Query Expansion Or Refinement Patents (Class 707/765)
  • Patent number: 9858092
    Abstract: Systems and methods for contextually launching a target application are disclosed. A method for contextually launching a target application includes communicating data from the target application to a search application. The data can be registered in a search registrar associated with the search application. Input can be received from a user using the search application. The input from the user can be compared with the data in the search registrar to obtain a result. The target application can be launched within the context of the input from the user based on the result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2018
    Assignee: Mitel Networks Corporation
    Inventors: Jeffrey Hobbs, Terry Tam
  • Patent number: 9852133
    Abstract: Query models for document sets (such as XML documents or records in a relational database) typically involve a schema defining the structure of the documents. However, rigidly defined schemas often raise difficulties with document validation with even inconsequential structural variations. Additionally, queries developed against schema-constrained documents are often sensitive to structural details and variations that are not inconsequential to the query, resulting in inaccurate results and development complications, and that may break upon schema changes. Instead, query models for hierarchically structured documents that enable “twig” queries specifying only the structural details of document nodes that are relevant to the query (e.g., students in a student database having a sibling named “Lee” and a teacher named “Smith,” irrespective of unrelated structural details of the document).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Dharma Shukla, Madhan Gajendran, Quetzalcoatl Bradley, Shireesh Kumar Thota, Li Zhang, Mihai Dan Budiu, Yuan Yu
  • Patent number: 9842162
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for navigating a taxonomy using search queries. An unstructured search query is parsed in order to identify one or more categories of a taxonomy of a collection of items. Each one of the one or more categories is associated with a confidence score. When the confidence score meets a threshold, a pool of items is selected from a respective one of the one or more categories. When no confidence score meets the threshold, the pool of items is selected from the collection of items.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2017
    Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Blair L. Hotchkies, Brent Robert Mills, Jennica Jane Pounds, Sikandar Saifullah, Alexandru I. Indrei, Jason P. Patrikios, Daniel R. Parshall, David Aaron Lichterman, Dan Catalin Teodorescu, Sean P. Forde
  • Patent number: 9773023
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for method for selecting visual subject matter stored in a database includes receiving user input that indicates a first region of a first image that is stored in the database and, based on metadata associated with the first image stored in the database, determining at least one visual feature in the first region of the first image stored in the database. The method further includes, based on metadata associated with other images stored in the database, selecting a second image from the database that includes a visual feature that correlates with the visual feature in the first region of the first image, wherein the metadata associated with the first image stored in the database and the metadata associated with the other images stored in the database include image correlation information received from a remote server device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2017
    Assignee: AUTODESK, INC.
    Inventor: Francesco Iorio
  • Patent number: 9754284
    Abstract: Disclosed is a system and method for displaying search results upon the occurrence or detection of an event and/or time-delay. The present provides a user with the ability to view search results upon satisfaction of an event trigger or specified time delay (e.g., a rule). The disclosed systems and methods enable features that allow a user to link a search query and/or a set or sets of results for the search query to a trigger, whereby upon detection and satisfaction of such trigger, the search (and/or related results) are displayed. Such trigger can be associated with, but not limited to, a calendar event, to-do list item, location, a product or contact person, among other types of event based information events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: EXCALIBUR IP, LLC
    Inventors: Beverly Harrison, Sophia Thitirat Perl, Tingyi Wu, Conrad Wai
  • Patent number: 9706008
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present teachings disclose method, system, and programs that monetize personalized user behavioral profiles by remapping the users to audience segments related to advertisement. In the method, the users can be targeted with advertisements that are personalized and hence are more likely to lead to conversions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignee: EXCALIBUR IP, LLC
    Inventors: Suju Rajan, Scott Gaffney
  • Patent number: 9697258
