Patents by Inventor James W. Howard

James W. Howard 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: 20210085221
    Abstract: A device for recognizing activity of an object. The device comprises a housing configured to be attached to the object and a processing unit disposed in the housing comprising a processor and a movement sensor. The movement sensor measures a signal related to movement of the object during a time window. The processor assigns at least one preliminary activity label to the time window based on at least one numerical descriptor computed from the signal. The processor then determines whether to perform additional analysis dependent upon at least the preliminary activity label. The processor then assigns a final activity label to the time window.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2020
    Publication date: March 25, 2021
    Inventors: Eric C. Lobner, James W. Howard, Richard J. Moore, Jennifer F. Schumacher, Brian J. Stankiewicz
  • Publication number: 20210027033
    Abstract: In some examples, a method includes selecting, by a coding computing device, a particular identifier from a set of identifiers generated by an identifier allocation authority, wherein the set of identifiers are included within a global set of identifiers maintained by the identifier allocation authority; coding, by the coding computing device, the particular identifier from the set of identifiers into an optical element set that represents an optical code comprising a plurality of finder optical elements arranged in a pattern to localize the optical code within an image, a plurality of context optical elements representing context information, and a plurality of content optical elements representing content information; and generating a visual output of the optical code that is decodable to the particular identifier which, in combination with at least one other parameter associated with the optical element set, comprises a globally unique identifier in a set of globally unique identifiers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2019
    Publication date: January 28, 2021
    Inventors: James W. Howard, James B. Snyder
  • Publication number: 20210020039
    Abstract: In some examples, a computing device may store a temporary traffic control zone compliance set (TTCZCS) comprising a set of indications of traffic control features for a temporary traffic control zone, wherein the set of indications of traffic control features represent that the temporary traffic control zone is compliant with at least one criterion; receive a set of indications of infrastructure articles from a set of sensors that detect the infrastructure articles in the traffic control zone; detect non-compliance of the at least one criterion based on an indication at least one infrastructure article in the temporary traffic control zone and at least one indication of a traffic control feature that corresponds to the infrastructure article; and perform at least one operation based on detection of the non-compliance of the at least one criterion for the temporary traffic control zone.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2019
    Publication date: January 21, 2021
    Inventors: Justin M. Johnson, James W. Howard, Subhalakshmi M. Falknor
  • Patent number: 10896340
    Abstract: In some examples, a computing device receives an image of an optically active article that includes a set of one or more symbols of a symbol set, wherein at least one symbol of the set of one or more symbols comprises a set of encoding regions that are embedded with the symbol. In response to receiving the image, the computing device may determine that a particular image region of the image represents the at least one symbol. For encoding regions within the at least one symbol, the computing device may determine, based at least in part on the determination that the particular image region of the image represents the at least one symbol, whether the one or more encoding regions are active or inactive. The computing device may perform, based at least in part on whether the one or more encoding regions are active or inactive, one or more operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: 3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY
    Inventors: Justin M. Johnson, James W. Howard, James B. Snyder, Thomas J. Dahlin
  • Patent number: 10881327
    Abstract: A device for recognizing activity of an object. The device has a housing configured to be attached to the object and a processing unit disposed in the housing has a processor and a movement sensor. The movement sensor measures a signal related to the movement of the object during a time window. The processor assigns at least one preliminary activity label to the time window based on at least one numerical descriptor computed from the signal. The processor then determines whether to perform additional analysis dependent upon at least the preliminary activity label. The processor then assigns a final activity label to the time window.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: 3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY
    Inventors: Eric C. Lobner, James W. Howard, Richard J. Moore, Jennifer F. Schumacher, Brian J. Stankiewicz
  • Patent number: 10867224
    Abstract: In some examples, an article includes a substrate and a plurality of optical element sets embodied on the substrate, wherein each optical element set includes a plurality of optical elements, wherein each respective optical element represents an encoded value in a set of encoded values, wherein the set of encoded values are differentiable based on visual differentiability of the respective optical elements, wherein each respective optical element set represents at least a portion of a message or error correction data to decode the message if one or more of the plurality of optical element sets are visually occluded, and wherein the optical element sets for the message and error correction data are spatially configured at the physical surface in a matrix such that the message is decodable from the substrate without optical elements positioned within at least one complete edge of the matrix that is visually occluded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2020
    Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company
    Inventors: James W. Howard, Justin M. Johnson, Deepti Pachauri, James B. Snyder, Guruprasad Somasundaram
  • Publication number: 20200279116
