Patents by Inventor Vincent Kin Nang Lau

Vincent Kin Nang Lau 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: 8786246
    Abstract: Systems and methods that recharge power supply units of portable electronic devices by leveraging energy harvesting or scavenging techniques. A recharge component accumulates energy from a plurality of sources, and supplies an electric current to the portable electronic device for a charge thereof. The sources of energy are based on routine user actions such as muscle movements (e.g., walking, movement of eye lashes, body heat), and can further consider environmental factors such as exposure to sunlight, temperature, as well as availability of external power sources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Tuen Solutions Limited Liability Company
    Inventors: Chi Ying Tsui, Ross David Murch, Roger Shu Kwan Cheng, Wai Ho Mow, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Publication number: 20140201311
    Abstract: Cooperative caching systems incorporating Plug-and-Play base stations are described herein. Plug-and-Play base stations with large caching capacities are employed in a wireless network to perform cooperative transmission with macro base stations. Each Plug-and-Play base station can either have wireless backhaul or a low-cost wired backhaul connection to the macro base stations. Cooperative caching systems can direct traffic between the Plug-and-Play base stations and the macro base stations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2013
    Publication date: July 17, 2014
    Applicant: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
    Inventor: Vincent Kin Nang LAU
  • Patent number: 8340658
    Abstract: Systems and methodologies for sharing functionality among mobile devices in a peer to peer manner are described herein. A mobile device can include a plurality of functional components that can each perform respective functionality. Examples of the functionalities can include transceiver communications, processing, power, memory, input and output for the mobile device. Further, the mobile device can include a sharing component that enables sharing a particular third party functional component to replace or supplement operation of a corresponding functional component of the mobile device. The third party functional component, for instance, can be made available for sharing by at least one of a disparate mobile device or a stand alone functional component. Moreover, a host component can allow a disparate mobile device to use an available one or more of the plurality of functional components of the mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: Tuen Solutions Limited Liability Company
    Inventors: Chi Ying Tsui, Ross David Murch, Roger Shu Kwan Cheng, Wai Ho Mow, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Publication number: 20120281778
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatus are described that employ specially designed interference patterns to build an in-band side channel without degrading the effective throughput of the main channel. Transmitter and receiver pairs implement a two-stage dynamic interference mitigation scheme based on the partial connections in limited dimension MIMO interference channels. The first stage determines the stream assignments and the subspace constraints for beamforming vectors and zero-forcing vectors based on the partially connected topology such as the path loss, shadowing and spatial correlation. The second stage determines the beamforming vectors and the zero-forcing vectors based on the instantaneous channel state information over the subspaces obtained from the first stage. In an aspect, a controller device implements the first and second stage and assigns the transmitter and receiver pairs to perform interference alignment using the stream assignments and beamforming and zero-forcing vectors respectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2011
    Publication date: November 8, 2012
    Applicant: THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Liangzhong Ruan, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Publication number: 20120281780
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatus are described that employ a partial interference alignment scheme in conjunction with an interference detection scheme to mitigate interference in quasi-static multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channels. In an aspect, sets of transmitter and receiver pairs are determined based on feasibility of alignment of the transmitters at the receivers of the sets in accordance with an interference alignment scheme and path loss associated with signal transmissions between the transmitter and receiver pairs, wherein the sets include different alignment assignments of the respective transmitters at the respective receivers of the sets. The alignment assignments can include different numbers of the transmitters aligned at the receivers of the sets. A set is then selected from the sets that contributes to an interference profile at the receivers that facilitates interference detection at the receivers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2011
    Publication date: November 8, 2012
    Applicant: THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Huang Huang, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Publication number: 20120230230
    Abstract: A transmission protocol is provided for wireless communications in an OFDMA system that uses a rateless code and techniques are provided for dynamically adjusting the subcarrier resources allocated to an OFDMA relay node so that the relay is used at the right time according to the instantaneous channel state information (CSI). As a result, a higher throughput is achieved between source and destination nodes based on a low complexity algorithm for determining when relay assistance is helpful for completing a transmission between the source and destination nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 18, 2012
    Publication date: September 13, 2012
    Applicant: LINGNA HOLDINGS PTE., LLC
    Inventors: Edward Shunqing Zhang, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Publication number: 20120213061
    Abstract: The subject specification comprises a cognitive relay communications management (CRCM) component associated with a primary communication system, wherein the CRCM component controls relaying at least a portion of transmitted communications from a secondary source device (SSD) transmitting data to a secondary destination device (SDD) associated with a secondary communication system, in accordance with a specified relay protocol, such as a buffered decode-and-forward protocol. The CRCM component identifies when the secondary relay station (SRS) is not transmitting on the relay-destination (R-D) link and the source-relay link is not blocked, and, in such instance, allows transmission of a packet from the SSD to the SRS. The SRS forwards the packet to the SDD when the CRCM component identifies when the R-D link is not blocked. The SRS and/or SSD remove the packet from their respective queues when an acknowledgement message(s) is received from the SDD and/or SRS, respectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 1, 2011
