...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
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 |
| 5802536 | Information search and display apparatus An information search and display apparatus substantially reduces search time required in consecutively searching a plurality of files and/or a plurality of search terms. When a first search result searched based on a search term entered by a signal input... | 09/01/1998 |
| 5787452 | Client/server database system with methods for multi-threaded data processing in a heterogeneous language environment A system providing improved National Language Support (NLS) in application programs is described. The system employs normalized Unicode data with generic transformation structures having locale overlays. Methods are described for navigating the structures... | 07/28/1998 |
| 5787386 | Compact encoding of multi-lingual translation dictionaries A computerized multilingual translation dictionary includes a set of word and phrases for each of the languages it contains, plus a mapping that indicates for each word or phrase in one language what the corresponding translations in the other languages a... | 07/28/1998 |
| 5761688 | Dictionary retrieval apparatus An index structure of a dictionary retrieval apparatus includes a first index, a second index, a heading main index, and a differential character train buffer. An item for each word in the index is accessed via the first and second indexes. Access to succ... | 06/02/1998 |
| 5715466 | System for parallel foreign language communication over a computer network A system is disclosed which allows for an electronic discussion group user to communicate with another user who speaks a different language. Machine translators and other software are incorporated to translate messages, thereby creating parallel discussio... | 02/03/1998 |
| 5706450 | Method and system for presenting alternatives for selection using adaptive learning A method and system for efficiently presenting a series of alternatives for a user's selection using adaptive learning is provided. In a preferred embodiment, a software facility receives a request to select an item from an identified group of alternative... | 01/06/1998 |
| 5689723 | Method for allowing single-byte character set and double-byte character set fonts in a double-byte character set code page The method of the invention allows both single-byte character set (SBCS) and double-byte character set (DBCS) fonts in a DBCS code page. The invention stores the SBCS and DBCS text of the document in separate areas. Each area contains the following specif... | 11/18/1997 |
| 5675818 | System and methods for improved sorting with national language support A Database Management System having a Collation Engine with improved methods for sorting information with National Language Support (NLS) is described. The Collation Engine includes an improved method for comparing text strings with a culturally predictab... | 10/07/1997 |
| 5634134 | Method and apparatus for determining character and character mode for multi-lingual keyboard based on input characters A method and apparatus for determining at least one of a character and a destination therefor in accordance with a received signal representing at least one of a plurality of characters and at least one character corresponding to at least one of a plurali... | 05/27/1997 |
| 5634066 | Information processing apparatus An information processing apparatus by which characters can be inputted easily. Characters of another language corresponding to an alphabetical character, for example, e of the English-USA language, such as, for example, characters e with an acute accent,... | 05/27/1997 |
| 5623682 | Apparatus for processing documentary information An apparatus for processing document information includes a keyboard, for inputting characters of a plurality of languages, symbols relating to the pronunciation of the inputted characters, a selection key, and a key for inputting a nationality code, and ... | 04/22/1997 |
| 5594642 | Input methods framework A method and system for assisting input of information. The method and system dynamically translates information being input, and allows user interaction with the translation process. The system is flexibly designed to allow easy use by application develo... | 01/14/1997 |
| 5587902 | Translating system for processing text with markup signs A method and translating machine for translating a source language with markup signs into a target language maintaining the markup signs. The system includes a separation module for separating an original text into markup signs and a text body exclusive o... | 12/24/1996 |
| 5583761 | Method for automatic displaying program presentations in different languages The present invention, called the Application Program Language Translator (APLT), is a method that allows application programs, performing user interfacing, to be presented/displayed in part or in whole in any language in real-time as selected by the user... | 12/10/1996 |
| 5579223 | Method and system for incorporating modifications made to a computer program into a translated version of the computer program A method and system for merging a first file with a second file to produce an output file, wherein the first and second files are uniquely modified versions of an original file, are discussed. In a preferred embodiment, a computer program can be efficient... | 11/26/1996 |
