Abstract: According to an embodiment of the present invention, a solar energy collection system utilizes high efficiency multi junction photovoltaic (PV) solar cells to augment extracted energy obtained from a photovoltaic (PV) solar cell coolant fluid Carnot cycle process. The combined Carnot and photovoltaic (PV) energy extraction process significantly enhances the efficiency of solar energy-to-electric power conversion. The solar energy collection system employs a suspension system that further reduces costs of producing electricity.

Abstract: Financial instruments to protect the value of residential homes are described. A method for generation of publicly traded notes backed by ownership of single family homes to allow financial markets to provide instruments for investors and home owners to profit from price changes in the value of single family homes. A fraction of the title to the land and dwelling of many single family homes are bundled, separately from that of the traditional mortgages, creating the equivalent of mortgage-backed-securities such as Ginnie Maes, which are marketed to public investors. These securities, herein referred to as home asset value enhancement notes (HAVENs), can be used by individual homeowners as a hedge against any declines in value of their individual homes. They can also be purchased by the general public as a direct investment in the aggregate value of residential real estate.

Abstract: A system to protect personal property may include an electronic tag associable with a personal property item. The system may also include a controller adapted to wirelessly communicate with the electronic tag to determine a status of the electronic tag to protect the personal property item from loss or theft.

Abstract: A system to protect personal property may include an electronic tag associable with a personal property item. The system may also include a controller adapted to wirelessly communicate with the electronic tag to determine a status of the electronic tag to protect the personal property item from loss or theft.

Abstract: A system to encode lottery numbers onto magnetic strip cards used as fare cards for public transportation systems. The system is activated by user selection of a lottery option and increased payment at the time of the fare card purchase, or altered after purchase in a separate hardware system. A second unit determines those cards that will be selected for payout (e.g., winning cards). The system is designed to provide additional revenue to replace/reduce government subsidization of public transportation, by collecting additional revenues from that portion of the population that uses the transportation system and opts to participate in the lottery. Most services provided by an electronic media interface (e.g., fare card, credit card, ticket, computer modem, etc.) can be modified to provide this targeted lottery feature.

Abstract: Financial instruments to protect the value of residential homes are described. A method for generation of publicly traded notes backed by ownership of single family homes to allow financial markets to provide instruments for investors and home owners to profit from price changes in the value of single family homes. A fraction of the title to the land and dwelling of many single family homes are bundled, separately from that of the traditional mortgages, creating the equivalent of mortgage-backed-securities such as Ginnie Maes, which are marketed to public investors. These securities, herein referred to as home asset value enhancement notes (HAVENs), can be used by individual homeowners as a hedge against any declines in value of their individual homes. They can also be purchased by the general public as a direct investment in the aggregate value of residential real estate.

Abstract: A fusion device consisting of two colliding ion beams, each produced by a high power, femtosecond regime, chirped pulsed amplification (CPA) laser acceleration device. The CPA laser creates an ionized plasma and subsequently accelerates electrons to multi-MeV energies, thus creating electric fields due to separation of electrons and ions, of sufficient magnitude to accelerate the plasma ions to energies ranging from multi-keV to multi-MeV levels. The magnetic fields created by the laser pulses, as well as the electrons and/or ions, also helps confine the ions to the region of the size of the laser beam focal spot diameter, and thus enhance the collision probability of the counter-streaming ions and provide a sizable population of fusion events. Ion beam generation by high powered, short pulse CPA lasers has been previously demonstrated in thin foil targets.

Abstract: A device to prevent the unraveling of common bow-tie shoelace knots. The four ends of a standard bow-tie knot (two loops and two loose ends) are gathered together in a stalk-like shape, and encircled snugly with an adjustable restraining material, which can then be anchored to the shoe to prevent the knot stalk from flopping around or getting snagged on environmental materials (e.g., branches, twigs, weeds, etc.). Referred to herein as a “lace lasso,” the device is light-weight, simple, and rapidly installed and attached to simple and common shoelace knots. The restraining material can be chord, elastic material, or fabric; adjustment in snugness and tension can be accomplished by small spring-loaded ripstop cylinders commonly used in camping gear, or Velcro fabric strips. The device can be attached to the shoe by caribiner-type clips or Velcro fabric strips which are connected to the restraining material wrapped around the ends of the shoelace knot.

Abstract: A fusion device consisting of two colliding ion beams, each produced by a high power, femtosecond regime, chirped pulsed amplification (CPA) laser acceleration device. The CPA laser creates an ionized plasma and subsequently accelerates electrons to multi-MeV energies, thus creating electric fields due to separation of electrons and ions, of sufficient magnitude to accelerate the plasma ions to energies ranging from multi-keV to multi-MeV levels. The magnetic fields created by the laser pulses, as well as the electrons and/or ions, also helps confine the ions to the region of the size of the laser beam focal spot diameter, and thus enhance the collision probability of the counter-streaming ions and provide a sizable population of fusion events. Ion beam generation by high powered, short pulse CPA lasers has been previously demonstrated in thin foil targets.

