Famous Patents
3M employee and church chorister Art Fry needed something to temporarily mark pages in his hymnal. He was in luck because his colleague, Spencer Silver, accidentally developed a glue that was too weak for other purposes. After initially discouraging consumer response, Post-it Notes became a hit in 1979.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7362439 | Method of detecting the condition of a turf grass A method of detecting the condition of a turf grass is described. According to one aspect of the invention, the method comprises steps of attaching an active sensor to a mower; traversing a section of turf grass; and processing the output of the sensor. A device for... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7295585 | Method for noise cancellation by spectral flattening of laser output in a multi-line-laser instrument An improved method of subtracting laser amplitude fluctuations from a desired signal in a multi-line laser system and a detection system having improved noise cancellation are provided. This invention reduces the noise contribution from laser amplitude fluctuations ... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7295292 | Methods and systems for measuring an aberated wave front Methods and systems are described for a system for measuring aberrations in a wave front. In the improved system multiple closely-spaced, small-aperture laser beams traverse an aberrating flow that introduces deflections of small-aperture laser beams from which aber... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7260031 | Digital focus and tracking servo system with one-track jump A tracking and servo system with a one-track jump is disclosed. The one track jump algorithm holds a control signal from the tracking servo system. The one track jump algorithm adds an acceleration control signal to the held control signal for a first period of time... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7248280 | Laser scanner having reduced air currents A method for improving the operation of an electrophotographic printer. The method includes providing an electrophotographic printer containing a laser scanning unit. A torsion oscillator for the laser scanning unit is enclosed in closed compartment. The closed comp... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7219842 | Scanning unit suitable for applications with a high-speed scanning requirement A scanning unit includes a lamp-mounting body having a top surface formed with an elongate opening that is disposed between a pair of parallel first and second grooves. First and second reflective layers are attached respectively over curved groove-defining surfaces... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7212556 | Semiconductor laser device optical disk apparatus and optical integrated unit A semiconductor laser device includes: a first cladding layer, which is made of a nitride semiconductor of a first conductivity type and is formed over a substrate; an active layer, which is made of another nitride semiconductor and is formed over the first cladding... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7186947 | Process monitor for laser and plasma materials processing of materials A method for monitoring the processing of a workpiece includes directing an incident laser beam onto the workpiece and measuring a signal emitted from the workpiece. At least two signals are generated by a detector based upon the emitted signal. A workpiece processi... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7177058 | Beam deflection device A deflection means which is rotatably and/or pivotably mounted in a bearing which comprises a Ferrofluid. The deflection means is part of an adjustable beam deflection device for deflecting a light beam. The deflection means is rotatable and/or pivotable about sever... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7171864 | Method for testing writing instruments The present invention concerns a method for controlling writing instruments, in particular ball-point pens, on paper, which consists in guiding the writing instrument relative to the paper plane in a repeated movement and displacing the paper in forward direction. T... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7167194 | Printing a code on a product A method for printing is described. The method includes providing a printing system for printing a code on a product moving in a direction. The code is constructed from a plurality of pixels in a first data set indicating the positions of the pixels and generates a ... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7164111 | Device for detecting invisible light beam A light beam detection device includes a light-receiving element for receiving a light beam and outputting a detection signal. A light detection circuit generates and outputs a light-emission signal based on the detection signal. A light-emitting element emits light... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7126419 | Analog summing and differencing circuit, optical receiving circuit, optical transmitting circuit, automatic gain control amplifier, automatic frequency compensation amplifier, and limiting amplifier An analog circuit includes a pair of peak-hold circuits that generate peak signals indicating the peak values of a differential pair of input signals, a first differencing circuit such as a transconductance amplifier that takes the difference between the input signa... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7119511 | Servo system for a two-dimensional micro-electromechanical system (MEMS)-based scanner and method therefor A servo control system for a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)-based motion control system (and method therefor), includes a motion generator having an inherent stiffness component. ... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7120107 | Optical head for optical recording having a hologram element that generates multiple diffracted light beams of different orders An optical head is provided, which suppresses the offset in the tracking error signal. This head comprises (a) a light source for emitting a light beam to be irradiated to an optical recording medium as an incident light beam; (b) a hologram element for receiving a ... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7095683 | Tracking and focus digital servo system with write abort A write abort algorithm of a tracking and focus servo system that can abort a write operation on an optical disk drive is presented. The write abort algorithm monitors at least one of a tracking error signal or a focus error signal and indicates a write abort status... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7092787 | System and method for generating a control program A system for generating a control program for a machine includes an optical image acquisition device, in particular a scanner and a machine control system connected to the scanner. The machine control system includes an image processing module that associated image ... | 08/15/2006 |
| 7092322 | Calibration of focus error signal offset in a focus servo system A focus error signal offset calibration is presented. The focus error signal offset can be calibrated by varying the focus error signal offset to optimize an operating characteristic of the optical disk drive. In some embodiments, the operating characteristic can be... | 08/15/2006 |