    Abstract: The disclosed embodiments relate to techniques for supporting enhanced content-item searches in an online content-management system. These techniques generally operate by gathering information that is available in the online content-management system (such as how often each content item has been updated, how many users have accessed the content item, and how many identical copies of the content item are stored in the online content-management system) and using this information to identify relevant content items that are likely to be important to a user. This enables the online content-management system to perform searching operations that return relevant content items to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2017
    Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
    Inventor: Chris Barton
  • Patent number: 9672530
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, receiving a search query from a user; determining that a voting user interface (VUI) is to be provided based on the search query, the VUI enabling the user to submit one or more votes in a vote-based campaign; receiving search results that are responsive to the search query; and transmitting instructions to display the search results and the VUI.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Tilke Mary Judd, Jyrki A. Alakuijala, Alexandru Ovidiu Dovlecel, Abraham Moolenaar, Peter W. Dickman, Zaheed Sabur, Ardan Arac, Marvin Chow, Eduardo Jodas Samper
  • Patent number: 9646060
    Abstract: A method for pushing information proactively includes: receiving updated data; querying search records that match the updated data; determining search records that meet a push condition, and obtaining user information corresponding to the search records that meet the push condition; pushing, according to the user information, the updated data to all or part of users corresponding to the user information. In the embodiments of the present invention, after receiving updated data, the server proactively obtains the search records of users, screens the users according to the push condition, and pushes the updated data to the screened users. In this way, the information is proactively pushed, which shortens the time interval of providing information for the users, and improves the efficiency of obtaining needed information by the users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: Huawei Device Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Zhigang Chen, Cheng Liu, Haizhang Chi, Yanmin Wang
  • Patent number: 9613164
    Abstract: A system and method for storing an input data network, in the form of graph is provided. The system includes a master node and a plurality of slave nodes. The master node is operable to receive the data network in the form of a graph, the graph including a plurality of vertices connected by edges; calculate a probability of co-retrieval for each of the plurality of vertices; and assign each of the plurality of vertices to one of the plurality of compute nodes based on the calculated probability of co-retrieval. Another method and system are provided for converting a dataset into a graph based index and storing the index on disk. Respective systems and methods of querying such data networks are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
    Inventors: Matthias Broecheler, Venkatramanan Siva Subrahmanian, Andrea Pugliese
  • Patent number: 9588950
    Abstract: A method is disclosed for assigning measurement data of a body of a patient to information data related to the same body. The method includes providing annotated measurement data, providing annotated information data, translating the first group of annotations into a first group of universal annotations and the second group of annotations into a second group of universal medical annotations in a universal annotation ontology management system, comparing the universal annotations of the first group of universal annotations with the universal annotations of the second group of universal annotations, and assigning the universal annotations to each other. An assignment system and a universal annotation ontology management system are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Martin Kramer, Sascha Seifert
  • Patent number: 9558270
    Abstract: One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for tagging search results, organizing tagged search results for later access from various devices, public sharing of tagged search results, and/or providing targeted content based upon search results tagged by a user. That is, a user may tag a search result (e.g., a website, an image, a social network profile, etc.), such as through a one-click user input, with a tag to create a tagged search result. The tagged search result may be organized into a public tag collection for sharing and/or exploration of tagged search results by other users. The tagged search result may be organized into a personal tag collection for later access by the user from any device. Because the tagged search result may be indicative of an interest of the user, targeted content associated with the tagged search result may be provided to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Anthony Adam Hanses, Sarthak Deepak Shah, Lawrence Brian Ripsher, Marguerite R. Loader, Douglas William Herman, Robert Scott Dietz, Brook John Durant, William James Wagner, Melroy Edwin D'Souza, Philip Andrew Rogan, Feridoon Malekzadeh
  • Patent number: 9552388
