Abstract: A sensor to measure dielectric constant of a medium may have a transmission line acting as a probe, and electronic circuit, and cable filter providing to reduce sensitivity of the sensor to cable parameters and influences. The sensor circuit may use a periodic signal generator to produce a carrier wave, which stimulates the transmission line, through a complex network coupling element. The complex impedance network forms a voltage divider with the transmission line, wherein the output of the voltage divider may be demodulated with an AM demodulator, such as a thermally compensated peak detector. This demodulated signal would be related to the characteristic impedance of the transmission line, and thus to the dielectric constant of the material surrounding the partially inserted transmission line probe. The demodulated signal may be offset, scaled, and linearized with a microcontroller containing signal processing routines, linearizing equations, stored calibration constants and look up tables.

Abstract: A sensor to measure dielectric constant of a medium may have a transmission line acting as a probe, and electronic circuit, and cable filter providing to reduce sensitivity of the sensor to cable parameters and influences. The sensor circuit may use a periodic signal generator to produce a carrier wave, which stimulates the transmission line, through a complex network coupling element. The complex impedance network forms a voltage divider with the transmission line, wherein the output of the voltage divider may be demodulated with an AM demodulator, such as a thermally compensated peak detector. This demodulated signal would be related to the characteristic impedance of the transmission line, and thus to the dielectric constant of the material surrounding the partially inserted transmission line probe. The demodulated signal may be offset, scaled, and linearized with a microcontroller containing signal processing routines, linearizing equations, stored calibration constants and look up tables.

Abstract: A sensor having a transmission line acting as a probe and an electronic circuit measures liquid levels. The sensor circuit uses a periodic signal generator to produce a carrier wave, which stimulates the transmission line, through a complex network coupling element. The complex impedance network forms a voltage divider with the transmission line, wherein the output of the voltage divider, is demodulated with an AM demodulator, such as a thermally compensated peak detector. This demodulated signal is related to the dielectric constant, and thus the liquid level of the material surrounding the partially submerged transmission line probe. The liquid level and the demodulated signal may be offset, scaled and linearized with a microcontroller containing signal processing routines, linearizing equations, stored calibration constants and look up tables.

Abstract: A sensor having a transmission line acting as a probe and an electronic circuit measures liquid levels. The sensor circuit uses a periodic signal generator to produce a carrier wave, which stimulates the transmission line, through a complex network coupling element. The complex impedance network forms a voltage divider with the transmission line, wherein the output of the voltage divider, is demodulated with an AM demodulator, such as a thermally compensated peak detector. This demodulated signal is related to the dielectric constant, and thus the liquid level of the material surrounding the partially submerged transmission line probe. The liquid level and the demodulated signal may be offset, scaled and linearized with a microcontroller containing signal processing routines, linearizing equations, stored calibration constants and look up tables.

Abstract: The present invention is an apparatus, which makes it easier to implement bottle based terrariums using a grow light, by employing multiple side clip pairs, ideally shaped to interface with the curvature of the bottle, that join the upper and lower sides of a cut bottle, and a cable feeding mechanism that allows the grow light's height to be adjusted, while blocking moisture from dissipating through the mouth of the bottle, comprised of a slitted plug with a channel for the cable. The grow light also features control circuitry to set and adjust automatic lighting thresholds and methods to determine ambient lighting levels.

Abstract: A child locator device which is more user friendly and provides increased reliability and efficiency of operation than previously provided child locator devices. The child locator device is configured to be miniaturized to have an overall less obtrusive design. Miniaturization is provided by one or more of a coin cell battery, a transformer, and a microprocessor. The child locator device includes an anti-tamper device, which prevents the child or a potential abductor from removing the child locator device by actuating an alarm when the child locator device is tampered with or otherwise removed from the wearer. The child locator device system can be configured for a plurality of different receiver units which can be separately activated by the parent/transmitter unit to locate individual children wearing different receiver devices.

Abstract: A method for routing electronic messages for communications between computer systems may include the steps of examining a plurality of interest data sets, each having a interest value that indicates specific data that is of interest, creating a filter tree from the plurality of interest data sets where each filter of the filter tree accurately describes child filters in such a way that messages may be properly passed to any terminal filters of the tree which have an interest value that describes the messages, examining the messages, comparing the messages to the root filter of the filter tree to determine if the messages should pass the root filter, and, as long as the messages passes a current filter, comparing the messages with the child filters of the current filter in order to effectively pass the messages to any terminal filters of the tree having an interest value that describes the messages.