Did You Know...
...that Charles Goodyear performed some of his experiments on rubber while in debtor's prison? He was there so often he referred to it as his "hotel". Chronically in debt because of poor business sense and ill health, Goodyear depended on the generosity of friends and family. Even after he unlocked the secret to vulcanizing rubber, he was unable to improve his financial situation. When he died, his estate was $200,000 in debt.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6856578 | Underwater alert system In a first preferred embodiment, an underwater alert system (10) includes a transmitter assembly (12), carried by a first diver (14), that transmits a predetermined wireless signal (36) to a receiver assembly (16), carried by a mas... | 02/15/2005 |
| 6018651 | Radio subscriber unit having a switched antenna diversity apparatus and method therefor A radio subscriber unit (102) comprises a controller (108) and a switched antenna diversity receiver apparatus (106) including a first antenna (114), a second antenna (116) and a receiver (126). The first antenna (114) is adapted to receive a first repres... | 01/25/2000 |
| 6011961 | Keypad apparatus with integral display indicators A keypad apparatus (100) with integral display indicator bars (102-104) provides input to a device while displaying the status of the device on the display indicator bars (102-104). The apparatus is comprised of a matrix of data input keys (101). The indi... | 01/04/2000 |
| 5999821 | Radiotelephone having a user interface module A radiotelephone (100) comprises a user interface module (102) including a membrane sheet layer (302), user interface circuitry (304) and a flexible circuit sheet layer (306), and a radio circuitry module (104) including radio circuitry (308) and a radio ... | 12/07/1999 |
| 5995050 | Antenna arrangement for a wireless communication device An antenna arrangement (402) for a wireless communication device (400) comprises a first element (404) and a second element (406). The first element (404) is coupled to circuitry (408) of the wireless communication device (400). The second element (406) i... | 11/30/1999 |
| 5983082 | Phase quadrature signal generator having a variable phase shift network A variable phase shift network (420) for a phase quadrature signal generator (320, 370) includes a variable current controller (909), a first NPN transistor (801) and a second NPN transistor (802). The variable phase shift network (420) produces a first q... | 11/09/1999 |
| 5956626 | Wireless communication device having an electromagnetic wave proximity sensor A wireless communication device (101), such as a radiotelephone or a pager, comprises a signal generator (200), a radiator (202), a sensor (204) and a controller (206) to form an electromagnetic wave proximity sensor (201). The signal generator (200) gene... | 09/21/1999 |
| 5901357 | Frequency allocation for subscribers of multiple telephone systems having frequency sharing A portable radiotelephone (101) cooperatively operates with a cordless base station (115) over the local coverage area using cellular frequency channels. Both the portable radiotelephone (101) and the cordless base station (115) scan the available channel... | 05/04/1999 |
| 5898933 | Apparatus and method for generating a control signal responsive to a movable antenna In a radiotelephone (200) having a moveable antenna (213), an apparatus and method generates a control signal (511 or 412) responsive to the movement of the antenna (213). The control signal (511 and/or 412) comprise a hookswitch control signal (511) and/... | 04/27/1999 |
| 5889737 | Wrist carried electronic device A portable electronic device (10) comprises a radio circuit (150) contained in a housing (152) having positive (156) and negative (158) contacts electrically coupled to the radio circuit (150). A substantially flat, elongated, flexible battery cell, formi... | 03/30/1999 |
| 5878209 | Apparatus and method for identifying a failed subscriber unit in a wireless communication system An apparatus and method provides identification of a failed subscriber unit (102) in a wireless communication system (100). In a first embodiment, the subscriber unit (102) performs a self test to detect a failure (302) of at least a portion of the subscr... | 03/02/1999 |
| 5872744 | Battery arrangement for a wrist-carried radiotelephone A wrist-carried radiotelephone (10) comprises a housing (12), radiotelephone circuitry (90) and a bracelet (16). The radiotelephone circuitry (90) is disposed in the housing (12). The bracelet (16) is connected to the housing (12) and secures the housing ... | 02/16/1999 |
