Patents by Inventor Kenneth J. McPhillips

Kenneth J. McPhillips 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).

  • Patent number: 8107320
    Abstract: An autonomous sonar system and method provide an arrangement capable of beamforming in three dimensions, detecting loud targets, adaptively beamforming in three dimensions to avoid the loud targets, detecting quiet targets, localizing the loud or quiet targets in range, bearing, and depth, detecting modulation of noise associated with propellers of the loud or quiet targets, generating three dimensional tracks of the loud or quiet targets in bearing, range and depth, making classification of the loud or quiet targets, assigning probabilities to the classifications, and generating classification reports according to the classifications for communication to a receiving station, all without human assistance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2012
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Arnold W. Novick, Michael F. Janik, Thomas J. McHale, Ilya Rozenfeld, Kenneth J. McPhillips, John R. Short, James W. Casalegno
  • Publication number: 20090257312
    Abstract: An autonomous sonar system and method provide an arrangement capable of beamforming in three dimensions, detecting loud targets, adaptively beamforming in three dimensions to avoid the loud targets, detecting quiet targets, localizing the loud or quiet targets in range, bearing, and depth, detecting modulation of noise associated with propellers of the loud or quiet targets, generating three dimensional tracks of the loud or quiet targets in bearing, range and depth, making classification of the loud or quiet targets, assigning probabilities to the classifications, and generating classification reports according to the classifications for communication to a receiving station, all without human assistance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2009
    Publication date: October 15, 2009
    Inventors: Arnold W. Novick, Michael F. Janik, Thomas J. McHale, Ilya Rozenfeld, Kenneth J. McPhillips, John R. Short, James W. Casalegno
  • Patent number: 7315488
    Abstract: A to method and system provide a range and depth localization of a passive sound generator, e.g., a submarine target. The method and system use an autocorrelation and/or a cross correlation to arrive at a plurality of range versus depth estimates, which are resolved and evaluated using likelihood factors in order to provide a range and depth localization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2008
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventors: Arnold W. Novick, Kenneth J. McPhillips
  • Publication number: 20070280051
    Abstract: A to method and system provide a range and depth localization of a passive sound generator, e.g., a submarine target. The method and system use an autocorrelation and/or a cross correlation to arrive at a plurality of range versus depth estimates, which are resolved and evaluated using likelihood factors in order to provide a range and depth localization.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 6, 2006
    Publication date: December 6, 2007
    Inventors: Arnold W. Novick, Kenneth J. McPhillips
  • Patent number: 7266042
    Abstract: A multi-stage maximum likelihood target estimator for use with radar and sonar systems is provided. The estimator is a software implemented algorithm having four computational stages. The first stage provides angle smoothing for data endpoints thereby reducing angle errors associated with tie-down times. The second stage performs a coarse grid search to obtain the initial approximate target state to be used as a starting point for stages 3 and 4. The third stage is an endpoint Gauss-Newton type maximum likelihood target estimate which determines target range along two time lines. The final refinement of the target state is obtained by the fourth stage which is a Cartesian coordinate maximum likelihood target estimate. The four-stage processing allows the use of target historic data while reducing processing time and computation power requirement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2007
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Kurt Gent, Kenneth J. McPhillips
  • Patent number: 7239719
    Abstract: A system and method can detect and track targets in a scene of interest. Interframe differencing can be performed on sequential pairs of images of the scene and a Bayesian model analyzer can obtain an interframe difference density function. The interframe difference density function can be partitioned into static and mobile regimes to provide an objective function. A tracking module can construct a level set and geodesic active contours can be determined for the targets. An adaptive control can apply a spatial transformation and level set perturbation to the geodesic contours to oscillate the contours such that the level set can drop to a lower energy level. The expanded contour can be fed back for use in processing subsequent interframe differences. Target motion analysis data, such as bearing and bearing rate data, can be extracted from the geodesic active contours by applying geometric based transformations on the curve's coordinates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: BBN Technologies Corp.
    Inventors: Kevin Paul Bongiovanni, Paul Patrick Audi, Christopher S. Fortin, Kenneth J. McPhillips