The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 01, 2004
Filed:
Jan. 04, 2002
John Ray Blair, Tucson, AZ (US);
Dennis Hurley Byrne, Tucson, AZ (US);
Allen Ronald Cox, Eastleigh, GB;
David Michael Davis, Tucson, AZ (US);
James Mitchell Karp, Tucson, AZ (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
An indicator comprises a rotary device in the form of a right cylinder arranged to be rotatable in a chamber of a portable data storage cartridge, which has an exterior wall opening to the chamber. A peripheral surface of the rotary device has an encoded pattern of at least one cylindrical surface and a plurality of facets interrupting the cylindrical surface(s). The facets are located at various axial positions, and at various angularly spaced rotational positions, such that, at differing rotational positions of the rotary device, at least one or none of the facets is positioned at the exterior opening.