Kenneth A James

US Patent:

6661949, Dec 9, 2003

Filed:

Mar 1, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/795781

Inventors:

Kenneth A. James - Pauma Valley CA 92061
Jonathan W. Yee - Cypress CA 90630

International Classification:

G02B 635

US Classification:

385 30, 385 40, 385 41

Abstract:

A totally photonic switch having a pair of D-optical fibers by which optical energy can be efficiently coupled at high speed from one D-fiber to the other. The cores of the D-fibers are held in close proximity to one another at opposite sides of a thin (e. g. , film) evanescent coupling region that is fabricated from a doped semiconductor based material (e. g. , silicon dioxide). A pair of thin metal electrodes are located between the pair of D-fibers and the opposite sides of the evanescent coupling region by which to cause the coupling region to become electrooptic, to bond the fibers to the coupling region, and to receive a controlled voltage from a DC voltage source. Optical energy is coupled (i. e. , switched) between the D-fibers depending upon the magnitude of the voltage applied to the electrodes. A plurality of such totally photonic switches can be arranged to form a coupler network on a semiconductor wafer so as to route optical signals over a selected switch path between input and output sides of the network.

US Patent:

20080099557, May 1, 2008

Filed:

Oct 31, 2006

Appl. No.:

11/589438

Inventors:

Kenneth A. James - Pauma Valley CA, US

International Classification:

G06Q 30/00
G08B 13/14

US Classification:

235385, 3405721

Abstract:

Disclosed is a distributed inventory management system in which a self-awareness, self-regulating and self-organizing method is used to compile on a real-time basis ad hoc databases from which the locations of a number of geographically distributed inventory units (e.g., pallets, shipping containers, trailers, railroad cards, trucks, and even people) can be reliably tracked. Each inventory unit in a neighborhood of inventory units carries an electronic tag that includes an alterable memory, a transceiver and a microprocessor. The distance from one inventory unit in the neighborhood to another is dependent upon the received signal strength intensity transmitted between and calculated by the respective transceivers of the electronic tags of different inventory units. The alterable memory of each electronic tag stores first and second databases in which are listed and updated over time the nearest and next nearest neighbors to a particular inventory unit. A dominant inventory unit in the neighborhood establishes a local coordinate system with itself located at the origin thereof, and the other inventory units apply a triangulation algorithm to orient themselves with respect to the local coordinate system. By virtue of the foregoing, the location of the other inventory units relative to the location of the dominant inventory unit can be calculated.