Did You Know...
...that to encourage use of his new invention, the shopping cart, market owner Sylvan Goldman hired fake shoppers to push the carts around his store in Oklahoma City? Seems his customers were reluctant to give up their hand-carried baskets.
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 |
| 8171771 | Calibration for a nondestructive material testing system Calibration for a nondestructive ultrasonic material testing system is provided, the system having a multiplicity of ultrasound transducers which are linearly movable as a whole but are arranged fixed with respect to one another, for example mounted fixed in a singl... | 05/08/2012 |
| 8156784 | System and method for derivation and real-time application of acoustic V-path correction data A system and method for carrying out non-destructive testing and inspection of test objects to assess their structural integrity uses a calibration module configured to provide V-Path time of flight (TOF) correction data over a plurality of object thickness points, ... | 04/17/2012 |
| 8127591 | Calibration for a nondestructive material testing system Calibration for an ultrasonic nondestructive materials testing system is specified, the system having an array of ultrasonic transducers which can be linearly moved and pivoted. In order to compensate for the offset between the beam direction of the ultrasonic trans... | 03/06/2012 |
| 7958769 | Detection of channel saturation in phase-array ultrasonic non-destructive testing The present invention relates to a method of detecting non-linear operation of a measuring device comprising an array of transducers and at least one receiver channel portion. The method comprises receiving measured signals through transducers of the array, processi... | 06/14/2011 |
| 7934414 | Method and apparatus for manufacturing a measuring device for determining and/or monitoring a process variable and measuring device A method for manufacturing a measuring device for determining and/or monitoring a process variable of a medium in a container. The measuring device includes: A mechanically oscillatable unit, which is securable via a securement to a sensor housing and/or to the cont... | 05/03/2011 |
| 7891230 | Methods for verifying the integrity of probes for ultrasound imaging systems Methods are provided for verifying that water and other fluids cannot reach the internal components probes for ultrasound imaging systems. ... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7735349 | Correlation of ultrasound images and gated position measurements A calibration apparatus includes a motion assembly, which is arranged to move an imaging probe through a calibration point having known coordinates. The imaging probe includes an ultrasound transducer and a position sensor for acquiring concurrently a first sequence... | 06/15/2010 |
| 7726172 | Testing device for acoustic probes and systems A hand-held testing device tests operation of acoustic elements of an acoustic device. The hand-held testing device has a housing, a power supply local to the housing, an acoustic transducer, and circuitry. The circuitry is disposed within the housing and is provide... | 06/01/2010 |
| 7698926 | Electrical connection of energy harvesting devices An energy harvesting system and method. An array of cantilevers with PZT films is electrically connected to an energy harvesting device that converts vibration energy to electrical energy. An AC output signal provided by the cantilevers can be rectified to a DC outp... | 04/20/2010 |
| 7658091 | Method for the audible output of a piece of information in an analysis system A system for analysing a fluid sample arranged on a test element comprises a data processing unit configured to process results of an analysis of the fluid sample arranged on the test element, an audible signal generator, and a control unit. The control unit may con... | 02/09/2010 |
| 7610791 | Time-gain control method and system for long-range guided-wave inspection and monitoring Systems and methods are described that carry out an intelligent, variable, time-gain control (TGC) of signal amplification in a long-range, guided-wave inspection and monitoring system. The systems and methods compensate for signal attenuation over the longer distan... | 11/03/2009 |
| 7578166 | Acoustic transducer calibration block and method A calibration system is provided for calibrating acoustic transducers such as phased array acoustic transducers and time of flight acoustic transducers. In one embodiment, a calibration block is provided with predetermined calibration features defined therein. The c... | 08/25/2009 |
| 7434989 | SAW temperature sensor and system A temperature measurement system is characterized by at least one passive surface acoustic wave (SAW) temperature sensor. The sensor includes at least one piezoelectric substrate having an interdigital SAW transducer disposed upon the piezoelectric substrate for con... | 10/14/2008 |
| 7421899 | Resonance method for determining the spring constant of scanning probe microscope cantilevers using MEMS actuators In accordance with the invention, the spring constant of a scanning probe microscope cantilever mechanically coupled to a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) actuator may be determined in-situ using a frequency resonance method. ... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7358744 | Method for testing the serviceability of transducers The invention relates to a two-wire transducer in automation engineering that outputs a measurement signal as an injected current. For the method to test the serviceability, it is proposed to increase the DC loop current (IS), independently of the measure... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7353708 | Ultrasonic generator system The system controls the frequency of an ultrasonic signal to be applied to a waveguide, such that the frequency corresponds to a preferred resonance mode of the waveguide and not to adjacent undesirable resonance modes. The system operates by carrying out a first sc... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7341697 | Reaction cell and operation method thereof A reaction cell is provided with a vessel-like cell main body and a circular piezoelectric/electrostrictive oscillator fixed to an outside of a bottom surface of the cell main body. The cell main body includes a circular bottom plate portion and a circumferential wa... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7334452 | Method for characterizing materials by using a mechanical resonator Methods for monitoring a fluid composition include placing a mechanical resonator in the fluid composition and oscillating the resonator. The resonator can be a tuning fork resonator having tines oscillated in opposite directions and in opposite phases. A variable f... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7330395 | Method and system for automatically calibrating sound level meter A method and a system for automatically calibrating a sound level meter which achieves accurate and secure calibration of a sound level meter using a sound calibrator. The sound calibrator comprises a code signal generator and a calibration sound pressure generator.... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7328497 | Incremental tuning process for electrical resonators based on mechanical motion A method is provided for adjusting the resonant frequency of a mechanical resonator whose frequency is dependent on the overall resonator thickness. Alternating selective etching is used to remove distinct adjustment layers from a top electrode. One of the electrode... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7320241 | Ultrasonic inspection reference standard for composite materials An ultrasonic inspection reference standard for a composite material includes a block comprising the composite material. The block further comprises a first plurality of parallel rectangular-shaped channels within the block and a second plurality of parallel rectang... