Patents by Inventor Andrew Tomkins

Andrew Tomkins 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).

  • Patent number: 11016872
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining one or more user habits for a user. A group of one or more past user activity occurrences of a user may be determined based on similarity between the past user activity occurrences of the group. A user habit may be determined based on the past user activity occurrences of the group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Erwin Can Sar, Timothy Youngjin Sohn, Andrew Tomkins
  • Patent number: 10949448
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining additional features for a user task entry of a user based on a user habit of the user. For example, one or more aspects of a user task entry of a user may be compared to one or more aspects of a user habit of the user to determine a correlation measure between the task entry and the user habit. If the correlation measure satisfies a threshold, one or more additional features of the user task entry may be determined based on the user habit. For example, the user habit may include one or more trigger indicators that indicate an actual entry or anticipated entry of the user into the user habit, and one or more of the trigger indicators may be utilized to determine task trigger indicators for the user task entry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Erwin Can Sar, Timothy Youngjin Sohn, Andrew Tomkins
  • Patent number: 10915580
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining an activity of a user based on sensor readings from sensor(s), and providing, for presentation to the user via a user interface output of a computing device of the user, information that is based on the determined activity. In some implementations, the information may be provided in response to input entered by the user via a user interface input device of the computing device of the user. In some implementations, the input may be a search query and the information may be search results. In some implementations, the input may be a partial query and the information may be query suggestions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2021
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Amr Ahmed, Alexander Johannes Smola, Daniel Wyatt, Daniel J. Clancy, Martin Zinkevich
  • Publication number: 20200401609
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for list accumulation and reminder triggering. In one aspect, a method includes receiving, at a data processing apparatus, a first input comprising a plurality of terms; determining, by the data processing apparatus, that one or more of the terms in the first input specify an item that belongs to a reminder category, the reminder category being associated with a collection of items that belong to the category and for which reminders may be generated; and in response to the determination, storing data that associates a reminder type with the item specified by the one or more terms.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2020
    Publication date: December 24, 2020
    Inventors: Fergus Gerard Hurley, Robin Dua, Sangsoo Sung, Andrew Tomkins
  • Publication number: 20200356585
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to associating a task with a user based on the user selecting a task suggestion that is provided to the user in response to a user query. In some implementations, the task may be identified based on similarities between the words and/or phrases of the user query and a task suggestion that is associated with a task. In some implementations, the task may be identified based on user data associated with the user. In some implementations, the task may be associated with additional information related to completing the task.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 2020
    Publication date: November 12, 2020
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Tristan Harris, Can Sar, Angelo DiNardi
  • Patent number: 10831348
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining a ranking of class members of a task component class. A task component class identifier may be identified, the task component class identifier having a plurality of associated class members. One or more task completion indicators having the identified at least one task component class identifier may be determined. Each of the task completion indicators may indicate which of the associated class members was utilized to complete a task. One or more of the associated class members for the task component class identifier may be ranked. The ranking may be based on frequency of occurrence of the given associated class member in the task completion indicators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2020
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Erwin Can Sar, Timothy Youngjin Sohn, Andrew Tomkins, Vijay Umapathy
  • Patent number: 10783166
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for list accumulation and reminder triggering. In one aspect, a method includes receiving, at a data processing apparatus, a first input comprising a plurality of terms; determining, by the data processing apparatus, that one or more of the terms in the first input specify an item that belongs to a reminder category, the reminder category being associated with a collection of items that belong to the category and for which reminders may be generated; and in response to the determination, storing data that associates a reminder type with the item specified by the one or more terms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2020
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Fergus Gerard Hurley, Robin Dua, Sangsoo Sung, Andrew Tomkins
  • Patent number: 10776407
