Patents Represented by Attorney Shook, Hardy and Bacon
  • Patent number: 8255785
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a communication network having a plurality of communication devices capable of transferring content wirelessly. The communication network comprises at least two communication devices and a mediator. The first communication device receives streaming content. The second communication device receives content different from the content streaming to the first communication device. In turn, the mediator determines whether the streaming content should take precedence over the content different from the content streaming on the first communication device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: David W. Baumert, Flora P. Goldthwaite, Gregory L. Hendrickson, Jonathan Cluts
  • Patent number: 8255827
    Abstract: Computer-readable media, computerized methods, and graphical user interfaces (GUI's) for interactively presenting features within the panes of a display area rendered in a GUI workspace are provided. Initially, a computing device memory is inspected to discover a profile that accommodates a user-visual pattern. When the profile is not discovered, a default page layout is retrieved and communicated to the display device for presentation within the display area. If the profile is discovered, commonly viewed screen locations, based upon a frequency of eye fixation upon each of the screen locations, are ordered. Contextually relevant features are selected for presentation within the display area. The selected features are ranked based on predetermined criteria and each associated with the commonly viewed screen locations by comparing the ranking with the ordering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Manish Malik
  • Patent number: 8251434
    Abstract: A vehicle door construction having a 360° grab handle includes a fastener cover that conceals a fastener hole in an A-surface of the vehicle door and which provides a buckling path for the 360° grab handle. An L-shaped cover and a fastener hole configuration is provided in the lateral A-surface to reduce stiffness in the region and to absorb side impact loads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Ian Brewster Hall, Srinivas Sanikommu, John Pinkerton
  • Patent number: 8255262
    Abstract: The assessment of security risks associated with linear corridors, such as transportation corridors and utilities corridors, is provided. Initially, a site is selected for evaluation. Survey data and context sensitive information, such as demographic information, environmental information, corridor asset information, and the like, is collected for the site. Linear corridors are identified within the data, and critical assets within each linear corridor are also identified. Security risks associated with linear corridors may then be assessed using the survey data and context sensitive information. In addition, mitigation strategies, response strategies, and recovery strategies may be developed for the security risks assessed for the linear corridors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: HNTB Holdings Ltd
    Inventors: Jeffrey L. Siegel, Charles H. Quandel, W. Robert Moore, Douglas Wayne Morrison, Glen Arthur Herman, Robert J. Marros, Michael Richard Ostrom
  • Patent number: 8251629
    Abstract: A medication dispenser provides automation to the steps of locating and acquiring medications to be administered to a patient. The medication dispenser includes an enclosure providing a secure environment for storing medications in multiple sized medication-storage bins. The medication storage bins are hung in storage racks located within the enclosure. A robot system is also provided within the enclosure for moving bins between the storage racks and a medication dispensing area. The medication dispensing area includes doors configured to open to define an opening for passing a selected bin through the enclosure. In some embodiments, the doors provide a variable-sized opening and, in some instances, the opening matches the size of a bin containing medications selected for dispensing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc.
