General Electric Company

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Lockheed Martin Corporation

Martin Marietta Corporation

Lockhead Martin Corp.

Gary Jude Saulnier

John Erik Hershey

Henry August Scarton

Kyle Richard Wilt

Richard August Korkosz

Jonathan Ashdown

Tristan J Lawry

Amer A Hassan

Stephen Michael Hladik

Sandeep Chennakeshu

Richard Charles Gaus, Jr

R Benjamin Litman

Kenneth Brakeley Welles

Naofal Mohammed Al-Dhahir

Charles McDonald Puckette, Iv

Alexander Seth Ross

John Anderson Ross

Naofal Mohammed Wassel Al-Dhahir

Irfan Ali

Eugene Joseph Orlowski, Jr

John Anderson Fergus Ross

Scott Charles Evans

Ralph Thomas Hoctor

Nick Andrew Van Stralen

Glen William Brooksby

David Allen Langan

Richard Louis Frey

Charles M Puckette

Raymond L Toy

Michael Paul Weir

David Isaacson

Jonathan C Newell

David G Gisser

John C Goble

William Rafferty

Ning Liu

Ravinder D Koilpllai

Raymond D Cook

Robert Gordon Nelson

Naofal Mohammad Al-Dhahir

Wayne Curtis Taft

Soumya Chakraborty

Timothy E Thiel

Randy G Herrera

Andrew Gavens

Michael P Weir

Kyle R Wilt

Jonathan D Ashdown

Systems and methods for transmitting power and information using acoustic energy produced by transducers are provided. The systems have particular application for powering and communication with electronics through drilling and pipe systems. Pairs of acoustic wedges holding transducers are provided for sending energy and information through a substrate which may be a steel pipe. Each wedge has an angled transducer which can be used to produce shear waves. The waves propagate through the substrate and are received by a second acoustic wedge. The shear waves, on reaching the second acoustic wedge, are converted back into electrical signals by a second transducer. Tangential shear waves, high, shallow wave transmission angles, and direct steel-steel bonding between wedges and substrates may be used.

Method and apparatus for acoustical power transfer and communication using steel wedges

Method and apparatus for rotational alignment and attachment of ultrasonic transducers to a barrier with one submerged surface uses a temporary transducer assembly to position mounting rings on opposite surfaces of the barrier. Plural permanent transducers are then mounted to each mounting ring and are aligned with each other across the barrier by virtue of the alignment of their mounting rings. The submerged mounting ring is used like a cylinder in combination with a mounting plate for the transducers on the submerged side of the barrier or each submerged side transducer has a suction cup fitting for use to exclude water from between each transducer and the submerged barrier surface to facilitate bonding of the submerged side transducers to the barrier.

Method and apparatus for an acoustic-electric channel mounting

Methods and apparatus for transmitting power and data along a metal pipe using wideband acoustic waves. Arrangements use shear-horizontal waves, transmitting narrowband signals for power applications and wideband signals for communications having a bandwidth greater than the coherence bandwidth of the acoustic-electric channel. Chirp wave signals, direct sequence spread signals, and on-off keying are used. Acoustic-electric channels include wedges fixed to a pipe or other substrate, transducers fixed to the wedges, and electronics linked to each transducer for sending and receiving power and signals. Matching networks, rectification circuits, and non-coherent signal reception methods may be used.

Method and apparatus for acoustic downhole telemetry and power delivery system using transverse or torsional waves

An ultrasonic transducer with housing contains a transducer assembly, an outer housing surface being fixed against a barrier surface for transferring ultrasonic waves to and from a barrier. The housing has an inner surface with plateau. A cap closes the housing and the transducer assembly has a piezoelectric transducer with a pressure surface around its outer perimeter and an opposite vibration surface engaging the plateau. A ring engages the pressure surface for biasing the vibration surface against the plateau. A holder engages the cap, transducer and ring for positioning and a plurality of springs are spaced around the transducer perimeter and between the cap and ring for biasing the vibration surface toward or against the raised plateau. A viscous couplant is between the vibration surface and plateau for enhancing transmission of the ultrasonic waves.

Ultrasonic high temperature and pressure housing for piezoelectric-acoustic channels

A method for transmitting power, data, and instructions using acoustic-electric channels having one or more transducer arrays, and to compensate for imperfect alignment of transducer arrays. Transducer arrays each include multiple transducer elements coupled to a channel barrier. Each element can be independently controlled, and misaligned transducers are selectively deactivated to improve overall channel performance. Arrays are optimized by testing different combinations of elements, and the combinations which are the most effective or efficient are used for transmissions. The system and the optimization features can be used to communicate between surfaces which have relative movement, such as between water craft hulls. Optimization can be periodic or constant to compensate for movement within the channel. The arrays can be used with curved substrates. Methods of designing adaptable arrays are also provided.

