270results about How to "Useful application" patented technology

This invention concerns an epoxy coating for use as a non-skid surface for applications such as the deck of an aircraft carrier. The epoxy coating can be formulated from (a) an amine curing agent, (b) an epoxide-containing toughening agent such as a polysulfide and / or a polythioether, (c) an epoxy resin, (d) a rubber toughening agent, and (e) an optional fire retardant, a glass fiber thixotrope and impact toughening agent, an optional pigment, an optional corrosion inhibitor, an optional moisture penetration inhibitor, an optional ultraviolet light stabilizer, an optional abrasive aggregate, or a combination thereof.

A delivery appliance for delivering an expandable annular device, particularly an expandable intravascular device, to a desired location in a lumen, includes an annular array of supporting strips extending from a proximal end of the annular array to a distal end of the annular array, to define an annular supporting surface for the expandable annular device. Each of the supporting strips is laterally deformable to radially expand or radially contract the annular array and the annular supporting surface defined thereby. A connecting stem passes through the annular array of supporting strips and has a distal end coupled to the supporting strips at the distal end of the annular array for axial movement therewith, and a proximal end passing through the proximal end of the annular array of supporting strips for axial movement with respect thereto. The proximal end of the connecting stem is axially movable in opposite directions to move the distal end of the annular array axially away from or towards, the proximal end of the annular array to radially contract or radially expand the annular supporting surface.

The present invention relates to aliphatic polyester microfibers, films having a microfibrillated surface, and methods of making the same. Microfibers of the invention can be prepared by imparting fluid energy, typically in the form of high-pressure water jets, to a highly oriented, highly crystalline, aliphatic polyester film to liberate microfibers therefrom. Microfibrillated films of the invention find use as tape backings, filters for particulate contaminants, such as face masks and water or air filters, fibrous mats, such as those used for removal of oil from water and those used as wipes, and thermal and acoustical insulation. Microfibers of the invention, when removed from the film matrix may be used in the preparation of woven or nonwoven articles and used as wipes for the removal of debris or dust from a surface. The microfibers and microfibrillated articles of the invention may be biodegradable, rendering them useful for geotextiles.

A video transcoding method is provided for transcoding a first signal stream compressed by a first coding scheme to a second signal stream compressed by a second coding scheme. The method employs an adaptive frame rate and a joint temporal-spatial rate control technique, such that the overall quality of compressed MPEG video can be significantly enhanced when the transcoding is controlled in the joint temporal (picture or frame rate) and spatial (quantization) domains. One embodiment considers transcoding from high bit rate video with larger image size (e.g. 4CIF / 4SIF, CIF) coded by one coding technique, e.g., MPEG-2 to a lower bit rate video with smaller image size (e.g. CIF, QCIF) coded by the same or another coding technique, e.g., MPEG-4.

A self-regulated system and method for cooling switching power supplies that take parasitic effects of switching which would normally be dissipated as heat in a typical RC snubber circuit, and use that waste energy to power a cooling element to automatically cool semiconductor switches of the power supplies and any DC or AC systems. The cooling element can be a variable speed fan, a liquid pump, a Peltier device, or the like, in which case the system and method provide power to the cooling element in proportion to the amount of current delivered to the power supply, and so the cooling system automatically adjusts itself to the level needed to protect the power supply.

The present invention provides electrochemical cells capable of good electronic performance, particularly high specific energies, useful discharge rate capabilities and good cycle life. Electrochemical cells of the present invention are versatile and include primary and secondary cells useful for a range of important applications including use in portable electronic devices. Electrochemical cells of the present invention also exhibit enhanced safety and stability relative to conventional state of the art primary lithium batteries and lithium ion secondary batteries. For example, electrochemical cells of the present invention include secondary electrochemical cells using anion charge carriers capable of accommodation by positive and negative electrodes comprising anion host materials, which entirely eliminate the need for metallic lithium or dissolved lithium ion in these systems.

A system and method of estimating the body shape of an individual from input data such as images or range maps. The body may appear in one or more poses captured at different times and a consistent body shape is computed for all poses. The body may appear in minimal tight-fitting clothing or in normal clothing wherein the described method produces an estimate of the body shape under the clothing. Clothed or bare regions of the body are detected via image classification and the fitting method is adapted to treat each region differently. Body shapes are represented parametrically and are matched to other bodies based on shape similarity and other features. Standard measurements are extracted using parametric or non-parametric functions of body shape. The system components support many applications in body scanning, advertising, social networking, collaborative filtering and Internet clothing shopping.

A system and method for placing reference locators on a streaming video image taken from a camera mounted on a vehicle. Sensors monitoring the camera field of view and direction of the optical axis along with sensors monitoring the vehicle's position are used to generate a video overlay having various indicia. The calculated positions of the indicia may be compared to the position of landmarks taken from the video image to compensate for any inaccuracies in the calculated position taken from the various sensors.

A stereo calibration method is proposed to calibrate an interface's shape and position when the measurement system is in one media and measures deformation and strain of an object that is submerged in a different media. After the interface's shape and position are modeled by parameters, an explicit model of object points as measurement is established taking account of refraction happening at the interface. Efficiency and convergence are assured by using measurement of object points to acquire initial estimates for refraction angles at the interface. Then, an optimization method is performed to get the optimized value of interface parameters. Last, based on the resulting interface parameters, 3-dimensional positions of object points in all the subsequent measurement could be reconstructed accurately. Therefore, the distortion induced by refraction in the measurement is corrected. Numerical simulations of the proposed calibration process confirm that it is both robust and accurate for a range of experimental conditions, even in the presence of Gaussian noise in the measurement.

An apparatus for decomposing an input signal having a number of at least three input channels includes a downmixer for downmixing the input signal to obtain a downmixed signal having a smaller number of channels. Furthermore, an analyzer for analyzing the downmixed signal to derive an analysis result is provided, and the analysis result is forwarded to a signal processor for processing the input signal or a signal derived from the input signal to obtain the decomposed signal.

A method and system of monitoring a processing system and for processing a substrate during the course of semiconductor manufacturing. As such, data is acquired from the processing system for a plurality of observations, the data including a plurality of data parameters. A principal components analysis (PCA) model is constructed from the data and includes centering coefficients. Additional data is acquired from the processing system, the additional data including an additional observation of the plurality of data parameters. The centering coefficients are adjusted to produce updated adaptive centering coefficients for each of the data parameters in the PCA model. The updated adaptive centering coefficients are applied to each of the data parameters in the PCA model. At least one statistical quantity is determined from the additional data using the PCA model. A control limit is set for the statistical quantity and compared to the statistical quantity.