Patents Examined by Brian Wilson
  • Patent number: 11479175
    Abstract: A vehicular error detection system is provided, comprising: a plurality of light circuits in a vehicle, each light circuit including a light and being associated with a corresponding unique identifier; a system controller located in the vehicle and configured to control operation of the light circuits; a plurality of wires connecting the light circuits to the system controller such that at least one wire is attached to each of the plurality of light circuits; a plurality of lighting error detectors each configured to detect a malfunctioning light from among corresponding lights in the light circuits, and configured to transmit an error message to the system controller when the malfunctioning light is detected, wherein each of the lighting error detectors transmits an error message to the system controller when the lighting error detector detects the malfunctioning light, and the error message includes the corresponding unique identifier of the malfunctioning light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: Grote Industries, LLC
    Inventors: Sankalp Pampattiwar, Yogesh Kubal, Cesar Perez-Bolivar
  • Patent number: 11475747
    Abstract: A system determines an electronic product code (EPC) and a checksum read from a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag. The system calculates a new checksum based on the EPC and a retailer-specific number associated with a retailer that owns one or more RFID tags. The system compares the new checksum with the checksum read from the RFID tag, and determines whether the RFID tag is owned by the retailer based on whether the new checksum matches the checksum read from the RFID tag.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Sensormatic Electronics, LLC
    Inventor: Brian M. Wicks
  • Patent number: 11474605
    Abstract: Provided is a vibration presentation device that includes a plurality of vibration actuators that vibrate when voltage is applied, and a control unit that controls vibration to be generated in the plurality of vibration actuators. The vibration actuators include a flexible, lightweight, and thin material, and are in surface contact with the portion to be presented with vibration. The control unit then generates a vibration signal for each of the plurality of vibration actuators, and controls the vibration for the plurality of vibration actuators independently of one another.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shuichiro Nishigori, Shiro Suzuki
  • Patent number: 11461612
    Abstract: An RFID tag that includes an RFID tag body having a conductor in a loop-like shape or a coil-like shape, and metal fixtures for fixing the RFID tag body to a metal surface of an article. The conductor is formed in an element body in a rectangular parallelepiped shape that has first and second side surfaces facing each other, third and fourth side surfaces facing each other and orthogonal to the first side surface, a top surface, and a bottom surface serving as a mounting surface. A plane of an opening of the conductor is parallel to the first side surface and the second side surface, and the metal fixtures each include a first portion protruding along an extension surface of the bottom surface, a second portion disposed along the third side surface or the fourth side surface, and a third portion disposed along the top surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kengo Matsumoto, Shogo Tokoi, Hiroshi Nonogaki
  • Patent number: 11450191
    Abstract: A grounding cable warning device includes a housing affixable to a grounding cable. An electrical current transformer is disposed within the housing. An energy storage component is disposed within the housing. A first sensor is disposed within the housing and configured to detect an electrical current in the grounding cable. A second sensor is disposed within the housing and configured to detect a voltage of the grounding cable. One or more electronic indication components are arranged with the housing and configured to alert a user of an unsafe condition. A microcontroller is disposed within the housing and receives input from the first sensor and the sensor and actuates the one or more electronic indication components, in response to receipt of the input, to alert the user of the unsafe condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2022
    Assignee: Safeguard Equipment, Inc.
