18152results about How to "Avoid collision" patented technology

A network adapter for a synchronous logical ring network operates on existing physical twisted-pair telephone topologies. Information propagates around the logical ring, reaching every device on each revolution around the network. Network devices are full-duplex, transmitting and receiving information on every clock cycle. Network devices arbitrate to be elected the network clock device. By synchronizing all network devices to a single reference clock, and providing fixed frames of information propagating around the network at consistent time intervals, the logical ring network ensures that information propagates from one device to another at consistent time intervals. The fixed-length frames are divided into two independent streams: a data stream for the distribution of real-time continuous digital media streams; and a system command stream for the distribution of system commands.

Method and system for obtaining information about objects in the environment outside of and around a vehicle and preventing collisions involving the vehicle includes directing a laser beam from the vehicle into the environment, receiving from an object in the path of the laser beam a reflection of the laser beam at a location on the vehicle, and analyzing the received laser beam reflections to obtain information about the object from which the laser beam is being reflected. Analysis of the laser beam reflections preferably entails range gating the received laser beam reflections to limit analysis of the received laser beam reflections to only those received from an object within a defined (distance) range such that objects at distances within the range are isolated from surrounding objects.

Telerobotic, telesurgical, and / or surgical robotic devices, systems, and methods employ surgical robotic linkages that may have more degrees of freedom than an associated surgical end effector n space. A processor can calculate a tool motion that includes pivoting of the tool about an aperture site. Linkages movable along a range of configurations for a given end effector position may be driven toward configurations which inhibit collisions. Refined robotic linkages and method for their use are also provided.

A battery pack (28) for a portable defibrillator (30). The battery pack has a latch (34) that is biased in an extended position. When the battery pack is inserted into a battery well (30) in the portable defibrillator, the latch automatically latches into a slot (124) to secure the battery pack in tile battery well. Ridges (112) are provided on the floor (108) of the battery well to reduce the friction between the battery pack and the floor of the well as the battery pack is inserted into the defibrillator. A ridge (38) is also provided around the periphery of the top (36) of the battery pack to reduce the friction between the battery pack and the ceiling of the battery well. A right wall (44) of the battery pack is inclined from vertical so that a cross section of the battery pack is trapezoid in shape. The asymmetric cross-section prevents the battery pack from being incorrectly inserted into the battery well. The disclosed battery pack construction simplifies the replacement of the battery pack in the portable defibrillator.

Method and system for obtaining information about objects in the environment outside of and around a vehicle and preventing collisions involving the vehicle includes directing a laser beam from the vehicle into the environment, receiving from an object in the path of the laser beam a reflection of the laser beam at a location on the vehicle, and analyzing the received laser beam reflections to obtain information about the object from which the laser beam is being reflected. Analysis of the laser beam reflections preferably entails range gating the received laser beam reflections to limit analysis of the received laser beam reflections to only those received from an object within a defined (distance) range such that objects at distances within the range are isolated from surrounding objects.

Mechanisms and techniques provide a data acquisition basic input output system between a central controller and a set of modules networked to the central controller. The central controller obtains at least one command to be sent to at least one module of the set of modules networked to the central controller and composing a request message containing the command. The request message has an associated timing pattern selected from a plurality of available timing patterns, such as a fixed timing pattern or a variable timing pattern. The central controller transmits the request message to the module(s) according to the associated timing pattern and receives, according to the associated timing pattern, a response message from the module(s). The data acquisition basic input output system communications do not require reliance on transport layer protocols or collision avoidance techniques.

Disclosed is a technology by which rules on communication permission or control are enforced to network internal devices such that an environment which looks as if to have a virtual firewall existing between network internal devices can be established. A communication control apparatus for this is located on the same level in the network as other devices are located. By using this communication control apparatus, an address resolution protocol (ARP) packet in which a data link layer address is manipulated is provided to devices that are the objects of communication cut-off, such that data packets transmitted by the communication cut-off object devices are transmitted to manipulated abnormal addresses. By doing so, communication with the communication cut-off object devices is cut off. For a device which is in a communication cut-off state although the device is not an object of communication cut-off any more, the communication control apparatus transmits an ARP packet including normal address information to the device such that the communication cut-off state is canceled.

