Microsoft Patents

Microsoft Corporation develops, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products, services, and devices, including the Windows operating system, Microsoft Office application suite, Windows Phone operating system, Xbox game console platform, Windows Server, Windows SQL Server and Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

Microsoft Patents by Type
  • Publication number: 20240154948
    Abstract: According to examples, an apparatus may include a processor that may determine that an application was accessed through a portal. Based on a determination that the application was accessed through the portal, the processor may determine whether a first credential type or a second credential type was supplied to access the application, in which the first credential type may include a set of personal credentials of a user and the second credential type may include a set of single sign-on credentials that the user may use to access multiple applications. The processor may also output a trace that may indicate an identification of the application that was accessed and the type of the credential supplied to access the application, in which a backed entity may analyze the data included in the trace.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2023
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Jeevan Suresh DESARDA, Mayukh RAY
  • Publication number: 20240155136
    Abstract: Non-transform blocks of video content may be coded by selectively changing a scanning order. In some implementations, an encoder or decoder may perform a scanning process on a block according to a scanning order. When the block has not been transformed, the encoder or decoder may selectively change the scanning order to a different order. For example, if the block is associated with a particular type of prediction, the scanning order may be changed to a different order. In another example, if the non-transform block has a size that is smaller than a predetermined size, the scanning order may be changed to a different order.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2024
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Xiulian Peng, Jizheng Xu
  • Publication number: 20240155135
    Abstract: This application relates to video encoding and decoding, and specifically to tools and techniques for using and providing supplemental enhancement information in bitstreams. Among other things, the detailed description presents innovations for bitstreams having supplemental enhancement information (SEI). In particular embodiments, the SEI message includes picture source data (e.g., data indicating whether the associated picture is a progressive scan picture or an interlaced scan picture and/or data indicating whether the associated picture is a duplicate picture). The SEI message can also express a confidence level of the encoder's relative confidence in the accuracy of this picture source data. A decoder can use the confidence level indication to determine whether the decoder should separately identify the picture as progressive or interlaced and/or a duplicate picture or honor the picture source scanning information in the SEI as it is.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2023
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Gary J. Sullivan, Yongjun Wu
  • Publication number: 20240152205
    Abstract: Systems and methods disclosed herein are related to an intelligent UI element selection system using eye-gaze technology. In some example aspects, a UI element selection zone may be determined. The selection zone may be defined as an area surrounding a boundary of the UI element. Gaze input may be received and the gaze input may be compared with the selection zone to determine an intent of the user. The gaze input may comprise one or more gaze locations. Each gaze location may be assigned a value according to its proximity to the UI element and/or its relation to the UI element's selection zone. Each UI element may be assigned a threshold. If the aggregated value of gaze input is equal to or greater than the threshold for the UI element, then the UI element may be selected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2024
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Narasimhan RAGHUNATH, Austin B. HODGES, Fei SU, Akhilesh KAZA, Peter John ANSELL, Jonathan T. CAMPBELL, Harish S. KULKARNI
  • Publication number: 20240152758
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods for training a neural network accelerator using quantized precision data formats are disclosed, and in particular for storing activation values from a neural network in a compressed format having lossy or non-uniform mantissas for use during forward and backward propagation training of the neural network. In certain examples of the disclosed technology, a computing system includes processors, memory, and a compressor in communication with the memory. The computing system is configured to perform forward propagation for a layer of a neural network to produced first activation values in a first block floating-point format. In some examples, activation values generated by forward propagation are converted by the compressor to a second block floating-point format having a non-uniform and/or lossy mantissa. The compressed activation values are stored in the memory, where they can be retrieved for use during back propagation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2024
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Lo, Amar Phanishayee, Eric S. Chung, Yiren Zhao
  • Publication number: 20240152190
    Abstract: A computing device is provided, including one or more processing devices, one or more temperature sensors, a fan, and a fan tachometer. The one or more processing devices may be configured to execute an application program. While executing the application program, the one or more processing devices may be further configured to collect performance data including temperature data received from the one or more temperature sensors and fan speed data received from the fan tachometer. The one or more processing devices may be further configured to generate a fan control signal at least in part by applying a machine learning model to the performance data. The one or more processing devices may be further configured to control the fan according to the fan control signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 12, 2024
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Nikita Ramesh WANJALE, David Michael SUTHERLAND, Jonathan Robert PEASE
  • Publication number: 20240153298
    Abstract: A data processing system implements training a first convolutional neural network (CNN) to classify shapes in digital ink inputs, the first CNN being trained to receive ink stroke information as an input and to output an indication whether the ink stroke information represents a hand drawn geometric shape. The data processing system further implements compressing the first CNN to generate a second CNN capable of being operated on a resource-constrained computing device lacking sufficient computing resources to operate an instance of the first CNN and installing the second CNN on the resource-constrained computing device to process ink stroke information captured by a user interface of the computing device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2022
