Abstract: Disclosed is a time delay generator 200 apparatus and method. The apparatus includes a time delay gate 212, a mixer 216 (a Gilbert cell circuit), and a current digital to analog converter 206. The mixer 216, comprised of first and second transistor differential pairs 218 and 220, receives an analog input signal 202 without a delay as well as a delayed input signal 210 produced by the time gate delay. The digital to analog converter regulates the relative current flow between a first control signal 232 and a second control signal 238, effectively altering the mixing of the undelayed input signal 208 and the delayed input signal 210 to generate a delayed output signal 214 with a time or phase delay substantially equal to the temporal delay represented by the digital signal input 204. The time delay generator exhibits reduced phase noise and a linear time delay response.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system, method and computer program product for navigating within a virtual environment (VE). More specifically, the present invention relates to navigating large distances in a VE, without becoming disoriented and without becoming cybersick due to exposure to excessive amounts of optical flow. In one embodiment, the present invention combines jumping and flying to allow for quick navigation of large distances, while preserving a sense of orientation and limiting optical flow.

Abstract: The present invention relates to power management within the context of wireless ad-hoc networks. More specifically to the effects of using different transmit powers on the average power consumption and end-to-end network throughput in a wireless ad-hoc environment. This power management approach reduces the system power consumption and thereby prolongs the battery life of mobile nodes. Furthermore, the invention improves the end-to-end network throughput as compared to other ad-hoc networks in which all mobile nodes use the same transmit power. The improvement is due to the achievement of a tradeoff between minimizing interference ranges, reduction in the average number of hops to reach a destination, reducing the probability of having isolated clusters, and reducing the average number of transmissions including retransmissions due to collisions. The present invention provides a network with enhanced end-to-end throughput performance, and lower transmit power.

Abstract: The present invention provides a scalable and reliable collaborative multicast routing for multicasting in hybrid, multi-tiered, mobile heterogeneous wireless networks. It establishes a multicast tree, maintains the established route, detects and prevents most link breakage within the multicast tree by a neighboring node or the cooperation of the neighboring node, and enables merging of partitioned multicast trees of the same multicast group by nodes that participate in one of the partitioned multicast trees. The use of local nodes to collaboratively establish, maintain, recover, and merge the hybrid, multi-tiered mobile wireless networks that use heterogeneous set of mobile wireless nodes is the fundamental basis for the collaborative multicast routing scheme of the present invention.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product are presented for automatically evaluating Bayesian network models. Operations performed comprise receiving a Bayesian Network (BN) model including evidence nodes and conclusion nodes that are linked with the evidence nodes by causal dependency links, and where the evidence nodes have evidence states and the conclusion nodes have conclusion states. The states of conclusion nodes are set to desired conclusion states and corresponding probabilities of occurrence of evidence states are determined by propagating these states down the causal dependency links. Thus, samples of most likely states of the evidence nodes are generated. Then, states of the evidence nodes are set corresponding to the samples of the evidence states. These states are propagated back up the causal dependency links to obtain probabilities of the resulting states of the conclusion nodes. Finally, a representation is outputted for the probabilities of the states of the conclusion nodes.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system, method and computer program product for enabling user interaction with objects in a virtual environment independently of apparent virtual viewpoint altitude, by non-linearly scaling the virtual actuator. In doing so, the system receives a virtual-viewpoint position and a virtual actuator position from a virtual environment processing subsystem, and a real-viewpoint position and a real-actuator position from a real-world environment tracking subsystem. An xy-scale factor is then calculated based on the virtual-viewpoint position. A non-linear mapping is thereafter calculated between a real dataset and a virtual dataset based on the xy-scale-factor. The real dataset comprises the real-actuator position and the real-viewpoint position in the real-world environment, and the virtual dataset comprises the virtual-actuator position and the virtual-viewpoint position in the virtual environment.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system, method, and computer program product for recognition objects in a domain which combines feature-based object classification with efficient search mechanisms based on swarm intelligence. The present invention utilizes a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and a possibilistic particle swarm optimization algorithm (PPSO), which are effective for optimization of a wide range of functions. PSO searches a multi-dimensional solution space using a population of “software agents” in which each software agent has its own velocity vector. PPSO allows different groups of software agents (i.e., particles) to work together with different temporary search goals that change in different phases of the algorithm. Each agent is a self-contained classifier that interacts and cooperates with other classifier agents to optimize the classifier confidence level.

