Patents Examined by Marcus E Windrich
  • Patent number: 10351146
    Abstract: A trailer-detection system includes a radar-sensor, an angle-detector, and a controller. The radar-sensor is used to detect an other-vehicle present in a blind-zone proximate to the host-vehicle. The angle-detector is used to determine a trailer-angle relative to a host-vehicle of a trailer being towed by the host-vehicle. The controller is in communication with the angle-detector and the radar-sensor. The controller is configured to determine a trailer-presence of the trailer based on the radar-signal and the trailer-angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: APTIV TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED
    Inventors: Premchand Krishna Prasad, Robert J. Cashler
  • Patent number: 10338210
    Abstract: Systems and methods can provide alternatives to a global positioning system (GPS). For example, certain systems can operate on 1090 MHz and provide for methods of estimating location that can be used in place of GPS. Thus, a method can include obtaining an estimate of position of an own aircraft based on time of arrival of signals from a plurality of ground stations. The calculation of the estimate can be performed in the own aircraft. The method can also include using the estimate of position instead of a position from a global positioning system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2019
    Assignee: AVIATION COMMUNICATION & SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS LLC
    Inventors: Gregory T. Stayton, James R. Troxel
  • Patent number: 10330785
    Abstract: The invention relates to a technique for millimeter-wave active image reconstruction. According to a method aspect, Tx subgroups of transmitting antennas of an antenna array are established. Coherent processing of measurement data is performed for each Tx subgroup and coherent subimages are achieved. Magnitudes of complex numbers are calculated to obtain a magnitude subimage for each of the coherent subimages and an object image is generated by adding the magnitude subimages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2019
    Assignee: Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventor: Sherif Sayed Ahmed
  • Patent number: 10324164
    Abstract: Methods for characterizing radar can include the steps of receiving a plurality of radar emissions, and determining a plurality of Pulse Repetition Intervals (PRIs) corresponding to the emissions. A plurality of clocks Xi can be calculated using the PRIs. A clock range and a clock interval can be defined for the plurality of calculated clocks Xi and a clock X can be estimated, but only for the clocks Xi that are within the defined clock range. Countdowns Ci can be determined using the calculated clock X, and a mode M and crystal b can be calculated based on Ci. Clock X, countdowns Ci, mode M and crystal b, when considered together can accurately characterize a specific radar emission (and radar the emission came from). The systems and methods can be accomplished using emissions that are being received in real time using a receiver and emissions data from a database simultaneously.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: The United States of America, as Represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Erin L. Daly, Mark W. Owen, Warran Ho Can, Gregory K. Fleizach, Everett W. Sappenfield
  • Patent number: 10324165
    Abstract: A radar sensing system for a vehicle includes a transmitter, a receiver, and a processor. The transmitter is configured to transmit a radio signal. The receiver is configured to receive a radio signal which includes the transmitted radio signal reflected from an object in the environment. The receiver is also configured to receive an interfering radio signal transmitted by a transmitter of another radar sensing system. The processor is configured to control the transmitter to mitigate or avoid interference from the other radar sensing system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: Uhnder, Inc.
    Inventors: Jean P. Bordes, Curtis Davis, Wayne E. Stark, Otto A. Schmid, Raghunath K. Rao
  • Patent number: 10309821
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a transmitter configured to transmit a signal having an electromagnetic pulse towards material in a tank. The apparatus also includes a receiver configured to receive a signal having multiple reflections of the pulse, including a process connector reflection. The apparatus further includes at least one processing device configured to determine a measurement associated with the material in the tank based on the received signal. To determine the measurement, the at least one processing device is configured to identify the process connector reflection in the received signal using an asymmetrical model. The transmitter, the receiver, and the at least one processing device could form at least part of an electronics assembly, and a connecting cable could couple the electronics assembly and a process connector. The asymmetrical model could have different lobes of different shapes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Williams, Michael Conroy
  • Patent number: 10310067
    Abstract: Disclosed is an ATC Radar and a method of operating an ATC Radar, including the steps of: receiving In-phase (I) and Quadrature (Q) signals; creating first and second complex clutter maps using the I and Q signals; wherein the first map comprises data which is dynamically updated on a per-scan basis and the second map comprises data indicative of a static environment with no targets; subtracting data from the second map from the received I and Q signals to mitigate the effects of static objects in the environment, to yield compensated I and Q data; and using the compensated I and Q data for target detection and/or tracking.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: BAE SYSTEMS plc
    Inventor: Derek Geoffrey Finch
  • Patent number: 10305180
    Abstract: A direct-to-home satellite outdoor unit may comprise a reflector, a support structure, circuitry, and an array of antenna elements mounted to the support structure such that energy of a plurality of satellite beams is reflected by the reflector onto the array where the energy is converted to a plurality of first signals. The circuitry may be operable to process the first signals to concurrently generate a plurality of second signals, each of the second signals corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of satellite beams. The circuitry may be operable to process one or more of the second signals for outputting content carried in the one or more of the second signals onto a link to an indoor unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: Maxlinear, Inc.
