5825results about "Analogue processes for specific applications" patented technology

System and method for preventing vehicle accidents in which the absolute position of the vehicle is determined, e.g., using a satellite-based positioning system such as GPS, and the location of the vehicle relative to the edges of the roadway is then determined based on the absolute position of the vehicle and stored data relating to edges of roadways on which the vehicle may travel. A system or component within the vehicle is initiated, e.g., an alarm or warning system, or the operation of a system or component is affected, e.g., an automatic guidance system, if the location of the vehicle approaches close to an edge of the roadway or intersects with an edge of the roadway.

A navigation and control system including a sensor configured to locate objects in a predetermined field of view from a vehicle. The sensor has an emitter configured to repeatedly scan a beam into a two-dimensional sector of a plane defined with respect to a first predetermined axis of the vehicle, and a detector configured to detect a reflection of the emitted beam from one of the objects. The sensor includes a panning mechanism configured to pan the plane in which the beam is scanned about a second predetermined axis to produce a three dimensional field of view. The navigation and control system includes a processor configured to determine the existence and location of the objects in the three dimensional field of view based on a position of the vehicle and a time between an emittance of the beam and a reception of the reflection of the emitted beam from one of the objects.

An apparatus and method of reserving conveyance, such as taxis and limousines, in which the pickup locations, times, and contract are established and logged electronically. The system is configured to increase the assurance that the conveyance will arrive properly on time and on location, and that the patron will also keep their end of the agreement. The system preferably configured for disincentives for either party to not follow in accord with the contract.

A method for engineering management and planning for the design of a wireless communications network in three-dimensions (3-D) combines computerized organization, database fusion, and radio frequency (RF) site-specific planning models. The method enables a designer to keep track of wireless system performance throughout the process of pre-bid design, installation and maintenance of a wireless system. Using a database of information that defines the desired environment, predictions of antenna coverage, system coverage and interference, and other wireless system performance criteria, such as frame error rate and network throughput, can be made. Watch points are created to ensure, in real time, that any modifications to the design of the wireless system do not degrade the performance of the system with respect to the watch point locations.

A method of managing a fluid or gas reservoir is disclosed which assimilates diverse data having different acquisition time scales and spatial scales of coverage for iteratively producing a reservoir development plan that is used for optimizing an overall performance of a reservoir. The method includes: (a) generating an initial reservoir characterization, (b) from the initial reservoir characterization, generating an initial reservoir development plan, (c) when the reservoir development plan is generated, incrementally advancing and generating a capital spending program, (d) when the capital spending program is generated, monitoring a performance of the reservoir by acquiring high rate monitor data from a first set of data measurements taken in the reservoir and using the high rate monitor data to perform well-regional and field-reservoir evaluations, (e) further monitoring the performance of the reservoir by acquiring low rate monitor data from a second set of data measurements taken in the reservoir, (f) assimilating together the high rate monitor data and the low rate monitor data, (g) from the high rate monitor data and the low rate monitor data, determining when it is necessary to update the initial reservoir development plan to produce a newly updated reservoir development plan, (h) when necessary, updating the initial reservoir development plan to produce the newly updated reservoir development plan, and (i) when the newly updated reservoir development plan is produced, repeating steps (c) through (h). A detailed disclosure is provided herein relating to the step (a) for generating the initial reservoir characterization and the step (b) for generating the initial reservoir development plan.

A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for demonstrating e-commerce capabilities on a network via a simulation. Data connectivity is provided over a network between a simulated user, a simulated product distributor, a simulated product vendor, and a simulated financial service provider. An electronic catalog is displayed over a network that shows a product for sale by the simulated product vendor. The simulated user is shown browsing the electronic catalog on the network. Further, a consultation over the network, relating to the product for sale shown in the electronic catalog, is depicted between the simulated user and the simulated product distributor. Selection of the product by the simulated user is illustrated. The simulated user is portrayed to authorize payment alter an on-line review of an account of the user.

A method for collision avoidance using automated braking and steering comprising: determining an actual distance to an obstacle in a path of a vehicle; determining a relative velocity between the obstacle and the vehicle; determining a first distance sufficient to avoid collision by braking only; determining a second distance sufficient to avoid collision by combined braking and steering around the obstacle. The method also includes: applying braking if at least one of, the first distance exceeds the actual distance and the first distance is within a selected threshold of the actual distance. If the actual distance exceeds the second distance and a lane change is permitted, steering control to affect a lane change is applied.

