38results about How to "Minimize energy" patented technology

An optical transmission tube for illumination is uniquely incorporated into any one of a variety of automotive, commercial, retail, structural, architectural, safety, or other products including running boards, vehicle interior compartments such as a glove box, approximate the license plate attachment area on a vehicle, a trunk, a vehicle hood, on a vehicle door, a vehicle bumper, a vehicle luggage rack, a picture frame, a flashlight, a building, a guard rail, a construction barrier, a bicycle, a sign, an appliance interior compartment such as a refrigerator, a part bin, a retail display shelf, a clipboard, a step, a tractor trailer, a desk, a walkway, a room or storage chamber, a runway, an instrument panel, a railroad crossing gate, an emergency sign, an elevator doorway, a swimming pool, a dog collar, a fish tank, a baby crib a hand rail, an inline skate an island in a parking lot or on a street, affixed to a curb, or on safety clothing.

A system for treating chronic inflammation may include an implantable microstimulator, a wearable charger, and optionally an external controller. The implantable microstimulator may be implemented as a leadless neurostimulator implantable in communication with a cervical region of a vagus nerve. The microstimulator can address several types of stimulation including regular dose delivery. The wearable charger may be worn around the subject's neck to rapidly (<10 minutes per week) charge an implanted microstimulator. The external controller may be configured as a prescription pad that controls the dosing and activity of the microstimulator.

A system for treating chronic inflammation may include an implantable microstimulator, a wearable charger, and optionally an external controller. The implantable microstimulator may be implemented as a leadless neurostimulator implantable in communication with a cervical region of a vagus nerve. The microstimulator can address several types of stimulation including regular dose delivery. The wearable charger may be worn around the subject's neck to rapidly (<10 minutes per week) charge an implanted microstimulator. The external controller may be configured as a prescription pad that controls the dosing and activity of the microstimulator.

Systems and methods are disclosed for efficient buffering for a system having non-volatile memory (“NVM”). In some embodiments, a control circuitry of a system can use heuristics to determine whether to perform buffering of one or more write commands received from a file system. In other embodiments, the control circuitry can minimize read energy and buffering overhead by efficiently re-ordering write commands in a queue along page-aligned boundaries of a buffer. In further embodiments, the control circuitry can optimally combine write commands from a buffer with write commands from a queue. After combining the commands, the control circuitry can dispatch the commands in a single transaction.

An atomizing nebulizer for dispensing a substance or medicament is described. The nebulizer is formed with a reservoir base releasably secured to an effluent vent cap that together capture a diffuser and integral dispersing baffle that are further formed with an uptake lumen or channel terminating with a nozzle jet. The diffuser dispersing baffle is positioned relative to the jet nozzle to optimize atomization of any of a number of such substances so as to maximize disbursement of the substance. The reservoir base also incorporates a pressurized fluid-accelerating inlet tube terminated with a metering orifice that cooperates with the nozzle jet when the inlet tube is received within the diffuser uptake lumen or channel. When so received, the nozzle jet axially registers proximate and superior to the orifice to establish a vacuum space that is in fluid communication with a capillary interstice established between the walls of the exterior of the inlet tube and the confronting interior surface of the diffuser lumen or channel. When a pressurized fluid is communicated through the lumen, the orifice, and into the vacuum space towards the nozzle jet, a vacuum develops in the vacuum space that, in combination with the capillary action of the interstice, draws the fluid proximate to the orifice and disperses it into droplets that are then entrained into a fluid stream to be further atomized upon impact with the baffle and then dispensed.

An atomizing nebulizer for dispensing a substance or medicament is described. The nebulizer is formed with a reservoir base releasably secured to an effluent vent cap that together capture a diffuser and integral dispersing baffle that are further formed with an uptake lumen or channel terminating with a nozzle jet. The diffuser dispersing baffle is positioned relative to the jet nozzle to optimize atomization of any of a number of such substances so as to maximize disbursement of the substance. The reservoir base also incorporates a pressurized fluid-accelerating inlet tube terminated with a metering orifice that cooperates with the nozzle jet when the inlet tube is received within the diffuser uptake lumen or channel. When so received, the nozzle jet axially registers proximate and superior to the orifice to establish a vacuum space that is in fluid communication with a capillary interstice established between the walls of the exterior of the inlet tube and the confronting interior surface of the diffuser lumen or channel. When a pressurized fluid is communicated through the lumen, the orifice, and into the vacuum space towards the nozzle jet, a vacuum develops in the vacuum space that, in combination with the capillary action of the interstice, draws the fluid proximate to the orifice and disperses it into droplets that are then entrained into a fluid stream to be further atomized upon impact with the baffle and then dispensed.

