Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 4261 - 4290 of 4596
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Timing-Based Assistant Controls, Google Inc.
Timing-Based Assistant Controls, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
A virtual, intelligent, or computational assistant (e.g., also referred to simply as an “assistant”) is described that is configured to provide time-based controls of automation devices (e.g., lights, speakers, ovens, thermostats, sprinklers, heaters, etc.). Assistants may cause automation devices to perform actions (e.g., adjusting a climate control setting, opening a garage door, unlocking an entry door, turning on one or more lights, playing music, adjusting temperature, brewing coffee, preheating an oven, disabling an alarm, etc.) in response to requests that include timing parameters. Timing parameters can be in the form of a delay (e.g., turn off the lights in 5 …
Pre-Arrival Destination Preparation
Pre-Arrival Destination Preparation
Defensive Publications Series
A virtual, intelligent, or computational assistant (e.g., also referred to simply as an “assistant”) is described that is configured to perform one or more actions to prepare a destination for a user’s arrival at the destination. The assistant may use a wide variety of data sources to predict that the user is on their way to a particular destination (e.g., home, work, a vehicle, etc.). The data sources may include location information, date and time information, user calendars, user history and/or habit data, etc. Based on the prediction, the assistant may cause one or more devices at the particular destination …
Participant-Aware Task Requests
Participant-Aware Task Requests
Defensive Publications Series
A virtual, intelligent, or computational assistant (e.g., also referred to simply as an “assistant”) is described that is configured to perform participant-aware task requests. For instance, when performance of a task is requested via a voice command (e.g., a spoken command, a verbal command, an utterance, etc.), the assistant may identify which people are present. The assistant may then perform the task involving the identified people (e.g., if the requested task is to “schedule a meeting for us,” the assistant may identify that person A and person B are present and create a meeting event for person A and person …
Assistant-To-Assistant Calendaring
Assistant-To-Assistant Calendaring
Defensive Publications Series
A virtual, intelligent, or computational assistant (e.g., also referred to simply as an “assistant”) is described that is configured to work with other users’ assistants to schedule events (e.g., appointments, bookings, etc.) on behalf of a current user and the other user(s). For instance, user A may request that their assistant schedule an event with user B (e.g., user A may say “find and book a data that user B can join me for dinner”). User A’s assistant identifies the user referenced by the request (i.e., user B), communicates with user B’s assistant to negotiate a date/time for the event …
Attribute-Based And Vertical-Based Real-Time Bidding, Justin Lewis, Scott Tadashi Davies
Attribute-Based And Vertical-Based Real-Time Bidding, Justin Lewis, Scott Tadashi Davies
Defensive Publications Series
This document describes real-time bidding protocol where cookies or IDs are not provided by an advertising system manager to the advertisers. Rather, the advertising system manager provides demographic information and vertical information directly to the advertising systems. The advertising systems can then use this data to place bids in the real-time bidding auction.
Virtual Reality Calendar Tour Guide, Walter Ianneo
Virtual Reality Calendar Tour Guide, Walter Ianneo
Defensive Publications Series
An intelligent personal assistant interacts with a person’s calendar application and a three dimensional geobrowser application to create a guided three-dimensional virtual reality tour of a geographic region for a person. The intelligent personal assistant interacting with the geobrowser application identifies one or more points of interest that share a same geographic region as appointments scheduled in the person’s calendar application and generates a guided three-dimensional virtual reality tour for display by the geobrowser application, using the points of interest as waypoints of the guided three-dimensional virtual reality tour. Such a guided three-dimensional virtual reality tour makes it efficient and …
Determining Optimal Player Position, Distance, And Scale From A Point Of Interest On A Terrain, Adam Glazier, Nadav Ashkenazi, Matthew Seegmiller, Syed Ali, Andre Le
Determining Optimal Player Position, Distance, And Scale From A Point Of Interest On A Terrain, Adam Glazier, Nadav Ashkenazi, Matthew Seegmiller, Syed Ali, Andre Le
Defensive Publications Series
In a three-dimensional virtual world that is presented as part of a virtual reality environment, a player is teleported from one location displaying a point of interest to a new location displaying a new point of interest. When positioning the player at the location within the three-dimensional virtual world displaying the new point of interest, a virtual reality application determines a player viewing position at the location in order for the player to view the point of interest in a consistent and optimized fashion. The determination made by the virtual reality application, comprehending factors of scale, altitude, and direction, provides …
Distributed Physics Simulation With Stateless Server, Robert Jagnow, Daniel Citron, Chun Yat Franki Li
Distributed Physics Simulation With Stateless Server, Robert Jagnow, Daniel Citron, Chun Yat Franki Li
Defensive Publications Series
Physics-based simulations of objects displayed in a scene are distributed amongst client systems supporting multiple users interacting with the scene. For each client system, ownership of one or more objects displayed in the scene is established. For the objects owned by a client system, and based on interactions within the scene, the client system performs physics-based simulations. Resultant changes in position and kinematics of the owned objects are communicated from the client system to other client systems via a stateless server.
