492 results about "Control zone" patented technology

Techniques for controlling zone group and zone group characteristics such as audio volume in a multi-zone system are disclosed. The multi-zone system includes a number of multimedia players, each preferably located in a zone. A controller may control the operations of all of the zone players remotely from any one of the zones. Two or more zone players may be dynamically grouped as a zone group for synchronized operations. According to one aspect of the techniques, a zone group configuration can be managed, updated, modified via an interactive user interface provided in a controlling device. The zone group configuration may be saved in one of zone players. According to another aspect of the techniques, the audio volume control of a zone group can be performed individually or synchronously as a group.

The present invention relates to microfluidic laminar flow detection strip devices and methods for using and making the same. The disclosed devices comprise: a first inlet; a microfluidic channel having a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is fluidly connected to the first inlet; a bellows pump fluidly connected to the second end of the microfluidic channel, wherein the bellows pump comprises an absorbent material disposed therein; a dried reagent zone within the microfluidic channel, wherein the dried reagent zone comprises a first reagent and a control reagent printed thereon, the first reagent comprising a first detection antibody conjugated to a dyed substrate bead or functionalized for colorimetric development, and the control reagent comprising a control detection antibody conjugated to a dyed substrate bead or functionalized for calorimetric development; a first bound antibody zone within the microfluidic channel, wherein the first bound antibody zone comprises a first bound antibody printed thereon; and a control zone within the microfluidic channel, wherein the control zone comprises a control bound antibody printed thereon.

An inventory system includes a first inventory holder positioned in a first climate-controlled zone of a workspace that is at a below-freezing temperature. The system also includes a second inventory holder positioned in a second climate-controlled zone that is at an above-freezing refrigerated temperature. The system also includes a third inventory holder positioned in a third climate-controlled zone that is at ambient conditions. The system also includes a management module operable to receive an order for the first inventory item, an order for the second inventory item, and an order for the third inventory item. The management module instructs a first mobile drive unit to transport the first inventory holder to an inventory station, instructs a second mobile drive unit to transport the second inventory holder to the inventory station, and instructs a third mobile drive unit to transport the third inventory holder to the inventory station.

A control system for operation of a remote vehicle comprises a twin-grip hand-held controller having a volume of less than 1 liter and a weight of less than 1 lb. The twin-grip hand-held controller includes: a left grip shaped to be held between a user's left little finger, ring finger, and the ball of the thumb, leaving the user's left index finger, middle finger, and thumb free; a left control zone adjacent to the left grip, including a first analog joystick and a first 4-way directional control manipulable by the left thumb, and a left rocker control located on a shoulder portion of the controller; a right handed grip shaped to be held between the user's right little finger, ring finger, and the ball of the thumb, leaving the user's left index finger, middle finger, and thumb free; a right control zone adjacent the right grip, including a second analog joystick and a second 4-way directional control manipulable by the right thumb, and a right rocker control located on a shoulder portion of the controller; a tether zone between the left control zone and the right control zone, including a tether anchor configured to tether the hand controller between the left grip and the right grip and to permit the hand controller to hang with the left grip and right grip pointing upward; a tether extending from the tether anchor to the right shoulder of an operator, the tether including a strain relief section. A quick-release pad is worn on an operator's chest, the quick-release pad including a first fastener for affixing the quick-release pad to available mounts on the operator, and a second quick-release fastener for holding the hand-held controller to the quick-release pad to be readily removable by pulling on the hand-held controller.

There is provided a lateral flow assay device for detecting the presence or quantity of an analyte residing in a test sample where the lateral flow assay device has a porous membrane in communication with a conjugate pad and a wicking pad. The porous membrane has a detection zone where a test sample is applied and which has an immobilized first capture reagent configured to bind to at least a portion of the analyte and analyte-conjugate complexes to generate a detection signal. The control zone is located downstream from the detection zone on the porous membrane and has a second capture reagent immobilized within the control zone. The conjugate pad is located upstream from the detection zone, and has detection probes with specific binding members for the analyte. A buffer release zone is located upstream of the conjugate zone and provides for buffer addition to the device, the buffer serving to move the detection probes to the detection and control zones.

A thermostat adjustment system for efficiently conserving energy within a thermostatically controlled zone. The thermostat adjustment system generally includes a transmitter unit having a toggle button in communication with a thermostat to toggle the thermostat set point between a normal set point and an alternate set point.

