Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090066703 | CONSTRAINT SCHEMES FOR COMPUTER SIMULATION OF CLOTH AND OTHER MATERIALS - Constraint schemes for use in the computer simulation and animation of cloth, clothing and other materials helps to prevent clothing from excessive stretching, bunching up in unwanted areas, or “passing through” rigid objects during collisions. Several types of constraint systems are employed, including the use of skinned vertices as constraints and axial constraints. In these schemes cloth simulated vertices are generated for the material using a cloth simulation technique, and skinned vertices are generated for the material using a skin simulation technique. One or more of the cloth simulated vertices are compared to the corresponding skinned vertices. The cloth simulated vertices are modified if they deviate from the corresponding skinned vertices by more than a certain amount. Vertical constraints are also employed, which involve generating a first set of vertices for the material using a cloth simulation technique, comparing a vertical component of each of the first set of vertices to a lower limit for each of the first set of vertices, and for each vertical component that falls below the lower limit, modifying the vertical component to be equal to the lower limit. | 03-12-2009 |
20100178965 | Tiled Objects in Digital Environments - Methods and systems for damaging objects in digital environments are provided. The objects may be defined by a number of tiles. Tiles may be joined together to form objects of various sizes, shapes, and facades. The tiles may be broken up or divided into smaller tiles as the objects sustain damage. These smaller tiles may be rejoined to the objects providing virtually unlimited ways in which the objects can be damaged. In addition, the objects may incorporate stress-related damage that allows the object to break or collapse under its own weight. | 07-15-2010 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090242652 | Power saving compressor and control logic - An air conditioner control method may entail measuring an evaporator first temperature at an exit side of the evaporator, maintaining the evaporator first temperature, measuring a length of time that the evaporator maintains the evaporator first temperature, providing a user-set evaporator target temperature; and reducing a rate of refrigerant compressed by a compressor based on a relationship between the length of time that the evaporator maintains the evaporator first temperature and the evaporator target temperature. Furthermore, an air conditioner control method utilizing a condenser and a cold storage unit may entail turning off an air conditioner compressor, maintaining operation of a condenser cooling fan, closing a thermostatic expansion valve, opening a bleed port to bypass the thermostatic expansion valve, and receiving a liquid refrigerant into the cold storage unit from the condenser after the refrigerant passes through a thermostatic expansion valve bleed port and the evaporator. | 10-01-2009 |
20100186440 | THERMAL STORAGE FOR CO2 SYSTEM - A climate control system may include a cooling system having a compressor in fluid communication with a condenser and a evaporator and circulating a first fluid therebetween; a first heat exchanger in fluid communication with the cooling system and operable to remove heat from a second fluid; a reservoir in fluid communication with the first heat exchanger and adapted to receive the second fluid; a pump in fluid communication with the first heat exchanger and the reservoir and circulating the second fluid therebetween; a second heat exchanger in selective fluid communication with the first heat exchanger, the reservoir and the pump; and a valve movable between a first position allowing fluid communication between the reservoir and the second heat exchanger and a second position preventing fluid communication between the reservoir and the second heat exchanger, wherein heat is absorbed by the second fluid flowing through the second heat exchanger. | 07-29-2010 |
20100229577 | CARBON DIOXIDE REFRIGERANT-COOLANT HEAT EXCHANGER - A climate control system may include a condenser, an evaporator, a compressor, a coolant circuit, and a heat exchanger. The evaporator may be in fluid communication with the condenser. The compressor may be in fluid communication with the condenser and the evaporator and may circulate a first fluid therebetween. The coolant circuit may include an engine, a radiator, and a second fluid circulating between the engine and the radiator. The heat exchanger may include a first fluid conduit and a second fluid conduit. The first fluid conduit may fluidly couple the compressor and the condenser. The second fluid conduit may fluidly couple the radiator and the engine. The heat exchanger may be configured to allow the second fluid to absorb heat from the first fluid. | 09-16-2010 |
