Digital Commons Network^™

Providing Contextual Information For Multi-Party Chats, Sammy El Ghazzal, Sandro Feuz

Defensive Publications Series

It can be difficult for the individual group members of a multi-party chat to determine the relationships that connect the different members. Owing to this unfamiliarity, individuals can feel unsure and hesitant to express themselves freely in the multi-party chat. Such restraint can limit the topics and style of chat messages. On the other hand, a lack of restraint can be deemed as inappropriate or offensive. This disclosure describes mechanisms that provide contextual information about connections among the members of an ad-hoc multi-party chat group. With permission of the group members, the techniques of this disclosure are applied to determine …

Safe Unrouted Addressing In A Cloud Or Datacenter Network, Kyle Mestery, Ian Wells

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques are described for multi-tenant isolation in cloud and datacenter networks using normal Layer 3 (L3) routing rather than overlay networks. Basically, the wider routed network is divided into three components: public and corporate addresses, private addresses, and fully reachable addresses (i.e., addresses that can route to both the public and corporate and the private addresses).

Wireless Mesh Network Fault Diagnosis And Management Based On Binary Tree Based Support Vector Machine, Lele Zhang, Chuanwei Li, Huimin She, Li Zhao

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques are provided herein for using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) method for fault diagnosis and device management by data mining in the cloud. The result could provide valuable references for specialists to analyze and then perform operations to avoid loss. In current Connected Grid Mesh (CG-Mesh) implementations, many status profiles of nodes are collected for further use, but fault diagnosis is not performed. Preventive strategies for users are also provided.

Method For Filtering Displayed Content Based On Occupants, Scott Randolph, Bradley Stenning, Steve Paik

Defensive Publications Series

This publication describes an operating system (OS) that re-defines a user as a sum of all occupants in a shared space, and not merely as a single individual who has signed into a shared device. To identify the occupants of a space, the OS uses objective markers, such as: facial recognition, radar signature, biometric sensors, media address control identification (MAC ID), voice recognition, various sensors, radio-frequency identification (RFID), or other Internet-of-Things (IoT) data. Then, the OS filters out the displayed content on the shared device based on a level of trust amongst the occupants and a level of sensitivity. To …

Method For Filtering Displayed Content Based On Occupants, Scott Randolph, Bradley Stenning, Steve Steve

Defensive Publications Series

This publication describes an operating system (OS) that re-defines a user as a sum of all occupants in a shared space, and not merely as a single individual who has signed into a shared device. To identify the occupants of a space, the OS uses objective markers, such as: facial recognition, radar signature, biometric sensors, media address control identification (MAC ID), voice recognition, various sensors, radio-frequency identification (RFID), or other Internet-of-Things (IoT) data. Then, the OS filters out the displayed content on the shared device based on a level of trust amongst the occupants and a level of sensitivity. To …

Translation Of Electronic Dialogs

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques for translation of all or subsets of an electronic communication sent by a first user (via a corresponding client device) to one or more additional users (for consumption via corresponding client device(s)). The translation is from a source language of the electronic communication to target language(s) of the additional user(s). For example, assume a first user creates an electronic communication in Chinese and transmits the electronic communication to a second user who only understands English. Techniques described herein may translate all or portions of the communication from Chinese to English and present (e.g., visually and/or audibly) the translated English …

Securing Private Images On User Devices, Linden Evans, Laura Paragano

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes techniques to secure and remove private images (e.g., photos) from display on user devices. With user permission, a device examines stored user images for private content and relocates detected private images to a locked album on the device. The private album can include user-adjustable settings to control the organization and distribution of private images. Such features enable the device to automatically seclude private images, thus removing such images from potential undesirable discovery by other users that may use the device or other devices that access a collection of images on the device.

Systems And Methods For Predicting Online Video Metrics, Aaron Shon, Charles Johan Larsson Tibell, Axel Erik Olov Henriksson

Defensive Publications Series

A low-latency reporting mechanism that runs as a layer on top of an analytics engine is described. The analytics engine runs a predictive model to generate one or more metrics related to online content usage in near future. The predictive model is based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. The predictive model can be trained with low-latency real-time event data as well as canonical data obtained from historical event logs.

Machine Learning Based Technique To Dynamically Allocate A Network Slice Based On User Equipment Type And Network Slice Selection Function Factor For 5g Wireless Internet Of Things Networks, Akram Sheriff, Santosh Patil, M. David Hanes, Gonzalo Salgueiro

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques are described for dynamically allocating different Long Term Evolution (LTE) User Equipment (UE) variants (e.g., Cat-M1 and Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IOT) UEs) to the correct Network Slice. This may be accomplished by using a Machine Learning (ML) based software component running on 4G LTE evolved Node B (eNB) or in 5G next generation NodeB (gNB).

Internet Protocol Version 6 Prefix Coloring In Software Defined Access Fabric For Differentiated Policy Enforcement, Sri Gundavelli, Shree Murthy, Sudhir Jain, Indermeet Gandhi

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques are described herein for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) prefix coloring in Software Defined Access (SDA) fabric. These techniques may enable differentiated policy enforcement.

