Patents Examined by Tanya T Motsinger
  • Patent number: 11063664
    Abstract: A novel device, system and method is disclosed for transmitting audio from a wireless audio device to wireless headphones and/or speakers (or combination thereof) via a combination of digital and analog, one and/or two way, radio frequency and infrared wireless technologies for the purposes of providing entertainment for one or more listeners using the headphones or speakers with internal or external battery or power supply and one or more integrated power connections for the wireless audio device or other devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Inventor: Christopher J. Wheeler
  • Patent number: 11050489
    Abstract: An indoor visible light positioning method and system based on a single LED lamp. The system includes an LED communication module and a smartphone module. The LED communication module sends its coordinates and shape data to the smartphone module. The smartphone module includes an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a camera. The IMU is configured to obtain movement data of a smartphone. The camera is configured to shoot video streams of the LED lamp. Computing processing is performed on center point coordinates of the LED lamp and IMU data in the video streams, and constraints are provided by using a homography matrix of ellipses in the video streams, to obtain accurate location information of the smartphone, and provide location-based services such as navigation and query for a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: NANJING UNIVERSITY OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS
    Inventors: Jie Hao, Jing Chen
  • Patent number: 11044018
    Abstract: Embodiments of the disclosure pertain to an optical modulator including an m*n optical coupler, first and second waveguides coupled or connected to the m*n optical coupler, a first phase shifter coupled to the first waveguide, and first and second loop mirrors at respective ends of the first and second waveguides opposite from the m*n optical coupler. The m*n optical coupler is configured to combine substantially similar or identical continuous light beams (at least one of which may be phase-shifted) returned through the first and second waveguides by the first and second loop mirrors to form a modulated optical signal. A compound optical modulator, a modulated or modulatable laser, and methods of using and manufacturing the optical modulators, are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2021
    Assignee: Source Photonics, Inc.
    Inventors: Qiugui Zhou, Mark Heimbuch
  • Patent number: 11044019
    Abstract: A tunable optical dispersion compensator (TODC) for providing chromatic dispersion (CD) compensation of optical signals in a plurality of optical channels comprises: a plurality of CD compensation fibers; a tunable optical switch configurable for directing an optical signal in any of the plurality of optical channels to one of the plurality of fibers, dependent on a central wavelength of the optical signal; a first switch configurable for directing all signals in the plurality of optical channels to a first CD compensation fiber, in a first mode of operation, and for bypassing the first CD compensation fiber in a second mode of operation; and, the first CD compensation fiber, wherein the first switch and the tunable optical switch are connected so as to enable combining CD compensation provided by the first CD compensation fiber and CD compensation provided by any one of the plurality of CD compensation fibers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2021
    Assignee: Accelink Technologies Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Lijie Qiao, Qinlian Bu, Li Xiao
  • Patent number: 11025362
    Abstract: This application discloses a dynamic time adjustment method, apparatus, and system, and pertains to the field of network communications. The method includes: determining a length of a new downstream transmission duration; updating lengths of upstream and downstream transmission durations based on the determined length of the new downstream transmission duration; and keeping silent or sending an idle symbol or another symbol with known content in a transition zone until all user-side devices complete updating of the lengths of the upstream and downstream transmission durations, where the transition zone is an additional zone of the new downstream transmission duration compared with a currently used downstream transmission duration, or an additional zone of a new upstream transmission duration compared with a currently used upstream transmission duration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hui Yin, Xiang Wang
  • Patent number: 10992387
    Abstract: A method of combining optical signals from a plurality of optical fibers into a single optical signal includes receiving, at corresponding optical-signal receivers optically coupled to corresponding trunk fibers, respective optical signals. The method further includes determining, by the corresponding optical-signal receivers, when each respective optical signal is received. When the respective optical signal is received, the method includes performing the following steps: converting, by the corresponding optical-signal receiver, the respective optical signal to a corresponding electrical signal; transmitting, by the corresponding optical-signal receiver, the corresponding electrical signal to a corresponding input channel of an electrical-multiplexing device; and configuring the electrical-multiplexing device to select the corresponding input channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Cedric Fung Lam, Xiangjun Zhao, Shuang Yin, Muthu Nagarajan, Tao Zhang, Liang Du, Adam Edwin Taylor Barratt, Changhong Joy Jiang, Claudio Desanti
  • Patent number: 10985846