Acoustic-electric channel construction and operation using adaptive transducer arrays

A method and apparatus provide simultaneous bi-directional communications through a barrier using a pair of piezoelectric transducers. Outside-to-inside transmission of differentially encoded binary data is only sampled at the inside when a known repeated bit in a Barker sequence is transmitted in the other direction. Differentially encoded data is translated based on the absolute value of differences between each signal envelope sample and the previous signal envelope sample. Inside-to-outside data is transmitted by varying an electrical load on the inside transducer to vary the proportion of a continuous wave signal it reflects. The reflected portion of the continuous wave changes the electrical impedance of the outside transducer and this change is measured and interpreted as binary data. Two frequency selection algorithms select minimally sufficient and then optimal frequencies for power and data transmission by a frequency stepping process.

Full-duplex ultrasonic through-wall communication and power delivery system with frequency tracking

A system for communicating through a solid wall uses piezoelectric transducers in a multiple-input multiple-output configuration and applies crosstalk suppression. Methods of suppressing or avoiding crosstalk between parallel communication channels includes zero-forcing, eigenmode transmission, and least mean squared error processing. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing can be used to increase transmission rates using many subchannels. Bit-loading can be used to maximize system performance.

Multi-channel through-wall communication system using crosstalk suppression

An apparatus and method for transmitting data and power through a metal barrier using ultrasonic waves, having ultrasonic transmission channels through the barrier formed by coupling ultrasonic transducers on opposite sides of the barrier. A power transmitter sends power over a channel and forward and reverse data transmitters send forward and reverse data signals by orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing OFDM over a separate channel. The data signals are made up of plural sub-carriers at plural different sub-carrier frequencies with none of the sub-carriers of the forward transmission signal being at a power harmonic frequency.

Adaptive system for efficient transmission of power and data through acoustic media

An EIT system includes a plurality of voltage sources for supplying a corresponding plurality of voltages to a corresponding number of other structures, voltage source calibration means for calibrating each voltage source, and switching means for individually connecting the calibration means to each voltage source in succession during a period when each other structure is in an inactive condition. Calibrating respective voltages and currents for each voltage source compensates for shunt impedance of each voltage source. A method for calibrating the system includes individually connecting the calibration means to each voltage source in succession during a period when each other structure is in an inactive condition for calibrating all of said voltage sources in the same way.

High precision voltage source for electrical impedance tomography

A system, method and program storage device tangibly embodying a program of instructions for determining whether to allow transmission of data from a source destined for a destination over a network, comprising: acquiring a string of a predetermined length in bits (L) from the data; partitioning the acquired string into a partition of phrases, each of the phrases in the partition being unique and having one or more bits; determining a number of phrases (N) in the partition; estimating a normalized complexity (C) for the Kolmogorov Complexity in the acquired string via and evaluating whether to allow transmission of the data based on a comparison of whether the normalized complexity estimate (C) is within a predetermined normal complexity estimate band.

Data transmission system utilizing efficient complexity estimation of the kolmogorov complexity for data transmission

A circuit for applications such as electrical impedance tomography includes a voltage-to-current converter having an input for receiving a voltage waveform and an output for outputting a current waveform to a load at an output resistance for the voltage-to-current converter. The voltage-to-current converter includes resistance control means for adjusting the output resistance of the voltage-to-current converter under computer control. The circuit of the present invention also includes an inductance control circuit operatively connected to the voltage-to-current converter for synthesizing a selected inductance. The inductance control circuit includes inductance control means for adjusting the value of the selected inductance by computer control. The operative connection between the voltage-to-current converter and the inductance control circuit causes application of the selected inductance to the output of the voltage-to-current converter so that an overall output impedance of the current source at the load is both high and controllable.

High output impedance current source

A dc-free coding scheme that also provides channel gain employs a code that is based on an alphabet of two and comprises a list of N-dimensional vectors, where N is even, with a maximum run of two symbols. From this list, all vectors which begin or end in two identical symbols are eliminated. This avoids runs of longer than two consecutive symbols when vectors are concatenated. With this scheme, if the baseband transmission of a &ldquo;&plus;&rdquo; is realized with positive voltage V and transmission of a &ldquo;&minus;&rdquo; is realized with a negative voltage &minus;V, then any concatenation of symbols is dc-free. Improved coding gain is realized by mapping modulated signals onto convolutional code trellises.

DC-free run length constrained line coding with channel gain

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Rexford, NY, United States of America

Gary Jude Saulnier