Patents by Inventor D. Thomas

D. Thomas 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: 11358499
    Abstract: A child restraint seat sensing device for a vehicle including a structural element at least partially defining a volume, wherein the structural element is located in a vehicle passenger seat between a seat base and seat back or is located behind the vehicle passenger seat, a stationary anchor in the vehicle, wherein the stationary anchor is located within the volume defined by the structural element, and a sensor mounted to the structural element, wherein the sensor is configured to detect whether a child restraint seat connector is attached to the stationary anchor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Scott D. Thomas, Tricia E. Morrow, Dorel M. Sala, Eugene J. Lau, Suzanne L. Johansson, Orhan Demirovic
  • Publication number: 20220169212
    Abstract: A compression wheel chock system is disclosed. The system is comprised of two, triangular-shaped devices having longitudinal channels and a lanyard. An object of the apparatus is to enhance wheel chocking by preventing a wheel from moving both fore and aft while chocked. During installation, the lanyard is fed through a channel in each chock and is drawn tight by the user. As the lanyard is tightened it compresses the chocks around the wheel while at the same time compressing the channels and securing the lanyard therein.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2020
    Publication date: June 2, 2022
    Applicant: AVID Labs, LLC
    Inventors: JOEL A NICHOLS, Josh D Thomas, CONNOR DIGAN
  • Publication number: 20220160347
    Abstract: A surgical stitching device is configured for single hand operation that enables passage of a suture needle through tissue with minimal operational requirement. The surgical needle is selectively securable to a tool assembly of the surgical stitching device. The tool assembly includes a jaw configured to securely support various surgical needles in various orientations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2021
    Publication date: May 26, 2022
    Inventors: Asa G. Deblois, Jonathan D. Thomas
  • Publication number: 20220161750
    Abstract: A system and method for determining when a child safety system is present in a passenger seat in a vehicle and restrained, including at least one of: a) two lower anchors each including a lower anchor sensor, or b) an upper anchor including an upper anchor sensor; an occupancy sensor; a seatbelt buckle sensor; a microprocessor control system in communication with at least one of the sensors. The microprocessor control system includes executable code to: provisionally determine whether the child safety system is detected in the passenger seat; determine whether at least one of: a) a strap is connected to each lower anchor and b) a tether is connected to the upper anchor; determine whether the seatbelt is buckled; and verify the presence of a child safety system in the passenger seat. Executable code can also be included to detect strap and tether tension.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 20, 2020
    Publication date: May 26, 2022
    Inventors: Scott D. Thomas, Suzanne L. Johansson
  • Publication number: 20220134988
    Abstract: An anchor attachment detection sensor for a vehicle including an anchor including an anchor attachment loop bar; a slide mount defining an opening, wherein the slide mount is positioned aft of the anchor attachment loop bar; a slide positioned in the opening of the slide mount, a plate secured to a first end of the slide, a spring, wherein the spring biases the plate against the anchor attachment loop bar; and a sensing device configured to transmit a control signal having a value, wherein the value of the control signal is based on a displacement of a portion of the slide.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2020
    Publication date: May 5, 2022
    Inventors: Eugene J. Lau, Scott D. Thomas, Tricia E. Morrow, Dorel M. Sala, Suzanne L. Johansson
  • Publication number: 20220111867
    Abstract: Vehicle behavioral monitoring includes determining a measure of distraction of the operator of a target vehicle, characterizing the type or category of distraction, determining level of risk that the target vehicle poses, and invoking various responses including host vehicle notifications and evasive actions and external notification and information sharing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 12, 2020
    Publication date: April 14, 2022
    Inventors: Simon J. Trask, Scott D. Thomas, Joseph R. Abrash, Tracy Gonzalez, Dustin Knapp, Kaleb R. Lepak, Eva Rousseau
  • Publication number: 20220063554
    Abstract: A vehicle seatbelt monitoring system for monitoring seatbelts of a plurality of seats comprising: i) a buckle sensor for each seat configured to determine whether a seatbelt is buckled into a buckle attachment of each seat; ii) a seatbelt webbing payout sensor for each seat configured to determine an amount of seatbelt webbing that is unwound from a seatbelt retractor associated with each seat; and iii) a seatbelt monitor control module coupled to the buckle sensor and the seatbelt webbing payout sensor and configured to receive buckle state data from the buckle sensor for each seat and seatbelt payout data from the seatbelt webbing payout sensor for each seat. The seatbelt monitor control module is further configured to determine if a first seatbelt is unbuckled or not properly worn and, if so, to determine if a second seatbelt is buckled or properly worn when the first seatbelt is unbuckled or not properly worn.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2020
    Publication date: March 3, 2022
    Inventor: Scott D. THOMAS
  • Publication number: 20220064189
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to STING (Stimulator of Interferon Genes) agonist compounds, methods of making the compounds and their methods of use.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2021
    Publication date: March 3, 2022
    Inventors: Jeremy R. DUVALL, Keith W. BENTLEY, Brian D. JONES, Eugene W. KELLEHER, Soumya S. RAY, Joshua D. THOMAS, Dorin TOADER
  • Patent number: 11265095
    Abstract: A broadcast response system provides, e.g., a radio broadcast listener with the ability to obtain media content such as music or speech while listening to the radio. The user can respond to items in the radio broadcast such as advertisements, fund raising drives, or interactive listener polls during the broadcast. Data such as song title and artist, author or publisher and the IP address for the location where the digital version of the content is stored, can be transmitted using, e.g., the RBDS/RDS data stream. A reference number representing song title and artist, author or publisher and the IP address for the location where the digital version of the content is stored can also be employed for ease of implementation. This reference number can reside in a lookup table to be accessed by broadcast response server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: StratosAudio, Inc.
