Patents Represented by Attorney Robert Platt Bell
  • Patent number: 7522184
    Abstract: A method and apparatus of light strength controlling, more specifically a method and apparatus of light controlling on its different appearance channels in different strength and further in different colors. A method and apparatus of controlling a pixel appears in different color through different appearance visual channels, and further forms different images through different appearance channels. A new type of display device displays different images through different appearance channels at same time and a method and apparatus of constructing device of this type. A method and apparatus of generating image data signals to construct and render different images on such type display device observed through different appearance channels, more specifically, display 2-D and stereo 3-D images on screen at same time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2009
    Inventor: Li Sun
  • Patent number: 7495612
    Abstract: Security of ADS-B transmissions is improved in a first embodiment to detect position spoofing. The annunciated position source may then be compared with the derived source and a determination is made regarding the difference between the results. Any position difference greater than an amount significantly greater than the combination of the error sources is then a cause for concern and can be used to generate an alert. In a second embodiment, alerting may be based on identification spoofing. From these sources a correlated ID is available which will have an associated confidence based on the number of sources and the level of agreement on the information. Aircraft dynamics may be correlated with the announced ID for consistency. A priori information on the aircraft and location, such as schedule information, and normal operations, may be used to assist in the confidence of aircraft identity. In a third embodiment, alerting may be based on spoofing of identity and position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2009
    Assignee: ERA Systems Corporation
    Inventor: Alexander E. Smith
  • Patent number: 7487935
    Abstract: An aircraft including a fuselage and at least one wing which may vary incidence with respect to the fuselage for the purpose of extremely short take off and landing and an air cushion system mounted beneath the fuselage for the purpose of surface independent taxi, take off, and landing. The wings may be straight, forward swept, swept, or have the ability to change shape and sweep based on the conditions of flight. The air cushion system may use engine thrust for lift or may use a separate lift system, which is specifically used for the air cushion. The air cushion skirt may also be rigid, non-rigid, or semi-rigid, but shall incorporate a flotation and support system, to allow flotation on water and parking of the aircraft on solid surfaces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 10, 2009
    Inventor: Robert Allen Winston
  • Patent number: 7478970
    Abstract: The shaft clamping mechanism clamps a cylindrical shaft such that it will not rotate in a housing. Using ordinary machine tools or the like, portions of the housing that surround the shaft are removed, leaving thin areas that act as hinges. The housing may not be cut all the way through so that the hinged or moving portion of the housing that exerts the clamping force is contiguous with the rest of the housing. Applying force in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the shaft, toward the shaft, in the middle of this hinged portion allows that part of the housing to move very slightly. The housing and shaft may be a close fit so that only a slight amount of movement of the moving part of the housing will be required to clamp the shaft. In order for this mechanism to work, the housing material has to flex slightly at the “hinges”. The stationary portions of the housing must also deflect very slightly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2009
    Inventor: David L. Wimberley
  • Patent number: 7477193
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for performing elliptical-based and hybrid surveillance, performing false target detection and resolution, and performing integrity monitoring using one or more receiving and transmitting elements time synchronized to a common precision time reference, and a central workstation. Antennas for transmitting and receiving elements are located at known positions separated from one another. At a given time, one of the transmitting elements transmits an interrogation signal to one or more targets, which respond to the interrogation with a reply transmission, received by one or more receiving elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2009
    Assignee: ERA Systems Corporation
    Inventors: Carl A. Evers, Yue Xie, Thomas J. Breen
  • Patent number: 7469067
    Abstract: Progressive scan encoded JPEGS are decoded sequentially on a Minimum Coded Unit (MCU) basis and then the JPEG image is output one row at a time to a frame buffer. Since the entire image does not need to be decoded at once, a huge JPEG buffer is generally not required. The present invention reconstructs each MCU one scan at a time to produce complete lines of image data and thus provides an output using the image data on a line-by-line basis. This technique may require that each MCU be reconstructed scan-by-scan. This technique provides a modified entropy (Huffman) decoder in which data for different scans of an MCU of the progressively scanned JPEG image may be stored in a buffer, and a parsing and scan table element creates pointers to the memory buffer corresponding to the start of each scan level. Scan tables are also extracted for each level of scan or points to the same tables if some scan levels use the same table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2008
    Assignee: Magnum Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventor: Sukesh V. Kaithakapuzha
  • Patent number: 7440554
    Abstract: A relatively simple redialer device is provided at the customer's home to redirect outgoing alarm calls to a middleware processing center. The redialer first dials “*82” (or other appropriate code) to disable caller-ID blocking. The redialer then redirects the alarm call to a middleware processing center. The middleware processing center receives the alarm call and determines the customer identification by detecting the caller ID. The middleware processing center then dials out to the appropriate alarm company for that customer, and transfers the alarm data along with customer identification information (account number or the like) in a data format compatible with the alarm monitoring company's computers. The alarm is then handled by the alarm monitoring company in the normal manner practiced by the alarm monitoring company.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Inventors: Harvey Alexander Elliot, Daniel Elliot
  • Patent number: 7437250
    Abstract: The AirScene™ Pavement Management System of the present invention automatically tracks data required to determine various factors in an assessment of current and future pavement maintenance needs and utilizes this data to quantify the pavement damage caused by each individual aircraft movement and thus compute pavement condition based on an initial survey and the calculations of accrued damage over time. This information can be displayed through AirScene™ in the form of tables, graphs, or graphically represented on an airport diagram showing present conditions, rates of accruing damage, and future wear rates and areas. The system draws on the data from the AirScene™ Data Warehouse (ADW), a single repository for all the information acquired from a number of different sources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2008
