Abstract: A commercial frequency-modulated (FM) radio signal indoor localization system and method for finding a location of a mobile embedded device (such as a smartphone) within a building. Indoor localization is performed by receiving commercial FM radio signals on the device, analyzing the signals using signal quality metrics, and generating signal quality vectors for each signal and signal quality metric used for the signal. The signal quality metric can be any physical signal quality indicator. The signal quality vectors are added to obtain a current location fingerprint. The current location fingerprint is compared to fingerprints stored in a fingerprint database. The location associated with the stored fingerprint that is the closest match to the current fingerprint location is designated as the current location in the building of the mobile embedded device. Locally generated radio signals can be used in conjunction with the commercial FM radio signals to improve localization accuracy.

Abstract: An enhanced availability environment for facilitating a message service provided by a plurality of service elements is disclosed herein. The enhanced availability environment comprises a monitoring element and an enhanced availability element. The monitoring element monitors a first service element of the plurality of service elements for a monitored characteristic, generates monitoring information corresponding to the monitored characteristic, and communicates the monitoring information to the enhanced availability element. The enhanced availability element determines an availability of the first service element for the message service based at least in part on the monitoring information and an availability characteristic of the first service element, and communicates the availability to initiate an availability action.

Abstract: Sharing security claims across different security contexts. A method includes, for a first security context, identifying a first set of security claims. The method further includes for the first security context identifying a second set of security claims from the first set of security claims that is allowed to be sent from the first security context. The first set of security claims is modified to create the second set of security claims. For a second security context, security claim requirements are identified. The second set of security claims is modified to satisfy the security claim requirements for the second security context.

Abstract: The subject disclosure is directed towards a technology by which data is securely distributed using a homomorphic signature scheme and homomorphic network coding signature schemes. A homomorphic signature scheme for signing the data is based upon binary pairing with standard prime order groups. Sets of data are signed based upon dividing a larger block of data into smaller blocks, and separately signing each smaller block. The smaller blocks may be distributed to nodes of a network topology that are configured for network coding. In one alternative, the homomorphic signature scheme protects against changes to the block identifier. Proof data may be provided independent of a random oracle, may be provided by providing parameters for verification in a Groth-Sahai proof system, or may be provided by providing parameters for verification independent of a Groth-Sahai proof system.

Abstract: Field programmable gate arrays can be used as a shared programmable co-processor resource in a general purpose computing system. Components of an FPGA are isolated to protect the FPGA and data transferred between the FPGA and other components of the computer system. Transferred data can be digitally signed by the FPGA or other component to provide authentication. Code for programming the FPGA can be encrypted and signed by the author, loaded into the FPGA in an encrypted state, and then decrypted and authenticated by the FPGA itself, before programming the FPGA with the code. This code can be used to change the cryptographic operations performed in the FPGA, including keys, or decryption and encryption algorithms, or both.

Abstract: Density estimation and/or manifold learning are described, for example, for computer vision, medical image analysis, text document clustering. In various embodiments a density forest is trained using unlabeled data to estimate the data distribution. In embodiments the density forest comprises a plurality of random decision trees each accumulating portions of the training data into clusters at their leaves. In embodiments probability distributions representing the clusters at each tree are aggregated to form a forest density which is an estimate of a probability density function from which the unlabeled data may be generated. A mapping engine may use the clusters at the leaves of the density forest to estimate a mapping function which maps the unlabeled data to a lower dimensional space whilst preserving relative distances or other relationships between the unlabeled data points. A sampling engine may use the density forest to randomly sample data from the forest density.

Abstract: Field programmable gate arrays can be used as a shared programmable co-processor resource in a general purpose computing system. An FPGA can be programmed to perform functions, which in turn can be associated with one or more processes. With multiple processes, the FPGA can be shared, and a process is assigned to at least one portion of the FPGA during a time slot in which to access the FPGA. Programs written in a hardware description language for programming the FPGA are made available as a hardware library. The operating system manages allocating the FPGA resources to processes, programming the FPGA in accordance with the functions to be performed by the processes using the FPGA, and scheduling use of the FPGA by these processes.

Abstract: A data service system is described herein which processes raw data assets from at least one network-accessible system (such as a search system), to produce processed data assets. Enterprise applications can then leverage the processed data assets to perform various environment-specific tasks. In one implementation, the data service system can generate any of: synonym resources for use by an enterprise application in providing synonyms for specified terms associated with entities; augmentation resources for use by an enterprise application in providing supplemental information for specified seed information; and spelling-correction resources for use by an enterprise application in providing spelling information for specified terms, and so on.

Abstract: A system for acquiring access to a web-based application includes one or more computer-readable storage media and an application (e.g., a web browser) for accessing and retrieving over a network a plurality of resources. The system also includes a program interface embodied on the one or more computer-readable storage media. The program interface is configured to present a common set of application program interfaces (APIs) that can be used by the application to demonstrate that a user of the application is entitled to access a first resource. The system also includes programming logic configured to determine if the user of the application is authorized to access the first resource. If it is determined that authorization has not been established to access the first resource, the application is directed to communicate with a marketplace to obtain authorization to access the first resource.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and software are provided for dynamically escalating service conditions associated with data center failures. In one implementation, a monitoring system detects a service condition. The service condition may be indicative of a failure of at least one service element within a data center monitored by the monitoring system. The monitoring system determines whether or not the service condition qualifies for escalation based at least in part on an access condition associated with the data center. The access condition may be identified by at least another monitoring system that is located in a geographic region distinct from that of the first monitoring system. Upon determining that the service condition qualifies for escalation, the monitoring system escalates the service condition to an escalated condition and initiates an escalated response.

