Patents Assigned to Microsoft Corporation
  • Publication number: 20110310898
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventor: HASAN ALKHATIB
  • Publication number: 20110314555
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: February 23, 2011
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Eric J. Horvitz, Jonathan T. Grudin, Prasun Dewan
  • Publication number: 20110310899
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hasan Alkhatib, Geoff Outhred
  • Publication number: 20110314039
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Elena Zheleva, John Guiver, Natasa Milic-Frayling, Eduarda Mendes Rodrigues
  • Publication number: 20110314018
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Bieniosek, Franco Salvetti, Giovanni Lorenzo Thione
  • Publication number: 20110314017
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Eran Yariv, Kfir Karmon
  • Publication number: 20110310007
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jeffrey Margolis, Tricia Lee, Gregory A. Martinez, Alex Aben-Athar Kipman
  • Publication number: 20110314156
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Raymond E. Ozzie, Eric M. Patey, Brian M. Lambert, George P. Moromisato
  • Publication number: 20110314251
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Patrice Godefroid, Johannes Kinder
  • Publication number: 20110310232
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew D. Wilson, Steven Bathiche
  • Publication number: 20110314028
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: MOTI RADOMSKI, ADI MILLER, OMRI GUTMAN
  • Publication number: 20110314361
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jeffrey Chao-Nan Chen, Barn-Wan Li, Daniel Cheung, Jason Xiaobo Zhao, Xiaosa Zhao
  • Publication number: 20110311137
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Zicheng Liu, Yingli Tian, Liangliang Cao, Zhengyou Zhang
  • Publication number: 20110314048
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Steven W. Ickman, Thomas M. Laird-McConnell, Lili Cheng
  • Publication number: 20110313827
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kenneth A. Lobb, Shiraz J. Cupala, Todd Garnet Wagner, Henry Charles Sterchi
  • Publication number: 20110314458
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Weirong Zhu, Lingli Zhang, Sukhdeep S. Sodhi, Yosseff Levanoni
  • Publication number: 20110313993
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2011
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: STELIOS PAPARIZOS, CHRISTOPHER WALTER ANDERSON, WEI LIU, AJAY NAIR, ALEXANDROS NTOULAS, NAGA SRINIVAS VEMURI
  • Publication number: 20110314000
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Surajit Chaudhuri, Leo Giakoumakis, Vivek Narasayya, Ravi Ramamurthy
  • Publication number: 20110314459
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Parry Jones Reginald Husbands
  • Publication number: 20110313975
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: June 16, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Lawrence G. Landauer, Joshua M. Pollock