Abstract: An apparatus configured to obtain, process, and relay data to a user in a coherent and useful manner. An active fiducial is equipped with an interface for receiving and transmitting data. The fiducial may transmit its position using a satellite-based position sensing device such as a GPS. Active fiducials may also be equipped with battery power pack regenerated with solar cells. Similarly, the fiducials can be equipped with at least one video camera or other device having a focal plane array and a computer software system, configured to recognize shapes. The fiducials may also be equipped with inductive coils or other means for sensing metal containing compounds. The active fiducials may be equipped with a gas chromatograph. The active fiducials may use a variety of propulsion means including motor driven tracks, motor driven wheels, propellers, or other device or a combination of devices.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a general-purpose analogical reasoning system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a high-performance, semantic-based hybrid architecture for analogical reasoning, capable of finding correspondences between a novel situation and a known situation using relational symmetries, object similarities, or a combination of the two. The system is a high-performance symbolic connectionist model which multiplexes activation across a non-temporal dimension and uses controlled activation flow based on an analogical network structure. The system uses incremental inference to stop inference early for object correspondence, uses initial mappings to constrain future mappings, uses inferred mappings to synchronize activation, and independent mapping based on roles, superficial similarity, or composites.

Abstract: An object recognition system is described that incorporates swarming classifiers with attention mechanisms. The object recognition system includes a cognitive map having a one-to-one relationship with an input image domain. The cognitive map records information that software agents utilize to focus a cooperative swarm's attention on regions likely to contain objects of interest. Multiple agents operate as a cooperative swarm to classify an object in the domain. Each agent is a classifier and is assigned a velocity vector to explore a solution space for object solutions. Each agent records its coordinates in multi-dimensional space that are an observed best solution that the agent has identified, and a global best solution that is used to store the best location among all agents. Each velocity vector thereafter changes to allow the swarm to concentrate on the vicinity of the object and classify the object when a classification level exceeds a preset threshold.

Abstract: A method for fabricating heterojunction field effect transistors (HFET) and a family of HFET layer structures are presented. In the method, a step of depositing a HFET semiconductor structure onto a substrate is performed. Next, a photoresist material is deposited. Portions of the photoresist material are removed corresponding to source and drain pad pairs. A metal layer is deposited onto the structure, forming source pad and drain pad pairs. The photoresist material is removed, exposing the structure in areas other than the source and drain pad pairs. Each source and drain pad pair has a corresponding exposed area. The structure is annealed and devices are electrically isolated. The exposed area of each device is etched to form a gate recess and a gate structure is formed in the recess. Semiconductor layer structures for GaN/AlGaN HFETs are also presented.

Abstract: The present invention relates to computing reachable areas given a first point. More specifically, the present invention relates to the computation of an intersection between a first surface and a second surface for determining a set of points that are reachable from a first point. Using the present invention, a user can determine either (1) a locus of target sites that can be struck by a ballistic projectile from a given launch site, or (2) a locus of launch sites that can be used to hit a given target site. The disclosed system and method employs graphics hardware to determine an intersection between a first surface defined by trajectory paths, and a second surface defined by terrain.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a morphing cellular structure. The morphing cellular structure comprises a group of unit cells with each unit cell configured to have a cellular geometry. The group unit cells are formed of an active material, where the active material has both a first state and a second state. The active material is responsive to an actuation signal such that when the actuation signal is actuated, the active material is deformed from the first state to the second state, thereby changing the volume of each unit cell affected by the actuation of the actuation signal and morphing the cellular structure. Furthermore, both a passive material and at least one additional active material can be attached with the active material, allowing a user to selectively change the shape of the cellular structure.

