Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Quarles & Brady Streich Lang
  • Patent number: 7260695
    Abstract: A back-up power source and a back-up storage device are utilized to power a processor and a volatile memory device during a primary power failure. An emergency data-storage algorithm is invoked to create a table of modified data analogous to data residing in a non-volatile memory device associated with a different processor. This table of modified data is written to the back-up storage device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gary W. Batchelor, Michael T. Benhase, Carl E. Jones
  • Patent number: 7200659
    Abstract: A log-in resource release system includes a set of lists for managing log-in requests to a processing cluster input/output port from host server input/output ports. Host servers that have been granted memory structures within a memory storage device (“configured hosts”) are granted priority access to a storage processing device's input/output port (“cluster port”). If the cluster port has exhausted its log-in resources, log-on requests from non-configured hosts will be not be accepted. New log-in requests from configured hosts will cause a host connected at a link or transport layer but not an upper layer to be logged off. If no hosts are connected only at the link or transport layer, a non-configured host connected at an upper layer will be logged off. If only configured hosts are connected and only at the upper layer, the log-on request by the configured host will be denied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mark S. Bayus, James C. Chen, Steven E. Klein, Richard A. Ripberger
  • Patent number: 7179112
    Abstract: A retention system includes a retainer having at least two wings affixed to a mounting surface by a retaining screw or like attachment device inserted into a hole of the mounting surface. A coil spring or the like, optionally captured by the retaining screw, provides tension between the retainer and the mounting surface. The hole of the mounting surface defines the potential placement of the retainer relative to the mounting surface, allowing it to assume a neutral position and a plurality of offset positions. While in its neutral position, the wings of the retainer prevent the removal of connectors, cables, screws, or other retention devices by physically trapping them between the retainer and the mounting surface. By moving the retainer to one of the plurality of offset positions, a user may expose one of the connectors, cables, screws, or other retention devices, allowing it to be removed while preventing the accidental or inadvertent removal of the other components still trapped by the retainer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jessica R. Berens, Jeffrey L. Justin, Christopher L. Tuma, Martin D. Williams
  • Patent number: 7171375
    Abstract: A computer implemented method and system for enterprise wide planning is disclosed. In an embodiment, one or more work card templates are initially defined. Then a plurality of work cards representing a project are received and compared with the work card templates. Scheduling parameters from the work card templates are added to the matching work cards. Then, expected non-routine work cards are added to the work cards. Next, the expected non-routing work cards and the operational work cards are scheduled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2007
    Assignee: 4Sight Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Hernan Jose Clarke
  • Patent number: 7165688
    Abstract: A retractable hanging apparatus that includes an engagement structure, such as a bar, upon which an article is hung or secured, with the engagement structure being suspended by one or more lines that are attached to a spring-biased roller assembly rotatably mounted between two brackets. The roller assembly may be mounted to brackets alone or disposed inside a housing structure. The lines are secured to a roller assembly so that the article may be lowered to a particular height or may, through a short but gentle pull of the engagement means, be elevated as desired. A braking system for preventing sudden retraction of the lines is also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2007
    Inventor: Richard Cameron
  • Patent number: 7151210
    Abstract: A guitar body is formed of a generally solid material having a cavity formed therein and substantially lacking a soundboard. A soundboard is formed of a generally planar material attached to the solid material, so as to substantially cover the cavity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2006
    Assignee: Fender Musical Instruments Corporation
    Inventors: Richard Janes, Dan Smith, George Blanda
  • Patent number: 7145633
    Abstract: A semiconductor manufacturing station (50) exposes light on a surface area of a spherical semiconductor device or ball (52). A mask pattern generator (56) provides a pattern of light, which undergoes temporal changes to collectively represent an image. The mask pattern generator has an active exposure contour (80) that provides a portion of the overall image. The pattern of light is directed though a lens (62) to the surface area of the semiconductor device. The semiconductor device rotates in relation to the temporal changes in the pattern of light to expose the pattern of light over a portion of a surface area of the semiconductor device. The exposure contour has a narrower center and becomes wider moving away from the center. The exposure contour may have a curvature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2006
