Patents Represented by Attorney Patent Law Works, LLP
  • Patent number: 8171028
    Abstract: Transactional database replication techniques are disclosed that do not require altering of the database management system implementation. A replicator module includes a dynamic membership manager, which is configured to manage the persistent membership of a coordination group. The persistent membership can be, for example, a durable set of sites that can replicate changes amongst themselves. Changes from sites not in the persistent membership are discarded. The set of recovered members is a subset of the persistent membership. The persistent membership changes incrementally by either removing or adding members. Failed members may still be part of the persistent membership. The dynamic membership manager module manages the modification of the persistent membership, initialization of replicas, and propagation of membership information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Progress Software Corporation
    Inventors: Benjamin A. Rousseau, Carl Hu, Frederick A. Tompkins, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8171117
    Abstract: A workflow manager handles the communication between a workflow-enabled provider and a workflow-enabled client. The workflow manager maintains a directory of clients, translates a transaction from a provider into multiple transactions suitable for the client, and handles security. In one embodiment, the workflow manager connects with the workflow-enabled client by registration and with the workflow-enabled provider by advertising and activation. Subsequent communications between the workflow manager and the workflow-enabled provider and the workflow-enabled client are with a request/response protocol. The workflow manager also comprises data storage for storing data for transmission to the workflow-enabled client or the workflow-enabled provider, and workflow storage for storing information related to registered clients. The present invention also includes a number of novel methods including a method for a method for registering a client and a method for activating a provider.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Bradley J. Rhodes, Sergey Chemishkian, Edward Schwartz, Max E. McFarland, Daja Phillips, Andrea Mariotti, Haixia Yu, Michael G. E. Griffin, Stephen R. Savitzky, Gregory J. Wolff, Patty Case
  • Patent number: 8159935
    Abstract: A failover system includes a plurality of configuration controllers and a plurality of switches. The switches include a site proxy, a failover module and a routing table. A first site proxy of a first switch is designated as the active proxy and controls failover in the event a switch fails or otherwise becomes unavailable. A second site proxy of a second switch is designated as the backup proxy and controls failover in the event the first switch fails or otherwise becomes unavailable. In the event a switch fails or otherwise becomes available, the active proxy interacts with the configuration controller and reassigns the extensions associated with the failed switch to a different switch of the plurality of switches. In the event a configuration controller fails or otherwise becomes unavailable, another configuration controller becomes active and establishes communication with the plurality of switches to maintain the operational status of the IP telephony system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: ShoreTel, Inc.
    Inventor: Kent Fritz
  • Patent number: 8155121
    Abstract: A system for using accelerometer-based detection of physical movement for document sharing provides easy and intuitive ways to securely share documents, even without passwords, between computing devices. The system of the present invention includes: at least two computing devices that each have a motion detection device capable of detecting sudden movements and generating a unique signature. The unique signature can then be used to generate signatures or shared secrets for controlling the transfer of data between devices. The motion detection device is capable of detecting sudden movement such as the tapping of the two computing devices together, tapping a stack of computing devices, tossing a computing device in the air. The system may optionally include an intermediary device such as a server for transferring the documents or files between computing devices such that only a small decryption key and file pointer is needed to share records between computing devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenneth F. Gudan, John W. Barrus, Kurt W. Piersol, Sergey Chemishkian
  • Patent number: 8155868
    Abstract: Historic vehicle state information specifying a plurality of performance values associated with the plurality of subsystems of the vehicle at a plurality of time points, including a current time point is stored at the vehicle. Historic neighbor vehicle state information specifying a plurality of performance values associated with a plurality of subsystems of a vehicle at a plurality of time points, including a current time point is received from a neighbor vehicle proximate to the vehicle. A forward-looking model is generated based on vehicle state information. An performance value associated with a subsystem of the plurality of subsystems of the vehicle is determined based on the historic vehicle state information, the historic neighbor vehicle state information, and the forward-looking model. A recommendation to a driver of the vehicle is provided based on the optimized performance value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Toyota InfoTechnology Center Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Daniel Xing, Vinuth Rai, Roger D. Melen, Matthew Kresse, Kezhu Hong
  • Patent number: 8156427
    Abstract: A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). In one embodiment, an MMR document is retrieved based on recognition of a paper document. Responsive to a comparison of the paper document and a virtual multimedia document, a set of actions is displayed to a user. Responsive to a user selection, the user-selected action is performed. In another embodiment, a captured list of names is used to assist a user with labeling a media file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Jamey Graham, Berna Erol, Peter E. Hart, Jonathan J. Hull
  • Patent number: 8154769