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Biyi FANG, Yibo SUN
  • Publication number: 20240151998
    Abstract: A display assembly includes a display layer with a plurality of display elements to provide display light and form a display image. A first subset of display elements is used while the display assembly is operating in a full visibility mode, and a second subset of display elements is used while the display assembly is operating in a restricted visibility mode. A touch-sensitive layer includes a plurality of conductive traces disposed proximate to the display layer. The plurality of conductive traces are shaped and positioned to block a first portion of the display light while the display assembly is operating in the full visibility mode, and block a second, greater portion of the display light while the display assembly is operating in the restricted visibility mode. A visibility controller is used to switch the display assembly between the full visibility mode and the restricted visibility mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2022
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Hyungsoo KIM, Samu Matias KALLIO, Ying ZHENG
  • Publication number: 20240152522
    Abstract: Embodiments of the system in include a method of clustering data sets based on the data set characteristics. A data repository stores a plurality of heterogeneous data sets. For a selected group of data sets (i) obtaining metadata; (ii) identifying upstream data sets; and (iii) extracting semantic features. The method further comprises clustering the plurality of data sets into one or more clusters based on similarity, wherein the similarity is determined based on a combination of the metadata, the upstream data sets, and the semantic features of the selected data sets. In one embodiment, the data sets are ranked within each cluster based on data set quality. The method enables the presenting of at least one cluster including one or more ranked data sets in response to a search query.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2022
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Liangzhao Zeng, Ketan P Duvedi
  • Publication number: 20240152429
    Abstract: The description relates to enhancing computer performance, such as by decreasing latency associated with storage operations. One example can include recoverable processes. Each recoverable process can be configured to periodically write log records to individual storage partitions. Each log record includes a vector timestamp that describes the processes' dependencies on log records of other recoverable processes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2022
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Jonathan D. GOLDSTEIN, Philip A. BERNSTEIN, Soujanya PONNAPALLI, Jose M. FALEIRO, Peter Charles SHROSBREE
  • Publication number: 20240155147
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are exemplary embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for performing content-adaptive deblocking to improve the visual quality of video images compressed using block-based motion-predictive video coding. For instance, in certain embodiments of the disclosed technology, edge information is obtained using global orientation energy edge detection (“OEED”) techniques on an initially deblocked image. OEED detection can provide a robust partition of local directional features (“LDFs”). For a local directional feature detected in the partition, a directional deblocking filter having an orientation corresponding to the orientation of the LDF can be used. The selected filter can have a filter orientation and activation thresholds that better preserve image details while reducing blocking artifacts. In certain embodiments, for a consecutive non-LDF region, extra smoothing can be imposed to suppress the visually severe blocking artifacts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2024
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Xiaoyan Sun, Zhiwei Xiong, Feng Wu
  • Patent number: 11977556
    Abstract: According to examples, an apparatus may include a processor and a memory on which is stored machine-readable instructions that when executed by the processor, may cause the processor to receive a request for result data from a requestor and determine queries to create the result data. The processor may determine a subset of a data set based on the queries. The subset of the data set may be displayed in small multiples by the requestor. The processor may output the subset of the data set as the result data to the requestor. In some examples, the processor may receive a request for additional result data from the requestor. The processor may determine a second subset of the data set to be displayed in the small multiples and output the second subset of the data set as the additional result data to the requestor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2023
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Anca Gentiana Coman, John Herschel Vulner, Jonathan Christian Ludwig, Justin Evan Schneider, Ramy Saroufim
  • Patent number: 11976932
    Abstract: In device-assisted navigation, audio navigation cues are often presented at particular locations along a route (e.g., “in 200 meters, turn left” and “turn left here”). However, if the user stops, navigation cues also stop since the user's position is not changing. Additionally, the navigation instruction at the next navigation point may be conflated with the actual position of the next navigation point; e.g., an instruction to “turn left” may be confusing if the road takes a sharp right turn immediately before the next navigation point. Instead, the device may periodically compare the current position of the user and the next navigation point, and periodically present guidance audio cues that indicate the distance and heading offset to the next navigation point. Guidance audio cues may be integrated with and/or supplemented by audio navigation instructions to indicate both the location of the next navigation point and instructions to be followed there.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Felix Gerard Torquil Ifor Andrew, Geoffrey T. Ebersol
  • Patent number: 11977702
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for compensating the effect of a contact by a hand or other body part of a user with a touch screen while holding an input device on the strength of a capacitively coupled uplink signal provided to the input device by a host device, by detecting and/or discriminating the body touch and modifying at least one uplink channel parameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC.