| 5550741 | Document creation assistance device A document creation assistance device stores a first language document and its translation into a second language. When replacing a word (selected word) with another word (replacement word) in either of the first or second languages, all the words having ... | 08/27/1996 |
| 5546304 | Real-time administration-translation arrangement A translation database (23) is used to allow an administrator to use a foreign language to administer, in real time, a switching system (10) whose administration database (11) is constructed from forms, files, and other administration patterns expressed i... | 08/13/1996 |
| 5535119 | Character inputting method allowing input of a plurality of different types of character species, and information processing equipment adopting the same An information processing equipment providing easy operations of changing-over character species, and, in which characters can be entered without being conscious of the designation of a character mode. Signals entered from an input device are handled in c... | 07/09/1996 |
| 5510981 | Language translation apparatus and method using context-based translation models An apparatus for translating a series of source words in a first language to a series of target words in a second language. For an input series of source words, at least two target hypotheses, each including a series of target words, are generated. Each t... | 04/23/1996 |
| 5485373 | Language-sensitive text searching system with modified Boyer-Moore process A method and system for providing a language-sensitive text search that performs text comparison of any Unicode strings. For any language an ordering is defined based on features of the language. Then, an interactive compare function is performed to deter... | 01/16/1996 |
| 5442782 | Providing information from a multilingual database of language-independent and language-dependent items The present invention provides the ability to internationalize a database application by providing a capability to create and maintain related international records. Data items can be stored in a base language with accompanying related copies of the data ... | 08/15/1995 |
| 5418718 | Method for providing linguistic functions of English text in a mixed document of single-byte characters and double-byte characters In a single-byte character set English text mixed with a double-byte character set Japanese text, both an English spelling aid and a Japanese spelling aid can be provided and each respective spelling aid will be invoked depending upon whether the SBCS cha... | 05/23/1995 |
| 5157606 | System for translation of source language data into multiple target language data including means to prevent premature termination of processing A multi-language conversion system is provided having a multi-language conversion table with a plurality of sub-tables for individual languages. These sub-tables include a keyword module for managing a keyword to be subject to a conversion in a predetermi... | 10/20/1992 |
| 5127748 | Documentation system having multilingual function A documentation system having a multilingual function, including a keyboard; a keyboard mode selecting device for setting at least a standard language mode and a multilingual mode wherein one keyboard mode (an optional language mode different from the sta... | 07/07/1992 |
| 4873634 | Spelling assistance method for compound words Correctly spelled compound words are provided as candidates to replace a misspelled compound word in many natural languages such as Dutch, Danish, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Swiss German, etc. The basic technique consists of looking up words i... | 10/10/1989 |
| 4870610 | Method of operating a computer system to provide customed I/O information including language translation A method of operating a computer system to effect user-customization, primarily foreign language translation, of standard system-supplied screen displays without the need to modify underlying system source code. A transltion environment includes an autono... | 09/26/1989 |
| 4868779 | Device having both standard and supplementary character correspondence tables for generating character codes A character code generating device includes a standard character code correspondence table for storing the character codes each corresponding to individual key-inputs from a key board, a searching device for the for said standard character code correspond... | 09/19/1989 |
| 4456969 | System for automatically hyphenating and verifying the spelling of words in a multi-lingual document Disclosed is an improved system for verifying the spelling and providing hyphenation points for text words from a plurality of interspersed languages. The control system includes control codes which are inserted in the text to define the language of the t... | 06/26/1984 |
| 4402058 | Keyboard mismatch correction In a word processor where a text stream is input by way of a keyboard for storage and is displayed to an operator and wherein different keyboard character sets are available, means are provided for signalling the location at which an insert of one or more... | 08/30/1983 |
| 4122533 | Multiple language character generating system A character generating system is provided for a photocomposition machine to display alpha/numeric symbols on a CRT for any language selected from a group of languages. The system includes a character generator memory for each symbol and control means whic... | 10/24/1978 |