An absorbent article that contains a lateral flow assay device for testing a bodily fluid, such as urine, blood, mucous, saliva, etc., is provided. The lateral flow assay device includes a chromatographic medium (e.g., porous membrane) that defines a detection zone that provides a signal indicative of the presence or absence of the analyte. The device may also include a control zone that provides a signal indicative of whether a sufficient amount of bodily fluid has been provided and tested. Regardless of its specific configuration, the lateral flow assay device is integrated into the absorbent article to provide a user or caregiver with rapid information about a health condition. For example, the device may be integrated into a diaper to provide information about the presence of enzymes or other compounds often encountered with a patient having a urinary tract infection. This information may provide an early warning system to allow the user or caregiver to seek additional testing and/or treatment. Alternatively, semi-quantitative or quantitative results may be derived from the test.

Disclosed is a lighting system supporting multiple independently controlled zones utilizing a plurality of semiconductor switches coupled to a plurality of transformers to produce a non-sinusoidal power output and controlled by a digital controller that receives feedback from each zone in order to auto-sense the proper voltage for a plurality of connected loads.

A fluid separation system includes a tank with a storage chamber for retaining floating and non-floating particulates. The tank includes a baffle for retaining floating particulates within the storage chamber and for directing flow out of the storage chamber. The tank also includes a bypass with an inlet flow control zone and an outlet flow control zone. The flow control zones are separated by a weir sized and positioned to regulate the fluid flow through a baffle port into the storage chamber. The weir also provides control of the flow rate at which incoming fluid is diverted directly through the bypass to the tank outlet rather than into the storage chamber. The baffle and/or the weir may be curved, and the baffle may include a complex curve, to aid in the smoothing of the fluid flow within the storage chamber to improve particulate separation.

A subject area extracting unit extracts a main-subject area from the color image data; a correction amount calculating unit calculates a gradation correction amount based on the information on the thus-extracted main-subject area; a control zone extracting unit extracts a predetermined control zone from a brightness zone to which the main-subject area does not belongs; a determining unit determines whether or not the gradation correction amount on the control zone should be controlled, according to a predetermined control requirement; and a control unit controls the gradation correction amount according to the determination result of the determination unit.

Apparatus, systems and methods for ascertaining the occupancy of a building are presented. The building is divided into one or more control zones which correspond to physical areas of the building associated with controllable modules, such as HVAC units, lighting, irrigation, or other environmental features such as fountains, music, video, and the like. Zone parameters define how zone devices shall react to the number of occupants located in the particular zone. A building control system detects individual mobile devices in and around the building, and determines the locations of each device by using trilateration and/or location services. The identified mobile devices act as proxies for building occupants. The locations of these devices are correlated with the locations of the zones in the building, and the building control system then adjusts the operating parameters of the zone based on the number of devices present in the zone.

In the present invention, when a solid object is recognized in the direction of movement of an own vehicle, in a system which carries out driving support of a vehicle, turning control of the vehicle is carried out in order to avoid a collision with the solid object. However, the execution of the turning control is permitted, in cases where a distance between the position of the own vehicle under turning control and the position of the solid object in an entire range of a turning control zone continuous between a predetermined control starting point at which the turning control of the own vehicle is started and a predetermined control ending point at which the turning control ends becomes equal to or less than a predetermined avoidance distance at which it is determined to avoid the collision with the solid object.

Disclosed is a test device and a method for qualitatively and/or quantitatively measuring the concentration of an analyte in a biological fluid sample. The test device includes a housing defining a sample port, a test well containing a stirrer and a conjugate, and a test strip disposed within the housing. The test well is also defined by being located between the sample port and the test strip. Fluid flows from the test well onto the test strip, which has a trapping zone which binds the analyte and allows for its detection. A control zone may also be included. The test device is generally adapted to use a sandwich assay. Also disclosed is a system comprising the test device and a signal sensing device; and a method for using the test device.

A vehicle control apparatus that performs driving assist control on an entrance ramp or an exit ramp connected to a main road having a different safe cruising speed limit than the entrance ramp or the exit ramp. The control apparatus includes a broken line detecting device that detects a broken line marked on the road and divides the main road and the entrance ramp or the exit ramp and a controller that determines a control zone of the driving assist control based on the broken line detection results from the broken line detecting device. For example, the vehicle control apparatus detects the broken line that divides a main road and an exit ramp using the broken line detecting device and starts driving assist control using the controller when it is detected that an accelerator pedal has been released.

