Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Apple Inc.

Kenneth F Gudan

Kurt W Piersol

John W Barrus

Edward L Schwartz

Michael J Gormish

Stephen R Savitzky

Sergey Chemishkian

Jonathan J Hull

Richard D Kosoglow

Matthew Stephen Reynolds

Christoph Horst Krah

Gregory J Wolff

Bradley J Rhodes

Kanae Amemiya

Xu Liu

Richard D Cappels, Sr

Douglas M Farrar

Timothee Bailloeul

Andrea Mariotti

Joshua F Ensworth

A battery charger for charging a battery is disclosed. In one embodiment, the battery charger comprises an input for receiving a first voltage and for coupling to a positive terminal of the battery; a first transistor having a first gate, a first drain and a first source, wherein the first gate is for coupling to a charging signal for the battery and the first drain is coupled to the battery negative terminal and, the first transistor to cause energy to be transferred from the input into the battery when turned on; and a group of transistors coupled to the first transistor and the input to control when the first transistor is turned on, wherein the group of transistors comprises a second transistor having a second gate coupled to the input and coupled to a third transistor to turn off the third transistor after a delay occurs after the voltage on the input reaches a predetermined level, and further herein the third transistor causes the first transistor to turn on when the third transistor is turned off.

Battery charger

A DC-DC boost converter and apparatus including the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, the DC-DC converter comprises an input for receiving a first voltage at a first level, where the first voltage is negative; a transformer coupled to the input to convert the first voltage to a second voltage at a second level, where the second level is higher than the first level and the second voltage is positive; and an output connected to the transformer to output the second voltage.

DC-DC boost converter

A backscatter modulation radio-frequency (RF) sensor and method for using the same are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the RF sensor comprises: an energy harvesting unit operable to convert incident RF energy to direct current (DC); a storage unit operable to store recovered DC power; one or more sensors for sensing; a backscatter communication interface to backscatter energy to communicate one or more packets using a frequency-shift keying (FSK) modulator; and a microcontroller coupled to the energy harvesting and storage units, the one or more sensors, and the backscatter communicator, the microcontroller operable to cause the backscatter communication interface to communicate sensed data from at least one of the one or more sensors while powered by energy previously harvested and stored by the energy harvesting and storage unit.

Computational bluetooth tag with backscatter

The disclosure includes a system and method for implementing a wide-area pressure sensor with reduced power consumption. The system includes a first layer printed with conductive ink in a first pattern that includes a first portion of an AND array and a first portion of an OR array, a second layer printed with conductive ink in a second pattern that includes a second portion of the AND array and a second portion of the OR array, and a separation barrier that goes between the first layer and the second layer. These AND and OR array switches can be combined together in one or more zones to create a wide-area pressure sensor with reduced pincount and power consumption, and can be used to determine the location of pressure points in a wide-area.

Wide-area pressure sensor with reduced power consumption

A system for paper-like forms processing includes a plurality of portable computing devices coupled by a network to a paper-like forms server. The portable computing devices are adapted to receive images (e.g., compound documents/forms), add stroke annotations to the received images, and send the annotated received images or the stoke annotations themselves to the paper-like forms server. The paper-like forms server comprises a central scheduler and a logging module. The paper-like forms server processes compound documents as paper like forms and sends input to and receives results from service providers to perform various types of paper like processing on the compound document. The paper-like forms server performs the scheduling, routing, logging, verification and billing for the paper-like processing of compound documents. The central scheduler also stores results from service providers for later retrieval.

Paper-like forms processing system and method

Power usage of a portable computing device is modified to more efficiently use a power supply included in the portable computing device. Power usage by different components of the portable computing device is modified based on use of the portable computing device to allow dynamic modification of power consumption. The portable computing device includes data describing various power management states and the portable computing device transitions between different power management states as it is used, modifying the power consumption of various components in different power management states. Various communication device operating states are also defined to modify power usage by communication devices included in the portable computing device based on device usage.

Power management based on combined user interface and sensor inputs

A small home/office tactile printing system comprises a print head assembly and a paper feed assembly. The print head assembly includes a print head for printing with ink and an applicator for applying a liquid. The paper feed assembly moves paper (or any other medium suitable for printing) relative to the print head assembly and its components for printing the ink on the paper, applying the liquid to the medium and curing the liquid. The liquid is ultraviolet (UV) curable glue and curing is exposure of the UV liquid to UV light. The present invention also includes a variety of methods including a method for printing tactile information, a method for copying a document having tactile printing, a method for binding sheets of a media, a method for scratch-off printing and method for copying a bound document.

