value, the element cross section to which the physical value has been assigned.
US09767250B2

A computer-implemented method for designing a biological model provides a set of biological models, each biological model comprising a plurality of elements and interactions between elements. Next the method provides groups of elements identified as identical, each element having an associated biological model. The method moves an element from a first group to a second group in order to correct the grouping of the elements; updates both groups; and creates a combined model by combining the set of biological models according to the updated groups.
US09767249B1

An automation system including a plurality of peripheral devices, each configured to perform at least one function relating to energy consumption in a facility and an automation controller in communication with the plurality of peripheral devices and providing for the control of the performance of the function by each device. An external network resource such as at least a virtual private network server is configured to enable communication with the automation controller. The automation controller is configured, such as by executing virtual private network software, to establish and maintain a secure data link with the virtual private network server and to enable oversight and/or control of the automation controller via the virtual private network server.
US09767246B2

A system and method for compensating signal delay across a solid state photomultiplier. The method including determining respective arrival times of signals from a plurality of microcells of the photomultiplier, calculating a signal transit time delay difference between the respective arrival times for individual signals, correlating the individual transit time delay differences to an amount of respective signal propagation compensation for respective microcells of the photomultiplier, and introducing the respective signal propagation compensation into circuitry of the respective microcells. The method also includes at least one of adjusting a response shape of a photodiode within each of the plurality of microcells, adjusting operating parameters of a one-shot pulse circuit within the microcells, and modifying circuit design values of each microcells during fabrication of the photomultiplier. A non-transitory computer readable medium and a system for implementing the method on a row, column, and/or individual microcell level are disclosed.
US09767243B2

A system and method of layout design for an integrated circuit and integrated circuit, the method includes positioning all conductive traces of a first mask pattern, in a first direction, wherein the conductive traces of the first mask pattern are in a first conductive layer. The method also includes positioning all conductive traces of a second mask pattern, in the first direction, wherein the conductive traces of the second mask pattern are in the first conductive layer, and the second mask pattern is offset from the first mask pattern in a second direction different from the first direction.
US09767239B1

System and methods for achieving a timing closure in a design of an integrated circuit in presence of manufacturing variation. The method includes running a timing engine of a statistical timing analysis tool performing at least one optimization to fix at least one violation of at least one timing quantity at an integrated circuit location. The method includes choosing at least one optimization to apply and finding at least one failing timing quantity, where the quantity is failing due to at least one source of variability which the optimization would impact. The optimization is applied to at least one section of the path leading to the failing timing quantity, where the section contributes to the source of variability. Statistical sensitivity information in canonical form guides the optimization by providing a fully parameterized canonical form of the identified timing violations.
US09767233B2

Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for nesting objects in 2D sheets and 3D volumes. In one embodiment, a nesting application simplifies the shapes of parts and performs a rigid body simulation of the parts dropping into a 2D sheet or 3D volume. In the rigid body simulation, parts begin from random initial positions on one or more sides and drop under the force of gravity into the 2D sheet or 3D volume until coming into contact with another part, a boundary, or the origin of the gravity. The parts may be dropped according to a particular order, such as alternating large and small parts. Further, the simulation may be translation- and/or position-only, meaning the parts do not rotate and/or do not have momentum, respectively. Tighter packing may be achieved by incorporating user inputs and simulating jittering of the parts using random forces.
US09767228B2

Methods, devices, and computer-readable media for determining a deployment of an access control system are described herein. One method includes extracting a plurality of two-dimensional spaces from a building information model of a facility, determining a plurality of connections between the plurality of spaces, defining a zone of the facility, wherein the zone includes a subset of the plurality of spaces and a subset of the plurality of connections between the spaces, and associating an access reader with a particular connection of the subset of the plurality of connections located on a boundary of the zone.
US09767224B2

