Patents Examined by Paul C McCord
  • Patent number: 12219328
    Abstract: A computing device capable of controlling a networked media playback system receives data identifying a first zone player, a second zone player, and a zone scene including a predefined grouping of zone players including at least the first zone player and the second zone player. The computing device displays a representation of available zone players in the networked media playback system including a first selectable indication of the first zone player, a second selectable indication of the second zone player, and a third selectable indication of the zone scene that, when selected, causes the zone scene to be invoked such that the predefined grouping of zone players becomes configured for synchronous playback of media. While displaying the representation, the computing device receives a user input indicating that the zone scene has been selected to be invoked. Based on the user input, the computing device causes the zone scene to be invoked.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2025
    Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert A. Lambourne
  • Patent number: 12210845
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided that train a machine-learned language encoding model through the use of a contrastive learning task. In particular, the present disclosure describes a contrastive learning task where the encoder learns to distinguish input tokens from plausible alternatives. In some implementations, on each training example the proposed method masks out some subset (e.g., 15%) of the original input tokens, replaces the masked tokens with samples from a “generator” (e.g., which may be a small masked language model), and then trains the encoder to predict whether each token comes from the original data or is a replacement produced by the generator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2024
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2025
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Thang Minh Luong, Quoc V. Le, Kevin Stefan Clark
  • Patent number: 12204816
    Abstract: An input at a physical interface of a first playback device is detected. The input may indicate a playback command. Via the first playback device, the second playback device is determined to be currently playing media content. Based on determining that the second playback device is currently playing media content and based on receiving the input at the physical interface, the first playback device is caused to play the media content synchronously with the second playback device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2023
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2025
    Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Morganstern, Alec Ferguson
  • Patent number: 12190013
    Abstract: Computer game sound effects (SFX) are provided to customers in a container that includes not only the audio file (such as a .wav file) of the SFX but also the information underlying the SFX, so that the customer can alter the SFX at run time or offline without having to purchase a new sound or go back to the sound provider to ask them to make the desired changes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2025
    Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC
    Inventor: Simon Ashby
  • Patent number: 12182516
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a computer-implemented method, a device, and a computer program product. The method includes extracting respective themes of a set of documents with release time within a first period; determining respective semantic information of the themes and frequencies of the themes appearing in the set of documents; and determining the number of documents associated with the themes within a second period according to a prediction model and based on the semantic information and frequencies of the themes. The second period is after the first period. Embodiments of the present disclosure can better predict the tendency of the themes appearing in the future based on the semantic information and frequencies of the themes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2024
    Assignee: EMC IP Holding Company LLC
    Inventors: Zijia Wang, Jiacheng Ni, Zhen Jia
  • Patent number: 12175384
    Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for performing artificial intelligence-based video question answering. A video parser parses an input video data sequence to generate situation data structure(s), each situation data structure comprising data elements corresponding to entities, and first relationships between entities, identified by the video parser as present in images of the input video data sequence. First machine learning computer model(s) operate on the situation data structure(s) to predict second relationship(s) between the situation data structure(s). Second machine learning computer model(s) execute on a received input question to predict an executable program to execute to answer the received question. The program is executed on the situation data structure(s) and predicted second relationship(s). An answer to the question is output based on results of executing the program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Bo Wu, Chuang Gan, Dakuo Wang, Zhenfang Chen
  • Patent number: 12175157
    Abstract: Example systems and techniques disclosed herein facilitate interoperability between different media playback systems referred to herein as a virtual line-in (VLI) media playback system and a native playback system. When a VLI session is created by a VLI sender, a first native playback device can join a VLI group as a VLI receiver. As a VLI receiver, the first native playback device receives audio content and playback commands from the VLI sender to facilitate synchronous playback with other VLI receivers. At the same time, this native playback device can concurrently operate as a native domain group coordinator of a native domain synchrony group. As the native domain group coordinator, the native playback device translates VLI domain audio, control, and timing signals into the native domain and distributes such signals to native domain group members. In this way, the native domain group members can synchronize their playback with the VLI group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
