Abstract: Seats for receiving a plug member comprise a tubular member having a seat disposed therein and a fluid flow reduction member that reduces the velocity of the fluid flowing through the tubular member as it approaches the seat so as to reduce the impact of the plug member landing on the seat. The fluid flow reduction member may be disposed on a fluid flow reduction device, such as on an inner wall surface of a sleeved insert, or formed in the inner wall surface of the tubular member. The fluid reduction member can comprise one or more longitudinal channels, one or more apertures, or one or more curved-shaped grooves disposed either on the inner wall surface of the tubular member or on a fluid flow reduction device, such as on an inner wall surface of a sleeved insert disposed within the tubular member.

Abstract: A video sharing system is described to annotate and navigate tourist videos. An example video sharing system enables non-linear browsing of multiple videos and enriches the browsing experience with contextual and geographic information.

Abstract: Apparatuses for restricting fluid flow through a well conduit comprise a tubular member having an inner wall surface defining a bore and a seat in sliding engagement with the inner wall surface. Operatively associated with the seat is a plug element support member having an expanded position when the apparatus is in a run-in position and a contracted position when the apparatus is in a set position. A plug element adapted to be disposed into the bore and landed on the seat to restrict fluid flow through the bore and the well conduit is used to move the seat which in turn moves the plug element support member from the expanded position to the contracted position, thereby providing support to the plug member landed on the seat.

Abstract: Downhole cutting tools comprise a mandrel, a housing, a sleeve and a cutting blade. The mandrel comprises an inner wall surface defining a bore, and an outer wall surface. The housing is secured to the outer wall surface of the mandrel and comprises an opening. The sleeve is engaged with the outer wall surface of the mandrel. The sleeve comprises a profile that is operatively associated with a profile of the cutting blade such that movement of the sleeve causes the profile of the piston to slide along the profile of the cutting blade. In so doing, the cutting blade is radially extended outward through the opening in the housing to abrade an object located outside the housing. Movement of the sleeve can be achieved by pumping fluid down a bore in the mandrel to slide the sleeve long the outer wall surface of the mandrel.

Abstract: Techniques are described for rendering annotations associated with an image. A view of an image maybe shown on a display, and different portions of the image are displayed and undisplayed in the view according to panning and/or zooming of the image within the view. The image may have annotations. An annotation may have a location in the image and may have associated renderable media. The location of the annotation relative to the view may change according to the panning and/or zooming. A strength of the annotation may be computed, the strength changing based the panning and/or zooming of the image. The media may be rendered according to the strength. Whether to render the media may be determined by comparing the strength to a threshold.

Abstract: Techniques for providing real-time animation for a personalized cartoon avatar are described. In one example, a process trains one or more animated models to provide a set of probabilistic motions of one or more upper body parts based on speech and motion data. The process links one or more predetermined phrases that represent emotional states to the one or more animated models. After creation of the models, the process receives real-time speech input. Next, the process identifies an emotional state to be expressed based on the one or more predetermined phrases matching in context to the real-time speech input. The process then generates an animated sequence of motions of the one or more upper body parts by applying the one or more animated models in response to the real-time speech input.

Abstract: Techniques for generating a personalized cartoon by using a few text queries are described herein. The present disclosure describes efficiently searching multiple images from a network, obtaining clipart image from the multiple images, and vectorization of the clipart image. The present disclosure also describes techniques to change a style of the cartoon such as recoloring one or more cartoon objects.

Abstract: The sponsored multi-media blogging technique is an advertising-driven service on a computing device, such as a mobile phone, that makes the multi-media micro-blog or blog an effective carrier for advertising. The data collected while employing the sponsored multi-media blogging technique is used for user intent mining and increasing advertisement relevance for mobile advertising projects. The benefits to the sponsored multi-media blogging technique's users are a natural interface for composing multi-media micro-blogs/blogs and instant experience sharing, while the benefits to advertisers is the promoted brand impression from the contextual advertising in rich media micro-blogs/blogs.

Abstract: Users may browse web pages, interact with a plethora of applications, search for new content, and perform a wide variety of other tasks using a mobile device. Unfortunately, useful content may be difficult for a user to locate because of the large amount of content available (e.g. hundreds of thousands of applications within an application store). Accordingly, one or more systems and/or techniques for determining recommendations are disclosed herein. In particular, user input (e.g., text, numbers, etc.) and/or a user profile (e.g., contextual information relating to a user) may be used to determine a user intent. Recommendations may be determined based upon the user intent. For example, a user may input “I am hungry” using a mobile phone having a GPS location of Downtown and a noon timestamp. Using this information, an application allowing the user to make lunch reservations at local restaurants may be provided as a recommendation.

Abstract: The automated social networking graph mining and visualization technique described herein mines social connections and allows creation of a social networking graph from general (not necessarily social-application specific) Web pages. The technique uses the distances between a person's/entity's name and related people's/entities names on one or more Web pages to determine connections between people/entities and the strengths of the connections. In one embodiment, the technique lays out these connections, and then clusters them, in a 2-D layout of a social networking graph that represents the Web connection strengths among the related people's or entities' names, by using a force-directed model.

