Digital Commons Network^™

A More Secure Design To Store And Access Sensitive Pictures Taken By A Smartphone, Hp Inc

Defensive Publications Series

From time to time we hear of disasters of people accidentally leaking their

sensitive pictures. It's surprising that users take so many digital pictures today but

smartphone makers still store pictures in such an easy‐to‐access way. A design is

proposed to automatically encrypt sensitive pictures and apply a strict authorization

when accessing them.

Software To Automate Wifi Network Deployments, N/A

Defensive Publications Series

The technology relates to a vendor-neutral frontend for configuring and monitoring mobility solutions. Through the vendor-neutral frontend, a heatmap for a premise may be used/optimized, which may include a plurality of access points at various locations on the premise. Hardware-specific information on the mobility access points to be deployed may also be gathered through the vendor-neutral frontend. Based on the heatmap and the hardware-specific information, vendor-neutral configurations may be generated, and pushed to the mobility access points to create an operating network. Once the network is operational, the frontend may be used to monitor telemetry data from the mobility access …

Triggering An Accessibility Mode On A Mobile Device Through User Input To A Fingerprint Sensor, Yun Sun Lee, Luke Brantingham, Aaditya Kandibanda, Kavinaath Murugan

Defensive Publications Series

This publication describes techniques for triggering an accessibility mode (e.g., one-handed mode) on a mobile device using a fingerprint sensor located on the back of the mobile device. In described techniques, a user provides input to the fingerprint sensor to trigger the accessibility mode, for example, by swiping the index finger of the user diagonally across the fingerprint sensor. Upon triggering the accessibility mode, one or more aspects of the graphical user interface of the display screen are resized and/or located to a position more accessible to the thumb of the user’s hand that is holding the mobile device, enabling …

Self-Optimizing Geofence For Opportunistic Wireless Networks, Shivank Nayak, Sooraj Sasindran

Defensive Publications Series

A method is provided for optimizing a geofence boundary in order to reduce the amount of time between a mobile device entering the geofence and the mobile device connecting to the network. Optimizing a geofence boundary can also reduce battery power used by the mobile device in scanning for network coverage. Once a mobile device is within an area that is covered by a cellular network and has connected to the network, an algorithm is employed that adjusts an edge of a geofence that encompasses some or all of the cellular coverage area. The algorithm moves the edge of the …

5g Component Carrier Disabling Based On Downlink And Uplink Grant Characteristics, Jibing Wang, Shivank Nayak, Qin Zhang, Siddharth Ray, Madhu Venkata

Defensive Publications Series

5G networks allow a user equipment (UE) such as a smartphone to connect to the network via different component carriers, but this can undesirably increase UE power consumption. To reduce power consumption, the UE selectively turns off 5G for individual component frequencies based on the available resources and slots associated with each component frequency. The UE detects the downlink and uplink resource blocks and slots for each component frequency, and if the resource blocks or slots are below corresponding thresholds, turns off 5G for the carrier.

Delivering Audio Responses At Contextually Appropriate Volume Level, Matthew Sharifi, Victor Carbune

Defensive Publications Series

Devices such as smartphones, smart speakers, etc. provide spoken responses to user queries using Text-To-Speech (TTS) technologies that convert textual information to spoken audio. In some cases, the volume at which the audio response is delivered by the device can be unsuitable, e.g., too soft or too loud for the user’s environment. This disclosure describes techniques to automatically adjust the volume of audio responses based on contextual information, obtained with the user’s permission. If the user permits, the volume level of the response is determined based on the distance of the user from the device and characteristics of the user’s …

Enable And Disable 5g Based On Application Identifier, Jibing Wang, Shivank Nayak, Qin Zhang, Siddharth Ray, Madhu Venkata

Defensive Publications Series

A communication device, otherwise known as a user equipment (UE) (e.g., a smartphone) may be configured to support various radio access technologies, which may include fourth generation (4G) such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), as well as fifth generation (5G) New Radio (NR) (e.g., millimeter wave (mmW)). The UE may be configured to support various types of applications (e.g., social media applications, video streaming applications, and the like) using one or more radio access technologies (e.g., 4G or 5G). As demand for efficiency increases, it may be desirable to reduce power consumption for the UE (e.g., increase battery …