    Abstract: A system and method for providing search query refinements are presented. A stored query and a stored document are associated as a logical pairing. A weight is assigned to the logical pairing. The search query is issued and a set of search documents is produced. At least one search document is matched to at least one stored document. The stored query and the assigned weight associated with the matching at least one stored document are retrieved. At least one cluster is formed based on the stored query and the assigned weight associated with the matching at least one stored document. The stored query associated with the matching at least one stored document are scored for the at least one cluster relative to at least one other cluster. At least one such scored search query is suggested as a set of query refinements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Paul Haahr, Steven D. Baker
  • Patent number: 9535929
    Abstract: A Method for retrieving at least one image from a database (DB) of images based on at least two input images (image i, image j), comprises the steps of determining (120) first low level feature correspondences (LC1) between said at least two input images (image i, image j), searching (200) within said database (DB) for at least two sets (Mi, Mj) of images respectively matching said at least to images (image i, image j), determining (120) second low level features correspondences (LC2) between respective images from said at least two sets of images (Mi, Mj), determining (130) a first set of relationships (RLC1) between entities of said at least two input images (image i, image j) based on said first low level feature correspondences (LC1), determining (130) a second set of relationships (RLC2) between respective entities of said respective images from said at least two sets of images (Mi, Mj) based on said second low level feature correspondences (LC2), identifying (300) matching relationships between said fir
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: Alcatel Lucent
    Inventors: Vinay Namboodiri, Mohamed Ali Feki, Erwin Six
  • Patent number: 9529826
    Abstract: A server may receive a search query indicative of an object. The server may identify a 3D model from within a database of 3D object data models that corresponds to the object. The 3D model may be associated with information that pertains to the object. The server may determine an updated search query based on the information associated with the 3D model. The updated search query may be indicative of one or more of an environment of the object, an orientation of the object in the environment, a position of the object in the environment, or an identification of one or more other objects in the environment. The server may provide one or more search query results that include data pertaining to the object based on the updated search query.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Logan Harp, James Joseph Kuffner, Anthony Gerald Francis
  • Patent number: 9524346
    Abstract: A system that allows individuals to maintain lists of items of interest in an account, such as books, restaurants, hotels, clothes, etc. An individual can mark items in their account as recommended, after which other individuals in their sharing network can view the recommended items as grouped into categories. Items are displayed with action links (e.g. for purchasing, reservations, mapping, etc.) In an explore view categories are displayed for all of the combined recommended items from all of the individuals in the viewer's sharing network. When a category is selected from the explore view, an indication is provided for each item as to the individual who marked the item as recommended. An individual viewing a recommended item may also save the item to their own account as one to try later. The distribution of items between individuals through recommendations can be temporally and geographically mapped to identify patterns of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: Lucky Oyster, Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew Berk, Ryan Fritzky
  • Patent number: 9524276
    Abstract: A social networking system allows users to bookmark content within the social networking system to view at a later time and/or to share with other users. The content that may be bookmarked may include advertisements, user posted content, user comments on posted content, or any other content viewable within the social networking system, as well as links to content outside of the social networking system. A user may save the content by selecting a bookmark link corresponding to the content. The bookmarked content may be viewed later, such as in a bookmarked content dashboard, and it may also be used to provide additional content to the user that is related to the bookmarked content. Additionally, the user's bookmarking activity may be published to the user's connections in the social networking system to enable others to find and view the content that the user deems worthy of bookmarking.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Kent Schoen, Carl Philip Sjogreen
  • Patent number: 9514170
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for efficient priority queues using single-index tables are disclosed. In response to a request to generate an instance of a priority queue using a database that permits no more than one index per table, an identifier-indexed table and a priority-indexed table are set up. In response to a request to insert a queue entry with a given identifier and a given priority, one tuple is inserted into each table. In response to a request to remove an entry with a specified identifier, a tuple with the specified identifier is removed from the identifier-indexed table, while the removal of the corresponding tuple from the priority-indexed table may be deferred.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Paul John Tillotson