    Publication date: August 23, 2012
    Applicant: THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Yan Chen, Vincent Kin Nang Lau, Shunqing Zhang, Peiliang Qiu
  • Patent number: 8223626
    Abstract: A joint set of linear precoder designs is provided for single cell uplink multiuser space-time block coded multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with multi-packet reception by exploiting outdated channel state information. By deriving the pairwise error probability with respect to both minimum and average codeword distance design metrics, the technique solves an optimization problem subject to transmit power constraint for each user and dependent on the outdated channel state information. Due to the non-convex nature of the optimization problem, an iterative technique based on alternating minimization and projected gradient can be used to solve for a joint linear preceding structure for general space-time block coding. The linear precoding structure is then sent from the base station to various consumer premise equipment for use in later transmissions. For orthogonal space-time block code, a simplified distributed technique is provided to solve for a closed-form solution of the optimization problem.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Yim Tu Investments Ltd., LLC
    Inventors: Edward Kwok Shum Au, Jane Wei Huang, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Patent number: 8209275
    Abstract: Mobile devices, mobile device systems and methods applying to mobile devices are provided that employ intelligent agents in combination with a wide array of remote utilities and information sources to facilitate improving a mobile device user's experience. By collecting contextual information from numerous information sources related to the mobile device user's context, more accurate and optimized determinations and/or inferences are formed relating to which remote utilities to make available to the mobile device user. This facilitates less confusion for the user in selecting desired mobile device content, services, and/or applications. The devices, systems, and methodologies also provide for an improved user experience in an open remote utility provider model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignee: Tuen Solutions Limited Liability Company
    Inventors: Chi Ying Tsui, Ross David Murch, Roger Shu Kwan Cheng, Wai Ho Mow, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Patent number: 8203979
    Abstract: A transmission protocol is provided for wireless communications in an OFDMA system that uses a rateless code and techniques are provided for dynamically adjusting the subcarrier resources allocated to an OFDMA relay node so that the relay is used at the right time according to the instantaneous channel state information (CSI). As a result, a higher throughput is achieved between source and destination nodes based on a low complexity algorithm for determining when relay assistance is helpful for completing a transmission between the source and destination nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2012
    Assignee: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
    Inventors: Edward Shunqing Zhang, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Publication number: 20120002567
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatus are described that that increase throughput of a WiFi network. A first method is provided wherein access points monitor and keep track of their states on each resource block (frequency channel and antenna pattern) associated therewith and dynamically select the resource blocks that increase network throughput based on the instantaneous states of the access points. A second method is provided comprising employing Q-learning to determine one or more modifications of operating parameters of a network node based on observed throughput of the network and implementing the one or more modifications at the node. A third method is also provided which combines the first and second methods so as to increase network throughput at both the physical layer and the MAC layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2011
    Publication date: January 5, 2012
    Applicant: THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Jiatong SUN, Vincent Kin Nang LAU
  • Publication number: 20110320518
    Abstract: Mobile devices, mobile device systems and methods applying to mobile devices are provided that employ intelligent agents in combination with a wide array of remote utilities and information sources to facilitate improving a mobile device user's experience. By collecting contextual information from numerous information sources related to the mobile device user's context, more accurate and optimized determinations and/or inferences are formed relating to which remote utilities to make available to the mobile device user. This facilitates less confusion for the user in selecting desired mobile device content, services, and/or applications. The devices, systems, and methodologies also provide for an improved user experience in an open remote utility provider model.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Publication date: December 29, 2011
    Applicant: TUEN SOLUTIONS LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
    Inventors: Chi Ying Tsui, Ross David Murch, Roger Shu Kwan Cheng, Wai Ho Mow, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Publication number: 20110305189
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for exploiting buffers in cognitive multi-relay systems for communicating delay sensitive application are presented herein. A secondary receiver device can select a first proximate relay station based on an assessment of communication links that extend from the first proximate relay station to the secondary receiver, and a secondary transmitter device that selects a second proximate relay station based on an evaluation of communication links that extend from the secondary transmitter and the second proximate relay station, wherein the first proximate relay station is employed by the secondary receiver device to communicate with the secondary transmitter device and the second proximate relay station is utilized by the secondary transmitter to communicate with the secondary receiver.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 25, 2011
    Publication date: December 15, 2011
    Applicant: THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Yan Chen, Vincent Kin Nang Lau, Shunqing Zhang, Peiliang Qiu
  • Patent number: 8032472
