Did You Know...
...that the Slinky toy was the result of a failed attempt by engineer Richard James to produce an antivibration device for ship instruments? His goal was to develop a spring that would instantaneously counterbalance the wave motion that rocks a ship at sea. Instead, he developed the Slinky.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8102277 | Method and system for remote updates of meters for metering the consumption of electricity, water or gas In a method and system of remote metering the consumption of utilities like electricity, water or gas, each of a plurality of remote meters (RM) measures a consumption and reports the measured-consumption to a concentrator (C). The concentrator (C) communicates with... | 01/24/2012 |
| 8098168 | Remote communications feedback for utility meter A utility meter comprises a measurement circuit configured to measure consumption, a remote communications port, a local communications port, and a meter communications indicator. The meter communications indicator is configured to provide an indication that the met... | 01/17/2012 |
| 8085165 | Wireless corrosion sensor A passive sensor that is located on or adjacent to a structure that can be used to monitor the affect of environment on a structure or coating that is used to protect the structure. The sensor includes a parasitic element that interacts with the environment and infl... | 12/27/2011 |
| 8085164 | Apparatus and method for monitoring a variety of resource consumption meters An apparatus is disclosed for attachment to a resource consumption meter emitting and detecting a signal having a first frequency relative to the rate of metered resource consumption. The apparatus comprises at least one signal detection means adapted to detect said... | 12/27/2011 |
| 8072348 | System for the remote acquisition of the electric energy consumptions and for the remote control of the distributed targets of users, also of domestic type A system for the remote acquisition of data and for the remote control of electricity meters comprises a central server AMM in bi-directional communication with a plurality of concentrators. To each concentrator, a set of electricity meters is connected, such that b... | 12/06/2011 |
| 8063792 | Field service and meter reading devices with GPS functionality A utility meter reading device with a global positioning system (GPS) functionality has been developed. The device includes a utility meter reading unit that reads usage data from a utility meter and GPS unit. The GPS unit collects locating coordinates of the utilit... | 11/22/2011 |
| 8054198 | Spherical sensor and data collection vehicles An inexpensive unmanned mobile sensor and data collection rolling rover (“rollver) for exploring remote, inaccessible locations, such as deep craters and canyons, includes a hollow enclosure having a flexible wall that is expandable into the shape of a sphere, an ... | 11/08/2011 |
| 8054199 | Alarm reporting through utility meter reading infrastructure A system is provided that includes a utility meter of a utility company that measures consumption of a utility within a space occupied by a user, a wireless fault detector associated with the utility located within the space and a wireless transmitter of the utility... | 11/08/2011 |
| 8049642 | Load side voltage sensing for AMI metrology Disclosed are apparatus and methodology subject matters for providing improved functionality of a meter in a 2-way communications arrangement, such as an Advanced Metering System (AMS) or Infrastructure (AMI). More particularly, the present technology relates to met... | 11/01/2011 |
| 8026830 | Methods and systems for meter reading and high speed data transfer A secure automatic meter reading (“AMR”) method and apparatus which utilizes a microprocessor and a bi-directional broadband connection to access the Internet and can form a wireless distribution network is provided. In addition to AMR, this connection and the n... | 09/27/2011 |
| 8013757 | Method and arrangement for registering and evaluating energy consumption Registering energy consumption in part of a building, an item of state information of at least one energy load being acquired, the state information being transmitted to a control center, and the state information, a state duration and a specific statement of the co... | 09/06/2011 |
| 7999696 | On-line web accessed energy meter An electrical metering system capable of performing multiple metering functions, collecting data, and wirelessly provides the collected metering data to a utility operator. In the electrical metering system, at least one computing device for initiating a request for... | 08/16/2011 |
| 7994933 | Frequency shift compensation, such as for use in a wireless utility meter reading environment Methods and apparatus for computing the carrier frequency of a transmitter using frequency modulated digital data to compensate for frequency shifting of the transmitter and the receiver local oscillators and for bandwidth adjustment of the receiver's filter. In par... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7994934 | Meter having a communication interface for receiving and interfacing with a communication device A meter is provided having a communication interface for receiving and interfacing with a communication device for transmitting measurement and other data to a central computer station via the communication device. The meter includes a measurement module for obtaini... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7986246 | Integrated data collection, anomaly detection and investigation, such as integrated mobile utility meter reading, theft detection and investigation system An automated method and system for use during manual data collection, such as utility data collection, compares collected data with additional data to determine if the collected data deviates from an expected value, which may indicate a tamper, theft, leak, malfunct... | 07/26/2011 |
| 7978095 | Test mode circuitry for a programmable tamper detection circuit An integrated circuit includes an output pad, an alarm output pad, and a test mode output pad. A first multi-bit register is programmable to store programmable data such as data that identifies a customer for whom the integrated circuit has been manufactured. A seco... | 07/12/2011 |
| 7973673 | Automated meter reader direct mount endpoint module An automated meter reader module can be operably connected to an existing utility meter to provide an endpoint for use in an automated meter reader system. The automated meter reader module can utilize an index attachment drive mechanism to electronically and mechan... | 07/05/2011 |
| 7956767 | Automatic meter reading communication An automatic consumption meter reading system utilizing a radio frequency network and a power line carrier network is provided. The radio frequency (RF) network and the power line carrier (PLC) network are communicatively linked with a radio frequency to power line ... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7948396 | 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... | 05/24/2011 |
| 7902995 | Remote meter-reading system and method using duplicated data transmission of packet data transmission and circuit data transmission A remote meter-reading system and method for transmitting data measured by a meter using duplicate transmission via packet data transmission and circuit data transmission are provided. The remote meter-reading method includes reading meter-reading data from an elect... | 03/08/2011 |
