A sensor and method for sleep position detection including: a transmitter configured to transmit electromagnetic waves between 30 GHz and 300 GHz; a receiver configured to receive the electromagnetic waves from the transmitter, wherein the transmitter and receiver are positioned in relation to person sleeping such that the receiver receives reflected electromagnetic waves; and a control station configured to analyze the transmitted and received electromagnetic waves to determine a position of the person sleeping. In some cases, the method may include: forming a radar cube of results; performing a fast fourier transform (FFT) on the radar cube; applying a constant false alarm rate (CFAR) processor to the FFT data; determining a capon gradient; forming a 5-dimensional feature space based on the capon gradient; and conducting an optimization of SVM.

A star scanner is provided that uses miniaturized high-speed electronics and an ultra-compact freeform optical design. The star scanner reduces instrument volume, reduces power consumption, and reduces costs, relative to existing star scanners. The optics can be used with a credit card-like footprint, electronics sensor board with optimally packed electronics.

A passive altimeter system comprising an angle between a point and a central boresight that is determined from distortion parameters of a lens in an infrared sensor in a countermeasure system on a mobile platform wherein the infrared sensor captures a first image for determining a distance between the platform and one of (i) a ground surface and (ii) a target, and the passive altimeter system further comprising a dimensional distance between two points in the first image that is determined from a secondary source external to the countermeasure system, and a processor to triangulate the distance between the platform and one of (i) the ground surface and (ii) the target based on the dimensional distance and the angle.

A passive altimeter system comprising an angle between a point and a central boresight that is determined from distortion parameters of a lens in an infrared sensor in a countermeasure system on a mobile platform wherein the infrared sensor captures a first image for determining a distance between the platform and one of (i) a ground surface and (ii) a target, and the passive altimeter system further comprising a dimensional distance between two points in the first image that is determined from a secondary source external to the countermeasure system, and a processor to triangulate the distance between the platform and one of (i) the ground surface and (ii) the target based on the dimensional distance and the angle.

A solar tracker system including a tracker apparatus including a plurality of solar modules, each of the solar modules being spatially configured to face in a normal manner in an on sun position in an incident direction of electromagnetic radiation derived from the sun, wherein the solar modules include a plurality of PV strings, and a tracker controller. The tracker controller includes a processor, a memory, a power supply configured to provide power to the tracker controller, a plurality of power inputs configured to receive a plurality of currents from the plurality of PV strings, a current sensing unit configured to individually monitor the plurality of currents, a DC-DC power converter configured to receive the plurality of power inputs powered from the plurality of PV strings to supply power to the power supply, and a motor controller, wherein the tracker controller is configured to track the sun position.

A solar tracker system including a tracker apparatus including a plurality of solar modules, each of the solar modules being spatially configured to face in a normal manner in an on sun position in an incident direction of electromagnetic radiation derived from the sun, wherein the solar modules include a plurality of PV strings, and a tracker controller. The tracker controller includes a processor, a memory, a power supply configured to provide power to the tracker controller, a plurality of power inputs configured to receive a plurality of currents from the plurality of PV strings, a current sensing unit configured to individually monitor the plurality of currents, a DC-DC power converter configured to receive the plurality of power inputs powered from the plurality of PV strings to supply power to the power supply, and a motor controller, wherein the tracker controller is configured to track the sun position.

An untethered apparatus for performing inside-out device tracking based on visual-inertial simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) includes a dynamic vision sensor (DVS) configured to output an asynchronous stream of sensor event data, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor configured to collect IMU data associated with motion of the apparatus at a predetermined interval, a processor and a memory. The memory contains instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to accumulate DVS sensor output over a sliding time window, the sliding time window including the predetermined interval, apply a motion correction to the accumulated DVS sensor output, the motion correction based on the IMU data collected over the predetermined interval, generate an event-frame histogram of DVS sensor events based on the motion correction, and provide the event-frame histogram of the DVS sensor events and the IMU data to a visual inertial SLAM pipeline.

A digital communication system comprising: an optical receiver comprising a detector configured to receive a laser optical signal from an optical transmitter; a curved mirror; an optical detector associated with said curved mirror; and an automated tracking system configured to: (i) determine a desired orientation of said optical receiver in relation to said optical transmitter, based, at least in part, on detecting a celestial location of said optical transmitter, (ii) move said optical receiver to said orientation, and (iii) continuously adjust said orientation to maximize a measured strength of said received optical signal.

A self-position estimation apparatus includes: a light reception unit that receives a light emission signal from a transmission apparatus via a pixel; and a position calculation unit that selects at least one, in accordance with the number of the light emission signals acquired by the light reception unit and which are used for a calculation of a self-position, from a plurality of algorithms in which the self-position is estimated and calculates the self-position by using the selected algorithm.

A self-position estimation apparatus includes: a light reception unit that receives a light emission signal from a transmission apparatus via a pixel; and a position calculation unit that selects at least one, in accordance with the number of the light emission signals acquired by the light reception unit and which are used for a calculation of a self-position, from a plurality of algorithms in which the self-position is estimated and calculates the self-position by using the selected algorithm.