Handling Reject Cause On Roaming Network, Poying Chuang, Arthur Huang

Defensive Publications Series

A wireless multiple-access communications system may provide various types of wireless communication content such as voice, video, messaging, etc. The wireless multiple-access communications system may be a public land mobile network (PLMN). The PLMN may support various radio access technologies (RATs), for example, fourth generation (4G), such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) or LTE-A Pro system. The PLMN may also include network devices, such as a mobility management entity (MME), a serving gateway, a packet data network, etc. Each of these network devices may support communication for a communication device, which may be otherwise known as a user equipment …

Dynamic And Interactive Wireless Local Area Network Onboarding, Steven Liu, Ning Zhang

Defensive Publications Series

A system for providing a dynamic and interactive wireless local area network access to guest users (i.e., onboarding) may include at least a network authenticator (or host device), a network access requestor (or guest device), and an access point. A request to access the wireless network by a guest device is received by the access point. The access point prompts the guest device to provide identifying information (e.g., passcode, username, key, pin, etc.) which is then routed to the network authenticator. The network authenticator either rejects the request or approves the request and establishes a connection policy for the guest …

Audiovisual Transcriptions For Input Verification Of Voice Queries, Matthew Sharifi, Victor Carbune

Defensive Publications Series

Speech interfaces provide a natural and accessible mechanism allowing users that cannot read to interact with computing devices to perform information-centric tasks. To verify that a spoken query has been understood correctly, devices such as smart displays, smartphones, etc. show users a streaming transcription of the spoken query, obtained using a speech recognition engine. However, text transcription based input verification is not usable by those who cannot read. The techniques described in this disclosure generate and provide an audiovisual transcription of the user’s speech input during and/or after the input, enabling users to verify that the speech input was understood …

Content Augmentation Via Web Search For Related Information, Matthew Sharifi, Victor Carbune

Defensive Publications Series

When consuming online content, users can issue voice queries such as requests to read the content aloud, questions regarding the content, or requests for relevant related information from additional sources. This disclosure describes techniques to utilize web search to provide responses to such queries related to online content that the user is currently viewing. Supplementary information that is responsive to the user request is retrieved and is displayed together with the source article, e.g., alongside the article content.

Supervised Guest Browser Access To Spaces And Meetings, Owen Friel, Ollie Fagan, John Costello

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques are described for a browser authorization flow to enable guest onboarding and authorized access to a service. These techniques allow authorized users to create persistent guest accounts by simply scanning a code rendered on a guest browser. There is no need for the guest user to install an application on their smartphone (or even to have a smartphone), to have access to their email, or to click on any email verification links.

Optimizing Power Consumption For Mobile User Equipment, Shivank Nayak, Siddharth Ray, Qin Zhang, Madhu Venkata, Jibing Wang

Defensive Publications Series

A mobile user equipment selectively enables access to cells based on its mobility state and velocity, as well as the size of the cells. Power consumption and other resources consumed during handoff of mobile user equipment are optimized by determining whether to enable connection to cells based on how long the mobile user equipment is expected to spend in the cells. Geo-fences are used to mark the boundaries of the cells and the mobile user equipment accesses geo-fence information to determine boundaries of the cells. The time the mobile user equipment is likely to spend in the cell is estimated …

Application-Based Beam Selection For Uplink-Downlink Imbalance, Madhu Venkata

Defensive Publications Series

Form factor limitations and power constraints in user equipment such as a millimeter wave user equipment lead to link imbalances between uplink beams generated by the user equipment and downlink beams generated by network base stations. For example, the number of antenna elements in a user equipment is typically lower than the number of antenna elements in a base station, which results in an uplink beam range that is smaller than a downlink beam range. The user equipment can therefore detect the base station and nevertheless be unable to establish an uplink connection to the base station, e.g., via …

5g Dl Out-Of-Order Delivery, Todd Ou, Maciej Żenczykowski, Qin Zhang, Yu Wang, Yu-Cheng Chen

Defensive Publications Series

Fifth Generation (5G) networks implement packet re-reordering functionality at the New Radio Packet Data Convergence Protocol (NR-PDCP) layer, mitigating packet transmission issues, but potentially introducing undesirable delays in transmitting downlink packets to an access point. By introducing logistics to manage packet reordering, the transmission delays are reduced. For example, metadata is added to transmitted packets to assist the network stack at the access point in processing packets received out of order, allowing the packets to be provided to the stack relatively quickly.

