Patents by Inventor Robert A. Drew

Robert A. Drew 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).

  • Television content management with integrated third party interface
    Patent number: 9661380
    Abstract: Systems, methods and devices manage second screen media content that is associated with live or previously-recorded television programming while the programming is being viewed by a user. A control application provides an HTML5 or other application program interface (API) that allows advertisers, retailers or other third parties to access the remote control application for providing useful features.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2017
    Assignee: EchoStar Technologies L.L.C.
    Inventors: Robert Drew Major, Darren Major
  • Catalyst assembly and method of making the same
    Patent number: 9640802
    Abstract: In one embodiment, the catalyst assembly includes a two-dimension (2-D) extensive catalyst having a catalyst crystal plane; and a substrate supporting the 2-D extensive catalyst and having a substrate crystal plane in substantial alignment with the catalyst crystal plane. In certain instances, the catalyst crystal plane includes first and second adjacent catalyst atoms defining a catalyst atomic distance, the substrate crystal plane includes first and second adjacent substrate atoms defining a substrate atomic distance, a percent difference between the catalyst and substrate atomic distances is less than 10 percent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2017
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Jun Yang, Shinichi Hirano, Richard E. Soltis, Andrew Robert Drews, Andrea Pulskamp, James Waldecker
  • Methods Of Manufacturing A Solid State Battery
    Publication number: 20170092981
    Abstract: A method of making a solid state battery may include heating a flux sandwiched between a solid ceramic electrolyte and a group one metal. The flux may be heated such that it roughens a surface of the solid ceramic electrolyte and the group one metal melts and adheres to the surface of the solid ceramic electrolyte.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2015
    Publication date: March 30, 2017
    Inventors: Venkataramani Anandan, Andrew Robert Drews, Mohan Karulkar
  • Systems and processes for efficiently storing and retrieving video content
    Patent number: 9601153
    Abstract: Methods, systems and devices are described to improve the storage and retrieval of video content. The general concepts set forth herein could be used in any video storage system that uses disk drives to store video content, including remote or local storage digital video recorders (DVRs) and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: EchoStar Technologies L.L.C.
    Inventors: Robert Drew Major, Darren Major, John Michael Paul
  • Temperature maintenance and regulation of vehicle exhaust catalyst systems with phase change materials
    Patent number: 9566552
    Abstract: A vehicle exhaust system is provided and comprises a catalyst positioned in an exhaust passage of a vehicle. The catalyst is in the form of a washcoat supported on a substrate. The system includes a phase change material located adjacent to the catalyst to maintain the temperature of the catalyst between engine shut-down and subsequent start-up as well as to regulate the temperature during engine operation. In some embodiments, the phase change material comprises particles of a metal or metal alloy encapsulated in a ceramic material. The metal or metal alloy is adapted to have a phase change that occurs within a temperature range wherein the catalyst is active.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Kevin James Rhodes, Mark John Jagner, Andrew Robert Drews
  • Metal Oxygen Battery System
    Publication number: 20170040655
    Abstract: A metal oxygen battery system. The metal oxygen battery storage system includes a metal oxygen battery, which includes a cathode and an anode including a lithium metal material. The metal oxygen battery system further includes an oxygen containment unit including an oxygen storage material and external to the metal oxygen battery. The metal oxygen battery system also includes a reversible closed-loop in fluid communication with the metal oxygen battery and the oxygen containment unit, which are spaced apart from each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2016
    Publication date: February 9, 2017
    Inventors: Andrea Sudik, Andrew Robert Drews, Jun Yang, Shinichi Hirano, Michael Alan Tamor
  • FLEXIBLE COMPOSITE SOLID STATE BATTERY
    Publication number: 20170012319
    Abstract: A solid state battery includes a flexible polymer sheet, and an array of solid state pillars supported by and extending through the sheet. Each of the pillars has an anode layer, a cathode layer adjacent, and an inorganic solid electrolyte (ISE) layer interposed between the anode and cathode layers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2016
    Publication date: January 12, 2017
    Inventors: Venkataramani ANANDAN, Andrew Robert DREWS
  • Smart energy management to improve electrified vehicle battery life
    Patent number: 9527400
