242results about How to "Less efficient" patented technology

An autonomous vacuum cleaner comprising a main body comprising a dirty air inlet, a clean air outlet, an airflow path extending between the dirty air inlet and the clean air outlet, a separating apparatus arranged in the airflow path between the dirty air inlet and the clean air outlet, and an airflow generator for generating an airflow along the airflow path from the dirty air inlet to the clean air outlet. The airflow generator has a discharge portion which discharges airflow into a chamber formed in the main body, the chamber including an opening that is closable by a removable panel, wherein a power source is receivable within the chamber formed in the main body and is removable from the chamber through the opening.

A catheter introducer for antegrade and retrograde medical procedures includes a generally tubular introducer member having proximal and distal ends. The introducer member includes a lumen for receiving a guidewire during a medical procedure, which guidewire includes a distal end traveling in a first direction. The catheter introducer further includes an occlusion member adjacent the distal end thereof for altering the traveling direction of the distal end of the guidewire to a second direction. The catheter introducer of the invention can be easily used for performing angioplasty on tandem or segmental lesions in one procedure using antegrade and retrograde approaches. The novel technique of the present invention involves performing angioplasty on one lesion using one of the antegrade and retrograde approaches, and then using the other of the antegrade and retrograde approaches to perform angioplasty on the second lesion. Both lesions are attended to during one medical procedure.

A light emitting system is provided including a first organic light emitting device. The first organic light emitting device includes an anode, a cathode, a first organic emitting layer disposed between the anode and the cathode, and a second organic emitting layer disposed between the anode and the cathode. The first organic emitting layer and the second organic emitting layer each include an emissive dopant having a peak wavelength of between 400 to 500 nanometers, but one of the peak wavelength of one of the dopants is at least 4 nm less than the peak wavelength of the other dopant. The first organic emitting layer and the second organic emitting layer may overlap each other, such as being disposed one over the other. The device may be used in white light or multi-color systems.

A status monitoring and reporting mechanism which distinguishes more significant events and prominently displays events pertaining to nodes, interconnections, and other network entities which may present problems, and to suppresses benign messages which may not require immediate attention, provides an “at a glance” view of overall system health. By processing and displaying aggregate status events from a plurality of agent components to highlight the most severe and critical events from among a large volume of general status events allows an operator to quickly diagnose potential problems before detrimental results occur, and helps maintain a general efficient system health by isolating less efficient areas to allow for timely remedial action prior to failure. Various agents disseminated in a storage area network determine and report status events back to a central server. The server receives, aggregates, and processes the status events to display a status array indicative of overall system health.

An autonomous vacuum cleaner comprising a main body having a dirty air inlet, a clean air outlet, an airflow path between the dirty air inlet and the clean air outlet and a primary separating apparatus arranged in the air flow path between the dirty air inlet and the clean air outlet. The primary separating apparatus comprises at least one cyclone, and the main body further includes a secondary separating apparatus in the airflow path downstream of the primary separating apparatus. The secondary separating apparatus comprises a container for holding dirt and debris which has an air inlet and a filter element, wherein the container is arranged in the air flow such that air flows into the container through the air inlet and out of the container through the filter element. The secondary separating apparatus is removable.

Disclosed herein a prosthetic or orthotic device having a joint portion and a compliant transmission assembly in operational communication with the joint portion. The device restores the normal capabilities and natural dynamics of a healthy joint for common activities. The compliant transmission assembly includes a compliant element. The compliant transmission assembly absorbs energy when a torque is applied between a prosthetic or orthotic device portion and another adjacent device portion or the adjacent limb segment of the user. The compliant element of the invention absorbs energy during flexion of a joint for the dampening thereof and releases this energy during extension of the joint for assistance thereof. Also disclosed herein is an actuator assembly, a torque sensor and an actuator locking device as well as a method for determining the torque of such prosthetic and orthotic devices.

Data is received by a service provider that is indicative of a selected server-side system and a selected client-side system between which a VPN is to be established. Security settings are then automatically determined for the client-side system based at least partially on the data. The security settings are preferably public and private keys and / or a Digital Certificate. VPN configuration details, including the security settings, are then automatically transmitted to the client-side system. The client side system then uses the configuration details to automatically configure itself to establish a secure VPN tunnel between the server-side system and itself. VPN configuration details may also be automatically transmitted to a VPN concentrator within the server-side system. A Virtual Private Network tunnel is subsequently established between the client-side system and the server-side system, and the tunnel's operation verified. A computer program product for configuring a VPN system is also provided.

