Patents by Inventor Brian C. Smith

Brian C. Smith 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: 5111398
    Abstract: A technique for processing natural language text uses a data structure that includes structure data in the text data. The structure data indicates an autonomous punctuational structure of the text, a punctuational structure that is independent of the lexical content of the text and therefore can be manipulated without considering the meaning of the words in the text. The data structure can be a tree in which each node has a textual type such as a paragraph, sentence, clause, phrase, or word. The data structure could alternatively be parallel data sequences, one with codes indicating the text's characters and the other with codes indicating textual types. The data structure is produced and maintained using a grammar of textual types, indicating for each textual type the textual types of units into which it can properly be divided. During editing, a text sequence is generated by applying rendering rules to the data structure, and the text is presented to the user based on the text sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 1988
    Date of Patent: May 5, 1992
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Geoffrey D. Nunberg, H. Tayloe Stansbury, Curtis Abbott, Brian C. Smith
  • Patent number: 4560160
    Abstract: A rope friction resistance exercise device (10) for swimmers is disclosed. The device closely simulates the arm movements of a swimmer while using the crawl stroke. The body member (26) has a fixed crosspiece (28) attached to one end and a rotatable crosspiece (30) attached to its other end. Crosspiece (30) is held on body member (26) by retaining ring (32). Rope (12) is looped over fixed crosspiece (28) and wrapped around the body (26). The ends (22 and 24) of rope (12) are threaded through opposite sides of a square-shaped ring (34) which is attached at two points to opposite sides of rotatable crosspiece (30). Body member (26) is perforated by offset holes spaced 30 degrees apart in two rows. A detent assembly (42) located inside the rotatable crosspiece (30) latches crosspiece (30) into particular positions. The amount of friction and therefore the amount of resistance may be increased by rotating crosspiece (30) through its twelve numbered positions in increasing numerical order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 1984
    Date of Patent: December 24, 1985
    Inventor: Brian C. Smith