Systems and methods are provided for designing and fabricating contact-free support structures for overhang geometries of parts fabricated using electron beam additive manufacturing. One or more layers of un-melted metallic powder are disposed in an elongate gap between an upper horizontal surface of the support structure and a lower surface of the overhang geometry. The powder conducts heat from the overhang geometry to the support structure. The support structure acts as a heat sink to enhance heat transfer and reduce the temperature and severe thermal gradients due to poor thermal conductivity of metallic powders underneath the overhang. Because the support structure is not connected to the part, the support structure can be removed freely without any post-processing step.
US09767216B2

A method and system are provided for capturing and applying changes to a data structure made by one or more processing nodes. The method includes providing a data structure including one or more elements (200-205), maintaining a linked record of changes (200a-200c, 201a-201c, 205a-205b) to each element (200-205) made by a processing node. A new value of an element (200-205) is linked to the previous value. A record (250) of the sequence of changes to the elements (200-205) is also maintained. In one embodiment, the linked record of changes (200a-200c, 201a-201c, 205a-205b) is a push down stack. The data structure is defined including indirections (210-215) pointing to most recent values of an element (200-205), which in turn points to the previous value of the element (200-205), forming a linked record to the initial value of the element.
US09767203B2

A search context is recorded during a search performed by a first user. The search context may include environmental variables associated with the computing equipment used by the first user such as at least one of regional settings, geographic location, social attributes, job role, browse history, and cookie files. The search context may be encrypted or be restricted for use by certain users and for a specific period of time. The search context may be sent to a second user or a group. The context is applied to environmental variables associated with the computing equipment used by the second user. The second user can thereby substantially duplicate the search performed by the first user.
US09767191B2

Embodiments relate to retrieving a document from a plurality of document groups in which mutually related documents are each included. An aspect includes acquiring a retrieval condition that includes a plurality of conditions and at least one logical operator that connects the plurality of conditions. Another aspect includes identifying, with respect to each condition of the plurality of conditions, a document group including a document satisfying the condition from among the plurality of document groups. Another aspect includes identifying a document that satisfies at least one condition. Another aspect includes determining a document that is a retrieval result by making a selection to omit or retain that depends on the at least one logical operator. Another aspect includes generating information showing the document that is the retrieval result based on the retrieval condition.
US09767187B2

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media that may be used to generate recommendations based on organic search term analysis are provided. One method includes determining conversion path data for a content provider. The method further includes determining a plurality of organic search keywords within the conversion path data. The method further includes analyzing the plurality of organic search keywords within the conversion path data to generate an analysis metric for each of the plurality of organic search keywords. The method further includes selecting one or more of the plurality of organic search keywords based on the analysis metrics for the organic search keywords, and generating one or more recommendations for new content to be published by the content provider based on the selected one or more organic search keywords.
US09767185B2

Methods and systems are provided for determining whether a search query with an observed number of occurrences in a set of search queries is a local search query. In accordance with one implementation, a method is provided that comprises determining an expected number of occurrences of a search query and comparing the expected number of occurrences to a threshold. Further, the method includes determining whether the search query is a local search query based, at least in part, on the comparison.
US09767176B2

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for transforming an unstructured database into a structured database. In some embodiments, the system and method imports an unstructured database comprising entities and a hierarchy associated with the entities. The system and method analyze the unstructured database, flatten the database so that a recursive database is converted into a database that fully expands all entities into lower levels, and identifies instances of unbalanced or ragged hierarchies. The system populates the database according to predetermined rules to address the unbalanced or ragged hierarchies and outputs a structured database that can be used for accurate analysis of the hierarchy and entities stored therein, such as corporate structure hierarchies or stock inventory hierarchies.
US09767175B2

The present invention provides a method of transferring content from a file and a database. In this case, the file includes content instances, each content instance being associated with a respective field, and each field having a respective type. The transfer is achieved by determining the type of each field, and then storing each content instance in a store in accordance with the determined field type of the associated field. Each content instance can then be transferred to the database in accordance with the determined field type. A similar procedure is provided for creating XML files based on content within the database.
US09767173B2

