Patents Assigned to Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
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Publication number: 20170308667Abstract: A mechanical teleoperated device for remote manipulation includes a slave unit having a number of slave links interconnected by a plurality of slave joints; an end-effector connected to the slave unit; a master unit having a corresponding number of master links interconnected by a plurality of master joints; and a handle connected to a distal end of the master unit. The device further includes first device arranged to kinematically connect the slave unit with the master unit, second device arranged to kinematically connect the end-effector with the handle, and a mechanical constraint device configured to ensure that one master link of the master unit is guided along its longitudinal axis so that the corresponding slave link of the slave unit always translates along a virtual axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the guided master link in the vicinity of the remote manipulation when the mechanical teleoperated device is operated.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 26, 2017Publication date: October 26, 2017Applicant: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Ricardo Daniel Rita BEIRA, Lionel FLACTION
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Patent number: 9794525Abstract: Systems and methods for tracking interacting objects may acquire, with a sensor, and two or more images associated with two or more time instances. A processor may generate image data from the two or more images. The processor may apply an extended Probability Occupancy Map (POM) algorithm to the image data to obtain probability of occupancy for a container class of potentially interacting objects, probability of occupancy for a containee class of the potentially interacting objects, and a size relationship of the potentially interacting objects, over a set of discrete locations on a ground plane for each time instance. The processor may estimate trajectories of an object belonging to each of the two classes by determining a solution of a tracking model on the basis of the occupancy probabilities and a set of rules describing the interaction between objects of different or the same classes.Type: GrantFiled: March 24, 2015Date of Patent: October 17, 2017Assignee: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Engin Turetken, Pascal Fua, Francois Fleuret, Xinchao Wang
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Patent number: 9791684Abstract: The invention relates to an optical coherence microscopy system for fast, phase resolved imaging by means of optical coherence microscopy with decoupled illumination and detection apertures, producing a dark-field effect with an enhanced optical contrast. The setup uses a light source with an appropriate temporal coherence, an interferometer and an array detector combined with a spectrometer. The dark-field effect is produced by optical filter means in the illumination and detection paths, positioned in conjugated planes of the sample microscope objective. These optical means comprise for example refractive or diffractive elements, amplitude or phase masks, or programmable spatial light modulators. The object is scanned via a scanning unit allowing a point scan of the object.Type: GrantFiled: January 4, 2011Date of Patent: October 17, 2017Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)Inventors: Martin Villiger, Christophe Pache, Theo Lasser
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Publication number: 20170291697Abstract: An aerial vehicle, configured to transport cargo, and including a propulsion system and a foldable cage is described. The foldable cage is substantially linear while in a folded configuration, and substantially circular while in a deployed configuration. Moreover, the foldable cage includes a rods that form isosceles triangles. The rods are coupled together by flexible joints.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 8, 2016Publication date: October 12, 2017Applicant: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)Inventors: Przemyslaw Mariusz Kornatowski, Stefano Mintchev, Dario Floreano
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Patent number: 9778177Abstract: Embodiments of the subject invention relate to a method and apparatus for performing measurements using multiphoton or second harmonic generation (SHG) scattered radiation from a sample including a turbid (scattering) medium includes providing a beam of laser pulses from a laser source having high pulse energies and a repetition rate; splitting the beam of laser pulses into two or more partial beams and focussing and overlaying the partial beams on a sample including the turbid medium; and detecting multiphoton and second harmonic radiation scattered from the sample.Type: GrantFiled: January 19, 2015Date of Patent: October 3, 2017Assignee: ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Sylvie Roke, Carlos Macias Romero
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Patent number: 9779879Abstract: The present invention provides an improved redox couple for electrochemical and optoelectronic devices. The redox couple is based on a complex of a first row transition metal, said complex containing at least one mono-, bi-, or tridentate ligand comprising a substituted or unsubstituted ring or ring system comprising a five-membered N-containing heteroring and/or a six-membered ring comprising at least two heteroatoms, at least one of which being a nitrogen atom, said five- or six-membered heteroring, respectively, comprising at least one double bond. The invention also relates to electrolytes and to the devices containing the complex, and to the use of the complex as a redox couple. The invention further provides electrochemical and/or optoelectronic devices comprising a first and a second electrode and, between said first and second electrode, a charge transport layer, said a charge transport layer comprising tetracyanoborate ([B(CN)4]?) and a cationic metal complex functioning as redox-couple.Type: GrantFiled: February 24, 2012Date of Patent: October 3, 2017Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)Inventors: Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin, Michael Graetzel, Etienne Baranoff, Florian Kessler, Jun-Ho Yum, Aswani Yella, Hoi Nok Tsao, Shaik Mohammad Zakeeruddin
