PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15945614
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-04
Publication Date: 2018-08
Patent Classification: ["361", "139000"]

Abstract:
Some embodiments provide irrigation valve control apparatuses comprising: a solenoid configured to cooperate with a plunger; an input stimulus source coupled with the solenoid and configured to apply an input stimulus while a plunger drive signal is not being applied and that is sufficiently small to not cause the plunger to move; sampling circuitry configured to measure one or more voltage measurements corresponding to one or more voltages across the solenoid, wherein the one or more voltage measurements are dependent upon the current position of the plunger relative to the solenoid; and control circuitry cooperated with the sampling circuitry to receive the one or more voltage measurements from the sampling circuitry, wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine whether the plunger is in one of the open and closed positions based on the one or more voltage measurements.

Claim (Index 23):
An irrigation valve control apparatus comprising:\n a solenoid configured to cooperate with a plunger and to receive a plunger drive signal from plunger activation circuitry, wherein the plunger drive signal is configured to induce a magnetic field relative to the solenoid that causes the plunger to change positions between open and closed positions resulting in opening or closing a valve such that water is allowed to pass through the valve when the plunger is in the open position and water is prevented from passing the valve when the plunger is in the closed position; control circuitry cooperated with the solenoid and configured to direct the plunger drive signal into the solenoid to induce movement of the plunger; an input stimulus source cooperated with a resistance-capacitance (RC) circuit and the solenoid and configured to apply an input stimulus into the solenoid at a time while the plunger drive signal is not being applied to the solenoid, wherein the input stimulus is sufficiently small that the input stimulus does not cause the plunger to move from a current position; a gain stage comprising one or more amplifiers configured to amplify an amplitude-modulated pulse corresponding to one or more voltages across the solenoid generated in response to the input stimulus; sampling circuitry configured to measure one or more voltage measurements of the amplified amplitude-modulated pulse corresponding to the one or more voltages across the solenoid, wherein the one or more voltage measurements are dependent upon the current position of the plunger relative to the solenoid in response to applying the input stimulus to the solenoid; and a resonant circuit comprising the RC circuit and the solenoid, wherein the resonant circuit is coupled with the input stimulus source and configured to be excited by the input stimulus to generate a resonant response that resonates when the plunger is in one of the open position and the closed position; wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine whether the resonant response is generated in response to the input stimulus, and to determine whether the plunger is in one of the open and closed positions in response to whether the resonant response is generated.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 14.0
- Percentile: 91.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.11594
- Patent Class: 361.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15445390', '14133595', '15606413', '14133598', '14873561']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8997053541552128
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.6246585180510258
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8722006705447941
- Mean Citation Score: 450.09112200000015
- Max Citation Score: 526.3628
- Similarity Product: 522.3778735949278

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test