Did You Know...
...that the video game, Pong, was invented by a guy who graduated at the bottom of his engineering class? Nolan Bushnell spent more time running the games at a local amusement park than he did on his studies at the University of Utah. His dreams of working for Disney's amusement empire were dashed when the company wouldn't hire him. Taking a boring job, Nolan daydreamed about electronic versions of popular games. He invented Pong, the first video game, and went on to found Atari Co.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6922617 | Vehicle control device and vehicle control method An estimating unit 7 estimates an element aij of a system matrix based on state quantity including at least a longitudinal force Fx applied to a wheel, a vertical force Fz applied to the wheel and a vehicle speed V. A setting unit 8 sets a target value... | 07/26/2005 |
| 5016177 | Aircraft flight path angle display system A display system for use in an aircraft control wheel steering system provides the pilot with a single, quickened flight path angle display to overcome poor handling qualities due to intrinsic flight path angle response lags, while avoiding multiple infor... | 05/14/1991 |
| 4943923 | Constant-speed running control device for vehicles A constant-speed running control device for vehicles designed to control a vehicle speed by computing a rate of speed deviation change, and correcting acceleration in the event of a large rate of speed deviation change in order to change a controlled vari... | 07/24/1990 |
| 4937758 | Method and apparatus for reducing vibration over the full operating range of a rotor and a host device Disclosed is a system and method for minimizing vibration over the full operating range of a rotor of an apparatus. The system includes a transducer or an array of transducers for resolving up to six degrees of freedom of motion of a rotor support structu... | 06/26/1990 |
| 4918610 | Navigation, communication, and surveillance system based on DME The distance measuring Equipment (DME) is a well-approved means for short nge navigation in international civil aviation. It utilizes the inherent capacity of the system in most applications to a relatively small degree. Therefore, additional functions ca... | 04/17/1990 |
| 4916612 | Dual channel signal selection and fault detection system A signal selection and fault detection system that provides triple functional redundancy using the outputs (YA, YB) of two unmonitored primary channels and the output of one or the other of two complementary filters (22, 34) that eac... | 04/10/1990 |
| 4910691 | Process control system with multiple module sequence options An integrated system for process control in which a process supervisor procedure (which is preferably the top-level procedure) is configured as a modular software structure, with modules which can be revised by a user at any time without significantly int... | 03/20/1990 |
| 4908767 | Acceleration measuring system An acceleration measuring system, mountable on the body of a vehicle of the type having a suspension system which permits the vehicle to pitch and roll with respect to the surface over which the vehicle travels, determines and displays the lateral and for... | 03/13/1990 |
| 4907159 | Device for receiving and processing road information Device for receiving and processing road information messages transmitted in digital form, each message including at least a first section for indicating the zone of the road network to which the message refers, which device includes for the control of th... | 03/06/1990 |
| 4907167 | Process control system with action logging An integrated system for process control in which a process supervisor procedure defines parameters for one or more controller systems (or control procedures). The supervisor procedure changes control parameters only in discrete changes, and the decision ... | 03/06/1990 |
| 4905151 | One dimensional image visual system for a moving vehicle A vision system for a mobile robot 10 comprises an optical sensor subsystem 20 which generates a substantially one dimensional image of an environment, a signal processing subsystem 24 for extracting and enhancing significant vertical visual features from... | 02/27/1990 |
| 4905152 | Actively controlled suspension system with control characteristics variable depending upon vehicular speed An actively controlled suspension system which successfully prevents a vehicular height from abruptly changing even when failure of a vertical acceleration occurs. The actively controlled suspension system introduces a technology in performing suspension ... | 02/27/1990 |
| 4901239 | Antiskid device An antiskid device including a wheel speed detecting device for detecting a speed of wheels of a motor vehicle, an arithmetic and detection device, a pressure control valve member provided for a brake fluid pressure circuit and an actuator for opening and... | 02/13/1990 |
| 4893241 | Crop processing apparatus Crop processing apparatus comprising crop processing means (18, 23, 24) driven by drive means (29) and an automatic control system comprising sensor means (50, 51) for sensing transmission loss in the drive means (29) and producing a corresponding transmi... | 01/09/1990 |
| 4893245 | Windshear guidance for aircraft having inertial sensor An aircraft guidance system for flying an optimal inertial flight path in a windshear encounter. Zero inertial flight path angle command is utilized as the basis for guidance commands for either horizontal or vertical windshears; the flight path angle com... | 01/09/1990 |
| 4891762 | Method and apparatus for tracking, mapping and recognition of spatial patterns A method and apparatus for the identification of spatial patterns that occur in two or more scenes or maps. Each pattern comprises a set of points in a spatial coordinate system collectively represented by the geometrical figure formed by connecting all p... | 01/02/1990 |
| 4891761 | Method for accurately updating positional information provided on a digital map A method and system for updating a digitized map. An operator-controlled vehicle provided with an onboard computer and a navigational transmitter unit is dispatched to a location provided on the map near to an unknown location. The vehicle would then trav... | 01/02/1990 |
| 4888705 | System for measuring the position of vibrating object A system for measuring the position of a vibrating object relative to a reference point, such as the block of a ring-laser gyroscope relative to its case, uses a continuous velocity sensor that is noisy and subject to drift and a precise position crossing... | 12/19/1989 |
| 4887213 | System for, and methods of, providing for a determination of the movement of an airborne vehicle in the atmosphere Light from a moving airborne vehicle and scattered from atmospheric particles produces at first and second detectors at the vehicle, signals which are spatially and spectrally filtered, and conditioned by amplification and special filtering and converted ... | 12/12/1989 |
