Patents Examined by Eliseo Ramos-Feliciano
  • Patent number: 9086585
    Abstract: The display element manufacturing apparatus has a transporting part, which transports a substrate in a first direction, a first alignment system, which detects fiducial marks, a second alignment system, which is arranged at a prescribed distance from the first alignment system in the first direction and detects fiducial marks, calculating parts, which detect the fiducial marks and calculate the expansion/contraction of the substrate in the first direction or the transport speed of the substrate, and a processing part, which processes a prescribed position of the substrate based on at least one of the expansion/contraction of the substrate in the first direction or the transport speed of the substrate and the fiducial marks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2015
    Assignee: NIKON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomohide Hamada, Kei Nara
  • Patent number: 9074974
    Abstract: An apparatus for measuring viscosity includes a container in which an inlet radius of an inlet end is larger than an outlet radius of an outlet end. A fluid with a flow velocity is placed in the container. The fluid has a density value and a pressure gradient value. A pressure controller for controlling the pressure gradient value of the fluid is connected to the inlet end and the outlet end. A flow meter measures the flow velocity. A viscosity of the fluid is correlated with the density value, the pressure gradient value, the inlet radius, the outlet radius and the flow velocity. After being applied to various fluids, the present invention improves testability. Moreover, the measurement time is reduced due to simple structure. The maintenance is easy and the operation is not complicated. Furthermore, less space is required, the cost is down and the measurement error is reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: Chung Yuan Christian University
    Inventors: Huei Chu Weng, Yuan Kai Kao
  • Patent number: 9076243
    Abstract: A digital interior system includes a sensitivity-space-environment detection engine for collecting sensitivity information, space related information, or environmental information about an interior space. Further, the digital interior system includes an interior content generation system for generating interior content about each of objects in the interior space based on the sensitivity information, space related information or environmental information collected by the sensitivity-space-environment detection engine. Furthermore, the digital interior system includes a digital interior construction system for performing interior construction using each of pieces of interior content generated by the interior content generation system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
    Inventors: Hyun Soon Shin, Intark Han, Yong Kwi Lee
  • Patent number: 9062966
    Abstract: In order to inspect a three dimensional shape, a predetermined inspection target component formed on a board is selected as the measurement target, a shape of the inspection target component is acquired, a reference point of the inspection target component is detected, relative location information of a polarity mark formed on the inspection target component with respect to the reference point is acquired, and it is judged whether the inspection target component is good or bad by checking whether the polarity mark exists or not by using the relative location information with respect to the reference point. Thus, the location of the polarity mark may be accurately known, and polarity inspection may be more easily and accurately performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: KOH YOUNG TECHNOLOGY INC.
    Inventor: Joong-Ki Jeong
  • Patent number: 9050865
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for determining the mileage of a tire, include measuring a first current mileage over a limited period a first time, measuring a second current mileage over a limited period a second time, providing a measurement-free rest period between the first measurement and the second measurement, and estimating the mileage during the rest period on the basis of the first current mileage and/or the second current mileage. In addition, the method is repeated, with the already performed second measurement replacing the first measurement. Since a supply of power is not needed or at least can be significantly reduced during the rest period, the power requirement for mileage determination during the life of the tire can be significantly reduced, which allows simplified supply of power for mileage determination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH
    Inventor: Stefan Kammann
  • Patent number: 9031800
    Abstract: Power measurement by tracking of a voltage cycle when voltage and current measurements are taken at different locations on an AC power line, with the devices taking the measurements interconnected by an asynchronous data network. In general, a synchronization/timing message is sent from the voltage sensing side to the current sensing side, with the synchronization/timing message being transmitted at a predetermined point in the periodic voltage cycle. The receipt of the synchronization/timing message by the current sensing side may be used to re-synchronize an internal model of the voltage cycle maintained by the current sensing side to the measured voltage cycle. The predetermined point in the voltage cycle may be the zero-crossing point, or other point, of the voltage cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Schneider Electric USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander S. Filippenko, Scott R. Brown, Paul R. Buda
  • Patent number: 9026388
    Abstract: It is determined that a drop in the capacity of a sodium-sulfur battery has proceeded to an abnormal level when both the following expression (1) and expression (2) hold. Qe?Qn?K1 . . . (1) where Qe: abnormal block depth of discharge; Qn: normal block depth of discharge; and K1: block abnormality determination set point (setting value) and Qe?K2 . . . (2) where K2: depth of discharge abnormality determination set point (setting value).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: NGK Insulators, Ltd.
