Abstract:
A communication device is designed to contain the lowest possible level of toxic or hazardous materials, so that when it is eventually disposed of, it will not harm the environment and can be safely recycled. Each component A1, A2, ..., An in the communication device has a calculated Component Toxicity Index value. A Product Toxicity Index for the entire communication device is calculated by summing the individual Component Toxicity Index values. The desired outcome is a communication device having a Product Toxicity Index less than or equal to 100. The resulting communication device is referred to as "environmentally friendly". The communication device may be a two-way radio (10), and some of the components are a radio transmitter (12), a radio receiver (14), an antenna (16), an amplifier (18), a battery (20) and a housing (22).
Abstract:
A fuel cell device has a composite particle electrode (200) formed using particles (210) having a combination of ion conductor material, electron conductor material, and catalyst material. Each composite particle (210) is preferably formed to have a substantially spherical outer layer (480) of ion conductor material (481) with conductive and catalyst particles (482, 484) are dispersed throughout the outer layer (480). An array of composite particles (210) is layered in a substantially structured or ordered manner on a membrane support structure (220) to form the fuel cell electrode. A fuel cell electrode so formed has interstitial gaps between the composite particles that result in a structure permeable to oxygen and other fluids.
Abstract:
A fuel cell (200) includes a membrane electrode assembly (210) located together with a layer of porous, Z-axis electrically conductive, positive temperature coefficient (PTC) material (250). The membrane electrode assembly (210) is activated by supplying reactants thereto. The PTC material (250) operates to selectively limit the amount of electrons collected from localized areas of the membrane electrode assembly (210) in order to reduce hot spots.
Abstract:
A method for creating spatially resolved audio signals for a listener (18) that are representative of one or more callers (12, 14, 16). A digital data signal (13) that represents an individual caller's voice (12) contains an embedded tag (24) that is identifiable with the caller. The digital data signal is transmitted from a sending device at the caller's location to a receiving device (30) at the listener's location. At the receiving device, the tag is used to associate the digital data signal with a head related transfer function (32) that is resident preferably in a lookup table of the receiving device. The digital data stream is then convolved (34) with the associated head related transfer function to form a binaural digital signal that is ported to two or more acoustic transducers (36) to create analog audio signals that appear to emanate from different spatial locations around the listener.
Abstract:
A small fuel cell (10) powers a portable electronic device (12) and contains a fuel reservoir (14) and a device (16) that measures the amount of liquid fuel (18) that is in the reservoir. The fuel cell operates on hydrogen that is obtained from a liquid hydrocarbon fuel, such as alcohol or other hydrocarbons. The liquid fuel is typically converted into hydrogen by a reforming process. The reservoir that is connected to the fuel cell has an indicia (19) that is readable by a human user of the portable electronic device, for measuring the amount of liquid hydrocarbon fuel that is present in the reservoir. Typically, the indicia consist of a sight glass, a capacitive element, a resistive element, a transparent portion of the reservoir, a float, or an acoustic transmitter coupled with an acoustic receiver.
Abstract:
Oxides of carbon and other impurities are removed from a hydrogen fuel supply stream (12) for a fuel cell (30). A getter element (20) sufficient for chemisorbing the oxides of carbon from the hydrogen is removably connected to the fuel cell anode side. The fuel stream is passed through the getter element so as to chemisorb the oxides of carbon onto the getter, thereby providing a purified stream of hydrogen (26) to the fuel cell anode. The getter is removed from the fuel cell when the getter when spent and replaced with a fresh getter.
Abstract:
A communication system (100) and a method (500) of communicating backhaul data. The communication system can include a controller (160, 225). The controller can dynamically select from a plurality of backhaul sites (120, 125) at least a first backhaul site to establish a backhaul communication link with an access point (115). The controller also can generate a control signal that indicates to the access point to beam steer a backhaul signal to the first backhaul site. The access point can include a phased array (215) that dynamically beam steers the backhaul signal in azimuth and elevation.
Abstract:
A method (50) of altering content provided to a user includes the steps of creating (60) a user profile based on past physiological measurements of the user, monitoring (74) at least one current physiological measurement of the user, and altering (82) the content provided to the user based on the user profile and the at least one current physiological measurement. The user profile can be created by recording a plurality of inferred or estimated emotional states (64) of the user which can include a time sequence of emotional states, stimulus contexts for such states, and a temporal relationship between the emotional state and the stimulus context. The content can be altered in response to the user profile and measured physiological state by altering at least one among an audio volume, a video sequence, a sound effect, a video effect, a difficulty level, a sequence of media presentation.
Abstract:
Wireless communication devices (102, 104, 106, 108, 110) include multi-state visual indicating devices (114, 116, 118, 120, 122, 126, 128) that are operable to alert users that wireless communication links or connections have been established between two or more devices. Upon establishing a connection, the wireless devices share indicia activation information (e.g., color or timing sequence information) and the multi-state visual indicating devices in the devices operate according to the indicia activation information to apprise users that the connection has been established. Activatable indicia (216, 214, 216, 218) that are preferably integral with the wireless device housings inform the device users as to the state of communication.
Abstract:
A method of and fuel cell system for limiting an amount of a fuel crossing over a membrane in a fuel cell, the method including determining an appropriate molecular ratio of the fuel and water for a fuel-water mixture (503); and controlling an amount of the fuel-water mixture that is available to an anode side of the membrane (507) in the fuel cell according to an amount of the fuel that will be electro-oxidized by the fuel cell. The fuel cell system includes a fuel cell membrane (103) having an anode layer (107), a cathode layer (109), and an electrolyte layer (111) where the cathode layer is exposed to an oxygen source, and a fuel delivery system (105) including a fuel chamber (119) disposed around and proximate to the anode layer at a side opposite to the electrolyte layer, the fuel delivery system implementing the method above.