    Inventors: Arthur L. Coburn, IV, Chris Kotowski, Arvin Faruque
  • Patent number: 12175967
    Abstract: Touch-free, voice-assistant, and/or tracking systems and methods are described for automating inventory generation and tracking of childcare products. In various aspects, the touch-free, voice-assistant, and/or tracking systems and methods comprise receiving, by one or more processors, one or more name values corresponding to one or more children of a childcare program associated with at least one physical childcare location. A childcare product inventory, comprising a childcare product of at least one product type, is generated based on a count of the one or more name values. Child event data is received comprising information related to use of the childcare product. The child event data is based on audible input of a user as received via a voice command interface of a voice-assistant application (app) as implemented on a voice assistance device. The childcare product inventory may be updated based on the child event data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2024
    Assignee: The Procter & Gamble Company
    Inventor: Brad S. Hoekzema
  • Patent number: 12167216
    Abstract: Technology for grouping, consolidating, and pairing individual playback devices with network capability (players) to stimulate a multi-channel listening environment is disclosed. An example method includes receiving an audio signal containing a range of audio frequencies; amplifying, according to a gain parameter, the audio signal to be reproduced by at least one speaker. The example method includes automatically increasing the gain parameter to a higher gain parameter responsive to a determination that no more than a subset of the range of audio frequencies is to be reproduced by the at least one speaker. The example method includes amplifying, according to the higher gain parameter, the audio signal containing no more than the subset of the range of audio frequencies to be reproduced by the at least one speaker.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2024
    Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Kallai, Michael Darrell Andrew Ericson, Robert A. Lambourne, Robert Reimann, Mark Triplett
  • Patent number: 12164834
    Abstract: An example method involves causing a control device to display a graphical user interface that comprises an indication of a first zone of a media playback system, wherein the media playback system comprises the first zone and a second zone, and wherein the graphical user interface does not comprise an indication of the second zone. The example method further involves detecting, by the control device, an input that indicates a command to cause the first zone to form a zone group with the second zone and play back a target media in synchrony with the second zone. The method further comprises, based on the detected input, causing the first zone to form a zone group with the second zone and play back the target media in synchrony with the second zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2024
    Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
    Inventor: Mark W. Triplett
  • Patent number: 12164468
    Abstract: A podcast creation and publishing method for execution by a computer system that includes defining, via a graphical user interface, a transitional relationship between at least two media events of a plurality of media events, where a first media event and a second media event at least partially overlap. The method further includes updating corresponding metadata associated with the first and second media events to include the transitional relationship. The method further includes selecting, from a drop down menu displayed on the graphical user interface, an option to generate a podcast from the plurality of media events. The method further includes generating the podcast from the plurality of media events by retrieving the plurality of media events from the media event database along with the metadata, converting the plurality of media events and the metadata into a common format to produce the podcast, and distributing the podcast over a network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2024
    Assignee: Heart Media Management Services, Inc.
    Inventors: David C. Jellison, Jr., Shawn Coffman, Dustin Bond
  • Patent number: 12164877
    Abstract: Techniques for interacting with users in a discussion environment are disclosed. Upon identifying a question in the discussion environment, a system determines: (a) whether a stored answer has already been associated with the question, (b) whether an answer can be generated by the system using existing information accessible to the system, or (c) whether to contact an expert to answer the question. The system updates the knowledge base by storing the questions and answers, along with user feedback to the questions and answers. Based on the user feedback, the system determines whether to modify existing answers to user-generated questions or to seek answers from additional human experts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2024
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Oleg Gennadievich Shevelev, Alberto Polleri, Marc Michiel Bron
  • Patent number: 12164873
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, identifying an entity of a natural language question, locating a node of a knowledge graph corresponding to the entity, and generating a candidate answer set including a group of other entities located a predetermined proximity to the node. Contextual information for the group of other entities is determined from the knowledge graph, and the natural language question and contextual information are separately encoded to obtain separate encoded vectorial representations of the natural language question and members of the candidate answer set. The encoding uses pre-trained language model embeddings obtained via a bidirectional encoder representations from transformer encoding process. The encoded vectorial representations of the question under an influence of aspects of the contextual information are scored and a member of the candidate answer set selected according to the score to obtain an answer to the original question.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2024
