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3M employee and church chorister Art Fry needed something to temporarily mark pages in his hymnal. He was in luck because his colleague, Spencer Silver, accidentally developed a glue that was too weak for other purposes. After initially discouraging consumer response, Post-it Notes became a hit in 1979.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7760332 | Optical range-finding sensor, object detection device, self-cleaning toilet seat, and method for manufacturing optical range-finding sensor An optical range-finding sensor includes a light-emitting element that emits irradiation light, a light-emitting side lens that collects the irradiation light and irradiates the light to a range-finding object, a light-receiving side lens that collects reflected lig... | 07/20/2010 |
| 7327440 | Distance measuring device A distance measuring device is disclosed which can measure the distance to an object located within a known range. The device uses beam splitters and lenses to focus and direct energy reflected from an object onto at least two bi-sensors. The bi-sensors each have an... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7244122 | Methods for determining optical characteristics of dental objects Color measuring systems and methods such as for determining the color or other characteristics of teeth are disclosed. Perimeter receiver fiber optics are spaced apart from a central source fiber optic and receive light reflected from the surface of the object/tooth... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7240839 | Color measurement apparatus operable as a pointing device, a computer display measurement device and a printer output measurement device A color measurement apparatus is adapted as an attachment for a personal computing system. An interface integral to the color measurement apparatus couples the color measurement apparatus to the personal computing system. A computer pointing device integral to the c... | 07/10/2007 |
| 7228747 | Device for detecting rail movement A device for holding a transmitter and a receiver for detecting a deformation state of a component. The device includes a first holding part and a first receptacle, the transmitter being disposed on the first holding part via the first receptacle, wherein the first ... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7224397 | AF control apparatus and AF control method A CPU performs a control for photographing a main subject in absence of auxiliary light, whereby an image signal is outputted from an analogue signal processing section. Next, the CPU performs a control for photographing the main subject in presence of the auxiliary... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7215826 | Rendering three-dimensional streak tube imaging lidar (STIL) data to two-dimensional contrast and range mappings thereof A rendering method converts three-dimensional streak tube imaging lidar (STIL) data to two-dimensional contrast and range maps thereof. A temporal portion of the STIL data is processed for each pixel of the three-dimensional image. Each temporal portion includes a G... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7133031 | Optical system design for a universal computing device The universal input device provides a common user interface for a variety of different computing platforms including printed documents. Using the present system, one may use the universal input device to control various computing devices as well as capture handwritt... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7113283 | Apparatus and method for measuring color Color measuring systems and methods are disclosed. Perimeter receiver fiber optics are spaced apart from a central source fiber optic and receive light reflected from the surface of the object being measured. Light from the perimeter fiber optics pass to a variety o... | 09/26/2006 |
| 7097450 | Methods for determining color or shade information of a dental object using an image generation device without operator identification of the position of a reference implement in the field of view of the image generation device Color measuring systems and methods such as for determining the color or other characteristics of teeth are disclosed. Perimeter receiver fiber optics are spaced apart from a central source fiber optic and receive light reflected from the surface of the object/tooth... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7071480 | Sensor with alignment self compensation A material web attribute detection system with the material web having a first side and a second side. The system includes a radiation source located proximate to the first side of the material web and emitting radiation toward the material web, and a radiation dete... | 07/04/2006 |
| 7068317 | Photoelectric conversion apparatus This invention is to decrease the sensor pitch, prevent saturation by external light, accurately determine skimming, simplify skimming determination, and prevent any difference in influence of the transfer efficiency between the ON and OFF states. For this purpose, ... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7069186 | Method for remotely controlling a spectral measurement device utilizing predicted service life or a remotely provided software upgrade including color reference or shade guide data Optical characteristic measuring systems and methods such as for determining the color or other optical characteristics of teeth are disclosed. Perimeter receiver fiber optics preferably are spaced apart from a source fiber optic and receive light from the surface o... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7036232 | Apparatus for monitoring the rails of a railway or tramway line A laser apparatus for monitoring the rails of a railway or tramway line, characterized by comprising at least two measurement units mounted on a railway or tramway carriage and operating at last on the inner part of the two rails, along with said carriage is made to... | 05/02/2006 |
| 7034272 | Method and apparatus for evaluating integrated circuit packages having three dimensional features The present invention provides for methods and an apparatus for evaluating objects having three dimensional features. One method involves using both two dimensional data sets to improve the processing of three dimensional data sets. The two dimensional data set can ... | 04/25/2006 |
| 7034950 | Laser grid for measuring distance The laser grid (1) permits a single-sided installation in order to record a person or object in the monitoring area. The grid operates using punctiform sensor units (3), each including at least one laser diode and two photosensitive pixels. The sensor ... | 04/25/2006 |
| 7022966 | System and method of light spot position and color detection A position and color detection sensor (for detecting a position of a light spot in a light distribution that can include stray light components, e.g. from other lasers, ambient lighting etc.) includes two discrete response position sensitive detectors (DRPSDs). The ... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7006132 | Aperture coded camera for three dimensional imaging Determining instantaneously the three-dimensional coordinates of large sets of points in space using two or more CCD cameras (or any other type of camera), each with its own lens and pinhole. The CCD's are all arranged so that the pixel arrays are within the same pl... | 02/28/2006 |
| 6995359 | Miniature cryogenic shutter assembly A calibration method for radiometric imaging systems that relies on an absolute measurement of scene radiance (thereby requiring a baseline measurement of zero radiance), and a shutter assembly for taking the baseline measurement of zero radiance which is operable u... | 02/07/2006 |