| 7884737 | Modular wireless fixed network for wide-area metering data collection and meter module apparatus A one-way direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) communications wide-area network is the data collection channel (uplink) of an automatic meter reading (AMR) system, and a paging network, or other suitable communication channel is the optional forward (downlink) cha... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7880641 | Configurable smart utility meter box The invention relates to a meter box for housing a utility meter and configured for associating a customer service line to a utility service line. The meter box may be configured to fit within an existing meter box and may be configured with side sections in a teles... | 02/01/2011 |
| 7847707 | Method and system for collecting meter readings in wireless transmissions from unlisted customers An out-of-route collection capability is provided for an AMR data collection system of a type that collect readings within a geographic area using a radio. If a transmission is received from an out-of-route transmitter, its location is based on a geographic location... | 12/07/2010 |
| 7830272 | Remote display chain for multiple user interface applications A multi-master serial bus that connects multiple utility monitoring devices with multiple remote electronic display units. The display units include an I2C microprocessor with an integrated LCD controller for controlling an LCD display and a set of button... | 11/09/2010 |
| 7786893 | Battery saving two-way communication circuit and system and method for automatic meter reading A battery-powered two-way long range automatic meter reading system and method that increases battery longevity. The system includes a meter side unit (MSU) transceiver that acquires utility data, a centralized data collector (Collector) that gathers data from the M... | 08/31/2010 |
| 7782225 | Modular wireless fixed network for wide-area metering data collection and meter module apparatus A scalable and modular fixed-base wireless network system for wide-area metering data collection, composed of at least one of each of the following components: meter modules, which monitor, store, encode and periodically transmit metering data via radio signals (air... | 08/24/2010 |
| 7746246 | Housing for utility meter AMR components The invention relates to an enclosure for housing transmitter components of an Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system electrically associated with a utility meter disposed in a substantially non-RF transparent location. The enclosure comprises a first section mechanic... | 06/29/2010 |
| 7741976 | Server and method for processing meter data into a common format A method for processing meter data into a common format includes receiving, in a first transmission, meter data using a satellite communications network in a common protocol, the meter data representing information read at time intervals from associated utility mete... | 06/22/2010 |
| 7719440 | Integrated building control and information system with wireless networking This invention relates to an integrated building control and information system with wireless networking, including the controlling and/or monitoring of various building devices or appliances such as air conditioning, lighting, temperature, humidity, etc., including... | 05/18/2010 |
| 7692556 | Adapter for a meter An adapter is interposed between a standard resource meter and its socket, to provide RF-capabilities. Communications between meter and adapter are effected by optical technology. The adapter has emergency battery back-up capabilities. ... | 04/06/2010 |
| 7688220 | Device and method for processing meter data from multiple meters A satellite communications device for processing meter data includes an interface adapted to receive data from a plurality of remotely located utility meters of a selected meter type. The interface is configurable to receive data from at least a first meter type and... | 03/30/2010 |
| 7663503 | Meter register having an encoder for measuring material flow and an algorithm to selectively block signal transmission A water meter has a meter register having an encoder having electromagnetic wave emitters, e.g., infrared emitters to measure water flow and direction of water flow through the meter. The encoder has two of three spaced emitters directing infrared rays at predetermi... | 02/16/2010 |
| 7639157 | Wireless telemetry methods and systems for communicating with or controlling intelligent devices Methods and apparatus are disclosed for remotely monitoring and controlling via a wireless network various devices deployed in homes and businesses. The present invention allows for monitoring and control of various gateways distributed to remotely located facilitie... | 12/29/2009 |
| 7626511 | AMR transmitter and method for both narrow band and frequency hopping transmissions The invention provides a method and circuitry for transmitting signals in both a narrow band, mobile-receiver type of AMR network and also for operation in the frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum, fixed-receiver type of AMR network. Unlike systems provided with multi... | 12/01/2009 |
| 7623043 | Method and system for metering consumption of energy A module for an electrical distribution system is provided. The module includes a socket board electrically coupled to the electrical distribution system. A plurality of sockets is mounted on the socket board. Each socket defines a port. A sensor is positioned withi... | 11/24/2009 |
| 7609170 | Interactive interface within a monitoring and control device A power monitoring device in a power utility system having an interactive display that allows an end user of the power monitoring device to communicate voice and optionally video data over the Internet protocol with a support operator at a remote system. The interac... | 10/27/2009 |
| 7605717 | AMR transmitter with programmable operating mode parameters The invention provides a method and circuitry for programming an AMR transmitter to operate in different modes. The device can be programmed as to any one or all of the following parameters: transmission power according to the physical environment of the installatio... | 10/20/2009 |
| 7583203 | Programming electronic meter settings using a bandwidth limited communications channel A system for transferring a sequence of actions to an electronic meter through a bandwidth limited communications channel. The sequence of actions is programmed as a program file that is broken into pieces for transmission to the electronic meter. The pieces are rec... | 09/01/2009 |
| 7583202 | Method and apparatus for an electric meter An improved meter and its operation is described. The meter can be a part of a larger automated meter reading process that allows for remote reading of the meter though power line communication. Using a microcomputer core, the meter processes incoming analog data an... | 09/01/2009 |
| 7561062 | System and method for automatic meter reading with mobile configuration An automatic meter reading (AMR) system and a method of operating an AMR system are disclosed. The AMR system stores and transfers consumptive data, demand data, and data archives. The system and method can also provide a demand reset to reduce or eliminate the need... | 07/14/2009 |
