Mlho, Inc.

Fox Sports Productions, LLC

Vista Research, Inc.

Other

Mlno, Inc.

Mlhd, Inc.

Alan Alexander Burns

Richard H Cavallaro

Stanley K Honey

Alan C Phillips

Fred Judson Heinzmann

David Blyth Hill

Philip C Evans

Charles Lawrence Rino

Harold Guthart

Joseph W Maresca, Jr

Timothy P Heidmann

Jerry Neil Gepner

Patrick Wade Olsen

Andrew G Setos

Gary Alan Hayter

Richard Pivnicka

Dennis G Douglas

Phillip C Ohl

Paul E Graf

Gary A Hayter

Stephanie A Griffin

Eric G Eckert

A system of microphones, signal processors, and loudspeakers provides enhanced comprehension of speech in noisy social events where the locations of participants are relatively constrained. Speech enhancement comprises both boosting sounds moderately at higher frequencies and delaying them to match the arrival of sounds directly from speakers. Virtual loudspeakers create the illusion for each listener that the boosted sounds come from the vicinity of each talker. Video cameras determine the head positions and facing directions of participants. Subgroups of participants having at least temporary conversational affinities can be identified. Such subgroups may overlap and change. Speech from talking participants is picked up by directional microphones and filtered, sorted, and relayed selectively via loudspeakers to listening participants identified as subgroup members, reinforcing and enhancing the naturally heard speech. More weight can be given to enhancing speech between affined participants. Either conventional or parametric loudspeakers may be used.

Participant audio enhancement system

An inexpensive, efficient and lightweight integrated small decoy system towed behind an aircraft to power an intense IR emitter for drawing in a missile with an IR sensitive guidance system away from vulnerable parts of a defended aircraft is combined with a system for simultaneously cloaking the aircraft with spectral bands of atmospherically scattered UV solar radiation reflected, and radiated from UV radiant sources mounted on the aircraft to defend against advanced MANPADS missiles with guidance systems sensitive to UV shadows cast by an aircraft in a background sky radiance of atmospherically scattered solar UV. Both the reflected and direct cloaking UV emittance may be spatially and/or temporally modulated to confuse an incoming missile. The UV aspect of this invention may also be combined with other C-MANPADS missiles, such as DIRCM, to provide additional defensive capability.

Aircraft defense system against manpads with IR/UV seekers

A magneto-optical liquid crystal display responds to the direction of a provided magnetic field. Display alternatives include a compass-like dial indication of direction, numeric values, and complex pixilated images. By providing a variable magnetic field, the display may be used as a non-contact remote analog gauge or digital indicator.

Magnetic liquid crystal display

A low-cost airliner defense system utilizing self powered, retrievable, towed decoys against man portable heat-seeking missile (MANPAD) systems provides both high power and a large IR radiating surface area. An efficient and lightweight integrated turbine-alternator extracts sufficient electric power from an air stream directed through a small decoy deployed and towed behind an aircraft during the vulnerable phases of a flight to power a large and intense IR emitter. Unfurled IR radiator 'petals' present large area arrays of rear-facing IR emitters. During the high-altitude cruise phase the radiating petals furl down folding around the retrieved decoy body as it is stowed in a streamlined housing for minimizing fuel consumption and maneuverability penalties.

Self-powered tethered decoy for heat-seeking transport aircraft missile defense

Calls made from mobile or cellular telephones may contain audio signals from broadcasts audible to the caller. Thus, a call made into a call center, perhaps to gain valuable information, such as traffic conditions, may be analyzed at the center to determine the source of the broadcast. This invention takes advantage of the existing communications infrastructure and provides for rapid and statistically improved estimation of listenership.

Broadcast audience surveillance using intercepted audio

A tire pressure reporting and warning system employs low-cost passive magnetically coupled pressure senders within the tires. These senders employ permanent magnets that rotate in response to pressure and may conveniently be mounted on the valve stem. A sender comprises a high-permeability helical ribbon that translates in response to pressure and penetrates a magnetic circuit. The magnetic circuit rotates into alignment with the helical ribbon. A novel feature of this invention is the dual-purpose use of the magnet both as a means for producing rotation in response to pressure and simultaneously for producing the remotely sensed external magnetic field. The direction and strength of the external field depends both on the rotation of the magnet with respect to the tire and on the overall orbital motion as the tire rotates. Remote pressure readers at each wheel respond to the magnetic field components and interpret the response asymmetry in terms of tire pressure by continuously calculating response skew as the tires rotate. Analyzing skew obviates the need for tire rotation sensing and timing and eliminates magnetic strength effects. No special alignment is required between senders and readers, so the readers may be mounted rather arbitrarily nearby the vehicle wheels.

Magnetically coupled tire pressure sensing system

A temperature compensating or offsetting magnetically coupled pressure sender comprises a pressure responsive element coupled to a rotating permanent magnet via a temperature sensitive element. The sender is intended to relay a pressure reading from within sealed vessels, including vehicle tires, without requiring penetration the wall of the vessel. In vehicular applications, the recommended pressure is usually stated for &ldquo;cold&rdquo; tires. Operating a vehicle heats up its tires and increases their pressure, which may produce a misleading indication. Pressure senders described in this invention have temperature compensating or offsetting elements built in to the pressure senders so that the indicated pressure is always referenced to a &ldquo;cold&rdquo; tire. Spiral or helical metallic strips or elastomeric members may be employed as the temperature compensating or offsetting elements.

