Did You Know...
...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7141772 | Three-dimensional location measurement sensor A three-dimensional location measurement sensor including first and second rotation plates to rotate about a fixed axial member independently of each other, a camera, formed inside the fixed axial member in the middle of the second rotation plate, a mirror, to be su... | 11/28/2006 |
| 6930769 | Optical sensor module tester A method and apparatus are provided for testing a photodetector (20) that has a narrow field of view (A) and an alignment surface (50), to determine whether the field of view and the axis (52) of the field of view are precisely what is expected ... | 08/16/2005 |
| 6236045 | Infrared quantum structure imaging device working at ambient temperature An infrared imaging device including a quantum device positioned and configured to detect infrared transmission at ambient temperature, a cooler thermally coupled to the quantum device, and controller for controlling the cooler based on a function of plur... | 05/22/2001 |
| 5851309 | Directing and concentrating solar energy collectors A directing and concentrating solar energy collector with a concentrating reflector and one or more cooperating directing reflectors concentrates solar radiation to a substantially narrow and straight line of concentration. The directing reflectors, being... | 12/22/1998 |
| 5285273 | Tracking system An automatic target tracking system comprising video means, target tracking means, correlation means and aimpoint location means which predicts the subsequent position of a target after each viewing by the video means and then correlates this with the act... | 02/08/1994 |
| 5179421 | Remote tracking system particularly for moving picture cameras and method The system includes a base unit sensitive to infrared (IR) signals transmitted by a mobile remote unit to an IR receiver which is placed behind a rotating set of signal blocking blinders whose position at any time defines a view angle with a position know... | 01/12/1993 |
| 4896962 | System for measuring the angular displacement of an object An improved helmet line of sight measuring system for determining the spatial location of a helmet and the line of sight of an observer wearing the helmet, both relative to a coordinate reference frame. A plurality of assemblies of light sources are distr... | 01/30/1990 |
| 4682221 | Non-contact electro-optical displacement follower This invention relates to a non-contact electro-optical displacement follower which captures the image of a target or device under test optically, converts the said image into an electron image by optical-electrical conversion, and measures displacement. ... | 07/21/1987 |
| 4631583 | Vidicon image motion compensation technique In a laser video imaging system, fiducial marks serving as reference points are physically applied to the faceplate of a video camera so that the fiducial marks become recorded on the observed scene. A boresight reticle produced by system electronics main... | 12/23/1986 |
| 4515471 | Scanning laser radar In an optical radar system a coherent signal is transmitted at a variable position and the return signal, that is, the reflected portion of the coherent signal is received and coherently detected. The transmitter utilizes a scanning laser having an electr... | 05/07/1985 |
| 4515472 | Agile receiver for a scanning laser radar In an optical radar system a coherent signal is transmitted at a variable position and the return signal, that is, the reflected portion of the coherent signal is received and coherently detected. The transmitter utilizes a scanning laser having an electr... | 05/07/1985 |
| 4496833 | Detection process and apparatus 1. Apparatus for locating a target which radiates or reflects electromagnetic energy comprising a circular-scan cathode-ray tube including a screen and an electron beam moving over said screen, regions of said screen fluorescing when impinged upon by said... | 01/29/1985 |
| 4362932 | Wide band data processing technique A wide band clock controlled delay line for reading-in short pulses at high peed and reading them out at low speed comprises in one embodiment an array of charge coupled photon detectors (CCPD's) and a CRT circuit for generating and scanning an electron be... | 12/07/1982 |
| 4349838 | Laser target designator system The system makes it possible to accurately align the laser emission axis with that of the video image sensor by using a point light source and an associated focusing optical system. External reception is interrupted during the alignment phase. The system ... | 09/14/1982 |
| 4324491 | Dual mode guidance system An active (laser) and passive guidance system having a common sensor (siln-vidicon) for target acquisition, non-imaging seeker (four quadrant detector integrated with four single detectors, gyro optics, electronics), and aim-point correlator. In the pass... | 04/13/1982 |
| 4316218 | Video tracker Electrical control system for a video tracker, including circuitry for maintaining the size of the target substantially constant relative to the tracking window, thereby improving the accuracy of the target shift detection circuit. Additional circuitry is... | 02/16/1982 |
