Abstract:
A system for locating a fatigue point on a structure (10) employing a smart sensor patch (12) having three triangularly adjacent acoustic sensors (40 a,b,c). The smart sensor patch (12) has a local processor (34) associated therewith, which triangulates the location of the fatigue point.
Abstract:
Self-cooling food and beverage containers and processes for manufacturing such containers with cryogenic high-pressure refrigerant cooling apparatus are disclosed. A self-cooling beverage container apparatus containing a beverage or other food product, a method of storing cryogenic gases which then cool said food products, and to methods of assembling and operating the apparatus. A self-cooling beverage container includes a container body having an openable portion, a pressure vessel substantially housed within said container body, the pressure vessel having a first chamber for containing a refrigerant, an actuation valve configurable from a closed configuration wherein the refrigerant is maintained within the pressure vessel to an open configuration wherein said refrigerant is allowed to expand and exit the pressure vessel upon opening of said container whereby refrigerant expansion and flow through said outlet conduit cools the contents of said container.
Abstract:
A mechanical actuator for attachment to a conventional aerosol can to allow for holding the can with a comfortable handle and controlled dispensing of substances, such as spray paint, using a trigger-type actuator. The device further includes a quick can loading and unloading system including a resilient band that facilitates rapid hands free unloading and one hand loading of aerosol cans. A manual actuator is provided to selectively stretch the band to facilitate loading (and unloading) of aerosol cans. Relaxing the manual actuator allows the resilient band move into constricted engagement with the can.
Abstract:
A sanitary cover dispensing apparatus for use with a shopping cart that is adapted to provide a fresh disposable portion of sanitary sheet material over the shopping cart handle using an electronic advance system actuated by a touch-free sensor. The sanitary handle cover dispenser comprises a housing containing a roll of sanitized paper of plastic sheet material wound about a rotatable reel mechanism and adapted to deploy a fresh portion of sanitized sheet material in covering relation with the shopping cart handle between uses. A reel mechanism is electrically driven and actuated by a touch-free sensor upon sensing the presence of a user's hand in proximity to the sensor. The sanitary sheet material is preferably adapted with advertising content. The dispenser is further adapted with an electronic display and wireless communication functions that enable the device to receive and display information directly to the user. Such features allow the user to send an e-mail message, such as shopping list, to the store such that the message may be relayed to the device upon the user's arrival and log in.
Abstract:
An interdigitated Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) capacitor provides self-shielding and accurate capacitance ratios with small capacitance values. The MIM capacitor includes two terminals that extend to a plurality of interdigitated fingers separated by an insulator. Metal plates occupy layers above and below the fingers and connect to fingers of one terminal. As a result, the MIM capacitor provides self-shielding to one terminal. Additional shielding may be employed by a series of additional shielding layers that are isolated from the capacitor. The self-shielding and additional shielding may also be implemented at an array of MIM capacitors.
Abstract:
A new architecture is provided in which a master A/D converter of limited precision controls the adjustment-charge steering of a set of similar slave A/D converter pipelines. This architecture relieves the layout constraints imposed by prior architectures and also reduces power consumption of the device. By spatially interleaving the slave pipelines in an array, the new architecture also improves accuracy.
Abstract:
The present invention provides an apparatus for adding or subtracting an amount charge to or from a charge packet in a CCD as the packet traverses the CCD. The apparatus uses a “wire transfer” device structure to perform the addition or subtraction of charge during the charge packets traversal across the device. A pair of electrically interconnected diffusions are incorporated within the charge couple path to provide an amount of charge which can be added or subtracted from packets as the packets traverse the CCD.
Abstract:
A circuit for adding or subtracting an amount of charge from a charge sample, such as in a Charge Coupled Device (CCD), by portioning and pipelining the processing stages, to avoid introducing a memory effect. The operation, such as subtraction, is split into multiple stages, with each stage responsible for removing only a portion of the total amount of charge that is desired to be removed. The subtraction pipeline stages operate together to remove the total desired charge amount. In one embodiment each successive subtraction stage removes a corresponding lesser amount of charge. As a result, greater accuracy in the amount of charge removed is achieved as well operation at higher frequencies than previous charge subtraction approaches.
Abstract:
A system for displaying commercial advertising to a mobile unit via a wireless data communication with a global computer network, such as the Internet, based on GPS position data is disclosed. The system distributes location-relevant advertising content over a data network to a client based on a GPS position. A mobile electronic GPS enabled device communicates over a wireless link with a remote computer server and communicates GPS location information to the server. Upon receipt of the user's GPS location data, the server can then select to return to the user location specific commercial advertising information, thereby relieving the client of the task of filtering for relevant information. The commercial advertising information may include advertising of local interest, discount coupons accepted by businesses in the local vicinity of the user, and addresses and/or maps to local points of interest. The information may be received by vehicle mounted and/or hand-held electronic device. According to another aspect of the present invention, the system is useful in a search mode wherein information is relayed to the user based on “keywords” input by the user and GPS location information.
Abstract:
The present invention is a multiplexer for use with an apparatus for optically analyzing a sample. This multiplexer includes a body portion having a primary inlet port. The light received through the light inlet port is sent through a first fiber optic bundle which may be rotated by a fiber carriage to any of several outlet fiber couplers which may be connected to various samples. A position optical sensor assures proper alignment between the first fiber optic bundle and the fiber couplers by sensing the position of a chopper disc which is mounted to the rotating fiber carriage. Once light is passed through the sample, it is passed back into the multiplexer through inlet fiber couplers. These additional fiber couplers are linked to a second fiber optic bundle leading to a detector fiber coupler which may be connected to a fixed fiber cable.