Patents Assigned to Microsoft Corporations
  • Publication number: 20130345887
    Abstract: Various techniques of managing a computer cluster are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method for managing a computer cluster includes receiving a request for a computing operation, obtaining information of utility for the computer cluster, and determining an execution profile of the computing operation identified by the received request based at least in part on the obtained information. The information includes at least one of a configuration or condition of power, heating, cooling, ventilation that supports the computer cluster. The method also includes executing the computing operation in the computer cluster in accordance with the determined execution profile.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Sriram Govindan, Sriram Sankar, Woongki Baek
  • Publication number: 20130346949
    Abstract: A runtime capability check determines functionality supported by a client application (e.g. a browser) on a computing device. During the runtime capability check, the client application (e.g. the browser) attempts to execute different function tests to determine its capabilities. The result information from the function tests are stored. The stored result information is used by the client application during subsequent connections with the server (e.g. the cookie is passed from the mobile computing device to the server). Based on the supported functionality as determined by the stored result information, the rendering code is adapted for, generated and delivered to the computing device by the server. For example, when the client application supports the tested functionality then the server renders the content using full feature rendering. When the client application does not support all of the tested functionality then the server renders the content using limited feature rendering.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ming-Chieh Chang, Peng-Jen Chen, Chih-Yung Chen, Sheng-Yao Shih
  • Publication number: 20130346219
    Abstract: Methods and systems for estimating the value of a contextual ad impression are provided. Requests for value-based bids for ad impressions are received from bidders and the value of the ad impression is estimated based primarily upon leveraging sell-side data (user and publisher). The estimation is highly economized through a fast implementation of k-nearest-neighbor (kNN) regression. Embodiments of the present invention further address the cold-start problem or the exploration vs. exploitation requirement by Bayesian (hierarchical) smoothing using a beta prior, and adapt to the temporal dynamics using an autoregressive model to decay importance of certain data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ye Chen, Pavel Berkhin, Jie Li, Xia Sharon Wan, Tak Yan
  • Publication number: 20130342757
    Abstract: Example apparatus and methods concern controlling a variable flash to improve image detection. One example apparatus includes a digital camera and a variable flash configured to be controllable to operate at different selected illumination levels. The apparatus may be configured to identify a current imaging condition associated with the digital camera and to then determine a lux setting for the variable flash as a function of the current imaging condition. The flash may then be controlled as a function of the lux setting for subsequent image acquisition. The acquisition, analysis, and flash control may be exercised until a desired illumination is achieved. In one embodiment, determining the current imaging condition may include analyzing a frame acquired from the digital camera for attributes including image brightness, and edge detectability. In one embodiment, input from a light sensor may also be considered.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shawn M. Brown, John A. Yovin
  • Publication number: 20130346915
    Abstract: Embodiments relate to enabling wrap-around of a pannable surface to allow a user to perceive a logical break and to allow some user control over how/when a wrap-around occurs. When a user pans to an edge of a pannable surface (“near” edge), the panning, in some embodiments, is automatically halted or impeded. The user can over-pan the “near” edge, and if a condition is met, then the “distant” edge pans into view, thus effectuating a wrap-around. The condition may be, for example, a threshold distance, speed, inertia, etc. Some embodiments provide a hint or visual “peek” of the “distant” edge as the “near” edge is being over-panned. Some embodiments snap the “near” edge back if the over-pan is ended before the condition is met. The condition may be checked repeatedly during over-panning or it may be checked when the over-pan is terminated by the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Holger Kuehnle, Raymond Chen, Rebecca Deutsch
  • Publication number: 20130346066
    Abstract: Joint decoding of words and tags may be provided. Upon receiving an input from a user comprising a plurality of elements, the input may be decoded into a word lattice comprising a plurality of words. A tag may be assigned to each of the plurality of words and a most-likely sequence of word-tag pairs may be identified. The most-likely sequence of word-tag pairs may be evaluated to identify an action request from the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Anoop Kiran Deoras, Dilek Zeynep Hakkani-Tur, Ruhi Sarikaya, Gokhan Tur
  • Publication number: 20130346979
    Abstract: Application code is analyzed to determine if a hardware library could accelerate its execution. In particular, application code can be analyzed to identify calls to application programming interfaces (APIs) or other functions that have a hardware library implementation. The code can be analyzed to identify the frequency of such calls. Information from the hardware library can indicate characteristics of the library, such as its size, power consumption and FPGA resource usage. Information about the execution pattern of the application code also can be useful. This information, along with information about other concurrent processes using the FPGA resources, can be used to select a hardware library to implement functions called in the application code.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Edmund B. Nightingale, Brian A. LaMacchia
