...that Charles Goodyear performed some of his experiments on rubber while in debtor's prison? He was there so often he referred to it as his "hotel". Chronically in debt because of poor business sense and ill health, Goodyear depended on the generosity of friends and family. Even after he unlocked the secret to vulcanizing rubber, he was unable to improve his financial situation. When he died, his estate was $200,000 in debt.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7212650 | Monitoring system and monitoring method A camera picks-up at least two images of a region where an object is present. A monitoring unit monitors the object and displays the images of the object on a display for a user. The monitoring unit obtains a difference image of the two images, and removes an image ... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7212936 | Method, system and computer program product for automated discovery and presentation of the direction of flow through components represented in a drawing set The method, system and computer program product for discovering a direction of flow through at least a portion of the components represented in the sheets of a drawing set includes providing an electronic representation of the sheets of the drawing set, automaticall... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7209246 | Information processing apparatus and method for processing read image data An original is read and the information stored as information targeted for processing, with either printing, transmission or holding being the processing for which the stored information is targeted, and the destination of the processing and either the timing or the... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7209588 | Unified system and method for animal behavior characterization in home cages using video analysis In general, the present invention is directed to systems and methods for finding the position and shape of an animal using video. The invention includes a system with a video camera coupled to a computer in which the computer is configured to automatically provide a... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7202791 | Method and apparatus for modeling behavior using a probability distrubution function A method and apparatus are disclosed for modeling patterns of behavior of humans or other animate objects and detecting a violation of a repetitive pattern of behavior. The behavior of one or more persons is observed over time and features of the behavior are record... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7203635 | Layered models for context awareness The present invention relates to a system and methodology providing layered probabilistic representations for sensing, learning, and inference from multiple sensory streams at multiple levels of temporal granularity and abstraction. The methods facilitate robustness... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7203903 | System and methods for spacing, storing and recognizing electronic representations of handwriting, printing and drawings A system for spacing, storing and recognizing electronic representations of handwriting and printing comprises a central processing unit that couples with a display device, an input device, and a memory. The memory includes means for spacing ink stroke representatio... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7203382 | Pattern matching and pattern recognition system, associative memory apparatus, and pattern matching and pattern recognition processing method A plurality of reference words based on a second distance index that allows coding of a first distance index are registered in an associative memory core in advance. In a first pipeline stage, a retrieved word having a predetermined number of bits is extracted from ... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7200602 | Data set comparison and net change processing A method and system for comparing and analyzing a first set of data with a second set of data received by a computer while maintaining a persistent key is disclosed. The method and system comprising the step of receiving a first data set and a second data set, each ... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7200491 | System for producing high-resolution, real-time synthetic meteorological conditions for a specified location Methods and articles of manufacture for estimating or deriving weather observations/conditions for any given location using observed weather conditions from neighboring locations, radar data, lightning data, satellite imagery, etc. An initial estimate of weather con... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7200266 | Method and apparatus for automated video activity analysis The invention is a new method and apparatus that can be used to detect, recognize, and analyze people or other objects in security checkpoints, public-places, parking lots, or in similar environments under surveillance to detect the presence of certain objects of in... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7197707 | Automatically selecting fonts The method automatically selects a font from a collection of fonts for use in captions associated with images. The method first selects 110 a font from a library of fonts, based on information provided with the images. The method then sets 112 the exis... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7197459 | Hybrid machine/human computing arrangement A hybrid machine/human computing arrangement which advantageously involves humans to assist a computer to solve particular tasks, allowing the computer to solve the tasks more efficiently. In one embodiment, a computer system decomposes a task, such as, for example,... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7197706 | Method and system for ensuring accurate font matching in documents Method and system aspects are described for ensuring accurate font matching in exchanged documents. The aspects include forming a database of font specifications. The aspects further include accessing the database when saving and opening documents to ensure usage of... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7194752 | Method and apparatus for automatically recognizing input audio and/or video streams A method and system for the automatic identification of audio, video, multimedia, and/or data recordings based on immutable characteristics of these works. The invention does not require the insertion of identifying codes or signals into the recording. This allows t... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7190834 | Methods for finding and characterizing a deformed pattern in an image A method is disclosed for finding a deformed pattern in an image using a plurality of sub-patterns. By advantageously restricting sub-pattern search ranges, search speed is improved, and the incidence of spurious matches is reduced. The method also quickly decides w... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7191103 | Predominant color identification in digital images At least one predominant color in a digital image is identified by applying a detection rule to randomly-selected pixels in the image. The detection rule includes testing specific colors to reduce the probability of at least one of a false-positive outcome and a fal... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7191114 | System and method for evaluating character sets to determine a best match encoding a message An evaluator system accepts input textual messages in unknown languages and assesses which character sets, corresponding to languages, matches that message. Textual messages whose individual characters are encoded in 16 bit Unicode or other universal format are pars... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7188139 | Portable information processing terminal, information input/output system and information input/output method Each device arranged in an information space and a computer are sustainedly connected and the connection can be visually recognized on the display screen of the computer. More specifically, there is provided a feature of “gaze-link” metaphor with which connectio... