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Donovan, CA

Bian Donovan, San Jose, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20080249603APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MEDICAL PROCEDURES WITHIN A SPINE - Devices and methods for performing a procedure within a spine are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method includes expanding an expandable member to move a tissue portion and form a cavity within an interior of a bone-related structure. At least a portion of the cavity is filled with a filler material while simultaneously withdrawing a medium from the expandable member at a predefined ratio such that the tissue portion substantially maintains its moved position. In some embodiments, the predefined ratio is 1:1. In another embodiment, a method includes expanding an expandable member to move a tissue portion and form a cavity within an interior of an intervertebral disc. At least a portion of the cavity is filled with a filler material while substantially maintaining the moved position of the tissue portion.10-09-2008

Brian W. Donovan, San Jose, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100274080Remote Position Control For Surgical Apparatus - A system for performing a minimally invasive surgical procedure includes a cannula, a surgical instrument for use through the cannula, and a remote positioning system to adjust the relative position between the surgical instrument and the cannula. By allowing a physician to perform the minimally invasive surgical procedure at a distance from the patient, the remote positioning system minimizes the radiation exposure of the physician while still providing accurate control over the procedure.10-28-2010
20100274180Digital syringe with compensation control - A syringe for performing a medical procedure includes a pressure sensor, a volume sensor, and a compensation circuit. The volume sensor measures a volume of a flowable material that is dispensed from the syringe, the pressure sensor measures a pressure being applied to the flowable material, and the compensation circuit calculates a delivered volume of the flowable material by accounting for system compliance (expansion) as the pressure is increased. By compensating for system compliance in this manner, a syringe can be used in high pressure procedures while still providing accurately controllable material delivery.10-28-2010
20100274255Minimally Invasive Cement Delivery System Retainer - A system for performing a minimally invasive surgical procedure comprises a cannula, a bone filler material delivery nozzle for performing the procedure through the cannula, and a retainer for securing the delivery nozzle relative to the cannula. The retainer eliminates the need to manually stabilize and position the delivery nozzle during the procedure, thereby allowing the physician to perform the procedure outside of the fluoroscopic radiation field used to visualize the procedure location. The retainer can be attached to the cannula, and can provide either selective or constant clamping force onto the delivery nozzle.10-28-2010
20110024145SURGICAL APPARATUS WITH FORCE LIMITING CLUTCH - A force-limiting clutch for a surgical instrument includes a drive element and a transmission element. An actuator is coupled to the drive element, and a drive shaft is coupled to the transmission element for providing an output force. If the force input from the actuator to the clutch reaches a predetermined threshold, the force-limiting clutch “slips” and does not transfer the actuator force to the drive shaft to prevent excessive force/pressure output. Normally, drive features on the drive element engage with transmission features on the transmission element to transfer forces from the actuator to the drive shaft. When a threshold force is reached, the drive features slip past the transmission features. This clutch “breakpoint” determines the maximum loading that the surgical instrument can provide at its output. In various embodiments, multiple transmission features can be arranged in a serial manner, such that the force-limiting clutch provides multiple breakpoints.02-03-2011
20110028980HIGH PRESSURE SURGICAL SYSTEM - An instrument for performing a medical procedure includes a drive shafts a holding clutch, a drive clutch, and an actuator. The holding clutch only allows advancement of the drive shaft, while the drive clutch transfers an advancement force from the actuator to the drive shaft. The dual clutch system allows a lever to be used as the actuator so that a user can generate large actuation forces manually (and optionally remotely) without significant physical effort. This capability can beneficially improve the usability and effectiveness of percutaneous surgical systems, such as those for vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty.02-03-2011

Patent applications by Brian W. Donovan, San Jose, CA US

Conor Donovan, San Francisco, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090115253METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR SELECTABLE VOLTAGE SUPPLY - A circuit which selects a supply voltage from a plurality of voltage supplies is presented. The circuit includes a first transistor configured to select a first voltage supply, a second transistor configured to select a second voltage supply, a first parasitic current inhibitor coupled the first transistor, the first voltage supply, and the second voltage supply, where the first parasitic current inhibitor automatically utilizes the voltage supply providing the highest voltage for preventing a substrate current from flowing through a bulk node of the first transistor, and a second parasitic current inhibitor coupled the second transistor, the first voltage supply, and the second voltage supply, where the second parasitic current inhibitor automatically utilizes the voltage supply providing the highest voltage for preventing a substrate current from flowing through a bulk node of the second transistor.05-07-2009
20090261917AUXILIARY VARACTOR FOR TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION - Techniques for compensating for the effects of temperature change on voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) frequency are disclosed. In an embodiment, an auxiliary varactor is coupled to an LC tank of the VCO. The auxiliary varactor has a capacitance controlled by a temperature-dependant control voltage to minimize the overall change in VCO frequency with temperature. Techniques for generating the control voltage using digital and analog means are further disclosed.10-22-2009