Systems and methods are provided that allow for a portable electronic device to provide smart menus to a user based on a context of a transaction. Specifically, the method of using a portable electronic device may include opening a near field communication (NFC) channel with a point-of-purchase device and providing a smart menu based on a determined context. The portable electronic device may be configured to determine the context based at least in part upon acquiring sales transaction information for the point-of-purchase device. Additionally, the portable electronic device may be configured to determine the context based at least in part upon acquiring vendor identification information.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for making partial deliveries of cargo provisions includes a UAV having one or more ducted fans and a structural interconnect connecting the one or more fans to a cargo pod. The cargo pod has an outer aerodynamic shell and one or more internal drive systems for modifying a relative position of one or more cargo provisions contained within the cargo pod. Control logic is configured to, after delivery of a partial portion of the cargo provisions contained within the cargo pod, vary a position of at least a portion of the remaining cargo provisions to maintain a substantially same center of gravity of the UAV relative to a center of gravity prior to delivery of the partial portion. Other center of gravity compensation mechanisms may also be controlled by the control logic to aid in maintaining the center of gravity of the UAV.

In a computerized system including a camera mounted in a moving vehicle. The camera acquires consecutively in real time image frames including images of an object within the field of view of the camera. Range to the object from the moving vehicle is determined in real time. A dimension, e.g. a width, is measured in the respective images of two or more image frames, thereby producing measurements of the dimension. The measurements are processed to produce a smoothed measurement of the dimension. The dimension is measured subsequently in one or more subsequent frames. The range from the vehicle to the object is calculated in real time based on the smoothed measurement and the subsequent measurements. The processing preferably includes calculating recursively the smoothed dimension using a Kalman filter.

In a safety running system, a transverse travelling distance resulting when a subject vehicle travels to a current position of an oncoming vehicle is calculated based on the vehicle velocity and yaw rate of the subject vehicle, a relative transverse distance of the oncoming vehicle relative to a vehicle body axis of the subject vehicle is calculated based on a relative distance, relative velocity and relative angle between the subject vehicle and the oncoming vehicle detected by a radar information processor. When a relative transverse deviation obtained by subtracting the transverse travelling distance from the relative transverse distance resides within a range and that state continues to exist over a predetermined time period, it is judged that there is a collision possibility of the subject vehicle with the oncoming vehicle, and automatic steering is performed so as to avoid a collision.

Conventional file-based engineering design data for an engineering model are represented by a plurality of components. Each component has a unique identifier, a set of fields, each field having a data type and a data value, and a program which interprets and modifies the fields. The plurality of components are stored in a repository of a server. The repository also stores a history of any changes made to the components. A plurality of client computers are bidirectionally connected to the server. Each client computer may obtain the current version of the components and may send locally edited versions of the components back to the server to replace the current versions in the repository. At the client computer, the user interacts with the components using conventional file-based software. Before locally edited versions of the components are committed to the server to replace the current versions, a synchronization and merging process occurs whereby the latest version of the components are downloaded to the client computer and are compared to the locally edited version of the components to detect resolvable (compatible) and unresolvable (incompatible) conflicts therebetween. The commit process is performed only if no unresolvable conflicts exist between the two versions of the components. To facilitate translation between file-based data and components, a schema is written to "wrap" each of the engineering file formats. Each schema is a set of classes that capture all of the information in the file-based data.

A method of managing a fluid or gas reservoir is disclosed which assimilates diverse data having different acquisition time scales and spatial scales of coverage for iteratively producing a reservoir development plan that is used for optimizing an overall performance of a reservoir. The method includes: (a) generating an initial reservoir characterization, (b) from the initial reservoir characterization, generating an initial reservoir development plan, (c) when the reservoir development plan is generated, incrementally advancing and generating a capital spending program, (d) when the capital spending program is generated, monitoring a performance of the reservoir by acquiring high rate monitor data from a first set of data measurements taken in the reservoir and using the high rate monitor data to perform well-regional and field-reservoir evaluations, (e) further monitoring the performance of the reservoir by acquiring low rate monitor data from a second set of data measurements taken in the reservoir, (f) assimilating together the high rate monitor data and the low rate monitor data, (g) from the high rate monitor data and the low rate monitor data, determining when it is necessary to update the initial reservoir development plan to produce a newly updated reservoir development plan, (h) when necessary, updating the initial reservoir development plan to produce the newly updated reservoir development plan, and (i) when the newly updated reservoir development plan is produced, repeating steps (c) through (h). A detailed disclosure is provided herein relating to the step (a) for generating the initial reservoir characterization and the step (b) for generating the initial reservoir development plan.

