Patents Examined by Donald Sparks
  • Patent number: 7849044
    Abstract: A system and method for automatic task prioritization comprises one or more task queues, a monitoring module, and a decision engine. The decision engine receives tasks and assigns a priority code to each task. Each task is inserted into one of the task queues according to its priority code and the priority codes of other tasks which may be present in the task queues. Agents select tasks to perform from the task queue according to priority guidelines established by a system user. The monitoring module may monitor the order of the tasks selected by the agents and each task's priority code. The monitoring module feeds this information back to the decision module. In one embodiment, the decision module is a learning system that updates stored data using feedback from the monitoring module to determine priority of each task.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Yoram Nelken
  • Patent number: 7849029
    Abstract: A system and method for protecting identity fraud are disclosed. A system includes a detection subsystem to identify applications and/or accounts at risk of identity fraud, and a disposition subsystem to process data provided by the detection system and to determine whether identity fraud exists in the applications and/or accounts. According to an implementation, one or more neural network models are defined, each neural network model being configured to handle a class of cases related to the subject and a specific data configuration describing a case of the class. The one or more neural network models are run to generate data requests about the subject's identity, and the data requests are passed to a detection system that monitor transactions associated with the subject. Additional data associated with the transactions is requested until a threshold certainty is achieved or until available data or models are exhausted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Assignee: Fair Isaac Corporation
    Inventors: Theodore J. Crooks, Uwe F. Mayer, Michael A. Lazarus
  • Patent number: 7844557
    Abstract: A computerized method of representing a dataset with a taxonomy includes representing a plurality of records within a dataset as a plurality of clusters in an initial taxonomy layer; generating a hierarchy of cluster sets based on clusters within the initial taxonomy layer, wherein the structure of the hierarchy is independent of the order of the records within the dataset; and labeling clusters within the hierarchy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignees: Sony Corporation, Sony Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Chiranjit Acharya, Tsunayuki Ohwa, Mark Plutowski, Takashi Usuki
  • Patent number: 7844559
    Abstract: A method for constructing a process performance prediction model for a material processing system, the method including the steps of: recording tool data for a plurality of observations during a process in a process tool, the tool data comprises a plurality of tool data parameters; recording process performance data for the plurality of observations during the process in the process tool, the process performance data comprises one or more process performance parameters; performing a partial least squares analysis using the tool data and the process performance data; and computing correlation data from the partial least squares analysis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Hieu A. Lam, Hongyu Yue, John Shriner
  • Patent number: 7840506
    Abstract: In various embodiments, geodesic mining systems and methods are disclosed. For example, a method for forming and adapting a geodesic adaptive network may include embedding a set of rules into a two-dimensional adaptive network having N-rows and M-columns with rule independent variables embedded in a first column of the two-dimensional adaptive network and rule dependent variables embedded in the last column of the two-dimensional adaptive network, where N and M are positive integers greater than two, and repetitively selecting a pair of rows of the two-dimensional adaptive network having common dependent attributes using a random process, then adapting the two-dimensional adaptive network based on the selected pair of rows.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Stuart Harvey Rubin
  • Patent number: 7840504
    Abstract: A Learning Enhanced Simulated Annealing (LESA) method is provided. Based on a Simulated Annealing (SA) framework, this method adds a Knowledge Base (KB) initialized at the beginning of the search and updated at each iteration, which memorizes a portion of the search history and guides the further search through a KB trial generator. The basic idea of LESA is that its search history is stored in a KB, and a KB trial generator extracts information from it and uses it to generate a new trial. The next move of the search is the weighted sum of the trial generated by the KB trial generator and the trial generated by the usual SA trial generator. The knowledge base is then updated after each search iteration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Shaohua Sun, Feng Zhuge, Sandy A. Napel
  • Patent number: 7840510
    Abstract: An apparatus, and a method, comprising: computing a measure of goodness for each of at least two dimensions of a system linked to a first state of the system and a second state of the system; computing a weighting for each of at least two dimensions linked to a studied system, the weightings describing the differences of said at least two dimensions in relation to said first state and said second state; and inferring the state of the studied system based on said measures of goodness and said weightings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus
    Inventors: Juha Koikkalainen, Jyrki Lötjönen
  • Patent number: 7840500
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a control system, method and computer program product to control a process having a large dead time. An exemplary process controllable by embodiments according to the invention is the glass manufacturing process, where fuzzy logic is used to control a level of molten and melting raw materials in a furnace during a glass-manufacturing process by controlling the rate at which raw materials enter the furnace.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: Corning Incorporated
    Inventor: Maryam Khanbaghi
  • Patent number: 7840522
    Abstract: A method and system for rank aggregation of entities based on supervised learning is provided. A rank aggregation system provides an order-based aggregation of rankings of entities by learning weights within an optimization framework for combining the rankings of the entities using labeled training data and the ordering of the individual rankings. The rank aggregation system is provided with multiple rankings of entities. The rank aggregation system is also provided with training data that indicates the relative ranking of pairs of entities. The rank aggregation system then learns weights for each of the ranking sources by attempting to optimize the difference between the relative rankings of pairs of entities using the weights and the relative rankings of pairs of entities of the training data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Tie-Yan Liu, Hang Li, Yu-Ting Liu
  • Patent number: 7840508
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes a storage unit configured to store a node holding dynamics; an input-weight-coefficient adjuster configured to adjust input-weight coefficients on a dimension-by-dimension basis, the input-weight coefficients being weight coefficients for individual dimensions of input data input to input units of the node, the input data being observed time-series data having a plurality of dimensions; and an output-weight-coefficient adjuster configured to adjust output-weight coefficients on a dimension-by-dimension basis, the output-weight coefficients being weight coefficients for individual dimensions of output data having a plurality of dimensions and output from output units of the node.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yukiko Yoshiike, Masato Ito, Katsuki Minamino, Hirotaka Suzuki, Kenta Kawamoto
  • Patent number: 7840515
    Abstract: The intelligent, automated surveillance system collects the interactions between the security personal and the surveillance system during the handling of an alarm. Each alarm is modeled as a “transaction” and each operation/action that a security personal executes modeled as an “event” within the transaction. The collected events within the transaction are in partial order. Furthermore, the system provides a scoring system for a security manager to evaluate the performance of the security guard. The score of the sequence of actions that the security guard performed manually and the system performed automatically for each set of dependent alarms are used to decide future sequence of operation. Security guards can overwrite the automatic sequencing of actions with manual sequence of operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Hasan Timucin Ozdemir, Kuo Chu Lee, Hongbing Li, Lipin Liu
  • Patent number: 7840514
    Abstract: A secure virtual private network (VPN) is described herein. The secure VPN implements standard VPN software with diagnostics to ensure a client device coupling to the VPN is secure. The diagnostics include a policy, a library and an engine where the policy determines what the requirements are for permitting the client device to couple to the VPN. The library stores programs for checking if the client device has any problems. The engine gathers information related to the client device and executes the programs stored within the library. When a user attempts to couple to the VPN with a client device, the server initiates the policy, library and engine to check for issues, and then the user is informed of the issues and/or a mechanism automatically fixes the issues. After the client device is verified as secure, it is able to couple to the VPN for data transfers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: Maxsp Corporation
    Inventor: Robert O. Keith, Jr.
