Patents Examined by Jack Keith
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Device and method for controlling control appliances in an on-board supply system of a motor vehicle
Patent number: 7869920Abstract: An arrangement and method for controlling control devices in an on-board wiring system of a motor vehicle are provided, in which the on-board wiring system has a bus system divided into sub-networks of buses with groups of control devices for controlling operating sequences, and in which the control devices are controllable by way of at least one access to a data transmission via a test instrument. A multifunctional data transmission device is connected to the input side of the bus system, to which data transmission device the sub-networks are connectable directly in parallel and are controllable in a parallel manner with respect to time by way of several control devices distributed on the connected sub-networks.Type: GrantFiled: August 7, 2006Date of Patent: January 11, 2011Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AktiengesellschaftInventor: Wolfram Mark -
Patent number: 7865277Abstract: A method includes the steps of receiving a present route for a vehicle based on a present vehicle location and a vehicle destination, receiving obstacle information from a sensor of a sensor array, the received obstacle information including information about at least one moving obstacle, and determining if the received present route is valid based upon the received obstacle information. If the received present route is invalid, the method determines a revised route based upon the received present route, the received obstacle information, and/or the vehicle destination. A system incorporating the method may include a sensor array, a communication link, a processing module, and a navigation module. The system and method may be used to control the route of a vehicle such as an unmanned surface vehicle that may be land-based, water-based, or air-based.Type: GrantFiled: December 13, 2007Date of Patent: January 4, 2011Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the NavyInventors: Jacoby R. Larson, Michael H. Bruch
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Patent number: 7864630Abstract: A method and apparatus for minimizing interference between seismic systems. The method may generally include: (a) actuating a plurality of first sources associated with a first seismic system to generate a first plurality of phase-encoded vibratory signals; (b) actuating a plurality of second sources associated with a second seismic system to generate a second plurality of phase-encoded vibratory signals that are at least partially frequency separated from the first plurality of phase-encoded vibratory signals generated in (a); and (c) detecting the first and second plurality of phase-encoded vibratory signals utilizing a first receiver positioned at a location remote from the first and second sources.Type: GrantFiled: November 1, 2007Date of Patent: January 4, 2011Assignee: ConocoPhillips CompanyInventors: Stephen K. Chiu, Joel D. Brewer, Peter M. Eick
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Patent number: 7864628Abstract: A seismic information processing method and apparatus includes attenuating flexural wave noise information from seismic information. Flexural wave information removal includes receiving the seismic information using an information processing device interface, the seismic information having a plurality of directional components acquired using a multi-axis motion sensor coupled to ice floating on a body of water, the seismic information including desired seismic information and the flexural wave information. A noise model of the flexural wave information may be generated using at least one of the plurality of seismic information directional components using an information processing device. The noise model is improved using an adaptive correction filter, and the improved noise model is applied to at least one directional component of the received seismic information to attenuate the flexural wave information wave in the seismic information.Type: GrantFiled: July 9, 2008Date of Patent: January 4, 2011Assignee: ION Geophysical CorporationInventors: Gary A. Sitton, Theodore C. Stieglitz
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Patent number: 7860624Abstract: A vehicular steering control apparatus is comprised of a steering system of receiving a steering torque inputted by a driver, a torque control actuator connected to the steering system to produce an actuator torque relative to the steering torque and a steering controlling section connected to the torque actuator. The steering controlling section controls the torque control actuator and increases a phase delay of the actuator torque relative to the steering torque toward a neighborhood of 180° as the frequency of the inputted steering torque increases.Type: GrantFiled: September 27, 2005Date of Patent: December 28, 2010Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Masahiro Kubota, Hiroshi Mouri, Masayuki Watanabe, Nami Horiguchi
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Patent number: 7860628Abstract: An apparatus, method and tangible medium using GPS for guiding a farm implement along a turn path between swaths. The apparatus includes a GPS receiver and a turn computer. The turn computer calculates or stores a turn path between swaths, calibrates GPS positions to a swath end position and uses the calibrated GPS positions to guide the implement along the turn path to the start of the next swath. A steering wheel autopilot may be included to steer a powered vehicle according to a cross track error between the calibrated GPS positions and the turn path.Type: GrantFiled: June 9, 2005Date of Patent: December 28, 2010Assignee: Trimble Navigation LimitedInventor: Arthur F. Lange
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Patent number: 7860645Abstract: The telematics service providing system generates a path from the departure point to the destination based on traffic information, generates guidance information for each guidance point where a turn to a direction that is different from the current progress direction of the client is needed on the generated path, clips a vicinity map covering a predetermined area with reference to the guidance point from the total map to generate a guidance point vicinity map, converts the generated guidance point vicinity map into a format displayable by the client, and provides the converted map to the client terminal. Accordingly, confusion caused by complex crossroads or paths that need consecutive and same direction turns may be prevented, the client terminal may not need a memory for storing large-volume geographic information data, and the client may not additionally need to upgrade the geographic information data.Type: GrantFiled: June 30, 2005Date of Patent: December 28, 2010Assignee: SK CorporationInventors: Do-Sung Kim, Won-Hee Cho, Jin-Kyung Park, In-Joon Choi, Min-Hui Park
