Patents by Inventor Francois Gagnon

Francois Gagnon has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20070118802
    Abstract: A computer system for publishing content includes a categorization member, a rating module, a user profiling assembly and a suggested-reading engine. The categorization member enables an author-user and reader-users of an authored work to categorize content of the authored work using a fixed taxonomy, keywords, tags and/or keyword combinations. The rating module enables reader-users to rate authored works and makes a determination of quality of each authored work in the system. Rating includes reader-user response activity such as number of times the reader recommends, forwards or otherwise effectively promotes the authored work. The user profiling assembly measures words and word combinations used (written or read) by a user and generates therefrom a profile of the user. The suggested-reading engine is responsive to the rating module and provides a ranked list of suggested reading (authored works) for a user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 7, 2006
    Publication date: May 24, 2007
    Applicant: Gather Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Gerace, Russell Barbour, Christopher Marstall, Francois Gagnon
  • Publication number: 20070019605
    Abstract: The present invention provides for a method that could be advantageously implemented in a satellite local area network (LAN) in which an average number of sites share a TDMA link. The invention provides for both a dedicated bandwidth to all the sites and a shared bandwidth that is dynamically assigned to the sites, therefore allowing for both synchronous traffic and for on request burst mode traffic. The method includes a reservation method of this shared bandwidth which is specially optimized for a satellite link. The method provides also for a network that automatically managed its communication bandwidth resources and the synchronization of the sites, without the need of an external controller. The present invention also provides for a satellite modem to transmit data from a site, to receive data from the sites and to manage the bandwidth resources of the TDMA satellite in accordance with the above method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 19, 2006
    Publication date: January 25, 2007
    Inventors: Patrick Rioux, Naim Batani, Francois Gagnon, Jean Belzile
  • Patent number: 7152084
    Abstract: A digital parallelized Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) integrator filter comprising a first channel having a first input and second channel having a second input, a first adder to add the two channel inputs, an integrator to integrate the added channel inputs to provide a first channel output is described herein. The second input channel is adjacent in time to the first channel input. The second channel further comprises a second adder which adds the first output with the second channel input in order to produce a second output, adjacent in time with the first output. This configuration can be generalized to n inputs and m outputs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2006
    Assignee: Socovar, s.e.c.
    Inventors: François Gagnon, Claude Thibeault, Jean Belzile
  • Publication number: 20060032266
    Abstract: A self-contained insulated container for maintaining an item at a predetermined temperature. The container has an inner sidewall and an outer sidewall, which are spaced apart from each other and closed off to define an insulating chamber therebetween. The container includes a storage area, for receiving the item therein, which is defined by the inner sidewall. The storage area is at a first storage temperature. The insulating chamber is substantially filled with a first insulating material, which is a gel mixture. The first insulating material is at a first insulating temperature. The storage area attains a second storage temperature after the item is placed therein and the first insulating material maintains the second storage temperature and the item at the predetermined temperature for a storage period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 16, 2004
    Publication date: February 16, 2006
    Inventor: Francois Gagnon
  • Publication number: 20040093366
    Abstract: A parallelized Finite Impulse Response (FIR) is described. The apparatus comprises a structure that may be used to create an integrator filter. The integrator filter may have n inputs and m outputs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2002
    Publication date: May 13, 2004
    Inventors: Francois Gagnon, Claude Thibeault, Jean Belzile
  • Publication number: 20040093544
    Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed for testing a reconfigurable logic block. Preferably, this invention is intended to be used with Field Programmable Gate Array. According to the invention, a test bus addressing unit and a test bus activation unit are used to perform a test on a logic block. Upon selection of a corresponding logic block, a test data is outputted on a test bus which enables a testing of the logic function.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 24, 2003
    Publication date: May 13, 2004
    Inventors: Jean Belzile, Claude Thibeault, Francois Gagnon, Naim Batani
  • Patent number: 6666044
    Abstract: A self-contained insulated container for maintaining an item at a predetermined temperature. The container has an inner sidewall and an outer sidewall, which are spaced apart from each other and closed off to define an insulating chamber therebetween. The container includes a storage area, for receiving the item therein, which is defined by the inner sidewall. The storage area is at a first storage temperature. The insulating chamber is substantially filled with a first insulating material, which is a aqueous silicone-gel mixture. The first insulating material is at a first insulating temperature. The storage area attains a second storage temperature after the item is placed therein and the first insulating material maintains the second storage temperature and the item at the predetermined temperature for a storage period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2003
    Inventor: François Gagnon
  • Publication number: 20030150237
    Abstract: A self-contained insulated container for maintaining an item at a predetermined temperature. The container has an inner sidewall and an outer sidewall, which are spaced apart from each other and closed off to define an insulating chamber therebetween. The container includes a storage area, for receiving the item therein, which is defined by the inner sidewall. The storage area is at a first storage temperature. The insulating chamber is substantially filled with a first insulating material, which is a aqueous silicone-gel mixture. The first insulating material is at a first insulating temperature. The storage area attains a second storage temperature after the item is placed therein and the first insulating material maintains the second storage temperature and the item at the predetermined temperature for a storage period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2003
    Publication date: August 14, 2003
    Inventor: Francois Gagnon
  • Patent number: 6302788
    Abstract: A clothes dryer exhaust vent comprises a vent hood and a detachable grill. The detachable grill fits within the vent hood opening. A snap-fit system is provided which allows one to grasp the exposed edges of the grill, squeeze inwardly and readily disengage the grill from the vent hood. This system avoids having to unscrew the grill, remove the clips or the like to provide for grill service.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2000
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2001
    Assignee: Imperial Sheet Metal, Ltd.
    Inventor: Francois Gagnon
  • Patent number: 6167552
    Abstract: An encoder and decoder for generating and decoding convolutional codes of improved orthogonality. In an exemplary embodiment the encoder includes a K-bit length shift register for receiving an input serial stream of information bits and providing for each input bit a K-bit parallel output to a self-doubly orthogonal code sequence generator. The encoded symbol stream is threshold decoded iteratively using the inversion of the convolutional self-doubly orthogonal parity code generators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 1997
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2000
    Assignee: Harris Corporation
    Inventors: Francois Gagnon, David Haccoun, Naim Batani, Christian Cardinal