Systems and methods for interest-driven data sharing in interest-driven business intelligence systems in accordance with embodiments of the invention are illustrated. In one embodiment, an interest-driven data sharing server system includes a processor, a memory configured to store an interest-driven data sharing application, raw data storage, metadata storage configured to store data description metadata describing the raw data, and report storage configured to store previously generated reports, wherein the interest-driven data sharing application configures the processor to receive a report specification, locate at least one previously generated report stored in the report storage, identify raw data stored in the raw data storage using the data description metadata and at least one of the reporting data requirements, calculate redundant data metadata using the located previously generated reports and the identified raw data, determine modified reporting data requirements, retrieve updated source data, and generate reporting data based on the updated source data.
US09767172B2

An interactive user interface for displaying projects comprising a collection of links specifying data to be displayed from a plurality of different applications and/or data sources. When loading a project for display, links are automatically parsed to identify the application and/or data source they are associated with. Retrieved data associated with the links is displayed in a format based upon that of their native application. The data may be displayed in an interactive format, allowing the user to change or manipulate the data in a manner that would be possible in the data's native application. A project may be expressed as a “project link,” comprising a text string, wherein the links of the assets associated with the project are included or embedded within the text string, and which may be shared between different users, and may function as a snapshot of the project.
US09767171B2

Disclosed is a system, method, and computer program product for implementing a log analytics method and system that can configure, collect, and analyze log records in an efficient manner. An improved approach is provided for identifying log files that have undergone a change in status that would require retrieve of its log data, by including a module directly into the operating system that allows the log collection component to be reactively notified of any changes to pertinent log files.
US09767158B1

A user bucketing module on a server in a content sharing platform identifies, in the content sharing platform, a bucket comprising a plurality of associated content items and associates a bucketing token with each of the plurality of associated content items. The user bucketing module receives a request for the bucketing token from a ranking service and provides the bucketing token to the ranking service, the ranking service to apply the bucketing token to a ranking algorithm to determine a ranking score for a content item of the plurality of associated content items.
US09767154B1

Techniques for improving data compression of a storage system in an online manner are described herein. According to one embodiment, in response to a sequence of data to be stored, the sequence of data is partitioned into a plurality of data chunks according to a predetermined chunking algorithm. A sketch for each of the data chunks is generated based on one or more features extracted from the data chunk. Each of the data chunks of the sequence of data is associated with one of a plurality of groups based on the sketch, wherein each group is represented by a sketch. The data chunks of each group are compressed and stored in a compression region of the storage systems, such that similar data chunks are compressed and stored in the same compression region.
US09767150B2

A system and/or method are implemented to process queries to a database. In particular, the processing of queries to the database is enhanced by enhancing the determination of join orders of tables implicated in queries. Join orders between relatively large numbers of tables are determined by dividing the set of tables to be ordered into a plurality of subsets of tables, and ordering the individual subsets of tables.
US09767147B2

Performing database queries. A method includes receiving a particular database query. The method further includes accessing a query plan based on the particular database query. The query plan has operators and specific operational parameters associated with each of the operators. The association of operators and specific operational parameters is specific to the particular database query. From the query plan, the method further includes instantiating a plurality of compiled code templates. Each code template includes executable code that when executed performs functionality of one of the operators from the query plan with the specific operational parameters applied in the compilation. The method further includes binding the code templates together using programmatic control flow to create a functioning program.
US09767141B2

A method of processing a database can include comparing, using a processor, a delta file with a risk assessment criterion, wherein the delta file is generated from a first schema and a second and different schema, assigning a risk level to a change specified within the delta file according to the comparing, and applying the change of the delta file to a test database conforming to the first schema according to the assigned risk level.
US09767138B2