    Abstract: A signal receiving apparatus includes at least one signal separating apparatus that separates a specific signal from a plurality of received signals. Each of the at least one signal separating apparatus includes a spatial filtering unit that separates at least one equalized signal and a decision signal outputting unit that generates a first decision signal by deciding the equalized signal and outputs the generated first decision signal. The spatial filtering unit separates the at least one equalized signal by multiplying at least the plurality of received signals among the plurality of received signals and either the first decision signal output from the decision signal outputting unit or a second decision signal output from another signal separating apparatus by predetermined weighting coefficients.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kohki Shibahara, Takayuki Mizuno, Akira Isoda, Yutaka Miyamoto
  • Patent number: 10979149
    Abstract: An elementary device for coherently recombining a first elementary beam and a second elementary beam, includes a first input and a second input, into which are respectively injected the first elementary beam and the second elementary beam to be recombined, an output that delivers an output beam corresponding to the coherent recombination of the first and second elementary beams, a delay line placed on one of the paths of said elementary beams and configured to induce a variable delay on said path, a variable coupler comprising a first 2×2 combiner, a phase modulator and a second 2×2 combiner, a control detector configured to generate, from the complementary beam, an error signal (?), a feedback loop configured to determine, from the error signal, the delay and the phase difference to be applied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: THALES
    Inventors: Jérôme Bourderionnet, Arnaud Brignon, Arnaud Le Kernec, Michel Sotom, Anaëlle Maho
  • Patent number: 10972207
    Abstract: Example embodiments are in a form of a system, corresponding electronics card (or apparatus), or corresponding method. Some embodiments include a multi-channel optical layer system. According to some embodiments, the system may include a network interface layer, an adapter layer, and an optical function layer. The adapter layer may learn functions and/or corresponding specifications from the function layer. The adapter layer may configure the adapter layer itself to interoperate between the network interface layer and the optical function layer. The adapter layer may provide flexibility in the size of configured functionality. The adapter layer may reduce cost of configuration (or reconfiguration) because functions may be discretized. New markets may be reached because of this reduced cost, as well as due to smaller size configurations (of hardware and software), reduced electronics, reduced power, and improved thermal cooling requirements for lesser-developed network configurations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: Coriant Operations, Inc.
    Inventors: Julia Y. Larikova, Yajun Wang, Bradley Ronald Kangas, Larry J. DeeWaard, II
  • Patent number: 10958995
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for determining the link latency of an optical transmission link which includes an end node at each end and one or more pass-through nodes. Each pair of neighboring nodes is connected, at a connection port of each node, by an optical connecting path. Each pass-through node includes an optical pass-through path between its connection ports. The optical connecting paths and optical pass-through paths form an optical link path. A delimiter device includes a delimiter element provided at each connection port of each node. The delimiter element forms a demarcation within the optical link path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2021
    Assignee: ADVA Optical Networking SE
    Inventor: Michael Eiselt
  • Patent number: 10931085
    Abstract: A super structure grating spatially performs amplitude and phase modulation on a uniform grating using a modulation function to generate a comb reflection spectrum. (N+1) modulation function discrete values are obtained after discretization processing is performed on the modulation function using N thresholds. Each of the (N+1) modulation function discrete values corresponds to one section of optical waveguide whose refractive index is uniform or corresponds to one section of the uniform grating. A reflectivity and a full width half maximum (FWHM) of a reflection peak of the super structure grating is adjusted based on a relationship of a ratio of a length of an optical waveguide corresponding to at least one of the (N+1) modulation function discrete values to a total grating length of the super structure grating, and based on the total grating length of the super structure grating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Lin Wu, Hongmin Chen
  • Patent number: 10911154
    Abstract: A directional coupler may include a first waveguide and a second waveguide. The first waveguide may include an optical input port to receive an optical signal and a first output port. The second waveguide may include a terminated port and a second output port. The first and second optical waveguides may be configured to split the optical signal such that a first portion of the optical signal is directed to the first output port and a second portion of the optical signal is directed to the second output port. The first portion of the optical signal may include first substantially equal portions of a transverse magnetic (TM) polarization mode and a transverse electric (TE) polarization mode of the optical signal. The second portion of the optical signal may include second substantially equal portions of the TM polarization mode and the TE polarization mode of the optical signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: II-VI Delaware, Inc.
