Patents Assigned to Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
  • Patent number: 10943146
    Abstract: Systems and methods for classifying historical images. A feature extractor may create feature vectors corresponding to a plurality of images. A first classification of the plurality of images may be performed based on the plurality of feature vectors, which may include assigning a label to each of the plurality of images and assigning a probability for each of the assigned labels. The assigned probability for each of the assigned labels may be related to a statistical confidence that a particular assigned label is correctly assigned to a particular image. A subset of the plurality of images may be displayed to a display device. An input corresponding to replacement of an incorrect label with a corrected label for a certain image may be received from a user. A second classification of the plurality of images based on the input from the user may be performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: ANCESTRY.COM OPERATIONS INC.
    Inventors: Laryn Brown, Michael Murdock, Jack Reese, Shawn Reid
  • Publication number: 20210019569
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and other techniques for extracting data from obituaries are provided. In some embodiments, an obituary containing a plurality of words is received. Using a machine learning model, an entity tag from a set of entity tags may be assigned to each of one or more words of the plurality of words. Each particular tag from the set of entity tags may include a relationship component and a category component. The relationship component may indicate a relationship between a particular word and the deceased individual. The category component may indicate a categorization of the particular word to a particular category from a set of categories. The extracted data may be stored in a genealogical database.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2020
    Publication date: January 21, 2021
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Carol Myrick Anderson, Gann Bierner, Philip Theodore Crone, Tyler Folkman
  • Patent number: 10896189
    Abstract: An information entropy-based metric is used to represent a degree of diversity of a search result of genealogical records. In response to a query, a data query server locates a set of multiple records that match the query. The records are classified into different record types based on the records' attributes. One or more distributions of numbers of records classified into each record type are determined. Each distribution corresponds to one of the subsets the records. For each distribution, an entropy value is determined. A cumulative entropy that corresponds to a sum of the entropy values of those distributions is then determined. The cumulative entropy may serve as the entropy-based metric of the search result. The cumulative entropy may also be normalized by an ideal cumulative entropy. The normalized metric allows the diversity of different search results to be compared across different queries that may generate different numbers of records.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Peng Jiang, Ruhan Wang, Gann Bierner, Azadeh Moghtaderi
  • Publication number: 20200410235
    Abstract: Embodiments described herein relate generally to a methodology of efficient object classification within a visual medium. The methodology utilizes a first neural network to perform an attention based object localization within a visual medium to generate a visual mask. The visual mask is applied to the visual medium to generate a masked visual medium. The masked visual medium may be then fed into a second neural network to detect and classify objects within the visual medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 11, 2020
    Publication date: December 31, 2020
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Mohammad K. Ebrahimpour, Yen-Yun Yu, Jiayun Li, Jack Reese, Azadeh Moghtaderi
  • Publication number: 20200394188
    Abstract: Techniques for generating genealogical stories by tracing genealogical trees are disclosed. An input tree person within a genealogical tree is identified. The genealogical tree may include a plurality of tree persons corresponding to individuals. The plurality of tree persons may be interconnected through a plurality of connections. The plurality of connections in the genealogical tree may be traced based on one or more story tracing filters to identify one or more tree persons from the plurality of tree persons that are related to the input tree person and to identify data elements associated with the one or more tree persons. The data elements associated with the one or more tree persons may be filtered based on one or more story data filters. Filtering the data elements may cause a subset of the data elements to be selected. A genealogical story may be generated by aggregating the filtered data elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2020
    Publication date: December 17, 2020
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Tridip Roy, Chiranthan Nandalike, Anne Caitlyn Selleck
  • Patent number: 10796152
    Abstract: Embodiments described herein relate generally to a methodology of efficient object classification within a visual medium. The methodology utilizes a first neural network to perform an attention based object localization within a visual medium to generate a visual mask. The visual mask is applied to the visual medium to generate a masked visual medium. The masked visual medium may be then fed into a second neural network to detect and classify objects within the visual medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2020
    Assignee: ANCESTRY.COM OPERATIONS INC.
