Retroreflective glass or plastic beads have fluorescent properties when irradiated with ultraviolet light and are emplaced in signs in... Show moreRetroreflective glass or plastic beads have fluorescent properties when irradiated with ultraviolet light and are emplaced in signs in patterns indicative of alphanumeric characters, or embedded in a hot melt comprising road stripes or embedded in the road asphalt or aggregate during construction of the road, to provide effectively bright and clear indications of signs or the extent and direction of the road. The glass beads comprise spherodized soda lime, borosilicate, phosphosilicate or aluminosilicate glasses with low levels of rare-earth dopants mixed therein, such as compounds containing one of the rare earths, or lanthanides. The plastic beads may have fluorescent materials mixed therein, typically organic pigments or dyes based on coumarin and rhodamine or the like. Sponsorship: IIT Research Institute United States Patent Show less
A method and an implantable apparatus for automatically delivering a defibrillating drug to a patient upon detection of the onset of atrial... Show moreA method and an implantable apparatus for automatically delivering a defibrillating drug to a patient upon detection of the onset of atrial fibrillation. Atrial activity of a heart is detected and monitored. A delivery time is continuously computed and a delivery signal is emitted as a function of the monitored level of the atrial activity. When the delivery signal is emitted, an infusion pump discharges a defibrillating drug into the bloodstream of the patient. The atrial activity is also continuously monitored for computing a pacing time at which a pacing signal is emitted as a second function of the monitored level of atrial activity. When the pacing signal is emitted a pacer paces the atrium of the heart. Sponsorship: Illinois Institute of Technology United States Patent Show less
An all-mode, bonding pad-oriented ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection structure, protects ICs against ESD pulses of all modes in all... Show moreAn all-mode, bonding pad-oriented ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection structure, protects ICs against ESD pulses of all modes in all directions. A unique quasi-symmetrical layout design is devised to improve ESD structure. Physical symmetry and rounded layout provide uniform current and thermal distribution as well as symmetrical electrical operation characteristics. The ESD structure allows tunable triggering voltage, low holding voltage, low impedance, low leakage, fast response time and low parasitic effect. The ESD structure can easily be placed under or surrounding a bonding pad and consumes little extra silicon. The ESD structure can be implemented in commercial BiCMOS processes and is suitable for multiple-supply, mixed-signal, parasitic-sensitive RF and high-pin-count ICs. Sponsorship: Illinois Institute of Technology United States Patent Show less
A system and method of channel estimation for a multi-user broadband wireless channel estimation in multiple antenna receiver systems use a... Show moreA system and method of channel estimation for a multi-user broadband wireless channel estimation in multiple antenna receiver systems use a specifically selected delay in the pilot symbol sequence portion of the transmission which is a multiple of the minimum Cyclic Prefix delay length. This insures that the time-frequency slot information bursts will always be separated in the time domain. A matched filter output in the receiver is formed by multiplying each pilot symbol by the conjugate of the training symbols of the first user. Estimation of the channel response may include three different versions of the efficient estimation calculations, namely Constrained Inverse Deconvolution, Iterative Low Complexity, and Extrapolated Matched Filter estimations. The first two methods do not require matrix multiplication (using only Fourier transforms), while the third method utilizes a smaller matrix multiplication than previously taught. Hardware considerations are also reduced due to the lack of a need for extensive matrix by matrix calculations. Sponsorship: Illinois Institute of Technology United States Patent Show less