Patents Assigned to EPFL
  • Publication number: 20110223217
    Abstract: An encoding/decoding apparatus and method using a low-density parity-check code (LDPC code) is disclosed. Basic column group information, serving as a set of information regarding positions of rows with weight 1, is extracted from a reference column in each column group of a predetermined parity-check matrix. Column group information transforms the positions of rows with weight 1 into positions whose lengths are within a required parity length. A parity-check matrix is generated according to the generated column group information. Data is encoded or decoded based on the generated parity-check matrix.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 24, 2009
    Publication date: September 15, 2011
    Applicant: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
    Inventors: James Brandon Dixon, Jeffrey A. Hubbell, Conlin P. O'Neil, Melody Swartz, Diana Velluto
  • Publication number: 20110217804
    Abstract: A method for fabricating a micromirror in a wafer, including the steps of: depositing and etching layers forming two arms; etching the wafer such that in the back face only a thin portion of the wafer remains in the region of formation of the micromirror and the arms; performing an anisotropic etch, such that the thin portion remains only in the areas of the micromirror and the arms; and performing an isotropic etch to remove the thin portions under the arms, the etching step for forming the arms being performed following their shape and so as to form holes traversing the arms, the holes being positioned at edges of the region separating the micromirror and the wafer on both the side of the micromirror and the side of the portions of the wafer remaining after the anisotropic etching step. The invention also concerns the micromirror.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Publication date: September 8, 2011
    Applicant: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    Inventors: Nicolas Abele, Faouzi Khechana, Philippe Renaud
  • Patent number: 7995599
    Abstract: A method to provide reliability, power management and load balancing support for multicore systems based on Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) and to efficiently implement architectural support for this method by introducing complex packet handling mechanisms is achieved by modifying the basic network interfaces attached to the cores of multicore computation systems. It also proposes policies to leverage the proposed hardware extensions. This aim is achieved with a method to manage the load of peripheral elements within a multicore system comprising several processing units accessing peripheral elements through a NoC, each processing unit and peripheral element attached to a Network Interface in charge of formatting and driving the packets sent to or received from the NoC, wherein, while considering at least two peripheral elements having a similar function, the Network Interface dedicated to a first peripheral element reroutes the incoming packets to a second Network Interface dedicated to a second peripheral element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (EPFL)
    Inventors: Federico Angiolini, David Atienza Alonso, Giovanni De Micheli
  • Publication number: 20110190789
    Abstract: The system comprises at least three anchors (2,2?,2?) intended to be attached to the patient and equipped with markers (5,5?,5?), an insertion guide device (6) with an insertion guide (7) intended to be attached to said anchors (2,2?,2?), an external calibration device (8) with at least three calibration markers (10,10?,10?) corresponding to said markers (5,5?,5?) and a planning and imaging software. The planning and imaging software is used to determine the position of a target point in the patient with respect to the markers (5,5?,5?), the calibration device is used to calibrate and orient the insertion guide (7) of the insertion guide device (6) mounted on said calibration markers (10,10?,10?) using the determination of the software before the insertion guide device is mounted on said markers (5,5?,5?) attached to the patient.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2008
    Publication date: August 4, 2011
    Applicant: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    Inventors: Jean-Philippe Thiran, Claudio Pollo
  • Publication number: 20110175611
    Abstract: A method for sample preparation for magnetic resonance measurements using Hyperpolarization by Dissolution Dynamic Nuclear Polarization, involves preparation of frozen beads of a first kind containing paramagnetic substances in addition to the solute under investigation; insertion of the frozen beads into a polarizing magnet; creation of enhanced polarization of nuclei in a magnetic field; heating of the sample to room temperature; transfer of the sample to an MR magnet; and carrying out an MR measurement. In addition, frozen beads of a second kind containing a reducing agent are prepared and inserted into the polarization magnet together with the frozen beads of the first kind. By this method, longitudinal and transverse relaxation times in NMR are extended and free radicals in hyperpolarized solutions are eliminated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 12, 2011
    Publication date: July 21, 2011
    Applicants: Bruker BioSpin AG, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
    Inventors: Sami Jannin, Pascal Mieville, Geoffrey Bodenhausen
  • Publication number: 20110169978
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a functional optical coherent imaging (fOCI) platform comprising at least one active camera unit (ACU) comprising 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: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2008
    Publication date: July 14, 2011
    Applicant: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    Inventors: Theo Lasser, Dimitri Van De Ville, Erica Martin-Williams, Marcel Leutenegger, Iwan Maerki, Michael Friedrich, Martin Villiger
