Electrical Signal Parameter Measurement System Patents (Class 702/57)
  • Patent number: 8768525
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a medium-voltage or high-voltage switchgear comprising at least one switching device. The aim is to enable the associated switchgear to be functionally integrated with the greatest possible technical functional comfort. To this end, the switching device or the switching devices is/are respectively provided with a data and/or control interface, with the aid of which the same is/are linked to an electronic master terminal via a data and/or control line such that the switching devices can be triggered by the electronic master terminal and the control thereof can be integrated in a process, particularly an industrial process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: ABB Technology AG
    Inventors: Werner Ebbinghaus, Harald Fink, Karl-Michael Schmidt
  • Patent number: 8768528
    Abstract: A method and apparatus of controlling the electric power usage of electric thermal storage heaters and systems are based on: 1) current and recorded measurements local to the heater and building; 2) current measurements external to the heater and building; 3) forecasts communicated to the apparatus. The method also includes sending out communications about power use as well as various other local measurements. The apparatus has local controls on the electric thermal storage, including but not limited to the relays that control flow of power into the heating elements, a logic module that integrates the local controls, as well as communication channels that extend outside the building to entities capable of providing automatic forecasts and potentially other types of information not available locally.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: VCharge, Inc.
    Inventors: Jessica Millar, David A. Durfee
  • Patent number: 8769329
    Abstract: A peripheral power management system includes a power monitor for determining a power consumption characteristic of a computing processor and a controller for generating a reference power signal based on the power consumption characteristic. The peripheral power management system also includes a power regulator control signal generator for generating a power regulator control signal based on the reference power signal. The power regulator control signal controls a peripheral device power regulator which regulates an electrical supply power of a peripheral device. In this way, the peripheral power management system controls regulation of the electrical supply power of the peripheral device based on the power consumption characteristic of the computing processor. In some embodiments, the peripheral power management system determines the power consumption characteristic of the computing processor by monitoring communication on a serial voltage identification bus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: Integrated Device Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Cheng Wen Hsiao, Eric Leung
  • Patent number: 8762097
    Abstract: In one aspect, a data processing system includes a virtual temperature sensor to provide system temperature for different system configurations, and a controller coupled to the sensor to control operations of the data processing system according to the virtual temperature. The virtual temperature sensor typically derives the temperature of a particular configuration of the data processing system using mathematical models or one or more operating parameters of the data processing system. In one example, the mathematical models include a characterization table which provides the measured temperature data from various system configurations. These measurements are performed with temperature sensors positioned in ideal locations for different configuration, and are preprocessed to provide the virtual temperature computation. The characterization table also includes thermal characteristics, such as thermal time constant and thermal resistance, of the critical components at multiple thermal control states.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Timothy John Millet
  • Patent number: 8762085
    Abstract: A system and method of dynamically estimating the short circuit current availability (SCCA) at a node in an alternating current electrical distribution system by examining the spectral composition of current drawn by a direct current charging circuit connected to the node. A correlative relationship between the total harmonic current distortion (THDi) in the current drawn by the charging circuit and the SCCA at the node is established for a particular charging circuit. An estimation of the SCCA at the node is accomplished by taking current measurements of current drawn by the charging circuit, analyzing those current measurements to determine the THDi, and estimating a corresponding value of SCCA based on the determined THDi. A method is also provided for calibrating a particular charging circuit to have a reactance and resistance suitable for use in estimating SCCA.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Schneider Electric USA, Inc.
