Patents by Inventor John C. Platt

John C. Platt 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: 7296031
    Abstract: A system and method for generating a list is provided. The system includes a seed item input subsystem, an item identifying subsystem, a descriptive metadata similarity determining subsystem and a list generating subsystem that builds a list based, at least in part, on similarity processing performed on seed item descriptive metadata and user item descriptive metadata and user selected thresholds applied to such similarity processing. The method includes inexact matching between identifying metadata associated with new user items and identifying metadata stored in a reference metadata database. The method further includes subjecting candidate user items to similarity processing, where the degree to which the candidate user items are similar to the seed item is determined, and placing user items in a list of items based on user selected preferences for (dis)similarity between items in the list and the seed item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John C. Platt, Christopher Burges, Alice Zheng, Christopher B. Weare, Steven E. Swenson
  • Patent number: 7249162
    Abstract: The invention relates to a system for filtering messages—the system includes a seed filter having associated therewith a false positive rate and a false negative rate. A new filter is also provided for filtering the messages, the new filter is evaluated according to the false positive rate and the false negative rate of the seed filter, the data used to determine the false positive rate and the false negative rate of the seed filter are utilized to determine a new false positive rate and a new false negative rate of the new filter as a function of threshold. The new filter is employed in lieu of the seed filter if a threshold exists for the new filter such that the new false positive rate and new false negative rate are together considered better than the false positive and the false negative rate of the seed filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Robert L. Rounthwaite, Joshua T. Goodman, David E. Heckerman, John C. Platt, Carl M. Kadie
  • Patent number: 7233286
    Abstract: An architecture for minimizing calibration effort in an IEEE 802.11 device location measurement system. The calibration technique is based upon a regression function that produces adequately accurate location information as a function of signal strength regardless of gaps in the calibration data or minimally available data. The algorithm takes a set of signal strengths from known room locations in a building and generates a function giving (x,y) as a function of signal strength, which function may then be used for the estimation of new locations. Radial basis functions, which are simple to express and compute, are used for regression. The fact that the algorithm maps signal strength to continuous location makes it possible to skip rooms during calibration, yet still evaluate the location in those rooms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John C. Krumm, John C. Platt
  • Patent number: 7224372
    Abstract: Methods and systems for selecting different anti-aliasing filters to be applied to objects of image data rendered with pixel sub-component precision based on the attributes of the objects of the graphics image. For example, when rendering a character traditional anti-aliasing applied in the direction parallel to the striping of the pixel sub-components is adapted to the unique requirements of different character font sizes such that a large amount of anti-aliasing is applied to large font sizes while a small amount of anti-aliasing is provided for characters at small font sizes. Displaced sampling is utilized to determine the alpha values for a plurality of vertical samples for each RGB pixel sub-component. The selected anti-aliasing filter is applied to the alpha values to determine the luminous intensity values of the RGB pixel sub-components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: David C. Brown, John C. Platt, Michael Duggan, Gregory Hitchcock, Beat Stamm
  • Patent number: 7196258
    Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and/or methods that generate playlist(s) for a library or collection of media items via selecting a plurality of seed items, at least one of which is an undesirable seed item. Some of the seed items are desirable indicating that a user prefers additional media items similar to the desirable seed items and others are undesirable indicating that the user prefers additional media items dissimilar to the undesirable seed items. Additionally, the seed items can be weighted to establish a relative importance of the seed items. The invention compares media items in the collection with the seed items and determines which media items are added into the playlist by computation of similarity metrics or values. The playlist can be regenerated by adding desirable seed items to the playlist and removing media items from the playlist (e.g., undesirable seed items).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: John C. Platt
  • Patent number: 7171044
    Abstract: Red-eye detection based on red region detection with eye confirmation initially identifies pixels that correspond to the color of red-eye within an image. A determination is then made as to whether these identified pixels and surrounding areas are part of an eye or not part of an eye. Those identified pixels that are determined to be part of an eye are the detected red-eye regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Tong-Xian Chen, Xiangrong Chen, John C. Platt, Jie Yan, Hong-Jiang Zhang
  • Patent number: 7155489
    Abstract: What is disclosed is acquiring information regarding a web page, without having to commit to downloading that page. In one embodiment, after a current web page is downloaded from one source, and information regarding web pages linked to by links in the current web page are downloaded from a second source, when a user hovers a cursor over a link on a current web page, an informational region is displayed by the link that includes the information from the second source. The informational region may include, for example, a text box that apparently floats by the link. The information in the region can include, for example, keywords in the meta tags of the web page; paragraph headings of the web page; links on the web page to other pages; etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Lisa Heilbron, John C. Platt, Bernhard Schoelkopf, Patrice Y. Simard
