Patents Assigned to Ancestry.com
  • Publication number: 20220189188
    Abstract: A simplified handwriting recognition approach includes a first network comprising convolutional neural network comprising one or more convolutional layers and one or more max-pooling layers. The first network receives an input image of handwriting and outputs an embedding based thereon. A second network comprises a network of cascaded convolutional layers including one or more subnetworks configured to receive an embedding of a handwriting image and output one or more character predictions. The subnetworks are configured to downsample and flatten the embedding to a feature map and then a vector before passing the vector to a dense neural network for character prediction. Certain subnetworks are configured to concatenate an input embedding with an upsampled version of the feature map.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 9, 2021
    Publication date: June 16, 2022
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Raunak Dey, Gopalkrishna Balkrishna Veni, Masaki Stanley Fujimoto, Yen-Yun Yu, Jinsol Lee
  • Patent number: 11347798
    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: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventor: Jeff Phillips
  • Patent number: 11335435
    Abstract: Identification of inheritance-by-descent haplotype matches between individuals is described. A set of tables including word match, haplotypes and segment match tables are populated. DNA samples are received and stored. A word identification module extracts haplotype values from each sample. The word match table is indexed according to the unique combination of position and haplotype. Each column represents a different sample, and each cell indicates whether that sample includes that haplotype at that position. The haplotypes table includes the raw haplotype data for each sample. The segment match table is indexed by sample identifier, and columns represent other samples. Each cell is populated to indicate for each identified sample pair which position range(s) include matching haplotypes for both samples. The tables are persistently stored in databases of the matching system. As new sample data is received, each table is updated to include the newly received samples, and additional matching takes place.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignee: Ancestry.com DNA, LLC
    Inventors: Jake Kelly Byrnes, Aaron Ling, Keith D. Noto, Jeremy Pollack, Catherine Ann Ball, Kenneth Gregory Chahine
  • Publication number: 20220138453
    Abstract: Systems and methods for handwriting recognition using language modeling facilitate improved results by using a trained language model to improve results from a handwriting recognition machine learning model. The language model may be a character-based language model trained on a dataset pertinent to field values on which the handwriting recognition model is to be used. A loss prediction module may be trained with the handwriting recognition model and/or the language model and used to determine whether a prediction from the handwriting recognition model should be refined by passing the prediction through the trained language model.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2021
    Publication date: May 5, 2022
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Jinsol Lee, Gopalkrishna Balkrishna Veni, Masaki Stanley Fujimoto, Yen-Yun Yu
  • Patent number: 11321361
    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 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: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignee: ANCESTRY.COM OPERATIONS INC.
    Inventors: Tyler Folkman, Rey Furner
  • Patent number: 11311884
    Abstract: A biological sample collection system can include a sample collection vessel having a sample collection chamber with an opening configured to receive a biological sample into the sample collection chamber. The biological sample collection system can additionally include a selectively movable sleeve valve configured to associate with the opening of the sample collection chamber. The biological sample collection system can additionally include a sealing cap that is configured to associate with the selectively movable sleeve valve and with the sample collection vessel. The sealing cap can include a reagent chamber having reagent(s) stored therein, and when the sealing cap is associated with the sample collection vessel, the selectively movable sleeve valve opens, dispensing the reagent(s) into the sample collection chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: Ancestry.com DNA, LLC
    Inventors: Kevin Gregg Williams, Jeremy Johnson, Bryce Twede, Michael Andersen, Michael S. Horito, Collin Sorensen
  • Publication number: 20220067438
    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 14, 2021
    Publication date: March 3, 2022
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Jiayun Li, Mohammad K. Ebrahimpour, Azadeh Moghtaderi, Yen-Yun Yu
  • Patent number: 11238957
