Patents by Inventor James H. Lewallen

James H. Lewallen 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: 11076007
    Abstract: The techniques discussed herein allow an agent that provides dialog-based services to converse with a user via any mode. A central service programmed to be able to communicate via any mode collects information from agents necessary to act on the agents' behalf. In order to ensure that an agent has a maximal presence across modes, the central service provides auxiliary services such as language translation, fidelity upgrading and/or downgrading, modal constraint conformation, etc. Moreover, the central service provides session tracking via user profiles stored at the intercom so that if a user changes a mode by which the user is conversing with an agent, the central service can keep the context of the conversation across the new mode. Furthermore, agents can communicate with other agents via the central service, allowing other agents to provide services to agents or to add their services to an ongoing dialog with a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2021
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Thomas Matthew Laird-McConnell, Lili Cheng, James H. Lewallen, Justin Cranshaw, Craig Jensen, Steve Ickman, William L. Portnoy, Qi Lu, Daniel J. Driscoll
  • Publication number: 20200153918
    Abstract: The techniques discussed herein allow an agent that provides dialog-based services to converse with a user via any mode. A central service programmed to be able to communicate via any mode collects information from agents necessary to act on the agents' behalf. In order to ensure that an agent has a maximal presence across modes, the central service provides auxiliary services such as language translation, fidelity upgrading and/or downgrading, modal constraint conformation, etc. Moreover, the central service provides session tracking via user profiles stored at the intercom so that if a user changes a mode by which the user is conversing with an agent, the central service can keep the context of the conversation across the new mode. Furthermore, agents can communicate with other agents via the central service, allowing other agents to provide services to agents or to add their services to an ongoing dialog with a user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2020
    Publication date: May 14, 2020
    Inventors: Thomas Matthew LAIRD-MCCONNELL, Lili CHENG, James H. LEWALLEN, Justin CRANSHAW, Craig JENSEN, Steve ICKMAN, William L. PORTNOY, Qi LU, Daniel J. DRISCOLL
  • Patent number: 10587708
    Abstract: The techniques discussed herein allow an agent that provides dialog-based services to converse with a user via any mode. A central service programmed to be able to communicate via any mode collects information from agents necessary to act on the agents' behalf. In order to ensure that an agent has a maximal presence across modes, the central service provides auxiliary services such as language translation, fidelity upgrading and/or downgrading, modal constraint conformation, etc. Moreover, the central service provides session tracking via user profiles stored at the intercom so that if a user changes a mode by which the user is conversing with an agent, the central service can keep the context of the conversation across the new mode. Furthermore, agents can communicate with other agents via the central service, allowing other agents to provide services to agents or to add their services to an ongoing dialog with a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Thomas Matthew Laird-McConnell, Lili Cheng, James H. Lewallen, Justin Cranshaw, Craig Jensen, Steve Ickman, William L. Portnoy, Qi Lu, Daniel J. Driscoll
  • Patent number: 10581808
    Abstract: In an example, a method includes receiving a data package, the data package including a contact identification and a message payload; in response to determining that a key for the contact identification does not exist in a contact table: generating a key for the contact identification; and updating the contact table with the generated key to indicate an association between the key and the contact identification; calculating a hashed identification based on the generated key and contact identification; and associating the message payload with the hashed identification in a message table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Daniel J. Driscoll, James H. Lewallen, Christopher C. McConnell, Thomas M. Laird-McConnell
  • Patent number: 10255351
    Abstract: A social network system (or other type of hosting system) is described herein which allows different types of applications to interact with the common resources of the system via respective application-specific channels. Through an application-specific channel, a user may obtain a filtered set of content items (e.g., posts) and notifications that pertain to a particular application with which the user is currently interacting. But the user may also obtain items and notifications that do not necessarily have an affiliation with the particular application. The social network system may maintain a single identity for each user across all application channels hosted by the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Todd D. Newman, James H. Lewallen, Colleen G. Estrada, Rajeev V. Karunakaran
  • Publication number: 20180278586
    Abstract: In an example, a method includes receiving a data package, the data package including a contact identification and a message payload; in response to determining that a key for the contact identification does not exist in a contact table: generating a key for the contact identification; and updating the contact table with the generated key to indicate an association between the key and the contact identification; calculating a hashed identification based on the generated key and contact identification; and associating the message payload with the hashed identification in a message table.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2017
    Publication date: September 27, 2018
    Inventors: Daniel J. Driscoll, James H. Lewallen, Christopher C. McConnell, Thomas M. Laird-McConnell
  • Publication number: 20170364834
    Abstract: The subject disclosure is directed towards a real-time or near real-time sentiment monitoring service. A set of rules such as keywords and data sources to crawl is provided to the monitoring service, which crawls the sources to obtain sentiment-related data for an entity, such as a corporation or product. Content items may be selected from the crawled data, and/or the data may be analyzed to provide results. The results may be displayed, such as on a content page, to quickly view the public's sentiment regarding the entity. The rules may be dynamically modified by a user or collaborating users to tune monitoring of the entity as desired, e.g., to obtain more relevant results.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 5, 2017
    Publication date: December 21, 2017
    Inventors: Russell Allen HERRING, James H. LEWALLEN, Todd D. NEWMAN, David S. TANIGUCHI, Lili CHENG
  • Publication number: 20170279906
