Abstract: An electronic lock box contains a secure compartment for storing keys to a structure. A sensing system allow the lock box to determine whether the contents of the lock box have been replaced as well as ensuring the correct key or object has been returned. The system reports the status of the object back to the central clearinghouse computer through an electronic key or secure memory device.

Abstract: A purge and trap concentrator system that includes a sparge vessel, and includes a variable gas flow valve for controlling the gas pressure in an analytic trap or the sparge vessel; a sensor that detects both a foaming sample state and a high liquid level in the sparge vessel, using one optical sensor; a control scheme that re-directs the purge gases to a second inlet of the sparge vessel during a foaming condition; a control scheme that uses a split flow to enhance the quantity of sample gases passed from an analytic trap; an electrically powered thermal energy source with a fan raising the sparge vessel temperature via thermal convection.

Abstract: An improved electronic lock box system is provided for more secure control over the accessibility of a secure compartment in the electronic lock box, which is typically used to store a dwelling key. The new system uses biometric identification sensors to determine if the correct, authorized user is attempting to access the secure compartment of the electronic lock box. In one embodiment, the biometric identification sensor uses thermal scanning to detect a person's fingerprint pattern. This is compared to previously stored (enrollment) biometric identification information/data, and if the “live” (observed) biometric identification information/data sufficiently correlates to the stored enrollment biometric identification information/data, access will be granted.

Abstract: An improved laser light beam receiver rejects unwanted pulses of optical energy, such as strobe lights or other flashes of light, that can occur on a jobsite. The receiver analyzes a light beam reception by using a photosensitive light beam detector arrangement and a separate photoelectric detector serving as an interference signal detector. This additional detector is not easily able to detect the light beams needed in normal operation. On the other hand, the additional detector does detect mostly all interfering light flashes—caused by flash lamps and other similar devices—whose threshold limit is either at the same level or below that of the light beam detector arrangement. An evaluating circuit such as a microcontroller correlates the time of reception of the light beam detector arrangement and the interference signal detector in order to discard the result if the times of reception correspond to a major extent.

Abstract: A modulated laser light detector that converts laser light energy into electrical signals which exhibit a frequency that is substantially the same as the laser light modulation frequency, in which these signals allow the detector unit to determine a position where the laser light is impacting upon a photodiode array. A superheterodyne receiver circuit is used to provide high gain at an improved signal-to-noise ratio to improve the range at which the modulated laser light signal can be reliably detected. Various types of signal detection circuits are available. Various processing algorithms are disclosed, including one which rejects laser light strikes that are due to reflections, rather than due to a direct strike from the laser transmitter.

Abstract: A purge and trap concentrator system that includes a sparge vessel, and includes a variable gas flow valve for controlling the gas pressure in an analytic trap or the sparge vessel; a sensor that detects both a foaming sample state and a high liquid level in the sparge vessel, using one optical sensor; a control scheme that re-directs the purge gases to a second inlet of the sparge vessel during a foaming condition; a control scheme that uses a split flow to enhance the quantity of sample gases passed from an analytic trap; an electrically powered thermal energy source with a fan raising the sparge vessel temperature via thermal convection.

Abstract: The present invention relates generally to portable sun shades, and more particularly to those that are attachable to portable chairs. The sun shade invention includes a set of chair connectors that are “press fit” onto a frame member of a portable chair, and the chair connectors mechanically support the weight of the sun shade so that it maintains its position on the chair, without any other fasteners or locking hardware. The sun shade also includes a flexible support member along each side of its overall frame structure, which allows the sun shade to be positioned at various angles with respect to the horizontal plane. The sun shade further includes an adjustable width capability so that it can be mounted onto different models of portable chairs, of different widths.

Abstract: An improved electronic lock box system is provided for more secure control over the accessibility of a secure compartment in the electronic lock box, which is typically used to store a dwelling key. The new system uses biometric identification sensors to determine if the correct, authorized user is attempting to access the secure compartment of the electronic lock box. In one embodiment, the biometric identification sensor uses thermal scanning to detect a person's fingerprint pattern. This is compared to previously stored (enrollment) biometric identification information/data, and if the “live” (observed) biometric identification information/data sufficiently correlates to the stored enrollment biometric identification information/data, access will be granted.

Abstract: A light beam receiver includes a plurality of light beam detector elements, a plurality of integrator circuits that receive signals from the light beam detector elements, and a signal integral limiting integration time controller that is in communication with at least two of the integrator circuits so that an analysis of the light beam reception is determined. One embodiment provides a self-calibration function, using a plurality of light beam detector elements that generate output signals when receiving a light beam upon the light beam detector elements, an evaluation/control circuit that receives the output signals and is configured to substantially determine a position where the light beam impacts on the light beam detector elements, and at least one calibration light source that emits at least one light pulse that is coupled to the light beam detector elements. The light beam receiver performs a self-calibration function using the calibration light source.

Abstract: An improved vibration damping system is provided for use with window structures. The window damping system employs both air-film damping technology and viscoelastic damping materials to increase mechanical and/or acoustic vibration damping in window structures.

