Facebook Patents

Facebook, Inc. operates a social media website and mobile app that enables people to connect, share and discover opinions, ideas, photos and videos. The company also owns Instagram, a mobile application for sharing photos and videos, as well as WhatsApp, a mobile messaging application.

Facebook Patents by Type
  • Facebook Patents Granted: Facebook patents that have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
  • Facebook Patent Applications: Facebook patent applications that are pending before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
  • Patent number: 10491644
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media are configured to receive responses from users over a spectrum of approval levels. The users can be participating in an event broadcasted by a social networking system. The responses can be processed to generate an aggregate count of responses at each approval level in the spectrum. A layout animation can be presented in a user interface reflecting the aggregate count of responses at each approval level in the spectrum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Alex Douglas Cornell
  • Patent number: 10491938
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can define a set of video quality levels. One or more social engagement signals associated with videos uploaded at each video quality level out of the set of video quality levels can be acquired. Information associated with each user out of a set of users can be acquired. A respective video quality level for each user can be determined based on at least one of the information associated with each user or the one or more social engagement signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Eran Ambar
  • Patent number: 10486755
    Abstract: A robotic motorcycle may include a chassis, driven wheel assemblies, and a control loop stabilizer. The driven wheel assemblies may each include a wheel and a bevel gear. The wheel may be mounted to an axle for rotation about a drive axis and steering about a substantially vertical steering axis. A steer shaft may connect the axle to a steer assembly that controls rotation of the steer shaft about the steering axis to steer the wheel. A drive shaft may be coupled to a drive assembly that controls rotation of the drive shaft about the steering axis. The bevel gear may couple the other end of the drive shaft to the axle so that rotation of the drive shaft about the steering axis controls rotation of the wheel about the drive axis. The control loop stabilizer may determine parameters for the drive and steer assemblies to balance the motorcycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Scott C. Wiley
  • Patent number: 10491709
    Abstract: An online system provides content items for presentation to users with a mechanism that allows users to opt-in to receive additional content associated with a content item at a later time. Users can opt-in to receive the additional content by selecting a button or icon presented with the content item to select criteria for receiving the additional content in the future. The criteria can be temporal or the criteria can be based on a location. Accordingly, the additional content is presented to the user when at least a threshold portion of the criteria is met.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Blake Ethan Williams
  • Patent number: 10489719
    Abstract: An online system, such as a social networking system, generates shared models for one or more clusters of categories. A shared model for a cluster is common to the categories assigned to the cluster. In this manner, the shared models are specific to the group of categories (e.g., selected content providers) in each cluster while requiring a reasonable computational complexity for the online system. The categories are clustered based on the performance of a model specific to a category on data for other categories.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Donald Yates, Kurt Dodge Runke, Gunjit Singh
  • Patent number: 10489979
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media can provide a virtual content item relating to a virtual three-dimensional space. An object within the virtual content item can be determined. One or more content items to provide within the virtual content item in association with the object can be determined. A three-dimensional position of the one or more content items within the virtual three-dimensional space of the virtual content item can be determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Debashish Paul, Charles Matthew Sutton
  • Patent number: 10489468
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a query and determining a query vector. The method includes accessing multiple object vectors representing multiple objects, respectively. The method includes, for a first set of object vectors identified as top object vectors, calculating an inner product with the query vector. The method includes progressively computing an inner product of the query vector and each remaining object vector and sending, to a user, the objects corresponding to the top object vectors. Progressively computing an inner product includes checking whether to calculate a first partial inner product based on a bound on the inner product and the minimum inner product for a top object vector, calculating subsequent partial inner products until the inner product is complete, and substituting the object vector for a top object vector if the complete inner product is greater than the minimum inner product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Nikita Igorevych Lytkin, Matthys Douze
