Abstract: Systems and methods for identifying a precise stopping location using vehicle sensors and mechanical simulation. In particular, systems and methods are provided for using vehicle sensor information to understand vehicle surroundings, identifying an appropriate stopping position that either does not disrupt traffic (or minimally disrupts traffic), and identifying a path to the stopping position. Additionally, the suitability of the stopping position is determined by performing a simulation of the vehicle movement to the stopping position as well as a simulation of passenger behavior during vehicle exit. In some examples, the simulation is performed using a short-range relative map of the vehicle surroundings rather than using the driving map.

Abstract: In a method embodiment, an example method for simultaneously filling balloons with water, using an apparatus sufficiently compact to be operated while being held by hand, is disclosed. The method includes attaching the apparatus to a water supply. The method further includes simultaneously providing water from the attached water supply to a plurality of balloons removably attached to the apparatus, such that each balloon contains water. The method further includes simultaneously detaching from the apparatus the plurality of balloons, with each balloon having water from the water supply provided therein and each balloon automatically sealing upon detachment.

Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure relate to providing, based on a partial query string, a plurality of autosuggestions that are diverse in nature such that the user is more likely to see the preferred complete query terms and therefore more likely to select one of the preferred suggestions which will increase search efficiency. As described herein, such functionality relates to generating cluster groups of candidate suggestions, each cluster including sub-topics, then performing the search based on a selected cluster or sub-topic. To generate the cluster groups, systems and methods, as described herein, analyze the similarity between candidate suggestions as well as the popularity of generated sub-topics. The cluster groups and sub-topics may be displayed visually, and in certain embodiments the cluster groups are ordered vertically from top to bottom and aligned to the left side of the display, while sub-topics are ordered horizontally from left to right following the cluster label.

Abstract: A computer device includes a processor configured to simulate a virtual environment based on a set of virtual environment parameters, and perform ray tracing to render a view of the simulated virtual environment. The ray tracing includes generating a plurality of rays for one or more pixels of the rendered view of the simulated virtual environment. The processor is further configured to determine sub-pixel data for each of the plurality of rays based on intersections between the plurality of rays and the simulated virtual environment, and store the determined sub-pixel data for each of the plurality of rays in an image file.

Abstract: Processing circuitry receives, from a coded video bitstream, a first flag for a current block of an affine mode in a current picture, the first flag is associated with a first reference picture. The first flag indicates whether one or more motion vector differences of a reduced counting number are signaled. The reduced counting number is smaller than a number of first control points in a first affine model associated with the first reference picture. The processing circuitry decodes the one or more motion vector differences of the reduced counting number from the coded video bitstream in response to the first flag indicating the reduced counting number. The processing circuitry determines first control point motion vectors for the first control points in the first affine model according to the one or more motion vector differences of the reduced counting number, and reconstructs the current block accordingly.

Abstract: A corn header for an agricultural vehicle includes two gathering chains which together draw plants into a snapping gap; two snap rolls positioned beneath the two gathering chains; a first brushless DC motor (BLDC) connected to at least one of the two gathering chains for moving the at least one of the two gathering chains; a chopping unit including a movable blade positioned beneath the snap rolls for fragmentizing stalks of the plants drawn into the snapping gap; and a second BLDC connected to the chopping unit for moving the blade and fragmentizing the stalks of the plants.

Abstract: A surgical apparatus for insertion into an annular orifice of an animal body (e.g., vaginal orifice) to provide cavity access to a cavity while maintaining pneumoperitoneum that includes an expandable member, like an outer bladder or balloon like structure (similar to a pessary), surrounding a central structural member, that typically would be ring shaped and a flexible opening or penetrable port, similar to an elastomeric duck bill valve, affixed within an interior of said central structural member, through which an instrument or device may be inserted to provide surgical access to the cavity. The penetrable port may be of an active or passive configuration where, in the active configuration, it can be expanded to conform to the instruments. In the passive form, the penetrable port is comprised of an elastomeric or similar material that is fixed in shape and conformably flexes and seals to the instrument maintaining pneumoperitoneum.

Abstract: Polymeric tubing, for use with catheters or other medical devices, where the polymeric tubing can have regions of customized properties including, but not limited to, durometer, torque control, flexibility, axial strength, stiffness, etc. One variation of the device allows for transitions between regions to be configured such that there can be gradual or customized transitions between various regions such that the structural characteristics differential between the regions are selectively designed. Additional variations include outer layers having a plurality of material sections extending in a spiral direction along the axial length to form a continuous wall of the outer layer. In certain variations, the structural characteristic differential is minimized or eliminated as compared to conventional catheters.

Abstract: The disclosed technology includes a tank system including a gravity tank configured to contain water at atmospheric pressure, a rigid pressurized tank positioned within the gravity tank and configured to contain water at a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure, and a piston assembly positioned below the rigid pressurized tank and configured to open and close the rigid pressurized tank. The gravity tank is configured to channel water at atmospheric pressure into a toilet bowl at a first velocity and the rigid pressurized tank is configured to channel water at the pressure greater than atmospheric pressure into the toilet bowl at a second velocity. The second velocity is greater than the first velocity.

Abstract: Wearable devices using “legacy” sensors such as proximity sensors or infrared sensors suffer from false positives when, such as when they are placed in a hand, but not inserted on the user's body or on or into the user's ear. Embedding a PPG module or PPG sensor into the wearable device allows for the PPG module to act as a secondary check for the presence of a user wearing the wearable device. In some examples, the PPG module can be used as a sole sensor for the presence or absence of a human user. In other examples, a PPG module can be used to perform a secondary action after the “legacy” sensor performs a first action. For example, the first action can be connecting to a user device while the second action can be opening an application or playing music.

