Patents Examined by Mary C Baran
  • Patent number: 7778778
    Abstract: Measurements made by a multi-component induction logging tool are corrected for tool eccentricity in a deviated borehole. The eccentricity angle is determined from single frequency skin-effect corrected data and is then used to correct multifrequency data. Multifrequency focusing is then applied to the corrected multifrequency data. An inversion is then used to recover formation resistivity and relative dip and azimuth of the borehole.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2010
    Assignee: Baker Hughes Incorporated
    Inventors: Alexandre N. Bespalov, Gulamabbas Merchant, Cynthia Dong Xue, Luis M. Pelegri, Michael B. Rabinovich, Stephen V. Painchaud, Bill H. Corley, Stanislav W. Forgang, Randy Gold
  • Patent number: 7774158
    Abstract: The invention is related to methods and apparatus that use a visual sensor and dead reckoning sensors to process Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). These techniques can be used in robot navigation. Advantageously, such visual techniques can be used to autonomously generate and update a map. Unlike with laser rangefinders, the visual techniques are economically practical in a wide range of applications and can be used in relatively dynamic environments, such as environments in which people move. One embodiment further advantageously uses multiple particles to maintain multiple hypotheses with respect to localization and mapping. Further advantageously, one embodiment maintains the particles in a relatively computationally-efficient manner, thereby permitting the SLAM processes to be performed in software using relatively inexpensive microprocessor-based computer systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2010
    Assignee: Evolution Robotics, Inc.
    Inventors: Luis Filipe Domingues Goncalves, Enrico Di Bernardo, Paolo Pirjanian, L. Niklas Karlsson
  • Patent number: 7769545
    Abstract: A method of determining geological information related to a subsurface volume. In one embodiment, the method comprises obtaining a seismic information related to a subsurface volume; determining a horizon volume that automatically maps the seismic information into a flattened volume, wherein one axis of the flattened volume corresponds to chronostratigraphic time, and wherein horizons represented by the seismic information are automatically accounted for in the horizon volume, and are shifted by the horizon volume into the flattened volume to be substantially planar and substantially perpendicular to the axis of the flattened volume that corresponds to chronostratigraphic time; determining a derivative of the horizon volume with respect to chronostratigraphic time; and determining geological information related to the subsurface volume based on the derivative of the horizon volume with respect to chronostratigraphic time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2010
    Assignee: Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
    Inventors: Jesse Lomask, James Rickett, Julian Clark
  • Patent number: 7769546
    Abstract: A method of determining a horizon volume. In one embodiment, the horizon volume is determined from obtained seismic information, and maps the obtained seismic information onto a flattened volume such that in the flattened volume, horizons represented in the obtained seismic information are shifted to be substantially coplanar with a surface defined by the horizon volume as an estimate of a single chronostratigraphic time such that the parameters of the flattened volume include (i) a two-dimensional position in a surface plane, and (ii) a metric related to chronostratigraphic time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2010
    Assignee: Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
    Inventors: Jesse Lomask, James Rickett, Julian Clark
  • Patent number: 7765074
    Abstract: A circuit, apparatus and method obtains system margin at the receive circuit using phase shifted data sampling clocks while allowing the CDR to remain synchronized with the incoming data stream in embodiments. In an embodiment, a circuit includes first and second samplers to sample a data signal and output data and edge information in response to a data clock signal and an edge clock signal. A phase detector generates phase information in response to the data information and the edge information. A clock phase adjustment circuit generates the data clock signal and the edge clock signal in response to the data information during a synchronization mode. The clock phase adjustment circuit increments a phase of the data clock signal during a waveform capture mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2010
    Assignee: Rambus Inc.
