Patents by Inventor James A. Tidd

James A. Tidd 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: 4580231
    Abstract: A photocomposition system for composing typeface characters on a CRT display using a magnetic font disc formed of plural variable length character sectors wherein each sector includes successive storage cells containing all of the coded signals necessary to describe a single character image which signals may be retrieved and decoded for use by the CRT to create an optical image of the character. An optical scanner system is disclosed for optically determining the coordinate points on the boundary of an original character design for subsequent encoding into successive 3 bit binary codes representing successive end to end translational movements along the boundaries of the character design being encoded. The translational movements are selected from a subset of a total of 24 possible translational paths wherein the paths making up the subset is continually varying dependent on the general direction of the previous translational path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 1984
    Date of Patent: April 1, 1986
    Assignee: Alphatype Corporation
    Inventors: James A. Tidd, Miles H. Tidd
  • Patent number: 4563747
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods for photocomposing as, for example, phototypesetting utilize photographic film on a moving member such as a rotatable cylinder with an array of multitudinous light emitting diodes movable along the length of the cylinder to project to the film an image of graphic information to be recorded on the film. The array moves to scan the film with overlap between one scan and the next to merge images of one scan into images of the next scan with a minimum of discontinuity. Overlapping exposures from individual LEDs further increase sharpness of image and substantially eliminate variations from non-uniformities of the individual LEDs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 1982
    Date of Patent: January 7, 1986
    Assignee: Bedford Computer Corporation
    Inventor: James A. Tidd
  • Patent number: 4446491
    Abstract: A photocomposition system for composing typeface characters on a CRT display using a magnetic font disc formed of plural variable length character sectors wherein each sector includes successive storage cells containing all of the coded signals necessary to describe a single character image which signals may be retrieved and decoded for use by the CRT to create an optical image of the character. An optical scanner system is disclosed for optically determining the coordinate points on the boundary of an original character design for subsequent encoding into successive 3 bit binary codes representing successive end to end translational movements along the boundaries of the character design being encoded. The translational movements are selected from a subset of a total of 24 possible translational paths wherein the paths making up the subset is continually varying dependent on the general direction of the previous translational path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 1980
    Date of Patent: May 1, 1984
    Assignee: Alphatype Corporation
    Inventors: James A. Tidd, Miles H. Tidd
  • Patent number: 4270172
    Abstract: A photocomposition system for composing typeface characters on a CRT display using a magnetic font disc formed of plural variable length character sectors wherein each sector includes successive storage cells containing all of the coded signals necessary to describe a single character image which signals may be retrieved and decoded for use by the CRT to create an optical image of the character. An optical scanner system is disclosed for optically determining the coordinate points on the boundary of an original character design for subsequent encoding into successive 3 bit binary codes representing successive end to end translational movements along the boundaries of the character design being encoded. The translational movements are selected from a subset of a total of 24 possible translational paths wherein the paths making up the subset is continually varying dependent on the general direction of the previous translational path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 1978
    Date of Patent: May 26, 1981
    Assignee: Alphatype Corporation
    Inventors: James A. Tidd, Miles H. Tidd