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Patent number: 7856311Abstract: An information providing system that provides information to a traveling user, includes a visit history record unit which detects that the user visits a place which is away from a user's living area in order to generate a travel history, and records, as a visit history, the travel history together with a visit area which represents the visited place. Moreover, the information providing system includes a visit history database, a facility information database which provides the user with the information regarding the visit area recorded in the visit history database, and a facility information search unit.Type: GrantFiled: February 13, 2004Date of Patent: December 21, 2010Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Satoshi Matsuura, Takahiro Kudo, Jun Ozawa, Mototaka Yoshioka
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Patent number: 7852708Abstract: Methods and related systems are described for use with hydraulic fracturing and other oilfield applications. A tool body is positioned in a wellbore at a location near a subterranean rock formation being fractured. The tool body contains a plurality of deployable continuous fibers. At least some of the deployable continuous fibers are deployed into fractures within a subterranean rock formation. Each deployed fiber is continuous from the tool body to the rock formation. The number of deployable continuous fibers provides sufficient redundancy to make at least a target measurement relating to the fracturing process.Type: GrantFiled: May 15, 2008Date of Patent: December 14, 2010Assignee: Schlumberger Technology CorporationInventors: Martin E. Poitzsch, Pabitra N. Sen, Karen Wiemer, Guillemette Picard, Muthusamy Vembusubramanian
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Patent number: 7853381Abstract: A vehicle occupant protection device comprising a headrest configured to be movable forward with respect to a vehicle, and an actuator configured to implement the forward movement is disclosed. The device is configured to protect a vehicle occupant by operating the actuator to move the headrest forward in a pre-crash stage in the course of an object crashing into the vehicle from backside of the vehicle. The headrest is provided with an electrical capacitance sensor. The device is configured to control an amount of the forward movement of the headrest according to a variation manner of electrical capacitance, which electrical capacitance is detected by the electrical capacitance sensor when the headrest moves forward.Type: GrantFiled: October 26, 2006Date of Patent: December 14, 2010Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Motomi Iyoda
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Patent number: 7853375Abstract: A system and method is disclosed for monitoring a motor vehicle. The system includes a sensor unit for collecting at least one vehicle statistic and a portable device for displaying the vehicle statistics. The portable device requests the vehicle statistics from the sensor unit at regular intervals or in response to a particular event and displays statistics on a built-in display screen. In one embodiment, the portable device may be attached to the keys used to operate the vehicle being monitored.Type: GrantFiled: April 10, 2007Date of Patent: December 14, 2010Inventor: Maurice Tuff
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Patent number: 7853390Abstract: An acceleration control system stores a target acceleration calculation equation acquired by transforming an equation that expresses that a product of the differentiation of the square power of the speed and the environmental factor ?env represents a sensed value ? of acceleration. A surrounding environment monitor device detects surrounding bodies present in the forward periphery of the vehicle, and an environmental factor calculation unit calculates the environmental factor ?env by using the detected positions of the surrounding bodies. A target acceleration setting unit successively sets target accelerations aref in compliance with the target acceleration calculation equation by using the environmental factor ?env. The acceleration is executed to match the driver's feeling.Type: GrantFiled: June 24, 2008Date of Patent: December 14, 2010Assignee: Denso CorporationInventors: Hiroshi Inou, Minoru Okada, Takehito Fujii, Seiji Totsuka
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Patent number: 7853391Abstract: An energy-saving driving promotion system includes: a vehicle state detecting device; a current value calculating device that calculates a current value associated with an accelerator operation amount or a vehicle drive power; a recommended value calculating device that calculates a recommended value associated with the accelerator operation amount or the vehicle drive power; an indicator device that indicates a relationship between the calculated recommended value and the calculated current value; and an acceleration intention determining device that determines whether a driver intends to accelerate. If the acceleration intention determining device determines that the driver intends to accelerate, the recommended value calculating device calculates a larger recommended value when the acceleration intention determining device determines that the driver intends to accelerate than when the acceleration intention determining device determines that the driver does not intend to accelerate.Type: GrantFiled: April 3, 2008Date of Patent: December 14, 2010Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Osamu Komeda, Akito Adachi, Takeshi Yamada, Yukihiro Okane, Sadamu Tsuge
