Patents by Inventor William T. McDavid

William T. McDavid 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: 10317544
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices for conducting a seismic survey. The system includes a seismic sensor supplying a seismic signal; sampling circuitry configured to convert the signal to a sequence of samples, each sample represented by a bit string; a data communication device configured to transmit compressed seismic data; a recording computer configured to receive compressed seismic data; at least one processor with a computer memory accessible thereto, the at least one processor configured to: create a sample block by storing at least a portion of the sequence of samples in memory units in the computer memory, wherein each sample is stored in a corresponding memory unit; and compress data contained in the sample block by encoding all bits of a particular bit number from the memory units of the sample block in sequence to produce compressed seismic data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2019
    Assignee: INOVA LTD.
    Inventor: William T. McDavid
  • Patent number: 9618640
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices for conducting a seismic survey. The system includes at least one seismic sensor configured to supply a signal responsive to reflections of acoustic energy from an earth surface; and at least one processor configured to: mitigate sensor offset from a sequence of samples representative of the signal by filtering the sequence of samples using a symmetrical-in-time finite impulse response (FIR) filter. The FIR filter may approximate a sinc-in-frequency filter. The at least one processor may be configured to process the sequence of samples using a plurality of filter stages that are rectangular in time. The length of one filter stage of the plurality of filter stages may be different than the length of another filter stage of the plurality of filter stages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignee: INOVA, LTD.
    Inventor: William T. McDavid
  • Publication number: 20140369167
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices for conducting a seismic survey. The system includes a seismic sensor supplying a seismic signal; sampling circuitry configured to convert the signal to a sequence of samples, each sample represented by a bit string; a data communication device configured to transmit compressed seismic data; a recording computer configured to receive compressed seismic data; at least one processor with a computer memory accessible thereto, the at least one processor configured to: create a sample block by storing at least a portion of the sequence of samples in memory units in the computer memory, wherein each sample is stored in a corresponding memory unit; and compress data contained in the sample block by encoding all bits of a particular bit number from the memory units of the sample block in sequence to produce compressed seismic data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2014
    Publication date: December 18, 2014
    Applicant: INOVA, LTD.
    Inventor: William T. McDavid
  • Publication number: 20140369166
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices for conducting a seismic survey. The system includes at least one seismic sensor configured to supply a signal responsive to reflections of acoustic energy from an earth surface; and at least one processor configured to: mitigate sensor offset from a sequence of samples representative of the signal by filtering the sequence of samples using a symmetrical-in-time finite impulse response (FIR) filter. The FIR filter may approximate a sinc-in-frequency filter. The at least one processor may be configured to process the sequence of samples using a plurality of filter stages that are rectangular in time. The length of one filter stage of the plurality of filter stages may be different than the length of another filter stage of the plurality of filter stages.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2014
    Publication date: December 18, 2014
    Inventor: William T. McDavid
  • Patent number: 5581514
    Abstract: The seismic profile system and method using vertical sensor arrays relate to obtaining a seismic profile under two highly reflective boundaries. The system includes a source of seismic energy disposed beneath the air/water boundary, a first pair of sensors arranged in vertical relation and spaced apart by a predetermined vertical spacing distance, and a second pair of sensors similarly situated and spaced from the first pair by a predetermined horizontal spacing distance. The first and second pairs of sensors are disposed below at least two highly reflective boundaries, which may be the air/water boundary and a mud/water boundary. According to the method, the source is moved between two points and data is collected from the first and second pairs of sensors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 1993
    Date of Patent: December 3, 1996
    Assignee: Geco-Prakla, Inc.
    Inventors: Nicolae Moldoveanu, William T. McDavid, Michael T. Spradley
  • Patent number: 5001727
    Abstract: A modulated carrier is received on a node (10) and then the I- and the Q-channels extracted with a local carrier clock (16) that is free-running relative to the modulated carrier. The I- and the Q-channels are then input to a digital signal processor (26) wherein a composite phase signal is generated representing the phase difference between the modulated carrier and the local carrier clock (16). The composite phase is output from a look-up table in an EPROM (30) and then the free-running phase the local carrier clock (16) and the modulated carrier is discriminated from the composite phase. The free-running phase is then subtracted from the composite phase to yield the phase modulation on the carrier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 1989
    Date of Patent: March 19, 1991
    Assignee: Terra Marine Engineering, Inc.
