Bizarre Patents
Pet Toilet-Like Water Disk and Food Storage
One pet-friendly inventor patented "a device for watering pets, e.g., a dog or cat." The device, he helpfully noted, "has the general shape of a toilet."
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7117421 | Transparent error correction code memory system and method The present invention provides flexible and efficient memory configuration that is capable of economically addressing both resource consumption and ECC concerns. A memory system facilitates transparent ECC operations without dedicated ECC connections. A first dynami... | 10/03/2006 |
| 7098634 | Buck-boost circuit with normally off JFET An enhancement mode JFET as a switching device in a buck-boost converter circuit combined with a single rectifier diode and an inductor. A control circuit coupled to the gate of the JFET switches the JFET between a current conducting state and a current blocking sta... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7075132 | Programmable junction field effect transistor and method for programming the same A programmable junction field effect transistor (JFET) with multiple independent gate inputs. A drain, source and a plurality of gate regions for controlling a conductive channel between the source and drain are fabricated in a semiconductor substrate. A first porti... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7068256 | Entering and exiting power modes and activating hand writing presentation display triggered by electronic muscle material A portable computer system contained within a housing that comprises an electronic muscle material for performing a plurality of functions. The electronic muscle can sense when the portable computer is being handled. When handled, the electronic muscle material can ... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7058732 | Method and apparatus for automatic detection of a serial peripheral interface (SPI) device memory size A method and apparatus for automatically detecting the memory size of a serial peripheral interface (SPI) device. Specifically, the present invention describes an SPI interface circuit including a memory controller chip, an EEPROM, a sensing circuit, and a pulldown ... | 06/06/2006 |
| 7051152 | Method and system of improving disk access time by compression A data storage system using compression to increase performance. The system has a hardware compression/decompression engine for performing data compression on a data block and performing data decompression of the data block. A controller is coupled to the hardware c... | 05/23/2006 |
| 7046039 | Class AB analog inverter A class AB analog inverter comprising cascoded n-channel (NMOS) and p-channel (PMOS) transistors. The inverter uses complementary devices, of which one or more may be a first transistor in cascode with a second transistor. The first and second transistors may have t... | 05/16/2006 |
| 7035886 | Re-configurable combinational logic device A re-configurable combinational logic device. The device comprises combinational logic that inputs a number of signals and a memory array for storing data to define Boolean expressions for a number of states. The states have Boolean expressions of selected signals o... | 04/25/2006 |
| 7013058 | Optical switch cascading system and method with fixed incidence angle correction The present invention is an efficient system and method for cascading optical switches. A plurality of cascaded optical switches form a cascaded optical switch fabric and direct an optical signal beam from one of the plurality of optical switches to another of the p... | 03/14/2006 |
| 7009228 | Guard ring structure and method for fabricating same A method for fabricating a guard ring structure for JFETs and MESFETs. Trenches are etched in a semiconductor substrate for fabrication of a gate structure for a JFET or MESFET. At time the gate trenches are etched, concentric guard ring trenches are also etched. Th... | 03/07/2006 |
| 7010724 | Operating system hang detection and methods for handling hang conditions Circuitry for detecting operating system hang conditions is provided. The circuitry includes interrupt logic for receiving system interrupts targeted for a central processing unit. Further included is hang detection logic that is in communication with the interrupt ... | 03/07/2006 |
| 7007117 | Identifying a type of connection and selecting a corresponding form of an application A method and system for automatically identifying the type of communication interface used to couple a portable computer system with a second computer system, and for selecting the form of an application that is used with the type of interface. For example, a debugg... | 02/28/2006 |
| 7005347 | Structures of and methods of fabricating trench-gated MIS devices In a trench-gated MIS device contact is made to the gate within the trench, thereby eliminating the need to have the gate material, typically polysilicon, extend outside of the trench. This avoids the problem of stress at the upper corners of the trench. Contact bet... | 02/28/2006 |
| 7003732 | Method and system for data-driven display grids A method and system of automatically generating information in a grid structure on a display screen. In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to displaying and editing microcontroller chip configuration information. The method involves reading a data fil... | 02/21/2006 |
| D515086 | Housing for a scalable graphics processor | 02/14/2006 |
| 6995052 | Method and structure for double dose gate in a JFET A method for fabricating a junction field effect transistor (JFET) with a double dose gate structure. A trench is etched in the surface of a semiconductor substrate, followed by a low dose implant to form a first gate region. An anneal may or may not be performed af... | 02/07/2006 |
| 6992659 | High transparency integrated enclosure touch screen assembly for a portable hand held device An integrated enclosure/touch screen assembly. A touch screen assembly consisting of a display mechanism and optical sensor mechanism are enclosed within a single piece cover. The optical sensor mechanism consists of lens structure and optical sensor couple to the l... | 01/31/2006 |
| 6990658 | Method for translating instructions in a speculative microprocessor featuring committing state A method for use by a host microprocessor which translates sequences of instructions from a target instruction set for a target processor to sequences of instructions for the host microprocessor including the steps of beginning execution of a speculative sequence of... | 01/24/2006 |
| 6990533 | Method and system for device bootstrapping via server synchronization Restoring basic functionality to a portable computer system via a server accessed remotely by telephone. A user of a portable computer system which has lost data and software which was held in volatile memory may connect to a server to restore basic functionality to... | 01/24/2006 |
| 6985139 | Interactive apparatus using print media A method for producing an output in response to an interaction with a print element on a sheet is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes placing a sheet comprising a print element on a surface of a base unit. A user can then mark on the sheet in the vicin... | 01/10/2006 |
