Patents by Inventor Thomas J. Barnidge

Thomas J. Barnidge 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: 20210390401
    Abstract: Systems for optimizing business objectives of e-commerce content can include memory and a processor coupled to the memory. The processor can receive one or more assumptions for multivariate comparison of content. The content can be provided to users of an e-commerce system. The processor can repeatedly generate self-organizing experimental units (SOEUs) based on the one or more assumptions. The processor can inject the SOEUs into the online system to generate quantified inferences about the content. The processor can identify, responsive to injecting the SOEUs, at least one confidence interval within the quantified inferences. The processor can iteratively modify the SOEUs based on the at least one confidence interval to identify at least one causal interaction of the e-commerce content within the system. Other methods and apparatuses are described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2019
    Publication date: December 16, 2021
    Inventors: Brian E. Brooks, Gilles J. Benoit, Peter O.N. Olson, Thomas J. Barnidge, Audrey X. Yang, Frederick J. Arsenault, Tyler W. Olson, Jennifer S. Hilpisch
  • Patent number: 6843454
    Abstract: A wrist rest assembly for use along the front edge of a device to be operated by a person's hands or fingers, such as in front of a computer keyboard, including an elongate base on which is supported an elongate pad comprising a layer of gel within the covering. The pad has sufficient thickness between its top and bottom surfaces and width between its edges to afford supporting a users wrists on said top surface with a portion of the layer of gel beneath and conforming to the supported wrists and to afford significant motion of the top surface of the pad with the supported wrists relative to the bottom surface in a plane generally parallel to the upper surface of the base. The base has a top portion supporting the pad, a bottom portion adapted to be supported on a horizontal surface; and structure that allows the top portion to be supported on the bottom portion with the top surface of the pad at a predetermined one of several different distances above that horizontal surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2005
    Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company
    Inventors: Robert J. Wolf, Thomas J. Barnidge, Wayne K. Darvell, Kenneth J. Kirchhoff
  • Publication number: 20040035986
    Abstract: A wrist rest assembly for use along the front edge of a device to be operated by a person's hands or fingers, such as in front of a computer keyboard, including an elongate base on which is supported an elongate pad comprising a layer of gel within the covering. The pad has sufficient thickness between its top and bottom surfaces and width between its edges to afford supporting a users wrists on said top surface with a portion of the layer of gel beneath and conforming to the supported wrists and to afford significant motion of the top surface of the pad with the supported wrists relative to the bottom surface in a plane generally parallel to the upper surface of the base. The base has a top portion supporting the pad, a bottom portion adapted to be supported on a horizontal surface; and structure that allows the top portion to be supported on the bottom portion with the top surface of the pad at a predetermined one of several different distances above that horizontal surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2003
    Publication date: February 26, 2004
    Applicant: 3M Innovative Properties Company
    Inventors: Robert J. Wolf, Thomas J. Barnidge, Wayne K. Darvell, Kenneth J. Kirchhoff
  • Patent number: 6626403
    Abstract: A wrist rest assembly for use along the front edge of a device to be operated by a person's hands or fingers, such as in front of a computer keyboard, including an elongate base on which is supported an elongate pad comprising a layer of gel within the covering. The pad has sufficient thickness between its top and bottom surfaces and width between its edges to afford supporting a users wrists on the top surface with a portion of the layer of gel beneath and conforming to the supported wrists and to afford significant motion of the top surface of the pad with the supported wrists relative to the bottom surface in a plane generally parallel to the upper surface of the base. The base has a top portion supporting the pad, a bottom portion adapted to be supported on a horizontal surface; and structure that allows the top portion to be supported on the bottom portion with the top surface of the pad at a predetermined one of several different distances above that horizontal surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2003
    Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company
    Inventors: Robert J. Wolf, Thomas J. Barnidge, Wayne K. Darvell, Kenneth J. Kirchhoff
  • Patent number: 6494418
    Abstract: A wrist rest assembly for use along the front edge of a device to be operated by a person's hands or fingers, such as in front of a computer keyboard, including an elongate base on which is supported an elongate pad comprising a layer of gel within the covering. The pad has sufficient thickness between its top and bottom surfaces and width between its edges to afford supporting a users wrists on top surface with a portion of the layer of gel beneath and conforming to the supported wrists and to afford significant motion of the top surface of the pad with the supported wrists relative to the bottom surface in a plane generally parallel to the upper surface of the base. The base has a top portion supporting the pad, a bottom portion adapted to be supported on a horizontal surface; and structure that allows the top portion to be supported on the bottom portion with the top surface of the pad at a predetermined one of several different distances above that horizontal surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2002
    Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company
    Inventors: Robert J. Wolf, Thomas J. Barnidge, Wayne K. Darvell, Kenneth J. Kirchhoff
  • Patent number: 5713544
    Abstract: A wrist rest assembly for use along the front edge of a device to be operated by a person's hands or fingers, such as in front of a computer keyboard, including an elongate base on which is supported an elongate pad comprising a layer of gel within the covering. The pad has sufficient thickness between its top and bottom surfaces and width between its edges to afford supporting a users wrists on the top surface with a portion of the layer of gel beneath and conforming to the supported wrists and to afford significant motion of the top surface of the pad with the supported wrists relative to the bottom surface in a plane generally parallel to the upper surface of the base. The base has a top portion supporting the pad, a bottom portion adapted to be supported on a horizontal surface; and structure that allows the top portion to be supported on the bottom portion with the top surface of the pad at a predetermined one of several different distances above that horizontal surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 1996
    Date of Patent: February 3, 1998
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventors: Robert J. Wolf, Thomas J. Barnidge, Wayne K. Darvell, Kenneth J. Kirchhoff
  • Patent number: 5671557
    Abstract: A notice assembly comprising a support portion including a base part adapted to be supported on a horizontal surface, a vertical wall part having a lower edge attached to the base part and a hollow tubular part fixed along an upper edge of the wall part with an axially extending through opening in the tubular part facing the same direction as the front surface of the wall part. A display member has a portion rotatably mounted in the tubular part. That portion of the display member has a peripheral surface bearing a plurality of set of graphic symbols providing information about the location of the person (e.g., AT LUNCH, OUT OF OFFICE, RETURN SOON, IN MEETING). By manual rotation of the display member, any of the sets of graphic symbols can be positioned in the opening of the tubular part where they will be observed by a person looking at the notice assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 30, 1997
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventors: Bruce W. Carlson, Thomas J. Barnidge, Tanya M. Laine, Mary K. Miller-Bruns, Kenneth J. Kirchhoff
  • Patent number: 5283091
    Abstract: A sheet for temporarily marking a portion of a document. The sheet comprising an elongate layer of flexible polymeric material having a coating of repositionable pressure sensitive adhesive on a second end portion while being free of adhesive on both of the side surfaces along a first end portion thereof. The first end portion is visually distinctive, and the adhesive coated second end portion is generally transparent when adhered to a substrate. The second end portion has a coating along one of its side surfaces that visually distinguishes the second end portion from a substrate when the second end portion is adhered to a substrate while being sufficiently transparent to afford reading indicia on the substrate through the second end portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 1991
    Date of Patent: February 1, 1994
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventors: Wayne K. Darvell, Thomas J. Barnidge, Karyn A. Roszak