    Inventors: Ahia Peretz, On Haran, Adam Benjamin Meshi
  • Patent number: 11977559
    Abstract: Methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided that enable immediate access to data associated with a source blob. The foregoing is achieved by creating a copy-on-read blob based on the source blob and a link blob based on the copy-on-read blob for each virtual machine to be deployed. When creating the copy-on-read blob, the source blob is not copied. Instead, data from the source blob is copied to the copy-on-read blob upon request by a virtual machine. Subsequent requests for that data are retrieved from the copy-on-read blob. Each link blob stores write data provided by its corresponding virtual machine. When a virtual machine requests data, its corresponding link blob is checked for the data. If the data is not stored therein, the copy-on-read blob is checked for the data. If the copy-on-read blob does not store the data, the data is retrieved from the source blob.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Krishnan Varadarajan, Shane Mainali, Maneesh Sah, Manan Shah, Andrew Edwards, Ivan Brugiolo, Ju Wang, Ovais Khan, Sivakumar Kalva, Venkates P. Balakrishnan
  • Patent number: 11977606
    Abstract: A computer implemented method includes obtaining multiple configuration files that include configuration commit histories, detecting patterns in parameter values in the configuration files to generate file-based rules for configuration parameters, detecting patterns in parameter values in the configuration files to generate history-based rules using commit histories for the configuration parameters, and exposing the rules to calling programs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ranjita Bhagwan, Sonu Mehta, Arjun Radhakrishna, Sahil Garg
  • Patent number: 11977832
    Abstract: A computing device includes a display, a logic machine, and a storage machine holding instructions executable to display a map via the display, and associate a note with location data defining a geographic location. The note is associated with an annotation displayable on the map. The annotation is associated with a location parameter defining a map location at which the annotation is displayed on the map corresponding to the geographic location associated with the note. The annotation is associated with a zoom parameter defining one or more map zoom levels at which the annotation is displayed on the map. The annotation is associated with a context parameter defining one or more computing device contexts with which the annotation is displayed on the map. A notification corresponding to the note is presented based on the computing device being located within a threshold distance of the geographic location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Finbarr Duggan, David Grochocki, Jr., Jeff West
  • Patent number: 11977474
    Abstract: An automated program repair tool utilizes a neural transformer model with attention to predict the contents of a bug repair in the context of source code having a bug of an identified bug type. The neural transformer model is trained on a large unsupervised corpus of source code using a span-masking denoising optimization objective, and fine-tuned on a large supervised dataset of triplets containing a bug-type annotation, software bug, and repair. The bug-type annotation is derived from an interprocedural static code analyzer. A bug type edit centroid is computed for each bug type and used in the inference decoding phase to generate the bug repair.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC.
