Patents by Inventor Wayne Loofbourrow
Wayne Loofbourrow 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).
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Publication number: 20140351244Abstract: Systems and methods for processing an index are described. A postings list of items containing a particular term are ordered in a desired retrieval order, e.g., most recent first. The ordered items are inserted into an inverted index in the desired retrieval order, resulting in an ordered inverted index from which items may be efficiently retrieved in the desired retrieval order. During retrieval, items may first be retrieved from a live index, and the retrieved items from the live and ordered indexes may be merged. The retrieved items may also be filtered in accordance with the items' file grouping parameters.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 3, 2014Publication date: November 27, 2014Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow, John Martin Hornkvist, Eric Richard Koebler, Yan Arrouye
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Patent number: 8775435Abstract: Systems and methods for processing an index are described. A postings list of items containing a particular term are ordered in a desired retrieval order, e.g., most recent first. The ordered items are inserted into an inverted index in the desired retrieval order, resulting in an ordered inverted index from which items may be efficiently retrieved in the desired retrieval order. During retrieval, items may first be retrieved from a live index, and the retrieved items from the live and ordered indexes may be merged. The retrieved items may also be filtered in accordance with the items' file grouping parameters.Type: GrantFiled: September 13, 2011Date of Patent: July 8, 2014Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow, John Martin Hoernkvist, Eric Richard Koebler, Yan Arrouye
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Patent number: 8751588Abstract: A method and apparatus of a device that clusters threads of messages is described. In an exemplary method, the device receives multiple message threads, where each message thread includes one or more messages that are related to each message in that thread. For each of the message threads, the device computes a thread signature using affinity groups, where each affinity group is a group of messages that are related to each other. Furthermore, the device creates a group of related messages using the thread signatures.Type: GrantFiled: December 15, 2010Date of Patent: June 10, 2014Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventor: Wayne Loofbourrow
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Patent number: 8549086Abstract: A method and apparatus of a device that creates message affinity groups uses the affinity groups to relate messages and threads is described. In an exemplary method, the device receives messages, where the messages include message addresses. The device determines multiple affinity groups of message addresses based on a probability that a message including one of the message addresses also includes one or more of the other message addresses in the affinity group. In addition, the device presents one or more of the affinity groups.Type: GrantFiled: December 15, 2010Date of Patent: October 1, 2013Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventor: Wayne Loofbourrow
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Publication number: 20120158854Abstract: A method and apparatus of a device that focuses messages is described. In an exemplary method, the device receives a first and second group of message. The device further selects a related message from the second group of messages that is related to each message in the first group. This selecting is based on an affinity group, where the affinity group includes a message address that occurs in at least one of the messages in the second group and the affinity group is determined using the message addresses contained in the first and second groups.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 15, 2010Publication date: June 21, 2012Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow, Yan Arrouye
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Publication number: 20120158857Abstract: A method and apparatus of a device that clusters threads of messages is described. In an exemplary method, the device receives multiple message threads, where each message thread includes one or more messages that are related to each message in that thread. For each of the message threads, the device computes a thread signature using affinity groups, where each affinity group is a group of messages that are related to each other. Furthermore, the device creates a group of related messages using the thread signatures.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 15, 2010Publication date: June 21, 2012Inventor: Wayne Loofbourrow
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Publication number: 20120158856Abstract: A method and apparatus of a device that focuses messages is described. In an exemplary method, the device receives a first and second group of message. The device further selects a related message from the second group of messages that is related to each message in the first group. This selecting is based on an affinity group, where the affinity group includes a message address that occurs in at least one of the messages in the second group and the affinity group is determined using the message addresses contained in the first and second groups.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 15, 2010Publication date: June 21, 2012Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow, Yan Arrouye
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Publication number: 20120158855Abstract: A method and apparatus of a device that creates message affinity groups uses the affinity groups to relate messages and threads is described. In an exemplary method, the device receives messages, where the messages include message addresses. The device determines multiple affinity groups of message addresses based on a probability that a message including one of the message addresses also includes one or more of the other message addresses in the affinity group. In addition, the device presents one or more of the affinity groups.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 15, 2010Publication date: June 21, 2012Inventor: Wayne Loofbourrow
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Patent number: 8190614Abstract: Systems and methods for compressing an index are described. In one exemplary method, the results of a search are annotated and then encoded into one or more chunks of compressed data in accordance with the annotations of the results. The annotations include an indication of a best encoding method selected from a set of available encoding methods, and an indication of whether to switch to a new chunk during encoding or to continue encoding in the current chunk. Other methods are described and data processing systems and machine readable media are also described.Type: GrantFiled: July 12, 2010Date of Patent: May 29, 2012Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventor: Wayne Loofbourrow
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Patent number: 8122029Abstract: Systems and methods for processing an index are described. To insure that the most updated index is available without having to update the index after every change (which can consume enormous resources), a specially marked postings list is generated for a changed item. During retrieval, the specially marked postings list supplements the existing content of an inverted index referencing the changed item. In this manner, the retrieval result for items containing the term under which the changed item was originally indexed is updated in accordance with the specially marked postings list to insure the most accurate retrieval result.Type: GrantFiled: March 28, 2011Date of Patent: February 21, 2012Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow, John Martin Hornkvist, Eric Richard Koebler, Yun-chih S. Li