    Inventors: Kelly M. Christensen, Barry D. Thomas, Thomas J. Smyth
  • Patent number: 11252119
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided for logging message data with reduced the latency and decreased overhead in multi-tenant systems. A message server may implement a two-stage process for logging the message data. In the first stage, the message server may create job-specific and write-optimized staging tables for each message processing job, and may store the message data for each job in a corresponding staging table. This may be done as the message server is building and sending the messages for each job. Additionally, the message server may partition or shard the staging tables so that the write operations are spread to multiple storage disks to avoid creating a storage server hotspot or bottleneck. In the second stage, the message server may move the accumulated message data from the individual staging tables to a corresponding tenant space at regular intervals. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: SALESFORCE.COM, INC.
    Inventors: D. Thomas Waltz, Jonathan Bennett, Paul Beck
  • Patent number: 11237851
    Abstract: Various methods and devices control operating components using a device operation program, control a user interface device using a menu program to display a device menu having menu options, receive menu choices in response to the device menu, control the operating components based on the menu choices, and convert the device menu into a browser-compatible menu compatible with internet protocols using the menu reproduction program. The browser-compatible menu has the same menu options included in the device menu. These methods and devices provide the browser-compatible menu to external devices using a wired or wireless communications device, receive external device input from the external devices responding to the browser-compatible menu, supply, from the wired or wireless communications device, the external device input to the device operation program and control the operating components by the device operation program based on the external device input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Timothy D. Thomas, Giuseppe Pandolfo, James P. Russell
  • Publication number: 20220019447
    Abstract: Various methods and devices control operating components using a device operation program, control a user interface device using a menu program to display a device menu having menu options, receive menu choices in response to the device menu, control the operating components based on the menu choices, and convert the device menu into a browser-compatible menu compatible with internet protocols using the menu reproduction program. The browser-compatible menu has the same menu options included in the device menu. These methods and devices provide the browser-compatible menu to external devices using a wired or wireless communications device, receive external device input from the external devices responding to the browser-compatible menu, supply, from the wired or wireless communications device, the external device input to the device operation program and control the operating components by the device operation program based on the external device input.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2020
    Publication date: January 20, 2022
    Applicant: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Timothy D. Thomas, Giuseppe Pandolfo, James P. Russell
  • Patent number: 11225216
    Abstract: A vehicle seat safety system. The vehicle safety seat system comprises a vehicle seat configured to move between a substantially reclining position and a substantially sitting position. The vehicle seat comprises at least a seat back and a seat bottom. The system also includes an enclosure configured to store a blanket airbag in an undeployed position prior to a collision, wherein the enclosure is disposed near the head of a passenger in the vehicle seat, and wherein the blanket airbag is ejected from the enclosure to an intermediate position in the event of a collision. The system further comprises a first electromechanical restraint system associated with the seat back and coupled to the blanket airbag by a first physical coupling and a second electromechanical restraint system associated with the seat bottom and coupled to the blanket airbag by a second physical coupling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Chin-Hsu Lin, Yi-pen Cheng, Scott D. Thomas, Gary L. Jones, Paul E. Krajewski
  • Publication number: 20220007578
    Abstract: A wheel assembly of a harvester header includes a latch and a pin. The pin is configured to engage the latch while a wheel of the wheel assembly is at a first position and the pin is configured to disengage the latch while the wheel of the wheel assembly is at a second position. Engagement of the pin and the latch is configured to block movement of the wheel relative to a frame of the harvester header.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2019
    Publication date: January 13, 2022
    Inventors: Jeffrey C. Trowbridge, Jeffrey D. Thomas, Joel Timothy Cook
  • Publication number: 20220000019
