Patents by Inventor William A. Gardner

William A. Gardner 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: 12077346
    Abstract: A bottle closure and opener device for use on a wine bottle including a sleeve having a top side, a bottom side, an outer surface, and an inner surface, the top side having a first opening, the bottom side having a second opening, and the inner surface including inner threads, wherein the internal threads are configured to mate with external threads on a top portion of the wine bottle. A cork having an upper portion positioned within the first opening of the sleeve and extending above the bottle top and a lower portion of the cork positioned within the wine bottle's neck opening to seal a liquid within the wine bottle and to seal oxygen from entering the bottle. During operation, the cork and sleeve combination are configured to be removed from the wine bottle's opening via unscrewing the sleeve from the top portion of the wine bottle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2024
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2024
    Assignee: Gardner Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: William A. Gardner
  • Patent number: 11952178
    Abstract: A bottle closure and opener device for use on a wine bottle including a sleeve having a top side, a bottom side, an outer surface, and an inner surface, the top side having a first opening, the bottom side having a second opening, and the inner surface including inner threads, wherein the internal threads are configured to mate with external threads on a top portion of the wine bottle. A cork having an upper portion positioned within the first opening of the sleeve and extending above the bottle top and a lower portion of the cork positioned within the wine bottle's neck opening to seal a liquid within the wine bottle and to seal oxygen from entering the bottle. During operation, the cork and sleeve combination are configured to be removed from the wine bottle's opening via unscrewing the sleeve from the top portion of the wine bottle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: Gardner Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: William A. Gardner
  • Publication number: 20110036839
    Abstract: A plastic screw cap has a threaded top portion and tabs of varying heights disposed around an inner circumference of a lower sleeve-portion. These tabs clasp a land disposed on a container neck to restrain the sleeve portion on the neck when the cap is unscrewed. A threaded top portion mates with threads on the container above the land. A sealing liner and diffusion barrier disposed at the bottle opening, together with a crush-resistant cap structure, prevent wine leakage and control oxygen ingress. Typically, the plastic cap is threaded onto the container neck, forming a tamper-evident seal. When unscrewed, the plastic-cap top moves up the container threads, exerting a pull on the sleeve portion, which is restrained due to the closure tabs acting on the land. Between the closure tabs and the threaded top is a breakaway line, which tears due to the removal forces. This tear evidences tampering.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2010
    Publication date: February 17, 2011
    Inventor: William A. Gardner
  • Publication number: 20040232101
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing a stopper from a bottle by rotating a threaded capsule surrounding the threaded neck of a bottle. The capsule is preferably received over a narrowed neck of the bottle to maintain the appearance of a foil-wrapped and cork-closed bottle. The bottle may be sealed with plugs (natural cork, synthetic cork, molded plugs), planar seals, or a combination thereof. The capsule may engage the stopper directly or by way of a stopper anchor. Aspects of the invention include preventing uncontrolled egress of stoppers from pressurized bottles, the resealing of various forms of bottles after removal of the stopper, locking the closure in place, and providing evidence of tampering.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2003
    Publication date: November 25, 2004
    Inventors: William A. Gardner, Patrick M. Whelan, Alan Virdee
  • Publication number: 20040232102
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing a stopper from a bottle by rotating a threaded capsule surrounding the threaded neck of a bottle. The capsule is preferably received over a narrowed neck of the bottle to maintain the appearance of a foil-wrapped and cork-closed bottle. The bottle may be sealed with plugs (natural cork, synthetic cork, molded plugs), planar seals, or a combination thereof. The capsule may engage the stopper directly or by way of a stopper anchor. Aspects of the invention include preventing uncontrolled egress of stoppers from pressurized bottles, the resealing of various forms of bottles after removal of the stopper, locking the closure in place, and providing evidence of tampering.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2003
    Publication date: November 25, 2004
    Inventors: William A. Gardner, Patrick M. Whelan, Alan Virdee
  • Publication number: 20040232099
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing a stopper from a bottle by rotating a threaded capsule surrounding the threaded neck of a bottle. The capsule is preferably received over a narrowed neck of the bottle to maintain the appearance of a foil-wrapped and cork-closed bottle. The bottle may be sealed with plugs (natural cork, synthetic cork, molded plugs), planar seals, or a combination thereof. The capsule may engage the stopper directly or by way of a stopper anchor. Aspects of the invention include preventing uncontrolled egress of stoppers from pressurized bottles, the resealing of various forms of bottles after removal of the stopper, locking the closure in place, and providing evidence of tampering.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2003
