Patents by Inventor Alastair Taylor

Alastair Taylor has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240143234
    Abstract: Techniques are provided for combining data block and checksum block I/O into a single I/O operation. Many storage systems utilize checksums to verify the integrity of data blocks stored within storage devices managed by a storage stack. However, when a storage system reads a data block from a storage device, a corresponding checksum must also be read to verify integrity of the data in the data block. This results in increased latency because two read operations are being processed through the storage stack and are being executed upon the storage device. To reduce this latency and improve I/O operations per second, a single combined I/O operation corresponding to a contiguous range of blocks including the data block and the checksum block is processed through the storage stack instead of two separate I/O operations. Additionally, I/O operation may be combined into a single request that is executed upon the storage device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 8, 2024
    Publication date: May 2, 2024
    Inventors: James Alastair Taylor, Suhas Girish Urkude
  • Patent number: 11954348
    Abstract: Techniques are provided for combining data block and checksum block I/O into a single I/O operation. Many storage systems utilize checksums to verify the integrity of data blocks stored within storage devices managed by a storage stack. However, when a storage system reads a data block from a storage device, a corresponding checksum must also be read to verify integrity of the data in the data block. This results in increased latency because two read operations are being processed through the storage stack and are being executed upon the storage device. To reduce this latency and improve I/O operations per second, a single combined I/O operation corresponding to a contiguous range of blocks including the data block and the checksum block is processed through the storage stack instead of two separate I/O operations. Additionally, I/O operation may be combined into a single request that is executed upon the storage device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
    Inventors: James Alastair Taylor, Suhas Girish Urkude
  • Publication number: 20230325115
    Abstract: Techniques are provided for combining data block and checksum block I/O into a single I/O operation. Many storage systems utilize checksums to verify the integrity of data blocks stored within storage devices managed by a storage stack. However, when a storage system reads a data block from a storage device, a corresponding checksum must also be read to verify integrity of the data in the data block. This results in increased latency because two read operations are being processed through the storage stack and are being executed upon the storage device. To reduce this latency and improve I/O operations per second, a single combined I/O operation corresponding to a contiguous range of blocks including the data block and the checksum block is processed through the storage stack instead of two separate I/O operations. Additionally, I/O operation may be combined into a single request that is executed upon the storage device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2022
    Publication date: October 12, 2023
    Inventors: James Alastair Taylor, Suhas Girish Urkude
  • Publication number: 20230325098
    Abstract: Techniques are provided for combining data block and checksum block I/O into a single I/O operation. Many storage systems utilize checksums to verify the integrity of data blocks stored within storage devices managed by a storage stack. However, when a storage system reads a data block from a storage device, a corresponding checksum must also be read to verify integrity of the data in the data block. This results in increased latency because two read operations are being processed through the storage stack and are being executed upon the storage device. To reduce this latency and improve I/O operations per second, a single combined I/O operation corresponding to a contiguous range of blocks including the data block and the checksum block is processed through the storage stack instead of two separate I/O operations. Additionally, I/O operation may be combined into a single request that is executed upon the storage device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2022
    Publication date: October 12, 2023
    Inventors: James Alastair Taylor, Suhas Girish Urkude
  • Publication number: 20210297036
    Abstract: A photovoltaic (PV) module mounting system can have mounting clips that can be moved up and down a roof, and can allow the height of the mounting clips to be adjusted relative to the roof. At least a portion of the system can be made of a non-conductive material so that the system can be free of a grounding unit. The system can allow solar modules to be quickly installed, and can allow the solar modules to be removed quickly for repair or in the event of a fire.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2020
    Publication date: September 23, 2021
    Inventors: Jacob Van Reenen Pretorius, Leslie G. Fritzemeier, Malcolm Cummings, Yang Jin, Katherine Hartman, Alastair Taylor, Michael Ross Everman
  • Patent number: 10853275
    Abstract: A device, which may be a peripheral device or a host computing device, comprises a communication interface, a memory and a processor. The processor is arranged to detect imminent disconnection of a communication link between the peripheral device and the host computing device and in response to detecting the imminent disconnection of the communication link, to trigger a data transfer from the host computing device to the peripheral device via the communication interface. The data transfer defines, at least in part, a fixed output data set which, after disconnection, is output via an output device in the peripheral device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Tobias Alexander Grosse-Puppendahl, James William Scott, Stephen Edward Hodges, John Franciscus Marie Helmes, Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen, Stuart Alastair Taylor, Pascal Knierim, Josh Fromm, Gavin Wood, Albrecht Schmidt
  • Patent number: 10707803
    Abstract: A photovoltaic (PV) module mounting system can have mounting clips that can be moved up and down a roof, and can allow the height of the mounting clips to be adjusted relative to the roof. At least a portion of the system can be made of a non-conductive material so that the system can be free of a grounding unit. The system can allow solar modules to be quickly installed, and can allow the solar modules to be removed quickly for repair or in the event of a fire.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Tessolar Inc.