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Patent number: 9774467Abstract: In a first aspect the invention provides a system that comprising a plurality of electronic modules, each one of the electronic modules configured for enabling automation of an electrical appliance to be connected to the electronic module. Each electronic module comprises at least a communication sub-part configured to enable communication over a power-line network with other modules, at least an acting means configured to act on an electrical voltage to be applied to the electrical appliance, at least a measurement means configured to measure a power consumption to be consumed by the electrical appliance, and an embedded intelligence means configured to process signals providing from or going to the at least one communication sub-part, the at least one acting means and the at least one measurement means.Type: GrantFiled: July 25, 2013Date of Patent: September 26, 2017Assignee: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Laurent Fabre, Maher Kayal, Fabrizio Lo Conte, Thierry Barras
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Patent number: 9774191Abstract: The invention provides a method for coping with an unintentional islanding of an electrical distribution grid within a Commelec-type framework for the real-time control of micro-grids, of Resource Agents (RA) controlled by Grid Agents (GA), comprising at least maintain at any time before the unintentional islanding occurs a rating of all resource agents controlled by a same grid agent in view of their ability to be a slack resource, by computing the rating based on a power availability and on a state-of-energy of each resource, the state-of-energy quantifying an amount of energy that may be withdrawn from a potential slack irrespectively of a PQ profile, whereby the PQ profile describes bounds for active and reactive power that a resource can inject or absorb; and a shedding list of all the resources that have to be shed if a current best candidate slack resource is selected, the current best candidate slack resource being the slack resource having the best rating of all resources as determined in the step ofType: GrantFiled: September 6, 2015Date of Patent: September 26, 2017Assignee: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Mario Paolone, Jean-Yves Le Boudec, Andrey Bernstein, Lorenzo Enrique Reyes Chamarro
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Patent number: 9768311Abstract: The present invention concerns a semiconductor tunneling Field-Effect device including a source, a drain, at least one elongated semiconductor structure extending in an elongated direction, a first gate, and a second gate. The first gate has a length extending in said elongated direction and is positioned on a first side of the at least one elongated semiconductor structure, and the second gate has a length extending in said elongated direction and is positioned on a second opposing side of the at least one elongated semiconductor structure. The first and second gates extend along the first and second sides of the at least one elongated semiconductor structure to define an overlap zone sandwiched between the first gate and the second gate, said overlap zone extending the full length of the first and/or second gate along the at least one elongated semiconductor structure.Type: GrantFiled: July 20, 2015Date of Patent: September 19, 2017Assignee: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Cem Alper, Livio Lattanzio, Mihai Adrian Ionescu, Luca De Michielis, Nilay Dagtekin
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Patent number: 9757039Abstract: A functional optical coherent imaging (fOCI) platform includes at least one active camera unit (ACU) having a coherent and/or a partially coherent light source, and means for spectral filtering and imaging a selected body area of interest; an image processing unit (IPU) for pre-processing data received from an ACU; at least one stimulation unit (STU) transmitting a stimulation to a subject; at least one body function reference measurement unit (BFMU); a central clock and processing unit (CCU), with interconnections to the ACU, the IPU, the STU, for collecting pre-processed data from the IPU, stimuli from the STU body function reference data from the BFMU in a synchronized manner; a post-processing unit (statistical analysis unit, SAU); and an operator interface (HOD.Type: GrantFiled: June 29, 2015Date of Patent: September 12, 2017Assignee: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Theo Lasser, Dimitri Van De Ville, Erica Martin-Williams, Marcel Leutenegger, Iwan Maerki, Michael Friedrich, Martin Villiger
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Patent number: 9760536Abstract: A method and device for reducing the computational complexity of a processing algorithm, of a discrete signal, in particular of the spectral estimation and analysis of bio-signals, with minimum or no quality loss, which comprises steps of (a) choosing a domain, such that transforming the signal to the chosen domain results to an approximately sparse representation, wherein at least part of the output data vector has zero or low magnitude elements; (b) converting the original signal in the domain chosen in step (a) through a mathematical transform consisting of arithmetic operations resulting in a vector of output data; (c) reformulating the processing algorithm of the original signal in the original domain into a modified algorithm consisting of equivalent arithmetic operations in the domain chosen in step (a) to yield the expected result with the expected quality quantified in terms of a suitable application metric; (d) combining the mathematical transform of step (b) and the equivalent mathematical operatioType: GrantFiled: August 15, 2013Date of Patent: September 12, 2017Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)Inventors: Georgios Karakonstantis, Aviinaash Sankaranarayanan, Andreas Burg, Srinivasan Murali, David Atienza Alonso
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Patent number: 9759805Abstract: An acoustic processing method for M acoustic receivers comprising the steps of: Determining a beamforming weight vector with M weights for the M acoustic receivers based on at least one the steering vector of at least one real acoustic source, on steering vectors of image sources of the at least one real acoustic source and on a first matrix depending on the covariance matrix of the noise and/or on at least one interfering sound source, wherein each of the image sources corresponds to one path of the acoustic signal between one of the at least one real source and one of the M acoustic receivers with at least one reflection; and linearly combining the M acoustic signals received at the M acoustic receivers on the basis of the M weights of the beamforming vector.Type: GrantFiled: July 2, 2015Date of Patent: September 12, 2017Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (EPFL)Inventors: Ivan Dokmanic, Robin Scheibler, Martin Vetterli