| 7023776 | Calibration initiation methods for a tracking and focus servo system A calibration method for an optical disk drive is presented. The operating parameters of an optical disk drive are initially calibrated when the disk drive is produced or during a repair step. The disk drive is then field calibrated during normal operation. Operatin... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7023766 | Flexible servicing of servo algorithms using a digital signal processor A system with a plurality of servo algorithms executing on a digital signal processor is presented. The digital signal processor receives a sensor interrupt, indicating availability of digitized data from optical sensors, and decides which of a plurality of servo al... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7020054 | Digital servo system with biased feed-forward A digital servo system with a biased feed-forward control is disclosed. The biased feed-forward control determines the low frequency component of a control signal from the digital servo system. The low frequency component can then be added to a future control signal... | 03/28/2006 |
| 7016280 | Tracking and focus servo system with defect detection A defect detector in an optical disk drive is presented. The defect detector indicates a defect by monitoring a sum signal. The sum signal is calculated from optical signals from detectors in an optical pick-up unit of the optical disk drive. A defect can be indicat... | 03/21/2006 |
| 6979815 | Folding apparatus of a web-fed printing press including a conveyor belt monitoring device A folding apparatus (30) having at least one conveyor belt (10) which is used to convey signatures (64) at least on a section of a path (66, 68) of the signatures (64) through the folding apparatus (30). The folding apparatu... | 12/27/2005 |
| 6980296 | Measuring laser light transmissivity in a to-be-welded region of a work piece Methods for measuring laser light transmissivity of a specific position in a work piece prior to the work piece undergoing laser welding at the specific position with a laser beam having a specific welding wavelength. To obtain a baseline measurement reading, a lase... | 12/27/2005 |
| 6970403 | Calibration of tracking error signal offset in a tracking servo system A calibration for a tracking error signal offset in a tracking servo system of an optical disk drive is presented. In some embodiments, the tracking error signal offset is adjusted for best servo function by, for example, adjusting the center of a tracking error sig... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6970410 | Focus detection in a digital focus servo system A system for determining whether a focus servo system is in focus or out of focus (i.e. open) is disclosed. A sum signal can be compared with a threshold value. If the sum signal is below the threshold value, then a focus open condition (i.e., out-of-focus) can be i... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6968073 | Occupant detection system An eye-safe light curtain is generated by a plurality of LED's illuminating a cylindrical lens having a corrugated cylindrical surface. A camera generates a first image of an avoidance zone boundary of an air bag inflator with the light curtain off, and a second ima... | 11/22/2005 |
| 6965547 | Tracking and focus servo system with error signal inverse non-linearity calibration A digital servo system of an optical disk drive with a calibrated inverse non-linearity function is disclosed. A look-up table is determined, for example, with a focus error signal gain corresponding with a focus error signal offset so that the response of the focus... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6961443 | Occupant sensor An occupant sensor incorporates a 3-D imaging system that acquires a 3-D image of an object. The image is segmented to remove unwanted portions and to identify a region-of-interest, and the content thereof is classified responsive to a plurality of 3-D features. In ... | 11/01/2005 |
| 6958957 | Digital tracking and focus servo system with TES to FES crosstalk calibration A servo system that calibrates a cross-talk gain parameter in a tracking error signal to focus error signal crosstalk correction is provided. The cross-talk gain parameter can be optimized such that the effects of a perturbation applied to the tracking servo loop on... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6956797 | Digital servo system with error signal integrity testing A sample integrity test is disclosed. The sample integrity test receives an error signal and a defect signal. If the defect signal indicates the presence of a defect, a low-pass filtered error signal is substituted for the error signal. The low-pass filtered error s... | 10/18/2005 |
| 6950380 | Detector input dark current offset calibration in an optical disk drive digital servo A calibration of input signal offset in an optical disk drive is presented. The input signal offsets the input signals received from an optical pick-up unit before digitization. In some embodiments, the input signal offset is set such that the digitized input signal... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6947802 | Centralized control architecture for a laser materials processing system Apparatus, systems, and methods for monitoring the processing of a workpiece that includes directing an incident laser beam onto the workpiece and using an optical detector for measuring a signal emitted from the workpiece as a result of the incident laser beam. The... | 09/20/2005 |
| 6937543 | Digital focus servo system with a sliding notch filter A notch filter that filters a focus error signal during a multi-track seek operation is presented. The notch filter has a center frequency that relates to the seek reference velocity of a multi-rack seek algorithm. During the multi-track seek operation, a focus cont... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6933965 | Panoramic aerial imaging device An imaging device that gives a ground based user immediate access to a detailed aerial photograph of the entire area for a given radius about his present position. The device can be launched into the air, and rotates in a predictable pattern to scan an imager over e... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6930963 | Tracking and focus servo system with head load A head load algorithm for an optical disk drive is presented. On startup, the optical media can be spun up. Then an optical pick-up unit can be positioned at an extreme position, for example at the inner diameter, and focus can be closed. The optical pick-up unit th... | 08/16/2005 |
| 6925859 | Device for detecting a running surface and vehicle using same A device for detecting a running surface for a vehicle, comprising a plurality of sensors (c1 to c8) designed to be oriented towards the running surface to detect modifications thereof, data processing means for processing data derived from the sensors... | 08/09/2005 |
| 6922380 | Tracking and focus servo system with anti-skate algorithm An anti-skate algorithm in a tracking servo system of an optical disk drive is described. The anti-skate algorithm prevents skating during close of the tracking servo system by allowing the tracking servo system to close on a tracking error signal with an appropriat... | 07/26/2005 |
| 6920249 | Method and measuring instrument for determining the position of an edge of a pattern element on a substrate A method and a measuring instrument for determining the position of an edge to be measured on a pattern on a substrate are described. A complete, nonlinear model intensity profile, which identifies the edge to be measured, of a model edge is ascertained and stored, ... | 07/19/2005 |
| 6920375 | Optical arm for guiding a laser beam on a robot arm This optical arm applicable to robots is comprised of: some bent tubular parts (1, 6, 16, 18), a straight tubular length (21) and an outlet part (23), coupled together with the possibility of rotation; also including some means (7) to sec... | 07/19/2005 |