Abstract: One or more default protected attribute values may be determined for a prediction model trained based on training data including a plurality of training observations. Each of the plurality of training observations may include a respective plurality of training data values corresponding with a plurality of features. Each of the plurality of training observations may also include a respective target value. Each of the plurality of training observations may include a respective protected attribute value corresponding with a protected attribute feature. A request to determine a designated predicted target value for a designated inference observation may be received after determining the one or more default protected attribute values. The predicted target value may be determined by applying the prediction model to an inference observation and a designated default protected attribute value of the one or more default protected attribute values.

Abstract: In a distributed replicated storage system, an active server may, during normal operation, service requests from clients, and back up its persistent storage to a backup server. The backup server may be configured to become an active server autonomously if the active server fails. If a network connection between the active server and the backup server fails, severing the connection between the active server and the backup server, the backup server may become a second active server and begin to service requests from clients, and the original active server may continue to service requests from clients. This may result in inconsistencies in the persistent storage of the original active server and of the second active server. As such, a system and method for intelligent merging of primary and backup data in a distributed replicated storage system are provided.

Abstract: Hypochlorite salts and substantially dehydrated acid-form cation exchange resin beads are combined at specified ratios within a porous enclosure such as a pouch or sachet. Hypochlorous acid solutions are produced on demand by introducing the mixture-containing pouch into a chemical excess of water. Spontaneous exchange reactions occur at room temperature within a few minutes to produce aqueous hypochlorous acid, while the cations from the hypochlorite salt are simultaneously sequestered by the resin beads. The resin beads remain contained within the original porous enclosure to allow mechanical isolation or separation from the resulting solution.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods for interference management in Multicast Broadcast Service (MBS) in a wireless network. A User Equipment (UE) receives unicast and MBS from a Base Station (BS). In one embodiment, the UE measures the interference between unicast and MBS, and performs beam adaptation to find a receive beam that matches both unicast and MBS beams to reduce the interference between the unicast and MBS. In another embodiment, the UE reports its desired receive beam direction to the BS. The BS may schedule the UE with the indicated beam by the UE. In other embodiment, the BS measures the link qualities of a plurality of the UEs receiving MBS, and if it receives a link failure indication from a UE, it may schedule that UE with a unicast service.

Abstract: Systems and methods of disconnecting a network service provided over a network service path include using a computing device that obtains a service identifier assigned to network service and identifies a port of a network device included in a network service path associated with the service. The computing device transmits a request to the network device for port configuration data of the network device and based on the received port configuration data, determines whether the port is assigned to the network service. If so, the computing devices executes a remediation operation which includes transmitting a reconfiguration command to the network device that is adapted to cause the network device to update the port configuration data to free the port.

Abstract: An event is identified. The event is associated with device content (e.g., one or more files) and a network location (e.g., a branch location of a corporation). One or more rules are retrieved. The one or more rules are associated with the device content, the network location, and a number of communication devices at the network location. A number of shards (e.g., erasure encoding shards) are determined based on the rules. The number of shards are generated. The number of shards are sent to a plurality of communication devices at the network location according to the rules. The plurality of communication devices at the network location are equal to or less than the number of communication devices at the network location.

Abstract: Techniques for sending and receiving tactile messages (e.g., haptic emojis) in an extended reality environment to facilitate touch communication between users. In one particular aspect, an extended reality system is provided having a head-mounted device with a display to display content to a first user, sensors to capture input data, processors, and memories accessible to the processors, the memories storing instructions executable by the processors to perform processing including: capturing, using the one or more sensors, the input data from the first user, extracting features from the input data that correspond to an electronic communication, identifying an emoji from a lexicon of emojis based on the extracted features, obtaining digital assets for the emoji, where the digital assets comprise a haptic signal configured with parameter information to generate patterns for haptic output, and transmitting the digital assets to a device of a second user.

Abstract: A sensor device may include a signal generator circuit configured to generate a supplemental signal that is combined with an ultrasonic reception voltage signal generated by an ultrasonic receiving element in response to received ultrasonic waves. The sensor device may comprise an ultrasonic receiving circuit configured to receive the combination of the ultrasonic reception voltage signal and the supplemental signal, and generate a detection signal that indicates when the space is occupied. The sensor device may also comprise a control circuit configured to receive the detection signal and detect an occupancy condition in the space in response to the detection signal. The combination of the supplemental signal with the ultrasonic reception voltage signal may ensure that the magnitudes of signals processed by the ultrasonic receiving circuit are large enough that the ultrasonic receiving circuit may appropriately generate the detection signal and the control circuit may detect the occupancy condition.

Abstract: Reinforced floor components of prefabricated bathroom pods. The floor components are reinforced and integrated into bathroom pods or other building units in such a manner as to add significant strength to the bathroom pods to resist bending, twisting and sagging, and/or to aid in lifting and supporting the weight of the bathroom pods, and thereby add to the structural integrity of the prefabricated bathroom pods to which they are attached.

Abstract: Systems and methods for retrofitting a light detection and ranging (LIDAR)-based vehicle computing system to operate with vision-based sensor data are provided. For example, a method implemented by a vehicle may include receiving, from one or more sensors of a first sensing modality at the vehicle, first sensor data associated with a surrounding environment of the vehicle; and retrofitting a vehicle controller of the vehicle that is based on a second sensing modality different from the first sensing modality to operate on the first sensor data, where the retrofitting includes generating second sensor data from the first sensor data based on the second sensing modality; and determining, by the vehicle controller, an action for the vehicle based at least in part on the generated second sensor data.