Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Data-Driven Characterization Of Technical Debt In A Complex Information System, Abhishek Pathak, Hossein Moosavi Kooshki, Mazhar Haque, Girish Babu

Defensive Publications Series

Presented herein are techniques that provide a holistic and integrated abstraction among different categories of technical debt (TD) in a complex software system, as well as among different TD-related data sources such as logs, traces, telemetry, and metrics. The techniques presented herein allow for accelerated, automated, and evolutionary TD management in a complex software development life cycle (SDLC). The techniques learn the context throughout the SDLC pipeline and turn this context into actionable insights for use in repaying the technical debt at the earliest stages of the development process. The techniques presented herein provide an automated and low cost mechanism …

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.

Ad Network Speed Comparison Tool, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

Online ads that take too long to serve lead to users not paying attention to the ad, or even leaving the app. App developers, who want to maximize ad revenue and user engagement, thus have an interest in measuring and optimizing ad-serving times.

This disclosure presents real-time tools to compare latencies of one or more ad networks on a side-by-side basis. App developers can use the tools provided herein to compare ad-network latencies and to optimize the selection of ad networks.

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, …

Automated Insertion And Testing Of Ads, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis, Edward Weng, Boubou Guiro

Defensive Publications Series

App developers seek to optimize the number, format, placement, and combination of ads to be served a given user. However, they often don’t know which placements, numbers, or formats are the most effective. Running tests to determine optimal ad combinations to a given user is cumbersome and time-consuming.

This disclosure presents analytical techniques to display ads in a variety of formats and measure the efficacy of the ad in terms of, e.g., ad-time vs. app-time; numbers of ads shown; time since last ad; attrition of users; etc. The analytical techniques determine which ads to show based on statistics that optimize …

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 …

Rewarded Tasks For Reducing Ad Fraud, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

Ad fraud occurs when unscrupulous web or app publishers generate clicks, ad-impressions, or other events using bots that emulate human visitors to the web-page, app, or ads within. Ad fraud improperly diverts significant amounts of revenue to such publishers. Ad networks have long grappled with controlling or eliminating ad fraud.

This disclosure uses rewarded ads to issue challenges to willing users so as to discriminate between bots and humans. Users that are determined to be bots are tracked, ads appearing on associated web-pages or apps discarded, and such publishers noted for further action. The techniques enable detection of fraud using …

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 …

Automated Online Product Ads, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

Online advertisements for products are typically created manually and integrated by the product seller into the ad network. The initiative for ad creation and integration generally rests with the product seller. There is some opacity in the pricing of such ads, resulting in periods when ads are mispriced.

This disclosure provides techniques that enable a third-party ad affiliate, e.g., not necessarily a product seller, to automatically generate product ads and price them based on the revenue they generate. For example, an auto-generated ad is priced based on a comparison between the cost of placing the ad and the referral fee …

Incentivizing Users To Watch Ads, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

Advertisers, ad networks, and online publishers generally prefer that their ads be watched in their entirety. Rewarded ads are an ad format that tries to achieve end-to-end viewing of ads by incentivizing users to watch a video ad in exchange of a virtual good. However, not all apps have virtual goods to offer; for example, a flashlight app may not have a virtual good to offer.

This disclosure addresses the lack of virtual prize-goods by introducing an automated raffle into the rewarded ad format. Per the techniques of this disclosure, a reward of watching an ad is an entry into …

Ads That Encourage Users To Take Health Breaks, Tuna Toksoz, John Dukellis

Defensive Publications Series

The growing dependency of humans on electronic screens and portable smart devices has been met with concern in some quarters. Some of the cited disadvantages of the ubiquitous availability of mobile devices are information overload, repeated interruptions, a tendency to drive users to multi-tasking, etc. Among those who constantly use mobile devices, e.g., gamers, another disadvantage is sedentary lifestyle.

This disclosure uses in-app ads to encourage users to take a health break. The health break can be triggered based on, e.g., the expiration of a timer, a natural break in a game, etc. The health break ad, per techniques herein, …

Generating Cryptographic Initialization Vectors From Ssd Wear Metrics, Michael William Paddon

Defensive Publications Series

Data encryption on storage devices is achieved by the application of a suitable cipher mode. Many commonly used cipher modes require an initialization vector (IV). An IV is not secret, yet it must not be reused with the same encryption key in order to preserve confidentiality. A storage device can generate and store a unique IV alongside each encrypted block; however, this capability is not commonly available in mass market implementations. Instead, encrypted storage devices commonly use cipher modes that don’t require an IV, e.g., XTS. However, these have well-known vulnerabilities. This disclosure presents techniques that deterministically derive IVs for …

Fast Recalibration Of Test And Measurement Equipment, Fei He

Defensive Publications Series

A testing line in a factory comprises equipment that tests the stream of consumer devices-under-test (DUTs) that come down a line. The equipment needs periodic, e.g., daily, calibration to ensure that measurements produced by the equipment are accurate. Calibration of test equipment is done using reference devices, known as golden units. Golden units are expensive and are rated only for a limited number of calibration cycles. Golden units wear away relatively rapidly and need frequent replacement, a significant expense at a large factory.

