Abstract: Disclosed is buoyant wave energy capture device, adapted to float adjacent to an upper surface of a body of water over which waves pass, and adapted to capture a portion of the radiated waves created by its own rising and falling in response to incident and/or passing environmental waves. A power take off mechanism combined with the disclosed wave energy capture device may be tuned to a specific wave frequency, and thereby optimally extract energy from a motion of a single frequency, even the wave energy capture device may be excited and/or energized by waves of any of a relatively broad range of frequencies, thereby increasing the power-generation and cost efficiencies of such devices relative to wave energy conversion devices of the prior art.

Abstract: An energy farm comprising an electrical grid through which power generated by the devices in the farm may be combined and transmitted. The electrical grid is formed through the electrical interconnection of devices in a farm through electrical connections that remain, in whole or at least in part, adjacent to the surface of the body of water on which the devices float. A plurality of converters of the network have no direct or immediate electrical interface with a subsea power cable (i.e. a cable on or under the seafloor), but instead transmit electricity to other converters in a daisy-chained fashion.

Abstract: A system which, with data provided by one or more sensors, detects a user's alteration of the geometries of parts of his face, head, neck, and/or shoulders. It determines the extent of each alteration and normalizes it with respect to the maximum possible range of each alteration so as to assign to each part-specific alteration a numeric score indicative of its extent. The normalized part-specific scores are combined so as to produce a composite numeric code representative of the complete set of simultaneously-executed geometric alterations. Each composite code is translated, or interpreted, relative to an appropriate context defined by an embodiment, an application executing on an embodiment, or by the user. For example, each composite code might be interpreted as, or assigned to, a specific alphanumeric letter, a color, a musical note, etc.

Abstract: An apparatus that floats at the surface of a body of water over which waves pass, causing a nominally vertical axis of the apparatus to tilt away from an axis normal to the resting surface of the body of water. Tilting allows a fluid to flow through a channel that in an un-tilted apparatus would require the gravitational potential energy of the fluid to increase (i.e., to flow uphill), but, because of the tilt allows the fluid to flow through the channel in a downhill direction. Successive wave-driven tilts of the apparatus incrementally raise water to a head from which a portion of its gravitational potential energy can be converted to electrical power by causing the water to return to a lower level by flowing through a water turbine, or through some other apparatus that performs a useful function when supplied with a flow of high-pressure water.

Abstract: A system and method by which energy from ocean waves is converted into hydrogen, and that hydrogen is used to manifest electrical and mechanical energies by an energy consuming device. A portion of the generated electrical power is communicated to water electrolyzers which produce oxygen and hydrogen from water as gases. At least a portion of the generated hydrogen gas is transferred to a transportation ship via a hose-carrying, remotely operated (or otherwise unmanned) vehicle, and subsequently transferred to an energy-consuming module or infrastructur, where a portion of the hydrogen is consumed in order to manifest a generation of electrical energy, a mechanical motion, and/or a chemical reaction.

Abstract: A system and method by which energy from ocean waves is converted into hydrogen, and that hydrogen is used to manifest electrical and mechanical energies by an energy consuming device. A portion of the generated electrical power is communicated to water electrolyzers which produce oxygen and hydrogen from water as gases. At least a portion of the generated hydrogen gas is transferred to a transportation ship via a hose-carrying, remotely operated (or otherwise unmanned) vehicle, and subsequently transferred to an energy-consuming module or infrastructur, where a portion of the hydrogen is consumed in order to manifest a generation of electrical energy, a mechanical motion, and/or a chemical reaction.

Abstract: An energy farm having an electrical grid through which power generated by the devices in the farm may be combined and transmitted. The electrical grid is formed through the electrical interconnection of devices in a farm through electrical connections that remain, in whole or at least in part, adjacent to the surface of the body of water on which the devices float. A plurality of converters of the network have no direct or immediate electrical interface with a subsea power cable (i.e. a cable on or under the seafloor), but instead transmit electricity to other converters in a daisy-chained fashion.