    Abstract: The techniques discussed herein allow an agent that provides dialog-based services to converse with a user via any mode. A central service programmed to be able to communicate via any mode collects information from agents necessary to act on the agents' behalf. In order to ensure that an agent has a maximal presence across modes, the central service provides auxiliary services such as language translation, fidelity upgrading and/or downgrading, modal constraint conformation, etc. Moreover, the central service provides session tracking via user profiles stored at the intercom so that if a user changes a mode by which the user is conversing with an agent, the central service can keep the context of the conversation across the new mode. Furthermore, agents can communicate with other agents via the central service, allowing other agents to provide services to agents or to add their services to an ongoing dialog with a user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2016
    Publication date: September 28, 2017
    Inventors: Thomas Matthew Laird-McConnell, Lili Cheng, James H. Lewallen, Justin Cranshaw, Craig Jensen, Steve Ickman, William L. Portnoy, Qi Lu, Daniel J. Driscoll
  • Patent number: 9552342
    Abstract: Various technologies pertaining to generation of a client collage are described herein. A creator can construct a computer-implemented collage by selecting a plurality of computer-implemented objects from a respective plurality of network-accessible storage locations, and arranging the computer-implemented objects in a desired manner. Responsive to receiving an indication that the computer-implemented collage is suitable for publication, a server can render the collage and capture a backdrop image of the rendered collage. The server can further generate metadata that are packaged with the backdrop image as a client collage. When a client computing device requests the collage, the client collage is provided to the client computing device, which renders the backdrop image and processes the metadata. The metadata causes a click overlay to be placed upon the backdrop image, wherein functionality of the click overlay is defined by the metadata.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Will Portnoy, Craig Jensen, Tom Laird-McConnell, James H. Lewallen
  • Publication number: 20150261851
    Abstract: A social network system (or other type of hosting system) is described herein which allows different types of applications to interact with the common resources of the system via respective application-specific channels. Through an application-specific channel, a user may obtain a filtered set of content items (e.g., posts) and notifications that pertain to a particular application with which the user is currently interacting. But the user may also obtain items and notifications that do not necessarily have an affiliation with the particular application.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2014
    Publication date: September 17, 2015
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Todd D. Newman, James H. Lewallen, Colleen G. Estrada, Rajeev V. Karunakaran
  • Publication number: 20150193409
    Abstract: Various technologies pertaining to generation of a client collage are described herein. A creator can construct a computer-implemented collage by selecting a plurality of computer-implemented objects from a respective plurality of network-accessible storage locations, and arranging the computer-implemented objects in a desired manner. Responsive to receiving an indication that the computer-implemented collage is suitable for publication, a server can render the collage and capture a backdrop image of the rendered collage. The server can further generate metadata that are packaged with the backdrop image as a client collage. When a client computing device requests the collage, the client collage is provided to the client computing device, which renders the backdrop image and processes the metadata. The metadata causes a click overlay to be placed upon the backdrop image, wherein functionality of the click overlay is defined by the metadata.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2014
    Publication date: July 9, 2015
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Will Portnoy, Craig Jensen, Tom Laird-McConnell, James H. Lewallen
  • Patent number: 9043358
    Abstract: A unified search service may collect information related to an enterprise from at least one of publicly available data and private enterprise data. In some implementations, crowd sourcing may be used to determine a source list of one or more sources of information. Authored content can be generated, such as by combining one or more items of information from the public data with one or more items of information from the private enterprise data. Further, in some implementations, a public index may be generated from the public data, and one or more affiliation indexes may be generated from the private enterprise data. For example, a first affiliation index may contain confidential enterprise information, while a second affiliation index may contain non-confidential enterprise information. A user's affiliation to the enterprise may be taken into consideration when determining which indexes to use when responding to a search request from the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Lili Cheng, Xuedong David Huang, Heung-Yeung Shum, Eric J. Horvitz, James H. Lewallen, Todd D. Newman, David S. Taniguchi
  • Publication number: 20120323627
    Abstract: The subject disclosure is directed towards a real-time or near real-time sentiment monitoring service. A set of rules such as keywords and data sources to crawl is provided to the monitoring service, which crawls the sources to obtain sentiment-related data for an entity, such as a corporation or product. Content items may be selected from the crawled data, and/or the data may be analyzed to provide results. The results may be displayed, such as on a content page, to quickly view the public's sentiment regarding the entity. The rules may be dynamically modified by a user or collaborating users to tune monitoring of the entity as desired, e.g., to obtain more relevant results.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2011
    Publication date: December 20, 2012
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Russell Allen Herring, JR., James H. Lewallen, Todd D. Newman, David S. Taniguchi, Lili Cheng
  • Publication number: 20120233209
    Abstract: A unified search service may collect information related to an enterprise from at least one of publicly available data and private enterprise data. In some implementations, crowd sourcing may be used to determine a source list of one or more sources of information. Authored content can be generated, such as by combining one or more items of information from the public data with one or more items of information from the private enterprise data. Further, in some implementations, a public index may be generated from the public data, and one or more affiliation indexes may be generated from the private enterprise data. For example, a first affiliation index may contain confidential enterprise information, while a second affiliation index may contain non-confidential enterprise information. A user's affiliation to the enterprise may be taken into consideration when determining which indexes to use when responding to a search request from the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2011
    Publication date: September 13, 2012
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Lili Cheng, Xuedong David Huang, Heung-Yeung Shum, Erik J. Horvitz, James H. Lewallen, Todd D. Newman, David S. Taniguchi