  • Patent number: 7968839
    Abstract: The invention relates to an optical tweezer device including at least one light source and one three-dimensional optical trap, said optical trap comprising one focusing micro-mirror which is adapted to reflect and focus at least a portion of the light emitted by said light source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2011
    Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (EPFL)
    Inventors: Fabrice Merenda, Johann Rohner, René Salathe
  • Publication number: 20110121421
    Abstract: In previously known imaging devices as in still and motion cameras, for example, image sensor signal response typically is linear as a function of intensity of incident light. Desirably, however, akin to the response of the human eye, response is sought to be nonlinear and, more particularly, essentially logarithmic. Preferred nonlinearity is realized in image sensor devices of the invention upon severely limiting the number of pixel states, combined with clustering of pixels into what may be termed as super-pixels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 9, 2009
    Publication date: May 26, 2011
    Applicant: Ecole Polytechnique Federate de Lausanne EPFL
    Inventors: Edoardo Charbon, Luciano Sbaiz, Martin Vetterli, Sabine Susstrunk
  • Publication number: 20110124985
    Abstract: The invention relates to a viscosimetric sensor for monitoring an analyte level in a patient or in body fluids ex vivo. In particular, the invention relates to a sensor for monitoring analytes, such as glucose levels in a patient. The sensor comprises at least two hermetically closed chambers (2a, 2b), including an activation chamber and a measuring chamber, containing a sensitive fluid (3), the chambers communicating with each other through at least one microchannel (5), and a semi-permeable barrier (4) allowing the analyte to enter or leave the chambers. Each said chamber comprises at least one flexible membrane (6, 7) configured for antagonistic variations of the volume of the chambers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2009
    Publication date: May 26, 2011
    Applicant: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    Inventors: Eric Meurville, Jean-Michel Sallese
  • Patent number: 7932404
    Abstract: A dye sensitized solar cell, comprising a-heteroleptic polypyridil complex of Ru, Os or Fe. The donating ligand has an extended conjugated n-system increasing the light absorbance and keeing the LUMO energy level higher than that of the anchoring ligand. A compacting compound whose molecular structure comprises a terminal group, a hydrophobic part and an anchoring? group may be co-adsorbed together with the dye on the semi-conductive metal oxide layer of the photoanode, forming a dense mixed self-assembled monolayer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2011
    Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
    Inventors: Shaik Mohammad Zakeeruddin, Cédric Klein, Peng Wang, Michaël Graetzel
  • Publication number: 20110066098
    Abstract: The device comprises at least an inlet tube for the passage of fluid to be drained, said tube being connected to a chamber wherein said chamber comprises rotating means for adjusting the flow rate in said tube.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 23, 2007
    Publication date: March 17, 2011
    Applicant: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    Inventor: Nikolaos Stergiopulos
  • Publication number: 20110055521
    Abstract: Customisable embedded processors that are available on the market make it possible for designers to speed up execution of applications by using Application-specific Functional Units (AFUs), implementing Instruction-Set Extensions (ISEs). Furthermore, techniques for automatic ISE identification have been improving; many algorithms have been proposed for choosing, given the application's source code, the best ISEs under various constraints. Read and write ports between the AFUs and the processor register file are an expensive asset, fixed in the micro-architecture—some processors indeed only allow two read ports and one write port—and yet, on the other hand, a large availability of inputs and outputs to and from the AFUs exposes high speedup. Here we present a solution to the limitation of actual register file ports by serialising register file access and therefore addressing multi-cycle read and write.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2007
    Publication date: March 3, 2011
    Applicant: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    Inventors: Laura Pozzi, Paolo Ienne Lopez
  • Publication number: 20110029161
    Abstract: This present invention describes a novel vision-based control strategy for autonomous cruise flight in possibly cluttered environments such as—but not limited to—cities, forests, valleys, or mountains. The present invention is to provide an autopilot that relies exclusively on visual and gyroscopic information, with no requirement for explicit state estimation nor additional stabilisation mechanisms.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2010
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Applicant: EPFL-SRI
    Inventors: Jean-Christophe Zufferey, Antoine Beyeler, Dario Floreano
  • Publication number: 20110022600
    Abstract: A method of data retrieval from a data repository in response to a query having either list of keywords and/or list of attribute-value pairs, the method comprising the steps of: providing an inverted index generated from the data repository, the inverted index indicating the attribute with which each term is encountered in each entity when such an attribute is available; retrieving data from the inverted index by searching said inverted index based on said attribute-value pairs or keywords; providing scores to entities. A method of forming an inverted index from a data repository and a search engine for retrieval of data from a data repository is also provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 22, 2009