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to associating a task with a user based on the user selecting a task suggestion that is provided to the user in response to a user query. In some implementations, the task may be identified based on similarities between the words and/or phrases of the user query and a task suggestion that is associated with a task. In some implementations, the task may be identified based on user data associated with the user. In some implementations, the task may be associated with additional information related to completing the task.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Tristan Harris, Can Sar, Angelo DiNardi
  • Publication number: 20200250537
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for training an image embedding model. In one aspect, a method comprises: obtaining training data comprising a plurality of training examples, wherein each training example comprises: an image pair comprising a first image and a second image; and selection data indicating one or more of: (i) a co-click rate of the image pair, and (ii) a similar-image click rate of the image pair; and using the training data to train an image embedding model having a plurality of image embedding model parameters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2019
    Publication date: August 6, 2020
    Inventors: Zhen Li, Yi-ting Chen, Yaxi Gao, Da-Cheng Juan, Aleksei Timofeev, Chun-Ta Lu, Futang Peng, Sujith Ravi, Andrew Tomkins, Thomas J. Duerig
  • Patent number: 10680991
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining an effect on dissemination of information related to an event based on a dynamic confidence level associated with the event. For example, an event and an event confidence level of the event may be determined based on a message of a user. An effect on dissemination of information related to the event may be determined based on the confidence level. A new confidence level may be determined based on additional data associated with the event and the effect on dissemination of information may be adjusted based on the new confidence level. In some implementations, the additional data may be based on a new message that is related to the message, such as a reply to the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2020
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Shalini Agarwal, MyLinh Yang, Bo Pang, Mark Yinan Li
  • Patent number: 10671685
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to adjusting the ranking of a suggestion for a geographic location based on determining how many of one or more users visited the geographic location after receiving the suggestion. In some implementations the one or more users may belong to first grouping of users and the ranking may be adjusted only for suggestions to the first grouping of users. In some implementations it may be determined if a second grouping of users visited the geographic location after receiving the suggestion. In some implementations a property of the given geographic location may be determined based on a comparison of how many of the second grouping of users visited the given geographic location after receiving the suggestion and how many of the one or more users visited the given geographic location after receiving the suggestion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar
  • Publication number: 20200143114
    Abstract: Implementations are directed to facilitating user device and/or agent device actions during a communication session. An interactive communications system provides outputs, as outlined below, that are tailored to enhance the functionality of the communication session, reduce the number of dialog “turns” of the communications session and/or the number of user inputs to devices involved in the session, and/or otherwise mitigate consumption of network and/or hardware resources during the communication session. In various implementations, the communication session involves user device(s) of a user, agent device(s) of an agent, and the interactive communications system. The interactive communications system can analyze various communications from the user device(s) and/or agent device(s) during a communication session in which the user (via the user device(s)) directs various communications to the agent, and in which the agent (via the agent device(s)) optionally directs various communications to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 22, 2018
    Publication date: May 7, 2020
    Inventors: Robin Dua, Andrew Tomkins, Sujith Ravi
  • Patent number: 10394684
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining one or more user habits for a user. A group of one or more past user activity occurrences of a user may be determined based on similarity between the past user activity occurrences of the group. A user habit may be determined based on the past user activity occurrences of the group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2019
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Erwin Can Sar, Timothy Youngjin Sohn, Andrew Tomkins
  • Publication number: 20190251597
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, for detour based content selection. In one aspect, a method includes receiving, at a data processing apparatus, location data for a plurality of users, the location data describing, for each user, locations of a user device of the user; determining, from the location data, route data for the plurality of users, the route data describing, for each user, a route traveled by the user; determining, by the data processing apparatus, for at least one or more of the users, a detour from the route traveled by the user to a retail location of the offeror; determining, by the data processing apparatus, for each of the at least one or more of the users, whether the user is eligible for an offer of the offeror based on the detour; and for each user eligible for an offer, enabling the offeror to provide an offer to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Publication date: August 15, 2019
    Inventors: Fergus Gerard Hurley, Michael Schwarz, Robin Dua, Sang Soo Sung, Andrew Tomkins
  • Patent number: 10305944