    Inventor: Timothy Lee Smith
  • Patent number: 8762109
    Abstract: Estimating impedance of energy storage devices includes generating input signals at various frequencies with a frequency step factor therebetween. An excitation time record (ETR) is generated to include a summation of the input signals and a deviation matrix of coefficients is generated relative to the excitation time record to determine crosstalk between the input signals. An energy storage device is stimulated with the ETR and simultaneously a response time record (RTR) is captured that is indicative of a response of the energy storage device to the ETR. The deviation matrix is applied to the RTR to determine an in-phase component and a quadrature component of an impedance of the energy storage device at each of the different frequencies with the crosstalk between the input signals substantially removed. This approach enables rapid impedance spectra measurements that can be completed within one period of the lowest frequency or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC
    Inventors: Jon P. Christophersen, John L. Morrison, William H. Morrison, Chester G. Motloch, David M. Rose
  • Patent number: 8762096
    Abstract: A modulation error is detected every symbol data to generate a trigger signal. The present invention focuses that there are limited patterns of shifts from one symbol data to the next one of the digital modulation signal. Measured values of amplitude, phase and/or frequency of symbol data are latched and then values at the next symbol timing are predicted from the latched measured values using said feature. The predicted and measured values are compared at the following symbol timing. If the difference (error) is over an acceptable range, a trigger signal is provided which allows acquiring a modulation error by symbol data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Tektronix International Sales GmbH
    Inventor: Akira Nara
  • Patent number: 8745418
    Abstract: Methods and systems are described for selecting a resource based on a measure of a processing cost. Resource information is received identifying a first resource and a second resource for processing by a program component. One or more of a first measure of a specified processing cost for the processing of the first resource and a second measure of the processing cost for the processing of the second resource is determined. One of the first resource and the second resource is selected based on at least one of the first measure and the second measure. The selected one of the first resource and the second resource is identified to the program component for processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2014
    Assignee: Sitting Man, LLC
    Inventor: Robert Paul Morris
  • Patent number: 8738331
    Abstract: A method, device and computer program product for providing increased reliability in the processing of digital signals. The device includes a module for performing analog measurement of a received signal intended to occupy two logical states at various instances in time, a module for determining if there is a change in the analog signal level, a module for determining if the change fulfills at least one logical state change condition, wherein a first logical state change condition is based on the speed of change of the analog signal level, and a module for determining that there is a change from one logical state to the other if at least one logical state change condition is fulfilled. The invention provides secure detection of unreliable digital signals that may be generated in harsh environments that are polluted or moist.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: ABB Technology AG
    Inventors: Hans Björklund, Krister Nyberg
  • Publication number: 20140142878
    Abstract: A circuit for direct current (DC) offset estimation comprises a quantile value circuit and a signal processor. The quantile value circuit determines a plurality of quantile values of an input signal and includes a plurality of quantile filters. Each quantile filter includes a comparator, a level shifter, a monotonic transfer function component, and a latched integrator. The comparator compares the input signal and a quantile value. The level shifter shifts the output of the comparator. The monotonic transfer function component determines the magnitude of the shifted signal and provide a transfer function signal. The latched integrator suppresses transient characteristics of the transfer function signal and provide the quantile value. The signal processor is configured to calculate a weighted average of the quantile values to yield a DC offset estimate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2013
    Publication date: May 22, 2014
    Applicant: Horizon Analog, Inc.
    Inventors: Alain Charles Briancon, Marc Anthony Epard, Robert Leon Lutes, John Berns Lancaster, Jerald Frederic Johnson, Ronald Byron Kabler
  • Patent number: 8731882
    Abstract: Improved convergence in the volume-integral method (VIM) of calculating electromagnetic scattering properties of a structure is achieved by numerically solving a volume integral equation for a vector field, F, rather than the electric field, E. The electric field, E, is determined from the vector field, F, after solving of the volume integral equation. The vector field, F, may be related to the electric field, E, by a change of basis, and may be continuous at material boundaries where the electric field, E, has discontinuities. Convolutions of the vector field, F, are performed using convolution operators according to the finite Laurent rule, which allows for efficient matrix-vector products using Fast Fourier Transforms. An invertible convolution-and-change-of-basis operator, C, is configured to transform the vector field, F, to the electric field, E, by performing a change of basis according to material and geometric properties of the periodic structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventor: Martijn Constant Van Beurden
