Abstract: The disclosure is directed to controlling availability of a feature of an application without having to change a code of the application. A gate application employs a “gate” that facilitates making a feature available to a set of users without having to change the code of the application as the set of users to whom the feature is to be made available change. The gate includes parameters and criteria that can determine whether a particular feature of the application, e.g., a photo tagging feature of a social networking application, is to be made available to a particular user. If the request attributes, e.g., attributes associated with a requesting user, satisfy the criteria defined in the gate, the gate indicates to the host application to make the feature available, which then executes a portion of the code corresponding to the particular feature to make the particular feature available to the user.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media configured to determine seed content items based on interests of a user. Candidate content items can be determined for potential presentation to the user based at least in part on the seed content items. Features associated with the candidate content items can be processed to generate probabilities that the user will perform interactions with the candidate content items. Values can be assigned to the candidate content items based on the probabilities that the user will perform interactions with the candidate content items and the importance of the interactions. The values can be provided as bid values to an auction system to determine constraints regarding presentation of the candidate content items. Presentation of the candidate content items can be optimized.

Abstract: Organizing a participant list includes maintaining a participant list of users of an electronic communications system to be used by a first user of the electronic communications system. Communications strengths between the first user and each of the users included in the participant list are determined. The users included in the participant list are organized based on the corresponding communications strengths. Communications strengths may be determined for users included in a group within a participant list, and the users within the group may be organized within the group based on communications strength. An additional group in the participant list in which some or all of the users included in the participant list are organized based on communications strength may be provided.

Abstract: The present disclosure is directed toward systems and methods for interacting with portions of digital video within a social networking system. For example, systems and methods described herein enable a user to select a portion of a digital video and share or like just the portion of the digital video, rather than the entire digital video. The present disclosure is also directed toward systems and methods for identifying viral portions of a digital video within a social networking system. For example, systems and methods described herein analyze social networking activity related to portions of a particular digital video to identify one or more viral portions of the digital video. In response to identifying one or more viral portions, systems and methods provide an indication of, or otherwise share, the one or more viral portions during playback of the digital video.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can transmit at least a media content item to a recipient device. A response can be received from the recipient device. At least the media content item can be obscured to produce an obscured media content item. The response and the obscured media content item can be presented. The response can overlay the obscured media content item.

Abstract: In one embodiment, one or more communications are received by a computing device, where each communication is associated with an application on the computing device. Based on the received communications, a set of interactive elements are determined, each interactive element corresponding to a particular received communication. A subset of the interactive elements are determined based on the application associated with the communication corresponding to the interactive element, or the age of the communication corresponding to the interactive element. The subset of interactive elements is displayed.

Abstract: A system environment supporting one or more advertisers and one or more ad publishers provides a means of sharing user-targeted advertisement. One or more hashing modules in the system environment provide the advertisers and ad publishers a means of sharing this information without revealing a user's personally identifiable information (PII). If a lossy hash is chosen, then an advertiser can communicate targeted advertisements to an ad publisher without revealing any PII to the ad publisher that the ad publisher did not already know.

Abstract: A method of providing display uniformity in a display apparatus comprises retrieving first calibration data representing display characteristics of a display panel of the display apparatus, the first calibration data representing luminance responses or color responses of both left and right panel regions of the display panel when corresponding pixels of both the left and right panel regions are supplied same input image data; receiving stereoscopic image data comprising left and right image data to be supplied to the left and right panel regions; and modifying the received stereoscopic image data in accordance with the first calibration data to display a stereoscopic image with a substantially same luminance response or substantially same color response in both the left panel region and right panel region when the first calibration data indicates discrepancy between the luminance response or color responses between corresponding pixels of the left and right panel regions.