20110239697 | EVAPORATOR UNIT - An evaporator unit comprising an evaporator, an internal heat exchanger defining a high pressure flow passage and a low pressure flow passage, an expansion device connected downstream of the high pressure flow passage of the internal heat exchanger and upstream of the evaporator. The internal heat exchanger is attached to the evaporator. With the above structure, the internal heat exchanger can utilize the remaining cooling capability of the refrigerant exiting from the evaporator for its greatest benefit. | 10-06-2011 |
20130145783 | POWER SAVING COMPRESSOR AND CONTROL LOGIC - An air conditioner control method may entail measuring an evaporator first temperature at an exit side of the evaporator, maintaining the evaporator first temperature, measuring a length of time that the evaporator maintains the evaporator first temperature, providing a user-set evaporator target temperature; and reducing a rate of refrigerant compressed by a compressor based on a relationship between the length of time that the evaporator maintains the evaporator first temperature and the evaporator target temperature. Furthermore, an air conditioner control method utilizing a condenser and a cold storage unit may entail turning off an air conditioner compressor, maintaining operation of a condenser cooling fan, closing a thermostatic expansion valve, opening a bleed port to bypass the thermostatic expansion valve, and receiving a liquid refrigerant into the cold storage unit from the condenser after the refrigerant passes through a thermostatic expansion valve bleed port and the evaporator. | 06-13-2013 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20130333402 | CLIMATE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR MOTOR VEHICLES AND METHODS OF OPERATING THE SAME - Climate control systems and methods of operating climate control systems for motor vehicles are provided herein. In one example, the method comprises the steps of expanding a condensed refrigerant stream with an expansion valve to form a partially expanded refrigerant stream. The partially expanded refrigerant stream comprises a refrigerant liquid phase and a refrigerant vapor phase. The partially expanded refrigerant stream is separated with a liquid-vapor separator into a refrigerant liquid stream and a refrigerant vapor stream. Heat is exchanged between air passing across or through an evaporator and the refrigerant liquid stream passing internally through and expanding in the evaporator to form a superheated refrigerant gas stream. | 12-19-2013 |
20140060101 | UNIDIRECTIONAL CLIMATE CONTROL SYSTEM - A climate control system for a vehicle with a passenger compartment includes a heater circuit, a cooler circuit, and a primary loop, all of which have fixed flow directions. The heater circuit is filled with a first liquid medium and has a heater core, and the cooler circuit is filled with a second liquid medium and has a cooler core. The heater and cooler cores are selectively in thermal communication with the passenger compartment. The primary loop includes a compressor and an expansion valve and is filled with a refrigerant medium. No portion of the primary loop is within the passenger compartment. A liquid-cooled condenser thermally links the heater circuit and primary loop. A liquid-warmed evaporator thermally links the cooler circuit and primary loop. The primary loop is in direct heat-exchange communication with one of the first liquid medium and the second liquid medium. | 03-06-2014 |
20140060102 | MILD AMBIENT VEHICULAR HEAT PUMP SYSTEM - A vehicular heat pump system for controlling the temperature of a passenger compartment and vehicle battery is provided. The heat pump system may include a cooling mode and a heating mode. The components of each of the respective heating and cooling circuits may include: a compressor, an AC condenser, a heat pump condenser, a cabin evaporator, a heat pump evaporator, a receiver/dryer, a plurality of expansion devices, and a plurality of flow control valves. The use of multiple evaporators and condensers eliminates the need to reverse the direction of refrigerant flow upon a change in operating mode; therefore, the position of the low-pressure side of the system remains constant in all operating modes. The low-pressure side of the system is not cooled with ambient air, minimizing the complexity of the system and eliminating the need to interrupt heating mode in order to de-ice the outside heat exchanger. | 03-06-2014 |
20140165631 | Refrigeration Compositions, Refrigeration Systems and Methods of Making, Operating and Using the Same - One variation may include a product including a mixture including CF3CF═CH2 and a lubricating oil or grease wherein the lubricating oil or grease that reduces eliminates the likelihood that the refrigerant will ignite. | 06-19-2014 |