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7318335 | Ultrasonic gas leak detector including a detector testing device An ultrasonic gas leak detector of the kind where a detector transducer senses airborne acoustic ultrasonic sound waves emitted from a leakage in a gas installation is provided. The detector is provided with self-test means according to which an ultrasonic signal is... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7310029 | Bulk acoustic resonator with matched resonance frequency and fabrication process The resonator comprises a piezoelectric layer arranged between two electrodes. An electrical heating resistor is arranged in thermal contact with at least one of the electrodes. Temporary heating of the electrode enables the material constituting the electrode to be... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7299676 | Acoustic pressure calibrator A sound pressure level calibrator, which is suitable for sound pressures to be measured in excess of 124 dB and which can be adapted to the installed sound pressure level sensor. This object is attained by a sound pressure level calibrator comprising a pistonphone a... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7294110 | Medical instruments A medical instrument includes a gripping section having a first portion having a first composition, and a second portion over a selected portion of the first portion. The second portion has a second composition different than the first composition. ... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7290451 | Status discriminating apparatus of human, animal, machine or the like using ultrasonic vibration detecting sensor, and status discriminating method of human, animal, machine or the like using the same A human or other status discriminating apparatus includes an ultrasonic vibration detecting sensor comprising a container main body, a liquid packed tightly in the container main body, and an ultrasonic vibrator for transmitting ultrasonic waves into the liquid and ... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7287425 | Ultrasonic fuel level monitoring device The invention describes a method of altering the transmitted frequency used in an ultrasonic ranging system for liquid level measurement in a fuel tank. The frequency agility of the system is an important component of performing liquid level measurement in an enclos... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7289873 | Sensor system for a cutting machine tool The present invention relates to a sensor system for a cutting machine tool (300) with an energy supply unit (101), which inductively provides energy for the supply of at least one sensor arrangement (110) of the cutting machine tool (300... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7278289 | Apparatus and methods for testing acoustic systems Methods and apparatus are provided for testing an acoustic system having multiple transmitter elements and multiple receiver elements. A transmitter signal generated by a selected transmitter element is received. An echo electrical signal is generated in response to... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7266987 | Ultrasound transmit and receive path calibration methods and systems The clipping diodes used to limit voltage during medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging operation are used during calibration operation for measuring amplitude and phase differences. The amplitude and phase measurements using clipping diodes as the calibration node m... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7249487 | Device for calibrating a pressure detector Device for calibrating a pressure detector, particularly an infrasonic pressure detector. This device includes measurement means for applying to this detector a reference pressure which varies depending on time and all of whose spectrum components covering a predete... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7246514 | Method for verifying sensors installation and determining the location of the sensors after installation in a structural health management system In the present invention, a method is provided for installing and locating a plurality of sensors distributed on a structure as part of a structural health monitoring system. The method includes verifying the proper installation of the plurality of sensors and deter... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7249002 | Direct relative motion measurement for vibration induced noise and drift cancellation A surface analysis apparatus and a method for compensating for mechanical vibrations and drifts in a surface analysis instrument are disclosed. A probe that is sensitive to the distance between the probe and a sample surface provides a probe signal. The probe signal... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7245059 | Method of exciting a piezoelectric crystal The invention describes the use of an electrical pulse that is a single square wave to excite a piezoelectric crystal. This pulse is applied alternately to either side of the crystal at twice the nominal resonant frequency of the crystal. This method provides a sign... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7222514 | Laminate material testing methods and systems Techniques for ultrasonically evaluating damage to a laminate structure include use of a diagnostic device having at least two modes of operation including a calibration mode and a test mode with the calibration mode providing calibration parameters specific to the ... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7220229 | Density/solute monitor of multi-modalities and signal processing scheme A density/solute monitor having at least one ultrasound probe, a signal processing unit, and a computing mechanism, and process for using the same, to measure phase shift between emitting and receiving ultrasound, sound velocity, compressibility, density, and solute... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7213442 | Methods of arranging transducers and transducer arrays having reduced phase ambiguity for determining direction of arrival of received signals Method of arranging transducers, including non-coplanar interferometer antennas on the outer surface of an aircraft, to minimize phase ambiguities when determining the direction of arrival of a signal received by an array of the transducers and emitted by a source r... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7210329 | Method for determining temporal and amplitude threshold values of gates during ultrasound testing of spot welding joints The invention relates to a method for determining the threshold value of screens which enable an evaluation of a sound coupling during the ultrasound testing of a series of spot welding joints of a selected type. Initially, a geometrical minimal thickness dMin is es... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7186379 | Continuous real-time measurement of aqueous cyanide This invention provides a method and system capable of the continuous, real-time measurement of low concentrations of aqueous free cyanide (CN) using an on-line, flow through system. The system is based on the selective reactivity of cyanide anions and the character... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7165973 | Method for non-verbal assessment of human competence A method of testing a subject's competence for operating machines by successively presenting a plurality of pages of scattered images to the subject, having the subject establish a path through the scattered images on each of the plurality of pages, recording the ab... | 01/23/2007 |
