Patents Examined by Cong-Lac Huynh
  • Patent number: 8171388
    Abstract: A network device, system, and method are directed towards detecting trusted reporters and/or abusive users in an online community using reputation event inputs, such as abuse reports. When an abuse report is received for a content item, the combined trust (reputation) of previous reporters on the reported content item and the trust (reputation) of the content author are compared to determine whether to trust the content item. If the content item is un-trusted, the content item may be hidden from public view. In one embodiment, the content item might still be visible to the content author, and/or members in the author's contact list, or the like, while being hidden from another user in the community. In one embodiment, the author may appeal the determined trust, and results of the appeal may be used to modify a trust of at least one reporter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Ori Zaltzman, Quy Dinh Le
  • Patent number: 8166381
    Abstract: A method of managing medical information is disclosed. Medical image data is received, at a real-time transfer engine, at the same time that the patient is being scanned by a medical imaging device. The medical image data is then converted to a browser-compatible image format at a converter engine connected to receive the medical image data from the real-time transfer engine. The converter engine comprises a decoder engine for extracting image pixel data from the medical image data and an encoding engine for converting the image pixel data to a browser-compatible format connected to receive the image pixel data. The image pixel data may be converted to a browser compatible format without loss of diagnostic data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: Heart Imaging Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Robert M. Judd, Enn-Ling Chen, Raymond J. Kim
  • Patent number: 8166382
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a temporarily registered document creating unit configured to create a temporarily registered document in which a document to be registered is temporarily registered; a condition setting unit configured to set a condition used for updating the temporarily registered document to a finally registered document; a condition determining unit configured to determine whether the finally registered document meets the condition set for the temporarily registered document in response to a request for updating the temporarily registered document to the finally registered document; and an updating unit configured to update the temporarily registered document to the finally registered document in accordance with the request if the condition determining unit determines that the finally registered document meets the condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Ken Kuroda
  • Patent number: 8161369
    Abstract: A method and system creates an interactive multimedia document that incorporates references to multimedia files that support a particular logical step or argument presented within the document. The method and system utilizes several modules including a builder module and a presenter module. The references are configured to determine, upon selection, a visual format and a relevant portion of the multimedia file to be displayed. Thus, only one copy of the multimedia file needs to be incorporated into the document. The multimedia files include text documents, portable document files, PowerPoint® presentations, audio files, video files, voice narrated graphics, and other types of files. In some embodiments, the interactive multimedia document is a legal brief and the multimedia files include depositions, supporting case law, evidence, and other materials.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Branchfire, LLC
    Inventors: Ravi K. Bhatt, Daniel E. Winter
  • Patent number: 8156416
    Abstract: A notary processor can be dedicated to performing the security-based variable information printing. A method resolves the availability of resources required by a document template and a security map, replaces the data placeholders with dynamic data, replaces the data placeholders with the dynamic data to produce a complete, printer-ready secure document, sends the document directly to a user-specified, authorized output printing device capable of handling the security features, deletes the dynamic data and the document, and can notify the calling application of the sending of the document to the output device, all automatically and all using the dedicated notary processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2012
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Robert St. Jacques, Jr., Nathaniel G. Martin, Kevin M. Hall
  • Patent number: 8151181
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for determining the layout of a form automatically to accommodate text in the form. Under the method and apparatus, a set of parameters define the sizing and alignment of elements of the form. Sizing and positioning instructions that are separate from the sizing and alignment parameters set the sizing and positioning of elements of the form based on the sizing and alignment parameters. The instructions determine the minimum size for the form, based in part on text in the form. The difference between the minimum size for the form and a desired size for the form is then distributed across the form to size and position the elements in the form.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: Jowtiff Bros. A.B., LLC
    Inventors: Nicholas James Thomson, Dmitri Davydok, Anthony Lee, Ian Carl Legler
  • Patent number: 8140953