Gesture Text Input, Anonymous Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

The present publication describes a system that allows users to generate one or more emojis based on gesture inputs, while communicating using a computing device. The computing device may include a mobile phone, tablet, PC, or any other relevant computing device that can be used for communication. In one example, the communication takes place on an Instant Messaging (IM) application (app) running on a mobile device.

Content Provenance Attribution And Verification Via Blockchain Certification, Daniel Golovin, Daniel Klein

Defensive Publications Series

Content such as images is sometimes used online without proper permission or attribution by parties other than content creators and owners. Prior to use, such parties may also alter the content as well as associated metadata. Such practices subvert rights of the content creators and owners and can mislead readers due to a lack of cues that can help determine the provenance, veracity, and credibility of the content.

This disclosure describes a mechanism to track, verify, and attribute provenance to content such as images. Per techniques of this disclosure, provenance information signed with a user’s private key is included in …

Enhanced Electronic Whiteboard, David Tigges

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes an enhanced electronic whiteboard for visualization of cloud-based computing solutions. The electronic whiteboard includes technical icons that represent cloud computing solution elements and enables users to depict and manipulate various computer architectures. The electronic whiteboard is integrated with cloud migration solution software for collaborative design, sales presentations, and simulation. Depicting technical architectures is made possible by providing icons for servers, storage, networking appliances, etc. that can be dragged and dropped onto the whiteboard. With user permission, machine learning techniques are utilized to auto-populate operating data relevant to different architectures.

Automated End-To-End Instrumentation And Testing Of Mobile Device Camera, Yu Zhong, Gregory Eitzmann, Kenneth Goldman

Defensive Publications Series

Due to reasons of security, mobile device operating systems generally allow the camera buffer to be written only by the camera - the camera buffer cannot be filled with mock frames. Due to write-restrictions on the camera buffer, e.g., technical infeasibility of feeding arbitrary, repeatable frame sequences to the camera buffer, apps that utilize device cameras such as photography apps, computer vision apps, etc. are currently tested manually.

This disclosure presents a test framework to instrument and automatically conduct end-to-end testing of apps that use a mobile camera as an input source. Under the test framework, the mobile device is …

Event Scheduling And Time Zone Management For Online Calendars, Steffen Meschkat

Defensive Publications Series

The present disclosure relates to a calendar system and related method for determining the time zone associated with an event and generating a calendar that shows multiple time zones corresponding to events in the calendar. The calendar system can include a computing system that receives event data including information associated with an event and an event location. The event data can be used to determine a time zone associated with the event, which can in turn be used to generate an output including a calendar showing, at the same time, different time zones and the events that occur in those …

Rationalized Clustering In Machine Learning, Diveplane Corporation, Christopher Hazard Phd

Defensive Publications Series

[0001] In machine learning, there are currently debates about what an explanation or explainable model is and what is necessary for a given purpose. This post details the concepts of explanation and interpretation to help clarify the difference between the two; discusses how, although interpretation is preferable, explanation is the only option for many machine learning techniques; and then details a clustering technique that aids explanation for unsupervised machine learning.

Rationalized Clustering In Machine Learning, Diveplane Corporation

Defensive Publications Series

In machine learning, there are currently debates about what an explanation or explainable model is and what is necessary for a given purpose. This post details the concepts of explanation and interpretation to help clarify the difference between the two; discusses how, although interpretation is preferable, explanation is the only option for many machine learning techniques; and then details a clustering technique that aids explanation for unsupervised machine learning.

Retrospective Ads To Obtain User Feedback, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

Software application developers seek user feedback about their apps. In particular, app developers are interested in learning why users stop using their apps. However, if a user leaves, e.g., uninstalls an app, it is difficult to bring such users back to the app, even for the purposes of feedback.

With user permission, the techniques of this disclosure use an identity service provider to associate a user with an app. After a user leaves an app, an ad network is utilized to reach the user via other apps to obtain user feedback regarding the uninstalled app via a feedback form. User …

Obtaining Content Quality Feedback By Placing Content In Advertisements, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

Content providers often benefit from feedback on the quality of their content before it ships to a broader audience. Separately, app developers aim to maximize revenue and online users prefer more interesting advertisements. This disclosure uses online advertising slots to display test content produced by content providers. Users that watch the content are asked to rate the content. Alternately, if the viewing user permits, a device camera determines user reactions, e.g., facial expressions that are indicative of pleasure, displeasure, or boredom with the content. Prior to distribution of content to the general public, such content can be shown to a …

Enabling Poll Surveys Via In-App Advertisements, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

Pollsters often seek to cost-effectively obtain data on issues of immediate relevance. App developers have available ad inventory that can allow pollsters to reach users of their apps. Advertising networks benefit from being able to uniquely identify users to serve more relevant ads. The techniques of this disclosure expand the scope of typical ad experience to include polls. A pollster creates a poll, e.g., using automated template tools provided by an ad network. The poll is served to app users in formats such as banner, native, interstitial, rewarded ads, etc. Users are provided with rewards for responding to the poll.

Re-Engagement Ads With Real-Time Leaderboard Information, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

App publishers and advertisers want users to come back into their apps. In order to do so, they use re-engagement ads to appeal to users who have used their apps historically. The aim is to re-engage users as much as possible at an optimal cost per re-engagement.