  • Patent number: 7145572
    Abstract: The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for increasing the perceived quality of displayed images. This is achieved in a variety of ways including the use of a plurality of device specific display characteristics when preparing images for display. It is also achieved through the monitoring of display device and/or ambient light conditions, e.g., on a periodic basis, and using the obtained information when controlling display output. Another approach to improving the perceived quality of displayed images involves the use of information relating to a specific user's ability to perceive image characteristics such as color. By customizing display output to an individual user's own physical perception capabilities and/or viewing characteristics it is possible to enhance the image quality perceived by the individual viewer as compared to embodiments which do not take into consideration individual user characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Bodin Dresevic, William Hill, Gregory C. Hitchcock, Leroy B. Keely, Jr., John C. Platt, J. Turner Whitted
  • Patent number: 7142220
    Abstract: The blending coefficients (alpha values) of font glyphs undergo alpha correction to compensate for a lack of gamma correction in text rendering processes. The alpha correction includes selecting a set of correction coefficients that correspond to the predetermined gamma value of the display device and computing corrected alpha values from the known alpha values, the foreground colors, and set of correction coefficients. The corrected alpha values can then be used to blend the foreground and background colors of the corresponding display pixels without requiring gamma correction. Accordingly, the alpha correction can be performed by a GPU, which is not configured to perform gamma correction, thereby increasing the speed at which text rendering can occur.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John C. Platt, Mikhail M. Lyapunov
  • Patent number: 7134091
    Abstract: The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for increasing the perceived quality of displayed images. This is achieved in a variety of ways including the use of a plurality of device specific display characteristics when preparing images for display. It is also achieved through the monitoring of display device and/or ambient light conditions, e.g., on a periodic basis, and using the obtained information when controlling display output. Another approach to improving the perceived quality of displayed images involves the use of information relating to a specific user's ability to perceive image characteristics such as color. By customizing display output to an individual user's own physical perception capabilities and/or viewing characteristics it is possible to enhance the image quality perceived by the individual viewer as compared to embodiments which do not take into consideration individual user characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Bodin Dresevic, William Hill, Gregory Hitchcock, Leroy B. Keely, John C. Platt, J. Turner Whitted
  • Patent number: 7130480
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for displaying images, e.g., text characters, on display devices which have multiple separately controllable luminance elements per pixel. Multiple alpha values are generated per pixel, e.g., one per pixel sub-component. Filtering is then performed to generate a filtered alpha value for each pixel sub-component. The filtering operation uses as its input multiple alpha values. The alpha values used for the filtering operation may come from neighboring pixels. Accordingly, in the case where character glyphs are combined to form larger images, e.g., text strings, the filtering operation performed on glyph edge pixels depends on the content of a neighboring character glyph. In one embodiment unfiltered alpha values used to represent character glyphs are stored in a glyph cache. To avoid repeated filtering of character glyphs, in another embodiment, character glyphs are padded along their vertical edges, filtered and then stored in the glyph cache.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Claude Betrisey, Bodin Dresevic, John C. Platt
  • Patent number: 7085412
    Abstract: Image data processing and image rendering methods and systems whereby images are displayed on display devices having pixels with separately controllable pixel sub-components. Image data, such as data encoded in a three-channel signal, is passed through a low-pass filter to remove frequencies higher than a selected cutoff frequency, which obtain samples from the color components of the signal that map spatially different image regions to individual pixel sub-components. It has been found that color aliasing effects can be significantly reduces at a cutoff frequency somewhat higher than the Nyquist frequency, while enhancing the spatial resolution of the image. The image data is then passed through sampling filters, A generalized set of filters includes nine filters, one for each combination of one color and one pixel sub-component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John C. Platt, Donald P. Mitchell, J. Turner Whitted, James F. Blinn
  • Patent number: 7062086
    Abstract: Red-eye detection based on red region detection with eye confirmation initially identifies pixels that correspond to the color of red-eye within an image. A determination is then made as to whether these identified pixels and surrounding areas are part of an eye or not part of an eye. Those identified pixels that are determined to be part of an eye are the detected red-eye regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Tong-Xian Chen, Xiangrong Chen, John C. Platt, Jie Yan, Hong-Jiang Zhang
  • Patent number: 7024424