    Inventors: Dennis Kim, Jared Zerbe, Mark Horowitz, William Stonecypher
  • Patent number: 7725270
    Abstract: An apparatus for measuring a parameter of a fluid flowing within a pipe includes a sensing device having a sensor for sensing an unsteady pressure of the fluid flow. The sensing device generates sensor data responsive to the parameter. A processing device, which communicates with the sensing device, receives and processes the sensor data to generate meter data. The apparatus includes a digital interface, which communicates with the processing device, that is configured to associate with a portable external digital storage device for transferring information between the apparatus and the portable external digital storage device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Expro Meters, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael A. Davis
  • Patent number: 7711512
    Abstract: According to an example embodiment, a semiconductor device test system includes a semiconductor device and a test apparatus. The semiconductor device includes a plurality of function blocks for performing predetermined functions at different operating speeds and a plurality of ports, each corresponding to a respective function block. The test apparatus is adapted to generate a plurality of signals with different frequencies corresponding to each of the operating speeds of the function blocks, to output a plurality of input test data to the ports in response to the signals, and to receive a plurality of output test data from the ports to determine if the semiconductor device is normal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Sang-Keun Kwak, Kyong-Ho Jeon
  • Patent number: 7702479
    Abstract: A method and system for testing a computer is presented. The temperature of the computer is controlled by one or more on-board fans inside the computer's enclosure. Voltages are controlled at the Voltage Regulator Module (VRM) level. A test program is then run under varying temperature and VRM voltages, and the results of the test program are logged. The present invention can be used either at the manufacturer's location or the customer's site, either under local or remote control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Srinivas Cheemalapati, Jimmy Grant Foster, Sr., Timothy J. Schlude, Philip Louis Weinstein
  • Patent number: 7684943
    Abstract: A method for appropriately managing the quality and distribution of a probe carrier. Probe carriers manufactured by a probe carrier manufacturing apparatus having ejecting portions for ejecting probe solutions, each containing a probe, which can be specifically coupled with a target substance, for applying the probe solution on a carrier, and a plurality of probe tanks storing mutually different probe solutions for supplying ejecting portions. Each probe tank is labeled with the bar-code. The labeled bar-code is read by the bar-code reader. On the basis of the read bar-code, the probe solution stored in the probe tank is identified. On the other hand, the probe tank is mounted on the ejecting portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Okamura, Makoto Kameyama, Tadashi Okamoto
  • Patent number: 7672805
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for synchronizing digital and analog/mixed signal modules in a test site of an open architecture test system is disclosed. Event triggers from digital modules are routed to an ASYNC module, which selectively distributes them to analog/mixed signal modules. When an event occurs, the trigger may activate an analog/mixed signal module to perform a certain operation. The ASYNC module may also receive triggers from the analog/mixed signal modules and selectively distribute them back to the digital modules or analog/mixed signal modules. The digital modules can be programmed to wait for an analog/mixed signal module to complete an operation, as indicated by a trigger received from that analog/mixed signal module, before continuing. Because embodiments of the present invention enable synchronization of digital and analog/mixed signal modules under pattern control, synchronization can be very precise and repeatable as compared to synchronization from a site controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2010
    Assignee: Advantest Corporation
    Inventors: Eric Barr Kushnick, Kenji Inaba, Toshiyuki Miura
  • Patent number: 7668671
    Abstract: The present invention provides a system, method and medium for monitoring and managing the resource consumption and resource infrastructure of at least one building in real time. The present invention integrates field studies of at least one building's resource consumption and resource infrastructure with real time resource usage. The integrated information can be operated on by the analytical tools of the present invention to forecast future resource consumption and obtain resource market information. The integrated resource information can also be used to feed back into the building resource management system of at least one building to control the resource states of the at least one building. The present invention provides a graphical user interface for monitoring and managing the components of the resource consumption and resource infrastructure of at least one building.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2010
    Inventor: Dario Gristina
  • Patent number: 7660683
    Abstract: The instantaneous value of an intermediate waveform I is the instantaneous value of a unipolar waveform U multiplied through amplification by an upscaling factor UF of 1.5. A plateau value P is subtracted from the intermediate value I, and the result of this subtraction is multiplied by a multiplication factor MF of 0.6. The result of the multiplication is added to the plateau value P, which sum becomes an auxiliary waveform A. During the ‘fall-below’ periods F, the value of a combined waveform C is arranged to follow whichever is the highest of the auxiliary value A and the plateau value P. Outside the fall-below periods, the value of the combined waveform C follows whichever is the highest of the unipolar value U and the plateau value P. This combined waveform C has, for a given plateau level P, a narrower fall-below window. Phase-chopping thus has an effect on the power of the output signal over a greater range of the cycle than can be provided by the corresponding prior art arrangement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2010
    Inventors: Brian Cuthbertson, Peter Gordon Davy
  • Patent number: 7657394
    Abstract: System and method for enabling direct determination of rigid body motion using data collected from a plurality of independent accelerometers are disclosed. A mechanical object that can be theoretically emulated as a rigid body is instrumented with a plurality of accelerometers at different locations. Direct determination of rigid body motion at a location of interest includes following operations at each solution time step: transform local acceleration to global, integrate accelerations to obtain velocities, calculate direction cosine matrix using the angular velocity matrix, form a first set of redundant equations, obtain the angular velocity by solving the first set of equations using either least squares fitting or a selective Gaussian elimination scheme, form a second set of redundant equations and obtain the translational velocity by solving the second set of equations using either the averaged value or a pre-defined rule such as minimizing the contribution from the rotational term.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Assignee: Livermore Software Technology Corporation
    Inventor: Todd Patrick Slavik
  • Patent number: 7653515
    Abstract: A method for adjusting a data set defining a set of process runs, each process run having a set of data corresponding to a set of variables for a wafer processing operation is provided. A model derived from a data set is received. A new data set corresponding to one process run is received. The new data set is projected to the model. An outlier data point produced as a result of the projecting is identified. A variable corresponding to the one outlier data point is identified, the identified variable exhibiting a high contribution. A value for the variable from the new data set is identified. Whether the value for the variable is unimportant is determined. A normalized matrix of data is created, using random data and the variable that was determined to be unimportant from each of the new data set and the data set. The data set is updated with the normalized matrix of data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2010
    Assignee: Lam Research Corporation
    Inventors: Puneet Yadav, Andrew D. Bailey, III
  • Patent number: 7653502
    Abstract: A data logger analyzes temperature data associated with a product passing through a conveyor oven and provides a visual indication indicating whether the product's temperature profile is within acceptable limits. Thus, an operator need not download captured temperature data to a computer in order to determine whether the oven settings produce a product profile that is within acceptable limits. In one embodiment, the data logger stores criteria for an acceptable product profile, and collects the temperature data and analyzes whether the temperature profile data is within the acceptable limits of the criteria. In another embodiment, a button and a pass/fail indicator are located externally on data logger. An operator depresses the button in order to request whether the product profile passed or failed the criteria. In response to depressing the button, the pass/fail indicator provides visual indication of whether the current oven settings produce an acceptable product profile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2010
    Assignee: Electronic Controls Design, Inc.
