Patents Examined by Michael J. Wallace, Jr.
  • Patent number: 5940820
    Abstract: A graphical user interface is employed for generating an object-oriented database (ODB) application. An application information extraction unit extracts application information in response to a screen operation by a user on an actual screen in which links are expanded. A query language generation unit generates a query language including an operation for pursuing the link between objects in correspondence with the extracted application information, and it issues the generated query language to an ODB management system. A retrieval result display control unit receives a retrieved result in the ODB from the ODBMS, and it updates the link-expanding actual screen. A link meta-information management unit registers and manages the query languages which the query language generation unit has generated in correspondence with the screen operations instructed by the user to be registered, as link meta-information which corresponds to the database application indicated by the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 17, 1999
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventor: Keiji Kagiwada
  • Patent number: 5930794
    Abstract: A deferred transaction mechanism facilitates multi-threaded operation of database application programs. The deferred transaction mechanism allows data items to be committed from the local memory of a computer system to a database system in a background thread, while other foreground threads continue to read the data item. In most instances, this makes the delay in committing a data item to the database imperceptible to a human user of a database application program. The deferred transaction mechanism further supports an "undo" feature, which allows modifications to a data item located in a computer's local memory to be rapidly discarded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 1996
    Date of Patent: July 27, 1999
    Assignee: Sagent Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Terris J. Linenbach, Vladimir Gorelik, Craig R. Powers, Robert E. Powers, Tana C. Netsch
  • Patent number: 5926820
    Abstract: A method for performing a range max/min query in a database, in which the data is represented as a multi-dimensional data cube, is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of: partitioning the data cube into multi-level multi-dimensional blocks which are represented by a tree structure; determining the index to the maximum or minimum value for each block; generating a range max/min result from the values of the cells selected from the cells in the query region Q, and the cells referenced by the indexes at the nodes corresponding to the cells in the query region Q, using the tree structure and determined cell indexes. A branch-and-bound method is used to repeatedly reduce the size of the query region from a cell within the region, based on sub-trees whose roots are cells in the region. To further improve the method performance, one or more reference arrays may also be used to quickly traverse the tree in determining the max/min cell indexes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 20, 1999
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Rakesh Agrawal, Ching-Tien Ho, Nimrod Megiddo
  • Patent number: 5924100
    Abstract: A program product is described in which a class library is provided to permit object oriented applications flexibly to access and to manipulate, in accordance with the object model, nontraditional data values of a relational table. Nontraditional datatypes of a relational table include multimedia and large object datatypes. The data is manipulable by virtue of extended data objects that each represent particular cells of a relational table, and that inherit type-specific behaviors from the class library.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 13, 1999
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventors: Daniel T. Chang, Douglas M. Hembry, Basuki N. Soetarman, Robert N. Summers
  • Patent number: 5920867
    Abstract: A data management system for file and database management including a design control system suitable for use in connection with the design of integrated circuits and other elements of manufacture having many parts which need to be developed in a concurrent engineering environment with inputs provided by users and or systems which may be located anywhere in the world providing a set of control information for coordinating movement of the design information through development and to release while providing dynamic tracking of the status of elements of the bills of materials in an integrated and coordinated activity control system utilizing a control repository which can be implemented in the form of a database (relational, object oriented, etc.) or using a flat file system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 1996
    Date of Patent: July 6, 1999
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gary Alan Van Huben, Joseph Lawrence Mueller, Joyce Chang Mak
  • Patent number: 5915250
    Abstract: A system and method for content-based search and retrieval of visual objects. A base visual information retrieval (VIR) engine utilizes a set of universal primitives to operate on the visual objects. An extensible VIR engine allows custom, modular primitives to be defined and registered. A custom primitive addresses domain specific problems and can utilize any image understanding technique. Object attributes can be extracted over the entire image or over only a portion of the object. A schema is defined as a specific collection of primitives. A specific schema implies a specific set of visual features to be processed and a corresponding feature vector to be used for content-based similarity scoring. A primitive registration interface registers custom primitives and facilitates storing of an analysis function and a comparison function to a schema table. A heterogeneous comparison allows objects analyzed by different schemas to be compared if at least one primitive is in common between the schemas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 22, 1999
    Assignee: Virage, Inc.