Abstract: The validation of a product for placement in a catalog in a marketplace utilizes a distributed approval workflow. A validation engine receives product submissions for inclusion into the marketplace's catalog. The validation engine initiates the distributed approval workflow to one or more approval engines that are equipped to perform the tasks needed to validate the product. The validation engine monitors the distributed approval workflow performed by the approval engines until completion. Upon successful completion of the distributed approval workflow, the product may be placed onto the marketplace's catalog for distribution.

Abstract: Various embodiments pertain to techniques for automatically classifying an IP address using information received as part of a request for an advertisement. In some embodiments, the information received can include an IP address associated with the request, a client identifier, and a unique request identifier, such as a request global user identifier (RGUID). In various embodiments, the information is analyzed and used to classify the IP address. For example, the IP address can be classified as belonging to a unique or real end user, belonging to a proxy, or belonging to a potential exploit. Advertisements can be served, or not served at all, according to the classification of the IP address. In various embodiments, some classifications of IP addresses can be further analyzed to determine a geo-location associated with the IP address or to enable processes to mitigate malicious or fraudulent request risks.

Abstract: Embodiments related to automatically adjusting wireless network settings based upon utilization of a wireless network link by applications are disclosed. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a method of adjusting a wireless networking setting for a wireless network link. The method includes monitoring data flow through a network interface controller to collect, for each of one or more applications running on the computing device and communicating over the wireless network link, flow performance data comprising information regarding an amount of data flow arising from the application. The method also includes monitoring link data comprising information regarding data being sent and received over the wireless network link, and based upon the flow performance data and the link data, controlling a network interface controller to adjust the wireless networking parameter to change a configuration of the network link.

Abstract: The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for performing memory compaction in a main memory database. The main memory database stores records within pages which are organized in doubly linked lists within partition heaps. The memory compaction process uses quasi-updates to move records from a page to the emptied to an active page in a partition heap. The quasi-updates create a new version of the record in the active page, the new version having the same data contents as the old version of the record. The creation of the new version can be performed using a transaction that employs wait for dependencies to allow the old version of the record to be read while the transaction is creating the new version thereby minimizing the effect of the memory compaction process on other transactions in the main memory database.

Abstract: Described is a technology by which an entity's (e.g., a user's or group's) usage of a digital entertainment service is used to automatically generate an interactive, personalized three-dimensional visualization representing the entity's career on a digital entertainment service. Usage events are collected as profile information, which is processed to generate the visualization, as well as to automatically theme the user's experience. Filtering and prioritization of data within the profile information is performed based on the predicted degree of interest to the entity and to others; the entity may provide preference data to vary the automatically generated visualization and/or theme.

Abstract: A service log of a service provider is analyzed to identify IP addresses used by account holders that are populated IP addresses. Existing information about legitimate and malicious accounts of the service provider is leveraged to determine likely good and bad populated IP addresses based on the accounts that use the populated IP addresses. Features of the good and bad populated IP addresses are used to train a classifier that can identify good and bad populated IP addresses based on features of the populated IP addresses. The classifier may be used to provide security services to the same service provider or different service providers. The services include identifying malicious accounts.

Abstract: A method for constructing an avatar of a human subject includes acquiring a depth map of the subject, obtaining a virtual skeleton of the subject based on the depth map, and harvesting from the virtual skeleton a set of characteristic metrics. Such metrics correspond to distances between predetermined points of the virtual skeleton. In this example method, the characteristic metrics are provided as input to an algorithm trained using machine learning. The algorithm may be trained using a human model in a range of poses, and a range of human models in a single pose, to output a virtual body mesh as a function of the characteristic metrics. The method also includes constructing a virtual head mesh distinct from the virtual body mesh, with facial features resembling those of the subject, and connecting the virtual body mesh to the virtual head mesh.

Abstract: Concepts and technologies are described herein for touch interactions with a drawing application. In accordance with the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, user devices can obtain drawing data generated by a web-based drawing application and can display a drawing by rendering the data in one or more UIs. The user device can interpret touch gestures at a touch sensitive display used to present the UIs and can interpret the touch gestures as corresponding to one or more commands for modifying the UIs. According to various embodiments, the user device can interpret the touch gestures by determining if the touch gestures intersect an object in the drawing and other behavior associated with the touch gesture such as movement, subsequent touches, and whether or not an object intersected was selected when the touch gesture was commenced.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for facilitating discoverability of user interface elements associated with search engine homepages are provided. When users navigate to a search engine homepage having a background image associated therewith and perform a specified action with respect thereto (for instance, moving a mouse pointer over the image, clicking on the image, or tapping on the image), a plurality of user interface elements is surfaced. Each user interface element is associated with information with which the user may be presented upon interaction with the element. Upon the user ceasing to perform the specified action (or upon the expiration of a predefined period of time), the user interface elements cease to be presented and the user is able to view the search engine homepage without the embedded information.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for performing entity-based aggregation of endorsement data are provided. Entity-endorsement data is received from a plurality of different sources, e.g., websites, web pages, database records, files, data feeds, or networks. Entity resolution is then performed to identify like entities. Once the entities are resolved, the relevant endorsement data from each appropriate source is aggregated. The aggregated endorsement data may then be presented with or without an identification of the sources from which the data was aggregated. In this way, sparseness and fragmentation of endorsement data are mitigated and a more complete picture of an entity's endorsement status may be seen.