Abstract: A system for calibrating an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display is presented. The calibration system includes a series of photodiodes coupled to at least a portion of illumination elements of the OLED display, a controller, and a driver circuit. The series of photodiodes is configured to measure, for one or more illumination elements, illumination latencies and time delays associated with different brightness levels. The controller obtains, for each illumination element, information about brightness levels associated with image light emitted from that illumination element for at least two consecutive video frames. Based on the measured latencies, the time delays and the information about brightness levels, the controller determines a driving signal for a driver circuit for each illumination element. The driver circuit applies the determined driving signal to that illumination element to calibrate the OLED display.

Abstract: An electronic device is configured to select a first set of one or more distinct wavelengths for tracking a first portable device in communication with the electronic device; and, subsequent to selecting the first set of one or more distinct wavelengths for tracking the first portable device, initiate the first portable device to emit light of the first set of one or more selected wavelengths; receive information identifying one or more respective intensities of light, detected by the one or more optical sensors, for the first set of one or more selected wavelengths; and determine a position of the first portable device based on the information identifying the one or more respective intensities of light, detected by the one or more optical sensors, for the first set of one or more selected wavelengths. A method for determining a position of the first portable device is also described.

Abstract: Instant messaging (IM) entities may be invited to an electronic calendar event using an instant message. Selecting the IM entities as invitees to the event may include dragging and dropping names of the IM entities from a buddy list of an IM application to an event from an electronic calendar application, or vice versa. A method of inviting an entity to a calendar event includes providing a calendar event from a calendar application and recognizing, by the calendar application, an IM entity as an invitee to the event.

Abstract: A beam steering device includes a first active deflector. The first active deflector includes a first substrate with one or more electrodes, a second substrate with one or more electrodes, and liquid crystals located between the first substrate and the second substrate. The second substrate is distinct from the first substrate. The beam steering device also includes a passive deflector positioned parallel to the first active deflector. The passive deflector includes a third substrate, a fourth substrate that is distinct from the third substrate, and liquid crystals located between the third substrate and the fourth substrate. A method for separating zeroth order leakage with the beam steering device is also disclosed.

Abstract: A method for modifying focal length of lenses of a HMD in accordance with a user's eyeglass prescription data and without the user having access to the eyeglass prescription data is disclosed. The method includes receiving an identifier that uniquely represents the user viewing content on the HMD. The method also includes obtaining eyeglass prescription data corresponding to the unique identifier that includes data for correcting eye defects of the user. The data is then applied by modifying optical properties such as focal length of the lenses to provide corrected vision to the user while the user views content on the HMD without the user having to wear prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses.

Abstract: An online system generates a virtual world including objects, representations of users, and locations for presentation to online system users. The virtual world includes a virtual store including a plurality of objects for presentation to a user. To generate the virtual store, the online system retrieves information associated with the user and selects objects for inclusion in the virtual store based on the retrieved information. For example, the online system selects objects in which the user has expressed an interest or objects in which other users connected to the user have expressed an interest. The information associated with the user may also be used to determine positions of the selected object relative to each other or relative to a position of the user in the virtual store. After selecting and positioning the objects, the online system communicates the virtual store to a client device for presentation to the user.

Abstract: The disclosed strap assembly may include an axial strap, connected to a head-mounted display, configured to be worn around the circumference of a user's head in a manner that holds the head-mounted display against the user's face. The axial strap may include a left axial section and a right axial section. The strap assembly may also include an adjustable attachment mechanism configured to removably attach the right axial section to the left axial section at the back of the user's head. Additionally, the strap assembly may include a top strap, configured to be worn along the top of the user's head. The top strap may include (1) a ventral end coupled to a medial section of the head-mounted display and (2) a dorsal end that splits into a left dorsal end and a right dorsal end, each of which couples to the axial strap.

