My discoveries and inventions

My math PhD result, that you can identify a shape from the statistics of its chord length distribution, is important but way superficially treated. I was not smart enough to create the inverse transform although I know it's out there, like a Green's function.

In college I discovered the "read symbol" which is an ornament on a name, indicating the removal of quotation marks.

In college I invented the AOdiagram - where attribute categories are lines up as columns, each with a row of dashes indicating an particular attribute value ("trait"), and where objects are indicated with zig-zag lines between the dashes. Going through a dash means the object has that attribute value. When an object line passes through a dash, its identity is not lost or merged with other object zig-zags that are passing through the same dash. The search for elegant examples of AO diagrams leads into questions of block design. Again, I was not smart enough, although I was toying with the Kirkman schoolgirl problem. I did however invent a way to convert and AODiagram into a decision tree. At the time there was an existing algorithm from a guy named Quinlan, that did not perform as well as mine.

Later I invented Data Equilibrium. According to its theory you start with an AODiagram populated empirically, apply a forcing function to the dashes and then let it come to equilibrium assuming the force propagates outward from a 'dash' to another 'dash' in proportion to the number of objects in the data that have both traits. This handles incomplete data elegantly, and eliminates the problem of Decision Trees which force an artificial prioritization of categories.

A minor invention at Polaroid, was a least squares best fit method to find a grid of values, such that the multi-linear interpolation between the grid points provided a minimum error approximation to an arbitrary function evaluated at non-grid data points. I think this is superior to "Krigging"

I played around with using relative Chi-squared to compare patterns. There is real magic hidden in this about how persons judge similarity. So it must be related to the logarithm and Fechner's laws. You have to read the patent a filed on this [it is online although rejected]. The patent creates a type of geometry based on point scatters rather than solids.

But let me tell you what I consider my greatest discoveries and inventions.

At IVS I wrote an algorithm for parsing a one dimensional optical signal. It is simply a "moving hysteresis" algorithm which which reads along the signal from left to right and, in one state, is looking for a minimum but, in the other state, is looking for a maximum. Whenever a difference between the current value and the most recent extreme exceeds a threshold, it changes states. This is called the "ripple" algorithm. Looking at the spectrum of outcomes, as the threshold value dials between 'low' and 'high', gives a complete parsing of the data and shows the correct way to handle signal versus noise - as an arbitrary dial setting.

In "The Elements of Narrative" I create a symbolism to describe narrative patterns. It opens many doorways, especially empirical ones. So I discovered 8 'truisms' patterns that seem quite fundamental to human reasoning - or at least natural versus formal thought.

In "De-Serializing Text into a Context Hierarchy" I discover the principles of conserved context and immutable record.

It would be unfair to myself to leave off the discovery of Native American burial mounds. Apparently no one knew what they looked like. I poked around in the Middlesex woods so energetically, systematically, and enthusiastically, that I believe I have uncovered the truth of this matter.

And that's all folks. We'll see what kind of juice is left after turning 66.