Recent Patents on Engineering - Volume 4, Issue 2, 2010

Optical duobinary signal has narrow spectrum, tolerance to chromatic dispersion, and resistance to filter distortion. With many early patents from different organizations, optical duobinary modulation was actually invented earlier and described in a thesis by L. C. Blank. The later development of optical duobinary modulation is reviewed, including its applications for retrofitting 40-Gb/s signal into existing 10-Gb/s fiber networks.

Using digital signals as covers for steganography has attracted more and more interests in the past decades. Nowadays, patents on digital steganography mainly focus on the applications and the new steganography methods. In this paper, the U.S. patents concerning about typical digital steganography methods are reviewed based on the basic principles and their functions. Then the future challenges and potential Read More

In the present paper we have focussed on some different adsorbents for arsenic removal from aqueous media. Adsorbents were divided categorically in two different classes viz., synthetic adsorbents and natural adsorbents. Some of the synthetic adsorbents are found to be good for As(III) and some are good for As(V) removal. Similar results were also obtained for the natural adsorbents although removal efficiency d Read More

Prognostics and health management (PHM) integrates diagnostic and prognostic technologies, provides the ability to assess the current health status of a structural system, predict its future health status for a given time period, and predict its time-to-failure for cost-effective maintenance schedule. It deals with system fault and anomaly conditions by automatic detection, classification, and prediction of critical component f Read More

Abnormal combustions occurred since the invention of internal combustion engines. Knock was intensively studied by researchers and engineers since this date. First patents were taken out on fuel quality (defined by octane index nowadays). After patents on sensors itself, engine settings were piloted to eliminate knock conditions in 1979-1980. Many companies followed this pathway. Latest patents on knock are reviewed. A hig Read More

Time-Temperature Indicators (TTIs) are small devices which provide easy-to-read, visual information regarding the thermal history of perishable products. They are typically designed as small labels suitable for application onto the packaging of single product items. TTI labels are inexpensive, especially when compared to temperature electronic recorders, which are intended to monitor warehouses or means of transportation, Read More

The patents annotated in this section have been selected from various patent databases. These recent patents are relevant to the articles published in this journal issue, categorized by different engineering methods, processed and techniques involved.