A smart patch including multi-component strands integrated into clothing or other textiles where the strands of the smart patch include sensory elements that can simultaneously measure tactile forces, moisture / wetness, and other signals, such as biopotentials. A sensing system comprising: a first set of strands including a plurality of first multi-component strands, each of the first multi-component strands including a conductive portion and a non-conductive portion; and a second set of strands including a plurality of second multi-component strands, each of the second multicomponent strands including a conductive portion and a non-conductive portion, and a plurality of third multi-component strands, each of the third multicomponent strands including a conductive portion and a non-conductive portion, the third multi-component strands being different than the first multi-component strands and the second multi-component strands.

A reflective or transmissive hologram may be used to extract light from a waveguide. The hologram may be formed by separately exposing each of a plurality of areas of a holographic medium with object beams and / or reference beams having attributes (e.g., illumination angles) that vary randomly or pseudorandomly over the entire hologram. The areas may be contiguous (e.g., in a tiled pattern) or overlapping. In some embodiments, the spacing and / or orientation of the diffraction gratings may vary from area to area. For example, the spacing and / or orientation of the diffraction gratings may vary randomly or pseudorandomly from area to area. Some parts of the hologram may intentionally be made relatively more or relatively less efficient at extracting light from the waveguide.

The present invention provides an irrigation system with cheap humidity sensors and cheap automatic faucets preferably by using at the end nodes of the system low water pressure, so that much less force is needed to open and close the local waterway and then either using simple electrical valves that do not require engines, or using for example mechanical sensors based on a bi-material of two or more materials which expand differently when they become wet, thus converting the difference of the expansion into convenient movement. Another possible variation, instead of mechanical sensors and valves, is to use for example a preferably synthetic material that tends to behave like a normal root preferably at the edge of each side channel, so that the “root” counter-balances the water supply and reaches equilibrium with it when the soil becomes wet enough, based preferably on asymmetric capillary materials.

System and method is provided to improve searching on the Internet or similar networks and especially improved MetaNews and / or improved automatically generated newspaper. The present invention solves the problem by creating recursive clustering, so that preferably at any level in the tree the user can preferably either choose a specific news item from the cluster or from the shown sub-clusters or continue in the tree. Another improvement is that searching the Meta News by keywords can generate an automatic newspaper in a way similar to the original automatically generated newspaper. Many additional improvements to the concept of automated newspapers and / or news MetaSearch are also shown. Other improvements are suggested for improved shareware MetaSearch, improved Web pages search, and other types of searches.

A software method for obtaining an address of a thread-local variable while executing a computer program is described. The method designates a memory location to store an address of a function. The method, after the computer program starts to run, obtains the address of the thread-local variable by executing a resolver function whose address is stored in the memory location when a module that references the thread-local variable is loaded. The resolver can be a lazy resolver function or other resolver functions optimized for specific modules or variables.

An apparatus and method for defining content distribution paths in a content distribution network integrate unicast and multicast connections. Content engines in the content distributed network are organized into channels with a master content engine maintaining specific content. The content distribution network is further organized into a distribution hierarchy based on network topology and channel definitions, first by establishing unicast paths through the content distributed network and then by integrating multicast paths into the unicast hierarchy. The further organization of the content distribution network establishes distribution trees from the channel masters to the network edges.

A transmitter 2 comprises a power amplifier 3 and power controller 4. The power amplifier 3 is capable of both linear and non-linear operation, and is controlled by a controller 20 and first and second control loops 21,22. The second control loop 22 is used with the transmission of GMSK modulated signals, which have no amplitude modulation, operating the power amplifier 3 in a non-linear mode. The first control loop 21 is used for the transmission of EDGE modulated signals, which have a substantial amount of amplitude modulation, operating the power amplifier 3 in a linear mode. The first control loop 21 is also used with GMSK time slots if the output power to be produced by the power amplifier 3 is low and the power of an immediately preceding time slot is high. In this case, a sample and hold circuit 9, 10 of the first control loop 21 is used when the power detector voltage in the power amplifier would change over the time slot by cooling, avoiding the possibility of the power level varying over the time slot.

The present invention provides a novel use of a powdered high saturation flux density soft magnetic material as a NMR probe core material. The probe structural geometry facilitates the use of powdered material, which has a relatively low magnetic permeability.

Natural-phenomenological information is personalized to the unique requirements of a subscriber and distributed to the subscriber. Natural-phenomenological data is gathered from a variety of sources, such as current ground observations, forecast conditions, satellite images, and radar data. Personal preferences of the subscribers are also gathered and stored, such as activities of the subscriber, geographic locations of the activities, sensitivities of the subscriber to natural-phenomenological conditions, calendar information of the subscriber, and modes of delivery. The personal preferences of the subscriber are used as a filter to identify the natural-phenomenological data that is particularly useful to the subscriber, and the resulting information is delivered to the subscriber. The subscriber identifies the destination device that the information is delivered to. The invention is extensible to support new sources of natural-phenomenological information and new output devices. Electronic delivery of the personalized natural-phenomenological information can be through any number of a variety of output mediums, including pagers, text to voice synthesizers to create an audio stream for playback either via a telephone or a personal digital assistant (PDA), a multimedia-enabled computer, email, computer display monitors, PDA, and a PCS phone.

