Patents by Inventor Clarence E. Thomas, Jr.

Clarence E. Thomas, Jr. 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).

  • Publication number: 20140085436
    Abstract: Systems and methods for convergent 3D displays. In one embodiment, the 3D display has a display screen that includes a convergent reflector and a horizontally narrow angle diffuser. The convergent reflector focuses 2D images projected on the diffuser from an array of 2D image projectors to form viewpoints in an eyebox where one viewpoint corresponds to one projector. At a particular viewpoint, the viewer's eye sees a full-screen field of view from a corresponding projector in the array. The narrow angle diffuser diffuses incident rays projected from the 2D image projectors into narrow angular slices so that the views in the eyebox are continuously blended together. The system and methods provide advantages in that only a few projectors are required in the array to provide the viewer with a full-screen field of view and a sufficiently large eyebox for comfortable viewing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2013
    Publication date: March 27, 2014
    Applicant: Third Dimension IP LLC
    Inventors: David L. Page, Clarence E. Thomas, JR.
  • Patent number: 6421409
    Abstract: A method for ultra-high resolution computed tomography imaging, comprising the steps of: focusing a high energy particle beam, for example x-rays or gamma-rays, onto a target object; acquiring a 2-dimensional projection data set representative of the target object; generating a corrected projection data set by applying a deconvolution algorithm, having an experimentally determined a transfer function, to the 2-dimensional data set; storing the corrected projection data set; incrementally rotating the target object through an angle of approximately 180°, and after each the incremental rotation, repeating the radiating, acquiring, generating and storing steps; and, after the rotating step, applying a cone-beam algorithm, for example a modified tomographic reconstruction algorithm, to the corrected projection data sets to generate a 3-dimensional image. The size of the spot focus of the beam is reduced to not greater than approximately 1 micron, and even to not greater than approximately 0.5 microns.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2002
    Assignee: UT-Battelle LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Paulus, Hamed Sari-Sarraf, Kenneth William Tobin, Jr., Shaun S. Gleason, Clarence E. Thomas, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6195412
    Abstract: A method for imaging a target volume comprises the steps of: radiating a small bandwidth of energy toward the target volume; focusing the small bandwidth of energy into a beam; moving the target volume through a plurality of positions within the focused beam; collecting a beam of energy scattered from the target volume with a non-diffractive confocal coded aperture; generating a shadow image of said aperture from every point source of radiation in the target volume; and, reconstructing the shadow image into a 3-dimensional image of the every point source by mathematically correlating the shadow image with a digital or analog version of the coded aperture. The method can comprise the step of collecting the beam of energy scattered from the target volume with a Fresnel zone plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2001
    Assignee: UT-Battelle, LLC
    Inventors: Kenneth William Tobin, Jr., Clarence E. Thomas, Jr.