Abstract: A securing system for securing an electric bicycle to a bicycle docking frame includes a female connecting assembly mountable on the bicycle docking frame and a male connecting assembly mountable on the electric bicycle and sized to be received within a tapered recess of the female connecting assembly. When so received, first current coupling elements of the female assembly electrically interface with second current coupling elements of the male assembly, which can allow current flow therebetween to charge a battery of the electric bicycle. A bicycle rack system includes electric bicycles, bicycle docks, a charging module operable to receive electrical power from an external power source and a charging controller for adjusting the level of electrical power provided to dock-side charging modules that charge battery modules of electric bicycles docked thereto. A method for managing charging is also provided.

Abstract: A motorization apparatus for a motorized wheel comprises an axle secured to a frame of a vehicle. A rotor unit has poles of magnet material. A stator unit having slots and teeth secured to the axle is inward of said rotor to define a clearance gap therewith such that the rotor unit is rotatable about the stator core. An arrangement of coils is wound around the teeth of the stator unit, the coils adapted to be powered to induce a rotation of the rotor unit relative to the stator unit. A structure comprises hub portions rotatably mounted to the axle, the structure having lateral walls defining an inner volume for the rotor unit and the stator unit, the structure supporting the rotor unit. The structure comprises attachment members connected to spokes of the motorized wheel, located radially inward of the clearance gap between the rotor unit and the stator unit.

Abstract: A guest digital device joins a playback session hosted by a host digital device and synchronizes playback of digital media content with playback on the host digital device. This enables multiple users to listen to or view media at the same time on their respective devices. A time-based synchronization process may be used to initially synchronize playback of the guest digital device to the host digital device. If synchronization is lost, the device may record and analyze audio during playback and a fingerprint-based synchronization approach may be applied that detects a time offset between fingerprints in the analyzed audio. If synchronization is still not achieved, a watermark-based synchronization approach may be applied in which watermarks are actively injected into the audio and the time offsets between the watermarks is detected.

Abstract: A direct-drive brushless DC motorization apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes an outer rotor having poles constructed with segments of forty or forty-four permanent magnets alternatively magnetized north and south. The outer rotor is adapted to be part of a wheel and is rotatable with respect to an axis of the wheel. The outer rotor is mounted about a stator core of ferromagnetic material and is separated from the stator core by a clearance gap. The stator core has forty-two slots, and adjacent slots are separated by teeth. A three-phase winding with coils of insulated wire is wound around the teeth of the stator core. The three-phase winding is divided in two sets of consecutive teeth for each of the three phases, with each of the two sets of a same phase being diametrically opposed in the stator core.

Abstract: A motorization apparatus for a motorized wheel comprises an axle secured to a frame of a vehicle. A rotor unit has poles of magnet material. A stator unit having slots and teeth secured to the axle is inward of said rotor to define a clearance gap therewith such that the rotor unit is rotatable about the stator core. An arrangement of coils is wound around the teeth of the stator unit, the coils adapted to be powered to induce a rotation of the rotor unit relative to the stator unit. A structure comprises hub portions rotatably mounted to the axle, the structure having lateral walls defining an inner volume for the rotor unit and the stator unit, the structure supporting the rotor unit. The structure comprises attachment members connected to spokes of the motorized wheel, located radially inward of the clearance gap between the rotor unit and the stator unit.

Abstract: A guest digital device joins a playback session hosted by a host digital device and synchronizes playback of digital media content with playback on the host digital device. This enables multiple users to listen to or view media at the same time on their respective devices. A time-based synchronization process may be used to initially synchronize playback of the guest digital device to the host digital device. If synchronization is lost, the device may record and analyze audio during playback and a fingerprint-based synchronization approach may be applied that detects a time offset between fingerprints in the analyzed audio. If synchronization is still not achieved, a watermark-based synchronization approach may be applied in which watermarks are actively injected into the audio and the time offsets between the watermarks is detected.

Abstract: A motorization apparatus for a motorized wheel comprises an axle secured to a frame of a vehicle. A rotor unit has poles of magnet material. A stator unit having slots and teeth secured to the axle is inward of said rotor to define a clearance gap therewith such that the rotor unit is rotatable about the stator core. An arrangement of coils is wound around the teeth of the stator unit, the coils adapted to be powered to induce a rotation of the rotor unit relative to the stator unit. A structure comprises hub portions rotatably mounted to the axle, the structure having lateral walls defining an inner volume for the rotor unit and the stator unit, the structure supporting the rotor unit. The structure comprises attachment members connected to spokes of the motorized wheel, located radially inward of the clearance gap between the rotor unit and the stator unit.

Abstract: A direct-drive brushless DC motorization apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes an outer rotor having poles constructed with segments of forty or forty-four permanent magnets alternatively magnetized north and south. The outer rotor is adapted to be part of a wheel and is rotatable with respect to an axis of the wheel. The outer rotor is mounted about a stator core of ferromagnetic material and is separated from the stator core by a clearance gap. The stator core has forty-two slots, and adjacent slots are separated by teeth. A three-phase winding with coils of insulated wire is wound around the teeth of the stator core. The three-phase winding is divided in two sets of consecutive teeth for each of the three phases, with each of the two sets of a same phase being diametrically opposed in the stator core.

