US-12624935-B2 - Systems and methods for selectively disabling electrical and mechanical devices

US12624935B2US 12624935 B2US12624935 B2US 12624935B2US-12624935-B2

Abstract

Various types of structures, along with associated systems, are disclosed herein and configured for responding to an energy wave for changing a state of a mechanism to which said structures are operatively coupled. In at least one embodiment, the structure provides a material selectively changeable upon exposure to the energy wave to cause at least a portion of the material to mechanically degrade from a first state to a second state. When the material is in the first state, the material forms a mechanical or electrical link with the mechanism such that a force or an electrical current can be transmitted through the structure. When the material is in the second state, degradation of at least the portion of the material disrupts the mechanical or electrical link and inhibits transmission of the force or electrical current through the structure.

Inventors

Joseph Dan Palo

Assignees

JD PHARMA LLC

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20240531

Claims (10)

1 . A motor override system including: a structure responsive to an energy wave for changing a state of a mechanism to which the structure is operatively coupled, the structure including a material selectively changeable upon exposure to the energy wave to cause at least a portion of the material to degrade from a first state to a second state; a signal receiving device on an exterior surface of a housing encasing the engine; a signal receiving device in communication with the signal receiving device that receives a signal and transmits the signal to the structure, wherein, when the material is in the first state and the material forms a mechanical or electrical link with the mechanism such that a force can be transmitted through the material, when the material is in the second state, the degradation of at least the portion of the material disrupts the mechanical or electrical link and inhibits transmission of the force through the material causing a change in the state of the mechanism, when the material is in the second state, electrical power to the engine is stopped thereby stopping the operation of the engine.
2 . The motor override system of claim 1 , wherein the material is contained within a material cup, the material cup being either metallic or non-metallic.
3 . The motor override system of claim 1 , wherein the material is a nickel oxide material, a polyvinylidene fluoride material, a polystyrene coated lead zirconium titanate material, a nickel hydroxide, a glass material, a ceramic material, a polymer material, a polyethylene material, a polystyrene material, a thermoplastic material, a resin material, a crystal material, an inorganic compound material, a clay material, or a hydrogel material.
4 . The motor override system of claim 1 , wherein the material is one or more of a plate, a disk, a slug, a column, a coating, a plurality of microspheres, a grouping of microspheres individually or entirely coated with a coating material, a plurality of particles, a lattice, a compacted material, or a loosely packed material.
5 . The motor override system of claim 4 , wherein the material is a microsphere that is hollow and is filled with one or more of air, an inert gas, or a reactive gas.
6 . The motor override system of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the material degrades from the first state to the second state through one or more of a reduction in size of at least some of the material, a collapsing of at least some of the material, a fracturing of at least some of the material, an aggregation of at least some of the material, a sintering of at least some of the material, a bursting of at least some of the material, a chemical reaction in at least some of the material, or breakage of at least some of the material.
7 . The motor override system of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the material degrades from the first state to the second state by continuous or pulsed exposure to the energy wave, the energy wave comprising one or any combination of an ultrasound wave, a microwave, an infrasound wave, a long wave radio wave, a medium wave radio wave, a short wave radio wave, or a terahertz wave.
8 . The motor override system of claim 1 , wherein the engine operates a vehicle.
9 . The motor override system of claim 1 , wherein the material cup is positioned inline between a first wire and a second wire and configured for enabling transmission of the electrical current therebetween when the material is in the first state.
10 . The motor override system of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the material degrades from the first state to the second state through one or more of a reduction in size of at least some of the material, a collapsing of at least some of the material, a fracturing of at least some of the material, an aggregation of at least some of the material, a sintering of at least some of the material, a bursting of at least some of the material, a chemical reaction in at least some of the material, or breakage of at least some of the material.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS This is a continuation in part of U.S. non-provisional application having Ser. No. 18/333,456 and a filing date of Jun. 12, 2023 which is a divisional of U.S. non-provisional application having Ser. No. 16/449,909 and filing date of Jun. 24, 2019, which is a continuation-in-part application of a prior filed and U.S. non-provisional application having Ser. No. 15/677,861 and filing date of Aug. 15, 2017. This application claims priority and is entitled to the earliest effective filing date of U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 15/677,861, filed on Aug. 15, 2017, which is a continuation application of U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 15/456,509 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,766,051), filed on Mar. 11, 2017, which claims priority and is entitled to the filing date of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62/307,977, filed on Mar. 14, 2016. The contents of the aforementioned applications are incorporated by reference herein. BACKGROUND Applicant hereby incorporates herein by reference any and all patents, published patent applications, and other publications cited or referred to in this specification. By way of background, gun violence has become all too common in the United States, and really the world over, in recent years, as evidenced by the senseless and tragic shootings at public schools in Columbine, Colorado in 1999 and Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, on college campuses from coast to coast, such as Virginia Tech in 2007 and Umpqua Community College in Oregon in 2015, at a Denver, Colorado movie theater in 2012, and at a South Carolina church in 2015. Gun control advocacy group EVERY TOWN FOR GUN SAFETY has identified at least ninety-four (94) school shootings alone in thirty-three (33) states since the Newtown massacre, which left 20 children and 6 teachers dead, according to an article in The Huffington Post on Jan. 18, 2016. Other sources indicate that in just the year 2015 there were at least three hundred fifty-five (355) mass shootings in the U.S. alone. Though gun laws and gun rights is an ageless debate and legal, regulatory, and technological solutions to the problem of gun violence and gun-related crimes have been sought for decades if not centuries, recent “mass shootings” and other gun violence as highlighted above has sparked even more interest in finding ways to curb gun violence, to this point without much if any success. In general, proposals for gun laws relate to restrictions on and documenting and tracking who can purchase or has purchased firearms, magazines or to limitations or regulations on the types of firearms and ammunition that can be purchased, which actions have virtually no impact on the roughly over three hundred million firearms already in the United States. Some states, such as California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, have enacted laws limiting magazine capacity. Ultimately, of course, in the United States any such rules, laws, and regulations and related gun and ammunition technologies are in tension with and are to be consistent with or not run afoul of the fundamental right to lawfully “keep and bear arms” under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In terms of technology, personalized guns or “smart guns” have been developed in recent years that include a safety feature or features that allow them to fire only when activated by an authorized user (i.e., the owner). These safety features are intended to prevent misuse, accidental shootings, gun thefts, use of the weapon against the owner, and self-harm by distinguishing between authorized users and unauthorized users in several different ways, including the use of RFID chips or other proximity tokens, fingerprint recognition, magnetic rings, or mechanical locks, though it will be appreciated that such “smart guns” can do nothing about an authorized user firing them, in any location or direction and at any person or object. More recently, microstamping has been proposed, which entails laser etching the firing pin and breech face of a semi-automatic firearm, for example, so that when a round is fired a unique identifying mark is left on the primer by the firing pin and another is left on the cartridge case by the breech face etching. This approach to identifying a shooter by the discharged casings is rife with shortcomings. For one, the microstamping technology only links a casing to a gun, not necessarily a shooter. And even the link to a particular gun can be foiled by removing casings from a crime scene or salting the crime scene with casings from other guns or using a revolver or other weapon that does not discharge the casings. Semiautomatic weapons sold with microstamping technology can also be easily retrofitted by replacing the firing pin, slide, barrel or ejector as needed to effectively disable the microstamping feature. Or the etching can be removed using a diamond-coated file or may simply wear away after a number of roun