MICHAEL T SULLIVAN
Electrician at Blanco Riv Pass, Austin, TX

6344863, Feb 5, 2002

Nov 24, 1999

09/448458

Ronald B. Capelli - Round Rock TX
Joseph Kubik - Austin TX
Michael Joseph Sullivan - Austin TX
Jonathan Mark Wagner - Round Rock TX

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G06F 900

345781, 345764

A three-dimensional graphical user interface is provided wherein the windows have a “thickness” property. In the preferred embodiment, a window will have a Z plane position (z) and a Z plane thickness (cz) as well as the traditional x, cx, y and cy. This allows positioning anywhere in three dimensional space. Using either a three axis mouse or a conventional mouse with supplemental control (perhaps keyboard), each axis may be traversed to navigate the desktop. As the pointer moves along an axis, the users point of view can change, bringing the view either closer/farther/left/right, depending on the direction of motion, which may cause the windows perspective to change, e. g. , larger or smaller. The users perspective can pass into and through the window-blocks. As the user moves through a window-block, the mouse mickey ratio changes so that, while the cursor position or user viewpoint might change relatively rapidly in “empty space,” it would change more slowly when the users perspective or the cursor is moving through a solid window-block, thus making the window-block seem more substantial.

2004004, Mar 11, 2004

Sep 19, 2002

10/246930

Randolph Forlenza - Austin TX, US
Sivakumar Rajendran - Durham NC, US
Michael Sullivan - Austin TX, US
William Tracey - Round Rock TX, US
Jonathan Wagner - Round Rock TX, US

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G09G005/00

345/156000

The present invention relates to a method, apparatus, and computer instructions for keyboard entry into a computer device using a handheld input device configured to be held in the palm of one hand. The handheld input device contains a thumb controlled push pad capable of eight directions plus a center position and four buttons operable by the remaining four fingers. The four buttons can be pressed in various combinations to generate up to sixteen different possible keystrokes. When pressing combinations of the four buttons in conjunction with the thumb controlled push pad, the handheld input device is capable of generating at least 144 unique keystrokes. The handheld input device is programmable to meet the needs of the application being supported and may include, for example, the same input as the standard QWERTY keyboard. A user can hold a device, such as a personal digital assistant, in one hand and the handheld input device in the other hand to generate keyboard input for the device.

6968568, Nov 22, 2005

Dec 20, 1999

09/467418

Michael Joseph Sullivan - Austin TX, US
William J. Tracey - Round Rock TX, US
Jonathan Mark Wagner - Round Rock TX, US

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

H04N007/173

725 90, 725 93, 725 98, 725109, 725118, 725141, 725153

Broadcast information is classified in categories to facilitate user selection and filtration of the broadcast information which is processed for presentation to the user. The broadcast information is transmitted in the form of a meta frame and one or more category frames which are repeated in a continuous cycle. Meta frames and category frames are distinguished and identified by major and minor codes following a frame starting delimiter. The meta frame contains a description of each of the available categories, together with an identification of respective category major and minor codes, the frequency on which the respective category frame is transmitted if multiple frequencies are employed, and the relative position of the respective category frame within transmission cycle. If multiple frequencies are employed, the meta frame may be repeatedly broadcast on a base frequency while subsets of the category frames are transmitted on different frequencies, or the meta and category frames may be repeated in sequence on all frequencies but with varying offsets. Upon user selection of a category, the category information within the meta frame is employed to construct or key a filter for the broadcast information.