Bizarre Patents
Behavior Modification Wristwatch
A wristwatch including a watch band and a watch body having an octagon shaped perimeter and being red in color and having the word STOP thereon to resemble a stop sign.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7406311 | Method and apparatus for selectively operating satellites in tundra orbits A satellite system provides geosynchronous satellites in elliptical orbits in respective elliptical orbital planes separated by 120 degrees. The satellites traverse a common figure-eight ground track comprising northern and southern loops. The satellites are control... | 07/29/2008 |
| 7358474 | System and method for time-delay integration imaging A system is provided that includes an optical arrangement, an assembly of a plurality of detectors, and a signal processor. The optical arrangement is capable of viewing a scene that includes an object, where the scene is capable of moving through a field of view of... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7357356 | Attitude and antenna steering system for geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) spacecraft A system for providing attitude and antenna steering for a spacecraft is disclosed. The spacecraft has a number of reaction wheels and a number of antennas. The system includes control logic configured to: determine a beta angle, the beta angle being the angle betwe... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7233798 | Method and apparatus for determining location of a remote unit using GPS To address the need for faster location determination by GPS-equipped units, this application describes embodiments of the present invention that provide GPS-assist data to a remote unit (110) that is determining its location. This GPS assist data is relative... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7193556 | System and method for the measurement of full relative position and orientation of objects A system for measuring a position and orientation of an object in flight relative to a reference coordinate system is provided. The system including: three or more illuminating sources, each disposed in a predefined position, the three or more illuminating sources t... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7184761 | Satellite communications system A communication system has a plurality of ground stations for communicating communication signal to a plurality of satellites located in an inclined elliptical sub-geosynchronous orbit with respect to the earth. The plurality of satellites operate in a service area ... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7130578 | Closed-loop pointing system for wireless communication with spot beams and wide-area beams A wireless communication system includes platforms that generate spot beams and wide-area beams. The system includes a network operations controller that receives signals from user terminals. User terminals determine the signal strengths of the spot beams and the wi... | 10/31/2006 |
| 7110915 | Multiple concurrent recursive least squares identification with application to on-line spacecraft mass-property identification The present invention is a method for identifying unknown parameters in a system having a set of governing equations describing its behavior that cannot be put into regression form with the unknown parameters linearly represented. In this method, the vector of unkno... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7107007 | Positioning system for a geostationary satellite A positioning system for a geostationary satellite according to the present invention comprises a plurality of outer orbit satellites revolving around the earth in equatorial orbit and polar orbit having higher altitude than that of the geostationary satellite; and ... | 09/12/2006 |
| 6944450 | Communications system This disclosure provides a communications system using a span-loaded flying wing, traveling at relatively slow speeds, that can remain airborne for long periods of time. The communications system uses the airplane as a long term high altitude platform that can serve... | 09/13/2005 |
| 6929220 | High altitude platform control system A method and system for controlling a movable appendage on an aerospace vehicle independent from the position of the aerospace vehicle. First and second beacons containing actual position information for the movable appendage are tracked and acquired by first and se... | 08/16/2005 |
| 6930636 | Method of acquiring satellite attitude Methods and structures are provided for reducing pointing errors ζ of satellite antennas and for generating broad field-of-view satellite attitude acquisition patterns. In one method embodiment, satellite transmit beams have estimated pointing attitudes β and are ... | 08/16/2005 |
| 6891498 | Inertial reference system for a spacecraft An inertial reference system for a spacecraft includes an attitude control assembly and a plurality of force sensors. The attitude control assembly is coupled to a spacecraft body at a plurality of attachment points and at least one of the plurality of force sensors... | 05/10/2005 |
| 6825806 | Satellite methods and structures for improved antenna pointing and wide field-of-view attitude acquisition Methods and structures are provided for reducing pointing errors ζ of satellite antennas and for generating broad field-of-view satellite attitude acquisition patterns. In one method embodiment, satellite transmit beams have estimated pointing attitudes β and are ... | 11/30/2004 |
| 6629672 | Sun sensor alignment compensation system A method for correcting differences in measurements between sensors. Misalignment of a roll error of a sun sensor alignment is estimated with respect to a reference roll value measured by an earth sensor. Sun sensor assembly elevation angle residual is ca... | 10/07/2003 |
| 6574558 | GPS receiver with cross-track hold A terrestrial C/A code GPS receiver system derives along-track position information while tracking as few as two GPS satellites by use of conventional altitude hold and a cross-track hold mode in which the maximum expected deviation of the vehicle from th... | 06/03/2003 |
| 6470243 | Correction of spacecraft steering control law for unexpected orbital inclination effects A system and method for correcting pointing errors induced by an inclined orbit (14) for a satellite (20) that is adapted to be in an orbit having zero inclination (12). The present invention generates a yaw correcting cosine rate command (34) that is int... | 10/22/2002 |
| 6456251 | Reconfigurable antenna system A two-step method is used to reconfigure beams among different orbital slots for a satellite system. The satellite is biased at one or more orbital slots for a back-up mission, while it looks at the sub-satellite point for the primary mission. Body steeri... | 09/24/2002 |
| 6430479 | Methods, apparatus and computer program products for determining the vertical speed of an aircraft A method, an apparatus and a computer program product are provided for accurately determining the vertical speed of an aircraft in a manner independent of signals provided by an air data computer, an inertial reference system and an inertial navigation sy... | 08/06/2002 |