    Abstract: Disclosed are techniques for characterizing variants of interest and predicting assignments of individuals to communities based on obtained genetic information. To characterize a variant, DNA datasets of reference individuals are accessed and used to generate a cluster with additional individuals. Reference individuals carry a variant at a genetic locus and the additional individuals share IBD with reference individuals. Statistics of genealogical data of the cluster are generated. A result summarizing the characterization of the variant is generated based on the statistics. To determine if an individual belongs to a community, a subset of the individual's haplotypes are inputted into a community-specific model. The model is trained using the training samples that each include haplotypes of reference individuals and a label identifying whether the reference individual belongs to the community. Based on the output of the model, it is determined whether the individual is a member of the community.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: Ancestry.com DNA, LLC
    Inventors: Jake Kelly Byrnes, Julie M. Granka, Shannon Hateley, Ladan Doroud
  • Patent number: 11232854
    Abstract: Described are techniques for determining population structure from identity-by-descent (IBD) of individuals. The techniques may be used to predict that an individual belongs to zero, one or more of a number of communities identified within an IBD network. Additional data may be used to annotate the communities with birth location, surname, and ethnicity information. In turn, these data may be used to provide to an individual a prediction of membership to zero, one or more communities, accompanied by a summary of the information annotated to those communities. Ethnicity heterogeneity and age information may be tabulated and provided based on community membership information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: Ancestry.com DNA, LLC
    Inventors: Ariel Hippen Anderson, Ahna R. Girshick, Ross E. Curtis, Benjamin Wilson, David A. Turissini
  • Patent number: 11211149
    Abstract: A computing server generates a graph such as an identity-by-descent (IBD) network. The graph includes a plurality of nodes. Each node represents one of the individuals. Two or more nodes are connected through edges. Each edge connecting two nodes and associated with a weight that is derived from affinity between the genetic data of the two individuals represented by the two nodes. The computing system filters the graph based on features that are associated with the edges or the nodes. The filtered graph includes a subset of nodes. The computing system divides the filtered graph into a plurality of clusters to identify genetic communities that may not be discoverable without filtering. The computing server may also perform a multi-path hierarchical community detection process to assign an individual represented by a node to more than one communities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: Ancestry.com DNA, LLC
    Inventors: Ross E. Curtis, Ahna R. Girshick, Ariel Hippen Anderson
  • Publication number: 20210390704
    Abstract: Systems and methods for identifying and segmenting objects from images include a preprocessing module configured to adjust a size of a source image; a region-proposal module configured to propose one or more regions of interest in the size-adjusted source image; and a prediction module configured to predict a classification, bounding box coordinates, and mask. Such systems and methods may utilize end-to-end training of the modules using adversarial loss, facilitating the use of a small training set, and can be configured to process historical documents, such as large images comprising text. The preprocessing module within said systems and methods can utilize a conventional image scaler in tandem with a custom image scaler to provide a resized image suitable for GPU processing, and the region-proposal module can utilize a region-proposal network from a single-stage detection model in tandem with a two-stage detection model paradigm to capture substantially all particles in an image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 9, 2021
    Publication date: December 16, 2021
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Masaki Stanley Fujimoto, Yen-Yun Yu
  • Publication number: 20210365803
    Abstract: Systems and methods for determining whether two tree persons in a genealogical database correspond to the same real-life individual. Embodiments include identifying two tree persons in a genealogical database and extracting a plurality of features from both tree persons to generate two vectors. Embodiments also include calculating a plurality of metrics between the two vectors to generate a metric function. Embodiments further include generating feature weights using a recursive process based on training data input by external users, and generating a score by calculating a weighted sum of the metric function being weighted by the feature weights. The generated score may then be compared to a threshold value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 3, 2021
    Publication date: November 25, 2021
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Atanu Roy, Jianlong Qi, Peng Jiang, Aaron Ling, Rey Furner, Lei Wu, Eugene Greenwood, Ian Stiles
  • Patent number: 11170257
    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 calculated based on a comparison between the caption attention maps and the visual attention maps. A loss function is calculated based on the attention penalty. One or both of the visual model and the attention model are trained using the loss function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: ANCESTRY.COM OPERATIONS INC.
