Trinidadian inventor patents technology to mitigate global warming

Trinidad and Tobago: Friday, 23rd July 2010 After seven years of intense determination and personal sacrifice, Dr Ronald De Four is the proud owner of a US patent via the Patent Cooperation Treaty – only the second of its kind in Trinidad and Tobago. De Four transformed scalar time variables into vector variables in the spatial domain of an electrical motor and performed vector addition to the resulting voltages to produce the De Four Back EMF Space Vector Resolver, which he applied in his invention, 'Self-Starting Method and An Apparatus for Sensorless Commutation of Brushless DC Motors' (World Intellectual Property Organization International Publication Number WO 2006/073378 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 7,737,651). Building upon research for over 20 years in the area of sensorless commutation, De Four's invention introduces a new commutation technique for Brushless DC motors which allows the motor to be self-starting and the windings to be activated at any angle to get any motor performance of your choice, which is possible because it is software-driven. 'I haven't patented hardware,' he explained. 'I used what has been built, and structures that have been working well in the industry to piggyback onto, and have my inventions riding on them. This way, the industry doesn't have to change; I just retro-fit with software.' Global warming has been a primary focus for De Four, a lecturer in Engineering at the University of the West Indies, and CEO and Chairman of his company R de F Technologies. The application of his invention will result in the reduction of atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, the key greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. His invention will soon have a resounding impact in industries including appliance, automotive, aerospace, consumer, medical, computer and industrial automation. An avid supporter of innovation in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. De Four will serve on the Steering Committee for Trinidad and Tobago's Innovation Centre (TTIC) at T&T's Science and Technology facility, Tamana InTech Park. Pictured: Dr Ronald De Four.