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7188309 | Resolving document object collisions Collisions between document objects on a document page are resolved. A collision is identified and a two-dimension resolution of the collision is provided by moving the object the shortest distance from a pre-collision location that would avoid the collision. The pr... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7184031 | Method and controller for identifying a drag gesture A method of identifying a drag gesture, with which the drag gesture is performed on a touch device and the method is characterized in that a drag signal can be generated when a sum of time duration of the first appearance and time span between an end of the first ap... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7184590 | Algorithm selector A method and system for processing image data to identify characteristics of a captured scene. Image data corresponding to a captured scene is processed by processing algorithms to produce processed signals for use in identifying characteristics of the captured scen... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7184592 | Information processing apparatus, method of controlling the same, and program for causing a computer to execute such a method An information processing apparatus includes a command region determination part determining a command region based on a stroke formed by an array of points indicated by coordinates input to a predetermined plane and a data transmission part transmitting, to the out... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7185278 | Separating and moving document objects using the movement of a wiper bar A tool is provided for managing the available space in an electronic document. The tool can be used to move document objects and/or expand the boundaries or margins of a page to enable the addition or expansion of one or more document objects. The tool also can be u... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7184994 | Scaleable object recognition with a belief model An exemplary embodiment of the present invention is directed to a system, method and computer program product for providing an object recognition blackboard system architecture. The system for recognizing objects in content can include: a blackboard comprising a plu... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7184036 | Integrated system for quickly and accurately imaging and modeling three-dimensional objects An integrated system generates a model of a three-dimensional object. A scanning laser device scans the three-dimensional object and generates a point cloud. The points of the point cloud each indicate a location of a corresponding point on a surface of the object. ... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7184585 | Object detection A method for object detection that utilizes a patterned background. Patterned backgrounds are chosen such that each reference image analyzed will have both light and dark pixels. The method calculates the difference between the expected value for the light pixels an... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7184939 | System and method of implementing user action monitoring to automatically populate object launchers The invention is directed to a system and method of observing actions performed on a computer and inferring relationships between objects based on information corresponding to the observed actions. Relationships between the objects may be determined based on usage i... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7181047 | Methods and apparatus for identifying and localizing an area of relative movement in a scene A method and apparatus for localizing an area in relative movement and for determining the speed and direction thereof in real time is disclosed. Each pixel of an image is smoothed using its own time constant. A binary value corresponding to the existence of a signi... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7181045 | Method and device for reading the addresses of items of mail The invention relates to a method and a device for reading the addresses of mailings with an OCR device and a video coding device. On an ambiguous reading result from the OCR device an extract is automatically generated with specified extraction rules from address a... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7177479 | Loss-less compression of still images at enhanced speed A method of compressing a stream of pixel data relative a two-dimensional object, pixels of which are scanned by rows from a source device to a receiver device, includes defining an extended context window to include a pair of pixels following a last encoded pixel o... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7173662 | Foveating imaging system and method employing a spatial light modulator to selectively modulate an input image An imaging system includes an image receiving unit for receiving an input image, and a spatial light modulator. The spatial light modulator is interposed between the image receiving unit and an input image. The spatial light modulator is for selectively modulating t... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7174042 | System and method for automatically recognizing electronic handwriting in an electronic document and converting to text A user can enter handwritten electronic ink into a writing guide on an electronic page of an electronic tablet. An ink processing module can display the handwritten electronic ink as it is rendered on the electronic page by the user. Upon the occurrence of a predefi... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7170584 | Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method In a maskless lithography apparatus light deflected by a patterning array out of a path towards a substrate is directed onto a detector that detects malfunctions of the patterning array. If the patterning array is of a type which selectively diverts radiation in ord... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7167604 | Portable document scan accessory for use with a wireless handheld communications device A scanning system includes a scanner accessory which is operationally supported by a wider-purpose wireless handheld communications device. The communications device may be a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular phone, a combined PDA/cellular phone, or a sim... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7167770 | Method of correcting transfer of a thin material and a thin material transfer apparatus A transfer correcting method for a thin material transfer apparatus includes detecting a front end of a thin material by the sensor, and transferring the thin material from a position of the sensor, to a processing unit, and further a reference transfer range from t... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7163324 | Led light stick assembly A light emitting diode (LED) warning signal light, the warning signal light comprising a plurality of light sources constructed and arranged with a reflector or cullminator, the LED light source being in electrical communication with a controller and a power supply,... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7162637 | Image verification system An image verification system includes an imaging device and a first image verification device. The imaging device has an image generating unit which generates image data, and a first verification data generating unit which generates first verification data using the... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7162085 | Pattern recognition method and apparatus A pattern recognition method and apparatus decrease the amount of computation for pattern recognition and adapts flexibly to an increase and a change in learning samples. Learning is made beforehand on base vectors in a subspace of each category and a kernel functio... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7154511 | Fast rendering of ink A system and process for quickly rendering ink is described. Rendered ink information is placed into a transparency map of an image. The image is combined with foreground and background information to produce a final image. Using this process, the painting of ink us... | 12/26/2006 |