    Publication date: November 25, 2004
    Inventors: William A. Gardner, Patrick M. Whelan
  • Patent number: 6763961
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing a cork from a bottle in which an anchor is embedded in the cork and a cork-pulling sleeve is provided for engaging the anchor for removal of the cork. The cork-pulling sleeve includes inner threads that mate with external threads on the neck of the bottle, and rotation of the cork-pulling sleeve in relation to the bottle extracts the cork.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2004
    Assignee: Gardner Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: William A. Gardner, Gil G. Gilley
  • Publication number: 20040031770
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing a stopper from a bottle by rotating a threaded capsule surrounding the threaded neck of a bottle. The capsule is preferably received over a narrowed neck of the bottle to maintain the appearance of a foil-wrapped and cork-closed bottle. The bottle may be sealed with plugs (natural cork, synthetic cork, molded plugs), planar seals, or a combination thereof. The capsule may engage the stopper directly or by way of a stopper anchor. Aspects of the invention include preventing uncontrolled egress of stoppers from pressurized bottles, the resealing of various forms of bottles after removal of the stopper, locking the closure in place, and providing evidence of tampering.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 21, 2003
    Publication date: February 19, 2004
    Applicant: GARDNER TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: William A. Gardner, Patrick M. Whelan, Alan Virdee, Paul K. Novak
  • Publication number: 20030146184
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing a cork from a bottle in which an anchor is embedded in the cork and a cork-pulling sleeve is provided for engaging the anchor for removal of the cork. The cork-pulling sleeve includes inner threads that mate with external threads on the neck of the bottle, and rotation of the cork-pulling sleeve in relation to the bottle extracts the cork.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 27, 2002
    Publication date: August 7, 2003
    Inventors: William A. Gardner, Gil G. Gilley
  • Patent number: 6510957
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing a cork from a bottle in which an anchor is embedded in the cork and a cork-pulling sleeve is provided for engaging the anchor for removal of the cork. The cork-pulling sleeve includes inner threads that mate with external threads on the neck of the bottle, and rotation of the cork-pulling sleeve in relation to the bottle extracts the cork.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Inventors: Gil G. Gilley, William A. Gardner
  • Publication number: 20010013500
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing a cork from a bottle in which an anchor is embedded in the cork and a cork-pulling sleeve is provided for engaging the anchor for removal of the cork. The cork-pulling sleeve includes inner threads that mate with external threads on the neck of the bottle, and rotation of the cork-pulling sleeve in relation to the bottle extracts the cork.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 12, 2001
    Publication date: August 16, 2001
    Inventors: Gil G. Gilley, William A. Gardner
  • Patent number: 6179140
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing a cork from a bottle in which an anchor is embedded in the cork and a cork-pulling handle is provided for engaging the anchor for removal of the cork. The cork-pulling handle can be connected to the anchor by any of several means, and can be stored with the bottle as an integral part of the bottle/capsule/label package or provided separately.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2001
    Inventor: William A. Gardner
  • Patent number: 5884789
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing a cork from a bottle in which an anchor is embedded in the cork and a cork-pulling handle is provided for engaging the anchor for removal of the cork. The cork-pulling handle can be connected to the anchor by any of several means, and can be stored with the bottle as an integral part of the bottle/label package or provided separately.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 1996
    Date of Patent: March 23, 1999
    Inventor: William A. Gardner
  • Patent number: 5848105
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for separating and removing distortion from interfering co-channel signals and suppressing adjacent-channel interfering signals of the Gaussian Minimum-Shift Keyed (GMSK) or other MSK type with filtering structures that exploit the cyclostationarity of the received GMSK or other MSK signals in order to accommodate a greater number (or the same number, but with greater quality) of transmitted signals received by one or more antennas than can be accommodated by existing filters. The parameters in these filtering structures are adapted by either of two adaptation apparatus that exploit both the known training sequence that is transmitted in most wireless communications systems, and the constant modulus property exhibited by each of the transmitted GMSK or other MSK signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 1996
