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Patent holder profile

Valerie L. Thomas and the illusion-transmitter patent record

Thomas's 1980 illusion-transmitter patent gives CultureUp a careful optical-systems route that separates NASA career context from patent proof.

Why this belongs on CultureUp

Thomas is a public-record memory story.

This belongs on CultureUp because the patent record connects invention to place, public institutions, work systems, laboratories, employers, federal or corporate assignment, and the limits of public records.

Sprint 5 priority 9 / not final rankStatus: source_reviewedSource grade: B+

Patent: 4229761: Illusion Transmitter
Issue date: 1980-10-21
Place: Silver Spring, Maryland
Record strength: Patent-record facts are attached with at least one public context source. CultureUp still separates patent proof from biography, adoption, commercialization, and identity claims.
Identity evidence: Public context source attached where available; CultureUp does not use the patent row alone as race, ancestry, lineage, or Indigenous Black identity proof.
Sprint priority: 9 / not final rank
Cluster: Electronics, audio, and space systems
Needed before promotion: Promotion language should remain limited until source-led context, assignment, co-inventor, and commercialization review is complete.
Why this record matters: The record adds optical image transmission, NASA-adjacent public memory, and women-in-technology patent memory with visible source limits.

What the public record supports

U.S. Patent No. 4229761, issued October 21, 1980.
Illusion transmitter invention category.
Public inventor context for Thomas and the patent.

What remains open

NASA career source detail beyond the public inventor profile.
Later visualization use cases.
Commercialization and adoption evidence.

Article profile

Read the person, place, invention, and record separately.

CultureUp keeps each layer visible so a patent record does not get stretched into claims the source trail cannot support.

The patent record

4229761 was issued on 1980-10-21 for Illusion Transmitter.

The person in the record

The attached public context sources support a reader-facing profile frame. Any deeper life history, family record, school record, employment file, or community memory needs its own source trail.

Place attached to the claim

Silver Spring, Maryland is the public place anchor used for this route. CultureUp does not infer local family continuity from the patent row alone.

The invention

The invention is summarized from the public patent title and source trail. Technical, market, institutional, and adoption claims stay limited to what the attached sources can support.

Business, labor, and use

Modern patent records often separate inventor, employer, assignee, licensee, and beneficiary. CultureUp keeps those categories apart instead of treating a patent as proof of ownership, wealth, adoption, or public impact.

What the record cannot prove

The patent record does not by itself prove full biography, race, ancestry, Indigenous Black identity, commercialization, institutional adoption, economic benefit, modern product lineage, or community memory.

Identity and correction note

CultureUp treats this as Black American patent memory only through public, reviewable sources. The page does not certify ancestry, descent, tribe, nationality, family history, or private identity.

Send stronger patent images, assignment records, employer records, licensing documents, public biographies, or source corrections through CultureUp's correction path.

Patent records do not prove final rank, private identity, solo credit when co-inventors appear, employment ownership, commercialization, adoption, or later public impact.

Indexable as a source-led Sprint 5 profile with visible source limits.

Employer, assignee, and inventor status are not interchangeable. CultureUp names assignees when the patent record does.

Do not use this page to make absolute first, ownership, adoption, or commercialization claims without a separate source trail.

Patent records

Grant trail

Grant rank and unique-holder rank are shown separately so repeat patentees do not distort the chronological sequence.

modern_systems_candidateSprint priority 9Not public rankutility patentmedium high

4229761: Illusion Transmitter

Valerie L. Thomas / 1980-10-21

Sprint 5 modern systems candidate. The patent row supports the illusion-transmitter record; later NASA and medical visualization claims need separate sources.

Residence: Silver Spring, Maryland
Category: optical systems / image transmission
Source status: medium high
Chronology handling: modern_systems_candidate
Cluster: Electronics, audio, and space systems
Primary sources: 2 mapped

Source trail

Claims stay tied to source limits.

Electronics, audio, and space systems

Sources for precision electronics, microphones, imaging, optical transmission, detector systems, and science instruments.

patent text mirroroptical transmission patent-record candidate

US4229761A - Illusion Transmitter

Google Patents / 1980 patent record

Supports: Shows Valerie L. Thomas as inventor on an illusion transmitter patent published October 21, 1980.
Limit: The patent record verifies invention data and issue date. It does not by itself prove full identity, NASA career context, later use cases, commercialization, public memory, or economic benefit.
Last checked: 2026-06-09
Source URL: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4229761A/en

Public memory

Objects, museums, and public interpretation records that help readers see how an invention remains visible.

public inventor profilepublic inventor context

Valerie Thomas

Lemelson-MIT / current public profile

Supports: Identifies Thomas with the illusion transmitter and her 1980 patent.
Limit: Does not by itself prove every later NASA, medical, television, or commercialization use case.
Last checked: 2026-06-09
Source URL: https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/valerie-thomas