Patents Assigned to The United States of America as represented by the National Security
  • Patent number: 7092524
    Abstract: A device for and method of cryptographically wrapping information by first constructing information to be wrapped into an even multiple of y bits. Information to be wrapped is parsed into equal blocks P1, P2, . . . , Pn. Next, registers Ri are loaded with the blocks Pi. Next, an initialization vector IV is stored into a register A. Set j=0. Set i=1. Set t=(n×j)+i. Concatenate A and Ri. Encrypt the result of the last step to form 2y encrypted bits. Divide the encrypted bits into a first set of y bits and a second set of y bits. Set Ri equal to the first set. Combine the second set with t using a user-definable function. Set A equal to the combination. If i=n then increment j and reset i=1; otherwise, increment i. If j is equal to a user-definable number then return A, R1, R2, . . . , Rn as the cryptographically wrapped information and stop. Otherwise, return to the step where t is set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventor: Paul Stephen Timmel
  • Patent number: 7072514
    Abstract: The present invention is a method of categorizing an image as handwritten, machine-printed, and unknown. First, the image is received. Next, connected components are identified. Next, a bounding box encloses each connected component. Next, a height and width is computed for each bounding box. Next, a sum and maximum horizontal run for each connected component are computed. Next, connected components that are suspected of being characters are identified. If the number of suspected characters is less than or equal to a first user-definable number then the image is categorized as unknown. If the number of suspected characters is greater than the first user-definable number then determine if matches exist amongst the suspected characters. Next, compute a score based on the suspected characters and the number of matches and categorize the image as either handwritten, machine-printed, or unknown.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventor: Paul D. Thouin
  • Patent number: 7073196
    Abstract: The present invention is a device for and method of accessing a network by initializing a database, an approved list, and a disapproved list; receiving an connectionless network packet; computing a flow tag based on the connectionless network packet; discarding the connectionless network packet and returning to the second step if the flow tag is on the disapproved list; allowing access to the network and returning to the second step if the flow tag is on the approved list; comparing the flow tag to the database if the flow tag is not on the approved list or the disapproved list; discarding the connectionless network packet, adding the flow tag to the disapproved list, and returning to the second step if the database rejects the flow tag; and allowing access to the network, adding the flow tag to the approved list, and returning to the second step if the database accepts the flow tag.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventors: Patrick W. Dowd, John T. McHenry
  • Patent number: 7062043
    Abstract: A method of generating and verifying a cryptographic digital signature using coefficient splitting. The digital signature is formed by first selecting a finite field, an elliptic curve of a first type or a second type, a point P, an integer w1, and an integer k1. Next, generating, via coefficient splitting, a point W=w1P and a point K=k1P. Next, transforming, K to a bit string K*. Next, combining K*, W, and a message M in a first manner to produce h1, and in a second manner to produce c. Next, generating s be either s=h1w1+ck1 (mod q), s=(h1w1+c)/k1 (mod q), or s=(h1k1+c)/w1 (mod q). Next, forming the cryptographic digital signature as (K*,s). The digital signature is verified by acquiring the finite field, the elliptic curve, the point P, the point W, the message M, and the cryptographic digital signature (K*,s). Next, computing h1 and c. Next, selecting (n0, n1) from (sc?1 (mod q), ?h1c?1 (mod q)), (cs?1 (mod q), h1s?1 (mod q)) or (?ch1?1 (mod q), sh1?1 (mod q)).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventor: Jerome A. Solinas
  • Patent number: 7062044
    Abstract: A method of generating a cryptographic key in an authenticated manner using coefficient splitting. Select a prime number p and an elliptic curve of either a first class or a second class. Select a point P. The first user generates ra, wa, and Ra=raP and Wa=waP via coefficient splitting. The second user generates rb, wb, and Rb=rbP and Wb=wbP via coefficient splitting. After the users have exchanged the points Ra, Wa, Rb, Wb, the first user generates ca, ga, and caWb, and gaRb via coefficient splitting, and the second user generates cb, gb, and cbWa and gbRa via coefficient splitting. Each user then sums the corresponding results to form K and derives the cryptographic key from K in the same user-definable manner. An unauthenticated key exchange method is also presented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventor: Jerome A. Solinas
  • Patent number: 7024559