    Inventors: Shao Kun Deng, Neelakantan Sundaresan, Alexey Svyatkovskiy, Michele Tufano
  • Patent number: 11977891
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods are disclosed for controlling execution of memory access instructions in a block-based processor architecture using a hardware structure that generates a relative ordering of memory access instruction in an instruction block. In one example of the disclosed technology, a method of executing an instruction block having a plurality of memory load and/or memory store instructions includes decoding an instruction block encoding a plurality of memory access instructions and generating data indicating a relative order for executing the memory access instructions in the instruction block and scheduling operation of a portion of the instruction block based at least in part on the relative order data. In some examples, a store vector data register can store the generated relative ordering data for use in subsequent instances of the instruction block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Douglas C. Burger, Aaron L. Smith
  • Patent number: 11977785
    Abstract: The disclosed technologies provide functionality for non-volatile memory device-assisted live migration of virtual machine (“VM”) data. A host computing device (the “host”) requests that a source non-volatile memory device track changes to a namespace by a VM. In response thereto, the source device tracks changes made by the VM to the namespace and stores one or more data structures that identify the changed portions of the namespace. The host requests the data structures from the source device and requests the contents of the changed portions from the source device. The host then causes the data changed by the VM in the namespace to be written to a namespace on a target non-volatile memory device. The host can also retrieve the device internal state of a child physical function on the source device. The host migrates the retrieved device internal state to a child physical function on the target device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Scott Chao-Chueh Lee, Lei Kou, Monish Shantilal Shah, Liang Yang, Yimin Deng, Martijn De Kort
  • Patent number: 11977926
    Abstract: Techniques are described for orchestrating a cohort deployment in a computing network comprising a plurality of computing nodes implementing a virtualized computing network managed by an orchestrator. The cohort deployment is managed by a deployment broker configured to coordinate the cohort deployment. The cohort deployment includes multiple deployments, where the cohort deployment comprises a parent deployment and a spawned deployment that includes a dependency on the parent deployment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2023
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Ajay Punreddy, Piotr Galecki, Dinesh Kumar Ramasamy, Thuy Phuong Fernandes, Huanglin Xiong
  • Patent number: 11977513
    Abstract: Techniques of data flow control are disclosed herein. One example technique includes upon receiving a notification indicating a change to a content item in a source shard, parsing the content item to extract data representing attributes of the content item and identifying a partition of the system-wide index based on the extracted data representing the attributes of the content item. The example technique can also include transmitting, to a token issuer, a request for a token that represents a permission to write to the identified partition of the system-wide index and upon receiving a token issued by the token issuer in response to the transmitted request, transmitting the extracted data representing the attributes of the content item along with the received token to write the extracted data in the partition of the system-wide index.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC.
    Inventors: Suyang Jiang, Serguei Vasilyevich Martchenko, Yuva Priya Arunkumar, Aigerim Shintemirova, Ariane Belle Tsai, Varadarajan Thiruvillamalai, Kidus Yohanes Sendeke
  • Patent number: 11979432
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a network analytic system for tracking and analysis of network infrastructure for network-based digital assets. The network analytic system can detect and track a relationship between assets based on one or more attributes related or shared between any given assets. The network analytic system can analyze network-based digital assets to determine information about a website (e.g., information about electronic documents, such as web pages) that has be used to detect phishing and other abuse of the website. The network analytic system can analyze data about network-based assets to determine whether any are being used or connected to use of unauthorized or malicious activity or known network-based assets. Based on the relationship identified, the network analytic system can associate or link assets together. The network analytic system may provide an interface to view data sets generated by the network analytic system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Adam Hunt, Jonas Edgeworth, Chris Kiernan, Elias Manousos, David Pon
  • Patent number: 11979376
    Abstract: A method of and system for utilizing an access token to authenticate a client device for accessing a resource server include generating a session key for a communication session between the device and a resource server, deriving a nonce from the session key, and transmitting a request to an identity platform for authenticating the device to access the resource server, where the request includes the nonce. Upon confirmation of authentication, the method and system may include receiving an access token from the identity platform, the access token including information that confirms authentication of the device, and transmitting the access token to the resource server to enable access to the resource server, where the access token includes the nonce.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Alan Thomas Gavin Jowett, Andrew Albert Hodgkinson, Lance Vernon Crandall, Jeffrey Scott Pinkston
  • Patent number: 11977629