    Inventors: John Wayne Thompson, Brady Hansen
  • Patent number: 11443315
    Abstract: A method and system of using a vehicle mounted camera device to authenticate a user during an interaction is disclosed. The method includes receiving interaction data regarding an interaction between a user operating a communication device and an access device, the user being near other candidate users. The method then includes determining one or more match indicators, the match indicators generated by comparing different sample biometric templates of the user with different enrolled biometric templates. At least one of the different biometric sample templates may be an image-based biometric template and at least one may be a voice print biometric template. Then the method includes identifying the user based on at least the match indicator associated with the voice print biometric template. The method then includes, if the match indicators are positive match indicators, initiating a process on behalf of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Assignee: Visa International Service Association
    Inventors: Sunpreet Arora, Lacey Best-Rowden, Kim Wagner, Saman Sarraf
  • Patent number: 11436905
    Abstract: A fire alarm system 1, comprises a socket 2 including at least one electrical conductor 12 for supplying electricity to a component received by the socket 2; a temperature sensor 4 configured to detect a temperature of the electrical conductor 12; and a fire alarm control panel 6 in communication with the temperature sensor 4. The fire alarm control panel 6 is configured to take an action based on the detected temperature of the electrical conductor 12 within the socket 2.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: CARRIER CORPORATION
    Inventor: Jairo Munoz Rodriguez
  • Patent number: 11430305
    Abstract: A mass notification terminal may have a data parser and decoder connected to a communications terminal. Announcements may be transmitted to the communications terminal in the form of linguistic symbols and commands using low bandwidth and low power protocol transmissions. Push transmissions conserve bandwidth. An abstraction of an audio announcement may be transmitted for use with a speech synthesizer. The abstraction may be linguistic symbols such as phenomes, text, or may identify pre-stored clips. The system may provide announcement confirmation. The system may take advantage of communication protocols that have message size limitations. The announcements may be sent in one or more message transmissions. When an announcement is composed of multiple messages, using message sequence numbers and announcement identifications may facilitate grouping and arranging of the messages that make up the announcement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: TEXTSPEAK CORPORATION
    Inventor: Scott Stogel
  • Patent number: 11423777
    Abstract: A traffic sign displaying device comprises a processor including a traffic sign recognizing section recognizing first traffic sign information on a traffic sign included in an image of an area ahead of a vehicle, a traffic sign information obtaining section obtaining from map information second traffic sign information on a traffic sign of a road based on position information on the vehicle, a traffic sign display portion displaying traffic sign information and a traffic sign display control section for controlling the traffic sign display portion, wherein if the first traffic sign information does not match the second traffic sign information, the traffic sign display control section stops displaying traffic sign information after the vehicle runs a predetermined distance or over a predetermined time with the traffic sign display control section displaying on the traffic sign display portion either the first traffic sign information or the second traffic sign information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Naoya Hata, Toshinori Saiki, Yuji Yokochi, Naoto Akutsu, Hiroyuki Sakakibara
  • Patent number: 11417189
    Abstract: An apparatus for monitoring an object in a video received from at least one camera, comprises a storage unit storing a plurality of pieces of rule information each defining a condition of an object and a movement of the object to be observed in the condition, an input unit inputting information for identifying a monitored object and information representing a condition of the object, an acquiring unit acquiring rule information defining a movement to be observed for the object by referring to the storage unit based on the information representing the condition of the object, which is input by the input unit; and a monitoring unit determining whether the object in the video exhibits the movement to be observed, which is represented by the rule information acquired by the acquiring unit, and output a result of the determination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Koichi Takeuchi, Masakazu Matsugu
  • Patent number: 11417194
    Abstract: A hand washing supporting device according to embodiments is a hand washing supporting device including a processor, in which the processor is configured to perform a detection process that detects, upon detecting the motion of the hand by the user for a predetermined period of time by the detection process, a motion of a hand by a user, a determination process that determines a start of hand washing by the user, and a notification process that notifies, in accordance with a determination of the start of the hand washing by the determination process, the user of a difference between time required from the start to an end of the hand washing by the user and the predetermined period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
    Inventors: Atsuhiko Maeda, Midori Kodama, Motonori Nakamura, Ippei Shake
  • Patent number: 11403928
    Abstract: A method, system and devices of controlling an electronic article surveillance tag in an electronic article surveillance system, the tag including a detector for detecting tampering, the system including a positioning sub-system for determining a position of said tag and a control sub-system for controlling operation of said system. A first status message may be received from the electronic article surveillance tag to the control sub-system over a communications connection at a first time instance, and a first state of the tag may be determined by the control sub-system based on the first status message. The first state may be stored in a memory. A first control message may be sent from the control sub-system to the tag, the control message being formed based on the first state, and the operation of the tag may be altered based on the first control message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: NOCCELA OY
    Inventors: Riku Tapio Miettinen, Heikki Tapani Talvitie
  • Patent number: 11399736
    Abstract: Ingestible bio-telemetry communication network and associated systems are described. The communication network can include one or more ingestible bio-telemetry tags; and a reader, wherein each of the one or more ingestible bio-telemetry tags generates an out-link signal comprising, for each bit of data in a frame, a pulse reverse keyed symbol. Multiple ingestible bio-telemetry tags can be managed at the same time by allowing the frequency of the transmit carrier signal to change, or “hop” to different frequencies so as to minimize likelihood of collision. A reader can identify the proper frequency either by a signal from the tags indicated the frequency of the next hop or, when no bi-directional communication is available, by deducing the carrier signal frequency from the start bits of a received frame from the tag and scanning for the shifted carrier signal frequency within a tolerance of the deduced carrier signal frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: ETECTRX, INC.