    Inventors: Ramesh Jain, Bradley Horowitz, Charles E. Fuller, Amarnath Gupta, Jeffrey R. Bach, Chiao-fe Shu
  • Patent number: 5913208
    Abstract: A computer system has a document collection of one or more documents and one or more indexes that each include an inverted file with one or more terms. Each of the terms is associated with one or more document identifiers. The index further includes a document catalog that associates each of the document identifiers with one or more attributes, either intrinsic or non intrinsic. A search engine process produces a hit list having one or more hit list entries. Each hit list entry, with one or more hit list attributes, is associated with one of the documents that is determined by the search engine to be relevant to the query. A formatter processor selects one or more of the hit list attributes, identified by a hit list attribute selector and then compares the selected attributes of two or more entries on the hit list to determine whether or not documents associated with these entries are duplicate instances of one another.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 1996
    Date of Patent: June 15, 1999
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Eric William Brown, John Martin Prager
  • Patent number: 5907845
    Abstract: On-line electronic books are stored in remote storage devices and accessible through a server or other type of interface device. A bookcase is created and stored in a local storage device. Appropriate electronic links are supplied in order to access an electronic book from the bookcase. The bookcase provides a library metaphor that allows a user to organize the online books in a manner that has meaning and utility to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 1996
    Date of Patent: May 25, 1999
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Paula J. Cox, Dana L. Gillihan, Donald Ray Hyatt, Paul T. Leone, Kenneth M. Nordby, Victor Edward Pullizzi, Thyra Lynne Rauch, Robert W. Rinda
  • Patent number: 5905980
    Abstract: The present invention provides a document processing apparatus, word extracting apparatus, word extracting method and storage medium for storing a word extracting program, capable of appropriately presenting effective associate words to the user. A retrieving element executes retrieval of documents based on a retrieval condition inputted through a retrieval condition inputting element. A keyword designating element designates an arbitrary word among the words included in the retrieved documents as an associate-word-searching word and designates other words as candidates for an associate word. A simultaneous appearance probability calculating element calculates a simultaneous appearance probability of the associate-word-searching word and one of the candidates for the associate word in any of the retrieved documents. A first independent appearance probability calculating element obtains an independent appearance probability of the associate-word-searching word in each of all documents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 18, 1999
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Masuichi, Hiroshi Umemoto, Masakazu Tateno
  • Patent number: 5903900
    Abstract: Apparatus, methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed that optimize a programmed loop that stores pointer variables in an array in a card-marked heap. These methods also optimize garbage collection operations on these pointer variables. Instead of implementing a write-barrier in the body of a programmed loop, the loop is parameterized. This parameterization is associated with the pointer array stored in the heap. This parameterization specifies the first and last modified elements in the array. It further specifies the stride (which indicates how many elements are skipped to reach the next modified element of the array). The parameterization is modified by successive loops that access the array. During a garbage collection operation, the array's parameterization is used to optimize the process of locating modified elements in the array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 11, 1999
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Ross C. Knippel, Boris Beylin
  • Patent number: 5903894
    Abstract: A hierarchical data structure is created in dynamic memory that is dynamically expanded or modified during run-time operations of the computer system. Information about the devices is loaded from a definition block into the hierarchical data structure. The information is a byte stream of data that is translated and stored as hierarchical information, such as device objects, data objects, and control method objects. These objects are hierarchically nested within the hierarchical data structure. A device object identifies a corresponding device in the computer system. The hierarchy formed between device objects represents the hierarchical I/O connections within the computer system. A data object identifies configuration and hardware dependency information associated with a corresponding device. A control method object is an executable reference for controlling a corresponding device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 11, 1999
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Kenneth S. Reneris
  • Patent number: 5898252
    Abstract: A dynamoelectric machine rotor comprising a rotary shaft; a field core member engaged with the rotary shaft; a field coil wound on the field core member through a bobbin; and an outer circumferential tape which is wound on an outer circumference of the field coil to prevent the field coil from unwinding; wherein the outer circumferential tape includes a substrate sheet which is provided with at least one of a recess and a projection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 1995
    Date of Patent: April 27, 1999
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazunori Tanaka, Kyoko Kurusu, Katsumi Adachi
  • Patent number: 5897641
    Abstract: A primary database's log records are used to update a second database that has a different encoding scheme than the log record and the primary database. This encoding scheme, for example, may involve compression, encryption, or another data transformation. First, a stale encoded data record from the second database is identified. This data record is one whose counterpart in the primary database has been updated in the primary database and where update has been logged. The stale data record is modified to reflect its contents as encoded by the first encoding scheme rather than the second. Then, the logged change is applied to update the modified record. The updated record is then decoded and subsequently re-encoded according to the second encoding scheme. This record is then stored in the second database replacing the stale second data record.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 1997
    Date of Patent: April 27, 1999
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: James Alan Ruddy, Kalpana Shyam, Gary H. Sockut, Julie Ann Watts
  • Patent number: 5895471