    Abstract: A locking mechanism includes a pin configured to movably couple to a first element of an agricultural header, wherein the first element includes one of an arm and a frame. The locking mechanism also includes a mount configured to couple to a second element of the agricultural header, wherein the second element includes the other of the arm and the frame. The pin is disposed within an opening of the mount, the opening has a first portion configured to receive the pin while the pin is in a first position and to block relative movement between the pin and the mount to block rotation of the arm, and the opening has a second portion configured to receive the pin while the pin is in a second position and to enable relative movement between the pin and the mount to enable rotation of the arm.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2019
    Publication date: January 6, 2022
    Inventors: Benjamin David Kemmerer, Joel Timothy Cook, Jeffrey D. Thomas
  • Publication number: 20220000022
    Abstract: An agricultural header includes a frame and a mount having a mount opening. The agricultural header also includes an arm configured to rotate about a pivot axis relative to the frame and to support a cutter bar assembly of the agricultural header. In addition, the agricultural header includes a pin coupled to a first element and extending through the mount opening. The first element includes one of the arm and the frame. The agricultural header also includes a fastener configured to non-movably couple the mount to a second element while the fastener is in a locked state and to enable the mount to move relative to the second element while the fastener is in an unlocked state. The second element includes the other of the arm and the frame.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2019
    Publication date: January 6, 2022
    Inventors: Benjamin David Kemmerer, Joel Timothy Cook, Jeffrey D. Thomas
  • Patent number: 11214214
    Abstract: A vehicle seat includes a seat bottom having a forward-facing surface relative to the vehicle seat and an airbag mounted to the seat bottom. The airbag includes an inflator mounted to the seat bottom and an airbag cushion including a portion positioned adjacent the forward-facing surface of the seat bottom.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Scott D. Thomas, Kunling Shen, Jay S. Song, James M. House
  • Patent number: 11216574
    Abstract: A system for controlling access within an enterprise to information associated with recipients of an electronic message campaign of the enterprise sent to a plurality of recipient devices wherein the enterprise includes hierarchically structured Business Units having an enterprise level Business Unit at the highest level and a plurality of second level Business Units and an enterprise system communicatively coupled to a network and including an enterprise level device communicatively coupled to a plurality of second level devices includes a server and an electronic message engine The server is configured to assign an enterprise account to the enterprise system and to allow the enterprise level device to communicate selected portions of the recipient list. The electronic message engine is configured to generate electronic messages within a message campaign for sending to recipients identified by each of the second level devices from the selected portions of the recipient list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: salesforce.com, inc.
    Inventors: James Michael Ciancio-Bunch, Matt Beard, D. Thomas Waltz, Richard W. Jamison, Jack Fisher, Jeff Middlesworth
  • Publication number: 20210375662
    Abstract: A single-substrate electroless (EL) plating apparatus including a workpiece chuck that is rotatable about rotation axis and inclinable about an axis of inclination. The chuck inclination may be controlled to a non-zero inclination angle during a dispense of plating solution to improve uniformity in the surface wetting and/or plating solution residence time across the a surface of a workpiece supported by the chuck. The angle of inclination may be only a few degrees off-level with the plating solution dispensed from a nozzle that scans over a high-side of the chuck along a radius of the workpiece while the chuck rotates. The angle of inclination may be actively controlled during dispense of the plating solution. The inclination angle may be larger at commencement of the plating solution dispense than at cessation of the dispense.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2016
    Publication date: December 2, 2021
    Applicant: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Harinath Reddy, Harsono S. Simka, Christopher D. Thomas
  • Patent number: 11188986
    Abstract: Rooms, structures, vehicles, and other objects can be accurately diagrammed, often without performing a physical on-site inspection. Photographs of a room, structure, vehicle, or other object are uploaded to a computer having a processor. A base calibration measure is determined for a room, structure, vehicle, object, or component thereof, depicted in the photographs using at least one known dimension for items observable in the photographs. The base calibration measure is then used to determine dimensions of other areas, items, or objects depicted in such photographs, and to create at least one scale diagram of the subject matter of the photographs. Damages areas of the structure/vehicle/object can be assessed from the scale diagram. The scale diagram can then be used to calculate appropriate insurance payment amounts for damage claims.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: Estimatics in the Fourth Dimension, LLC
    Inventors: William J. Durel, Douglas Thomas, Steven D. Thomas