    Abstract: In general, techniques are described for a personal protective equipment (PPE) management system (PPEMS) that uses images of optical patterns embodied on articles of personal protective equipment (PPEs) to identify safety conditions that correspond to usage of the PPEs. In one example, an article of personal protective equipment (PPE) includes a first optical pattern embodied on a surface of the article of PPE; a second optical pattern embodied on the surface of the article of PPE, wherein a spatial relation between the first optical pattern and the second optical pattern is indicative of an operational status of the article of PPE.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2018
    Publication date: September 3, 2020
    Inventors: Caroline M. Ylitalo, Kui Chen-Ho, Paul L. Acito, Tien Yi T.H. Whiting, James B. Snyder, Travis L. Potts, James W. Howard, James L.C. Werness, Jr., Suman K. Patel, Charles A. Shaklee, Katja Hansen, Glenn E. Casner, Kiran S. Kanukurthy, Steven T. Awiszus, Neeraj Sharma
  • Publication number: 20200219391
    Abstract: In some examples, a computing device includes one or more computer processors, a communication device, and a memory comprising instructions that cause the one or more computer processors to: receive, using the communication device and from a set of vehicles, different sets of infrastructure data for a particular infrastructure article that is proximate to each respective vehicle of the set of vehicles, wherein each respective vehicle in the set of vehicles comprises at least one infrastructure sensor that generates infrastructure data descriptive of infrastructure articles that are proximate to the respective vehicle; determine, based at least in part on the different sets of infrastructure data for the particular infrastructure article from each respective vehicle of the set of vehicles, a quality metric for the infrastructure article; and perform at least one operation based at least in part on the quality metric for the infrastructure article.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Publication date: July 9, 2020
    Inventors: Kenneth L. Smith, Justin M. Johnson, James B. Snyder, James W. Howard, Michael E. Hamerly, Onur Sinan Yordem
  • Publication number: 20200219274
    Abstract: Systems and methods for image recognition are provided. A style-transfer neural network is trained for each real image to obtain a trained style-transfer neural network. The texture or style features of the real images are transferred, via the trained style-transfer neural network, to a target image to generate styled images which are used for training an image-recognition machine learning N model (e.g., a neural network). In some cases, the real images are clustered and representative style images are selected from the clusters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2018
    Publication date: July 9, 2020
    Inventors: Muhammad J. Afridi, Elisa J. Collins, Jonathan D. Gandrud, James W. Howard, Arash Sangari, James B. Snyder
  • Patent number: 10706311
    Abstract: The inventors of the present application developed novel retroreflective materials, and articles. One example of the present application is a retroreflective article, comprising a substrate and a machine-readable information disposed on the substrate, wherein the machine-readable information corresponds to a predetermined human-readable information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: 3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY
    Inventors: Justin M. Johnson, James W. Howard, Thomas J. Dahlin, James B. Snyder, James L. C. Werness, Jr.
  • Publication number: 20200211385
    Abstract: In some examples, a sign maintenance system includes a traffic management control system; a plurality of road side equipment; and an infrastructure management service provider; wherein a sign maintenance application determines information needed for sign maintenance planning and transmits a probe management request to the traffic management control system requesting the information; wherein the traffic management control system transmits a probe management message to road side equipment in response to the probe management request, receives one or more messages received from connected vehicles, the messages reflecting sensor information captured by sensors of the connected vehicles, and transmits, to the infrastructure management service provider, the information received from the vehicle messages, and wherein the sign maintenance application in the infrastructure maintenance service provider schedules sign maintenance based on the information received from the connected vehicles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Publication date: July 2, 2020
    Inventors: Justin M. Johnson, Michael E. Hamerly, James B. Snyder, James W. Howard
  • Patent number: 10691908
    Abstract: An article includes a substrate with a physical surface, and a hierarchy of parent and child optical element sets embodied on the physical surface, such that a first encoded value represented by the parent optical element set is based at least in part on the visual appearance of a particular optical element in the child optical element set, and a second, different encoded value represented by the particular parent optical element is based at least in part on the visual appearance, and the second encoded value not being decodable from a distance greater than a threshold distance, the first encoded value being decodable from the distance greater than the threshold distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: 3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY
    Inventors: James W. Howard, Justin M. Johnson, Travis L. Potts, Deepti Pachauri, James B. Snyder, Guruprasad Somasundaram
  • Publication number: 20200160354
    Abstract: In some examples, an article may include a layer having a first surface marked with a first code. The article may include a second surface marked with a second code, the second code obscured by the layer to be unreadable through the layer. The first code and the second code may be associated in transaction data stored by a blockchain managed by a consensus network of nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2018
    Publication date: May 21, 2020
    Inventors: James W. Howard, Siddhant Vashist, Carlo D. Supina, Karl Battle, Jonathan L. Diaz-Lopez, James B. Snyder, James L.C. Werness, Jr., Tien Yi T.H. Whiting
  • Publication number: 20200042849
