Systems and methods for using an evidence grid to eliminate ambiguities in an interferometric radar

US Patent 8,391,553
March 5, 2013
A system includes an Interferometric radar that transmits a first detection signal over a first spatial region and a second detection signal over a second spatial region. The second region has a first sub-region in common with the first region. The system further includes a processing device that assigns a first occupancy value to a first cell in an evidence grid. The first cell represents the first sub-region, and the first occupancy value characterizes whether an object has been detected by the first detection signal as being present in the first sub-region. The processing device calculates, based on the first and second detection signals, the probability that the first occupancy value accurately characterizes the presence of the object in the first sub-region, and generates a data representation of the first sub-region based on the probability calculation.

Dynamically located onscreen keyboard

US Patent 8,390,572
March 5, 2013
A touch-sensitive display surface having touch-capacitive and vibration sensors. This surface allows the user to rest their fingers on the keys of an onscreen keyboard and type as they would on a regular keyboard. As the user places their fingers on the touch screen, the system relocates the onscreen keyboard to the location where the fingers are resting. The touch sensors report the signal strength level of each key touched to a processor, but no keystroke is issued by the processor until a corresponding “tap” (i.e., vibration) is detected. When a tap is detected, the processor references the status of the touch capacitance sensors before, during, and/or immediately after the moment in time the tap occurred. The size, position, and orientation of the onscreen keyboard keys are dynamically set as determined by the user initiating a home-row definition event by resting their fingers momentarily on a virtual home-row.

Detection device and method for detecting occupancy of a seat using a light guide force sensor

US Patent 8,389,879
March 5, 2013
To allow more reliable detection of occupancy of a seat by a person, the invention includes a detection device for detecting occupancy of a seat, in particular of a vehicle seat or motor vehicle seat, comprising at least one elongate light guide having at least one elongate core element and at least one elongate sheath at a distance from the core element. The light guide is deformable by mechanical actuation means in at least one direction running perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the light guide by the deformation brought about by the seat being occupied causes the light to exit from the light guide on the side opposite the mechanical means.

Biased plunge pin assembly

US Patent 8,388,457
March 5, 2013
A vehicle, such as off road vehicle, includes a plunge pin assembly located in a flexible joint, which maybe actuated without tools to decouple and thus remove a driven system from a driving system. The plunge pin assembly includes a plunge pin biased to an installed position such that a clip of the plunge pin assembly retains the driven system to the driving system during operation of a vehicle. The clip (e.g., circlip, snap ring, coil spring or crest wave spring) is circumferentially contractable and expandable. A transfer element cooperates with tapered and recessed contours of the plunge pin to permit the aforementioned actuation of the clip. Movement of the transfer pin along with contraction of the clip allows the driven system to be decoupled from the driving system. The plunge pin may include a head portion positioned at a desired distance from a drive axle of the driven system.

Slurry flow control device

US Patent 8,387,655
March 5, 2013
A system for controlling slurry flow through a flexible-walled transport tube. An example system includes a frame, a pivot pin, a rotatable radial arm having an attached pressure pad, a spring tension adjustment rod extending between the radial arm and the frame, and a coil spring concentric with the spring tension adjustment rod and configured to oppose rotation of the radial arm away from a flexible-walled transport tube contacting the pressure pad. In one operating condition, a decrease in the pressure of the slurry within the transport tube reduces the force applied by the slurry outward on the tube wall, leading the spring to rotate the radial arm toward the tube, causing the contact pad to deflect the wall of the flexible-walled transport tube and impeding the flow of slurry through the tube.

