Patents by Inventor Howard Charles Cochran

Howard Charles Cochran has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8964237
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus teach wear leveling non-volatile memory and secure erasure of data. A computing device receives data to be stored. The data is encrypted, including generation of encryption/decryption key(s). The key(s) are stored in either non-volatile or volatile memory according to a plurality of classification schemes. In a first scheme, key(s) are stored in non-volatile memory and will be retained in the event of a power cycle of the computing device. Otherwise, key(s) stored in volatile memory will be lost upon a power cycle. Upon issuance of a key destruction command, key(s) in the non-volatile memory are sanitized or erased, but the underlying encrypted data need not be erased since no key(s) exist that can recover original content. These techniques limit erasure commands to the non-volatile memory which prolongs its service life. Further embodiments note techniques in imaging devices conducting imaging operations, such as printing or scanning.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2015
    Assignee: Lexmark International, Inc.
    Inventors: Howard Charles Cochran, Bryan Scott Willett, Michael James Klein
  • Publication number: 20150006911
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus teach wear leveling non-volatile memory and secure erasure of data. A computing device receives data to be stored. The data is encrypted, including generation of encryption/decryption key(s). The key(s) are stored in either non-volatile or volatile memory according to a plurality of classification schemes. In a first scheme, key(s) are stored in non-volatile memory and will be retained in the event of a power cycle of the computing device. Otherwise, key(s) stored in volatile memory will be lost upon a power cycle. Upon issuance of a key destruction command, key(s) in the non-volatile memory are sanitized or erased, but the underlying encrypted data need not be erased since no key(s) exist that can recover original content. These techniques limit erasure commands to the non-volatile memory which prolongs its service life. Further embodiments note techniques in imaging devices conducting operations, such as printing or scanning.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2013
    Publication date: January 1, 2015
    Inventors: Howard Charles Cochran, Bryan Scott Willett, Michael James Klein
  • Publication number: 20150002900
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus teach wear leveling non-volatile memory and secure erasure of data. A computing device receives data to be stored. The data is encrypted, including generation of encryption/decryption key(s). The key(s) are stored in either non-volatile or volatile memory according to a plurality of classification schemes. In a first scheme, key(s) are stored in non-volatile memory and will be retained in the event of a power cycle of the computing device. Otherwise, key(s) stored in volatile memory will be lost upon a power cycle. Upon issuance of a key destruction command, key(s) in the non-volatile memory are sanitized or erased, but the underlying encrypted data need not be erased since no key(s) exist that can recover original content. These techniques limit erasure commands to the non-volatile memory which prolongs its service life. Further embodiments note techniques in imaging devices conducting imaging operations, such as printing or scanning.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2013
    Publication date: January 1, 2015
    Inventors: Howard Charles Cochran, Bryan Scott Willett, Michael James Klein
  • Patent number: 6647437
    Abstract: A printer is provided which has a special Emulation Manager function as well as a “code sniffer” function, in which print data received is sent to a code sniffer buffer. A code sniffer function automatically determines the type of emulator that should be called to perform the interpretation or rendering of this print job, and if the code sniffer determines that the correct emulator is PostScript, then the code sniffer scans the data for any “special tokens.” If a special token is found, the PostScript emulator determines if the special token string data is part of a PostScript comment. If it is in the correct format, then the PostScript emulator sets the “mode flag” to the “MacBinary” state, and the code sniffer ceases any further filtering of control characters and disables any change of emulator command that may be received during this print job.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2003
    Assignee: Lexmark International, Inc.
    Inventors: Erik Nils Ackerman, Robert Jerome Borchers, Howard Charles Cochran, Steven Lane Duncan, David Keith Lane
  • Publication number: 20020171856
    Abstract: A printer is provided which has a special Emulation Manager function as well as a “code sniffer” function, in which print data received is sent to a code sniffer buffer. A code sniffer function automatically determines the type of emulator that should be called to perform the interpretation or rendering of this print job, and if the code sniffer determines that the correct emulator is PostScript, then the code sniffer scans the data for any “special tokens.” If a special token is found, the PostScript emulator determines if the special token string data is part of a PostScript comment. If it is in the correct format, then the PostScript emulator sets the “mode flag” to the “MacBinary” state, and the code sniffer ceases any further filtering of control characters and disables any change of emulator command that may be received during this print job.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 15, 2001
    Publication date: November 21, 2002
    Inventors: Erik Nils Ackerman, Robert Jerome Borchers, Howard Charles Cochran, Steven Lane Duncan, David Keith Lane