    Abstract: In some examples, an article includes a substrate that having a physical surface; a multi-dimensional machine-readable code embodied on the physical surface, wherein the multi-dimensional machine-readable optical code comprises a static data (SD) optical element set and a dynamic lookup data (DLD) optical element set, each set embodied on the physical surface, wherein the DLD optical element set encodes a look-up value that references dynamically changeable data, wherein the SD optical element set encodes static data that does not reference other data, wherein the DLD optical element set is not decodable at the distance greater than the threshold distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventors: James W. Howard, James B. Snyder, Travis L. Potts, Deepti Pachauri, Guruprasad Somasundaram, Justin M. Johnson, Tamara M. Meehan-Russell
  • Publication number: 20200034590
    Abstract: In some examples, an article includes a substrate, the substrate including a physical surface; a hierarchy of parent and child optical element sets embodied on the physical surface, wherein a first encoded value represented by the parent optical element set is based at least in part on a visual appearance of a particular optical element in the child optical element set, and a second encoded value represented by the particular optical element is based at least in part on the visual appearance, the first and second encoded values being different, and the second encoded value not being decodable from a distance greater than a threshold distance, the first encoded value being decodable from the distance greater than the threshold distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Publication date: January 30, 2020
    Inventors: James W. Howard, Justin M. Johnson, Travis L. Potts, Deepti Pachauri, James B. Snyder, Guruprasad Somasundaram
  • Publication number: 20200019827
    Abstract: In some examples, an article includes a substrate and a plurality of optical element sets embodied on the substrate, wherein each optical element set includes a plurality of optical elements, wherein each respective optical element represents an encoded value in a set of encoded values, wherein the set of encoded values are differentiable based on visual differentiability of the respective optical elements, wherein each respective optical element set represents at least a portion of a message or error correction data to decode the message if one or more of the plurality of optical element sets are visually occluded, and wherein the optical element sets for the message and error correction data are spatially configured at the physical surface in a matrix such that the message is decodable from the substrate without optical elements positioned within at least one complete edge of the matrix that is visually occluded.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Publication date: January 16, 2020
    Applicant: 3M Innovative Properties Company
    Inventors: James W. HOWARD, Justin M. JOHNSON, Deepti PACHAURI, James B. SNYDER, Guruprasad SOMASUNDARAM
  • Publication number: 20190163980
    Abstract: In some examples, an optically active article includes a retroreflective substrate; and at least one security element disposed at the retroreflective substrate; an article message disposed at the retroreflective substrate, and wherein the at least one security element comprises validation information that is detectable outside a visible light spectrum, and wherein a combination of the article message and the validation information of the at least one security element indicates whether the optically active article is counterfeit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 12, 2017
    Publication date: May 30, 2019
    Applicant: 3M Innovative Properties Company
    Inventors: Justin M. JOHNSON, James W. HOWARD, James B. SNYDER, Kui CHEN-HO, Suman K. PATEL, Travis L. POTTS, Carla H. BARNES, Tadesse G. NIGATU
  • Publication number: 20180253616
    Abstract: In some examples, a computing device receives an image of an optically active article that includes a set of one or more symbols of a symbol set, wherein at least one symbol of the set of one or more symbols comprises a set of encoding regions that are embedded with the symbol. In response to receiving the image, the computing device may determine that a particular image region of the image represents the at least one symbol. For encoding regions within the at least one symbol, the computing device may determine, based at least in part on the determination that the particular image region of the image represents the at least one symbol, whether the one or more encoding regions are active or inactive. The computing device may perform, based at least in part on whether the one or more encoding regions are active or inactive, one or more operations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2016
    Publication date: September 6, 2018
    Inventors: Justin M. JOHNSON, James W. HOWARD, James B. SNYDER, Thomas J. DAHLIN
  • Publication number: 20180239981
    Abstract: The inventors of the present application developed novel retroreflective materials, and articles. One example of the present application is a retroreflective article, comprising a substrate and a machine-readable information disposed on the substrate, wherein the machine-readable information corresponds to a predetermined human-readable information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2016
    Publication date: August 23, 2018
    Inventors: Justin M. JOHNSON, James W. HOWARD, Thomas J. DAHLIN, James B. SNYDER, James L.C. WERNESS, Jr.
  • Publication number: 20170245783
    Abstract: A method and system for monitoring impairment indicators. The method includes, during a first time window, measuring a first movement signal related to movement of the person with a movement sensor associated with the person, and measuring a first biological signal of the person with a biological sensor attached to the person. The method further includes electronically storing at least one numerical descriptor derived from the first movement signal and at least one numerical descriptor derived from the first biological signal as reference data for the person. The method includes during a second time window, measuring a second signal related to movement of the person with the movement sensor, and measuring a second biological signal of the person with the biological sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 15, 2015
    Publication date: August 31, 2017
    Applicant: 3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY
    Inventors: Jennifer F. SCHUMACHER, James W. HOWARD, Eric C. LOBNER