Patents Represented by Attorney Michael L. Harrison
  • Patent number: 7073664
    Abstract: A self-illuminated storage and carrying case for storage and transportation of generally laminar stored objects is described. The case includes at least one, but usually several, storage sheets, each sheet having pockets which are generally inclusive of the outline of the stored objects and adapted to retain the objects securely and in position. The pockets are adapted to allow any matter printed on the stored object to be read. Each sheet is secured by one edge into a cover having a front and back portion, and is retained between the front and back covers. On the non-secured edges of at least some of the sheets, illuminating elements having a generally cable-like form factor are affixed. The illuminating elements may be electroluminescent filaments, fiber optic strands, or other illuminating elements of similar form.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2006
    Inventor: Richard W. Wang
  • Patent number: 7040831
    Abstract: An improved design of positioning mechanism, mountable to an upright, allows smooth, readily accomplished adjustment of the angular, rotational and translational positions of a boom with respect to the upright. A hub is mounted to and rotatable with respect to a base. A friction plate between the base and the hub applies frictional forces that are established by the mechanism, by urging the hub and base together. A pressure sleeve partially contained in a matching opening in the hub controls the rotational and longitudinal movement of the boom with respect to the hub. The design of the frictional engagement surfaces allows adjustment of the resistance to movement of the boom in the angular, rotational and translational directions to extend smoothly and predictably from a condition of virtually no resistance to a completely locked and rigid condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2006
    Inventor: Walter Rapaport
  • Patent number: 5500618
    Abstract: A novel compensation device for conditioning or generating signals to have an arbitrarily defined shape, produced to an arbitrarily specified accuracy. The device comprises a plurality of bounded polynomial function generators having outputs summed into a summing network to produce a signal which is the composite of the effects of all of the polynomial generators. Accuracy is achieved through the use of fusible link trimming of the compensation circuits, which are configured to provide mathematically well-behaved polynomial functions with predictable responses to the programming, and which produce effects only over desired segments of the range of interest. The result is a monotonic signal with no discontinuities, which can be made arbitrarily close to a specified signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 1994
    Date of Patent: March 19, 1996
    Assignee: Oak Industries Inc.
    Inventor: Donald T. Comer
  • Patent number: 5356076
    Abstract: An improved design for a soap dispenser for use with liquid soaps, primarily in showers, has a unique multi-position valve, and separate mixing and air entraining controls. Liquid soap stored in a reservoir is drawn into a flowing water stream by siphonic action. The amount of soap/air mixture is regulated by a mixture valve. Air in controllable proportions is added by an air entrainment valve. The proportion of air with respect to the soap is adjustable. Simultaneous control of the amount of soap/air mixed with the flowing water stream is controlled by a unique mixture valve geometry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1994
    Inventor: Robert A. Bishop
  • Patent number: 5354128
    Abstract: A cover for preventing the unwanted discharge of concrete mixer chute residues from the chute, has a water impermeable cap with side panels which are gathered at the one end with an elastic band for retaining he cap in place, and which has a strong elastic retention means for holding the entire cap in place on the chute against the force of dislodging concrete particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1994
    Inventor: Thomas W. Lewis
  • Patent number: 5105932
    Abstract: A precision magnetic manipulator for use in positioning targets, and the like, within a vacuum chamber, employs separate mechanisms for linear and rotational motion and makes them substantially independent. Ball or roller style bearings support a square, linear shaft within a housing, at least one set of bearings being at the point at which the shaft exits the housing, and another set being within the housing along the route of travel of the linear shaft, so that the shaft is fully being supported over the entire travel length. A magnet carriage supporting high-strength magnets, one system being optimized for rotational motion and the other being optimized for linear motion, couples to magnet followers within the housing, thereby providing rotational motion and linear motion which can be used in combination or separately, giving great freedom of movement within the vacuum chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 1990
    Date of Patent: April 21, 1992
    Inventors: Charles E. Bryson, III, David C. Blakely
  • Patent number: 4815619
