Friday, June 27, 2008

Patent Watch

Recent patent activity may open pod bay doors to AI

Futurist Ray Kurzweil of Newton (and others) are proponents of “the singularity” —  the idea that, in the future, computing power will exceed human brain power as machines themselves develop even more complex machines. They eventually would reach a singular point past which we cannot imagine what might happen because our minds aren’t complex enough to conceive of what those artificial intelligences will create. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few recently issued patents and published patent applications naming New England inventors on the topic of artificial intelligence.

• Kurzweil is listed as inventor, along with Matthew Bridges, also of Newton, on Patent No. 7,337,157 (Feb. 26) for an enhanced artificial intelligence language engine which can purportedly carry on intelligent conversations with humans. Kurzweil Technologies Inc. located in Wellesley Hills is the assignee.

• In artificial intelligence, one Holy Grail is a “conscious” computer that can detect what is happening in a scene after identifying the objects in the scene, for example, a man pointing a gun at another man (with his hands raised) behind a counter and in front of shelves with bottles on them equals a liquor store robbery. Today, computers can sometimes identify objects in a scene, but AI still has a hard time distinguishing between moving objects such as a person running and time-varying background images such as trees waving in the wind. Patent No. 7,373,012 (May 13) discloses a computer-implemented method of distinguishing between the two using the concept of “static corners.” Shmuel Avidan of Brookline is listed as an inventor in this Mitsubishi Corp. (Cambridge) patent.

• Patent No. 7,321,881 (Jan. 22) discloses a method of predicting the recurrence of cancer in a patient using a trained neural network. Olivier Saidi of Greenwich, Conn., is listed as an inventor and Aureon Laboratories Inc. in Yonkers, N.Y., is the assignee.

• Patent No. 7,321,879 issued Jan. 22 discloses a data-mining system using a neural network which can be used by businesses to analyze and extract useful information from data they or others have collected to improve the operation of the business. Charles Garofalo of Framingham is listed as an inventor; Computer Associates Think Inc. in Islandia, N.Y., is the owner of the patent.

• IBM Corp. Patent Application No. 2008/0109267 published May 8, disclosed a computer-implemented method and system that facilitates the matching of employee skills with an innovation project to promote successful innovation by employees that can participate from remote workstations. Kathleen Purdy located in Richmond, Vt., is listed as an inventor.

• High tech AI meets livestock management in Patent Application No. 2008/0059534 published March 6. An adaptive reasoning system using artificial intelligence models makes recommendations based on a number of observations such as the detection of sickness in calves at a feedlot, a review of medical records, tracking the number of times an animal approaches a feeding bunk, and the like. Khurshid Afimiwala of Shelton, Conn., is one of the named inventors in this Micro Beef Technologies Ltd. patent application.

• Ray Ozzie of Manchester (along with Bill Gates) is on Microsoft Corp.’s Patent Application Nos. 2008/0005095 and 2008/0005075 both published on Jan. 3, 2008, for a search engine that verifies the accuracy of the information found in response to a search query.
 
 

Kirk Teska is an adjunct law professor at Suffolk University Law School, and is the managing partner of Iandiorio, Teska & Coleman, an intellectual property law firm in Waltham. His book “Patent Savvy for Managers” is available online and in most major bookstores. He can be reached at kirk@iandorio.com.