Did You Know...
...that Robert Adler has the dubious distinction of being the Father of the Couch Potato? Back in 1955 Adler was employed by what was then Zenith Radio Corp., where he was charged to invent something that would allow viewers to turn down the TV volume without leaving their chairs. After a series of flops (such as a wired contraption that people tripped over), Adler hit on the idea of using sound waves. Thus the Remote Control was born...
PatentStorm News
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 |
| 8077018 | Smoke detector To enable an air velocity of sampling air to be precisely measured, a smoke detector (S) includes: a smoke detection part (22) connected to a sampling pipe (11); a fan (12) that sucks sampling air (SA) into the sampling pipe; and an air velocity... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8077017 | Laser-aid fire evacuation guidance system A fire evacuation guidance system includes a pair of dissimilarly colored laser beams generated by at least one laser emitting device. The dissimilarly colored laser beams are generated substantially parallel to hallways of a (5) structure and subsequently re... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8058976 | Dog bark door bell notification and personal protection system A security system includes a warning notification module adapted to recognize at least one of a wireless or audible signal. A door bell ringer or emergency transmission signal from a wireless transmitter can provide a recognition signal to a microprocessor in the se... | 11/15/2011 |
| 7623024 | Adjustable door chime with interchangeable parts The present invention is a door chime. The door chime has a decorative cover connected to a sound module including sound controls. The decorative cover is shiftable relative to the sound module from a first position in which the decorative chime will be displayed du... | 11/24/2009 |
| 7388474 | Vehicular obstacle detection system When either a front-side sensor or a rear-side sensor of a subject vehicle detects an obstacle entering a certain distance range of multiple distance ranges within a detection zone close to the subject vehicle, a micro-computer causes a warning unit to warn with a b... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7365637 | Reversible diode doorbell detection circuit A doorbell detection and playback circuit for a doorbell pushbutton connected to an alternating current power source comprises at least one bridge rectifier circuit coupled to the power source through a diode placed in parallel with the pushbutton. The bridge rectif... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7335885 | Ultra low power NDIR gas sensor fire detector A fire detector and method for generating an alarm signal in response to a fire uses an NDIR sensor to generate a detector signal based upon one or more absorption bands selected from the 15.1μ absorption band of CO2, the 6.27μ absorption band of H2O and the 4.67Î... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7327219 | Enhanced alarm system for monitoring of patients A monitoring system for use in a building, such as a hospital provides an audible and/or visual alarm. The monitoring system includes a control unit, with a plurality of medical condition monitoring units, such as ventilators, connected thereto. A plurality of speak... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7315244 | Excessive noise level alerting device A sound-detection and alerting system (SDAS) is designed for use in hospitals, offices, or other environments where excessive noise levels are of concern. The SDAS depends on several variables to trigger an alarm so that false alarms are kept to a minimum. A microph... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7295882 | Method and apparatus for audible error code detection and identification The invention describes a method and apparatus for audible error code detection and identification. The method and apparatus allow an operator, user, or customer to automatically identify an error condition within an electronic device, such as a workstation computer... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7266987 | Ultrasound transmit and receive path calibration methods and systems The clipping diodes used to limit voltage during medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging operation are used during calibration operation for measuring amplitude and phase differences. The amplitude and phase measurements using clipping diodes as the calibration node m... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7242292 | Infrared communication system and method A wireless communications capability enables field personnel to communicate with a remote control console of a distributed system. A hand held communications unit generates console related messages that are coupled, via local devices, to the remote console. ... | 07/10/2007 |
| 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 |
| 7207133 | Tip-up device A tip-up fishing device includes a cross frame having a horizontal section that spans a hole cut in the ice and a vertical section that supports a spool of fishing line down in the hole. A trip device operates to release a spring elastic flag pole when a fish strike... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7203674 | Method and system to connect and match users in an electronic dating service Described herein is a method and system for connecting and matching users in an electronic dating service. In one embodiment of the invention, subscribers, or users, of the dating service are connected for a brief duration of time. During that time the users have a ... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7186979 | Passive NDIR carbon dioxide sensor fire detector A fire detector with a passive CO2 sensor generates a detector signal based upon a 15μ absorption band of CO2 and a signal processor generates an alarm signal when a preselected criterion is met. The passive CO2 sensor has a passive... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7176460 | Passive NDIR gas sensor fire detector A fire detector and method for detecting fires uses a passive NDIR sensor that generates a detector signal based upon either a 15μ absorption band of CO2 or a 6.27μ absorption band of H2O and a signal processor which receives the detector sig... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7173534 | Bird control system A computer based bird control system is provided. The bird control system utilizes an impactor that is attachable to a structure, such as an I-beam or other similarly sized and dimensioned metal object, to create an acoustic impact noise similar to a whacking of the... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7170404 | Acoustic alert communication system with enhanced signal to noise capabilities System, device and method for alerting an individual to an alert condition using acoustic alarms having less sensitivity to multipath distortion and having improved inherent signal to noise ratio properties, wherein the acoustic alarms are readily distinguishable us... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7162912 | Ultrasound transmit and receive path calibration methods and systems The clipping diodes used to limit voltage during medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging operation are used during calibration operation for measuring amplitude and phase differences. The amplitude and phase measurements using clipping diodes as the calibration node m... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7126490 | Point of sale display for doorbell A doorbell having interchangeable chimes and interchangeable decorative covers is displayed for sale to the retail public such that a customer may easily choose a specific chime sound and combine it with a specific decorative cover enabling the customer to buy a doo... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7126455 | Method for controlling abusive use of doorbells Protection against abusive ringing of doorbells is provided by a ring limiting circuit including ring counter and ring timer circuits. Protection can also be implemented in software executed by a digital processor such as a smart home central controller in a wireles... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7126467 | Enhanced fire, safety, security, and health monitoring and alarm response method, system and device Method, system and device useful with conventional personal computers respond automatically to an identified alarm sound by sending a notification signal via the Internet only when a special sound monitoring program is active. Additionally, bedside detection of acou... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7099704 | Music player applicable to portable telephone terminal A music playback device applicable to a portable telephone terminal device uses a sequence data FIFO memory and a waveform data FIFO memory both having limited storage capacities. A system CPU performs successive transfer of sequence data and waveform data in respon... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7079014 | Digital sampling playback doorbell system A digital sampling playback doorbell system has two or more doorbell buttons and a central unit with solid-state memory storage for multiple digitally sampled sound files. User assignment means are provided for assigning a particular sound file to a particular doorb... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7057515 | Pet-activated signaling assembly A pet-activated signaling device to allow a pet to signal a human includes a base, and a cover, associated with the base. A biasing element is operatively coupled between the base and the cover and is configured to provide a positive biasing force therebetween. At l... | 06/06/2006 |
| 7053757 | Intelligent door plate and chime A system in operable communication with a doorbell chime for audio annunciation of a visitor to an occupant of a room in a multiple room building, the system configured to indicate a status of the room to the visitor or occupant, the system comprising: a switch asse... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7049956 | Method and apparatus for disabled access to polling places A portable kit for use at a polling place to ease access of a disabled person to voting facilities. The portable kit includes a case containing a base, a collapsible post for mounting on the base and an activation switch mountable on the post and having a radio tran... | 05/23/2006 |
| 7038586 | Vehicle horn actuation mechanism and method A horn actuation mechanism senses a deliberate movement of a driver's hand on a side of a steering plane distant from the driver, the steering wheel plane lying crossswise a rotational axis of the steering wheel and approximating a plane bisecting a peripheral gripp... | 05/02/2006 |
| 7034664 | Alerting system using a communication protocol A general short-range remote control alerting system consists of at least one transmitter or encoder device in communication with at least one receiver or decoder device. Each transmitter or encoder device has a factory pre-set unique identification (ID) code. The r... | 04/25/2006 |
| 7023325 | Programmable electronic circuit A programmable electronic circuit is disclosed. The circuit includes a CPU, signal-generating circuitry, and RC circuitry having at least two capacitors, such that when both of the capacitors are switched into the RC circuitry by the CPU, a signal is produced from a... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7020499 | Hands free vehicle mounted mobile telephone with audio A hands-free vehicle mounted mobile telephone system with audio that enables the user of the phone to dial and operate the phone without taking the user's hands off of the steering wheel of a car or other motor-operated vehicle. The user may select the party to be c... | 03/28/2006 |
| 7015807 | Method and apparatus for indicating activation of a smoke detector alarm A method for detecting smoke detector alarms comprises analyzing at least two parameters of ambient sound over a period of time to detect a temporal pattern of the alarm. In one embodiment, a series of samples are taken over a period of time sufficiently long to inc... | 03/21/2006 |
| 6997593 | Novelty candy assembly with melodic and/or illumination functions There is provided a novelty candy assembly including a body, an illumination module attached to the body, a cover for the illumination module, the cover having at least an outer layer of candy, at least one activation conduit extending through the cover and being op... | 02/14/2006 |
| 6992586 | Methods of conducting promotional contests and beverage containers for use therein A method of conducting a promotional contest by providing a portal that establishes a field for detecting the presence of a field-disturbing element, providing packages respectively having and lacking a concealed field-disturbing element, and distributing the packag... | 01/31/2006 |
| 6975213 | Whistle with light emitting device A whistle has a whistle member having a mouthpiece at a front thereof, a chamber therein, a passage communicated with the chamber, and an outlet at a sidewall of the chamber, and a light emitting device provided on the whistle member, which has a lamp, a battery and... | 12/13/2005 |
| 6975221 | Luggage identifier for air and rail travelers A luggage identifier for air and rail travelers uniquely identifies a luggage piece on a airport carousel or train station conveyer belt. A battery powered remote radio wave transmitter carried by the passenger sends a radio wave to a battery powered receiving and a... | 12/13/2005 |
| 6923549 | Container with illuminated interior visual display An illuminated message or design is displayed on the surface of an inner container for viewing through an outer container. Light emitting diodes are placed under the outer container, and near its perimeter, allowing the light to be directly introduced into the perip... | 08/02/2005 |
| 6879848 | Method and apparatus for alerting an operator of an incoming cellular or portable phone call A method and apparatus for notifying a user of an incoming cellular telephone call are provided. The apparatus includes a cellular telephone body having at least a back surface, a first transducer positioned within said cellular telephone body perpendicular to the b... | 04/12/2005 |
| 6606030 | Pet wireless doorbell device and trainer A pet training device designed to alert a pet owner that his/her pet would like to enter or exit the home.... | 08/12/2003 |
