Patents Assigned to Amazon Technologies
  • Directory service user exportation system
    Patent number: 9043880
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for exporting user accounts and associated information from a directory service for a local computing environment to the authentication service of a remote computing environment. A list of user accounts including usernames and other associated data is selected after querying the directory service. The selection of user accounts is then analyzed to make sure that a minimum set of data has been selected. Subsequently, the user account data is written to file, which can then be either programmatically uploaded or manually uploaded. In certain embodiments of the present disclosure, user account information may be directly exported to an authentication service through a network connection without the intermediate step of first writing the data to file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Ahmed Fuad Siddiqui
  • Electronic device component stack
    Patent number: 9041686
    Abstract: Electronic devices that include reflective displays for rendering content, touch sensors layered atop the reflective displays for detecting touch inputs, front lights layered atop the touch sensors for lighting the reflective displays and antiglare components for reducing glare caused by ambient light. This disclosure also describes techniques for assembling electronic devices including these component stacks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Waverly Zehner, Hannah Rebecca Lewbel, Anoop Menon, Scott M. Dylewski, Kari J. Rinko
  • Simulating three-dimensional features
    Patent number: 9041734
    Abstract: Image information displayed on an electronic device can be modified based at least in part upon a relative position of a user with respect to a device. Mapping, topological or other types of positional data can be used to render image content from a perspective that is consistent with a viewing angle for the current relative position of the user. As that viewing angle changes, as a result of movement of the user and/or the device, the content can be re-rendered or otherwise updated to display the image content from a perspective that reflects the change in viewing angle. Simulations of effects such as parallax and occlusions can be used with the change in perspective to provide a consistent user experience that provides a sense of three-dimensional content even when that content is rendered on a two-dimensional display. Lighting, shading and/or other effects can be used to enhance the experience.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Howard D. Look, Leo B. Baldwin, Kenneth M. Karakotsios, Dennis Hodge, Isaac S. Noble, Volodymyr V. Ivanchenko, Jeffrey P. Bezos
  • System and method for maintaining power to electrical systems
    Patent number: 9041250
    Abstract: A back-up feed system includes a feed input, a feed output, and a feed switching device. The feed input is coupled with an electrical power source. The feed output can couple with power lines in a power distribution unit at a location downstream from circuit protection devices the power distribution unit. The feed switching device can supply back-up electrical power from the power source to electrical systems in the event of a fault condition in the power distribution unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael P. Czamara
  • Estimating fingertip position using image analysis
    Patent number: 9041689
    Abstract: A computing device and/or application executing on the device can utilize fingertip tracking using a camera. However, when the fingertip is in a dead zone (an area that is not viewable by the camera), the fingertip tracking cannot function properly. Nevertheless, the position of the fingertip, when in the dead zone, can still be estimated. An image of a user's hand can be captured by at least one camera. A portion of a pointing finger can be detected in the captured image. An orientation of the portion of the pointing finger can be determined. One or more joint lines of the pointing finger can be identified. Based on data about a slant and/or a bend of the pointing finger obtained using information relating to the identified joint line(s), and/or on data obtained via calibration and/or historic/current usage, the position of the fingertip, when in the dead zone, can be approximated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Dong Zhou, Isaac S. Noble
  • Portable computing device as control mechanism
    Patent number: 9043502
    Abstract: A portable or mobile computing device, such as a smart phone or portable media player, can be used to control one or more electronic devices over an appropriate wireless channel. In one example, a user can utilize a smart phone as a mouse for a notebook computer or Internet-capable television. The user can move the portable device on a surface and press appropriate selectable elements on the portable device, as if the user is using a wireless mouse. The portable device can send the commands over the wireless channel to the electronic device, which can provide inputs and/or control signals to the electronic device. In some embodiments, the user can take advantage of the processing capability of the portable device to work directly with elements such as a wireless keyboard and wireless monitor, without the need for a notebook or other such computing element therebetween.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Bradley J. Bozarth, Mingjing Huang
  • Input/output device
    Patent number: 9041669
    Abstract: Interactive applications such as board games, puzzles, and so forth may utilize an input/output (“I/O”) device described herein. The physical I/O device may be configured to accept input via one or more sensors including touch and proximity sensors. In some implementations the surface of the I/O device may present data of the interactive application. Physical input tokens may be used in conjunction with the I/O device to receive input from a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Parag K. Garg
  • Associating item images with item catalog data
    Patent number: 9043232
    Abstract: An image of an item is obtained in one or more computing devices. The item is identified from the image based at least in part on data derived from reference images that are each associated with one or more items. Catalog data corresponding to the item is associated with the image. The catalog data is added to a merchant catalog in an electronic marketplace.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Anand Varadarajan
  • Performing flexible pivot querying of monitoring data using a multi-tenant monitoring system
    Patent number: 9043327
    Abstract: Pivot queries can be performed using stored monitoring data. Pivot queries can be received. Monitoring data can be read from data files. Each data file can store monitoring data for a plurality of tenants. The read monitoring data can be aggregated based on metric types across various dimensions, according to the pivot queries. Results can be presented in various formats, such as charts and graphs. Reading, aggregating, and presenting results can be performed within a multi-tenant monitoring system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: John David Dunagan, Derek Solomon Pai, Caitlyn Rose Shim, John W. Heitmann, Michael R. Foster
  • Automatic testing and remediation based on confidence indicators
    Patent number: 9043658
    Abstract: An asset health monitoring system (AHMS) can assign a confidence indicator to some or all the services of a computing service provider. In response to drops in the confidence indicators, the AHMS can automatically initiate testing of services and/or computing assets associated with the services in order to raise confidence that a particular service and its computing assets will perform correctly. Further, the AHMS can automatically initiate remediation procedures for the particular service and/or specific computing assets that fail the confidence testing. By automatically triggering testing and/or remediation procedures, the AHMS can increase reliability of the computing service provider by preemptively identifying problems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael David Marr, Matthew D. Klein