A circuit for transmitter-receiver isolation that is useful in a monostatic (combined transmitting and receiving) antenna configuration is shown and described. In addition, methods and systems are shown for automatically adjusting the circuit in response to changes in antenna configuration, external signal reflectors, and jamming energy (e.g., self jammer energy) by adjusting the circuit to tune out these sources of jammer energy to yield an increase in RFID reader receiver sensitivity when compared to measurements of the receiver sensitivity when the jammer energy is not present.

An enhanced DC plasma processing system which acts to immediately stop current from flowing through the plasma allows a variety of alternative embodiments for varying applications. In one embodiment, a tapped inductor is switched to ground to achieve substantial voltage reversal of about 10% upon detection of an arc condition through voltage and / or rate of voltage change techniques. This reversal of voltage is maintained long enough to allow restoration of uniform charge density within the plasma prior to restoration of the initial driving condition. A technique for preventing arc discharges involving periodically applying a reverse voltage is effected through a timer system in the power supply.

A device for providing a magnetic treatment by evoking muscle contraction by a time-varying magnetic field and providing a RF treatment by heating biological structure. The device includes an applicator having an RF electrode and a magnetic field generating device. The device may also include a main unit, a human machine interface, and a control unit. The control unit adjusts a signal provided to the RF electrode and controls an RF circuit, and also adjusts the signal provided to the magnetic field generating device and controls a magnetic circuit electrically insulated from the RF circuit. The RF circuit may include a power source and a power amplifier, and the magnetic circuit may include an energy storage device to supply the magnetic field generating device with electric current.

Actuators and corresponding methods and systems for controlling such actuators offer efficient, fast, flexible control with large forces. In an exemplary embodiment, an fluid actuator includes a housing having first and second fluid ports, an actuation cylinder in the housing defining a longitudinal axis and having first and second ends in first and second directions, an actuation piston in the cylinder with first and second surfaces moveable along the longitudinal axis, a spring subsystem biasing the actuation piston to a neutral position, a first fluid space defined by the first end of the actuation cylinder and the first surface of the actuation piston, a second fluid space defined by the second end of the actuation cylinder and the second surface of the actuation piston; and a flow bypass that short-circuits the first and second fluid spaces when the actuation piston is not proximate to the second end of the actuation cylinder. A first flow mechanism controls fluid communication between the first fluid space and the first port, whereas a second flow mechanism controls fluid communication between the second fluid space and the second port. The first flow mechanism is always wide-open, whereas the second flow mechanism is open and closed when the flow bypass is closed and open, respectively. The system is able to latch the actuation piston at its second direction end position while making it possible for the actuation piston not to dwell at its first direction end position, thus reducing the overall actuation time.

A finless projectile provides improved ease of use, aerodynamics, muzzle velocity, drag, target, and excursion accuracy, structural integrity, terminal effectiveness and safety, at lower cost. The finless projectile includes a slug, a forward projectile body, an aft projectile body, an obturator, and a pad. The finless projectile is a full bore projectile that defines a hollow core, but does not include a sabot nor does it carry explosives. The finless projectile functions by kinetic energy transfer from the projectile to the target by deforming the target. The center of gravity of the finless projectile is forward of the center of pressure to provide static stability to the finless projectile.

A taut, torsional flexure is used in a compact drive for scanning light and is of beneficial use in a lightweight, compact image projection module, especially for mounting in a housing having a light-transmissive window, the module being operative for causing selected pixels in a raster pattern to be illuminated to produce an image of high resolution of VGA quality in color.

A method for the production of alcohol and other bioproducts hemicelluloses extracted from biomass prior to thermal conversion of the biomass to energy. The process can be integrated with the host plant process to minimize the energy loss from extracting hemicelluloses. Also disclosed is a Stepwise enzymatic break down of cellulose fibers from a pulping operation which is performed with the redeployment of equipment and vessels contained within typical existing pulp and paper manufacturing mills. The preferred feedstock is highly delignified pulp from acid or alkaline pulping process or from bleaching stage.