| 5862460 | Power control circuit for a radio frequency transmitter A gain controller (130) for a radio frequency (RF) transmitter (102) controls a power level of a signal (123) transmitted within a predetermined range of output power levels. The gain controller (130) provides the first gain control signal (131) and the s... | 01/19/1999 |
| 5838202 | Error suppressing circuit and method therefor for a phase locked loop An error suppressing circuit (301) and method therefor for a phase locked loop (PLL) (300). According to one embodiment of the present invention, a transient condition, for example, a bandwidth switch, in the PLL (300) is detected. The PLL (300) is opened... | 11/17/1998 |
| 5835785 | Multiplexed three line synchronous/full-duplex asychronous data bus and method therefor A multiplexed synchronous/asynchronous data bus uses three communications lines (T, C, R) to convey bi-directional synchronous data between two data devices at a relatively low data transfer rate. The data bus is configured as a full-duplex asynchronous d... | 11/10/1998 |
| 5815807 | Disposable wireless communication device adapted to prevent fraud A disposable portable radiotelephone subscriber unit (101) comprises a power supply (255), a transceiver (205, 207) and a controller (215). The power supply (255) has stored therein a predetermined measure of power capacity (281). The transceiver (205, 20... | 09/29/1998 |
| 5815805 | Apparatus and method for attenuating an undesired signal in a radio transceiver A portable radio transceiver (100) includes a transmitter (101) and a receiver (103) operating at different respective frequencies. The transmitter (101) is capable of producing an undesired signal (121) including a frequency substantially equal to the re... | 09/29/1998 |
| 5815820 | Transmitter having adjustable power levels responsive to the position of a movable antenna A portable radiotelephone (200) adjusts its transmit power responsive to the position of a movable antenna (213). The antenna (213) is movable between a retracted (313) and an extended position (314). The portable radiotelephone (200) transmits at low pow... | 09/29/1998 |
| 5812542 | Method for determining weighting coefficients in a CDMA radio receiver A method (250) determines weighting coefficients (188, 190, 192) in a code division multiple access (CDMA) radio receiver (100). A representation (172) of a desired RF signal (166) is received (108, 124, 127). A plurality of data signals (176, 180, 184) a... | 09/22/1998 |
| 5809020 | Method for adaptively adjusting weighting coefficients in a cDMA radio receiver A method (300) for adaptively adjusting weighting coefficients (188, 190, 192) in a code division multiple access (CDMA) radio receiver (100). A representation (172) of a desired RF signal (166) is received (108, 124, 127). A plurality of pilot signals (1... | 09/15/1998 |
| 5797101 | Radiotelephone subscriber unit having a generic phone number A radiotelephone subscriber unit (101) comprises a memory unit (259) having stored therein an identification sequence including a phone number (MIN1 and MIN2) and an electronic serial number (ESN). The phone number (MIN1 and MIN2) is common to at least on... | 08/18/1998 |
| 5787128 | Nonlinear signal correlator and method therefor A nonlinear complex signal correlator (129) correlates a complex received signal (123) with a complex reference signal (128) to produce a positive unbiased complex correlation signal (476). The phase component of the received signal (123) and the phase co... | 07/28/1998 |
| 5761300 | Radiotelephone having a hinge apparatus including a self-latching hinge shaft A hinge apparatus rotatably couples about an axis of rotation (303) a body portion (101) and a flip element (103) of a foldable radiotelephone (100). The hinge apparatus includes a hinge shaft (205) having an unlatched and latched position on the axis of ... | 06/02/1998 |
| 5758271 | Apparatus and method for optimizing the quality of a received signal in a radio receiver A code division multiple access (CDMA) radio receiver (104) having gain receives a radio frequency (RF) signal (122) to produce a received signal (124). The quality (130) of the received signal (124) is determined (111). The quality (130) is preferably a ... | 05/26/1998 |
| 5710862 | Method and apparatus for reducing an undesirable characteristic of a spectral estimate of a noise signal between occurrences of voice signals An improved method and an apparatus for reducing an undesirable characteristic of a spectral estimate of a noise signal (203) between occurrences of voice signals (202) in an input signal (117). A spectrum of the input signal (117) is estimated to produce... | 01/20/1998 |
| 5710987 | Receiver having concealed external antenna A radiotelephone/pager unit (100) includes a housing enclosing (102, 104) radiotelephone circuitry (224) coupled to a radiotelephone antenna (108) operable at radiotelephone frequencies and pager circuitry (218) coupled to a pager antenna (212) operable a... | 01/20/1998 |