Tactile printing

A handheld portable printer includes members and a handle that are joined together to form a generally O-shaped device. The members provide a rigid and strong structure and an area for housing a projector to project an image on the print surface of the image to be printed. The bottom member houses a pair of absolute position sensors spaced apart and aligned upon the longitudinal axis on the bottom of the handheld portable printer. A controller is associated with the absolute position sensors to produce precise position information. The controller uses the precise position information to control the projection of the image to be printed and the printing of pixels by the print head. In one embodiment, the print head is controlled such that each pixel is printed at least twice. The present invention also includes a number of novel methods including: a method for printing an image with a handheld printer, a method for projecting an image to be printed, and a method for registering a location of a printer and portions of a printed image.

Two-dimensional absolute position sensor and projection control for a handheld printer

A system and method for applying a pre-existing physical seal authorization to documents provides for authentication of electronic documents using physical seals and without interrupting the electronic workflow. The system of the present invention includes a seal capture device coupled to a computer, and the computer coupled by a network to a paper-like document server. The seal capture device detects depression of a seal thereon and outputs the image of the seal and other metadata to the computer. The computer stores the metadata in its local log using a logging module. The computer also adds the image of the seal and other metadata to the electronic document being displayed. Finally, the computer sends the metadata for storage in the global log of the paper-like document server, and the authorized document to the next step in the electronic workflow. The paper-like document server stores the metadata in other servers or entangles the global log with the logs of other servers for additional security.

Method for applying a physical seal authorization to documents in electronic workflows

The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art with a system for stroke and image aggregation and analytics. The system is particularly advantageous because it provides a system for distributing page images such as worksheets, examinations or forms to multiple devices. The system allows independent paging and writing on the distributed materials; collection of the strokes added to the distributed pages images; and aggregating and displaying those strokes or summary information in a useful manner. For example, an instructor might receive the current work of the students for a particular examination question and view those strokes in a parallel manner or a combined manner.

Stroke and image aggregation and analytics

A multi-provider forms processing system with retry upon failure comprises: a plurality of portable computing devices, a plurality of service providers and a paper-like forms server coupled by a network. The paper-like forms server performs the scheduling, routing, logging, verification and billing for the paper-like processing of compound documents. The paper-like forms server comprises a central schedule, a retry module and a billing module. The multi-provider forms processing system is advantageous because it monitors for failure of transactions, automatically issues a retry or replacement transactions and adjusts the billing for the failed transaction. In particular, the central scheduler tracks and determines when transaction failures occur, and based on these failures revises the billing to users and credits to service providers. The central scheduler also monitors the logs for completion as well as restarts, attempts, failure, reworked and re-performed transaction steps and modifies the bills accordingly.

Multi-provider forms processing system with retry upon failure

A system including a Multi Function Printer/Product/Peripheral (MFP) and a portable computing device adapted to allow automatic copying of documents by the MFP from the portable computing device. The portable computing device includes a display, a plurality of sensors for detecting light, a light detection module and a page changing module. The sensors are positioned to detect light from the MFP and trigger a page change automatically. The MFP in accordance with the present invention includes a scanner with a platen, a page change detection module, an image processing module, a device identification module, and a document matching & retrieval module. The page change detection module is adapted to receive the images presented by the portable computing device on the platen of the scanner for copying. The page change detection module detects changes and causes the MFP to scan and output a copy.

Copying documents from electronic displays

A system for using accelerometer-based detection of physical movement for document sharing provides easy and intuitive ways to securely share documents, even without passwords, between computing devices. The system of the present invention includes: at least two computing devices that each have a motion detection device capable of detecting sudden movements and generating a unique signature. The unique signature can then be used to generate signatures or shared secrets for controlling the transfer of data between devices. The motion detection device is capable of detecting sudden movement such as the tapping of the two computing devices together, tapping a stack of computing devices, tossing a computing device in the air. The system may optionally include an intermediary device such as a server for transferring the documents or files between computing devices such that only a small decryption key and file pointer is needed to share records between computing devices. The present invention also includes a novel method for accelerometer-based detection of movement for transferring data between computing devices.

Detection of physical movement for document sharing

A power-up switch circuit in a peripheral device such as a keyboard is coupled to the main processing portion of a computer via an interface bus. The switch circuit together with bias and detection circuitry in the main processing portion allow non-intrusive use of a data communication line of the interface for controlling the supply of power to the main processing portion, without requiring a dedicated power-on wire between the peripheral device and the processing portion. A repeater circuit between the keyboard and the main processing portion causes a second signal to be sent through an upstream portion of the interface bus in response to receiving a first signal through a downstream portion of the bus, while the main processing portion is in low power mode. The repeater is also configured to not affect the interface bus when the main processing portion is in high power mode.

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Kenneth F Gudan