Abstract: The present invention provides an automatic color balancing method for digital images by essentially performing adaptive weighting of surface reflectance and illuminant spectra components of the image. The adaptive weighting mechanism is derived from fuzzy logic based inference methods, taking advantage of its ability to perform inferences from data by providing a computational framework for knowledge that is in linguistic form. It also makes it amenable for implementation on hardware because of the commercially available fuzzy logic chips that already exist in real-world systems such as camcorders for image stabilization, washing machines, etc. The present invention enables much more efficient and robust color segmentation that forms core components for several computer vision algorithms.

Abstract: The present invention provides a cross-layer design framework for the multiple access and routing problems in interference-limited wireless ad-hoc networks. It identified interference as an essential factor that couples multiple access and routing decisions through the trade-off between MAC throughput and path length. It formulates an optimization problem that maximizes the multiple access throughputs subject to constraints on the path length, single-to-interference-and-noise-ratio, and transmission power. It incorporates interference into the routing metric and reduces problem complexity via the set-based routing concept that solves the problem for a set of spatially close source nodes. Accordingly, the present invention introduces a joint routing, scheduling and power control algorithm that handles intra-set interference. In addition, it adopted a simple set coordination scheme for handling inter-set interference.

Abstract: A system for automatically extracting geospatial features from multi-spectral imagery, suitable for fast and robust extraction of landmarks, is presented. The system comprises a computer system including a processor, a memory coupled with the processor, an input coupled with the processor for receiving imagery and user-provided geospatial features, and an output coupled with the processor for outputting the extracted landmarks. The computer system includes a region-growing system, an appending disjointed regions system, and an automatic reseeding system, which are configured to accurately and efficiently extract all regions within the input image that closely resemble the desired geospatial feature. The region-growing system is based on a level set technique, which allows for the fast and accurate extraction of a region evolved from a single user-provided seed point.

Abstract: The present invention converts decision flowcharts into decision probabilistic graphs on a data processing system. First, a decision flowchart is received, having evidence nodes, a root evidence node, and outcome nodes. The outcome nodes are related to the evidence nodes by conclusion links. Next, an operation is performed, generating a probabilistic graph based on the flowchart. The graph includes an aggregate outcome node having outcome states, with each outcome state representing an outcome node of the flowchart; a plurality of test nodes, each matching an evidence node in the flowchart, and each test state matching a conclusion link from the evidence node in the flowchart, and causal links between the aggregate outcome node and the evidence nodes. Prior probabilities are calculated for outcome states based on predetermined likelihoods. Conditional probabilities are determined for test states by examining dependencies of conclusion links on the outcome nodes in the decision flowchart.

Abstract: A system for generating three-dimensional models from still imagery or video streams from uncalibrated views, is presented. The system comprises a computer system including a processor, a memory coupled with the processor, an input coupled with the processor for receiving imagery captured from multiple pan-tilt settings of an uncalibrated image capturing device, and an output coupled with the processor for outputting an overall three-dimensional model of a complex scene containing rigid and non-rigid objects. The computer system includes a method for forming a three-dimensional model from uncalibrated views of an object, and a method for automatically stitching together three-dimensional models extracted from uncalibrated views of uncalibrated image capturing device locations, without the need of manual “image registration” of “points in common” between the models.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an exercise tool. More particularly, it relates to an exercise tool specifically devised as a toe stretcher to align, separate, and stretch toes. The toe stretcher comprises a frame with a separator for separating a plurality of toes. The frame further includes holes or indentations for placement of the toes. Additionally, the frame is flexible, allowing a user to easily manipulate the toe stretcher and place it on the user's toes, effectively separating and stretching toes. Furthermore, the toe stretcher may be attached with a footwear, allowing a user to not only stretch toes, but to also use the toe stretcher as a footwear.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a reflector apparatus for reflecting light upon a film set. The reflector apparatus comprises a fire retardant frame formed of a twin wall board made with a block-copolymer polypropylene resin with flame inhibiting properties. A flexible fire retardant sheet is detachably attached with the frame. The fire retardant sheet is constructed of a fire retardant material such as ripstop, ultra bounce, and nugget cloth. Through use of the reflector apparatus, a user can direct the light from a lamp onto the frame and/or flexible fire retardant sheet to be reflected onto the film set, allowing the user to control lighting conditions of the film set. The present invention also relates to a method for reflecting light upon a set using the reflector apparatus described herein.