107 results about "Alternate forms" patented technology

Artificial disc devices are disclosed that restore correct anatomical intervertebral spacing for damaged discs while maintaining a substantially normal range of biomechanical movement for the vertebrae between which they are implanted. The disc devices include center bearing and outer or annular bearing portions with the center bearing portion including generally axially extending locating surfaces which cooperate with the facing vertebral surfaces to resist migration. The outer bearing portion is for load bearing or load sharing with the center bearing portion and includes surfaces that extend radially toward the periphery of the vertebrae so that subsidence about the center bearing portion is minimized. Alternate forms of the disc devices include one with an axially enlarged center ball bearing having an annular ring bearing extending thereabout and another having upper and lower plate members with a central bumper member and a surrounding resilient annular member therebetween.

The device has a first lower substantially flat body, which has in its upper part a flexible post with a narrowed or weakened portion and a second upper body with the passage for receiving and securing said post. The flexible post, which has a rectangular cross section, has in its main surfaces respective mutually opposed toothings, which teeth are offset in the lengthwise direction and the passage of the second body has two latching pawls mutually opposed, so that in the operative position of the devices, the teeth of the flexible post engage in an alternate form with said latching pawls. The second body has a bell like hollow form with a lower widened contact mouth or border.

User authentication requests to computer systems are accelerated by selectively comparing user-provided biometric authentication credentials to a subset of credentials. If the user-supplied credential is not recognized, an alternate form of authentication is requested. Valid login events are used to update the subset such that subsequent authentication requests are handled in an expedited manner.

An environmental protection system features a clear spinning curved volumetric enclosure to shed and throw off environmental contaminants such as rain, fog and dust that would affect a sensor image. The described design is especially suitable for cameras with extremely wide fields of view, such as panoramic or immersive cameras. Alternate forms of volumetric enclosures are described for different lens arrangements in compound camera systems. In all of these embodiments it is possible to keep the cover and the mechanism spinning it invisible to the cameras. An additional modification of the shape of the volumetric enclosure is described that prevents any accumulation of liquid drops within the fields of view of the sensors within the spinning volumetric enclosure. Alternate forms of construction with air and magnetic bearings are described for smoother and quieter operation of the spinning enclosure.

The current invention is an automatic AC power interruption system built into a portable power strip or a portable casing or integrated into an appliances control circuitry. The invention monitors the environment for hazard alarms, for example, a T3 signal smoke detector alarm, and responds by tripping open the power supply circuit to the power strip's receptacles and thus interrupts AC power to the protected appliances the user has chosen to plug into them. One alternate form of the invention uses a portable casing that can be plugged into a power receptacle and, when a hazard alarm is detected, trip off the nearest GFCI. Other alternate forms of the invention are integrated within an individual appliance's control circuitry and may interrupt power using a built-in switch or by tripping off the nearest GFCI device. The invention's purpose is to help prevent death, injury, and property damage by preventing fires or facilitating fire suppression; more particularly, by interrupting electrical power to problematic appliances, such as toasters, space heaters, battery chargers, stoves, and motors, when a hazardous condition alarm is emitted. It further interrupts power to the problematic appliances when a detector emits an alarm indicating toxic fumes, natural gas, radon, carbon monoxide, or whatever other detector-alarm the consumer installs in the area to be protected.

An environmental protection system features a clear spinning curved volumetric enclosure to shed and throw off environmental contaminants such as rain, fog and dust that would affect a sensor image. The described design is especially suitable for cameras with extremely wide fields of view, such as panoramic or immersive cameras. Alternate forms of volumetric enclosures are described for different lens arrangements in compound camera systems. In all of these embodiments it is possible to keep the cover and the mechanism spinning it invisible to the cameras. An additional modification of the shape of the volumetric enclosure is described that prevents any accumulation of liquid drops within the fields of view of the sensors within the spinning volumetric enclosure. Alternate forms of construction with air and magnetic bearings are described for smoother and quieter operation of the spinning enclosure.

The present invention provides a system and method associating the freeform speech commands with one or more predefined commands from a set of predefined commands. The set of predefined commands are stored and alternate forms associated with each predefined command are retrieved from an external data source. The external data source receives the alternate forms associated with each predefined command from multiple sources so the alternate forms represent paraphrases of the predefined command. A representation including words from the predefined command and the alternate forms of the predefined command, such as a vector representation, is generated for each predefined command. A similarity value between received speech data and each representation of a predefined command is computed and the speech data is classified as the predefined command whose representation has the highest similarity value to the speech data.

