Patents Assigned to Microsoft Corporation
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Publication number: 20110310898Abstract: Systems, methods and computer storage media for utilizing IPv6 addressing for globally unique identification of network endpoints when communications from or to an IPv4 compatible application. An IPv4 packet of data that is from and/or directed to an IPv4 endpoint is encapsulated in an IPv6 packet of data. An IPv6 compatible address is identified for a destination of the IPv6 packet of data. The IPv6 address is a globally unique identifier that is comprised of an IPv4 identifier that represents an IPv4 address of the encapsulated IPv4 packet. The IPv6 packet of data is communicated to the destination identified by the IPv6 address. A 4 to 6 stack may intercept the incoming IPv6 packet of data before the destination to strip the IPv6 header information revealing the IPv4 packet of data.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 17, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventor: HASAN ALKHATIB
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Publication number: 20110314555Abstract: The present invention provides methods for using abstractions of people, including dynamic and static groups of people, to enhance the efficiency of the specification and automation of policies for sharing information between users with a “need-to-know.” An instance of the present invention can also provide these users information based on a “time-to-know.” By providing access to information based on group affiliation and properties of the content of the information, the present invention maintains optimal information privacy while minimizing encumbrances to sharing data with appropriate users and even at appropriate times. The present invention can be integrated with other communication technologies to facilitate access to information in a time appropriate manner. Other instances of the present invention employ automated and semi-automated, mixed-initiative techniques, to make information-sharing decisions.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 23, 2011Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Eric J. Horvitz, Jonathan T. Grudin, Prasun Dewan
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Publication number: 20110310899Abstract: Computerized methods, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for distributing virtualized gateway functionality to multiple nodes within a physical network. Initially, drivers that carry out the gateway functionality are provisioned to cooperate with endpoints instantiated on the network nodes, while a directory service is implemented to maintain a mapping between virtual internet protocol (IP) addresses and location-dependent addresses, as well as a table enumerating transformation actions according to known pathways connecting the endpoints within a network. In operation, the directory service replies to requests from the driver (carrying source and destination IP addresses of data packets) with the appropriate location-dependent addresses (utilizing the mapping) and the appropriate transformation action(s) (utilizing the table).Type: ApplicationFiled: June 22, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Hasan Alkhatib, Geoff Outhred
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Publication number: 20110314039Abstract: Media item recommendation is described. In one example, a statistical model of media consumption is applied to media session consumption data from a community of users to infer parameters of the model. The model comprises a first probability distribution for each user defining a likelihood of the user having a latent characteristic for a session, and a second probability distribution for each latent characteristic defining a likelihood of a user selecting a media item given the latent characteristic. In another example, the inferred parameters are provided to a recommendation engine arranged to recommend media items. The recommendation engine uses the model with inferred parameters and data describing media items newly consumed by a user to infer a current latent characteristic for a current session of the user, and uses them to generate recommended media items for the user in the current session based on the current latent characteristic.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 18, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Elena Zheleva, John Guiver, Natasa Milic-Frayling, Eduarda Mendes Rodrigues
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Publication number: 20110314018Abstract: Summaries of entities (e.g., people, places, things, concepts, etc.) may provide additional useful information to user. For example, a search engine may provide a summary of an entity within search results. A category (e.g., “writer”, “politician”, etc.) of the entity that is short and concise may be advantageous to provide within a summary of the entity. The category may allow a user to quickly determine whether the information of the entity relates to the intended entity (e.g., search results of an entity as “a writer” vs. search results of an entity as “a politician”). Potential categories and summary text may be extracted from pre-labeled data. The potential categories and summary text may be intersected to determine a set of candidate categories that may be ranked. An entity category having a desired ranked may be determined as the entity category that describes the entity in a desired way.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 22, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Michael Bieniosek, Franco Salvetti, Giovanni Lorenzo Thione
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Publication number: 20110314017Abstract: Techniques to manage social connections are described. An apparatus may comprise a processor communicatively coupled to a memory. The memory may be arranged to store a social analysis component that when executed by the processor is operative to receive a list of members in a social network, receive at least one relationship indicator derived from multiple member attributes of a member, and generate a social identifier based on the relationship indicator, the social identifier representing a social connection type for a social connection or potential social connection between two or more members of the list of members in the social network. Other embodiments are described and claimed.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 18, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Eran Yariv, Kfir Karmon