Method for avoiding collisions between a host vehicle and other vehicles in which the position of the vehicles is determined, the vehicles are equipped with a transmitter / receiver, and in the host vehicle, the possibility of a collision involving the host vehicle is assessed by receiving signals from the transmitter / receivers of each other vehicle, analyzing the received signals to extract positional information about the transmitter / receivers from each signal, and when a received signal contains additional information of interest about a possible collision involving the host vehicle, analyzing the extracted positional information to determine whether any signals contain additional information of interest about a possible collision involving the host vehicle. Additional information is extracted only from such signals and analyzed to ascertain whether a collision between the host vehicle and any other vehicles is likely to occur in order to enable action to be taken to prevent the collision, e.g., evasive action.

An apparatus and method for illuminating a vehicle including a light source connected to an illuminatable component such as an interior or exterior vehicle door handle or steering wheel, and a control system including a plurality of sensors that monitor the vehicle and surroundings for predetermined conditions and selectively illuminate the component as a means of conveying information or warnings about the vehicle or its surroundings. Illumination may be enhanced by other auditory signals such as audio alarms or vibration. Predetermined conditions may include the proximity of a vehicle user, key fob activation or proximity, input from an entertainment system, activation of a pressure sensor, the presence of a person or object in proximity to the vehicle, or the vehicle's ignition or gear state.

A navigation and control system including a sensor configured to locate objects in a predetermined field of view from a vehicle. The sensor has an emitter configured to repeatedly scan a beam into a two-dimensional sector of a plane defined with respect to a first predetermined axis of the vehicle, and a detector configured to detect a reflection of the emitted beam from one of the objects. The sensor includes a panning mechanism configured to pan the plane in which the beam is scanned about a second predetermined axis to produce a three dimensional field of view. The navigation and control system includes a processor configured to determine the existence and location of the objects in the three dimensional field of view based on a position of the vehicle and a time between an emittance of the beam and a reception of the reflection of the emitted beam from one of the objects.

Vehicle including an anticipatory sensor system for determining that an impact involving the vehicle is about to occur unless a corrective action is taken based on data obtained prior to the impact and determining whether the potential impact requires activation of a reactive system which controls operation of the vehicle. The anticipatory sensor system includes a receiver for receiving waves or energy and a pattern recognition system for analyzing the received waves or energy, or data representative thereof, to determine that an impact is about to occur if corrective action is not taken and whether the potential impact requires activation of the reactive system. The pattern recognition system ascertains the identity of an object from which the waves or energy have been emitted, reflected or generated, so that the determination whether the impact requires activation of the reactive system is based on identification of the object.

A robotic vacuum cleaner (10) with a self-propelled controller (12) with a vacuum source (36, 38) and a dirt receptacle (32), a self-propelled cleaning head (14) with a suction inlet (24), and an interconnecting hose (16) is provided. The controller and cleaning head cooperatively traverse a surface area in tandem when the interconnecting hose is connected between the cleaning head and the controller. In one embodiment, the controller includes a power source (56) making the robotic vacuum autonomous. In another embodiment, the controller includes a power cord dispense / retract assembly (168) to provide access to utility power. In another aspect, the controller includes a portable vacuum (20) that is removed for manual operations. In still another aspect, a method of semi-automated environment mapping for a self-propelled robotic vacuum is provided. With respect to the method, the robotic vacuum also includes a remote control (18).

A method of estimating a time to collision (TTC) of a vehicle with an object comprising: acquiring a plurality of images of the object; and determining a TTC from the images that is responsive to a relative velocity and relative acceleration between the vehicle and the object.

A location beacon database and server, method of building location beacon database, and location based service using same. Wi-Fi access points are located in a target geographical area to build a reference database of locations of Wi-Fi access points. At least one vehicle is deployed including at least one scanning device having a GPS device and a Wi-Fi radio device and including a Wi-Fi antenna system. The target area is traversed in a programmatic route to avoid arterial bias. The programmatic route includes substantially all drivable streets in the target geographical area and solves an Eulerian cycle problem of a graph represented by said drivable streets. While traversing the target area, periodically receive the GPS coordinates of the GPS device. While traversing the target area, detecting Wi-Fi signals from Wi-Fi access points in range of the Wi-Fi device and recording identity information of the detected Wi-Fi access point in conjunction with GPS location information of the vehicle when the detection of the Wi-Fi access point was made. The location information is used to reverse triangulate the position of the detected Wi-Fi access point; and the position of the detected access point is recorded in a reference database. A user-device having a Wi-Fi radio may be located. A reference database of calculated locations of Wi-Fi access points in a target area is provided. In response to a user application request to determine a location of a user-device having a Wi-Fi radio, the Wi-Fi device is triggered to transmit a request to all Wi-Fi access points within range of the Wi-Fi device. Messages are received from the Wi-Fi access points within range of the Wi-Fi device, each message identifying the Wi-Fi access point sending the message. The signal strength of the messages received by the Wi-Fi access points is calculated. The reference database is accessed to obtain the calculated locations for the identified Wi-Fi access points. Based on the number of Wi-Fi access points identified via received messages, choosing a corresponding location-determination algorithm from a plurality of location-determination algorithms, said chosen algorithm being suited for the number of identified Wi-Fi access points. The calculated locations for the identified Wi-Fi access points and the signal strengths of said received messages and the chosen location-determination algorithm are used to determine the location of the user-device. The database may be modified with newly added position information to improve quality of previously determined positions, and error prone information is avoided.