    Inventors: Mohammad K. Ebrahimpour, Yen-Yun Yu, Jiayun Li, Jack Reese, Azadeh Moghtaderi
  • Publication number: 20200257707
    Abstract: Systems and methods for determining whether two tree persons in a genealogical database correspond to the same real-life individual. Embodiments include obtaining, from a tree database, a first tree person from a first genealogical tree and a second tree person from a second genealogical tree. Embodiments also include identifying a plurality of familial categories. Embodiments My further include, for each familial category of the plurality of familial categories, extracting a first quantity of features for each of the tree persons in the familial category, generating a first similarity score for each possible pairing of tree persons, identifying a representative pairing based on a maximum first similarity score, and extracting a second quantity of features for each of the tree persons in the representative pairing. Embodiments may also include generating a second similarity score based on the second quantity of features.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2018
    Publication date: August 13, 2020
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: TYLER FOLKMAN, Rey Furner
  • Patent number: 10635680
    Abstract: A method for ranking genealogical records includes using a machine learning model to rank multiple searched records based on relevancy. The relevancy may be determined by identifying features included in a record and scaling each feature by a corresponding weight factor. In addition, a method for training a machine learning model and increasing the convergence speed of the training is described. To train the model, a machine learning process is used to optimize a ranking performance metric. A set of weights corresponding to multiple features are used to rank multiple past search records in a training set. An initial set of the weights are set by the expectation values of the weights. The weights are incrementally changed to optimize the ranking performance metric. The step size of the increment is determined based on the sensitivity of the ranking performance metric relative to the step size.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Peng Jiang, Gann Bierner, Lei Wu
  • Publication number: 20200117951
    Abstract: Techniques for training a machine-learning (ML) model for captioning images are disclosed. A plurality of feature vectors and a plurality of visual attention maps are generated by a visual model of the ML model based on an input image. Each of the plurality of feature vectors correspond to different regions of the input image. A plurality of caption attention maps are generated by an attention model of the ML model based on the plurality of feature vectors. An attention penalty is calculcated based on a comparison between the caption attention maps and the visual attention maps. A loss function is calculcated based on the attention penalty. One or both of the visual model and the attention model are trained using the loss function.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 8, 2019
    Publication date: April 16, 2020
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc. (019404) (019404)
    Inventors: Jiayun Li, Mohammad K. Ebrahimpour, Azadeh Moghtaderi, Yen-Yun Yu
  • Patent number: 10621693
    Abstract: Systems and methods for registering documents. A two-dimensional document image and one or more form images may be obtained. The document image may be projected onto a horizontal axis and a vertical axis to create a horizontal document projection and a vertical document projection. The form images may be projected onto the horizontal axis and the vertical axis to create a horizontal form projection and a vertical form projection. The horizontal document projection may be correlated with the horizontal form projection of the form images and the vertical document projection may be correlated with the vertical form projection of the form images. Correlation scores may be calculated based on the correlations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: ANCESTRY.COM OPERATIONS INC.
    Inventors: Laryn Brown, Michael Murdock, Jack Reese, Shawn Reid
  • Publication number: 20200097723
    Abstract: Embodiments described herein relate generally to a methodology of efficient object classification within a visual medium. The methodology utilizes a first neural network to perform an attention based object localization within a visual medium to generate a visual mask. The visual mask is applied to the visual medium to generate a masked visual medium. The masked visual medium may be then fed into a second neural network to detect and classify objects within the visual medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2019
    Publication date: March 26, 2020
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Mohammad K. Ebrahimpour, Yen-Yun Yu, Jiayun Li, Jack Reese, Azadeh Moghtaderi
  • Patent number: 10552418
    Abstract: Systems and methods for retrieving a set of ordered items from a distributed database. A plurality of ordered items may be stored at a cache. The plurality of ordered items may have a length of N+B at a first instant in time. A first instruction to delete a first item of the plurality of ordered items may be received. A second instruction to add a second item to the plurality of ordered items may be received. The first instruction and the second instruction may be stored in a change log. A request for the first N items of the plurality of ordered items may be received. The first instruction may be executed by deleting the first item from the plurality of ordered items. The second instruction may be executed by adding the second item to the plurality of ordered items. The first N items of the plurality of ordered items may be sent in response to the request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: ANCESTRY.COM OPERATIONS INC.