An in-database sharded queue for a shared-disk database is provided. First messages from at least one first enqueuer are stored on a first queue shard. The first enqueuer/s execute in a first instance of a shared-disk database system. The first shard includes a first plurality of subshards. Second messages from at least one second enqueuer are stored on a second queue shard. The second enqueuer/s execute in a second instance of the shared-disk database system. The second shard includes a second plurality of subshards. In volatile memory of the respective instances, a first message cache and a second message cache is maintained for the first shard and the second shard. The respective message caches include at least one buffer associated with the plurality of subshards.
US09767137B2

A method and system of verifying data stored in a database, by polling one or more computing devices. A server generates a poll object for a data item and a poll notification is transmitted to the one or more computing devices, whereupon users of the computing devices may respond to the poll notification and transmit responses. A set of response notifications is received and the server determines if the set of response notifications satisfies a quorum criterion. If the quorum criterion is satisfied, the server determines a data verification result, based on a tally criterion.
US09767120B2

Embodiments of the present invention allow multiple checkpoints to be taken so that multiple versions of the filesystem, including a working version and at least two checkpoint versions, can be maintained over time. Specifically, at least three “superblock” root structures are used to manage multiple instantiations of the filesystem. The superblocks are preferably stored in fixed locations within the storage system for easy access, although they may alternatively be stored in other ways. The number of superblocks may be fixed or variable.
US09767111B1

Example embodiments of the present invention leverage the punch command and thin LUNs in order to create a fully dynamic journal which can shrink and grow on demand. The journal may be assigned a maximum allowed size, as well as a journal protection window defining a period for which the journal should retain journal information. A set of currently used blocks will be used and, if protection window is large enough, the oldest data blocks from an undo stream will be punched out from the stream. A manager may monitor how much free space there is in the storage pool and regulate the journal growth if the pool is nearly empty. Additionally, the journal capacity may also depend on the actual usage of the replicated LUNs if the replicated LUNs are thin (i.e., maintain the journal at a particular percentage of the used storage capacity).
US09767099B2

Systems, apparatus, and methods are provided for providing dynamic interaction with a research publication database.
US09767098B2

A cost-effective, durable and scalable archival data storage system is provided herein that allow customers to store, retrieve and delete archival data objects, among other operations. For data storage, in an embodiment, the system stores data in a transient data store and provides a data object identifier may be used by subsequent requests. For data retrieval, in an embodiment, the system creates a job corresponding to the data retrieval and provides a job identifier associated with the created job. Once the job is executed, data retrieved is provided in a transient data store to enable customer download. In various embodiments, jobs associated with storage, retrieval and deletion are scheduled and executed using various optimization techniques such as load balancing, batch processed and partitioning. Data is redundantly encoded and stored in self-describing storage entities increasing reliability while reducing storage costs. Data integrity is ensured by integrity checks along data paths.
US09767095B2

An apparatus for assisting a human translator includes a source text module, a translator workspace module, a parsing module, a selection module, and a glossary module. The source text module receives source text in a source language. The translator workspace module displays a translator workspace field that is editable by a user. The parsing module parses the source text received by the source text module into separate portions. The selection module selects a first portion (first selected portion) of the separate portions for translation. The glossary module displays a term for term translation of the first selected portion of source text in a target language.
US09767090B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for word detection in an application program. The method includes extracting a resource file from a multilingual application program installation package and converting the resource file into a text file. The method further includes disassembling the text file according to a language version to acquire a corresponding language text file; invoking a language detection tool according to the language version; and checking the language text file by using the language detection tool to identify questionable character information. The apparatus for word detection includes a file processing module, configured to extract a resource file from a multilingual application program installation package, and convert the resource file into a text file; and a disassembling module, configured to disassemble the text file according to a language version to acquire a corresponding language text file. The apparatus further includes a tool invoking module, configured to invoke a language detection tool according to the language version; and a text detection module, configured to check the language text file by using the language detection tool to identify questionable character information. Word detection efficiency in an application program can be improved by adopting the present disclosure.
US09767083B2

