Patents Assigned to Amazon Technologies
  • Qualifying trigger expressions in speech-based systems
    Patent number: 9672812
    Abstract: A speech-based audio device may be configured to detect a user-uttered trigger expression and to respond by interpreting subsequent words or phrases as commands. In order to distinguish between utterance of the trigger expression by the user and generation of the trigger expression by the device itself, output signals used as speaker inputs are analyzed to detect whether the trigger expression has been generated by the speaker. If a detected trigger expression has been generated by the speaker, it is disqualified. Disqualified trigger expressions are not acted upon the by the audio device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Yuzo Watanabe, Paul Joseph Schaffert, Bjorn Hoffmeister, Stan Weidner Salvador
  • Fulfillment of orders for items using 3D manufacturing on demand
    Patent number: 9672550
    Abstract: Methods and systems can be provided for providing items manufactured on demand to users. A user request for an item can be received. The item can have 3D manufacturing instructions associated therewith. A delivery method for the item can be determined. A manufacturing apparatus can be selected to manufacture the item based on the 3D manufacturing instructions. Instructions can be sent to the manufacturing apparatus to manufacture the item based on the 3D manufacturing instructions. Delivery instructions can be provided for delivering the item according to the delivery method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Linda Knowlton Apsley, Colin Ian Bodell, Jacob Conrad Danton, Scott Randall Hayden, SaiPrasad Kapila, Eric Lessard, Robert Benjamin Uhl
  • Calculating a maturity level of a text string
    Patent number: 9672203
    Abstract: Techniques for determining a maturity level of a text string may be provided. For example, the text string may be associated with an electronic book or story, script or closed captioning of a movie or television show, or other text associated with media. The system may analyze the text string to identify actions in the text (e.g., concepts of death, degree of violence, etc.), story complexity (e.g., number of characters, linear/non-linear story flow, etc.), vocabulary (e.g., unique words, complexity of terms, etc.), and other metrics to determine the objective maturity level associated with the text string. The maturity level and/or references to electronic books associated with the particular maturity level may be provided to users and/or used in additional processing and analysis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Bigyan Bhar, Saurabh Sohoney
  • Acquisition of an item based on a catalog presentation of items
    Patent number: 9672533
    Abstract: An electronic service provides an electronic catalog to a user. The electronic catalog can include a plurality of descriptions of items. The electronic catalog can also include a plurality of prompts which allow the user to acquire the items described in the electronic catalog. The items in the electronic catalog can be determined by static and/or dynamic considerations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: John Lattyak
  • Systems, devices and methods for presenting content
    Patent number: 9674255
    Abstract: Media devices may stream a wide variety of content for presentation. Described herein are systems, devices, and methods for improving the presentation of the content. The media device may execute a pipeline architecture comprising a sequential execution of a plurality of threads. The threads may include a decryption thread, a decoding thread, and a rendering thread. The media device may include buffer queues between the threads, which enable continuous content presentation when one or more of the threads fail to communicate with another thread. The media device may pause the presentation of content by suspending the execution of the rendering thread. In one implementation, the media device replaces a stale frame that is displayed after performing a seek function with a black frame. In another example, to maintain content presentation, the media device drops video frames if an audio video lag event occurs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Shinjan Kumar Tiwary, Celil Urgan, Sreeram Raju Chakrovorthy, Jaee Patwardhan, Joseph Everett Bentley
  • Quality-based phone routing
    Patent number: 9674765
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for a call routing application. Routes are evaluated according to aggregated call quality data with respect to a call endpoint. A route is selected according to the evaluation, call costs, or other criteria. A call is then routed via the route to the call endpoint.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Zachary Lee Yeager, Ajit Kumar, Jon Russell Jay, Joseph Daniel Sullivan
  • Extracting quotes from customer reviews
    Patent number: 9672555
    Abstract: Technologies are described herein for extracting quotes for an item from customer reviews. Individual sentences or phrases contained in customer reviews regarding an item or category of items are parsed into a collection of sentences. A list of topics is generated from the collection of sentences, and each sentence or phrases is assigned a topic from the list of topics. The most relevant topics from the list of topics are identified for a particular item, and one or more sentences or phrases from customer reviews for the particular item are selected for each of the most relevant topics that best represent the sentences associated with the item and assigned to that topic, according to content and sentiment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Logan L. Dillard, Eric B. Fox, Russell A. Dicker
  • Graphical behaviors for recognition interfaces
    Patent number: 9671941