  • Patent number: 8725436
    Abstract: A motion state detecting method using a detector, detecting one of a conducting state and a non-conducting state according to a movement of an object, includes: first processing to measure either a first number of times, indicating the number of times of change from the conducting state to the non-conducting state per unit time or a second number of times that is the number of times of change from the non-conducting state to the conducting state per the unit time; and second processing to regard either the first number of times or the second number of times as a change determination value and change a length of the unit time based on the change determination value; wherein a proportion of time of the conducting state per the unit time or the non-conducting state per the unit time is changed by changing the length of the unit time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hideaki Yamada, Michihiro Nagaishi
  • Patent number: 8724132
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an action part that processes an image; a user interface part; a power measurement part that measures power consumed by the image processing apparatus; and a control part that controls the action part and the user interface part, and controls power supply to the action part and the power measurement part. The control part obtains information of the power measured by the power measurement part and displays the information on the user interface part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Takumi Nozawa
  • Patent number: 8725440
    Abstract: In order to process a motor signal (Ia, Um) of a DC motor (4), in particular of an adjustment drive of a motor vehicle, the armature current (Ia) and the motor voltage (Um) of the DC motor (4) are detected and used for determining the back-emf (E) of the DC motor (4), wherein the determined back-emf (E) is used to generate a useful signal (Sf, SEFL), which is in particular speed-proportional, from the armature current signal (Ia) for position sensing or for evaluating an excess force limitation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co., KG., Hallstadt
    Inventors: Jovan Knezevic, Wolfgang Uebel, Thorsten Fuchs, Detlef Russ, Stefan Diestler
  • Patent number: 8725303
    Abstract: A multi-dimensional energy control system is provided with an energy management software application that organizes the consumption of energy by a device as an n-dimensional energy space, where n is an integer greater than 2, and each axis in the energy space represents an energy consumption characteristic. The energy management application generates instructions for a device in response to calculating a compromise operating point in the energy space. A user interface (UI) connected to the energy management application has a display to receive a graphical representation of the energy space and compromise operating point, and an input to receive user commands for moving the represented compromise operating point in the represented energy space. The energy management application calculates the compromise operating point in the energy space to match the displayed compromise operating point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel J. Park, James E. Owen, Carl Mansfield, David Elrod
  • Publication number: 20140129158
    Abstract: A washer assembly is for use with a fastener. The washer assembly includes a first conductive portion, a second conductive portion, and an insulating portion disposed between the first conductive portion and the second conductive portion. The first conductive portion, the second conductive portion, and the insulating portion form a variable capacitor having a capacitance based on an amount of force applied thereto by the fastener. A wireless transponder unit includes a control unit electrically connected to the variable capacitor and an antenna electrically connected to the control unit. The control unit is configured to sense the capacitance of the variable capacitor, to generate information representing the capacitance, and to output the information to a wireless reader unit via the antenna.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 7, 2012
    Publication date: May 8, 2014
    Applicant: EATON CORPORATION
    Inventor: JOHN J. SHEA
  • Patent number: 8718958
    Abstract: Method, system and computer program product for providing real time detection of analyte sensor sensitivity decline is continuous glucose monitoring systems are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignees: Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., University of Virginia Patent Foundation
    Inventors: Marc D. Breton, Boris P. Kovatchev, Erwin S. Budiman, Kenneth J. Doniger
  • Patent number: 8718987
    Abstract: Provided is a circuit simulation model that can suitably represent capacitor characteristics, thereby realizing accurate circuit design and circuit analysis. A SPICE model is constituted of a capacitor unit in which a capacitor is replaced with a linear voltage dependent current source, a low-pass filter unit that has a function of extracting a DC bias voltage, a calculation circuit unit that is configured by combining an adder, a multiplier, and the like to perform a calculation of a circuit equation derived from an equivalent circuit for a capacitor such as an idealized C circuit model, an RC circuit model, or the like, and a linear voltage dependent voltage source that applies a total voltage applied across the capacitor to the calculation circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Xiangying Wu