  • Patent number: 10489648
    Abstract: A head mounted display (HMD) comprises an eye tracking system configured to enable eye-tracking using light. The eye tracking system implements time-multiplexing by configuring a source assembly comprising a plurality of light sources to project at least a first light pattern towards the user's eye over a first time period, and a second light pattern towards the user's eye over a second time period in accordance with a set of emission instructions. A camera assembly is configured to capture images of the user's eye during the first and second time periods in accordance with a set of imaging instructions, the captured images containing one or more glints corresponding to reflections of the first or second light patterns on the cornea of the user's eye. The location of the glints may be used to determine a shape or orientation of the eye.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Robert Dale Cavin, Alexander Jobe Fix, Andrew John Ouderkirk
  • Patent number: 10489472
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from a client system of a first user of an online social network, an indication that the first user has accessed a query field. The method also includes determining one or more content objects viewed by the first user in a current view session, accessing terms associated with one or more of the content objects, and ranking the terms based at least on a social-graph affinity of the first user with respect to the term. The method also includes sending, to the client system for display, instructions for generating a suggested-queries interface responsive to the indication the first user has accessed the query field, the suggested-queries interface including one or more suggested queries corresponding to one or more terms having a ranking greater than a threshold rank, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Goryachev, Ian Douglas Hegerty, Nick In 't Ven
  • Patent number: 10489238
    Abstract: A client management server manages client devices deployed throughout an enterprise facility that may be used for various applications such as wayfinders and internal and external meeting room computers. The client management receives screenshots from the client devices and applies a classifier to classify an operating state of each device as corresponding to a normal operating state or an error state. If the operating state is classified as corresponding to the error state, a remedial action is triggered. The classifier may be a machine trained model that is trained using supervised or unsupervised learning, including by simulating errors on the clients.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Oliver Pell, Davide Guerri
  • Patent number: 10489825
    Abstract: A seed cluster comprising a group of users who share a particular attribute and/or affiliation is determined by a social networking system. For each user of the seed cluster, other users and/or entities connected to the user in the social networking system are retrieved. For each retrieved other user or entity, the social networking system may determine whether the other user or entity exhibits the attribute or affiliation based on a random walk algorithm. A resulting targeting cluster of users and/or entities may be used for targeting advertisements targeting to members. A social networking system may also infer an affiliation for a user based on the user's interaction with a page, application, or entity where other users who interacted with the same page, application, or entity have the same affiliation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Rong Yan, Ankush Singla, Antonio Felipe Garcia-Martinez, Philip Zigoris
  • Patent number: 10491025
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for pulse charging rechargeable batteries may include (1) identifying a rechargeable battery, (2) estimating an age of the rechargeable battery, (3) calculating, based at least in part on the age of the rechargeable battery, a pulse parameter for pulse charging the rechargeable battery, and (4) pulse charging the rechargeable battery using the pulse parameter to prolong the useful life of the rechargeable battery. In some examples, the rechargeable battery may be a backup battery that supplies backup power to a power supply within a data-center rack. Various other methods, systems, and apparatus are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Soheil Ebrahimzadeh
  • Patent number: 10491877
    Abstract: A depth camera assembly (DCA) determines distances between the DCA and objects in a local area within a field of view of the DCA. The DCA projects a series of sinusoidal patterns into the local area DCA and captures images of the sinusoidal patterns via a sensor. Each pixel of the augmented sensor includes a plurality of charge bins, and charge accumulated by a photodiode of a pixel during different time intervals (e.g., times when different sinusoidal patterns are emitted) is stored in a different charge storage bin. Charge may be retrieved from different charge storage bins to determine depth from the DCA.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Michael Hall, Qing Chao, Xinqiao Liu
  • Patent number: 10488223
