Digital Commons Network^™

Location Specific Assistance Based On Geofencing, Shreedhar Madhavapeddi, Saptarshi Bhattacharya

Defensive Publications Series

Digital assistant and bots serve users by providing suitable information and services. However, users may sometimes require specific information or services, e.g., that are offered exclusively by a third party, that current digital personal assistants cannot provide. For example, specific providers can offer services at or near geographic locations.

Techniques described herein permit a digital assistant to provide users such specialized services by integration with third party providers. Third party providers for a particular location are selected, e.g., via an auction to provide assistance within a geofence, or other mechanisms. Such auctions can also be conducted in real-time in response …

Abstract Syntax Tree-Based Code Editor For Mobile Phones, Zev Youra

Defensive Publications Series

A system and a method are disclosed that enable abstract syntax tree-based (AST) code editor on mobile phones. The keys on the keyboard include nodes or small sub-trees of the AST of the code. To insert a new syntax, the keyboard is tapped. The system converts the inserted code into an editable format depending on nature of the code. The syntax includes all the necessary structural parts of the code. To allow the users to enter new code, the system includes placeholders which are empty nodes. The system automatically detects the keys used in the program and the keys used …

Fade-Up Notifications For Alerts, Optional Content, And Advertising, John N.A. Brown

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes fade-up messages that can be used to provide display of content such as advertisements without diverting user attention. Fade-up messages utilize a gradual change in the transparency of the message. Fade-up messages are designed with easily recognizable images, and do not include text and/or numbers. The user perceives the content of the message subconsciously and is not given an impression of being interrupted. Perceived unconsciously, fade-ups inform the user without interrupting them, enabling a user to self-interrupt and take conscious action to select the message. Fade-up messages enable advertisers and other parties to gently notify a user …

Super-Resolution Image Construction Using An Array Camera, Eric Aboussouan

Defensive Publications Series

An array camera assembles multiple images into a super-resolution image. The array camera collects images of a scene from both a monochrome and a color image sensor as well as depth information about the scene. Typically, small movements by a camera operator diminish the clarity of the recorded images for conventional cameras. The array camera, however, models the rotational and translational movement of the array camera and combines the depth information to construct a three-dimensional representation of the scene. Using the three-dimensional representation and the modeled movements of the array camera, the array camera assembles a super-resolution image from the …

A Method For Population Segmentation By Event Based Machine Learning, David Parkinson

Defensive Publications Series

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for automating the entire process of segmentation analytics for users of an application. More particularly, input data is received by a machine learning algorithm. The algorithm inspects the data to determine patterns. Upon discovering patterns of event information the algorithm generates a list of segmentations with applicable characteristics. An application’s users are grouped together, matching user characteristics with those shared by a particular segment. Over time the algorithm learns from an increased amount of data, generating more accurate and comprehensive user segmentations with time and increased use. Keywords associated with the present disclosure …

Organizational Productivity Metrics From Document Collaboration, Mansoor Alicherry

Defensive Publications Series

Research has identified many characteristics of productive teams, e.g., initiative, helpfulness, time efficiency, work quality, etc. A metric for productivity that provides a measure of team productivity can help teams identify specific areas of improvement. Techniques disclosed herein identify different aspects of productivity that can be observed in online communication and document creation/management systems. For example, such aspects can include creation of documents, collaborative editing of documents, and communication between users. Further, these aspects are measured to compute a productivity metric. A multigraph is constructed with nodes representing users and edges representing the weight (quality) of creation, collaboration, and communication …

Automatic Correction Of Timestamp And Location Information In Digital Images, Thomas Deselaers, Daniel Keysers

Defensive Publications Series

Image storage and sharing services permit users to store and share images. Such applications typically organize images chronologically. However, chronological organization fails if the timestamp or location information stored in the image metadata (e.g., EXIF) is incorrect. Incorrect information is a common problem, e.g., when images are shared via messaging or social media, the shared image may have the time of sharing, not the time of capture. In another example, geolocation data may be deleted when an image is shared. Further, image timestamps can be inaccurate when multiple users contribute images to a single shared album from cameras that are …

Reporting Road Hazards Using In-Vehicle Camera, Catherine Cardinal, Chin Ngai Sze

Defensive Publications Series

Mobile phones, tablets, wearables, and cars themselves are increasingly aiding drivers. For example, mobile applications can alert drivers of hazardous road conditions, congestion, or accidents along the driver’s route. Additionally, mobile applications permit the reporting of such situations to other users. Occasionally, drivers may want to report nearby vehicles that exhibit unsafe or hazardous driving, or observed road hazards. This disclosure describes techniques to utilize devices (e.g., cameras) within a vehicle to automatically detect information about other vehicles that exhibit hazardous driving and road incidents nearby, such as vehicles driven by intoxicated persons. Further, these techniques also enable a driver …

