Did You Know...
...that the Slinky toy was the result of a failed attempt by engineer Richard James to produce an antivibration device for ship instruments? His goal was to develop a spring that would instantaneously counterbalance the wave motion that rocks a ship at sea. Instead, he developed the Slinky.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 5070453 | System and method for scheduling data transfers among a plurality of data processing units to avoid conflicting data requests A method for allocating resource use to a process having a plurality of tasks in which a set of signals identifying the interferences in resource use among the plurality of tasks is generated and a signal representing an initial non-interfering allocation... | 12/03/1991 |
| 5043889 | Automated golf sweepstakes game An apparatus and method for playing a golf sweepstakes game. Players seek to win the sweepstakes game by correctly predicting a portion of the outcome of a golf tournament. The players are provided with an access number. A code system allows the players t... | 08/27/1991 |
| 5041972 | Method of measuring and evaluating consumer response for the development of consumer products A method for evaluating consumer response comprising conducting interviews to obtain emotional, rational and personality descriptors of functionally related items, eliciting from consumers evaluations of the extent to which the non-eliminated descriptors ... | 08/20/1991 |
| 5025373 | Portable personal-banking system A portable personal banking system comprises a host computer and at least one portable terminal among a variety of terminals including automatic teller machines and personal computers. The portable terminal provides a range of banking services over an aut... | 06/18/1991 |
| 5025374 | Portable system for choosing pre-operative patient test An interactive medical test selector for use by a patient is about the size of a book and has a screen for displaying questions to a patient, a limited number of keys by which the patient can enter answers, and a memory device for storing the patient's an... | 06/18/1991 |
| 5021953 | Trip planner optimizing travel itinerary selection conforming to individualized travel policies A travel planner system automatically constructs itineraries with available seats for a traveler's trip request which conform to pre-stored reasonableness standards which includes a satisfactory check on whether a connecting flight distance exceeds that o... | 06/04/1991 |
| 5021954 | System and method of providing passenger ingress and egress in an amusement ride A method and system is provided for moving passengers in and out of an amusement ride of the type having a passenger cabin capable of movement in multiple degrees of freedom within an enclosure. The cabin includes ingrees doors on one side of the cabin an... | 06/04/1991 |
| 5019976 | Method and system for retrieving text associated with a reference image correspondence to a selected patient image A method of comparing a newly acquired working image with a previously acquired reference image and a system for comparing a newly acquired working image with a previously acquired reference image. A reference text regarding areas of interest is displayed... | 05/28/1991 |
| 5018067 | Apparatus and method for improved estimation of health resource consumption through use of diagnostic and/or procedure grouping and severity of illness indicators The likely consumption of health provider resources that are necessary to treat a particular medical patient are estimated within the framework of the existing Federal mandated system that uses Diagnostic Related Groups (DRG's) for setting the amount of p... | 05/21/1991 |
| 5016171 | Copy cartridge warranty and billing system Customer billing system for electrostatographic reproducing machines in which a replaceable copy cartridge provides a guaranteed number of copies or prints, each cartridge having an integral copy counter which, on reaching a predetermined copy count, is d... | 05/14/1991 |
| 5016173 | Apparatus and method for monitoring visually accessible surfaces of the body This invention relates to an improved apparatus and method for in vivo monitoring of visually accessible surfaces of the body. The invention synthesizes methods of systems identification and computer vision to quantify and/or classify features of surface ... | 05/14/1991 |
| 5010486 | System and method for language translation including replacement of a selected word for future translation A translation apparatus is capable of translating a sentence from an original language into a sentence of a target language. In the translation apparatus, the sentence from the original language is analyzed by a computer so that the sentence of the target... | 04/23/1991 |
| 5008821 | Computerized process and system for assigning and delivering feed to animals in a feedlot The system includes a portable computer for recording assignment data for each cattle pen and a host computer that stores feed consumption data for each of the plurality of cattle pens in the feedlot. The portable computer includes means for entering data... | 04/16/1991 |
