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One pet-friendly inventor patented "a device for watering pets, e.g., a dog or cat." The device, he helpfully noted, "has the general shape of a toilet."
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8186330 | Apparatus for engine control An engine control apparatus is provided with an engine, an ignition device, a valve timing changing mechanism, an intake valve close timing detecting device, a supercharger and a controller. The engine achieves a Miller cycle by the valve timing changing mechanism s... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8127745 | Method and system for controlling fuel usage Methods and systems are provided for improving fuel usage while addressing knock by adjusting the use of spark retard and direct injection of a knock control fluid based on engine operating conditions and the composition of the injected fluid. One or more engine par... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8096283 | Method and system for controlling fuel usage Methods and systems are provided for improving fluid usage while addressing knock by adjusting the use of spark retard and direct injection of a fluid based on engine operating conditions and the composition of the injected fluid. One or more engine parameters, such... | 01/17/2012 |
| 7740004 | Fuel management system for variable ethanol octane enhancement of gasoline engines Fuel management system for efficient operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine. Injectors inject an anti-knock agent such as ethanol directly into a cylinder of the engine. A fuel management microprocessor system controls injection of the anti-knock agent so as ... | 06/22/2010 |
| 7681552 | Internal combustion engine knock determination device and knock determination method An engine ECU executes a program including: the step of increasing a determination value by a correction amount if the number of knock intensities not lower than the determination value is not smaller than a threshold value among knock intensities of a plurality of ... | 03/23/2010 |
| 7673615 | Internal combustion engine knocking judging device and knocking judging method An engine ECU executes: calculating 15-degrees integrated value integrating vibration intensity for each of six crank angle ranges; detecting an amount of change in the 15-degrees integrated value between ignition cycles; specifying two ranges having larger amounts ... | 03/09/2010 |
| 7637247 | Device and method for determining knocking of internal combustion engine An engine ECU executes a program including a step of, when it has temporarily been determined that knocking had occurred because of the presence of an integrated value greater than a product of the reference magnitude and coefficient Y among the integrated values of... | 12/29/2009 |
| 7500468 | Device and method for determining knocking of internal combustion engine An engine ECU executes a program including the steps of: determining that the condition that there is a possibility of occurrence of knocking is satisfied, based on the result of comparison between a vibration waveform of an engine and a knock waveform model; calcul... | 03/10/2009 |
| 7493890 | Engine control device and control method A determination is made as to whether or not knocking is actually occurring inside a combustion chamber (5), and on the basis of the knocking detection result, a knocking-correlated parameter (octane number, alcohol concentration, compression ratio of the eng... | 02/24/2009 |
| 7478623 | Control device of hybrid vehicle An engine ECU executes a program including a step of detecting an opening degree of an accelerator pedal and a state of a power generation command to MG, if a KCS feedback execution condition is met, and a step of detecting a KCS feedback correction amount eakcs, if... | 01/20/2009 |
| 7478622 | Device and method for determining knocking of internal combustion engine An engine ECU executes a program including the steps of: calculating a magnitude value LOG(V) by logarithmically converting a magnitude V of vibration occurring in an engine, calculating a median V(50) and a standard deviation σ of magnitude values LOG(V); a... | 01/20/2009 |
| 7392788 | Device and method for controlling ignition timing of internal combustion engine An engine ECU executes a program including a step of, when an absolute value of a difference between median value V(50) of magnitude values LOG(V), which is obtained by logarithmically converting a magnitude V detected based on a signal sent from a knock sens... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7387107 | Knocking state determination device An engine ECU executes a program including the steps of: calculating a correlation coefficient K based on the result of comparing a vibration waveform of an engine and a knock waveform model stored previously; calculating a magnitude value LOG(V) from the magnitude ... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7370634 | Internal combustion engine spark timing control system A method for controlling spark timing in an internal combustion engine. The method includes determining, in response to a knock sensor mounted to the engine, a spark offset to the scheduled spark timing for the engine at relatively low engine speed which is applied ... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7363142 | Device and method for controlling ignition timing of internal combustion engine An engine ECU executes a program including the steps of: calculating a magnitude value LOG(V) from a magnitude V detected using a knock sensor; calculating a median value V(50) and a standard deviation a of calculated magnitude values LOG(V); calculating a knock det... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7360513 | Internal combustion engine that uses a variable compression ratio device A variable compression ratio mechanism that changes the compression ratio according to the rotation angle of a control shaft, wherein a stopper is provided at the highest compression ratio side for regulating the rotation of the control shaft. Then, the output detec... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7347185 | Unit and method for controlling internal combustion engines An internal combustion engine (1) generates power by burning a mixture of fuel and air in a combustion chamber (3). The internal combustion engine (1) is provided with a crank angle sensor (14), an in-cylinder pressure sensor (15) ... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7324890 | Ignition timing control apparatus for internal combustion engine An ignition timing control apparatus can obtain high output torque without generating output torque loss, and avoid the deterioration of audibility due to successive knock occurrences. A cylinder specific ignition timing setting section includes a reference ignition... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7314033 | Fuel management system for variable ethanol octane enhancement of gasoline engines Fuel management system for efficient operation of a spark ignition gasoline engine. Injectors inject an anti-knock agent such as ethanol directly into a cylinder of the engine. A fuel management microprocessor system controls injection of the anti-knock agent so as ... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7308872 | Method and apparatus for optimized combustion in an internal combustion engine utilizing homogeneous charge compression ignition and variable valve actuation A valvetrain system mechanization for an internal combustion engine using compression ignition, including homogeneous charge compression ignition, having two intake and one or more exhaust valves per cylinder. The valves are operated by dual overhead camshafts havin... