Patents by Inventor Roland Albert Merrick

Roland Albert 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: 6483526
    Abstract: A multi-layer entry field is disclosed comprising a number of layers including a base plane, a field prompt layer, a Help Prompt layer, a layer displaying the data entered, and an error message layer. The layers are displayed superimposed on one another to reduce the screen area required to display the entry-field and its associated information, making the invention especially useful for Palmtop computers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Roland Albert Merrick
  • Patent number: 6476828
    Abstract: Systems, methods and computer program products are provided for building and displaying dynamic graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that can be updated automatically without requiring code-level modification and recompiling. In response to a request to display a particular GUI on a computer display, an Extensible Markup Language (XML) data group is selected from a plurality of XML data groups and an XML display layout is selected from a plurality of XML display layouts. The selected XML data group includes one or more aggregations of data hierarchically ordered within the selected XML data group. XML data items are hierarchically ordered within each of the aggregations of data. The selected XML display layout contains one or more areas that define respective GUI display spaces within which XML data items from the respective aggregations of data can be displayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Charles Edward Burkett, David John Clark, David Bruce Lection, Roland Albert Merrick, Jay Unger
  • Patent number: 6418446
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer-readable code for a technique with which data having dynamically variable record formats (such as that created when a dynamic schema is used with a data repository) can be easily and efficiently accommodated, without requiring modification of the code that processes the data each time the underlying data format changes. This mechanism provides a novel way to gather data that may have had changes to its format, and create a structured representation of this data that flexibly adapts to format variations. This novel technique enables all added data fields in a record to be made available for processing and removed data fields to be omitted, without requiring advance knowledge of the added and removed fields. In the preferred embodiment, a DOM tree created from an XML representation of the source data is used by the present invention as it creates an output DOM tree. Optionally, the results of an LDAP query from an LDAP directory can be used as the source data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David Bruce Lection, Roland Albert Merrick
  • Patent number: 6339841
    Abstract: This invention relates to a method of loading Java ClassFiles on to a Java Virtual Machine. On a regular JVM the ClassFile are loaded as and when required. In this specification there is described a method of implementing an object oriented program language such as Java on a computer. The method comprises identifying a class, one of the basic building blocks of the language, which is not within the program domain, that is not loaded into the Java a Virtual Machine. Next it introduces to the program domain only the minimum components of the class which are necessary for commencing processing of the class. The class may comprise several blocks of data representing the methods of the class, since the class may only have been identified because one of the methods within the class was referenced then only the block of data representing this method is loaded into the Java Virtual Machine along with the other essential components of the class.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Roland Albert Merrick, Alan Michael Webb
  • Patent number: 6256628
    Abstract: A method of displaying clustered data points in detail and in context within a data set. The method includes the step of identifying one or more clustered sets of data points within a data set. The data set includes a plurality of data points. The method also includes the steps of determining a respective data range segment for each cluster of data points, where each data range segment has a boundary and a scale interval, and displaying the data points in each segment such that each segment is mutually distinguishable. Where two or more data range segments are determined, the scale interval value for one of the data range segments is modifiable to differ from one or more of the other data range segments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 1998
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2001
    Assignee: IBM Corporation
    Inventors: Adam Alexander Dobson, Roland Albert Merrick
  • Patent number: 5808612
    Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for displaying on a display device (20) connectable to the system a visual representation of a physical environment, such as a virtual office. The system includes display controls (30) for displaying objects in the physical environment including a data management object, one or more data objects representing data sources, and one or more output objects representing paths through which data from a data source can be presented to a user. A user-operated device (50) is connectable to the system to allow a user to interact with the objects. The system includes data receiving means (70), responsive to signals from the user-operated device (50) indicating user association of one or more data objects with the data management object, to access the data represented by the one or more associated data objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 1996
    Date of Patent: September 15, 1998
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Roland Albert Merrick, Justin James Campling Richards