Patents by Inventor Deric Wayne Waters

Deric Wayne Waters 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).

  • Publication number: 20200044568
    Abstract: A system may include a power supply configurable to generate any of a plurality of output voltages on a power supply output node. The system also may include a voltage auto-detection power distribution (PD) controller coupled to the power supply. The voltage auto-detection PD controller is configured to monitor an input signal for detection of presence of a device coupled to the system via a cable and assert combinations of a plurality of control signals. For each combination of control signals, the voltage auto-detection PD controller measures a value of an output voltage from the power supply, stores the measured value, and generates a plurality of packets for transmission to the device. Each packet contains a parameter indicative of a measured output voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2019
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventor: Deric Wayne Waters
  • Publication number: 20200033924
    Abstract: A circuit comprising a first processing element having a first output configured to couple to a voltage control circuit, a second output configured to couple to a gate terminal of a first transistor, and a third output configured to couple to a first node and a control circuit. The control circuit comprises a second processing element having multiple outputs, a second transistor having a gate terminal configured to couple to one of the outputs of the second processing element, a first terminal configured to couple to a second node and to a drain terminal of the first transistor, and a second terminal, and a third transistor having a gate terminal configured to couple to a second of the outputs of the second processing element, a first terminal configured to couple to a third node, and a second terminal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 24, 2018
    Publication date: January 30, 2020
    Inventor: Deric Wayne WATERS
  • Patent number: 10527453
    Abstract: A system comprises a plurality of sensors, a sensor processor, and a sampling rate engine. The sensor processor is coupled to an output of each sensor of the plurality of sensors. The sensor processor estimates user dynamics in response to a first output signal of a first sensor of the plurality of sensors. The sampling rate engine is coupled to an output of the sensor processor. The sampling rate engine determines a sampling rate value of a second sensor of the plurality of sensors in response to a user dynamics value from the sensor processor. The second sensor comprises a selectable sampling rate. The selectable sampling rate is configured in response to the sampling rate value determined by the sampling rate engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Deric Wayne Waters, Jayawardan Janardhanan, Saket Thukral
  • Publication number: 20190369689
    Abstract: A circuit includes a controller to communicate with a sink device and communicate a plurality of power sources that are available to the sink device. A plurality of switch devices switch power from one of the plurality of power sources to the sink device in response to a control signal from the controller. A policy engine in the controller defines policies for the operation of the controller during different communications phases between the controller and the sink device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 15, 2019
    Publication date: December 5, 2019
    Inventor: Deric Wayne Waters
  • Patent number: 10498167
    Abstract: A power provider circuit includes a plurality of power delivery controllers, a single stage power supply, and control circuitry. Each of the plurality of power delivery controllers is configured to provide power to a detachable device. The single stage power supply is configured to generate the power for provision to the detachable devices, and to provide the power at a plurality of selectable voltages. The control circuitry configured to select a given voltage of the plurality of selectable voltages to be made available via all of the power delivery controllers based on power utilization capabilities and other optional status indications reported by the detachable devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Deric Wayne Waters, Robert Mason Hanrahan
  • Patent number: 10476394
    Abstract: A system may include a power supply configurable to generate any of a plurality of output voltages on a power supply output node. The system also may include a voltage auto-detection power distribution (PD) controller coupled to the power supply. The voltage auto-detection PD controller is configured to monitor an input signal for detection of presence of a device coupled to the system via a cable and assert combinations of a plurality of control signals. For each combination of control signals, the voltage auto-detection PD controller measures a value of an output voltage from the power supply, stores the measured value, and generates a plurality of packets for transmission to the device. Each packet contains a parameter indicative of a measured output voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: Deric Wayne Waters
  • Publication number: 20190310700
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a system includes a power delivery (“PD”) controller in a USB Type-C system that includes a configuration channel (“CC”), PD preamble detector, and a power-usage circuit. The PD controller includes a CC input that receives a PD message. The PD preamble detector is configured to detect a PD message preamble based in part upon a power of a filtered PD message and communicates a wake-up signal to the power-usage circuit in response to detecting a PD message preamble. The power-usage circuit is configured to exit a low-power mode in response to receiving the wake-up signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 10, 2018
