Did You Know...
...that the x-ray was discovered purely by accident? When German physicist Wilhelm Konrad von Roentgen was experimenting with cathode rays in 1895, he put an activated Crookes tube in a book and went out to lunch. When he returned, he discovered that a key that had also been placed in the book showed up as an image on the developed film!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7567165 | Methods, devices, and computer program products for providing ambient noise sensitive alerting Methods, devices, and computer program products for providing ambient noise sensitive alerting. The methods comprise receiving ambient noise, converting the ambient noise to an electrical signal, detecting a parameter of the electrical signal which is indicative of ... | 07/28/2009 |
| 7272235 | Method and apparatus for audio normalization A request is received to play an audio file. A determination is made regarding whether volume normalization parameters associated with the audio file are stored in a media library. If the volume normalization parameters associated with the audio file are stored in t... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7265655 | Handheld computing device with power-saving notification A handheld computing device includes a notification lamp, a melody circuit coupled to the notification lamp for providing a first type notification, an electronic switch coupled to the notification lamp for providing a second type notification, and a notification co... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7201996 | Sound generator for a portable device A sound generating device is mounted in a recess formed in a case, and a battery is mounted on the case. A pair of terminals are provided on the underside of the case. A pair of leads connect a pair of electrodes of the battery with the terminals. ... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7079036 | Method and apparatus for alarm volume control using pulse width modulation There is provided herein a first preferred arrangement of the instant invention, wherein an electronic patient monitor utilizes a computer CPU as an alarm signal generator, which CPU is preferably directly connected to a power amplifier and/or a speaker without an i... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7072477 | Method and apparatus for automatically normalizing a perceived volume level in a digitally encoded file Automatically normalizing a perceived loudness for a digitally encoded audio track formed of a number of channels during playback on a multimedia asset player is described. A number of auditory selectivity frequency bands are selected and for each channel in the tra... | 07/04/2006 |
| 6426695 | Volume control for an automobile turn signal The present invention is directed at a volume control for an automobile turn signal indicator. The volume control allows the driver to raise or lower the volume of the clicking sound that is produced when a turn signal indicator is activated. As such, the... | 07/30/2002 |
| 6239692 | Sounder A multi-tone sounder system including the sounder and a method of controlling the sounder in which at least a pair of chime bars (3, 5), bells or gongs are spaced apart and arranged to be struck by a solenoid operated striker (26) positioned between the c... | 05/29/2001 |
| 6160245 | Variable volume signaling device for an appliance An appliance is provided with a feedback system which audibly signals both the activation of user input controls and when the appliance reaches a certain operational stage. The system functions to adjust both of the feedback signals upon a single setting ... | 12/12/2000 |
| 5596311 | Method and apparatus for driving a self-resonant acoustic transducer A method and system employing a feedback signal indicative of monitored motion of an electro-mechanical acoustic transducer to generate one or both of a control signal for driving the transducer at its natural resonance frequency, and a warning signal ind... | 01/21/1997 |
| 5208578 | Light powered chime A light powered chime for indoor use specifically designed to be random, approximating a windchime. In one embodiment a solar cell provides current to a timing circuit and to a storage capacitor. The timing circuit intermittently fires a silicon controlle... | 05/04/1993 |
| 5151680 | Speaker driver A speaker driver is operated by a battery and drives a speaker to generate an alert tone in response to an externally input intermittent signal. The speaker driver includes a reference voltage generator for generating a reference voltage, a transconductan... | 09/29/1992 |
| 4884294 | Portable cordless telephone set for outputting various discriminiation sounds with simple circuit construction A portable cordless telephone set for outputting various types of discrimination sounds, in radio communication with a base unit, and having a telephone transmission and reception portion. The portable cordless telephone set includes a sound generation co... | 11/28/1989 |
| 4785280 | System for monitoring and indicating acoustically the operating conditions of a motor vehicle The system includes a plurality of sensor devices each arranged to monitor a respective physical or operating magnitude of apparatus, a device or a member of the vehicle, and to provide corresponding electrical signals. An acoustic signal generator provid... | 11/15/1988 |
| 4768022 | Apparatus for generating auditory indicators Existing auditory warning systems are in general too loud and it is often difficult to distinguish between a number of different warnings. Further under different conditions warnings may change character due to masking by varying noise. A warning system i... | 08/30/1988 |
| 4703402 | Flash light with alarm and rescuer Disclosed herein is a flash light with alarm and rescuer having a transparent hood at the front end. The transparent hood is incorporated with a lens, a reflective board, a color reflector and a control block in it and a plurality of electrodes and conduc... | 10/27/1987 |
| 4654637 | Buzzer with adjustable volume level A compact electrical buzzer is provided with an adjustment cap which is threadably positioned from the end of the bobbin sleeve which contains the buzzer plunger. The cap has a peripheral skirt which frictionally engages the buzzer housing. The mounting b... | 03/31/1987 |
| 4646064 | Volume control device for ringer A volume control device suitable for installation on the ringer of a telephone incorporates a tone control lever having a damping element cantilevered therefrom and extending as a wing from a point of pivoting in a direction generally parallel to a frame ... | 02/24/1987 |