| 5008822 | Combined high speed backprojection and forward projection processor for CT systems A CT scanner (10) generates views of data such as equal angular increment detector fan views (FIG. 2A) which are convolved or filtered by an array processor (24). A combined backprojector and forward projector (28) backprojects the data from the array pro... | 04/16/1991 |
| 5006987 | Audiovisual system for simulation of an interaction between persons through output of stored dramatic scenes in response to user vocal input A method and apparatus for producing an interactive video drama employing a personal computer, a voice recognition device, and a programmable videodisc player. A plurality of dramatic scenes are stored on a videodisc and displayed to the user in response ... | 04/09/1991 |
| 5005127 | System including means to translate only selected portions of an input sentence and means to translate selected portions according to distinct rules A machine translation apparatus includes a morpheme analyzer having a dictionary for analyzing a source sentence into morphemes and for obtaining part of speech and other information using the dictionary, a syntax analyzer having grammatical rules for ana... | 04/02/1991 |
| 5005126 | System and method for remote presentation of diagnostic image information A system for transferring medical diagnostic information from the diagonostic site to remote physicians' stations picks off an internal analog video signal from imaging diagonstic equipment (such as a CAT scanner or MRI equipment), converts it to an analo... | 04/02/1991 |
| 5003475 | Medical imaging system including means to increase data transfer speeds by simultaneously transferring data from latches to registers and from registers to latches A customized random access memory circuit is provided to allow the processing of extremely high amounts of data in an area of very small physical size. The chip contains a group of interconnected registers with a set of input ports and a set of output por... | 03/26/1991 |
| 5001630 | Computerized case history business method This invention allows the user to tailor the system to his needs through the use of the following innovative methods. The catalog is a user defined selection screen of fifty numbered work-ups or procedures performed by the office or business. One, or a gr... | 03/19/1991 |
| 4999772 | Sleep screening system with time based modulated data A portable sleep monitoring system for recording on tape, transcribing and charting a plurality of physiologic data channels recorded relative to a known constant, user-transparent time base. Selected ECG, air flow, impedance and pulse oximetry sensor inp... | 03/12/1991 |
| 4994968 | Word processing device A word processing device capable of registering character phrases with abbreviated phrase names, respectively, said device comprises a keyboard for inputting the registered phrase name and for formatting the inputted phrase name, and the inputted phrase n... | 02/19/1991 |
| 4994966 | System and method for natural language parsing by initiating processing prior to entry of complete sentences A system and method for parsing natural language is provided. The system comprises a plurality of computer program code modules which address a plurality of predetermined lookup tables. Strings of characters, such as words, assigned one or more syntactica... | 02/19/1991 |
| 4992940 | System and method for automated selection of equipment for purchase through input of user desired specifications An automated system assists a user in locating and purchasing goods or services sold by a plurality of vendors. The system includes a programmed computer which is linked to a database. The database contains information about a large number of different pr... | 02/12/1991 |
| 4991091 | Self-contained examination guide and information storage and retrieval apparatus Self-contained examination guide and information storage apparatus comprising a flat rectangular enclosure having a front panel with first display arrays along side edges of the front panel associated with a plurality of general patient examination catego... | 02/05/1991 |
| 4989141 | Computer system for financial analyses and reporting An advanced financial reporting and analysis software package is described. The package collects, organizes, manages and consolidates financial data and provides user defined capabilities for creating financial and corporate reports. Financial data is org... | 01/29/1991 |
| 4985834 | System and method employing pipelined parallel circuit architecture for displaying surface structures of the interior region of a solid body Arbitrary interior surfaces of a three-dimensional body are displayed from a regular array of values of at least one physical property in the interior of the body. The physical property measurements may be made with systems such as computerized tomographi... | 01/15/1991 |