Abstract: A system and method provides dynamically selected media content to someone using an electronic device in a social network environment. Items of media content are selected for the user based on his or her relationships with one or more other users. The user's relationships with other users are reflected in the selected media content and its format. An order is assigned to the items of media content, for example, based on their anticipated importance to the user, and the items of media content are displayed to the user in the assigned order. The user may change the order of the items of media content. The user's interactions with media content available in the social network environment are monitored, and those interactions are used to select additional items of media content for the user.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a computing device receives text input from a user. The computing device determines an action by the user indicated in the text, and at least a part of a phrase in the text that indicates one or more topics associated with the action. The computing device determines whether the at least part of a phrase matches one or more phrases stored in an indexed database. When the at least part of a phrase does not match one or more phrases of the indexed database, then the computing device determines a complete phrase input by the user, and determines one or more topics to be associated with the complete phrase. The computing device stores the complete phrase as an instance of the complete phrase. The computing device determines whether at least a threshold number of instances of the complete phrase has been stored.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes a content provider (e.g., a social-media network) receiving an event notification from a network-operator system (e.g., a cellular-service provider) with which a user has a data account. The event notification may include status information associated with the user's data account. The content provider may receive a content request from a client device of the user. Based on the status information associated with the user's data account, the content provider may determine content to transmit to the client device in response to the content requests. The content provider may then transmit the content to the client device through a network associated with the network-operator system.

Abstract: In a distributed video encoding system, a video is encoded by splitting into video segments and encoding the segments using multiple encoders. Prior to segmenting the video for distributed video encoding, image stabilization is performed on the video. For each frame in the video, a corresponding transform operation is first computed based on an estimated camera movement. Next, the video is segmented into multiple video segments and the corresponding per-frame transform information for the multiple video segments. The video segments are then distributed to multiple processing nodes that perform the image stabilization of the corresponding video segment by applying the corresponding transform. The results from all the stabilized video segments are then stitched back together for further video encoding operation.

Abstract: Some embodiments include a plurality of virtual data warehouses having table link capabilities that are built on top of a data center (e.g., running Apache Hive). Each virtual data warehouse can be modeled as a database and manage data in forms of database tables. The virtual data warehouse can include links which import tables from other virtual data warehouses by reference. Each link may contain partition metadata for the table partitions by dates of the source table and retention metadata to declare the needed retention time period for the partitions of the source table. The links can be dynamic and update when the corresponding source table receives new partitions or drops partitions. When a virtual data warehouse is migrated to another data center, the system can retain necessary table partitions on the current data center based on the partition and retention metadata of the links.

Abstract: A virtual reality (VR) system simulates sounds that a user of the VR system perceives to have originated from sources at desired virtual locations of the VR system. The simulated sounds are generated based on personalized head-related transfer functions (HRTF) of the user that are constructed by applying machine-learned models to a set of anatomical features identified for the user. The set of anatomical features may be identified from images of the user captured by a camera. In one instance, the HRTF is represented as a reduced set of parameters that allow the machine-learned models to capture the variability in HRTF across individual users while being trained in a computationally-efficient manner.

Abstract: A head-mounted display device includes a display and a lens that provides consistent distortion independent of a rotational position of a wearer's eye. The lens includes an optically transparent substrate with first and second lens surfaces. The lens is configured to focus light from a first location of the display on a pupil of the eye in a first rotational position at a first time and focus light from a second location of the display on the pupil of the eye in a second rotational position at a second time. The light from the first location of the display to the pupil of the eye in the first rotational position and the light from the second location of the display to the pupil of the eye in the second rotational position have a same optical path length.

Abstract: A content item is sent for display on client devices of users of an online system. Information indicating that a first user is currently viewing the content item is received from a client device. A second user connected to the first user is identified. The second user is performing a user interaction with the content item while the first user is currently viewing the content item. An emotion associated with the user interaction is determined. A widget identifying the second user and the emotion is sent for display to the client device. The widget is configured to move across the content item displayed on the client device while the first user is currently viewing the content item. Responsive to receiving from the client device a user interaction with the widget, information is sent for display indicating the second user in a field for receiving comments by the first user.

