Patents by Inventor John D. Gould

John D. Gould 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).

  • Method and apparatus for user control by deriving next states of a process from a current state and by providing a visual presentation of the derived next states
    Patent number: 5426732
    Abstract: A user interface includes a process model unit (34) for predicting one or more allowable next states, from a current state of a process, and a display processing unit (26) for deriving, for each of the allowable next states, a representation of the allowable next state. The display processing unit has an output coupled to a display screen (30) for displaying each of the representations (30b-30g) in conjunction with a representation (30a) of a current state of the process. The user interface further includes an actuator control unit (22) that is coupled to an input mechanism whereby a user selects one of the displayed representations of one of the allowable next states. The motor control unit controls the process to cause it to enter a new current state that corresponds to the selected derived representation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 1994
    Date of Patent: June 20, 1995
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Stephen J. Boies, Liam D. Comerford, John D. Gould, Susan L. Spraragen, Jacob P. Ukelson