A method, system, and/or computer program product automatically detects CSS conflicts. The method comprises: receiving at least one UI constraint and at least one first CSS rule defined by a developer of a widget as well as at least one second CSS rule customized by a user of the widget, the UI constraints being used to restrict the UI of the widget; running a page containing the widget; performing automatic validation on each UI constraint based on the result of running the page; and in response to deriving a UI constraint being violated from the validation, finding one or more of the second CSS rules that lead to violation of the UI constraint in a first set made up of the second CSS rules that override the first CSS rules.
US09767071B2

The execution engine is a new organization for a digital data processing apparatus, suitable for highly parallel execution of structured fine-grain parallel computations. The execution engine includes a memory for storing data and a domain flow program, a controller for requesting the domain flow program from the memory, and further for translating the program into programming information, a processor fabric for processing the domain flow programming information and a crossbar for sending tokens and the programming information to the processor fabric.
US09767063B2

System and method for providing adaptive access to a hardware block on a computer system. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a first access request and a second access request with an access controller, wherein the second access request is received sequentially after the first access request, and the first access request includes a first master identification and the second access request includes a second master identification, determining if the second master identification is equal to the first master identification, providing access to the second access request if the second master identification is equal to the first master identification, wherein the first master identification is associated with one or more hardware block interface values, invalidating the one or more hardware block interface values associated with the first master identification if the second master identification is not equal to the first master identification, and associating the one or more hardware block interface values with the second master identification and a corresponding privilege.
US09767061B2

An electronic device includes: a communication module; an input module; a display; an interface; at least one sensor; a memory; and a processor module. The processor module includes at least one of: at least one dummy chip including at least one Through Silicon Via (TSV); at least one memory bridge including at least one TSV; at least one memory connected to the at least one dummy chip and the at least one memory bridge and that can exchange an electric signal through the at least one dummy chip and the at least one memory bridge; or at least one processor. The at least one processor may be configured to exchange an electric signal through the at least one memory bridge, and to transmit an electric signal to at least one of the communication module, input module, display, interface, at least one sensor, or first memory. The at least one processor may exchange information via a circuit path that includes at least one of the memory bridge and a portion of the at least one memory, when transmitting the electric signal.
US09767059B2

The present invention relates to a multimedia server means, comprising a plurality of universal serial bus, USB, connections and a processing means configured to establish a one-by-one data connection between a USB data storage device connected to a first one of the plurality of USB connections and an electronic device connected to a second one of the plurality of USB connections.
US09767058B2

A solid state drive (SSD) apparatus including a plurality of solid state drives, a channel-interleaved interface operably coupled to the solid state drives, and a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bridge operably coupled to the channel-interleaved interface.
US09767057B2

Methods and hardware data structures are provided for tracking ordered transactions in a multi-transactional hardware design comprising one or more slaves configured to receive transaction requests from a plurality of masters. The data structure includes one or more counters for keeping track of the number of in-flight transactions; a table that keeps track of the age of each of the in-flight transactions for each master using the one or more counters; and control logic that verifies that a transaction response for an in-flight transaction for a particular master has been issued by the slave in a predetermined order based on the tracked age for the in-flight transaction in the table.
US09767038B2

Systems and methods for accessing a unified translation lookaside buffer (TLB) are disclosed. A method includes receiving an indicator of a level one translation lookaside buffer (L1TLB) miss corresponding to a request for a virtual address to physical address translation, searching a cache that includes virtual addresses and page sizes that correspond to translation table entries (TTEs) that have been evicted from the L1TLB, where a page size is identified, and searching a second level TLB and identifying a physical address that is contained in the second level TLB. Access is provided to the identified physical address.
US09767033B2

In the present invention, a base station determines from a communication system whether a first content, which is requested by a mobile terminal, is saved on a cache memory, attributes a predetermined priority ranking to the first content and saves same on the cache memory when the first content is not saved on the cache memory, and updates the priority ranking of the first content on the basis of a predicted popularity of the first content, wherein the predicted popularity is decided on the basis of change in the number of views of a content that corresponds to a category of the first content.
US09767029B2

