"We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy."
Simon Newcomb, astronomer ; 1888
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7222820 | Aircraft lavatory A lavatory complex for an aircraft. The lavatory complex includes a male lavatory facility and a female lavatory facility. The male lavatory facility includes stall units and may include urinals. The female lavatory facility includes stall units. Each stall unit sui... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7225037 | System and method for implementing logic control in programmable controllers in distributed control systems The present invention provides a system and method for implementing logic control in programmable controllers in distributed control systems using a wired or wireless network. A software application is used to define the configuration of the network. Based on the ne... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7225111 | Monitoring apparatus In a monitoring apparatus, a target-object to be monitored is observed by an observing unit and a countermeasure is applied depending on an observed situation. The knowledge and information on the general feature relating to the target-object, the observing method a... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7221950 | Auto sensing home base station for mobile telephone with remote answering capabilities The present invention discloses in one embodiment a mobile telephone capable of communicating with a home base station through radio signals. The mobile telephone registers with a home base station before beginning to communicate with the home base station. The home... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7221258 | Hierarchical electronic watermarks and method of use A method and apparatus for authenticating currency and other important documents. A preferred embodiment may contain both a substrate, such as paper, and an embedded RFID transponder. An embedded RFID transponder or electronic watermark may contain multiple hierarch... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7221271 | Device for controlling lighting for the interiors of automotive vehicles and method for controlling said device A device for controlling lighting, especially inside the passenger compartments of vehicles, including at least one light source and at least one sensor which influences the light source and which detects at least the movement of a body within the active range of th... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7220143 | Overlay to permit delivery of telephony and mission-critical data services to hospital-wide points of care An overlay for a wall jack adapted to receive a telephony plug of a specific type. The overlay comprises a housing, as well as a telephony plug and a telephony socket on opposite faces of the housing. The telephony socket is adapted to receive a telephony plug of th... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7218226 | Acceleration-based theft detection system for portable electronic devices A theft prevention system for protecting portable electronic devices is disclosed. An acceleration sensor detects the acceleration of a portable electronic device, and a controller analyzes this acceleration to determine whether a theft condition is present. If so, ... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7218575 | Angular twilight clock A method and apparatus for displaying time, the day sequence for the beginning and ending of twilight, sunrise and sunset in pie-shaped section on a circular clock face. A corresponding day sequence is retrieved from a memory and presented on a circular clock face i... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7216296 | Method and apparatus for controlled force deployment of user interface devices User interface devices, such as displays and keyboards, are automatically deployed using pulse-width-modulated controlled force in a first safety period. Once safe, force and speed are increased to full deployment. At full deployment, electrical braking dissipates m... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7216015 | HVAC control system Systems and methods are described for a HVAC control system. An apparatus, includes: a microcontroller; a digital temperature sensor coupled to the microcontroller; a liquid crystal display coupled to the microcontroller; a set of cursor buttons coupled to the micro... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7215241 | Tamper detection sensor antenna A communication interfering object presence detection sensor, for use with an antenna system, which initiates an alarm signal whenever a communication interfering object presence is detected by said antenna sensor for a predetermined time within proximity of said an... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7213016 | System and method for managing advance directives A system and method can store and retrieve advance directives with a database that is coupled to a communications system. The database is arranged to register and store information about a service provider in anticipation of future creation of advance directives tha... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7212113 | Passenger and item tracking with system alerts A dynamically configurable threat scanning machine management system is capable of tracking information associated with one ore more items and/or passengers. The central control computer network can transmit, among other things, operational software and threat profi... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7212893 | Network car analyzer An automobile's maintenance port is wirelessly connected (for example, via an IEEE 802.11-based connection) to a plurality of gateways/routers that forward automobile diagnostic data (such as a series of diagnostic codes) to a server. Each gateway interfaces with tw... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7212827 | Intelligent reminders for wireless PDA devices A wireless PDA device with proximity detection includes a trigger for implementing a reminder alert to a user of a wireless PDA device based on the proximity of another wireless PDA device. The proximity detection may be accomplished by actual knowledge of proximity... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7212966 | Voice recognition apparatus for vehicle A speech recognition apparatus for a vehicle is provided for decreasing the feeling of discomfort of the operator even in the case that speech recognition is continuously impossible over several times. The speech recognition apparatus for a vehicle that recognizes v... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7212955 | Consumer product status monitoring Data associated with at least one characteristic associated with the viability of a product is monitored. The data associated with the at least one characteristic is analyzed, and based on the analyzing, at least one future viability state condition of the product i... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7209840 | Systems and methods for providing remote monitoring of electricity consumption for an electric meter A system for providing remote monitoring of electricity consumption is provided. In one embodiment the system may comprise electric meters, communication devices having a unique address and defining a wireless communication network, and a site controller. Each elect... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7208897 | Motion control system for barrier drive A system for operating a barrier system such as a garage door, gate or fence. A DC motor is connected to and operates a barrier drive. A power amplifier is configured to receive power signals from a power supply and to output modulated DC signals to the DC motor. A ... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7209014 | Switching device actuated by a transponder Proposed is a device actuated by a transponder for the generation of a switch signal. The device is based on an oscillating circuit (10) with a capacitance (C1), an identification coil (L1) and an oscillator amplifier (12). Connec... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7209045 | Method for determining and monitoring the ageing of the blood bags in blood transfusion units and healthcare units Method of monitoring a blood bag, the method including monitoring a maximum allowed time dT that the blood bag may be kept outside a controlled-atmosphere enclosure and an expiration date stored in an electronic chip fixed to the blood bag. The method further includ... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7207142 | System and related methods for signaling the position of a movable barrier and securing its position A system for signaling the position of a movable barrier includes a movable barrier; a motor coupled to the movable barrier for moving the movable barrier between limit positions; a position detection device that monitors the movable barrier to generate a barrier po... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7204410 | Information processing apparatus and method, information processing system, and medium A structure of a system using an IC card is simplified. A controller and active antennas are connected to each other through a bus. The controller transmits a command outputted from a host computer and including an ID for discriminating the active antennas to all th... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7205891 | Real-time wireless video exposure monitoring system A real-time wireless video exposure monitoring system comprising an exposure monitor, located at a field site, which detects the level of an environmental contaminant and supplies corresponding data via a serial data port to a serial-to-wireless bridge for real-time... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7206645 | Mobile, unitary, wall-plugged, temperature and/or power monitoring and warning system for critical spaces A system comprising a housing, an electrical bus, a connector module for connecting the electrical bus to a power source, a battery module so as to provide power to the electrical bus when the power source is not supplying power to the electrical bus, a sensor modul... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7206514 | Wireless object counter A battery powered transmitter circuit has a LED of a continuously cycling microcomputer transmit a beam of a predetermined number of infrared pulses at predetermined time periods to a sensor of a battery powered receiver circuit. Only a clock circuit of each circuit... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7203132 | Real time acoustic event location and classification system with camera display An acoustic event location and classification system comprising an array of at least two acoustic transducers arranged spaced from one another; a central data processing unit for receiving signals from the acoustic transducers and processing the signals to determine... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7202791 | Method and apparatus for modeling behavior using a probability distrubution function A method and apparatus are disclosed for modeling patterns of behavior of humans or other animate objects and detecting a violation of a repetitive pattern of behavior. The behavior of one or more persons is observed over time and features of the behavior are record... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7199723 | Cable plow installation monitor method and apparatus The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for installing a utility conveyance. A tractor which includes sensors, a plow locator and a monitor system is presented. The sensors are used to locate markers, which identify the boundaries of a right of w... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7199724 | Method and apparatus to aide in emergency egress A method and apparatus are provided to aide in emergency egress of a structure. More particularly, egress indicators are co-located with hazard sensors. During detection of a hazard condition, locations of sensors detecting the hazard are identified and a pathway di... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7199711 | Mobile floor cleaner data communication In a method of communicating data from a mobile floor cleaner to a remote receiver a data communication is initiated from a communicator of the mobile floor cleaner to the remote receiver and data is communicated to the remote receiver with the communicator. ... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7197658 | Synchronizing samples of a multimedia stream with a system clock According to one embodiment of the present invention, a novel method and system are disclosed. In one embodiment, an I/O device of a system receives or outputs a multimedia stream, the I/O device having a I/O clock and the system having a system clock. Samples from ... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7197482 | Method and apparatus for customer storefront operations A method and apparatus for managing a decentralized part supply system via a wide area network. A supplier and a customer establish a secure area at the customer's facility. The supplier ships parts to the secure area and the customer stores the parts in the secure ... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7196659 | Combined global positioning system receiver and radio A portable GPS/radio unit communicates over a wireless radio network with at least one other unit which is transmitting radio signals over the network indicative of that unit's location. The GPS/radio unit comprises a GPS receiver for receiving satellite signals fro... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7196625 | Advanced food and/or drink organization and/or handling system An advanced food and/or drink organization and/or handling system that greatly facilitates food management and handling to help streamline household operations as relate to foods and related functions and events. ... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7195177 | Method and apparatus for humidity control within a housing An apparatus includes a housing having a chamber, having a replaceable part which has a moisture adsorption characteristic and which is in communication with the chamber, and having a humidity monitoring section which is responsive to the humidity within the chamber... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7194924 | System and method for biohazard detection using compression The present invention includes a system and method for detecting contaminated objects, for example mail pieces, through use of a pinching device that compresses the objects, thereby possibly releasing potential contaminant-containing particles into the air in a clos... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7196623 | Remote reminding system The inventive device functions to warn a user of the undesirable condition of an appliance or other equipment. An “undesirable condition” may be an automatic garage door that is left open, a toaster oven or electric heater that is left on, an air conditioner tha... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7193524 | Systems and methods for a portable walk-through metal detector A portable walk through metal detector with interchangeable sensor panels and other structural members that can be quickly assembled, or disassembled and transported. The device includes two structural base members to anchor the archway, multiple sensor panels with ... | 03/20/2007 |