Digital Commons Network^™

Extracting And Displaying Information From Screenshots, Matthew Sharifi

Defensive Publications Series

Users often capture and share app screenshots over communication channels such as instant messaging and email. Although a convenient mechanism for the sender, sharing screenshots can be inconvenient for recipients. This is because screenshot information is typically not readily visible in its low-resolution or small version, so that the recipient needs to tap the screen to expand it. Even when expanded, the information in the screenshot is not actionable, e.g., it is not in text format, nor can it be easily copy-pasted. This disclosure describes techniques that automatically extract and display information from screenshots such that relevant information is available …

Processing And Delivering Security Signals From Guests To Hosts In Virtualized Environments, Michael Halcrow, Thomas Garnier, Brandon Baker, Eric Biggers, Maya Kaczorowski, Hovik Manucharyan, Konstantin Stepanyuk

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes techniques that leverage memory organization in virtual machines and their hosts to emplace code that protects against malware. Malware detection instrumentation is emplaced in guest kernel space, which is relatively privileged and better protected than other guest memory spaces. Malware behavioral analysis logic, which classifies a guest process as benign or malign, is emplaced in host ring 3 space, to take advantage of the virtualization boundary.

Even if unaffected by the attack, the protected kernel may still not be able to quickly communicate knowledge of the attack to the malware behavioral analysis logic, which resides in the …

Automatic Generation Of Event-Related Checklists, Matthew Sharifi, Wolfgang Haas

Defensive Publications Series

Virtual assistants provide notifications and reminders of upcoming calendar events to users. This disclosure describes the automatic generation of a checklist associated with an upcoming event that is provided to a user. The checklist includes items associated with the event to be carried to the event by the user. The checklist can also include tasks to be performed by the user prior to the event. A machine learned model that is trained to associate event types with items/tasks is utilized to generate the checklist. If the user permits, items mentioned in event related user communications are also included in the …

Automatic Network Device Identification Using Identifiers Of Contacted Servers, Jan Kohout

Defensive Publications Series

This proposal provides techniques for a system to identify network devices (e.g., classify their types, operating system families, etc.) based on information associated with contacted servers. In some implementations, the system may be designed to include an auto-update mechanism that enables the system to adapt to changing behavior of devices automatically. Thus, only initial labeled seeds may be needed to initialize the system, which may then automatically adapt itself without manual retraining.

Installing (Flashing) Software On Vehicles By Drone, Verena Blunder

Defensive Publications Series

No abstract provided.

Adaptive User Interface For A Camera Aperture Within An Active Display Area, Michael J. Lombardi, David K. Lim, Joseph L. Allore

Defensive Publications Series

This publication describes systems and techniques to account for an active display area around a camera aperture in a “hole-punch” style display of an electronic device to reduce a light-leaking effect caused by pixels surrounding the camera aperture. Illuminated pixels that are proximate to the camera aperture can degrade a quality of an image captured by a camera sensor by preventing the sensor from properly detecting light from a targeted image, such as a user’s face. To counteract this image degradation, techniques described herein override the illumination control for pixels surrounding the hole in the display. For example, responsive to …

Enhancing Image Quality Of Photographs Taken By Portable Devices By Matching Images To High Quality Reference Images Using Machine Learning And Camera Orientation And Other Image Metadata, Yen-Cheng Chen

Defensive Publications Series

This publication describes systems and techniques to enhance an image quality of a photograph taken by a portable device using a collection of images to find a replacement object. Although the intrinsic image quality of photographs taken by portable devices, such as a smartphone, continues to improve, many pictures still lack detail or have blurriness. Consequently, a photograph, or “original image,” can include an object having a poor quality, such as blurriness or an inaccurate reproduction of a texture. To enhance the original image, a machine-learned model detects in the original image the object having poor quality. A collection of …

Rapid Troubleshooting And Management Of A Network Using A Chatbot, N/A

Defensive Publications Series

Managing a large and complex network is currently tedious and error-prone: administrators log in via lengthy authentication processes; look up and access a diversity of network devices, services, tools and other entities with differing communication protocols; issue relatively obscure, device-specific commands; etc. These problems of network management become especially manifest while troubleshooting critical issues under time constraints. This disclosure describes a fast, simple, and unified approach to network management via a chat interface. At the back end of the chat interface is a bot that is in communication with a variety of network entities in their native protocols. The bot …