Dynamically Switching Bluetooth Codec Based On Link Quality, Ray Kuo

Defensive Publications Series

A smartphone using a Bluetooth audio interface can select one of a plurality of available encoder/decoders, or codecs, to process audio data. Based on changes in one or more link quality characteristics, such as signal strength or a number of retransmissions, the smartphone automatically and dynamically changes the codec employed by the audio interface. The smartphone thereby increases the link quality, thereby improving the user experience.

Data Continuity During An Ongoing Priority Data Call Activity, Mahesh Telang, Shivank Nayak, Qin Zhang

Defensive Publications Series

Historically, voice calls were handled using circuit-switched sessions and data transfer was conventionally handled using packet-switched communication. However, increases in the speed and bandwidth of wireless communication systems have enabled packet-based applications to provide voice, video, and emergency calls. Interruptions in the packet-switched data transmission for voice, video, and emergency calls supported by protocols such as voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) are reduced or eliminated by differentiating between data calls and other data operations. Activities that cause data disruption during the data calls are then avoided or bypassed for these calls.

Link Convergence Improvement In Radio-Aware Routing, Shruthi Venkatesh, Eric Nguyen, Ibrahim Mortada

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques are described herein to reduce link flapping scenarios in existing Radio-Aware Routing (RAR) technology, on both the server side and the client side. Existing techniques provide no mechanism to prioritize vendor-based or reliable/preferred clients. In particular, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol and/or Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) often initiate a call based on link quality and other metrics at that moment in time, which may lead to constant link/session flapping. This is due to the limited set of link characteristics relied upon by existing techniques for computing session establishment to a Dynamic Link Exchange Routing (DLEP) client. …

Plumbing Line Freeze Protection, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

Disclosed is an electronically controlled plumbing fixture comprising an electronic valve, temperature sensor, and processor. The system is capable of measuring and predicting the temperature of a fluid in a plumbing line and opening the electronic valve and allowing the fluid to flow within the plumbing line when the system determines that the fluid may freeze and cause an issue in the plumbing line.

Plumbing Fixture Safety Modes, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

Disclosed is a plumbing fixture capable of changing states depending on an input from a user. The fixture is capable of setting a first state of use and a second state of use being different from the first state and when a user requests the state to change, the fixture limits the maximum temperature output of a fluid. Additional, a purging system is described where when the system is used above a threshold, the system purges with cold water when deactivation is requested to ensure extremely hot water is not present in the fixture body.

Integrated Collection And Presentation Of Audience Engagement For Shared Photos, Victor Carbune, Sandro Feuz

Defensive Publications Series

Users commonly share photos from their photo gallery application with others via social media applications, messaging platforms, email, etc. Many such applications and services allow viewers to interact with the shared photos by providing tags, comments, emojis, etc. Monitoring engagement with a shared photo requires the user to interact separately with the notifications from each app and toggle between various apps and services where the photo was shared.

This disclosure describes mechanisms to automatically determine audience interaction that occurs in response to the shared photos across multiple apps and services, implemented with user permission. When the user views the original …

Enabling Calls To Public Contacts Via Smart Devices, Allen Ni

Defensive Publications Series

Devices with support for virtual assistants, such as smart displays, smart speakers, etc. include features that enable users to place audio or video calls to their contacts. The calling features are restricted to the user that is logged in to the device, since contacts are private to the user. This disclosure describes techniques to enable other users to place calls. A user, such as a device owner, can configure their address book to mark a subset of their contacts as public contacts. Public contacts are accessible to other users, who can then place calls to such contacts.

Video Identification Based On Video Snippet Fingerprinting, Roman Vorushin, Filip Pavetić

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes techniques that enable a user to identify a video or a movie by capturing a video snippet of a screen on which the video or movie is being displayed with a camera, e.g., a smartphone or other camera. The captured video snippet is cropped to the content of the screen. An embedding (fingerprint) is generated for the video and is matched to stored embeddings of video content to identify the video or the movie. Information regarding the identified movie, e.g., options to purchase or stream the movie, read reviews, etc. are provided to the user.