    Publication date: October 10, 2019
    Inventors: Deric Wayne Waters, Roy Alan Hastings
  • Patent number: 10423205
    Abstract: A circuit includes a controller to communicate with a sink device and communicate a plurality of power sources that are available to the sink device. A plurality of switch devices switch power from one of the plurality of power sources to the sink device in response to a control signal from the controller. A policy engine in the controller defines policies for the operation of the controller during different communications phases between the controller and the sink device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2019
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: Deric Wayne Waters
  • Patent number: 10387345
    Abstract: Described examples include USB controllers and methods of interfacing a host processor with one or more USB ports with the host processor implementing an upper protocol layer and a policy engine for negotiating USB power delivery parameters, in which the USB controller includes a logic circuit implementing a lower protocol layer to provide automatic outgoing data transmission retries independent of the upper protocol layer of the host processor. The controller logic circuit further implements automatic incoming data packet validity verification and acknowledgment independent of the upper protocol layer of the host processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2019
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventor: Deric Wayne Waters
  • Patent number: 10312936
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for operating a communication system comprising three or more communication transceivers. In illustrative embodiments, multiple different cyclic redundancy check (CRC) generation schemes are maintained. Each CRC generation scheme corresponds to a unique CRC residual value. A CRC value generated using one of the CRC generation schemes is placed in a data packet to be transmitted. The chosen CRC generation scheme reflects which one or more transceivers are intended recipients of the data packet. When a data packet is received by a transceiver, a CRC residual value is calculated based on the CRC value contained in the received data packet. The calculated CRC residual value is compared against a list of one or more valid CRC residual values for that particular transceiver. If the calculated CRC value matches one of the listed valid CRC residual values, the data packet is accepted, otherwise it is rejected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventor: Deric Wayne Waters
  • Patent number: 10240931
    Abstract: A disclosed method includes computing, for each of a plurality of values of at least one type of error parameter, a distance traveled for each of a plurality of directions of travel. The method includes selecting, from the plurality of values of the at least one type of error parameter, a value that provides a greatest distance traveled for any of the plurality of directions of travel relative to the unselected ones of the plurality of values. The method further includes applying the selected value of the at least one type of error parameter to gyroscopic sensor data, and then determining navigation information based on the gyroscopic sensor data with the selected value of the at least one type of error parameter applied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2019
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Sandeep Rao, Deric Wayne Waters
  • Patent number: 10152104
    Abstract: An electronic device including a universal serial bus power delivery (USB-PD) port for at least the delivery of power, and a USB-PD controller to control a state of power delivery by the USB-PD port out of a plurality of states, wherein the USB-PD controller transitions the USB-PD port from an unpowered state to a check internal power state when the USB-PD port is ready to power the USB cable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2018
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventor: Deric Wayne Waters
  • Publication number: 20180335819
    Abstract: A circuit includes a regulation circuit configured to intercept messages on a configuration channel of a universal serial bus (USB) cable between a USB source device and a USB sink device. The regulation circuit regulates a source capability message from the USB cable configuration channel based on a predetermined power capability of the USB cable.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2017
    Publication date: November 22, 2018
    Inventor: DERIC WAYNE WATERS
  • Publication number: 20180183340
    Abstract: A system may include a power supply configurable to generate any of a plurality of output voltages on a power supply output node. The system also may include a voltage auto-detection power distribution (PD) controller coupled to the power supply. The voltage auto-detection PD controller is configured to monitor an input signal for detection of presence of a device coupled to the system via a cable and assert combinations of a plurality of control signals. For each combination of control signals, the voltage auto-detection PD controller measures a value of an output voltage from the power supply, stores the measured value, and generates a plurality of packets for transmission to the device. Each packet contains a parameter indicative of a measured output voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2016
    Publication date: June 28, 2018
    Inventor: Deric Wayne WATERS
  • Patent number: 9955300