    Inventors: Jacob Van Reenen Pretorius, Leslie G. Fritzemeier, Malcolm Cummings, Yang Jin, Katherine Hartman, Alastair Taylor, Michael Ross Everman
  • Patent number: 10606934
    Abstract: A computing device comprises an electronic paper display, a processor and a memory. The memory is arranged to store platform software and application software for at least one application that is not adapted to work with an electronic paper display. The platform software comprises a UI conversion module comprising device-executable instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: access a UI element tree for the application; generate a modified UI element tree for the application by removing and/or re-styling at least one UI element; and render data from the application using the modified UI element tree for display on the electronic paper display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: John Franciscus Marie Helmes, James Scott, Stuart Alastair Taylor, Stephen Edward Hodges, Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen, Tobias Alexander Grosse-Puppendahl, Josh Fromm, Pascal Knierim, Gavin Wood, Albrecht Schmidt, Thomas Denney
  • Publication number: 20190294562
    Abstract: A device, which may be a peripheral device or a host computing device, comprises a communication interface, a memory and a processor. The processor is arranged to detect imminent disconnection of a communication link between the peripheral device and the host computing device and in response to detecting the imminent disconnection of the communication link, to trigger a data transfer from the host computing device to the peripheral device via the communication interface. The data transfer defines, at least in part, a fixed output data set which, after disconnection, is output via an output device in the peripheral device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 25, 2019
    Publication date: September 26, 2019
    Inventors: Tobias Alexander Grosse-Puppendahl, James William Scott, Stephen Edward Hodges, John Franciscus Marie Helmes, Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen, Stuart Alastair Taylor, Pascal Knierim, Josh Fromm, Gavin Wood, Albrecht Schmidt
  • Patent number: 10417515
    Abstract: A system is described which comprises an electronic display device, an annotation capture module and a camera. The annotation capture module is configured to trigger a change in an image displayed on the electronic display device responsive to a capture trigger and the camera is configured to capture one or more images of the electronic display device in response to the capture trigger and/or a trigger received from the annotation capture module. The annotation capture module is further arranged to identify any manual annotations made by a user on the electronic display device by analyzing the images of the electronic display device captured by the camera, wherein at least one of the images was captured after the change in the image displayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: James Scott, Stephen Edward Hodges, Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen, Stuart Alastair Taylor, John Franciscus Marie Helmes, Tobias Grosse-Puppendahl
  • Patent number: 10269309
    Abstract: A display device which includes an electronic paper display additionally comprises power harvesting hardware and display update hardware which is configured to control the updating of the electronic paper display based on a sensed power harvesting level which may, in various embodiments, be a current incoming power level as generated by the power harvesting hardware or a stored power level in a power storage device within the display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Stuart Alastair Taylor, Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen, John Franciscus Marie Helmes, Stephen Edward Hodges, James Scott, Albrecht Schmidt, Pascal Knierim, Gavin Wood, Josh Wolff Fromm, Tobias Grosse-Puppendahl
  • Patent number: 10248584
    Abstract: A device, which may be a peripheral device or a host computing device, comprises a communication interface, a memory and a processor. The processor is arranged to detect imminent disconnection of a communication link between the peripheral device and the host computing device and in response to detecting the imminent disconnection of the communication link, to trigger a data transfer from the host computing device to the peripheral device via the communication interface. The data transfer defines, at least in part, a fixed output data set which, after disconnection, is output via an output device in the peripheral device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Tobias Alexander Grosse-Puppendahl, James William Scott, Stephen Edward Hodges, John Franciscus Marie Helmes, Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen, Stuart Alastair Taylor, Pascal Knierim, Josh Fromm, Gavin Wood, Albrecht Schmidt
  • Patent number: 10198233
    Abstract: A system is described which comprises an input arranged to receive attention tracking data from attention tracking hardware. The attention tracking data, along with parameters associated with each display change request, is then used to select a display change request from a plurality of stored display change requests received from a plurality of different applications and a change defined by the selected display change request is then rendered in a GUI on a display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Tobias Alexander Grosse-Puppendahl, James Scott, Stephen Edward Hodges, John Franciscus Marie Helmes, Stuart Alastair Taylor, Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen, Pascal Knierim, Gavin Wood, Josh Fromm, Albrecht Schmidt