This disclosure describes re-engagement ads that push relevant, personally motivating messages arising from leaderboard data in order to keep the user’s engagement levels high. Leaderboard data can include, e.g., app-users in the top several places at the user’s level, as measured by in-app reward points. The techniques of this disclosure apply generally to …

Layering Incentives During Idle Time After User Action In Rewarded Ads, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

Rewarded ads are an ad format that gives users the option to watch a (typically) thirty-second video ad in exchange of a reward, e.g., in-app points. Some rewarded ads additionally offer to install apps. Users who choose to download the app early during the rewarded video ad are forced to watch the remaining sections of the ad, leading to suboptimal user experience. On the other hand, ad networks typically require the user to watch the full thirty seconds of the ad.

This disclosure describes techniques to fill in the remaining time in a rewarded ad if the user takes action, …

Personalized Re-Engagement Ads, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

Advertisers or publishers prefer users who return often to their apps. Re-engagement ads are ads that target specific users who have used their apps historically. The problem is to design the re-engagement ad (or ad campaign) such that they appeal to users. By driving re-engagement and reducing cost per re-engagement, the efficacy of ads is improved.

This disclosure describes techniques that draw upon the user’s personal history, with user permission and consent, to craft personalized re-engagement ads. Such personal history can be, e.g., the user’s app usage patterns, data from online presence, and with permission from the user’s friends, data …

Crowd-Sourced Verification Of Content, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

Damaging or objectionable innuendo can sometimes get associated with otherwise harmless-looking symbols or images. Although machines can recognize a wide range of mature or objectionable material, innuendo is difficult to detect. In certain jurisdictions, innuendo, even if transitory or understood only within limited groups of users, is considered objectionable. A media or communications provider who is unable to detect such objectionable material can be subject to penalty.

This disclosure provides techniques to crowdsource the verification of content, e.g., ads, for the presence of innuendo or other objectionable content. The techniques apply to ads or content that is presented visually or …

Unbiased Review Of Apps, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

To obtain favorable ratings for their apps, developers often present rating screens to users who are believed to like the app. Further, to suppress poor ratings, some app-developers neglect to send every rating to the app store. Thus app-ratings are affected by selection bias and by preferential reporting.

This disclosure uses the facility of rewarded ads to present a ratings form to the app user. Both ad and its embedded ratings form are controlled by the app store, such that users are selected with lower statistical bias. Free-form textual reviews can be included such that the app store passes these …

Second Screen In-Call Experience, Boris Khvostichenko

Defensive Publications Series

A

system and method are disclosed for displaying a user’s reference information on a secondary device when they make calls to a business entity. The system comprises a mobile phone application running on the device, wherein the mobile phone is connected to a secondary device such as smartwatch, an automobile computing unit, activity tracker, etc. The mobile phone application stores the user’s relevant information related to business entities and displays that information on the secondary device connected to the phone. This system can save time and increase convenience for the user to access relevant reference information such as account, registration …

Method For Swapping Out User-Generated Photos With High Quality Photos, Jason Karsh, Brian Hendricks

Defensive Publications Series

The present application discloses a system and method to assist a photographer to swap out their user-generated photo with a high quality photo by using appropriate software. The disclosed system includes a software application that enables the user to upload a captured photo for processing, which may include the user’s image. A landscape or object in the photo is detected by the application, which searches for a high quality photo of the same object, matching the user-generated photo. The application then swaps the user’s image into the high quality photo and/or allows the user to customize it, before cropping and …

Mechanism For True Opinion Sharing, Chien Liang Lin

Defensive Publications Series

A mechanism is proposed for sharing true opinions amongst a plurality of users in a cloud storage system. An opinion sharing service may generate a group public key and a plurality of member private keys. Responsive to receiving from a first member a request to open a discussion forum for the group, the opinion sharing service may send an invitation message to members of the group to join the discussion forum and, for those who joined, send the group public key to each member who joined the discussion forum. Once receiving a message encrypted using the group public key from …

Remotely Controlled Chain Of Multi-Sensing Devices, Hp Inc

Defensive Publications Series

An additive 3D printer with automatic material extraction and cleaning is a complex mechanism

which combine multiple elements to transport air and powder. We have developed this invention

which allows to remotely sense physical properties of the air and powder (such as air-pressure,

differential pressure, temperature, humidity, filter status...) thanks to a combination of modular

sensor devices connected through an electronic chain which constantly sends information to the

host controller.

Distributed Transfer Learning On Embedded Devices, Hanumant Prasad Singh

Defensive Publications Series

An Internet-of-Things (IoT) platform that enables the retraining of machine learning models on embedded devices is described. The IoT platform utilizes transfer learning to retrain models in a cluster of IoT products connected to each-other in a local-area network (LAN), personal-area network (PAN), or wireless personal-area network (WPAN), to be reused for a similar purpose. Unlike current IoT platforms, the distributed transfer learning IoT platform does not need to utilize a centralized computing system, such as a cloud-computing server or a network server to perform model training, but rather execute this training in the cluster of IoT products. To reach …