  • Patent number: 8719123
    Abstract: A circuit breaker having internal power monitoring and data signal generating apparatus, and a system for utilizing such a circuit breaker in a facility having a plurality of tenants served by branch circuits from a plurality of distribution panels. The circuit breaker radiates signals indicative of power consumption of the branch circuit protected thereby, together with a unique address identifier tied to one tenant. Electrical billings are based on summing all signals for each tenant. Changes to branch circuits during tenancy will not disturb correct billings since individual circuit breakers are associated with that tenant using power supplied by each branch circuit. Hence changes to branch circuits may be limited to modify building space locations served by the modified branch circuit, and need not be further modified to maintain correct billing in light of the circuit changes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Inventor: Thomas M. Rohrbaugh
  • Patent number: 8713490
    Abstract: A mechanism is provided for mitigating aging of a set of components in the data processing system. A modeled age of a component in the set of components is identified. A desired aging requirement for the component is identified and a determination is made as to whether the modeled age of the component is greater than the desired age of the component. Responsive to the modeled age of the component being greater than the desired age of the component, a policy is implemented to mitigate the aging of the component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Malcolm S. Allen-Ware, Ronald J. Bolam, Alan J. Drake, Charles R. Lefurgy, Barry P. Linder, Steven W. Mittl, Karthick Rajamani
  • Patent number: 8712710
    Abstract: A method includes measuring a first voltage (VA) across a first sensing coil of a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) and measuring a second voltage (VB) across a second sensing coil of the LVDT. The method also includes signaling a core fallout condition in response to (i) determining that a ratio of VA and VB is within a specified range of a value of one and (ii) determining that a sum of VA and VB is less than a sum of VA0 and VB0 by more than a specified amount. VA0 and VB0 are minimum voltages across the first and second sensing coils of the LVDT, respectively, when a core of the LVDT is in the LVDT.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Rakesh Damodaran Nair, Arulvel Sellamuthu, Nagaraja Sundaresh, Manjunatha Kotreshi Alabur, Amol Kinage, Karthik Giritharan, Ananda Huchappa Shastry
  • Patent number: 8712706
    Abstract: A method for shimming a magnetic field is disclosed. The method uses a single shim current to contribute to suppression of more than one geometrical component of an inhomogeneity in the magnetic field without changing the geometry of the shim path. Apparatuses to implement the method are also disclosed. In embodiments the apparatuses comprise substantially commonly oriented shim paths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Nanalysis Corp.
    Inventors: Garett M. Leskowitz, Gregory McFeetors, Sebastien Pernecker
  • Patent number: 8706460
    Abstract: The present invention models dynamic behavior of flight vehicles for simulation, analysis, and design. The present invention allows a user to define the complexity of a flight vehicle model, and such models may be simple rigid body models, models of medium complexity, or very complex models including high order dynamics comprising hundreds of structural flexibility modes and variables related to aero-elasticity, fuel sloshing, various types of effectors, tail-wags-dog dynamics, complex actuator models, load-torque feedback, wind gusts, and other parameters impacting flight vehicles. The present invention accommodates and analyzes multiple vehicle and actuator concepts and configurations as defined in flight vehicle input data, which specifies flight vehicle parameters at a steady-state condition for modeling flight vehicle response to dynamic forces and flight control commands with respect to steady state operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2014
    Inventor: Eric T. Falangas
  • Patent number: 8706438
    Abstract: An apparatus for measuring s-parameters using as few as one pulser and two samplers is described. The apparatus calibrates itself automatically using the internal calibration standards.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2014
    Assignee: Teledyne LeCroy, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter J Pupalaikis, Kaviyesh Doshi, Roger Delbue, Anirudh Sureka
  • Patent number: 8688393
    Abstract: A system includes a capacitance adjustment module and a control module. The capacitance adjustment module is configured to connect one or more of N capacitors in parallel with one of a first and second capacitance. The control module identifies the smaller of the first and second capacitances and identifies the larger of the first and second capacitances. Subsequently, the control module, during each of M iterations, instructs the capacitance adjustment module to connect at least one of the N capacitors across a set of nodes in parallel with the smaller identified capacitance, and determines whether the capacitance associated with the set of nodes is greater than the larger identified capacitance. After the M iterations, the control module approximates the difference between the first and second capacitances based on which of the N capacitors are connected across the nodes. M and N are integers greater than or equal to 1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2014
    Assignee: Medtronic, Inc.