Utilizing Supported Band Grouping And Display Of Partial Search Results To Expedite Manual Plmn Selection Procedure, Rayson Chou, Rukun Mao, Taylor Lo

Defensive Publications Series

This publication describes techniques and apparatuses that expedite the procedure for manual (“on-demand”) Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) selection by a user using a user equipment (UE). To create a PLMN search priority when performing a manual PLMN selection procedure, the process is divided into a system information database (SI DB), a mobile country code database (MCC DB), and a Remainder database (Remainder DB). The SI DB includes a predefined number (e.g., ten) of the last absolute radio-frequency channel numbers (ARFCN) acquired on each radio access technology (RAT). The MCC DB is a band of frequencies identifying the PLMN location …

Detection Of Salient Video Segments And Associated Comments Via Reinforcement Learning, Aditya Shah, Jared M. Zimmerman

Defensive Publications Series

The application of computer vision and techniques that rely on machine intelligence has improved automated determination of notable segments within video content. However, further refinement in these techniques can improve the quality and accuracy of the marked segments. Also, it can be difficult for automated techniques to surface the most notable text comments associated with video content. This disclosure describes techniques that combines initial independent automated determination of notable video segments and text comments to refine and improve each aspect based on the other. The techniques leverage audience engagement with live and pre-recorded video content as captured via user comments …

Automatic Identification Of Spoken Language In Audio Clips, Omar Abdelaziz, Alex Greaves

Defensive Publications Series

Audio transcription systems typically require that the language being spoken be specified explicitly such that a language-specific transcription technique can be employed. In cases where the spoken language is not explicitly indicated, a possible approach is to process the audio via all available transcription techniques and choose the transcription associated with the highest confidence. Such an approach does not scale to support a large number of natural languages and is computationally expensive. This disclosure describes automatic identification of the natural language being spoken in audio input. The audio is processed using a trained machine learning model to output a language …

Web Browser With Expandable Bar To Display A Timeline User Interface, Kerstin Kuehne, Melinda Klayman, Lauren Norrie

Defensive Publications Series

Users are often simultaneously engaged in a variety of online activities, requiring frequent switching between web pages, e.g., displayed in different tabs of a web browser application. Finding and navigating to a page from historical records can be slow and cumbersome, and it is not always possible to display pages in tabs when screen real estate is limited, e.g., when viewing web pages on a mobile device. Moreover, information on resources saved for later use is still present within the history and tab mechanisms, thus cluttering the user interface and making it more difficult to find the page of interest. …

Enhancing Point-To-Point Performance In Low-Power And Lossy Networks Based On Group Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector And Projected Destination Advertisement Object, Wenjia Wu, Ling Wei, Huimin She, Chuanwei Li

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques are described herein for enhancing the performance of Point-to-Point (P2P) performance in Low-power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) based on Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) and Projected Destination Advertisement Object (P-DAO). These techniques may restrict the flooding range of AODV and reduce the computational complexity of P-DAO.

Verifying Read-Only Firmware For Open-Box Returns, Randall Spangler

Defensive Publications Series

A customer who returns a laptop or other electronic device to a retailer may, for benign or malign reasons, have changed its firmware. The retailer typically certifies the laptop for resale as refurbished equipment by sending it to the factory to verify its firmware. This is a time-consuming and expensive process. The techniques of this disclosure leverage an on-board security chip to verify the firmware at the location of the retailer itself. Shipping of the electronic device from retailer to factory is obviated, saving time and cost.

Public Key Based Addressing Using Distributed Ledger Systems, Jeff Venable, Ralf Rantzau, Alok Nikhil, Ijsbrand Wijnands, Greg Shepherd

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques described herein provide innovation directed to directing traffic through a distributed network. Packets can be at a first node that is directed to a recipient in which a location of the recipient is unknown. The recipient can be determined to be a member of the distributed network based on information within a distributed ledger stored locally on the first node. The location of the recipient can be determined to be within a geographical region based on a transaction recorded by the distributed ledger. Based on determining that a second node is within the geographical region, a tunnel can be …

Ad-Hoc N-Tier Global Overlay Using Distributed Ledger Systems, Jeff Venable, Ralf Rantzau, Alok Nikhil, Ijsbrand Wijnands, Greg Shepherd