    Abstract: A medicament vial safety cap which may be formed integrally at the time of manufacture of the medicament vial or added as an accessory to an existing conventional medicament vial allows an equalization of pressure to occur within a chamber adjacent to the stopper of the vial so that aerosolization of medicaments does not occur as a hypodermic needle is inserted or withdrawn from the vial. A hydrophobic filter, communicating between the vial safety chamber and the ambient, allows the pressure equalization to occur while trapping molecules of medicament inside the chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 1987
    Date of Patent: March 28, 1989
    Inventors: Thomas R. Turner, Bernard M. Kraemer, Michael L. Harrison
  • Patent number: 4800754
    Abstract: A fluid bypass type flowmeter has a main passage which is configurable to various effective diameters by selectably adding pre-defined additional cross-sections comprised of an adjustable laminar flow element located within a bore for fine adjustm=ent of the full-scale range of the flowmeter, and an adjustable restriction secondary passage for crude adjustments of the range of the meter. With adjustment of the flowmeter, all or a selected portion of the flow to be measured can be diverted through the secondary passage, where a flow measuring device is located, thereby allowing the flowmeter to operate at or near its full scale and thereby improving the accuracy of the flowmeter over various ranges of flow rate. A laminar flow element is employed in the main passage so that the pressure drop across the element varies linearly with flow rate and, accordingly, the ratio of diverted to un-diverted flow is a constant ratio even though the flow rate varies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 1987
    Date of Patent: January 31, 1989
    Assignee: Sierra Instruments, Inc.
    Inventor: David M. Korpi
  • Patent number: 4777471
    Abstract: An improved circuit, and an improved device geometry for trimming element values in an integrated circuit employs selectable short-circuiting of fusible elements by means of application of a prescribed sequence of electrical waveforms of prescribed amplitude and polarity. The improved trim circuit configuration offers the possibility of improved trim circuit density by allowing selection of three trim elements from a single contact pad, in conjunction with a common contact pad, for each trim circuit. Replication of the circuits allows extension of the range of adjustment or of the resolution of the trim, at the expense of only one additional pad per each additional trim circuit. A unique device geometry is described for implementing the improved trim circuit within a single isolation pocket of an integrated circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1987
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1988
    Assignee: Precision MicroDevices Inc.
    Inventor: Donald T. Comer
  • Patent number: 4742388
    Abstract: A color video endoscope system including a light source, color wheel and light guide for directing sequential fields of red, green and blue (RGB) light into a cavity, a solid state image sensor for transmitting a signal in response to the intensity of the reflected fields of light, a video processor for converting the signal from the image sensor into a composite RGB video signal compatible with a color monitor, and a plurality of electronic color filters for altering the true color of the image on the monitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 1984
    Date of Patent: May 3, 1988
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Optical Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: David H. Cooper, Janos L. Hunyady
  • Patent number: 4692608
    Abstract: A compact optical imaging system with application to a viewing head of an endoscope. A lens assembly gathers and focuses light into parallel rays which are turned 90.degree. from the lens assembly optical axis. A planar image sensor is oriented parallel to the lens assembly optical axis and receives the light which has been turned. The light enters a glass plate serving as the back side of the image sensor and impinges on active light-sensitive elements on a silicon layer deposited on the glass plate. A substrate is bonded on the silicon layer and supports circuitry for buffering and driving signals to and from the image snsor. The substrate has a plurality of slots aligned with the bonding pads of the image sensor to permit electrical connection between the buffering and driving circuitry and the image sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 1984
    Date of Patent: September 8, 1987
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Optical Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: David H. Cooper, Makoto Toyota, Satoshi Arakawa
  • Patent number: 4677470
    Abstract: An endoscope subsystem, for a video endoscope system of the type having an insertion tube employing a video sensor, an optical imaging system for forming images on the sensor, and a video display for displaying an image derived from the sensor, which subsystem is for electronically correcting the side-to-side image reversal of the image represented by signals derived from the sensor in response to light intensities in a scene viewed by the endoscope, which reversal may result from the use of a folded optic imaging system in order to achieve compactness in the distal end of the endoscope.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 1986
    Date of Patent: June 30, 1987
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Optical Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: David H. Cooper, Janos L. Hunyady