    Abstract: A method of calibrating a first inertial measurement unit (IMU) of a mobile electronic device inserted in a headset includes, when a controller having a second IMU is mounted to the headset: performing a calibration procedure to generate first calibration data for the first IMU and second calibration data for the second IMU; receiving the second calibration data from the controller; determining a difference between the first calibration data and the second calibration data received from the controller; and calibrating the first IMU in accordance with the difference between the first calibration data and the second calibration data. The method further includes, when the controller has been removed from the headset after performing the calibrating, executing a virtual-reality application, comprising generating images based in part on motion data generated by the calibrated first IMU and displaying the images. The motion data corresponds to motions of the mobile electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Phillip Yee, Julian James Hammerstein, Ryan Hamilton Brown, Nirav Rajendra Patel
  • Patent number: 10490378
    Abstract: Structures of and methods for fabricating fine-scale interconnects and fuses are disclosed. A “mushroom”-type structure with a narrow stalk supporting a wider cap can be used for fine-scale interconnects with widths on the scale of hundreds of nanometers that have low resistivity. Micro-air bridges can be introduced by omitting the stalk in sections of the interconnect, allowing the interconnect to bridge over obstacles. The mushroom-type micro-air bridge structure can also be modified to create fine-scale fuses that have low resistivity overall and sections of significantly higher resistivity where the micro-air bridges exist. The significantly higher resistivity results in preferential fusing at the micro-air bridges. Both mushroom interconnects and mushroom fuses can be fabricated using electron beam lithography.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Stephen John Holmes
  • Patent number: 10489171
    Abstract: An online system maintains a page of content for a user that includes content provided to the online system by the user. To allow the user to more easily present content items to other online system users, the online system receives an objective specifying a desired interaction by users presented with the content item from the user and generates a set of content items from content included on the page. One or more content items of the set are selected and a budget for presenting the selected one or more content items is received, and the online system includes one or more of the selected content items in selection processes along with bid amounts based on the budget that select content for presentation to other users. The online system may update the selected content items of the set over time as content included on the page is modified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: David Shein, Andy Lien, Camelia Dobrin, David Thomsen, Pelle Elander Wisten, Alexander William Watts, Yujing Zhang, Xiaoyu Guang, Ryan Joseph Moniz, Katherine Nicole Geiger, Meridith Major Blascovich
  • Patent number: 10489507
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes identifying a plurality of dyslexic users on an online social network. The plurality of dyslexic users may be identified based on content objects posted by these users over a particular time period, where the content objects may include one or more of word-level errors or sentence-level errors. A machine-learning model may be trained for text correction using a corpus of social network data, which may include at least the content objects with one or more of word-level errors or sentence-level errors, and a corresponding set of corrected content objects. A text string including one or more errors may be received from a client system associated with a first user. The text string may be transformed into a vector representation using an encoder of the machine-learning model. A corrected text string may be generated from the vector representation using a decoder of the machine-learning model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Xian Li, Irina-Elena Veliche, Debnil Sur, Shaomei Wu, Amit Bahl, Juan Miguel Pino
  • Patent number: 10490699
    Abstract: A micro-LED, ?LED, comprising: a substantially parabolic mesa structure; a light emitting source within the mesa structure; and a primary emission surface on a side of the device opposed to a top of the mesa structure; wherein the mesa structure has an aspect ratio, defined by (H2*H2)/Ac, of less than 0.5, and the ?LED further comprises a reflective surface located in a region from the light emitting source to the primary emission surface, wherein the reflective surface has a roughness, Ra, less than 500 nm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Vincent Brennan, Christopher Percival, Padraig Hughes, Allan Pourchet, Celine Claire Oyer
  • Patent number: 10491410
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from a first group member of a group, a request to initiate a multiplex live communication; receiving, from the first group member, a selection of one or more second group members of the group; by the computer server, sending a notification to each of the selected second group members, the notification comprising an invitation to the selected second group members to join a multiplex live communication with the first group member; receiving, from one or more of the second selected group members, an indication that the respective second selected group member has accepted the invitation to join the multiplex live communication; and adding each second user who has accepted the invitation to the multiplex live communication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Charles Donald Deets, Jr.
