Asulab S.a.

The Swatch Group Research and Development Ltd

Nivarox-far S.a.

Jean-Pierre Mignot

Paul Dinnissen

Jean-Jacques Born

Dominique Dubugnon

Christian Charbon

Thierry Hessler

Jean-Claude Martin

Rudolf Dinger

Eric Saurer

Matthias Imboden

François Gueissaz

Pascal Heck

Alain Jornod

Pierre-Andr&eacute; Farine

Frédéric Meylan

Milan Calic

Michel Christen

Roland Jeanmonod

Jacques Labourey

A wearable object () including an electronic unit and a power supply unit formed by an electromechanical converter (A) which includes a rotor () carrying first magnets (A), a mechanical resonator (A) provided with an inertia mass () capable of oscillating at a relatively high resonant frequency and carrying second magnets (), and coils arranged so that, when the mechanical resonator is oscillating, an induced voltage is generated in these coils. The electromechanical converter is arranged so that the first magnets and the second magnets can, during a rotational drive of the rotor, interact magnetically so as to apply to the inertia mass, momentarily or temporarily, a magnetic force torque allowing to excite the mechanical resonator, in order to generate at least one oscillation of this mechanical resonator at its resonant frequency in order to generate a relatively high induced voltage allowing to recharge an accumulator.

Wearable object, in particular watch bracelet, comprising a power supply device provided with an electromechanical converter

Regulating members for a mechanical timepiece, specifically a system based on magnetic interaction between a resonator, in a form of a tuning fork for example, and an escape wheel, as a magnetic escapement. In the system plural areas of magnetic interaction between the resonator and the escape wheel are arranged such that torques produced at the escape wheel by the interactions compensate each other if the escape wheel is not synchronized at the frequency of the resonator. This results in negligible torque in the escape wheel when the escape wheel rotates slowly in a direction of an arrow or opposite direction. This allows the timepiece to start with a low mainspring torque and without any start procedure or device and provides better resistance of the timepiece against a loss of synchronization in event of a shock.

Regulating system for a mechanical watch

A timepiece movement comprising including a sprung balance resonator mounted between a bar and a bottom plate wherein the balance is formed from a ferromagnetic material. The timepiece movement includes a magnetic polarizing device for the balance spring for maintaining a predefined state of polarization in the balance spring and including a permanent magnetizing device which forms a magnetic field in the plane of the balance spring so as to totally or almost totally magnetically saturate the balance spring in the absence of an external magnetic field.

Timepiece movement with low magnetic sensitivity

A watch () has a microphone () placed in a watchcase (), a bracelet () with two end parts respectively attached to two opposite sides of the case and at least one through aperture () made in a lateral wall () of the case. The through aperture defines a first sound wave guide channel, and opens into the case in the direction of said microphone. The microphone is connected in the case to a sound wave processing unit circuit () for voice recognition. The watch further includes an audio guide member () fitted with a second open sound wave guide channel that comes into direct contact with the external surface of the lateral wall of the case across an area () that extends on either side of the aperture so as to guide the sound waves towards said first channel. This guide member may be made in an end part of the bracelet. In this manner, any interference from reflecting cavities, edges or surfaces in said area close to the aperture can be removed or attenuated.

Watch including a built-in microphone in the watchcase

The device for protecting a timepiece balance spring () from stray magnetic fields includes at least one disc () with high magnetic permeability, arranged in a parallel plane to the plane of the balance spring, wherein the disc () and the balance spring are mounted coaxially with each other.

Magnetic protection for a timepiece balance spring

The telephone watch includes a crystal () including a keyboard () formed in particular of a plurality of capacitive sensors () disposed under the crystal. This crystal includes a thick zone () at its center and a thinned zone () at its periphery. The keyboard () is deposited under the thinned zone ().

Crystal for a telephone watch

The invention concerns a method and an electronic device for recognizing characters traced manually on an input zone () comprising a plurality of sensors () each capable of being activated by a finger or a tracing instrument (). The method consists in comparing the manual trace of a character () produced on the input zone with a group of characters of a predetermined set of characters. The invention is characterised in that each character of the set of characters is represented by at least one predetermined model representative of a way in which the character can be traced, and in that a model representative of the way in which the manual trace of the character () has been performed on the input zone is elaborated. The models comprise at least topological parameters representative of the topology of the character, namely, in particular: the number of strokes (A, B, C, D) used for tracing the character; the one- or two-dimensional nature of each of said strokes (A, B, C, D); and the composition of each stroke of two-dimensional nature, namely the number of segments (A, A, B, B) composing the stroke and the rectilinear or curved nature of each segment. The models further comprise, where appropriate, geometrical parameters (&#x3c6;, &#x3c6;, &#x3c6;, &#x3b1;) representative of the evolution of the angular orientation of the trace of the segment and geometrical parameters (P, P, P) representative of the position of the stroke on the input zone.

