Abstract: An aerial vehicle is programmed or configured to respond to reports of events or conditions within spaces of a facility. The aerial vehicle travels to a location of a reported event or condition and captures data using onboard sensors. The aerial vehicle independently determines whether the reported event or condition is occurring, or is otherwise properly addressed by resources that are available at the location, using images or other data captured by the onboard sensors. Alternatively, the aerial vehicle transmits a request for additional resources to be provided at the location, where necessary. A map of the location generated based on images or other data captured by the onboard sensors may be utilized for any purpose, such as to make one or more recommendations of products that are appropriate for use at the facility.

Abstract: Techniques for presenting content by a voice-controlled device are described. In an example, the voice-controlled device is operatively coupled to a presentation device and supports dual mode functionalities. In a first mode, the voice-controlled device sends content for presentation at the presentation device. In a second mode, the voice-controlled device presents the content at a presentation interface of the voice-controlled device. Based on speech input from a user indicating an issue with a content presentation in the first mode, the voice-controlled device switches to the second mode and presents a message at the presentation interface indicating that subsequent content presentations would be presented at this interface. The voice-controlled device remains in the second mode until receiving additional speech input necessitating a switch to the first mode.

Abstract: A system receives a first indication associated with a first device picking up a package and transmits a first instruction to the first device to travel to a location associated with transferring the package to a second device. The system may transmit a second instruction to the second device to travel to the location to receive the package from the first device. The system receives a second indication associated with the package being transferred from the first device to the second device at the location. One or more third devices may meet at the location to transfer packages to the second device. In some instances, the location may be determined based at least in part on a current location of the first device and/or a current location of the second device.

Abstract: An aerial vehicle or another system having moving components may be configured with a capacitive sensing system for detecting body parts of humans or other animals within proximity. The capacitive sensing system includes conductive components provided in association with surfaces of housings within which motors rotate propellers or other objects. The capacitors are coupled to circuits including transistors, resistors, capacitors or other features that are configured to determine levels of capacitance on the conductive components during operations of the aerial vehicle or other system. When a body part approaches a conductive component, and disrupts a level of capacitance on a capacitor coupled to the conductive component, a change in the level of capacitance on the capacitor is detected. Where the change exceeds a predetermined threshold, predetermined actions such as stopping or otherwise altering operations of the motors may be performed.

Abstract: In response to determining that continuous data protection is to be enabled for a particular table of a database service, a service component verifies that automated transmission of change records of the table to a log-structured journal has been configured. A given change record comprises a before-image and an after-image associated with a committed database write, and is assigned a unique sequence number. In response to a determination to restore the table as of a specified point in time, a restore record set is identified from the journal with respect to a selected snapshot of the table. The restore record set includes change records which are not represented in the snapshot and are to be represented in the restored table. A restore result table is created using the selected snapshot and the restore record set.

Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for evaluating performance metrics (e.g., accuracy, depth precision, curvature accuracy, coverage, data acquisition time, etc.) of sensors (e.g., cameras, depth cameras, color cameras, etc.) according to captured image data. One or more reference boards having different types of reference structures (e.g., three-dimensional shapes, materials, three-dimensional patterns (e.g., waves, steps, etc.), gaps, etc.) that are used to evaluate the performance properties of a sensor. A reference board is attached to a robotic arm and positioned in front of a sensor. The robotic arm positions the reference board in front the sensor in different viewpoints while the sensor captures image data associated with the reference board. The captured image data is compared with ground truth data associated with the reference board to determine performance metrics of the sensor.

Abstract: An apparatus for diverting and/or folding articles includes an infeed conveyor, an outfeed conveyor, and a diverter. The diverter is a non-contact, fluid emitting diverter, configured to emit a fluid jet to exhibit the diverting force on the impact zone of the article at a side of the article facing away from the outfeed entry. An angle of the average direction of the diverting force of the fluid jet with the outfeed path at the outfeed entry is in the range of 5° to 85°.

Abstract: Systems and methods for activity-based device recommendations are disclosed. For example, historical usage data associated with a device may indicate that the device is likely to be associated with a given state at a given time. When the device is not in the anticipated state, a recommendation to transition the device state, for example, may be sent. Additionally, a determination of the activity state associated with the device, such as an active state, an asleep state, and/or an away state may be utilized to determine the recommendation to surface, to determine whether to send a recommendation, and when and/or how to send the recommendation.

Abstract: At a machine learning service, a determination is made that an analysis to detect whether at least a portion of contents of one or more observation records of a first data set are duplicated in a second set of observation records is to be performed. A duplication metric is obtained, indicative of a non-zero probability that one or more observation records of the second set are duplicates of respective observation records of the first set. In response to determining that the duplication metric meets a threshold criterion, one or more responsive actions are initiated, such as the transmission of a notification to a client of the service.

Abstract: Autonomous mobile robots for transporting carts are described. An example robotic cart transport system includes a cart for transport and a robotic transport. The robotic transport includes a transport cab and a load handler. The transport cab includes a drive system and a sensor array positioned over the transport cab. The load handler includes a load base supported by a directable caster wheel, a lift table positioned over the load base, a lift abutment anchor, and a lift drive. The robotic transport can autonomously position the load handler under a cart, and the lift drive can raise the lift table up and off of the top surface of the load base, to a lifted position seated against the lift abutment anchor. The lift table will contact and lift the cart in this motion, and the cart can be transported to a new location by the robotic transport.

