Sigma Designs Patent Grants

Domain establishment method

Granted: July 13, 2021
Patent Number: 11063632
A network node includes a pushbutton to provide a button-press event and a pairer to receive the button-press event while not being in a secure domain. In response to the button-press, the pairer alternates between acting as an endpoint node and acting as a temporary domain master, until pairing is completed. In an alternative embodiment, the node includes a multi-pairer to receive the button press event and, in response, to open a pairing window, to become a domain master of a secure…

Method for triggered activation of an actuator

Granted: April 24, 2018
Patent Number: 9954692
Systems and methods for controlling devices, including controller and actuators are disclosed. Actuators may be devices where remote control of the device or devices is convenient, such as lights, window shades, fans and similar items. In one method, a user sends a command to a controller and to an actuator. The controller also sends a proxy update to a second controller that is also in communication with the actuator. The proxy controller, also in contact with the actuator, now has…

Zero crossing indicator device

Granted: October 10, 2017
Patent Number: 9787360
An alternating current (AC) zero-crossing indicator apparatus including a current adjusting circuit for adjusting a DC signal current for a duration of time the same as the duration of a received zero-crossing detection signal. The zero-crossing indicator apparatus additionally includes a voltage retainer for maintaining a constant DC voltage applied to a connected load during the adjusting of the DC signal current. Also included is a zero-crossing sensor for generating a zero-crossing…

Power line communication method and apparatus

Granted: October 25, 2016
Patent Number: 9479221
An Apparatus for transmitting and receiving signals over residential electrical cables includes a processor, at least one transmitter and at least one receiver, both coupled with the processor. The apparatus coupled with an electrical cable includes at least one active wire, one neutral wire and one ground wire, the transmitter and the receiver each including a coupling circuit for coupling the apparatus to the residential electrical cables. The coupling circuit has a first transformer…

Collision avoidance media access method for shared networks

Granted: August 9, 2016
Patent Number: 9413550
A method includes scheduling a grid of sub-burst slots in a media access plan, each sub-burst slot having a shorter duration than a minimal transmission burst duration and representing an opportunity for the initiation of a data transmission by a network device. A network device includes a sub-burst slot scheduler and a sub-burst slot grid aligner. The sub-burst slot scheduler publicizes the sub-burst slot media access plan to the network devices. The sub-burst slot grid aligner aligns…

Power line communications method and apparatus

Granted: November 17, 2015
Patent Number: 9191067
Apparatus, for transmitting and receiving signals over residential electrical cables, includes a processor, at least one transmitter and at least one receiver. The transmitter and the receiver are coupled with the processor, for respectively transmitting and receiving the signals. The apparatus is coupled with an electrical cable including at least one active wire, one neutral wire and one ground wire. At least two of the wires form receive wire pairs wherein at least two of the wires…

Home electrical device control within a wireless mesh network

Granted: October 20, 2015
Patent Number: 9166812
In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for associating a first node in a mesh network with an electrical device, wherein the electrical device comprises a home control device, enabling the mesh network to perform channel adjustment, transmitting data through the mesh network between the first node and a second node in the mesh network, wherein the transmission utilizes channel adjustment; and performing an action based at least in part on the…

Power line communication method and apparatus

Granted: September 22, 2015
Patent Number: 9143198
A system for transmitting and receiving signals over residential electrical cables includes at least one active wire, neutral wire and ground wire, including at least two power line modems, each coupling an electrical device with an electrical socket, each one of the power line modems including a processor. The system has transmitters and at least one receiver, the transmitters and the receiver including a coupling circuit, the coupling circuit including a first transformer and a second…

Allocation adjustment in network domains

Granted: July 28, 2015
Patent Number: 9094232
A network node in a resource reservation network includes a data receiver, a transmitter and a timing adjustment requester. The data receiver receives fixed size application protocol data units (APDUs) from an application at fixed intervals. The transmitter transmits data from the network node to the network within transmission opportunities (TXOPs) associated with a constant data service flow for the application specified associated with the application and the network node in a media…

Methods for efficient implementation of skip/direct modes in digital video compression algorithms

Granted: June 23, 2015
Patent Number: 9066099
A method for selecting a picture prediction mode from a candidate pool of picture prediction modes for video compression takes advantage of similarity in implementation between SKIP and DIRECT modes and one other inter-picture prediction modes, namely, the 16×16 partition mode. The SKIP/DIRECT modes are considered if and only if the final prediction information of the 16×16 partition mode, including motion vector, reference picture index, and prediction direction, is the same as that…

