Patents Represented by Attorney Lyon & Harr, LLP
  • Patent number: 8345956
    Abstract: Two-dimensional (2D) video is converted into multi-view video. The 2D video is segmented to generate a temporally consistent segmented 2D video which is made up of a sequence of segmented frames. The multi-view video is generated by employing user-guided operations to generate depth assignments for the segments associated with user-assigned regions of the segmented frames, where a user-assigned region is formed from a group of contiguous segments selected by the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Benjamin Ward, Sing Bing Kang, Eric Bennett
  • Patent number: 8341602
    Abstract: An “Automated, Static Safety Verifier” uses typed assembly language (TAL) and Hoare logic to achieve highly automated, static verification of type and memory safety of an operating system (OS). Various techniques and tools mechanically verify the safety of every assembly language instruction in the OS, run-time system, drivers, and applications, except the boot loader (which can be separately verified). The OS includes a “Nucleus” for accessing hardware and memory, a kernel that builds services running on the Nucleus, and applications that run on top of the kernel. The Nucleus, written in verified assembly language, implements allocation, garbage collection, multiple stacks, interrupt handling, and device access. The kernel, written in C# and compiled to TAL, builds higher-level services, such as preemptive threads, on top of the Nucleus. A Hoare-style verifier with automated theorem prover verifies safety and correctness of the Nucleus. A TAL checker verifies safety of the kernel and applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Chris Hawblitzel, Jean Yang
  • Patent number: 8330802
    Abstract: The stereo movie editing technique described herein combines knowledge of both multi-view stereo algorithms and human depth perception. The technique creates a digital editor, specifically for stereographic cinema. The technique employs an interface that allows intuitive manipulation of the different parameters in a stereo movie setup, such as camera locations and screen position. Using the technique it is possible to reduce or enhance well-known stereo movie effects such as cardboarding and miniaturization. The technique also provides new editing techniques such as directing the user's attention and easier transitions between scenes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corp.
    Inventors: Sanjeev J. Koppal, Sing Bing Kang, Charles Lawrence Zitnick, III, Michael F. Cohen, Bryan Kent Ressler
  • Patent number: 8316104
    Abstract: A collaborative system that includes automatic monitoring and management of reflector/servers and clients. The reflectors are in a logical cluster although their physical locations may be anywhere in the world. Reflector to reflector performance and status is continuously monitored. If a reflector-to-reflector link goes down or is underperforming, the reflector cluster is rerouted to provide desired performance. Clients are monitored and provide information via the network to register/management servers. A best path for the client capabilities is calculated and established. If network performance deteriorates, there are a tiered selection of session modifications that are initiated to compensate. These include reducing video detail levels, reducing number of video streams, reducing size of video windows, adjusting frame rate, and other corrective measures. The client software includes the ability to accept plug-in applications and functionality for customizable operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: California Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Philippe Galvez, Harvey B. Newman
  • Patent number: 8315196
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for determining the placement of ITAPs in wireless neighborhood networks. The method disclosed provides for efficient integration of multi-hop wireless networks with the Internet by placing ITAPs at strategic locations. Initially the method provides for the formulation of the ITAP placement problem under three wireless models. For each model, methods are developed to efficiently place ITAPs in the networks. The methods aim to minimize the number of required ITAPs while guaranteeing users' bandwidth requirements. Next, a fault tolerance version of the placement method is presented that provides bandwidth guarantees in the presence of failures. Finally the methods are extended to take into account variable traffic demands by developing an approximation algorithm to simultaneously optimize ITAP placement based on demands over multiple periods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Lili Qiu, Kamal Jain, Ranveer Chandra, Mohammad Mahdian
  • Patent number: 8316039
    Abstract: Conceptually related term identification technique embodiments are presented that involve identifying in the results of a search query, terms that are conceptually related to the search query terms. In one general embodiment, this is accomplished by first inputting the terms employed in a search query and the results of the search. Word tokens found in the search query terms are then identified, as are potential phrases that can be made from the identified word tokens. Conceptually related words and phrases are then identified in the search query results. These words and phrases correspond to the previously identified word tokens and potential phrases. The search query results are presented to a user on a display device in such a manner as to visually distinguish the conceptually related words and phrases from other words and phrases in the search query results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Lucretia Vanderwende, Chris Brockett
  • Patent number: 8300807
    Abstract: This cryptographic curve generation technique provides a faster way of constructing a genus 2 curve. The technique provides a procedure to compute isogenies between genus 2 curves over finite fields. Instead of looping over possible roots, as is typically done when solving Igusa class polynomials, the technique only finds one root and then applies the isogenies to find the others. The technique computes a set of polynomials that define all isogenies. To do this, for a given root of an Igusa class polynomial over a finite field, the technique computes a value of a small modular function ƒ. To the value of this function ƒ, the technique applies an isogeny to find an isogenous ƒ-value. The technique then transforms the ƒ-value back into an Igusa value. Once the Igusa class polynomials are solved they can be used to generate a genus 2 curve which can be used in cryptographic applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corp.