    Inventors: Jiayun Li, Mohammad K. Ebrahimpour, Azadeh Moghtaderi, Yen-Yun Yu
  • Publication number: 20210319216
    Abstract: Described herein are systems, methods, and other techniques for segmenting an input text. A set of tokens are extracted from the input text. Token representations are computed for the set of tokens. The token representations are provided to a machine learning model that generates a set of label predictions corresponding to the set of tokens. The machine learning model was previously trained to generate label predictions in response to being provided input token representations. Each of the set of label predictions indicates a position of a particular token of the set of tokens with respect to a particular segment. One or more segments within the input text are determined based on the set of label predictions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 12, 2021
    Publication date: October 14, 2021
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventor: Carol Myrick Anderson
  • Publication number: 20210319003
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and other techniques for genealogical entity resolution. In some embodiments, first tree data and second tree data are obtained, the first tree data corresponding to a first tree person and the second tree data corresponding to a second tree person. A set of features is extracted from the first tree data and the second tree data. An individual-level similarity score for each possible pairing of tree persons is generated based on the set of features. A set of most-similar tree persons is identified based on the individual-level similarity score for each possible pairing. A plurality of individual-level similarity scores for the set of most-similar tree persons are provided as input to a family-level ML model to determine that the first tree person and the second tree person correspond to a same individual.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 22, 2019
    Publication date: October 14, 2021
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: TYLER FOLKMAN, Rey Furner, Drew Pearson
  • Patent number: 11113609
    Abstract: Systems and methods for determining whether two tree persons in a genealogical database correspond to the same real-life individual. Embodiments include identifying two tree persons in a genealogical database and extracting a plurality of features from both tree persons to generate two vectors. Embodiments also include calculating a plurality of metrics between the two vectors to generate a metric function. Embodiments further include generating feature weights using a recursive process based on training data input by external users, and generating a score by calculating a weighted sum of the metric function being weighted by the feature weights. The generated score may then be compared to a threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: ANCESTRY.COM OPERATIONS INC.
    Inventors: Atanu Roy, Jianlong Qi, Peng Jiang, Aaron Ling, Rey Furner, Lei Wu, Eugene Greenwood, Ian Stiles
  • Patent number: 11093746
    Abstract: Augmented reality is used to display graphical elements overlaid on a continually updating image of an area around an augmented reality device (e.g., a mobile device). The graphical element may contain geographical location information about a grave of an ancestor and/or biographical information about the ancestor. The continually updating image is captured by a camera of the augmented reality device and updates in response to time and motion of the augmented reality device. Based on orientation data and geographical location data collected by the augmented reality device, the graphical element is updated and displayed on the mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2021
    Assignee: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Gary Lee Mangum, James Bart Whiteley, David Layne Boothe, Byron Hundley, Russell Adrian Ochoa, Kendall Jay Jefferson
  • Publication number: 20210224651
    Abstract: Described herein are systems, methods, and other techniques for training a machine learning (ML) model to jointly perform named entity recognition (NER) and relation extraction (RE) on an input text. A set of hyperparameters for the ML model are set to a first set of values. The ML model is trained using a training dataset and is evaluated to produce a first result. The set of hyperparameters are modified from the first set of values to a second set of values. The ML model is trained using the training dataset and is evaluated to produce a second result. Either the first set of values or the second set of values are selected and used for the set of hyperparameters for the ML model based on a comparison between the first result and the second result.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 21, 2021
    Publication date: July 22, 2021
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Philip Theodore Crone, Carol Myrick Anderson, Suraj Subraveti
  • Publication number: 20210174083
    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: February 18, 2021
    Publication date: June 10, 2021
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Mohammad K. Ebrahimpour, Yen-Yun Yu, Jiayun Li, Jack Reese, Azadeh Moghtaderi
  • Publication number: 20210150262
    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: January 26, 2021
    Publication date: May 20, 2021
    Applicant: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
    Inventors: Laryn Brown, Michael Murdock, Jack Reese, Shawn Reid