Patents by Inventor Christian Spindler

Christian Spindler has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8825384
    Abstract: A navigation system may display a map element represented by a spline including a plurality of vertices. Label coordinate values derived from coordinate values of the plurality of vertices may be retrieved from a database. A label assigned to the map element may be displayed based on the stored label coordinate values. The assigned label may be adapted to the geometric form of at least a portion of the map element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2014
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Carsten-Christian Spindler, Martin Fischer, Alexey Pryakhin, Vladimir Ivanov, Simon Schütz
  • Publication number: 20140244694
    Abstract: A navigation device comprises a search tree which indicates next valid characters. The search tree has a plurality of nodes. The nodes are respectively associated with a character. At least some of the nodes respectively include a predetermined indicator to indicate that there is an alternate spelling for a character with which the respective node is associated. A processor is configured to receive a character input and to identify at least one next valid character using the search tree. The processor is configured to identify the at least one next valid character in dependence on whether the predetermined indicator in the search tree indicates that another character has an alternate spelling, the alternate spelling of the other character being the character input.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 24, 2014
    Publication date: August 28, 2014
    Applicant: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Carsten-Christian SPINDLER, Martin FISCHER, Peter KUNATH
  • Publication number: 20140236995
    Abstract: A method of generating search trees (25, 27) indicating next valid characters for an input interface of a navigation device includes determining a search sub-tree (29) which indicates next valid characters for both a subset of a first set of character strings and for a different second set of character strings. A first search tree (25) is generated based on information on the first set of character strings, and a second search tree (27) is generated based on information on the second set of character strings. The first search tree (25) is generated such that a node (26) of the first search tree (25) references the search sub-tree (29). The second search tree (27) is generated such that another node (28) of the second search tree (27) references the search sub-tree (29).
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2012
    Publication date: August 21, 2014
    Applicant: HARMAN BECKER AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS GMBH
    Inventors: Carsten-Christian Spindler, Marcus Heitmann, Stefan Baptist, Jeurgen Welscher
  • Publication number: 20140182851
    Abstract: Compositions and methods of synthesis of anionic surfactants by alkoxylation of a Guerbet alcohol (GA) having 12 to 36 carbon atoms using butylene oxide, and optionally propylene oxide and/or ethylene oxide followed by the incorporation of a terminal anionic group are described herein. The GA of the present invention is made by a facile and inexpensive method that involves high temperature base catalyzed dimerization of alcohols with 6 to 18 carbon atoms. The large hydrophobe ether surfactants of the present invention find uses in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications where it is used for solubilization and mobilization of oil and for environmental cleanup. Further, the hydrophobe alkoxylated GA without anionic terminal group can be used as an ultra-high molecular weight non-ionic surfactant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2014
    Publication date: July 3, 2014
    Applicants: BASF SE, Board of Regents, The University of Texas System
    Inventors: Upali P. Weerasooriya, Gary A. Pope, Christian Bittner, Gunter Oetter, Jack F. Tinsley, Christian Spindler, Gabriela Alvarez Jurgenson, Sophie Vogel
  • Patent number: 8763698
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for producing mineral oil from underground formations, wherein, in one process step, permeable regions of the underground formation are blocked by injecting aqueous formulations of hydrophobically associating copolymers into the formation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignees: BASF SE, BASF Canada
    Inventors: Roland Reichenbach-Klinke, Andrea Aβmann, Björn Langlotz, Christian Spindler, Russell Giesbrecht
  • Publication number: 20140163255
    Abstract: The invention relates to a process for mineral oil production by means of Winsor Type III microemulsion flooding, in which an aqueous surfactant formulation comprising at least one ionic surfactant of the general formula R1—O—(CH2C(CH3)HO)m(CH2CH2O)n—XY?M+ is injected through injection boreholes into a mineral oil deposit, and crude oil is withdrawn from the deposit through production boreholes. The invention further relates to ionic surfactants of the general formula.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2013
    Publication date: June 12, 2014
    Applicant: BASF SE
    Inventors: Christian Bittner, Günter Oetter, Jack Tinsley, Christian Spindler, Gabriela Alvarez-Juergenson, Sophie Maitro-Vogel, Veronika Wloka, Marcus Guzmann
  • Publication number: 20140155645