    Abstract: An evolutionary document system comprises: a multi-function printer, a recognition module, an evolutionary document processing module, a list of document identifiers and corresponding actions, and an evolutionary document creation module. The MFP includes software and control routines for processing and creating evolutionary documents. The recognition module is operable on the MFP and allows the MFP to determine an evolutionary document identification number from an image scanned by the MFP. The evolutionary document processing module is capable of matching an evolutionary document identification number to one or more steps or action stored in the list of document identifiers and corresponding actions. Once the actions have been identified, the evolutionary document processing module executes the actions. The present invention also includes an evolutionary document creation module for creating an evolutionary document including an identification code.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Co. Ltd
    Inventors: Max E. McFarland, Michael G. E. Griffin, Jonathan J. Hull, Kurt Piersol
  • Patent number: 8156115
    Abstract: A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). The present invention provides a system, method, and computer program product for modifying tie strength between members of an existing network using captured digital images of documents. Documents associated with the captured images are recognized and other members associated with the document are determined. Using this information, ties between members or the network are modified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Berna Erol, Jonathan J. Hull, Hidenobu Kishi, Qifa Ke, Jorge Moraleda
  • Patent number: 8156116
    Abstract: A context-aware targeted information delivery system comprises a mobile device, an MMR matching unit, a plurality of databases for user profiles, user context and advertising information, a plurality of comparison engines and a plurality of weight adjusters. The mobile device is coupled to deliver an image patch to the MMR matching unit which in turn performs recognition to produce recognize text. The recognized text is provided to a first and second comparison engines to produce relevant topics and relevant ads. The relevant topics and relevant ads are adjusted with information from a user context database including information such as location, date, time, and other information from a user profile. The weight adjusted relevant topics and relevant ads to a third comparison engine. The third comparison engine compares the weighted relevant topics and relevant ads to produce a set of final ads that are most related to the topics of interest for the user and delivered for display on to the mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Jamey Graham, Jonathan J. Hull
  • Patent number: 8145999
    Abstract: A system for editing audio objects in which a variety of audio objects are represented as images and laid out in a 2 dimensional visual environment. The system includes a display unit, a processing unit, a user interface unit, and a device for playing/receiving audio. The system has the capability to perform a variety of editing functions, such as the recording and playback of audio content, joining and splitting audio objects, and reordering audio objects. Additionally, the system includes functionality to automatically recording new content when sound is detected above a set threshold. Furthermore, the system includes functionality for linking portions of audio objects to media objects such as HTML documents and video.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: John W. Barrus, Kim McCall, Audrey Tsang, Gregory J. Wolff, Marko Balabanovic
  • Patent number: 8144921
    Abstract: The present invention uses invisible junctions which are a set of local features unique to every page of the electronic document to match the captured image to a part of an electronic document. The present invention includes: an image capture device, a feature extraction and recognition system and database. When an electronic document is printed, the feature extraction and recognition system captures an image of the document page. The features in the captured image are then extracted, indexed and stored in the database. Given a query image, usually a small patch of some document page captured by a low resolution image capture device, the features in the query image are extracted and compared against those stored in the database to identify the query image. The present invention advantageously uses geometric estimation to reduce the query results to a single one or a few candidate matches. In one embodiment, the two separate geometric estimations are used to rank and verify matching candidates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Qifa Ke, Jonathan J. Hull
  • Patent number: 8145597
    Abstract: A system integrator for modeling an object instance of a COBOL data set, the object instance including representations of OCCURS DEPENDING ON clauses or REDEFINE clauses. The system comprises a client interface module, an import module, an object model module and modeler module. The client interface module generates an interface and receives a copybook selection and a set of REDEFINE criteria. The import module receives the copybook selection and imports a copybook from a database. The object model module receives the copybook and the set of REDEFINE criteria, and creates a customized object model for the copybook. The modeler module receives the customized object model and a set of COBOL data, and forms an object instance equivalent to the set of COBOL data, the object instance including representations of a OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause or REDEFINE clause.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Assignee: Progress Software Corporation
    Inventor: Caroline Esther Jesurum
  • Patent number: 8107612
    Abstract: Session-based data, such as call detail accounting information, is tracked and distributed to a plurality of servers in a distributed telephony environment. One type of session is a telephone call between participants. Session-based data includes information about a session provided by the switches along the media path. Session-based data further includes information related to the session obtained from the application layer (e.g., user input metadata). A network proxy maintains a participant list to which the session data is distributed. The network proxy sends updates to the participants and determines the network status to implement fault tolerance of data distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2012
    Assignee: ShoreTel, Inc.
