Patents Assigned to Amazon Technologies
  • Preferred payment type
    Patent number: 8788324
    Abstract: Creation and placement of rewards associated with preferred payment types enables a merchant to incentivize a customer for selecting the preferred payment types. A number of payment types may be presented to a customer, where at least one payment type is a preferred payment type with an associated reward. The reward may be transmitted to the customer if the customer satisfies conditions for obtaining the reward. The conditions may include using the preferred payment type, applying for the preferred payment type, or making the preferred payment type the default payment type, among other possibilities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Arjun Shetty, Mary Kay Bowman, Peter S. Vosshall
  • Release advertisement system
    Patent number: 8788320
    Abstract: A new release advertisement system generates advertisement sets for new release items that have a release date. To generate the advertisement sets, the system identifies items with release dates within a “new release advertising window.” The new release advertisement system then identifies item and keyword pairs from the text within the attributes of the items. After identifying item and keyword pairs for each of the new release items, the system removes pairs that do not satisfy a filtering criterion. The system then generates advertisements from the text of the attributes of the items remaining after the removing based on the filtering criterion. The system then creates advertisement sets for the remaining pairs that include the advertisement generated for the item of the pair and the keyword of the pair.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Luke Aron Snyder, Stephan G. Betz
  • Providing configurable pricing for execution of software images
    Patent number: 8788379
    Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating sharing of executable software images between users in a configurable manner. In at least some situations, the executable software images are virtual machine images, and while executing may access and use remote network-accessible services (e.g., Web services). In addition, some or all shared executable software images may be made available in a fee-based manner by creator users, such that execution of such a fee-based software image by a software image execution service on behalf of a user other than the creator user is performed in exchange for fees from the other user as specified by the creator user. The creator user may further receive at least some of the specified fees paid by the other user, such as at least some of a difference between the specified fees and fees charged by the software image execution service for the execution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Sirota, James Alfred Gordon Greenfield, Don Johnson, Attila Narin
  • MONITORING OF REPLICATED DATA INSTANCES
    Publication number: 20140201363
    Abstract: Replicated instances in a database environment provide for automatic failover and recovery. A monitoring component can obtain a lease enabling the component to periodically communicate with, and monitor, one or more data instances in the data environment, where the data instance can be a replicated instance including a primary and a secondary replica. For a large number of instances, the data environment can be partitioned such that each monitoring component can be assigned a partition of the workload. In the event of a failure of a monitoring component, the instances can be repartitioned and the remaining monitoring components can be assigned to the new partitions to substantially evenly distribute the workload.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 17, 2014
    Publication date: July 17, 2014
    Applicant: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Grant Alexander MacDonald McAlister, Swaminathan Sivasubramanian, Barry B. Hunter, JR., Silas M. Brazil
  • Managing resources using resource expiration data
    Patent number: 8782236
    Abstract: Resource management techniques, such as cache optimization, are employed to organize resources within caches such that the most requested content (e.g., the most popular content) is more readily available. A service provider utilizes content expiration data as indicative of resource popularity. As resources are requested, the resources propagate through a cache server hierarchy associated with the service provider. More frequently requested resources are maintained at edge cache servers based on shorter expiration data that is reset with each repeated request. Less frequently requested resources are maintained at higher levels of a cache server hierarchy based on longer expiration data associated with cache servers higher on the hierarchy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Bradley E. Marshall, Swaminathan Sivasubramanian, David R. Richardson
  • Release advertisement system
    Patent number: 8781888
    Abstract: A new release advertisement system generates advertisement sets for new release items that have a release date. To generate the advertisement sets, the system identifies items with release dates within a “new release advertising window.” The new release advertisement system then identifies item and keyword pairs from the text within the attributes of the items. After identifying item and keyword pairs for each of the new release items, the system removes pairs that do not satisfy a filtering criterion. The system then generates advertisements from the text of the attributes of the items remaining after the removing based on the filtering criterion. The system then creates advertisement sets for the remaining pairs that include the advertisement generated for the item of the pair and the keyword of the pair.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Luke Aron Snyder, Stephan G. Betz
  • Method and system for identifying information relevant to content