Method and device for recognizing manually traced characters on an input zone

The device for implanting a microphone () and at least one pressure compensating member () in a telephone watch consists in placing the microphone and the compensating member close together. A membrane () covers the microphone () and a disc () forms the compensating member (). The membrane () and the disc () open at least partially into a single chamber () opening onto the outside via an opening () in the form of a slot. A liquid (arrow A) can be injected through this slot to rid the chamber, the membrane and the disc of foreign bodies which could accumulate therein.

Device for implanting a microphone and a pressure compensating member in a telephone watch

A wristwatch ( ) includes a keyboard whose control keys ( ) are distributed over the length of the wristband ( ), a processing unit ( ) for data introduced via the keyboard, at least one display device ( ) for displaying time functions and/or data provided by the processing unit, and a power source for the electric power supply of the electronic components of the wristwatch. In order to allow the use of its keyboard, the wristwatch ( ) is placed on a work surface, the length of the wristband ( ) facing a user. The display of the alphanumerical characters ( ) occurs in the direction of the length of the wristwatch, i.e., rotated by 90&deg; with respect to the usual time display ( ). At least one integrated encoding circuit ( ) acts as a communication interface between the keys ( ) of the keyboard and the processing unit ( ) integrated in the case of the wristwatch. The encoding circuit is placed in the wristband ( ) and communicates with the unit via one of the two electric supply wires of said circuit. The distribution of the keys of the wristband may change as a function of a determined country.

Portable object with a wristband including a keyboard

Watertight apparatus capable of being immersed and including an acoustic transducer

A device includes a case (,) in which an acoustic transducer (,) is mounted so as to communicate in a water tight manner with the exterior of the case (,) via acoustic energy. The transducer (,) is mounted in front of a membrane (,) able to be deformed separating it in a water tight manner from an inlet cavity (,) which is arranged in the case (,) of the device and is in communication with the exterior. Between the membrane (,) and the transducer (,) an intermediate chamber (,) is arranged allowing deformation of the membrane by the action of external static pressure and delimited on the side of the transducer by a support element (,) fixedly mounted in the case and capable of limiting the deformation of the membrane in the event of application of the external pressure.

Device capable of being submerged and including an acoustic transducer

A case (2) in which an acoustic transducer (22) is mounted so as to communicate in a watertight manner with the exterior of the case (2) via acoustic energy. The transducer (22) is attached to a membrane (17) separating it in a watertight manner from an inlet cavity (10, 11) which is arranged in the case (2) and is in direct communication with the exterior. The membrane (17) is resiliently applied by its periphery onto a rest surface (12) arranged around the cavity separating the latter in a watertight manner from a deformation chamber (13) situated on the side of the membrane (17) opposite to the inlet cavity while being in communication with the interior of the case. The bottom (13a) of the deformation chamber (13) forms a support surface for said membrane (17) when external static pressure greater than a predetermined value is applied thereto.

The piezo-electric device (9) which connects a glass (8) to a movement (3) of the timepiece (1) is arranged in such a way as to deform in flexion in response to an exciting signal applied to its electrodes. The attachment zones (9a,9b) of this device (9) to this glass (8) and respectively to this movement (3) are distinct one from the other when the timepiece (1) is looked at in a direction perpendicular to the planes of the principal faces of the device (9). Thanks to this arrangement, the sound produced by the displacement of the glass (8) when the exciting signal is applied to the electrodes of the piezo-electric device (9) is more intense than in a known timepiece.

Timepiece Comprising an electro-acoustic transducer

The composite wall comprises a first sheet and second sheet separated by an intermediate layer as well as an ultrasonic detection device placed on a face of said second sheet and comprising a transducer element able to emit an incidental ultrasonic signal of frequence f, and able to receive an ultrasonic signal reflected on a face of said first sheet. The intermediate layer comprises at least facing the transducer element, an inserted element whose two faces are respectively in close contact with the first and second sheets. Further, the frequence f of the transducer element satisfies the following relationships:

Composite wall, notably motor vehicle windshield, including an

An ultrasonic measuring apparatus that includes an ultrasonic transducer for emitting ultrasonic pulses at a predetermined repetition frequency towards an object having a plurality of walls such as a blood vessel, receiving echoes reflected from such walls, and producing an echo signal having a plurality of elementary echo components (E.sub.ant, E.sub.post). A digitizer digitizes the echo signal into a series of digital values that are stored in a buffer memory under control of a circuit. A computer transfers the series of digital values stored in the buffer memory into a memory. The computer is programmed to process the digital values stored in the memory in the period between consecutive pulses and to remove a group of the digital values digitized between consecutive elementary components (E.sub.ant, E.sub.post) from those digital values to be treated between such consecutive pulses.

Growing community of inventors

Areuse, Switzerland

Jean-Pierre Mignot