    Inventor: Curtis Ling
  • Patent number: 10295675
    Abstract: Methods and systems for cryptographically-secure autonomous detection of spoofed GNSS signals is provided. A method is provided that includes the steps of: generating a cryptographic code, controlling a motion of at least one antenna of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver system according to the cryptographic code, detecting a plurality of satellite signals during the controlled motion of the at least one antenna, and determining, based on carrier phase variations of the detected plurality of satellite signals, whether the plurality of satellite signals originated from a spoofer transmitter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2019
    Assignee: Arbiter Systems, Incorporated
    Inventors: William J. Dickerson, Robert T. Dickerson, Joshua R. Dickerson
  • Patent number: 10267907
    Abstract: A radar apparatus is mountable on a vehicle, transmits a radar signal, and includes a radio receiver that receives reflected wave signals being the radar signal reflected by multiple objects present in the viewing angle of the radar apparatus via a receiving antenna mountable on a side of the vehicle, a signal processing unit that determines the azimuths of the objects, the Doppler speeds between the radar apparatus and the objects, and the intensities of the reflected wave signals by using the reflected wave signals, and a radar state estimation unit that estimates the speed and traveling direction of the radar using the azimuths of the objects, the Doppler speeds, and the intensities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2019
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Maiko Shikatani, Hirofumi Nishimura, Asako Hamada, Takaaki Kishigami
  • Patent number: 10254399
    Abstract: The various technologies presented herein relate to detecting small moving entities or targets in radar imagery. Two SAR images can be captured for a common scene, wherein the scene is imaged twice from the same flight path. The first image is captured at a first instance and the second image is captured at a second instance, and differences between the two images are determined using a complex SAR change measure, excess coherency factor or DeltaC, based in part upon quantification of incoherent (or magnitude) change between the two images. A plurality of operations are performed to enable extraction of coherent change measures relating to the small moving entities from measures relating to large objects, stationary reflective structures, radar focusing artifacts, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC
    Inventors: Katherine M. Simonson, David Nikolaus Perkins, Jeffrey A. Brooks, Roger Derek West, Ivan Lizarraga, Matthew Strosnick, David A. Torgesen
  • Patent number: 10247809
    Abstract: A handheld screening device including: an antenna array including a plurality of antennas; an input mechanism to select an operation mode; and a controller to determine a group of antennas of the plurality of antennas, wherein the number of antennas in the group is based on the selected operation mode, and to control the group of antennas to emit electromagnetic waves. A corresponding method operates the handheld screening device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Miquel Testar, Furkan Dayi, Ralf Boehnke, Marcel Blech, Qi Wang
  • Patent number: 10241203
    Abstract: This disclosure is directed to systems, methods, and devices for integrating weather radar data from both ground-based and aircraft weather radar systems. An example system is configured to receive weather radar data from a first weather radar system. The system is further configured to receive weather radar data from one or more additional weather radar systems. The system is further configured to combine the weather radar data from the first weather radar system and the weather radar data from the one or more additional weather radar systems into a combined weather radar data set. The system is further configured to generate an output based on the combined weather radar data set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2019
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Donald C. Kauffman, Kenneth R. Jongsma
  • Patent number: 10230176
    Abstract: A radar apparatus includes a first antenna and a second antenna. The first antenna includes a plurality of first antenna elements that are arrayed in a first direction on a surface oriented to a forward direction, as antenna elements configuring the first antenna. The second antenna includes a plurality of second antenna elements that are arrayed in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction on the surface oriented to a forward direction, as antenna elements configuring the second antenna. The radar apparatus emits radar waves in a forward direction using either of the first and second antennas, and receives reflected waves of the radar waves using the other of the first and second antennas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2019
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazuma Natsume
  • Patent number: 10228274
    Abstract: A liquid level sensing apparatus (10) for long-distance automatically enhancing a signal-to-noise ratio is applied to a measured target (20). The liquid level sensing apparatus (10) includes a sensing module (102), a long-distance command receiving module (104) and at least a brake module (106). The sensing module (102) transmits a sensing signal (108) to the measured target (20). The sensing signal (108) touches the measured target (20) to reflect back a reflected signal (110). The sensing module (102) receives the reflected signal (110) to measure the signal-to-noise ratio and to measure a height of the measured target (20). The long-distance command receiving module (104) is electrically connected to the sensing module (102). The long-distance command receiving module (104) receives a long-distance command signal (302). The brake module (106) is mechanically connected to the sensing module (102).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2019
    Assignee: FINETEK CO., LTD.