    Inventors: Reinier M. Broker, Kristin E. Lauter, David Gruenewald
  • Patent number: 8290294
    Abstract: An image may be dehazed using a three-dimensional reference model. In an example embodiment, a device-implemented method for dehazing includes acts of registering, estimating, and producing. An image that includes haze is registered to a reference model. A haze curve is estimated for the image based on a relationship between colors in the image and colors and depths of the reference model. A dehazed image is produced by using the estimated haze curve to reduce the haze of the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Johannes P. Kopf, Michael F. Cohen, Daniel Lischinski, Matthieu T. Uyttendaele
  • Patent number: 8290181
    Abstract: A system level automatic gain control (“System AGC”) automatically initializes and controls analog microphone gain in an environment where multiple independent applications simultaneously receive an input from a single analog microphone or microphone array. In one embodiment, the System AGC also prevents those applications from acting to separately control the gain by intercepting external gain control commands and responding to the corresponding application with a corresponding digital gain applied to the input signal from the microphone. Consequently, the System AGC avoids problems relating to oscillations and instability in the microphone gain resulting from multiple applications trying to simultaneously control the gain while preventing each application from adversely affecting the quality of another application's audio capture signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jack W. Stokes, III, John Platt, David Alan Stevens
  • Patent number: 8275120
    Abstract: An acoustic echo cancellation technique. The present adaptive acoustic echo cancellation technique employs a plurality of acoustic echo cancellation filters which use different adaptation techniques which may employ different parameters such as step size, to improve both the adaptation algorithm convergence time and misadjustment over previously known acoustic echo cancellation techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corp.
    Inventors: Jack W. Stokes, III, Dinei Florencio, Amit Chhetri
  • Patent number: 8275970
    Abstract: The write optimizer described in this disclosure optimizes write traffic to a disk. The write optimization technique writes small data sets to be written to a disk drive to a log file in write optimized order and rewrites the small data sets to disk drive in read optimized order when the disk drive is idle. The write optimizer reserves a portion of a disk to be used for write performance improvement, and then takes all small writes to the disk and writes them to the reserved area rather than to their intended destination. When the disk becomes idle (or the reserved area full), the write optimizer takes the data that has been written to the reserved area and that has not been subsequently overwritten and copies it to its final location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corp.
    Inventor: William J. Bolosky
  • Patent number: 8271741
    Abstract: A “request scheduler” provides techniques for batching and scheduling buffered thread requests for access to shared memory in a general-purpose computer system. Thread-fairness is provided while preventing short- and long-term thread starvation by using “request batching.” Batching periodically groups outstanding requests from a memory request buffer into larger units termed “batches” that have higher priority than all other buffered requests. Each “batch” may include some maximum number of requests for each bank of the shared memory and for some or all concurrent threads. Further, average thread stall times are reduced by using computed thread rankings in scheduling request servicing from the shared memory. In various embodiments, requests from higher ranked threads are prioritized over requests from lower ranked threads. In various embodiments, a parallelism-aware memory access scheduling policy improves intra-thread bank-level parallelism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Onur Mutlu, Thomas Moscibroda
  • Patent number: 8271814
    Abstract: Energy saving virtualization technique embodiments are presented that save energy by virtualizing a network-connected client computer's computing session (or a part thereof) as a virtual machine (VM) and then migrating it between the client computer and a VM server, depending on whether the computing session is active or idle. The client computer VM is migrated to the VM server when the client computer is deemed to be idle, and the VM is migrated back when the client computer is deemed to have re-entered an active condition. When the VM has been migrated away from the client computer and is residing on the VM server, the client computer is put into a sleep mode, thereby saving energy. However, the user's computing session remains alive on the VM server so that ongoing network connections and other activity are not disturbed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Venkata N. Padmanabhan, Ramachandran Ramjee, Tathagata Das, Pradeep Padala
  • Patent number: 8266393
    Abstract: Systems and methods that coordinate operations among a plurality of memory controllers to make a decision for performing an action based in part on state information. A control component facilitates exchange of information among memory controllers, wherein exchanged state information of the memory controllers are further employed to perform computations that facilitate the decision making process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas Moscibrod, Onur Mutlu