    Inventors: Jin Yong Wu, Larry E. Tyler
  • Patent number: 8688392
    Abstract: An improved system and method for testing a sensor of a portable electronic device based on expected sensor data and not timing information. The system and method for testing a sensor of a portable electronic device retrieves sensed data from the portable electronic device (i.e. device under test) after the device has traversed a series of test areas or zones. The sensed data is compared against a set of expected sensor data patterns to determine which components of the sensed data correspond to each test area or zone. The sensor of the portable electronic device may be tested based on an association of the test areas or zones with segments of the sensed data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ching Yu John Tam, Bridget Bin Wu, Ryan Jeffrey Du Bois
  • Publication number: 20140088892
    Abstract: Techniques are generally described for generating an identification number for an integrated circuit (IC). In some examples, methods for generating an identification for an IC may comprise selecting circuit elements of the IC, evaluating measurements of an attribute of the IC for the selected circuit elements, wherein individual measurements are associated with corresponding input vectors previously applied to the IC, solving a plurality of equations formulated based at least in part on the measurements taken of the attribute of the IC for the selected circuit elements to determine scaling factors for the selected circuit elements, and transforming the determined scaling factors for the selected circuit elements to generate an identification number of the IC. Additional variants and embodiments may also be disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2013
    Publication date: March 27, 2014
    Applicant: EMPIRE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT, LLC
    Inventors: Miodrag Potkonjak, Farinaz Koushanfar
  • Patent number: 8682612
    Abstract: There is described herein the extension of the application of the Laplace Test Statistic for trend analysis and prediction of incipient faults for power systems. The extensions consider the situation where two parameters believed to contribute explicitly to the eventual failure are monitored. The developed extensions applied to actual incipient failure events provide promising results for prediction of the impending failure. It is demonstrated that by incorporating two parameters in the trend analysis, the robustness to outliers is increased and the flexibility is augmented by increasing the degrees of freedom in the generation of the alarm signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2014
    Assignee: ABB Research Ltd
    Inventors: Mirrasoul Mousavi, Rohit Moghe
  • Patent number: 8682602
    Abstract: A method executes software including a view hierarchy with a plurality of views which displays one or more views of the view hierarchy. The method executes software elements associated with a particular view, wherein each particular view includes event recognizers. Each event recognizer has an event definition based on sub-events, and an event handler that specifies an action for a target, and is configured to send the action to the target in response to an event recognition. The method detects a sequence of sub-events, and identifies one of the views of the view hierarchy as a hit view that establishes which views in the hierarchy are actively involved views. The method delivers a respective sub-event to event recognizers for each actively involved view, wherein each event recognizer for actively involved views in the view hierarchy processes the respective sub-event prior to processing a next sub-event in the sequence of sub-events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Bradford Allen Moore, Joshua H. Shaffer
  • Publication number: 20140081584
    Abstract: A distribution analysis device analyzes a distribution of a field having a property satisfying the Laplace equation, and includes: an obtainment unit that obtains measurement data indicating the distribution of the field measured through a sensor sensing area, the sensor sensing area being an area that moves in a measurement area where the distribution of the field is measured and being an area in which the field is sensed as an aggregate; and a calculation unit that calculates analysis data indicating the distribution of the field with a higher resolution than the measurement data, using an arithmetic expression that is obtained by deriving a solution of the Laplace equation using a boundary condition that an integral of the solution of the Laplace equation in a finite interval corresponding to a size of the sensor sensing area matches the measurement data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 1, 2012
    Publication date: March 20, 2014
    Applicant: National University Corporation Kobe University
    Inventor: Kenjiro Kimura
  • Patent number: 8675005
    Abstract: There are provided a waveform observing apparatus and the system thereof in which, when a removable storage medium is inserted into the waveform observing apparatus to capture a copy of measured data, a difference copy is made while including the latest measured data collected by the waveform observing apparatus at the time, sixteenth and seventeenth measured data temporarily stored in a buffer memory are filed and stored in the state of being housed in a fourth measured data file, into a body memory. Copies of a third measured data file including part of the difference copy and a new fourth measured data file are written into the USB memory. When the USB memory is inserted into a personal computer, a hard disk of the personal computer comes into a state where its third measured data file is overwritten and stored and the fourth measured data file is newly stored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Keyence Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Atoro, Naoki Goto
  • Patent number: 8676543