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus provide for a media tagger that obtains a media project defined according to a native representation. The media project is made up of project objects and the native representation describes each project object's context within the media project. The media tagger receives an exportable media object, encoded according to an output format, which can include logical contributions from the project object(s). The media tagger tags the exportable media object and stores the exportable media object in a media catalogue. The media tagger acknowledges the selection of a desired output format to create a formatted media project based on the native representation of the media project. Upon validating that the exportable media object in the media catalogue can be used to build the formatted media project, the media tagger exports the exportable media object from the media catalogue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventor: Dale Matthew Weaver
  • Patent number: 8136034
    Abstract: A system and method are provided for analyzing elements of text for comparative purposes. Text is provided to the system in an electronic format readable by the system. The system divides the text data into scenes, which may then be compared against a range of various values across a database of scenes from different texts. Data from one text can be used to identify other texts with similar styles, or identify texts with different styles, and to rank those differences on a spectrum. The system may use data from one text to identify other texts that a user may like, and present information about the text to the user in various forms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2012
    Inventors: Aaron Stanton, Brandon Zehm, Paul Kreiner
  • Patent number: 8122335
    Abstract: A method (100) of generating an ordered sequence of items from a collection of items, at least one of the items of the collection having at least two annotations, is disclosed. The method (100) selects one or more of the annotations and forms a first plurality of groups of items from the collection of items, each item in a group having one or more of the selected annotations in common. The method (100) selects a second plurality of the groups of items to form a sequence of groups, each group in the sequence comprising an item having at least one annotation in common with an item of at least one adjacent group of the sequence. The items are ordered within each of the selected groups of the sequence based on the selected annotations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Jonathan Anthony Duhig, Myriam Elisa Lucie Amielh
  • Patent number: 8122347
    Abstract: A document editing support device includes: an object obtaining unit that obtains at least one object as data representing at least one of a text and an image included in a document as a target to be edited; a split ratio storage unit that stores a predetermined split ratio; a reference line setting unit that extracts two lines from at least one of a circumscribed polygon and a boundary and sets the extracted lines as reference lines, the circumscribed polygon being of an object other than a target object, a location of which is to be determined relative to at least one object obtained by the object obtaining unit, and the boundary being of a layout area where objects are to be located in the document; a virtual line generation unit that generates a virtual line that splits an interval between the two reference lines set by the reference line setting unit, at a split ratio stored in the split ratio storage unit; and a location unit that determines a location of the target object, the location of which is to b
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hitoshi Yamakado, Yu Gu, Atsushi Nagahara
  • Patent number: 8122350
    Abstract: Modular content framework and document format methods and systems are described. The described framework and format define a set of building blocks for composing, packaging, distributing, and rendering document-centered content. These building blocks define a platform-independent framework for document formats that enable software and hardware systems to generate, exchange, and display documents reliably and consistently. The framework and format have been designed in a flexible and extensible fashion. In addition to this general framework and format, a particular format, known as the reach package format, is defined using the general framework. The reach package format is a format for storing paginated documents. The contents of a reach package can be displayed or printed with full fidelity among devices and applications in a wide range of environments and across a wide range of scenarios.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Andrey Shur, Daniel F. Emerson, David Ornstein, Joseph King, Oliver H. Foehr, Wei Zhu, Jerry Dunietz, Sriram Subramanian
  • Patent number: 8117541
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and apparatuses configured to receive or retrieve markup data associated with a message formatted for two-dimensional (2D) rendering, virtually render, by a first rendering module, the message in a non-displayed image in accordance with the markup data, and render, by a second rendering module, a three-dimensional (3D) object in a 2D display environment including texturing the non-displayed image on a surface of the 3D object in order to render the message. Other embodiments are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: WildTangent, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Sandige, Gary W. Hinger, II
  • Patent number: 8117527
    Abstract: Sets of electronic pages (120) are typically obtained for processing with a defined order, such as a reader order, and can be referenced by a page index (131) corresponding to the defined order of the page set (130). However, a page index (131) may not correspond to the folio values represented in the page content, which describe a user's intended reference to the page (120). This invention provides a method for examining information associated with the set of pages to identify folio schemes (201) and corresponding folio values (203) which can be associated with pages (120) of the page set (130) to provide a more user-centric reference mechanism to the pages (120).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Geoffrey W. Huenemann, John H. Klippenstein
