International Business Machines Corporation

Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Timothy Droz

Brian Mitchell Bass

Abbas Rafii

Kenneth Harvey Potter, Jr

Edward Joel Rovner

Scott Nellenbach

Sunil Prakash Acharya

Robert William Bartoldus

Richard New

Time-of-flight (TOF) three-dimensional sensing systems are deployed on or in a motor vehicle to image contact zones associated with potential contact between an avoidable object and the vehicle or vehicle frame and/or remotely controllable motorized moving door or liftgate. An algorithm processes depth data acquired by each TOF system to determine whether an avoidable object is in the associated contact zone. If present, a control signal issues to halt or reverse the mechanism moving the door. A stored database preferably includes a depth image of the contact zone absent any object, an image of the door, and volume of the door. Database images are compared to newly acquired depth images to identify pixel sensors whose depth values are statistically unlikely to represent background or the door. Pixels within the contact zone so identified are an object, and the control signal is issued.

Contactless obstacle detection for power doors and the like

A LAN interconnect device includes a plurality of Frame Processing Units (FPUs) for coupling each port of the device to a switch fabric. Each one of the Frame Processing Units includes an input section with input logic which prepares LS Headers and appends each one to a block of the frame as the block is forwarded to the switch fabric. The FPU, also, includes an output section with copy logic for copying and assembling frames to be forwarded to devices connected to the port. The copy decision is based upon the LS Header and configuration information in the port.

LAN frame copy decision for LAN switches

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Timothy Droz