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7293552 | Purge system for ethanol direct injection plus gas port fuel injection A method for managing vapors generated by a first and second reservoir onboard a vehicle traveling on the road, the method comprising of inducting vapors from the first and second reservoirs during engine operation; and reducing flow of vapors from first the reservo... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7267115 | Ignition apparatus for an internal combustion engine The ignition apparatus includes an electronic control unit and an igniter. The igniter detects ions resulting from ignition, and sends an ion current output signal to the electronic control unit. The igniter has a waveform shaping circuit and an ion current detectin... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7263971 | Knocking control device for watercraft engine A knocking control device for a watercraft engine includes a knocking learning value renewing section for changing a knocking learning value toward a low octane number ignition timing map when the knock sensor detects a knocking condition. The device changes the kno... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7255089 | Engine control device and control method A determination is made as to whether or not knocking is actually occurring inside a combustion chamber (5), and on the basis of the knocking detection result, a knocking-correlated parameter (octane number, alcohol concentration, compression ratio of the eng... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7246599 | Method for determining the ignition angle A method for determining the ignition angle is provided, in which modifications of manipulated variables which have an influence on the knock limit, and therefore on the optimum ignition angle as well, are dynamically taken into account. To this end, a base ignition... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7243529 | Knock detecting apparatus for internal combustion engine A waveform knock signal detected by a knock sensor is filtered through a band-pass filter. The detected wave form signal is compared with an ideal reference knock waveform to determine an engine knock. The ideal reference knock waveform is derived on the basis of a ... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7236877 | Chipped engine control unit system having copy protected and selectable multiple control programs The present invention discloses a method for preventing a control program written in a first engine control unit (ECU) from running in a second ECU, comprising obtaining an ID number from the first ECU; encrypting the ID number; writing the encrypted ID number into ... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7222606 | Ignition timing control for internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (1) causes an air/fuel mixture in a cylinder to combust due to ignition by a spark plug (14). The engine controller (50) calculates a crank angle at knock on the basis of an operating state of the engine (1) ... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7212909 | Ignition timing control for internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (1) causes an air/fuel mixture in a cylinder to combust due to ignition by a spark plug (14). The engine controller (50) calculates a temperature and pressure in the cylinder on the basis of the operating state of t... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7191746 | Engine start control apparatus An engine start control apparatus includes a crank angle sensor, and a stroke discrimination device that discriminates which of engine cylinders is in intake or compression strokes in an engine stopped state. A crankshaft is temporarily reverse-rotated in a reverse-... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7191760 | Ignition control method and ignition control device for two-cycle internal combustion engine An ignition control device for a two-cycle internal combustion engine that controls an ignition timing for inhibiting detonation while inhibiting an increase in an exhaust pipe temperature, including: map storing means for storing a map that provides a relationship ... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7178383 | Knock sensor A stacked body constituted by a first insulating sheet, a first terminal plate, a piezoelectric element, a second terminal plate, a second insulating sheet, a weight, and a disk spring is fitted over a cylindrical portion of a base, clamped and held between a nut an... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7159565 | Method of controlling ignition timing in internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine includes an in-cylinder injector injecting a fuel into a cylinder and an intake port injector injecting a fuel into an intake port. In the internal combustion engine, when a fuel injection ratio between the in-cylinder injector and the ... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7152560 | Engine valve performance controller A valve performance controller for use in an engine that performs ignition timing retardation control to prevent knocking. The controller variably controls valve performance of an intake valve in accordance with an operation state of the engine. The controller corre... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7152574 | Control apparatus for internal combustion engine An engine ECU executes a program including the step of calculating an injection time Astart from the engine speed and load factor when arriving at the injection calculation timing of a cylinder located in the proximity of a knock sensor, the step of calculating an i... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7131425 | Method to control auto-ignition in an internal combustion engine equipped with variable valve timing control A method and control system to accomplish knock control on a multi-cylinder spark-ignition internal combustion engine equipped variable cam phasing system, comprising monitoring cam position, crankshaft position, and, engine knock signal, determining cam position re... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7121260 | Ignition timing control apparatus for engine An ignition timing control apparatus for an engine includes a controller that sets an ignition timing considering a change of a temperature or a pressure in a combustion chamber at a time when an opening/closing characteristic of an intake valve is changed, the open... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7114484 | Drive apparatus, control method thereof, and motor vehicle equipped with the apparatus and the method Provided herein are a drive apparatus that includes an internal combustion engine capable of operating with a high expansion ratio by reducing an effective compression ratio through advancement of an intake valve closing timing, and a control method of the drive app... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7100426 | Knocking sensor A knocking sensor comprises: a cylindrical body including a cylindrical portion and a supporting flange provided at an outer circumference of a lower end of the cylindrical portion; parts including an insulating member, an electrode plate and an annular piezoelectri... | 09/05/2006 |
| 7092812 | Control method and device for an internal combustion engine A control method for an internal combustion engine provides for the acquisition of a signal correlated with the vibrations transmitted by at least one component of the internal combustion engine moving between two end positions; the vibrations are transmitted by the... | 08/15/2006 |