| 6421609 | GPS receiver with cross-track hold A terrestrial C/A code GPS receiver system derives along track position information while tracking as few as two GPS satellites by use of conventional altitude hold and a cross track hold mode in which the maximum expected deviation of the vehicle from th... | 07/16/2002 |
| 6417798 | Method and apparatus for position and attitude control of a satellite An apparatus for regulating or controlling a satellite includes: at least one sensor for detecting reference targets such as stars, which is connected to arrangements for selecting and determining the position of reference targets, and to an arrangement f... | 07/09/2002 |
| 6298287 | System and method of compensating for pressure sensor errors and noise in inertial vertical loop data A system and method for improving the accuracy of altitude determinations in an inertial navigation system. The system utilizes pressure measurements which are taken by a barometric altimeter and converted into an estimated pressure altitude using any kno... | 10/02/2001 |
| 6295021 | Techniques for monitoring and controlling yaw attitude of a GPS satellite Techniques for monitoring and controlling yawing of a GPS satellite in an orbit that has an eclipsing portion out of the sunlight based on the orbital conditions of the GPS satellite. In one embodiment, a constant yaw bias is generated in the attitude con... | 09/25/2001 |
| 6253125 | Method and apparatus for generating orbital data Satellite control data in the form of state vectors and state vector products are generated representing the position and geometric relationships of the space craft to the Earth, sun, moon, and specific locations on the Earth. These data is used to contro... | 06/26/2001 |
| 6236937 | GPS receiver with cross-track hold A terrestrial C/A code GPS receiver system derives along track position information while tracking as few as two GPS satellites by use of conventional altitude hold and a cross track hold mode in which the maximum expected deviation of the vehicle from th... | 05/22/2001 |
| 6219617 | Method for determining the orbital positions of satellites in LEO networks In order to achieve a considerable reduction of the outlay required on the ground in connection with the accurate calculation of the exact orbital position of each individual satellite of a constellation, first the exact orbital position of a preferably c... | 04/17/2001 |
| 6219593 | Method and apparatus for attitude determination in a multi-nodal system A method and apparatus determines attitude of a satellite (52) or other communications device traveling in a determinable path. The method comprises determining orientation data describing directions of one or more narrow-beam RF or laser communications c... | 04/17/2001 |
| 6205378 | Adaptive mass expulsion attitude control system An attitude control system and method operative with a thruster controls the attitude of a vehicle carrying the thruster, wherein the thruster has a valve enabling the formation of pulses of expelled gas from a source of compressed gas. Data of the attitu... | 03/20/2001 |
| 6191728 | Agile satellite targeting A method is disclosed for targeting a satellite orbiting earth between to sites on earth based on an access time that is transmitted from a ground station. Control momentum gyros are used to change the satellite's attitude for targeting. A gryo rate is se... | 02/20/2001 |
| 6150977 | Method for enhancing the performance of a satellite communications system using multibeam antennas The present invention provides a method for determining antenna pointing error of a satellite antenna (702-716) that produces at least one spot beam having a corresponding gain pattern. The method obtains from a first unique location (510) on the ground a... | 11/21/2000 |
| 6134483 | Method and apparatus for efficient GPS assistance in a communication system A method and apparatus for efficiently transmitting location assistance information to a mobile communication device over a control channel with a minimal impact on the capacity of the control channel. A position location server provides a difference betw... | 10/17/2000 |
| 6128575 | Methods for accurately inserting satellite constellations into common orbit planes Methods are provided for accurate insertion of a constellation of satellites into a common orbit plane with a mean inclination θ. In an embodiment of the invention, an initial satellite is inserted on an initial insertion date and, for each of subsequent... | 10/03/2000 |
| 6125325 | GPS receiver with cross-track hold A terrestrial C/A code GPS receiver system derives along track position information while tracking as few as two GPS satellites by use of conventional altitude hold and a cross track hold mode in which the maximum expected deviation of the vehicle from th... | 09/26/2000 |
| 6108593 | Method and apparatus for estimating attitude sensor bias in a satellite A method and apparatus for estimating attitude sensor bias in a satellite system uses attitude sensors and a spacecraft control processor. Attitude sensors provide output signals, which may contain bias. The present invention interprets the signals, deter... | 08/22/2000 |
| 6094607 | 3D AIME™ aircraft navigation The apparatus of the present invention uses radar altimeter measurements and stored terrain altitude profiles to provide pre-filtered observations to a Kalman filter for estimating barometric offset at the airport runway, and barometric scale factor for o... | 07/25/2000 |
| 6058338 | Method and apparatus for efficient GPS assistance in a communication system A method and apparatus for efficiently transmitting location assistance information to a mobile communication device over a control channel with a minimal impact on the capacity of the control channel. A position location server provides a difference betw... | 05/02/2000 |
| 5906337 | Multiple altitude satellite relay system and method A multiple altitude satellite relay system is disclosed in which Medium Earth Orbit satellites are continuously linked with at least one Geosynchronous satellite to provide uninterrupted relaying of messages and data. The Medium Earth Orbit satellites are... | 05/25/1999 |
| 5841397 | Autotracking antenna system An autotracking antenna system operable to cause a steerable antenna assembly to automatically track a moving RF video signal source has a reflector, a rotator for positioning the reflector at any desired position in azimuth and elevation, a primary anten... | 11/24/1998 |
| 5831572 | Method and apparatus for measuring satellite attitude using GPS The apparatus has n non aligned antennas, where n is at least for receiving radio signals from a plurality of OPS satellites. Radio frequency signals received by the various antennas are processed for measuring their phase differences, and for computing a... | 11/03/1998 |
| 5822515 | Correction of uncommanded mode changes in a spacecraft subsystem In a spacecraft having devices which are operative in plural modes, particularly an earth sensor operative in a north hemispherical inhibit mode, a south hemispherical inhibit mode, and a normal mode, a watchdog circuit* is employed to detect the presence... | 10/13/1998 |