    Abstract: A surfactant and a surfactant formulation comprising at least one ionic surfactant of the general formula R1—O-(D)n-(B)m-(A)l-XY?M+ where R1 is a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated, aliphatic and/or aromatic hydrocarbon radical having 8 to 30 carbon atoms, A is ethyleneoxy, B is propyleneoxy, and D is butyleneoxy, l is from 0 to 99, m is from 0 to 99 and n is from 1 to 99, X is an alkyl or alkylene group having 0 to 10 carbon atoms, M+ is a cation, and Y? is selected from the group of sulfate groups, sulfonate groups, carboxylate groups and phosphate groups.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 15, 2013
    Publication date: June 5, 2014
    Applicant: BASF SE
    Inventors: Christian Bittner, Günter Oetter, Jack Tinsley, Christian Spindler, Gabriela Alvarez-Juergenson, Sophie Vogel
  • Publication number: 20140131039
    Abstract: Process for tertiary mineral oil production in which an aqueous injection fluid comprising at least a water soluble polyacrylamide-(co)polymer dissolved in the aqueous fluid is injected into a mineral oil deposit and the aqueous injection fluid is prepared by mixing a liquid dispersion polymer composition comprising particles of polyacrylamide-(co)polymers dispersed in an organic, hydrophobic liquid with an aqueous fluid. Preferably, the process is carried out on an off-shore production site.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 13, 2013
    Publication date: May 15, 2014
    Applicant: BASF SE
    Inventors: Roland Reichenbach-Klinke, Bjorn Langlotz, Ian Robert Macefield, Christian Spindler
  • Patent number: 8725411
    Abstract: The invention relates to system and method for generating a 3-dimensional representation of a tunnel. Road network data is provided having a plurality of road segments, at least one road segment being a tunnel road segment, including the information that said at least one road segment is a road segment located in a tunnel. The tunnel segment in the road network is identified, providing a geographical elevation map including elevation data of the geographical region in which the tunnel road segment is located, providing predefined patterns representing predefined parts of a 3-dimensional tunnel body, generating the 3-dimensional representation of the tunnel based on the tunnel road segment, the elevation map and the predefined patterns, and storing the 3-dimensional representation of the tunnel in connection with the road network as a 3-dimensional object which is located at the geographical position of the tunnel road segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Viktor Samokhin, Vladimir Ivanov, Martin Fischer, Carsten-Christian Spindler, Stavros Mitrakis
  • Publication number: 20140116690
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a surfactant mixture comprising at least one secondary alkanesulfonate having 14 to 17 carbon atoms of the general formula (I) and at least one anionic surfactant of the general formula (II) where R1, R2, R3, R4, A0, k, X, o, Y, a, b, M are each as defined in the description and the claims. The invention further relates to the use and production thereof, and to aqueous surfactant formulations comprising the surfactant mixture, and to processes for producing mineral oil by means of Winsor type III microemulsion flooding, in which the aqueous surfactant formulation is injected through injection wells into a mineral oil deposit and crude oil is withdrawn through production wells from the deposit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2013
    Publication date: May 1, 2014
    Applicant: BASF SE
    Inventors: Christian Bittner, Günter Oetter, Jack Tinsley, Christian Spindler, Gabriela Alvarez-Juergenson, Sophie Maitro-Vogel
  • Publication number: 20140116689
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a surfactant mixture comprising at least one surfactant of the general formula (I) R1O—(CH2CH(CH2OR2)O)p-(D)n-(B)m-(A)l-(X)k—Y?1/bMb+??(I) where R1, R2, p, D, n, B, m, A, l, X, k, Y?, b, Mb+ are each as defined in the claims and the description. The invention further relates to processes for mineral oil production by means of Winsor type III microemulsion flooding using a surfactant formulation comprising the surfactant mixture.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2013
    Publication date: May 1, 2014
    Applicant: BASF SE
    Inventors: Christian Bittner, Günter Oetter, Jack Tinsley, Christian Spindler, Gabriela Alvarez-Jürgenson, Sophie Maitro-Vogel
  • Publication number: 20140108360
    Abstract: A method for generating a compressed navigation map database from uncompressed navigation map data, wherein the uncompressed navigation map data contains different building blocks of navigation data, each building block addressing a functional aspect of the navigation data, each block containing strings of data. The method includes determining, for each block of the uncompressed navigation map data, most frequent substrings of the block; storing, for each block, the determined most frequent substrings of the block in a seed block; replacing, for each block, in the strings the determined most frequent substrings stored in the seed block by a reference to the seed block thereby generating a compressed block for each block; and storing, for each block, the compressed block and the seed block in order to generate the compressed navigation map database.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2012
    Publication date: April 17, 2014
    Inventors: Peter Kunath, Marcus Heitmann, Stefan Baptist, Carsten-Christian Spindler, Stavros Mitrakis
  • Patent number: 8700330
    Abstract: A vehicle navigation device comprises a map data base storing map data and a processing unit. The map data base includes first attributes indicative of the presence of express lanes and second attributes assigned to lanes to indicate which lanes of a road segment are express lanes. The processing unit is coupled to the map data base and is configured to perform a route search based at least on the first attribute and to control outputting of route guidance information via a user interface based at least on the second attribute.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Carsten-Christian Spindler, Simon Schütz