A device (100) for generating audio data for transmission to a plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the device (100) comprising an audio content transmission unit (101) adapted to transmit audio content for reproduction to the plurality of audio reproduction units (110), and a local audio data transmission unit (102) adapted to transmit local audio data individually to each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the local audio data being indicative of a manner of processing transmitted audio content locally at the respective audio reproduction unit (110) to generate locally reproducible audio content.

A portable electronic data storage / processing device, e.g., smart card maintains an account including benefit packages. Each benefit package includes multiple items with associated quantity information. A smart card includes an account benefits interface and a retailer interface, each interface using different security measures. New benefit packages are added to the smart card through the account benefit interface by a benefit provider. Benefits debit request lists including multiple items and associated quantities are submitted to the smart card through the retailer interface. The smart card is the trusted member and checks if all requested items in quantities requested can be debited. If all requests can be fulfilled, the smart card executes the debiting from the currently valid benefit package and returns a transaction success indication to the retailer. If any of the requests of the list cannot be met, the entire request list is rejected and no debiting occurs. Benefit quantity addition is not possible through the retailer interface. Transactions are performed as block transactions.

There is provided a head-up display for a vehicle, the head-up display comprising: a picture generating unit arranged to generate a picture on a light receiving surface; and an optical system arranged to image the picture, wherein the optical system comprises: an input arranged to receive light of the picture; an output arranged to output light forming an image of the picture; a first mirror and second mirror arranged to guide light from the input to the output along an optical path, wherein the optical path comprises: a first optical path from the input to the second mirror including a transmission through the first mirror; and second optical path from the second mirror to the output including a reflection off the first mirror.

A method is disclosed to streamline the process of collaboration. In accordance with the illustrative embodiment, a plurality of individuals are associated with an electronic document or application of interest. The illustrative embodiment includes the operations of activating the document or application and then initiating communication between at least some of the associated individuals by a single action or command.

The present invention provides an irrigation system with cheap humidity sensors and cheap automatic faucets preferably by using at the end nodes of the system low water pressure, so that much less force is needed to open and close the local waterway, and then either using simple electrical valves that do not require engines, or using for example mechanical sensors based on a bi-material of two or more materials which expand differently when they become wet, thus converting the difference of the expansion into convenient movement. Another possible variation, instead of mechanical sensors and valves, is to use for example a preferably synthetic material that tends to behave like a normal root preferably at the edge of each side channel, so that the “root” counter-balances the water supply and reaches equilibrium with it when the soil becomes wet enough, based preferably on asymmetric capillary materials.

A solar powered air vehicle that can stay aloft for indefinite periods of time. The vehicle employs photovoltaic solar cells for primary power and high speed counter-rotating flywheels for energy storage and steering of the vehicle. The flywheels are placed in the wing to reduce airfoil drag. A control law provides three-axis stabilized control of the vehicle by controlling propeller pitch to vary the speeds of the flywheels.

The present invention discloses an improved initialization method for modem communication wherein the timing offset required for synchronization is estimated utilizing an entire received DMT frame and the channel impulse response is estimated utilizing the pilot tones received within the same DMT frames utilized for synchronization.

This invention relates to a catalyst and a process for treating heavy hydrocarbons using the catalyst. The catalyst is useful for treating heavy hydrocarbons, de-metallize oil (DMO) and is particularly useful in VGO / DMO hydrocarbon blend. It is also useful for DAO. The catalyst acts to catalytically convert the VGO / DMO blend to shorter-chain valuable hydrocarbon products. The catalyst includes a catalytic support material, a catalytic metal impregnated upon the catalytic support material, and a promoter metal on the catalytic support material to enhance catalytic conversion. The combination of the catalytic support material with catalytic metal and promoter metal is operable to catalytically convert VGO / DMO into hydrocarbon products having shorter carbon chains.

The present invention relates to a plant, which is resistant to a pathogen of viral, bacterial, fungal or oomycete origin, wherein the plant has an increased homoserine level as compared to a plant that is not resistant to the said pathogen, in particular organisms of the phylum Oomycota. The invention further relates to a method for obtaining a plant, which is resistant to a pathogen of viral, bacterial, fungal or oomycete origin, comprising increasing the endogenous homoserine level in the plant.

The present invention relates to a plant, which is resistant to a pathogen of viral, bacterial, fungal or oomycete origin, wherein the plant has an increased homoserine level as compared to a plant that is not resistant to the said pathogen, in particular organisms of the phylum Oomycota. The invention further relates to a method for obtaining a plant, which is resistant to a pathogen of viral, bacterial, fungal or oomycete origin, comprising increasing the endogenous homoserine level in the plant.