Bizarre Patents
Reward Candy Dispenser for Personal Computers
A personal computer peripheral, battery powered reward candy dispenser which immediately presents students with a single candy for each problem completed correctly.
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6002399 | Apparatus and method for creating diagrams An apparatus in a computer for creating a diagram, which may include a plurality of symbols. The apparatus includes a graphical controller, which is associated with a symbol of the aforementioned diagram that is "selected." In one embodiment, the graphica... | 12/14/1999 |
| 5885843 | Device and method for determining oxygen concentration and pressure in gases Disclosed are oxygen concentration and/or pressure sensing devices and methods which incorporate photoluminescent silica aerogels. Disclosed sensors include a light proof housing for holding the photoluminescent aerogel, a source of excitation radiation (... | 03/23/1999 |
| 5806761 | Combination faucet device In a combination faucet device (10) according to the invention, a movable valve member (160) slidingly moves relative to a main casing (30) to change a mixing ratio of high-temperature water supplied from a hot water port (116) to low-temperature water su... | 09/15/1998 |
| 5805860 | Methods, data structures and apparatus for traversing a hierarchical netlist The present invention teaches a variety of methods, data structures and apparatus for use in representing and traversing hierarchical netlists. According to a first embodiment of the present invention, a hierarchical netlist which represents an electronic... | 09/08/1998 |
| 5800494 | Microwave ablation catheters having antennas with distal fire capabilities A variety of improved antenna arrangements for ablation catheters and methods for constructing catheter with these antenna arrangements are described. In various apparatus aspects of the invention, the catheter includes an elongated flexible tubular membe... | 09/01/1998 |
| 5796941 | Method for supervising software execution in a license restricted environment A method for supervising the execution of a job in a license restricted environment is disclosed. According to the license restricted environment, some networked machines are licensed for a first type of processing and other machines are licensed for a se... | 08/18/1998 |
| 5772906 | Mechanism for uniform etching by minimizing effects of etch rate loading A method for etching a layer stack structure on a substrate is provided. The method includes a step of etching the layer stack to a predefined stopping point using a reverse etch rate loading inducing chemistry. The method also includes a step of etching ... | 06/30/1998 |
| 5772448 | Edgecard circuit board A printed circuit board that includes contact slider regions between conductive pads on the printed circuit board is disclosed. The printed circuit board is particularly suited for high density situations. According to one embodiment, a printed circuit bo... | 06/30/1998 |
| 5769424 | Arcade game for stacking directed playing pieces A game method and apparatus includes a playing surface having a player end and a target end and a target provided at the target end. The target includes a channel on a planar target surface that is inclined and receives multiple playing pieces, such as ba... | 06/23/1998 |
| 5759921 | Integrated circuit device fabrication by plasma etching An anisotropic etching process is disclosed in which two sources of process gas are provided to a plasma reactor having at least three electrodes. In a plasma, the first process gas provides etchant species which are reactive with a substrate and the seco... | 06/02/1998 |
| 5754066 | Output stage for buffering an electrical signal and method for performing the same The present invention teaches a variety of output stages, buffer circuits, and power amplifiers as well as methods for buffering electrical signals. According to one embodiment of the present invention, an output stage includes an input, an output, an err... | 05/19/1998 |
| 5749070 | Multi-representational data structure for recognition in computer systems An improved recognition data structure is described that is particularly well suited for use in a computer system having recognition abilities. The data structure includes a multi-representational data list section arranged to store a multiplicity of datu... | 05/05/1998 |
| 5739811 | Method and apparatus for controlling human-computer interface systems providing force feedback A method and apparatus for controlling and providing force feedback using an interface device manipulated by a user. A microprocessor is provided local to the interface device and reads sensor data from sensors that describes the position and/or other inf... | 04/14/1998 |
| 5738275 | Combination faucet device In a combination faucet device (10) according to the invention, a movable valve member (160) slidingly moves relative to a main casing (30) to change a mixing ratio of high-temperature water supplied from a hot water port (116) to low-temperature water su... | 04/14/1998 |
| 5737635 | Variable latency cut through bridge having variable latency threshold point being configured dynamically for forwarding packets while the bridge is operating A variable latency cut through bridge (210) for selectively forwarding data packets (10) within a network (310) of computers (312), the variable latency cut through bridge (210) employing a variable latency bridging method wherein the latency factor of th... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5737418 | Encryption of bill validation data A method for encrypting bill validation data generated by a bill validator is disclosed. Such data includes an inserted bill's denomination and country of origin as determined by sensors in the bill validator. Once such information is obtained, it is encr... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5736900 | Method and apparatus for amplifying an electrical signal In accordance with the objectives of the present invention, a variety of apparatus and methods for amplifying an electrical signal are disclosed. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a dual-output stage amplifier includes an amplifier sta... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5736432 | Lead frame with lead finger locking feature and method for making same A variety of lead configurations for use in packaged semiconductors, the leads including integral finger locking mechanisms to prevent leads from pulling out of an encapsulated package, and their method of manufacture. Each finger is comprised of a bent p... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5737523 | Methods and apparatus for providing dynamic network file system client authentication A variety of methods and apparatus are taught for providing dynamic distributed file system client authentication. One method for providing dynamic distributed file system client authentication within a distributed file system computing environment includ... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5734373 | Method and apparatus for controlling force feedback interface systems utilizing a host computer A method and apparatus for controlling and providing force feedback using an interface device manipulated by a user. A microprocessor is provided local to the interface device and reads sensor data from sensors that describes the position and/or other inf... | 03/31/1998 |