David Donovan, San Diego, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100091079Ink Set And Media For Ink-jet Printing - An ink-jet printing system includes an ink set having only cyan, magenta, yellow black and gray inks, and a medium having a substantially neutral color. A ratio of printed lightness of the gray ink to a lightness of the medium ranges from 0.3 to 0.7.04-15-2010

David A. Donovan, Oakland, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100311474WIRELESS ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH OPEN-LOOP AND CLOSED-LOOP OUTPUT POWER CONTROL - Wireless circuitry in an electronic device may contain radio-frequency transceiver circuitry and power amplifier circuitry that transmits radio-frequency signals through an antenna. A tap and power detector that are interposed in the radio-frequency signal path between the power amplifier circuitry and the antenna may be used to make output power measurements. Control circuitry may control the wireless circuitry in an open-loop control regime in which output power adjustments are based on a requested power without using the output power measurements. The control circuitry may also control the wireless circuitry in a closed-loop control regime in which the output power measurements serve as a source of real time feedback to determine whether to increase or decrease the output power. The output power may be controlled using linear transition zone power control curves in a transition zone between the open-loop regime and the closed-loop regime.12-09-2010
20110124364WIRELESS TRANSMITTER CALIBRATION USING ABSOLUTE POWER REQUESTS - Test systems are provided for performing testing and calibration operations on wireless circuitry in electronic devices. The electronic devices may include cellular telephones and other portable electronic devices. Wireless circuitry in a device may include a radio-frequency transceiver that is controlled based on radio-frequency transceiver control signals. The wireless circuitry may also include power amplifier circuitry. The power amplifier circuitry may receive radio-frequency signals from the transceiver and may produce correspondingly amplified radio-frequency output signals for wireless transmission with an antenna. The power amplifier circuitry may be powered by a bias voltage. The test systems may provide the electronic device with a transmit power request that directs the electronic device to produce a desired output power. The test systems may measure the actual resulting power. After sufficient measurements have been made, the test systems may calibrate the transceiver and power amplifier settings.05-26-2011
20110256838METHODS FOR DETERMINING OPTIMUM POWER SUPPLY VOLTAGES FOR RADIO-FREQUENCY POWER AMPLIFIER CIRCUITRY - Electronic devices with wireless communications capabilities are provided. The electronic device may include storage and processing circuitry, power amplifier circuitry, power supply circuitry, etc. The storage and processing circuitry may direct the power amplifier circuitry to operate using a desired gain mode, in a particular radio channel, and at a given output power level. The power supply circuitry may bias the power amplifier circuitry with a power supply voltage. The performance of the power amplifier circuitry may be characterized by an adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) margin. The power consumption of the power amplifier circuitry may be characterized by a current savings ratio. A cost function may be calculated by taking the product of the ACLR margin and current savings ratio. A minimum point for each cost function curve may be determined. It is desirable to bias the power amplifier circuitry with a supply voltage corresponding to the minimum point.10-20-2011

David H. Donovan, San Diego, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090153605DOUBLE-SIDED PRINTING SYSTEM - A method for double-sided printing may include ejecting printing fluid from a fluid ejector to a platen configured to receive print media, the platen supporting a nonabsorbent substrate. In any sequence, a first print media side and a second print media side may be printed by ejecting printing fluid from the fluid ejector to the first print media side, and contacting the second print media side with the nonabsorbent substrate to transfer printing fluid from the nonabsorbent substrate to the second print media side. A method for double-side printing may further include increasing the contact between the second print media side with the nonabsorbent substrate to increase transfer of printing fluid.06-18-2009
20100277530DENSITY ERROR CORRECTION - A method for density error correction is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes a) calculating an average density error for at least one row of an image considering density errors for printhead elements employed to print the at least one row, and a number of passes that the printhead elements will utilize to print the at least one row, b) calculating a density error correction value for the at least one row considering the average density error, and c) applying the density error correction value to adjust ink flow from the printhead elements while printing the at least one row.11-04-2010