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques described herein provide innovation directed to directing traffic through a distributed network. Packets can be received at a first node that is directed to a recipient in which a location of the recipient is unknown and the first node is within a first tier covering a first geographical region. The recipient of the packets can be determined to be a member of the distributed network based on information within a distributed ledger stored locally on the first node. The location can be determined to be within a second geographical region that is smaller than the first geographical region based …

Onion Routing For Obfuscating Traffic Using Distributed Ledger Systems, Jeff Venable, Ralf Rantzau, Alok Nikhil, Ijsbrand Wijnands, Greg Shepherd

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques described herein provide innovation directed to directing traffic through a distributed network. Packets can be received at a first node that is directed to a recipient in which the location of the recipient is unknown. The recipient can be determined to be a member of the distributed network based on information within a distributed ledger stored locally on the first node. The location can be determined to be within a geographical region based on a transaction recorded by the distributed ledger. The direction of the packets can be obfuscated based on determining that a second node is outside the …

Group Addressing Using Distributed Ledger Systems, Jeff Venable, Ralf Rantzau, Alok Nikhil, Ijsbrand Wijnands, Greg Shepherd

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques described herein provide innovation directed to directing traffic through a distributed network. Packets can be received at a first node that is directed to a group of recipients in which a location of each recipient of the group is unknown and the first node is within a first geographical region. Each recipient of the group can be determined to be a member of the distributed network based on information within a distributed ledger stored locally on the first node. The location of a recipient of the group can be determined to be within a second geographical region that is …

Automatic Selection Of Preferred Images, Lachlan “Locke” Dunn, Daniel Citron

Defensive Publications Series

Image-hosting services and camera apps can select images for highlighting or as the best shot from a burst of shots based on criteria such as lighting conditions, blur (or lack thereof), whether people in the image are smiling, whether their eyes are open, etc. However, the selection of images is not based on user preferences, e.g., that indicate whether a user likes or dislikes an image. This disclosure describes techniques that enable a user to specify examples of favorite images. With user permission, examples provided by the user are used to surface similar images, e.g., images that match the user’s …

Predicted Application Preload Based On Context, Collin Irwin, Rachel Hausmann, Joe Rothlin

Defensive Publications Series

A computing device (e.g., a mobile phone, camera, tablet computer, etc.) uses an application preload prediction model (e.g., an artificial intelligence model) for preloading an application. The computing device may execute an application that employs a user interface to facilitate human-machine interaction. The computing device may collect contextual user data and use a prediction model (e.g., an application preload prediction module) to analyze the collected contextual data to determine and predict an application to preload in background mode even with the computing device’s screen locked. For example, a user device (e.g. mobile phone) with a touch screen predicts a user’s …

Interconnect Adapter For Rj45 Interface, N/A

Defensive Publications Series

Equipment, e.g., backup batteries, within a data center is connected to ethernet cables for the purposes of communication or monitoring. When equipment is installed into or removed from a rack of the data center, the ethernet cable needs to be manually connected or disconnected from its RJ45 socket. The presence of the ethernet cable, connected via RJ45 interface, makes equipment installation or removal a relatively slow, manual process. This disclosure describes two types of adapters - a springboard adapter and a flat-pack adapter - for RJ45 interfaces. The adapters enable automatic making or breaking of the ethernet connection when equipment …

Time Deadline For Modem Mitigation Actions In Regards To Thermal Mitigation, Blake Kragten, Siddharth Ray

Defensive Publications Series

This publication describes techniques for dynamic mitigation actions performed by a modem in response to a thermal situation. Dynamic mitigation actions can be completed by a modem after it receives a deadline time calculated by a caller (e.g., Application Programming Interface (API)) of the modem based on the thermal situation. The deadline time will represent how long the modem has to fully complete one or more mitigation action(s). The modem can decide the mitigation action timeline based off of the deadline time to allow for a better user experience. For example, if it is determined that the thermal situation is …

Intent-Based Ad-Hoc Network Meshes Using Distributed Ledger Systems, Jeff Venable, Ralf Rantzau, Alok Nikhil, Ijsbrand Wijnands, Greg Shepherd

