Patents Assigned to Amazon Technologies
  • Automated response system
    Patent number: 9538005
    Abstract: Described are systems, methods, and computer readable media for responding in an automated manner to a verbal prompt, such as from an automated system. The verbal prompt is processed to identify a request for information, and user information is accessed to determine at least a portion of the user information that corresponds to the request for information. Audio data may be generated using the determined portions of the user information, and the audio data may be provided, via a connection, responsive to the request for information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Luan Khai Nguyen, William Alexander Strand
  • Social networking system capable of providing location-based notifications
    Patent number: 9537909
    Abstract: A networked computer system provides various services for assisting users in locating, and establishing contact relationships with, other users. For example, in one embodiment, users can identify other users based on their affiliations with particular schools or other organizations. The system also provides a mechanism for a user to selectively establish contact relationships or connections with other users, and to grant permissions for such other users to view personal information of the user. The system may also be capable of detecting, and notifying a user of, an event in which the user and a contact of the user are in a common location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Brian D. Robertson, Warren W. Adams
  • Depth-based image stabilization
    Patent number: 9538081
    Abstract: Depth information can be used to assist with image processing functionality, such as image stabilization and blur reduction. In at least some embodiments, depth information obtained from stereo imaging or distance sensing, for example, can be used to determine a foreground object and background object(s) for an image or frame of video. The foreground object then can be located in later frames of video or subsequent images. Small offsets of the foreground object can be determined, and the offset accounted for by adjusting the subsequent frames or images. Such an approach provides image stabilization for at least a foreground object, while providing simplified processing and reduce power consumption. Similarly processes can be used to reduce blur for an identified foreground object in a series of images, where the blur of the identified object is analyzed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Dong Zhou
  • Virtual desktop migration
    Patent number: 9537938
    Abstract: It may be determined that a cloud desktop should be migrated from a current region. A destination region to which the cloud desktop will be migrated can be identified. A data volume of the cloud desktop may be copied from the current region to the destination region. The data volume at the current region and the data volume at the destination region may be maintained in sync during the copying. Upon completion of the copying, a current user session associated with the cloud desktop at the current region may be frozen, a current memory and processor state of the current user session may be copied to the destination region, and a second cloud desktop instance at the destination region may be started using the copied data volume and current memory and processor state. The current user session may be connected to the second cloud desktop instance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Nathan Bartholomew Thomas, Eugene Michael Farrell, Erik Jonathon Tellvik, Gaurang Pankaj Mehta, Deepak Suryanarayanan
  • Utilizing wakeup receivers for device communication
    Patent number: 9538471
    Abstract: Computing devices can utilize various low power wakeup transceivers in order to control functional states of various components of those devices. Each transceiver can broadcast a beacon including appropriate information, which can be received by any other device with a transceiver that is within a propagation range of the beacon. A transceiver receiving the beacon can cause the received beacon to be analyzed by appropriate decision logic, which can determine any appropriate functionality to be activated or otherwise contacted in response to the beacon. In at least some embodiments, the beacon can cause another type of communication channel to be activated to establish communications with a device from which the beacon was received. In this way, the communications channel can be established without having to leave the channel active or manually activate that channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew D. Price, Varadarajan Gopalakrishnan, Robert D. Lau
  • Network page latency reduction
    Patent number: 9537926
    Abstract: Network page latency reduction is facilitated by various embodiments. In one embodiment, a first distribution corresponding to a plurality of instances of a network page is estimated. A second distribution corresponding to a subset of the instances is also estimated. The network page is adapted based at least in part on a comparison of the first and second distributions in order to reduce network page latency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy M. Sehn, John M. Rauser, Jerry James Hunter
  • Distributed data storage controller
    Patent number: 9531809
    Abstract: A storage controller is implemented for controlling a storage system. The storage controller may be implemented using a distributed computer system and may include components for servicing client data requests based on the characteristics of the distributed computer system, the client, or the data requests. The storage controller is scalable independently of the storage system it controls. All components of the storage controller, as well as the client, may be virtual or hardware-based instances of a distributed computer system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Marc J. Brooker, Madhuvanesh Parthasarathy, Tate Andrew Certain, Kerry Q. Lee
  • Variable timeslices for processing latency-dependent workloads
    Patent number: 9529633
    Abstract: A virtualization host may implement variable timeslices for processing latency dependent workloads. Multiple virtual compute instances on a virtualization host may utilize virtual central processing units (vCPUs) to obtain physical processing resources, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs). A vCPU currently utilizing a CPU to performing processing work according to a scheduled timeslice may be preempted by a latency dependent vCPU before completion of the scheduled timeslice. The latency-dependent vCPU may complete processing work, and utilization of the CPU may be returned to the vCPU. A preemption compensation may be determined for the scheduled timeslice to increase the scheduled timeslice for the vCPU such that utilization for the vCPU is performed according to the increased scheduled timeslice.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: William John Earl, John Merrill Phillips
  • Display with light sensor feedback
    Patent number: 9530381
    Abstract: In some examples, a display includes a plurality of pixels and a plurality of light sensors. As one example, a respective light sensor may be associated with each pixel. The light sensor output can provide an accurate indication of a current optical state of each of the plurality of pixels. For instance, output from a light sensor proximate to a particular pixel may be used when determining a pixel control signal to be applied for updating the particular pixel to a next optical state. The light sensors may be located below, above, laterally adjacent to, or within one or more pixel elements of each pixel. Additionally, in some examples, one or more light sources may be provided to normalize the output from the light sensors to compensate for variations in ambient lighting and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Bradley James Bozarth, Ilya Daniel Rosenberg, Thomas Bruno Mader
  • Enhanced inventory holder
    Patent number: 9527710