Transmission scheme for multiple-input communication

Granted: April 28, 2015
Patent Number: 9020056
Method for transmitting and receiving signals over at least one channel between at least one transmitter and at least one receiver, the channel comprising at least one group of sub-channels, the group comprising at least one sub-channel, including the procedures of estimating at least one line characteristic of the channel and selecting a transmission scheme for each group of the at least one group of sub-channels according to the estimated line characteristic, wherein the transmission…

Node repair in a mesh network

Granted: April 7, 2015
Patent Number: 9001653
In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for sensing a change in a network topology using a discovery node in a mesh network; transmitting an explore frame, based at least in part on the sensed change, from the discovery node to a destination node using an intermediate node; receiving a response to the explore frame from the destination node; determining at least one functional network route from the discovery node to the destination node based at least…

Power line communications method and apparatus

Granted: February 10, 2015
Patent Number: 8952567
System, for transmitting and receiving signals over residential electrical cables includes at least one active wire, one neutral wire and one ground wire. The system includes at least two power line modems, each one of the two power line modems including a processor, transmitters and at least one receiver, transmitters and the receiver being coupled with the processor, for respectively transmitting and receiving the signals. At least two of the wires form at least one receive wire pair…

Multi-network type coordinator for a single physical layer

Granted: January 13, 2015
Patent Number: 8934370
A coordinator for coordinating the use of a physical layer between a first network operating using a first network protocol and a second network operating using a second network protocol different from the first network protocol, the network protocols being non-interoperable and supporting centralized management of nodes by a master device in each network respectively, including a receiver, a transmitter, a coordinator first network type device (CNTD1) and a coordinator second network…

High-performance zero-crossing detector

Granted: November 11, 2014
Patent Number: 8884656
A zero-crossing detection circuit includes a comparator and circuitry. The comparator produces an output signal that is indicative of zero-crossing events in an input Alternating Current (AC) waveform. The circuitry may be configured to feed the comparator with first and second rails voltages, and to progressively increase the rails voltages during time intervals derived from the input AC waveform, so as to feed the comparator with target values of the rails voltages in time-proximity to…

Power line communications method and apparatus

Granted: November 4, 2014
Patent Number: 8879644
Method for communication channel coordination between nodes, each node including at least one of a transmitter and a receiver, for transmitting and receiving signals over residential electrical cables. The residential electrical cables include at least one active wire, one neutral wire and one ground wire, at least two of the wires forming wire pairs. The method includes the procedures of, for a given one of the receiver, examining the transmitter in each one of the nodes which…

Network-specific powerline transmissions

Granted: September 16, 2014
Patent Number: 8837268
A method for a network device of a powerline communications network includes selecting between a default preamble signal and a network-specific preamble signal specific to the network but not to a neighboring network and transmitting at least user data in conjunction with the selected preamble signal. Another method for a network device of a powerline communications network includes tuning a sensor to detect network-specific preamble signals specific to the network but not to a…

Enhanced power supply unit for powerline networks

Granted: September 2, 2014
Patent Number: 8823499
A power unit includes an AC/DC converter for converting VAC input to DC, a zero cross unit for modulating the AC/DC converter output to facilitate zero crossing detection based on the output, and a high pass filter (HPF) for filtering data signals, where the data signals are transmitted and received on the same medium from which the VAC input is received. A method for providing power and data signals from a single powerline source, including receiving incoming VAC in an external power…

Pairing PLC devices

Granted: August 26, 2014
Patent Number: 8816831
A method for pairing a first power line communication device with a second power line communication device is disclosed, the method includes the first device triggering a pairing initiating state responsive to sensing a connection of a data cable with the second device; entering an appropriate pairing initiation state, the pairing initiation state being either an add device state or a join device state; and performing pairing with the second device.

System for coupling a power line communication device to a power line network

Granted: August 26, 2014
Patent Number: 8816832
Coupling circuit for coupling a power line communication device to a power line network, including a first network port coupled between a network phase line and a first network line, a second network port coupled between a network neutral line and a second network line, a third network port coupled between a network ground line and a third network line, a first differential modem port including a first terminal and a second terminal, a second differential modem port including a third…