    Patent number: 8782074
    Abstract: A method and system for identifying information to be associated with content of a display page. The system provides a web service through which associates of a vendor can request and receive information such as product data to be displayed on the associate's display pages. The system may receive from an associate's computer a request for product data that may include content derived from a web page on which the product is to be displayed. Upon receiving the request, the system identifies a query based on popularity of the query among users, executes the query, and provides an associate with information relating to the results of the executed query.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Ashish Agrawal, Robert Frederick
  • Content style detection
    Patent number: 8782516
    Abstract: Determination of content style attributes of an image having content thereon is disclosed. The content may be a paragraph of text with a column layout designation. The content style attribute determination may include determining one or more of paragraph alignment, vertical and horizontal margin values, indentation, line spacing, and tracking values. The content style attributes may be determined for each paragraph separately or by grouping paragraphs by the column layout designation. The content style attributes may be used to format content in images for presentation on end user devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: William D. Dozier
  • Predictive travel notifications
    Patent number: 8781716
    Abstract: Various embodiments can predict a user's intended driving route in order to provide the user with traffic warnings for traffic conditions along the same. A user's driving route, in at least one embodiment, is predicted by collecting travel data, such as information associated with the date, time, location, and direction for trips made within a network of roads over time. Instead of keeping the travel data anonymous, the travel data is associate or linked to the user's account or stored in a user profile in order to build a history of travel patterns for the user over time. The travel patterns can then be used to predict when a user is going to travel or make a trip and, upon identifying a context indicative of a travel pattern, traffic information for a route associated with the pattern is obtained and provided to the user's computing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Christopher Wenneman, Samuel S. Gigliotti
  • Limiting site latencies and page weights
    Patent number: 8782214
    Abstract: Methods are provided that comprise several tools that allow operators of sites (e.g. websites) to improve their respective site performance. More specifically, the methods provide operators with feedback tools related to site performance. The feedback tools allow operators to make informed decisions regarding the use of features and content on their respective sites. Additionally, tools are provided that support rich functionality, which operators may incorporate into their respective sites. The combination of rich functionality and feedback tools may result in high-performance sites that allow operators to implement rich functionality without having users experience unwanted latency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Gustavo E. Lopez
  • Managing API authorization
    Patent number: 8782744
    Abstract: Multiple variants of an API can coexist through API management by using metadata in a pre-processing and post-processing system to weed out requests to which a client does not have permission and return parameters that do not belong with the API request variant. Metadata is added to request objects such that an instance of a request object may be examined to determine a request handler to properly inspect the request object and recommend further processing or rejection of the instance. Metadata may also be added to a response object created as a result of processing the request object such that a response handler may be identified to ensure the fields match the proper response to the request object. The API may be dynamically managed at the point of request and also at the point of return rather than a statically coded whitelist checked multiple times within the code itself.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Erik J. Fuller, Francois N. Daniels, Neil A. Eriksson
  • MANEUVERING A MOBILE DRIVE UNIT
    Publication number: 20140195040
    Abstract: A method of rotating an inventory holder includes moving an inventory holder towards a rotation area along a straight segment of a path with a first face of the inventory holder facing a first direction. The rotation area includes a portion of a workspace designated for rotation of inventory holders. The method further includes moving the inventory holder into the rotation area along a first arced segment with an orientation of the first face perpendicular to the first arced segment. The method additionally includes executing a rotation maneuver within the rotation area and moving the inventory holder out of the rotation area along a second arced segment with a second face facing the first direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 3, 2014
    Publication date: July 10, 2014
    Applicant: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter R. Wurman, Raffaello D'Andrea, Michael T. Barbehenn, Andrew Edward Hoffman, David C. Koehler, Michael Cordell Mountz
  • Synchronizing the Playing and Displaying of Digital Content
    Publication number: 20140195241
    Abstract: The techniques disclosed herein allow a user to synchronize the playing and displaying of digital content on an electronic device. The device may render a first portion of digital content so it may be displayed. The device may also play a segment of the digital content as audio using text to speech software. The device may also render a second portion of digital content for display depending on whether the position of the last word read is greater than the last position in the first portion of digital content.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2014