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Publication number: 20170256208Abstract: The present invention concerns a method of method of relighting a media item comprising media elements.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 7, 2016Publication date: September 7, 2017Applicant: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Niranjan Thanikachalam, Loic Arnaud Baboulaz, Damien Firmenich, Sabine Suesstrunk, Martin Vetterli
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Patent number: 9756312Abstract: A real-time stereo camera disparity estimation device comprises input means arranged to input measured data corresponding to rows of left and right images; a plurality of on-chip memories arranged to buffer the input measured data; a vertical rotator hardware module configured to align the rows of left and right images in a same column; a reconfigurable data allocation hardware module; a reconfigurable computation of metrics hardware module; and an adaptive disparity selection hardware module configured to select disparity values with the minimum matching costs.Type: GrantFiled: May 1, 2014Date of Patent: September 5, 2017Assignee: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Abdulkadir Akin, Yusuf Leblebici, Alexandre Schmid, Ipek Baz, Irem Boybat, Huseyin Baris Atakan
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Publication number: 20170236289Abstract: The present invention concerns a method of segmenting a media item comprising media elements.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 16, 2016Publication date: August 17, 2017Applicant: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventor: Radhakrishna Shri Venkata Achanta
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Patent number: 9734063Abstract: A computing system that uses a Scale-Out NUMA (“soNUMA”) architecture, programming model, and/or communication protocol provides for low-latency, distributed in-memory processing. Using soNUMA, a programming model is layered directly on top of a NUMA memory fabric via a stateless messaging protocol. To facilitate interactions between the application, OS, and the fabric, soNUMA uses a remote memory controller—an architecturally-exposed hardware block integrated into the node's local coherence hierarchy.Type: GrantFiled: February 27, 2015Date of Patent: August 15, 2017Assignee: ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Stanko Novakovic, Alexandros Daglis, Boris Robert Grot, Edouard Bugnion, Babak Falsafi
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Patent number: 9725170Abstract: A VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aerial flying vehicle comprising an inner frame, a gimbal system and an outer frame, the inner frame comprising a propulsion system and a control system. The propulsion system being able to generate a lift force. The VTOL may also include a decoupling mechanism having either a linear or non-linear beam coupled to a ring. The beam may optionally include sliders at ends thereof that provide an additional rotation freedom to the inner frame.Type: GrantFiled: September 11, 2015Date of Patent: August 8, 2017Assignee: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Ludovic Daler, Arnaud Garnier, Adrien Briod
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Patent number: 9721982Abstract: A tunneling field effect transistor for light detection, including a p-type region connected to a source terminal, a n-type region connected to a drain terminal, an intrinsic region located between the p-type region and the n-type region to form a P-I junction or an N-I junction with the n-type region or the p-type region, respectively, a first insulating layer and a first gate electrode, the first gate electrode covering a portion of the intrinsic region on one side, and a second insulating layer and a second gate electrode, the second insulating layer and the second gate electrode covering an entire other side of the intrinsic region opposite to the one side, wherein an area of the intrinsic region that is not covered by the first gate electrode forms a non-gated intrinsic area configured for light absorption.Type: GrantFiled: March 24, 2016Date of Patent: August 1, 2017Assignee: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)Inventors: Mihai Adrian Ionescu, Nilay Dagtekin
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Patent number: 9716240Abstract: The present invention relates to novel compounds that are useful as ligands in organometallic dyes. More particularly, the invention relates to dyes comprising the compounds, said dyes being sensitizing dyes useful in solar cell technology. According to an embodiment, the present invention discloses new ruthenium dyes and their application in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC). The referred ruthenium dyes with new structural features can be easily synthesized, show more than 85% light-to-electricity conversion efficiency and a higher than 9% cell efficiency.Type: GrantFiled: February 27, 2009Date of Patent: July 25, 2017Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)Inventors: Feifei Gao, Yuan Wang, Jing Zhang, Peng Wang, Shaik Mohammad Zakeeruddin, Michael Graetzel
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Publication number: 20170205337Abstract: A method for obtaining spectral imaging data comprises at least the steps of receiving a sample set of data generated by sampling a spectral property of an image of an object in a spatial basis, wherein the sampling of the spectral property of the image of the object comprises providing a Spectral Filter Array (SFA) by arranging a plurality of SFA elements together to form a surface; configuring each SFA element of the plurality of SFA elements to filter one or more spectral bandwidths centered each at specific wavelengths corresponding to that SFA element, whereby all of the plurality of SFA elements taken together cover a determined spectral range; and setting the specific wavelengths of each SFA element of the plurality of SFA elements on the surface such to obtain a uniform and aperiodic spatial distribution of all of the plurality of SFA elements across the surface.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 24, 2015Publication date: July 20, 2017Applicant: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)Inventors: Yosef Akhtman, Dragos Constantin