Abstract: A tip jar system comprises a receptacle for receiving a deposit of money and a signaling apparatus for sensing the presence of a person depositing the money in the receptacle and for responding to the sensed presence. The signal provided is generally of an amusing sort and preferably provides both audible and visible iconic simulation of a familiar action that is unrelated to the actual deposit. The preferred signaling apparatus uses an array of light sources configured to simulate a trajectory of an object involved in the familiar action. The signaling apparatus also provides a sound output to generate the simulation having both visual and audible components.

Abstract: A self-contained utility cart consisting of an upright casing that has forward and rearward areas and side areas. The casing has a multiple of compartments therein which can be accessible from the front or the rear of the cart. Some of the compartments are covered by hinged covers. The casing is supported by casters with some of them being stationary while others can swivel to enhance the maneuverability of the cart. The casters at the bottom of the rear area are so placed that their circumference extends beyond the rear area of the casing to aid in maneuvering raisers in stairways. On a rear area of the cart there is provided a trash bag holder that can be collapsed when not in use but can be stabilized in a horizontal position to receive a trash bag when in a deployed position.

Abstract: A touch sensitive control panel is described. The control panel comprises a sensor surface in which a plurality of sensor areas are arranged and a circuit board offset from the sensor surface. The circuit board has an electrical contact associated with each of the sensor areas. The electrical contacts are connected to capacitance measurement circuitry. The control panel further comprises a guide block having a first side facing the sensor surface, a second side facing the circuit board and a plurality of channels extending from the first side to the second side. A plurality of resilient electrical conductors pass through the channels to connect between the sensor areas and the electrical contacts on the circuit board, such that the capacitance measurement circuitry is coupled to the sensor areas.

Abstract: A transducer assembly may comprise a thickness-mode piezoelectric ceramic body, a pair of foil conductors with mesh end portions, and a coupling medium used to fill in the interstices in the meshes. The foil conductors are held in contact with the electrode layers by a selected combination of adhesive mechanical clamping forces. One of the conductors is placed between one face of the ceramic body and a window that separates the transducer assembly from a fluid to be measured. The other conductor is held between the other face of the ceramic body and a backing body, which may be an acoustic isolator or a resonant isolating structure comprising a resonant body and an acoustic mass that is substantially heavier than the ceramic element.

Abstract: A control panel having a touch sensitive position sensor and at least one mechanical switch located within a sensitive area of the position sensor is provided. The position sensor comprises a capacitive position sensing element coupled to position sensing circuitry operable to determine the position of a capacitive load, such as a finger, positioned adjacent to the sensitive area of the position sensing element. The mechanical switch has an open state and a closed state and is arranged such that a contact of the switch is selectively electrically coupled to or decoupled from the position sensing element depending on whether the switch is in the open or closed state. A compact and robust control panel can thus be provided in which the presence of the mechanical switch within the sensitive area of the position sensor does not significantly effect its sensitivity.

Abstract: In thermal pulse flow measurements a relatively small bolus of flowing fluid is heated or cooled and the time required for the bolus to move downstream a known distance is measured. In many fluids, changing the temperature changes the acoustic transmission properties of the bolus from those of the rest of the fluid, so the bolus can be detected when it intersects an acoustic beam. The use of an acoustic beam or beams, which are usually defined between acoustic transmitting receiving transducers, typically provides a high frequency carrier which is modulated by the change in acoustic properties of the bolus when it passes between the two transducers. When compared to conventional thermal measurements, this acoustic approach provides faster response times and can thus be used for measuring higher flow rates.

Abstract: An electrochromic device is prepared by forming multiple layers of selected materials on a substrate in a vacuum processing chamber. A first of these layers is an electrode layer deposited directly on the substrate and used for making contact to a subsequently deposited precursor film, preferably tungsten oxide, from which an electrochromic layer is formed by lithium loading in the presence of ionized nitrogen. This not only forms the electrochromic layer by diffusion of the lithium into the tungsten oxide, but also forms a thin lithium nitride ion transfer layer on the then exposed surface. Subsequently, a lithium fluoro-nitride electrolyte layer is formed on the ion transfer layer by evaporation from a lithium fluoride source in the presence of ionized nitrogen. An ion storage layer, which may be a vanadium oxide and a transparent second electrode layer are subsequently vacuum deposited.

Abstract: An electrochromic device is usable for tuning and modulating infrared radiation in a spectral region comprising wavelengths between approximately 1 and 30 microns. This device comprises a plurality of thin films successively deposited on a substrate. The first of these films is a substrate electrode deposited on a suitably prepared substrate. A plurality of active layers comprising at least an electrochromic layer, an electrolyte layer and an ion storage layer and a substantially transparent metal layer are then preferably deposited on the substrate electrode. The preferred active layers are characterized by a transmittance that is selectively controllable by applying a voltage across the plurality of active layers.