    Inventor: Rex L. Breunsbach
  • Patent number: 7647197
    Abstract: A method of transferring information stored in a mobile instrument, the information including a first information file containing metadata and a pointer indicative of a first auxiliary file address; and first auxiliary file containing image information, the first auxiliary file being located at the first auxiliary file address. The method includes the steps of: storing the metadata in a second information file; storing the image information in a second auxiliary file at a second auxiliary file address; generating a second pointer indicative of the second auxiliary file address; and storing the second pointer in the second information file. The instrument includes a camera; one or more spatial sensors; and an external sensor port. Power to the sensors can be controlled asynchronously. Various parsing methods are also described. The instrument includes a marker module configured to superimpose a marker on the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2010
    Assignee: Surveylab Group Limited
    Inventors: Mark Eric James Prentice, Leon Lammers Van Toorenburg, Craig Richard Bond, Graham Leslie Mann
  • Patent number: 7643964
    Abstract: In a method, system and apparatus for measuring an idle value of a Central Processing Unit (CPU) in an embedded system, the CPU increments a hardware counter in accordance with clock signals. The CPU also increments an idle counter during a predetermined period of time in accordance with the clock signals while an idle task is running. The CPU calculates the idle value as a ratio of total increments of the idle counter to total increments of the hardware counter after the predetermined period of time has expired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2010
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: Vitaly Andrianov
  • Patent number: 7640118
    Abstract: Method and arrangement for deciding the direction to a flickering source in relation to a measurement point in an electrical network with alternating current with a network frequency with low-frequency amplitude variations from the flickering source. The method includes the steps: recording an amplitude-modulated current signal having signals that originate from the network frequency and the low-frequency amplitude variations in the current signal; recording an amplitude-modulated voltage signal having signals that originate from the network frequency and the low-frequency amplitude variations in the voltage signal; creating a flicker power with a sign value by multiplication of the low-frequency amplitude variations in the current signal and the low-frequency amplitude variations in the voltage signal, and analyzing the sign value, with the sign value indicating in which direction the flickering source is to be found in relation to the measurement point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2009
    Assignee: Unipower AB
    Inventors: Peter Axelberg, Jonny Carlsson
  • Patent number: 7634383
    Abstract: There is provided a method for generating a probability distribution for a desired variable. A hyper parameter density function is provided, from which values are randomly selected. The selected hyper parameter value is used to compute an input variable value. A value is randomly selected from each input variable probability density function. These values are input into a physics model to compute an output value. This process is repeated to generate numerous output values, which are then used to construct an output value probability density function. After the output value probability density function is constructed, output value sensor data is obtained. The output density function is updated using the sensor data and a probabilistic evaluation of the hyper parameters. Improved predictions are iteratively made with the updated output distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2009
    Assignee: Northrop Grumman Corporation
    Inventors: Stephen J. Engel, David H. Hoitsma
  • Patent number: 7634376
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for on-chip bias measurement of an analog signals on an integrated circuit with a switchable analog-to-digital converter capable of performing testing and other types of processing. Analog signal test locations are selected for testing by a test input selector which is in turn controlled by a controller on an integrated circuit, such as an imager chip. Test locations are connected to one or more analog-to-digital converters through the test input selector. The analog-to-digital converter(s) output a test measurement digital output to either test equipment or an on-chip calibration circuit. Test equipment or on-chip calibration circuits adjusts imager component bias or other operating parameters used in chip or device operation based on output from the analog-to-digital converter(s).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2009
    Assignee: Aptina Imaging Corporation
    Inventor: Daniel Strittmatter