Patents by Inventor Ronald W. Lougheed

Ronald W. Lougheed 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: 6740875
    Abstract: A covert, gamma-ray “signature” is used as a “watermark” for property identification. This new watermarking technology is based on a unique steganographic or “hidden writing” digital signature, implemented in tiny quantities of gamma-ray-emitting radioisotopic material combinations, generally covertly emplaced on or within an object. This digital signature may be readily recovered at distant future times, by placing a sensitive, high energy-resolution gamma-ray detecting instrument reasonably precisely over the location of the watermark, which location may be known only to the object's owner; however, the signature is concealed from all ordinary detection means because its exceedingly low level of activity is obscured by the natural radiation background (including the gamma radiation naturally emanating from the object itself, from cosmic radiation and material surroundings, from human bodies, etc.).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2004
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: Muriel Y. Ishikawa, Lowell L. Wood, Ronald W. Lougheed, Kenton J. Moody, Tzu-Fang Wang