  • Patent number: 8266078
    Abstract: A method for researching and developing a recognition model in a computing environment, including gathering one or more data samples from one or more users in the computing environment into a training data set used for creating the recognition model, receiving one or more training parameters defining a feature extraction algorithm configured to analyze one or more features of the training data set, a classifier algorithm configured to associate the features to a template set, a selection of a subset of the training data set, a type of the data samples, or combinations thereof, creating the recognition model based on the training parameters, and evaluating the recognition model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Yu Zou, Hao Wei, Gong Cheng, Dongmei Zhang, Jian Wang
  • Patent number: 8264455
    Abstract: Physical controls on a physical controller device (PCD) are dynamically mapped to application controls for an application being executed on a computer having a touch-sensitive display surface. The computer identifies a PCD which has been placed by a user on the display surface and displays a mapping aura for the PCD. When the user touches an activate direct-touch button displayed within the mapping aura, the computer activates a mapping procedure for the PCD and displays a highlighted direct-touch button over each application control which is available to be mapped to the physical controls on the PCD. When the user selects a particular application control which is available to be mapped by touching the highlighted button residing over the control, the computer creates a dynamic mapping between the selected application control and a user-selected physical control on the PCD.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Rebecca Fiebrink, Dan Morris, Meredith Morris
  • Patent number: 8253824
    Abstract: Multi-spectral imaging technique embodiments are presented which involve an active imaging approach that uses wide band illumination of known spectral distributions to obtain multi-spectral reflectance information in the presence of unknown ambient illumination. In general, a reflectance spectral distribution of a captured scene is computed by selecting a number of different illumination spectra and capturing multiple images of the scene. Each of these images is captured when the scene is illuminated by a different one of the selected illumination spectra in addition to the ambient light. The reflectance spectral distribution of the scene is computed for each pixel location based on the relative response between pairs of the radiometric responses of the corresponding pixels in the captured images, given a set of parameters including the added illumination spectra used to capture each of the images and the response function and spectral sensitivity of the camera used to capture the images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Moshe Benezra, Chi Cui
  • Patent number: 8254704
    Abstract: A “Remote Display Generator,” as described herein, provides various techniques for providing high-fidelity displays with highly responsive interactive application experiences to clients across a wide range of network bandwidths for remotely hosted applications. In general, the Remote Display Generator uses a compression-friendly remote display architecture as a core. With this compression architecture, actual screen data from a remote server is read out from the display buffer frame by frame, and then compressed with a unified screen codec. Other technologies, including timer-driven screen update models and adaptive transmission mechanisms, are then integrated with various embodiments of the Remote Display Generator to improve overall user experience by improving display quality and responsiveness to user interaction with remotely hosted applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Yan Lu, Huifeng Shen, Feng Wu, Shipeng Li
  • Patent number: 8244872
    Abstract: The educational adaptive provider architecture described herein provides a way for an educational services framework to be built on varying underlying existing technologies without any changes in the object model and services. The provider framework supports the ability to have multiple types of providers for various services, such as, for example, for authorization, authentication, communication, grouping, scoring, social-networking, storage and user functions. The educational adaptive provider architecture provides easy integration of existing institutional and educational service deployments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corp.
    Inventors: Ellery Charlson, Lei Wang, Mohamed Rouatbi, Parul R. Manek, Rajeev Mittal, Xin Li, Zhipeng Zhao, Zubin Alexander, Kevin Casey Gammill, Qin Zhou, Manjusha M. Mangaonkar, Brian James Hardy
  • Patent number: 8239822
    Abstract: The symbolic differentiation technique described herein uses operator overloading and two simple recursive procedures, both the forward and reverse forms of differentiation, to create purely symbolic derivatives. The symbolic derivative expressions can be translated into a program in an arbitrary source language, such as C# or C++, and this program can then be compiled to generate an efficient executable which eliminates much of the interpretive overhead normally encountered in automatic differentiation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corp.
    Inventor: Brian Kevin Guenter