Patents by Inventor Howard Gutowitz

Howard Gutowitz 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: 20170355295
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are presented for a collective transportation system. The system comprises a plurality of container automated vehicles and a plurality of containable automated vehicles each of which may be contained in a container vehicle, so that one or more containable vehicles are nested within a containable vehicle and may be transported by the container. The containable vehicles may move around within the interior of a container, preferably under control of a controller which controls the motion of all the containable vehicles within a container vehicle, so that the controller can rearrange the contained vehicles within the container. Preferably, two container vehicles can dock with each other to exchange containable vehicles between them, under control of a controller. Preferably, dockings and transfers may occur while the container vehicles are moving.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2017
    Publication date: December 14, 2017
    Inventor: Howard Gutowitz
  • Publication number: 20160202903
    Abstract: Human-Computer interfaces for graph navigation are presented. These interfaces are based on swipe-switches and/or crosspairs, perhaps in further combination with keys. The systems operate by parsing a swipe into segments based on crosspairs and/or segment matches to the ideal paths of swipe-switches. Each segment is then used to navigate to a node or along an edge of the graph. Myriad illustrative applications are provided, notably to text input problems, notably in very small devices such as smart watches. It is shown that text-input can be effectively performed by humans using these interfaces, even for complex scripts such as Devanagari and even in smart watches.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 12, 2016
    Publication date: July 14, 2016
    Inventor: Howard Gutowitz
  • Patent number: 9189156
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides for an ambiguous keyboard comprising at least two switches for performing keyboard actions, at least one of the two switches being a swipe-switch. The swipe switch can alter at least one characteristic selected from a group including: a) a function of at least one switch of the at least two switches of the ambiguous keyboard; and b) a mode of a second swipe-switch of the ambiguous keyboard.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Inventor: Howard Gutowitz
  • Publication number: 20150019941
    Abstract: Telling a story in general, and about one's present situation in particular, may involve the creation and arrangement of many kinds of media assets, including but not limited to text, images, videos, sounds. Especially when the story to be told involves documenting the fluctuating and shifting present state of the user, which medium is best suited to the moment may fluctuate and shift along with that user state. In some aspects, the present invention opens several streams of data collection simultaneously, allowing the user to rapidly and efficiently shift between modes of self expression and documentation of their environment. Whether assets are captured in the moment or not, it may be desirable to automatically combine these assets into a coherent narrative structure and/or a reduced set of media types.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2014
    Publication date: January 15, 2015
    Inventor: Howard Gutowitz
  • Publication number: 20140282005
    Abstract: Incoming messages, like incoming wounded on the battlefield, can be initially sorted into groups e.g. a) those which can be or should be treated immediately, b) those which can be treated later, and c) those which should not be treated. Like in a triage unit on a battlefield, it is useful to reduce the amount of effort and increase the speed at which this sort takes place. The present invention allows the user's effort to sort to be reduced to a minimum, with a consequent increase in speed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Inventor: Howard Gutowitz
  • Publication number: 20130185650
    Abstract: Incoming messages, like incoming wounded on the battlefield, can be initially sorted into groups e.g. a) those which can be or should be treated immediately, b) those which can be treated later, and c) those which should not be treated. Like in a triage unit on a battlefield, it is useful to reduce the amount of effort and increase the speed at which this sort takes place. The present invention allows the user's effort to sort to be reduced to a minimum, with a consequent increase in speed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2013
    Publication date: July 18, 2013
    Inventor: Howard A. Gutowitz
  • Publication number: 20120179588
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for quantal billing of digital products are presented. An astonishing and subtle aspect of this invention is that it permits initially free distribution of digital products with no limitation of features, and in such a way to not rush a user into trying a product before some time limit, but rather rewards the user for quick and extensive evaluation, a behavior likely to lead to eventual sales. In one aspect, it breaks the heretofore insoluble paradox of making money from initially free goods by a counter-intuitive link between per-usage and per-time period payments, whereby the user is gently transitioned from a free trial to a source of recurring revenue.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2012
    Publication date: July 12, 2012
    Inventor: Howard Gutowitz
  • Publication number: 20120119997
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides for an ambiguous keyboard comprising at least two switches for performing keyboard actions, at least one of the two switches being a swipe-switch. The swipe switch can alter at least one characteristic selected from a group including: a) a function of at least one switch of the at least two switches of the ambiguous keyboard; and b) a mode of a second swipe-switch of the ambiguous keyboard.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2010
    Publication date: May 17, 2012
    Inventor: Howard Gutowitz
  • Publication number: 20050060448
    Abstract: Languages based in whole or in part on ideographic characters such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, are often are entered in a computerized text-entry system in a two-phase process. In the first phase, symbols from a first pre-conversion set are entered, then in the second phase, these pre-conversion symbols are converted into a second set of post-conversion symbols. This invention teaches a method and apparatus for the automatic conversion of pre-conversion symbols into post-conversion symbols without requiring an explicit conversion signal to be input by the user. It accomplishes this goal though the design of trigger sequences of keystrokes which are substantially functionally equivalent to an explicit conversion signal input by the user. An apparatus constructed according to the trigger sequence method is particularly well adapted for use on reduced keyboards, and in conjunction with predictive text-entry methods. Explicit constructions are shown for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 11, 2003
    Publication date: March 17, 2005
    Applicant: EATONI ERGONOMICS, INC
    Inventor: Howard Gutowitz
  • Patent number: 6219731
    Abstract: The defacto standard for text entry on standard telephone keypads, such as fixed phones, cell phones, fax machines, and the like is a multi-tap method where one of several letters associated to a input means is selected by pressing the input means a number of times equal to the position of the desired letter in the ordering of letters associated to the input means. Typically, for the standard alphabetic ordering, a large number of presses are required to obtain any given letter. The present invention uses prefix information to dynamically reorder the choices so that the average number of input means manipulations is reduced. This method is applicable to any language composed of strings of symbols for which the probability of any given symbol appearing in a string at a given position is correlated with the probability of another symbol appearing in the string.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2001
    Assignee: Eaton: Ergonomics, Inc.
    Inventor: Howard Gutowitz
  • Patent number: 5365589
    Abstract: A method and apparatus provide encryption, decryption and authentication of messages using dynamical systems. The method and apparatus preferably operate on an information stream which may comprise message information, authentication information, and random or pseudo-random information. The initial secret keys of the system are a collection of dynamical systems, at least one of which is irreversible. These keys operate on states of the dynamical systems into which the message has been encoded. To initialize the encryption, a subset of the secret keys are selected to be current keys, and the desired message is encoded into the initial states. Encryption continues over a plurality of cycles. During each cycle the current keys are applied either backward or forward in time to their current states, over a plurality of sub-cycles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 1992
    Date of Patent: November 15, 1994
    Inventor: Howard A. Gutowitz
  • Patent number: RE43082
    Abstract: The design of typable devices, in particular, touch-typable devices embodying ambiguous codes, presents numerous ergonomic problems. Solutions for these problems are herein disclosed. This invention teaches methods for the selection of ambiguous codes from the classes of strongly-touch-typable ambiguous codes and substantially optimal ambiguous codes for touch-typable devices such as computers, telephones, pagers, personal digital assistants, smart cards, television set-top devices and other information appliances, given design constraints such as the size, shape, and computational capacity of the device, the typical uses of the device, and conventional constraints such as respect of alphabetic ordering or Qwerty ordering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Eatoni Ergonomics, Inc.
    Inventor: Howard A. Gutowitz