Patents by Inventor Ming-Fang Huang

Ming-Fang Huang 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: 20200401784
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems, methods and structures providing wide-area traffic monitoring based on distributed fiber-optic sensing (DFOS) that employs deep neural network(s) for denoising noisy waterfall traces measured by the DFOS. Such systems, methods, and structures according to aspects of the present disclosure may advantageously monitor multiple highways/roadways using a single interrogator and optical fiber switch(es) which provides traffic information along every sensing point of existing, deployed, in-service optical telecommunications facilities.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2020
    Publication date: December 24, 2020
    Applicant: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC
    Inventors: Milad SALEMI, Ming-Fang HUANG
  • Publication number: 20200370970
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe monitoring of optical fiber by distributed temperature sensing (DTS) and determining optical fiber degradation and/or abnormal environmental events including landslides, fires, etc., from DTS data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 19, 2020
    Publication date: November 26, 2020
    Applicant: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC
    Inventors: Ming-Fang HUANG, Yaowen LI
  • Publication number: 20200319018
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe distributed optical fiber sensing for smart city applications in which distributed optical fiber sensing is integrated with a surveillance system into a single system such that the distributed sensing system may detect an event of interest and the surveillance system including cameras may be reoriented in response to verify and/or examine and/or acquire video of the event. Of particular advantage such distributed fiber sensing may include distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) for vibrational sensing and distributed temperature sensing (DTS) for temperature sensing. The integrated system employs shared optical fiber transport for the distributed sensing and the surveillance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2020
    Publication date: October 8, 2020
    Applicant: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC
    Inventors: Ming-Fang HUANG, Ting WANG
  • Publication number: 20200313763
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe optical fiber sensing systems, methods and structures disclosing a distributed fiber sensor network constructed on an existing, live network, data carrying, optical fiber telecommunications infrastructure to detect temperatures, acoustic effects, and vehicle traffic—among others. Of particular significance, sensing systems, methods, and structures according to aspects of the present disclosure may advantageously identify specific network locations relative to manholes/handholes and environmental conditions within those manholes/handholes namely, normal, flooded, frozen/iced, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2020
    Publication date: October 1, 2020
    Applicants: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC, VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC.
    Inventors: Ting WANG, Ming-Fang HUANG, Tiejun XIA, Glenn WELLBROCK, Yaowen LI, Philip JI
  • Patent number: 10763964
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems, methods and structures providing bidirectional optical fiber communication and sensing using the same fiber transmission band and bidirectional WDM fiber sharing such that communications channels and optical fiber sensing channel(s) coexist on the same fiber. As a result, nonlinear interaction between communications channels and interrogating pulse(s) of sensing are much reduced or eliminated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Yue-Kai Huang, Ezra Ip, Philip Nan Ji, Ming-Fang Huang
  • Publication number: 20200200592
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems, methods and structures and applications of optical fiber sensing. Of significance, systems, methods, and structures according to aspects of the present disclosure may reuse and/or retrofit/upgrade existing optical fiber cables as part of optical fiber sensing that may find important societal application including intrusion detection, road traffic monitoring and infrastructure health monitoring. Combining such optical fiber sensing with artificial intelligence (AI) further enables powerful applications at low(er) cost.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2019
    Publication date: June 25, 2020
    Applicant: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC
    Inventors: Ming-Fang HUANG, Yue-Kai HUANG, Ezra IP, Ting WANG
  • Patent number: 10670517
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe gas sensor calibration methods and subsequent sensing methods employing same in conjunction with wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS). Additional aspects of the present disclosure advantageously employ WMS for highly-sensitive gas concentration measurement across a range of concentrations from ambient to a high concentration environment such as fire/smoke detection. Finally, still further aspects of the present disclosure determine and then employ two calibration factors and during measurement WMS-2f spectra to determine an inflection or “turning point” and subsequently which one of the two calibration factors to employ at a given concentration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Ming-Fang Huang
  • Patent number: 10636264
    Abstract: A security system is provided for a building. The security system includes a fiber optic cable arranged in various locations in the building for Distributed Vibration Sensing (DVS) and Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) at the various locations. The security system further includes a machine-learning-based analyzer for selectively providing any of an early warning and a prevention of various detected conditions responsive to a machine-learning-based analysis of results from the DVS and the DAS.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Ming-Fang Huang, Ting Wang
  • Publication number: 20200124735
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems, methods and structures for determining any location on a deployed fiber cable from an optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR) curve using a movable mechanical vibration source to stimulate tiny vibration of fiber in deployed fiber cable along the cable route and a fiber sensing system at a central office to detect the vibration(s). Latitude and longitude of the location(s) of the vibration source is measured with a GPS device and a dynamic-OTDR distance is measured at central office (CO) simultaneously. The collected GPS location data and corresponding dynamic-OTDR distance data are paired and saved into a database. This saved data may be processed to graphically overlie a map thereby providing exact cable location on the map thereby providing carriers/service providers the ability to improve fiber fault location on a deployed fiber cable much faster and more accurately than presently possible using methods available in the art.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 22, 2019
    Publication date: April 23, 2020
    Applicant: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC
    Inventors: Ming-Fang HUANG, Yuheng CHEN, Ting WANG
  • Publication number: 20200003588