Selecting Options In Lists Presented By Virtual Assistants, Google Inc.
Selecting Options In Lists Presented By Virtual Assistants, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
An interactive assistant, referred to herein as “an interactive assistant,” “a virtual assistant,” or simply an “assistant,” is described that allows a user to interrupt presentation of a list of options and select one of the options without having to wait until the virtual assistant presents all of the options in the list. The user may, in other words, stop enumeration of the options in the list by the virtual assistant and select one of the options from the options presented by the virtual assistant up to the point of being stopped by the user. The user may select the …
Interrupting Virtual Assistants To Initiate New Tasks, Google Inc.
Interrupting Virtual Assistants To Initiate New Tasks, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
An interactive assistant, referred to herein as “an interactive assistant,” “a virtual assistant,” a “computational assistant,” or simply an “assistant,” is described that allows a user to interrupt presentation of information concerning a first task and initiate a second task without having to wait until the virtual assistant presents all of the information concerning a first task or otherwise issue a “stop” or other cease command with regard to the first task. The user may, in other words, stop presentation of the information concerning the first task by the virtual assistant and initiate the second task in a manner that …
Processing Multiple Tasks By Virtual Assistants, Google Inc.
Processing Multiple Tasks By Virtual Assistants, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
An interactive assistant, referred to herein as “an interactive assistant,” “a virtual assistant,” or simply an “assistant,” is described that processes multiple tasks presented in a single query by a user. The user may, in other words, issue a query requesting that the virtual assistant perform multiple tasks. The virtual assistant may parse and buffer (or, stated differently, cache) each of the tasks of the multiple tasks, and process them appropriately, such as serially or concurrently (which may be referred to as being processed “in parallel”).
Directional Audio Technique, Marcel Baker, Alexis Cox, Mathias Paumgarten, Aman Govil
Directional Audio Technique, Marcel Baker, Alexis Cox, Mathias Paumgarten, Aman Govil
Defensive Publications Series
A directional audio technique is used to manage audio channels of a virtual reality environment. The technique allows a user to hear sounds from features presented in the virtual reality environment in a fashion where sounds are emphasized based on a viewing direction, user navigation, or a virtual position of origin of a feature within the virtual reality environment. When one audio channel associated with a particular viewing direction, user navigation, or virtual position of origin is emphasized, other audio channels are muted, allowing the user to audibly distinguish, for example, different storylines, conversations, or events within the virtual reality …
Three-Dimensional (3d) Audio Laser For Virtual Reality Systems, Xavier Benavides Palos, Adam Glazier
Three-Dimensional (3d) Audio Laser For Virtual Reality Systems, Xavier Benavides Palos, Adam Glazier
Defensive Publications Series
A three-dimensional (3D) audio laser for VR systems is provided. The 3D audio laser is a system that includes a laser pointer and a dedicated audio location control. The system uses sound to orient a user to a virtual object and to provide an audible description of the virtual object. A location and a name (or other description) of virtual objects in the VR environment are known to the VR system. When the user aims the laser pointer at a particular virtual object and selects the dedicated audio location control, the VR system plays a series of tones with simulated …
Geo-Located Content In Virtual And Augmented Reality, Thomas Anglaret
Geo-Located Content In Virtual And Augmented Reality, Thomas Anglaret
Defensive Publications Series
A three-dimensional (3D) world representation is used to place virtual objects that represent geolocalized content into a virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) environment. Browsing navigation may then be performed in 3D by touching, pointing, or focusing on the virtual object to reveal its corresponding media content. The media content may be static and/or interactive content based on video, audio, images, and/or texts. Rather than being presented on flat surfaces, the content surrounds the user in a more-immersive mode, and more-natural VR or AR techniques can be used to select, expand, move, and interact with the content.