    Abstract: Mobile devices, mobile device systems and methods applying to mobile devices are provided that employ intelligent agents in combination with a wide array of remote utilities and information sources to facilitate improving a mobile device user's experience. By collecting contextual information from numerous information sources related to the mobile device user's context, more accurate and optimized determinations and/or inferences are formed relating to which remote utilities to make available to the mobile device user. This facilitates less confusion for the user in selecting desired mobile device content, services, and/or applications. The devices, systems, and methodologies also provide for an improved user experience in an open remote utility provider model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignee: Tuen Solutions Limited Liability Company
    Inventors: Chi Ying Tsui, Ross David Murch, Roger Shu Kwan Cheng, Wai Ho Mow, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Publication number: 20090221252
    Abstract: System and methodologies for amplifier gain control in a communication system are provided herein. By leveraging similarities between the distribution of received signal samples in an MB-OFDM system and a Gaussian distribution, various algorithms described herein can be utilized to perform fast and low-complexity amplifier gain tuning. Received signal strength indication information corresponding to analog signal samples and/or digital signal samples obtained from an analog to digital converter are analyzed to obtain a signal energy distribution. The obtained signal energy distribution is then compared to a reference Gaussian distribution to adaptively tune an associated amplifier gain.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 29, 2008
    Publication date: September 3, 2009
    Applicant: THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Henry Chun Cheung, Vincent Kin Nang Lau, Roger Shu Kwan Cheng, Wai Ho Mow, Ross David Murch
  • Publication number: 20090213741
    Abstract: A robust closed-loop cross-layer design provides for the downlink multi-user multi-antenna systems with imperfect Channel State Information at the transmitter (CSIT) for slow fading channels. Using ACK/NAK feedbacks from mobiles, a closed-loop cross-layer scheduler does not require any knowledge of the CSIT error statistics. To take into account of the potential packet outage (due to imperfect CSIT), we define system goodput, which measures the average bits per second per Hertz (b/s/Hz) successfully delivered to the mobiles, as the optimization objectives. We formulate the cross-layer design as a mixed combinatorial search and Markov decision problem. Based on dynamic programming approach, the optimal power and rate allocation is determined using backward recursion and forward recursion algorithms. Simulations illustrate that the proposed closed-loop cross-layer scheduler has very robust goodput performance at moderate to high CSIT errors and pedestrian mobility.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2008
    Publication date: August 27, 2009
    Applicant: THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Rui WANG, Vincent Kin Nang LAU
  • Publication number: 20090207768
    Abstract: The disclosed subject matter provides scheduling algorithms, methods, and systems that facilitate cross layer scheduling for systems with imperfect channel state information and unknown interference. By exploiting ACK/NAK feedback from users of downlink traffic and recursively optimizing scheduling policy components over a state space, the disclosed subject matter provide robust and optimal cross layer scheduling in the presence of unknown interference and imperfect channel state information. The disclosed details enable various refinements and modifications according to cross layer schedule and system design considerations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 19, 2008
    Publication date: August 20, 2009
    Applicant: THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Rui Wang, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Publication number: 20090190536
    Abstract: A transmission protocol is provided for wireless communications in an OFDMA system that uses a rateless code and techniques are provided for dynamically adjusting the subcarrier resources allocated to an OFDMA relay node so that the relay is used at the right time according to the instantaneous channel state information (CSI). As a result, a higher throughput is achieved between source and destination nodes based on a low complexity algorithm for determining when relay assistance is helpful for completing a transmission between the source and destination nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2008
    Publication date: July 30, 2009
    Applicant: THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Edward Shunqing Zhang, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Publication number: 20090180454
    Abstract: A joint set of linear precoder designs is provided for single cell uplink multiuser space-time block coded multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with multi-packet reception by exploiting outdated channel state information. By deriving the pairwise error probability with respect to both minimum and average codeword distance design metrics, the technique solves an optimization problem subject to transmit power constraint for each user and dependent on the outdated channel state information. Due to the non-convex nature of the optimization problem, an iterative technique based on alternating minimization and projected gradient can be used to solve for a joint linear preceding structure for general space-time block coding. The linear precoding structure is then sent from the base station to various consumer premise equipment for use in later transmissions. For orthogonal space-time block code, a simplified distributed technique is provided to solve for a closed-form solution of the optimization problem.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2008
    Publication date: July 16, 2009
    Applicant: THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Edward Kwok Shum Au, Jane Wei Huang, Vincent Kin Nang Lau
  • Publication number: 20090109953
    Abstract: System and methodologies for timing synchronization in a wireless communication system are provided herein. The provided systems and methodologies can utilize various timing synchronization algorithms and an associated state machine to reduce the down time of a wireless communication system due to the presence of simultaneously operating piconets (SOP) and/or other factors. Frequency band finger pattern detection techniques are additionally described that can reduce boundary mismatch rates for wireless receivers. In one example, by making use of the fact that time frequency codes (TFCs) possess unique frequency hopping patterns, system down time can be reduced and OFDM boundary matching can be enhanced to allow a receiver to obtain correct timing information even for communication channels having a very low SINR.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2007
    Publication date: April 30, 2009
    Applicant: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
    Inventors: Yui Ming Tsang, Chi Tin Luk, Wing Kwan Ng, Vincent Kin Nang Lau, Roger Shu Kwan Cheng, Chi Ying Tsui