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Publication number: 20110310007Abstract: A system and method is provided for using motion-capture data to control navigating of a cursor in a user interface of a computing system. Movement of a user's hand or other object in a three-dimensional capture space is tracked and represented in the computing system as motion-capture model data. The method includes obtaining a plurality of positions for the object from the motion-capture model data. The method determines a curved-gesture center point based on at least some of the plurality of positions for the object. Using the curved-gesture center point as an origin, an angular property is determined for one of the plurality of positions for the object. The method further includes navigating the cursor in a sequential arrangement of selectable items based on the angular property.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 22, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Jeffrey Margolis, Tricia Lee, Gregory A. Martinez, Alex Aben-Athar Kipman
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Publication number: 20110314156Abstract: Among other things, one or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for generating a human memorable resource name. Both a first part of the resource name and a second part of the resource name are generated, where both parts respectively comprise a memorable alphanumeric string (e.g., easily remembered). The first and second parts of the resource name are combined with an intervening separator symbol to generate the first resource name, comprising the first part, the symbol, and the second part. The first resource name is compared against a desired threshold to determine if it can be used as the name for the resource. If the first resource name does not meet the threshold a second resource name is generated for the resource.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 21, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Raymond E. Ozzie, Eric M. Patey, Brian M. Lambert, George P. Moromisato
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Publication number: 20110314251Abstract: Concepts and technologies are described herein for determining memory safety of floating-point computations. The concepts and technologies described herein analyze code to determine if any floating-point computations exist in the code, and if so, if the floating-point computations are memory safe. The analysis can include identifying floating-point instructions and conditional statements in the code. The code can be symbolically executed, and behavior of the floating-point instructions and the conditional statements can be monitored to determine if a floating point calculation is ever involved in computation of any memory address during the execution of the code.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 17, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Patrice Godefroid, Johannes Kinder
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Publication number: 20110310232Abstract: Described is using a combination of which a multi-view display is provided by a combining spatial multiplexing (e.g., using a parallax barrier or lenslet), and temporal multiplexing (e.g., using a directed backlight). A scheduling algorithm generates different views by determining which light sources are illuminated at a particular time. Via the temporal multiplexing, different views may be in the same spatial viewing angle (spatial zone). Two of the views may correspond to two eyes of a person, with different video data sent to each eye to provide an autostereoscopic display for that person. Eye (head) tracking may be used to move the view or views with a person as that person moves.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 21, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Andrew D. Wilson, Steven Bathiche
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Publication number: 20110314028Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems, methods, and computer-storage media for providing a method of presenting display characteristics of data items organized in hierarchical data structures. In one embodiment, a hierarchical data structure includes a plurality of nodes. Each node of the hierarchical data structure has a node value. The weighted value of each particular node is determined based on the sum of the node value of each node and the node values of each descendant node of the particular node. Once display characteristics based on weighted values are associated with each node, the hierarchical data structure is presented. In particular, an indicator of at least a portion of the plurality of nodes is presented to include at least one display characteristic associated with the plurality of nodes within the hierarchical data structure.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 18, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: MOTI RADOMSKI, ADI MILLER, OMRI GUTMAN
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Publication number: 20110314361Abstract: User actions, content, and other elements related to a presentation document are received. These elements are analyzed to generate recommendations for improving a presentation document. The presentation document may be modified in accordance with the recommendations.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 21, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jeffrey Chao-Nan Chen, Barn-Wan Li, Daniel Cheung, Jason Xiaobo Zhao, Xiaosa Zhao
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Publication number: 20110311137Abstract: Described is a hierarchical filtered motion field technology such as for use in recognizing actions in videos with crowded backgrounds. Interest points are detected, e.g., as 2D Harris corners with recent motion, e.g. locations with high intensities in a motion history image (MHI). A global spatial motion smoothing filter is applied to the gradients of MHI to eliminate low intensity corners that are likely isolated, unreliable or noisy motions. At each remaining interest point, a local motion field filter is applied to the smoothed gradients by computing a structure proximity between sets of pixels in the local region and the interest point. The motion at a pixel/pixel set is enhanced or weakened based on its structure proximity with the interest point (nearer pixels are enhanced).Type: ApplicationFiled: June 22, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Zicheng Liu, Yingli Tian, Liangliang Cao, Zhengyou Zhang