    Assignee: Yamatake Corporation
    Inventors: Ikuo Nishimoto, Nobuo Takeda, Ichitaroh Satoh
  • Patent number: 7142573
    Abstract: A temperature-stable and temperature-tunable composite etalon with an increased field of view is constructed by partially filling the cavity with a transmissive parallel-plate filler. The coefficient of thermal expansion and the index of refraction of the filler material are selected so as to produce the desired rate of change of the optical length of the cavity as a function of temperature. The filler plate is preferably chosen to be significantly thicker than the remaining air gap in the etalon cavity. As a result, the fact that the filler plate occupies a large part of the cavity space increases the acceptance angle of the etalon of the invention in comparison with corresponding conventional air-spaced etalons.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2006
    Assignee: Coronado Technology Group, LLC
    Inventors: David Lunt, Yakov Sidorin
  • Patent number: 7143222
    Abstract: A device monitors a system's available resources and produces either a deferred notification or an instant notification based on a comparison with an established threshold. The threshold may be adjusted if current or anticipated system resource utilization changes. Changes to the threshold may result in deferred notifications being removed from a queue and an instant notification being transmitted to a reporting facility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: James A. Fisher, Gregory T. Kishi, Harish C. Mathur, John T. Olson
  • Patent number: 7141982
    Abstract: A current is injected in the vicinity of a liquid-containment facility of interest to create a measurable electrical potential field in the ground underlying the site. Voltage is measured at each of a plurality of electrodes and plotted as a function of time. The rate of change of the voltages measured at each electrode was found to be proportional to the flow rate of any leak from the facility. Accordingly, the monitoring system is calibrated with artificially imposed leaks flowing at various rates and the resulting information is used to estimate the flow rate of actual leaks on the basis of the slope of the potential plot recorded by any given electrode over time. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the flow rates so calculated are averaged to produce an estimate of the rate of leakage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2006
    Inventor: James B. Fink
  • Patent number: 7137150
    Abstract: A dickey with head cover is disclosed. The dickey with head cover includes a hat capable of covering at least a portion of the wearer's head, and a dickey. The hat releasably attaches to the dickey. The dickey includes a shoulder yoke portion attached to the dickey to form an integral torso covering. The invention may also be used where the head cover is attached to a gaiter. The invention may also relate to attaching a gaiter to a head cover.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2006
    Inventor: Van Larson
  • Patent number: 7139651
    Abstract: A three-dimensional and a two-dimensional GPS unit periodically provide coordinate positions of points on the work machine and are combined with a Kalman filter to produce a point of reference on a work machine. The point of reference is improved by combining the position with an inertial position derived from accelerometer data in another Kalman filter. Additionally, the two-dimensional GPS unit provides a heading that is combined with an inertial orientation derived by the angular rate from a gyroscope in another Kalman filter to produce a precise orientation estimate. Inclinometers provide pitch and roll of the work machine. With the point of reference, orientation estimate, pitch, roll and known geometry of the work machine, the GPS unit calculates the location and orientation of machine components and continuously tracks its movement throughout the mine. Additionally, the accelerometers and gyroscope provide position and orientation when the GPS units are inoperable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2006
    Assignee: Modular Mining Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy J. Knowlton, Kenneth W. Gay
  • Patent number: 7138134
    Abstract: A method of orally administering jojoba for fat reduction, blood lipid reduction, and cancer prevention and treatment in humans is disclosed. The method incorporates a sufficient quantity of jojoba, defatted jojoba meal, jojoba extract, defatted jojoba meal extract, naturally derived or synthesized simmondsin, or any naturally derived or synthesized simmondsin derivative or analogue, including aglycon, or any mixture thereof into an individual's diet in the form of a food, dietary supplement, or drug to provide simmondsin component in an amount greater than 0.01% of one's total daily diet by weight, or 0.05 gram/day. The dosage amount and duration of the administration can vary to achieve and maintain one's desired body composition and blood lipid levels. The dosage and duration of administration are increased for cancer prevention and treatment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2006