  • Patent number: 4667229
    Abstract: A color video endoscope system having a control unit compatible with various endoscopes. Each endoscope generates unique signals to the control unit to optimize the clocking out of data from the solid state image sensor, to optimize the processing of data received from the image sensor, and to identify the size and location of the image formed on the image sensor so as to control the image formed on the monitor. The control unit generates alternating fields of red, green and blue light through the endoscope light guide with blank fields between the color fields, during which time data is clocked out of the image sensor, thereby preventing image "smear" caused by immediately successive color fields.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 1984
    Date of Patent: May 19, 1987
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Optical Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: David H. Cooper, Makoto Toyota, Janos L. Hunyady
  • Patent number: 4632317
    Abstract: Coarse waste such as stumps, lumber from demolition and the like is disintegrated in accordance with a method and device comprising at least two cooperating, essentially parallel screws having threads with disintegrating edges which move in mutually opposite feeding directions so that they tear the waste into pieces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 1983
    Date of Patent: December 30, 1986
    Inventors: Harry W. Wexell, Franz B. Wroblewski
  • Patent number: 4607820
    Abstract: A rotating gate valve for access to vacuum chambers, and the like, employs a rotating gate member which is alternatively aligned to cover or to uncover a slot in a concentric valve body, the ends of which are sealed and serve as supports for a shaft. Eccentric lobes on the shaft engage corresponding cam surfaces on a gate member causing it to be urged into high force contact with the body when sealing of the chamber is desired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 1985
    Date of Patent: August 26, 1986
    Inventor: Rudolf F. Nissen
  • Patent number: 4523506
    Abstract: An electronic, tempered scale tuning aid employs a transducer and signal processing means to detect and amplify a signal to the level required by digital logic circuits, which circuits are used to gate a precisely determined oscillator, which is arithmetically related to the operating range of the instrument through a counting and analyzing apparatus. By scaling the measured count, a display in musical notation of both absolute pitch and intonation error is obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 1984
    Date of Patent: June 18, 1985
    Inventor: Marshall H. Hollimon
  • Patent number: 4489489
    Abstract: An improved utility blade for use with the conventional type of utility knife handle and having means near its cutting points for shielding the cutting points and portions of the cutting edges of the blade from the contents of cardboard cartons.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 1983
    Date of Patent: December 25, 1984
    Inventor: Julius A. Sarto
  • Patent number: 4487062
    Abstract: An improved mass flowmeter of the type having a primary passage for the fluid whose flow rate is to be measured, a sensor tube which serves as a secondary passage for the fluid and is connected to the primary passage at upstream and downstream locations, and a pair of resistance wire coils surrounding the sensor tube and connected to a bridge circuit in which the resistance differential between the wire coils is proportional to the fluid flow rate. The sensor tube is a straight tube displaced from the primary passage and accessible at its ends for cleaning. The wire coils and the corresponding portion of the sensor tube are surrounded by an evacuated enclosure to prevent convection effects between the adjacent coils, to maximize the response time of the coils to changes in fluid flow rate, and to reduce conduction losses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 1983
    Date of Patent: December 11, 1984
    Assignee: Sierra Instruments, Inc.
    Inventors: John G. Olin, David M. Korpi
  • Patent number: D285941
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 1984
    Date of Patent: September 30, 1986
    Inventor: Daniel Wilhelm
  • Patent number: RE33654
    Abstract: A drafting device (10) is provided for drawing parallel lines as well as true perspective lines, comprising carriage means (11) movable over a drafting surface (12) on wheel assembly means (20) and (21). A ruler (124) is located on carriage means (11) and has an unobstructed drafting edge (125) constantly co-linear with a true radial line to a chosen vanishing point. Selectively variable ratio transmission means (31), between wheel assembly means (20) and (21), permit ruler (124) to move over drafting surface (12) in a parallel or an arcuate manner about a preset vanishing point on or outside drafting surface (12). Magnet means are included for maintaining wheel assemblies (20) and (21) in frictional contact with drafting surface (12) and brake means are included to lock carriage (11) on drafting surface (12) in selected positions. Presetable stop means are provided to preset a plurality of vanishing points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 1990
    Date of Patent: August 6, 1991
    Inventor: Poul E. Hoegh