The invention discloses an unmanned aerial vehicle-assisted wireless sensor network data collection method, which comprises the following steps that: (1) sensor nodes collect information in a communication range, generate corresponding event packets and send the event packets back to a base station; (2) a base station classifies the nodes of which the information value attenuation indexes are notzero as key nodes, and classifies the nodes of which the information value attenuation indexes are zero as common nodes; (3) access paths of all key nodes are planned by adopting a greedy algorithm according to the geographic positions of the nodes; (4) access paths of all common nodes are planned by adopting an ant colony algorithm of neighborhood search according to geographic positions of the nodes; (5) the total length of the path is calculated and whether the total length of the path is greater than the maximum flight length of the unmanned aerial vehicle is judged; (6) if so, the deletion gain of each common node is calculated, nodes corresponding to the maximum deletion gain are removed in the path, and the step (5) is executed; if not, the step (7) is executed; and (7) an unmannedaerial vehicle sequentially collects data of the sensor nodes according to the planned path. The method is low in energy consumption and simple in structure.

Actuators and corresponding methods and systems for controlling such actuators offer efficient, fast, flexible control with large forces. In an exemplary embodiment, an fluid actuator includes a housing having first and second fluid ports, an actuation cylinder in the housing defining a longitudinal axis and having first and second ends in first and second directions, an actuation piston in the cylinder with first and second surfaces moveable along the longitudinal axis, a spring subsystem biasing the actuation piston to a neutral position, a first fluid space defined by the first end of the actuation cylinder and the first surface of the actuation piston, a second fluid space defined by the second end of the actuation cylinder and the second surface of the actuation piston; and a flow bypass that short-circuits the first and second fluid spaces when the actuation piston is not proximate to the second end of the actuation cylinder. A first flow mechanism controls fluid communication between the first fluid space and the first port, whereas a second flow mechanism controls fluid communication between the second fluid space and the second port. The first flow mechanism is always wide-open, whereas the second flow mechanism is open and closed when the flow bypass is closed and open, respectively. The system is able to latch the actuation piston at its second direction end position while making it possible for the actuation piston not to dwell at its first direction end position, thus reducing the overall actuation time.

A method for the production of alcohol and other bioproducts hemicelluloses extracted from biomass prior to thermal conversion of the biomass to energy. The process can be integrated with the host plant process to minimize the energy loss from extracting hemicelluloses. Also disclosed is a Stepwise enzymatic break down of cellulose fibers from a pulping operation which is performed with the redeployment of equipment and vessels contained within typical existing pulp and paper manufacturing mills. The preferred feedstock is highly delignified pulp from acid or alkaline pulping process or from bleaching stage.

The present invention relates to a method of concentrating an aqueous solution at low pressure under a zero osmotic pressure difference condition, and more particularly, to a method of concentrating an aqueous solution containing a solute to be concentrated, at low pressure under a zero osmotic pressure difference condition. The method of the present invention comprises the steps of: (a) discharging water of a solute-containing aqueous solution to be concentrated, from a reverse osmosis separator to the outside, and transferring the concentrated aqueous solution to a zero osmotic pressure difference concentrator; (b) further concentrating the concentrated aqueous solution using the zero osmotic pressure difference concentrator comprising a feed chamber and a draw chamber, which are separated from each other by a reverse osmosis membrane or a forward osmosis membrane; and (c) recovering the solute and water from the aqueous solution further concentrated in the zero osmotic pressure difference concentrator. When the method of concentrating the aqueous solution at low pressure under the zero osmotic pressure difference condition is used, the aqueous solution can be concentrated to the maximum saturation concentration of a solute or a solution concentration of 100% using a reduced amount of energy without having to use an extraction solvent. In addition, there is an advantage in that a separate osmosis draw solution does not need to be used.

A taut, torsional flexure is used in a compact drive for scanning light and is of beneficial use in a lightweight, compact image projection module, especially for mounting in a housing having a light-transmissive window, the module being operative for causing selected pixels in a raster pattern to be illuminated to produce an image of high resolution of VGA quality in color.

The invention relates to an energy storage device (1) for generating an n-phase supply voltage for an electric machine (2), wherein n≧1, with n energy supply branches which are connected in parallel and which can each be connected to one of n phase conductors (2a, 2b, 2c), wherein each of the energy supply branches has a large number of energy storage modules (1a, 1b) which are connected in series and which each comprise: an energy storage cell module (5, 7) which has at least one energy storage cell (5a, 7a) and a coupling device (3), which is designed to connect the energy storage cell module (5, 7) selectively into the respective energy supply branch or to bridge said energy storage cell module, wherein in each case at least one of the energy storage modules (1b) also has in each case one heating element (8) for the at least one energy storage cell (7a); and a heating device (9), which is connected to the heating elements (8) and which is designed to actuate the heating elements (8) for heating the energy storage cells (7a) in the groups of energy storage modules (1b).