Patent applications by David H. Donovan, San Diego, CA US

John Donovan, San Diego, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100261470EMBEDDED WIRELESS BENCHMARKING SYSTEMS AND METHODS - Systems and methods for measuring the performance of a provider of communications service are described. A plurality of mobile communications devices measure average power received, signal to noise ratio, voice quality, blocked and dropped calls, or any combinations of such measurements. The device may also receive a set of data identifying the location of the device. The device may transmit one or more communications signals to a server computer system with such measurements and location data. The measurements and location data may be stored in a database, and new data may be created and transmitted illustrating a subset of the measurements and location data.10-14-2010

John Donovan, Saratoga, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20110208850SYSTEMS FOR AND METHODS OF WEB PRIVACY PROTECTION - A disclosed method for implementing anti-tracking measures for a web browser includes refreshing anti-tracking data structure responsive to satisfying at least one of a set of anti-tracking refresh criteria. The anti-tracking data structure may include opt-out cookie data indicative of a set of opt-out cookies, uniform resource locator (URL) anti-tracking data indicative of a set of URLs associated with URL tracking, and Referer header field anti-tracking data indicative of a set of URLs susceptible to Referer header field tracking. Responsive to a web browser of a user device generating a request for a third-party web page specified by a browser URL, at least a portion of the browser URL is compared against the anti-tracking data structure. If a match in the URL anti-tracking data or the Referer header field anti-tracking data is detected, the browser URL may be modified. The refreshing of anti-tracking data may include pulling a current anti-tracking data structure from an anti-tracking server. Alternatively, the current anti-tracking data structure may be pushed from the anti-tracking server.08-25-2011

Kali Donovan, San Diego, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100174724INTEREST-GROUP DISCOVERY SYSTEM - A method of social networking is disclosed in which users may indicate areas of interest to them and/or search for other users with the same or similar interests. Users may specify one or more areas of interest to them and enter those interests in a database, by means of a list of “tags” or keywords, called a taglist. The values of the tags may be weighted. A user wishing to find other users with similar interests may input a search taglist which is compared with the other taglists stored in the database, and a list of the users with the closest matching taglists is returned. The method may also be used to characterize documents, projects, media files or other data objects, so that such items may be searched in similar fashion.07-08-2010

Lauri Ann Donovan, San Pedro, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100028082BARRIER SYSTEM FOR A BODY OF FLUID AND METHOD OF FORMING THE SAME - A float member configured to float on and cover a fluid surface. The float member includes an elongated body having a top portion and a bottom portion defining a central longitudinal axis and a periphery portion. The periphery may have a substantially flat surface. The top portion extends upwardly from the periphery and the bottom portion extends downwardly from the periphery. A width of the body is substantially greater than a height of the body. In various aspects of the invention, the float member is configured to modify a transfer of evaporated fluid or energy therethrough. A method of forming a barrier using the float members and a system of for adjusting an evaporation rate of a fluid are further disclosed.02-04-2010

Len Donovan, San Pedro, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100028082BARRIER SYSTEM FOR A BODY OF FLUID AND METHOD OF FORMING THE SAME - A float member configured to float on and cover a fluid surface. The float member includes an elongated body having a top portion and a bottom portion defining a central longitudinal axis and a periphery portion. The periphery may have a substantially flat surface. The top portion extends upwardly from the periphery and the bottom portion extends downwardly from the periphery. A width of the body is substantially greater than a height of the body. In various aspects of the invention, the float member is configured to modify a transfer of evaporated fluid or energy therethrough. A method of forming a barrier using the float members and a system of for adjusting an evaporation rate of a fluid are further disclosed.02-04-2010

Mark Donovan, Aliso Viejo, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100212319Method and apparatus for generating power utilizing forward osmosis - A method and apparatus are described for generating power. A first liquid comprising brine from a seawater reverse osmosis desalination process is provided on one side of a semipermeable membrane. This liquid has an osmotic pressure greater than seawater. A second liquid having an osmotic pressure less than seawater is provided on a second side of the membrane. A hydraulic pressure is provided to the first liquid that is less than the osmotic pressure difference between the first liquid and the second liquid so that some of the second liquid flows through the membrane and combines with the first liquid at a lesser rate than would occur without the hydraulic pressure thereby increasing the potential energy in the combined first and second liquids. The combined first and second liquids are delivered to a turbine thereby converting the increased potential energy into useful mechanical energy.08-26-2010