Abstract: An online system receives third party user identifying information. The online system accesses accuracy measures associated with each of a plurality of the user identifying information sets. The online system identifies high accuracy sets of user identifying information that include the one or more types of user identifying information included in the received types of the third party user identifying information. The online system identifies as high confidence matches those local users of the online system having the high accuracy sets of user identifying information that match a corresponding set of third party user identifying information for the plurality of third party users. The online system also identifies as low confidence matches, and identifies as similar matches those of the low confidence matches that have a measure of similarity to one or more of the high confidence matches that is beyond a threshold measure of similarity.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can acquire a video resource at a first level of a tiered architecture. A first video representation can be generated, based on the video resource, at a second level of the tiered architecture. The first video representation can be associated with a first publisher. It can be detected that at least a first post and a second post are utilizing the first video representation. The first post and the second post can be representable at a third level of the tiered architecture and can be initiated by the first publisher. Data analytics for the first video representation can be aggregated based on the first post and the second post.

Abstract: An audio identification system accounts for an audio signal's complexity when generating a test audio fingerprint for identification of the audio signal. In particular, the audio identification system determines a complexity of an audio signal to be fingerprinted. For example, the audio signal's complexity may be determined by performance of an autocorrelation on the audio signal. Based on the determined complexity, the audio identification system determines a length of a sample of the audio signal used to generate a test audio fingerprint. A sample having the length is then obtained and used to generate a test audio fingerprint for the audio signal. The test audio fingerprint may be compared to a set of reference audio fingerprints to identify the audio signal.

Abstract: A face tracking system generates a model for extracting a set of facial anchor points on a face within a portion of a face image based a multiple-level cascade of decision trees. The face tracking system identifies a mesh shape adjusted to an image of a face. For each decision tree, the face tracking system identifies an adjustment vector for the mesh shape relative to the image of the face. For each cascade level, the face tracking system combines the identified adjustment for each decision tree to determine a combined adjustment vector for the cascade level. The face tracking system modifies adjustment of the mesh shape to the face in the image based on the combined adjustment vector. The face tracking system reduces the model to a dictionary and atom weights using a learned dictionary. The model may be more easily transmitted to devices and stored on devices.

Abstract: A kinesthetic sensor measure angular displacement of body parts of users by measuring a density of substances contained in a conduit of the kinesthetic sensor. For example, the kinesthetic sensor measures the density of substance including in a conduit by transmitting a signal into the conduit and measuring the signal after the signal passes through the conduit and one or more substances included in the conduit. Based on the density of the one or more substances included in the conduit from the measured signal, an angular displacement of a user's body part proximate to the kinesthetic sensor is determined. Kinesthetic sensors may use different architectures such as an open-loop, a closed-loop architecture, or an architecture using blood vessels as conduits. Additionally, kinesthetic sensors can be flexible to conform to physical contours of different body parts.

Abstract: In one or more embodiments, one or more systems, methods, and/or processes may utilize a reactive processing system in an augmented reality (AR) system. The AR system may execute program instructions based on a region of an input video signal and produce an output video signal that includes a first output that includes a video effect from the program instructions. The AR system may determine if the region of the input video signal changes. If so, the program instructions may be executed based on the region of the input video signal and a change of the region of the input video and produce the output video signal that includes the second output that includes the video effect. If not, the output video signal that includes the first output that includes the video effect may continue to be produced.

Abstract: A head mounted display (HMD) adjusts the phase of light of a virtual scene using a spatially programmable focusing element. Depths of the virtual scene are approximated to one or more focal surfaces and the shape of the focal surfaces is then adjusted to minimize the distance of the focal surface to features in the virtual scene. The resulting shape of the focal surface is a continuous piecewise smooth three-dimensional curve. A phase function is generated for each focal surface that, when executed by the spatially programmable focusing element, reproduces a focal pattern corresponding to the each focal surface, which bends and shapes the wavefront to produce a focal pattern that conforms to the scene geometry.