A composite construction panel having a thin panel of concrete material and a reinforcing grid of sheet metal studs with embedment portions which are actually embedded into the concrete panel, each of the studs having a web, right angular flange formed on a free edge of the web, an angled edge strip formed along the free edge of the right angular flange, an embedment angled flange portion formed along the opposite edge of the web, an edge strip formed on the angled flange at an angle thereto; and, spaced apart angled flange openings formed in the angled flange for flow of concrete therethrough. An alternate form of stud has a triangular tube structure along one edge of the web. Another form of stud has a discontinuous webs defining spaces between them. In one embodiment two concrete panels may be secured to the studs in spaced relation to create a hollow structure.

A method and system for micromanipulation of objects of any shape. The method and system creates various forms of holographic optical traps for a variety of commercial purposes. Some alternate forms of traps include a dark form of optical traps, optical vortices with different helical winding numbers and optical traps with variable phase profiles imprinted thereon.

The invention discloses a stretch-forming and electromagnetic combining incremental forming method and device of a large thin-wall part. The method comprises the steps that a driving plate is arranged above a plate to be deformed, the driving plate and the plate to be deformed are clamped by a pressing plate and a supporting plate, and a lifting oil cylinder drives the supporting plate to move, so that the driving plate and the plate to be deformed are stretch-bent and tightened preliminarily, and the stretch-forming process is achieved; the position of an electromagnetic coil is adjusted, the electromagnetic coil is made to exactly face the driving plate to be deformed to discharge electricity, the coil rotates on the surface of the driving plate for a circle around the axis of a male die, and the plate to be deformed is attached to the male die at the same height; then, the oil cylinder descends again to stretch-bend the plate, the coil discharges electricity to deform the plate to be deformed again, the plate to be deformed is attached to the male die, and the alternate forming process of stretch-forming, discharging, re-stretch-forming and re-discharging of the plate is achieved in the same way till deformation of the plate is finished. The flowing evenness of materials can be improved, the thinning ratio of the plate can be reduced, and flexible processing and precise plastic manufacturing of large plates hard to deform can be achieved.

A connector employing a plug assembly and socket assembly for coaxial cables having apertures, conductive elements, mating surfaces and locking mechanisms to maintain the electrical characteristics of the cable joined to the plug assembly, to hold the plug and socket physically in connection with one another, and to establish and maintain the electrical characteristics of the cables through the connector assembly. The plug is configured to attach to a coaxial cable in such a manner that: a) the center conductor of the coaxial cable extends through the plug assembly for engagement with mating conductors in the socket, and b) such that the shield of the cable is physically and electrically engaged by a conductive element extending through the plug which contacts the conductive elements within the socket. These two features establish electrical contact of the shield and center conductor into and through the connector. The connector includes a socket assembly having a receiving aperture formed therein for receiving the plug assembly. The socket assembly when configured for a cable-to-cable connection accepts a plug assembly at opposing ends and is configured to extend electrical connection between the inner and outer conductors of the coaxial cables when a plug is received in each of the receiving apertures; or, in the modified form, for connecting the coaxial cable to terminal equipment; or, in the second modified form, for adapting a standard male threaded connector to a socket assembly; or in the third modified form, for adapting a standard female threaded connector to a plug assembly; or in an alternate form of the invention, to provide a plug adaptor permitting use of the invention with cables having inner conductors that are insufficiently rigid for unaided use with the preferred and modified forms of the invention. The socket assembly includes an outer conductor element that is electrically isolated from inner conductive elements of the socket assembly that provide electrical continuity for the inner conductor of the cables. The connector assembly may incorporate a compressible conductive element placed at the junction of the outer conductors of the plug and socket. The outer conductor and inner conductor of the plug assembly and socket assembly are electrically connected when the plug is received in the receiving aperture. The plug and socket assemblies incorporate a snap-fit, locking mechanism to retain the plug and socket assemblies in mechanical and electrical connection with each other.

A fuel delivery system for an internal combustion engine of the type having an intake manifold selectively fluidly connected to a combustion chamber and a bypass gas flow passageway having an inlet open to the intake manifold and an outlet open to the intake manifold downstream for the inlet is disclosed. The system includes an electronically controlled throttle valve operatively disposed in the intake manifold and movable between an open and a closed position to control air flow through the intake manifold. An idle speed control valve is operatively disposed within the bypass gas flow passageway, and the idle speed control valve is also movable between an open and a closed position to control air flow through the bypass gas flow passageway. A control system controls the actuation of both the throttle valve and idle speed control valve to control the delivery of a combustible charge to the internal combustion engine to maximize engine efficiency and minimize noxious emissions. Optionally, a cold start fuel injector is disposed within the bypass gas flow passageway to provide the fuel charge to the engine during a cold start condition. In an alternate form of the invention, two electronically controlled throttle valves are disposed within the intake manifold to control both the air flow through the intake manifold as well as the air flow through the bypass gas flow passageway.

