Digital Commons Network^™

Testing Code Using Synthetic Data, Dietmar Dorr, Abhayjeet Singh

Defensive Publications Series

Testing of software, e.g., regression testing, is often performed using test or mock accounts, rather than with production data. Use of data from real accounts can provide better testing compared with data from test or mock accounts. However, the use of production data is often not possible, e.g., due to risks of the exposure of personally identifiable information (PII). This disclosure describes techniques that enable software testing to be conducted with production data in a privacy-preserving manner.

Project Status Tracking Via Integrated Interface, Aaron Zemach, Katherine Meizner, Elliott Malkin, Paul Covell, Kate Schutzengel

Defensive Publications Series

A technique is proposed for assisting members of a project group in managing a project through a cloud-based content platform. A project synchronization service may detect an action associated with a project group has been performed using an applicable platform application. A status update reflecting the performed action may be generated. The status update may be published to a project feed, where the project feed is accessible to each user of the project group.

Detecting Spam Publishers By Serving Honeypot Ads, Walter Bogorad, Will Nelson, Daniel Summerhays

Defensive Publications Series

Click fraud, wherein bots or other unauthorized users click on ads to falsely inflate click-through rates, is a major problem in the online ad industry. This disclosure describes a type of ad, known as a honeypot ad, that is not particularly attractive to humans, but for bots is indistinguishable from a genuine ad. Publishers who employ bots to fraudulently inflate click-through rates, or to misrepresent the popularity of their app or website, are detected when the number of clicks on such honeypot ads are substantially larger than the number of clicks on genuine ads.

Explorative Dialogs And Open-Ended Conversations On Virtual Assistants, Allen Ni, Peng Yang

Defensive Publications Series

Virtual assistant responses are typically utilitarian in nature, e.g., answering a query, completing a pre-defined task, etc. However, a substantial amount of virtual assistant queries are exploratory in nature, e.g., they pertain to personality, knowledge, etc. An interactive dialog that enables extended conversation is suitable for such queries. This disclosure describes techniques that enable a virtual assistant to conduct an informational conversation or explore a knowledge domain with a user.

Monitoring And Reporting The Safety Performance Of Different Models And Versions Of Autonomous Vehicles, Jay Johnston, David White, Abdelmoniem Rezk, Magnus Mortensen

Defensive Publications Series

Presented herein are techniques that enable an administrative authority (e.g., city, municipality, etc.) to determine when a vehicle is under autonomous control, as well as to specifically determine the vendor and software version of the autonomous control system controlling the vehicle. If the vehicle has problems navigating the environment, the details of that problem are reported directly to the administrative authority. Any trending problems detected after a software update to the control systems can be proactively detected and reported to the vehicle vendor and upstream aggregation systems.

User-Tailored Language Training, Marcos Calvo Lance, Joan Pastor

Defensive Publications Series

Generally, the present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for language training. Language training can be tailored to a user’s skill level in the language. In particular, in some implementations, the systems and methods of the present disclosure can include or otherwise leverage one or more machine-learned models to learn a user’s skill level in a language based on user communications in the language. Additionally, the one or more machine-learned models can provide tailored exercises to a user based on one or more learning objectives associated with the user.

Dynamic Onboarding And Management Of Sophisticated Edge Clusters For Industrial Internet Of Things (Iot) Applications, Suresh Sankaran, Umang Tandon

Defensive Publications Series

Certain conventional compute solutions are restricted to resources present in the networking hardware (e.g., routers/switches). However, increasing numbers of edge compute workloads are demanding special requirements with Graphical processing unit (GPU)/tensor processing unit (TPU) support, various in-built Internet of Things (IoT) protocol requirements, high system resources, etc. The techniques presented herein address the market of those specialized edge compute workloads while also extending IoT container orchestration to off-the-shelf devices.

Estimation Of Network Link Capacity Using Particle Filtering, Sebastian Jansson

Defensive Publications Series

In real-time communications (RTC) over the internet (WebRTC), an optimal trade-off is sought between the quality and the latency of transmission. For example, a high-resolution video call requires a large throughput, which can cause congestion at network nodes, in turn resulting in unacceptable call delay. Current RTC protocols use congestion control mechanisms to try to achieve an acceptable quality-versus-latency trade-off. Under certain circumstances, these protocols are sensitive to delay spikes, compensate inadequately for large data packets, lack robustness in situations where media encoders over-produce data, and use test probes that often return inaccurate estimates of network capacity.