    Abstract: A method of generating and verifying a cryptographic digital signature using joint sparse expansion by a signer first selecting a field, an elliptic curve over the field, a point P of order q on the elliptic curve, w, k. Next, generating W=wP and K=kP. Next, transforming K to K*. Next, combining K*, W, and a message M to produce h. Next, combining K*, W, and M to produce c. Next, generating, s by either s=hw+ck (mod q), s=(hw+c)/k (mod q), or s=(hk+c)/w (mod q). Next, forming the digital signature as (K*,s). Next, a verifier acquires the field, the elliptic curve, P, W, M, and (K*,s). Next, computing h and c. Next, selecting (n0, n1) as either (sc?1 (mod q), ?hc?1 (mod q)), (cs?1 (mod q), hs?1 (mod q)) or (?ch?1 (mod q), sh?1 (mod q)). Next, generating binary expansions of n0 and n1 in joint sparse form. Next, computing, Q=n0P+n1W via twin multiplication and a double-add-subtract method with the binary expansions in joint sparse form. Next, transforming, Q to Q*.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventor: Jerome A. Solinas
  • Patent number: 7019530
    Abstract: The present invention is a method of surface preparation and imaging for integrated circuits. First, a substrate is selected and an opening is cut in the substrate of a sufficient size to fit an integrated circuit to be analyzed. A second substrate is then selected. An adhesive film is applied to the top surface of the first substrate, the adhesive film having adhesive on both sides and covering the opening on the first substrate. An integrated circuit is then inserted into the opening and attached to the bottom side of the adhesive film. Next, the first substrate and integrated circuit are bonded to the second substrate using the adhesive film. The bottom side of the first substrate and the integrated circuit are then thinned until the substrate wafer of the integrated circuit is completely removed. The bottom side of the first substrate and integrated circuit is then thinned to a user-definable level. A handle wafer is then attached to the bottom side of the first substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency,
    Inventors: Terrence Harold Brown, Larry Gene Ferguson
  • Patent number: 7020338
    Abstract: A method of identifying the script of a line of text by first assigning a weight to each n-gram in a group of documents of known scripts, where each n-gram is a sequence of numbers representing k-mean cluster centroids of a known script to which character segments in the documents of known scripts most closely match. A line of text is identified, where the line of text is made up of pixels. The identified line of text is cropped so that only a percentage of the pixels remain. The cropped line is vertically and horizontally rescaled into gray-scale pixels. The vertical gray-scale pixels are replaced with the sequence number of a k-means cluster centroid of a known script to which it most closely matches. The n-grams of the number sequence that represents the line of text is scored against the n-gram weights of the documents of known text. The highest score of the line of text is identified and compared to the scores of the documents of known scripts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventor: Carson S. Cumbee
  • Patent number: 7010167
    Abstract: Feature attributes are extracted from an observation space to create feature vectors for each class to be identified. A linear transformation matrix is used to reduce the dimension of the feature vectors. A numerical optimization algorithm maximizes a geometric criterion function in order to calculate the linear transformation matrix, where it exploits the geometry of the class contours of constant density. Next, a classifier based on the feature vectors in a lower dimension is generated and a class is determined for the data represented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventors: Mark Lawrence Ordowski, Gerard G. L. Meyer
  • Patent number: 7010187
    Abstract: The present invention is a photonic logic circuit for multimode optical signals. The device includes a laser cavity having at least four conduits, the combination forming a substantially X-shaped construction. An output is attached to each conduit for transmission of the optical signals from the cavity. At least one input is connected to the laser cavity. The input is connected to an upper or lower edge of the laser cavity. These are the edges that do not include conduits. A bias contact is connected to the cavity and the two lower conduits. The bias contact is used to pump the photonic device. Preset contacts are attached to each of the upper two conduits and their respective outputs. The preset contacts are used to control the logic function of the photonic logic device. Altering current pump settings between the respective contacts controls the direction of lasing between outputs of the photonic device and the logic function performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventor: John L. Fitz
  • Patent number: 7005652
    Abstract: The present invention is a sample-stage for a scanning electron microscope. The sample stage has a U-shaped base, horizontally oriented with the closed end forming the right side. A bottom member abuts the bottom of the U-shaped base, forming an interior cavity with the U-shaped base. An angled support member abuts the top of the U-shaped base farthest from the right side for holding a sample at a user-defined angle. A first reflector abuts a portion of the interior right side of the U-shaped base, and a second reflector abuts a portion of the top surface of the bottom member. A beam stop abuts a portion of the right side of the U-shaped base.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by National Security Agency
    Inventor: William Edward Vanderlinde
  • Patent number: 6993136
    Abstract: A method of exchanging a cryptographic key between two users that includes the steps of selecting a value p from p=(2dk?2ck?1)/r, p=(2dk?2(d?1)k+2(d?2)k? . . .