Embedded Content Annotations From Embedding Source, Justin Lewis, Scott Davies

Defensive Publications Series

A mechanism for adding and/or modifying annotations in embedded content from an embedding source is presented herein. The mechanism enables a developer of a website or application to add or modify annotations in embedded or referred content without owning the content. The mechanism may apply a set of annotation parameters including text, type (e.g., info cards), size (e.g., length/width), location (e.g., x/y coordinates), time (e.g., start/stop times), and/or a hyperlink (e.g., navigation endpoint) to add or modify the annotations within the content. Thus, the developer may use the mechanism to render and display the annotations at particular times and locations …

Summarizing History Information For 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 index, cluster, and/or summarize interaction history information based on interactions with one or more users over time. For example, an interactive assistant may accept queries from these users, search interaction history information, and provide summaries of prior interactions (e.g., via audible output, output in a browser or other viewable window, output in a messaging application communicating with the assistant, etc.) between the interactive assistant and the users based on one or more criteria specified by these queries. In some …

Personal Assistant Accessible Via A Telephone Call, Abhijit Ravi, Kishore Subramanian, Madhukar Srivastava

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques of the present disclosure provide a virtual personal assistant to users via a telephone call. The techniques are especially beneficial for users of feature phones, landline phones, shared phones such as pay phones, etc. A user can dial a telephone number for the virtual personal assistant and is recognized by the number they’re calling from. The user optionally provides a personal identification number (PIN). Once connected, the user can query the personal assistant for information and receive answers. Initially, when the user asks a question, the virtual personal assistant begins the interaction without having user context. With subsequent interactions, …

Method To Query And Determine If A Storage Device Secure Digital Signature Has Been Compromised, Richard J. Tomaszewski, Paul Kaler

Defensive Publications Series

Data storage devices which contain firmware typically implement security features such a digitally signed firmware to protect against malicious attacks. Typically in a digitally signed firmware implementation a data storage device would validate the authenticity of the firmware during a firmware download operation. The storage device may or may not validate the authenticity of the firmware at each reboot or power cycle. A user may desire to query a data storage device at any time for security purposes to ensure that the firmware on the storage device has not been tampered with.

Angled Gold Finger Contact Pad, Vibora Sim

Defensive Publications Series

In an edge card connector system, the combination of an offset tie bar and an angled contact pad prevents gouging between PCB gold finger contact pads and female header pins and prevents connector pin sink.

Cable Release Latch Operating Mechanism, Jui Lin Chen

Defensive Publications Series

A technique is disclosed to operate cable release latches which are not accessible by a user's fingers.

Corstat Corrugated Protective Folder, Kenneth Earl Neuburg

Defensive Publications Series

A technique is disclosed that protects printed circuit board assemblies during assembly, bagging and packaging processes. A Corstat corrugated protective folder has a load-spreading design which isolates easily damageable components such as for example DIMM connectors, and prevents transmission of lateral forces during shipment.

Dynamic Display, Sanjay Kumar Batra

Defensive Publications Series

Over 4 billion people in the world wear glasses. As people reach an age of 40+, they start facing issues with near sight and needing reading glasses to read books, papers or computer screens. Most of the people using glasses feel some kind of stress and discomfort while wearing glasses. The key idea here is to dynamically adjust the monitor’s display settings as per the users’ eye lens power.

Configurable Events To Enable Efficient Diagnostics Data Collection In Isns Based Iscsi Network, Loganathakumar Seetharaman, Rupin T. Mohan, Vivek Agarwal, Krishna Puttagunta

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure relates to the field of diagnostics data collection in a data network of ISCSI devices capable of reporting diagnostic data like temperature, power etc (hereafter simply referred as data network) and the paper discusses a method of delegating decision of event generation to the reporting device, upon which meaningful diagnostic data is ready to be collected by a data collecting system.

Smart State Management, Andy Lou, I-Chun Shih, Johnny Hung, Ricky Tang

Defensive Publications Series

A method of smart state management to make a software stateful is disclosed. This method involves determining where to define states within a software using a classification learning mechanism.

Measurement Of Impact Of Display Advertisements On Site Traffic, Yuan Zhuge, Xiuduan Fang, Christine Zhou, Ping Lai, Xintian Wu, Aliaksei Nikuliak, Anshul Jain, Abhishek Aggarwal, Jesse Savage

Defensive Publications Series

Advertisers of display ads benefit from being able to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns for driving site traffic. However, some platforms do not enable such measurement due to the site metrics required to assess effectiveness of display ads being stored in a different location than bid management data pertaining to the ads. The techniques described herein measure the impact of the display ads bid management on site traffic. In particular, increased site engagement due to bid management of display ads is assessed along multiple dimensions of bid management, e.g., ad insertion order, ad creatives, target site, etc., to understand …

Advanced Intrusion Detection, Peter Liao, Eason Chen, Geoffrey Sun, Mealy Cheng, Chuan-Yu Lin

Defensive Publications Series

An Advanced Intrusion Detection (AID) feature provides improvements and flexibility on existing chassis intrusion designs, while reducing component costs, and software development efforts.

