Patents by Inventor Lee A. Feldkamp

Lee A. Feldkamp 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: 7353088
    Abstract: A system for detecting the presence of a human in a vehicle is provided. The system includes a vibration sensor that is configured to detect vibrations of the vehicle, and to output signals related to the sensed vibrations. A processor is configured to receive the signals output from the vibration sensor. The processor also operates a neural network that has a plurality of nodes, at least some of which are recurrent. The use of the recurrent nodes allows the output of a recurrent node to be fed back into itself, or another node. In addition, the output that is fed back can be combined with other inputs entering the node. In this way, the neural network can quickly learn to distinguish between various conditions, including an occupied state and an unoccupied state of the vehicle. The neural network provides an output indicating whether the vehicle is occupied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2008
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Charles Eagen, Lee Feldkamp, Sam Ebenstein, Kwaku Prakah-Asante, Yelena Rodin, Greg Smith
  • Publication number: 20060089753
    Abstract: A system for detecting the presence of a human in a vehicle is provided. The system includes a vibration sensor that is configured to detect vibrations of the vehicle, and to output signals related to the sensed vibrations. A processor is configured to receive the signals output from the vibration sensor. The processor also operates a neural network that has a plurality of nodes, at least some of which are recurrent. The use of the recurrent nodes allows the output of a recurrent node to be fed back into itself, or another node. In addition, the output that is fed back can be combined with other inputs entering the node. In this way, the neural network can quickly learn to distinguish between various conditions, including an occupied state and an unoccupied state of the vehicle. The neural network provides an output indicating whether the vehicle is occupied.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2004
    Publication date: April 27, 2006
    Applicant: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Charles Eagen, Lee Feldkamp, Sam Ebenstein, Kwaku Prakah-Asante, Yelena Rodin, Greg Smith
  • Patent number: 6434541
    Abstract: An engine diagnostic system includes a bit-serial based recurrent neuroprocessor for processing data from an internal combustion engine in order to diagnose misfires in real-time and reduces the number of neurons required to perform the task by time multiplexing groups of neurons from a candidate pool of neurons to achieve the successive hidden layers of the recurrent network topology.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2002
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Raoul Tawel, Nazeeh Aranki, Lee A. Feldkamp, Gintaras V. Puskorius, Kenneth A. Marko, John V. James
  • Patent number: 5636135
    Abstract: A method of time-aligning sequential gas concentrations, generated by a non-plug flow real time emissions analyzer, with corresponding plug flow inputs from an emissions source includes selecting a sequence of known plug flow test gas pulses representative of the emissions source, feeding the known plug flow test gas pulses into the analyzer, saving a sequence of blurred test pulses generated by the analyzer, determining a mathematical relationship between the known plug flow test gas pulses and the blurred test pulses, configuring a filter such that the filter corresponds to the mathematical relationship, inputting a subset of the blurred test pulses into the filter, recording a sequence of deconvoluted test pulses generated by the filter, comparing the deconvoluted test pulses with a subset of the known plug flow test gas pulses to generate difference errors, adjusting the filter to minimize the plurality of difference errors, repeating the first inputting step, the first recording step, the comparing step,
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 3, 1997
    Assignee: Ford Motor Company
    Inventors: Gerald Jesion, Lee A. Feldkamp, Gintaras V. Puskorius, Christine A. Gierdzak, James W. Butler
  • Patent number: 5625750
    Abstract: A process and apparatus for monitoring catalyst conversion activity includes a predictor of feedgas emissions and a predictor of tailpipe emissions, each predictor providing an output for generating a ratio of conversion activity. Each predictor comprises a trained neural network receiving at least one of, and preferably a plurality of, the engine operating condition signals available from an electronic engine control. Preferably, each neural network is trained by inputting accumulated data acquired from performance evaluation of a plurality of vehicles having consistent powertrains but with different degrees of deterioration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 29, 1997
    Assignee: Ford Motor Company
    Inventors: Gintaras V. Puskorius, Lee A. Feldkamp
  • Patent number: 5531108
    Abstract: A crankshaft based misfire detector for an internal combustion engine detects and identifies misfire over a broad range of engine operating conditions by establishing correction factors to compensate for crankshaft torsional oscillations and static wheel profile errors which corrupt the acceleration signals used to detect misfire. The correction factors are adaptively determined during in-use engine operation and are updated in one manner for most firings but in another manner for any cylinder firing which had the relatively lowest corrected acceleration within an engine cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 1995
    Date of Patent: July 2, 1996
    Assignee: Ford Motor Company
    Inventors: Lee A. Feldkamp, Gintaras V. Puskorius, John V. James, Kenneth A. Marko
  • Patent number: 5491775
    Abstract: A standardized microcontroller-based fuzzy logic processing module for generating control signal values in response to variable input signal values in accordance with constraints imposed by propositions or "rules" stored in memory in a standardized format. Each rule consists of one or more input conditions and an output directive. Each input signal and the output signal values are characterizable by their degree of membership in a predetermined number of fuzzy sets, each fuzzy set being defined by a membership function. Each input condition is composed of a reference to a particular input variable, which has been preprocessed into integer (whole number) normalized form and a reference to a membership function. Each output directive includes a reference to a further membership function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 1994
    Date of Patent: February 13, 1996
    Assignee: Ford Motor Company
    Inventors: Dinu P. Madau, Lee A. Feldkamp, Steven H. Seippel, Fumin Yuan, Leighton I. Davis