  • Patent number: 10488921
    Abstract: A head-mounted display includes an electronic display configured to output image light, an optics assembly configured to direct image light in a first band from the electronic display to an eye box, an eye tracking unit configured to generate eye tracking information, and a pellicle beamsplitter configured to redirect light in a second band reflected from the eye box toward the eye tracking unit and transmit the image light in the first band. The pellicle beamsplitter is positioned along the optical axis between the optics assembly and the electronic display. The pellicle beamsplitter includes a front surface and a back surface. Each of the front surface and the back surface comprising a first radius curvature in a first plane and a second radius curvature in a second plane that is perpendicular to the first plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Andrew John Ouderkirk
  • Patent number: 10491637
    Abstract: An online system reviews various user profiles for compliance with policies enforced by the online system. However, users may attempt to subvert action by the online system by creating additional user profiles for presenting content. Accordingly, the online system generates a graph identifying connections user profiles, content items associated with the user profiles, and objects identified by the content items. User profiles, content items, or objects previously identified to have violated one or more policies enforced by the online system are identified via the graph. The online system computes a profile score for various user profiles based on a probability of reaching an object, user profile, or content item identified as violating a policy through a random walk in the graph. Based on the profile scores, the online system trains to identify user profiles for review against one or more enforced policies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Jiun-Ren Lin, Daniel Olmedilla de la Calle
  • Patent number: 10491652
    Abstract: An online system provides content to a third party system and allows the third party system to customize the content for presentation in conjunction with other content provided by the third party system. The third party system includes instructions in content provided by the third party system that, when executed by a client device, obtains the content from the online system via a frame rendered within the content provided by the third party system. Using layout information included within the content provided by the third party system, the client device presents the content obtained from the online system in conjunction with the content provided by the third party system. Hence, the layout information allows the third party system to specify placement or formatting of the content obtained from the online system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Charles Michael Murphey
  • Patent number: 10490715
    Abstract: Display devices with improved display contrast and methods of manufacturing the display devices. Some embodiments include a method of manufacturing a light emitting diode (LED) array. The method includes forming a first mesa area of a first LED and a second mesa area of a second LED, where a trench is defined between the first and second mesa areas. At least a portion of the trench is filled with a non-transparent or substantially non-transparent polymeric material that absorbs light emitted from the first and second LEDs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Zheng Gong, James Small, James Ronald Bonar
  • Patent number: 10489025
    Abstract: A social networking system allows a user to create an event in the social networking system while viewing a web page from a third-party website from a domain different than the social networking system. A widget or other social plug-in is included in the web page, and user interaction with the widget communicates information from the web page to the social networking system. An event object is created in the social networking system from the information from the web page. The social networking system may perform various actions to increase user interaction with the created event object, such as identifying additional users to invite the event or identifying users attending the event to other users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Srinivas P. Narayanan, Devin James Naquin, Justin Alexander Shaffer
  • Patent number: 10491548
    Abstract: Techniques to configure bot flow are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus may comprise a web application hosting component operative to receive a bot-configuration requests from a web client, the bot-configuration request corresponding to a developer account for a bot system; and provide a web-based application to the web client; and a web application preparation component operative to prepare the web-based application for the web client, the web-based application comprising a message composer interface and a message flow interface, wherein the message flow interface is operative to display branching message flow between a plurality of bot messages configured in the message composer interface. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: FACEBOOK, INC.
    Inventor: Tianyu Xie
  • Patent number: 10484606
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes determining a maximum exposure time and a first candidate exposure time for capturing one or more image frames from a video clip. The first candidate exposure time is based on an amount of motion of the computing device and a light level. If the first candidate exposure time is less than the maximum exposure time, then the method includes capturing the image frames with the first candidate exposure time. If the first candidate exposure time is greater than the maximum exposure time, then the method includes dividing the first candidate exposure time by an integer to determine a second candidate exposure time and capturing the image frames with the second candidate exposure time. A number of image frames equal to the integer are then combined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Alexandre Karpenko
  • Patent number: 10482144
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media are configured to provide a first element in an interface presentable to a user through which a plurality of ephemeral media content items are accessible by the user for a selected period of time. A second element in the interface through which a plurality of non-ephemeral media content items are accessible by the user is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Christine Choi, Nathan Andrew Sharp, William Samuel Bailey, Ashoke K. Chakrabarti, Joshua Barton Dickens, Joy-Vincent Niemantsverdriet
  • Patent number: 10481751
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a base user experience (UX) including a user interface (UI) corresponding to one or more features of a computing system; determining one or more user categories based at least in part on previous interactions with the UI by a number of users; classifying, using a machine-learning algorithm, a particular user into one or more of the user categories based at least in part on current interactions of the particular user with the UI; and determining, relative to the base UX, one or more modifications to the UI based at least in part on the classification of the particular user into one or more of the user categories. The modifications to the UI modify one or more features of the UX. The method also includes applying the modifications to the UI; and providing the UI as modified for display to the particular user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Eyal Michael Sharon, Michael Dudley Johnson
  • Patent number: 10483430