    Abstract: Mechanical oscillators employ the use of resonance parameters, frequency and the quality factor Q, for the measurement of corrosion or deposition. The ability of a mechanical oscillator to measure small amounts of metal loss or deposition is not only dependent upon the mechanical design but is limited by the precision in determining the resonance frequency and Q. Methods for measuring these resonance parameters with a high precision in the presence of noise are provided. The increased degree of precision improves the utility of these devices as sensitive probes for corrosion and deposition (fouling) measurement. The increased degree of precision is enabled in part by employing curve fitting consistent with modeling the mechanical oscillator as a simple harmonic oscillator. This curve fitting procedure, combined with averaging and utilizing signal processing parameters to mitigate noise effects, adds precision in measuring resonance parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
    Inventors: H. Alan Wolf, Chung-Min Cheng, Dalia G. Yablon, Alan M. Schilowitz, Manuel S. Alvarez, Yvonne Mathez
  • Patent number: 8676523
    Abstract: A method of detecting the position of a wavefront in a time-varying signal corresponding to an event is disclosed. According to one aspect, the method includes digitizing a signal received by a detector to produce a working signal, filtering the working signal N4 times with a band-pass filter to obtain N4 filtered working signals with different pass-bands, detecting a peak of the N4 filtered working signals to detect the position of a first wavefront as a function of time of occurrence. The N4 points are plotted such that an ordinate is one of the times of occurrence and an abscissa is the width of the associated band. An exponential asymptote that fits a maximum number of the N4 points is applied, and the position of the wavefront is determined as the ordinate of the point that has the maximum abscissa and substantially fits the exponential asymptote.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Alstom Technology Ltd.
    Inventor: Raphaël Lebreton
  • Patent number: 8676522
    Abstract: A locator for locating a concealed conductor comprises a first field detector operable to detect an alternating magnetic field along a first axis parallel to a primary axis of the locator; a second field detector, displaced from the first field detector and operable to detect an alternating magnetic field along a second axis parallel to the primary axis of the locator; and a processor operable to calculate a difference between a field detected by the first detector and a field detected by the second detector, and to calculate an indication of the lateral displacement of the concealed conductor from the primary axis of the locator using the difference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Radiodetection Limited
    Inventor: Richard David Pearson
  • Patent number: 8675327
    Abstract: The present invention relates to methods for providing impedance protection differentiating between in-zone and out-of-zone faults based on instantaneous, digitally derived operating and polarizing distance comparator signals. The method uses a pair of fast orthogonal filters to derive D and Q components of the input voltages and currents. Two sets of operating and polarizing signals are derived for better speed of response under varying fault moment with respect to the peaks and zero crossings of power signals. Three stages of comparison between the operating and polarizing impedance terms are used. These comparator stages use half a cycle averaging windows, and three-quarters-of-a-cycle windows. The first stage of comparison is based on energy comparator responding to both magnitude and phase information in the signals. Stages 2 and 3 are of phase comparison type, responding mostly at the phase information and neglecting the magnitude information for better immunity to noise and signal distortions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Bogdan Z. Kasztenny, Dale S. Finney, Iulian Raducanu
  • Patent number: 8676368
    Abstract: A system includes a handheld tool for executing steps of a sequence within a work cell. An electromagnetic marker connected to the tool emits a magnetic field within the cell. A receptor detects the magnetic field and generates a raw position signal in response thereto. A control unit updates an assembly setting of the tool. The host executes a control action when a position determined using the raw data is not equal to an expected position in the sequence. A method calculates the present position of a torque wrench using magnetic fields generated by the marker and measured by a receptor array, and calculates a present position of the tool or a fastener. The present position of the fastener may be compared to an expected position in the calibrated sequence, and the torque wrench may be disabled when the fastener position is not equal to the expected position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Fives Cinetic Inc.
    Inventors: John Stencel, Henry Arthur Loos, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8670308
    Abstract: An energy meter system includes an energy meter with metering circuitry that is enabled to collect metrology data relating to energy usage. Communications circuitry in the energy meter is configured to selectively communicate the metrology data to a head end server over an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) network and a home area network (HAN).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2014
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventor: Bradley Richard Ree
  • Patent number: 8670947
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a system and method to measure and represent the measured value of a limit in terms of another measurement, such as clock values or cycles of the system. The system can include, for example, a test and measurement instrument such as an oscilloscope. In another embodiment of the present invention, slew rate de-rated values may be automatically determined through the use of configurable lookup tables.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2014
    Assignee: Tektronix, Inc.