Mark J. Donovan, Mountain View, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090010600OPTICAL COMPONENT AND TRANSCEIVER PACKAGING - An optical module and packaging thereof. A high speed optical module, such as a transceiver or transponder is disclosed. A fiber assembly including a receptacle, a fiber, and a modified connector are provided and enable an optical connection from inside of the optical component to outside of the component. Internally, the fiber assembly is detachable from an internal optical component. the optical component is connected to a PCB using a ball grid array. By detaching the fiber assembly, the optical component can be changed-out without damaging the fiber. The fiber is spooled inside the module to protect the fiber around a spooling assembly that is integrated with the receptacle holders that form part of the module's ports.01-08-2009

Paul Donovan, Santa Clara, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20080311986DAISY-CHAINED GAME AUDIO EXCHANGE - A daisy-chainable game exchange facilitates social networking among at least two game consoles by allowing gamers to share audio information, such as voice communication, without having to play the identical game or connect via a local area network or a wide area network such as the Internet. Control of voice communication and game audio information is facilitated to allow gamers to focus better on social networking through a stream of voice communication or to refocus on game play through the stream of game audio information without losing either stream.12-18-2008

Paul Donovan, San Jose, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100244776Magnetic Motor - A magnetic motor system includes a brushless motor with interdigitated permanent magnets longitudinally mounted on a rotor at equal radial positions, and stator windings to drive the rotor in response to pulses from a timer/driver, and stationary recapture windings to recover energy that would otherwise go to waste. One set of batteries is used to drive the motor through the timer/driver, and bridge rectifiers connected to the stationary recapture windings provide electrical current to charge a second set of batteries. The rotor shaft output provides kinetic energy to drive electrical generators, air compressors, etc. A shaft encoder connected to the rotor provides the information needed by the timer/driver to know which stator winding should be pulsed and with what polarity. A power pulse is provided at least every 12.5 degrees of rotation, making the motor self starting.09-30-2010

Paul Donovan, Sunnyvale, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100166576Magnetic Air Car - A magnetic air car uses a magnetic motor to compress input air and save moderately compressed high-pressure air in storage tanks. The compressor and storage tanks deliver the high-pressure working air and operational flows to several stages of compressors that boost the pressures during driving to very high-pressure, then ultra high-pressure, then super high-pressure, and finally to extremely high-pressure. A pneumatic torque converter uses jets of the extremely high-pressure to turn an input shaft of a transmission and differential. These, in turn, drive the powered wheels of a car. The compressors float a connecting shaft with matching vanes and impellers on opposite ends on air bearings to reduce shaft turning friction to near zero. The balance of forces between the two ends of a coupled turbo pair allow a simple air bearing design to operate safely and reliably at high rotational speeds.07-01-2010

Peter J. Donovan, Irvine, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20080260722Method for High Efficiency Survival/Proliferation of Human Embyonic Stem Cells and Human Embryo Survival in Culture - The present invention provides a role for neurotrophins in hES cell survival and important new insights into the molecular mechanisms controlling the growth of these cells. Although previous studies identified growth factors that affect self-renewal of hES cells, the novelty of the present invention is the identification of factors that act through specific receptors present on hES cells and activate the receptors at physiological concentrations to promote survival and proliferation.10-23-2008

Ryan Donovan, Menlo Park, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20110195803MULTI-AXIS ATHLETIC TRAINING DEVICE - A multi-axis athletic training device used to simulate crucial movements in sports to better train and improve the skill set of participating players is provided. This device utilizes at least two devices for rotating to create two independently controlled rotations, each simulating a different motion involved in a movement or swing of a selected sport.08-11-2011

Ryan Donovan, Mountain View, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100217380FLEXIBLE STENT DESIGN - The present invention relates to tissue-supporting medical devices and drug delivery systems, and more particularly to tubular flexible stents that are implanted within a body lumen of a living animal or human to support the organ, maintain patency and/or deliver drugs or agents. The tubular flexible stent has a cylindrical shape defining a longitudinal axis and includes a helical section having of a plurality of longitudinally oriented strut members and a plurality of circumferentially oriented hinge members connecting circumferentially adjacent strut members to form a band. The band is wrapped about the longitudinal axis in a substantially helical manner to form a plurality of helical windings. At least one connector member extends between longitudinally adjacent helical windings of the band.08-26-2010

Ryan R. Donovan, Mountain View, CA US

Stephen Donovan, Santa Ana, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090022763ANIMAL PRODUCT FREE MEDIA AND PROCESSES FOR OBTAINING A BOTULINUM TOXIN - Media and processes for the fermentation of 01-22-2009