    Abstract: A computing device can utilize a recognition mode wherein an interface utilizes graphical elements, such as virtual fireflies, to indicate recognized or identified objects. Fireflies can be displayed near an input element to indicate that a recognition mode is available. When a user selects the input element, the fireflies can appear to emanate from the input element and disperse across the display screen. As objects are recognized, fireflies can create bounding boxes around those objects, or otherwise appear proximate those objects, to indicate recognition. The fireflies can again disperse as the objects fall out of view, and can begin moving towards new objects as features of those objects are identified as potential object features. A subsequent selection of the input element to exit recognition mode can cause the fireflies to appear to retreat to their original location in, or near, the input element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy Thomas Gray, Charles Eugene Cummins, Russell Edward Glaser, Tito Pagan, Steven Michael Sommer, Brian Peter Kralyevich, Angela Kathleen Warren, Marc Anthony Salazar, Suzan Marashi
  • Proxy server-based network site account management
    Patent number: 9674175
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for network site account management using a proxy server. A request for a secured resource on a network site is generated based at least in part on stored account information in response to receiving an initial request for the secured resource from a client. The request is sent to the network site. The secured resource is sent to the client in response to receiving the secured resource from the network site.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Wade Hitchcock, Brad Lee Campbell, Bharath Kumar Bhimanaik
  • Validation of robotic item grasping
    Patent number: 9669543
    Abstract: A grasp management system and corresponding method are described. In some examples, it is determined whether an end of arm tool of a robotic manipulator is capable of grasping an item in a first orientation and a second orientation. Information regarding success of the attempts may be retained in a database. A richness measure for each of the first orientation and the second orientation may be determined based upon a spatial variation of successful attempted grasps in the respective orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Stubbs, Andrew D. Marchese, John Gregory Longtine, Sarath Krishnaswamy, Moses Theodore Ort, Russell Charles Toris, Jacob Taylor Wachlin
  • Transmission time refinement in a storage system
    Patent number: 9672110
    Abstract: A storage manager may be used to perform a decoding operation using a transmission time refinement technique on a data object stored in a storage system, such as an object-redundant storage system. The decoding operation may include requesting groups of corresponding blocks from storage devices of the storage system. The storage manager may maintain connections to a connection group of the storage devices and may iteratively request corresponding blocks of the data object from one or more various request groups of the storage devices of the connection group. The storage manager may evaluate performance of the request groups in sending the corresponding blocks of the data object and may modify the membership of the request groups for requests for subsequent blocks of the data object based at least in part on the performance of the request groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Rajesh Shanker Patel
  • Presenting panels of a document based on device orientation
    Patent number: 9672585
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and media for presenting panel-based electronic documents are provided. In accordance with some embodiments, systems for presenting panel-based electronic documents are provided, the systems comprising: at least one processor programmed to: receive an electronic document, a definition of a first panel on a page in the electronic document, and a definition of a second panel on the page in the electronic document; control a display of the first panel based on the definition of the first panel; and transition from the display of the first panel to a display of the second panel by re-scaling the display and panning from the first panel to the second panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: David Timothy Steinberger, Cyrus Najmabadi
  • Automated secret renegotiation
    Patent number: 9674170
    Abstract: Secret information, such as seeds, codes, and keys, can be automatically renegotiated between at least one sender and at least one recipient. Various mechanisms, such as counters, events, or challenges, can be used to trigger automatic renegotiations through various requests or communications. These changes can cause the current secret information to diverge from older copies of the secret information that might have been obtained by unintended third parties. In some embodiments, a secret can be configured to “decay” over time, or have small changes periodically introduced that can be determined to be valid by an authorized party, but can reduce the effectiveness of prior versions of the secret information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Gregory Branchek Roth, Cristian M. Ilac
  • Managing unmanned vehicles
    Patent number: 9671791
    Abstract: Techniques for managing a flow of an unmanned vehicle within a space may be described. In particular, the unmanned vehicle may be determined as being location within the space. The space may be associated with metric that may be based on a plurality of other unmanned vehicles also located within the space. Pairs of location and time data may be computed for the unmanned vehicle. The pairs may represent a path for the unmanned vehicle to use within the space. The pairs of location data and time data computed based on data associated with the unmanned vehicle, data associated with at least one of the other unmanned vehicles, and the metric associated with the space. Once computed, the pairs may be provided to the unmanned vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nathan Michael Paczan