Abstract: When an array of proximity sensors is used as a keyboard, it can provide an ambiguous output if a user's finger overlaps several keys or if liquid is spilled on the keyboard. This ambiguity is reduced by an iterative method that repeatedly measures a detected signal strength associated with each key, compares all the measured signal strengths to find a maximum, determines that the key having the maximum signal strength is the unique user-selected key and then suppresses or ignores signals from all other keys as long as the signal from the selected key remains above some nominal threshold value.

Abstract: A fluid flow sensor uses pairs of acoustic transducers to generate quasi-helical acoustic beams reflected multiple times from an inside surface of a pipe. The transducers are arranged so that each two pairs generate counter-rotating beams. When fluid flowing in the pipe has both a rotary and an axial flow component the rotary component adds to the apparent flow rate measured in one rotational direction and subtracts from that measured in the other. Hence, a combination of transit time measurements along the two paths can be used to cancel out the effects of the rotary flow component and yield a measure of the rate of flow along the pipe axis. In some cases multiple probes are used to increase the amount of flowing fluid that is sampled.

Abstract: The position of an object, which may be a user's finger, along a body is sensed capacitively. A measurement circuit meters the simultaneous injection of electrical charge into the two ends of the body, which may be shaped as a straight line or as a curve. A computing device computes the ratio of the relative changes in the amount of charge injected into each end of the element. The result of this computation is a one dimensional coordinate number plus a detection state indication, both of which can be fed to another functional element, such as an appliance controller, which interprets the coordinate and detection state as a command or measurement.

Abstract: An axial vane rotary power device comprises a rotor arranged to turn within an annular chamber having two end plates with mutually facing undulating cam surfaces. Vanes retained in angularly spaced slots in the rotor reciprocate axially as the rotor turns. Transfer passages, interleaved between the vanes, connect each working chamber to a respective transfer port at the central bore of the rotor. A tubular inner stator member, about which the rotor turns, has two sets of peripheral ports that provide fluid communication between the working chambers and intake and exhaust channels as the rotor turns. Various configurations of the device allow it to function as either a two- or four-phase internal combustion engine, a fluid driven motor, a pump, a compressor or an expander.

Abstract: An upper framed portion of a building structure may be anchored to a lower masonry wall by using a conventional concrete anchor and an anchor retainer. The anchor retainer may have a body portion longer than the width of the wall and both upper and lower reference surfaces. An anchor retainer assembly is temporarily formed by inserting the anchor through a throughhole in the retainer body so that the threaded upper portion of the anchor extends above the upper reference surface of the retainer by a first selected height, so as to leave enough of the threaded end exposed above the retainer for at least one nut to be securely attached to the anchor. No unthreaded portion of the anchor extends above the lower reference surface by more than a second amount that is generally selected to be equal to the actual thickness of the framing member, so as to ensure that no substantial unthreaded portion of the anchor can extend above that member.

Abstract: A substrate for use in a vacuum chamber has a workpiece supporting surface that has two or more mutually electrically insulated bifilar conductors configured as interleaved spirals disposed on it. Each of these bifilar conductors has a respective electrode at each of its two ends. This provides an electrostatic chuck for clamping a workpiece to the supporting surface when an electric voltage is applied between the two bifilar conductors or between one of the two bifilar conductors and an insulating workpiece. This arrangement also provides for electric heating of the workpiece when an electric voltage is applied between the two electrodes associated with one of the bifilar conductors. Moreover, when the electrical resistance of at least one of the bifilar conductors is known as a function of temperature, this arrangement allows one to sense the temperature of a workpiece supported on the substrate.

Abstract: A method of forming a portion of a monolithic concrete building provides for two-dimensional support of horizontally extensive portions of the building at all times and thus reduces the strength required of the vertically extensive supports. The method employs flanged wall members having horizontal extents substantially equal to the selected room size. Each of the wall members has at least one flange extending horizontally towards a parallel facing wall member by about ten to twenty five percent of the intramural separation between the walls of the room being constructed. Horizontal floor or ceiling slabs that link the horizontal flanges may be cast in situ using a form plate supported by a temporary trussed joist.

Abstract: A salad spinner and mixer may be made from two substantially identical transparent bowls that can be joined together at their rims to define a chamber; two substantially identical colanders that can be joined together at their rims and received within the chamber; and a bifurcated base that has a spindle on each of two parallel upstanding portions. When the spindles are received within dimples on the bottoms of the bowls, the bowl and colander assembly can be spun about an axis defined by the spindles to remove water from the salad ingredients. The bowl assembly, used without the colanders, can also be use to mix salad dressing with salad ingredients. The resultant salad can be served in one of the bowls. Moreover, the bifurcated base can serve as a napkin holder.

Abstract: A probe type acoustic transit-time flow sensor has paired transducers arranged to generate quasi-helical acoustic beams making a plurality of reflective contacts with a pipe's interior wall. The transducers in each pair are spaced apart along the flow axis so that transit-time measurements can be used both to measure the internal diameter of the pipe and to determine a flow rate. These measurements are combined to yield a volumetric flow rate. Various numbers of pairs of transducers can be put on a single probe or on multiple probes and used to provide a more accurate representation of a flow profile and therefore a more accurate volumetric flow determination.