86 results about "Below threshold level" patented technology

The present invention relates to an electronic circuit and an array of such circuits for precisely measuring small amounts or small changes in the amount of charge, voltage, or electrical currents. One embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic circuit for measuring current or charge that can be used with a variety of sensing media (including high impedance sensing media) that produce a signal by either charge or current production or induction in response to physical phenomena occurring within the sensing media. In another embodiment, the voltage level (bias) of either the sensing or reference electrode can be switched relative to the other upon receipt of a triggering pulse. This changes the polarity of the electric field to cause charge of the opposite polarity to be driven to the sensing electrode, thereby eliminating the need to electrically connect a discharge path to the sensing electrode to clear the charge accumulated at the sensing electrode. This can be supplemented by capacitively coupling a compensation signal to the sensing electrode to cause the amplifier output signal to lessen in magnitude below a threshold level that permits additional charge or current measurements of the same polarity before performing bias reversal. Alternately or in combination with bias reversal and capacitive compensation, sensor performance can be improved by minimizing inaccuracies caused by leakage currents or current drawn from the sensor. Other described methods of reducing leakage currents that can be used alone or in combination with the aforementioned features include the use of guard rings, physical switches or relays, the controlled creation of charges or currents of a specific polarity in a specific region of the sensing medium, controlled leakage over the surface of an insulator, and controlling the environment in which the circuit operates.

The present invention provides improved devices and methods for inhibiting restenosis and hyperplasia after intravascular intervention. In particular, the present invention provides luminal prostheses which allow for programmed and controlled substance delivery with increased efficacy to selected locations within a patient's vasculature to inhibit restenosis. The luminal delivery prosthesis comprises a scaffold which is implantable within a body lumen and means on the scaffold for releasing a substance from the scaffold. The substance is released over a predetermined time pattern comprising an initial phase wherein the substance delivery rate is below a threshold level and a subsequent phase wherein the substance delivery rate is above a threshold level.

Systems, devices and methods for managing charging and power status for portable devices are disclosed. The systems, devices and methods of the present invention comprise determining existing battery level and charge status of a device, comparing the battery level and charge status with predicted battery usage of tasks associated with calendar events scheduled to take place before the next charge, and transmitting an alert to one or more devices when a threshold likelihood that the battery level will not be sufficient for the predicted battery usage is exceeded. The present invention advantageously displays available power based on time available for certain tasks, and manages device power and resources by modifying and/or transferring tasks from a device having a battery level below a threshold level to one or more other devices with a higher battery levels.

Current network switching architectures require communication with a higher level network control plane, which can be slow to reroute communications, resulting in unacceptable losses of communications for customers. Examples embodiments of the present invention reroute communications faster detecting optical power of an optical signal at optical switches coupled via optical communication paths, and causing at least one optical communication path between a first optical switch and second optical switch to switch to an alternative optical communication path, in part, through physical layer triggering in an event optical power at at least one of the first or second optical switches falls below a threshold level. Switching in response to physical layer triggering may result in reduced switching times and, consequently, faster restoration of communications to customers after a network fault interruption.

Disclosed is a lighting unit comprising at least one light emitting diode (50), means for supplying power to the light emitting diode (50), and a motor driven pump means (18) for generating a stream of fluid for cooling the light emitting diode (50). The pump means is mounted in a resiliently compressible member (48) for absorbing vibrations produced by the pump means (18) which reduces the level of noise produced by the lighting unit. The lighting unit has control means operable to gradually increase or decease the speed of operation of the pump means in response to the power dissipation of the light emitting diode exceeding or falling below, respectively, a threshold level, which makes the noise produced by the pump means less noticeable.

A pillow relies on a shell containing two types of fill material, one comparatively smaller, granular, and characterized by a comparatively larger spring constant, and another comparatively larger, more chunky in shape, and characterized by a comparatively smaller spring constant. Below a threshold level of force (or pressure, which is force per unit area) the larger, softer, second fill material resists flow of the smaller, harder, stiffer fill material. However, upon application of a force (or pressure) above some threshold, the mixture of the two fill materials will flow to conform the pillow to the shape of a user. The pillow will then substantially stabilize in that shape in the absence of forces above the threshold level.

