Bizarre Patents
Dining Table Having Integral Dishwasher
A space-saving dishwasher, which may be installed within a counter top or table, having a dish-carrying rack that is vertically shiftable through the open top of the dishwasher for facilitating loading and unloading of the dishes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8156814 | Surface acoustic wave sensor A surface acoustic wave sensor detects a mass load on a resonator-type surface acoustic wave filter on the basis of a change in frequency and includes an IDT electrode arranged on a piezoelectric substrate to excite surface waves, an insulating film arranged so as t... | 04/17/2012 |
| 8015878 | Fiber optics sound detector An optical sound detection system including: a laser source to generate a laser beam; an optical fiber; an optical sensor aligned to detect a detected portion of a diffraction pattern formed by the laser light emitted from the output coupling port of the optical fib... | 09/13/2011 |
| 7681453 | System and method to calibrate multiple sensors The present invention provides a multi-mode calibration target operable to calibrate multiple optical sensors. One embodiment has multiple planar surfaces, wherein the multiple planar surfaces are able to be distinguished by visual sensors based on their color, hue,... | 03/23/2010 |
| 7533572 | High bandwidth fiber optic vibration sensor Apparatus and method for monitoring vibration levels in rotatable machinery (52). In one embodiment, a system (50) includes a source (66) for generating coherent radiation (70) and a first partially transmissive, partially reflective devi... | 05/19/2009 |
| 7369250 | System and method to inspect components having non-parallel surfaces The present invention provides a method to detect and generate ultrasonic displacements at a remote target for ultrasonic inspection. This method involves generating an ultrasonic wave at a first location on an upper surface of the remote target. This ultrasonic wav... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7359586 | Fiber optic strain sensor and associated data acquisition system A fiber optic polarimetric strain sensor and associated data acquisition system capable of all-optical measurements of physical parameters, such as structural strain, gas and liquid pressure, acceleration and vibration, gas and liquid flow rate, and force without fi... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7339676 | Optical method and system for the characterization of laterally-patterned samples in integrated circuits Disclosed is a method for characterizing a sample having a structure disposed on or within the sample, comprising the steps of applying a first pulse of light to a surface of the sample for creating a propagating strain pulse in the sample, applying a second pulse o... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7323941 | Method and system for operating a laser self-modulated at alkali-metal atom hyperfine frequency The present invention provides a method and apparatus for making atomic clocks or atomic magnetometers as self-modulated laser systems based on the physics of push-pull optical pumping. An atomic vapor cell is required to be in the laser cavity. With proper conditio... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7319639 | Acoustic concealed item detector The present invention is directed towards an acoustic concealed item detector and related methods for detection using acoustics. In an illustrative embodiment, a multi-frequency ultrasonic wave generator generates in a gaseous medium at least first and second ultras... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7302852 | Vibration measuring and monitoring system A vibration measuring and monitoring system (100) for an object (20) includes a laser unit (11), a laser sensor unit (12), and a processor (15). The laser unit is used for emitting a laser beam (13). The laser sensor unit is... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7296472 | Method and apparatus for acoustic sensing of structures A method and system provides for acoustic sensing of structures, including a general shape and/or configuration of the structure and movement within the structure. Acoustic waves are used to characterize structures, including any activity within. As waves from a sou... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7286241 | System and method for high-speed laser detection of ultrasound A system and method for laser light amplification provides amplification of a laser light beam emitted from a laser light source as low-amplification seed laser light signal. The low-amplification seed laser light signal is transmitted to an amplification component.... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7285091 | Assessment of tooth structure using laser based ultrasonics A means of assessing the internal structure of teeth based upon use of high frequency, highly localized ultrasound (acoustic waves) generated by a short laser pulse is presented. In contrast to traditional contact transducer methods, laser-generated ultrasound is no... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7216543 | Mass measurement system and method using measurement of frequency shift of vibrator The present invention relates to a mass measurement system and method capable of precisely measuring the mass of a sample in a gravity-free environment. The mass measurement system using measurement of frequency shift of a vibrator according to the present invention... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7195113 | Coin store measurement A method of measuring a characteristic of a container in a coin handling apparatus which involves generating a data set from an acoustic pulse reflected by the container and analyzing the data set. The analysis includes comparing the data set to one or more stored d... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7193720 | Optical vibration imager A remote sensor capable of imaging vibrations at many simultaneous points using high-speed imaging cameras is disclosed. The preferred embodiment operates in heterodyne detection mode using a single camera to capture signals to recover multi-pixel vibrations. One al... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7168323 | System and method for optical vibration sensing A system for sensing vibration of a machine is provided. A light source directs a beam of light toward a light receiving system adapted to receive at least a portion of the beam of light. A light modulating system modulates the light beam received by the light recei... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7170612 | Scanning ultrasound detection device using two-wave mixing in photorefractive crystal interferometry This invention relates to a scanning ultrasound detection device using two-wave mixing in photorefractive crystal interferometry. An interferometer with two-wave mixing in photorefractive crystal, and cooperates with a confocal lenses module to perform a scan and in... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7165456 | Measuring method to determine the noise emission of an electric motor and measuring device A measuring method to determine the noise emission of an electric motor is proposed in which the vibrational excitation of the running electric motor is measured by a laser vibrometer device and this measured vibrational excitation is correlated with a noise level. | 01/23/2007 |