Abstract: A buoyant wave energy device is disclosed that incorporates an open-bottomed tube of substantial length in which is partially enclosed a first body of water that oscillates in response to wave action. The device incorporates a buoy to which an upper end of the tube is connected and inside of which is trapped a second body of water of substantial mass. A differential phase in the oscillations of the water trapped in the tube, and the oscillations of the buoy of augmented mass, result in the periodic compression of a pocket of air trapped at the top of the tube, and in the subsequent expulsion of pressurized air through a turbine, thereby generating electrical power.

Abstract: A buoyant wave energy device is disclosed that incorporates an open-bottomed tube of substantial length in which is partially enclosed a first body of water that oscillates in response to wave action. The device incorporates a buoy to which an upper end of the tube is connected and inside of which is trapped a second body of water of substantial mass. A differential phase in the oscillations of the water trapped in the tube, and the oscillations of the buoy of augmented mass, result in the periodic compression of a pocket of air trapped at the top of the tube, and in the subsequent expulsion of pressurized air through a turbine, thereby generating electrical power.

Abstract: A buoyant wave energy device is disclosed that incorporates an open-bottomed tube of substantial length in which is partially enclosed a first body of water that oscillates in response to wave action. The device incorporates a buoy to which an upper end of the tube is connected and inside of which is trapped a second body of water of substantial mass. A differential phase in the oscillations of the water trapped in the tube, and the oscillations of the buoy of augmented mass, result in the periodic compression of a pocket of air trapped at the top of the tube, and in the subsequent expulsion of pressurized air through a turbine, thereby generating electrical power.

Abstract: A novel architecture for a data sharing system (DSS) is disclosed and seeks to ensure the privacy and security of users' personal information. In this type of network, a user's personally identifiable information is stored and transmitted in an encrypted form, with few exceptions. The only key with which that encrypted data can be decrypted, and thus viewed, remains in the sole possession of the user and the user's friends/contacts within the system. This arrangement ensures that a user's personally identifiable information cannot be examined by anyone other than the user or his friends/contacts. This arrangement also makes it more difficult for the web site or service hosting the DSS to exploit its users' personally identifiable information. Such a system facilitates the encryption, storage, exchange and decryption of personal, confidential and/or proprietary data.

Abstract: A buoyant hydrodynamic pump is disclosed that can float on a surface of a body of water over which waves tend to pass. The pump incorporates an open-bottomed tube with a constriction. The tube partially encloses a substantial volume of water with which the tube's constriction interacts, creating and/or amplifying oscillations therein in response to wave action. Wave-driven oscillations result in periodic upward ejections of portions of the water inside the tube that can be collected in a reservoir that is at least partially positioned above the mean water level of the body of water, or pressurized by compressed air or gas, or both. Water within such a reservoir may return to the body of water via a turbine, thereby generating electrical power (making the device a wave engine), or else the device's pumping action can be used for other purposes such as water circulation, propulsion, or cloud seeding.

Abstract: A system and method by which energy from ocean waves is converted into hydrogen, and that hydrogen is used to manifest electrical and mechanical energies by an energy consuming device. A portion of the generated electrical power is communicated to water electrolyzers which produce oxygen and hydrogen from water as gases. At least a portion of the generated hydrogen gas is transferred to a transportation ship via a hose-carrying, remotely operated (or otherwise unmanned) vehicle, and subsequently transferred to an energy-consuming module or infrastructure, where a portion of the hydrogen is consumed in order to manifest a generation of electrical energy, a mechanical motion, and/or a chemical reaction.

Abstract: A buoyant wave energy device is disclosed that incorporates an open-bottomed tube of substantial length in which is partially enclosed a first body of water that oscillates in response to wave action. The device incorporates a buoy to which an upper end of the tube is connected and inside of which is trapped a second body of water of substantial mass. A differential phase in the oscillations of the water trapped in the tube, and the oscillations of the buoy of augmented mass, result in the periodic compression of a pocket of air trapped at the top of the tube, and in the subsequent expulsion of pressurized air through a turbine, thereby generating electrical power.