| 4603317 | Electrically-operated backup alarm An improved electrically-operated backup alarm for use on mobile construction and industrial machinery, including selectable lower and higher loudness levels, automatically adjustable loudness level with respect to varying ambient noise level in which the... | 07/29/1986 |
| 4482888 | Alarming apparatus An alarming apparatus having a sound volume level setting circuit for setting the volume level of the sound produced from a sound generating circuit to one of a plurality of different sound volume levels. A modulating circuit varies the frequency, duty ra... | 11/13/1984 |
| 4462669 | Self-timer device for camera A camera self-timer device of the type indicating the operating state thereof by a sound producing in different degrees of loudness or volume according to the distance between the camera and the object to be photographed varies to always inform the camera... | 07/31/1984 |
| 4410881 | Electric horn with means for controlling curvature of the striker carrier The horn comprises a magnetically permeable housing with an electromagnet mounted therein and a diaphragm attached thereto. The electromagnet core may have an inclined bearing surface at one end thereof. A striker is disposed between the electromagnet bea... | 10/18/1983 |
| 4356753 | Musical electro magnetic analog synthesizer controlled rocket engine A musical instrument combination including a rocket engine type combustion chamber and a system for firing it either by single drum beat control or by variable frequency control pulses. The effect achieved by the rocket engine output sound is similar to t... | 11/02/1982 |
| 4337461 | Volume control mechanism for a bell assembly An indexing mechanism for the volume control of a telephone bell comprises a slot and associated indexing notches which co-operate with a guide pin and an indexing pin respectively. Volume control is effected by forcing the indexing pin over one or more n... | 06/29/1982 |
| 4301448 | Gong striking mechanism A gong striking mechanism is provided, which comprises a driving electric motor mounted on a frame within a gong, and conversion means rotationally connected directly or indirectly to the motor shaft for converting continuous rotational motion of the moto... | 11/17/1981 |
| 4271495 | Electronic clock with a chime system An electronic clock with a chime system has exclusively electronic processing for production of a variety of tone signal sequences consisting of known melodies or portions thereof and time-identifying sequences of strokes. The characteristic values of the... | 06/02/1981 |
| 4243973 | Home integrated signal system A coordinating unit receives an input signal from the ringing circuit of a telephone, a doorbell switch, the timer of a washing machine, or the like. The coordinating unit, through a program muting circuit reduces the volume of televisions, radios, or the... | 01/06/1981 |
| 4237448 | Pager with escalating audio alert signal level An alerting device, such as a radio pager, which produces an audible alerting signal includes a signal level control which causes the alerting signal to be initially produced at a low audio level, with the signal increasing or escalating to a higher audio... | 12/02/1980 |
| 4234945 | Electronic timepiece with hourly strike mechanism An electronic timepiece having an acoustic hour information function in which a photosensitive switch mechanism essentially comprising a photosensitive element is provided to detect a quantity of light below a predetermined value in the surrounding enviro... | 11/18/1980 |
| 4166358 | Solid state alarm for clock-radio A circuit provides a ramp voltage for purposes of controlling simultaneously a pair of transistors from saturation to cutoff and vice versa. Means are provided for generating an electronic strike and chime tone which is connected both to an amplifier circ... | 09/04/1979 |
| 4164732 | Pacing device for runners and the like A pacing device adapted for use by an athlete such as a runner who repeats a series of actions. The device includes an Audio Frequency generator producing a 500-1500 herz signal fed to a gate which emits tone bursts whose periodicity is determined by a pu... | 08/14/1979 |
| 4115770 | A buzzer having adjustable buzzer sound A small-sized buzzer comprises a vibrationally driven vibrator mounted within a case together with drive circuitry for electromagnetically actuating the vibrator. A screw member is threaded into the case at a location spaced from and opposite the free end... | 09/19/1978 |
| 4104865 | Electronic timepiece having an alarm device An electronic timepiece having an alarm device has a plurality of memory channels whereby the alarms can be set for different times. Moreover, the memory circuit for days has a capacity greater than the counting capacity of the "day" counter of the timepi... | 08/08/1978 |
| 4065767 | Programmable electronic siren A dynamic loudspeaker is driven by chopped d.c. from the collector of a transistor. A free wheeling diode is connected in parallel with the speaker circuit to dissipate the inductive energy in the speaker voice coil when the transistor is turned off. The ... | 12/27/1977 |
| 4054870 | Ringer assembly A telephone-type ringer assembly with an improved volume control operable from the exterior of the closed housing in which the ringer is contained. The volume control comprises an eccentric control wheel for one gong to settably vary the distance from the... | 10/18/1977 |
| 4047377 | Sleep-inducing/interrupting audio system For sleep promotion and for sleeper awakening an audio system including a wide band audio frequency generator is provided with an output speaker, volume and tone selectors, a time-alarm signalling system, and means for connection with a house alarm system... | 09/13/1977 |
| 3945004 | High efficiency buzzer An electronic buzzer has a tuned oscillating striker and an electronic oscillator circuit matched to the striker tuned frequency and driving the striker by close coupling of a driving coil to a core member which forms part of an electromagnetic circuit wi... | 03/16/1976 |
| 3931621 | Variable amplitude timed alarm system A timed alarm system having an audio signal source coupled to a sound reproducing system by means of a field effect transistor which yields increasing output as its control electrode is biased by a capacitive network thus producing an alarm signal of grad... | 01/06/1976 |