  • Publication number: 20130343532
    Abstract: Various embodiments can utilize audiovisual and/or interactive content to present to a caller when the caller's call is placed into a call queue. A variety of different types of content can be presented to the caller to reduce the caller's perceived time in the call queue. In at least some embodiments, content presented to a particular caller can be driven by caller selections. Alternately or additionally, content presented to a particular caller can be automatically selected for the caller based upon information associated with the caller such as the caller's profile and/or information associated with the caller's previous content consumption patterns.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Barrington A. Castle
  • Publication number: 20130346982
    Abstract: There is provided a method and system for generating a program. The method includes detecting a number of steps for performing a task on a computing device and detecting an example relating to each of the steps, wherein the example includes input data and corresponding output data relating to the step. The method also includes, for each example, determining a rule that transforms the input data to the corresponding output data based on cues including textual features within the input data and the corresponding output data. The method further includes generating a program for performing the task based on the rules.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Adam Kalai, Butler Lampson, Sumit Gulwani, Aditya Krishna Menon, Omer Tamuz
  • Publication number: 20130346572
    Abstract: There is provided a method and system for process migration in a data center network. The method includes selecting processes to be migrated from a number of overloaded servers within a data center network based on an overload status of each overloaded server. Additionally, the method includes selecting, for each selected process, one of a number of underloaded servers to which to migrate the selected process based on an underload status of each underloaded server, and based on a parameter of a network component by which the selected process is to be migrated. The method also includes migrating each selected process to the selected underloaded server such that a migration finishes within a specified budget.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Navendu Jain, Ishai Menache, F. Bruce Shepherd, Joseph (Seffi) Naor
  • Publication number: 20130346532
    Abstract: The present invention minimizes the cost of establishing a cluster that utilizes shared storage by creating a storage namespace within the cluster that makes each storage device, which is physically connected to any of the nodes in the cluster, appear to be physically connected to all nodes in the cluster. A virtual host bus adapter (VHBA) is executed on each node, and is used to create the storage namespace. Each VHBA determines which storage devices are physically connected to the node on which the VHBA executes, as well as each storage device that is physically connected to each of the other nodes. All storage devices determined in this manner are aggregated into the storage namespace which is then presented to the operating system on each node so as to provide the illusion that all storage devices in the storage namespace are physically connected to each node.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Andrea D'Amato, Vinod R. Shankar
  • Publication number: 20130343373
    Abstract: A computer-implemented system is provided that facilitates implementation of a voice over IP (VOIP) application. The system includes a host system and a user interface (UI) host process residing on the host system. The system also includes an agent host process residing on the host system which is being configured to process a VOIP call received by one or more VOIP applications executable on the host system. The agent host process running as a foreground or background process for the duration of the VOIP call to (i) communicate with a VOIP server associated with the VOIP application, (ii) capture content from at least one input device associated with the host system and (iii) render content on an output device associated with the host system when an instance of the UI host process operates in the foreground.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Vij Vasu, Akhilesh Kaza, Shawn Henry, Eric Bie, Lucia Darsa, Tony Seeley, Keith Kaplan, Steve Serdy, Vishal Ghotge, Syed Mansoor Jafry, Nimesh Amin
  • Publication number: 20130346843
    Abstract: An author of a document may be enabled to specify viewing preferences for displaying a document in a reading view. The author may be enabled to define or select among available options for document viewing preferences such as transitions, animations, display of selected elements, layout features, embedded objects, and comparable ones. A reader of the document may be enabled to specify similar viewing preferences on their end. The author's preferences may also include customization of viewing rules based on a device, application, or version of application through which the document is viewed. In case of conflict between the author's and reader's preferences, one may prevail depending on permission levels and similar attributes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jeffrey Murray, Shawn Villaron, Hannes Ruescher
  • Publication number: 20130346946
