Patents by Inventor Nathan W. Black

Nathan W. Black 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: 11016651
    Abstract: A computer-implemented system that transforms one or more project plans to create a graphical project view. The project view contains a set of markers in rows and along a time axis, with each marker having associated text that must be placed into the project view in a manner that does not interfere with other nearby markers or other nearby text. To avoid such collisions, the user may turn on an algorithm that finds an optimal text position by seeking available white space. The user may also choose to invoke one or more escape paths which apply transformations to the conflicting text to either change the amount of space that they require, change the location of the text to a less-crowded location, increase the amount of available whitespace, or a combination of these approaches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: Chronicle Graphics, inc.
    Inventors: Safford T. Black, James L. Black, Nathan W. Black
  • Patent number: 10380772
    Abstract: A computer-implemented system that transforms one or more project plans to create a graphical project view. The project view contains a set of markers along a time axis, and one or more time axis rules which define the appearance of discontinuous timespans, non-linear timespans, or both along the time axis. Once created, users may alter its appearance by adding, removing, or changing the time axis rules to modify the set of timespans along the time axis. Timespan adjustment also causes markers to shift horizontally and adjust their widths so that the dates on the time axis always align with the dates of the markers. The system also can create templates containing time axis rules and other settings, but no markers. Templates are used to create new project views from different project plans, while maintaining the same time axis geometry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Inventors: Safford T Black, James L Black, Nathan W Black
  • Publication number: 20190130611
    Abstract: A computer-implemented system that transforms one or more project plans to create a graphical project view. The project view contains a set of markers along a time axis, and one or more time axis rules which define the appearance of discontinuous timespans, non-linear timespans, or both along the time axis. Once created, users may alter its appearance by adding, removing, or changing the time axis rules to modify the set of timespans along the time axis. Timespan adjustment also causes markers to shift horizontally and adjust their widths so that the dates on the time axis always align with the dates of the markers. The system also can create templates containing time axis rules and other settings, but no markers. Templates are used to create new project views from different project plans, while maintaining the same time axis geometry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2017
    Publication date: May 2, 2019
    Inventors: Safford T. Black, James L. Black, Nathan W. Black