For serving sequential read patterns from a compressed journal storage system, a construction area cache algorithm is used to temporarily store the read and decompressed data in a user view sequential order to minimize disk I/Os and CPU utilization while serving the data to the user.
US09767023B2

A second computer transmits, to a first computer, confirmation data including identification information and a version number of copy data updated in a cache. Based on the confirmation data received from the second computer and information stored in the persistent storage device, the first computer extracts the identification information and the version number corresponding to the copy data to be written to the persistent storage device, from the confirmation data, and transmits response data including the extracted identification information and the version number to the second computer. Based on the response data received from the first computer and information stored in the cache, the second computer determines the copy data in the cache to be transmitted to the first computer so as to be written to the persistent storage device.
US09767019B2

An example method of managing memory includes identifying a first object of the first type to update, the first object being stored on a heap. The method also includes reading a first memory address stored in a second object of the second type and storing a copy of the first object at a second memory address. The first memory address is an initial memory address of the first object. The method further includes after the copy is stored, reading a third memory address stored in the second object. The third memory address is a current memory address of the first object. The method also includes determining whether the first memory address matches the third memory address, and when the first memory address is determined to match the third memory address, updating the first memory address stored in the second object with the second memory address.
US09767015B1

Methods and apparatus for enhancing operating system integrity using non-volatile system memory are described. A computer system includes a system memory coupled to one or more processors. The system memory comprises at least a non-volatile portion. Memory is allocated from the non-volatile portion to store selected metadata associated with an operating system component that supports input-output (I/O) operations. In response to an operation that results in a metadata change at the component, a metadata entry is stored in the non-volatile portion. Subsequent to a failure event, contents of the metadata entry are read from the non-volatile portion to restore a state of the component.
US09767006B2

A tracing management system may use cost analyzes and performance budgets to dispatch tracing objectives to instrumented systems that may collect trace data while running an application. The tracing management system may analyze individual tracing workloads for processing, storage, and network performance costs, and select workloads to deploy based on a resource budget that may be set for a particular device. In some cases, complementary tracing objectives may be selected that maximize consumption of resources within an allocated budget. The budgets may allocate certain resources for tracing, which may be a mechanism to limit any adverse effects from tracing when running an application.
US09766995B2

According to one embodiment, a system includes probes operable to monitor information associated with a host device and includes a controller operable to control the probes. A first probe instance is associated with a plurality of monitoring modules. Each monitoring module is operable to monitor information associated with the host device. The first probe instance is operable to determine a resource usage associated with the first probe instance and determine whether the resource usage exceeds a threshold. The first probe instance is operable to divide the plurality of monitoring modules into a first subset of monitoring modules and a second subset of monitoring modules. The first probe instance is operable to spawn a second probe instance, wherein the second probe instance is associated with the second subset of monitoring modules. The first probe module is operable to associate the first probe instance with the first subset of monitoring modules.
US09766992B2

Techniques are disclosed relating to storage device failover. In one embodiment, a plurality of storage devices are represented as cluster resources to a cluster resource manager that manages cluster resources on a plurality of cluster nodes. An indication may be received that a failover operation is requested with respect to one of the plurality of storage devices. In response to the indication, the cluster resource manager may initiate the failover operation. In some embodiments, the failover operation includes changing a first access state of the storage device and a second access state of another storage device. In such an embodiment, the storage device and the other storage device may be associated with a logical unit number. In some embodiments, the storage device is located within a first of the plurality of cluster nodes; the other storage device is located within a second of the plurality of cluster nodes.
US09766990B1

A checkpoint device is a transaction-based block device wherein data is committed to non-volatile memory (NVM) or tiered storage upon completion of a checkpoint. Automatic and instant rollback to the previous checkpoint is provided upon restart if any failure occurred during the previous checkpoint. Related techniques are also described.
US09766987B2