    Abstract: A system and method for generating a list is provided. The system includes a seed item input subsystem, an item identifying subsystem, a descriptive metadata similarity determining subsystem and a list generating subsystem that builds a list based, at least in part, on similarity processing performed on seed item descriptive metadata and user item descriptive metadata and user selected thresholds applied to such similarity processing. The method includes inexact matching between identifying metadata associated with new user items and identifying metadata stored in a reference metadata database. The method further includes subjecting candidate user items to similarity processing, where the degree to which the candidate user items are similar to the seed item is determined, and placing user items in a list of items based on user selected preferences for (dis)similarity between items in the list and the seed item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John C. Platt, Christopher Burges, Alice Zheng, Christopher B. Weare, Steven E. Swnson
  • Patent number: 7016884
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed that facilitate producing probabilistic outputs also referred to as posterior probabilities. The probabilistic outputs include an estimate of classification strength. The present invention intercepts non-probabilistic classifier output and applies a set of kernel models based on a softmax function to derive the desired probabilistic outputs. Such probabilistic outputs can be employed with handwriting recognition where the probability of a handwriting sample classification is combined with language models to make better classification decisions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John C. Platt, Christopher J. C. Burges
  • Patent number: 7016529
    Abstract: A system and method facilitating pattern recognition is provided. The invention includes a pattern recognition system having a convolutional neural network employing feature extraction layer(s) and classifier layer(s). The feature extraction layer(s) comprises convolutional layers and the classifier layer(s) comprises fully connected layers. The pattern recognition system can be trained utilizing a calculated cross entropy error. The calculated cross entropy error is utilized to update trainable parameters of the pattern recognition system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Patrice Y. Simard, John C. Platt, David Willard Steinkraus
  • Patent number: 6996390
    Abstract: The present invention provides a large capacity, user defined audio content delivery system. The system delivers uninterrupted music and delivers information content (e.g., news by evaluating and encoding an input audio stream while outputting another stream. Undesirable audio content (e.g., advertisements and unwanted news) are not present in the output audio stream as only desired portions of information content are stored for playback on demand. The invention also includes a user interface that is simple enough to facilitate utilization of the audio system in an automobile and employs standard hardware available in typical computing and/or personal digital assistant equipment. Additionally, the audio system can be portable (e.g., as portable as a personal digital assistant) and can be updated in real time or off line via a personal computer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Cormac Herley, John C. Platt
  • Patent number: 6993532
    Abstract: A system and method for generating a list is provided. The system includes a seed item input subsystem, an item identifying subsystem, a descriptive metadata similarity determining subsystem and a list generating subsystem that builds a list based, at least in part, on similarity processing performed on seed item descriptive metadata and user item descriptive metadata and user selected thresholds applied to such similarity processing. The method includes inexact matching between identifying metadata associated with new user items and identifying metadata stored in a reference metadata database. The method further includes subjecting candidate user items to similarity processing, where the degree to which the candidate user items are similar to the seed item is determined, and placing user items in a list of items based on user selected preferences for (dis)similarity between items in the list and the seed item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John C. Platt, Christopher Burges, Alice Zheng, Christopher B. Weare, Steven E. Swnson
  • Patent number: 6992625
    Abstract: An architecture for minimizing calibration effort in an IEEE 802.11 device location measurement system. The calibration technique is based upon a regression function that produces adequately accurate location information as a function of signal strength regardless of gaps in the calibration data or minimally available data. The algorithm takes a set of signal strengths from known room locations in a building and generates a function giving (x,y) as a function of signal strength, which function may then be used for the estimation of new locations. Radial basis functions, which are simple to express and compute, are used for regression. The fact that the algorithm maps signal strength to continuous location makes it possible to skip rooms during calibration, yet still evaluate the location in those rooms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John C. Krumm, John C. Platt
  • Patent number: 6987221
    Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and/or methods that generate playlist(s) for a library or collection of media items via selecting a plurality of seed items, at least one of which is an undesirable seed item. Some of the seed items are desirable indicating that a user prefers additional media items similar to the desirable seed items and others are undesirable indicating that the user prefers additional media items dissimilar to the undesirable seed items. Additionally, the seed items can be weighted to establish a relative importance of the seed items. The invention compares media items in the collection with the seed items and determines which media items are added into the playlist by computation of similarity metrics or values. The playlist can be regenerated by adding desirable seed items to the playlist and removing media items from the playlist (e.g., undesirable seed items).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: John C. Platt