  • System-wide checkpoint avoidance for distributed database systems
    Patent number: 9672237
    Abstract: A database system may maintain a plurality of log records at a distributed storage system. Each of the plurality of log records may be associated with a respective change to a data page. Upon detection of a coalesce event for a particular data page, log records linked to the particular data page may be applied to generate the particular data page in its current state. Detecting the coalesce event may be a determination that the number of log records linked to the particular data page exceeds a threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Anurag Windlass Gupta, Pradeep Jnana Madhavarapu, Laurion Darrell Burchall, Neal Fachan
  • Enabling communication between an application developer and an application tester
    Patent number: 9672138
    Abstract: Technologies are disclosed herein for enabling communication between an application developer and application testers, and for facilitating application testing. An application to be tested may be modified during ingestion by an application store to include a testing component. When the application is executed by an application tester on a computing device, the testing component provides functionality for assisting the tester with the testing of the application. As one example, the testing component might provide on-screen instructions to the application tester to perform an operation or a sequence of operations in the application that have been defined by the application developer. The testing component might also facilitate direct communication between the application developer and the application tester through screen sharing, one or two-way video chat, text chat, and/or other mechanisms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Albert Pitera, Spencer Lyle Voorheis, Calvin Yue-Ren Kuo
  • Privilege distribution through signed permissions grants
    Patent number: 9674194
    Abstract: A resource owner or administrator submits a request to a permissions management service to create a permissions grant which may include a listing of actions a user may perform on a resource. Accordingly, the permissions management service may create the permissions grant and use a private cryptographic key to digitally sign the created permissions grant. The permissions management service may transmit this digitally signed permissions grant, as well as a digital certificate comprising a public cryptographic key for validating the permissions grant, to a target resource. The target resource may use the public cryptographic key to validate the digital signature of the permissions grant and determine whether a user is authorized to perform one or more actions based at least in part on a request from the user to perform these one or more actions on the resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jon Arron McClintock, Darren Ernest Canavor, Daniel Wade Hitchcock, Jonathan Kozolchyk
  • Centralized resource usage visualization service for large-scale network topologies
    Patent number: 9674042
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for supporting customer-directed networking limits in distributed systems are disclosed. A client request is received via a programmatic interface, indicating a particular lower resource usage limit to be imposed on at least one category of network traffic at a particular instance of a network-accessible service. Resource usage metrics for one or more categories of network traffic at the particular instance are obtained. In response to a determination that resource usage at the particular instance has reached a threshold level, one or more responsive actions are initiated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Avichai Mendle Lissack
  • Protecting customers from surveillance
    Patent number: 9674154
    Abstract: Techniques for providing an information masking service may be provided. For example, an association between masking information and one or more masking profiles may be maintained where each masking profile indicates usage behavior of a user at a particular location. In embodiments, a location of a user device may be determined based at least in part on location information received from a user device. A particular masking profile of the one or more masking profiles may be selected based at least in part on the determined location. The masking information that corresponds to the particular masking profile may be provided to the user device where the masking information is configured to be utilized by the user device when communicating with a network of the determined location rather than the default identification information of the user device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Darren Ernest Canavor, William Alexander Strand
  • Computing resource transition notification and pending state
    Patent number: 9674302
    Abstract: A computing resource associated with a user is scheduled to undergo a transition. Prior to the scheduled transition, the computing resource is placed in a pending state. The user is notified that the computing resource is scheduled to undergo the transition. In response to an input received from the user, the computing resource is allowed to undergo the transition when the input indicates that the transition can proceed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ahmed Usman Khalid, Eric Samuel Stone, Nikita Pinski, Alexander Kulikov, Derek Solomon Pai