    Abstract: A emitting diode (LED) includes an epitaxial structure defining a base and a mesa on the base. The base defines a light emitting surface of the LED and includes current spreading layer. The mesa includes a thick confinement layer, a light generation area on the thick confinement layer to emit light, a thin confinement layer on the light generation area, and a contact layer on the thin confinement layer, the contact layer defining a top of the mesa. A reflective contact is on the contact layer to reflect a portion of the light emitted from the light generation area, the reflected light being collimated at the mesa and directed through the base to the light emitting surface. In some embodiments, the epitaxial structure grown on a non-transparent substrate. The substrate is removed, or used to form an extended reflector to collimate light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Stephan Lutgen, David Massoubre
  • Patent number: 10482090
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes retrieving a set of comments associated with one or more content objects in a social-networking system, determining a score for each of the comments for a selected one of the content objects, where the score for each of the comments is based on signals associated with the comment, and the signals are related to a history of user interactions by a target user with the comments in the set, ordering the comments for the selected content object based on the respective scores, and presenting the ordered comments to the target user. The content objects may be presented in a newsfeed for the target user. The signals may be based on a history of user interactions by other users with the comments in the set, where the other users are connected to the target user in the social-networking system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Allison Elaine Ball, Kaushik Mohan Iyer, Ashoat Tevosyan, Mikhail I. Okunev
  • Patent number: 10481262
    Abstract: An optical sensor measures displacement of a haptic plate that provides haptic sensation to a user. The optical sensor comprises a light source, a plurality of optical detectors, and a controller. The light source is configured to illuminate a surface of the haptic plate in which a haptic wave propagates causing displacement of portions of the haptic plate in one or more directions. The plurality of optical detectors is configured to detect light reflected from the surface of the haptic plate. At least two optical detectors of the plurality of optical detectors are positioned relative to the light source such that an amount of light received at each of the optical detectors is based at least in part on a direction of displacement of the haptic plate. The controller is configured to monitor the haptic wave using the detected light from the plurality of optical detectors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Riccardo DeSalvo, Ian Andreas Marquez, Jeff Jakkit Ongnok
  • Patent number: 10481687
    Abstract: An eye tracker for determining a position of an eye, which may be integrated into a head-mounted display. The eye tracker includes a waveguide, switchable Bragg gratings (SBGs) that selectively out couple light from the waveguide, light sources coupled to the waveguide, a detector coupled to a return path of the waveguide, and a controller. The controller instructs at least one light source to emit at least one light beam propagating through the waveguide, and activates at least one SBG to out-couple the at least one light beam from the waveguide toward the eye. The waveguide in-couples at least one reflected light signal reflected from the eye that originates from the at least one light beam out-coupled from the waveguide. The detector detects the at least one reflected light signal. The controller determines a position of the eye using the detected at least one reflected light signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Nicholas Daniel Trail
  • Patent number: 10482143
    Abstract: A social networking system recommends objects, such as pages, of the social networking system to users of the social networking system based on the location of the user. The social networking system obtains location information identifying the location of the user. Based on the location of the user, the social networking system identifies levels of geographical partitions encompassing the location of the user. For each level of geographical partitions, the social networking system accesses relevant objects of the social networking system with connections to users located within the level of geographical partitions. The social networking system may have determined a term frequency-inverse document frequency (tf-idf) value for each relevant object. Based on the number of connections and the tf-idf value associated with each relevant object, the social networking system merges the relevant objects accessed at each level into a set of relevant objects to recommend to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Bradley Ray Green, James Wah Hou Wong, Jinyi Yao
  • Patent number: 10484533
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes, during an incoming call from a second user, displaying a notification interface comprising an indication of the incoming call; during the incoming call, detecting a gesture input from the first user; and in response to the detection of the gesture input, transitioning to a messaging interface that includes one or more previous communications between the first user and the second user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Henry Bridge, Francis Luu, Nathan Borror
  • Patent number: 10481321
    Abstract: An augmented-reality system has canted waveguides. The waveguides are canted at a wrap angle and/or a tilt angle. Input couplers to the waveguides are designed differently because of the different cant angles. Having canted waveguides allows waveguides to be formed in glasses and/or sunglass that have a base curvature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Nicholas Daniel Trail, Sharvil Shailesh Talati
  • Patent number: 10482156
    Abstract: A special-purpose, hardware-based accelerator may include an input subsystem configured to receive first and second vectors as operands of a full dot-product operation. The accelerator may also include a sparsity-aware dot-product engine communicatively coupled to the input subsystem and configured to perform adaptive dot-product processing by: (1) identifying, within the first and second vectors, at least one zero-value element and (2) executing, in response to identifying the zero-value element, a reduced dot-product operation that excludes, relative to the full dot-product operation, at least one mathematical operation in which the zero-value element is an operand. The accelerator may also include an output subsystem that is communicatively coupled to the sparsity-aware dot-product engine and configured to send a result of the reduced dot-product operation to a storage subsystem. Various other accelerators, computing systems, and methods are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Abdulkadir Utku Diril, Jong Soo Park, Nadav Rotem, Mikhail Smelyanskiy
  • Patent number: 10484317
    Abstract: Techniques for generating messages to entities referenced in a messaging thread are described. In one embodiment, a method may receive a partial entity-reference invocation in a message thread; suggest one or more entity-reference invocations based on the partial entity-reference invocation; receive a user selection of one of the suggested entity-reference invocations; generate a message to the entity referenced in the selected entity-reference invocation; and send the message to the entity via a messaging system. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: FACEBOOK, INC.
