Did You Know...
...that the Eveready Battery began as an invention called the "electric flowerpot," which was a tube with a battery and light bulb inside? The idea was to fasten this gizmo to the side of a flowerpot so it would illuminate the flowers from the bottom. The idea died on the vine and the businessman who licensed the flower pot, Conrad Huber, was left with a pile of useless tubes -- until he found a way to market them as batteries to light the world!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7929863 | Remote controlling system using optical fiber The present invention provides a remote controlling system using an optical fiber. The remote controlling system is for controlling N electronic equipments located in a situation. The remote controlling system according to the invention includes a receiving unit and... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7925166 | Method and apparatus for phostonic stack system for vehicle control/sense An avionics system for a plane includes a plurality of nodes disposed throughout the plane, each node performing a function. The system includes an optical network in communication with the nodes and through which the nodes communicate. The system includes at least ... | 04/12/2011 |
| 7558483 | Optical communication method, optical linking device and optical communication system The system includes optical bus-bridging devices for observing the modes of said electric buses and the modes of said optical fibers while said electric buses have not been driven (OFF mode), so that the modes of the two electric buses connected through optical fibe... | 07/07/2009 |
| 7359647 | Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving power over optical fiber A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving power over optical fiber is disclosed. In particular, a power over fiber system in which an optical network transmits electrical power via an optical signal and is also transmits data within the optical network a... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7215843 | Optical switching apparatus and optical switching method An optical switching apparatus includes an optical switch having a plurality of input ports and output ports, optical amplifiers, monitor circuits, optical amplifiers monitor circuits, and a controller that controls the optical switch. The optical amplifiers are con... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7162156 | Bi-directional single fiber optic link for data and radio frequency transmissions A data link system comprising a shelter housing sensitive radio frequency equipment and an antenna located apart from the shelter. A single fiber, bi-directional fiber optic link couples the antenna to the shelter. Both RF signals and data signals are sent across th... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7132973 | Universal soft remote control A universal remote control (10) is provided for wireless remote control of one or more devices (D1 . . . Dn) equipped for remote control by respective original remote controls having visual appearances different from one another. The universal remote c... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7085497 | Vehicular communication system A communication system includes an optical “LAN” (50) interconnecting a plurality of information sources (16a) and sinks (22a) with a light-to-electrical converter (36a) associated with an electrical RF transmitte... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7083608 | Medical apparatus and medical system A medical system capable of giving different treatments in a row to a patient comprises a first treatment apparatus, a second treatment apparatus, an operation unit, a memory, a communication unit and a selection switch. The first treatment apparatus has a first tre... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7025461 | Interactive display system having a digital micromirror imaging device A display system includes a waveguide optical panel having an inlet face and an opposite outlet face. A projector cooperates with a digital imaging device, e.g. a digital micromirror imaging device, for projecting an image through the panel for display on the outlet... | 04/11/2006 |
| 7024070 | Electronic fiber optic switch with optical interconnect A large fiber optic switch system with a free-space optical interconnection configuration. The switch system comprises a plurality of individual switch units, each individual switch unit having a plurality of electronic multi-switch switches each multi-switch switch... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7015458 | High density fiber optic output interface and system A fiber optic control system for controlling remotely located devices. The control system includes an illumination source for producing a light beam and a plurality of optical fibers. Each fiber is arranged to receive a respective portion of a light beam at a coupli... | 03/21/2006 |
| 6987899 | Optical switching apparatus and optical switching method An optical switching apparatus includes an optical switch having a plurality of input ports and output ports, optical amplifiers, monitor circuits, optical amplifiers monitor circuits, and a controller that controls the optical switch. The optical amplifiers are con... | 01/17/2006 |
| 6985649 | Optical switching apparatus and optical switching method An optical switching apparatus includes an optical switch having a plurality of input ports and output ports, optical amplifiers, monitor circuits, optical amplifiers monitor circuits, and a controller that controls the optical switch. The optical amplifiers are con... | 01/10/2006 |
| 6968130 | System and method for fully utilizing available optical transmission spectrum in optical networks A system and method for facilitating full utilization of an ultra-wide optical communication band spanning the useable band of the optical transmission spectrum, and providing appropriate protection strategies on the same mesh/ring network for all channels within th... | 11/22/2005 |
| 6944399 | Methods of signal substitution for maintenance of amplifier saturation A method for maintaining amplifier saturation in a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical network having a plurality of sub-bands, each sub-band including at least two signal channels which carry respective data signals, and a plurality of substitute signal t... | 09/13/2005 |
| 6907195 | Terminals having sub-band substitute signal control in optical communication systems A wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical network includes a plurality of optical transmitters, each optical transmitter generating a data signal sent over a respective one of a plurality of signal channels, the plurality of signal channels being divided into ... | 06/14/2005 |
| 6788901 | Method of forming optical radiation beams for free-space optical communication systems The inventive beam forming technique enables use of multimode optical fibers to couple a modulated optical beam from a radiation source to an optical emitting antenna, for free-space communications. The disclosure teaches a methodology for determining the angular an... | 09/07/2004 |
| 6714697 | Optical switching apparatus and optical switching method An optical switching apparatus includes an optical switch having a plurality of input ports and output ports, optical amplifiers, monitor circuits, optical amplifiers monitor circuits, and a controller that controls the optical switch. The optical amplifiers are con... | 03/30/2004 |