    Inventors: Faraz Monifi, Bryan Park
  • Patent number: 10911148
    Abstract: An optical transmission apparatus includes first and second optical waveguides to transmit light of multiple wavelengths; optical couplers on the waveguides, to couple the lights transmitted through the waveguides, so as to output the coupled light to the waveguides; phase shifters provided at preceding stages of part of the optical couplers, to change a phase shift amount of the light transmitted through the first and/or second optical waveguides, wherein the number of optical couplers in the part is greater than or equal to the number of the types of wavelengths; a monitor to monitor the intensity of the light output to the second optical waveguide via the optical coupler at the last stage; and a controller to control the phase shifters by changing the phase shift amount for each of the phase shifters in a direction in which the output of the monitor decreases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignees: FUJITSU LIMITED, PHOTONICS ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH ASSOCIATION
    Inventor: Tomoyuki Akiyama
  • Patent number: 10887022
    Abstract: An optical transport system configured to compensate nonlinear signal distortions using a backward-propagation algorithm in which some effects of polarization mode dispersion on the nonlinear signal distortions are accounted for by employing two or more different approximations of said effects within the bandwidth of the optical communication signal. In an example embodiment, the corresponding digital signal processor (DSP) is configured to switch between different approximations based on a comparison, with a fixed threshold value, of a difference between frequencies of various optical waves contributing to the nonlinear signal distortions, e.g., through four-wave-mixing processes. In different embodiments, the backward-propagation algorithm can be executed by the transmitter's DSP or the receiver's DSP.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: NOKIA OF AMERICA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ronen Dar, Cristian B. Czegledi
  • Patent number: 10873393
    Abstract: Disclosed in some examples, are optical devices, systems, and machine-readable mediums that send and receive multiple streams of data across a same optical communication path (e.g., a same fiber optic fiber) with a same wavelength using different light sources transmitting at different power levels—thereby increasing the bandwidth of each optical communication path. Each light source corresponding to each stream transmits at a same frequency and on the same optical communication path using a different power level. The receiver differentiates the data for each stream by applying one or more detection models to the photon counts observed at the receiver to determine likely bit assignments for each stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventor: Amer Aref Hassan
  • Patent number: 10868613
    Abstract: A passive fiber optic switching (“PFOS”) device may provide failover in a fiber optic network by switching a working path between different fibers of a redundant set of fibers. The PFOS device may operate passively (e.g., without an active, external, and/or continuous power supply) by harvesting the power that it needs from the light that passes over any one or more fibers that are connected to the PFOS device. The PFOS device may detect issues that disrupt signaling and/or light transmission on the working path based on quality (e.g., signaling and/or light properties) of the working path, and/or diagnostic messaging received from other devices on the working path. The PFOS device may include an optical switch, such as a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (“MEMS”) mirror switch, that can change the working path by switching light to any fiber of the redundant set of fibers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2020
    Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
    Inventors: Donna L. Polehn, Mark T. Watts
  • Patent number: 10868614
    Abstract: An optical node includes one or more Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (OADM) devices which each form a respective degree connected to an associated Optical Multiplex Section (OMS) section of a cascaded optical network including a plurality of OMS sections; and a channel holder source connected to the OADM devices, wherein the OADM device is configured to detect a local fault affecting one or more traffic signals and switch to the channel holder source to provide a respective channel holder the one or more traffic signals with a same power level and spectral location such that the respective channel holder replaces a respective traffic signal at the OADM device which is a first switching port after the fault and such that all other OADM devices at other optical nodes downstream from the fault remain switched to the one or more traffic signals due to a presence of the provided respective channel holder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2020
    Assignee: Ciena Corporation
    Inventors: Choudhury A. Al Sayeed, David C. Bownass, David W. Boertjes, Scott Kohlert
  • Patent number: 10862592
    Abstract: An optical receiver includes, a first converting circuit that converts an optical signal into an electric signal, a plurality of common circuits, each of which has a same circuit configuration and performs a digital signal processing on the electric signal, and a processor that selects and operates one or more common circuits from among the plurality of common circuits according to a transmission method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2020
    Assignee: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Hisao Nakashima, Takeshi Hoshida
  • Patent number: 10848250
    Abstract: A system for powering a network element of a fiber optic wide area network is disclosed. When communication data is transferred between a central office (CO) and a subscriber terminal using a network element to convert optical to electrical (O-E) and electrical to optical (E-O) signals between a fiber from the central office and twisted wire pair, coaxial cable or Ethernet cable transmission lines from the subscriber terminal, techniques related to local powering of a network element or drop site by the subscriber terminal or subscriber premise remote powering device are provided. Certain advantages and/or benefits are achieved using the present invention, such as freedom from any requirement for additional meter installations or meter connection charges and does not require a separate power network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Inventors: Alexander Ivan Soto, Walter Glen Soto
  • Patent number: 10827650
    Abstract: The systems and methods described herein provide a submarine optical repeater in which a plurality of thermally conductive, electrically insulative, ceramic members form a hollow structure having an interior volume that is maintained at a relatively high first voltage when compared to a relatively low second voltage maintained external to the hollow structure. A conductive element at the first voltage disposed in the interior volume provides power to optical repeaters disposed on the interior surface of the hollow structure. Power flows radially outward from the conductive element to the optical repeaters to the surrounding environment about the submarine optical repeater. The thermally conductive ceramic members electrically isolate the optical repeaters from the second voltage while providing a thermally conductive pathway for the heat generated during the operation of the optical repeaters to dissipate into the surrounding environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2020
    Assignee: IPG PHOTONICS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Sergio Walter Grassi