A refrigeration appliance interior lighting system for sensing the exterior light level and adjusting the light level accordingly within the interior of the home appliance. The refrigeration appliance interior lighting system includes a control unit in electrical communication with a first light bulb for controlling the illumination intensity of the first light bulb. A light sensor is positioned to measure the exterior light level and communicates the exterior light level to the control unit. When the exterior light level is above a threshold level, the first light bulb emits a high level of illumination. When the exterior light level is below the threshold level, the first light bulb emits a low level of illumination.

A portable, combination dehydrator, dry return air and condensed water generator/dispenser configured to reduce the humidity in a dry storage unit. In one embodiment, a system draws intake air from the dry storage unit across the condenser of a heat exchanger and condenses water from the air, collecting the water in a storage tank. The dried return air is ducted into the dry storage unit. In one embodiment, the source of the intake air may be selected from either the dry storage unit or an alternative source (e.g., outside air.) The selection of the intake air source may be based on the humidity of the air (e.g., if the humidity of the air in the dry storage unit is above a threshold, the dry storage unit is selected.) If both of the alternate sources of intake air have humidities below a threshold level, operation of the system may be suspended.

Methods and apparatuses of detecting the beginnings and endings of scenes in video media, especially videotapes of “Reality TV” scenes, are disclosed. The video medium defines an array of pixels, and comprises a sequence of video frames. Each frame has a set of pixel data values for representing an image, with each pixel data value being associated with a pixel. Exemplary methods and apparatuses select a plurality of video frames from the video medium, and obtain the pixel data values of a subset of pixels of each selected frame. The pixel subsets of at least one pair of successive frames have a difference in the selection of pixels. A dispersion signal representative of the dispersion in the obtained pixel data values over a set of sequential frames is generated, and a signal is generated to indicate an end of a scene when the dispersion signal falls below a threshold level.

A drinking apparatus includes a drinking receptacle, a liquid reservoir, a pump, a controller, and a liquid detector. The liquid reservoir has a liquid outlet for dispensing liquid into the drinking receptacle. The pump has an inlet in liquid communication with the drinking receptacle, and an outlet in liquid communication with the reservoir. The controller is configured to control the operation of the pump. The liquid level detector is configured to detect when the level of liquid in the reservoir is below a first threshold level. The controller is responsive to the liquid level detector to operate the pump to pump liquid from the drinking receptacle into the reservoir when the liquid level detector indicates that the level of liquid in the reservoir is below the threshold level, and the controller is configured to deactivate the pump at the end of a pumping period.

The present invention relates to a driver device (10) for driving a load (14), in particular a light unit (14) having one or more light emitters, comprising input terminals for receiving an input voltage (V10) from an external power source (12), output terminals for providing electrical power to the load for powering the load (14), a driver stage (16) connected to the input terminals and to the output terminals, wherein the driver stage (16) is adapted to control an input current (I1) drawn from the external power supply (I2) and to control the electrical power provided to the output terminal shaving a predefined level, a detection device (24) for measuring at least one electrical parameter (V10, V12, I2, V20) of the driver stage (16) and for determining an input voltage deviation from predefined supply conditions on the basis of the electrical parameter (V10, V12, I2, V20), wherein the driver stage (16) is adapted to control the input current (I1) according to predefined conditions if the input voltage deviation is lower than a threshold level (63) and to allow a deviation of the input current (I1) from the predefined conditions if the input voltage deviation exceeds the threshold level (63).

A circuit for altering a level of impedance presented to a power supply including a power supply line includes an energy dissipating circuit, a detection circuit configured to generate a control signal indicative of a power consumption level in a load circuit coupled to the power supply line, and an activation circuit configured to controllably couple the energy dissipating circuit to the power supply line in response to the control signal. Methods of operating a solid state lighting apparatus including a power supply and a solid state lighting device coupled to the power supply include detecting a level of power consumption by the solid state lighting device, and coupling an energy dissipating circuit to the power supply in response to the level of power consumption by the solid state lighting device falling below a threshold level.