    Publication date: January 27, 2011
    Applicant: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne EPFL
    Inventors: Saket SATHE, Gleb Skobeltsyn
  • Publication number: 20110001475
    Abstract: A method for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements, includes creation of enhanced polarization of nuclei of a first kind within a sample in a magnetic field at cryogenic temperatures and transfer of the polarised sample to room temperature. The enhanced polarization of nuclei of the first kind is thereby transformed into long-lived states (LLS) of nuclei of a second kind and these LLS are sustained. The LLS is at least partially converted into observable magnetisation and an NMR or MRI measurement is carried out. The method allows one to extend the time needed between hyperpolarised magnetisation and NMR detection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2010
    Publication date: January 6, 2011
    Applicants: Bruker BioSpin AG, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
    Inventors: Paul Romeo Vasos, Arnaud Comment, Riddhiman Sarkar, Sami Antoine Jannin, Geoffrey Bodenhausen
  • Publication number: 20110001477
    Abstract: A method for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of a sample comprises preparation of the sample and carrying out an NMR spectroscopy measurement. Preparation includes excitation of long lived coherences (LLC) between the singlet state S0 and the central triplet state T0 of nuclei of the sample. The thermal equilibrium Boltzmann distribution (Iz+Sz) is thereby transformed into a difference (Iz?Sz), which is flipped to the transverse plane, and irradiation of the sample with an rf-field is initiated. The LLC is sustained by maintaining the rf-irradiation during an interval t1 and the LLC is converted into observable magnetisation by interrupting the rf-irradiation. The method allows nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy measurements with improved spectral resolution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2010
    Publication date: January 6, 2011
    Applicants: Bruker BioSpin AG, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
    Inventors: Paul Romeo Vasos, Riddhiman Sarkar, Puneet Ahuja, Geoffrey Bodenhausen
  • Publication number: 20100314861
    Abstract: This invention discloses new methods and security devices for authenticating documents and valuable products which may be applied to any support, including transparent synthetic materials and traditional opaque materials such as paper. The invention relates to parallax moire shapes which occur in a compound layer consisting of the superposition of specially designed and possibly geometrically transformed s-random base layer and s-random revealing layer with a small gap between them. The base and revealing layers are formed respectively by base layer element shapes and revealing layer sampling elements positioned at s-random locations, where the base layer locations and the revealing layer locations are strongly correlated. When tilting the compound layer or changing the viewing angle, a parallax moire intensity profile of a chosen shape is seen moving in the superposition, thereby allowing the authentication of the document.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2009
    Publication date: December 16, 2010
    Applicant: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
    Inventors: Isaac Amidror, Roger D. Hersch
  • Publication number: 20100292978
    Abstract: A method and apparatus to produce a net list of gates and Flip-Flops for one algorithm in order to find the best compromise between power consumption, speed and silicon surface by using a two step process. First the algorithm is written for a processor that has no restrictions in terms of number and size of register, core, operations set, memory handler and instructions. The program assembly of this processor fits into a two-dimensional table. To increase speed, the tables are configured to place the program operation in as many columns as possible, and to reduce silicon the tables are configured to place operations in a single column with many rows. The second stage consists of converting this virtual processor with its program tables into an HDL file ready for synthesis.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 14, 2009
    Publication date: November 18, 2010
    Applicant: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
    Inventor: Marc Gandar
  • Publication number: 20100278707
    Abstract: A method for separating and recovering silicon debris from sawing waste is characterized in that it includes the following steps:—treating the sawing waste so as to deoxidize the silicon debris in a manner that reduces their surface energy,—applying to the sawing waste thus treated a flotation method using a flotation liquid and a nonoxidizing flotation gas, and—recovering the silicon debris at the surface of the flotation liquid.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 4, 2008
    Publication date: November 4, 2010
    Applicant: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    Inventor: Patrik Hoffmann
  • Patent number: 7807453
    Abstract: Device for the in vitro culture of cells comprising: a planar deformable substrate (3) with a culture surface (4), substrate deforming means for modifying the size of said culture surface (4), characterized by the fact that it furthermore comprises: substrate holding elements (5) which are located near the periphery of said culture surface (4), a frame (6,8) surrounding and directly or indirectly fixing said substrate holding elements (5), in such a way as to allow microscope viewing of the culture surface (4) and to avoid mechanical parts directly above or below the culture surface (4), said frame (6,8) being adapted to move said substrate holding elements (5) away from the center of said culture surface (4).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2010
    Assignee: Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (EPFL)
    Inventors: Thomas Quinn, Hicham Majd