This disclosure presents techniques that enable periodic calibration of test equipment using the very devices undergoing test. …

Arbitrary Precision User Settings, Sandro Feuz, Thomas Deselaers

Defensive Publications Series

A user of a mobile device often adjusts various user settings, e.g., speaker volume, screen brightness, etc., to reach a comfortable level. Sometimes, the user reaches, e.g., a volume level, that is a bit too high, and so hits the volume-down button. This results in a level that is too low, and so the user adjusts the volume back up, which is again unsatisfactorily high. The user repeats this loop for some time without truly finding a happy medium.

This disclosure provides techniques that enable a user to reach a precise level for an electronic control setting. Upon detecting that …

System And Method For Camera Characterization, Edward Chang, Boyd Fowler

Defensive Publications Series

A system and method for camera characterization using a conventional monitor display is disclosed. The system is configured to display a pattern on the monitor and instructs the user to position the camera to capture the images displayed on the monitor. The captured images are analyzed by a software application in the computer that outputs camera characterization data used to improve quality of the images. The disclosure provides an efficient way for camera characterization without use of sophisticated equipment and provides a way to improve quality of images from an image processing perspective.

Synchronized Multiple Ambient Displays, Adam Glazier, Adam Champy

Defensive Publications Series

Ambient displays are particularly good at monitoring and displaying information in a peripheral and aesthetically pleasing way. A system of multiple ambient displays is disclosed where the user can view image or video or any content in two or more displays at a time, in synchronized fashion. Alternatively, multiple displays may be used to display content scaled or extended across the displays. A major advantage of the system is that users may be able to display important ambient information at all rooms in a location, for example.

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 …

Smart Bed, Jason Wheeler, Ankita Goel

Defensive Publications Series

A smart bed can improve a user’s sleep experience through the use of data from temperature, humidity, motion, and brainwave sensors. These sensors can provide smart beds with information to make realtime adjustments to a user’s sleeping conditions that do not require the user to make any manual adjustments.

Method For Monetizing User-Generated Photos In Targeted Display Advertising, Jason Karsh

Defensive Publications Series

A method for monetizing user-generated photos in targeted display advertising is a system for letting users to make their photos anonymously and publicly available to advertisers for use in digital display advertising that targets the user or friends or connections of the user. The user would benefit by getting paid on a CPM basis for the use of the photo. Thus, the user would see monetization of their photos when they are surfaced in ads either targeted at them or to people that they are connected to.

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 …

Face Detection System, Deepak Chandra, Brandon Barbello

Defensive Publications Series

A face detection system and method are disclosed to identify the existence and position of human faces in input images. The system uses a full face detector and a part face detector in a convolutional neural network. The method involves processing of each image input using a classifier and an algorithm to detect full and part face regions, while differentiating nonface areas using the convolutional network. The above results are combined to identify face regions. This combination of techniques makes the neural network user-friendly and leads to quick processing of images for facial detection.

Microphone Input For Accessibility Service, Anna Galusza

Defensive Publications Series

System and method are disclosed to connect a switch or set of switches to a device through its microphone input stream for use with an accessibility service. Each switch is provided with a different resistance and this allows mobile devices to recognize the different switches connected to the microphone input stream. To make the switches used in the inline microphone customizable, an adapter is provided that allows multiple switches to the maximum number of media buttons supported by the mobile device. On certain devices, an application can differentiate between different switch inputs by registering a BroadcastReceiver in the manifest with …

Optimizing Upward Load Balancing For Lossy And Low-Power Networks, Lele Zhang, Yajun Xia, Yinfang Wang, Feiliang Wang

Defensive Publications Series

Presented herein are techniques for better load balancing of uplink flows at an overloaded node. The techniques presented herein leverage the capacity of neighboring nodes in order to share the traffic from the overloaded node. As a result, after several rounds of sharing, the probability of congestion decreases exponentially.

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 …

Monitoring Of Feature-Distribution Shift In Production Environment, Jan Brabec, Lukas Machlica, Cenek Skarda

Defensive Publications Series

A fundamental problem faces with network traffic is that the traffic is dynamic and evolves over time. Presented herein is a tool for monitoring feature distribution shift and possible efficacy implications. The tool takes advantage of the fact that labels are available on the training set, but not available in the production environment where the labelling cannot be done on the fly. The tool implicitly provides estimates of feature robustness to time shift for each feature.

Improving The Performance Of Data Streams In Lossy And Low-Power Networks, Wenjia Wu, Nan Yi, Feiliang Wang, Wenchuan Ji

Defensive Publications Series

Presented herein are techniques to enhance the performance of data streams in Connected Grid Mesh (CG-Mesh) networks.

Circuit For Generating A Continuius And/Or Alternating Current To A Load, Supplied From Mains Ac Or Dc Voltage, Hp Inc

Defensive Publications Series

This publication describes different power stage topologies that can be used to supply resistive

loads. Some of them are already implemented in the industry, but some, in particular the topology

called “Input Half-Bridge Rectifier Totem Pole”, is considered as an innovation because, as

shown at the end, is selected as the best-in-class for applications in which are required to supply

several individual AC loads.