A client computer may be configured to perform computer security operation services, such as malicious code scanning and protection against online threats, using one of several remotely located server computers. The client computer may be configured to determine an operational state of the server computers and determine a protection status of the client computer resulting from use of a server computer of a particular operational state. The protection status may have one of at least three levels and indicate vulnerability of the client computer. The client computer may determine the operational state of a server computer based on available bandwidth for network communication between the client computer and the server computer. The client computer may be configured to allow for automatic or manual selection of another server computer when the currently selected server computer results in the client computer having a protection status below a threshold level.

A method and apparatus for providing a load balanced circuit path between a source node and a destination node within a SONET ring comprising a plurality of nodes and connected by links by iteratively selecting facilities within a link that have bandwidth utilization levels that are below a threshold level. In an alternative embodiment, an alternate path is selected in case facilities meeting the threshold level can not be found. The threshold level is changed incrementally if facilities and links within the first path and/or alternate path do not meet the threshold levels.

An effective and simple psychoacoustic bass generation system generates a harmonic signal having inter-modulation controllable to remain below a threshold level and includes a high-pass filter configured to pass harmonics which are reproducible with fidelity by the loudspeaker or other transducer and a loudness matching block configured to compensate the loudness of the desired harmonics to match the loudness of the original signal.

A method for ablating tissue comprising controlling a heating element using a variable phase angle control to heat an ablation fluid to a desired temperature and determining a heating percentage corresponding to a percentage of a maximum available heating power represented by a current level of power supplied to the heating element and, when the heating percentage remains below a threshold level for a predetermined period of time, indicating a flow obstruction condition of the fluid.

Methods and apparatus are provided for a control of closed captioning based on an audio volume level. A content receiver detects that a volume of an audio of a video presentation has been adjusted by a user, and determines the adjusted audio volume level that results from the adjustment. The content receiver compares the resulting adjusted audio volume level to a threshold level. When the content determines that the adjusted audio volume level is under the threshold level, it enables closed captioning of the video presentation, thus presenting the user with both audio and closed captioning. When the content receiver determines that the adjusted audio volume level is above the threshold level, it disables closed captioning for the video presentation. The content receiver may use a microphone to determine the adjusted audio volume level.

A method for executing a training program based on player DNA is described. The method includes executing a video game and determining whether a skill level of a user is below a threshold level of play. The method includes generating a task that relates to a current level of play of the video game in which the skill level is below the threshold level and transitioning the video game to a training video game program having the task to increase the current level of play. The method includes executing the training video game program and monitoring the skill level for the task in the training video game program. The method includes determining whether the skill level for the task exceeds the threshold level. The method includes returning to an execution of the video game upon determining that the skill level for the task exceeds the threshold level.

A system for providing dynamic queue splitting to maximize throughput of queue entry processing while maintaining the order of queued operations on a per-destination basis. Multiple queues are dynamically created by splitting heavily loaded queues in two. As queues become dormant, they are re-combined. Queue splitting is initiated in response to a trigger condition, such as a queue exceeding a threshold length. When multiple queues are used, the queue in which to place a given operation is determined based on the destination for that operation. Each queue in the queue tree created by the disclosed system can store entries containing operations for multiple destinations, but the operations for a given destination are all always stored within the same queue. The queue into which an operation is to be stored may be determined as a function of the name of the operation destination. Just as a single queue may be split into two queues, if one of the two queues starts backing up, the disclosed system may further split that queue into two. Thus each queue in the queue tree may be split into two new queues if its performance falls below a threshold level. Successively more bits from a function applied to destination names for operations may be used to determine specific queues into which operations should be placed as the depth of the queue tree increases.

An apparatus and method for ascertaining states of a telephone line. A communication device, such as a modem, is coupled to a telephone line that also has other communication device or devices coupled to the line. The state of the line is determined before the modem goes off-hook. An energy level of a capacitor that is coupled to the telephone line is ascertained by a data pump of the modem. Should the energy level of the capacitor exceed a threshold, then the telephone line is in use and the modem does not go off-hook. If the energy level is at or below the threshold level, then the modem goes off-hook. In another implementation, an energy profile is established for the other communication devices when they transition from an on hook state to an off hook state and vise versa. The energy profile can be detected by the data pump to ascertain the state of the telephone line or the state of the communication device. The disclosed technique provides an elegant way of ascertaining the state of the telephone line without the addition of hardware. By ascertaining the state of the telephone line, the modem can avoid interfering with the other communication devices on the telephone line.