    Inventors: I-Chu Lin, Yao-Chen Yu, Chao-Kai Cheng, Yi-Liang Hou
  • Patent number: 10215853
    Abstract: A radar sensing system for a vehicle includes a transmit pipeline, a receive pipeline, and a memory module. The transmit pipeline includes transmitters for transmitting radio signals. The receive pipeline includes receivers for receiving radio signals that include the transmitted radio signals transmitted by the transmitters and reflected from objects in an environment. The memory module is configured to store interference estimates for each receiver of the plurality of receivers that are estimates of interfering radio signals received by each of the receivers that are transmitted by each respective transmitter of the plurality of transmitters. Each receiver of the plurality of receivers is configured to mitigate interference that is due to interfering radio signals transmitted by the plurality of transmitters, as defined by the stored interference estimates of the plurality of transmitters for each particular receiver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: Uhnder, Inc.
    Inventors: Wayne E. Stark, Jean P. Bordes, Curtis Davis, Raghunath K. Rao, Monier Maher, Manju Hegde, Otto A. Schmid
  • Patent number: 10212687
    Abstract: A system and method to opportunistically capture and use measurements of barometric readings from a plurality of mobile agents to determine the elevational position of one of the mobile agents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: Echo Ridge LLC
    Inventors: Joseph P. Kennedy, John P. Carlson
  • Patent number: 10209356
    Abstract: An image of a region of interest (ROI) is generated by a radar system including a set of one or more antennas. The radar system has unknown position perturbations. Pulses are transmitted, as a source signal, to the ROI using the set of antennas at different positions and echoes are received, as a reflected signal, by the set of antennas at the different positions. The reflected signal is deconvolved with the source signal to produce deconvolved data. The deconvolved data are compensated according a coherence between the reflected signal to produce compensated data. Then, a procedure is applied to the compensated data to produce reconstructed data, which are used to reconstruct auto focused images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventor: Dehong Liu
  • Patent number: 10203409
    Abstract: A method and a device for locating a vehicle from a fixed reference map in which objects are assigned one or more positions in the reference map. At successive points of a vehicle trajectory, in each case a radar impulse is emitted and subsequently, angle-resolved and time-resolved measurements of the radar impulse response are performed. Object positions are identified in the environment surrounding the vehicle from the radar impulse response, the current identified object positions forming an environment map. The vehicle position is identified in the reference map by comparing the environment map to the reference map, the reference map being created from the identified positions and is continuously updated. An object classification for the identified object positions in the current environment map and/or reference map is performed and the identification of the vehicle position is performed while taking the object classification into account.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Torsten Bueschenfeld, Stephan Max, Alexander Urban, Stefan Brosig
  • Patent number: 10191142
    Abstract: A method for determining a frequency modulation includes generating a symbol stream that is filtered, with multiple samples per period. Sample values represent samples of the filtered symbols at instants separated by intervals of a fraction of a time period between successive symbols. Samples of I and Q waveforms are calculated from frequency modulating a signal with the sequence of symbols. For each possible set of symbol values on which a waveform depends, an average waveform is produced over all symbol values outside the group; and on which the waveform is not to depend, all waveforms are superimposed within +/?half a period of the center symbol of each group having the same set of values and averaging the superimposed I, Q samples to produce for each group an averaged set of samples and an average waveform. Final I, Q values are stored for subsequent frequency modulation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2019
    Assignee: Uhnder, Inc.
    Inventors: Aria Eshraghi, Curtis Davis, Murtaza Ali, Paul Dent