Theodore George "Ted" Paraskevakos (; born March 25, 1937, in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

) is a Greek-American inventor and businessman. Paraskevakos graduated from the Superior College of Electronics in Greece and served for 28 months as communications and electronics instructor in the

Hellenic Air Force The Hellenic Air Force (HAF; , sometimes abbreviated as ΠΑ) is the air force of Greece (''Hellenic'' being the endonym for ''Greek'' in the Greek language). It is considered to be one of the largest air forces in NATO, and is globally placed 1 ...

. He attended a variety of courses for digital engineering in

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

and in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Notable inventions

Paraskevakos' most notable inventions relate to the transmission of electronic data through telephone lines which formed the original basis for what is now known as

caller ID Caller identification (Caller ID) is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call is ...

. Paraskevakos began his work in this field in 1968 while working as a communications engineer with

SITA Sita (; ), also known as Siya, Jānaki and Maithili, is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. Sita is the consort of Rama, the avatar of god Vishnu, and is regarded as an avatar of goddess Lakshmi. She is t ...

and has since been issued over 20

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

worldwide based on this

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

. His

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

and receiver were put into practice in 1971 in a

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

facility in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...

Patents

Paraskevakos holds over 50 patents worldwide including a digital alarm communication system, which also covered handheld or portable cardiac alarms

automatic meter reading Automatic meter reading (AMR) is the technology of automatically collecting consumption, diagnostic, and status data from water meter or energy metering devices (gas, electric) and transferring that data to a central database for billing, trouble ...

and

load management Load management, also known as demand-side management (DSM), is the process of Load balancing (electrical power), balancing the supply of electricity on the network with the electrical load by adjusting or controlling the load rather than the pow ...

, digital vending machine communications, indoor archery, vertical parking, intelligent currency validation network, and a method for identification of currency used in unlawful activity. He founded, among other companies, Metretek, Inc., DataVend, Inc. and Intelligent Currency Validation Network, Inc.

References

External links

Theodore G. Paraskevakos Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications, JUSTIA PatentsPatent for Apparatus for generating and transmitting digital informationPatent for Decoding and display apparatus for groups of pulse trainsPatent for Sensor monitoring devicePatent for Archery/practice exercise device and attachments thereforPatent for Apparatus and method for remote sensor monitoring, metering and controlPatent for Vending machine and method for automatic vending and returning of merchandise, particularly video cassette tapes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paraskevakos, Theodore 1937 births Living people Greek inventors Businesspeople from Athens