| 5703539 | Apparatus and method for controlling the loop bandwidth of a phase locked loop In a phase locked loop (PLL) (308), an edge proximity detector (302) identifies a phase error, indicative of a difference between a phase of a reference frequency signal (115) and a phase of an output frequency signal (116 or 117), as either desirable or ... | 12/30/1997 |
| 5699070 | Radio having replaceable and retractable antenna apparatus An antenna assembly (200) for use in a portable radio (100). The antenna assembly (200) includes first and second housings (113 and 203), a helical antenna (301) and a terminal (205). The first housing (113) is telescopically moveable with respect to the ... | 12/16/1997 |
| 5696497 | Radio with silent and audible alerts An alerting device, such as a radio (10), activates, responsive to the times when an information signal (12) is received, a silent alert, via a vibrator (24), during a first predetermined time period, and an audible alert, via a loudspeaker (22), during a... | 12/09/1997 |
| 5696821 | Radiotelephone and method therefor for substantially reducing audio feedback A radiotelephone (101) comprises a receiver (217), a transmitter (215), an attenuator (305), a loudspeaker (203) and a microphone (201). The receiver (217) receives a forward audio signal (257) on a forward signal path (256) coupled to the loudspeaker (20... | 12/09/1997 |
| 5678227 | Apparatus and method for minimizing the turn on time for a receiver operating in a discontinuous receive mode In a communication unit a receiver (104) receives a modulated signal (118), and produces a received signal (120) having a parameter. The receiver (104) has a discontinuous receive mode of operation, wherein the receiver (104) is permitted to be turned on ... | 10/14/1997 |
| 5678221 | Apparatus and method for substantially eliminating noise in an audible output signal A method and apparatus, performed by a communication unit (101), for substantially eliminating undesired noise in an audible output signal (113) while a determined quality measure (114) of a received signal (107) is below a predetermined threshold (201). ... | 10/14/1997 |
| 5668871 | Audio signal processor and method therefor for substantially reducing audio feedback in a cummunication unit An audio signal processor (209) comprises a forward signal path (256) having a forward audio signal (257) coupled to a loudspeaker (203) for producing a first acoustic signal (263), and a reverse signal path (248) coupled to a microphone (201) for produci... | 09/16/1997 |
| 5666429 | Energy estimator and method therefor An energy estimator (223) and method therefor decimates (401) a signal (211) to produce a decimated signal (411); rectifies (403) the decimated signal (411) to produce a full wave rectified signal (413); averages (405) the full wave rectified signal (413)... | 09/09/1997 |
| 5630213 | RF antenna switch and method of operating the same A radio frequency (RF) antenna switch (136) and associated method of operating the same is provided for switching between a first antenna (109) and a second antenna (111). A first mixer (125) has an input terminal 124 coupled to the first antenna (109) an... | 05/13/1997 |
| 5629979 | Hinge apparatus having a self-latching hinge shaft for foldable radiotelephones A hinge apparatus rotatably couples about an axis of rotation (303) a body portion (101) and a flip element (103) of a foldable radiotelephone (100). The hinge apparatus includes a hinge shaft (205) having an unlatched and latched position on the axis of ... | 05/13/1997 |
| 5630215 | Radio having a combined PLL and AFC loop and method of operating same A radio (100) has a combined phase locked loop (PLL) (207) and an automatic frequency control (AFC) loop (215, 109, 111) and a method of operating the same. A mixer (201) converts the received RF signal (117) to an intermediate frequency (IF) signal (219)... | 05/13/1997 |
| 5621763 | Apparatus and method for generating a transition between the on and off states of a radio frequency transmitter An apparatus and method generates a shaped transition between the minimum and maximum output power levels of a transmitter (500). When the transmitter is turned on a stepped transition (415) is generated at the beginning (3) of the transition region (409)... | 04/15/1997 |
| 5590177 | Method for preventing a dropped call during a handoff in a radiotelephone system A method, performed by a mobile station (119), prevents an active call from being dropped when the mobile station (119) suddenly transitions from a first coverage area (121) to a second coverage area (122) in a code division multiple access (CDMA) cellula... | 12/31/1996 |