    Inventors: Brent Arnold Myers, Judd Sheets
  • Patent number: 11403935
    Abstract: A communication circuit communicates with a right earphone worn on a right ear of a user and a left earphone worn on a left ear of the user to receive a first output signal generated by a first motion sensor provided in the right earphone and a second output signal generated by a second motion sensor provided in the left earphone. A detector detects whether a third party has approached the user based on a difference value between the first output signal and the second output signal received by the communication circuit. A notification unit notifies the user that the third party has approached the user when the detector detects that the third party has approached the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: JVCKENWOOD CORPORATION
    Inventors: Aki Hamada, Masaki Takei, Toru Kaiwa, Hiromitsu Asaka, Misa Suzuki, Masashi Uemoto, Miharu Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 11372481
    Abstract: A dielectric actuator including an enclosure forming a cavity having a dielectric fluid therein, the enclosure having a base, a flexible membrane and a reversibly-stretchable membrane, and a pair of electrodes, one electrode of the pair of electrodes arranged at the flexible membrane, the other electrode arranged at the base, the pair of electrodes arranged to generate an electric field to an area of the cavity that is filled with the dielectric fluid, wherein when the electric field is generated between the pair of electrodes, an electrostatic pressure in the dielectric fluid causes the flexible membrane to move towards the base, reducing an initial volume of the area of the cavity, increases a pressure of the dielectric fluid inside the cavity, and causes the reversibly-stretchable membrane to bump out to an expanded state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    Inventors: Edouard Leroy, Herbert Shea, Min Gao
  • Patent number: 11364868
    Abstract: As described above, in a vehicle control system, in a predetermined condition where a vehicle peripheral condition recognizing unit recognizes a condition where a first user who has been in a vehicle leaves the vehicle and where an in-vehicle condition recognizing unit recognizes a condition where a second user is present in the vehicle, an alarm control unit performs alarm processing on at least one of inside the vehicle and outside the vehicle by using a notification function of the vehicle according to a detection result of a door open/close detection unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Mitsuyoshi Nakamura, Kenya Sakurai, Takashi Fukahori, Hiroyuki Hazawa, Yuji Tsuchiya, Yoko Ishihara, Shinsuke Kandaka
  • Patent number: 11361645
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes a processor is provided. The processor is configured to perform control so that a device that covers user's vision becomes available in a closed space that accommodates at least one user, in a condition that a door of the closed space is closed or locked.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Business Innovation Corp.
    Inventor: Kengo Tokuchi
  • Patent number: 11317205
    Abstract: This technology relates to an information processing apparatus for accurately notifying a mobile object of a position of a moving body nearby, and to an information processing method, a program, and a mobile object for use with the information processing apparatus. The information processing apparatus includes a moving body detection section that detects the moving body near the mobile object on the basis of information input from sensors, and a sound output control section that shifts the position of a sound image of a notification sound giving notification of the position of the moving body in keeping with a detected position thereof in motion. This technology can be applied to apparatuses, systems, or vehicles that provide driver assistance for preventing collision or contact with the moving body, for example.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
    Inventors: Hirokazu Hashimoto, Ryosuke Tanaka, Yuki Yamamoto, Toru Chinen
  • Patent number: 11302192
    Abstract: Disclosed are a parking control apparatus for a vehicle and a method thereof. The parking control apparatus includes a processor that searches for at least one parking space in a parking control of a vehicle, calculates an estimated route and a required parking time for each of the at least one parking space, and performs parking control into a target parking space which is one parking space selected from the at least one parking space by a user, and a display that displays the estimated route and the required parking time for each of the at least one parking space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Sun Woo Jeong, Yong Joon Lee, Jin Ho Park
  • Patent number: 11288465
    Abstract: Disclosed is a system and method for wirelessly monitoring 5 process conditions within a reactor vessel. A plurality of sensor-enabled radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are disposed at known locations throughout a catalyst bed of a vessel and are used to measure various conditions within the vessel. The sensor-enabled RFID tags are encoded with individual identification codes and are wirelessly linked to a transceiver. A transceiver 10 provides for the interrogation of each sensor-enabled RFID tag to receive responsive transponder signals that carry information representative of both the three-dimensional location of the sensor-enabled RFID tags and the sensed conditions within the reactor. This allows for three-dimensional profiling of the specifically measured condition within the reactor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: SHELL OIL COMPANY
    Inventors: Kaspar Joseph Vogt, David Winn Fuchs