Patents by Inventor Heidi R. Pickreign

Heidi R. Pickreign 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: 7952530
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an improved buoyant cable antenna system. The system includes a buoyant cable transmission line segment and an antenna segment formed from a flexible memory structure comprised of at least one segment of coiled compression, pinched to form a desired shape and encapsulated in a buoyant encapsulant material. The antenna segment may include a U-shaped keel portion, a horizontal serpentine shaped section, and a vertical element with the horizontal serpentine shaped section floating on the surface of the water and the vertical element extending above the surface of the water. A process for manufacturing the buoyant cable antenna system is also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Erich M. Gerhard, Heidi R. Pickreign, legal representative
  • Patent number: 7468703
    Abstract: A buoyant cable system and method is provided with a flexible towed platform that may be deployed into the water from a submerged submarine. The flexible towed platform has a memory that returns to a selected shape after deployment. A presently preferred selected shape may have one or more curves that provide a function during towing. For instance, in one embodiment two oppositely extending curves each float and each are pressed by the water in a balanced manner to provide a stable platform for one or more antennas which can be of different types suitable for a wide band of radio frequency reception/transmission. In another embodiment, a keel may be formed from a weighted curved portion that is suitable for vertically supporting an antenna. The flexible towed material may be constructed of coil springs, shaped memory alloys, and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2008
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Heidi R. Pickreign, legal representative, Erich M. Gerhard
  • Patent number: 7466278
    Abstract: A buoyant cable system and method is provided with a towed platform that is flexible for deployment into the water from a submerged submarine. The towed platform has a memory that returns to a selected shape after deployment. In one embodiment the biasing member is a spring acting against and anchored to Kevlar® strands running through the blocks such that the blocks are compressed into a desired shape during operation but remain sufficiently flexible for deployment and retrieval. In another embodiment, a keel may be formed from a weighted curved portion that is suitable for vertically supporting an antenna above the surface of the water to prevent signal interference due to water washing over the towed transmission line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2008
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Heidi R. Pickreign, legal representative, Erich M. Gerhard
  • Patent number: 7411558
    Abstract: A buoyant cable system and method is provided with a towed transmission line and antenna platform that may be deployed into the water from a submerged submarine so that the antenna extends above the surface of the water. The cable system preferably utilizes a flexible weighted keel formed in a section of the transmission line. A buoyant section of transmission line extends upwardly from the depth of the weighted keel to support one or more antennas above the surface of the water. In another embodiment, a plurality of weighted keels may be formed in sections of the transmission line whereby an inverted U-shaped buoyant portion extends upwardly from the depth of weighted keel to act as the support for a horizontally oriented antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2008
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Heidi R. Pickreign, legal representative, Erich M. Gerhard
  • Patent number: 6842790
    Abstract: A system and method of mapping a host computer address space into a network interface adapter (NIA) address space. A network interface processor within the NIA requests a memory allocation from the host computer. The host computer responds with an assigned base address in the host computer address space, and a length defining the contiguous addresses within the host computer address space equal to the allocation requested by the NIA processor. A hardware trap is set such that an interrupt to the NIA processor is generated when the host computer attempts to access data at an address within the allocated address range of host computer contiguous addresses. The network interface processor translates the received host address to a physical address within the NIA address space, reads the data at the respective NIA physical address, and transfers the data to the host computer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2005
    Assignee: 3Com Corporation
    Inventors: Heidi R. Pickreign, Laxminarayan Krishnamurthy, Robert Reissfelder
  • Publication number: 20040205319
    Abstract: A system and method of mapping a host computer address space into a network interface adapter (NIA) address space. A network interface processor within the NIA requests a memory allocation from the host computer. The host computer responds with an assigned base address in the host computer address space, and a length defining the contiguous addresses within the host computer address space equal to the allocation requested by the NIA processor. A hardware trap is set such that an interrupt to the NIA processor is generated when the host computer attempts to access data at an address within the allocated address range of host computer contiguous addresses. The network interface processor translates the received host address to a physical address within the NIA address space, reads the data at the respective NIA physical address, and transfers the data to the host computer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2004
    Publication date: October 14, 2004
    Inventors: Heidi R. Pickreign, Laxminarayan Krishnamurthy, Robert Reissfelder
  • Patent number: 6732249
    Abstract: The present application is directed to a method and system for mapping a host computer address space into a network interface adapter (NIA) address space. A network interface processor contained within the NIA requests a memory allocation from the host computer. The host computer responds with an assigned base address in the host computer address space and a length defining the contiguous addresses within the host computer address space equal to the allocation requested by the NIA processor. A hardware trap is set, such that, an interrupt to the NIA processor is generated when the host computer attempts to access data at an address within the allocated address range of host computer contiguous addresses. The network interface processor translates the received host address to a physical address within the NIA address space, reads the data at the respective NIA physical address and transfers the data to the host computer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2004
    Assignee: 3Com Corporation
    Inventors: Heidi R. Pickreign, Laxminarayan Krishnamurthy, Robert Reissfelder
  • Patent number: 6694360
    Abstract: A multi-mode network interface adapter includes a diagnostic mode, a sleep mode and a run-time mode. The network adapter enters the diagnostic mode at least in response to a power-up signal and validates the operation of predetermined network adapter functions. In the sleep mode, the network adapter transmits messages onto the network and responds to messages received from the network that would otherwise be handled by a host computer operating system. In this mode, the network adapter creates the appearance to other devices that the host computer is operational even if the host computer has entered a reduced power state in which the host computer operating system is not operational. In the run-time mode, the network adapter passes messages received from the network to the host computer and transmits messages received from the host computer over the network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: 3Com Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher J. Duguay, Heidi R. Pickreign, Patricia C. Cross, Laxminarayan Krishnamurthy
  • Patent number: 6539338
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for implementing a self-diagnostic capability in a network interface adapter in which failure data is provided to a host processor. The host processor may report the failure data to a user or additionally the host processor may attempt to correct predetermined faults in code images by writing a valid code image to a memory on the network interface adapter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2003
    Assignee: 3Com Corporation
    Inventors: Heidi R. Pickreign, Laxminarayan Krishnamurthy, Christopher J. Duguay