  • Patent number: 9507878
    Abstract: A search system generates customized search results for social network members. The results are responsive to queries and are personalized based on members' explicit and implicit interests derived from user actions, content selections, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: John Nicholas and Kristin Gross Trust
    Inventor: John Nicholas Gross
  • Patent number: 9477654
    Abstract: Functionality is described herein for transforming first and second symbolic linguistic items into respective first and second continuous-valued concept vectors, using a deep learning model, such as a convolutional latent semantic model. The model is designed to capture both the local and global linguistic contexts of the linguistic items. The functionality then compares the first concept vector with the second concept vector to produce a similarity measure. More specifically, the similarity measure expresses the closeness between the first and second linguistic items in a high-level semantic space. In one case, the first linguistic item corresponds to a query, and the second linguistic item may correspond to a phrase, or a document, or a keyword, or an ad, etc. In one implementation, the convolutional latent semantic model is produced in a training phase based on click-through data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Xiaodong He, Jianfeng Gao, Li Deng, Qiang Lou, Yunhong Zhou, Guowei Liu, Gregory T. Buehrer, Jianchang Mao, Yelong Shen, Ruofei Zhang
  • Patent number: 9439053
    Abstract: A graph of a social network is received. The graph may include a node for each user account and an edge between nodes that represent social networking relationships such as messages between the user accounts or a friend relationship. The graph is transformed into a transformed graph where nodes have direct edges depending on a local test among its neighbors in the original graph. Small subsets of the transformed graph are categorized. The categories are used to identify subgraphs in the transformed graph. Each subgraph is grown by adding an edge from the transformed graph to the subgraph depending on local tests among nodes associated with the edge that have at least one edge that is already in the subgraph. The categorized subgraphs are used to provide targeted advertising, suggest new connections, identify different personalities and interests of users, or to provide other services.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ittai Abraham, Joseph K. Bradley, Shiri Chechik, Moises Goldszmidt, Aleksandrs Slivkins, David Kempe
  • Patent number: 9430584
    Abstract: A query collector may be configured to receive a plurality of queries applied by a search engine to obtain corresponding search results. A graph manager may be configured to generate, based on the plurality of queries, a directed graph of nodes, each node corresponding to at least one query and connected to another node, and further configured to merge at least two of the nodes based on a similarity of corresponding queries thereof, to obtain a merged node, and generate at least one representative query representing the merged node. A suggestion generator may be configured to match a current query with a matching node of the nodes, determine that the merged node is a successor node of the matching node within the directed graph, and provide the at least one representative query as a suggested query for a future search to be conducted by the search engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: SAP SE
    Inventors: Heng Wang, Gufei Sun, Wen-Syan Li
  • Patent number: 9407698
    Abstract: A device for sharing and synchronizing data objects with peer devices. The device has a memory, interface for communication with a peer, and a processor. The memory is configured to store therein least one data object that is deemed either an original or a copy. When in communication with a peer device, the processor transmits a request for the peer device to send an original data object that corresponds to a data object stored in the memory if the stored data object is a copy and it is to be modified. The processor then stores the requested data object in the memory as an original data object or, if the requested data object is not received, marks the data object stored in the memory as an original. Then the processor may modify data in the original data object stored in the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: EarthNetTV Inc.
    Inventors: Farrukh Amjad Latif, Richard Nesin
  • Patent number: 9357260
    Abstract: Various embodiments of apparatus and/or methods are described for skipping, filtering and/or replacing content from an audio/video stream using text data associated with the audio/video stream. The text data is processed using location information that references a segment of the text data of the first audio/video stream to identify a location within the first audio/video stream. The location within the first audio/video stream is utilized to identify portions of the audio/video stream that are to be skipped during presentation. The portions of the audio/video stream that are to be skipped are filtered from the audio/video stream, and some of the skipped portions of the audio/video stream are replaced with substitute content. The filtered video stream, including the substitute content, is outputted for presentation to a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: EchoStar Technologies L.L.C.