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.

A master electronic circuit (300) includes a storage (324) representing a wireless collision avoidance networking process (332) involving collision avoidance overhead and combined with a schedulable process (345) including a serial data transfer process and a scheduler, a wireless modem (350) operable to transmit and receive wireless signals for the networking process (332), and a processor (320) coupled with the storage (324) and with the wireless modem (350) and operable to execute the scheduler to establish and transmit a schedule (110) for plural serial data transfers involving the processor (320) and distinct station identifications, and to execute the serial data transfers inside the wireless networking process and according to the schedule so as to avoid at least some of the collision avoidance overhead. Other electronic circuits, processes of making and using, and systems are disclosed.

Collisions between a minimally invasive surgical instrument and patient tissue are prevented in various ways. In one aspect a body cavity is mapped by recording positions of a surgical instrument, and the map is used to insert another surgical instrument. In another aspect, a surgical instrument is inserted into a space vacated by a guide tube. In yet another aspect, a volume is defined in which a control system permits an instrument to move, and the volume is a sum of one volume that is defined by previous movements of the instrument and other volume that is defined by the boundaries of an image capture component. In yet another aspect, a real time image of a surgical site is mosaiced over a previously recorded more distal image of the site. Surgical instruments are visible in the real time image, and representations of the surgical instruments as they would appear in the previously recorded image are generated and displayed on the previously recorded image. Consequently, a person moving the surgical instruments sees a representation of the instruments outside the field of view of an imaging system taking the real time images.

A method for transmitting a ranging code from a base station to subscriber stations to prevent collision during a random access by the subscriber stations in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing / Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM / OFDMA) communication system. The method includes allocating connection identifiers (CIDs) for identifying the subscriber stations, allocating group IDs to the CIDs to divide the subscriber stations into a predetermine number of groups, and allocating ranging codes for distinguishing subscriber stations in a group corresponding to each of the allocated group IDs.

An information access system includes: a passive contactless information storage device (500) capable of transmitting and receiving signals; a fixed-station information processing device (100) having an information processing unit, and a wireless transmitter for transmitting, in a contactless manner, a command signal for requesting transmission of information stored in the information storage device and supplying power in a contactless manner to the information storage device; and a mobile-station information processing device (200) having an information processing unit, an information presenting unit, a battery, and a wireless receiver for receiving a response signal for response to the command signal, from the information storage device in a contactless manner. While the fixed-station device is supplying power to the information storage device in the contactless manner, the information storage device transmits, in response to the command signal, the response signal to the mobile-station device in the contactless manner.

Methods and systems are provided for use with wireless networks having once or more cell in which each cell includes a base station (BS), at least one relay station (RS) and at least one mobile station (MS). The at least one relay station can be used as an intermediate station for providing communication between the BS and MS. Methods are provided for an RS to initially access the network, access of the RS by MSs initially accessing the network, methods of allocating OFDM resources for communicating between the BS, RS and / or MS for example dividing transmission resources into uplink and downlink transmissions, and methods of inserting pilot symbols into transmission resources used by the RS. In some embodiments on the invention, the methods are consistent and / or can be used in conjunction with existing standards such as 802.16e.

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, method for detecting critical areas and a pedestrian detection apparatus using the same are provided. An application of the pedestrian detection system is provided to help limit critical urban environment to particular areas. Contrary to traditional pedestrian detection systems that localize every pedestrians appearing in front of the subject vehicle, the apparatus first finds critical areas from urban environment and performs a focused search of pedestrians. The environment is reconstructed using a standard laser scanner but the subsequent checking for the presence of pedestrians is performed by incorporating a vision system. The apparatus identifies pedestrians within substantially limited image areas and results in boosts of timing performance, since no evaluation of critical degrees is necessary until an actual pedestrian is informed to the driver or onboard computer.