    Inventor: Kenneth A. Robesky
  • Patent number: 8095386
    Abstract: A master matching index (MMI) is accessible to a plurality of entities connected over a network. Access to the MMI is provided via MMI adapters distributed among the entities. A distributed MMI adapter contains matching algorithms that specify how record queries from its associated entity should be compared against information in the MMI. Accordingly, an MMI may be searched for matches according to matching algorithms specified by disparate entities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Medicity, Inc.
    Inventors: James K. Lassetter, David Coyle, Jared Crapo
  • Patent number: 8089405
    Abstract: Applications and uses for geographic coded of network access points includes a method for generating a geographic code and an associated graphical user-interface; a method for rejecting or filtering out geographic codes of inaccurately labeled access points; a method for using geographic codes as part of network service discovery; a method for using geographic codes as part of resource discovery and display; a method for using geographic codes for asset tracking; a method for using geographic codes for file transfer and an associated user interface; a method for using geographic codes for location tracking; a method for using geographic codes as part of a domain name registry; and a method for sending geographic codes automatically.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kurt W. Piersol, John W. Barrus, Stephen R. Savitzky, Sergey Chemishkian
  • Patent number: 8086038
    Abstract: The present invention uses invisible junctions which are a set of local features unique to every page of the electronic document to match the captured image to a part of an electronic document. The present invention includes: an image capture device, a feature extraction and recognition system and database. When an electronic document is printed, the feature extraction and recognition system captures an image of the document page. The features in the captured image are then extracted, indexed and stored in the database. Given a query image, usually a small patch of some document page captured by a low resolution image capture device, the features in the query image are extracted and compared against those stored in the database to identify the query image. The present invention also includes methods for feature extraction, feature indexing, feature retrieval and geometric estimation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Qifa Ke, Jonathan J. Hull
  • Patent number: 8077341
    Abstract: A system and method for monitoring events from a media stream and triggering an action in response to detected events. The action is preferably based on information relating to the event received by the system. The system can generate a paper document that reflects some aspects of the detected event such as a summary describing the event. The system can also generate a network message (e.g., email or paging call) in response to the detected event. In other embodiments, the system stores multimedia in memory in response to the detected event. The system can also generate an audio on a speaker or a video on a video display system attached to the printer based on the detected event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jonathan J. Hull, Jamey Graham, Peter E. Hart
  • Patent number: 8073263
    Abstract: A MMR system that uses multiple classifiers for predicting, monitoring, and adjusting index tables for image recognition comprises a plurality of mobile devices, a pre-processing server or MMR gateway, and an MMR matching unit, and may include an MMR publisher. The MMR matching unit includes a plurality of recognition unit and index table pairs corresponding to classifiers to be applied to received image queries, as well as an image registration unit for storing and monitoring performance data for the classifiers. The MMR matching unit receives the image query and identifies, using a classifier set, a result including a document, the page, and the location on the page corresponding to the image query. The present invention also includes methods for monitoring online performance of a multiple classifier image recognition system, for classifier selection and comparison, and for offline classifier prediction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2011
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jonathan J. Hull, Berna Erol, Jorge Moraleda
  • Patent number: 8065424
    Abstract: An integrated mail and file transfer (IMFT) system is a web-based data transport system including automatic and authenticated access mechanisms. The integrated mail and file transfer system includes an attachment filter, a message & file control server and data storage. The attachment filter receives emails, and for each email generates a metadata file and one or more content files. The metadata and content files are provided to the message & file control server for storage, indexing and further processing. The message & file control server includes a control module, an account creation module, a user interface module, an access control module, an attachment processing module, and a file store and database interaction module. These modules operate on the message & file control server to provide the functionality for automatically creating user accounts, automatically providing access to file, and automatically storing files and emails.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2011
    Assignee: University of Utah Research Foundation
    Inventors: Stefano Foresti, William Luke Stebbing, Paolo Lamponi
  • Patent number: 8063887
    Abstract: A multilayer input/output device with a low power and a high resolution display suitable for use in paper-like computing includes a first display layer, a second display layer, an input layer and control logic. The first display layer is a low power display. The second display layer is a fast, transparent display positioned on top of the first layer. The input layer is a layer for detecting input movements or gestures by the user. The control logic is coupled to the first display layer, the second display layer and the input layer for controlling their operation according the method of the present invention. The method of the present invention selectively operates the second display layer to present movement detected by the input layer. At a predetermined time, the information presented on the second display is transferred to and presented on the first display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2011
    Assignee: Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: John W. Barrus, Ken Gudan