  • Patent number: 8117535
    Abstract: A dynamic foldering system automatically manages the creation and deletion of run-time dynamic folders and selection of documents, items, or object graphs found in the run-time dynamic folders. The system comprises a query/predicate for a design-time folder group based on which dynamic folders are automatically managed, a variable binding mechanism, automatic identifications of dynamic folders containing a particular object, parallel navigation, and customized combination of foldering results. The dynamic folder hierarchy is defined by a hierarchy of design-time folder groups defined by a query/predicate on a document comprising structured or semi-structured data. Modifiable criteria for creating the dynamic folder hierarchy are provided by the user. Variable binding provides powerful query/predicate definitions on hierarchical data or graph-structured data. Given a document, the system automatically identifies which dynamic folders contain the document.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin Scott Beyer, Hui-I Hsiao, Joshua Wai-Ho Hui, Ning Li
  • Patent number: 8103947
    Abstract: A collaborative system and method are used to capture, organize, share and preserve life stories. Life stories can be expressed in first person or third person. In either case, the process of developing the life stories is carried out with collaboration with and contributions from other users. The collaboration among the users is desirable because it serves to encourage and prompt users to record their life stories and also increases the relevance of the recorded life stories, so that an online community of users containing highly relevant and meaningful content, that is also relatively permanent in nature, about the users can be created.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2012
    Assignee: Timecove Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher Lunt, Andrew Halliday
  • Patent number: 8091017
    Abstract: An expansion of the construction and organization of the electronic literary macramé (ELM), the knowledge transfer tool (KTT), or any document of similar type to enrich the connections and associations for their readers, providing for manual author- or editor-defined links and directives for hypertext handling and navigation, easy-to-use indexing capabilities, structuring and presentation of information in a visually-organized form such as a table, list, matrix, tree, pyramid, or other two-dimensional arrangement, with all features integrated into an unobtrusive, and enriched referencing mechanism to assist authors, editors and readers of an ELM, KTT, or other electronic document of similar type.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2012
    Inventor: Dana W. Paxson
  • Patent number: 8078956
    Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for creating a second form based on a first form where the first and second forms are defined in extended markup language (XML). In use, a first form is identified. Additionally, a second form is created based on the first form. Farther, the first form and the second form are defined in XML.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Amdocs Software Systems Limited
    Inventors: Samuel Feldman, Michelle Brodale, Steve Farrell
  • Patent number: 8078964
    Abstract: A system and method is described for reconstituting a tag-delimited table structure into a file editable by a graphics editing application, the tag-delimited table structure defining an assembly of visible content, the method comprising parsing the tag-delimited table structure into a plurality of cells, generating a slice region within the file of the graphics editing application corresponding to each of said plurality of cells, calculating a cell boundary for each of the plurality of cells, setting a slice boundary according to the calculated cell boundary, and assembling the visible content into the associated slice regions in the file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventors: Michael Thrall, Brian Edgin
  • Patent number: 8078951
    Abstract: A storage medium and computer that determine a tree representing links embedded in documents, create a depth indicator having a size proportional to the size of the tree, and display the depth indicator with a root link in a root document. The tree is determined by repeatedly probing the links to retrieve the documents. In various embodiments, the size of the tree may be the number of levels in the tree or the number of links in the tree. The depth indicator may include representations of the links and represents a possible future context of the root document. In various embodiments, a graphical representation of the tree may be displayed, hover help that includes the tree size may be displayed, and an indication of a condition reported by a document may be displayed. In various embodiments, the condition may include a message, updated content, new content, or an error.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gregory Richard Hintermeister, Michael D. Rahn
  • Patent number: 8069412
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for mapping facilities data. A graphical mapping of facilities information, overlaid onto a map of roads, is generated and displayed. An outer perimeter of a geographic area is defined, and the outer perimeter is displayed in the graphical mapping. A bill of materials that corresponds to the outer perimeter is then generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2011
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Deborah F. Bankston, M. W. Rick Vinson