Abstract: Techniques for providing a contextual voice user interface that enables a user to query a speech processing system with respect to the decisions made to answer the user's command are described. The speech processing system may store speech processing pipeline data used to process a command. At some point after the system outputs content deemed responsive to the command, a user may speak an utterance corresponding to an inquiry with respect to the processing performed to respond to the command. For example, the user may state “why did you tell me that?” In response thereto, the speech processing system may determine the stored speech processing pipeline data used to respond to the command, and may generate output audio data that describes the data and computing decisions involved in determining the content deemed responsive to the command.

Abstract: Robotic end effectors may include a suction cup, one or more grasping fingers, and one or more flexible nails to securely and reliably engage, grasp, and cage items. The grasping fingers may move between open and closed positions to grasp items. In addition, the flexible nails may be coupled to ends of the grasping fingers to facilitate caging of items by the fingers and nails. For example, the flexible nails may bend, flex, or slide under, around, or relative to items and thereby enable grasping and caging of portions of items by the fingers and nails. The nails may be formed of various materials, with various layers or thicknesses of materials, and/or with variable flexibility or friction properties. Further, the nails may be transitioned or actuated between multiple configurations, including a sliding configuration and a grasping configuration.

Abstract: A computer system and associated methods are disclosed for mitigating side-channel attacks using memory page remapping. The computer system includes a main memory and a shared cache, the shared cache implementing cache set associativity determined by a portion of memory addresses of the main memory. Multiple physical memory pages are reserved for mapping to a virtual memory page, the physical memory pages differing in the respective portions of their memory addresses determining cache set associativity. Accesses to the virtual memory page result in a mapping of one of the reserved physical memory pages to the virtual memory page, with remapping events causing different ones of the physical memory pages to become mapped. This remapping results in varying cache set associativity of elements stored in the virtual memory page over time.

Abstract: Described is a system and method for presenting event information to a user and, if necessary, obtaining confirmation of different aspects (user, item, action) of the event. In some implementations, an event includes a user, an action, and an item. For example, an event may include a user picking an item from an inventory location, a user placing an item into a tote associated with the user, etc. If the aspects of the event cannot be determined with a high enough degree of confidence, a user interface may be generated and sent to the user requesting confirmation of one or more of the aspects of the event.

Abstract: Techniques for routing data, in a system including multiple assistants, are described. A user device may store configuration data for a virtual assistant, where the configuration data includes a virtual assistant identifier, one or more resource identifiers, and optionally a virtual assistant name. A resource identifier may correspond to a component or device(s) of the virtual assistant. When the user device receives event data associated with a virtual assistant identifier, the user device may use stored configuration data to determine a resource identifier(s) associated with the virtual assistant identifier, associated with the event data. The user device may thereafter send the event data to the component and/or device(s) corresponding to the determined resource identifier(s).

Abstract: A supplemental content retrieval system receives requests for supplemental content from various content providers, and makes respective requests to supplemental content provider(s). Responses to the requests may be subject to a time limit. The requests to the supplemental content provider(s) may be made in parallel or serially, and may sometimes include information based on responses from another content provider. The supplemental content retrieval system receives responses with content items from the supplemental content providers and, for items in the responses that do not specify a category, determines categories of the items (e.g., based on item metadata, interactive links in the content item, item identifiers for the items, etc.). The supplemental content retrieval system applies a constraint (e.g., an inter-item category constraint or similar, which also may be associated with a time limit) to the categorized items to prepare responses to respective content provider requests.

Abstract: Online block parsing techniques are performed that use anchor tokens. When a log entry of a log stream is received, the log entry may be tokenized into an ordered series of log units. The log units may be matched with anchor tokens in previously initialized log templates to determine a matching log template. A log template based on the matching log template may be provided with the tokenized log entry to a destination for a parsed version of the log stream.

Abstract: A resource-based authorization control may be added to a data processing service. A control-plane action requested by an account or entity creates a resource-based authorization policy. The resource-based authorization policy pertaining to respective resources allows recurrent data-plane actions to maintain a data flow in a data pipeline to be authorized independent of a separate authorization service.

Abstract: Systems and techniques for performing a calibration test of an obstacle detection sensor of a drive unit are described. An example system includes a calibration region and at least one drive unit. The calibration region is disposed in an environment and includes a calibration apparatus. The at least one drive unit is operable to autonomously move throughout the environment. The at least one drive unit includes a sensor configured to detect one or more objects within the environment. The at least one drive unit is configured to autonomously transition to the calibration region upon detecting at least one predetermined condition, and perform a calibration test of the first sensor at the calibration region using the calibration apparatus.

Abstract: A subscription storage service of a provider network may be used to select a particular datastore to store a topic subscription record for an IoT device (e.g., after the IoT device subscribes to an MQTT topic). The service may select the particular datastore based on the type of the subscription (e.g., non-wildcard vs. wildcard subscription) and one or more criteria associated with the topic (e.g., subscribe operation TPS for the topic). This may allow the service to store wildcard subscriptions to a different structure and/or datastore (e.g., a “trie” structure of an in-memory data store), while offloading the storage of non-wildcard subscriptions to another type of datastore (e.g., a key-value store) that has lower performance and/or operational cost to store data.