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Patent number: 7853403Abstract: A navigation system for a vehicle for generating a plurality of routes from a present position of the vehicle to a destination acquires the present position. The system stores map data of a map and storing position detection data. The system displays the map based on the map data. The system forms a factor chart of each of the plurality of routes and the associated one or more factors. The system causes the factor chart of the associated one or more factors of the each of the plurality of routes to be displayed. The system searches for at least one facility located along the each of the plurality of routes based on the position detection data. The system causes the at least one facility to be displayed together with the chart of the associated factor.Type: GrantFiled: February 21, 2008Date of Patent: December 14, 2010Assignee: DENSO CORPORATIONInventor: Hiroshi Tanaka
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Patent number: 7848883Abstract: The invention concerns a device (1) comprising means (2) for emitting periodically position data, means (3) for emitting inertial data, means (4) for determining the position of the mobile object upon each position data emission based thereon, and means (5) for determining the position of the mobile object between two successive emissions of position data, the time interval between two successive emissions being divided into time ranges of equal duration separated by intermediate times, the latter means (5) determining for each current intermediate time the position of the mobile object, based on its position at the preceding intermediate time and based on its movement during the time range delimited by the current and preceding intermediate times, movement which is calculated by means of the inertial date.Type: GrantFiled: July 12, 2006Date of Patent: December 7, 2010Assignee: Airbus FranceInventors: Fabien Fetzmann, Pierre Coldefy, Thierry Malaval, Stéphane Collins
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Patent number: 7848885Abstract: A collision determining apparatus for a vehicle includes a first acceleration measuring device which measures an acceleration acting on the vehicle, a movement amount calculating device which calculates an amount of movement of an occupant, a change in movement speed calculating device which calculates a change in movement speed of the occupant, a first collision determining threshold value setting device which sets collision determining threshold values for a correlation between the amount of movement of the occupant and the change in movement speed of the occupant, a first collision determining device which determines whether or not the correlation exceeds the collision determining threshold value, and a first control signal generating device which generates a control signal which instructs that an occupant protection apparatus be operated slowly in multiple stages or be operated rapidly in multiple stages.Type: GrantFiled: September 16, 2005Date of Patent: December 7, 2010Assignee: Keihin CorporationInventor: Masatoshi Hayasaka
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Patent number: 7848881Abstract: A system is provided for tracking and maintaining an inventory of location of containers that are stored on cargo ships or in a container yard. The system includes one or more sensors, such as GPS and INS sensors for obtaining real-time position information, as well as a processor configured to automatically provide post processing to recover lost data and to correct erroneous data, such as when real-time position signals are blocked or distorted, the post processing performed by estimating trajectories and correcting the location errors. Post-processed positioning techniques are continuously applied to the stored position data to iteratively determine calibrated position locations to provide calibrated second trajectory segments in a real-time fashion. The calibrated second trajectories are then used to identify the errors in the past real-time position data as soon as a segment of the second calibrated trajectory becomes statistically trustworthy.Type: GrantFiled: June 29, 2006Date of Patent: December 7, 2010Assignee: ContainerTrac, Inc.Inventors: Han-Shue Tan, Larry Henry
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Patent number: 7844381Abstract: A device for controlling an automated transmission of a motor vehicle engine-transmission unit capable of delivering a torque setpoint signal to be applied to the motor vehicle wheels, including two static and dynamic components, produced based on input data delivered by an input unit including a recorded list of parameters representing the driver's wishes, the motor vehicle state, and the motor vehicle surroundings. The device includes a first unit capable of calculating a dynamic torque component not adapted to a cornering situation; a second unit capable of calculating a static torque component, connected to the input of the first unit; and a unit for adaptation to the come in situation delivering a static torque component adapted to the cornering situation in accordance with a list of predetermined input parameters.Type: GrantFiled: September 5, 2005Date of Patent: November 30, 2010Assignee: Renault s.a.s.Inventors: Frédéric Roudeau, Jean Bretheau, Vincent Vermuse
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Patent number: 7844377Abstract: Current position of a vehicle and current time are acquired. A user recognizing unit recognizes a user. A pattern recognizing unit detects location of a portable device and movement thereof. Operation state of an engine is acquired from an engine control mechanism. Based on the information, processes are performed such as switching communication stand-by mode of the portable device to active stand-by mode, notifying the portable device of a transition of an on-board terminal to automatic locking mode, preventing needless unlocking and locking of doors, and setting warning mode of the portable device.Type: GrantFiled: June 14, 2006Date of Patent: November 30, 2010Assignee: Fujitsu Ten LimitedInventors: Mitsuru Oota, Tetsuya Nomura, Satoshi Harumoto, Yuusaku Matsuda, Yasushi Seike
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Patent number: 7843765Abstract: To attenuate a surface seismic wave, seismic sensors having a predetermined orientation with respect to a surface are provided, where the seismic sensors receive seismic waves including a seismic wave reflected from a subterranean structure and the surface seismic wave propagating in at least a first direction that is generally parallel to the surface. A signal that represents a partial derivative of a wavefield containing the surface seismic wave is provided, and the signal is integrated to obtain a response in which the surface seismic wave is attenuated.Type: GrantFiled: August 9, 2007Date of Patent: November 30, 2010Assignee: WesternGeco L.L.C.Inventor: Masahiro Kamata