Patents by Inventor Donald Ray Heller

Donald Ray Heller 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: 7181158
    Abstract: Multiple variants of essentially the same multiple-choice questions are generated, having similar appearance, but actually different answers. Any single test has at most one variant of any particular question for which multiple variants exist. Different versions of the test can be generated by changing the combination of question variants used. In one aspect, different versions of the test identified by different combinations of variant questions can be used to determine the source of an unauthorized leak of test questions. In another aspect, the responses of a test subject to variant questions can be analyzed for suspicious patterns, indicating possible unauthorized access to a previous test version.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donald Ray Heller, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Publication number: 20040259062
    Abstract: Multiple variants of essentially the same multiple-choice questions are generated, having similar appearance, but actually different answers. Any single test has at most one variant of any particular question for which multiple variants exist. Different versions of the test can be generated by changing the combination of question variants used. In one aspect, different versions of the test identified by different combinations of variant questions can be used to determine the source of an unauthorized leak of test questions. In another aspect, the responses of a test subject to variant questions can be analyzed for suspicious patterns, indicating possible unauthorized access to a previous test version.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2003
    Publication date: December 23, 2004
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donald Ray Heller, Thomas Alan Shore