    Inventors: Steven M. Casagrande, David A. Kummer
  • Patent number: 9330174
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method that includes the actions of receiving a request for data indicative of topics of interest for a user segment of a social networking platform, accessing user data for one or more users of the social networking platform, comparing the one or more user characteristics that are associated with the user segment to user characteristics associated with the accessed user data, identifying, based on comparing, a portion of the accessed user data that pertains to the user segment, analyzing contents of the portion of the accessed user data that pertains to the user segment, determining, based on analyzing, one or more elements in the portion of the accessed user data that pertain to a topic of interest for the user segment, and transmitting, to a client device that sent the request, data indicative of elements pertaining to the topics of interest for the user segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2016
    Assignee: MicroStrategy Incorporated
    Inventor: Jeff Zhang
  • Patent number: 9305054
    Abstract: A system for extracting analogous queries is disclosed. The system includes a search query extracting module, a query pair extracting module, and an analogous query extracting module. The search query extracting module creates a per-user search query DB by reading search queries inputted by users from a search log DB that contains user device identifiers, search queries inputted from user devices, and information about time when the users request a search. The query pair extracting module creates a per-user query pair DB by extracting, from the per-user search query DB, permutations of different two search queries among search queries inputted by a specific user. The analogous query extracting module reads query pairs having a specific query in the per-user query pair DB, and creates analogous queries by extracting counterparts of a specific query from the query pairs. The analogous queries are provided in response to a search request for a specific query from the user device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2016
    Assignee: ESTsoft Corp.
    Inventor: Kun-Young Son
  • Patent number: 9298856
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for data visualization includes determining a query context for a user's search query, and retrieving relevant data for the query context. The method combines the relevant data with data that is filtered according to search parameters in the user's search query. The method further includes generating an interactive presentation to display the combined data from the perspective of the user's search query or from the perspectives of other entities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2016
    Assignee: SAP SE
    Inventors: Jerry John, Kaushik Kohli
  • Patent number: 9286386
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for an iterative disambiguation interface. A system practicing the method receives a search query formatted according to a standard XML markup language for containing and annotating interpretations of user input, the search query being based on a natural language spoken query from a user and retrieves search results based on the search query. The system transmits the search results to a user device and iteratively receives multimodal input from the user to change search attributes and transmits updated search results to the user device based on the changed search attributes. The search results can include a link to additional information, such as a video presentation, related to the search results. The standard XML markup language can be Extensible MultiModal Annotation (EMMA) markup language from W3C. The system can generate an iteration transaction history for each multimodal input and updated search result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventor: Michael Johnston
  • Patent number: 9262535
    Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention provide a novel way of searching and interacting with content available via a network, such as the Internet, and the World Wide Web. In some embodiments, systems and methods provide a semantically-oriented structure for organizing and accessing content items. The semantic organization can be derived by leveraging user interactions with the content items. The systems and methods leverage the semantics of the content items and to help the user find content items that are consistent with the purpose of the user's search. In addition, the embodiments provide a novel navigation paradigm of search results and content items so that the user can more intuitively and more efficiently get information form an information space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2016
    Assignee: BUBLUP TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Alain J. Cohen, Marc A. Cohen
  • Patent number: 9235617
    Abstract: A method facilitating searching of data containing protected date information includes generating one or more randomly escalating dateID values for each date during a time period and storing such generated dateID values in a lookup table together with an encrypted, associated date value. Such generated dateID values can be stored in a datasource in place of protected dates in order to safeguard protected health information. In one or more preferred implementations, a de-identified date is stored in the lookup table in association with a dateID, and utilized for searching operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2016
    Assignee: ALLSCRIPTS SOFTWARE, LLC
    Inventors: Gordon Lyles Blackwell, Jr., Brent Arasimowicz
  • Patent number: 9230012
    Abstract: The application relates to a method for facilitating the selection of an information source, comprising: providing two search strings to an electronic device; obtaining strings and relationship values, wherein each relationship value defines a degree of semantic relationship between two strings or a string and a search string and wherein at least some of the strings match with elements in the information sources; and displaying at least some of the matching strings on a two-dimensional map. The map comprises a first, a second and a third region, the first region comprising matching strings that have a non-zero relationship value only with regard to the first search string, the second region comprising matching strings that have a non-zero relationship value only with regard to the second search string and the third region comprising matching strings that have non-zero relationship values with regard to the first and the second search string.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2016