    Assignee: ERA Systems Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas J. Breen, Alexander E. Smith
  • Patent number: 7429950
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for measuring and monitoring performance metrics of a non-ADS-B tracking system and generating performance metrics for the non-ADS-B tracking system in terms of ADS-B equivalent performance metrics. An aircraft transmits various transponder-based or other signals which are received at multiple ground stations, some of which may be ADS-B stations or both ADS-B and multilateration stations. ADS-B signals may contain performance metrics which are passed on from ADS-B station to an ADS-B processor, which outputs aircraft-derived metrics. ADS-B signals and all other transponder signals are also received at all ground stations, time-stamped, and sent to a multilateration processor, which generates multilateration metrics. Therefore two streams of information are passed onto ATC system processor containing the ADS-B aircraft-derived metrics and multilateration-derived metrics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2008
    Assignee: ERA Systems Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander E. Smith, Eric Cassell
  • Patent number: 7423590
    Abstract: Security of ADS-B transmissions is improved in a first embodiment to detect position spoofing. The annunciated position source may then be compared with the derived source and a determination is made regarding the difference between the results. Any position difference greater than an amount significantly greater than the combination of the error sources is then a cause for concern and can be used to generate an alert. In a second embodiment, alerting may be based on identification spoofing. From these sources a correlated ID is available which will have an associated confidence based on the number of sources and the level of agreement on the information. Aircraft dynamics may be correlated with the announced ID for consistency. A priori information on the aircraft and location, such as schedule information, and normal operations, may be used to assist in the confidence of aircraft identity. In a third embodiment, alerting may be based on spoofing of identity and position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2008
    Assignee: ERA Systems Corporation
    Inventor: Alexander E. Smith
  • Patent number: 7391468
    Abstract: A moving average filter with a weighting factor calculates a continuously programmable threshold to determine whether fields could be considered identical or not. This decision is used to detect the cadence of a TELECINE encoded video signal. This moving average filter is also used for detecting the presence of still images in the video data stream by detecting total difference in Y (luminance) of the fields and then calculating the average difference in luminance (Y) of the field. This average difference in luminance value indicates a degree of difference between fields. For two frames of data input to the system, each having two fields, a difference is calculated between the luminance values of the two top fields for each frame. From this difference value a maximum absolute difference history is stored, along with the Sum of Absolute Differences (SAD). The programmable threshold is then calculated by summing the saturated SAD history over time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2008
    Assignee: Magnum Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventor: Anup U. Shah
  • Patent number: 7375683
    Abstract: The present invention improves WAMLAT Timing Availability by using timing from one or more of a variety of sources. These sources include unaugmented SATNAV timing, from GPS or/and GALILEO, GEO timing from pseudo SATNAV signals, additional GEO timing for non SATNAV applications, timing derived from both terrestrial and satellite television and radio transmissions, and stable on board oscillators to withstand short term interruptions in satellite timing. The use of one or more of these multiple sources of timing improves accuracy and reliability of wide area multilateration systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2008
    Assignee: ERA Systems Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander E. Smith, Thomas J. Breen
  • Patent number: 7342525
    Abstract: Digital to Analog Conversion and sample conversion blocks are combined in order to reduce hardware and/or computational complexity. A novel DSM design is used to perform sample rate conversion. The DSM may also be used to perform other digital filtering functions, thus providing a single hardware/software technique to perform both functions. The invention includes a method and apparatus for converting input data samples provided at a first sample rate to an analog output signal. Input data samples are converted by a Delta Sigma Modulator (DSM) in a Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) to output data samples, where internal states of the DSM are updated at a second sample rate unequal to the first sample rate. At least one internal state of the DSM s modified to account for the time difference in response to a new input sample arriving at a time different from an update of the internal states of the DSM.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2008
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Chang Yong Kang, John L. Melanson
  • Patent number: D555537
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2007
    Inventor: Charles Portelli
  • Patent number: D561509
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Inventors: Philippe Starck, Joel Pinsky
  • Patent number: D562662
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2008
    Assignee: Roofmates, Inc.
    Inventors: Wade Andrew Farris Maple, Alan Benjamin Christopher Dixon
  • Patent number: RE40106
    Abstract: Measurement data collected by isolated ADCs in multiple channels may be related. In such a scenario, data may be transmitted to a microcontroller or programmable logic device for centralized processing. Gain and offset of the ADCs in different channels, particularly their drift relative to one another, is an issue which requires attention. In particular, a pair of precision resistors is provided in calibrate the different channels. The ADCs may be factory calibrated and the ratio between the two precision resistors stored within the ADCs. The ADCs may later self-calibrate by comparing their relative gains to the stored resistor ratio. Gain of one of the ADCs may be adjusted relative to the other in order to maintain a relative gain calibration. Although absolute gain is not calibrated (as the resistors are isolated) for particular applications, only relative gain between the ADCs is relevant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2008
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventor: Frank den Breejen
  • Patent number: D573263
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2008
    Inventor: Joel Pinsky
  • Patent number: D575126
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2008
    Assignee: Roofmates, Inc.
    Inventors: Wade Andrew Farris Maple, Alan Benjamin Christopher Dixon
  • Patent number: D576824
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2008
    Inventor: Bo Eksröm