| 7134341 | Methods and devices for determining the resonance frequency of passive mechanical resonators Methods and systems for determining the resonance frequency of a resonator, using the Doppler effect. An interrogating sonic beam including a carrier frequency and one or more resonator exciting frequencies is directed at a resonator disposed in a measurement enviro... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7136765 | Buried object locating and tracing method and system employing principal components analysis for blind signal detection A blind locating system for finding and tracing buried objects such as utility lines, conductive pipes and sondes. A sensor array is coupled to a signal processor, which determines a field vector for one or more buried objects by producing a data signal representing... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7116426 | Multi-beam heterodyne laser Doppler vibrometer A multi-beam laser Doppler vibrometer simultaneously measures velocity, displacement, and vibration history of multiple locations on an object. A beam of coherent light is split into an object beam and a reference beam. The object beam is divided into a plurality of... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7114393 | Method and apparatus for laser vibrometry Apparatus and method for identifying a remote target (7; 7a) is described. The remote target (6; 6a) is illuminated with radiation (5; 5a) generated by a laser (1; 1a) and the radiation scattered by the target ... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7114395 | Vibration detector A small photodetector type microphone (10) exhibiting excellent directivity without requiring any mirror surface. A diaphragm (27) vibrates in response to a sound pressure. An optical waveguide (28) is formed along the diameter of the diaphragm ... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7107848 | Active scan velocity control for torsional hinged MEMS scanner System and method for adjusting an operational parameter of a component that drifts with temperature changes. The system includes a torsional hinged device that oscillates at a resonant frequency, and the resonant frequency of the device drifts or varies with temper... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7104133 | Torsional vibration measuring instrument A torsional vibration measuring instrument has a plurality of reflecting means (6, 7) arranged with stipulated intervals along surface of a rotator (5) of which torsional vibration is to be measured; a pulse light irradiating means (1, 2) for ir... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7095505 | Optical interferometer sensor array An interferometer sensor has a two-dimensional sensor head (1) comprising a polymer film (4) of substantially uniform thickness. An interrogating signal (12) is provided to the sensor head, the interrogation signal extending across the area of t... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7088455 | Methods and apparatus for material evaluation using laser speckle Methods for measuring strains in biological and other samples include illuminating a specimen with substantially collimated laser flux. An electro-acoustic transducer is activated to generate acoustic waves in the specimen, including a surface wave component such as... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7073384 | Method and apparatus for remote measurement of vibration and properties of objects A method and apparatus (10) is provided which employs phase or amplitude modulated electromagnetic probing waves (20) (in optical or microwave frequency ranges or both) emitted toward a vibrating object (8). The optical and/or microwave probing ... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7054005 | Elastic-wave monitoring device and surface-acoustic-wave device An elastic-wave monitoring device includes an optical system which is arranged so that a circularly polarized light from a light source is incident to a measured object and a light beam from the measured object passes through a polarizing filter to a photodetector. ... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7042811 | Frictionless, non-destructive playback system for cylinder recordings The present invention provides a laser heterodyne interferometer based system for audibly producing sounds recorded on a cylinder recording, such as an Edison type wax cylinder, or a 33, 45 or 78 RPM LP (long play) record. The system generally comprises an optical s... | 05/09/2006 |
| 7030996 | Measurement of complex surface shapes using a spherical wavefront Conical surfaces (and other complex surface shapes) can be interferometrically characterized using a locally spherical measurement wavefront (e.g., spherical and aspherical wavefronts). In particular, complex surface shapes are measured relative to a measurement poi... | 04/18/2006 |
| 7027353 | Method and apparatus for real-time vibration imaging A system and method for detecting vibration information by receiving electromagnetic radiation reflected or emitted from a target object at a photodetector array to provide real-time imaging of the target object. The detected radiation may be visible light, infrared... | 04/11/2006 |
| 6993977 | Remote structural material evaluation apparatus A method of unobtrusive evaluation of structural material integrity without requiring physical contact for referencing integrity values, comprising: directing an impact source at said structural material; obtaining signal information from the structural material by ... | 02/07/2006 |
| 6975410 | Measuring device A method is provided for measuring the wall thickness of transparent articles using non-collimated and diverging light in the form of a small point source or elongated narrow line of light, measuring the spacial separation of the reflections from the nearest and fur... | 12/13/2005 |
| 6970251 | Method for vibration measurement and interferometer A Method for measuring vibrations in small and microscopic objects is disclosed. The method includes the steps of vibrating the object at a frequency, illuminating the object with a light source which is phase modulated at the same frequency, collecting data from a ... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6962082 | Device and method for acoustic diagnosis and measurement by pulse electromagnetic force The invention provides an acoustic diagnosis/measurement apparatus/method using a pulse of electromagnetic force, capable of non-destructively and precisely diagnosing or measuring corrosion, adhesion, the cover depth, and/or the diameter of a reinforcing iron rod i... | 11/08/2005 |
| 6948356 | Viscoelasticity measuring instrument A viscoelasticity measuring instrument for measuring a viscoelasticity of a sample has a temperature detection control unit for obtaining, prior to a practical measurement operation, a measurement executable temperature range for the sample by an experimental temper... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6945114 | Laser-air, hybrid, ultrasonic testing of railroad tracks Formed Laser Sources (FLS) using pulsed laser light for generation of ultrasonic stress waves are combined with air-coupled detection of ultrasound to provide for the hybrid non-contact, dynamic and remote ultrasonic testing of structural materials, especially railr... | 09/20/2005 |
| 6930813 | Spatial filter source beam conditioning in ellipsometer and the like systems Disclosed is the application of spatial filters and beam energy homogenizing systems in ellipsometer and the like systems prior to a sample system. The purpose is to eliminate a radially outer annulus of a generally arbitrary intensity profile, so that electromagnet... | 08/16/2005 |