Abstract: A graphical password authentication method is based on sketches drawn by user. The method extracts a template edge orientation pattern from an initial sketch of the user and an input edge orientation pattern from an input sketch of the user, compares the similarity between the two edge orientation patterns, and makes an authentication decision based on the similarity. The edge orientations are quantized, and each edge orientation pattern includes a set of quantized orientation patterns each corresponding to one of the quantized edge orientations. The number of quantized edge orientations, as well as other parameters such as the dimension of the final orientation patterns and acceptance threshold, can be optimized either globally or user-specifically.

Abstract: Various embodiments provide techniques for calibrating and annotating video content. In one or more embodiments, an instance of video content can be calibrated with one or more geographical models and/or existing calibrated video content to correlate the instance of video content with one or more geographical locations. According to some embodiments, geographical information can be used to annotate the video content. Geographical information can include identification information for one or more structures, natural features, and/or locations included in the video content. Some embodiments enable a particular instance of video content to be correlated with other instances of video content based on common geographical information and/or common annotation information. Thus, a user can access video content from other users with similar travel experiences and/or interests. A user may also access annotations provided by other users that may be relevant to a particular instance of video content.

Abstract: Techniques are described for rendering annotations associated with an image. A view of an image maybe shown on a display, and different portions of the image are displayed and undisplayed in the view according to panning and/or zooming of the image within the view. The image may have annotations. An annotation may have a location in the image and may have associated renderable media. The location of the annotation relative to the view may change according to the panning and/or zooming. A strength of the annotation may be computed, the strength changing based the panning and/or zooming of the image. The media may be rendered according to the strength. Whether to render the media may be determined by comparing the strength to a threshold.

Abstract: Multiple schemes and techniques for facilitating presentations with an interactive application are described. For example, an interactive application provides a console view overlay for integrating multiple productivity applications into a graphical user interface (GUI) window. An interactive application can also share a selected display portion of the console view overlay with other interactive applications. As another example, presenters and other audience members can draw on the selected display portion being shared, and the drawn graphics are synchronously displayed by the other interactive applications. Interactive applications, as directed by their users, can join various member groups and specific presentations thereof. Moreover, a user may share content in accordance with membership grouping.

Abstract: The techniques and mechanisms described herein are directed to a system for stylizing video, such as interactively transforming video to a cartoon-like style. Briefly stated, the techniques include determining a set of volumetric objects within a video, each volumetric object being a segment. Mean shift video segmentation may be used for this step. With that segmentation information, the technique further includes indicating on a limited number of keyframes of the video how segments should be merged into a semantic region. Finally, a contiguous volume is created by interpolating between keyframes by a mean shift constrained interpolation technique to propagate the semantic regions between keyframes.

Abstract: Systems and methods for sketching reality are described. In one aspect, a set of vector primitives is identified from a 2-D sketch. In one implementation, the 2-D sketch is hand-drawn by a user. A 2.5D geometry model is automatically generated from the vector primitives. The 2.5D geometry model is automatically rendered and presented to a user. In one implementation, the user provides 2-D sketch-based user inputs to modify one or more of lighting position, lighting direction, lighting intensity, texture, color, and geometry of the presentation.

Abstract: Multiple schemes and techniques for facilitating presentations with an interactive application are described. For example, an interactive application provides a console view overlay for integrating multiple productivity applications into a graphical user interface (GUI) window. An interactive application can also share a selected display portion of the console view overlay with other interactive applications. As another example, presenters and other audience members can draw on the selected display portion being shared, and the drawn graphics are synchronously displayed by the other interactive applications. Interactive applications, as directed by their users, can join various member groups and specific presentations thereof. Moreover, a user may share content in accordance with membership grouping.

Abstract: Embodiments that provide cartoon personalization are disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment, cartoon personalization includes selecting a face image having a pose orientation that substantially matches an original pose orientation of a character in a cartoon image. The method also includes replacing a face of the character in the cartoon image with the face image. The method further includes blending the face image with a remainder of the character in the cartoon image.

Abstract: A non-linear beam tracing technique that supports full non-linear beam tracing effects including multiple reflections and refractions for computer graphics applications. The technique introduces non-linear beam tracing to render non-linear ray tracing effects such as curved mirror reflection, refraction, caustics, and shadows. Beams are allowed to be non-linear where rays within the same beam are not parallel or do not intersect at a single point. Such is the case when a primary beam bounces off of a surface and spawns one or more secondary rays or beams. Secondary beams can be rendered in a similar manner to primary rays or beams via polygon streaming. Beyond smooth ray bundles, the technique can also be applied to incoherent ray bundles which is useful for rendering bump mapped surfaces.

Abstract: A graphical password authentication method is based on sketches drawn by user. The method extracts a template edge orientation pattern from an initial sketch of the user and an input edge orientation pattern from an input sketch of the user, compares the similarity between the two edge orientation patterns, and makes an authentication decision based on the similarity. The edge orientations are quantized, and each edge orientation pattern includes a set of quantized orientation patterns each corresponding to one of the quantized edge orientations. The number of quantized edge orientations, as well as other parameters such as the dimension of the final orientation patterns and acceptance threshold, can be optimized either globally or user-specifically.