    Inventors: G. R. N. Prasanth, Pechluck Pongched, Raghavendran N., Mark L. Guenther, Krishna N. H. Sri, Manisha D. Ajgaonkar, Anuradha V.
  • Patent number: 8666664
    Abstract: An electronic seal of the present invention includes a bolt. The bolt is used to mount on a door latch of a cargo and inserts into a shell. The shell is provided with a control circuit to actively send a warning signal as the bolt is moved. As such, the user of the electronic seal can be properly informed to prevent theft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2014
    Assignee: Syris Technology Corp.
    Inventors: Chien-Sheng Chiu, Chin-Cheng Chen, Kuo-Liang Liao
  • Patent number: 8666685
    Abstract: According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide a system for monitoring a plurality of circuit branches, the system comprising a plurality of current sensors, each configured to be coupled to at least one of the plurality of circuit branches and to produce a signal having a level related to a current level of the one of the plurality of circuit branches, a communications bus, a plurality of sensor circuits, wherein each one of the plurality of sensor circuits is configured to convert the signal from the associated one of the plurality of current sensors to a digital measurement signal and provide the digital measurement signal to the communication bus, and a controller configured to receive the digital measurement signal from each sensor circuit over the communication bus and transmit data related to the digital measurement signal from each sensor circuit to an external client.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2014
    Assignee: Schneider Electronic IT Corporation
    Inventors: Namwook Paik, James S. Spitaels
  • Patent number: 8660848
    Abstract: In the method of these teachings for detection of physical phenomena from or analysis of physical signals, an improved Empirical Mode Decomposition method decomposes physical signals representative of a physical phenomenon into components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2014
    Assignee: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
    Inventor: Mayer Humi
  • Patent number: 8660805
    Abstract: Disclosed are a method and system for measuring the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) in a plasma which has a pronounced drifting Maxwellian component of the EEDF. The method comprises fitting an acquired unfiltered electron current vs. bias voltage curve to a functional form which assumes an EEDF comprising at least one stationary Maxwellian component and at least one drifting Maxwellian component. The method and system allow more accurate characterization of plasmas with electron components with pronounced drift, such as plasmas in microwave surface wave plasma (SWP) sources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2014
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Ronald Victor Bravenec, Jianping Zhao
  • Patent number: 8660810
    Abstract: According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide a system for monitoring a plurality of circuit branches coupled to an input line, the system comprising a communication bus, a plurality of sensor circuits, each configured to be coupled to the communication bus and at least one of the plurality of circuit branches, wherein each sensor circuit is further configured to sample current in the at least one of the plurality of circuit branches, a controller configured to be coupled to the communication bus and the input line; wherein the controller is further configured to sample voltage on the input line, and wherein the controller is further configured to synchronize, via the communication bus, current sampling performed by the plurality of sensor circuits with the voltage sampling performed by the controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2014
    Assignee: Schneider Electric IT Corporation
    Inventors: Vishwas M. Deokar, Namwook Paik, James S. Spitaels
  • Patent number: 8655611
    Abstract: Establishing a power profile of power consuming components of computer system configurations for generating electrical ratings, beginning with a default, limited configuration of a computer system and continuing for a number of configurations of the computer system, each configuration including additional power consuming components not included in a previous configuration, where establishing a power profile includes: measuring, for a present configuration, power consumption of the computer system; calculating, in dependence upon the measured power consumption for the present configuration, an estimated power rating for the one or more additional power consuming components; and recording, in a power profile, estimated power ratings for the additional power consuming components, where the number of configurations of the computer system for which power consumption is measured is less than the number of possible configurations of the computer system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew R. Archibald, Nickolas J. Gruendler
  • Patent number: 8655607
    Abstract: A sensing device includes: a magnetic field generating coil that generates an alternating magnetic field in a sensing-target region; a signal inducing coil in which is induced an electric signal corresponding to the alternating magnetic field generated by the magnetic field generating coil; an amplifier that amplifies a third electric signal obtained from the difference between a first electric signal induced in the signal inducing coil in a state where a sensing-target magnetic body is present in the sensing-target region and a second electric signal induced in the signal inducing coil in a state where the magnetic body is not present in the sensing-target region; and a sensing unit that senses, on the basis of the third electric signal amplified by the amplifier, the magnetic body passing through the sensing-target region by sensing a change in the magnetic field resulting from magnetization reversal of the magnetic body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Seigo Makida, Shoji Yamaguchi