Shared On-Device And Server-Based Machine Learning Evaluation, Jorim Jaggi, Yannick Stucki, Adrian Roos, Sandro Feuz

Defensive Publications Series

On-device machine learning models can provide inferences quickly; however, such models often have a large size and need to be downloaded to the device. In many domains, such as optical character recognition or translation, the nature of the problem necessitates that several on-device models be made available.

This disclosure describes techniques to split inference computation between the device and a remote server by leveraging the observation that many ML models have domain independent layers that are shared between multiple models and domain specific layers that are specific to individual models. Per techniques described herein, an available smallest intermediate representation from …

Contextual Haptics For Wearable Devices, Jianxun Wang, Debanjan Mukherjee, Chun Yat Frank Li, Andrew Viny, Haechang Lee

Defensive Publications Series

Haptic feedback is an important feature for wearable devices such as watches, fitness bands, etc. Current techniques to provide hardware feedback either cannot generate specially customized haptic feedback, or are limited to predefined haptic effects, and are limited by the battery and peak power draw available on a wearable device.

This document describes context-aware haptics that take into account the user state while using the wearable device. With permission from the user, the user state or activity, e.g., sitting, walking, running, etc. is detected by analyzing sensor readings from inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor(s) that are included in the wearable …

Ambient Hotword Detector To Facilitate Discovery And Use Of Relevant App Functions, Victor Carbune, Matthew Sharifi

Defensive Publications Series

Audio input and output is used in a wide variety of mobile applications that provide a visual user interface that enables users to provide input. Visual UI often includes a number of elements that may be difficult to discover or not immediately available to the user at a time when the user needs them.

This disclosure describes the use of a lightweight hotword detector to make relevant app UI elements easily distinguishable and discoverable at opportune times during voice calls and other interaction in which user-provided audio is available. User-facing visual UI elements within each app are tagged and associated …

Optimizing Wlan Access Point Scans For Voims, Chinmay Dhodapkar, Amruth Ramachandran

Defensive Publications Series

WLAN-to-WLAN handover decisions and WLAN-to-WWAN handover decisions for a portable user device conducting a VoIMS call typically are based on a scan list that lists identified WLAN APs and their detected signal quality characteristics. The conventional approach of periodically updating the scan list can result in an out-of-date listing of available WLAN APs and their signal quality characteristics, which can result in sub-optimal handover decisions and thus a sub-optimal voice call experience. The handover decision process is improved by using other triggers to initiate an updated WLAN AP scan, including using activation of a dialer GUI or other indication that …

Vehicle-To-Infrastructure Contextual Emergency Event Classification, Scoring, And Response, Purvesh Sane, Hazim Dahir

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques are described herein for precisely determining conditions of accident patients, including assessing severity, determining a best trauma center, and deciding the best route to take to the trauma center. Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) contextual emergency event classification, scoring, and response may be achieved by obtaining speech or video input provided by an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) operator and running the input through a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) (for speech input) and/or a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) (for video input) to convert the input into keywords. The keywords can be run through a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) to identify certain medical-specific keywords to …

Using Zero-Result Serps To Teach Users To Search, Sanjit Jhala, Reza Dorrigiv, Karen Lostritto, Krishnan Subramaniam, Rhut Vasavada

Defensive Publications Series

In certain locales, search-query diversity is poor despite substantial search traffic and/or rapid traffic growth. Consequently, in such locales, the full utility of a search engine remains unknown or unleveraged by the user base. This disclosure describes techniques to provide example search queries along with zero-result search engine result pages (SERPs). The example queries can include queries that are popular in the locale, queries that are contextually relevant to the user’s initial query, etc. The search examples provide user education for the use of a search engine and the possibilities of search, resulting in greater user engagement and retention.

Digital Installation Instructions With Embedded Flashlight Control, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

Disclosed is an application for a digital device capable of turning on an illumination source from within an application that provides instructions to the user on how to install a product. A flashlight icon is embedded in the application and accessible while a user is reading instruction within a dark location.