Machine Learning For Gesture Recognition In A Virtual Environment, Sandro Feuz, Pedro Gonnet Anders
Machine Learning For Gesture Recognition In A Virtual Environment, Sandro Feuz, Pedro Gonnet Anders
Defensive Publications Series
A machine-learning technique is provided that allows a VR system to automatically learn user gestures based on a ground-truth data set collected from real users. The technique includes two steps. First, ground-truth data is collected by observing multiple users intentionally performing a specified action in a virtual environment. For example, an action to move an object from one place to another is recorded through input from different sensors in the VR system (e.g., position, orientation, controller actuations, or force/acceleration data). Second, machine-learning techniques (e.g., a recurrent neural network, a feedforward neural network, or a Hidden Markov …
Contextually Organizing Notes In An Assistant Environment
Contextually Organizing Notes In An Assistant Environment
Defensive Publications Series
An assistant is described that stores and organizes user created information (e.g., memos, notes, lists, reminders, etc.) such that the assistant can easily retrieve the information during a future interaction between the user and the assistant. The assistant supplements or tags information with contextual data or other descriptors that are relevant to the real-world or virtual situation the user was in, when the information was originally created or last modified by the assistant. This way, the assistant can later retrieve the information if the user makes references to the specific the information or the previous situation that the user was …
Assistant Recommended Purchases Based On Recurring User Behavior, Google Inc.
Assistant Recommended Purchases Based On Recurring User Behavior, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
A virtual, intelligent, or computational assistant (e.g., also referred to simply as an “assistant”) is described that recommends purchases based on recurring user behavior. The assistant monitors shopping lists of its users to determine which items get added to the shopping lists and under what circumstances. The assistant monitors other user behavior, particularly with regards to purchases made (e.g., when, where, and under what circumstances) and develops rules for predicting what items the users will want to purchase and under what conditions. The assistant outputs recommendations based on the rules for adding predicted items to shopping lists. In some implementations, …
Disambiguating Notes Of Different Users In A Multi-User Assistant Environment, Google Inc.
Disambiguating Notes Of Different Users In A Multi-User Assistant Environment, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
A virtual, intelligent, or computational assistant (e.g., also referred to simply as an “assistant”) is described that stores and organizes user created information (e.g., memos, notes, lists, reminders, etc.) on behalf of multiple users of the assistant. The assistant annotates, tags, or otherwise organizes user created information according to which particular user the information was created for. This way, during a future interaction between a particular user and the assistant, the assistant can easily identify and retrieve the information that is associated with that particular user and not some other user of the assistant.
Assistant Autogenerated Planning Lists, Google Inc.
Assistant Autogenerated Planning Lists, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
A virtual, intelligent, or computational assistant (e.g., also referred to simply as an “assistant”) is described that automatically generates grocery lists for preparing one or more meals or other events. The assistant is provided with a meal plan (e.g., a menu of one or more meals or dishes). The assistant parses the meal plan into individual recipes and from the recipes, generates a list of ingredients and respective quantities. The assistant then creates a shopping list from the ingredients list. The items in the shopping list may be grouped by meal or dish, item type, store location, need for refrigeration, …
Assistant Search Corpus Using Event Metadata, Google Inc.
Assistant Search Corpus Using Event Metadata, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
A virtual, intelligent, or computational assistant (e.g., also referred to simply as an “assistant”) is described that includes event metadata in its search corpus to determine a response to queries related to a personal calendar of events. The assistant determines a query related to an event that is recorded on a calendar of a user. To determine a response to the query, the assistant searches through an advanced search corpus that includes past and future event data published on the calendar as well as event metadata associated with each past and future event in the calendar. Reliance on the advanced …
Providing Local Or Other Identified News Information Using An Interactive Assistant, Google Inc.
Providing Local Or Other Identified News Information Using An Interactive Assistant, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
An interactive assistant, referred to herein as “an interactive assistant,” “a virtual assistant,” or simply “an assistant,” may be configured to identify local or other news information from or more content providers and to output such information to a user. For example, an interactive assistant may accept queries from a user, perform searches, and subsequently identify news information that may be of interest to the user based upon these prior searches. In some cases, the interactive assistant may provide news information to a user in direct response to receiving a request for such information from the user. For instance, the …
Context-Based Selection And Presentation Of Content For Presentation To A User, Google Inc.