    Abstract: Access to hypermedia servers connected to networks such as the Internet can be provided through mobile devices such as wireless telephones. Hypermedia links such as Uniform Resource Locators (URL) are used to identify and control access to resources on the network. These links are usually very long, are difficult to remember, and are difficult to enter into many mobile devices. These difficulties could be overcome by storing lists of frequently used links or "bookmarks" in the mobile device but limited memory in the device generally prevents this. This limitation is overcome by storing designated hypermedia links on a bookmark server. In one embodiment, the URL of the bookmark server is sent to the mobile device during initialization of the device. By allowing a user can to save, retrieve and maintain lists of frequently used links on the bookmark server, access to favorite resources on a network is greatly simplified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1997
    Date of Patent: April 20, 1999
    Assignee: Unwired Planet, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter F. King, Bruce V. Schwartz
  • Patent number: 5893091
    Abstract: A method for distributing timely information over a computer network where a Timely Information Server collects and organizes information from Timely Information Providers and then broadcasts the organized information to endusers in the form of an alerts over a plurality of alert channels. The alert is comprised of keywords and arguments, wherein the keywords describe the subject matter of the alert and the arguments provide content of the alert. The Timely Information Server maintains a dictionary of all possible keywords and the endusers copy a portion of the dictionary to their local computers to create individual keyword profiles which are comprised of keywords and Boolean operators. When an alert satisfies a Boolean equation in a users keyword profile the headline of the alert (stored as an argument) is displayed and the user is given the option to link his/her web browser to an associated URL (also stored as an argument).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 1997
    Date of Patent: April 6, 1999
    Assignee: Immediata Corporation
    Inventors: Douglas Hunt, Mauro Calvi, Carlen Brett Bennett, Robert L. Hines, Jr., James Peterson
  • Patent number: 5893102
    Abstract: Using LZW data compression/decompression processing techniques, textual input data is compressed by parsing consecutive words of the text into phrases and storing the phrases in a dictionary with compressed phrase codes associated therewith. The textual input data is searched by determining the longest match with the stored phrases in the dictionary and the compressed phrase code associated with the longest match is output to a compressed text database and stored at a location thereof. A list of references is maintained associated with each stored phrase to the locations in the compressed text database at which the compressed phrase code for the phrase is stored. Lists of word-to-phrase references are also created providing references for each distinct word encountered in the text to the stored phrases containing the word.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 1996
    Date of Patent: April 6, 1999
    Assignee: Unisys Corporation
    Inventors: William D. Maimone, Albert B. Cooper
  • Patent number: 5893089
    Abstract: A memory chip has an on-board search engine adapted to accept programming from a system CPU and to perform a search for a search object or pattern independently of further action by the CPU, wherein the CPU is free to perform other tasks while a search of memory banks composed of two or more such chips takes place. In some embodiments the memory chip has a dedicated bus connection for programming by the system CPU and for reporting the results of a search. In some embodiments as well the on-board search engine has a dedicated on-board bus for communication with column amplifiers and decoders of memory cell arrays on the chip. CPU and memory combinations are disclosed and methods for practicing the invention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 1996
    Date of Patent: April 6, 1999
    Assignee: Lextron Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Dan Kikinis
  • Patent number: 5890168
    Abstract: In a multimedia system, such as a video-on-demand server, a file with data is stored in a series of successive clusters which may be distributed across the disc. A cluster consists of physically successive sectors which can be read in blocks by a user application. By repeating a part of the data at the end of a cluster at the beginning of the next cluster, the system enables reading of a block of sectors from an arbitrary sector, said block and the subsequent blocks nevertheless being accessible by way of one seek operation. The interactive response time is thus substantially improved in situations in which the user requests an arbitrary data fragment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 1996
    Date of Patent: March 30, 1999
    Assignee: U.S. Philips Corporation
    Inventor: Edzer Lawerman
  • Patent number: 5889349
    Abstract: A coreless motor device having a rotor comprised of a cylindrical coil, a coil support, a rotary shaft inserted and stabilized in the center of the coil support, and a commutator installed either on the coil support or rotary shaft is disclosed. A cylindrical field magnet is positioned on the inside of the cylindrical coil, and one end of the cylindrical field magnet is affixed at a bottom of a cylindrical housing that surrounds the outer circumference of the cylindrical coil. The rotary shaft of the motor is supported by a thrust bearing at the end of the cylindrical field magnet opposite the end that is affixed at the bottom of the cylindrical housing, and it is also supported by a multiple number of radial bearings installed at intervals on the upper part of the cylindrical housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 1995
    Date of Patent: March 30, 1999
    Assignee: Namiki Precision Jewel Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Hisafumi Yasuda
  • Patent number: 5890147
    Abstract: A method and mechanism for responding to a query in a hierarchically organized system of documents and folders. In response to the query, a set of documents is retrieved based on specified criteria. Only documents in that set which match a specified scope are returned in a result set. Scope testing is performed on each of the documents in the set by obtaining a document identifier of each document, and then using that document identifier to obtain a document identifier of the parent folder thereof. The document identifier of the parent folder is used as a key to a data structure, which stores flags indicative of whether parent folders are in the specified scope. If the flag for a given parent folder indicates that the parent folder is in scope, the document having that parent is returned in the result set. If the flag indicates that the current document is not in scope, that document is not returned.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 1997
    Date of Patent: March 30, 1999
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Kyle G. Peltonen, Sitaram C. V. Raju, Bartosz B. Milewski