  • Publication number: 20190006982
    Abstract: A photovoltaic (PV) module mounting system can have mounting clips that can be moved up and down a roof, and can allow the height of the mounting clips to be adjusted relative to the roof. At least a portion of the system can be made of a non-conductive material so that the system can be free of a grounding unit. The system can allow solar modules to be quickly installed, and can allow the solar modules to be removed quickly for repair or in the event of a fire.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2018
    Publication date: January 3, 2019
    Inventors: Jacob Van Reenen Pretorius, Leslie G. Fritzemeier, Malcolm Cummings, Yang Jin, Katherine Hartman, Alastair Taylor, Michael Ross Everman
  • Publication number: 20180197034
    Abstract: A system is described which comprises an electronic display device, an annotation capture module and a camera. The annotation capture module is configured to trigger a change in an image displayed on the electronic display device responsive to a capture trigger and the camera is configured to capture one or more images of the electronic display device in response to the capture trigger and/or a trigger received from the annotation capture module. The annotation capture module is further arranged to identify any manual annotations made by a user on the electronic display device by analyzing the images of the electronic display device captured by the camera, wherein at least one of the images was captured after the change in the image displayed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2017
    Publication date: July 12, 2018
    Inventors: James Scott, Stephen Edward Hodges, Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen, Stuart Alastair Taylor, John Franciscus Marie Helmes, Tobias Grosse-Puppendahl
  • Patent number: 10002750
    Abstract: Ion filter for FAIMS fabricated using the LIGA technique. The ion filter is manufactured using a metal layer to form the ion channels and an insulating support layer to hold the structure rigidly together after separation of the metal layer into two electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2018
    Assignee: Owlstone Medical Limited
    Inventors: Danielle Toutoungi, Matthew Hart, John Somerville, Jon Pearson, Max Allsworth, Richard Orrell, Antoni Negri, Jeremy Spinks, Martin Holden, Andrew H. Koehl, Alastair Taylor
  • Patent number: 9953818
    Abstract: An ion mobility gas detector apparatus including a detector core, an inlet gas path, an exhaust gas path, a source of diluent gas, and at least one or more sensors for measuring temperature, pressure and humidity of gas streams. Further included is a mixing mechanism adapted to mix at least first and second gas streams in response to one or more sensor measurements. A controller is provided for applying drive signals to the detector core.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2018
    Assignee: Owlstone Medical Limited
    Inventors: Mike Black, Matthew Hart, John Somerville, Alastair Taylor, Iva Manasi, Max Allsworth
  • Publication number: 20170286371
    Abstract: A computing device comprises an electronic paper display, a processor and a memory. The memory is arranged to store platform software and application software for at least one application that is not adapted to work with an electronic paper display. The platform software comprises a UI conversion module comprising device-executable instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: access a UI element tree for the application; generate a modified UI element tree for the application by removing and/or re-styling at least one UI element; and render data from the application using the modified UI element tree for display on the electronic paper display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2016
    Publication date: October 5, 2017
    Inventors: John Franciscus Marie Helmes, James Scott, Stuart Alastair Taylor, Stephen Edward Hodges, Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen, Tobias Alexander Grosse-Puppendahl, Josh Fromm, Pascal Knierim, Gavin Wood, Albrecht Schmidt, Thomas Denney
  • Publication number: 20170286328
    Abstract: A device, which may be a peripheral device or a host computing device, comprises a communication interface, a memory and a processor. The processor is arranged to detect imminent disconnection of a communication link between the peripheral device and the host computing device and in response to detecting the imminent disconnection of the communication link, to trigger a data transfer from the host computing device to the peripheral device via the communication interface. The data transfer defines, at least in part, a fixed output data set which, after disconnection, is output via an output device in the peripheral device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2016
    Publication date: October 5, 2017
    Inventors: Tobias Alexander Grosse-Puppendahl, James William Scott, Stephen Edward Hodges, John Franciscus Marie Helmes, Nicholas Yen-Cherng Chen, Stuart Alastair Taylor, Pascal Knierim, Josh Fromm, Gavin Wood, Albrecht Schmidt
  • Patent number: D875515
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2020
    Assignee: Tessolar Inc.
    Inventors: Jacob Van Reenen Pretorius, Leslie G. Fritzemeier, Malcolm Cummings, Yang Jin, Katherine Hartman, Alastair Taylor, Michael Everman