Patents by Inventor William R. Hutchison

William R. Hutchison 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: 6889217
    Abstract: An autonomous adaptive agent which can learn verbal as well as nonverbal behavior. The primary object of the system is to optimize a primary value function over time through continuously learning how to behave in an environment (which may be physical or electronic). Inputs may include verbal advice or information from sources of varying reliability as well as direct or preprocessed environmental inputs. Desired agent behavior may include motor actions and verbal behavior which may constitute a system output (and which may also function “internally” to guide external actions. A further aspect involves an efficient “training” process by which the agent can be taught to utilize verbal advice and information along with environmental inputs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2005
    Inventor: William R. Hutchison
  • Patent number: 6785647
    Abstract: A method of speech recognition including receiving speech signals into a front-end processor and storing at least some resources used for speech recognition in a network-attached server. The front-end processor is coupled to the network-attached server to perform the speech recognition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2004
    Inventor: William R. Hutchison
  • Patent number: 6754644
    Abstract: An autonomous adaptive agent which can learn verbal as well as nonverbal behavior. The primary object of the system is to optimize a primary value function over time through continuously learning how to behave in an environment (which may be physical or electronic). Inputs may include verbal advice or information from sources of varying reliability as well as direct or preprocessed environmental inputs. Desired agent behavior may include motor actions and verbal behavior which may constitute a system output (and which may also function “internally” to guide external actions. A further aspect involves an efficient “training” process by which the agent can be taught to utilize verbal advice and information along with environmental inputs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2004
    Inventor: William R. Hutchison
  • Publication number: 20020156626
    Abstract: A method of speech recognition including receiving speech signals into a front-end processor and storing at least some resources used for speech recognition in a network-attached server. The front-end processor is coupled to the network-attached server to perform the speech recognition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2001
    Publication date: October 24, 2002
    Inventor: William R. Hutchison
  • Patent number: 6366896
    Abstract: An adaptive agent including an artificial neural network having a plurality of input nodes for receiving input signals and a plurality of output nodes generating responses. A situation value unit receives a plurality of the responses and generating a situation value signal. A change sensor coupled to receive the situation value signal generates an output signal representing a change of the situation value signal from a prior time to a current time. A connection coupling the change sensor output to one of the input nodes of the artificial neural network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2002
    Inventor: William R. Hutchison
  • Patent number: 6038556
    Abstract: An autonomous adaptive agent (100) which can learn verbal as well as nonverbal behavior. The primary object of the system is to optimize a primary value function (7) over time through continuously learning how to behave in an environment (which may be physical or electronic). Inputs (1) may include verbal advice or information from sources of varying reliability as well as direct or preprocessed environmental inputs (1C). Desired agent (100) behavior may include motor actions and verbal behavior which may constitute a system output (3) and which may also function "internally" to guide external actions. A further aspect involves an efficient "training" process (306) by which the agent (100) can be taught to utilize verbal advice and information along with environmental inputs (1C).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2000
    Inventor: William R. Hutchison