    Abstract: A battery charging system includes a charger that is configured to charge and discharge a battery. The battery system further includes a controller programmed to operate the charger based on a state of charge of the battery to, during a storage duration, maintain the state of charge at a partial charge level. The charger may be operated to charge and discharge the battery during the storage duration. Upon expiration of the storage duration, the controller operates the charger to maintain the state of charge at an operating charge level. The partial charge level is selected to reduce an amount of degradation to the battery relative to the operating charge level for a same duration of time. The battery charging system includes remote connectivity such that the storage duration may be modified during the storage duration from a remote device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Kevin James Rhodes, Andrew Robert Drews
  • SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MULTIPLE BITRATE CONTENT
    Publication number: 20160366489
    Abstract: A remote storage digital video recorder (RS-DVR) system is disclosed. The RS-DVR system includes a network interface to communicate data between the RS-DVR system and a subscriber system via a network, a file system module coupled to the network interface, an ingest agent coupled to the file system module to receive encoded media segments that represent media content files encoded at a plurality of different bitrates; and a storage architecture coupled to the file system to store the encoded media segments, resulting in stored media segments. The RS-DVR carries out a number of functions and operations to service multiple subscribers and associated subscriber systems, such as various storage device management operations, file structure techniques, assignment of recorded media to subscribers, file system indexing, and supporting shared and per-subscriber content rights.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2016
    Publication date: December 15, 2016
    Applicant: ECHOSTAR TECHNOLOGIES L.L.C.
    Inventors: Robert Drew Major, Darren Major
  • Metal oxygen battery containing oxygen storage materials
    Patent number: 9502718
    Abstract: A method of storing oxygen in a cathode including an oxygen storage metal-organic framework (“MOF”) material comprising a mixture of ionic conductive material, electron conductive material and catalyst material within the MOF.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Andrea Sudik, Andrew Robert Drews, Jun Yang, Shinichi Hirano, Michael Alan Tamor
  • SOLID STATE BATTERY
    Publication number: 20160329594
    Abstract: A solid state battery including an extruded, interconnected network of a first electrochemically active material forming a plurality of channels; an electrolyte coated onto surfaces of each of the plurality of channels and forming a plurality of coated channels; and a second electrochemically active material situated within each coated channel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 7, 2015
    Publication date: November 10, 2016
    Inventors: Andrew Robert Drews, Venkataramani Anandan
  • APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR ADAPTIVE-RATE SHIFTING OF STREAMING CONTENT
    Publication number: 20160323341
    Abstract: An apparatus for adaptive-rate shifting of streaming content, includes an agent controller module configured to simultaneously request at least portions of a plurality of streamlets. The agent controller module is farther configured to continuously monitor streamlet requests and subsequent responses, and accordingly request higher or lower quality streamlets. A staging module is configured to stage the streamlets and arrange the streamlets for playback on a content player. A system, includes a data communications network, a content server coupled to the data communications network and having a content module configured to process content and generate a plurality of high and low quality streams, and the apparatus.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 11, 2016
    Publication date: November 3, 2016
    Applicant: ECHOSTAR TECHNOLOGIES L.L.C.
    Inventors: Robert Drew Major, Mark B. Hurst
  • Flexible composite solid polymer electrochemical membrane
    Patent number: 9478809
    Abstract: A solid state battery includes a flexible polymer sheet, and an array of solid state pillars supported by and extending through the sheet. Each of the pillars has an anode layer, a cathode layer adjacent, and an inorganic solid electrolyte (ISE) layer interposed between the anode and cathode layers. A flexible electrochemical membrane includes a flexible polymer sheet, and an array of inorganic solid electrolyte pillars supported by the polymer sheet with each of the pillars extending through a thickness of the sheet to form an ionically conductive pathway therethrough.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2016
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Venkataramani Anandan, Andrew Robert Drews
  • Distribution schemes for storing multiple bitrate content
    Patent number: 9432701
    Abstract: A remote storage digital video recorder (RS-DVR) system is disclosed. The RS-DVR system includes a network interface to communicate data between the RS-DVR system and a subscriber system via a network, a file system module coupled to the network interface, an ingest agent coupled to the file system module to receive encoded media segments that represent media content files encoded at a plurality of different bitrates; and a storage architecture coupled to the file system to store the encoded media segments, resulting in stored media segments. The RS-DVR carries out a number of functions and operations to service multiple subscribers and associated subscriber systems, such as various storage device management operations, file structure techniques, assignment of recorded media to subscribers, file system indexing, and supporting shared and per-subscriber content rights.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: EchoStar Technologies L.L.C.