First to File, Other Patent Rules Effective March 16

February 28, 2013 | Intellectual Property News
The fist-inventor-to-file provision of the America Invents Act takes effect on March 16, 2013. After a long history of granting patents to the first applicant to invent an invention, the new law will now award a patent to the first applicant to file an application for the invention. Under the old system, an applicant faced with a rejection based on prior art could submit proof in the form of contemporaneous notes or the like to establish a date of invention earlier than that of the prior art reference. Because the system was focused on the first to invent, retaining good notes, prototypes, or other proof of the invention date was important. Under the new system, the invention date will no longer matter for priority purposes. Instead, the importance of the filing date makes it crucial to file an application at the earliest stage possible. There are many additional changes that accompany the migration to the first-to-file system, and surely too many to address fully in this account. As such, this report will highlight some of the more notable provisions of the new law. The new law also brings changes to the definitions of prior art and activities that will prevent an applicant from getting a patent. Under the old law, an applicant was barred from a patent if the invention was on sale more than a year before the patent application date. Judicial interpretations of the prior law concluded that almost any sale was a barring event, even if it was under a nondisclosure agreement and even if the buyer could not decipher the inventive subject matter. As one example, the use of a trade secret method to produce a product that is sold would place the method on sale even if the method was actually completely unknown to the public. The Patent Office’s current interpretation of the new law is that such private processes are not commercial uses available to the public. Consequently, it appears permissible to seek patent applications for such processes even if they have been used for many years—assuming, of course, that there is no other prior art lurking, and no other applicants who file applications first. Note that this interpretation is somewhat preliminary; although the Patent Office has adopted it for the purpose of evaluating patentability, the courts may disagree. Accordingly, there is risk in assuming that a privately conducted method, or a sale under an NDA, will not be a commercial event triggering the on-sale bar to patentability. Another change relates to the treatment of public disclosures that might bar patentability. Under the first-to-invent system, an applicant could defeat a publication showing that a third party had developed the same invention by submitting proof that the patent applicant invented the invention before the third party. Under the new first-to-file rule this is no longer allowable: if the same invention is available to the public, through a published document or otherwise, before the date of the application then the applicant will not be entitled to a patent. The key exception to this rule relates to public disclosures made by the applicant or derived from the applicant, which are not prior art against the applicant so long as the application is filed within one year of the disclosure. The Patent Office seems to intend to treat this exception very narrowly, and under its current examination guidelines the disclosure may still qualify as prior art unless it is essentially a verbatim copy of the patent applicant’s own work. If the public disclosure is a variation of the applicant’s work then it may be treated as prior art, thereby barring the patent from issuing. Given the risks involved in such publications, the best course is to file an application before any public disclosures. The first-to-file rules do not apply retroactively, and therefore do not apply to any applications filed prior to March 16, 2013. Likewise, the old rules related to prior art, commercialization, and public disclosures will still apply to such applications. Because the old rules may be preferable, most applicants will be better off if they file applications prior to March 16. For applications filed on or after that date, the applicability of either the new or old rules depends on the nature of the application. A request for continued examination for an application filed before March 16, 2013, as well as the filing of a national stage application for a pre-March 16, 2013 PCT application, will not subject the application to the new first-to-file rules even if the RCE or national stage application is filed after March 16. For applications filed on or after March 16, 2013, the application will be treated under the new first-to-file rules if the application contains even a single claim that has an effective filing date of March 16 or later. Thus, all new applications with no priority claims to prior-filed applications will be treated under the new rules. Likewise, any continuation in part application that includes one or more claims that rely on subject matter submitted after March 16, 2013 will also be treated under the new rules. Once such a claim is submitted in an application it is processed under the new rules for all time, even if the triggering claim is later canceled. The Patent Office is also raising its fees, effective March 19, 2013. While the Patent Office routinely raises its fees at least annually, in this case the increases are hefty. For example, a utility patent application previously required a small entity filing fee of $533 under the old rules, but will cost $730 under the new rules. For large entities, these basic filing fees increase from $1260 to $1600. A further change creates a new “micro entity” for filing purposes, with a micro entity being small entities with four or fewer prior patent applications, a gross income that does not exceed three times the national median household income, and has not granted rights in the invention to an entity with an income greater than three times the national median. For a micro entity, the basic filing fee is $400.

Methods for reduced stress anchors

US Patent 8,383,442
February 26, 2013
Methods of anchoring components of a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) device to a substrate. An exemplary embodiment has a trace anchor bonded to a substrate, a device anchor bonded to the substrate, and an anchor flexure configured to flexibly couple the trace anchor and the device anchor to substantially prevent transmission of a stress induced in the trace anchor from being transmitted to the device anchor.

Systems and methods for rapid updating of embedded text in radar picture data

US Patent 8,373,580
February 12, 2013
Systems and methods for efficiently updating text or symbol annunciations outputted by an avionics system on legacy displays. Instead of using a set sweeping pattern to update the display, a smart updating concept is used. The smart updating concept senses when the pilot is adjusting the selected altitude control (or other user interface device that will alter displayed annunciations), then gives priority to updating the radial lines on the display that contain the annunciation field. Once the annunciation field has been updated, the display returns to normal operation.

Adjustable steering assembly

US Patent 8,381,611
February 5, 2013
A vehicle, such as an all-terrain or utility-terrain vehicle, includes a telescoping, adjustable, steering assembly. The steering assembly includes a steering device that is coupled to the steering assembly, which can be adjusted to increase or decrease the height of the steering device. The steering assembly may include a detent member, a steering post, a yoke, a collar, and a biasing member. The steering post includes axially spaced arcuate grooves where a detent member is seated and held in place with a collar. The collar includes a tapered internal surface for applying lateral pressure to the detent member to lock the yoke in place relative to the steering post. Without the use of tools, the collar may be moved to release the lateral pressure on the detent member, which in turn permits the yoke to be moved relative to the steering post—resulting in adjustment of the steering device.

Vehicle seat with a base frame and a seat frame moveable relative to that base frame

US Patent 8,366,195
February 5, 2013
The invention relates to a vehicle seat comprising a base frame and comprising a seat frame which can be adjusted relative to the base frame, and comprising a gas spring which acts between this base frame and this seat frame and which is supported against the seat frame, wherein at least one pressure source and at least one valve device which is in fluid connection with this pressure source are provided, and in that furthermore a manually operated actuation element is provided for adjusting the vehicle seat, wherein this at least one valve device is arranged on or in the actuation element.