| 6711326 | Wavelength separation optical device and multiple wavelength light transmission module Optical signals of which wavelength is multipled and which are transferred via an optical fiber 10 make incidence to refractive index distributing lens 34 and are converted into substantially parallel light beams, the optical signals converted make inc... | 03/23/2004 |
| 6704478 | Wavelength separation optical device and multiple wavelength light transmission module Linear polarized light beams are separated by wavelength separation filters 28a, 28b, and 28c, and make incidence with every two wavelength components either into a polarized light conversion element 20b or into polarized light conversion element 20c, and... | 03/09/2004 |
| 6674966 | Re-configurable fibre wireless network A wireless communication system comprises a base station controller and a base station interface connected to the base station controller by a central optical fiber. The base station interface may include a flexible wavelength router. At least one base st... | 01/06/2004 |
| 6602002 | High capacity optical transmission arrangement A high-capacity optical transmission arrangement utilizing a plurality of laser sources and a plurality of wide-band optical amplifiers permit the reliable transmission of 1 Tb/sec rates over significant distances of optical fiber.... | 08/05/2003 |
| 6362906 | Flexible optical RF receiver An array antenna is constructed of radiators disposed upon a flexible substrate wherein a plurality of receiving circuits connect with respective ones of the radiators for conversion of RF (radio frequency) signals, received by the radiators, are converte... | 03/26/2002 |
| 6271766 | Distributed selectable latent fiber optic sensors Distributed selectable fiber optic sensing system include a plurality of fiber grating sensors 12 connected to an optical fiber 10 and installed in an oil/gas well 15 and an instrumentation box 20 at the surface which selects which of the sensors 12 to ac... | 08/07/2001 |
| 6111677 | Optical remote control interface system and method The present invention is a method and apparatus for controlling a device by a remote controller. A receiving unit receives a first signal emitted by the remote controller and converts the received signal into a data stream. A communication medium carries ... | 08/29/2000 |
| 6091527 | Communications device having an optical bus, and a method for controlling its operation An electronic communications device contains at least two modules (7, 8) which are connected to one another via an optical bus (4). In an energy-saving mode, each of the modules (7, 8) is switched to receive with a sampling period (P) which is the same fo... | 07/18/2000 |
| 6055425 | Aeronautical cellular network A cellular telephone system for use in an aircraft (12) comprises a plurality of user terminals distributed throughout the seating array, each group of terminals being connected through short cables to an optical/RF transducer (30) which is linked through... | 04/25/2000 |
| 6043916 | System for transmitting and receiving signals along a circular path An apparatus for sending and receiving light signals representing measurement information, such as used in conjunction with a medical examination apparatus. The medical examination device has a rotating sender support with a sender device for transmitting... | 03/28/2000 |
| 6008917 | Apparatus and method for optical communication Apparatus for optical communications (10, 20, 30, 60 90) includes an optically switched resonant tunneling device (12, 22, 42, 62, 92) being exposed to an input light. The optically switched resonant tunneling device (12, 22, 42, 62, 92) generates a first... | 12/28/1999 |
| 5963710 | Method and apparatus for automatically generating internal representation An apparatus automatically generates internal representations in a recognition and control system which is capable of actively varying a state of a subject, such an object and a related environment, to be processed by the recognition and control system, a... | 10/05/1999 |
| 5959531 | Optical interface between receiver and tag response signal analyzer in RFID system for detecting low power resonant tags Noise reduction schemes are provided in a radio frequency identification (RFID) system for use with RFID intelligent tags. Fiber optics are used to communicate analog tag response signals from the output of the receiver circuit to the input of a tag respo... | 09/28/1999 |
| 5949473 | Video transmission and control system utilizing internal telephone lines A video transmission system for facilitating transmission of video and control signals, particularly infrared remote control signals, between different locations in a residence using existing telephone wiring. Simultaneous transmission of signals of both ... | 09/07/1999 |
| 5894278 | Shield plate, electronic appliance equipped with shield plate, remote control system for electronic appliance, and shielding apparatus In a remote control system used in a plurality of electronic appliances equipped with radio communication circuits operable within the same frequency band, interference of radio communication between specific electronic appliances can be prevented by empl... | 04/13/1999 |
| 5859719 | Photogenerator for lightwave networks The specification describes lightwave systems with remotely powered photoelectric generators. Optical power transmitted through the fiber is incident on a remotely located photodiode array. High power conversion efficiency coupled with a specially designe... | 01/12/1999 |
| 5801865 | Radio-telecommunication device in vehicles A telecommunication device (11) for vehicle installation is proposed, which is equipped with an HF-transmitting and receiving device (22, 23), with different terminals and with a transmission network (19) between the HF-transmitting and receiving device a... | 09/01/1998 |
| 5781318 | Circuit and method of testing for silent faults in a bi-directional optical communication system In optical communications systems crosstalk can result in what is termed silent failure. In silent failure, a faulty transmitter appears to function correctly because a receiver in communication therewith is receiving a signal induced by crosstalk. The in... | 07/14/1998 |
| 5594579 | Radio permitting information transfer between radio frequency shielded sub-systems A radio (300) includes shielded circuitry (318) residing within radio frequency electromagnetic shielding structure (320) that has an aperture (322) formed therein. The shielded circuitry includes an optical transmitter (206) to direct light (information)... | 01/14/1997 |
| 5570220 | Apparatus for transmitting lightwave Apparatus for achieving contact-less linking between a transmitting unit and a receiving unit when transmitting video signal, audio signal, control signal, or digital data therebetween. The apparatus includes a switch circuit which switches the output sig... | 10/29/1996 |
| 5535033 | Contactless data transmission device A contactless data transmission system includes a laterally emitting optical conductor connected to an electro-optical data transmitter. The optical conductor is formed by a bundle of optical fibers provided with a transparent cladding, so that the optica... | 07/09/1996 |