| 6982728 | Portable electronic system having multiple display modes for reorienting the display of data on a display screen An electronic system includes an electronic display device and a communication port. Each display mode corresponds to a particular position of the communication port relative to a line of sight of a user. In one embodiment, the communication port is an infrared comm... | 01/03/2006 |
| 6983087 | Cascading optical switch multi-plane system and method The present invention is an efficient system and method for cascading optical switches in architectures that enable three dimensional multi-plane optical signal beam steering to be performed with two dimensional steering devices. A plurality of cascaded optical swit... | 01/03/2006 |
| 6982490 | Interface device including a video BIOS component An interface device having a video BIOS component. The device includes a substrate for implementing a mother board connection and implementing a GPU (graphics processor unit) connection. A video BIOS component is mounted on the substrate for providing video BIOS fun... | 01/03/2006 |
| 6981090 | Multiple use of microcontroller pad A circuit arrangement permits a microcontroller wirebond pad to be configured to be an analog or digital input or output. The circuit arrangement uses any of a plurality of switching configurations to selectively determine the use of the wirebond pad under control o... | 12/27/2005 |
| 6975157 | Starter device for normally off JFETs A semiconductor switching device or amplifier combined in parallel with one or more active devices defined as starter devices. A starter device is used to reduce the terminal voltage of a switching device or amplifier to a dc level below about 0.4 volts which will t... | 12/13/2005 |
| 6971907 | Configurable lighted connector A communication connector, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, includes an insulative housing having a cylindrical opening, a light source, and a first and second electrical interconnect. The insulative housing includes a body portion and a head port... | 12/06/2005 |
| 6971004 | System and method of dynamically reconfiguring a programmable integrated circuit The present invention system and method enables dynamic reconfiguration of an electronic device in a convenient and efficient manner. In one embodiment, the electronic device includes a microprocessor, a plurality of internal peripherals, an interconnecting componen... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6970908 | Method of email attachment confirmation The present invention provides a method for automatically determining, and accordingly prompting an email user as to whether an attachment is to accompany an email message prior to transmission of the message. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a meth... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6970915 | Streaming content over a telephone interface A method and apparatus for providing streaming content over telephones is described. The creation of a voice portal is supported by the invention. Embodiments of the invention use allows users to place a telephone call to access the voice portal. The user can access... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6968469 | System and method for preserving internal processor context when the processor is powered down and restoring the internal processor context when processor is restored A CPU (1) automatically preserves the CPU context in a computer memory (5) that remains powered-up when the CPU is powered down in sleep mode. By means of the preserved CPU context, the CPU is able to instantly and transparently resume program executio... | 11/22/2005 |
| 6967511 | Method for synchronizing and resetting clock signals supplied to multiple programmable analog blocks A method for establishing frequency and phase alignment of clock signals across a domain of analog blocks coupled in a single integrated circuit. Different analog functions are implemented by selectively and electrically coupling different combinations of analog blo... | 11/22/2005 |
| 6968424 | Method and system for transparent compressed memory paging in a computer system A method and system for implementing transparent compressed memory paging within a computer system. Data compression is performed in memory to increase resources available to the computer system and to reduce disk accesses. The compression is performed transparently... | 11/22/2005 |
| 6966039 | Method for facilitating microcontroller programming A method to facilitate circuit design. First, a schematic and data sheet for a selected module may be displayed. Next, in response to a request for a position for the module among available resources (e.g., programmable system blocks), a potential position for the m... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6965375 | Compact integrated touch panel display for a handheld device A handheld device with a compact integrated touch panel is disclosed. A handheld device incorporating a touch panel display requiring electrical connections is reduced in size by incorporating electrical pathways within the support structure of the touch panel displ... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6963784 | Virtual device control modules and function control modules implemented in a home audio/video network A virtual device control module for interfacing with a target device is disclosed. A DCM (device control module) is operable for interfacing with the target device, wherein the DCM includes a first FCM (function control module) and a second FCM operable for controll... | 11/08/2005 |
| 6963344 | Method and system for utilizing graphics memory to provide storage for video BIOS initialization A computer implemented method for utilizing graphics memory of a computer system to provide storage for video BIOS initialization. Video BIOS memory is accessed to execute video BIOS initialization routines. A portion of graphics memory is configured for access by t... | 11/08/2005 |
| 6961029 | Pixel border for improved viewability of a display device A display device having a display matrix including a pixel border of width x and located around the edge locations of the matrix for improved viewability. In particular, the border can be several pixels wide, e.g., 1 | 11/01/2005 |
| 6959421 | Quick click icons for workspace flow between views for major subsystems and views within a design tool A method and system for helping a user perform tasks in software. Graphic elements (e.g., icons) are rendered and displayed regardless of which task is being performed. An element can be either active or inactive; user selection of an element with the element active... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6959347 | Method of providing and enabling a dynamic and scaleable system architecture for a computer system A method of providing and enabling a dynamic and scaleable system architecture for a computer system is disclosed. The method is executed on a computer system having a processor, a computer readable memory, and an adapter for receiving a module that will add functio... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6957231 | System and method of specifying and editing alt attributes A computer implemented method for updating alt attribute values in a data set. The application includes a file server for storing one or more file sets. The server is communicatively coupled to an attribute engine. The attribute engine is also communicatively couple... | 10/18/2005 |