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure relate to retrospective memory analysis. In examples, a historical archive of memory images for an execution environment is maintained. A historical memory image of the historical archive may be evaluated according to a current set of known issues, rather than issues that were known at the time of the memory capture. Accordingly, it may be possible to determine when the execution environment was last in a good environment condition. As another example, it may be possible to determine whether a now-known issue has since been resolved (e.g., such that the issue would not be identified in the current execution environment). Thus, as compared to contemporaneous issue identification techniques, aspects of the present disclosure may be applied to any number of execution environments to enable retrospective identification of now-known issues that were, at least at the time of a memory capture, not known.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Marsh Jordan Ray, Michael T. Walker, Brian M. Caswell
  • Patent number: 11979360
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides method and apparatus for responding in a voice conversation by an electronic conversational agent. A voice input may be received in an audio upstream. In response to the voice input, a primary response and at least one supplementary response may be generated. A primary voice output may be generated based on the primary response. At least one supplementary voice output may be generated based on the at least one supplementary response. The primary voice output and the at least one supplementary voice output may be provided in an audio downstream, wherein the at least one supplementary voice output is provided during a time period adjacent to the primary voice output in the audio downstream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventor: Li Zhou
  • Patent number: 11977591
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-executable instructions for synthesizing facts from multiple sources. A user search string associated with a topic is received. Queries associated with the user search string are generated. Website content is queried, using the plurality of queries associated with the user search string, to generate results. The results are ranked based on a first feature. The results are filtered based on the first feature to generate intermediate results. The intermediate results are ranked based on a second feature. The second feature is most costly to calculate than the first feature. The filtered intermedia results are filtered based on the second feature to generate final results. Distinct facts from the final results are determined. The distinct facts include content from different URLs. The distinct facts associated with the topic are returned.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Mridu Baldevraj Narang, Jun Liu, Guihong Cao, Zicheng Huang
  • Patent number: 11979318
    Abstract: The present application relates to egressing traffic from a public cloud network. An egress traffic manager configures routing at hosts and edge routers within the public cloud network. The egress traffic manager determines, for an edge router, a plurality of current border gateway protocol (BGP) sessions with external networks. The egress traffic manager configures a virtual router hosted on the edge router to route a portion of egress traffic to a selected one of the external networks via one of the BGP sessions. A host is configured to route the portion of egress traffic within the public cloud network to the edge router. An edge router configured to route, by the virtual router, the portion of egress traffic from the edge router to the selected one of the external networks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Abhishek Udupa, Sharad Agarwal, Ryan Andrew Beckett, Rachee Singh, Paramvir Bahl
  • Patent number: 11979496
    Abstract: The present technology provides a method to regenerate secrets while a version of the system is operational, thus avoiding the loss of availability that would have resulted from a system shutdown. The technology described herein may work in a computing context that assigns a first secret in an active role and a second secret in the backup role. The technology described herein activates a second instance of the service with the key not being regenerated serving as the active key. The second instance is then moved to the production mode and the first version of the service is moved to the staging mode. A new secret is generated and then assigned to the first instance of the service while it runs in the staging mode. Once the secret rotation is complete, the primary service instance is then moved back to the production mode with the new key configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Yongyu Chen, Wei Deng, Yizhong Wu, Minming Guo
  • Patent number: 11979601
    Abstract: Innovations in encoder-side search ranges having horizontal bias or vertical bias are described herein. For example, a video encoder determines a block vector (“BV”) for a current block of a picture, performs intra prediction for the current block using the BV, and encodes the BV. The BV indicates a displacement to a region within the picture. When determining the BV, the encoder checks a constraint that the region is within a BV search range having a horizontal bias or vertical bias. The encoder can select the BV search range from among multiple available BV search ranges, e.g., depending at least in part on BV values of one or more previous blocks, which can be tracked in a histogram data structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2023
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Lihua Zhu, Yongjun Wu, Gary J. Sullivan
  • Patent number: 11979835
    Abstract: A method of reducing power consumption of a first wireless communication device is described. A charge level of a battery associated with the first wireless communication device is monitored. A wireless communication session between the first wireless communication device and a second wireless communication device is maintained. Based at least in part on the charge level of the battery being within a low battery threshold range, a wireless signal strength associated with the wireless communication session is monitored. Based at least in part on the wireless signal strength reaching a power saving threshold that is above a minimum connection threshold for maintaining the wireless communication session, a power saving action associated with a wireless interface that supports the wireless communication session is performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Uday S. Hegde, Prateek Agrawal
