Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Mark S. Williams
  • Patent number: 6823283
    Abstract: System and method for measurement, DAQ, and control operations. A measurement module includes measurement circuitry for performing signal conditioning and/or signal conversion, and interface circuitry which provides an interface for the measurement circuitry. A carrier unit couples to the interface circuitry of the module. A computer system couples to the carrier unit and stores one or more hardware configuration programs. The interface circuitry communicates an interface protocol describing the interface, e.g., to the carrier unit or the computer system. The computer system provides a hardware configuration program in response to the communicated interface protocol, and programs one or more programmable hardware elements on the carrier unit with the hardware configuration program. After being configured, the programmable hardware elements interface with the measurement module in accordance with the communicated interface protocol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2004
    Assignee: National Instruments Corporation
    Inventors: Perry Steger, Garritt W. Foote, David Potter, James J. Truchard, Hugo A. Andrade, Joseph E. Peck, Brian Keith Odom
  • Patent number: 6820032
    Abstract: A system and method for scanning for an object within a region using a conformal scanning scheme. The system may comprise a computer which includes a CPU and a memory medium which is operable to store one or more programs executable by the CPU to perform the method. The method may: 1) determine the characteristic geometry of the region; 2) generate a conformal scanning curve based on the characteristic geometry of the region by performing a conformal mapping between the characteristic geometry and a first scanning curve to generate the conformal scanning curve, i.e., mapping points of the first scanning curve to the characteristic geometry of the region; and 3) scan the region using the conformal scanning curve. These measurements of the region produce data indicative of one or more characteristics of the object. The method may also generate output indicating the one or more characteristics of the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2004
    Assignee: National Instruments Corporation
    Inventors: Lothar Wenzel, Ram Rajagopal, Dinesh Nair, Joseph Ting, Sundeep Chandhoke
  • Patent number: 6816242
    Abstract: System and method for performing Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) on a Device Under Test (DUT) using Gaussian pulses. A signal is received comprising an initial Gaussian pulse and one or more reflected pulses from the DUT. Each pulse is characterized by determining a set of estimated parameters, permuting the estimated parameter set to generate one or more permuted parameter sets, generating linear equations from the parameter sets, including parameter variables for the corresponding Gaussian pulse, and determining values for the parameter variables by solving the linear equations. The determined parameters characterize the Gaussian pulse. If there are N parameters to determine and M permutations generated, where M is greater than or equal to N, M+1 linear equations are solved to overdetermine the N parameters. The determined parameters of the initial pulse and the one or more reflected pulses are useable to perform TDR analysis on the DUT.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2004
    Assignee: National Instruments Corporation
    Inventors: Shie Qian, Nanxiong Zhang
  • Patent number: 6807232
    Abstract: A system and method for multiplexing synchronous parallel digital data streams with different clock frequencies into a single data stream while preserving each data stream's timing integrity. A plurality of digital data inputs and corresponding clock inputs are coupled to corresponding FIFOs (First In First Out buffers), which are coupled to a data multiplexer (MUX). Each clock input is coupled to a clock MUX which couples to each FIFO and the data MUX. Finally, a transition state machine is coupled to the clock MUX, the data MUX, and the FIFOs. Each digital data input receives a data stream from a source, such as a digital video camera, while the corresponding clock input concurrently receives a corresponding clock signal. The transition state machine controls the selection of a data stream from the MUXed data streams and the selection of the corresponding clock signal from the MUXed clock signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2000
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2004
    Assignee: National Instruments Corporation
    Inventors: James Nicholson, Charles Schroeder, Brian Johnson
  • Patent number: 6807305
    Abstract: A system and method for performing pattern matching to locate an instance of one or more of a plurality of template images in a target image. In a preprocessing phase a unified signal transform (UST) is determined from the template images. The UST converts each template image to a generalized frequency domain. The UST is applied at a generalized frequency to each template image to calculate corresponding generalized frequency component values (GFCVs) for each template image. At runtime, the target image is received, and the UST is applied at the generalized frequency to the target image to calculate a corresponding GFCV. The UST may be applied to pixel subsets of the template and target images. A best match is determined between the GFCV of the target image and the GFCVs of each template image. Finally, information indicating the best match template image from the set of template images is output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2004
    Assignee: National Instruments Corporation
    Inventors: Ram Rajagopal, Lothar Wenzel, Dinesh Nair, Darren Schmidt
  • Patent number: 6801873
    Abstract: System and method for analyzing an input signal acquired from a physical system with a rotating element. A tachometer signal is received comprising rotation speed information for the rotating element. A time sequence is determined using the tachometer signal, comprising time values for the rotating element at substantially equal angle increments, e.g., by edge detection software or timer/counter. A software-based first digital interpolation filter, e.g., a Cascade-Integrator-Comb filter, is applied to the time sequence, generating a modified time sequence. A digitized data signal is received comprising data for the rotating element at substantially equal time increments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2004
    Assignee: National Instruments Corporation
    Inventors: Wei Jin, Shie Qian
  • Patent number: 6766342
    Abstract: A system and method for parallel computation of the unordered Hadamard transform. The computing system includes a plurality of interconnected processors and corresponding local memories. An input signal x is received, partitioned into M1 sub-vectors xi of length M2, and distributed to the local memories. Each processor computer a Hadamard transform (order M2) on the sub-vectors in its local memory (in parallel), generating M1 result sub-vectors ti of length M2, which compose a vector t of length M1×M2. A stride permutation (stride M2) is performed on t generating vector u. Each processor computes a Hadamard transform (order M1) on the sub-vectors uj in its local memory (in parallel), generating M1 result sub-vectors vj of length M2, which compose a vector v of length M2×M1. A stride permutation is performed on v (stride M1) generating result vector w, which is the Hadamard transform of the input signal x.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2004
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventor: George Kechriotis
  • Patent number: 6735527
    Abstract: System and method for analyzing seismic data from a formation. Stacked seismic data are provided, including a plurality of stack traces, e.g., by collecting seismic data from source and receiver locations and stacking the collected seismic data to produce the stacked seismic data. 3-dimensional (3-D) prestack traces are generated from the plurality of stack traces, e.g., by performing inverse moveout of stack traces, e.g., in a specified neighborhood, at common-depth-points, e.g., by inverse normal moveout, ray tracing, spike synthesis, etc. The inverse moveout corrected traces are convolved to compute predicted multiples which are useable in analyzing the formation. The multiples may be adaptively subtracted from the stacked seismic data, or optionally, from prestack data, to generate processed seismic data useable in analyzing the formation, e.g., for petroleum production potential.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2004
    Assignee: Landmark Graphics Corporation
    Inventor: Stewart A. Levin
  • Patent number: 6687245
    Abstract: System and method for IP telephony. The system includes at least one IP telephone (IPT), a Service Gateway (SG), and a Media Gateway Controller (MGC). After the IPT is activated, the SG performs client DHCP lease negotiation with the IPT, using an identifier of the IPT to assign a range of ports to the IPT, and providing DHCP lease information, which is stored on the SG and the IPT. Operational software is downloaded from a TFTP server and executed by the IPT for initialization. The MGC registers the IPT, which then performs IP communications using one or more ports in the range of assigned ports, where the SG receives packets, performs NAPPT on source/destination IP addresses in the packet header for outgoing/incoming calls, while leaving port information unchanged, and sends the packets on to their destination, where the IPT is uniquely identified using a public IP address and port number.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2004
    Assignee: Voxpath Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard E. Fangman, Jason D. Preston