| 4984157 | System and method for displaying oblique planar cross sections of a solid body using tri-linear interpolation to determine pixel position dataes A method and apparatus for displaying arbitrary cross-sectional views of a three-dimensional body from a regular array of values of at least one physical property in the interior of the body includes making physical property measurements with such systems... | 01/08/1991 |
| 4984159 | Method and apparatus for estimating elliptical body contours in fan beam computed tomographic systems A method and means is presented to estimate the contour of a body to compensate for attenuation in the production of a reconstructed image in fan beam computed tomographic systems having a detector system for taking a plurality of projections of a scanned... | 01/08/1991 |
| 4984160 | Method for image reconstruction through selection of object regions for imaging by a comparison of noise statistical measure The fact that a vascular tree occupies a very small portion of the surrounding space is profitably employed for reducing the number of reconstruction calculations and improving the quality of this reconstruction without thereby making restrictive geometri... | 01/08/1991 |
| 4980828 | Medical imaging system including use of DMA control for selective bit mapping of DRAM and VRAM memories A system is provided for a display of CT cine images stored in a hybridized memory including both dynamic random access memory (14) and video random access memory frame buffer (16). The system includes memory address space which is allocated between the V... | 12/25/1990 |
| 4979111 | CT image processor using data expansion for reducing structural noise in rearrangement A CT image processor for use in X-ray computerized tomographic system including an X-ray source for providing fan beams on an object being examined, a multichannel X-ray detector for detecting the fan beams transmitted through the object and a processor f... | 12/18/1990 |
| 4977502 | Transit vehicle farebox for conducting multi-media transit fare transactions A bus farebox that conducts transit fare transactions accepts magnetically-encoded farecards, currency bills or tickets, or coins or tokens tendered for fare. Fare processing is conducted on the basis of a selected one of a set of fare tables electrically... | 12/11/1990 |
| 4977505 | Means to correlate images from scans taken at different times including means to determine the minimum distances between a patient anatomical contour and a correlating surface Herein is described a method for creating composite images from disparate sets of tomographic images. The images may be derived from CAT, MRI or PET systems. Initially, a "head" is created from one set of tomographic image slices. The head comprises a thr... | 12/11/1990 |
| 4974161 | Hand-held bowling data processor A portable, hand-held bowling data processor or scoring device which can be kept for up to five persons for various games of bowling. Scores are entered into the device using numeric and function keys, processed by an electronic chip, and displayed in a s... | 11/27/1990 |
| 4970644 | Reconfigurable well logging system A method and apparatus for producing a reconfigurable well-logging data acquisition and interpretations system for performing a plurality of discrete data processing functions and which achieves a level of system reliability approximating that of a redund... | 11/13/1990 |
| 4969094 | Self-implementing pension benefits system A self-implementing pension benefits system for subscriber employees (E1, E2, E3 . . . ) including a life insurer institution and a lending institution Life insurer trust institution computes and receives each subscriber employee's periodic payment therei... | 11/06/1990 |
| 4969095 | Scintillation camera having computer control of electrical signals indicating scintillations Scintillation camera inlcuding a scintillator crystal, a light guide, a set of p photodetectors, p acquisition channels (60), and a computer (100) intended to deliver the coordinates xj and yj of a scintillation j and the energy E | 11/06/1990 |
| 4969096 | Method for selecting communication devices for non-speaking patients A computer-assisted method for prescribing communication devices for non-speaking patients which is objective, and is not device-limited and functions as an effective tool for clinicians prescribing communication devices. Because the method is not device-... | 11/06/1990 |
| 4967354 | Method of preparing customized written examinations A method of constructing written educational tests at the local school district level from validated test questions linked to statements of specific learning objectives in a data base recorded on compact laser discs. A laser disc player operated by the ed... | 10/30/1990 |
| 4965458 | Apparatus for translating oracle-bone scripture into a more formal language An apparatus for translating oracle-bone scripture style characters into formal style characters, and for translating formal style characters into oracle-bone scripture style characters includes a scanner for scanning printed characters and for providing ... | 10/23/1990 |