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems, methods and structures employing optical fiber sensing to monitor highway/roadway/street conditions (i.e., potholes, pavement cracks, etc.) in real-time, continuously, and while the highway/roadway/street remains in operation (in-service monitoring). Systems, methods, and structures according to aspects of the present disclosure may employ machine learning (ML) algorithms including neural networks to provide and or report on highway conditions so monitored/sensed. Of further advantage, systems, methods, and structures for optical fiber sensing for highway maintenance may operate in real-time, continuously, long-term, in-service, and may employ existing telecommunications optical cables without additional deployment cost(s) or disruption of telecommunications traffic.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2019
    Publication date: January 2, 2020
    Applicant: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC
    Inventors: Ming-Fang HUANG, Ting WANG
  • Publication number: 20200007234
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe systems, methods and structures providing bidirectional optical fiber communication and sensing using the same fiber transmission band and bidirectional WDM fiber sharing such that communications channels and optical fiber sensing channel(s) coexist on the same fiber. As a result, nonlinear interaction between communications channels and interrogating pulse(s) of sensing are much reduced or eliminated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2019
    Publication date: January 2, 2020
    Applicant: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC
    Inventors: Yue-Kai HUANG, Ezra IP, Philip Nan JI, Ming-Fang HUANG
  • Patent number: 10466106
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for measuring gas concentration from a 2f signal in wavelength modulation spectroscopy is presented. The computer-implemented method includes emitting a beam of light from a laser to pass through a gas sample, calculating a gas measurement value from the gas sample via a trough distance calculator using a trough distance of a gas absorption line's 2f signal, calibrating the gas measurement value via a multi-point calibration process, and outputting the gas measurement value to a user interface of a computing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Da Pan, Yue Tian, Ming-Fang Huang
  • Publication number: 20190236477
    Abstract: A fiber-based roadside condition sensing system is provided. The system includes a fiber optic cable arranged in various roadside locations for Distributed Vibration Sensing (DVS) and Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) at the various roadside locations. The system further includes a machine-learning-based analyzer for selectively providing any of an early warning and a prevention of various detected conditions responsive to a machine-learning-based analysis of results from the DVS and the DAS.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2018
    Publication date: August 1, 2019
    Inventors: Ming-Fang Huang, Ting Wang
  • Publication number: 20190232096
    Abstract: A fire detection system and method for fire detection are provided. The fire detection system includes at least one light emitting device for emitting light in a two-dimensional arrangement having multiple optical paths. The fire detection system further includes at least one light detection device for outputting respective light detection signals responsive to detecting the emitted light in each of the multiple optical paths of the two-dimensional arrangement. The fire detection system also includes a controller for identifying an abnormal condition relating to an early fire condition and initiating a set of fire sprinklers responsive to the respective light detection signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2018
    Publication date: August 1, 2019
    Inventor: Ming-Fang Huang
  • Publication number: 20190236920
    Abstract: A security system is provided for a building. The security system includes a fiber optic cable arranged in various locations in the building for Distributed Vibration Sensing (DVS) and Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) at the various locations. The security system further includes a machine-learning-based analyzer for selectively providing any of an early warning and a prevention of various detected conditions responsive to a machine-learning-based analysis of results from the DVS and the DAS.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2018
    Publication date: August 1, 2019
    Inventors: Ming-Fang Huang, Ting Wang
  • Publication number: 20190195789
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for measuring gas concentration from a 2f signal in wavelength modulation spectroscopy is presented. The computer-implemented method includes emitting a beam of light from a laser to pass through a gas sample, calculating a gas measurement value from the gas sample via a trough distance calculator using a trough distance of a gas absorption line's 2f signal, calibrating the gas measurement value via a multi-point calibration process, and outputting the gas measurement value to a user interface of a computing device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2018
    Publication date: June 27, 2019
    Inventors: Da Pan, Yue Tian, Ming-Fang Huang
  • Publication number: 20190170638
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure describe gas sensor calibration methods and subsequent sensing methods employing same in conjunction with wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS). Additional aspects of the present disclosure advantageously employ WMS for highly-sensitive gas concentration measurement across a range of concentrations from ambient to a high concentration environment such as fire/smoke detection. Finally, still further aspects of the present disclosure determine and then employ two calibration factors and during measurement WMS-2f spectra to determine an inflection or “turning point” and subsequently which one of the two calibration factors to employ at a given concentration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2018
    Publication date: June 6, 2019
    Applicant: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA
    Inventor: Ming-Fang HUANG
  • Patent number: 9810627
    Abstract: Systems and methods for generating a three-dimensional gas map includes a remote vehicle including reflective material. A positioning stage including multidimensional movement to track the remote vehicle. A light head to reflect light off of the remote vehicle. A controller to analyze received light to determine gas content and generate a three-dimensional gas map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Ming-Fang Huang, Lei Tao, Yue Tian, Ting Wang
  • Publication number: 20170115218
    Abstract: Systems and methods for generating a three-dimensional gas map includes a remote vehicle including reflective material. A positioning stage including multidimensional movement to track the remote vehicle. A light head to reflect light off of the remote vehicle. A controller to analyze received light to determine gas content and generate a three-dimensional gas map.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2016
    Publication date: April 27, 2017
    Inventors: Ming-Fang Huang, Lei Tao, Yue Tian, Ting Wang
  • Patent number: 9537598
    Abstract: A method of optical label swapping implemented by a switch used in a software defined network system that in one embodiment includes providing a 400-Gbit/s payload having a Nyquist shaped carrier in a 75-Ghz bandwidth spacing using a payload generator module controlling at least one first optical laser, and inserting a first optical label adjacent to the payload flow in a remainder of a 100-Ghz bandwidth with a label generator controlling at least one second optical laser. The label generator and the payload generator are controlled by a software defined network (SDN). A package of the payload and the first optical label is transmitted to a receiving node. The optical label can be swapped at the receiving node with a flex grid wavelength selective switch (WSS) controlled by the software defined network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Ming-Fang Huang