    Inventors: Naoki Hirai, Motohiro Fukuhara
  • Patent number: 9026385
    Abstract: Embodiments for providing Doppler sounds are disclosed. In one embodiment, provided is an ultrasound system which may include: an ultrasound data acquiring unit configured to transmit ultrasound signals to a target object and receive ultrasound echo signals reflected therefrom, to acquire a plurality of ultrasound data associated with the target object, each of which having a synchronization (Sync) number uniquely assigned thereto; a storing unit to store the plurality of ultrasound data therein; an user input unit configured to allow a user to input a user instruction; and a processing unit coupled to the ultrasound data acquiring unit, the storing unit and the user input unit and configured to form a Doppler mode image having the Sync number based on the plurality of ultrasound data, the processing unit being further configured to extract ultrasound data with a Sync number corresponding to the user instruction from the storing unit, thereby forming the Doppler sound based on the extracted ultrasound data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Samsung Medison Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Suk Jin Lee
  • Patent number: 9026387
    Abstract: An apparatus is provided that includes a first circuit to determine when a battery current falls below a threshold, a second circuit to measure a battery voltage and current in response to the first circuit determining that the battery current falls below the threshold, and a third circuit to store the measured battery voltage and current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Reed T. Vilhauer, Peter T. Li, Darren S. Crews
  • Patent number: 9014993
    Abstract: A flow rate measuring device simplifies calculation, reduces memory required for calculation, absorbs variations due to manual operation and, depending on the state of ignition, improves the accuracy of appliance identification by extracting features of appliances. The flow rate measuring device includes: a difference value conversion unit that converts into codes difference values of the flow rate measured at constant time intervals by an ultrasonic flowmeter; an appliance feature extraction unit creates an appliance feature code string indicating a feature of each appliance by, for example, making comparison and judgment using a third last code, a second last code, a last code and a current code of the codes obtained at constant time intervals, and by performing code deletion; and an identification unit performs appliance identification by comparing the appliance feature code string with an appliance inherent feature code string indicating the feature code string inherent in each appliance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuo Yokohata, Ryuji Iwamoto, Takuhisa Ootani, Kouichi Ueki, Kazutaka Asano, Hajime Miyata, Youichi Itou
  • Patent number: 9008978
    Abstract: A system and method for detecting arc faults in photovoltaic solar power arrays. A plurality of short range communications links between the modules in the array are utilized as a distributed arc detection system. The communication links between adjacent pairs of modules in the array form a network with a matrix topology. The links are implemented with modulated magnetic fields. By monitoring the level of noise in each communication link, the signature of an arc fault is detected, and the general location of the arc can often be determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Sunfield Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventor: Steven Andrew Robbins
  • Patent number: 9009053
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method of multisensory speech detection is disclosed. The method comprises determining an orientation of a mobile device and determining an operating mode of the mobile device based on the orientation of the mobile device. The method further includes identifying speech detection parameters that specify when speech detection begins or ends based on the determined operating mode and detecting speech from a user of the mobile device based on the speech detection parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Dave Burke, Michael J. Lebeau, Konrad Gianno, Trausti Kristjansson, John Nicholas Jitkoff, Andrew W. Senior
  • Patent number: 9002664
    Abstract: A flow counter capable of correctly checking an operating state of the flow counter and leakage and correctly indicating a total amount of flow by allowing the rotation of a pointer to be learned accurately in the form of numerical data. In this flow counter (1), rotation of a flow detection driving gear (5) is transmitted to a flow indication section (4) composed of a plurality of digit wheels (4a1 to 4a8) by a main gear train section (2). The rotation of the flow detection driving gear (5) is also transmitted to a first pointer (6) by a branch gear section (3) branched from the main gear train section (2). The first pointer (6) indicates the operating state of the flow detection driving gear (5). The flow indication section (4) indicates a total amount of flow. A rotation detection member, which is a component of a rotation sensor, is integrally rotatably mounted on a rotating shaft of the first pointer (6). An amount of rotation of the rotating shaft is electrically detected by a rotation sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: Enplas Corporation
    Inventor: Huiqing Chen
  • Patent number: 8996321
    Abstract: A system, in one embodiment, includes a controller configured to receive sensor signals from a machine system and to control operation of the machine system via actuators. The embodiment also includes function blocks stored and operational in the controller and configured to receive machine condition monitoring information and to calculate vibration parameters based upon the machine condition monitoring information. In another embodiment, the system includes a controller that includes computer code configured to control operation of a machine system via actuators based upon sensor signals. Moreover, the embodiment includes computer code configured to perform vibration monitoring of the machine system, including function blocks configured to receive vibration data and to calculate vibration parameters based upon the vibration data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jason E. Lakomiak, Michael P. Burrows, Greg L. Hood
  • Patent number: 8996324
    Abstract: A battery-state monitoring apparatus includes: a secondary battery 200 supplying an electric power to portable equipment 300; and an operation processing part 50 that can detect a battery state of the secondary battery 200 in a detection mode to detect the battery state of the secondary battery 200, the operation processing part using the secondary battery 200 as a power source, wherein the battery-state monitoring apparatus includes a start-up current detecting part 31 detecting a start-up of the portable equipment 300, and wherein the operation processing part 50 waits for a detection of the battery state in a standby mode in which power consumption is smaller than the detection mode until the start-up is detected by the start-up current detecting part 31, and, on the other hand, the operation processing part 50 detects, by intermittently performing a temporary return from the standby mode to the detection mode, the battery state of the secondary battery in a return period during which the return is made.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignees: Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd., NTT DOCOMO, INC.
