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Higgins, WA

Curt Higgins, Spokane, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20110211957SELF REGULATING WIND TURBINE - A wind turbine for use in a wide range of wind conditions is disclosed. The wind turbine uses blade pitch change and/or blade folding to accommodate wind conditions and maintain a substantially constant speed. The blades are configured to fold in unison for balanced wind turbine operation.09-01-2011

Jason Higgins, Yacolt, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20120025853SOLID STATE SENSOR FOR METAL ION DETECTION AND TRAPPING IN SOLUTION - A device, apparatus and method for trapping metal ions and detecting metal ion contamination in a solution provide a semiconductor device formed on a semiconductor substrate and including an N-well formed over a P-type substrate and at least a contact portion of the N-well in electrical contact with the solution. When the semiconductor device is optically illuminated, a P/N junction is formed as a result of photovoltaic phenomena. Metal ions from the solution migrate to the contact area due to the voltage created at the P/N junction. The semiconductor device includes a conductive structure with conductive features separated by a gap and therefore in an initially electrically open state. When the ions migrate to the contact area, they precipitate, at least partially bridging the gap and creating conductance through the conductive structure. The conductance may be measured to determine the amount of metal ion contamination.02-02-2012

Jason A. Higgins, Seattle, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20110201944NEUROLOGICAL MONITORING AND ALERTS - A system for providing alerts of neurological events occurring in a human subject is provided. The system includes: a monitoring module adapted to detect and sample a neurological signal; an event detection module coupled to the monitoring module for detecting one or more types of predetermined reportable events based on the detected neurological signal; and an alert module coupled to the event detection module, wherein upon the detection of a reportable event by the event detection module, said alert module selects a first alert contact from a plurality of contacts contained in a contact list, and generates a first alert communication to the first alert contact.08-18-2011

Mark D. Higgins, Woodinville, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100028123SUPERCONDUCTING CRAWLER SYSTEM FOR A PRODUCTION LINE - A method of operating a production line comprises the steps of supporting equipment in the production line on a plurality of crawlers comprising at least one rolling track and a structural support for supporting the equipment. A first plurality of lifting magnets coupled to an interior surface of said at least one rolling track is configured to oppose a second plurality of lifting magnets coupled to an exterior surface of said structure support to lift the structural support, such that the structural support floats between and within said at least one rolling track. The magnetic fields experienced by the first and second plurality of lift magnets are adjusted to translate the at least one rolling track, such that the crawlers move along the production line.02-04-2010

Matthew Higgins, Seattle, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20110060806USING IN-THE-CLOUD STORAGE FOR COMPUTER HEALTH DATA - A policy enforcement point (PEP) controls access to a network in accordance with one or more policy statements that specify conditions for compliant devices. The PEP receives current health data from a device seeking to access the network, and stores this health data in local volatile memory. If the health data stored in local volatile memory complies with the policy statements, the device is permitted to access the network. Otherwise, the device is denied access to the network, or permitted only limited access to the network in order to resolve its compliance issues. The PEP occasionally stores the health data in local persistent memory and on an online service (OLS). During reboot, the PEP accesses the OLS to confirm that it has the most recent health data. If more recent health data is available from the OLS, the OLS provides this more recent data to the PEP.03-10-2011