A system and method for controlling navigation of a vehicle carrying hazardous materials includes a control module carried on-board the vehicle storing an information matrix containing hazardous material classifications associated with the identity and location of restricted sites. Each site and material pair has associated with it a control zone around it from which the hazardous material is restricted. The control module includes a positioning device that produces a signal indicating the vehicle's current position, which is compared to the coordinates for the control zones. If the vehicle crosses into a control zone, the system generates a warning to the operator. Further penetration causes the system to order a shutdown of the vehicle engine to prevent further movement.

A method of controlling autonomous or driverless vehicles in a specific control zone or in a convoy is disclosed. The vehicles enter the zone or form a convoy and come under the control of a zone authority or escort vehicle that coordinates the movements of the vehicles until they leave the zone or convoy. Escort vehicles communicate with central control facilities, each other or escorted vehicles. The behavior of the escorted or controlled vehicles is modified to insure that it matches a set of rules established by the zone authority. Possible zones include parking areas, indoor passages and areas with security concerns. The zone authority or escort vehicle may simultaneously control multiple autonomous vehicles and possible additional driver operated vehicles. Messages establishing control or providing continuing administration of rules or movements of escorted or controlled vehicles may be delivered by any type of communications link.

Method and apparatus for controlling a conveyor system including a conveyor zone having a plurality of conveyor regions. A zone controller is configured to track the position of one or more articles within a controlled zone. The zone controller may be operatively coupled to controllers of adjacent zones, and may receive and transmit data relating to the position of articles in the controlled zone and whether the zone is accepting articles from the other controllers. Articles are moved within the controlled zone by selectively activating the zone based on determined positions of articles within the controlled zone, the positions of articles within adjacent zones, and/or the operating mode of the zone. The zone controller may thereby operate cooperatively with adjacent zones to manage spacing between articles by selectively positioning multiple articles within the zone, and may accumulate or discharge articles from the conveyor system in a desired arrangement.

The invention provides a terminal. The terminal comprises a trajectory generating unit, an operation range analysis unit and a zone setting unit, wherein the trajectory generating unit is used for generating a corresponding hand gesture trajectory according to a sensed sliding hand gesture; the operation range analysis unit is used for analyzing the one-handed operation range of a user according to the position of the hand gesture trajectory on a screen interface of the terminal; and the zone setting unit is used for setting a concentrated control zone in the one-handed operation range. The invention further provides a terminal operation and control method. Through the technical scheme of the invention, the concentrated control zone can be arranged in a position on the screen interface of the terminal, most suitable for the operation of the user, according to hand gesture operation of the user, so that the one-handed operation of the user is facilitated.

The invention discloses an autonomous formation flight control method for satellites. Formation flight control is carried out through relative orbit mean elements, and due to the fact that a long-term trend of relative movement between the satellites is accurately reflected through the relative orbit mean elements, long-term changes of the relative movement can be well controlled with the method. The autonomous formation flight control method is characterized in that a mean semi-major axis difference control strategy in an orbital plane is designed, the mode that control targets are set in a partitioned mode is adopted, and it is guaranteed that the drift speeds within control zones are low; when outside the control zones, the control targets can return to the control zones at high speeds. According to the autonomous formation flight control method, due to the mode that small-pulse air injecting is used for orbit control multiple times, and a momentum wheel is used for posture control, influences of posture air injection control on orbits are reduced, and the orbit control execution accuracy is improved.

The invention discloses a self-locking control method for controlling road network traffic through urban signal lamps, which comprises the following steps: (1) determining a controlled zone boundary; (2) constructing a control matrix gij(k) according to the conditions of signal lamps at each intersection of the controlled zone boundary to be used as a split ratio matrix of signal phases entering the controlled zone; setting the optimal accumulated number of vehicles in the controlled zone as M, and determining the minimum value and the maximum value of the split ratio matrix of the phases at each intersection in the controlled zone according to the shortest crossing time of pedestrians and the allowed maximum queue length at each intersection; and (3) if X(k) is less than M, setting the signal lamps at each intersection of the controlled zone boundary according to MAX gij(k)=gij, and if X(k) is greater than M, setting the signal lamps at each intersection of the controlled zone boundary according to MIN gij(k)=gij, thereby realizing the self-locking control of the road network traffic through urban signal lamps. By controlling based on observation, the invention can effectively prevent the supersaturated traffic state and traffic deadlock of the road network.