    Assignee: Arizona Health Consulting Group, LLC
    Inventors: Yibing Wang, Peter J. Reilly, Yihong Wang
  • Patent number: 7132837
    Abstract: A conductivity measurement system measures conductivity of molecules. A substance to be measured is applied to the first and second electrodes. A potential is applied across the electrodes. A computer-controlled motion controller moves a first electrode relative to a second electrode in discrete steps. In a first step, the electrodes are brought together in physical contact to form a plurality of molecular junctions. The electrodes are separated by a first distance which breaks a first molecular junction. The electrodes are separated by a second distance which breaks a second molecular junction. A conductivity measure is taken at each step. The process of separating the electrodes continues until conductivity measure is zero. The conductivity of one molecule corresponds to a last non-zero conductivity measurement prior to a zero conductivity measurement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2006
    Assignee: Arizona Board of Regents
    Inventor: Nongjian Tao
  • Patent number: 7131699
    Abstract: An assembly of outdoor furniture has an entertainment center centrally integrated with a plurality of interconnected seating units, which are disposed adjacent to and around the entertainment center. The entertainment center can be a container having an interior volume for storage of items such as toys, games, and equipment. An enclosure covers the container. The enclosure uses weather striping for protection against the elements. The entertainment center can also provide refrigeration for beverage and food storage. The interconnected seating units form a rectangular or circular assembly. Each of the interconnected seating units has a lower assembly and a cushion placed over the lower assembly. A plurality of benches can mate with the interconnected seating units. The benches can be mechanically coupled to the interconnected seating units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2006
    Assignee: Dodaz, Inc.
    Inventor: Theresa A. Mulmed
  • Patent number: 7123783
    Abstract: An image classification system uses curvature-based multi-scale morphology to classify an image by its most distinguishing features. The image is recorded in digital form. Curvature features associated with the image are determined. A structuring element is modulated based on the curvature features. The shape of the structuring element is controlled by making it a function of both the scaling factor and the principal curvatures of the intensity surface of the face image. The structuring element modulated with the curvature features is superimposed on the image to determine a feature vector of the image using mathematical morphology. When this Curvature-based Multi-scale Morphology (CMM) technique is applied to face images, a high-dimensional feature vector is obtained. The dimensionality of this feature vector is reduced by using the PCA technique, and the low-dimensional feature vectors are analyzed using an Enhanced FLD Model (EFM) for superior classification performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2006
    Assignee: Arizona State University
    Inventors: Madhusudhana Gargesha, Sethuraman Panchanathan
  • Patent number: 7118519
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for exercising internal and external oblique muscles utilizes lateral forces generated by the feet and maintain the upper body in a fixed position to facilitate exercise of the oblique muscles. The apparatus and method vary the inertial forces applied outside the feet to affect the degree of difficulty of the exercise.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2006
    Inventor: Peter Slowinski
  • Patent number: 7105754
    Abstract: A multi-functional control assembly having a rotary controller with a push-button switches contained therein. The rotary controller has a shaft. A bore is formed through the shaft. A communicator extends through the bore and is configured to communicate information regarding the push-button switch through the bore.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2006
    Assignee: Fender Musical Instruments Corporation
    Inventor: William Turner
  • Patent number: 7103690
    Abstract: A connection is provided between logical macros to allow prioritization of operations in accordance with an arbitration scheme that distinguishes between operations based on such factors as priority or size of transaction. The invention allows connection of logical macros and prioritizes the appropriate operation for the resources available to optimize data throughput to optimize the utilization of multiple buses. A first arbiter manages data transmissions over a first communication bus. Arriving short or high-priority messages are transmitted over a second communication bus managed by a second arbiter, but only if the target logical macro is not the same as currently targeted by the first arbiter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gary W. Batchelor, Brian J. Cagno, Renee S. LaMar, Michael L. Harper
  • Patent number: D528227
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2006
    Assignee: Enertron, Inc.
    Inventors: Der Jeou Chou, Daniel Nelson, Thomas Kulaga