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...that Thomas Edison's patent application on his phonograph was approved by the Patent Office in just seven weeks? In contrast, it took Gordon Gould, the inventor of the laser, 30 years to obtain his patent -- finally awarded in 1988!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8162704 | Amphibious vehicle and engine power control Amphibious vehicles, control modules, and methods are disclosed in which engine output power is adjusted based upon whether an amphibious vehicle is traversing land or is not traversing land. Some embodiments determine whether the amphibious vehicle is traversing la... | 04/24/2012 |
| 8162703 | Marine vessel power supply system, marine vessel propulsion system, and marine vessel A marine vessel power supply system supplies power to a plurality of propulsion devices each provided with an engine. The system includes a plurality of switching units arranged to turn on and off power supplies to the propulsion devices individually, an operation j... | 04/24/2012 |
| 8142241 | Water jet propulsion watercraft A water jet propulsion watercraft includes a hull, an engine disposed inside the hull, a jet propulsion device arranged to be driven by a driving force of the engine, a water detection unit arranged to detect whether or not the hull is immersed in water, and a contr... | 03/27/2012 |
| 8133083 | Water jet propulsion boat A water jet propulsion boat is constructed such that a fuel pressure detection device is free from a detection error or breakdown and a restart ability of an engine is protected against malfunction. A fuel tank is provided in a boat body of the water jet propulsion ... | 03/13/2012 |
| 8118626 | Outboard motor control apparatus In an apparatus for controlling operation of an outboard motor mounted on a boat and having a torque converter equipped with a lockup clutch, it is configured to calculate a speed ratio of the torque converter based on an input rotation speed and output rotation spe... | 02/21/2012 |
| 8092264 | Marine vessel A marine vessel includes a hull, a propulsion device arranged to propel the hull by a driving force of an engine that has a throttle valve arranged to be electrically controlled so as to open and close, an operation lever arranged to be operated by a marine vessel o... | 01/10/2012 |
| 8075353 | Boat propulsion unit A boat propulsion unit includes a power source, a propeller, a shift position changing mechanism, a control device, and a speed reducing switch. The shift position changing mechanism has an input shaft, an output shaft, and first and second clutches. The first and s... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8062081 | Hybrid propulsion systems A hybrid propulsion and energy management system for use in marine vessels and other variable demand propulsion applications monitors and draws energy from various energy sources dynamically to implement multiple operating modes and provide efficient system operatio... | 11/22/2011 |
| 8043132 | Method for operating a propulsion system of a watercraft A hybrid marine vessel is provided with a system that inhibits the movement of the marine vessel under its own power when the marine vessel is connected or recharging to a stationary source of energy on shore. This avoids significant damage that could otherwise occu... | 10/25/2011 |
| 8038489 | Boat propulsion system, and control device and control method for the same An outboard motor includes a prime mover, a marine propulsion unit having a propeller arranged to be driven by a rotational force of the prime mover to generate a thrust force, a shift position changing mechanism, a shift position changing mechanism actuator, and a ... | 10/18/2011 |
| 8016625 | Marine propulsion system A marine propulsion system includes a power source, a propeller, a shift mechanism, a control lever, a rotational speed sensor, and a control device. The shift mechanism is switchable among three shift positions including forward, neutral, and reverse. The control l... | 09/13/2011 |
| 8011981 | Boat A boat includes a steering load detector arranged to calculate an output value of a steering motor necessary for steering an outboard motor in a traveling state, a motor output detector arranged to detect a possible output value that can be output by the steering mo... | 09/06/2011 |
| 7993171 | Control apparatus for small boat In an apparatus for controlling a small boat having a hull and two outboard motors mounted on a stern of the hull and an actuator adapted to open/close a throttle valve of each engine of the motors for regulating speed of the engine, acceleration acting on the boat ... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7980904 | Driving power output control for personal watercraft A jet-propulsion personal watercraft comprises a body including a hull and a deck, an engine mounted in the body, a driving power output changing system configured to be able to change a driving power output of the engine, a controller configured to control an opera... | 07/19/2011 |
| 7959479 | Boat propulsion system and boat including the same and boat control device and boat control method A boat propulsion system includes a control section, a thrust calculation section, a thrust generating unit, a thrust detection section, and a control section. An operating amount is input to the control lever by operation of an operator. An accelerator detector det... | 06/14/2011 |
| 7938701 | Watercraft including plural outboard motors and control thereof There is provided a watercraft in which a controlling state before a start-up changes less easily and an operating state of a remote controller and a remote controller lever for operating the watercraft propulsion unit is easily kept stable, although at least one of... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7938702 | Boat propulsion system and boat including the same A boat propulsion system includes a shift mechanism arranged to change a shift position among forward, neutral, and reverse. A shift position detection mechanism is connected to a control lever with a wire. The shift position detection mechanism has a detected membe... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7938703 | Watercraft propulsion system and operating method A watercraft propulsion system has a control lever for giving instructions regarding the operating mode as well as the amount of output power from a source of driving force, and a controller for setting a propeller driving mode according to the instruction given by ... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7931511 | Boat propulsion system A boat propulsion system includes a gear shift mechanism arranged to transmit a driving force generated by an engine to first and second propellers at one of at least a low speed reduction ratio and a high speed reduction ratio, and a control section arranged to per... | 04/26/2011 |
| 7918696 | System and method for dynamic energy recovery in marine propulsion A method for controlling operation of a propulsion system of a waterborne vessel, comprising adjusting recovery of energy generated from the propulsion system to maintain position of the waterborne vessel in response to at least an indication of vessel position.... | 04/05/2011 |