The present invention provides optical computing by means of fast Fourier transform Integration on Silicon On Insulator chip technology with implementation in the analog and temporal domain. This is done by cascading (N−2) stages of delayed interferometers (couplers and phase shifters) where a parallel set of N time samples are taken and using the delay lines and phase of the optical components (constructive / deconstructive interference) the DFT is computed. The Optical Fast Fourier Transform (OFFT) design was built on passive components (2×2 couplers: cascaded Mach Zehnder Interferometer) used for addition and subtraction through optical interference, waveguides with short path differences are used for phase shifting and waveguides with long path differences are used for signal delay based on the needed number of outputs. Since the OFFT is a system of imbalanced interferometers, there are additional bends designed to compensate for the difference in power ratios of the arms.

The branching apparatus according to the present invention includes two power supply terminals mounted on a saddle in the opposite direction of a branch connection part branched from a cylindrical body, so that they are not overlapped with the branch connection part when an electric socket is connected to the power supply terminal, and hence, it provides easiness in work. Moreover, because the branch connection part is slantly mounted directly above the main pipe, a trace wire inserted into the branch connection part and the main pipe is not bent, and hence, the trace wire can trace exact length and position.

A method for the production of alcohol and other bioproducts from power boiler woody biomass extract containing hemicelluloses, with or without combining extract from wood prior to Kraft cooking. The process is integrated with the host Kraft pulp mill plant process to minimize the heat loss from extracting hemicelluloses and the energy used in the process.

The present invention improves in one aspect the accuracy, efficiency, and robustness of fixed-step solvers when simulating a physical system that does not change in energy at the critical event. The present invention uses the energy of the error as the figure of merit in finding the first state of the system under the new constraints. The present invention enables a fixed-step solver to be more robust even when the critical event falls between two time samples. The present invention may also be applied to variable-step solvers. Moreover, the present invention may also be used to simulate a physical system when the energy changes at the critical event in the physical system.

A device for providing a magnetic treatment by evoking muscle contraction by a time-varying magnetic field and providing a RF treatment by heating biological structure. The device includes an applicator having an RF electrode and a magnetic field generating device. The device may also include a main unit, a human machine interface, and a control unit. The control unit adjusts a signal provided to the RF electrode and creates an RF circuit, and also adjusts the signal provided to the magnetic field generating device and creates a magnetic circuit electrically insulated from the RF circuit. The RF circuit may include a power source and a power amplifier, and the magnetic circuit may include an energy storage to supply the magnetic field generating device with electric current.

Devices, systems and methods for the treatment of chronic inflammatory disorders that include an implantable microstimulator and an external charger / controller wherein the microstimulator is configured to operate using closed-loop feedback. The feedback for the microstimulator can be electrical activity of the vagus nerve and / or heart sensed by the microstimulator. The feedback can be used to modulate the stimulation duration, intensity, frequency, on-time and off-time.

A store for electrical energy, and a holding device for at least two stores for electrical energy, in each of which a voltage divider is situated which is contactable in each via an external, additional electrical contact. Since the division ratio of the voltage divider within the holding device is characteristic for a specific holder, a voltage measurement at the tapping point between the stores' resistors is useable to determine which holder of the holding device the store is in. During a charging operation without the holding device no voltage divider is connected to the store, it is possible to identify a particular holder and to determine that the store is not in a holding device for charging. Since the store or its battery management system itself provides for energization of its own voltage divider, recognition may take place regardless of whether a charging device is directly connected to the holding device or store. Also, a wake-up function is provided via the additional electrical contact of the store.

A device for providing a magnetic treatment by evoking muscle contraction by a time-varying magnetic field and providing a RF treatment by heating biological structure. The device includes an applicator having an RF electrode and a magnetic field generating device. The device may also include a main unit, a human machine interface, and a control unit. The control unit adjusts a signal provided to the RF electrode and creates an RF circuit, and also adjusts the signal provided to the magnetic field generating device and creates a magnetic circuit electrically insulated from the RF circuit. The RF circuit may include a power source and a power amplifier, and the magnetic circuit may include an energy storage to supply the magnetic field generating device with electric current.