    Inventors: Vinodh Jayaram, Jeremy Olivier Barre, Andrew Cairns Moxon
  • Patent number: 10484499
    Abstract: An online system provides a social networking environment for a set of users, enabling the users to establish connections with and to communicate with each other. Absent explicit connections between a user and an additional user in the set, the online system determines a measure of affinity of the user for the additional user based on an organizational chart for an organization including the set of users that indicates relationships between the users based on their roles in the organization. The measure of affinity may also be based on actions associated with the user and the additional user and characteristics of the user and the additional user. Based on the measure of affinity, the online system determines whether to establish an inferred connection between the user and the additional user. The online system may account for the inferred connection when identifying content for presentation to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Fabio Lopiano
  • Patent number: 10481945
    Abstract: A mobile device and method for management of communication from a mobile device capable of multi-tasking. The method includes capturing a request from at least one application executed on the mobile device for data communication through a network interface of the mobile device; identifying the at least one application by interrogation of an operating system of the mobile device; determining for the identified one application data communication access rights; and autonomously communicating through the network interface for the at least one application and independently communicating with the at least one application without interfering with normal operation of the at least one application, when the data communication access rights require regulating bandwidth usage by the at least one application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: FACEBOOK, INC.
    Inventors: Roi Tiger, Guy Rosen, Yuval Ariav
  • Patent number: 10484489
    Abstract: An online system generates a feed of content for a user that includes content items provided by, or otherwise related to, other users who are connected to the user via the online system. The online system supplements the feed with additional content items that are not related to users who are connected to the user but are likely to be of interest to the user. The additional content items may be associated with users who are connected to additional users who are connected to the user, content items having received a threshold amount of interacting by other users, content items provided by users who provided other content with which the user interacted, or have other characteristics. The additional content items and content items associated with users connected to the user are included in one or more selection processes that generate the feed for the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Khalid Bakry El-Arini, David Vickrey
  • Patent number: 10481699
    Abstract: A system includes a wearable device including sensors arranged at different locations on the wearable device. Each sensor measures electrical signals transmitted from a wrist or arm of a user. A position computation circuit is coupled to the sensors. The position computation circuit computes, using information derived from the electrical signals with a machine learning model, an output that describes a hand position of a hand of the wrist or arm of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Beipeng Mu, Renzo De Nardi, Richard Andrew Newcombe, Raymond King, Evan Paul Gander, Robert Y. Wang
  • Patent number: 10484577
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are techniques for single-panel image display. A display device comprises a two-dimensional pixel array and a control circuit. The two-dimensional pixel array comprises a first region and a second region, each region including two or more lines of pixels. The control circuit is configured to select a first set of one or more lines of pixels in the first region to receive image data for an image frame, and, before selecting a second set of one or more lines of pixels in the first region to receive image data for the same image frame, select a first set of one or more lines of pixels in the second region to receive image data for the same image frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Rui Zhang
  • Patent number: 10481922
    Abstract: A client management server predicts a desired configuration of clients deployed in an enterprise based on various signals. This prediction is a best guess for a desired functionality of the client from a predefined set of possible functionalities (e.g., wayfinding, room management, dashboard, sign-in kiosk, digital sign, and point of sale terminal). Based on this prediction, the client management server facilitates provisioning of the clients with a configuration that supports the predicted functionality. The client management server may populate configuration fields located on an administrator client. An administrator can review the populated configuration fields and confirm that the predicted configuration is correct by sending a confirmation signal back to the central server. Upon receiving confirmation from the administrator client, the central server can provision the client with the predicted configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Oliver Pell, Dmitry Vnukov
  • Patent number: 10484675
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can determine a first position corresponding to a user focal point prior to presenting a given frame of a content item. A landscape representation of the given frame is determined. The landscape representation describes the respective popularity of one or more regions in the frame as a topology. A second position corresponding to the user focal point is determined based at least in part on the landscape representation and the first position. The second position is predicted to be the position of the user focal point when presenting the given frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Chien-Nan Chen
  • Patent number: 10474751
    Abstract: Technology is disclosed for building correction models that correct natural language snippets. Correction models can include rules comprising pairs of word sequences identified from viable correction snippet pairs, where a first sequence of words in the pair should be replaced with a second sequence of words in the pair. Viable correction snippet pairs can be identified from among pairs of language snippets, such as a post to a social media website and a subsequent update to that post. Viable corrections can be the snippet pairs that both have no more unaligned words than a word alignment threshold and have no aligned word pair with a character edit difference above an edit distance threshold. In some implementations, word alignments can be found by aligning all the characters between a pair of language snippets, and identifying aligned words as those that have at least one aligned letter in common.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: FACEBOOK, INC.
