Patent application number | Description | Published |
20140374598 | HANDHELD MOISTURE SENSOR DEVICE - A handheld moisture sensing device for use in determining the moisture content of biological material, such as animal feed. Adapted to be pressed against biological material to be analyzed, the device includes a sensor assembly, including a housing with an end structure including a grate adapted to engage the material to be examined, a near infrared (NIR) LED, an NIR light sensor, a glass mounted in the housing adjacent the light source so that light from the light source passes through the glass, a glass heater positioned adjacent the glass for heating the glass, a lens mounted in the housing adjacent the NIR sensor so that the NIR light reflected off the biological material passes through the glass and is focused by the lens onto the NIR sensor, and a controller connected to the NIR sensor and receiving a signal related to the reflected NIR light received by the NIR sensor. | 12-25-2014 |
20140374599 | HANDHELD MOISTURE SENSOR DEVICE - A handheld moisture sensing device for use in determining the moisture content of biological material, such as animal feed. Adapted to be pressed against biological material to be analyzed, the device includes a sensor assembly, including a housing with an end structure including a grate adapted to engage the material to be examined, a near infrared (NIR) LED, an NIR light sensor, a glass mounted in the housing adjacent the light source so that light from the light source passes through the glass, a glass heater positioned adjacent the glass for heating the glass, a lens mounted in the housing adjacent the NIR sensor so that the NIR light reflected off the biological material passes through the glass and is focused by the lens onto the NIR sensor, and a controller connected to the NIR sensor and receiving a signal related to the reflected NIR light received by the NIR sensor. | 12-25-2014 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080246284 | EASILY ADAPTABLE AND CONFIGURABLE WIND-BASED POWER GENERATION SYSTEM WITH SCALED TURBINE SYSTEM - In one embodiment, a turbine for use in a wind-based power generation system includes a plurality of separate blade parts that contain locating and coupling structures to permit the separate parts to be coupled to one another in a stacked manner to form a shaped blade of the turbine. | 10-09-2008 |
20080255421 | Articulating tool with improved tension member system - The invention provides surgical or diagnostic tools and associated methods that offer improved user control for operating remotely within regions of the body, and improved methods of assembling the tools. In some embodiments these tools include a proximally-located actuator for the operation of a distal end effector, as well as proximally-located actuators for articulational and rotational movements of the end effector. Control mechanisms and methods refine operator control of end effector actuation and of these articulational and rotational movements. The articulation mechanisms comprise pairs of links, one link distal and the other proximal, configured such that movement of a proximal link is transferred to the distal link by way of tension bearing members. Embodiments of the invention include a guide for such tension bearing members that facilitates assembly of the tool. Embodiments also include improved methods for attaching tension bearing members to the links. The inventions disclosed herein may also be used with articulating devices outside of the surgical and diagnostic fields. | 10-16-2008 |
20120095451 | TOOL WITH ARTICULATION LOCK - The invention provides surgical or diagnostic tools and associated methods that offer user control for operating remotely within regions of the body. These tools include a proximally-located actuator for the operation of a distal end effector, as well as proximally-located actuators for articulational and rotational movements of the end effector. Control mechanisms and methods refine operator control of end effector actuation and of these articulational and rotational movements. An articulation lock allows the fixing and releasing of both neutral and articulated configurations of the tool and of consequent placement of the end effector. The tool may also include other features. A multi-state ratchet for end effector actuation provides enablement-disablement options with tactile feedback. A force limiter mechanism protects the end effector and manipulated objects from the harm of potentially excessive force applied by the operator. A rotation lock provides for enablement and disablement of rotatability of the end effector. | 04-19-2012 |
20130270749 | EMBEDDED OPTICS IN MODULAR ASSEMBLIES - An enhanced multiobject potting fixture for exposure to a curing modality that sets an adhesive includes a fixture housing supporting a plurality of objects, the fixture housing having a wall defining a plurality of bonding wells with each the bonding well receiving a first portion of one of the objects, each the bonding well including an aperture in the wall proximate the first portion wherein each bonding well includes a target zone for selective cure of the adhesive to inhibit the adhesive from exiting the aperture; and a fixture enhancement structure integrated into the wall concentrating the curing modality in each the target zone. | 10-17-2013 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110106630 | USER FEEDBACK-BASED SELECTION AND PRIORITIZING OF ONLINE ADVERTISEMENTS - Advertisements to be presented to a user are selected based on feedback responses received from other users where the feedback responses represent the level of interest to the advertisements expressed by the other users. In selecting which advertisements to be presented to a user, the online service takes into account feedback responses previously collected from a group of users and revenue expected for presenting certain advertisements to the user. An online service computing device computes a total value of an advertisement based on an estimated revenue value for presenting an advertisement and a modifier representing the user's estimated interest in the advertisements. The online service then selects or prioritizes the advertisements based on the total values. Advertisements with more positive feedback responses and/or less negative feedback responses tend to have higher total values, and therefore, such advertisements are more likely to be selected for presentation to the users. | 05-05-2011 |
20130006758 | USER FEEDBACK-BASED SELECTION OF ONLINE ADVERTISEMENTS USING NORMALIZED COST MODIFIERS - Advertisements to be presented to a user are selected based on feedback responses received from other users where the feedback responses represent the level of interest to the advertisements expressed by the other users. In selecting which advertisements to be presented to a user, the online service takes into account feedback responses previously collected from a group of users and revenue expected for presenting certain advertisements to the user. An online service computing device computes a total value of an advertisement based on an estimated revenue value for presenting an advertisement and a modifier representing the user's estimated interest in the advertisements. The modifier is normalized based on a market value of the corresponding advertisement or a user. The online service then selects or prioritizes the advertisements based on the total values. | 01-03-2013 |