  • Infrared and capacitance based sensing for proximity detection
    Patent number: 9042833
    Abstract: A proximity detection module determines, using an infrared (IR) sensor of a user device, a distance between an object and the user device. The proximity detection module compares the distance to a distance threshold. If the distance is below the predefined distance threshold, the proximity detection module determines, using a capacitance sensor of the user device, a capacitance value associated with the object. The proximity detection module compares the capacitance value to a predefined presence threshold, and if the capacitance value meets or exceeds the predefined presence threshold, determines that the object comprises a body part of a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Nagendra Bage Jayaraj, Khaled Ahmad Obeidat, Marshall Williams, Michael M. Lee
  • Hydrokinetic power generation system
    Patent number: 9041235
    Abstract: A system for generating electrical power includes one or more turbine systems, a linking system, a power receiving station, and a transmission line. The turbine systems includes a turbine, a turbine carrier that can hold the turbine in a flow of water, and a generator that produces electricity from rotation of a runner of the turbine. The linking system couples the turbine carriers to a fixed location. The transmission line transmits power from the generator to the power receiving station.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jerry James Hunter, Michael P. Czamara, James R. Hamilton
  • Geo-dynamic email lists
    Patent number: 9043414
    Abstract: A server computing device receives location data for a user. The server computing device determines a location of the user based on the location data. The server computing device then transmits emails addressed to an email list to an email address for the user based on determining that the location of the user device is associated with the email list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Sailesh Rachabathuni
  • Offload device for stateless packet processing
    Patent number: 9042403
    Abstract: High-speed processing of packets to, and from, a virtualization environment can be provided while utilizing hardware-based segmentation offload and other such functionality. A hardware vendor of an offload device can enable the hardware to support open and proprietary stateless tunneling in conjunction with a protocol such as single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) in order to implement a virtualized overlay network. The hardware can utilize various rules, for example, that can be used by the offload device to perform certain actions, such as to encapsulate egress packets and decapsulate packets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Pradeep Vincent, Matthew David Klein, Samuel James McKelvie
  • Indexing data updates associated with an electronic catalog system
    Patent number: 9043311
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for efficiently indexing archived objects in an archive data store to allow for efficient and quick access to the archived objects. The systems and methods provided also allow alleviate the strain on a live data store and enable a requester wishing to retrieve updates to do so without knowledge of the location of the stored update on a live or archive data store.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Almann T. Goo, Michael J. McInerny
  • Risk Assessment for Software Applications
    Publication number: 20150143528
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for assessing risk associated with a software application on a user computing device in an enterprise networked environment. An application rating is generated for the software application based at least in part on application characteristics. A risk analysis for the installation of the application is generated based at least in part on the application rating, the user computing device, and user information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Publication date: May 21, 2015
    Applicant: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Jesper M. Johansson, Kenneth L. Hamer, Beau J. Hunter, Jeffrey Joseph Busch
  • Dual-band antenna with grounded patch and coupled feed
    Patent number: 9035840
    Abstract: Methods and systems for radiating electromagnetic energy with a patch antenna structure are described. The patch antenna structure may be formed of a metal member of the user device and is coupled to a ground plane in a first plane and is coupled to a radio frequency (RF) feed) at a portion of the patch antenna structure disposed in a second plane. The patch antenna structure is configured to radiate at an opening between the patch antenna and the ground plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Tzung-I Lee
  • Secure cross-domain web browser communications
    Patent number: 9037963
    Abstract: Methods, systems and computer program products are provided in which a first “sender” web browser window that is within a first domain can communicate with a second “target” web browser window that is within a second, different domain. Pursuant to these techniques, an iframe may be provided within the target web browser window that has a source address that is within the first domain. The content of the iframe may be a function that forwards a received message to the target web browser window. The target web browser window may receive a message in response to the sender web browser window invoking the function of the iframe.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Hendi Chandi, Ashish Agrawal, Dhanvi H. Kapila, Vineesh Sinha
  • Secret variation for network sessions
    Patent number: 9038148
    Abstract: Session-specific information stored to a cookie or other secure token can be selected and/or caused to vary over time, such that older copies will become less useful over time. Such an approach reduces the ability of entities obtaining a copy of the cookie from performing unauthorized tasks on a session. A cookie received with a request can contain a timestamp and an operation count for a session that may need to fall within an acceptable range of the current values in order for the request to be processed. A cookie returned with a response can be set to the correct value or incremented from the previous value based on various factors. The allowable bands can decrease with age of the session, and various parameter values such as a badness factor for a session can be updated continually based on the events for the session.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Gregory B. Roth, Nicholas Alexander Allen, Cristian M. Ilac
  • Collaboration of device resources
    Patent number: 9037737
    Abstract: Computing devices can collaborate in order to take advantage of various components distributed across those devices. In various embodiments, image information captured by multiple devices can be used to identify and determine the relative locations of various persons and objects near those devices, even when not every device can view those persons or objects. In some embodiments, one or more audio or video capture elements can be selected based on their proximity and orientation to an object to be captured. In some embodiments, the information captured from the various audio and/or video elements can be combined to provide three-dimensional imaging, surround sound, and other such capture data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kenneth Mark Karakotsios, Isaac Scott Noble