Patents by Inventor William Tobin

William Tobin 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: 6792847
    Abstract: A brewing machine suitable to deliver beverage enhancing component to a beverage precursor is described. The brewing machine may be used to dispense a ready-to-drink tea beverage having superior aroma, flavor and color characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2004
    Assignee: Unilever Bestfoods North America, a division of Conopco, Inc.
    Inventors: John William Tobin, Martin John Spisak
  • Publication number: 20040086620
    Abstract: Fresh flavor is delivered to an on-premise beverage at the point of dispense. Flavor compounds are incorporated in a separate component and then the separated flavor component is mixed with beverage concentrate at the time of dispense to produce a superior beverage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2002
    Publication date: May 6, 2004
    Applicant: Unilever Bestfoods North America
    Inventors: John William Tobin, Gregg Lance Lehmberg, June Qi-Zheng
  • Publication number: 20040050259
    Abstract: A brewing machine suitable to deliver beverage enhancing component to a beverage precursor is described. The brewing machine may be used to dispense a ready-to-drink tea beverage having superior aroma, flavor and color characteristics.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 18, 2002
    Publication date: March 18, 2004
    Applicant: Unilever Bestfoods NA
    Inventors: John William Tobin, Martin John Spisak
  • Publication number: 20030116025
    Abstract: The invention is directed to a beverage brewing system and method for brewing a beverage. The brewing system is equipped to heat beverage extracts prior to mixing the beverage extract with solvent. The method results in a beverage, such as a tea-based beverage, that has no visible undissolved beverage extract.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2001
    Publication date: June 26, 2003
    Applicant: Unilever Bestfoods NA
    Inventor: John William Tobin
  • Patent number: 6421409
    Abstract: A method for ultra-high resolution computed tomography imaging, comprising the steps of: focusing a high energy particle beam, for example x-rays or gamma-rays, onto a target object; acquiring a 2-dimensional projection data set representative of the target object; generating a corrected projection data set by applying a deconvolution algorithm, having an experimentally determined a transfer function, to the 2-dimensional data set; storing the corrected projection data set; incrementally rotating the target object through an angle of approximately 180°, and after each the incremental rotation, repeating the radiating, acquiring, generating and storing steps; and, after the rotating step, applying a cone-beam algorithm, for example a modified tomographic reconstruction algorithm, to the corrected projection data sets to generate a 3-dimensional image. The size of the spot focus of the beam is reduced to not greater than approximately 1 micron, and even to not greater than approximately 0.5 microns.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2002
    Assignee: UT-Battelle LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Paulus, Hamed Sari-Sarraf, Kenneth William Tobin, Jr., Shaun S. Gleason, Clarence E. Thomas, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6195412
    Abstract: A method for imaging a target volume comprises the steps of: radiating a small bandwidth of energy toward the target volume; focusing the small bandwidth of energy into a beam; moving the target volume through a plurality of positions within the focused beam; collecting a beam of energy scattered from the target volume with a non-diffractive confocal coded aperture; generating a shadow image of said aperture from every point source of radiation in the target volume; and, reconstructing the shadow image into a 3-dimensional image of the every point source by mathematically correlating the shadow image with a digital or analog version of the coded aperture. The method can comprise the step of collecting the beam of energy scattered from the target volume with a Fresnel zone plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2001
    Assignee: UT-Battelle, LLC
    Inventors: Kenneth William Tobin, Jr., Clarence E. Thomas, Jr.