    Assignee: EXB ASSET MANAGEMENT GMBH
    Inventors: Ramin Assadollahi, Stefan Bordag
  • Patent number: 9223814
    Abstract: Architecture for handling large data selections with small and substantially constant memory footprints. The architecture facilitates the creation of sets of data objects (e.g., rows) of a data source based on selection of the data objects. The set structures can be defined according to a range (span) of data objects selected and a pattern of the objects selected. These set structures are then saved in memory, rather than the data objects, to provide optimized memory usage. In a database implementation, the solution stores the set representation (the structure) in nearly a constant amount of memory, regardless of the number of rows in the grid, and regardless of the number of rows selected. Memory usage can be proportional to the number of discontinuous spans of rows selected by the user. Structures in memory can be consolidated, replaced, or eliminated dynamically as the user changes row selections and pattern criteria.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Rajeev V. Karunakaran, Rou-Peng Huang, Pablo Barvo, Mark Xiaohong Yang
  • Patent number: 9213690
    Abstract: According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of selecting an expansion for an acronym in a document of a set of linked documents. The method comprises obtaining for each occurrence of the acronym in the set of linked documents one or more possible acronym expansions and an associated probability that the one or more possible acronym expansions is the correct acronym expansion. The further comprises identifying a sub-set of documents from the set of linked documents in which the acronym occurs. The method further comprises recalculating the associated probabilities for a first occurrence of an acronym in the sub-set of documents based, in part, on the associated probabilities of other occurrences of the acronym in the sub-set of documents and the distance between the first occurrence and the other occurrences.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2015
    Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
    Inventors: Shicong Feng, Yuhong Xiong, Conglei Yao, Wei Liu
  • Patent number: 9210208
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to monitor streaming media content are disclosed. An example method disclosed herein to monitor streaming media content comprises extracting metering data having a first format from media content to be provided to a content presentation device via a transport stream, the extracted metering data identifying at least one of the media content or a source of the media content, the extracted metering data not being decodable by a meter associated with the content presentation device, transcoding the extracted metering data to form transcoded metering data having a second format decodable by the meter associated with the content presentation device, and encoding the transcoded metering data into a metadata channel to send the transcoded metering data to the content presentation device, the metadata channel being associated with the transport stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Arun Ramaswamy, Jan Besehanic
  • Patent number: 9208239
    Abstract: Cloud-based systems and methods for aggregating media collections of users are disclosed. In one embodiment, in order to generate an aggregate media collection catalog of a first user, a cloud-based media aggregation system identifies one or more second users that have an identifier that is the same as an identifier of the first user for purposes of media collection aggregation. The media aggregation system then aggregates media collection catalogs of the one or more second users with a media collection catalog of the first user to thereby provide an aggregate media collection catalog of the first user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: ELOY TECHNOLOGY, LLC
    Inventors: Christopher M. Amidon, Harold Sutherland, Hugh Svendsen
  • Patent number: 9195996
    Abstract: A system and method for generating a profile of communication sessions involves generating ratings for a selected set of messages and metadata associated with content items that are shared by social network users participating in a communication session. Ratings may be based on keyword scores which may then be adjusted based on user participation parameters, social network characterization parameters, and user selected options. Communication session profiles change over time and so recomputation is effected on periodic or scheduled bases. Generated profiles may be stored, frequently retrieved, or used in applications such as but not limited to content filtering, recommending content shared by participating social network members, selecting relevant advertisements, providing topic suggestions or user list invitations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: Qurio Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard Walsh, Christopher Amidon, Alfredo Issa
  • Patent number: 9183309
    Abstract: Systems and methods described herein may operate to receive, at a search service, a first query from a user device corresponding to a current user of the search service, analyze existing search queries performed by users of the search service, and selectively provide, to the user device, a second query of the existing search queries as at least one of: a refinement of the first query based on determining that the second query includes all keywords in the first query, or an alternative to the first query based on determining that the second query lacks at least one keyword in the first query.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2015
    Assignee: PayPal, Inc.