20140182832 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING A COMBINED HEATING AND COOLING VAPOR COMPRESSION SYSTEM - A system and method for controlling a combined heating and cooling vapor compression system are provided. The apparatus may be a vehicle and may include a cabin, a vehicle battery, a Rechargeable Energy Storage System (RESS), and a vapor-compression system, having at least one controller, operable in a variety of modes selectable to facilitate cooling, heating, and dehumidification of the vehicle cabin. The method may include steps to adjust evaporator air temperature to control comfort, fogging and smell in the cabin by adjusting the compressor speed; regulate heat pump performance by adjusting the output of an electric heater and adjusting the flow of coolant through the RESS chiller; and evaluating and optimizing the discharge pressure and suction pressure of the compressor by adjusting the compressor speed and adjusting the coolant flow through the RESS chiller. | 07-03-2014 |
20140208775 | VEHICLE HEAT PUMP SYSTEM AND METHOD UTILIZING INTERMEDIATE GAS RECOMPRESSION - A vehicular heat pump system utilizing intermediate gas recompression is provided. The heat pump system is for use in a vehicle having a battery and a passenger compartment. The heat pump system may include a heating circuit and a cooling circuit each including a compressor having a first inlet and a second inlet and a vapour-liquid separator configured to separate intermediate pressure refrigerant supplied by a first expansion device into refrigerant in a gaseous state flowing therethrough and refrigerant in a liquid state flowing therethrough. The vapor-liquid separator may be configured to selectively inject refrigerant in a gaseous state into the compressor at the second inlet to increase the mass flow rate of the refrigerant. This allows the heat pump system to operate effectively in cold ambient temperatures. A method of operating a heat pump system utilizing intermediate gas recompression is also provided. | 07-31-2014 |
20140208789 | VEHICLE HEAT PUMP SYSTEM AND METHOD UTILIZING THERMAL STORAGE - A heat pump system for use in a vehicle having a passenger compartment, and a thermal storage medium is provided. A method for providing heat to a vehicle passenger compartment is also provided. The vehicle may have an electric only vehicle mode wherein the vehicle may occupy one of an active electric drive state and an inactive state. The heat pump system may include a thermal storage medium configured to store heat produced during the inactive state. The thermal storage medium may be a device which has a thermal capacity exchangeable with a fluid medium such as an Rechargeable Energy Storage System (RESS) or a phase change material. The heat stored by the thermal storage medium during the vehicle charge event may be transmitted from the thermal storage medium to the passenger compartment via the heat pump system during the active electric drive state. | 07-31-2014 |
20140216689 | VEHICULAR THERMAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD THEREOF - A thermal management system having a first heating device, such as a rechargeable energy storage system (RESS), and a second heating device, such as an internal combustion engine (ICE), for a vehicle is provided. The system may allow waste heat within an ICE to be stored in a RESS, and may cool the RESS by depositing heat in the ICE. The RESS and the ICE are located in a first coolant circuit and a second coolant circuit, respectively. The system also includes a third coolant circuit interconnected with the first coolant circuit, and in thermal communication with the second coolant circuit via a first heat exchanger. The first and third coolant circuits are configured to circulate a first coolant, and the second coolant circuit is configured to circulate a second coolant. The RESS and the ICE are each configured to selectively operate as a heat source or a heat sink. | 08-07-2014 |
20150027143 | CABIN EXHAUST AIR HEAT RECOVERY SYSTEM INCLUDING A HEAT PUMP SYSTEM HAVING A NON-FREEZING EVAPORATOR - A number of variations of the invention may include a product including a cabin exhaust air heat recovery system including a heat pump system having a non-freezing evaporator. | 01-29-2015 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080201646 | Tab Order Mapping of User Interfaces - An approach is provided to display a common display page on a variety of display devices using the item's tab order property to determine the display order. Controls that are displayed on a display device typically have a tab order. When a window that has controls is displayed, the cursor is typically placed at the control with the lowest (i.e., first) tab order. When the user presses the tab key, the cursor moves to the control corresponding to the next lowest tab order. This allows the designer to design a single window (or panel) that is displayed differently on constrained devices. However, even though the window is displayed differently, using tab order mapping maintains a consistent visible proximity between controls despite the type of display device being used by the user. | 08-21-2008 |