Automatic Generation Of Social Network Posts For Private Domains, Hariharan Chandrasekaran, Harish Chandran, Archit Gupta, Natarajan Chandrashekar

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes techniques to generate a stream of content related to the interests of users in a social media platform. The social media platform is private, e.g., restricted to a private domain, e.g., within a company or organization. The content includes social networking posts that are automatically generated from public sources, such as web URLs. A bot is deployed to scan web URLs periodically to identify recent content that is relevant and likely of interest to users within the domain. A social media post, e.g., including an automatically generated summary and/or an image is generated. Users within the private …

Meeting Room Personalization, Serge Lachapelle, Megan Boundey, Katie Roberts-Hoffman

Defensive Publications Series

Hardware for teleconferencing and videoconferencing is installed in meeting rooms. Typically, such hardware has several settings, e.g., microphone sensitivity, speaker volume, display contrast, etc. Such settings are manually entered or changed upon entry of participants in a meeting. Settings change frequently based on the preferences of different users of the meeting rooms. Each change requires participants to perform manual actions during a meeting. It is also possible that multiple meeting participants in a room disagree on settings.

Techniques of this disclosure enable automatically setting meeting room equipment parameters based on user preferences. Personal meeting room settings are stored locally on …

External Storage Of A Partition Table Representing An Unreliable Storage Device, William Drewry, Daniel Ehrenberg

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes techniques to store a partition table that represents an unreliable storage device such as NAND flash external to the storage device. The partition table is stored in a storage device with greater reliability, such as NOR flash. The reliable and unreliable storage devices are mounted on the same circuit board. The techniques enable simple firmware to be used to access the storage device. The technique can be utilized in embedded systems and other computing devices to provide reliable storage at a relatively low cost.

Sensory-Friendly Mode For Mobile Devices, Philip Weaver, Tim Salau

Defensive Publications Series

A system and method are disclosed for a sensory-friendly mode in a mobile device. The system allows users to adjust the display, sound or haptic feedback output of the device to optimize the ability of users to consume the information provided by the device. The system may vary the amount of visual complexity for display based on the user needs, either by blurring the screen to eliminate hard edges, making the unimportant areas of the screen entirely invisible or by applying time-based filters to prevent animations or prevent screen flickering. The system may adjust audio volume automatically when a volume …

Player Identification Using Pitch Detection In Multi-Player Games On A Smart Speaker Device

Defensive Publications Series

A system and method is disclosed that may shorten the waiting time for a player while playing multiplayer games in a smart speaker device system. Accordingly, an application is included in the players’ mobile phone that may link the player with the device. Each player may be assigned a pitch or unique sound that identifies the player to the device. At the start of a multiplayer game, the device may place a request to all the players. Each player may race to respond to the request by pressing a button on their phone to establish priority. The device may listen …

Prominent Visual Treatment Of High Quality Text In An Advertisement, Sanchit Gupta, Ashwin Kumar

Defensive Publications Series

Online advertisements typically get only a limited amount of time when a user views the ad alongside other content. Consequently, visual format of the ad is important in attracting the user’s attention to ad content that will help the user make an informed decision. Visual cues in an ad, such as color, font size, etc. help advertisers highlight the most relevant information such as special discounts and offers. Techniques described here automatically extract the most relevant content from an advertiser-provided ad creative. The ad is formatted such that the extracted content is displayed in a prominent manner, thus improving the …

Notification Delivery To Devices Without Appropriate Applications Installed

Defensive Publications Series

Some computer users may rely on a plurality of deices to communicate with others and to receive notifications on. These devices can include desktop and laptop computers, as well as other wireless devices such as smart phones, tablet devices, media players, and the like. The various devices associated with a user or user account may have different capabilities and or applications installed that may not be appropriate for presenting some notifications. Some devices may not be able to process or present notifications in that same way as other devices.

Local Context Filters

Defensive Publications Series

With the increasing availability of media creation devices and the increasing storage capacity of memory devices, media device users may create an increasing quantity of media items such as photos, images, videos, audio recordings, documents and the like. Organizing, searching and retrieving desired media items from an increasing number of stored media items can be time consuming and challenging.

Tamper-Evident Logging For Protecting Cloud Data, Jong Chan, Nelly Porter

Defensive Publications Series

Users in a datacenter or cloud system, including privileged users (e.g., root-level users), should be accountable for all of their actions within the system, regardless of their privileges. A secure logging solution that is resistant to tampering can help achieve this objective. Techniques disclosed herein enable secure logging without compromising management of confidential data. More specifically, the disclosure describes a system that processes and stores log messages in such a way that they are tamper-evident. Tamper-evident logs can be virtually impervious to undetectable manipulation, even by the highly privileged root-level users of such a system. A secure, tamper-evident logging solution …

Controlling A Television From Proximate Devices, Adam Glazier, Adam Champy, Michael Sundermeyer

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes techniques to control and interact with displays, e.g., televisions, without a traditional infrared (IR) remote control or a directional pad. An application on a user computing device is used to initiate and control content playback on the television. The app is also usable to update television settings and user settings, e.g., multiple user accounts, multiple mobile devices, user permissions, etc. When permitted by a user, a television automatically detects a proximate user computing device and sends a notification to the detected device. The television also automatically enters a responsive state, without user input to switch on the …