  • Publication number: 20140101151
    Abstract: A system may generate a database of a geographical map of a navigation device. The geographical map covering a geographical area which is divided into several update regions. The system may identify at least one object in the geographical map which covers an object area in the geographical area. The object area can be divided into different parts which are located in different update regions. The system can store in the database, for each of said at least one object, information indicating that the object area overlaps with plural update regions, the information including pointers to update regions in which the respective different parts of the object area are stored.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 8, 2013
    Publication date: April 10, 2014
    Inventors: Martin Fischer, Carsten-Christian Spindler, Alexey Pryakhin
  • Patent number: 8684080
    Abstract: The present invention relates to processes for tertiary mineral oil production with the aid of a surfactant mixture and to the use of a surfactant mixture for tertiary mineral oil production by means of Winsor type III microemulsion flooding, by injecting a surfactant mixture through at least one aqueous injection borehole into a mineral oil deposit, and withdrawing crude oil from the deposit through at least one production borehole, wherein the surfactant mixture, for the purpose of lowering the interfacial tension between oil and water to <0.1 mN/m, comprises at least the following components: (a) one or more polycarboxylate(s) comprising at least 50 mol % of acrylic acid units and/or methacrylic acid units and/or maleic acid units and/or itaconic acid units or salts thereof, and (b) one or more anionic and/or nonionic surfactant(s).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2014
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Christian Bittner, Günter Oetter, Jack Tinsley, Christian Spindler, Sophie Vogel, Gabriela Alvarez-Juergenson, Marcus Guzmann
  • Patent number: 8676507
    Abstract: A vehicle navigation system includes a map database storing map data. The map data has links representing road segments, road number icons, and additional road information icons. At least one of the links is associated with at least one of the road number icons and at least one of the additional road information icons. The vehicle navigation system may furthermore include a processing unit coupled to the map database and configured to control outputting of route guidance information via an output device. The outputting of route guidance information may include displaying a road number icon and an additional road information icon together with a link if the link is associated with the road number icon and the additional road information icon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Carsten-Christian Spindler, Juergen Welscher, Martin Fischer, Simon Schuetz, Vladimir Ivanov
  • Publication number: 20140025298
    Abstract: A navigation system may use digital maps to represent cartographic features during guidance along a route to a destination requested by a user. A system and method are provided for management of icons used to represent the cartographic features by storing data for multiple icons in a data array representing an image containing the plurality of icons.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2013
    Publication date: January 23, 2014
    Applicant: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Carsten-Christian Spindler, Vladimir Ivanov, Martin Fischer, Simon Schütz
  • Patent number: 8607865
    Abstract: The invention relates to a process for mineral oil extraction by means of Winsor Type III microemulsion flooding, in which an aqueous surfactant formulation comprising at least one ionic surfactant of the general formula R1—O-(D)n-(B)m-(A)l-XY?M+ is injected through injection boreholes into a mineral oil deposit, and crude oil is withdrawn from the deposit through production boreholes. The invention further relates to ionic surfactants of the general formula.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Christian Bittner, Günter Oetter, Jack Tinsley, Christian Spindler, Gabriela Alvarez-Jüergenson, Sophie Vogel
  • Patent number: 8596367
    Abstract: A process for mineral oil production by means of Winsor Type III microemulsion flooding and an aqueous surfactant formulation are disclosed. The aqueous surfactant formulation containing at least one ionic surfactant of the general formula R1—O—(CH2C(CH3)HO)m(CH2CH2O)n—XY?M+ is injected through injection boreholes into a mineral oil deposit, and crude oil is withdrawn from the deposit through production boreholes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Christian Bittner, Günter Oetter, Jack Tinsley, Christian Spindler, Gabriela Alvarez-Jürgenson, Sophie Vogel, Veronica Wloka, Marcus Guzmann
  • Patent number: 8584751
    Abstract: A process for mineral oil production especially Winsor type III microemulsion flooding, in which an aqueous surfactant formulation which comprises at least one nonionic surfactant having 11 to 40 ethoxy units and a hydrophobic radical having 8 to 32 carbon atoms and at least one further surfactant differing therefrom is forced through injection wells into a mineral oil deposit and crude oil is removed from the deposit through production wells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Christian Bittner, Günter Oetter, Jack Tinsley, Christian Spindler, Gabriela Alvarez Jürgenson, Sophie Vogel