Abstract: A proximity sensor system for detecting the presence of an object includes a light emitter configured to project light in a first direction, an optical element configured to steer the light, and a sensor. The optical element has a first surface configured to receive the light from the light emitter and a second surface that is non-parallel to the first surface. The second surface is configured to transmit a first portion of the light in a second direction and internally reflect a second portion of the light from the light emitter. The optical element includes a third surface configured to prevent internal reflection of the second portion of the light by the third surface. The sensor is configured to detect at least a portion of the first portion of the light returned from the object and transmitted through the second surface and the first surface of the optical element.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, at a query field associated with a social network environment, a request from a first user of the social network environment, identifying a first set of objects associated with the online social network matching at least in part the character string of the request, determining a second set of objects based on the first set of objects, wherein each object in the second set of objects is conceptually relevant to at least one of the objects of the first set of objects, and sending, to the query field for display to the first user, the suggested queries responsive to the request, wherein at least one of the suggested queries comprises a references to one of the conceptually relevant objects in the second set of objects.

Abstract: Embodiments are described for dynamically responding to demand for server computing resources. The embodiments can monitor performance of each of multiple computing systems in a data center, identify a particular computing system of the multiple computing systems for allocation of additional computing power, determine availability of an additional power supply to allocate to the identified computing system, and selectively enable or disable a turbo mode of processors associated with the computing devices.

Abstract: The disclosure is directed to storing a data log file (“log”) in a distributed computing system. The log can be stored as a sequence of data records (“records”). A number of writer computers (“writers”) can write to a log, and a number of reader computers (“readers”) can read from the log. A log sequencer computer (“log sequencer”) facilitates storage of the records in data storage nodes of the distributed computing system. When the log sequencer receives a request for appending a record to a log, the log sequencer assigns a sequence number to the record that is unique and increases monotonically within the log. When a reader requests the log, the records can be delivered to the reader in the order of their sequence numbers. Further, since the records are associated with sequence numbers, a reader can seek to arbitrary sequence number within the log.

Abstract: Technology is provided for a component mounting assembly. The component mounting assembly includes a support tray and a drawer positioned on the support tray that is moveable between a first position and a second position. The drawer includes a component mounting panel and at least one sidewall extending orthogonally from the component mounting panel. An elongate handle is pivotably attached to the drawer. The support tray supports the handle in an extended position when the drawer is in the first position, and the handle is movable to a folded position, orthogonal to the extended position, when the drawer is in the second position.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are techniques for face-based user authentication. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a sequence of image frames captured of a face of a subject, and calculating, for each image frame in a set of image frames from the sequence of image frames, a closity value for the image frame based upon a plurality of angles associated with an eye in the image frame. The closity value calculated for the image frame is indicative of a measure of closeness of the eye in the image frame. The method further includes determining a number of eye blinks occurring in the set of image frames based upon the closity values calculated for the set of image frames, determining liveness of the face of the subject based upon the number of eye blinks, and enabling authentication of the subject based upon the liveness determination.

Abstract: A method may comprise receiving a bot creation control directive from a web page; instantiating a page bot from a template; authorizing the page bot to access the contents of the web page; associating the page bot with the web page; and enabling the page bot to respond to messages sent to the web page. The method may further comprise receiving a message at the page bot from a client device; requesting a meaning of the message from a natural language processing component; identifying a field in the web page associated with the page bot according to the meaning of the message; retrieving data from the identified field; composing a message response including the retrieved data; and sending the message response to the client device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: An online system receives user interactions associated with an organization. The system generates news feed stories for a user based on the received interactions, and receives emails for the user. The system ranks the emails based on a significance of the email for the user. The system selects for the user a plurality of feed items, wherein a feed item is either a news feed story or an email. The system ranks the plurality of feed items using a ranking score determined for each feed item. The system presents the plurality of feed items to a user based on their ranking in response to receiving a vertical scroll input from the user. If the system receives a horizontal scroll input from the user, the system selects a subset of the plurality of feed items and presents them to the user in response to subsequent horizontal scroll inputs.