Abstract: A novel architecture for a data sharing system (DSS) is disclosed and seeks to ensure the privacy and security of users' personal information. In this type of network, a user's personally identifiable information is stored and transmitted in an encrypted form, with few exceptions. The only key with which that encrypted data can be decrypted, and thus viewed, remains in the sole possession of the user and the user's friends/contacts within the system. This arrangement ensures that a user's personally identifiable information cannot be examined by anyone other than the user or his friends/contacts. This arrangement also makes it more difficult for the web site or service hosting the DSS to exploit its users' personally identifiable information. Such a system facilitates the encryption, storage, exchange and decryption of personal, confidential and/or proprietary data.

Abstract: A buoyant hydrodynamic pump is disclosed that can float on a surface of a body of water over which waves tend to pass. The pump incorporates an open-bottomed tube with a constriction. The tube partially encloses a substantial volume of water with which the tube's constriction interacts, creating and/or amplifying oscillations therein in response to wave action. Wave-driven oscillations result in periodic upward ejections of portions of the water inside the tube that can be collected in a reservoir that is at least partially positioned above the mean water level of the body of water, or pressurized by compressed air or gas, or both. Water within such a reservoir may return to the body of water via a turbine, thereby generating electrical power (making the device a wave engine), or else the device's pumping action can be used for other purposes such as water circulation, propulsion, or cloud seeding.

Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus that floats at the surface of a body of water over which waves pass. Passing waves cause a nominally vertical axis of the apparatus to tilt away from an axis normal to the resting surface of the body of water. Tilting of sufficient magnitude and duration allows a fluid to flow through a channel that in an un-tilted apparatus would require the gravitational potential energy of the fluid to increase (i.e., to flow uphill), but, because of the tilt allows the fluid to flow through the channel in a downhill direction. Flowing water is trapped at a plurality of levels which in an un-tilted apparatus are higher than the respective levels from which the fluid has flowed. A subsequent tilt of the apparatus in a sufficiently different direction, and of a sufficient magnitude and duration, causes the trapped water to flow to new, yet higher levels.

Abstract: A wave energy converter utilizes a flotation module that rises and falls with the passage of waves, a submerged tube containing a constriction which multiplies the speed of the water passing therethrough, a turbine (or other hydrokinetic apparatus) positioned so as to extract energy from the accelerated flow of water within and/or through the tube, and a submerged gas- or liquid-filled chamber housing one or more energy conversion components (e.g. generators, transformers, rectifiers, inverters). By providing a chamber in proximity to the turbine, generators can be placed in closer proximity to the turbine that turns them, and the shared shaft can be shorter than if the generators were placed in the buoy adjacent to the surface.

Abstract: A razor that facilitates a user's removal of shaving lubricant, cut hairs, and other shaving-related debris, from around, and between, the razor's blade(s). A scoop at the upper portion of the razor's blade assembly funnels water to the blade channel in which the blades are affixed, and at least a portion of that water flows around and/or over the blade(s). The scoop captures, and directs through the razor's blades, a greater volume of water per unit time than can be achieved with an unmodified blade assembly. The cross-sectional area of the scoop's inflow mouth is greater than that of the blade channel's outflow mouth, thereby promoting a Venturi effect which increases the speed of the water's flow over the blades.

Abstract: Disclosed is a novel device that converts some of the power in ocean waves into electrical power or other means of performing useful work. One or more tubes are arranged so that when the device is in position in a body of water, the tubes are oriented vertically with one end positioned proximate to and/or above the surface of the body of water on which the device floats, and with the other end positioned below the surface of that body of water. In some embodiments, through a differential restriction on the flow of air in and out of an upper end of the tube, the average height of the water inside the tube is different from the average height of the water outside the tube. In some embodiments, a hollow void inside a flotation structure of the embodiment is filled with water to contribute significant mass to the embodiment and increase the momentum associated with its vertical oscillations.