  • Patent number: 11978020
    Abstract: The technology described herein visibly depicts hidden message traits to help users determine whether an email is genuine or deceptive. The hidden message traits are revealed by identifying and changing attributes that keep the hidden traits from being displayed in a rendered message. Spam messages, phishing messages, and messages that include or link to malicious programs (e.g., malware, ransomware) are examples of unwanted messages that can harm a recipient. These messages often rely on deception to get past email filtering systems and to trick a user into acting on content in a message. The deception often involves including hidden traits in a message that fool an automated filtering system. The technology described herein shows the visible traits to a user by including them in the rendered version of the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventor: Weisheng Li
  • Patent number: 11979600
    Abstract: Innovations in encoder-side search ranges having horizontal bias or vertical bias are described herein. For example, a video encoder determines a block vector (“BV”) for a current block of a picture, performs intra prediction for the current block using the BV, and encodes the BV. The BV indicates a displacement to a region within the picture. When determining the BV, the encoder checks a constraint that the region is within a BV search range having a horizontal bias or vertical bias. The encoder can select the BV search range from among multiple available BV search ranges, e.g., depending at least in part on BV values of one or more previous blocks, which can be tracked in a histogram data structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2023
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Lihua Zhu, Yongjun Wu, Gary J. Sullivan
  • Patent number: 11979246
    Abstract: A technique facilitates interaction among meeting participants for a purpose of verifying meeting attendance. The technique includes the operations of: using a programmatic interface to query a data structure to discover first information regarding meetings that a user is scheduled to attend; using the programmatic interface to query the data structure to discover second information regarding participants of a particular meeting; generating a likelihood measure, based on the second information, that specifies a likelihood that the particular meeting will take place; displaying the first information, second information, and a representation of the likelihood measure in a user interface presentation; generating and presenting a graphical control that invites the user to take a computer-implemented action pertaining to the particular meeting; and, in response to activation of the graphical control, performing the computer-implemented action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Mamta Debnath Kumar, Madrina Thapa
  • Patent number: 11978433
    Abstract: An end-to-end automatic speech recognition (ASR) system includes: a first encoder configured for close-talk input captured by a close-talk input mechanism; a second encoder configured for far-talk input captured by a far-talk input mechanism; and an encoder selection layer configured to select at least one of the first and second encoders for use in producing ASR output. The selection is made based on at least one of short-time Fourier transform (STFT), Mel-frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) and filter bank derived from at least one of the close-talk input and the far-talk input. If signals from both the close-talk input mechanism and the far-talk input mechanism are present for a speech segment, the encoder selection layer dynamically selects between the close-talk encoder and the far-talk encoder to select the encoder that better recognizes the speech segment. An encoder-decoder model is used to produce the ASR output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC.
    Inventors: Felix Weninger, Marco Gaudesi, Ralf Leibold, Puming Zhan
  • Patent number: 11979418
    Abstract: Techniques are described herein that are capable of detecting potential malicious use of a resource management agent using a resource management log. The resource management log is analyzed. The resource management log logs API requests that request that a resource management system cause the resource management agent to perform respective operations. An anomalous operation is detected among the operations based at least in part on an identified API request satisfying one or more criteria associated with anomalous behavior. The identified API request requests that the resource management system cause the resource management agent, which is loaded on a machine and which enables the resource management system to remotely manage resources associated with the machine, to perform the anomalous operation. An alert is generated to notify a user of the potential malicious use of the resource management agent based at least in part on detection of the anomalous operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Johnathan Samuel Simon, Ram Haim Pliskin
  • Patent number: 11978434
    Abstract: A computer-implemented technique identifies terms in an original reference transcription and original ASR output results that are considered valid variants of each other, even though these terms have different textual forms. Based on this finding, the technique produces a normalized reference transcription and normalized ASR output results in which valid variants are assigned the same textual form. In some implementations, the technique uses the normalized text to develop a model for an ASR system. For example, the technique may generate a word error rate (WER) measure by comparing the normalized reference transcription with the normalized ASR output results, and use the WER measure as guidance in developing the model. Some aspects of the technique involve identifying occasions in which a term can be properly split into component parts. Other aspects can identify other ways in which two terms may vary in spelling, but nonetheless remain valid variants.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Satarupa Guha, Ankur Gupta, Rahul Ambavat, Rupeshkumar Rasiklal Mehta