  • Patent number: 8652699
    Abstract: This fuel cell system is for suppressing a backflow of water from an exhaust pipe outlet that discharges a reactant-off gas, without decreasing the performance and fuel consumption of a fuel cell, the exhaust pipe being configured to switch between a main discharge pipe and a sub discharge pipe by a switching means to discharge the reactant-off gas. The sub discharge pipe includes a rising gradient portion formed to incline upwards above a gradient of the main discharge pipe and a falling gradient portion formed to incline downwards at the downstream of the rising gradient portion. The switching valve switches to allow the reactant-off gas to be discharged from the main discharge pipe if an amount of reactant-off gas to be discharged is equal to or above a threshold value of an amount of discharge, and allow the reactant-off gas to be discharged from the sub discharge pipe if the amount of reactant-off gas to be discharged is below the threshold value of the amount of discharge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Keigo Suematsu, Tomotaka Ishikawa, Yuichi Sakajo
  • Patent number: 8655609
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are various embodiments of systems and methods for calculating a fault location in electric power delivery system based on a traveling wave created by an electrical fault in the electric power delivery system. According to one embodiment, an intelligent electronic device may be configured to detect a transient traveling wave caused by an electrical fault. A first traveling wave value of the transient traveling wave may be determined and a corresponding first time associated with the first traveling wave may be determined. The IED may receive a second time associated with a second traveling wave value of the transient traveling wave detected by a remote IED. The distance to the remote IED may be known. An estimated fault location may be generated based on the time difference between the first time and the second time. Additional methods of calculating the fault location may also be employed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc
    Inventors: Edmund O Schweitzer, III, Armando Guzman-Casillas, Veselin Skendzic, Mangapathirao Venkata Mynam
  • Publication number: 20140046608
    Abstract: A prestored database indicating a correspondence of ? (depth)/?HcJ (coercivity increment) and a prestored database indicating information of Dy diffusion condition (diffusion coefficient, diffusion flux and processing time regarding Dy diffusion) are used to compute distribution of Dy introduction amount in a magnet from shape information of the magnet and information of a Dy introduction face and compute distribution of ?HcJ in the magnet from the distribution of Dy introduction amount. Regarding a magnet having a coercivity that is distributed non-uniformly, a J/H curve is computed using the computed distribution of ?HcJ, and a demagnetizing factor at a predetermined temperature is computed using a temperature coefficient.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 15, 2012
    Publication date: February 13, 2014
    Applicant: HITACHI METALS, LTD.
    Inventor: Mitsutoshi Natsumeda
  • Publication number: 20140046607
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments involving correction of signals generated by a crystal oscillator. An age of an integrated circuit or a time of use of the integrated circuit may be determined. A signal generated from a crystal of the integrated circuit may be modified based at least in part on the determined age of the integrated circuit or the determined time of use of the integrated circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2013
    Publication date: February 13, 2014
    Applicant: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: EVAN MCCARTHY, JOHN WALLEY, JEON HYUN-GYU, AMIR IBRAHIM, SUNIL KANEKAL, JARED WELZ
  • Patent number: 8649989
    Abstract: Embodiments of this invention provide enhanced triggering capabilities such as frequency and phase triggering in a test and measurement instrument, such as a Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer (RTSA) or oscilloscope. A test and measurement instrument can include input terminals to receive RF signals, an ADC to digitize the RF signals, a digital downconverter to produce I and Q baseband component information, and a power detector to determine a power level using the I and Q information. A comparator compares the power level received from the power detector with a user-definable power threshold, and produces a logic signal for enabling one or more phase or frequency demodulators. The one or more demodulators produce IQ-based time-domain traces derived from the I and Q component information when the power level determined by the power detector exceeds the power threshold. Trigger circuitry is configured to trigger on an event responsive to a delayed trigger enable signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2014
    Assignee: Tektronix, Inc.
    Inventors: Alfred K. Hillman, Jr., Marcus K. Da Silva, Kathryn A. Engholm, Kenneth P. Dobyns