| 7901258 | Hydraulic system for a marine outboard engine A marine outboard engine has upper and lower engine covers, a swivel bracket, a stern bracket, an engine, a driveshaft, a gear case, a propeller shaft, and a variable pitch propeller. A hydraulic system includes hydraulic steering, trim, and propeller pitch actuator... | 03/08/2011 |
| 7892052 | Boat propulsion system, control device thereof, and control method A boat propulsion system includes a power source, a propulsion unit, a propeller rotational speed detection section, a shift mechanism, an actuator, a control lever, a shift position detection section, an accelerator opening detection section, and a control unit. Wh... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7883383 | Method and arrangement for controlling a drive arrangement in a watercraft A method is provided for controlling a drive arrangement in a watercraft. The method includes detecting thrust and steering commands from an operating device which is connected to a control unit, and controlling the drive arrangement based on detected commands from ... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7798872 | Water jet propulsion boat A water jet propulsion boat includes a fuel pump driven by an electric control unit and arranged to deliver fuel from a fuel tank to an engine via a fuel pipe, and a fuel pressure sensor arranged to detect a pressure of the fuel delivered to the engine by the fuel p... | 09/21/2010 |
| 7780490 | Watercraft with control system for controlling wake and method for controlling wake A watercraft with a control system includes at least two propulsion units carried by a hull of the watercraft. Each propulsion unit is independently turnable. The watercraft includes a control system arranged to control orientation of the propulsion units. The contr... | 08/24/2010 |
| 7766708 | Control device of boat propulsion system and boat An engine in an outboard motor includes a first rotation angle sensing device arranged to sense a rotation angle of a crankshaft and second rotation angle sensing device arranged to sense a rotation angle of an exhaust camshaft. A reverse rotation determination sect... | 08/03/2010 |
| 7762858 | Propulsion system for boat A propulsion system for a boat includes propellers rotated by an engine, a transmission mechanism arranged to transmit a driving force of the engine to the propellers in a state that the driving force of the engine is changed to at least one of a gear reduction rati... | 07/27/2010 |
| 7762859 | Propulsion system for boat A propulsion system for a boat includes propellers arranged to be rotated by an engine, a transmission mechanism arranged to transmit driving force of the engine to the propellers such that a speed of the driving force of the engine is changed at least with a gear r... | 07/27/2010 |
| 7744433 | Jet-propulsion personal watercraft A jet-propulsion personal watercraft includes an engine configured to generate a driving power for generating a propulsion force to propel the watercraft, an engine speed changing system configured to be able to change an engine speed of the engine, a determiner con... | 06/29/2010 |
| 7736204 | Marine vessel running controlling apparatus, and marine vessel including the same A marine vessel running controlling apparatus is applicable to a marine vessel which includes a propulsive force generating unit having an engine with an electric throttle as a drive source for generating a propulsive force to propel a hull of the marine vessel. The... | 06/15/2010 |
| 7727036 | System and method for controlling movement of a marine vessel A system and method are provided for controlling movement of a marine vessel. An operator controllable device outputs a signal that is representative of an operator-desired rate of position change of the vessel about or along an axis. A sensor outputs a signal that ... | 06/01/2010 |
| 7699673 | Controller for boat propulsion system and boat propulsion system A controller for a boat propulsion system has an adjusting device arranged to adjust an inclination angle in the vertical direction of the boat propulsion system by a drive unit, the controller arranged to perform drive control of the adjusting device, a storage sec... | 04/20/2010 |
| 7690956 | Shift motion control device A shift-in operation determination device determines a shift-in operation based on a signal in accordance with an operation of a remote control lever. An ignition timing operation device retards an ignition timing of an engine based on a determination result of the ... | 04/06/2010 |
| 7677937 | Operator control system of boat An operator control system for a boat, where an outboard motor includes a throttle actuator that controls throttle opening of the engine, a shift actuator that controls a shift position to be put into one of neutral, drive, and reverse positions, and an engine contr... | 03/16/2010 |
| 7621789 | Watercraft propulsion system and operation control method therefor A watercraft propulsion system can be a hybrid type watercraft propulsion system including an engine and an electric motor both working as drive power sources for a propeller. When an operating lever instructs a speed reduction assist mode as a stopping mode, a cont... | 11/24/2009 |
| 7614924 | Watercraft propulsion system and operating method A watercraft propulsion system has a control lever for giving instructions regarding the operating mode as well as the amount of output power from a source of driving force, and a controller for setting a propeller driving mode according to the instruction given by ... | 11/10/2009 |
| 7601040 | Method and apparatus for controlling a marine vessel One embodiment of the invention comprises a method for controlling a marine vessel having a first steerable propulsor, a corresponding first reversing device, a second steerable propulsor and a corresponding second reversing device. The method comprises receiving a ... | 10/13/2009 |
| 7597597 | Boat propulsion unit A boat propulsion unit includes an electric motor, a potentiometer arranged to detect the rotating angle of a throttle grip, a first stop mode sensor, a second stop mode sensor, and a controller including a CPU, and a disconnection and short detecting circuit. If th... | 10/06/2009 |
| 7553205 | Electromechanical spring-powered actuator An actuator, which find exemplary use in connection with a safety system which aims to stop powering of a boat by an engine or sail if a person falls overboard. The actuator stores energy in a main spring which is manually created by pushing linearly on an actuator ... | 06/30/2009 |
| 7549900 | Operation control apparatus for planing boat An operating state determining device can determine whether or not an engine is in a certain operating state. A mode setting device can disable mode setting into a speed setting mode if a certain operating state of the engine has been determined, and can enable mode... | 06/23/2009 |