The techniques of …

Cloud Document Snooze To Future Date, Damon Seeley

Defensive Publications Series

A method for snoozing a cloud document to a later date and providing reminders to a user to take action on the document. The method allows a user to select an option to receive a reminder or notification to take action on a document at a later time. In addition, the user may select an option to be repeatedly reminded at intermittent intervals to take action on the document. The notifications may be provided with options for actions that the user can take, such as opening the document or deleting the document. The method may use a machine learning model …

Automatic Image Adjustment Based On User Edit History, Bailiang Zhou

Defensive Publications Series

Users have extensive collections of digital photographs and videos available for display on their devices. This disclosure describes techniques to, with user permission, perform automatic modifications and provide automatic suggestions of modifications to digital images in a user’s collection based on previous modifications to images performed by the user. With user permission, the automatic modifications are made to images that have particular characteristics, such as types of image content, similar to images previously edited by the user.

Travel Booking Tool With Integrated Event Information And Alerts, Molly Trainor Clancy

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes provision of information and alerts regarding concurrently scheduled events in a travel or activity planning tool. Event information is integrated with the planning tool and enables users to obtain information or receive alerts regarding events that are concurrent with user travel or activity dates. The planning tool utilizes databases that include information about special events, holidays, closures, etc. The planning tool can be accessed via a website, through a virtual assistant, as an application, etc. Alerts of related events are provided to the user at a time of searching for an activity, making a reservation, or at …

Transactional Billing Of 3d Printed Parts, Hp Inc

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure relates to the field of 3D printing, and in particular, to the approach of paying for

the operation of a 3D printer. As with any industrial machine, 3D printers require a variety of

consumable supplies and parts for printing. The cost of purchasing these supplies can be large

and calculating the cost of final parts based on the usage of these supplies can be difficult.

Structured Pmi Solution, Hp Inc

Defensive Publications Series

A platform providing a growing library of shape descriptors and their associated geometric dimensions

and tolerances and other desired properties along with intended post processing action descriptors that

the digital manufacturing industry may use to facilitate communication between various parties.

Measurements, Medications, And Symptoms Logging Using A Virtual Assistant, Aayush Kumar, Adriana Moisil, Yariv Adan, Andre Elisseeff, Matt Stokes, Sandro Montanari, Alexandru Grigoroi, Myroslava Dzikovska, Alexander Trewby, Joe Swainston

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes virtual assistant based techniques that, with user permission, log medications, symptoms, and measures of health. The techniques offer an easy mechanism for users to document their symptoms, vital signs, health data, etc. For example, a user simply speaks out their symptoms to their virtual assistant to create a log. Vital signs are automatically logged by the virtual assistant (with user permission) using, e.g., sensors and mobile/wearable devices. The techniques enable users to develop a personal health journal that frictionlessly logs activity, sleep, nutrition, heart rate, etc. When enabled, the virtual assistant reminds users of medications to be …

Universal Accessible Closed Captioning And Sign Language, Daniel V. Klein, Joey Gutierrez

Defensive Publications Series

Visual performances often include audio portions, including spoken words. The verbal content can be difficult to hear or otherwise understand for individuals that have hearing impairments or are not fluent in the language of the verbal content. This disclosure provides a solutions to make verbal content of visual performances accessible to audience members. The described assistive techniques utilize a smartphone to present to audience members, closed captions or American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters of the verbal content portion, simultaneously as the audience members view the performance. The translation can be presented as an overlay with a view of the performance …

System Identity With Intent To Mitigate Critical Part Replacement, Chirag Shroff

Defensive Publications Series

Presented herein is hardware fingerprinting technology that provides the ability to detect tampered hardware using a trust anchor. During manufacturing of networking equipment (e.g., routers, switches, etc.), a manufacturer fingerprints the critical hardware elements of a platform/system, such as Central Processing Units (CPUs) and/or Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). The fingerprint is stored in the tamper resistant trust anchor. This fingerprint is then examined at every power cycle (and possibly on-demand) to determine whether a critical component has been replaced.