| 6963376 | Distance measuring device and a camera provided with the distance measuring device In the distance measuring device, even if there are unmeasurable distance measuring regions, suitable estimate is set as the distance data of the unmeasurable region in accordance with distance data of the measurable distance measuring regions and the space on the o... | 11/08/2005 |
| 6958810 | Methods for characterizing gems or precious stones using a probe having a plurality of light receivers Optical characteristic measuring systems and methods such as for determining the color or other optical characteristics of teeth are disclosed. Perimeter receiver fiber optics are spaced apart from a source fiber optic and receive light from the surface of the objec... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6950189 | Apparatus and method for measuring optical characteristics of an object Color/optical characteristics measuring systems and methods are disclosed. Perimeter receiver fiber optics/elements are spaced apart from a central source fiber optic/element and received light reflected from the surface of the object is measured. Light from the per... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6915955 | Apparatus for determining multi-bit data via light received by a light receiver and coupled to spectral sensors that measure light in spectral bands Optical characteristic measuring systems and methods such as for determining the color or other optical characteristics of teeth are disclosed. Perimeter receiver fiber optics preferably are spaced apart from a source fiber optic and receive light from the surface o... | 07/12/2005 |
| 6906686 | Apparatus for displaying a stereoscopic two-dimensional image and method therefor An apparatus for displaying a stereoscopic two-dimensional picture includes a display unit having a flat image display screen for displaying a two-dimensional picture containing a stereoscopic image and an image transmitting panel placed parallel to and apart from t... | 06/14/2005 |
| 6806968 | Apparatus and method for measuring a workpiece The invention is directed to an apparatus for measuring a workpiece and includes a coordinate measuring apparatus or a machine tool. The invention further relates to a method for measuring the workpiece using such an apparatus. The apparatus includes a control and e... | 10/19/2004 |
| 6522394 | Rangefinder device and camera A rangefinder device and a camera are provided, which, in measuring a distance by the active method, are capable of properly measuring the distance even if the object to be measured is located at a short distance, while in measuring a distance by the pass... | 02/18/2003 |
| 6522393 | Distance measuring device A distance measuring device includes a light emitting system that emits light toward an object that is subject to a distance measurement. A light receiving system is provided to receive optical images which are formed by an optical system. The light recei... | 02/18/2003 |
| 6492652 | Opto-electronic distance sensor and method for the opto-electronic distance measurement The opto-electronic sensor (1) for the measurement of the distance (d) to an object (9), resp., for the identification of an object (9) within a monitoring zone (90) is based on triangulation measurement. A light source (21) emits light onto the object (9... | 12/10/2002 |
| 6433857 | Optical traingulation displacement sensor using a diffraction grating Disclosed herewith is an optical triangulation displacement sensor using a diffraction grating. The optical triangulation displacement sensor includes a light source element, a condenser, a light-receiving element, an image formation lens, a transmission ... | 08/13/2002 |
| 6359680 | Three-dimensional object measurement process and device A three-dimensional object measurement process and device are disclosed by means of optical image capture, projection of patterns and triangulation calculations. The pattern projection unit and the image capture unit are separately designed and can be ind... | 03/19/2002 |
| 6353478 | Digital range sensor system A digital range sensor comprises a light source, an optical element to focus the light from the source down to a small spot on a target, a second optical element that is mounted obliquely from the source axis, and a prism mounted on a multi-element detect... | 03/05/2002 |
| 6330055 | Distance measuring apparatus A distance measuring apparatus for measuring the distance to an object has a line of charge coupled device (CCD) elements which serve as two sensors for passive sensing and one sensor, in combination with a light emitting element, for active sensing. An i... | 12/11/2001 |
| 6317200 | Positional measurement with normalized signal processing A measurement apparatus (10, 110) and methods to perform positional types of measurement with normalization respective to either or both of light beam (16, 116) intensity and measurement target (12, 112) reflectivity. A light source, such as a laser diode... | 11/13/2001 |
| 6133988 | Device for the measurement of distances or of the angle of incidence of a light beam The device for the measurement of distances and of the angle of incidence of a light beam comprises an optical emitting system in order to project the light beam onto the object to be measured, and an optical receiving system in order to project the refle... | 10/17/2000 |
| 5995681 | Adjustment of sensor geometry model parameters using digital imagery co-registration process to reduce errors in digital imagery geolocation data A digital image processing system reduces errors in the parameters of a sensor geometry model, through which points in a captured digital image are geolocated to the surface of the earth by means of a `real time` co-registration mechanism that refines the... | 11/30/1999 |
| 5963309 | Distance measuring system A distance measuring system of the active type wherein a distance ranging from a short distance to a great distance can be measured with a high degree of accuracy in accordance with a ratio between outputs of two light receiving elements. The system compr... | 10/05/1999 |
| 5905567 | Method and apparatus for optimizing sub-pixel resolution in a triangulation based distance measuring device An apparatus for optimizing sub-pixel resolution in a triangulation based target distance measuring device at a desired stand-off distance has a laser light source projecting a light beam along a light beam axis so as to project a light spot onto a surfac... | 05/18/1999 |
| 5866915 | Method and apparatus for electro optically determining the dimension, location and attitude of objects A method and apparatus for optically determining the dimension of part surfaces. Particular embodiments describe optical triangulation based coordinate measurement machines capable of accurate measurement of complex surfaces, such as gear teeth and turbin... | 02/02/1999 |
| 5828057 | Method and arrangement for target seeking The invention relates to a method and arrangement for target seeking, where a rotatable instrument emits an electromagnetic radiation and automatically searches for a target reflector by detecting whether reception occurs of electromagnetic radiation rece... | 10/27/1998 |
| 5808726 | Distance measurement apparatus This invention has as its object to provide a distance measurement apparatus which can relatively easily control the clock generation timing and can prevent dark currents generated by accumulation units from being unbalanced between the ON and OFF states ... | 09/15/1998 |
