Bizarre Patents
Pillow with retractable umbrella
A pillow assembly having a supporting assembly and a retractable umbrella assembly that is easily transportable and allows a user to support his/her head while covering their face from sunlight.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6845375 | Multi-level partitioned database system A database system with multi-level partitioning is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of storage facilities with each storage facility storing data that represents rows of database tables. In each storage facility table rows corresponding to a specific table... | 01/18/2005 |
| 6845366 | Method of processing a check and an apparatus therefor A device captures an image of a check having a payee and/or a payor field. Payee data and/or payor data contained in the payee field and/or the payor field is extracted from the captured image. Extracted payee data and/or extracted payor data is stored in a data war... | 01/18/2005 |
| 6844505 | Reducing noise effects in circuit boards A circuit board includes an assembly having first and second power reference plane layers, and an insulator layer between the first and second power reference plane layers. Discrete decoupling capacitors are further provided with the assembly. Additional layers are ... | 01/18/2005 |
| 6842115 | System and method for self-checkout of video media in a rental store A system enables consumers to perform self-checkout and self-check-in of rental articles, especially rental video media. The system includes a scanner, a payment module, and an article transporter. The article transporter carries scanned articles having an attached,... | 01/11/2005 |
| 6840441 | Self-service terminal A self-service terminal (14) having a port (78) for transferring data is described. The terminal (14) includes a program (94) for informing a user about one or more electronic collectables (100) that a user can request, and for tra... | 01/11/2005 |
| 6836777 | System and method for constructing generic analytical database applications Disclosed is a system and method for constructing generic analytical database applications through the automated creation of metadata to establish an application structure controlling the availability and operability of individual applications. ... | 12/28/2004 |
| 6834358 | Restartable database loads using parallel data streams A method and computer program for reducing the restart time for a parallel application are disclosed. The parallel application includes a plurality of parallel operators. The method includes repeating the following: setting a time interval to a next checkpoint; wait... | 12/21/2004 |
| 6834279 | Method and system for inclusion hash joins and exclusion hash joins in relational databases A method, system and apparatus for performing an inclusion hash join and an exclusion hash join using a hash join are provided. The inner and outer tables are transposed to left and right tables, respectively. A hash table is created from the left table, the right t... | 12/21/2004 |
| 6832352 | Preserving pagination of a document converted between different page sizes A method of converting a document from a first page size to a second page size includes the step of determining a first line length from the document formatted for the first page size. Another step of the method includes determining a first page length from the docu... | 12/14/2004 |
| 6832212 | Method and apparatus for manipulating billing and payment information within a browser interface system A method for manipulating billing and payment information comprising the steps of: loading billing information stored at a local location; accessing retained criteria; formatting field information within a data record automatically; acting on the retained criteria; ... | 12/14/2004 |
| 6830186 | Checkout device with produce guard A checkout device with a produce guard for separating a produce item from a vertical window of the checkout device. The checkout device includes a barcode reader and a produce guard. The barcode reader includes a housing containing a vertical window, a load cell ass... | 12/14/2004 |
| 6827271 | Methods and apparatus for determining a position of a rotating optical element in a bar code scanner Techniques for determining a position for a rotating optical element, or spinner, of a bar code scanner are described. A diffractive element is positioned so as to be struck by a laser beam produced by a laser source and reflected from the spinner when the spinner i... | 12/07/2004 |
| 6827266 | Methods and apparatus for using imaging information to improve scanning accuracy in bar code scanners Techniques for using imaging information computed from examining a scanner signal are described. When one or more objects passes within a field of view of a scanner, scan patterns emerging from one or more scanner windows and reflected from the objects back into the... | 12/07/2004 |
| 6826556 | Techniques for deploying analytic models in a parallel A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for performing data mining applications in a relational database management system. A relational database management system, executed by the computer, manages a relational database stored on data storage devices of the... | 11/30/2004 |
| 6826305 | Methods and apparatus for locating and identifying text labels in digital images Techniques for identifying labels appearing in images are described. A digital image is analyzed to identify individual components. Each of the individual components is analyzed to determine whether or not it is a text component by comparing it against criteria such... | 11/30/2004 |
| 6825940 | Method of processing documents in an image-based document processing system and an apparatus therefor A method of processing documents in an image-based document processing system to associate recognition results from a primary source results list with corresponding recognition results from a secondary source results list to improve assistance to an operator of the ... | 11/30/2004 |
| 6820811 | Dual focal length bar code scanner A bar code scanner and method of operation thereof is disclosed. The bar code scanner comprises a housing including a surface having a transparent scanning window; and optical components including a spinner located within the housing. The optical components are arra... | 11/23/2004 |
| 6823172 | Self-service terminal including wireless communication A self-service terminal (10 or 200 or 300) comprises a plurality of intercommunicating modules (114 to 126, or 214 to 226, or 314 to 326). Each module includes a transceiver for wireless communication wi... | 11/23/2004 |
| 6816892 | Web-on-cd A method and apparatus are disclosed for using an optical disk as a primary server in a network in order to reduce network access time and network traffic. According to the method, at least one optical disk is placed in a device which is connected to the network. Ap... | 11/09/2004 |
| 6816848 | SQL-based analytic algorithm for cluster analysis A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for performing data mining applications in a relational database management system. An analytic algorithm for cluster analysis is performed by the computer. The analytic algorithm for cluster analysis includes SQL stat... | 11/09/2004 |