    Inventors: Edward J. Schifman, William A Bedore
  • Patent number: 8251440
    Abstract: The multi-segmented headliner for a vehicle includes an elongated intermediate segment, an elongated first side segment, and an elongated second side segment. In one configuration the segments are separate and form the complete headliner on assembly inside the roof of the vehicle. In another configuration the segments are joined together in a single piece, with the side segments being movable relative to the intermediate segment. Both configurations permit the replacement of the headliner of a van or sport utility by moving the headliner either in separate segments, or folded if a single piece, through the opening defined by the rear door or liftgate of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Lara Daniv Zarewych, Jeffrey T. Baxter
  • Patent number: 8250769
    Abstract: A distance indicating mechanism can be used in combination with a bow sight to quickly determine distances to targets from an elevated position. The distance indicating mechanism has a generally circular, fluid-filled tubular device with one or more adjustable indicators located thereon. The indicators are positionable to correspond with the fluid level in the tubular device to indicate the orientation of the mechanism when aiming at a known distance. Each indicator generally corresponds to a sight pin of a bow site that indicates a corresponding linear distance for which an arrow will be at a desired vertical position when shot by a bow operator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Jerrmatt, LLC
    Inventor: Jerry Edmundson
  • Patent number: 8255873
    Abstract: A media and method for detecting third-party content in web pages is provided. Computer software operates on a server or a client-side computer to identify and analyze third-party links and contents in web pages to determine if a third-party content sill exists, is available, has changed, or disrupts a web browser. A third-party link or content can be removed, changed, or replaced. A user can be notified or given an option to handle changed third-party content. The server may remove the third-party link or content by changing an HTML file for the web page. The client-side computer may remove the third-party link or content by dynamically changing the rendered web page before it is displayed to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ari Lazier, Hugh Williams, Nick Whyte
  • Patent number: 8250092
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and systems directed to receiving search queries, retrieving documents, computing the number of categories to present for a given query, computing the number of results to show in each category, computing an ordering of categories, and for all the result pages beyond the first page employing user interface elements that optionally allow the user to quickly zoom in on a specific category and get more results belonging to that category.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Sreenivas Gollapudi, Rakesh Agrawal, Samuel Ieong
  • Patent number: 8250481
    Abstract: A method, system, and medium are provided for presenting aspects of change associated with a geographic area that has been captured by high-resolution, remotely sensed imagery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: The Curators of the University of Missouri
    Inventors: Matthew Nicholas Klaric, Curtis Herbert Davis, Grant Jason Scott, Chi-Ren Shyu, Brian Christopher Claywell
  • Patent number: 8250053
    Abstract: A method, system, and medium are provided for enhancing a search result snippet that is associated with a URL. Potentially descriptive terms of the URL are identified by reconciling multiple sources of terms related to the URL. One aspect includes comparing search terms of historically relevant queries to anchor text for the URL. The search result snippet might be intelligently enhanced by causing common terms to be visibly distinguished when the snippet is displayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Nicholas Eric Craswell, Nitin Agrawal, Amir J. Padovitz, Song Zhou
  • Patent number: 8248944
    Abstract: Computerized methods, systems, and computer-storage media for establishing and managing a transmission control protocol (TCP)-based tunnel (“tunnel”) are provided. The tunnel spans between a data center and a private enterprise network and connects endpoints, of a service application, that reside in each location. During communication, the endpoints transmit data packets over one or more channels (e.g., higher-level channel and lower-level channel) that comprise the tunnel. Each of the channels supports reliability mechanisms (e.g., congestion-control mechanism and loss-recovery mechanism) integrally running thereon, for ensuring complete data-packet delivery. To prevent unwarranted performance degradation caused by duplicative efforts of reliability mechanisms, a fabric controller is employed to selectively disable one or more of the reliability mechanisms individually.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Deepak Bansal, Hasan Alkhatib
  • Patent number: 8250518
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for defining a default handler software application in response to an event at a computer. An event, for example, a user opening a file with a specific extension or accessing a uniform resource locator (URL) with a specific protocol, may trigger the operating system to instantiate a user-level default handler program associated with the event type and the specific user. Users may define user-level default handlers through a centralized user interface maintained by the operating system. During the application installation process, an application may register lists of supported events that the application is capable of handling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Edward B. Averett, Giles Edward Van der Bogert, Jerry K. Koh, Michael G. Sheldon, Zeke B. Odins-Lucas
  • Patent number: 8250469