| 4227212 | Adaptive updating processor for use in an area correlation video tracker In an area correlation video tracker, a reference subarray of picture elements acquired from a selected track window array of picture elements of an acquisition video frame is cross-correlated in accordance with a predetermined metric function with the pi... | 10/07/1980 |
| 4189747 | Infrared tracking system A tracking system for automatically tracking a designated target in response to video signals provided by a scanning infrared imaging sensor. A gated tracker provides output signals which are proportional to the angular deviation between the target's line... | 02/19/1980 |
| 4094225 | Target detecting and locating system A system for detecting and locating a source of radiation in which an image orthicon tube, sensitive only to infrared emissions at the wavelength of the source, is scanned along first and second orthogonal axes and, upon sensing incoming radiation, genera... | 06/13/1978 |
| 4060830 | Volumetric balance video tracker A video tracker for controlling the scanning of a sensor in an electro-optical tracking system in which the track point for the sensor is determined by balancing a volume signal from a first half of the track window with a volume signal from the second ha... | 11/29/1977 |
| 4053929 | Contour fitting pictorial tracking gate The tracker tracks on a center of contrast on a selected target while trang gates are adjusted automatically to fit the target contrast area's shape and size. The appropriate bright or dark contrast detector is adjusted to allow discrimination of the tar... | 10/11/1977 |
| 4004083 | Method and apparatus for determining centroid coordinates and angular orientation of a surface Apparatus for determining the centroid of an area by scanning the area with a television scanner in a rectangular scan, summating voltages derived from the scan and utilizing said voltages to derive the co-ordinates of the centroid. The invention also ext... | 01/18/1977 |
| 3974328 | Line scan area signature detection system An area signature detection system arranged to receive an output from a sensor operative in the electromagnetic spectrum, where the output from the sensor is an amplitude varying electrical signal representing the field-of-view beheld by the sensor, and t... | 08/10/1976 |
| 3955046 | Improvements relating to automatic target following apparatus 3. Automatic target following apparatus comprising A. sensing means for deriving a video signal representing a target, B. means for storing signal elements from a frame of said video signal, C. means for comparing signal elements from a subsequent frame of said vid... | 05/04/1976 |
| 3953670 | Adaptive video centroid tracker A video tracking system including a processor unit for adaptive gating and processing video output signals from a television camera to form computing signals therefrom. The time duration of the computing signals is representative of the duration of corres... | 04/27/1976 |
| 3953669 | Video tracking system The field observed by a video camera includes a desired target which is to be encompassed by an electronic window. The acquisition of the target is controlled initially by a light pen to position the electronic window on the target displayed on the screen... | 04/27/1976 |
| 3950611 | Gated video centroid tracker A video tracking system that produces voltages representative of the location of a designated target relative to the tracking axis of a transducer. An error detector unit compares the position of a target, of selected intensity contrast, to that of a trac... | 04/13/1976 |
| 3945716 | Rotatable head up display with coordinate reversal correctives A rotatable head up display system is provided to furnish target coorindate nformation to the pilot of an aircraft, for example. The head up display may be slaved to a FLIR or TV tracker to display the scene viewed thereby as well as the azimuth with respe... | 03/23/1976 |
| 3943277 | Digital memory area correlation tracker A digital tracker which provides a continuous display of the area tracked mprising a delay line coupled in circuit with a comparator, a video digitizer and a sensor. The digital tracker further comprises circuit means connected between the delay line and ... | 03/09/1976 |
| 3941997 | Method and a device for localizing a light impact on the photocathode of a photomultiplier A light impact on the photocathode of a photomultiplier is localized by defocusing the beam of emitted photoelectrons, sweeping the surface of the photocathode by means of a localized electric field which is located in the vicinity of the photocathode and... | 03/02/1976 |
| 3936632 | Position determining system A system for precisely determining the position of a beam of incident radiation. In one embodiment in the disclosure the system is utilized in an orbiting, Ritchey-Chretien telescope to determine the precise position of the image of a guide star in the fo... | 02/03/1976 |