Abstract: Playback of an audio stream is synchronized on multiple connected digital devices by using synchronization fingerprints. Playback actions may furthermore be synchronized on all devices, such as skips and pauses. Furthermore, synchronization may be maintained even in the presence of variations in decoding speed, playback interruptions, and network disconnections. Synchronized playback of streamed audio content on multiple devices is achieved by devices compensating for time drifting induced by network instability and variable playback speed across master and guest devices to reduce the formation of echoes during playback.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a renderer-agnostic method for representing materials independently from an underlying rendering engine. Advantageously, materials libraries may be extended with new materials for rendering with an existing rendering engine and implementation. Also, new rendering engines and implementations may be added for existing materials. Thus, at run-time, rather than limiting the rendering to being performed on a pre-determined rendering engine, the rendering application may efficiently and conveniently manage rendering a graphics scene on a plurality of rendering engines or implementations.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for performing path tracing. In use, one or more matte objects are identified in a scene. Additionally, one or more synthetic objects are identified in the scene. Further, path tracing is performed within the scene, where the path tracing accounts for interactions between one or more of the matte objects and one or more of the synthetic objects.

Abstract: A processing system, a method of carrying out sample-based rendering (such as true or quasi-Monte Carlo rendering) in a multi- or many-core processor processing system and a graphics processing unit (GPU) incorporating the processing system or the method. In one embodiment, the processing system includes: (1) a sample-space distributor operable to distribute a first subset of samples for a pixel of an image to a first compute core for sample-based rendering therewith and a second subset of samples for the pixel to a second compute core for the sample-based rendering therewith, the second subset differing from the first subset and (2) a sample-space combiner associated with the sample-space distributor and operable to combine results of the sample-based rendering.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for performing path tracing. In use, one or more matte objects are identified in a scene. Additionally, one or more synthetic objects are identified in the scene. Further, path tracing is performed within the scene, where the path tracing accounts for interactions between one or more of the matte objects and one or more of the synthetic objects.

Abstract: A direct-drive brushless DC motorization apparatus comprises an outer rotor with poles constructed with segments of permanent magnet material alternatively magnetized north and south. The outer rotor is adapted to be part of a wheel and rotating with the wheel about an axis thereof. A stator core of ferromagnetic material is spaced inwardly of said rotor to define a clearance gap with the rotor such that the rotor is rotatable about the stator core. The stator core has forty-two slots and defines teeth therebetween. A three-phase winding with coils of insulated wire is wound around the teeth of the stator core. The three-phase winding is divided in two sets of consecutive teeth for each of the three phases, with each of the two sets of a same phase being diametrically opposed in the stator core.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a renderer-agnostic method for representing materials independently from an underlying rendering engine. Advantageously, materials libraries may be extended with new materials for rendering with an existing rendering engine and implementation. Also, new rendering engines and implementations may be added for existing materials. Thus, at run-time, rather than limiting the rendering to being performed on a pre-determined rendering engine, the rendering application may efficiently and conveniently manage rendering a graphics scene on a plurality of rendering engines or implementations.

Abstract: A method for the purification of a metal selected from the group consisting of aluminum and aluminum alloys, wherein said metal is in a liquid phase and is contacted with a salt flux consisting of a selected tertiary mixture of NaCl, KCl, and MgCl2.

Abstract: A method for the purification of a metal selected from the group consisting of aluminum and aluminum alloys, wherein the metal is in a liquid phase and is contacted with a salt flux consisting of a binary mixture of NaCl and MgCl2. Preferably, more than 22% by weight of the binary mixture consists of NaCl.

Abstract: A method for projecting a data set from a first object to a second object includes the steps of defining one or more sub-objects, wherein each sub-object represents a portion of the second object, associating the first object with a first sub-object, expanding a projection cage to substantially encompass both the first sub-object and the first object, and transferring the data set from the first object to the first sub-object using the projection cage. The disclosed method advantageously allows the first sub-object to be defined in a way that avoids undesirable cage intersections, thereby enabling the data set from the first object to be transferred without tedious manual manipulations of the projection cage.

Abstract: A method for the purification of a metal selected from the group consisting of aluminum and aluminum alloys, wherein said metal is in a liquid phase and is contacted with a salt flux consisting of a binary mixture of NaCl and MgCl2. Preferably, more than 22% by weight of the binary mixture consists of NaCl.

Abstract: A method and system is disclosed for determining a property of an object by measuring ultrasonic attenuation. With the proposed method, a measured ultrasonic interaction signal of the object is compared with a reference signal produced using the same generation and detection setup, but using a reference part. The reference ultrasonic signal has low attenuation, and exhibits equivalent diffraction properties as the object, with respect to a broadband ultrasonic pulse. The difference is attributable to the attenuation of the object. The attenuation as a function of frequency, the attenuation spectrum, is fitted to a model to obtain a parameter useful for identifying one of the many properties of an object that varies with ultrasonic attenuation.