    Inventor: Raghav Gupta
  • Patent number: 9177046
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatus for refining image relevance models. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented in methods that include re-training an image relevance model by generating a first re-trained model based on content feature values of first images of a first portion of training images in a set of training images, receiving, from the first re-trained model, image relevance scores for second images of a second portion of the set of training images, removing, from the set of training images, some of the second images identified as outlier images for which the image relevance score received from the first re-trained model is below a threshold score, and generating a second re-trained model based on content feature values of the first images of the first portion and the second images of the second portion that remain following removal of the outlier images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Arcot J. Preetham, Thomas J. Duerig, Charles J. Rosenberg, Yangli Hector Yee, Samy Bengio
  • Patent number: 9177262
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a method for performing automated discovery of new topics from unlimited documents related to any subject domain, employing a multi-component extension of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (MC-LDA) topic models, to discover related topics in a corpus. The resulting data may contain millions of term vectors from any subject domain identifying the most distinguished co-occurring topics that users may be interested in, for periodically building new topic ID models using new content, which may be employed to compare one by one with existing model to measure the significance of changes, using term vectors differences with no correlation with a Periodic New Model, for periodic updates of automated discovery of new topics, which may be used to build a new topic ID model in-memory database to allow query-time linking on massive data-set for automated discovery of new topics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2015
    Assignee: QBase, LLC
    Inventors: Scott Lightner, Franz Weckesser, Sanjay Boddhu, Robert Flagg
  • Patent number: 9171016
    Abstract: A content selection apparatus selects a target content item which is a content item to be presented to a user, from a plurality of content items. The plurality of content items are sorted into a plurality of management units according to a creation date and time of each content item. The content selection apparatus includes a selection unit that selects a predetermined number of management units in ascending order of the number of sorted content items, and selects a content item that belongs to the selected management units as the target content item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
    Inventors: Ryuji Inoue, Minehisa Nagata
  • Patent number: 9171082
    Abstract: The present inventors, devised among other things, an exemplary method of researching provisions of contracts. The exemplary method entails receiving user selection of one or more predefined queries for contractual precedents, and executing a search of one or more databases containing agreements based on the received user selection. After executing the search, the method entails displaying a subset of the search results based on a predefined filter stored in association with an identifier for the user. The predefined filter may filter based on traits such as jurisdiction, deal size, industry, or a list of companies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: Thomson Reuters Global Resources
    Inventors: Jennifer Anne Duran, James Wight, Heidi Brown Albers, Lora C. Siegler Thody
  • Patent number: 9122726
    Abstract: A system and method for modifying the processing within a streaming application are disclosed. The method may determine one or more parameters for a tuple at a first stream operator. The one or more parameters may represent a processing history of the tuple at the first stream operator. The method may associate the one or more parameters with the tuple metadata. A second stream operator may modify the processing of the tuple if the parameter falls outside a threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michael J. Branson, John M. Santosuosso
  • Patent number: 9098586
    Abstract: A method of learning user characteristics over time and matching them with information on commercial products, advertisements, and services. The learned information resides in a user-controlled device to provide privacy. The device creates keywords based on content or web pages being watched. Keywords locate stored and learned user and commercial information to initiate new Internet searches. New responses are analyzed to learn even more about the user and products. For each user characteristic and commercial information component, structures are created in a database with links and weights to define and refine matching and ranking of the structures. The structures are grouped and the weights are used to rank the search results by user interest. A list corresponding to the grouped structures reflecting highest user interests the device has learned is presented to the user when requested or when the device determines an appropriate time to do so.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: EARTHNETTV INC.