| 6816840 | System and method of sending messages to a group of electronic price labels An electronic price label (EPL) system which is capable of communicating with a group of EPLs. The system includes the group of EPLs, which is less than the total number of EPLs within a transaction establishment, and a computer which records a unique group identifi... | 11/09/2004 |
| 6810394 | Methods and apparatus for searching for and identifying information of interest to users An information system. The system provides a user interface for selecting subject matter of interest to a user as well as various components for retrieving information items, for classifying information items to identify information items relating to the selected su... | 10/26/2004 |
| 6809645 | System and method for updating a product database based on surveillance tag detection at a self-checkout station A system modifies the status of a surveillance tag indicator in a product data record corresponding to an article being processed at checkout stand. The system comprises a product database having product records corresponding to articles sold in a store, a surveilla... | 10/26/2004 |
| 6805285 | Self-service terminal having a reconfigurable media entry slot A self-service terminal (SST) (10) having a reconfigurable media entry slot is provided. The slot (16) has paired vertically movable (22) and horizontally movable (20) shutters located so as to be capable of being moved to restrict the si... | 10/19/2004 |
| 6804678 | Non-blocking parallel band join algorithm A non-blocking parallel band join method and apparatus partitions tuples of two relations for localized processing. At each processing node, the tuples are further partitioned such that join operations may be performed efficiently, as tuples are received by the node... | 10/12/2004 |
| 6803344 | Thermal paper with preprinted indicia Thermosensitive recording materials such as thermal paper have printed indicia of high quality on the back thereof printed on a backcoating. This backcoating also incorporates an optically variable compound which provides a security feature. ... | 10/12/2004 |
| 6804667 | Filter for checking for duplicate entries in database A system for determining whether a record-to-be-added to a database is a duplicate of an existing record. The database is first processed, to generate a library of signatures, one for each record. For example, assume each record contains a phrase. The signature may ... | 10/12/2004 |
| 6801903 | Collecting statistics in a database system Statistics regarding at least one attribute (or column) of a table in a database system are collected using an enhanced mechanism for faster collection. The statistics collection is based on scanning a sample of rows of a given table, with the sample being less than... | 10/05/2004 |
| 6796503 | Methods and apparatus for dynamic adjustment of bar code reader parameters Systems and techniques for improved accuracy of bar code detection and decoding are described. A bar code scanner employs a rotating spinner to reflect a laser beam used to produce one or more scan patterns emerging from scan windows. The scanner produces a scanner ... | 09/28/2004 |
| 6798666 | Introducing loss in a power bus to reduce EMI and electrical noise A printed circuit board includes a power layer for use in providing electrical power to circuit components and a ground layer for use in carrying electrical current away from the circuit components. A loss element connects electrically between the power layer and gr... | 09/28/2004 |
| 6794586 | System and method for controlling weighing operations at a scale of a self-checkout terminal A system provides a more robust measurement of scanned items at a self-checkout station. The system comprises an item verifier for verifying placement of an item on a scale of a self-checkout station and a measurement adjuster operatively coupled to the item verifie... | 09/21/2004 |
| 6795886 | Interconnect switch method and apparatus An interconnect switch is used to couple input ports and output ports. The interconnect switch includes a central buffer having a number of storage entries to store data units from input ports. When an output port is available, data unit(s) are transferred from the ... | 09/21/2004 |
| 6793134 | Self-service terminal A self-service terminal (12) having a wireless communication port (28) for interacting with a user's portable device (60 or 70) is described. The terminal (12) may be an ATM, and includes a biometric device (35) for capturin... | 09/21/2004 |
| 6791466 | Apparatus for providing wireless transmission of information in electronic display systems and methods of using the same An apparatus for providing wireless transmission of information in electronic display systems and methods of using the same. In particular, the present invention is directed to an air interface and protocol to facilitate wireless transmission of information from a c... | 09/14/2004 |
| 6792394 | Method and apparatus for determining the retail performance metric of entry identification time The present invention provides a method and apparatus for determining a retail performance metric of entry identification time. The retail performance metric is determined by recording the time the system waited for and received an input. The retail performance metr... | 09/14/2004 |
| 6792559 | Performing operations in an environment recreated from system dump information A diagnosis system includes procedures to perform various operations, including diagnosis of problems, in a run-time environment recreated from dump information. The dump information is saved in response to a fault occurring in a node, which may be part of a paralle... | 09/14/2004 |
| 6789795 | Variable pressure document infeed transport apparatus for use in a self-service terminal A variable pressure document infeed transport provides a first driving pressure on a document being transported in a first direction along a document transport path of a self-service terminal, and provides a second driving pressure which is greater than the first dr... | 09/14/2004 |
| 6790493 | Epoxy curing agent emulsification for TTR application An aqueous coating formulation which forms a thermal transfer layer of a thermal transfer ribbon. This formulation comprises an aqueous emulsion of a thermoplastic resin and/or wax coemulsified with an epoxy curing agent. This emulsion can be combined with an aqueou... | 09/14/2004 |
| 6788205 | System and method for verifying surveillance tag deactivation in a self-checkout station A system for verifying deactivation of an EAS tag at a self-checkout counter includes an electronic article surveillance (EAS) tag deactivator for deactivating EAS tags attached to articles processed at a checkout station and an EAS tag interrogator associated with ... | 09/07/2004 |
| 6786354 | Media cassette A cassette (10) for storing media in sheet form is described. The cassette (10) has urging means (26) for urging a stack of media items (34) to one end (24) of the cassette (10), such as a media pick area (22). The ca... | 09/07/2004 |