    Abstract: Embodiments herein are directed to an inventory system having multiple inventory holders and drive units for moving the inventory holders. Features herein are directed to moving inventory items relative to a bin of an inventory holder or between inventory holders in the inventory system. The inventory system may include actuation units or some other mechanism on the drive units for assisting in moving inventory items relative to a bin of an inventory holder or between inventory holders. The inventory holders each include one or more inventory bins. A mobile drive unit is included, which includes an actuator configured for selectively actuating at least one of the inventory bins for moving at least one inventory item relative to the bin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Mustafa Mustansir Hussain, Neeraj Goyal, Venkataramanan Subramanian, Vikas Vishwanatham
  • Managing access of multiple executing programs to non-local block data storage
    Patent number: 9529550
    Abstract: Techniques are described for managing access of executing programs to non-local block data storage. In some situations, a block data storage service uses multiple server storage systems to reliably store network-accessible block data storage volumes that may be used by programs executing on other physical computing systems. A group of multiple server block data storage systems that store block data volumes may in some situations be co-located at a data center, and programs that use volumes stored there may execute on other physical computing systems at that data center. If a program using a volume becomes unavailable, another program (e.g., another copy of the same program) may in some situations obtain access to and continue to use the same volume, such as in an automatic manner in some such situations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Roland Paterson-Jones, Peter N. DeSantis, Atle Normann Jorgensen, Matthew S. Garman, Tate Andrew Certain
  • Systems and methods for low interference logging and diagnostics
    Patent number: 9529568
    Abstract: Techniques described and suggested herein include systems and methods for logging execution of code using thread-local output buffers. For example, one or more output buffers are allocated to one or more threads executing on a computing system. A global declaration list containing information relating to log types (e.g., verbose log descriptions, templates for specific variables, and the like) may be implemented, and the global declaration list may be generated as part of an initialization process for some or all of the threads. Log events from executing threads may be stored in the output buffers in a fashion conforming to the global declaration list, and may be retrieved asynchronously relative to the executing threads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Jari Juhani Karppanen
  • Use of freeform metadata for access control
    Patent number: 9530020
    Abstract: Approaches are described for security and access control for computing resources. Various embodiments utilize metadata, e.g., tags that can be applied to one or more computing resources (e.g., virtual machines, host computing devices, applications, databases, etc.) to control access to these and/or other computing resources. In various embodiments, the tags and access control policies described herein can be utilized in a multitenant shared resource environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Jason Brandwine, Peter Nicholas DeSantis, Léon Thrane
  • Identifying tamper-resistant characteristics for kernel data structures
    Patent number: 9530007
    Abstract: Techniques for identifying tamper-resistant characteristics for kernel data structures are disclosed herein. A set of kernel data structures is received, the set based on an operating system kernel. A plurality of virtual machines are instantiated based on the operating system kernel, each virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machine instances based on one or more modifications to one or more values to the virtual machine, the modifications based on the kernel data structures. Those modifications which cause virtual machine failures indicate which kernel data structures may be tamper-resistant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Electrowetting display device
    Patent number: 9529186
    Abstract: An electrowetting display device includes a first support plate including a first wall and a second support plate including a spacer. The spacer protrudes from the second support plate towards the first support plate. The device includes a spacer contact surface for contact by a surface of the spacer, which at least partly overlaps the spacer contact surface. The spacer contact surface is at least partly formed by an enlarged wall portion of the first wall. The enlarged wall portion is enlarged compared with a different portion of the first wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Ivar Schram
  • Distributed caching cluster configuration
    Patent number: 9529772
    Abstract: A cache or other cluster is configuration-aware such that initialization and changes to the underlying structure of the cluster can be dynamically updated. For example, a client may resolve an alias from a static configuration endpoint to a node in a cluster. The client may request initial configuration from the node and then update configuration from nodes that store the current configuration of the cluster.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Nishanth Shankaran, Rajat Arya, Clint Joseph Sbisa, Dong Shou, Rajaprabhu Thiruchi Loganathan, Shyam Krishnamoorthy
  • History inclusive connection management
    Patent number: 9531764
    Abstract: Different types of connections can be established between a device and an endpoint (e.g., an address associated with a service) based at least in part upon the recent connection history for that endpoint. A connection manager can monitor the connections, and properties of those connections, from a number of different applications of a device to one or more endpoints. If the information from the system as a whole indicates that properties for the connection should be modified, an appropriate can be established for that endpoint, which can be used by any or all of those applications. The connection can meet or exceed any policies for the request, as well as other requests that can utilize the connection. Various other factors can be used in determining which types of connections to provide, as may include existing connections, system load, user type, and other such information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jason George McHugh, Svend Knarhoj Johannsen
  • Modifying network site behavior using session-level performance metrics
    Patent number: 9531613
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for modifying network site behavior. At least one session-level performance metric associated with a client is determined. The one or more session-level performance metrics are determined from one or more latency times. Each one of the latency times represents a time elapsed between a sending of a network page request in the client and a rendering in the client of a network page received from a network page server in response to the network page request. A response to a next network page request from the client is modified according to the one or more session-level performance metrics in order to adjust a next latency time for the client.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jonathan A. Jenkins, John M. Rauser, William A. Strand
  • Enhancing geocoding accuracy
    Patent number: 9529089
    Abstract: Where a mobile computer device having a position sensor, such as a GPS sensor, and an accelerometer is configured to estimate a geographic position of the mobile computer device using the position sensor, the accuracy of such positions may be enhanced by correlating accelerations of the mobile computer device, as determined by the accelerometer, against the positions of known surface features within a vicinity of the estimated positions. If the observed accelerations are consistent with one of the known surface features, the location of the mobile computer device may be correlated with the location of the one of the known surface features.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: John Nicholas Buether
  • Band for a device
    Patent number: D775626
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Giles David Matthew McWilliam