Patents by Inventor Roland A. Merrick

Roland A. Merrick 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: 8166414
    Abstract: An approach is provided to display a common display page on a variety of display devices using the item's tab order property to determine the display order. Controls that are displayed on a display device typically have a tab order. When a window that has controls is displayed, the cursor is typically placed at the control with the lowest (i.e., first) tab order. When the user presses the tab key, the cursor moves to the control corresponding to the next lowest tab order. This allows the designer to design a single window (or panel) that is displayed differently on constrained devices. However, even though the window is displayed differently, using tab order mapping maintains a consistent visible proximity between controls despite the type of display device being used by the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian J. Cragun, Barnaby L. Court, Andrew L. Hanson, Roland A. Merrick, Timothy J. O'Keefe, Elizabeth A. Schreiber, David B. Styles, Brian O. Wood
  • Patent number: 8140952
    Abstract: A method of assisting a user, for use in an environment comprising: a user session, an external entity session and a forms engine for generating a form. The method comprises the steps of: registering with the user session, wherein a first session is established between the user session and the forms engine; receiving a request for assistance from a user; in response to receiving the request, de-registering with the user session, wherein the first session is un-established; registering with the external entity session, wherein a second session is established between the external entity session and the forms engine; receiving input from the external entity session; and populating the form with the received input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew J. F. Bravery, Martin J. Gale, Roland A. Merrick, Andrew J. Stanford-Clark
  • Patent number: 7516414
    Abstract: A system and method is provided to display a common display page on a variety of display devices using the item's tab order property to determine the display order. Controls that are displayed on a display device typically have a tab order. When a window that has controls is displayed, the cursor is typically placed at the control with the lowest (i.e., first) tab order. When the user presses the tab key, the cursor moves to the control corresponding to the next lowest tab order. This allows the designer to design a single window (or panel) that is displayed differently on constrained devices. However, even though the window is displayed differently, using tab order mapping maintains a consistent visible proximity between controls despite the type of display device being used by the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian J. Cragun, Barnaby L. Court, Andrew L. Hanson, Roland A. Merrick, Timothy J. O'Keefe, Elizabeth A. Schreiber, David B. Styles, Brian O. Wood
  • Publication number: 20080201646
    Abstract: An approach is provided to display a common display page on a variety of display devices using the item's tab order property to determine the display order. Controls that are displayed on a display device typically have a tab order. When a window that has controls is displayed, the cursor is typically placed at the control with the lowest (i.e., first) tab order. When the user presses the tab key, the cursor moves to the control corresponding to the next lowest tab order. This allows the designer to design a single window (or panel) that is displayed differently on constrained devices. However, even though the window is displayed differently, using tab order mapping maintains a consistent visible proximity between controls despite the type of display device being used by the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 25, 2008
    Publication date: August 21, 2008
    Inventors: Brian J. Cragun, Barnaby L. Court, Andrew L. Hanson, Roland A. Merrick, Timothy J. O'Keefe, Elizabeth A. Schreiber, David B. Styles, Brian O. Wood
  • Publication number: 20050172235
    Abstract: A system and method is provided to selectively exclude elements from a user interface window depending upon the type of device upon which the interface is being displayed. A designer (or a user) decides which elements in a window should be excluded when operating a certain type of device. It is likely that some user interface elements will not be deemed critical enough to provide when the user is using a constrained device, such as mobile telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). An element can be an image, an audio file, a table, a column in a table, a page in a property notebook, a wizard (or page in a wizard), or a group of related items. The judgment to exclude an element is based upon the value of the piece of data (element) in comparison to the visual bandwidth (display space) and/or network bandwidth needed to provide the element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2004
    Publication date: August 4, 2005
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian Cragun, Barnaby Court, Andrew Hanson, Roland Merrick, Timothy O'Keefe, Elizabeth Schreiber, David Styles, Brian Wood
  • Publication number: 20050172237
    Abstract: A system and method is provided to display a common display page on a variety of display devices using the item's tab order property to determine the display order. Controls that are displayed on a display device typically have a tab order. When a window that has controls is displayed, the cursor is typically placed at the control with the lowest (i.e., first) tab order. When the user presses the tab key, the cursor moves to the control corresponding to the next lowest tab order. This allows the designer to design a single window (or panel) that is displayed differently on constrained devices. However, even though the window is displayed differently, using tab order mapping maintains a consistent visible proximity between controls despite the type of display device being used by the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2004
    Publication date: August 4, 2005
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian Cragun, Barnaby Court, Andrew Hanson, Roland Merrick, Timothy O'Keefe, Elizabeth Schreiber, David Styles, Brian Wood
  • Publication number: 20050138539
    Abstract: A method of assisting a user, for use in an environment comprising: a user session, an external entity session and a forms engine for generating a form. The method comprises the steps of: registering with the user session, wherein a first session is established between the user session and the forms engine; receiving a request for assistance from a user; in response to receiving the request, de-registering with the user session, wherein the first session is un-established; registering with the external entity session, wherein a second session is established between the external entity session and the forms engine; receiving input from the external entity session; and populating the form with the received input.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2004
    Publication date: June 23, 2005
    Inventors: Andrew Bravery, Martin Gale, Roland Merrick, Andrew Stanford -Clark
  • Patent number: 6781609
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for flexibly including descriptive information items, and the various media resources used for those items, in a user interface (UI). One markup language document is used for the UI data content, and a separate markup language document is used for specifying the descriptive items and media resources to be used along with that content. This technique enables dynamically altering the descriptive items and media resources to be used for a UI document, without requiring change to the UI document itself This technique also enables developing the descriptive items and media resources separately from developing the UI document, without a requirement to share common files between these development efforts. The specifications of descriptive information items and media resources can be efficiently reused among multiple UI documents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2004
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin S. Barker, Charles E. Burkett, David B. Lection, Roland A. Merrick
  • Patent number: 5416841
    Abstract: A cryptographic system includes a conventional DES facility for encrypting data using a key of N (=56) bits. The user however need only supply a first key of n bits, which is passed to a key management system. The key management system generates a second key of length N-n bits, which is combined with the first key to produce a full-length key of N bits. This full-length key is then passed to the DES facility to allow data to be encrypted and saved in a data store in the conventional manner. The value of n can be controlled such that if the user forgets the first key, it can be located in a reasonable time on a simple trial and error basis, thereby allowing retrieval of the encrypted data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 1993
    Date of Patent: May 16, 1995
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Roland A. Merrick