The data storage system according to certain aspects can implement table level database restore. Table level database restore may refer to restoring a database table and its related data without restoring the entire database. The data storage system may use table metadata index to implement table level restore. A table metadata index may be created for each table, e.g., during a backup of the database. The table metadata index for a table can include any type of information for restoring the table and its related data. Some examples of the type of information included in the table metadata index include the following: container for the table, table backup location, system data, table index, table relationships, etc. Table metadata index can make the restoring of tables fast and efficient by packaging information that can be used to restore a table and its related data in an easily accessible manner.
US09766984B2

A system includes obtaining of a backup of the source database system comprising N hosts and a first plurality of servers, where N is an integer greater than one, access of a target database system comprising M hosts, where M is an integer less than N, configuration of the target database system to include the first plurality of servers, and performance of a database recovery of the target database system using the backup of the source database system.
US09766982B2

A determination is made of a plurality of components whose states are to be determined to generate a statesave. At least one central processing unit that determines a state of a first component of the plurality of components faster than other central processing units is assigned to determine the state of the first component to include in the statesave, where more processing operations have to be performed to determine the state of the first component in comparison to any other component of the plurality of component. One or more of the other central processing units are assigned to other components of the plurality of components to determine states of the other components to include in the statesave.
US09766980B1

Individual storage devices of a RAID group are monitored for faults. A health indicator for each storage device is calculated based on fault growth rate. Non-failed storage device are swapped out based on the health indicator. Techniques for monitoring the storage devices include background media scans and growth list polling.
US09766975B2

Embodiments described herein include a computing system that permits partial writes into a memory element—e.g., a register on a processor. For example, the data to be written into the memory element may be spread across multiple sources. The register may receive data from two different sources at different times and perform two separate partial write commands to store the data. Embodiments herein generate an ECC value for each of the partial writes. That is, when storing the data of the first partial write, the computing system generates a first ECC value for the data in the first partial write and stores this value in the memory element. Later, when performing the second partial write, the computing system generates a second ECC value for this data which is also stored in the memory element.
US09766973B2

A default read operation is performed on a page using a default read voltage set to generate default raw data. If error bits of the default raw data are not corrected, a plurality of low-level read operations is performed on the page using a plurality of read voltage sets to generate a plurality of low-level raw data. Each read voltage set is different from the default voltage set. A read voltage set is selected from the plurality of read voltage sets as a starting voltage set, according to each low-level raw data. A high-level read operation using the selected starting voltage set is performed on the page to generate high-level raw data.
US09766960B2

Techniques and architectures for workload management. A stream of messages is received with servers coupled to provide access to shared system resources. The servers are organized as at least two groups with a first group providing message queuing services and a second group providing message queuing services under first conditions and modified message queuing services under second conditions. Message queuing services are provided with the first group by treating all jobs as equal, processing jobs asynchronously and processing jobs in the background to defer to foreground, non-message queuing services, jobs. Message queuing services are provided with the second group by treating all jobs as equal, processing jobs asynchronously and processing jobs in the background to defer to foreground, non-message queuing services, jobs under the first conditions. Modified message queuing services are provided with the second group by shortest-slack-first scheduling under the second conditions.
US09766959B2

In some examples, a technique may include outputting information associated with a notification. The notification may be associated with a notification attribute. The technique may further include determining, by a computing device, that a user has perceived the information associated with the notification; and receiving, by the computing device, an indication of at least one physiological parameter representative of a reaction of the user to the information associated with the notification. In some examples, the technique also includes, responsive to receiving the indication of the at least one physiological parameter representative of the reaction of the user to the information associated with the notification, controlling, by the computing device, at least one notification configuration setting related to outputting information associated with other notifications associated with the notification attribute.
US09766957B2

The present invention gives the methods and processes for automatically servicing user driven requests to find placeholder fields, fill them in with relevant data in a secure manner and securely communicating the data related thereto to the appropriate Android™ device and/or application. More particularly, it relates to the methods and processes for authenticated users to automatically obtain and use the correct filled-in data that allows them to access or use any of a multiple number of Android™ applications and/or services at any time.
US09766953B2