Temperature-offsetting magnetically coupled pressure sender

Refractive encoding of distance or level along a scale provides an advanced means for measuring liquid level or dissimilar-liquid interface level with a float. Distance or level information is encoded in the patterns of microfacets impressed in the scale. The microfacets divide incident visible or infrared beams and direct these multiply divided beams toward or away from detectors disposed in arrays. This approach provides significant reductions in the number of encoding tracks and of the size of the float, improved accuracy, fault detection, increased span, lower friction, and easier installation. A slender rod can replace the wide encoding tape of prior designs. The rod can also be used to guide optical or acoustic signals efficiently from floats to the rod support and thus on to level indicating and recording devices. In addition, the rod support provides means for quick installation, signal coupling, and setting reference levels.

Absolute liquid level sensor with refractive encoding

A magnetically coupled pressure display system particularly adapted for pneumatic tires of motor vehicles includes pressure transducer coupled for rotating a magnet field source within the tire and an external magneto-optical liquid crystal display attached to or integrally incorporated into the exterior sidewall of the tire for visually indicating pressure within the tire responsive to the orientation of the magnetic field source within the tire. The external display exploits the magneto-optical effects of liquid crystals and can be conformally and permanently attached to the outer tire sidewall surface. Elements (pixels) comprising the display have selective light polarization properties globally determined by direction (orientation) of the magnetic field each experiences, the primary component of which is that provided by the magnetic field source rotated by the pressure transducer within the vehicle tire.

External pressure display for vehicle tires

Multi-symbol refractive encoding of distance or level along a scale provides an advanced means for measuring liquid level or dissimilar-liquid interface level with a float. Distance or level information is encoded in the patterns of microfacets impressed in the scale. The microfacets divide and direct incident visible or infrared beams toward or away from detectors disposed in arrays. This approach provides significant reductions in the number of encoding tracks and of the size of the float, improved accuracy, fault detection, increased span, less friction, and easier installation. A slender rod can replace the wide encoding tape of prior designs. The rod can also be used to guide optical or acoustic signals efficiently from floats to the rod support and thus on to level indicating and recording devices. In addition, the rod support provides means for quick installation, signal coupling, and setting reference levels.

Absolute position measure with multi-beam optical encoding

A compact, robust, and inexpensive magnetically coupled pressure gauge includes a spiral-faced or helical bellows coupled for rotating a magnetic field source (permanent magnet) within a pressure vessel the orientation of which is externally sensed and correlated to pressure within the pressure vessel. Mechanisms of extraneous magnetic field compensation are discussed Applications contemplated include measuring pressure in pressure vessels and pressure of pneumatic vehicle tires without breaching the integrity of the particular pressurized vessels. Embodiments included a visual, manual tire pressure monitoring system.

Remote pressure indicator for sealed vessels including vehicle tires

A method and an apparatus for measuring the pressure or other physical quantities of a gas or a liquid in a sealed container without penetrating the container. Two permanent magnets, one located on a sensing unit inside the container and one located on a readout unit located outside the container are used to communicate the magnitude of the pressure sensed inside the container to the readout unit. No power supply is required to implement this system.

Method and apparatus for remote measurement of physical properties inside a sealed container

An inertial navigation system employs geophysical (earth's magnetic and gravity) field sensors to measure body rotations of an aircraft or other vehicle. In effect, these replace expensive laser ring gyros used in conventional inertial navigation systems. The vector components of the geomagnetic field may be incorporated directly into the state vector describing the vehicle's attitude, acceleration, velocity, and position. A predictive filter (e.g. Kalman) operates on measured and predicted geophysical field components and on-board accelerometers. Predicted geophysical field components are obtained from maps and/or models of the earth's magnetic and gravity fields.

Geophysical inertial navigation system

A system for enhancing the television presentation of an object at a sporting event includes one or more sensors which are used to determine the location of the object. Based on the location of the object and the field of view of a broadcast camera, a processor determines the position of the object in a video frame of the broadcast camera. Once knowing where the object is positioned within the video frame, the television signal can be edited or augmented to enhance the presentation of the object.

System for enhancing the television presentation of an object at a

An acoustic method and apparatus for measuring the horizontal surface location and depth of any type of underground pipe or conduit, including nonmetallic or nonconductive pipe, such as sewer, gas, and water pipes, which cannot be detected with electromagnetic locators. A continuous-wave (CW) acoustic signal is injected into and transmitted through the fluid (liquid or gas) in the pipe. The horizontal surface location and depth of the pipe are determined from an analysis of the phase measurements derived from an array of acoustic measurements, which are made at the surface and approximately perpendicular to the direction of the underground pipe.

Growing community of inventors

Portola Valley, CA, United States of America

Alan Alexander Burns