Context-Based Selection And Presentation Of Content For Presentation To A User, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
An interactive assistant, referred to herein as “an interactive assistant,” “a virtual assistant,” or simply “an assistant,” may be configured to select content based on various contextual information and to output such content to a user. For example, a user may engage in various different interactions with a computing system and/or with an interactive assistant over time (e.g., by performing certain actions, providing instructions, requesting select information, performing searches, or the like). Based on these interactions, the interactive assistant may identify and store contextual information associated with these interactions, such as, for instance, one or more of user behavior information, …
Preparing An Assistant-Enabled Vehicle
Preparing An Assistant-Enabled Vehicle
Defensive Publications Series
An interactive assistant computing system, referred to herein as “an interactive assistant,” “a virtual assistant,” “a computational assistant,” or simply an “assistant,” is described that stores information related to settings of a vehicle (e.g., seat locations, cabin temperature, mirror location, music preferences, directions to a destination, etc.) such that the assistant can automatically adjust one or more parameters of the vehicle in response to receiving an indication of an identity of an operator or passenger of the vehicle. The assistant in the vehicle may store settings for various users and prepare the vehicle once a second computing device sends the …
Provision Of Personalized Date-Based Content, Google Inc.
Provision Of Personalized Date-Based Content, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
An interactive assistant computing system, referred to herein as “an interactive assistant,” “a virtual assistant,” “a computational assistant,” or simply an “assistant,” is described that stores and/or retrieves information related to items associated with particular days for a user such that the assistant can automatically retrieve one or more items associated with the current day (e.g., a local weather forecast, a current weather report, upcoming calendar items for the current day, current news stories, stock prices, indications of the day having personal importance, etc.) and provide a personalized report that includes the items specific to the current day. The assistant …
Assistant-Related Tasks Using Context From Multiple Devices, Google Inc.
Assistant-Related Tasks Using Context From Multiple Devices, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
An interactive assistant computing system, referred to herein as “an interactive assistant,” “a virtual assistant,” “a computational assistant,” or simply an “assistant,” is described that, in addition to performing general task requests, will request information from a respective assistant on one or more other computing devices to provide additional information and/or tasks to the user of the interactive assistant. The interactive assistant in the main device may receive an indication of a request from a user to perform a particular task. The interactive assistant, in addition to performing the particular task, may send requests to a respective assistant on one …
Assistant With Historical Location Based Triggers, Google Inc.
Assistant With Historical Location Based Triggers, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
A virtual, intelligent, or computational assistant (e.g., also referred to simply as an “assistant”) is described that performs actions based on an inferred user location, user direction of movement, and/or historical actions performed for previous locations or directions of movement. In some implementations, a user may explicitly command the assistant to perform a particular action when the user is moving relative to, or at, a particular location. In other implementations, the assistant may learn what actions the user performs or causes the assistant to perform when the user is moving relative to, or at, a particular location. In either case, …
Disambiguating Assistant Tasks Using Supplemental Data, Google Inc.
Disambiguating Assistant Tasks Using Supplemental Data, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
A virtual, intelligent, or computational assistant (e.g., also referred to simply as an “assistant”) is described that relies on supplemental data (e.g., contextual information, user information, etc.) to decipher, and determine actions to perform based on, otherwise ambiguous user commands. With explicit permission from a user, the assistant may access a user’s location history, calendar, e-mail, messages, past assistant interactions, contacts, photos, search history, sensor data, and other contextual or user information to interpret user statements. The supplemental data can be stored locally on a device that is executing the assistant or in a cloud computing environment that is accessible …
Assistance For Calendar Milestone Planning, Google Inc.
Assistance For Calendar Milestone Planning, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
A virtual, intelligent, or computational assistant (e.g., also referred to simply as an “assistant”) is described is configured to aid in user planning, celebrating, or otherwise remembering calendar milestones. The assistant determines steps that other users perform, including what sort of gifts to buy or events to plan, when celebrating or otherwise remembering a calendar milestone (e.g., an anniversary, a birthday, a holiday, or other important date). The assistant determines when an important date of a user will occur and automatically recommend ways for the user to plan for, celebrate, or otherwise remember the date. This way, rather than simply …
Device Settings Assistant, Google Inc.
Device Settings Assistant, Google Inc.
Defensive Publications Series
An interactive assistant, referred to herein as “an interactive assistant,” “a virtual assistant,” or simply “an assistant” may execute on counter-top devices, mobile phones, automobiles, and many other type of computing devices. The interactive assistant may be configured to guide the user to access features and settings of the computer device, and may also introduce features and settings of the computer device to the user.
Audible Indicator When A Third Party Enters An Assistant Conversation
Audible Indicator When A Third Party Enters An Assistant Conversation
Defensive Publications Series
In some cases, a user may primarily interacts with an interactive assistant, referred to herein as “an interactive assistant,” “a virtual assistant,” or simply “an assistant,” via voice communications. An interactive assistant may receive input that includes requests for the interactive assistant to perform actions, and the interactive assistant may provide feedback to the user via audible output. An interactive assistant that interacts with third-party services when performing the requested actions may output various audible indications to indicate the state of its interaction with the third-party services.