A visual software development system in which a user can graphically build a design or software solution without having to write software code includes one or more adapters that interrogate interfaces of the software platform that a software system or systems is built in accordance with and generate descriptions that the user can then incorporate into the design. The software systems can be of disparate technology platforms, an adapter provided that suits each platform. The descriptions can be represented graphically for the user with icons in an integrated development environment (IDE), and the user can build the design by dragging or otherwise selecting descriptions to be used and connecting them together to graphically represent the flow of information or communication of events among the descriptions.
US09766952B2

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for implementing a reverse protocol launch. For example, the reverse protocol launch may be implemented between apps (e.g., as an app-to-app protocol) such that a user may navigate between apps in a contextually relevant manner using the reverse protocol launch. In an example, a search app may display vacation search results based upon a search query. Responsive to a selection of a vacation movie search result, a transition to a movie app may occur. A context, specifying a contextual state of the search app (e.g., information regarding the vacation search results, the search query, etc.), may be sent to the movie app. The movie app may implement a reverse protocol launch using the context to transition from the movie app back to the search app in the contextual state (e.g., the search app may be repopulated with the vacation search results, etc.).
US09766946B2

An approach is provided to dynamically select a micro-threading (MT) mode of each core of a processor based on a load on each of the respective cores while the processor is running a hypervisor. The approach sets a core's micro-threading mode to a whole-core mode (MT1) in response to identifying that the load on the selected core is at a light load level, sets the core's micro-threading mode to a two-way micro-threading mode (MT2) in response to identifying that the load on the selected core has increased above the light load level, and sets the selected core's micro-threading mode to a four-way micro-threading mode (MT4) in response to identifying that the load on the selected core is at a high load level.
US09766937B2

Embodiments relate to thread-based cache content savings for task switching in a computer processor. An aspect includes determining a cache entry in a cache of the computer processor that is owned by the first thread, wherein the determination is made based on a hardware thread identifier (ID) of the first thread matching a hardware thread ID in the cache entry. Another aspect includes determining whether the determined cache entry is eligible for prefetching. Yet another aspect includes, based on determining that the determined cache entry is eligible for prefetching, setting a marker in the cache entry to active.
US09766933B2

Computing capacity of a computing environment can be managed by controlling it associated processing capacity based on a target (or desired) capacity. In addition, fine-grained control over the processing capacity can be exercised. For example, a computing system can change the processing capacity (e.g., processing rate) of at least one processor operating based on a target capacity. The computing system may also be operable to change the processing capacity based on a measured processing capacity (e.g., a measured average of various processing rates of a processor taken over a period of time when a processor may have been operating at different processing rates over that period). By way of example, the processing rate of a processor can be switched between 1/8 and 2/8 of a maximum processing rate to achieve virtually any effective processing rates between them.
US09766924B2

A task processor includes a CPU, a save circuit, and a task control circuit. A task control circuit is provided with a task selection circuit and state storage units associated with respective tasks. When executing a predetermined system call instruction, the CPU notifies the task control circuit accordingly. When informed of the execution of a system call instruction, the task control circuit selects a task to be subsequently executed in accordance with an output from the selection circuit. When an interrupt circuit receives a high-speed interrupt request signal, the task switching circuit controls the state transition of a task by executing an interrupt handling instruction designated by the interrupt circuit.
US09766919B2

Methods and apparatus to select virtualization environments are disclosed. An example method includes determining, via a processor, characteristics of a virtualized application that is awaiting deployment, analyzing, via the processor, the characteristics of the virtualized application to select a subset of virtualization environments that are capable of executing the virtualized application, the subset of virtualization environments selected from a set of virtualization environments of different virtualization environment types used in the datacenter, comparing, via the processor, the characteristics of the virtualized application to the virtualization environments of the subset of virtualization environments to determine scores for the virtualization environments, and deploying the virtualized application in the virtualization environment based on the scores.
Patent Agency Ranking