Abstract: An improved lecture support system integrates multi-media presentation materials with spoken content so that the listener can follow with both the speech and the supporting materials that accompany the presentation to provide additional understanding. Computer-based systems and methods are disclosed for translation of a spoken presentation (e.g., a lecture, a video) along with the accompanying presentation materials. The content of the presentation materials can be used to improve presentation translation, as it extracts supportive material from the presentation materials as they relate to the speech.

Abstract: An online social networking system receives user interactions with a content item from client devices of users of the social networking system. A public user interface displaying at least some of the received user interactions with the content item is provided for display on each of the client devices. A request to initiate a private session associated with the content item is received from a client device of a first user. The request identifies a subset of the users including the first user. User interactions with the content item from client devices of the subset of the users are received within the private session. A private user interface for interacting with the content item is provided for display on each of the client devices of the subset of the users. The private user interface displays the user interactions received within the private session.

Abstract: To allow a third party system to more particularly identify sets of users for distributing content, an online system receives data from a third party system identifying users of the online system who have authorized communication with the third party system and stores information authorizing communication between the third party system and the users in user profiles associated with the user. The online system receives a request from the third party system to transmit a notification to online system users satisfying criteria specified by the request. User profiles including information authorizing communication between the third party system and online system users are identified by the online system, which selects a set of the identified user profiles associated with information satisfying the criteria specified by the request. The online system transmits the notification to client devices associated with users associated with the set of the identified user profiles.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from a client system of a first user of an online social network, a request for a user-list including one or more second users of the online social network. The method includes calculating, for each of the second users, a contact-score between the first user and the second user based on social interactions and non-social interactions between the users. The social interactions are interactions on the online social network visible to the first user based on privacy settings associated with the second user and the respective social interaction. The non-social interactions are interactions on a third-party application accessed by the online social network, shared based on a privacy setting associated with the third-party application. The method includes generating the user-list with references to second users having a contact-score above a threshold contact-score. The method includes providing instructions for displaying the user-list.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes a computing device receiving postings from users of an online social networking system. A postings may include location data along with one or more tags that may describe the content of the posting. The computing device may identify regions and subregions from which the postings originated, and may determine a distribution of the tags according to two data dimensions: the ubiquity of the tags across the regions, and the ubiquity of the tags across the subregions. Based on the distribution, the computing device may create a neighborhood characterization to accurately describe one or more subregions. The computing device may also determine applications for the neighborhood characterization.

Abstract: Methods and systems that record the location of a user and transmit targeted content to a user based upon their current and past location information. A network is configured to include a server programmed with a database of targeted content, a database of location information, a database of user information, a database searching algorithm, and a wireless communication system capable of communicating with the user's mobile device. The location of the mobile device is ascertained and recorded. The location information is analyzed to determine the routes taken by the user, businesses visited by the user, and other behaviors of the user. Targeted content is sent to the mobile device of the user or exposure to physical content is tracked. Whether the user visits the physical locations associated with the content is monitored. Detailed conversion tracking is provided to producers of targeted content and business owners.

Abstract: A hybrid speech translation system whereby a wireless-enabled client computing device can, in an offline mode, translate input speech utterances from one language to another locally, and also, in an online mode when there is wireless network connectivity, have a remote computer perform the translation and transmit it back to the client computing device via the wireless network for audible outputting by client computing device. The user of the client computing device can transition between modes or the transition can be automatic based on user preferences or settings. The back-end speech translation server system can adapt the various recognition and translation models used by the client computing device in the offline mode based on analysis of user data over time, to thereby configure the client computing device with scaled-down, yet more efficient and faster, models than the back-end speech translation server system, while still be adapted for the user's domain.