Abstract: A device to prevent the unraveling of common bow-tie shoelace knots. The four ends of a standard bow-tie knot (two loops and two loose ends) are gathered together in a stalk-like shape, and encircled snugly with an adjustable restraining material, which can then be anchored to the shoe to prevent the knot stalk from flopping around or getting snagged on environmental materials (e.g., branches, twigs, weeds, etc.). Referred to herein as a “lace lasso,” the device is light-weight, simple, and rapidly installed and attached to simple and common shoelace knots. The restraining material can be chord, elastic material, or fabric; adjustment in snugness and tension can be accomplished by small spring-loaded ripstop cylinders commonly used in camping gear, or Velcro fabric strips. The device can be attached to the shoe by caribiner-type clips or Velcro fabric strips which are connected to the restraining material wrapped around the ends of the shoelace knot.

Abstract: Two techniques for producing plasma x-ray laser amplifiers, encompassing laser generated high density, micron-sized plasma columns, and microwave driven low density, large plasma volumes which provide the population inversions necessary for x-ray lasing to occur in the plasmas. The laser driven plasma is created by short-pulse, high power laser beams produced by chirped pulse amplification techniques, which are confined to micron-sized cylindrical channels by self-focusing effects and electron density conditioning means. The extremely high powers provide for complete stripping of medium to high Z atoms, which allows for recombination cascading to produce population inversions on the higher energy x-ray transition levels. The very short plasma creation times allow a laser produced "seed" x-ray pulse to be properly timed for injection into the plasma when population inversions reach maximum levels.

Abstract: A man-portable light weight emergency oxygen supply system device for providing breathable oxygen for periods exceeding ten minutes. The device can be easily affixed to personnel for mobile use or mounted for stationary applications. A typical on-person system, weighing over three pounds, can supply pure oxygen for short periods of time, extending to the order of an hour for mixtures with ambient air to provide nominal sea-level oxygen concentrations. A catalyzed endothermic reaction is utilized to produce oxygen with no potential for harmful contaminants or danger of accidental initiation or fire/explosion hazard. Potential applications include use for emergency evacuations, such as hotel fires, aviation emergencies including de-pressurization and fires, and medical emergencies requiring oxygen administration prior to arrival of emergency medical equipment or ambulances.

Abstract: A long-range, wide-area remote sensor system(s) to detect trace levels of atmospheric constituents using bistatic configurations to measure differential absorption (BDIAL) of source beams tuned to the absorption line center and off-peak "wing" in the spectra of species of interest. Potential platforms for the probe beam and detector subsystems include satellites and airborne vehicles, and mapping of large geographical regions is accomplished by tomographic reconstruction of recorded columnar absorption data. The use of bistatic geometries reduces power requirements on the probe beam, as compared to standard backscatter DIAL, and allows detection with platforms at large stand-off ranges, subject to atmospheric conditions. Operation in spectral regions including UV, visible and IR is feasible, provided that there are no overlapping absorption lines when many substances are present. Use of multiple frequency sources and multi-spectral detectors will reduce identification ambiguities.

Abstract: A system for creation of user-selected customized audio products, defined as a plurality of songs from different recording artists recorded on a single compact disc (CD) or digital audio tape (DAT) cassette, at record store/distributor locations utilizing a digitized, central database with production hardware at distributor sites. Customized products consist of CD ROM or digital audio tapes (DAT) with music or voice content selected from large digital database, and are written at local workstations at distribution centers (such as record stores) which are connected by a high-speed communications network. The system records costs of the digitized audio (e.g., royalties for individual songs) for billing purposes, as well as producing descriptive material (contents, background information, and graphics for labels, etc.).

Abstract: A technique for correcting wave front aberrations in large optical telescopes by four wave mixing processes which allow near-diffraction limited performance in the presence of relatively large physical distortions which could be present in low cost lightweight primary mirrors of desired high resolution imaging instruments. A local source reference beam, which is used to sample the aberrations in the telescope optical train, is mixed with the incoming image beam, which can be filtered and can be at a slightly different wavelength than the aberrated reference beam; a corrected image wave front is then extracted and brought to a focus and recorded as the desired high resolution image.

Abstract: A high-energy laser construction for minimizing the effects of thermal blooming on laser beams passing through the atmosphere. The construction includes multiple subapertures of equivalent area to a single aperture, but spatially separated to maintain a relatively low energy density, and therefore low probability of thermal blooming, until sub-beams emanating from the subaperture converge and overlap near a target plane.

Abstract: A technique for accelerating charged particles using an intense traveling electromagnetic wave such as produced by appropriate wavelength lasers. Low energy electrons injected into the focal region of an intense, polarized laser beam are rapidly accelerated in the direction of the beam by the ponderomotive force of the radiation field. The particles reach maximum energy in a distance comparable to the Rayleigh range of a tightly focussed, visible wavelength, diffraction limited pulsed laser. At this point, a combination of induced transverse velocity drifts and/or the rapidly decreasing electric field strengths due to the expanding laser beam envelope cause the particles to enter a low radiation field region before significant deceleration can occur. The resulting device possesses unique advantages and properties not present in existing accelerators.

Abstract: A technique for constructing electromagnetic oscillators and amplifiers producing coherent radiation tunable from the microwave through the x-ray spectral regions. The resulting class of devices posses such novel and desirable features as broad band or narrow band operational capability in a high power and high efficiency mode. A relativistic electron beam is injected into an axial solenoidal magnetic field with a component of perpendicular motion and subsequently rotates and emits synchrotron radiation. Radiation of the proper frequency and direction will pass over the rotating beam electrons in such fashion as to cause them to lose energy to the radiation field and thus cause the intensity of the radiation field to increase. Selection of the proper radiation cavity results in laser oscillator or amplifier behavior with novel attributes.