Posts Tagged: "weather"

Understory Earns U.S. Patents for Weather Sensing Technology

Understory’s first patent covers the sensor device itself which consists of a stainless steel sphere sitting on top of a shaft, a configuration which one of the sensor’s designer called “God’s joystick.” “The sensor detects microdeflections from rain or hail pushing on the joystick,” Kubicek said. Such measurements take place on the order of 50,000 times each second and algorithms processed at the device separates each microdeflection into a data point which can be sent to a cloud-based network of weather data… One has to wonder though whether the Federal Circuit and Supreme Court, when they might get their hands on these patents, will find them to be directed to nothing more than an abstract idea. After all, sensing the weather has been done since at least the dawn of recorded history.

Rain, rain go away! Is weather modification a real possibility?

Is weather modification, or control, a real possibility? If you search for patents dealing with weather controlling technologies, it seems like it’s more of a reality than at first thought. This study is known as Geo Engineering, a deliberate intervention in the Earth’s natural system to counteract climate change.

Blizzard response may be aided by salt-infused asphalt, robotic snow plows

Some tech firms are trying to go all-in on AI solutions for snow removal by developing autonomous, self-driving snow plows that could be deployed without human operators. At the end of this January, autonomous plow developers will come together in St. Paul, MN, for the sixth-annual Institute of Navigation Autonomous Snowplow Competition. This year, there will be 11 student teams from the U.S. and Canada attending the event competing to see which of their autonomous snow plows performs best at navigating the competition’s course solely through computer control. Robotic, self-driving snow plows could be implemented for municipal snow removal in the future, although the current state of the tech hasn’t gotten far beyond prototypes that cost $4,000 to $12,000 per unit.

GE Seeks Patent on Electromagnetic Surgical Navigation

We noticed a great deal of patent applications and issued patents pertaining to medical technologies. Today, we feature one application that discusses an improved system for detecting the location of surgical instruments during a medical procedure. This improvement over image-guided surgery, which relies on video feeds from surgical instruments, informs medical professionals of the exact location of an instrument within a patient. We also look at an application for an improved pulse oximeter that provides a higher degree of portability over current devices, which are largely tethered to hospital settings. We also look at applications discussing systems of predicting cloud movement and an eco-friendly dishwasher that cuts down on current water and energy usage by half. A number of medical patents have also been issued recently to General Electric from the USPTO. Of the ones we noticed, we feature a trio of patents that protect more accurate systems of completing a medical transaction through billing software, improved predictive models for identifying risks of age-related disease and a more accurate pulse oximeter for the finger. Other patents give GE the right to protect smart home energy usage systems and improved analysis of natural gas streams to determine levels of moisture.