    Inventors: Juan Miguel Pino, Matthias Gerhard Eck, Rui Andre Augusto Ferreira
  • Patent number: 10475134
    Abstract: A social networking system presents suggestions to a user of a social networking system to use or install one or more applications accessible in the system. The social networking system offers suggestions by ranking candidate applications for a particular user and selecting applications to recommend based on the rankings. Advertisers associated with some applications may bid to boost the rankings of an application, making it more likely to appear for a given user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Deborah Liu, Nipun Mathur, Jeffrey Andrew Kanter, Vijaye Raji
  • Patent number: 10477266
    Abstract: An online system determines that a mobile device of a user and content device are connected to the same local network. To determine whether the content device is associated with the user, the online system provides a token and network ports to the content device. The content device establishes a connection to the mobile device using a selected network port to send the token. Responsive to receiving the token from the mobile device, the online system determines that the devices are connected to the same local network. The online system may also determine that the devices are within physical proximity to each other. The online system may send content items to the devices, and the user may view or interact with the content items simultaneously on multiple devices. Thus, the mobile device or content device acts as a complementary “second screen” or “control device” for the other device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Aidymar Bigio, Mateusz Marek Niewczas, Amir Shimoni, Tal Gilady
  • Patent number: 10475461
    Abstract: In particular embodiments, one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embody software that is operable when executed to receive an audio waveform fingerprint and a client-determined location from a client device. The received audio waveform fingerprint may be compared to a database of stored audio waveform fingerprints, each stored audio waveform fingerprint associated with an object in an object database. One or more matching audio waveform fingerprints may be found from a comparison set of audio waveform fingerprints obtained from the audio waveform fingerprint database. Location information associated with a location of the client device may be determined, and the location information may be sent to the client device. The client device may be operable to update the client-determined location based at least in part on the location information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew Nicholas Papakipos, David Harry Garcia
  • Patent number: 10476937
    Abstract: Particular embodiments provide a plurality of image elements arranged in a display layout. When user input selecting one of the image elements is received, a first animation sequence for an information panel associated with the selected image element may be displayed, wherein the information panel swings down from a bottom edge of the selected image element. As the information swings down, the selected image element may also be enlarged until it reaches a pre-determined size with respect to a display of the computing device. In response to receiving user input dismissing the selected image element, another animation sequence may shrink the selected image element while showing the information panel swinging up and eventually disappearing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher James Connolly, Thomas Frederick Dimson, Majd Taby, Gregor Hochmuth
  • Patent number: 10475087
    Abstract: A social networking system predicts a life event (e.g., birthday, change in marital status, relationship status, etc.) for a target user based on information associated with the user. The social networking system identifies gift suggestions to provide to one or more friends of the user based on the predicted event. A gift suggestion may include an invitation to purchase or send an item, voucher, or other gift to the target user, wherein the gift may be determined based on information about the target user's interests obtained by the social networking system. The social networking system sends a gift suggestion to one or more friends of the target user, where the gift suggestion identifies the predicted life event and provides the gift suggestion to the target user's friend. The advertisement may require action by multiple of the target user's friends before the gift is sent to the target user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventor: Paul Adams