Patents by Inventor Stephen M. Bench

Stephen M. Bench 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: 9571326
    Abstract: A Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) method and apparatus including a QAM transmit modulator with at least one unbalanced mixer, which creates an asymmetric two-dimensional (2-D) QAM symbol constellation. The asymmetrical symbol constellation provides baseband symbol clock signal leakage sufficient to facilitate quick and simple baseband symbol clock recovery and signal channel compensation at the QAM receiver without significantly degrading the system bit-error rate (BER). While slightly degrading static BER, overall system performance is improved when considering baseband symbol clock recovery and received signal compensation for an imperfect signal channel. This allows QAM to be deployed in systems where QAM is otherwise prohibitively expensive and improves overall system performance for any existing QAM system application without additional bandwidth, cost or complexity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: SEESCAN, INC.
    Inventors: Stephen M. Bench, Roger B. Shaffer
  • Patent number: 8841912
    Abstract: A pre-amplifier circuit for connection to an antenna of a human-portable locator includes a differential amplifier/mixer pair and means for allowing a common-mode “phantom” signal to modulate a transfer function of the differential amplifier/mixer pair. The common-mode phantom signal modulates the transfer function of the differential pre-amplifier “onboard” the antenna without the usual requirement for onboard power supply and signal oscillator. This technique uses the same electronic components to provide both pre-amplification and mixing functions, thereby improving circuit performance-to-cost ratio, reducing mixer power consumption, situating the necessary signal oscillator remotely from the mixer, and greatly improving the available system bandwidth by limiting spectral transmission demands to the mixed signal bandwidth alone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2014
    Assignee: Seescan, Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen M. Bench
  • Patent number: 8717028
    Abstract: A high-Q human-portable, battery-powered self-correcting tunable resonator in a transmitter apparatus for inducing alternating currents of high quality in buried conductors to facilitate their location is disclosed. The transmitter apparatus may employ an FET-driven capacitive tuning circuit and a coil design that achieves high precision, high-quality transmission signals, and which may be equipped with a high-voltage booster for facilitating fault-localization applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Seescan, Inc.
    Inventors: Ray Merewether, Mark S. Olsson, Jeffrey A. Prsha, Jan Soukup, David A. Cox, Mark F. Fleming, Lisa E. Latimer, Ryan B. Levin, Michael E. Turgeon, Stephen M. Bench, Edward N. Denaci
  • Patent number: 8400154
    Abstract: An antenna useful in an antenna array of a man-portable buried utility locator includes a flexible bobbin made of copper foil. The bobbin has a plurality of axially spaced grooves and an axially extending gap formed therein. A layer of insulation surrounds an outer surface of the bobbin. A conductive wire is disposed in the grooves and wound around the bobbin over the layer of insulation to form a plurality of axially spaced sub-coils. A layer of copper-foil tape having an insulating backing is wound about the conductive wire and has a second gap aligned with the gap in the bobbin. A layer of a low dielectric material is wound about the copper-foil tape. The antenna provides more antenna wire surface for an equivalent coil cross-sectional area, compared to prior art antennas, thus yielding greater sensitivity. The construction of the antenna provides a series of Faraday-shielded sub-coils, which yield a greater useful antenna bandwidth by moving the inherent resonance of each coil to a higher frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: SeekTech, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark S. Olsson, Stephen M. Bench, Ryan B. Levin, Ray Merewether
  • Patent number: 8395661
    Abstract: Various pipe inspection systems include a camera head operatively connected to the distal end of a push-cable. Images may be automatically captured at predetermined distances of travel, or may be automatically captured based on the output signals from the auto-focus, auto-exposure and/or auto-white balance engines indicating, for example, that the camera motion within the pipe is substantially zero. Images may be captured in an automatic mode at predetermined intervals as the camera head travels within the pipe or in an override mode initiated by operator command. The system may include a data transmission circuit that transmits data between a plurality of nodes at a frequency that does not substantially interfere with a normal base band video transmission frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2013
    Assignee: SeekTech, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark S. Olsson, Michael J. Martin, Ray Merewether, Stephen M. Bench, Tran Nguyen
  • Publication number: 20120212226
    Abstract: A pre-amplifier circuit for connection to an antenna of a human-portable locator includes a differential amplifier/mixer pair and means for allowing a common-mode “phantom” signal to modulate a transfer function of the differential amplifier/mixer pair. The common-mode phantom signal modulates the transfer function of the differential pre-amplifier “onboard” the antenna without the usual requirement for onboard power supply and signal oscillator. This technique uses the same electronic components to provide both pre-amplification and mixing functions, thereby improving circuit performance-to-cost ratio, reducing mixer power consumption, situating the necessary signal oscillator remotely from the mixer, and greatly improving the available system bandwidth by limiting spectral transmission demands to the mixed signal bandwidth alone.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2011
    Publication date: August 23, 2012
    Inventor: Stephen M. Bench
  • Patent number: 8013610
    Abstract: A high-Q human-portable, battery-powered self-correcting tunable resonator in a transmitter apparatus for inducing alternating currents of high quality in buried conductors to facilitate their location. The transmitter apparatus employs an FET-driven capacitive tuning circuit and a coil design that achieves high precision, high-quality transmission signals, and which is equipped with a high-voltage booster for facilitating fault-localization applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: SeekTech, Inc.