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Publication number: 20110314048Abstract: Within a social network, users may define user lists comprising users who share a semantic nexus. The creation and updating of user lists may be detected by monitoring the messages of users to detect list identifiers (e.g., names) indicating new user lists, and by polling the social network to detect changes in the membership of respective user lists. The list identifiers may be recorded in the user profiles of respective members of the user lists. Moreover, when a user posts a message to the social network, the message may be annotated with the list identifiers recorded in the user profile of the user. These techniques may permit the restriction of a search query over messages to those posted by members of a particular user list, e.g., by searching for messages having annotations that match the list identifiers of the user lists specified in the search query.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 22, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Steven W. Ickman, Thomas M. Laird-McConnell, Lili Cheng
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Publication number: 20110313827Abstract: A system and method of providing incentives for users to use computer applications. Application use by a user is tracked and participation credits are provided to the user based on the tracked use. Credits can be provided based on time of use and/or application based incentives, such as achievements in a game. A limit may be placed on the amount of credits a user may have at any time, inducing the user to redeem the tokens. Credit redemption is provided by redemption system which rewards users with prizes directly or based on a random generation of prize rewards under the guise of game play based on chance.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 22, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Kenneth A. Lobb, Shiraz J. Cupala, Todd Garnet Wagner, Henry Charles Sterchi
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Publication number: 20110314458Abstract: A compile environment is provided in a computer system that allows programmers to program both CPUs and data parallel devices (e.g., GPUs) using a high level general purpose programming language that has data parallel (DP) extensions. A compilation process translates modular DP code written in the general purpose language into DP device source code in a high level DP device programming language using a set of binding descriptors for the DP device source code. A binder generates a single, self-contained DP device source code unit from the set of binding descriptors. A DP device compiler generates a DP device executable for execution on one or more data parallel devices from the DP device source code unit.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 22, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Weirong Zhu, Lingli Zhang, Sukhdeep S. Sodhi, Yosseff Levanoni
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Publication number: 20110313993Abstract: Compression of extensive, rule-based grammars used to facilitate search queries is provided herein. Rule-based grammars include a list of rules that each comprise a sequence of token classes. Each token class is a logical grouping of tokens, and each token is a string of characters. A grammar is parsed to identify rules and token classes. Unimportant token classes are identified and sets of unimportant token classes are merged to generated merged token classes. A compressed grammar is generated by substituting the merged token classes into the grammar for corresponding unimportant token classes used to generate the merged token classes.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 30, 2011Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: STELIOS PAPARIZOS, CHRISTOPHER WALTER ANDERSON, WEI LIU, AJAY NAIR, ALEXANDROS NTOULAS, NAGA SRINIVAS VEMURI
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Publication number: 20110314000Abstract: Technology is described for transformation rule profiling for a query optimizer. The method can include obtaining a database query configured to be optimized by the query optimizer of a database system. An optimized query plan for the database query can be found using a host set of transformation rules. One transformation rule can be removed and checked at a time. Each transformation rule can be checked to determine whether the transformation rule affects an optimal query plan output. A test query plan can be generated after each transformation rule has been removed. The query optimizer can determine whether the test query plan is different than the optimized query plan in the absence of the removed transformation rule. An equivalent set of transformation rules can be created that includes transformation rules where the test query plan generated from the equivalent set of transformation rules is equivalent to the optimized plan.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 18, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Surajit Chaudhuri, Leo Giakoumakis, Vivek Narasayya, Ravi Ramamurthy
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Publication number: 20110314459Abstract: Performance of a program written in dynamic languages is improved through the use of a compiler that provides type inference for methods having a user-defined element. The user-defined element may be an input in a user-defined type. Though, the user-defined element may reflect that the method is user-defined. Type inference may be performed based on a user-defined mapping, relating input types to output types for one or more methods. The mapping may be specified as a data table provided to the compiler or as one or more functions that register with the compiler such that, as the compiler processes portions of a source program and detects a method with a user-defined element, the compiler may access the mapping and infer the type of an output of the method. The inferred type may then be used to optimize code dependent on that output.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 21, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventor: Parry Jones Reginald Husbands
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Publication number: 20110313975Abstract: Data records in files may be validated by sequentially accessing the data records while allowing random data access within a sliding window. The data records may also be validated by caching record values. Variable-length record lists in one or more files may be reduced to fixed length record lists while accessing arbitrary record list items.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 16, 2010Publication date: December 22, 2011Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Lawrence G. Landauer, Joshua M. Pollock