20130124297 | MULTI-DIMENSIONAL ADVERTISEMENT BIDDING - An online advertising system receives ads from advertisers, which may also provide associated budgets, time period constraints, impressions goals, and performance weightings for the ads. When an ad is requesting from the advertising system from a client, a bid may be determined for each ad based on the budget associated the ad and/or the impressions goal associated with the ad. Ad performance associated with the ad request may be predicted, and a bid may be determined for each ad based on the performance weightings and the predicted performance associated with the ad request. The bid for an ad may be weighted by the pace of budget consumption by the ad, or by the pace of the ad progressing towards the ad's impression goal. An ad is selected for display to the client from among the one or more ads based on the determined bids for the ads. | 05-16-2013 |
20130124308 | BUDGET-BASED ADVERTISMENT BIDDING - An online advertising system receives ads from advertisers, which may also provide associated budgets, time period constraints, impressions goals, and performance weightings for the ads. When an ad is requesting from the advertising system from a client, a bid may be determined for each ad based on the budget associated the ad and/or the impressions goal associated with the ad. Ad performance associated with the ad request may be predicted, and a bid may be determined for each ad based on the performance weightings and the predicted performance associated with the ad request. The bid for an ad may be weighted by the pace of budget consumption by the ad, or by the pace of the ad progressing towards the ad's impression goal. An ad is selected for display to the client from among the one or more ads based on the determined bids for the ads. | 05-16-2013 |
20130124447 | COGNITIVE RELEVANCE TARGETING IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM USING CONCEPTS INFERRED FROM EXPLICIT INFORMATION - A social networking system infers a user's present interests based on the user's recent actions and/or the recent actions of the user's connections in the social networking system. The social networking system also determines a set of concepts associated with each of a set of information items, such as advertisements. By matching the user's present interests with the concepts associated with the information items, the social networking system selects one or more of the information items that are likely to be of present interest to the user. At least one of the matched interests and concepts are not identical. The social networking system then presents the selected information items for display to the user, thereby providing information based on an inferred temporal relevance of that information to the user. | 05-16-2013 |
20130159100 | SELECTING ADVERTISEMENTS FOR USERS OF A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM USING COLLABORATIVE FILTERING - A social networking system selects advertisements for its users using collaborative filtering based on the users' interactions with objects in the social networking system. The objects may be games, pages, groups, deals, messages, content items, advertisements, or any other object with which a user may interact in the system. The system may identify a viewing user's interaction with a first object, determine a second object that is similar to the first object based on interactions of users with both of the objects, and send an advertisement associated with the second object to the viewing user. The system determines a second object based a similarity score between the first object and the second object, which may be a measure of users who have interacted with both objects and may be normalized by a number of user interactions by the users with the objects. | 06-20-2013 |
20130325585 | Advertisement Selection and Pricing Using Discounts Based on Placement - An advertising selection and placement system is provided for a social networking system. An advertising selection module identifies candidate advertisements for a user to view along with social networking content. The candidate advertisements can be placed in various slots on the user's display. The expected value of various arrangements of the candidate advertisements in the slots is determined, and advertisements may be selected and placed to optimize revenue to the system. Each advertisement is evaluated using a discount function that adjusts the price of the advertisement based on its placement. | 12-05-2013 |
20140019233 | UNIFIED AUCTION MODEL FOR SUGGESTING RECOMMENDATION UNITS AND AD UNITS - A social networking system presents advertisements and recommendation units to its users. The recommendation units suggest actions for the users to increase their engagement with the social networking system or otherwise interact with other users, while the social networking system receives revenue from advertisers for displaying advertisements based on bid values associated with the advertisements. The social networking system determines values for the advertisements and for the recommendation units, where the values are measured in a comparable fashion. This allows the system to rank and select the advertisements and recommendation units together in a unified auction model. For example, the social networking system uses a pacing value to determine values of recommendation units having a common unit of measurement with expected values of advertisements to the social networking system. | 01-16-2014 |
20140019261 | SPONSORED ADVERTISEMENT RANKING AND PRICING IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM - A social networking system (SNS) provides sponsored stories and organic stories about actions taken by other SNS users to a viewing user. Organic stories are selected based on the likelihood the viewing user is interested in their content. While advertisers compensate the SNS for presentation of sponsored stories, the sponsored stories also include information about actions by other SNS users. To increase the likelihood the viewing user interacts with sponsored stories, a common communication channel is used to present both the sponsored stories and the organic stories. To simplify selection of organic stories and sponsored stories, the SNS determines a common unit of measurement for both and makes selections based on the common unit of measurement. | 01-16-2014 |
20140222605 | Promoting Individual System Goals Through System Recommendations - A social networking system presents recommendation units to its users. The recommendation units suggest actions for the users to increase their engagement with the social networking system or otherwise interact with other users. The social networking system establishes internal goals and associates bids for recommendation units with different goals. The bids reflect the value to the goal of a user interacting with a recommendation unit. Based on bids for recommendation units associated with one or more goals, expected values of the recommendation units arid determined. The recommendation units are ranked based on the expected values and one or more recommendation units are selected based on the ranking. | 08-07-2014 |