Facilitating Antenna Switch Diversity For Dual-Connectivity Architectures, Vimalkaushik Natarajan, Eddie Burgess, John Daugherty

Defensive Publications Series

This publication describes systems and techniques to enable antenna switch diversity in dual-connectivity (DC) architectures without employing two switches along a main antenna path. DC can involve using two different wireless technologies, such as a first technology and a second technology. DC architectures include, for example, those that adhere to the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) – New Radio (NR) — Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) protocol. With EN-DC, Long-Term Evolution (LTE) connections under E-UTRA for a first technology are expected to abide by antenna switch diversity algorithms to provide access to each of the available antennas. Further, Fifth-Generation (5G) connections …

Linking Search Sessions For Query Processing And Result Presentation In Joint Search Tasks, Victor Cărbune, Sandro Feuz

Defensive Publications Series

There are several situations in which two or more users jointly search for online information. In such cases, typically the search sessions of the users are completely independent of each other even though the users are engaged in a joint search task. Such independent and disjoint operation of a task being performed simultaneously by multiple users fails to leverage the collaborative nature of the joint online information search to provide improved user experience (UX) and result quality. This disclosure describes mechanisms for improving the UX, search quality, and search effectiveness for such tasks. The search sessions of the users are …

Flow Control Using Bandwidth Allocation Strategy In Low-Power And Lossy Networks, Lele Zhang, Chuanwei Li, Ling Wei, Xi Wu

Defensive Publications Series

Presented herein are techniques for reduce the risk of transmitting collision in wireless networks. The techniques presented herein use a deterministic bandwidth allocation strategy for a central device (central node). As a result, each neighbor can leverage its own schedule to transmit packets with low risk of collision. The central device spreads schedules via DODAG Information Object (DIO) messages in its neighborhood, while dynamically adjusting distribution, per round, according to predicted traffic of its neighbors. The portion of downward and guest account is determined from the software-defined networking (SDN) controller. The SDN controller can design appropriated ratio for each central …

Providing Online Information Via A Virtual Assistant, Viraj Mahesh

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes techniques for a virtual assistant to provide a response to user queries when the requested information is not available directly via an application programming interface (API) but is available via a website. When a user issues a query for such information, a cloud platform accesses the website, e.g., using an automated web browser, with parameters determined based on the query. The cloud platform parses the resultant webpage to determine the answer to the query and provides the answer to the virtual assistant, e.g., which delivers the response via a voice interface.

Usb Type-C Port System Power On Security Key, Hp Inc

Defensive Publications Series

As computing device technology advances, system security has become increasingly challenging in

protecting physical system hacking. With advent of new hardware equipment and software tools, even an

unskilled person can gain access the system and instrument a setup to tap in critical buses and capture

password for login one’s account to steal sensitive data. Systems at public place, shared workspace and

lost unit are particularly vulnerable as they could fall under wrong hand. Defending physical attacks in

firmware and software is very difficult as the data can be plucked directly from hardware signals on

system board of the computing device …

Secure Internet Of Things (Iot) Firmware Upgrades In A Wireless Network, Vinay Saini, Jerome Henry, Sowbhagya H. S, Robert Barton

Defensive Publications Series

Internet of Things (IoT) devices/sensors/endpoints (collectively and generally IoT devices) are becoming part and parcel of many establishments. With the inbuilt support for Wi-Fi 6, also known as “AX Wi-Fi" or "802.11ax Wi-Fi,” in many IoT devices, the number of deployed IoT devices will continue grow. Wi-Fi® is trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. These IoT devices come from various manufacturers and will require network/Internet access for firmware upgrades. As such, there is a need to create a secure and tested firmware upgrade environment for such devices. Presented herein are techniques to track the firmware of IoT devices and use Manufacturer …

Casting Virtual Reality (Vr) Content Over A Network, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