A vehicle and ladar sensor assembly system is proposed which makes use of forward mounted long range ladar sensors and short range ladar sensors mounted in auxiliary lamps to identify obstacles and to identify potential collisions with the vehicle. A low cost assembly is developed which can be easily mounted within a body panel cutout of a vehicle, and which connects to the vehicle electrical and computer systems through the vehicle wiring harness. The vehicle has a digital processor which interprets 3D data received from the ladar sensor assembly, and which is in control of the vehicle subsystems for steering, braking, acceleration, and suspension. The digital processor onboard the vehicle makes use of the 3D data and the vehicle control subsystems to avoid collisions and steer a best path.

A vehicle monitoring apparatus for obtaining a distance image including an image data and three-dimensional distance information and for monitoring surrounding conditions on the basis of the distance image, comprises: means for dividing the distance image into a plurality of blocks composed of picture elements, means for collecting the blocks having a similar distance data and for grouping the blocks into an independent group, means for calculating an area size of the independent group, means for extracting the image data as an object data if the area size of the group is larger than a predetermined value and for discarding the image data as a false data if the area size is smaller than the predetermined value, means for preparing a histogram having a lateral axis representing a deviation amount and a longitudinal axis representing a frequency corresponding to a number of the image data, and means for detecting an object and a distance to the object by deleting the frequency having a smaller number of the image data than a threshold value along the lateral axis on the histogram. Thereby, false data can be removed from the image data and a mismatching can be prevented.

A system for planning a spine surgery, comprising a haptic interface capable of providing force feedback to the user and a computer adapted to simulate a surgical procedure by responding to inputs from the haptic interface and outputting haptic feedback to the haptic interface is provided.The system further comprising a rapid prototyping unit including a unit that is adapted to create models of the anatomical region where the surgical procedure will be performed in its current unoperated condition and in the predicted postoperative condition. Further the rapid prototyping unit is adapted to create a three dimensional guide to be used in the surgical procedure as well as suggest revisions to the surgical procedure. The system further comprises a computer that simulates loading of the spine and planned implanted hardware using finite element software.

Vehicle including an anticipatory sensor system for determining that an impact involving the vehicle is about to occur unless a corrective action is taken based on data obtained prior to the impact and determining whether the potential impact requires activation of a reactive system which controls operation of the vehicle. The anticipatory sensor system includes a receiver for receiving waves or energy and a pattern recognition system for analyzing the received waves or energy, or data representative thereof, to determine that an impact is about to occur if corrective action is not taken and whether the potential impact requires activation of the reactive system. The pattern recognition system ascertains the identity of an object from which the waves or energy have been emitted, reflected or generated, so that the determination whether the impact requires activation of the reactive system is based on identification of the object.

A system and method for performing domain-specific knowledge based metasearches. A metasearch engine is provided for accessing a searching text-based documents using generic search engines while simultaneously being able to access publication based databases and sequence databases as well as in-house proprietary databases and any database capable of being interfaced with a web interface so as to produce search results in text format. A data mining module is also provided for organizing raw data obtained by unsupervised clustering, simple relevance ranking, and categorization, all of which are done independently of one another. The system is capable of storing previous search data for use in query refinement or subsequent searches based upon the stored data. A search results collection browser may be provided for analyzing current browsing patterns of the user for developing weighting factors to be used in ordering the results of future searches.

A system and method for fusing depth and radar data to estimate at least a position of a threat object relative to a host object is disclosed. At least one contour is fitted to a plurality of contour points corresponding to the plurality of depth values corresponding to a threat object. A depth closest point is identified on the at least one contour relative to the host object. A radar target is selected based on information associated with the depth closest point on the at least one contour. The at least one contour is fused with radar data associated with the selected radar target based on the depth closest point to produce a fused contour. Advantageously, the position of the threat object relative to the host object is estimated based on the fused contour. More generally, a method is provided for aligns two possibly disparate sets of 3D points.