    Inventors: Robert Drew Major, Darren Major
  • Smart Energy Management to Improve Electrified Vehicle Battery Life
    Publication number: 20160221456
    Abstract: A battery charging system includes a charger that is configured to charge and discharge a battery. The battery system further includes a controller programmed to operate the charger based on a state of charge of the battery to, during a storage duration, maintain the state of charge at a partial charge level. The charger may be operated to charge and discharge the battery during the storage duration. Upon expiration of the storage duration, the controller operates the charger to maintain the state of charge at an operating charge level. The partial charge level is selected to reduce an amount of degradation to the battery relative to the operating charge level for a same duration of time. The battery charging system includes remote connectivity such that the storage duration may be modified during the storage duration from a remote device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2015
    Publication date: August 4, 2016
    Inventors: Kevin James Rhodes, Andrew Robert Drews
  • Apparatus, system, and method for adaptive-rate shifting of streaming content
    Patent number: 9407564
    Abstract: An apparatus for adaptive-rate shifting of streaming content includes an agent controller module configured to simultaneously request at least portions of a plurality of streamlets. The agent controller module is further configured to continuously monitor streamlet requests and subsequent responses, and accordingly request higher or lower quality streamlets. A staging module is configured to stage the streamlets and arrange the streamlets for playback on a content player. A system includes a data communications network, a content server coupled to the data communications network and having a content module configured to process content and generate a plurality of high and low quality streams, and the apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: EchoStar Technologies L.L.C.
    Inventors: Robert Drew Major, Mark B. Hurst
  • WI-FI ROUTING
    Publication number: 20160183101
    Abstract: Routing on Wi-Fi or similar home networks is improved though the use of a proxy service located on the home network. If wireless networking issues arise, the proxy can adapt delivery of digital content in an intelligent manner. If client communications are becoming increasingly unreliable, for example, the proxy can respond with additional error correction and/or packet retransmissions, in contrast to conventional TCP techniques for responding to network issues. Other corrections and features may be built into the proxy protocol as desired.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2015
    Publication date: June 23, 2016
    Inventors: Robert Drew Major, Darren Major
  • Composite Separator with Aligned Particles
    Publication number: 20160099453
    Abstract: An ionically conductive composite separator for a rechargeable battery and methods for producing the same are provided. The separator may include a bulk material having an anode side and a cathode side and a thickness extending therebetween and a region of aligned particles extending across the bulk material thickness. The aligned particles may be formed as a particle chain and the particles may be formed of a solid electrolyte material. The ionically conductive separator may be formed by providing a plurality of particles within a bulk material and applying an AC electric field to the particles and the bulk material while the bulk material is in a liquid state to align the particles into at least one ionically conductive aligned particle region within the bulk material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2014
    Publication date: April 7, 2016
    Inventors: Venkataramani ANANDAN, Andrew Robert DREWS, John Matthew GINDER
  • SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES FOR EFFICIENTLY STORING AND RETRIEVING VIDEO CONTENT
    Publication number: 20160012843
    Abstract: Methods, systems and devices are described to improve the storage and retrieval of video content. The general concepts set forth herein could be used in any video storage system that uses disk drives to store video content, including remote or local storage digital video recorders (DVRs) and the like.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2015
    Publication date: January 14, 2016
    Inventors: Robert Drew Major, Darren Major, John Michael Paul
  • Metal Oxygen Battery Containing Oxygen Storage Materials
    Publication number: 20150380743
    Abstract: A method of storing oxygen in a cathode including an oxygen storage metal-organic framework (“MOF”) material comprising a mixture of ionic conductive material, electron conductive material and catalyst material within the MOF.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2015
    Publication date: December 31, 2015
    Inventors: Andrea Sudik, Andrew Robert Drews, Jun Yang, Shinichi Hirano, Michael Alan Tamor