    Inventors: Farrukh Amjad Latif, Richard Nesin
  • Patent number: 9098599
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for presenting search query suggestions. In an aspect, content of a resource that is determined to be responsive to a search query is received, and a candidate set of search query suggestions for the search query is suggested based, in part, on search history data associated with the search query. A final set of search query suggestions based on the search history data and the content of the resource and provided for display on a client device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: Tomoaki Yamauchi
  • Patent number: 9098588
    Abstract: Related ingredient names are extracted from ingredient names included in recipes while reducing the time and effort of a person. An information processing apparatus acquires one or more ingredient names included in each of one or more recipes included in one division of a plurality of divisions of recipes. Next, on the basis of an ordinal number of presentation of each of the acquired ingredient names in an ingredient list in the recipe, the information processing apparatus calculates a value indicating a probability that the ingredient name is a name of a main ingredient of the recipe belonging to the one division for each of the ingredient names. Then, the information processing apparatus associates a plurality of the ingredient names, among the acquired ingredient names, whose calculated values satisfy a predetermined condition with each other as related terms and stores the plurality of the ingredient names in a storage means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: Rakuten, Inc.
    Inventor: YoungJoo Chung
  • Patent number: 9058364
    Abstract: A search engine provides personalized rankings of search results. A user interest profile identifies topics of interest to a user. Each topic is associated with one or more sites, and a boost value, which can be used to augment an information retrieval score of any document from the site. Search results from any search are provided to the user, with a variable control of the ranking of the results. The results can be ranked by their unboosted information retrieval score, thus reflecting no personalization, or by their fully or partially boosted information retrieval scores. This allows the user to selectively control how their interests affect the ranking of the documents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2015
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Taher H. Haveliwala, Glen M. Jeh, Sepandar D. Kamvar
  • Patent number: 9058352
    Abstract: A system generates a request for quotation for a healthcare information system function using a stored template quotation format and multiple different quotation related data fields associated with multiple different healthcare information system elements. A search engine receives user entered text data associated with a desired healthcare information system element and searches stored information to identify multiple different quotation related data fields associated with a healthcare information system element in response to the entered text data. A quotation generator generates a display image showing items representing the identified multiple different quotation related data fields enabling a user to populate a template executable application image window with one or more of the identified data fields and initiate obtaining a quotation for providing the image window.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2015
    Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc.
    Inventor: Sharath Chandra Dudala
  • Publication number: 20150149498
    Abstract: The present invention provides a computer implemented method for performing an application specific operation on a dataset over a distributed computing system. The computer implemented method includes collecting a set of application specific refining data present in a data stream of the dataset in a first map phase by the distributed computing system, resetting the data stream of the dataset to a beginning position by the distributed computing system, and generating one or more resultant data elements using the set of application specific refining data in a second map phase, by the distributed computing system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2014
    Publication date: May 28, 2015
    Applicant: InMobi Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: Gaurav Agarwal, Srinkanth Sundarrajan
  • Publication number: 20150149497
    Abstract: A method is provided for determining problem resolutions within a networked computing environment. The method includes retrieving, by one or more computer processors, event data from within a networked computing environment. The method includes determining, by the one or more computer processors, a characteristic of a database within the networked computing environment, the database storing a plurality of problem resolutions. The method includes determining, by the one or more computer processors, a search query corresponding to the event data and to the characteristic of the database. The method includes performing, by the one or more computer processors, a first search of the database using the search query and then refining, by the one or more computer processors, the search query. The method then includes performing, by the one or more computer processors, at least one additional search of the database using the refined search query.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2014
    Publication date: May 28, 2015
    Inventors: Rose C Kanjirathinkal, Anindya Neogi, Sriram Raghavan
  • Publication number: 20150127675
    Abstract: A display apparatus for and a method of providing to users additional information associated with a broadcasting signal that is being output via the display apparatus are provided. The display apparatus includes a communication unit configured to perform data communication, and a control unit configured to acquire a keyword from content being reproduced by the display apparatus, to acquire user preference information corresponding to a mobile terminal, to acquire a search result corresponding to the acquired keyword, to produce additional information based on the acquired search result and the acquired user preference information, and to provide the additional information to the mobile terminal via the communication unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2014
    Publication date: May 7, 2015
    Inventors: Dong-jun KIM, Jung-ick GUACK, Tae-wan KIM, Young-soo CHOI, Do-won HYUN, Jong-soo YOON, Jeong-yeon LEE