    Inventors: Ray Merewether, Mark S. Olsson, Jeffrey A. Praha, Jan Soukup, David A. Cox, Mark F. Fleming, Lisa E. Latimer, Ryan B. Levin, Michael E. Turgeon, Stephen M. Bench, Edward N. Denaci
  • Patent number: 7969151
    Abstract: A pre-amplifier circuit for connection to an antenna of a human-portable locator includes a differential amplifier/mixer pair and means for allowing a common-mode “phantom” signal to modulate a transfer function of the differential amplifier/mixer pair. The common-mode phantom signal modulates the transfer function of the differential pre-amplifier “onboard” the antenna without the usual requirement for onboard power supply and signal oscillator. This technique uses the same electronic components to provide both pre-amplification and mixing functions, thereby improving circuit performance-to-cost ratio, reducing mixer power consumption, situating the necessary signal oscillator remotely from the mixer, and greatly improving the available system bandwidth by limiting spectral transmission demands to the mixed signal bandwidth alone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2011
    Assignee: SeekTech, Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen M. Bench
  • Publication number: 20100225752
    Abstract: A Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) method and apparatus including a QAM transmit modulator with at least one unbalanced mixer, which creates an asymmetric two-dimensional (2-D) QAM symbol constellation. The asymmetrical symbol constellation provides baseband symbol clock signal leakage sufficient to facilitate quick and simple baseband symbol clock recovery and signal channel compensation at the QAM receiver without significantly degrading the system bit-error rate (BER). While slightly degrading static BER, overall system performance is improved when considering baseband symbol clock recovery and received signal compensation for an imperfect signal channel. This allows QAM to be deployed in systems where QAM is otherwise prohibitively expensive and improves overall system performance for any existing QAM system application without additional bandwidth, cost or complexity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2010
    Publication date: September 9, 2010
    Inventors: Stephen M. Bench, Roger B. Shaffer
  • Publication number: 20090201023
    Abstract: A pre-amplifier circuit for connection to an antenna of a human-portable locator includes a differential amplifier/mixer pair and means for allowing a common-mode “phantom” signal to modulate a transfer function of the differential amplifier/mixer pair. The common-mode phantom signal modulates the transfer function of the differential pre-amplifier “onboard” the antenna without the usual requirement for onboard power supply and signal oscillator. This technique uses the same electronic components to provide both pre-amplification and mixing functions, thereby improving circuit performance-to-cost ratio, reducing mixer power consumption, situating the necessary signal oscillator remotely from the mixer, and greatly improving the available system bandwidth by limiting spectral transmission demands to the mixed signal bandwidth alone.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 6, 2009
    Publication date: August 13, 2009
    Applicant: SeekTech, Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen M. Bench
  • Patent number: 4312064
    Abstract: A communication transmission system includes one or more modulated carrier communication channels in which a receiver has a modified vestigial side band filter for eliminating phase cancellation. Accurate design of the modified vestigial side band filters at the receivers, further reduces susceptibility to frequency drift caused by component aging and component response to environmental changes. The system has particular utility in multiple channel carrier telephone communication systems which utilize limited available band width for providing a maximum number of communication channels over an extended length communication line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 1980
    Date of Patent: January 19, 1982
    Assignee: The Anaconda Company
    Inventors: Stephen M. Bench, Paul H. Thibodeau, Guy M. Campbell, Theodore M. Stump
  • Patent number: 4292599
    Abstract: A low pass active filter comprises multiple stages including multiple active devices, circuitry including resistance and capacitance AC coupling the stages in series sequence, and high impedance biasing resistance coupled between the first and last stage inputs, whereby the DC operating point is determined by one active device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 1979
    Date of Patent: September 29, 1981
    Assignee: The Anaconda Company
    Inventor: Stephen M. Bench
  • Patent number: 4276651
    Abstract: A data communication system for use in the control and monitoring of mobile stations, for example, in a bus monitoring system, from a central station over a communication channel carrying both data and voice information. Information is encoded into digital messages having a start code followed by one or more data blocks. The start code identifies the beginning of the data block that follows and enables synchronization of clock circuitry to the received data frequency. The data blocks have N digital words with M binary bits where one word is a parity word and N-1 words are data words. Each of the data words has a data portion and parity portion coded for correction of at least one error. Reliability is enhanced by a data detector which discriminates between data and noise or voice to provide an indication of the presence of data. In transmitting the digital messages, the bits of the N words in each data block are interleaved to provide protection against error bursts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 1979
    Date of Patent: June 30, 1981
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen M. Bench, William R. Dirkes, Manohar A. Juglekar, James C. Secora, Michael A. Stephen
  • Patent number: 4229822
    Abstract: A data communication system for use in the control and monitoring of mobile stations, for example, in a bus monitoring system, from a central station over a communication channel carrying both data and voice information. Information is encoded into digital messages having a start code followed by one or more data blocks. The start code identifies the beginning of the data block that follows and enables synchronization of clock circuitry to the received data frequency. The data blocks have N digital words with M binary bits where one word is a parity word and N-1 words are data words. Each of the data words has a data portion and parity portion coded for correction of at least one error. Reliability is enhanced by a data detector which discriminates between data and noise or voice to provide an indication of the presence of data. In transmitting the digital messages, the bits of the N words in each data block are interleaved to provide protection against error bursts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 1979
    Date of Patent: October 21, 1980
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen M. Bench
  • Patent number: 4156867
    Abstract: A data communication system for use in the control and monitoring of mobile stations, for example, in a bus monitoring system, from a central station over a communication channel carrying both data and voice information. Information is encoded into digital messages having a start code followed by one or more data blocks. The start code identifies the beginning of the data block that follows and enables synchronization of clock circuitry to the received data frequency. The data blocks have N digital words with M binary bits where one word is a parity word and N-1 words are data words. Each of the data words has a data portion and parity portion coded for correction of at least one error. Reliability is enhanced by a data detector which discriminates between data and noise or voice to provide an indication of the presence of data. In transmitting the digital messages, the bits of the N words in each data block are interleaved to provide protection against error bursts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 1977
    Date of Patent: May 29, 1979
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen M. Bench, William R. Dirkes, Manohar A. Joglekar, James C. Secora, Michael A. Stepien