  • Patent number: 7840517
    Abstract: A performance evaluating apparatus for a rule is provided, which is capable of evaluating a business value of a rule applied to the operation and management of an information system through autonomous control. The performance evaluating apparatus for a rule collects, respectively before activation processing that is prescribed by a rule and after completion of the execution of the processing, a rule execution history and a system state information indicating a state of a monitored information system that is necessary for calculation of the business value. The business value is calculated from the collected system state information and rule execution history by a given calculation formula.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tomohiro Morimura, Yoshimasa Masuoka
  • Patent number: 7836004
    Abstract: Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for using a data mining algorithm to discover data rules. A data set including multiple records is processed to generate data rules for the data set. Each record has a record format including a plurality of fields and each rule provides a predicted condition for one field based on at least one predictor condition in at least one other field. The generated data rules are provided to a user interface to enable a user to edit the generated data rules. The data rules are stored in a rule repository to be available to use to validate data sets having the record format.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mary Ann Roth, Blayne Harold Chard, Yannick Saillet, Harald Clyde Smith
  • Patent number: 7835998
    Abstract: A method of selecting and presenting content on a first system based on user preferences learned on a second system is provided. The method includes receiving a user's input for identifying items of the second content system and, in response thereto, presenting a subset of items of the second content system and receiving the user's selection actions thereof. The method includes analyzing the selected items to learn the user's content preferences for the content of the second content system and determining a relationship between the content of the first and second content systems to determine preferences relevant to items of the first content system. The method includes, in response subsequent user input for items of the first content system, selecting and ordering a collection of items of the first content system based on the user's learned content preferences determined to be relevant to the items of the first content system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Assignee: Veveo, Inc.
    Inventors: Murali Aravamudan, Ajit Rajasekharan, Kajamalai G. Ramakrishnan
  • Patent number: 7831419
    Abstract: A method for designing a fixed cutter drill bit, includes simulating the fixed cutter drill bit drilling in an earth formation, determining radial and circumferential components of imbalance forces on the drill bit and a Beta angle between the radial and circumferential components of the imbalance forces during a period of simulated drilling, and adjusting a value of at least one design parameter for the fixed cutter drill bit at least based upon the Beta angle. To facilitate drill bit design, the Beta angel can be displayed to a drill bit designer. To improve performance, the method can include repeating the simulating, determining, and adjusting to change a simulated performance of the fixed cutter drill bit. A drill bit may be made according to the design resulting from the method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2010
    Assignee: Smith International, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Thomas Cariveau, Bala Durairajan, Sujian Huang
  • Patent number: 7831532
    Abstract: A system that facilitates analyzing time-related data comprises an interface component that receives a packet of information that includes a plurality of predictions and timing information associated therewith. A time-analysis component communicatively coupled to the interface component compares the timing information associated with the plurality of predictions with a current time and makes a determination relating to output of at least one of the plurality of predictions based at least in part upon the comparison.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Eric J. Horvitz
  • Patent number: 7831529
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a system and methodology to facilitate multiattribute adjustments and control associated with messages and other communications and informational items that are directed to a user via automated systems. An interface, specification language, and controls are provided for defining a plurality of variously configured groups that may attempt to communicate respective items. Controls include the specification of priorities and preferences as well as the modification of priorities and preferences that have been learned from training sets via machine learning methods. The system provides both a means for assessing parameters used in the control of messaging and communications and for the inspection and modification of parameters that have been learned autonomously.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Eric J. Horvitz, Carl M. Kadie
  • Patent number: 7831537
    Abstract: System, method, and program storage device for adaptive generation of problem determination decision procedures are provided. The decision procedures may be used, for example, for isolating problems and determining solutions to the problems in complex systems, such as IT systems and consumer electronics products. In one aspect, an optimal decision procedure is generated from an universal representation of system states and actions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Genady Grabarnik, Sidney L. Hantler, Dimitri Kanevsky
  • Patent number: 7827129
    Abstract: A crystal lookup table used to define a matching relationship between a signal position of a detected event in a PET scanner and a corresponding detector pixel location is generated using a neural network-based algorithm, and is implemented by a FPGA.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2010
    Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Dongming Hu, Blake Atkins, Mark W. Lenox