| 5732272 | Subroutine execution time tracer A subroutine execution time tracer that is able to trace execution times of software subroutines regardless of whether the subroutines are invoked or exited using standard or non-standard subroutine calling conventions is described. A head patch is placed... | 03/24/1998 |
| 5731978 | Method and apparatus for enhancing vehicle navigation through recognition of geographical region types A method for navigating with a vehicle navigation system using recognition of geographical region types in a map database. The system's map database stores information representative of a plurality of geographical region types. A geographical region type ... | 03/24/1998 |
| 5731223 | Array of solder pads on an integrated circuit Disclosed is a die structure which allows some or all routing to be performed in an integrated circuit packaging substrate (e.g., a package or circuit board). The packaging substrate acts as one or more interconnect levels. The die and packaging substrate... | 03/24/1998 |
| 5727203 | Methods and apparatus for managing a database in a distributed object operating environment using persistent and transient cache A variety of methods and apparatus for managing a database in a object oriented environment are disclosed. According to the present invention, a database is provided which includes a database cache and a persistent database portion. Clients of the databas... | 03/10/1998 |
| 5724264 | Method and apparatus for tracking the position and orientation of a stylus and for digitizing a 3-D object A method and apparatus for measuring three-dimensional (3-D) coordinates. A 3-D object can be digitized into a mesh representation manipulable by a computer system by tracing a stylus of a probe apparatus over surfaces of the object. The probe apparatus i... | 03/03/1998 |
| 5721937 | Method and apparatus for reducing power consumption in a computer system by placing the CPU in a low power mode A computer system including a central processing unit (CPU) and a power management circuit (PMC). The CPU has an active mode where it is responsive to interrupt and direct memory access requests, and a standby mode where it is in a low power state and is ... | 02/24/1998 |
| 5721405 | Tactile feedback mechanism for a multidirectional switch When an operating knob (12) is moved in an XA direction, an XB direction which is opposite to the XA direction, or a Y direction which is perpendicular to the XA and XB directions, coupling bars (44), (45) provided in a holder (20) which moves together wi... | 02/24/1998 |
| 5721566 | Method and apparatus for providing damping force feedback A method and apparatus for interfacing the motion of an object with a digital processing system includes a sensor for detecting movement of the object along a degree of freedom. A passive pneumatic or hydraulic damper is coupled to the object to provide a... | 02/24/1998 |
| 5720018 | Three-dimensional real-time monitoring of attributes of computer software processes An improved technique for monitoring computer processes and their attributes using a three-dimensional graphical image. The three dimensional graphical image is formed by displaying the graphical objects associated with the computer processes and their at... | 02/17/1998 |
| 5719422 | Low threshold voltage, high performance junction transistor Low threshold voltage MOS devices having buried electrodes are disclosed herein. Such devices have source and drain regions which include tip regions and plug regions. The buried electrodes have bottom boundaries located above the bottoms of the plug regi... | 02/17/1998 |
| 5716588 | Getter materials for deoxygenating ammonia/oxygen gas mixtures at low temperature A method for removing oxygen from ammonia at low temperature is described. In one embodiment, oxygen contaminated ammonia is contacted with a getter material that includes iron and manganese that sorbs oxygen to yield ammonia that is substantially oxygen ... | 02/10/1998 |
| 5715594 | Method of making removable computer peripheral cards having a solid one-piece housing A portable peripheral card for an electrical device is disclosed that has an injected molded housing package. In one aspect of the invention, the peripheral card has a printed circuit board, a female electrical connector, and a solid one-piece injected mo... | 02/10/1998 |
| 5713572 | Pusher game apparatus A pusher game apparatus provides at least one jackpot detecting section which detects a disk dropped from a guiding means. The stroke of reciprocation of the pusher is changed according to whether or not the disk is detected by the jackpot detecting secti... | 02/03/1998 |
| 5710922 | Method for synchronizing and archiving information between computer systems A method for synchronizing the data between two separate computer systems is described. In a first aspect of the invention, the method includes the step of identifying each record stored in the memory of the first computer system that is intended to be sy... | 01/20/1998 |
| 5707523 | Dynamic vertical solids separator A dynamic vertical solids separator acts as a dynamic filter to produce a clarified supernate sample for use in measuring the net electrokinetic charge demand of finely divided particles suspended in the slurry. The dynamic vertical solids separator first... | 01/13/1998 |
| 5705851 | Thermal ball lead integrated package A Thermal Ball Lead Integrated Package (Thermal BLIP) having improved thermal performance over prior art BLIPs is described. The BLIP combines ball and lead technologies to increase the interconnect density of the package but has relatively poor heat extr... | 01/06/1998 |
| 5703298 | Magnetostrictive torque sensing device A device for detecting torque applied to a rotary shaft. The device has a sensing piece made of a magnetostrictive material and opposite ends for mounting the sensing piece on the rotary shaft. A primary coil is located around the rotary shaft for supplyi... | 12/30/1997 |
| 5702957 | Method of making buried metallization structure Disclosed is an IC structure providing conductive lines for routing within a semiconductor substrate immediately below the level of the active IC devices. These "buried" conductive lines are insulated from each other by dielectric regions formed as an ins... | 12/30/1997 |
| 5698344 | Two-step gated holographic recording in photorefractive materials using cw lasers Ferroelectric materials are disclosed as reversible holographic recording media (25) for use in two-photon recording systems. The ferroelectric materials disclosed herein provide long-lived electronic states intermediate the ferroelectric material's valen... | 12/16/1997 |
| 5688709 | Method for forming composite trench-fin capacitors for DRAMS A semiconductor memory device capacitor is disclosed which has a trench capacitor portion provided in a semiconductor substrate and a fin capacitor portion provided above the substrate. The trench capacitor portion includes (i) a trench extending from an ... | 11/18/1997 |