The present invention concerns a novel form of communication within a cellular wireless communication network. One aspect of the invention concerns a User Equipment for a cellular network, wherein the UE inter alia includes a first interface for UE-to-Basestation communication configured to communicate with a base station of the cellular network and a second interface for UE-to-UE communication configured to communicate with one or more other UEs of a UE-Group to which the UE belongs. According to the invention the UE is configured to receive via its first interface configuration data for configuring its second interface, and to coordinate, via the second interface, a communication within the UE Group.

A system for allowing an operator to switch between remote vehicle tele-operation and one or more remote vehicle autonomous behaviors. The system comprises: an operator control unit receiving input from the operator including instructions for the remote vehicle to execute an autonomous behavior; a control system on the remote vehicle for receiving the instruction to execute an autonomous behavior from the operator control unit; and a GPS receiver, an inertial measurement unit, and a navigation CPU on the remote vehicle. Upon receiving the instruction to execute an autonomous behavior, the remote vehicle executes that autonomous behavior using input from the GPS receiver, the inertial measurement unit (IMU), and the navigation CPU.

A method and system dynamically calculates confidence levels associated with accuracy of Z depth information obtained by a phase-shift time-of-flight (TOF) system that acquires consecutive images during an image frame. Knowledge of photodetector response to maximum and minimum detectable signals in active brightness and total brightness conditions is known a priori and stored. During system operation brightness threshold filtering and comparing with the a priori data permits identifying those photodetectors whose current output signals are of questionable confidence. A confidence map is dynamically generated and used to advise a user of the system that low confidence data is currently being generated. Parameter(s) other than brightness may also or instead be used.

Methods and systems are provided for use with wireless networks having one or more cell in which each cell includes a base station (BS), at least one relay station (RS) and at least one mobile station (MS). The at least one relay station can be used as an intermediate station for providing communication between the BS and MS. Methods are provided for an RS to initially access the network, access of the RS by MSs initially accessing the network, methods of allocating OFDM resources for communicating between the BS, RS and / or MS for example dividing transmission resources into uplink and downlink transmissions, and methods of inserting pilot symbols into transmission resources used by the RS. In some embodiments on the invention, the methods are consistent and / or can be used in conjunction with existing standards such as 802.16e.

A novel and useful synchronization mechanism that functions to provide a uniform time base for mesh points in a WLAN mesh based network. The invention enables timing synchronization to a common reference clock base by advertising the common TSF within beacon transmissions. All MPs in a mesh share a common DTIM interval. The synchronization mechanism enables the mesh points to avoid collisions in the generation and transmission of beacons. The TBTT offsets of the current MP and its neighbors are advertised in beacons so that neighboring MPs that hear the beacons can select non-overlapping TBTT offsets. Each MP receives one or more beacons from its neighbors and compares the timing of its neighbors to that of itself and adopts the highest TSF (i.e. the fastest) in the mesh. Eventually, all MPs in the mesh will adjust their timing to that of the MP with the fastest clock. The reception of beacons by MPs from its neighbors is also advertised. This allows for MPs to verify that the beacons they send are actually heard and are not in collision with beacon transmissions of other MPs.

An emergency vehicle warning device and a vehicle warning system method for notifying a person (and plural) in a moving vehicle (and plural), an approaching emergency vehicle (and plural), including a transmitter for transmitting an emergency signal from an emergency vehicle and a receiver embedded in a siren and light vehicle warning device located near or attached to a traffic signal, and the receiving vehicle warning devise emits lights and loud siren sounds, which alert driver(s) of moving vehicle(s) and pedestrian(s), that the emergency vehicle(s) are approaching a nearby intersection; and the Emergency vehicle warning system comprising a transmitting means located in an emergency vehicle for transmitting an emergency signal indicating that the emergency vehicle(s) are approaching the intersection that is activated or starts and continues signaling when emergency vehicle(s) are on the move nearby in emergency conditions, a receiving means located in a siren and light vehicle warning device, such device located near or attached to a traffic signaling device or light, such receiving means for receiving the emergency signal from the transmitting means, and an alert means triggered by the receiving means to alert the driver of the moving vehicle(s) that the emergency vehicle(s) are approaching.

