Patents by Inventor Tony Pierce

Tony Pierce 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: 11951346
    Abstract: The portable exercise device includes a housing, a rotating spool, a plurality of cables, a plurality of handles, at least one securing strap, and a tensioning knob. The device is temporarily installed about the front surface of the seat back via a single or plurality of straps. The tensioning knob provides varying levels of resistance with the rotating spool. The rotating spool has a spiral coil spring that places a rotational biasing force upon the spool such that the cables will wind upon the rotating spool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Inventor: Tony Pierce
  • Patent number: 9152199
    Abstract: A method of operating a computing device to allow events to be conditionally executed based on a power state of the device at the time of execution of the events. Conditional execution may be implemented using multiple timers, each associated with a power state. A timer such as an “AC timer” or a “DC timer” associated with a respective power state may be used to wake up the device when, upon expiration, or time-out, of the timer, a current power state of the device and the power state associated with the timer match. An Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI) may be employed to abstract implementation of the timers from underlying hardware of the device. The operating system and software applications may request establishing wake-up behavior of the device as commands to program conditional events, which may then be translated into commands to embedded controller to set the timers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2015
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Patrick L. Stemen, Timothy W. Liaw, Nicholas S. Judge, Tony Pierce, Libo Tao
  • Publication number: 20100153765
    Abstract: A method of operating a computing device to allow events to be conditionally executed based on a power state of the device at the time of execution of the events. Conditional execution may be implemented using multiple timers, each associated with a power state. A timer such as an “AC timer” or a “DC timer” associated with a respective power state may be used to wake up the device when, upon expiration, or time-out, of the timer, a current power state of the device and the power state associated with the timer match. An Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI) may be employed to abstract implementation of the timers from underlying hardware of the device. The operating system and software applications may request establishing wake-up behavior of the device as commands to program conditional events, which may then be translated into commands to embedded controller to set the timers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 16, 2008
    Publication date: June 17, 2010
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Patrick L. Stemen, Timothy W. Liaw, Nicholas S. Judge, Tony Pierce, Libo Tao
  • Patent number: 7418714
    Abstract: A system that facilitates access to an SMBus is provided. The system includes a notification component that identifies an SMBus event and a driver that dispatches the SMBus event to an AML event handler. A method for SMBus event handling is also provided. The method includes receiving an SMBus event notification, identifying the SMBus event notification, dispatching the SMBus event notification to an AML event handler, and handling the SMBus event notification in AML code. Two new ACPI opcodes, which are a three parameter operation region read and a three parameter operation region write can be utilized in accordance with the present invention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Michael P. Hills, Michael H. Tsang, Tony Pierce, Jacob Oshins
  • Publication number: 20060123258
    Abstract: A mechanism is provided for a personal computer to preserve user and system state data in the event of an AC power failure when the computer is in a standby state. When the AC power failure occurs, a switchover circuit connects a rechargeable energy storage medium, such as a rechargeable battery, to the power supply of the computer for powering components of computer, and the computer is awaken. A critical battery alarm is then issued to trigger the operating system of the computer to perform a transition into a hibernation state, during which the state data of the computer are persistently stored. The energy storage medium is disconnected from the power supply after the computer system has entered hibernation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2006
    Publication date: June 8, 2006
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: William Westerinen, Jason Anderson, Allen Marshall, Tony Pierce
  • Publication number: 20050187719
    Abstract: A system for adding multiple GPE blocks (in addition to the system/root GPE block device) to a computing system by creating a device entry in the ACPI namespace, and using a _CRS object to describe the system resources consumed by the device is described. The GPE block device may then access associated hardware devices through a well known mechanism (either I/O or Memory Mapped accesses). By creating additional GPE block devices within the ACPI namespace, general purpose events may be delivered using more traditional hardware interrupt mechanisms than with existing systems (e.g., wiring GPE blocks together). Moreover, by putting GPE block devices in the ACPI namespace, hardware components having hardware registers may be “hot plugged” to the computing system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 4, 2005
    Publication date: August 25, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jacob Oshins, Stephane Plante, Tony Pierce
  • Publication number: 20050182978
    Abstract: Systems and methods for producing a simulated off condition in a computing device. The computing device includes system components such as a power supply, processors and fans that are put into a low power state upon receiving a signal to power off the device. This provides the appearance to users that the computing device is off. The system components, however, remain enabled to run applications when the computing device is in the simulated off condition. If necessary, the device can be returned to a fully on condition to process applications that require the system components to be brought out of the low power state to execute.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2004
    Publication date: August 18, 2005
    Inventors: Jason Anderson, William Westerinen, Tony Pierce, Allen Marshall
  • Publication number: 20050182612
    Abstract: Systems and methods for producing a simulated off condition in a computing device using a set of software drivers that interact with a system service and the device BIOS. The computing device includes system components such as a power supply, processors and fans that are put into a low power state upon receiving a signal to power off the device. This provides the appearance to users that the computing device is off. The system components, however, remain enabled to run applications when the computing device is in the simulated off condition. If necessary, the device can be returned to a fully on condition to process applications that require the system components to be brought out of the low power state to execute.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 3, 2004
    Publication date: August 18, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jason Anderson, William Westerinen, Tony Pierce, Allen Marshall, Peter Viscarola
  • Publication number: 20030163599
    Abstract: A system that facilitates access to an SMBus is provided. The system includes a notification component that identifies an SMBus event and a driver that dispatches the SMBus event to an AML event handler. A method for SMBus event handling is also provided. The method includes receiving an SMBus event notification, identifying the SMBus event notification, dispatching the SMBus event notification to an AML event handler, and handling the SMBus event notification in AML code. Two new ACPI opcodes, which are a three parameter operation region read and a three parameter operation region write can be utilized in accordance with the present invention.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2002
    Publication date: August 28, 2003
    Inventors: Michael P. Hills, Michael H. Tsang, Tony Pierce, Jacob Oshins