  • Publication number: 20240143666
    Abstract: Systems and methods for clustering metrics for reducing a search space of metrics used for service health analyses. Determining a root cause of an event includes performing an automated analysis of metrics associated with the service. To diagnose and resolve events quickly and efficiently, aspects correlate and cluster a plurality of metrics for a specific service based on historical data, where each cluster represents a root cause direction. After clustering metrics by similarity, metrics are scored and ranked to select representative metrics from each cluster, which reduces the dimensionality of the search space. The representative metrics may provide a saliant representation of each metrics cluster. The representative metrics are provided to a service health analyzer, which performs a root cause analysis of the representative metrics to diagnose and mitigate the event.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 30, 2023
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Hagit GRUSHKA, Jeremy SAMAMA, Michael ALBURQUERQUE, Eliya HABBA, Rachel LEMBERG, Yaniv LAVI
  • Publication number: 20240144443
    Abstract: A method for automatically improving the legibility of text within graphic designs is implemented via a computing system including a processor. The method includes executing a graphics application and causing surfacing of a graphic design GUI on a display. The method includes generating a templatized image including text responsive to the user-initiated insertion of a desired image into a design template surfaced via the graphic design GUI. The method also includes assigning a legibility score to the text within the templatized image and, responsive to a determination that the legibility score is less than a predetermined threshold, generating a bounding box around the text area. The method further includes generating an improved templatized image with improved text legibility by selectively blurring the image portion that falls within the bounding box, as well as causing surfacing of the second templatized image via the graphic design GUI.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Mrinal Kumar SHARMA, Atul SINGH, Cheshtha SINDHWANI
  • Publication number: 20240143433
    Abstract: Methods and systems for detecting systemwide service issues by using anomaly localization. In an example, a method includes receiving time-series monitoring data for multiple services, the time-series monitoring data including multiple dimensions and an error metric; for the monitoring data from each service, evaluating scopes within the monitoring data based on an objective function for a time-series of the error metric to identify at least one anomalous scope, each scope including at least one dimension and a value for the dimension; based on evaluating the scopes, generating a ranked list of scopes for each service based on objective function scores for the scopes; correlating the ranked lists of scopes across the multiple services to identify a cross-service anomaly; and generating an alert for the services based on the cross-service anomaly, the alert indicating at least one scope as a potential root cause for the cross-service anomaly.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Mohit VERMA, Julien HOACHUCK, Qingwei LIN, Pooja RANI, Namrata JAIN, Rakesh NAMINENI, Jimmy WONG, Si QIN, Yu KANG, Jeffrey Ding HE, Yingnong DANG, Jian ZHANG, Bo QIAO, Kamaljit BATH
  • Publication number: 20240144049
    Abstract: A method for computer question answering includes, at a retriever subsystem of a question answering computer system, identifying a plurality of relevant text evidence strings for an input text question. At a linker subsystem of the question answering computer system, one or more of the plurality of relevant text evidence strings are associated with a respective secondary text evidence string to form a plurality of evidence chains via a previously-trained entity-linking machine-learning model. At a chainer subsystem of the question answering computer system, a ranked set of the evidence chains is identified based at least in part on an output of a generative machine-learning model applied to each of the plurality of evidence chains. At a reader subsystem of the question answering computer system, an answer to the input text question is output based at least in part on the ranked set of evidence chains.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Hao CHENG, Xiaodong LIU, Jianfeng GAO, Kaixin MA
  • Publication number: 20240143356
    Abstract: A method of operating a computing device in support of improved accessibility includes displaying a user interface to an application on a display screen of the computing device, wherein the computing device includes an accessibility assistant that reads an audible description of an element of the user interface; initiating, on the computing device, a virtual assistant that conducts an audible conversation between a user and the virtual assistant through at least a microphone and a speaker associated with the computing device, wherein the virtual assistant is not integrated with an operating system of the computing device; inhibiting an ability of the accessibility assistant to read the audible description of the element of the user interface; and upon transition of the virtual assistant from an active state, enabling the ability of the accessibility assistant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2024
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Jaclyn Carley KNAPP, Lisa STIFELMAN, André Roberto LIMA TAPAJÓS, Jin XU, Steven DICARLO, Kaichun WU, Yuhua GUAN
  • Publication number: 20240143350