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques described herein provide innovation directed to forming a temporary, ad hoc network. A first node can receive a request to initiate an ad hoc distributed network with at least a second node. A connection with the second node can be initiated based on a determination that the second node is an authorized member of the ad hoc distributed network in which the determination is based on fulfilling a condition within a smart contract that manages membership. Packets received at the first node that are directed to the second node can be sent from the first node to the second …

Dynamic Genesis And Cold Death Of Distributed Ledger Systems, Jeff Venable, Ralf Rantzau, Alok Nikhil

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques described herein provide innovation directed to forming a temporary, ad hoc network. A first node can receive a request to initiate an ad hoc distributed network with at least a second node. A connection with the second node can be initiated based on a determination that the second node is an authorized member of the ad hoc distributed network in which the determination is based on fulfilling a condition within a smart contract that manages membership. A tunnel can be generated from the first node to the second node to send packets to the second node. Based on an …

Supply Chain Device Provenance, Jeff Venable, Ralf Rantzau, Alok Nikhil

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques described herein provide innovation directed to authenticating a device. An intrinsic attribute of the device can be received. The intrinsic attribute is a unique attribute that can be measured from the device. The device can be identified by looking up the intrinsic attribute in a distributed database. A match can be determined between the intrinsic attribute and a stored intrinsic attribute in the distributed database. If there is a match, the device is confirmed as authentic. Previously available blockchain systems do not employ abilities to track products beyond mere custody information.

Hop-By-Hop Authentication Routing Using Distributed Ledger Systems, Jeff Venable, Ralf Rantzau, Alok Nikhil, Ijsbrand Wijnands, Greg Shepherd

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques described herein provide innovation directed to directing traffic through a distributed network. Packets can be received at a first node that is directed to a second node at a next hop. The second node can be determined to be a member of the distributed network based on information within a distributed ledger stored locally on the first node in which the second node is a member based on fulfilling a condition within a smart contract that manages membership. A one-time session symmetric key can be generated for the packets in which the packets are encrypted based on a distributed …

Contextual Recipe Recommendations, William Li, Amit Gera

Defensive Publications Series

Online services provide recipe recommendations to users on a variety of endpoint devices. When recipe recommendations are provided based on a user’s long-term preferences, such recommendations may not be best suited to the user’s current context. This disclosure describes techniques to provide context-aware recipe recommendations when users provide permission to determine the context. Context determination can include, e.g., analysis of recent user queries to a virtual assistant or a search engine to identify triggering queries that are associated with food. A machine learning model is used to map queries to user intent. Recipes associated with the determined user intent are …

Quick Wireless Local Area Network Rate Control, Nihar Jindal, Sriram Sundararajan

Defensive Publications Series

This publication describes techniques for determining a data rate at which an electronic device on a wireless local area network should transmit to another wireless local area network device. The electronic device conducts a data rate search by transmitting multiple short packets, or probes, each at a different rate over a trial period to determine a data rate for future transmissions. The packets are transmitted one after the other to the access point and may or may not carry meaningful data. The data rate search can be further informed by a transmission history of the electronic device, smart search algorithms, …

Automatic Content Filtering In Virtual Assistants For Kids, Yuzhao Ni

Defensive Publications Series

Virtual assistant responses need to be both useful and safe for kids and families. However, this is currently not always the case. For example, virtual assistant responses can sometimes unexpectedly include explicit answers or answers that are otherwise unsuitable for kids. However, restricting searches can prevent the virtual assistant from surfacing useful, family-safe responses. There is no systematic way to filter non-textual media content, e.g., music, video, etc. Per the techniques of this disclosure, a library of content classifiers is provided that filters out various categories of content inappropriate for children, e.g., explicit content, violent content, etc. A query to …

Interactive Learning Mode For Delivery Of User Interface Multimedia Guidance, Alena Fong, Nik Hanselmann

Defensive Publications Series

Many users do not fully understand the functions of various user interface (UI) elements they see on their device screens. Traditional computers provide contextual information about UI elements in the form of a tooltip, e.g., that appears upon the user hovering the mouse pointer over a specific UI element. However, such a mechanism is absent in devices such as smartphones, tablets, etc. that rely on touch input screens without the use of a traditional mouse or other input mechanisms. This disclosure describes mechanisms that enable a user to seek and obtain interactive multimedia guidance about any user interface presented on …