    Publication date: July 10, 2014
    Applicant: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Laurent An Minh Nguyen, Edward James Gayles, Robert Wai-Chi Chu, Dennis Paul Fleming, Sailesh Rachabathuni, David Berbessou
  • Aggregate Constraints for Payment Transactions
    Publication number: 20140195431
    Abstract: This document describes tools capable of authorizing or enabling authorization of multiple payment transactions without requiring that a buyer or seller authorize each transaction separately. The tools may do so by enabling a buyer or seller to select aggregate constraints, such as a total price or number of transactions. Based on these selected constraints, the tools may authorize every payment transaction that meets the aggregate constraints without requiring the buyer to authorize every transaction separately.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2014
    Publication date: July 10, 2014
    Applicant: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Raghu Lakkapragada, Jeyandran Venugopal, Jeffrey Gordon Lawson
  • TECHNIQUES FOR CREDENTIAL GENERATION
    Publication number: 20140196130
    Abstract: Systems and methods for managing credentials distribute the credentials to subsets of a set of collectively managed computing resources. The collectively managed computing resources may include one or more virtual machine instances. The credentials distributed to the computing resources may be used by the computing resources to perform one or more actions. Actions may include performing one or more functions in connection with configuration, management, and/or operation of the one or more resources, and/or access of other computing resources. The ability to use credentials may be changed based at least in part on the occurrence of one or more events.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2014
    Publication date: July 10, 2014
    Applicant: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Marc J. Brooker, Mark Joseph Cavage, David Brown, Kevin Ross O'Neill, Eric Jason Brandwine, Christopher Richard Jacques de Kadt
  • Customized Product Display
    Publication number: 20140195388
    Abstract: Technologies are described herein for customized product display. A data structure schema is defined for describing product graphics, such as product images, and for defining how aspects of the product graphics should be displayed. Through the use of the schema, a product manufacturer can provide product graphics to an e-commerce merchant along with product display data formatted according to the schema that provides instructions to the merchant regarding how the manufacturer prefers the product graphics to be displayed. The merchant can then utilize the product graphics and the product display data to generate a product page for the product.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2014
    Publication date: July 10, 2014
    Applicant: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Sean M. Scott
  • Inferring resource allocation decisions from descriptive information
    Patent number: 8775438
    Abstract: A provisioning system may select an available implementation resource by analyzing user data to infer a role of a proposed computing resource and comparing the role to roles of other existing computer resources. The user data may include a user-specified identifier for the proposed computing resource, such as a label. The role may be used to rank available implementation resources using factors including distance to, roles of, and relationship with other user computing resources. A ranking of available implementation resources may be used to select an implementation resource for provisioning the proposed computing resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Marc J. Brooker, Cornelle Christiaan Pretorius Janse van Rensburg, Abhinav Agrawal
  • Frameworks and interfaces for offload device-based packet processing
    Patent number: 8774213
    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 such as a network interface card (NIC) manufacturer 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 NIC to perform certain actions, such as to encapsulate egress packets and decapsulate packets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Pradeep Vincent, Matthew D. Klein, Samuel J. McKelvie
  • Inferring user intent based on network navigation paths
    Patent number: 8775275
    Abstract: Paths followed by a plurality of devices are recorded. Devices of the plurality have sent content requests similar to a current content request. Behaviors exhibited by respective ones of the plurality of devices. The respective ones of the paths are grouped into intent groupings. A path followed by a device is assembled. The assembling the path comprises recording a plurality of content requests generated by the device prior to the current content request. An intent grouping matching the path is identified. The intent grouping is associated with an expected behavior. Content calculated to facilitate the expected behavior is identified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Elmore Eugene Pope
  • Authentication manager
    Patent number: 8776214
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for an authentication manager. A security credential is generated based at least in part on a security credential specification associated with a network site. The security credential and a domain name associated with the network site are stored. The security credential is provided to the network site when a domain name associated with a trusted certificate provided by the network site matches the stored domain name.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Jesper M. Johansson