Devices, systems, and methods for avoiding collisions between a manipulator arm and an outer patient surface by moving the manipulator within a null-space. In response to a determination that distance between an avoidance geometry and obstacle surface, corresponding to a manipulator-to-patient distance is less than desired, the system calculates movement of one or more joints or links of the manipulator within a null-space of the Jacobian to increase this distance. The joints are driven according to the reconfiguration command and calculated movement so as to maintain a desired state of the end effector. In one aspect, the joints are also driven according to a calculated end effector displacing movement within a null-perpendicular-space of the Jacobian to effect a desired movement of the end effector or remote center while concurrently avoiding arm-to-patient collisions by moving the joints within the null-space.

In one aspect of the invention, a vehicular camera is provided, comprising a lens, a housing, an imager and a microcontroller that is capable of handling certain functions, such as applying overlays to images received by the imager, dewarping the image and / or providing different viewing modes.

An animal feedlot management system is disclosed, wherein each feed delivery vehicle employed therein uses real-time virtual reality (VR) modelling and coordinate acquisition techniques supported upon an Internet-based (i.e., Cyberspace) communications platform in order to carry out various types of feedlot operations. Each feedlot vehicle has an on-board computer system which includes a VR subsystem, for accessing a VR database maintaining information representative of a VR model of the feedlot and the objects present therein (eg., tagged animals, pens, alley ways, feedbunks, buildings, vehicles, etc.

A material transportation system includes one or more material transportation vehicles, each having magnetic wheels coupled to a magnetically attractive surface that can include a ceiling, a wall, a floor, and / or a transition region. The material transportation vehicles are adapted to carry material from place to place. Each material transportation vehicle has sensors and motor controls that reduce swing motion of the material transportation vehicle and the material coupled thereto. A collision avoidance and traffic control system prevents collisions between the one or more material transportation vehicles.

A method and system reduce interference between overlapping first and second wireless LAN cells in a medium. Each cell includes a respective plurality of member stations and there is at least one overlapped station occupying both cells. An inter-cell contention-free period value is assigned to a first access point station in the first cell, associated with an accessing order in the medium for member stations in the first and second cells. The access point transmits a beacon packet containing the inter-cell contention-free period value, which is intercepted at the overlapped station. The overlapped station forwards the inter-cell contention-free period value to member stations in the second cell. A second access point in the second cell can then delay transmissions by member stations in the second cell until after the inter-cell contention-free period expires. The beacon packet sent by the first access point station also includes an intra-cell contention-free period value, which causes the member stations in the first cell to delay accessing the medium until polled by the first access point. After the expiration of the intra-cell contention-free period, member stations in the first cell may contend for the medium based on the quality of service (QoS) data they are to transmit, using the Tiered Contention Multiple Access (TCMA) protocol.

A system and method for providing path planning and generation in a semi-autonomous or autonomously driven vehicle that provides a steering correction for collision avoidance purposes. The method includes detecting a lane center of a roadway lane that the vehicle is traveling along and determining a lane centering path that directs the vehicle from its current position to the lane center. The method also includes detecting a moving object in front of the vehicle and determining if a collision between the vehicle and the object will occur if the vehicle travels along the lane centering path at the current vehicle speed. The method solves a fifth-order polynomial equation to define a collision avoidance path from the current vehicle position to a waypoint a safe distance from the object and a return path from the waypoint to the lane center that the vehicle is automatically steered along.