    Inventor: William T. McDavid
  • Patent number: 4962510
    Abstract: A phase modulation system includes a phase mapping circuit (218) for mapping binary data into a plurality of discrete phase values in accordance with a predetermined phase modulation scheme. The discrete phase values are then filtered in the phase domain by a filter (220) to provide a filtered output. This filtered output is then digitized and input to a numerically controlled oscillator for phase modulating a carrier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 1988
    Date of Patent: October 9, 1990
    Assignee: Terra Marine Engineering, Inc.
    Inventors: William T. McDavid, William W. Bryce, Talal A. Itani
  • Patent number: 4868795
    Abstract: A seismic telemetry system with automatic power leveling is comprised of a command station (10) and a plurality of remote data acquisition units (14). Each of the DAU's (14) includes an antenna (18) for receiving commands and transmitting data and is connected to a T/R switch (34). Commands are received by command receiver (48) and entered into a system control (50). A power detect circuit (52) is provided for measuring signal strength of the received carrier and this information is compared to an internal reference in the system control (50) and the power output level of the transmitter (56) is adjusted. A transmit power detect circuit (60) is provided for measuring the actual power output by the transmitter (56). This measured power level is compared in the system control (50) with the internal references to determine if the actual power output is equal to the expected power output. If not, an offset is provided to adjust for any discrepancies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 1987
    Date of Patent: September 19, 1989
    Assignee: Terra Marine Engineering, Inc.
    Inventors: William T. McDavid, William W. Bryce
  • Patent number: 4864546
    Abstract: A seismic data processing system utilizes vibration type shock waves which are delivered by a reactive mass (52) acting in conjunction with a base plate (50) to output low frequency shock waves to the earth. The force signals for the reactive mass (52) and (50) are measured and input to a transmitter (42) for transmission to a receiver (48) at a control center (28) which also receives resultant measured data. The measured force signal is input to a data correlator (74) as a model signal and correlated with the resultant data to provide processed data out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 1987
    Date of Patent: September 5, 1989
    Assignee: Terra Marine Engineering, Inc.
    Inventors: William F. Russell, William T. McDavid, Robert A. Baker
  • Patent number: 4745628
    Abstract: A symbol generator is provided for generating a filtered analog waveform for use in phase modulating a carrier. A memory (30) is provided for storing predetermined waveform segments. The waveform segments are correlated with an input data stream. The data stream is converted to an address for the memory (30) to output a digital value to a D/A converter (122). The output of the D/A converter (122) is comprised of in-phase and quadrature-phase components which are input to a sample and hold circuit for generating the analog signals. The waveform segments are then sequentially assembled and input to a vector modulator (168).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 1986
    Date of Patent: May 17, 1988
    Assignee: Terra Marine Engineering, Inc.
    Inventors: William T. McDavid, William W. Bryce
  • Patent number: 4236234
    Abstract: The central station of a radio-connected seismic surveying system uses a tethered blimp carrying an antenna and an electronics package including a dc voltage/rf decoupler, a variable dc controlled preamplifier, a P-I-N diode switch for changing the antenna from receive to transmit operation, a transmitter and modulator and a battery. An rf coaxial cable to ground provides means for controlling the preamplifier gain and for switching the central station to the transmit mode by using appropriate dc signals. In the receive mode, the cable carries detected field unit seismic signals, which are detected by the blimp-carried antenna and preamplified by the blimp preamplifier, to the ground for suitable recording and further processing in the ground portion of the central station. An audio channel can also be modulated onto the transmit carrier of approximately 70 MHz to provide voice communications via the blimp electronics, if desired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 1979
    Date of Patent: November 25, 1980
    Assignee: Fairfield Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: William T. McDavid, James M. McKeever, Roger A. Imm
  • Patent number: 3988620
    Abstract: The specification discloses a pressure-sensitive transducer including two spaced pressure-sensitive subassemblies having matched parameters and which are electrically coupled together in a manner to minimize the effect of acceleration on the transducer. In one embodiment, each subassembly comprises a pair of piezoelectric crystals attached to opposite sides of a conductive mounting plate. The two plates are supported on opposite sides of an insulated annular spacer ring in a manner to face like poled surfaces of the crystals in the same directions. The crystals are electrically coupled together in parallel by conductors which couple each pair of crystals of a subassembly together and to the mounting plate of the other assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 1972
    Date of Patent: October 26, 1976
    Assignee: Aquatronics, Inc.
    Inventor: William T. McDavid