Did You Know...
...that Kleenex tissue was originally designed to be a gas mask filter? It was developed at the beginning of World War I to replace cotton, which was then in short supply as a surgical dressing.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7411581 | Touch pad A touch pad (101) includes transducers (201-204) for receiving acoustic signals resulting from touch events, such as the continuous movement of a fingertip across the surface (105) of the touch pad. The acoustic signals are acquired at di... | 08/12/2008 |
| 7408838 | Digitizing planimeter A planimeter includes a movable housing in which are mounted orthogonally aimed x- and y-position sensors. Each position sensor comprises a piezoelectric ultrasound transmitter and receiver for sending ultrasound to a reflector disposed on a drawing and sensing resu... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7181356 | Device and method for analyzing the structure of a material The invention relates to a device that is used to analyse the structure of a material. The inventive device comprises: probe elements (5) which are used to (i) emit a wave, in the material, with emission delay laws that correspond to several simultaneous devi... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7161873 | Method of detecting and locating a source of partial discharge in an electrical apparatus A method of detecting and localizing a source of partial discharge in an electrical apparatus placed in an enclosure containing an acoustically-conductive fluid. The method consists in: positioning (31) acoustic detectors an... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7157649 | Contact sensitive device Method and apparatus using bending wave vibration to calculate information relating to a contact on a contact sensitive device. The contact sensitive device has a member capable of supporting bending waves, and a device attached to the member measures bending wave p... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7062381 | Method and system for determining relative position of mobile vehicles A primary transceiver of a primary vehicle transmits a first transmission signal to a first transponder and a second transponder associated with a secondary vehicle. A first transponder antenna and a second transponder antenna are associated with secondary vehicular... | 06/13/2006 |
| 6831875 | Apparatus for ultrasonically detecting position of web edge and method of doing the same An apparatus for ultrasonically detecting an edge of a web, includes a ultrasonic-wave transmitter transmitting ultrasonic-wave pulse train, a ultrasonic-wave receiver receiving the ultrasonic-wave pulse train and converting the received ultrasonic-wave pulse train ... | 12/14/2004 |
| 6703570 | Digital pen using ultrasonic tracking A digital pen that has a writing tip includes an ultrasonic (US) transducer on a pen body that generates frames of US pulses toward a receiver base in response to an infrared (IR) synchronizing signal from the base. The first pulse of a frame is adjusted ... | 03/09/2004 |
| 6690618 | Method and apparatus for approximating a source position of a sound-causing event for determining an input used in operating an electronic device A plurality of sound-detecting devices are configured to detect sound from an event of interest. Information about the sound is recorded that is dependent on a distance between the source position and the location of the sound-detection devices. The sourc... | 02/10/2004 |
| 6670906 | Method for determining accurately coordinates of a GPR antenna relative to a fixed reference A method and apparatus for determining accurately a coordinate of a transmitting/receiving antenna pair relative to a predetermined reference position. The method includes placing a transmitting antenna in proximity to a reflective strip, transmitting a f... | 12/30/2003 |
| 6614721 | Collision avoidance method and system A presence detection system includes a reader device attached to a first body, and a tag device attached to a second body. The reader device has an ultrasonic transducer for generating and transmitting ultrasonic pulses at a first rate of occurrence; an R... | 09/02/2003 |
| 6501704 | Underwater object positioning system An underwater object positioning system comprises a workboat, an acoustic transmitter-receiver mounted on the workboat, first and second surface tow units towed by the workboat, an acoustic transducer that is mounted on the first surface tow unit, that is... | 12/31/2002 |
| 6456567 | Remote attitude and position indicating system A method and apparatus using ultrasonic sensors for determination of the pointing vector described by two points separated in space in the coordinate frame of the measuring system. For measurement, acoustic signals are transmitted from two emitters whose ... | 09/24/2002 |
| 6141293 | Ultrasonic positioning and tracking system A method of tracking an object within a surveillance area having a predetermined linear extent. One or more ultrasound transducers are fixed to the object. A plurality of background units are placed at known positions in the area, each unit including an u... | 10/31/2000 |
| 6108271 | Remote control device for controlling electronic devices The present invention is generally directed to a method of remotely controlling electronic devices by using the change in time required for sound waves to travel from an emitter to a detector. The time needed for emitted sound waves to reach a detector de... | 08/22/2000 |
| 6041284 | Apparatus and method for determining coordinates of a designated point The present invention detects coordinates of a designated point and includes a vibration transmission plate having anisotropic properties such that vibrations from a vibration generation source applied to the vibration transmission plate propagate through... | 03/21/2000 |
| 5973998 | Automatic real-time gunshot locator and display system A system to accurately and rapidly present the location of gunfire or other explosive events to dispatchers uses a sparse set of distributed acoustic sensors mounted on rooftops or utility poles to allow triangulation of the gunfire sounds. If a fourth si... | 10/26/1999 |
| 5867146 | Three dimensional wireless pointing device Three dimensional wireless pointing device for calculating coordinates and controlling a position of a cursor in a three dimensional space is disclosed, including a transmission side having a plurality of ultrasonic wave generating parts and a single infr... | 02/02/1999 |
| 5771206 | Elastic wave device for sensing a touch-position An elastic wave position-sensing device comprising a piezoelectric substrate, an input interdigital transducer T formed on an upper end surface of the piezoelectric substrate, and an output interdigital transducer R formed on the upper end surface of the ... | 06/23/1998 |
