Sep 14, 2006
UXBRIDGE -- Before Xerox's Steven J. Harrington had time to savour a milestone few inventors have ever reached, it was already in his rear-view mirror. Harrington, a scientist in the Xerox Innovation Group who received three patents within days of each other last month, is only the 14th Xerox scientist to be awarded 100 patents.
Harrington's 100th U.S. patent - No. 7,092,551 - is titled "System and method for measuring and quantising document quality." It is one of seven patents he filed for related to the fundamental understanding of what makes images and layout appealing, a subject that has occupied philosophers and artists for centuries.
Working with scientists from Rochester Institute of Technology's Centre for Electronic Imaging Systems, Harrington, a Xerox Fellow, discovered innovative ways to objectively judge what have been subjective issues until now, such as the properties that make documents look better or worse, easier or more difficult to understand, eye-catching or dull.
Harrington continues to invent. He has applied for a dozen more patents, including several innovations that result in smarter documents. Among them are methods for encoding invisible electronic information in a printed document, for Internet coupon fraud deterrence and for creating and using multi-versioned documents.
"Steve has the rare ability to find new ways of approaching challenges. His inventions have ranged from digital watermarking and inkjet printer technologies to highlight colour mapping and a method for correcting colour in a compressed image. His discoveries have enriched Xerox product and service offerings and have influenced the state of the art in imaging," said Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox's chief technology officer and president of the Xerox Innovation Group.
Fascinated by robots and Tinker Toys when he was a child in Portland, Ore., USA, Harrington, 58, is happiest when he is being challenged by new problems. "One of the reasons I find rese