    Abstract: A method for incorporating invisible APs for RSSI based indoor positioning is presented. An empirical estimate of the probability of invisible APs versus distance is computed. An estimated position of the receiver can be computed using any statistical estimator based on the probability. In one embodiment, an estimate of the probability is computed by combining the probability over a set of visible APs and the probability over a set of invisible APs with the probability of individual contribution. In one embodiment a dynamic procedure is used to update the invisible probability that is computed using an AP dictionary built on the fly as new APs are detected. Incorporating invisible APs for estimating user position from the RSSI measurements for indoor positioning provides a better positioning accuracy as compared to typical estimators which rely only on the visible APs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2018
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Mohamed Farouk Mansour, Deric Wayne Waters, Sthanunathan Ramakrishnan
  • Publication number: 20180100749
    Abstract: A system comprises a plurality of sensors, a sensor processor, and a sampling rate engine. The sensor processor is coupled to an output of each sensor of the plurality of sensors. The sensor processor estimates user dynamics in response to a first output signal of a first sensor of the plurality of sensors. The sampling rate engine is coupled to an output of the sensor processor. The sampling rate engine determines a sampling rate value of a second sensor of the plurality of sensors in response to a user dynamics value from the sensor processor. The second sensor comprises a selectable sampling rate. The selectable sampling rate is configured in response to the sampling rate value determined by the sampling rate engine.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2017
    Publication date: April 12, 2018
    Inventors: Deric Wayne Waters, Jayawardan Janardhanan, Saket Thukral
  • Patent number: 9903717
    Abstract: In a disclosed embodiment, a system includes a digital imaging device, an electronic compass (e-compass), and a processor coupled to the digital imaging device and the e-compass. The processor is operable to execute instructions that cause the image device to scan a visual code, read a yaw angle from the visual code, cause the e-compass to obtain magnetic field measurements, estimate a yaw angle based on the magnetic field measurements, compare the yaw angle read from the visual code and the estimated yaw angle to determine a quality factor; and determine whether the e-compass is calibrated based at least partially upon the quality factor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2018
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Deric Wayne Waters, Tarkesh Pande
  • Publication number: 20180046591
    Abstract: Described examples include USB controllers and methods of interfacing a host processor with one or more USB ports with the host processor implementing an upper protocol layer and a policy engine for negotiating USB power delivery parameters, in which the USB controller includes a logic circuit implementing a lower protocol layer to provide automatic outgoing data transmission retries independent of the upper protocol layer of the host processor. The controller logic circuit further implements automatic incoming data packet validity verification and acknowledgment independent of the upper protocol layer of the host processor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2017
    Publication date: February 15, 2018
    Inventor: Deric Wayne Waters
  • Patent number: 9891326
    Abstract: A positioning server has a positioning database. The positioning database is configured to store information relating wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) signal measurements to points of a geographic positioning grid. motion information provided by dead-reckoning systems of a plurality of wireless devices and reference location information provided by at least one of a satellite positioning system and a wireless local area network (WLAN) positioning system of each wireless device is also stored. WLAN access point (AP) signal measurements acquired by each wireless device in correspondence with the motion information is stored as are non-causally determine positions of the wireless devices based on the motion information and reference locations. Positioning server is also configured to generate a geographic positioning grid that relates the AP signal measurements to points of the positioning grid based on the determined positions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2018
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Deric Wayne Waters, Jayawardan Janardhanan
  • Patent number: 9874641
    Abstract: A system for crowd-sourced fingerprinting has a positioning database and a mobile wireless device. The positioning database is configured to store information relating wireless local area network access point (AP) signal measurements to points of a geographic positioning grid. The mobile wireless device has a satellite positioning system, a transceiver, a motion measurement system, and position estimation logic. The position estimation logic is configured to determine a reference location as the device passes between areas of satellite positioning signal reception and satellite positioning signal non-reception. The device further configured to record measurements of movements provided by the motion measurement system and measurements of signals provided by the transceiver within areas of non-reception and to provide results to the positioning database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2018
    Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Deric Wayne Waters, Jayawardan Janardhanan