Tim Donovan, Giroy, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100158609Permeable Paver And Manufacturing Method Therefor - A permeable paver having water permeability of on average about 1 inch per hour and compressive strength of an average of about 8000 psi, the paver manufactured by forming the mixture into predetermined sizes, shapes and colors as desired, utilizing a hydraulic-type or equivalent compacting block forming machine.06-24-2010

Tim Donovan, Gilroy, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20110193267Permeable Paver And Manufacturing Method Therefor - A permeable paver that has water permeability of on average about 1 inch per hour and compressive strength of an average of about 8000 psi, the paver manufactured by forming a mixture comprising blast-furnace slag, sand, gravel and portland cement into predetermined sizes, shapes and colors as desired utilizing a hydraulic-type or equivalent compacting block forming machine.08-11-2011

Timothy J. Donovan, Livermore, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20110261740System And Method For Estimating Bandwidth Requirements Of And Allocating Bandwidth To Communication Devices Operating In A Network - A system including a base station and a plurality of stations. The base station is configured to estimate bandwidths used by the plurality of stations based on packets transmitted by the plurality of stations during a first period. The base station is further configured to selectively allocate timeslots to the plurality of stations for transmission of packets to the base station during a second period following the first period. Durations of the timeslots are based on the estimated bandwidths. The plurality of stations are configured to transmit packets to the base station in the timeslots during the second period.10-27-2011

Tom Donovan, Petaluma, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090208305STRAP ROLLER - A device for supplying heavy duty strapping for use in a cargo area. The device includes a housing, a two-way motor supported within the housing having a shaft for paying out, winding and storing the heavy duty strapping and a magnet affixed to the housing and sized to releaseably affix the device to a magnetically attractable support.08-20-2009

Walter E. Donovan, Saratoga, CA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20080211827FILTERING UNIT FOR FLOATING-POINT TEXTURE DATA - Floating-point texture filtering units leverage existing fixed-point filter circuits. Groups of floating-point texture values are converted to products of a fixed-point mantissa and a scaling factor that is the same for each texture value in the group. The fixed-point mantissas are filtered using a fixed-point filter circuit, and the filtered mantissa is combined with the scaling factor to determine a floating-point filtered value. Multiple floating-point filter results may be combined in a floating-point accumulator circuit. The same fixed-point filter circuit may also be used to filter fixed-point texture data by providing fixed-point input path that bypasses the format conversion and a fixed-point accumulator.09-04-2008
20110090250ALPHA-TO-COVERAGE USING VIRTUAL SAMPLES - One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for converting alpha values into pixel coverage masks. Geometric coverage is sampled at a number of “real” sample positions within each pixel. Color and depth values are computed for each of these real samples. Fragment alpha values are used to determine an alpha coverage mask for the real samples and additional “virtual” samples, in which the number of bits set in the mask bits is proportional to the alpha value. An alpha-to-coverage mode uses the virtual samples to increase the number of transparency levels for each pixel compared with using only real samples. The alpha-to-coverage mode may be used in conjunction with virtual coverage anti-aliasing to provide higher-quality transparency for rendering anti-aliased images.04-21-2011
20110090251ALPHA-TO-COVERAGE VALUE DETERMINATION USING VIRTUAL SAMPLES - One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for converting alpha values into pixel coverage masks. Geometric coverage is sampled at a number of “real” sample positions within each pixel. Color and depth values are computed for each of these real samples. Fragment alpha values are used to determine an alpha coverage mask for the real samples and additional “virtual” samples, in which the number of bits set in the mask bits is proportional to the alpha value. An alpha-to-coverage mode uses the virtual samples to increase the number of transparency levels for each pixel compared with using only real samples. The alpha-to-coverage mode may be used in conjunction with virtual coverage anti-aliasing to provide higher-quality transparency for rendering anti-aliased images.04-21-2011
20110169850BLOCK LINEAR MEMORY ORDERING OF TEXTURE DATA - A method of organizing memory for storage of texture data, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, includes accessing a size of a mipmap level of a texture map. A block dimension may be determined based on the size the mipmap level. A memory space (e.g., computer-readable medium) may be logically divided into a plurality of whole number of blocks of variable dimension. The dimension of the blocks is measured in units of gobs and each gob is of a fixed dimension of bytes. A mipmap level of a texture map may be stored in the memory space. A texel coordinate of said mipmap level may be converted into a byte address of the memory space by determining a gob address of a gob in which the texel coordinate resides and determining a byte address within the particular gob.07-14-2011

Patent applications by Walter E. Donovan, Saratoga, CA US