| 5761087 | Coordinate input device and a control method therefor Disclosed is a coordinate input device, having a vibration transmission plate, that simplifies the measurement of a vibration transmission speed, which is used as a known constant to calculate a distance between a vibration input location and individual v... | 06/02/1998 |
| 5714947 | Vehicle collision avoidance system A collision avoidance system for a vehicle has a vehicle steering sensor for sensing a direction in which the vehicle is being steered, a source of radiation, an articulated reflector for directing radiation from the source in a desired direction, an arti... | 02/03/1998 |
| 5691959 | Stylus position digitizer using acoustic waves A digitizer uses acoustic waves originating from a stylus to determine the position of the stylus on a plate. The acoustic waves are introduced into the plate from the tip of the stylus and are detected by a plurality of detectors positioned at various po... | 11/25/1997 |
| 5648643 | Acoustic wave touch panel with inlayed, etched arrays and method of making the panel An acoustic wave touch panel comprising a substrate formed of a first material. The substrate is capable of supporting an acoustic wave for propagation therein. A reflective array upon the substrate is provided for reflecting an acoustic wave to propagate... | 07/15/1997 |
| 5637839 | Ultrasonic coordinate input apparatus An ultrasonic coordinate input, apparatus comprising a plurality of ultrasonic wave receivers to receive ultrasonic wave emitted by a cordless ultrasonic pen and propagating in an ultrasonic propagating medium, a plurality of receiving circuits for detect... | 06/10/1997 |
| 5627800 | Method and apparatus for determining position of a moving object in a tank A method and apparatus for determining position of a vehicle in a tank of fluid. At least one transducer is disposed on the vehicle and a plurality of transducers are disposed on the outside wall of the tank. The transducers are arranged in a substantiall... | 05/06/1997 |
| 5612905 | Three-dimensional measurement of large objects A three-dimensional measurement method and device are intended for fast and accurate measurement of large objects such as vehicles. The method includes the steps of determining approximate measurement positions of a shape measurement sensor; positioning t... | 03/18/1997 |
| 5610838 | Coordinate input device for calculating a coordinate of an input position of an applied vibration A shift of an input coordinate by a change in temperature in a coordinate input device is prevented. An arithmetic operation and control circuit 1 applies a drive signal to a vibration pen 3 and starts a timer. The drive signal applied to the vibration pe... | 03/11/1997 |
| 5591945 | Acoustic touch position sensor using higher order horizontally polarized shear wave propagation An acoustic touch position sensor having a transducer which imparts a wave, propagating along a first axis. A reflective array disposed along the first axis which reflects the wave as a set of waves having a horizontally polarized component and a non-unif... | 01/07/1997 |
| 5541892 | Piezoelectric sensor and coordinate input apparatus employing the same A piezoelectric sensor for detecting elastic plate vibrations in an object such as the transmission plate in a coordinate input apparatus is prismatic in shape and is fixed to the surface of the object. The prismatic sensor is arranged so that it is paral... | 07/30/1996 |
| 5537511 | Neural network based data fusion system for source localization A method is described for providing an estimate of the state of a moving contact. The method comprises providing a device for estimating the state of the contact, inputting information about a location of an observer platform at particular time intervals ... | 07/16/1996 |
| 5528557 | Acoustic emission source location by reverse ray tracing A method of locating an acoustic emission source in a structure by reverse ray tracing. An azimuth acoustic emission sensor is utilized which has an array of individual elemental detectors which independently and sequentially respond to the passage of an ... | 06/18/1996 |
| 5451723 | Acoustic wave touch panel for use with a non-active stylus An acoustic wave touch panel is shown for use with a non-active stylus. The acoustic wave touch panel includes an acoustic wave touch position sensor with an elastomeric substrate 20 overlying the touch position sensor and further including a stiff substr... | 09/19/1995 |
| 5412619 | Three-dimensional displacement of a body with computer interface A system is provided for tracking the three-dimensional position of an object within a three-dimensional region by triangulation techniques to generate signals corresponding to such three-dimensional positions. The signals may be used to operate a variabl... | 05/02/1995 |
| 5379269 | Position determining apparatus An apparatus is disclosed for determining the position of a moveable element over the surface of a solid medium. First and second transducer devices are provided and are moveable for placement at selected respective first and second locations on the surfa... | 01/03/1995 |
| 5352856 | Method and apparatus for inputting coordinates A coordinates input apparatus for detecting coordinate values of an arbitrary point by indicating the arbitrary point on a vibration transmission plate by a vibration input pen for generating a vibration, comprises: a plurality of sensors, arranged at pre... | 10/04/1994 |
| 5334805 | Controller for an acoustic wave touch panel A controller for an acoustic wave touch panel includes a signal conditioning circuit that can receive and process X axis and Y axis sense signals from the touch panel where the touch panel can be configured with either one or two transducers per sense axi... | 08/02/1994 |
| 5329070 | Touch panel for an acoustic touch position sensor An acoustic touch position sensor is shown in which a transducer coupled to a side of a substrate imparts a shear wave into the substrate for propagation along a first axis. A reflective array disposed along the first axis reflects portions of the shear w... | 07/12/1994 |
| 5285397 | Coordinate-measuring machine for non-contact measurement of objects A plurality of video cameras (7a-d) are mounted on a table which is adapted support a workpiece or other object to be measured, and the mounting of each camera to the table provides for controlled universal orientation of each camera via an articulating h... | 02/08/1994 |
| 5280457 | Position detecting system and method A detecting system and method of determining the position of a mobile point of interest in a m dimensional coordinate system having an ultrasonic transmitter mounted on the point of interest, and a plurality of stationary ultrasonic receivers, the number ... | 01/18/1994 |
| 5260521 | Acoustic touch position sensor using shear wave propagation An acoustic touch position sensor is shown in which a transducer coupled to a side of a substrate imparts a shear wave into the substrate for propagation along a first axis. A reflective array is disposed along the first axis to reflect portions of the sh... | 11/09/1993 |
