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Robert H. Rines, a lawyer, composer, inventor and physicist whose discoveries led to sharper resolution in radar, sonar and ultrasound imaging – and who claimed to have seen the Loch Ness Monster – died of heart failure at his home in Boston on Sunday.

Prof. Rines invented prototype radar and sonar technology that was later also incorporated in ultrasound imaging of internal organs. He donated the radar patent to the U.S. government and gave the imaging patent to the rest of the world to use for free, said his wife, Joanne Hayes-Rines.

He held more than 80 patents. The radar technology patent – developed while he was a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's radiation laboratory and honed while serving as a U.S. Signal Corps officer during the Second World War – formed the underlying technology used to guide Patriot missiles during the 1991 Gulf War and produce early warning missile-detection systems and other sophisticated military hardware.

He also wrote music for more than 10 Broadway and off-Broadway productions and shared an Emmy for his work on a piece about former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

Born in Boston, Prof. Rines graduated from MIT and received a law degree from Georgetown. He completed a doctorate thesis at National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan.

He is the founder of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire, known for its intellectual property law program, and the Academy of Applied Science, a non-profit group that promotes creativity and interest in science.

He used some of his inventions in attempts to prove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, and claimed to have seen Nessie in 1971.

“You don't get into this passion of trying to find Nessie if you haven't seen it, and he did see it with his late wife, Carol, and two friends,” Ms. Hayes-Rines said.

The encounter enticed Prof. Rines to go back to the Scottish lake every few years, hoping to use better imaging and tracking technology to capture sharper images of the animal. He previously said it looked like a plesiosaur, a dinosaur that lived under water millions of years ago.

“It was maybe 45 feet (14 metres) in length with a neck 4 or 5 feet (1.2 or 1.5 metres) long, according to eyewitness accounts,” he once said.

Prof. Rines taught for more than 50 years at MIT, focusing on invention, patents and innovation before retiring in May, 2008. He also has been the Gordon McKay Lecturer on Patent Law at Harvard University.

He was motivated by a determination to find creative solution to problems.

“He just thought of things that nobody ever thought of, he just thought there was nothing you couldn't do if you think about it and you wanted to do it, just figure out how to get it done,” Ms. Hayes-Rines said.

In 1985, researchers used underwater vessels that used sonar technology developed by Prof. Rines to find the Titanic, which sank in more than 3,780 metres of water in 1912. The systems were used to find the wreck of the German battleship Bismarck, which was sunk during the Second World War.

Prof. Rines' inventions also became key parts of long-range navigation systems, in which sea vessels and aircraft are located by determining the time difference between pulsed radio transmissions from two stations.

He was inducted into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame and the U.S. Army Signal Regiment, as a distinguished member. His underwater photographs of Loch Ness hang in the American Inventors Hall of Fame along with a painting of how he imagined Nessie might look.

He leaves his wife, two sons, a daughter and stepdaughter.