Did You Know...
...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!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7352899 | Realistic machine-generated handwriting with personalized fonts There are provided new and improved methods and systems for producing machine-generated handwriting having realistic human appearance. In various embodiments, the handwriting may include characteristics of particular classes and/or characteristics of particular indi... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7327884 | Realistic machine-generated handwriting There have thus been provided new and improved methods and systems for producing machine-generated handwriting having realistic human appearance. In various embodiments, the handwriting may include characteristics of particular classes and/or characteristics of part... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7015401 | Image processing system with handwriting input function and the method for forming the same A digital system for mixing handwriting with an image is provided. The handwriting data is transmitted into the microprocessor of the image processing system, and then the microprocessor marks handwriting with a specific color and superimposes it on the image accord... | 03/21/2006 |
| 4737040 | Keyboard device and method for entering Japanese language text utilizing Romaji character notation The present invention is a keyboard device for entering Japanese language text utilizing Romaji character notation and a method for entering the Romaji character notation.... | 04/12/1988 |
| 4680710 | Computer composition of nastaliq script of the urdu group of languages A method is disclosed for computer composition of Nastaliq script and similar Ruka'ah script of the Urdu group of languages (Arabic, Persian, Punjabi, Pushto, Sindhi) in full conformance to rules of a script. Basic constituent elements of the characters o... | 07/14/1987 |
| 4642624 | Width card A width card associated with a film strip both of which are adapted to be used in a phototypesetting machine, the film strip containing a plurality of fonts, each of which contains a plurality of characters. The width card includes a memory for storing a ... | 02/10/1987 |
| 4607138 | Method of controlling a printing apparatus In a printing apparatus such as a laser beam printer, the time required for decomposing format data into dots is compared with the printout time for a page. If the former is not longer than the latter, both format data and description (e.g. character) dat... | 08/19/1986 |
| 4604712 | Apparatus for controlling reproduction of text characters whose form depends on adjacency of other characters A digital control device is used with a character generator for producing text in a typescript having multiform characters, such as Arabic script. The character generator includes a character store with a base page section to store codes identifying the b... | 08/05/1986 |
| 4573199 | Kanji/Chinese font generation by scaling A method of data compression which allows an enlarged font of complex characters to be produced by scaling from data representing a stored font of complex characters is disclosed. The scaling procedure involves the insertion of horizontal and vertical lin... | 02/25/1986 |
| 4566002 | Data output apparatus capable of rotating data output therefrom relative to data input thereto A data output apparatus is capable of effecting a rotation of image data output therefrom relative to image data input thereto. This apparatus includes a system for scanning image data to be input thereto on a line by line basis, and a page memory for sto... | 01/21/1986 |
| 4559615 | Method and apparatus for encoding, storing and accessing characters of a Chinese character-based language A complex character generator having a mass memory for storing the individual characters of a Chinese character-based language in pictorial form, the characters being represented by a two-part code, the first part defining a predetermined element common t... | 12/17/1985 |
| 4544276 | Method and apparatus for typing Japanese text using multiple systems A method and apparatus for typing Japanese text is disclosed. The method is characterized by operator manipulation of a keyboard to produce input signals to a microprocessor. The input signals are in the form of kana, English alphabet, numerals, and punct... | 10/01/1985 |
| 4527919 | Method for the composition of texts in Arabic letters and composition device The invention relates to a composition device for texts in Arabic letters which comprises a keyboard having several keys each corresponding to only one basic letter in all of its shapes, and an electronic device having a memory retaining the codes corresp... | 07/09/1985 |
| 4511267 | Method for changing the supply of characters in an ideographic typewriter by combining and storing individual characters Method for altering the supply of characters which are represented by data stored in the character generator of an ideographic typewriter and which can be displayed, under control of the character generator, in at least one standard character area of a di... | 04/16/1985 |
| 4482894 | Control circuit for a segmented display device A display device which comprises a keyboard for specifying a character to be displayed, a decoder for converting a specified character signal into segment signals corresponding to light emitting segments, and a display section which is provided with a plu... | 11/13/1984 |
| 4459431 | Output control system for dot-type printer A dot-type printer has heretofore been unable to output characters of the pitch which does not coincide with multiples of the dot-width by integers when such dot-width is either electrically or mechanically fixed, causing considerable errors and not being... | 07/10/1984 |
| 4447810 | Dot and dash segment display for simplified writing of Arabian language The light-emitting diode or liquid crystal display device, with a matrix structure, comprises a basic pattern repeated horizontally without spacing to form the matrix having three end-to-end vertical segments and four superimposed horizontal segments each... | 05/08/1984 |
| 4446457 | Video terminal character generator A raster scan CRT character generator comprising a memory having dot patterns for a plurality alphanumeric characters stored therein and a multiplexer, controlled by a signal from the memory, for selecting one of a plurality of sets of inputs to be used f... | 05/01/1984 |
| 4430649 | Video processing system The computer system of this invention has, as the heart of the system, a simple processing unit for providing most data processing by the computer system under control of a read-only memory which contains only instructions and other data for the CPU. The ... | 02/07/1984 |