Abstract: An improved fabrication apparatus is provided for the placing screws accurately and reliably into body panels of cargo trailers. The apparatus uses a template that is positioned over the aluminum body panels of a cargo trailer to guide the placement of automatic screwdriver tools, so that the body panels are quickly and accurately mounted to vertical ribs that are part of the framework of the trailer. The invention includes a fabrication fixture that holds the template at predetermined positions to align the template with the ribs of the trailer's framework.

Abstract: An improved data signal electromagnetic emissions system is provided for sending data signals over one or more data pathways. An original data signal is encoded into a set of sideband frequencies that exhibit a lower amplitude than the original data signal; then transmitted over the data pathway and later decoded back into a signal having the original data content. The encoding scheme uses a number of modulation pattern sets that each produce a set of sidebands about the data signal's fundamental and certain harmonic frequencies, in a manner that attempts to make the maximum amplitudes for each set of sidebands substantially equal to one another, although this is also dependent upon the data signal's frequency content.

Abstract: A portable hand-held screw driving tool is provided for use with collated strips of screws. The front portion of the tool is movable to a great extent, to thereby allow the tool to drive screws almost directly at the corner of two walls. A front “nose piece” is pressed against one of the walls, which causes the nose piece to move rearward “into” the remainder of the tool, in a “first stage” of movement. A screw is indexed to its drive position, and a drive bit is abutted against the screw head during this first stage. The nose piece is pressed further into the tool, which also causes a “feed tube” to move rearward “into” the remainder of the tool, in a “second stage” of movement, which rotates the screw as it is emplaced into the wall.

Abstract: A portable induction tool is provided for soldering or brazing sections of metal pipe together. A work coil head (with induction coil) is U-shaped, allowing placement of the head around lengths of pipe, heating a susceptor (e.g., the pipe) to form a joint, and then to be withdrawn after the pipe joint is made. In one form, the tool uses heat pipes to remove thermal energy from the head, and also a heat exchanger for higher-powered units. Power capacitors are generally included with the induction (work) coil to create a tank circuit of a resonant frequency. The induction coil uses Litz wire, copper tubing, or heat pipes with a conductive outer skin to carry the high-current being delivered to the induction coil. The induction coil has a general racetrack configuration, which is typically wound in a U-shape (or as a semicircle) as a single winding, with multiple turns.

Abstract: An air heater is provided for use in buildings or other structures. The air heater uses infrared lamps to generate a temperature rise in a forced air chamber that contains several infrared lamps, in which two ends of the chamber act as an inlet and an outlet, and in which the chamber has a highly reflective interior surface that reflects the light being emitted by the lamps to multiply the thermal effect of the infrared light sources. An alternative embodiment uses a closed chamber, in which the temperature rise causes the unit to act as a detonator.

Abstract: An electronic lock box contains a secure compartment for storing keys to a structure. A linear actuator moves in one direction opening the door to the secure compartment, and moves in the opposite direction releasing a shackle that holds the lock box to the structure. A lock box system uses an encryption algorithm to diversify user PIN data at a central computer, and stores that diversified information on a memory card for later use when the user attempts to access a lock box. The central computer and electronic lock box both keep track of system “epoch time,” and the memory card must be presented to the electronic lock box within a correct epoch time window for the diversified PIN data to be successfully decrypted and compared to the user's PIN data that is entered on a keypad of the electronic lock box.

Abstract: An improved laser light receiver is provided that senses a laser light beam and determines positional elevation of the laser receiver based on the position where the laser light beam impacts the light sensors of the laser receiver. The laser receiver automatically adjusts its zero-reference point when it senses a magnet that has been mounted on a clamping device that holds the housing of the laser light detector in at least two predetermined attitudes with respect to the clamping device. Thus the invention operates as a clamp-actuated “offset” on-grade mode for the laser receiver.

Abstract: A laser light receiver is provided with an integral laser distance measurement (LDM) device for measuring the distance from a laser plane of a desired elevation to a desired physical target point to be measured on a jobsite. The laser receiver can be combined with a gravity reference device, so that the laser receiver does not necessarily have to be held plumb to a desired target point, when determining the relative elevation of the laser receiver between a rotating beam of laser light and the target point; it can also acquire multiple samples of positions and automatically take a vertical measurement and store that result for later readout. The laser receiver can be further combined with a GPS receiver, to acquire latitude and longitude data, and then in combination act as a three-dimensional transducer that is more accurate in the vertical direction than a GPS receiver alone is capable of.

Abstract: An improved induction heating apparatus is provided for attaching membrane roofs. A top membrane layer is attached to attachment disks that hold sheets of thermal insulation to the top of roof substrates. The heating apparatus emits a magnetic field that raises the temperature of the disks and a heat-activated adhesive on top of the disks which, after cooling, becomes adhered to the bottom surface of the top membrane layer. The disks in turn are attached via fasteners to the substrate portion of the roof structure. The apparatus includes a set of bottom guides that allow a user to find the attachment disks mechanically, without actually seeing those disks beneath the top membrane layer. A fine locator circuit is provided, using a magnetic field, and the apparatus allows a user to stand upright while operating the apparatus.