Bizarre Patents
Pneumatic Shoe Lacing Apparatus
This invention provides a pneumatic shoe lacing apparatus for the pneumatic lacing of shoe.
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 |
| 8031988 | Apparatus for pressure sensing The present invention provides an apparatus for pressure sensing. The apparatus comprises a light guide, a Bragg grating incorporated into the light guide and a moveable wall portion. The moveable wall portion has opposite first and second sides and is being positio... | 10/04/2011 |
| 7657132 | Optoelectronic modulator and electric-field sensor with multiple optical-waveguide gratings An optoelectronic-RF device has at least one optical modulator/sensor comprising at least two cascaded optical-waveguide gratings and at least one non-grating optical waveguide segment interconnecting the at least two cascaded optical-waveguide gratings, with at lea... | 02/02/2010 |
| 7565039 | Resistive heater for thermo optic device Resistive heaters formed in two mask counts on a surface of a grating of a thermo optic device thereby eliminating one mask count from prior art manufacturing methods. The resistive heater is comprised of a heater region and a conductive path region formed together ... | 07/21/2009 |
| 7471854 | Laser module allowing direct light modulation and laser display employing the same Provided are a laser module allowing direct light modulation and a laser display employing the laser module. The laser module may include a semiconductor chip, a Volume Bragg Grating (VBG), a pump laser and a non-linear optical element. The semiconductor chip includ... | 12/30/2008 |
| 7434940 | Light coupling system and method A light coupling system includes a waveguide, configured to receive light from at least two light sources and to internally reflect light therein; a diffraction grating, disposed upon the waveguide; and a switchable Bragg grating, disposed upon the waveguide. The di... | 10/14/2008 |
| 7415172 | Diffractive waveguide-spatial optical modulator Disclosed herein is a diffractive waveguide-spatial optical modulator. The diffractive waveguide-spatial optical modulator includes a substrate member, a plurality of reflecting members, and an actuation means. The reflecting members are each formed in a plate shape... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7397988 | Grating based multiplexer/demultiplexer component A grating based demultiplexer module is described. The module includes an integrally formed first section, second section, and third section. The first section includes a diffraction grating formed on the surface of the first section and directs a WDM beam onto the ... | 07/08/2008 |
| 7379640 | Tunable dispersion compensator and method of manufacturing the same A tunable dispersion compensator in which a heater portion can be easily constructed to reduce cost. A tunable dispersion compensator includes: an optical fiber having a grating portion; a heating unit for heating the grating portion to apply a temperature distribut... | 05/27/2008 |
| 7373045 | Method and apparatus for processing optical signals with supergratings An optical component including at least one optical supergrating is provided. The optical supergrating includes a quantized refractive index profile adapted to exhibit a finite plurality of refractive indexes; which in turn are adapted to generate a reflectance spec... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7369242 | Cavity ring-down spectrometer for semiconductor processing An apparatus is provided for measuring a gas within a semiconductor thin film process. The apparatus includes an optical resonator disposed within an environment of the thin-film process, a tunable laser that excites the optical resonator at a characteristic frequen... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7362977 | Method for reduction of non-linear intra-channel distortions A method for reducing intra-channel, non-linear distortions of an optical signal resulting from non-linear fiber propagation includes applying a polarization mode dispersion (PMD) pre-distortion to an optical signal such that the PMD pre-distortion produces two repl... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7356224 | Method and apparatus for detecting multiple optical wave lengths Optical gratings that perform a number of functions at various wavelengths are formed by various methods that preserve spectral information within a wavelength band, the functions including: coupling radiation from one waveguide to another, controllable gratings tha... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7349597 | Grating based multiplexer/demultiplexer component A grating based demultiplexer module is described. The module includes an integrally formed first section, second section, and third section. The first section includes a diffraction grating formed on the surface of the first section and directs a WDM beam onto the ... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7349158 | Diffraction grating-based encoded micro-particles for multiplexed experiments Microparticles 8 includes an optical substrate 10 having at least one diffraction grating 12 disposed therein. The grating 12 having a plurality of colocated pitches Λ which represent a unique identification digital code that is detected... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7340114 | Optical waveguide device and optical modulator An optical waveguide device includes a substrate having an electro-optical effect, an optical waveguide formed on the substrate, an electrode provided for the optical waveguide, a monitoring optical waveguide for guiding part of light outputted from the optical wave... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7339960 | Optical device, laser beam source, laser apparatus and method of producing optical device After forming domain inverted layers 3 in an LiTaO3 substrate 1, an optical waveguide is formed. By performing low-temperature annealing for the optical wavelength conversion element thus formed, a stable proton exchange layer 8 is fo... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7336854 | Optical switch, optical modulator and wavelength variable filter An optical switch, an optical modulator, and a wavelength variable filter each have a simple configuration, which requires only a low driving voltage, which is independent of polarization, and which can operate at high speed. An optical switch includes a 3-dB couple... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7333685 | Variable optical attenuator systems Low loss, reliable variable optical attenuators and 1×2 switches and polarization insensitive low loss, reliable variable optical attenuators and 1×2 optical switches are described. In one embodiment, a system of the present invention includes a polarization separ... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7330304 | Method and apparatus for PPM demodulation using a semiconductor optical amplifier An optical pulse position modulation receiver relying on the gain dynamics in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). Optical PPM signal pulses and periodic optical clock pulses at a different frequency and/or polarization than the signal pulses are coupled into an... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7330614 | Integrated optical spectrometer incorporating sets of diffractive elements An exemplary optical apparatus comprises: an optical element having multiple sets of diffractive elements; and a photodetector. The diffractive elements of each set are collectively arranged so as to comprise corresponding spectral and spatial transformation informa... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7321425 | Sensor and methods for measuring select components in sheetmaking systems A sensor for measuring at least selected component in a composition can include: (a) a broadband light source, (b) an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF), (c) means for generating a beam of light from the light source and directing the beam of light at the AOTF wher... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7317852 | Hitless tunable optical add drop multiplexer with vernier gratings A set of three gratings may be operated in a vernier loop fashion to select a particular wavelength from a wavelength division multiplexed system. As a result, an optical add/drop multiplexer may be provided that can be tuned to select a desired wavelength. In one e... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7317860 | Optical device having photonic crystal structure A photonic crystal structural body has a structure that a second mediums whose refractive index changes with an external field is periodically distributed in a first medium whose refractive index changes with the external field. An external field generator applies t... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7317739 | Mode-locked laser using a mode-locking wavelength selective reflector In accordance with the invention, a mode-locked laser comprises an optical gain medium disposed within an optical cavity formed by a first reflector and a wavelength selective second reflector to achieve mode-locking operation. Advantageously, the wavelength reflect... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7315664 | Method of identifying and labeling optical conduits A method for labeling or coding optical conduits is disclosed. The method includes providing an optical conduit, and utilizing reflected light resulting from the transmission of at least one light pulse along the optical conduit to generate a multi-digit code. Still... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7308161 | System and method for wavelength selective switching employing single-element gratings A wavelength selective switch device is disclosed that includes an elongated signal communication path extending from a first end of the device to a second end of the device. The signal communication path extends through a plurality of regions of varying indices of ... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7308162 | Intrinsic Fabry-Perot optical fiber sensors and their multiplexing An intrinsic Fabry-Perot optical sensor includes a thin film sandwiched between two fiber ends. When light is launched into the fiber, two reflections are generated at the two fiber/thin film interfaces due to a difference in refractive indices between the fibers an... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7304799 | Tunable optical filter with heater on a CTE-matched transparent substrate An optical device including: a glass substrate; a crystalline silicon layer bonded to the glass substrate; and a thermally tunable thin-film optical filter fabricated on top of the crystalline silicon layer. ... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7304788 | Translation of individual and entangled states of light by four-wave mixing in fibers Optical frequency conversion by four-wave mixing in a fiber is considered. If the frequencies and polarizations of the waves are chosen judiciously, four-wave mixing enables the translation of individual and entangled states, without the noise pollution associated w... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7302179 | Optical performance monitor using co-located switchable fiber bragg grating array The present invention provides methods and devices for optical performance monitoring using co-located switchable fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) in conjunction with a few detectors. This arrangement combines the merit of both tunable FBG filters and discrete detectors ... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7292755 | Optical resonator formed in a planar optical waveguide with a distributed optical structure An optical apparatus comprises a planar optical waveguide having at least two reflectors. The planar optical waveguide substantially confines in at least one transverse spatial dimension optical signals propagating therein, and the reflectors define an optical reson... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7292753 | Dual core corrugated Bragg grating An apparatus comprising a first core layer having a first thickness and a first refractive index; a second core layer formed on the first core layer, the second core layer having a second thickness and a second refractive index; and a grating formed at the interface... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7286764 | Reconfigurable modulator-based optical add-and-drop multiplexer An optical add and drop multiplexer system comprising a first module for providing a first signal; a second module for providing a second signal; and a modulator for receiving a channel of the first signal at a first location, the first location configured to actuat... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7286732 | Distributed optical structures designed by computed interference between simulated optical signals An optical apparatus comprises a planar optical waveguide and at least one set of diffractive elements formed in or on the waveguide. The waveguide is arranged to confine propagating optical signals in at least one transverse dimension. The diffractive element set c... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7283706 | Parabolic waveguide-type collimating lens with tunable external cavity laser diode provided with the same The present invention relates to a semiconductor based parabolic waveguide-type collimating lens and a monolithically integrated type tunable external cavity laser diode light source. The monolithically integrated type tunable external cavity laser diode light sourc... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7277604 | Method and apparatus for inducing an index of refraction change on a substrate sensitive to electromagnetic radiation An apparatus for inducing a modification of the index of refraction of a substrate sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. The apparatus is capable of generating a first beam of electromagnetic radiation and a second beam of electromagnetic radiation that is differe... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7269306 | Actuator arrangement for excitation of flexural waves on an optical fiber A system for exciting flexural waves on an optical fiber (102) is provided. The system includes a substrate (114, 118), an actuator (106), and a mechanical optical fiber coupling (104). The actuator is formed of an electromechanical trans... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7266267 | Microfluidic, optical, and electrical input output interconnects, methods of fabrication thereof, and methods of use thereof Input/output (I/O) interconnects, fluidic I/O interconnects, electrical, optical, and fluidic I/O interconnects, devices incorporating the I/O interconnects, systems incorporating the I/O interconnects, and methods of fabricating the I/O interconnects, devices, and ... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7263258 | Programmable optical grating device and method An optical waveguide has a surface. An array of separately actuated bodies is disposed proximal to the exposed surface, and an actuator separately actuates at least some of the bodies to change a spectral characteristic of a wave propagating through the waveguide. P... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7260293 | Optical waveguide grating coupler with varying scatter cross sections Various configurations of elongate scattering elements in an optical waveguide grating coupler for coupling light between a planar waveguide and an optical element such as an optical fiber, where the light may have a Gaussian intensity distribution. The elongate sca... | 08/21/2007 |