    Inventors: Yoshihide Majima, Mitsuhiro Takahashi, Kazuhiko Takeno, Haruo Uemura, Yasuyuki Kanai, Takayuki Kanai
  • Patent number: 8990038
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for monitoring battery life in a human input device powered by replaceable batteries includes repeatedly measuring battery charge by use of a measuring arrangement forming part of the input device. Battery charge is measured while the input device is in a relatively inactive condition and when it is in an active condition, and a time value is associated with each battery charge measurement. A usage model may be constructed based on the battery charge measurements, and calculation of an expected battery life may be based at least in part on the usage model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Inventors: Kenneth L. Staton, Michael Andrew Cretella, John Depew, Wing Kong Low
  • Patent number: 8972191
    Abstract: Phase sensitive X-ray imaging methods provide substantially increased contrast over conventional absorption based imaging, and therefore new and otherwise inaccessible information. The use of gratings as optical elements in hard X-ray phase imaging overcomes some of the problems impairing the wider use of phase contrast in X-ray radiography and tomography. To separate the phase information from other contributions detected with a grating interferometer, a phase-stepping approach has been considered, which implies the acquisition of multiple radiographic projections. Here, an innovative, highly sensitive X-ray tomographic phase contrast imaging approach is presented based on grating interferometry, which extracts the phase contrast signal without the need of phase stepping. Compared to the existing phase step approach, the main advantage of this new method dubbed “reverse projection” is the significantly reduced delivered dose, without degradation of the image quality.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignees: Paul Scherrer Institut, Institut of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Inventors: Marco Stampanoni, Ziyu Wu, Peiping Zhu
  • Patent number: 8972213
    Abstract: A method is provided for determining a state-of-health of a battery in a vehicle-during an engine cranking phase. An engine cranking phase is initiated. Characteristic data is recorded that includes battery voltage data and engine cranking speed data during the engine cranking phase. The characteristic data is provided to a pre-processing unit. The pre-processing unit normalizes the characteristic data for processing within a classifier. The normalized data is input o the classifier for determining the vehicle battery state-of-health. The classifier has a trained state-of-health decision boundary resulting from a plurality of trials in which predetermined characterization data is collected with known classes. The battery state-of-health is classified based on the trained state-of-health decision boundary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Xiaodong Zhang, Yilu Zhang, Yuen-Kwok Chin
  • Patent number: 8965719
    Abstract: The invention broadly encompasses a system including a communications network, a plurality of remotely located data sources to provide power data, the power data including quantitative and qualitative data of one or more power generation units, and a performance monitor in communication with the plurality of remotely located data sources through the communications network, the performance monitor including a communications unit to extract the power data from the plurality of remotely located data sources, a data conversion unit to transform the power data into a common data format, a data store to store the transformed power data, and a user interface unit to display the transformed power data on one or more client devices through the communications network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2015
    Assignee: Versify Solutions, Inc.
    Inventors: David Ippolito, David Kucharczuk
  • Patent number: 8958993
    Abstract: There are provided a switching-device remaining lifetime diagnosis method and a switching-device remaining lifetime diagnosis apparatus, wherein as status amount history data, there are accumulated status amounts related to a deterioration status of a switching device, estimated based on measurement data obtained through measurement of performance characteristics of the switching device; based on the accumulated status amount history data, there are created a plurality of system data pieces in which the status amounts are arranged with the respective abscissas of an elapsed time during an operation period of the switching device, the number of operations of the switching device, an inoperative time of the switching device, and an accumulated operation time of the switching device; based on the created system data pieces, the remaining lifetime of the switching device is estimated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2015
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Katsuhiko Horinouchi, Yuko Maruyama