A guide for a video pipe inspection system that includes a camera head and a tubular coil spring having a central axis. A guide member with radially extending fins is configured to surround the tubular spring. At least one pin is removably engageable with the guide member and the tubular coil spring to retain the guide member in position with respect to the tubular coil spring. The straight segments of a pair of opposing U-shaped pins can be inserted into grooves in the guide member so that they extend between adjacent coils of the tubular coil spring. In alternate form, the guide member may include an inner capture ring assembly that receives the pins. An outer yoke assembly surrounds, and is freely rotatable about, the inner capture ring assembly and includes a pair of axles for rotatably supporting a pair of wheels that engage an interior wall of the pipe.

Various embodiments of the invention provide power factor correction in solid state lighting applications. In certain embodiments, an LED driver for an LED array is controlled for power factor correction by a control circuit block. The control circuit block comprises electronic circuitry that enables the input current to the LED driver to be measured and controlled. This control circuit block comprises at least one switching device that enables an alternating form of current at a particular frequency to be applied to the LED array regardless of whether the main power source is a DC or AC power source.

The present teachings provide methods and systems for the identification of proteins via peptide analysis. Some embodiments analyze proteins identified by analysis techniques such as mass spectrometry and build protein groups out of results. Groups can be formed by collecting like proteins and examining the group so as to identify if it is likely that only one form of a protein is present or, if there is enough evidence to support the presence of alternate forms. Various embodiments provide visual reports that can be interactive. These reports can allow a user to visualize relationships between proteins both intra- and inter-group. Methods are also introduced that can reduce the identification of false positives by taking into account a priori information.

A composite construction panel having a thin panel of concrete material and a reinforcing grid of sheet metal studs with embedment portions which are actually embedded into the concrete panel, each of the studs having a web, main web openings through the web, a right angular flange formed on a free edge of the web, an embedment angled flange portion formed along the opposite edge of the web, an edge strip formed on the angled flange at an angle thereto; and, spaced apart angled flange openings formed in the angled flange for flow of concrete therethrough. An alternate form of stud has a triangular tube structure along one edge of the web. Another form of stud has a discontinuous webs defining spaces between them. In one embodiment two concrete panels may be secured to the studs in spaced relation to create a hollow structure.

A multi-layer laminate media is provided on which information may be applied in machine or human readable form on a visible front surface by the output of one or more lasers, or other high intensity light source. In a preferred embodiment, the media has three layers including a substrate, a thermochromic layer and a light absorbent layer located intermediate the media substrate and the thermochromic layer. The light absorbent layer is adapted to absorb light from the light source and convert the absorbed light into heat. The heat is immediately conducted into selected portions of the thermochromic layer which is in thermal contact with the light absorbent layer, causing portions of the thermochromic layer to change visual appearance such as color to create the desired mark. The media optimally includes obscuration materials to reduce the visibility of the light absorbent layer to the naked eye. The light absorbent layer is preferably a low cost absorber such as carbon black. An alternate form of the invention is a two layer laminate media including a substrate and a thermochromic layer. The invention is usable in conjunction with labeling produce items. The invention includes a method and apparatus for using media in conjunction with labeling produce items.

An automatic clutch for automotive and other applications employs a control rod to manually control engagement and disengagement of the clutch independently of its speed of rotation, and in one form of invention can be employed in manual start motorcycles to engage the clutch for bumpstarting purposes before the engine is up to speed, and in an alternate form a control rod can be employed in electrically started bikes to lock the clutch against engagement whether or not the engine is up to the speed required for automatic engagement of the clutch. The control rod may either extend through the transmission shaft from one end of the clutch housing or may extend through the opposite end of the clutch housing, and in certain applications the hereinbefore described control rods can be combined to selectively control bumpstarting to manually effect clutch engagement or as a locking mechanism to prevent clutch engagement.