20100218030 | INTERACTIVE PROBLEM RESOLUTION PRESENTED WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF MAJOR OBSERVABLE APPLICATION BEHAVIORS - A system, method, and article of manufacture are disclosed for monitoring and resolving problems detected in the application stack. The application stack may include multiple, interpedently application components which collectively provide a unified service. An interactive problem resolution program may monitor and assist users in troubleshooting an application stack installed on a separate computer system. Generally, when a problem in the application stack is detected, the IPR Program may alert users to the problem and provide information about the problem to guide users in taking steps to correct the problem. | 08-26-2010 |
20110055619 | SYNCHRONIZING PROBLEM RESOLUTION TASK STATUS USING AWARENESS OF CURRENT STATE AND TRANSACTION HISTORY - Systems, methods and articles of manufacture are disclosed for synchronizing a transaction profile with a resolution status of a problem experienced by an application. The problem may be detected for the application. A transaction profile may be retrieved for the detected problem. The transaction profile may include a sequence of transactions to be performed on the system to remedy the open problem. Transactions occurring on the system may be monitored, and an instance of the transaction profile may be updated accordingly to create a synchronized transaction profile. | 03-03-2011 |
20140258817 | CONTEXT-BASED VISUALIZATION GENERATION - An apparatus includes memory, a processor and a visualization analysis unit coupled with the memory and the processor. The visualization analysis unit is configured to detect a visualizable subject matter contained within data. The visualization analysis unit is also configured to determine a context in which the visualizable subject matter appears. The visualization analysis unit is also configured to select a visualization engine from a plurality of visualization engines based, at least in part, on the context in which the visualizable subject matter appears. The visualization analysis unit is also configured to configure the visualization engine to generate a visualization of the visualizable subject matter. | 09-11-2014 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20140278363 | Enhanced Answers in DeepQA System According to User Preferences - A semantic search engine is enhanced to employ user preferences to customize answer output by, for a first user, extracting user preferences and sentiment levels associated with a first question; receiving candidate answer results of a semantic search of the first question; weighting the candidate answer results according to the sentiment levels for each of the user preferences; and producing the selected candidate answers to the first user. Optionally, user preferences and sentiment levels may be accumulated over different questions for the same user, or over different users for similar questions. And, supplemental information may be retrieved relative to a user preference in order to further tune the weighting per the preferences and sentiment levels. | 09-18-2014 |
20150154290 | Producing Visualizations of Elements in Works of Literature - A visualization of literary elements of a work of literature, such as a novel or short story, is generated from meta-data records representing a digital work of literature including literary elements (humor, drama, adventure, etc.), characters, and plot devices related to a position within the work of literature where each appears. A significance level is determined for each of the elements, characters and plot devices at each position within the work of literature, and these are plotted into a sequential graph having position (e.g. timeline) axis and a significance level axis. The sequential graph is then output for printing or display. Human-generated and machine-generated meta-data may be ingested equally well by the method. Colors, line thickness, and a broken line patterns may be employed for greater visual meaning. And, the sequential graph may be annotated according to segments (e.g. chapters, sections) and dominant genre within each segment. | 06-04-2015 |
20160103873 | Enhanced Answers in DeepQA System According to User Preferences - A semantic search engine is enhanced to employ user preferences to customize answer output by, for a first user, extracting user preferences and sentiment levels associated with a first question; receiving candidate answer results of a semantic search of the first question; weighting the candidate answer results according to the sentiment levels for each of the user preferences; and producing the selected candidate answers to the first user. Optionally, user preferences and sentiment levels may be accumulated over different questions for the same user, or over different users for similar questions. And, supplemental information may be retrieved relative to a user preference in order to further tune the weighting per the preferences and sentiment levels. | 04-14-2016 |