    Abstract: Compiling source code to provide an executable code build. The method includes configuring a pool of substantially identical virtual machines in a distributed cloud computing environment. Configuring may include configuring virtual machines to have generic code compiling functionality. The method further includes determining that source code for a particular user should be compiled. As a result, the method includes selecting a virtual machine from the pool of substantially identical virtual machines and configuring the selected virtual machine in a way that is specific to the user. Source code for the user is retrieved from a source control system deployed in the distributed computing environment. Using the virtual machine configured in the way specific to the user, the user's retrieved source code is compiled to compiled code. After compiling is completed, the configured virtual machine is restored to a generic form.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventor: Justin Everett Pinnix
  • Publication number: 20130344794
    Abstract: Climate regulation within an enclosure (e.g., a case of a workstation or a rack or cabinet of servers) may be achieved through a climate regulator featuring several selectable climate regulator settings (e.g., a variable-speed fan array). Controllers of such climate regulators often select climate regulator settings based on current conditions inside the enclosure, such as the temperature of one or more processors operating within the enclosure. However, such control fails to account for the climate of air outside the enclosure that is drawn in to provide climate regulation, even though the climate properties of inlet air may significantly affect the effectiveness of climate regulation. Accordingly, a controller of a climate regulator may be configured to detect inlet climate properties of air directed into the enclosure, and to map the inlet climate properties (alone or in combination with other factors) to a selected climate regulator setting for the climate regulator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Mark Shaw, Matthew Allen Faist, Eric C. Peterson, Harry Raymond Rogers
  • Publication number: 20130346704
    Abstract: Described is a technology by which a link to content is visibly augmented to convey information related to a cached status of the linked-to content. In one aspect, a cached versus not cached indication may be provided to convey such cache-related information to a user. Staleness of cached content also may be indicated. Also described is pre-fetching and/or updating cache content, which may be conveyed to the user by the conveyed cache-related status information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Douglas Christopher Burger, Anoop Gupta, Jie Liu
  • Publication number: 20130346558
    Abstract: A delivery controller for use in an enterprise environment that communicates with a cloud computing environment that is providing a service for the enterprise. As the cloud service processing progresses, some cloud service data is transferred from the cloud computing environment to the enterprise environment, and vice versa. The cloud service data may be exchanged over any one of a number of different types of communication channels. The delivery controller selects which communication channel to use to transfer specific data, depending on enterprise policy. Such policy might consider any business goals of the enterprise, and may be applied at the application level.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yousef A. Khalidi, Deepak Bansal, Changhoon Kim, Srikanth Kandula, David A. Maltz, Parveen Patel
  • Publication number: 20130346872
    Abstract: An input method editor (IME) provides a distributed platform architecture that enables associating multiple applications with the IME to provide extended functionalities. The presentations of the applications, such as skins, may be different from each other and that of the IME. The applications may be represented in a manifest file that is human-readable and editable. The IME collects multiple parameters relating to a user input into a host application including a query input by the user and a scenario of the host application, and selects one or more applications to provide candidates based on a score or ranking of the applications under the collected multiple parameters. Machine-learning may be used to improve the score or ranking. The candidates may include text candidates, rich candidates, and informative candidates.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 15, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew Robert Scott, Huihua Hou, Xi Chen, Weipeng Liu, Rongfeng Lai, Xi Chen, Yonghong Shi
  • Publication number: 20130346106
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer program products for facilitating the navigation of patient clinical data based on a single timeline are disclosed. In an embodiment, such integrated view allows users to navigate through patient health data using a conceptual linkage based on common attributes. Users may also, through use of a Unified Data Navigator built on a web-based client, configure and customize such patient health data displays and save selected settings as personal views.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Zhuo Xiao, Yun Zheng, Mei Zhao, Oliver Chen
  • Publication number: 20130343191
    Abstract: The ensuring of predictable and quantifiable networking performance. Embodiments of the invention combine a congestion free network core with a hypervisor based (i.e., edge-based) throttling design to help insure quantitative and invariable subscription bandwidth rates. A lightweight shim layer in a hypervisor can adaptively throttle the rate of VM-to-VM traffic flow. A receiving hypervisor can detect congestion and communicate back to sending hypervisors that rates are to be regulated. In response, sending hypervisors can reduce transmission rate to mitigate congestion at the receiving hypervisor. In some embodiments, the principles are extended to any message processors communicating over a congestion free network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2012
    Publication date: December 26, 2013
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Changhoon Kim, Albert G. Greenberg, Alireza Dabagh, Yousef A. Khalidi, Deepak Bansal, Srikanth Kandula