An automatic clutch for automotive and other applications employs a control rod to manually control engagement and disengagement of the clutch independently of its speed of rotation, and in one form of invention can be employed in manual start motorcycles to engage the clutch for bumpstarting purposes before the engine is up to speed, and in an alternate form a control rod can be employed in electrically started bikes to lock the clutch against engagement whether or not the engine is up to the speed required for automatic engagement of the clutch. The control rod may either extend through the transmission shaft from one end of the clutch housing or may extend through the opposite end of the clutch housing, and in certain applications the hereinbefore described control rods can be combined to selectively control bumpstarting to manually effect clutch engagement or as a locking mechanism to prevent clutch engagement.

By providing a pre-printed promotional holding system which can be produced in a wide variety of alternate forms and / or configurations and which employs a pre-folded, fully assembled panel system which is quickly and easily converted from a substantially flat configuration into a three-dimensional, fully constructed configuration, a hands-on, printed, visually exciting and interest generating advertising / promotional product and holding system is attained. This previously unattainable result is realized in the present invention. In the preferred embodiment, the panel system automatically produces, when moved into its three-dimensional configuration, a fully enclosed, rectangular shaped box incorporating an arcuately pivotable cover plate preferably associated with the top surface of the box. This unique, automatic box-forming construction is achieved by employing a single sheet of material formed and cut to effectively create two, cooperating, rectangular shaped, four sided, foldable panel assemblies, which are interconnected with each other and constructed in a fully integrated, cooperating relationship.

By providing a unique, pre-printed promotional / delivery system which can be produced in a wide variety of alternate forms and / or configurations incorporating at least two principal cooperating components mounted to each other, with one component being movable relative to a fixed holding component in response to action taken by the user, a unique, hands-on, printed, visually exciting and interest generating advertising / promotional product and / or delivery system is attained. In the preferred construction, the user action causes the movable component to move from a first position, wherein the movable component is fully retained in the holding component, to a second position, wherein the movable component extends outwardly from the holding component. In this way, a unique, user controlled, unanticipated and surprising result is achieved which enables any desired gift, display, award, certificate, prize, or promotion to be delivered in a unique manner.

Reduction deviations are rendered as dependent coordinate mappings of two-dimensional displacements which characterize restraints associated with deviations of observation sampling measurements from a fitting function. The mappings are considered to be represented by both projections and path coincident deviations. Data inversions are generated as loci and discriminated by criteria corresponding to deviations associated with alternate forms for representing essential weighting. Deficiencies related to nonlinearities and heterogeneous precision are compensated by essential weight factors.

A "Multi-domain Vertical Alignment Liquid Crystal Display" (MVA-LCD) with wide viewing angle is disclosed. The MVA-LCD includes an upper substrate, a lower substrate, a plurality of scan lines provided at the lower substrate in a matrix form and a plurality of data lines, as well as a plurality of pixel cells provided in the pixel areas. The MVA-LCD also includes a plurality of the first means provided in each pixel cell in a parallel form with spaces and a plurality of the second means provided at the upper substrate in a parallel and alternating form with respect to the first means. Moreover, the plurality of the first means and the corresponding plurality of the second means are disposed in a parallel and alternating form and are alternated with respect to each other in spaces. Therefore, the disclination lines are reduced, the transmittance is enhanced, and the response time is shortened. Meanwhile, because the first and second means are set in a cyclic disposition of mirror mapping with one pixel cell corresponding to another one, two pixel cells corresponding to the other two, or three pixel cells corresponding to the other three, the phenomenon of color shift is thereby eliminated.

Artificial disc devices are disclosed that restore correct anatomical intervertebral spacing for damaged discs while maintaining a substantially normal range of biomechanical movement for the vertebrae between which they are implanted. The disc devices include center bearing and outer or annular bearing portions with the center bearing portion including generally axially extending locating surfaces which cooperate with the facing vertebral surfaces to resist migration. The outer bearing portion is for load bearing or load sharing with the center bearing portion and includes surfaces that extend radially toward the periphery of the vertebrae so that subsidence about the center bearing portion is minimized. Alternate forms of the disc devices include one with an axially enlarged center ball bearing having an annular ring bearing extending thereabout and another having upper and lower plate members with a central bumper member and a surrounding resilient annular member therebetween.

An analyzer which collects magnetic particles for immunological analysis includes a magnetic separator adapted to efficiently separate within a short time a reaction product formed by bonding substances such as an object to be measured and the magnetic particles, and a nonmagnetic component other than the reaction product, from a liquid mixture in a vessel of the magnetic separator To perform the separation, a magnet complex having multiple magnets and magnetic materials stacked in alternate form so that magnetic pole pieces on opposed sides of each magnet are homopolar, is disposed outside the vessel that holds a liquid in which the magnetic particles are suspended.