    Date of Patent: December 8, 1998
    Inventors: William A. Gardner, Stephan V. Schell
  • Patent number: 5737433
    Abstract: A sound environment control apparatus which allows a user, by operating a remote control unit, to selectively suppress any or all of multiple noises in his or her environment, or selectively listen to any of these while suppressing all other sound. One or more "primary" sound detectors are located in the user's sound domain to acquire all sounds that the user desires to hear as well as interfering sounds, and one or more "reference" sound detectors are placed at each interfering sound source that the user may wish to be able to control. Signals from the sound detectors are sent to a central processing unit/multiple sound controller where the interfering sounds are adaptively cancelled from the total audio provided by each primary sound detector or, when enhancement of a particular sound, rather than suppression, is desired, the audio from a reference sound detector is amplified and added to the total sound from the primary sound detector or used to replace the total sound from the primary sound detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 1996
    Date of Patent: April 7, 1998
    Inventor: William A. Gardner
  • Patent number: 5692056
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for active cancellation of vibrational noise produced by a medical instrument in the head of a patient. Vibrations from the instrument, as well as vibrations in the bone structure in the head of the patient, are sensed and processed to generate cancelling noise waves which are then fed into the inner ear through vibrators placed on the head of the patient. An equalizer shapes the magnitude and phase spectrum of the vibrational signal picked up from the drill and delivers the equalized vibrational signals to the patient. An automatic adaptive controller adjusts the equalizer using control signals consisting of vibrations from the bone structure and the drill.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 1996
    Date of Patent: November 25, 1997
    Inventor: William A. Gardner
  • Patent number: 5570426
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for active cancellation of vibrational noise produced by a medical instrument in the head of a patient. Vibrations from the instrument, as well as vibrations in the bone structure in the head of the patient, are sensed and processed to generate cancelling noise waves which are then fed into the inner ear through headphones or through vibrators placed on the head of the patient. An equalizer shapes the magnitude and phase spectrum of the vibrational signal picked up from the drill and delivers the equalized signal to the patient. An automatic adaptive controller adjusts the equalizer using control signals consisting of vibrations from the bone structure and the drill.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 29, 1996
    Inventor: William A. Gardner
  • Patent number: 5299148
    Abstract: A processor and method for extracting or estimating directions of arrival of signals from a received data vector x(t) which has been corrupted by interfering signals and noise is described. The processor extracts signals by forming the scalar product of x(t) and a weight vector which is chosen such that the spectral self-coherence or conjugate spectral self-coherence of the processor output is maximized. The processor estimates the directions of arrival of signals by spectral self-coherence-selective performance surfaces for maxima.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 1990
    Date of Patent: March 29, 1994
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: William A. Gardner, Stephan V. Schell, Brian G. Agee
  • Patent number: 5260968
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for spatial multiplexing of spectrally overlapping communications signals which does not require use of a training signal, computationally intensive direction-finding methods, or antenna calibration is presented. An adaptive antenna array at a base station is used in conjunction with signal processing through self coherence restoral to separate the temporally and spectrally overlapping signals of users that arrive from different specific locations within the locale and to mitigate multipath fading and shadowing at the base station and, by reciprocity, to transmit directively to minimize interfering signals arriving at the mobile (or portable or stationary) units and to mitigate multipath fading and shadowing at the mobile units. The radiation pattern of transmitted signal is matched to the adapted reception pattern of the signal received at the base station.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Grant No.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 1992
    Date of Patent: November 9, 1993
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: William A. Gardner, Stephan V. Schell
  • Patent number: 5255210
    Abstract: A processor and method for extracting a signal s(t) from a signal input vector x(t) which has been corrupted by interfering signals and noise is described. The processor computes an output signal y(t) by forming the scalar product of x(t) and a vector w which is chosen such that the self-coherence or conjugate self-coherence of y(t) is maximized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 1992
    Date of Patent: October 19, 1993
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: William A. Gardner, Brian G. Agee