    Abstract: Computer-readable media, systems, and methods for document layout extraction are described. In embodiments, textual data in an electronic format is received and the textual data is converted from the electronic format to an independent interface format, the independent interface format including coordinates to one or more structural elements of the textual data. Further, in embodiments, a structure and layout analysis of the textual data is performed to generate a set of structure and layout information. Still further, in embodiments, the textual data and the set of structure and layout information is stored in an enriched interface format, the enriched interface format providing for search and navigation of the textual data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Bodin Dresevic, Oren Trutner, Sasa Tomasevic, Aleksandar Uzelac, Dejan Lukacevic
  • Patent number: 8244750
    Abstract: An inversion of the basic format of searching is provided herein. Instead of receiving a search query and providing web page results, a search engine receives a web page identifier as search input from an end user, determines related search queries for the associated web page, and provides the related search queries to the end user issuing the search. Related search queries for web pages may also be used to refine search engines performing the basic form of searching by facilitating the determination of web pages to index and the ranking of web pages as search results to user queries. Additionally, related search queries may be used in advertising revenue generation and sharing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Krishna Chaitanya Gade, Srinath Reddy Aaleti, Nicholas Eric Craswell, Amit Prakash, Hugh Evan Williams
  • Patent number: 8244812
    Abstract: A system, a method and computer-readable media for initiating the hosting of email for an Internet domain name. A secure communication channel is established with an entity requesting email hosting services. After verifying that the requesting entity is authorized to control the domain name, information describing email accounts with the domain name is received, and email services are provided for the email accounts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Arnold Blinn, Cynthia Hagan, Don Gillett
  • Patent number: 8243997
    Abstract: A method, system, and medium are provided for detecting change in a geographic area. One embodiment includes receiving a set of remotely sensed imagery that depicts the geographic area, automatically identifying changes in physical features of the geographic area by comparing, without user intervention, the set of remotely sensed imagery to a dataset of previously stored remotely sensed imagery that also depicts the geographic area, and deriving a change-quality measurement associated with the set of remotely sensed imagery, wherein the change-quality measurement quantifies a suitability of comparison of the set of remotely sensed imagery to the previously stored remotely sensed imagery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: The Curators of the University of Missouri
    Inventors: Curtis Herbert Davis, Brian Christopher Claywell, James Michael Keller, Matthew Nicholas Klaric, Grant Jason Scott, Chi-Ren Shyu
  • Patent number: 8244700
    Abstract: Systems and methods for performing an updating process to an in-memory index are provided. Upon receiving notice of document modifications covered by an inverted index associated with a search engine, in the form of an update file, a representation of the modification is published onto various index serving machines. Each index serving machine receiving the update file determines if the modifications are applicable to the index serving machine. If an index serving machine determines that it contains mapping information corresponding to the modified documents, the index serving machine utilizes the update file and associated mapping information to update an in-memory index. In embodiments, the in-memory index is used to provide results to user queries in tandem with the inverted index. In some embodiments, an extra in-memory index is maintained that is revised with constantly incoming metadata updates and the existing in-memory index is periodically swapped with the revised in-memory index.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Pratibha Permandla, Yinzhe Yu, Guarav Sareen, Abhas Kumar
  • Patent number: 8244701
    Abstract: Systems and methods for applying user behavior data to improve search query result ranking are provided. Upon receiving an update file indicating that recent, significant user behavior data is available for a document associated with an inverted index, the update file is published periodically and frequently to an index server. After filtering out the relevant update information from the update file, the index server extracts identifiers of the documents having the associated user behavior data. The update file and the identifier of the documents are utilized to update an in-memory index containing representations of metadata indicative of the user behavior. The in-memory index is continuously updated and utilized to serve search query results in response to user search queries. Search query results from the in-memory index are ranked using the user behavior data prior to serving. Thus, results associated with recent, significant user-behavior metadata receive prominent placement on the search results page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Walter Sun, Jay Kumar Goyal, Pratibha Permandla, Yinzhe Yu, Jingfeng Li
  • Patent number: 8244740
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that facilitate providing suggested sites in accordance with target sites are provided. Web-browsed data is locally stored on a user device and uploaded to a suggestion engine. Additional web-browsed data is communicated to the suggestion engine via a suggested site request that provides a request for suggested sites related to a target site. In embodiments, the web-browsed data contained in the suggested site request includes data not previously uploaded to the suggestion engine. The suggestion engine utilizes the web-browsed data uploaded to the suggestion engine and the web-browsed data communicated via the suggested site request to provide suggested sites in association with the target site.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Richard J. Gruenhagen, Andrew P. Oakley, Maxim V. Stepin, Christopher A. Meyers, Srinath R. Aaleti, Jason A. Bolla, Nikolay A. Glushnev