    Abstract: A system for generating a user interface described herein can include a processor to detect a type of the system based on hardware components residing within the system or coupled to the system and determine a user interface manager to execute based on the type of the system. The processor can also execute the user interface manager to generate a user interface for the system, wherein the type of the user interface manager comprises a plurality of rules to indicate a layout of the user interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2023
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ramrajprabu BALASUBRAMANIAN, Darren R. DAVIS, Kenton A. SHIPLEY, Nathan T. RADEBAUGH, Paul DYKSTRA, Jan Harold KARACHALE, Brian David CROSS, Patrick J. DERKS, William Scott STAUBER, Nishad MULYE
  • Publication number: 20240143387
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for handing off execution of an application from a local computing device to a cloud-based computing device. The disclosed technology is directed to determining whether and when to initiate handing off the execution of the application based on monitoring resource consumption of the local computing device. When the application is not previously installed on the cloud-based computing device, the local computing device transmits an application installer executable to the cloud-based computing device for enabling use of the same application on the cloud-based computing device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Christiaan BRINKHOFF, Prasanna Chromepet PADMANABHAN, Sandeep PATNAIK
  • Publication number: 20240143303
    Abstract: Systems and methods for deploying dependent updates include mechanisms for requiring that dependency information be provided for each update so that dependent updates may be identified. Update dependencies are tracked so that dependent updates are not deployed until parent updates have been completed. Deployment sequencing is implemented on top of existing asynchronous deployment policies so that asynchronous workflow remains intact and unaltered. The asynchronous workflow is upgraded to a synchronous (i.e., sequential) workflow for updates having dependencies to ensure that updates having dependencies are applied in the correct order.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Dmitry Valentinovich KHOLODKOV, Rahul NIGAM, Nidhi VERMA
  • Publication number: 20240147663
    Abstract: A liquid-submersible thermal management system includes a cylindrical outer shell and an inner shell positioned in an interior volume of the outer shell. The cylindrical outer shell has a longitudinal axis oriented vertically relative to a direction of gravity, and the inner shell defines an immersion chamber. The liquid-submersible thermal management system a spine positioned inside the immersion chamber and oriented at least partially in a direction of the longitudinal axis with a heat-generating component located in the immersion chamber. A working fluid is positioned in the immersion chamber and at least partially surrounding the heat-generating component. The working fluid receives heat from the heat-generating component.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2024
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Husam Atallah ALISSA, Ioannis MANOUSAKIS, Nicholas Andrew KEEHN, Eric C. PETERSON, Bharath RAMAKRISHNAN, Christian L. BELADY, Ricardo Gouvea BIANCHINI
  • Publication number: 20240144051
    Abstract: This document relates to automated generation of machine learning models, such as neural networks. One example method involves obtaining a first machine learning model having one or more first inference operations. The example method also involves identifying a plurality of second inference operations that are supported by an inference hardware architecture. The example method also involves generating second machine learning models by modifying the first machine learning model to include individual second inference operations that are supported by the inference hardware architecture. The example method also involves selecting a final machine learning model from the second machine learning models based on one or more metrics.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Gilad KIRSHENBOIM, Ofer DEKEL, Shital SHAH, Debadeepta DEY, Segev RAVGAD
  • Publication number: 20240145079
    Abstract: Biosensing measurements (e.g., heart rate, pupil size, cognitive load, stress level, etc.) are communicated in the context of events that occurred concurrently with the biosensing measurements. The biosensing measurements and the contextual events can be presented in real-time or as historical summaries. Such presentations allow users to easily gain useful insights into which specific events triggered which specific physiological responses in users. Therefore, the present concepts more effectively communicate insights that can be used to change user behavior, modify workflow, design improved products or services, enhance user satisfaction and wellbeing, increase productivity and revenue, and eliminate negative impacts on user's emotions and mental state.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2022
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Aashish PATEL, Hayden HELM, Jen-Tse DONG, Siddharth SIDDHARTH, Weiwei YANG, Amber D. HOAK, David A. TITTSWORTH, Kateryna LYTVYNETS
  • Publication number: 20240146955
    Abstract: Innovations in the area of prediction of block vector (“By”) values improve encoding or decoding of blocks using intra block copy (“BC”) prediction. For example, some of the innovations relate to use of a default BV predictor with a non-zero value. Other innovations relate to use of a selected one of multiple BV predictor candidates for a current block. Still other innovations relate to use of a skip mode in which a current intra-BC-predicted block uses a predicted BV value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 4, 2024
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Lihua Zhu, Gary J. Sullivan, Jizheng Xu, Sridhar Sankuratri, B. Anil Kumar, Feng Wu
  • Patent number: D1025987
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John Helmes, Aditha May Adams, Simon Cameron Dearsley, Go Osaki, Hongshan Sun