Method and apparatus for gripping uniaxial fibrous composite materials

A strip specimen is cut from a unidirectional strong, brittle fiber composite material, and the surfaces of both ends of the specimen are grit blasted. The specimen is then placed between metal load transfer members having grit blasted surfaces. Sufficient compressive stress is applied to the load transfer members to prevent slippage during testing at both elevated temperatures and room temperatures. The need for adhesives, load pads, and other secondary composite processing is eliminated. This gripping system was successful in tensile testing, creep rupture testing, and fatigue testing uniaxial composite materials at 316 C

Determination of User Home Location for Emergency Services

This disclosure describes techniques to accurately determine a user’s home location for use in voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) emergency calls. Per techniques of this disclosure, with user permission, a user’s home location is determined on a user device based on location information and corresponding time signatures associated with the locations. Based on user location data, location clusters and sub-clusters are created. Based on the identified sub-clusters, a home cluster is identified and labeled as the user home location based on the location sub-cluster with time signatures representing the end of day and/or the location sub-cluster where the user has spent the longest stationary time. If the determined home location address is different from the current emergency address associated with the user, the user is prompted to update their emergency address to the newly determined home location address. The process is performed entirely on the user device

Cell Age Balancing For Wireless Earbuds

True wireless earbuds that include on-board batteries are popular. This disclosure describes techniques to balance cell aging of wireless earbuds and enable utilization of the full capacity of the battery cells of wireless earbuds. A fuel gauge value (available cell capacity) for each earbud is recorded. When the earbuds are charging, e.g., in a charging case, the fuel gauge value for each earbud is read. A cell age equalization mode is invoked if the difference between the available cell capacities meets a predetermined threshold. When the earbuds are placed in cell equalization mode, a code path may be configured to enable more frequent master-slave role switches between the earbuds, configure the earbud with the healthier cell automatically as the master earbud, and/or deactivate some compute functionality on the earbud with the weaker cell

Dynamic Audio Level Adjustment in Wearable Audio Devices

Ambient sound levels in environments where wearable audio devices are utilized can vary substantially. Such variation can cause responses provided via such devices to be inaudible or too loud in certain situations. This disclosure describes techniques for dynamic adjustment of wearable device audio output levels based on measured ambient sounds levels. Per techniques of this disclosure, with user permission, sound pressure levels (dB SPL) of a user’s ambient environment are measured and stored in a buffer. The audio output level for the user device is set such that audio output from the wearable device exceeds an average measured dB SPL level by a predetermined threshold. When an on-board speaker on the wearable device is to be utilized, a moving average of dB SPL levels is computed that is representative of an ambient noise level of an immediately preceding time period. Based on the computed average dB SPL level, the output speaker volume is selected, e.g., set to about 6 dB above the computed average dB SPL level