    Inventor: Jeff Phillips
  • Publication number: 20190347511
    Abstract: Systems and methods for training a machine learning (ML) ranking model to rank genealogy hints are described herein. One method includes retrieving a plurality of genealogy hints for a target person, where each of the plurality of genealogy hints corresponds to a genealogy item and has a hint type of a plurality of hint types. The method includes generating, for each of the plurality of genealogy hints, a feature vector having a plurality of feature values, the feature vector being included in a plurality of feature vectors. The method includes extending each of the plurality of feature vectors by at least one additional feature value based on the number of features of one or more other hint types of the plurality of hint types. The method includes training the ML ranking model using the extended plurality of feature vectors and user-provided labels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 8, 2019
    Publication date: November 14, 2019
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Peng Jiang, Tyler Folkman, Tsung-Nan Liu, Yen-Yun Yu, Ruhan Wang, Jack Reese, Azadeh Moghtaderi
  • Publication number: 20190251392
    Abstract: Systems and methods for classifying historical images. A feature extractor may create feature vectors corresponding to a plurality of images. A first classification of the plurality of images may be performed based on the plurality of feature vectors, which may include assigning a label to each of the plurality of images and assigning a probability for each of the assigned labels. The assigned probability for each of the assigned labels may be related to a statistical confidence that a particular assigned label is correctly assigned to a particular image. A subset of the plurality of images may be displayed to a display device. An input corresponding to replacement of an incorrect label with a corrected label for a certain image may be received from a user. A second classification of the plurality of images based on the input from the user may be performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 29, 2019
    Publication date: August 15, 2019
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Laryn Brown, Michael Murdock, Jack Reese, Shawn Reid
  • Patent number: 10318846
    Abstract: Systems and methods for classifying historical images. A feature extractor may create feature vectors corresponding to a plurality of images. A first classification of the plurality of images may be performed based on the plurality of feature vectors, which may include assigning a label to each of the plurality of images and assigning a probability for each of the assigned labels. The assigned probability for each of the assigned labels may be related to a statistical confidence that a particular assigned label is correctly assigned to a particular image. A subset of the plurality of images may be displayed to a display device. An input corresponding to replacement of an incorrect label with a corrected label for a certain image may be received from a user. A second classification of the plurality of images based on the input from the user may be performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2019
    Assignee: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Laryn Brown, Michael Murdock, Jack Reese, Shawn Reid
  • Patent number: 10262042
    Abstract: A data record management system develops person match scores for data records that may relate to the same person or subject. In a genealogical system where the data records are represented as nodes in a family tree, and where multiple data records may relate the same person in question, the data record management system evaluates not only two data records to determine if they relate to the same person, but also individually evaluate various data records pertaining to people that are related to the person in question. Person match scores are calculated by combining sub-scores based on the comparison of corresponding nodes. Sub-scores for nodes pertaining to related people may be adjusted higher even if those notes do not match, to reflect circumstances such as remarriage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Geoffrey Scott Slinker, Eugene Greenwood, Ian Stiles, Rey Furner
  • Publication number: 20180329911
    Abstract: A data record management system develops person match scores for data records that may relate to the same person or subject. In a genealogical system where the data records are represented as nodes in a family tree, and where multiple data records may relate the same person in question, the data record management system evaluates not only two data records to determine if they relate to the same person, but also individually evaluate various data records pertaining to people that are related to the person in question. Person match scores are calculated by combining sub-scores based on the comparison of corresponding nodes. Sub-scores for nodes pertaining to related people may be adjusted higher even if those notes do not match, to reflect circumstances such as remarriage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 12, 2017
    Publication date: November 15, 2018
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Geoffrey Scott Slinker, Eugene Greenwood, Ian Stiles, Rey Furner
  • Publication number: 20180189287
    Abstract: Systems and methods for retrieving a set of ordered items from a distributed database. A plurality of ordered items may be stored at a cache. The plurality of ordered items may have a length of N+B at a first instant in time. A first instruction to delete a first item of the plurality of ordered items may be received. A second instruction to add a second item to the plurality of ordered items may be received. The first instruction and the second instruction may be stored in a change log. A request for the first N items of the plurality of ordered items may be received. The first instruction may be executed by deleting the first item from the plurality of ordered items. The second instruction may be executed by adding the second item to the plurality of ordered items. The first N items of the plurality of ordered items may be sent in response to the request.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2016
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventor: Jeff Phillips
  • Publication number: 20180189379
    Abstract: Methods and systems for creating a cluster view person for genealogical studies. Methods may include obtaining a plurality of genealogical trees. Each of the genealogical trees may include a plurality of interconnected nodes representing individuals that are related to each other. Methods may also include identifying one or more of the genealogical trees that contain a similar individual. Whether two individuals are grouped may depend on similarity and/or quality thresholds. Methods may include creating an aggregate individual including each of the similar individuals in each of the identified genealogical trees. The aggregate individual may combine information from each of the similar individuals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2016
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventor: Jeff Phillips
  • Publication number: 20180181843
    Abstract: Systems and methods for classifying historical images. A feature extractor may create feature vectors corresponding to a plurality of images. A first classification of the plurality of images may be performed based on the plurality of feature vectors, which may include assigning a label to each of the plurality of images and assigning a probability for each of the assigned labels. The assigned probability for each of the assigned labels may be related to a statistical confidence that a particular assigned label is correctly assigned to a particular image. A subset of the plurality of images may be displayed to a display device. An input corresponding to replacement of an incorrect label with a corrected label for a certain image may be received from a user. A second classification of the plurality of images based on the input from the user may be performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2016
    Publication date: June 28, 2018
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Laryn Brown, Michael Murdock, Jack Reese, Shawn Reid