Robert P. Higgins, Seattle, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090061808ADAPTIVE RF CANCELLER SYSTEM AND METHOD - An adaptive electromagnetic wave canceling system and method for canceling an electromagnetic interference (EMI) signal generated from an EMI signal source, from a broadband signal being received by a receiver. In one implementation an adaptive canceller subsystem is used that directly receives the EMI signal and a sample of the broadband signal, in which the sample includes an EMI signal component. A time delay stage is incorporated to delay the broadband signal before it is received by the receiver. The adaptive canceller subsystem generates a correction signal that is an inverse of the EMI signal component. The correction signal is applied to the broadband signal to effectively cancel the EMI signal component therefrom before the broadband signal is received by the receiver. In one implementation an automatic gain control is implemented that automatically adjusts the adaptive canceller subsystem to a level of the sample broadband signal, to thus form a closed loop EMI canceling system.03-05-2009
20090080368METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BI-DIRECTIONAL DATA SERVICES AND LIVE TELEVISION PROGRAMMING TO MOBILE PLATFORMS - A system for bi-directional data content transfer between a plurality of mobile platforms, such as aircraft or cruise ships, and a ground-based control segment. The system includes the ground-based control segment, a space segment and a mobile system disposed on each mobile platform. The ground-based control segment includes an antenna which is used to transmit encoded RF signals representative of data content to the space segment. The space segment includes a plurality of satellite transponders, with one of the transponders being designated by the ground-based control segment to transpond the encoded RF signals to the mobile system. The mobile system includes steerable receive and transmit antennas. The receive antenna receives the encoded RF signals from the satellite transponder, which are thereafter decoded, demodulated, D/A converted by a communications subsystem and transmitted to a server. The server filters off that data content not requested by any occupants on the mobile system. A local area network (LAN) receives the remaining data content and provides same to individual users on the mobile platform in accordance with previously submitted programming requests or data input by the users at access stations associated independently with each user. The transmit antenna is used to transmit data content from laptop computers, PDAs or other user electronic devices coupled to the access stations back to the designated satellite transponder. The satellite transponder then transponds the data back to the antenna of the ground-based control segment.03-26-2009
20090125223Video navigation - A system and method for video navigation are disclosed. Motion analysis can be performed upon camera images to determine movement of a vehicle, and consequently present position of the vehicle. Feature points can be identified upon a video image. Movement of the feature points between video frames is indicative of movement of the vehicle. Video navigation can be used, for example, in those instances wherein GPS navigation is unavailable.05-14-2009
20090175258METHOD AND DEVICE OF GENERATING TIME-VARYING PREAMBLE SEQUENCE AND PSEUDORANDOM NOISE (PN) BINARY SEQUENCE IN DIRECT SEQUENCE SPREAD SPECTRUM (DSSS) COMMUNICATIONS - Embodiments of the disclosure provide methods, apparatus, and articles allowing two nodes to communicate in a slot-based direct sequencing spreading communication system. Both a preamble sequence and a payload data spreading PN sequence are generated from the Time of Day and a given user code. Generated sequences are synchronized between two communicating nodes to allow slot-based DSSS communication to take place. Generated sequences also change dynamically from slot to slot to provide waveform security.07-09-2009
20090323766METHOD AND DEVICE OF PEAK DETECTION IN PREAMBLE SYNCHRONIZATION FOR DIRECT SEQUENCE SPREAD SPECTRUM COMMUNICATION - A spread-spectrum preamble synchronization peak detection system performs multiple statistical tests based on instant and time-averaged channel condition measurements to identify the synchronization peak. In a normalized peak-to-average test, a peak-to-average ratio measurement is normalized by a signal-to-noise ratio measurement to form a new statistical measure which effectively eliminates the impact of the wide dynamic range of the signal-to-noise ratio of the received samples. A transition SNR test is used to eliminate potential false alarms caused by spurious PARN peaks during the transition period at the onset of preamble arrival. Code-phase aligned time-averaging is used to estimate the signal and noise levels over a sliding window. The code-phase alignment of samples effectively separates signal and noise samples in the averaging process, and resulting in more accurate signal and noise measurements. In estimating noise levels, the system takes multi-path interference into account by excluding both the peak signal and the side-lobe signals caused by multi-path wireless channels, resulting in more accurate estimation of noise level.12-31-2009
20100235034Method, Apparatus And Computer Program Product For Recognizing A Gesture - A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for recognizing a gesture in which one or more relationships are determined between a plurality of body parts and the gesture is then determined based upon these relationships. Each relationship may be determined by determining an angle associated with at least one joint, determining one or more states of a body part based upon the angle associated with at least one joint, and determining a probability of a body part being in each respective state. The gesture may thereafter be determined based upon the one or more states and the probability associated with each state of the body part. Directions may be provided, such as to an unmanned vehicle, based upon the gesture to, for example, control its taxiing and parking operations.09-16-2010
20110190636SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR NON-CONTACT BIOMETRIC SENSING - A non-contact biometric sensing device is described. The device includes a processing device, a user interface communicatively coupled to the processing device, a display communicatively coupled to the processing device, a laser doppler vibrometer sensor communicatively coupled to the processing device, and an infrared camera communicatively coupled to the processing device. The processing device is programmed to utilize mechanical motion data received from the laser doppler vibrometer sensor and thermal distributions data from the infrared camera to calculate biometric data, when signals originating from the laser doppler vibrometer sensor and the infrared camera are reflected back towards the device from a target.08-04-2011
20110265128METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING BI-DIRECTIONAL DATA SERVICES AND LIVE TELEVISION PROGRAMMING TO MOBILE PLATFORMS - A system for bi-directional data content transfer between a plurality of mobile platforms, such as aircraft or cruise ships, and a ground-based control segment. The system includes the ground-based control segment, a space segment and a mobile system disposed on each mobile platform. The ground-based control segment includes an antenna which is used to transmit encoded RF signals representative of data content to the space segment. The space segment includes a plurality of satellite transponders, with one of the transponders being designated by the ground-based control segment to transpond the encoded RF signals to the mobile system. The mobile system includes steerable receive and transmit antennas. The receive antenna receives the encoded RF signals from the satellite transponder, which are thereafter decoded, demodulated, D/A converted by a communications subsystem and transmitted to a server. The server filters off that data content not requested by any occupants on the mobile system. A local area network (LAN) receives the remaining data content and provides same to individual users on the mobile platform in accordance with previously submitted programming requests or data input by the users at access stations associated independently with each user. The transmit antenna is used to transmit data content from laptop computers, PDAs or other user electronic devices coupled to the access stations back to the designated satellite transponder. The satellite transponder then transponds the data back to the antenna of the ground-based control segment.10-27-2011
20110274358METHOD, APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR RECOGNIZING A GESTURE - A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for recognizing a gesture in which one or more relationships are determined between a plurality of body parts and the gesture is then determined based upon these relationships. Each relationship may be determined by determining an angle associated with at least one joint, determining one or more states of a body part based upon the angle associated with at least one joint, and determining a probability of a body part being in each respective state. The gesture may thereafter be determined based upon the one or more states and the probability associated with each state of the body part. Directions may be provided, such as to an unmanned vehicle, based upon the gesture to, for example, control its taxiing and parking operations.11-10-2011

Patent applications by Robert P. Higgins, Seattle, WA US

William Y. Higgins, Kenmore, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090017426SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PLAYING EDUCATIONAL GAMES AND USING EDUCATIONAL TOOLS - Systems and methods for playing games and using other educational tools are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, entertaining and educational game systems are provided for increasing players' global awareness. In other embodiments, players can experience life challenges faced by denizens of emerging markets and/or countries. In one embodiment, a game system for playing games includes a playing surface having an image of a representative geographical location and a plurality of spaced-apart player movement spaces for positioning player tokens. The system further includes a plurality of vocation indicia for communicating vocation based information. The vocation based information can include a vocation description (e.g., describing a possible vocation of a denizen of the representative geographical location) assumable by a player. The system can also include a plurality of instructional play indicia for communicating a possible life experience that the denizen may experience.01-15-2009