...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8184674 | Time-hopping low-power wireless network for turning off and on fluorescent lamps A low-power wireless network involves a master and a plurality of RF-enabled fluorescent lamp starter units. In each of a plurality of intervals, a starter wakes up and listens for a beacon, regardless of whether a beacon is transmitted during that interval or not. ... | 05/22/2012 |
| 8130813 | Method and apparatus for allocating a beacon signal in a wireless communication network A method and apparatus for transmitting beacon signals in a wireless communications network. For a given cell site, a single frequency may be used for the beacon signal by assigning different beacon signal time slots to different sectors of the cell site. During one... | 03/06/2012 |
| 7729407 | Single-pulse and multi-pulse transmitted reference impulse radio systems with energy detecting receivers A transmitted reference ultra-wide band communication signal embodied in an electromagnetic wave and configured to communicate a data value includes a first frame having a first reference pulse and a first data pulse. The first reference pulse has a reference polari... | 06/01/2010 |
| 7573933 | Adaptive delay adjustment for transmitted reference impulse radio systems A method determines a delay time between reference and data pulses in a time-hopping impulse radio system. Channel state information of a channel between two transceivers is estimated periodically. The delay time frame between the reference and data pulses is then d... | 08/11/2009 |
| 7496128 | Multi-user interference resilient ultra wideband (UWB) communication Techniques are described for maintaining the orthogonality of waveforms transmitted in ultra wideband (UWB) multi-user wireless communication systems. The multi-stage block-spreading (MS-BS) techniques described herein deterministically eliminate multiple user inter... | 02/24/2009 |
| 7489720 | Method for transmit pulse design for ultra-wideband communications Method for designing transmission pulses for ultra-wideband communications systems. A preferred embodiment comprises specifying a spectral description for the pulse. After a spectral description is created, then an approximation of the pulse can be created and well ... | 02/10/2009 |
| 7440422 | Method for data transmission in a cellular telecommunication system The present invention proposes a method for data transmission in a cellular telecommunication system, in which system data are transmitted in units of bursts, each burst occupying a time slot (TS[j]) of one of consecutive frames (F[i]), each respective frame compris... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7426386 | Beam laydown for hopped satellite downlink with adaptable duty cycle A power gated variable hop cycle beam laydown (700) manifests itself as first cells (C, D) supported by a first hop cycle, second cells (G, H) supported by a second hop cycle, and transition cells (E, F) supported by a transition hop cycle. The transition hop... | 09/16/2008 |
| 7403746 | Adaptive frame durations for time-hopped impulse radio systems A method determines a duration of a frame in an impulse radio system for radio ranging. Channel state information of a channel between two transceivers is estimated periodically. A signal to noise and interference ratio is also estimated periodically. The frame dura... | 07/22/2008 |
| 7400909 | Mobile communication apparatus used to communicate information between mobile units A mobile communication apparatus is provided, which permits highly efficient communication even between mobile units that cannot communicate directly because of signal-shielding communication obstacles. The mobile communication apparatus 10 includes tr... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7391802 | Modulating signals for coherent and differentially coherent receivers A system incorporates time-hopped impulse radio (TH-IR) and transmitted-reference impulse radio (TR-IR) transceivers in the same wireless network. A transmitter modulates a sequence of bits in a wireless communications network by generating a reference waveform and ... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7388927 | M-ary modulation of signals for coherent and differentially coherent receivers A system incorporates time-hopped impulse-radio (TH-IR), transmitted-reference impulse-radio (TR-IR) and noncoherent transceivers in the same wireless network. A transmitter modulates a sequence of bits in a wireless communications network by selecting one coding se... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7366243 | Methods and apparatus for transmitting non-contiguous spread spectrum signals for communications and navigation A technique for transmitting a spread spectrum signal using plural non-contiguous frequency bands separated by segments of frequency spectrum excluded from use involves: generating a digital time-domain spread spectrum signal; converting the time-domain signal to a ... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7362793 | Base station having a set of phased array antennas A spread spectrum base station for receiving a plurality of spread spectrum signals and a plurality of phased spread spectrum signals includes an antenna and a plurality of delay devices connected to the antenna, each delay device outputting a time-delayed spread sp... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7356094 | Digital broadcast receiving apparatus A digital broadcast receiving apparatus for receiving a broadcast signal generated by combining sub signals modulated using a random sequence generated based on an initial value set in accordance with a frequency of a broadcast channel by a signal transmission contr... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7349458 | Linear receivers for time-hopping impulse radio systems In a time-hopped impulse radio system, each symbol is transmitted over a channel having different multipath components as a set of Nf frames. Each frame includes one pulse. All frames of a received signal corresponding to the symbol are sampled to generat... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7342971 | Bipolar waveform modulation for ultra wideband (UWB) communication networks A method for ultra wideband (UWB) communication in which UWB pulses encode binary data as either normal or inverted (anti-podal) pulses. In the case of pulses of a carrier signal, each pulse has the carrier signal either inverted or in phase, that is, shifted by 180... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7339464 | Detection-resistant transponder with “stealth packaging” for high-risk surveillance applications An easily deployed, extremely detection-resistant surveillance method, apparatus, and system are disclosed. Preferred embodiments of the apparatus are adapted for generating and broadcasting pulsed transmissions optimized for electronic tagging, tracking, and “hom... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7336694 | Delay-induced scattering with phase randomization and partitioned frequency hopping A first copy and a second copy of a signal, which comprises a plurality of TDMA frames, are transmitted from the same antenna. Relative to the first copy, the second copy of the signal has a fixed delay and a random phase. The random phase changes from one of the TD... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7324482 | Method and constructions for space-time codes for PSK constellations for spatial diversity in multiple-element antenna systems General binary design criteria for PSK-modulated space-time codes are provided. For linear binary PSK (BPSK) codes and quadrature PSK (QPSK) codes, the rank (i.e., binary projections) of the unmodulated code words, as binary matrices over the binary field, is used a... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7317750 | Orthogonal superposition coding for direct-sequence communications An adaptation to Carrier Interferometry synthesis and analysis provides for complex coding and decoding in a sliding window transform. Coding and decoding functionality can be extended to spatial processing in systems employing multiple transceiver elements. Poly-am... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7317748 | Methods and apparatus for transmitting and receiving randomly inverted wideband signals Methods and apparatus for transmitting, receiving, and processing wideband signals with reduced discrete power spectral density components are disclosed. The wideband signals with reduced discrete power spectral density components are generated through pulse modulat... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7301987 | Background processing and searching for a communication channel A method including searching for a communication channel by activating a receiver having a radio frequency (RF) module and a baseband module for storing a portion of received signals within a first time period, de-activating the RF module of the receiver, and backgr... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7295606 | Transmission method for transmitting data symbols to or from users of an ultra bandwidth telecommunication system The invention relates to a transmission method for transmitting data symbols to or from users of an ultra bandwidth telecommunication system, each user (u) of said system being associated with a specific time hopping pattern consisting of a plurality (Ns,... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7280580 | Hop sequence adaptation in a frequency-hopping communications system A hop channel is selected for use in a channel hopping communication system that includes a sequence of hop channels, wherein the sequence comprises a set of forbidden hop channels and a remaining set of allowable hop channels. Selection involves selecting a hop cha... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7257151 | (Updated) preamble for FDMA A wireless device (10, 12) is provided that distinguishes between multiple piconets. The wireless device (10, 12) includes a preamble component (160, 162, 164, 166) and a correlator (150) component. The preamble component (160, 162, 16... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7245880 | Transmit power control within a wireless transmitter A wireless transmitter system for use in maintaining a wireless link with a remote transceiver includes a beamforming transmit antenna structure and a power control unit for controlling transmit power levels. The system determines the direction of the remote transce... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7239650 | Apparatus and method for receiving upstream data transmissions from multiple remote transmitters A system for bidirectional communication of digital data between a central unit and a remote unit wherein the need for tracking loops in the central unit has been eliminated. The central unit transmitter generates a master carrier and a master clock signal which are... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7239982 | Information processing device and method The present invention suppresses charges incurred by data communications. A controller transmits data values acquired by sensors to a data center at predetermined intervals. When a predetermined interval has elapsed, a data value to be transmitted is compared with t... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7236509 | Method of communicating information between a transmitter and a receiver using ultrawideband signals Useful information taking the form of an analog or digital voltage is communicated between a transmitter and a receiver using UWB signals. The transmitter includes a subcarrier modulator, a high frequency oscillator and a transmission antenna and the receiver includ... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7233799 | Location estimation of wireless terminals based on combinations of signal strength measurements and geometry-of-arrival measurements A method and apparatus for estimating the location of a wireless terminal are disclosed. The location of the wireless terminal is estimated based on one or more signal strength measurements in conjunction with: (i) one or more angle-of-arrival measurements, (ii) one... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7231190 | Method and apparatus for terminating reception in a wireless communication system A receiver front end (302) receives a known Stop Waveform (114) comprising a predetermined symbol pattern on a voice channel, the Stop Waveform sent at the end of a transmission. A processor (304) coupled to the receiver front end terminates ( | 06/12/2007 |
| 7212564 | Method of tone allocation for tone hopping sequences Methods and apparatus for allocating tones for communications purposes in adjoining cells of an OFDM system are described. Tones used in each cell are allocated to tone hopping sequences according to a tone to tone hopping sequence allocation function. Different cel... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7209521 | Generation of a sequence of pulse trains A pulse sequence is produced by repeatedly selecting individual pulse trains at random from a set thereof, each pulse train meeting predetermined autocorrelation constraints and the pulse trains collectively meeting predetermined cross-correlation constraints. The p... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7206676 | Automated manipulation system and method in a transit system An automated manipulation system is provided for manipulating one or more vehicles in a transit system. The automated manipulation system includes a vehicle control mechanism in communication with a vehicle for receiving, processing and transmitting signals for cont... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7199751 | Radar equipment A radar equipment of the present invention amplifies a reception signal with feedback based on the delay amount obtained from the correlation detection result. Accordingly, it becomes possible to maintain the reception signal (demodulated signal) level to a proper l... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7187715 | Systems and methods for providing adaptive pulse position modulated code division multiple access for ultra-wideband communication links An adaptive pulse position modulated CDMA scheme for use in UWB communications systems is disclosed. A stream of input bits is encoded with spreading code sequence. The spreading code sequence consists of a number of code elements that may have one of two values. Ea... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7177320 | Transfer of data in a telecommunications system A telecommunications system comprises a transmitter within the central terminal for sending a data message destined for a particular subscriber terminal over communication channels as a number of data blocks. A frame generator is provided within the central terminal... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7165009 | Apparatus, method and articles of manufacture for velocity and bearing determination of an object A sensor front end is disclosed that is able to discriminate objects based on their range from the sensor and to derive bearing information therefrom. The sensor system includes a signal source for transmitting at least a first and a second sensor signal toward the ... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7148841 | Radar device A radar device includes a code generator, a transmission section, a reception section, a delay section, a despreading process section, a correlation value detection section, a target detection section, an estimation section, an acquisition section, and a correction ... | 12/12/2006 |