Patents by Inventor Sean Edward Andrist

Sean Edward Andrist 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).

  • Non-verbal engagement of a virtual assistant
    Patent number: 11221669
    Abstract: Systems and methods related to engaging with a virtual assistant via ancillary input are provided. Ancillary input may refer to non-verbal, non-tactile input based on eye-gaze data and/or eye-gaze attributes, including but not limited to, facial recognition data, motion or gesture detection, eye-contact data, head-pose or head-position data, and the like. Thus, to initiate and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant, a user need not articulate an attention word or words. Rather the user may initiate and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant more naturally and may even include the virtual assistant in a human conversation with multiple speakers. The virtual assistant engagement system may utilize at least one machine-learning algorithm to more accurately determine whether a user desires to engage with and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant. Various hardware configurations associated with a virtual assistant device may allow for both near-field and/or far-field engagement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ryen William White, Andrew David Wilson, Gregg Robert Wygonik, Nirupama Chandrasekaran, Sean Edward Andrist
  • NON-VERBAL ENGAGEMENT OF A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
    Publication number: 20190187787
    Abstract: Systems and methods related to engaging with a virtual assistant via ancillary input are provided. Ancillary input may refer to non-verbal, non-tactile input based on eye-gaze data and/or eye-gaze attributes, including but not limited to, facial recognition data, motion or gesture detection, eye-contact data, head-pose or head-position data, and the like. Thus, to initiate and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant, a user need not articulate an attention word or words. Rather the user may initiate and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant more naturally and may even include the virtual assistant in a human conversation with multiple speakers. The virtual assistant engagement system may utilize at least one machine-learning algorithm to more accurately determine whether a user desires to engage with and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant. Various hardware configurations associated with a virtual assistant device may allow for both near-field and/or far-field engagement.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2017
    Publication date: June 20, 2019
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ryen William WHITE, Andrew David Wilson, Gregg Robert Wygonik, Nirupama Chandrasekaran, Sean Edward Andrist