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventor: Jerome Anthony Solinas
  • Patent number: 6990634
    Abstract: A method of summarizing text. The sentences in the text are identified first. Then, the terms in each sentence are identified. A matrix is then generated, where the columns represent the sentences and the rows represent the terms. The entries in the matrix are weighted with an exponentially decaying function or a Hidden Markov Model. The Euclidean length of each column is determined. The sentence corresponding to the column having the maximum Euclidean length is selected as a summary sentence. The columns corresponding to the remaining sentences have their matrix entries reduced. If additional summary sentences are desired then return to the step of determining Euclidean length of the columns.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2006
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventors: John M. Conroy, Dianne P. O'Leary
  • Patent number: 6977212
    Abstract: The present invention is a method of fabricating a semiconductor device using a fully cured BCB layer and removing the same using wet etching. The first step is selecting a substrate. The second step of the method is producing an oxide layer or other coating on the substrate. The third step is applying a BCB layer on the oxide layer. The fourth step is fully curing the BCB layer. The fifth step is processing the device. The sixth step is stressing the substrate, preferably causing the substrate to warp. The seventh step is wet etching the BCB layer. The eighth step is removing the BCB layer. The ninth step is removing the oxide layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2005
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventors: Richard Lee Ammlung, David Jerome Mountain
  • Patent number: 6957374
    Abstract: A method of acknowledging receipt of data packets, where each data packet has an identification number. A counter is set to the identification number of the first data packet expected. A data packet is then received. If the data precedes the expected data packet then it is discarded. If the data packet has an identification number greater than what is expected and not already stored then it is stored because it is out of order. If the received packet is as expected then it is delivered and the counter is incremented. If the counter equals an identification number of a stored data packet then that packet is delivered along with any other stored data packet contiguous there with, with respect to identification number, the counter is set to one plus the highest identification number of a delivered data packet, and the delivered data packets are deleted from storage. An acknowledgement message is constructed which list the gaps in the stored data packets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2005
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventor: Thomas G. Redeske
  • Patent number: 6941013
    Abstract: Method of image binarization using histogram modeling, which combines spatial resolution expansion with binarization in a single integrated process using a combination of spatial expansion, histogram modeling, classification, and quantization. Each pixel of the input image is expanded into a higher resolution image, and a count of the number of times each distinct gray scale intensity value occurs in the input image is calculated from pixel values of the input image and then modeled with an approximate histogram that is computed as the sum of weighted modeling functions. The input pixel values are then classified using the modeling functions and the results of the pixel classification are used to quantize the high resolution gray scale image to create a binary output image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2005
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventor: Thomas Hudson Drayer
  • Publication number: 20050171747
    Abstract: A computerized method and system for solving non-linear Boolean equations is disclosed comprising at least partially solving a Boolean function; developing at least one inference regarding said Boolean function and saving said inference to a state machine; and accessing said inference from said state machine to develop at least one heuristic for determining whether said Boolean function is satisfiable.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2005
    Publication date: August 4, 2005
    Applicants: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency, The University of Cincinnati
    Inventors: John Franco, W. VanFleet, John Schlipf, Michael Dransfield
  • Patent number: 6922774
    Abstract: A device for and method of secure computing that includes a computer system having a processor; an operating-system software program loaded onto the processor; a type-II virtual machine monitor software program loaded onto the operating-system software program; a user-definable number of non-sensitive virtual-machines; a user-definable number of sensitive virtual-machines, where each sensitive virtual-machine has a user-definable sensitivity level; a user-definable number of encryption virtual-machines, where each encryption virtual-machine is connected to one of said user-definable number of sensitive virtual-machines, and where each encryption virtual-machine includes at least one encryption algorithm capable of encrypting information from the corresponding sensitive virtual-machine according to the corresponding sensitivity level; and a router virtual-machine connected to each non-sensitive virtual-machine and each encryption virtual-machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2005
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventors: Robert V. Meushaw, Mark S. Schneider, Donald N. Simard, Grant M. Wagner
  • Patent number: 6912284
    Abstract: A self-authenticating apparatus for effecting secure communication of a binary signal. In the encipherment apparatus, key is generated as a function of plain text summed with a pseudorandom linear sequence. The decipherment apparatus performs a reverse function in an autokey mode. Incoming cipher text is summed with generated key to create a plain text stream. As in the encipherment device, key is generated as a function of the resulting plain text summed with a pseudorandom linear sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 1983
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2005
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency
    Inventor: Thomas E. Palmatier
  • Patent number: 6912700
    Abstract: A computerized method and system for solving non-linear Boolean equations is disclosed comprising at least partially solving a Boolean function; developing at least one inference regarding said Boolean function and saving said inference to a state machine; and accessing said inference from said state machine to develop at least one heuristic for determining whether said Boolean function is satisfiable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2005
    Assignees: The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency, The University of Cincinnati
    Inventors: John V. Franco, W. Mark VanFleet, John Schlipf, Michael R. Dransfield