| 4885705 | Expert system shell for building photofinishing diagnostic systems The present invention involves a computer-based expert system tool for making decisions regarding photofinishing processes. An expert mentor in the photofinishing area provides specific information both factual knowledge and judgmental knowledge including... | 12/05/1989 |
| 4885701 | Pen turret control system A control system for controlling a turret head in a pen plotter wherein the turret head and pen holder move in combination with the pen carriage to provide turret selectability at the writing site. Sensors and associated logic are provided for detecting t... | 12/05/1989 |
| 4884208 | System for continuously establishing and indicating the location of a movable object A system for continuously establishing and indicating the location of a movable object comprises a first transmitter secured to the object for periodically transmitting, at a first predetermined frequency, first radio frequency signals representative of a... | 11/28/1989 |
| 4884222 | Fire alarm system A fire alarm system of the present invention is adapted to compute an approximation equation based on the detection data from a detector or detectors such about a smoke density, a temperature, a gas concentration, etc. and predictively determine a fire ba... | 11/28/1989 |
| 4875168 | Engine speed control apparatus Apparatus for synchronizing the spool speed between engines of a multi-engine aircraft having, for each engine, an electronic engine control (EEC) with a speed rating logic portion having an engine speed algorithm for calculating an EEC command speed sign... | 10/17/1989 |
| 4872130 | Automated in-line pipe inspection system A real-time ultrasonic pipe inspection system is provided which utilizes computer processing methods in real-time to create a user-friendly interactive environment achieving ease of operation as well as a combination of consistency, thoroughness and speed... | 10/03/1989 |
| 4870601 | Method to estimate the degree of compaction obtained at compaction and means to measure the degree of compaction for carrying out the method Estimation of the degree of compaction of a bed when using a compacting machine employs an oscillatory principle. The oscillatory compacting machine is arranged to act on the bed by gravitational force and rapidly alternating horizontal force. The method ... | 09/26/1989 |
| 4870584 | System and method for automatically running a vehicle at a desired cruising speed A system and method for automatically running a vehicle at a desired cruising speed, in which a running resistance of the vehicle is always derived, a target opening angle of a throttle valve of a vehicular engine which can run the vehicle at a desired co... | 09/26/1989 |
| 4868755 | Expert vehicle control system An automatic control system for an aircraft has a first controller connected to the pilot's operating controls. The first controller manipulates the operating controls so that goals, expressed in terms of selected aircraft parameters, are achieved. A seco... | 09/19/1989 |
| 4866617 | Method of guiding an unmanned vehicle A method of an unmanned vehicle comprises the steps of placing a certain number of ground marks each of which comprises a plurality of line segments on a passage of the vehicle measuring amount of movement of the vehicle between the adjacent line segments... | 09/12/1989 |
| 4866626 | Navigation by a video-camera sensed ground array Navigation by interpretation of images of parallelogram corner points of a ground beacon array. A video camera senses images of the beacon array and a computer interprets the images to provide attitude and location of the platform, on which the camera is ... | 09/12/1989 |
| 4862364 | Self-monitor system for automotive digital control system insensitive to battery voltage fluctuations A self-monitor system has a delay circuit active in response to the end of engine cranking to enforce a predetermined time delay which is long enough for battery voltage to recover to normal levels. The delay circuit outputs a command for execution of sel... | 08/29/1989 |
| 4862366 | Motor-driven power steering system for a vehicle A motor-driven power steering system for a vehicle capable of changing into a non-power assisted manual steering mode by means of a control unit when a speed sensor detects that the vehicle speed has exceeded a prescribed level. When the speed sensor has ... | 08/29/1989 |
| 4853861 | Windshear measurement system The present invention comprises a system for detecting windshear and associated downdraft effects when they are encountered in flight by an aircraft. The system includes an input unit (12), a first processing unit (14), a second processing unit (16), an o... | 08/01/1989 |
| 4853863 | Device to measure the relative position and attitude of two bodies A method of determining the position and attitude of a first body, e.g. a body movable in six degrees of freedom, with respect to a second body comprising establishing three or more reference points which are not colinear on the first body, establishing t... | 08/01/1989 |
| 4853859 | Operation data recording system This invention is composed of detecting means for detecting operating condition of a vehicle, operation data recording device loaded on a vehicle for arithmetic processing detected data to write into external memory unit, and external data processing devi... | 08/01/1989 |
| 4849889 | Motor-driven power steering system for a vehicle A motor-driven power steering system for a vehicle having a motor operatively connected to the steerable road wheels of the vehicle and a clutch arrangement interposed therebetween for selectively establishing and interrupting the transmission of power-as... | 07/18/1989 |
| 4849893 | Computer control system A computer control system, especially a flight control computer system, comprises a series of computer modules operating in parallel and asynchronously to carry out respective parts of an overall control algorithm for a series of items to be controlled, e... | 07/18/1989 |
| 4847772 | Vehicle detection through image processing for traffic surveillance and control A vehicle detection system for providing data characteristic of traffic conditions includes a camera overlooking a roadway section for providing video signals representative of the field (traffic scene), and a digitizer for digitizing these signals and pr... | 07/11/1989 |
| 4847774 | Method and apparatus for detecting traveling position and/or direction of an unmanned vehicle A method and apparatus for detecting the traveling position and direction of an unmanned vehicle of an autonomous guidance system, wherein pairs of marks are provided along a course on which the unmanned vehicle is to travel and disposed perpendicularly t... | 07/11/1989 |
| 4847795 | System for diagnosing defects in electronic assemblies A system (20) for diagnosing defects in electronic assemblies is disclosed. The system (20) comprises a knowledge base (26) for storing information regarding the electronic assembly for receiving current test failure data regarding an electronic assembly ... | 07/11/1989 |