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Publication number: 20120005214Abstract: Systems and methods for processing an index are described. A postings list of items containing a particular term are ordered in a desired retrieval order, e.g., most recent first. The ordered items are inserted into an inverted index in the desired retrieval order, resulting in an ordered inverted index from which items may be efficiently retrieved in the desired retrieval order. During retrieval, items may first be retrieved from a live index, and the retrieved items from the live and ordered indexes may be merged. The retrieved items may also be filtered in accordance with the items' file grouping parameters.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 13, 2011Publication date: January 5, 2012Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow, John Martin Hoernkvist, Eric Richard Koebler, Yan Arrouye
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Publication number: 20110289093Abstract: Systems and methods for processing an index are described. To insure that the most updated index is available without having to update the index after every change (which can consume enormous resources), a specially marked postings list is generated for a changed item. During retrieval, the specially marked postings list supplements the existing content of an inverted index referencing the changed item. In this manner, the retrieval result for items containing the term under which the changed item was originally indexed is updated in accordance with the specially marked postings list to insure the most accurate retrieval result.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 28, 2011Publication date: November 24, 2011Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow, John Martin Hoernkvist, Eric Richard Koebler, Yun-chih S. Li
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Patent number: 8024322Abstract: Systems and methods for processing an index are described. A postings list of items containing a particular term are ordered in a desired retrieval order, e.g., most recent first. The ordered items are inserted into an inverted index in the desired retrieval order, resulting in an ordered inverted index from which items may be efficiently retrieved in the desired retrieval order. During retrieval, items may first be retrieved from a live index, and the retrieved items from the live and ordered indexes may be merged. The retrieved items may also be filtered in accordance with the items' file grouping parameters.Type: GrantFiled: July 9, 2010Date of Patent: September 20, 2011Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow, John Martin Hoernkvist, Eric Richard Koebler, Yan Arrouye
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Patent number: 7917516Abstract: Systems and methods for processing an index are described. To insure that the most updated index is available without having to update the index after every change (which can consume enormous resources), a specially marked postings list is generated for a changed item. During retrieval, the specially marked postings list supplements the existing content of an inverted index referencing the changed item. In this manner, the retrieval result for items containing the term under which the changed item was originally indexed is updated in accordance with the specially marked postings list to insure the most accurate retrieval result.Type: GrantFiled: June 8, 2007Date of Patent: March 29, 2011Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow, John Martin Hoernkvist, Eric Richard Koebler, Yun-chih S. Li
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Publication number: 20100281032Abstract: Systems and methods for compressing an index are described. In one exemplary method, the results of a search are annotated and then encoded into one or more chunks of compressed data in accordance with the annotations of the results. The annotations include an indication of a best encoding method selected from a set of available encoding methods, and an indication of whether to switch to a new chunk during encoding or to continue encoding in the current chunk. Other methods are described and data processing systems and machine readable media are also described.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 12, 2010Publication date: November 4, 2010Inventor: Wayne Loofbourrow
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Publication number: 20100274781Abstract: Systems and methods for processing an index are described. A postings list of items containing a particular term are ordered in a desired retrieval order, e.g., most recent first. The ordered items are inserted into an inverted index in the desired retrieval order, resulting in an ordered inverted index from which items may be efficiently retrieved in the desired retrieval order. During retrieval, items may first be retrieved from a live index, and the retrieved items from the live and ordered indexes may be merged. The retrieved items may also be filtered in accordance with the items' file grouping parameters.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 9, 2010Publication date: October 28, 2010Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow, John Martin Hoernkvist, Eric Richard Koebler, Yan Arrouye
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Publication number: 20100242035Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed that monitor upgrade availability for computer information on a user's computer and allows the user to determine which of the available upgrades will be downloaded to the user's computer and installed. The upgrade availability for computer information on the user's computer is monitored in the background, without user-intervention when the user connects to a network, such as the Internet. If any such upgrades are available, a flag is set to notify the user of such upgrades. The user is notified of any available upgrades when computer information is accessed for which an upgrade is available, and given a choice of whether or not to download the available upgrade(s). The downloaded upgrade(s) may then be installed by an installation means. In this manner, the present invention allows for the user to download only those upgrades desired by the user.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 23, 2010Publication date: September 23, 2010Applicant: Apple Inc.Inventors: Gordon R. Meyer, Albert R. Howard, JR., Wayne Loofbourrow
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Patent number: 7797643Abstract: A user interface comprises an interactive control and method for quickly changing the amount of text displayed in each item in a list of text items. The control allows the user to choose from a large range of choices for how much text is displayed and provides live updates of the changes. The method saves the user time by eliminating the need to refresh the screen when changing the amount of text displayed.Type: GrantFiled: September 27, 2004Date of Patent: September 14, 2010Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Steven P. Jobs, Stephen O. Lemay, Jessica Kahn, Sarah Wilkin, David Hyatt, Jens Alfke, Wayne Loofbourrow
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Patent number: 7783589Abstract: Systems and methods for improving indexing are described. In one exemplary method, a 2-level table is used to improve performance when searching an index. A first table contains a subset of more frequently occurring terms and a second and larger table contains terms that occur rarely, with the first table optimized for updating and the second table optimized for searching. The second table is searched only when a search of the first table is unsuccessful. Other methods are described and data processing systems and machine readable media are also described.Type: GrantFiled: August 4, 2006Date of Patent: August 24, 2010Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: John Martin Hornkvist, Eric Richard Koebler, Wayne Loofbourrow, Yun-chih S. Li, Yan Arrouye
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Patent number: 7765213Abstract: Systems and methods for processing an index are described. A postings list of items containing a particular term are ordered in a desired retrieval order, e.g., most recent first. The ordered items are inserted into an inverted index in the desired retrieval order, resulting in an ordered inverted index from which items may be efficiently retrieved in the desired retrieval order. During retrieval, items may first be retrieved from a live index, and the retrieved items from the live and ordered indexes may be merged. The retrieved items may also be filtered in accordance with the items' file grouping parameters.Type: GrantFiled: June 8, 2007Date of Patent: July 27, 2010Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Wayne Loofbourrow, John Martin Hoernkvist, Eric Richard Koebler, Yan Arrouye