    Abstract: The disclosure includes a system and method for providing a customized stream of content to a user. The system includes: an item sourcer for gathering one or more content items from one or more content sources; a behavior indicator module and scorer for determining one or more behavior scores for the one or more content items; a content indicator module and scorer for determining one or more content scores for the one or more content items; a score combiner for aggregating the one or more behavior scores and the one or more content scores to generate one or more item scores for the one or more content items; a content diversifier for determining one or more diverse items from the one or more content items; and a stream generator for generating a customized stream of content for the user from the one or more diverse items.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Aman Bhargava, Abhijit Bose, Andrew Ames Bunner, Lan Liu, Boris Mazniker, Rachel Ida Rosenthal Schutt, Andrew Tomkins, Yonatan Zunger
  • Patent number: 10225228
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining an effect on dissemination of information related to an event based on a dynamic confidence level associated with the event. For example, an event and an event confidence level of the event may be determined based on a message of a user. An effect on dissemination of information related to the event may be determined based on the confidence level. A new confidence level may be determined based on additional data associated with the event and the effect on dissemination of information may be adjusted based on the new confidence level. In some implementations, the additional data may be based on a new message that is related to the message, such as a reply to the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Shalini Agarwal, MyLinh Yang, Bo Pang, Mark Yinan Li
  • Patent number: 10217134
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, for detour based content selection. In one aspect, a method includes receiving, at a data processing apparatus, location data for a plurality of users, the location data describing, for each user, locations of a user device of the user; determining, from the location data, route data for the plurality of users, the route data describing, for each user, a route traveled by the user; determining, by the data processing apparatus, for at least one or more of the users, a detour from the route traveled by the user to a retail location of the offeror; determining, by the data processing apparatus, for each of the at least one or more of the users, whether the user is eligible for an offer of the offeror based on the detour; and for each user eligible for an offer, enabling the offeror to provide an offer to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Fergus Gerard Hurley, Michael Schwarz, Robin Dua, Sangsoo Sung, Andrew Tomkins
  • Publication number: 20180357303
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining feature scores for message features. An electronic message associated with at least one user and associated with an event may be identified. A likelihood that the at least one user interacted with the event may be identified. One or more message features of the electronic message may be determined. Based on the likelihood that the at least one user interacted with the event, a feature score may be associated with a given message feature of the one or more message features, where the feature score is indicative of a likelihood that the at least one user will interact with another event associated with another message having the given message feature. The feature score may be associated with the given message feature.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2017
    Publication date: December 13, 2018
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Shalini Agarwal, MyLinh Yang, Bo Pang, Mark Yinan Li
  • Patent number: 10091147
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to providing additional information related to a vague term in a message. For example, in some implementations, one or more messages sent by a sender and received by one or more recipients may be identified, a vague term in the message may be identified, a user-restricted database may be identified that is associated with the sender or a recipient, and additional information related to the vague term may be determined from the user-restricted database. A vague term is a term which may have multiple meanings and that can be clarified with additional information. In some implementations, user-restricted databases may include additional information that is associated with the user that may be utilized to replace the vague term with a clarified term. In some implementations, a user-restricted database may be utilized to identify additional information in another database that may be utilized to clarify the vague term.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2018
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Shanmugasundaram Ravikumar, Shalini Agarwal, MyLinh Yang, Bo Pang, Mark Yinan Li
  • Patent number: 9979777
    Abstract: A system and method for generating a stream of content includes a content stream module that generates a model based on user input and/or prior activities using heterogeneous data sources. The heterogeneous data sources include search, entertainment, social activity and activity on third-party sites. The content stream module retrieves candidate content items that have interests that are similar to the user. The candidate content items are compared to the model and scored based upon interestingness of the content item to the user. The content stream module generates the stream of content from the candidate content items.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2018
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Andrew Tomkins, Dandapani Sivakumar, Sangsoo Sung, Justin Kosslyn, Todd Jackson, Andre Rohe, Ya Luo, Andrew Bunner, Alexander Sobol, Luca de Alfaro