The first commercial microwave oven was nearly 6 feet tall and weighed in at 750 pounds.
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 |
| 8138944 | Home area networking (HAN) with handheld for diagnostics Disclosed are handheld or portable apparatus subject matters and associated methodologies for providing local communications to metrology devices within an Advanced Metering System (AMS). The metrology devices may be associated with AC supplied device that are confi... | 03/20/2012 |
| 8059009 | Uplink routing without routing table The present technology relates to protocols relative to utility meters associated with an open operational framework. More particularly, the present subject matter relates to protocol subject matter for advanced metering infrastructure, adaptable to various internat... | 11/15/2011 |
| 8031082 | RF meter reading system A meter reading system of the present invention enables transmission of data between utility meter endpoints and readers. In a first embodiment, the endpoint provides a short message providing its identification to the reader and immediately enters a listen mode. If... | 10/04/2011 |
| 7994935 | Mutltiple mode AMR system for water meters The disclosed inventions include and apparatus and method for providing a universal Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system. Such system may be configured to work in a plurality of modes including a walk-bay, drive-by and fixed network mode. The system configured to pr... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7772989 | Electronic electric meter for networked meter reading An electronic electric meter for use in a networked automatic meter reading environment. The electric meter retrofits into existing meter sockets and is available for new meter installations for both single phase and three phase electric power connections. The meter... | 08/10/2010 |
| 7768424 | Smart meter reader The reader (1) for a utility meter is disclosed. The reader (1) is capable of receiving data, in a variety of different protocols, by either inductive coupling or by radio frequency transmission. The reader (1) is a hand-held device which compri... | 08/03/2010 |
| 7446673 | Intelligent wireless multicast network Disclosed is a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system using a spread spectrum or licensed frequency data radio network and communication method therefore allowing multiple slave hosts and slave devices or remote terminal unit (RTU) the ability to co... | 11/04/2008 |
| 7428419 | Method and apparatus for controlling site-specific operations A method and apparatus for controlling a site-specific activity at a plurality of remote locations, for example, the inspection of geographically remote equipment or the gathering of data for a census. A mobile operator transports a portable tool (14) to a pl... | 09/23/2008 |
| 7427927 | In-home display communicates with a fixed network meter reading system A display system that communicates with existing automated meter reading communications systems to provide information to a user. The display includes a radio that listens to communications between a utility meter and the reading system. When the display recognizes ... | 09/23/2008 |
| 7417557 | Applications for a low cost receiver in an automatic meter reading system An automatic meter reading (AMR) system includes a plurality of utility meter endpoints, each of which includes a radio-frequency (RF) transmitter adapted for transmitting endpoint information. A plurality of transceivers are adapted to read endpoints located throug... | 08/26/2008 |
| 7400880 | Method of notifying an apparatus in a system A method of announcing an apparatus to a system containing a central apparatus and at least one individual apparatus is distinguished in that the announcement is effected by optical communication, preferably in the infrared range. In that respective information abou... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7372372 | Sequence inversion keyed countdown timer utilized within a utility meter system An automatic meter reading system that includes a head end controller and an endpoint that is interfaced to a utility meter. The head end controller and the endpoint communicate via RF communication. The endpoint includes an internal clock that synchronizes itself t... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7370167 | Time slicing device for shared resources and method for operating the same Broadly speaking, a device for addressing a shared resource is disclosed. The device includes at least one register in communication with the shared resource. The at least one register is configured to hold an address that is to be provided to the shared resource up... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7355867 | Power supply for an electric meter having a high-voltage regulator that limits the voltage applied to certain components below the normal operating input voltage Disclosed is an invention relating to a power supply for use in an apparatus for measuring electrical energy, comprising, in one embodiment, a first switching device, a device for storing electrical charge in electrical connection with the first switching device, a ... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7349442 | Method for serial transmission between a position measuring device and a processing unit A system that includes a position measuring device, a processing unit, a first data channel connecting the position measuring device to the processing unit and for transmitting data from the position measuring device to the processing unit and a second data channel ... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7343795 | Meter register and meter register tampering detector A meter register includes a sealed register body having a face portion and a body that are coupled to form an internal cavity. The internal cavity includes a rotatble member, a power source and a visual display. A microprocessor is included that coacts with the powe... | 03/18/2008 |
| 7343255 | Dual source real time clock synchronization system and method A dual source real time clock (RTC) synchronization system and method for implementation within automatic meter reading (AMR) systems that provide system-wide device time synchronization. In one embodiment, a microcontroller-implemented RTC counts elapsed seconds fr... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7342506 | Wireless remote monitoring system A remote monitoring system is described which enables monitoring of flow meters or other scientific instruments from a remote location using the GSM cellular phone network. The system includes a wireless modem utilizing the GSM cellular phone network, a central proc... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7339805 | Power supply having voltage blocking clamp A power supply comprises a rectifier, a transformer, a switching member, a controller and a voltage blocking clamp. A power supply can receive an alternating current (AC) input voltage having any magnitude within a wide range of AC input voltage magnitudes and can p... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7327998 | System and method of providing a geographic view of nodes in a wireless network A geographic view rendering tool receives geographic location data for nodes in a wireless network and renders a geographic view displaying the nodes at their corresponding geographic locations. The geographic view may be displayed overlaying a digital map. The geog... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7321601 | Method and apparatus for data transfer using a time division multiple frequency scheme supplemented with polarity modulation A method of data transmission according to one embodiment of the invention includes encoding a set of data values to produce a corresponding series of ordered n-tuples. The method also includes transmitting, according to the series of ordered n-tuples, a plurality o... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7317404 | Method and apparatus for collecting and displaying consumption data from a meter reading system A method and an apparatus for collecting and displaying real-time utility consumption data and an estimate of utility costs from various utility metering modules upon request by the consumer within the comfort of their own home or business. According to one aspect o... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7315257 | Automated meter reader having high product delivery rate alert generator The present invention achieves technical advantages as an AMR device adapted to couple to utility meters and detect an excess rate of product delivery and responsively generate an alert indicative of this excess rate. Advantageously, the alert is provided to a remot... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7315162 | Reducing power consumption of electrical meters The invention contemplates an electrical power meter and method of operating the electrical power meter. The inventive power meter includes a power supply for converting alternating current (AC) voltage to a direct current (DC) voltage for powering the electronic co... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7315522 | Communication methods using slotted replies An RFID tag population is selected by an interrogator. Each tag of the selected tag population then responds to the interrogator in accordance with a slotted arbitration scheme. According to the slotted arbitration scheme, each tag of the selected tag population pic... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7312721 | Data collector for an automated meter reading system The invention includes an electronic utility meter, a data collector/meter and a method for communicating data in an automated meter reading system. The inventive method includes communicating data with a network and a first electronic utility meter, and communicati... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7310052 | Wireless meter-reading system and methods thereof A wireless meter-reading system includes a utility meter having a housing and a face and a recording device located in the housing. The recording device is adapted to read and convert data located on a portion of the face to wirelessly transmittable data. A power so... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7301476 | Dynamic self-configuring metering network A dynamic self-configuring system for collecting metering data comprises a collector meter. The collector meter scans for meters that are operable to directly communicate with the collector and registers such meters as level one meters. The collector transmits instr... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7298134 | Electrical-energy meter adaptable for optical communication with various external devices An example embodiment of an electrical-energy meter comprises a transformer for producing an electrical output proportional to an electrical current in a conductor of electrical energy, a circuit board electrically coupled to the transformer for facilitating the cal... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7288921 | Method and apparatus for providing economic analysis of power generation and distribution An economic dispatch program optimally allocates load demand specifying real power and reactive power to be generated by a power plant among various power generators in a manner so that each of the power generators are operated within its optimal operating space as ... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7289015 | Method for efficiently querying and identifying multiple items on a communication channel A method for identifying objects using an interrogation device on a communication channel is disclosed. Each object has an identification number in the form of a plurality of digits and has the ability to communicate to the interrogating device at least two differen... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7283916 | Distributed utility monitoring, such as for monitoring the quality or existence of a electrical, gas, or water utility In a system for automatic meter reading of utility meters, a utility supply measuring system may include one or more collector units, wherein each one of the collector units accesses a supply of a utility, wherein the accessing occurs in addition to receiving meter ... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7283580 | Spread spectrum meter reading system utilizing low-speed/high-power frequency hopping A spread spectrum meter reading system enables the use of high power frequency hopping spread spectrum (HPSS) transmissions at both the encoder transmitter and repeater levels of the meter reading system. A plurality of end point encoder transmitter devices are each... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7274305 | Electrical utility communications and control system A system for managing collection of data and remote operation of fielded remote units is disclosed. The remote units may be incorporated in automatic meter reading systems, capacitor bank switching systems, power line fault detection units, power recloser units, sur... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7275000 | Energy information system and sub-measurement board for use therewith An energy information system and sub-measurement board for use therewith allows an energy information service provider to measure energy usage at a customer location. The sub-measurement board is connected to an energy distribution panel located at the customer loca... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7272428 | Wireless electrocardiograph system and method A method and system for wireless ECG monitoring is provided. An electrode connector, transmitter and receiver operate with existing electrodes and ECG monitors. The electrode connector includes connectors for attaching to disposable or reusable single electrodes. Th... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7262709 | System and method for efficient configuration in a fixed network automated meter reading system Meters are configured using either a program update method or a meter update method. In the program update method, meters associated with a specified configuration program are identified and configured with updated parameters. In the meter update method, a specified... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7263073 | Systems and methods for enabling a mobile user to notify an automated monitoring system of an emergency situation Systems and methods for enabling a mobile user to notify an automated monitoring system of an emergency situation are provided. The automated monitoring system may be configured for monitoring and controlling a plurality of remote devices and may comprise a site con... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7259690 | Reader for utility meter A reader (1) for a utility meter is disclosed. The reader (1) is capable of receiving data, in a variety different communication protocols, by either inductive coupling or by radio frequency transmission. The reader (1) is a hand-held device whi... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7254372 | Method and system for transmitting, receiving, and collecting information related to a plurality of working components A method and system for transmitting, receiving, and collecting information related to a plurality of working components, such as street lamps, allows for efficient and effective monitoring and controlling of working components through short-distance radio communica... | 08/07/2007 |