A user of a virtual reality (VR) application uses a head-mounted display (HMD) to view VR content, such as graphics rendered by the VR application in the HMD. While the VR user is viewing the VR content, the VR user can cast the viewed VR content to friends or contacts enabling them to view the same VR content. The sharing is over a network and works regardless of the locations, devices, or types of networks being used. Audio from the VR user and/or from the VR application is also sent to the other users, e.g., via voice over internet protocol …

Systems And Methods For Targeting With A Mobile Device In A Virtual Environment, Anonymous Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

The present disclosure describes a system to target and select graphical user interface (GUI) elements in a virtual environment. A user wears a head-mounted display (HMD) device and views a graphical user interface (GUI) surface to select the GUI elements on the GUI surface. The user holds a hand-held device (HHD) to provide an input and enable targeting by using a capacitive touch interface (CTI) in conjunction with a ray-casting process. Targeting refers to pointing at the GUI element using an input device, while interacting in the virtual environment. Initially, the ray-casting process is utilized for pointing at the GUI …

Disaster Management System Using Network Snapshot In Low Power And Lossy Networks (Llns), Lele Zhang, Chuanwei Li, Xiang Fang, Xiaopu Zhang

Defensive Publications Series

Presented herein are techniques to introduce snapshot technology into wireless networks. In particular, the remote side of the network (e.g., edge devices, border routers, cloud, etc.) collect status information from all nodes of a network, such as a personal area network (PAN), while at the same time collecting and storing one or more snapshot(s) of the network. If the wireless network crashes, the remote side is configured to restore the entire network from the existing saved snapshot(s).

Fingerprint-Matching Algorithm Using Polar Shapelets, Firas Sammoura, Jean-Marie Bussat

Defensive Publications Series

An image, such as a fingerprint, can be decomposed into a linear combination of polar shapelet-base functions. This publication describes a fingerprint-matching algorithm that uses polar shapelet-base functions. Using polar shapelet-base functions, a fingerprint image block can be separated into components with explicit rotational symmetries. Polar shapelet-base functions can represent the fingerprint image through compact parameterization or encoder representation due to their interpretation in terms of the rotational angle 𝜃, and due to their separability by a distance r. Therefore, the use of polar shapelets enables a convenient and robust method to perform fingerprint image manipulation, analysis, and matching. Polar …

Improving Efficiency Of Citizens Broadband Radio Service Dual Connectivity And Citizens Broadband Radio Service / Wireless Local Area Network Radio Level Integration And Interworking, Mukesh Taneja, Indermeet Gandhi

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques are described herein for using Citizens Broadband Radio Service Dual Connectivity (CBRS-DC) to improve per-user throughput and mobility robustness. With CBRS-DC, a CBRS User Equipment (UE) can exchange data via a Master CBRS Device (CBSD) and a Secondary CBSD simultaneously, but control plane packets for both these CBSDs are sent only via the Master CBSD. In CBRS networks, the Spectrum Access System (SAS) may change the channel bandwidth allocated to a CBSD. The SAS could even remove all the resources allocated to a Master CBSD, which can create problems with DC operation in CBRS networks, particularly for denser deployments. …

Ads That Verify User Age, John Nicholas Dukellis, Derek Butcher

Defensive Publications Series

A concern of online ad networks is the suitability of an advertisement to particular viewers, e.g., ensuring that ads are age-appropriate. Age gates, in which a user self-declares age, can be easily fooled. This disclosure describes ads that attempt to verify age by requesting that the user to respond to questions, the answers to which are typically known only to someone that meets a particular threshold age or is in a specific age range.

Embossed Audio Tag Activated By Touch, Sebastien De La Bastie

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes techniques to affix an embossed pattern on an object such that when the pattern is scratched over by a hard object such a coin, pencil, or fingernail, a distinctive sonic signature is emitted. The sonic signature can be used, e.g., by a virtual assistant application, a smart speaker, or other device, to identify the object.

Integrated Wireless Slot Antenna And Piezo Buzzer, Jerry W. Kuo, David W. Poole, Andrew J. Sutter, Wei Li

Defensive Publications Series

Home security products such as smoke detectors, intrusion detectors, etc. are often wirelessly connected, and also feature buzzers that produce audio alarms. This disclosure describes techniques to integrate the buzzer and the wireless antenna, thereby enabling more compact security products.