| 4415766 | Recognizer/converter for arabic and other language codes The invention relates to a code converter with the specific capability of converting certain predetermined combinations of two or more code words of a first coding system to a single code word of a second coding system. The invention also relates to a con... | 11/15/1983 |
| 4413269 | Method of and apparatus for controlling gray scale while printing on charge sensitive recording mediums A method of and apparatus for controlling gray scale in the charge sensitive media of a matrix printer by using constant amplitude write pulses. Their use is intended to overcome registration problems caused by constant movement of the charge sensitive re... | 11/01/1983 |
| 4405830 | Elimination of display blanks resulting from the use of character attribute codes in a videotex type system A data transmission of the videotex type in which coded information can be transmitted from a central information store to a plurality of terminals. The coded information includes groups of bits representing characters and groups of bits representing cont... | 09/20/1983 |
| 4400791 | Dot matrix printer with compressed character data storage A method and apparatus for performing dot matrix printing in which the storage capacity of a memory used for storing character patterns is significantly reduced and the accompanying decoding process is quite simple. Character patterns to be printed are co... | 08/23/1983 |
| 4395587 | Method and apparatus for representing characters A method and apparatus for representing characters employ a printing unit to print symbols which correspond to characters, the characters being represented either by individual printed symbols or by two or more symbols printed in sequence or two or more o... | 07/26/1983 |
| 4393376 | Teletext interface for digital storage medium having synthetic video generator A teletext interface is coupled between a television receiver and a medium storing a plurality of digitally encoded signals each representing a selected text/graphics character intended for transmission as a corresponding synthetic video signal during the... | 07/12/1983 |
| 4368353 | Printer head for serial dot printer A high operational speed print head for mosaic printing is provided which has a plurality of print needles positioned on a straight line, each being selectively driven toward a piece of paper through an ink ribbon. The printer head comprises a cylindrical... | 01/11/1983 |
| 4367533 | Image bit structuring apparatus and method A bit structuring apparatus having a font memory for storing alpha-numeric characters and/or tonal definitions in a window representing a pixel space. The alpha-numeric characters thus stored can include both the character and required character spacing. ... | 01/04/1983 |
| 4365235 | Chinese/Kanji on-line recognition system A Chinese/Kanji on-line recognition system consisting of four main sections, these being tablet electronics, a signal filter and segment integration unit, a base stroke classification unit and a symbol element recognition unit, and a symbol recognition ou... | 12/21/1982 |
| 4357618 | Electrostatic imaging apparatus An electrostatic imaging process uses either a moving belt or a rotating drum with an insulative or dielectric layer backed by a conductive layer. A matrix of writing styli are used to charge the dielectric layer which are ionized air jets. After the imag... | 11/02/1982 |
| 4356347 | Integrated stylus array for printer operation A solid state multiple mode stylus array capable of printing, copying, or transmission, the various operating components of which are integrally formed on a substrate to provide a monolithic device. The array components include plural printing styli arran... | 10/26/1982 |
| 4353080 | Control system for electrographic stylus writing apparatus In a matrix array for the supply of an electrographic stylus writing apparatus, a plurality of styli are driven by short pulses through R/C networks. The styli are divided into subgroups and parallel capacitors connect the styli of each subgroup to a high... | 10/05/1982 |
| 4353061 | Apparatus and method for providing electron beam patterns using expanded beam array An apparatus and method for forming scanned electron beam patterns which finds particular use in multiple beam cathode ray tubes. Instead of using the vertical line array of electron beam sources which is used in conventional multiple beam tubes, a two di... | 10/05/1982 |
| 4342096 | Variable pitch character generator for dot matrix printer Proportional spacing of characters, for example by a laser-xerographic printer, is achieved using a character generator memory, for example a random access memory (RAM), to store the characters of a font in a plurality of variable-size binary matrices. Ea... | 07/27/1982 |
| 4338614 | Electrostatic print head An improved electrostatic print head is disclosed comprising a corona source, an aperture mask, a slotted focus plane, and a back plane electrode for supporting a moving dielectric print medium. The aperture mask includes two rows of staggered circular ap... | 07/06/1982 |
| 4323892 | Alpha-numeric character generator arrangement An alpha-numeric character generator arrangement having as a character store a "read-only" memory in which characters are stored in a character format composed of a co-ordinate matrix (e.g. a 7×5 dot matrix) of discrete character elements. One aspect of ... | 04/06/1982 |
| 4321599 | High legibility multi-character dot matrix display A character generator (14) applies character columns in a standard 5×7 or similar matrix form to a multi-digit dot matrix display (12). Inhibition circuitry (33), (23) eliminates all character columns containing no character dots. Additional circuitry (1... | 03/23/1982 |
| 4320395 | Alpha-numeric-display system with selectable crawl A television-type system for displaying characters of an alpha-numeric test n a horizontal line moving across the face of a TV monitor includes pulse-generator-fed frequency dividers emitting pulse sequences of which three are transmitted via viewer-operat... | 03/16/1982 |
| 4319077 | Circuit for coded symbol conversion A circuit for coded symbol conversion has first and second memories and a switching stage. Standard code characters from a keyboard are entered into the first memory and if the entered character is one which can be represented by a single binary word the ... | 03/09/1982 |
| 4298773 | Method and system for 5-bit encoding of complete Arabic-Farsi languages A method and apparatus for coding, transmitting, receiving, and displaying remotely or locally, all Arabic-Farsi characters or letters, basic arithmetic signs, numerals, punctuation marks and diacritical marks, as well as teleprinter operation commands in... | 11/03/1981 |
| 4286329 | Complex character generator A character compaction and generation method and apparatus which is particularly adapted to the generation of complex characters such as Kanji characters. A dot matrix defining a given character is compacted into a sparse matrix, with the original charact... | 08/25/1981 |