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Sai Sharath Japa, Roderic William Paulk, Joseph Samuel Miller, Lal Payyappilly Paul
  • Patent number: 12147774
    Abstract: A method includes: receiving, by a computer device, a user question; extracting, by the computer device and from a knowledge base, multiple answers to the user question; detecting, by the computer device, a first relationship entity that exists in a subset of the multiple answers to the user question; determining, by the computer device, that the first relationship entity is a condition, the condition being a relationship entity that has different values in the subset of the multiple answers; generating, by the computer device, a first follow-up question that solicits a value of the condition; receiving, by the computer device, an answer to the first follow-up question; and determining, by the computer device, a number of the subset of the multiple answers that have a value of the condition that matches the answer to the first follow-up question.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2024
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: De Shuo Kong, Zheng Jie, Hai Bo Zou, Yao Chen, Hai Ji
  • Patent number: 12126934
    Abstract: This technology is to enable high quality audio reproduction on the reception side without supplying a transmission clock using a clock signal line from the reception side to the transmission side. The transmission apparatus receives encoded data capable of clock recovery from a reception apparatus (external device), generates an audio clock on the basis of a carrier clock recovered from the encoded data, and transmits audio data to the reception apparatus in synchronization with the audio clock. The reception apparatus transmits the encoded data capable of clock recovery to the external device in synchronization with the carrier clock generated on the basis of an self-generating audio clock, receives the audio data from the transmission apparatus (external device), and processes the audio data on the basis of the self-generating audio clock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2024
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazuaki Toba, Toshihisa Hyakudai
  • Patent number: 12120458
    Abstract: A process includes receiving, from a user identity, instructions for output characteristics including one or more of audio characteristics for rendering or capturing audio data or visual characteristics for rendering or capturing visual data. The process also includes determining, in response to the received instructions, output controls which effect the one or more of audio characteristics or visual characteristics, and associating the output controls with an online identity or resource. The process further includes storing the associated output controls and detecting an interaction with the online identity or resource. Moreover, the process includes accessing, in response to the detection of the interaction, the stored output controls, and enabling an effect, based on the output controls, of one or more of the audio characteristics or the visual characteristics with respect to interaction with the online identity or resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2024
    Assignee: Yahoo Ad Tech LLC
    Inventors: Alexander Franco, David S. Bill
  • Patent number: 12106740
    Abstract: Devices, systems, and methods related to implementing supervised metric learning during a training of a deep neural network model are disclosed herein. In examples, audio input may be received, where the audio input includes a plurality of song fragments from a plurality of songs. For each song fragment, an aligning function may be performed to center the song fragment based on determined beat information, thereby creating a plurality of aligned song fragments. For each song fragment of the plurality of song fragments, an embedding vector may be obtained from the deep neural network. Thus, a batch of aligned song fragments from the plurality of aligned song fragments may be selected, such that a training tuple may be selected. A loss metric may be generated based on the selected training tuple and one or more weights of the deep neural network model may be updated based on the loss metric.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2024
    Assignee: Lemon Inc.
    Inventors: Ju-Chiang Wang, Jordan Smith, Wei Tsung Lu
  • Patent number: 12100400
    Abstract: A method for controlling a wearable device includes: acquiring voice information collected by an acoustoelectric element and vibration information collected by a vibration sensor, in which the acoustoelectric element and the vibration sensor are included in the wearable device; determining a voice command based on the voice information; determining identity information of the voice command based on the voice information and the vibration information; and executing or ignoring the voice command based on the identity information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2024
    Assignee: GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.
    Inventor: Xin Yang
  • Patent number: 12101136
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for gathering research data indicating exposure to media are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a first wireless receiver to access a first modulated audio signal via a wireless data connection from a media device using a wireless communication protocol, the first modulated audio signal associated with the media, the first wireless receiver to output a baseband audio signal corresponding to the first modulated audio signal. The example apparatus includes a first wireless transmitter to modulate the baseband audio signal to form a second modulated audio signal, the first wireless transmitter to transmit the second modulated audio signal to wireless headphones using the wireless communication protocol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2023
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2024
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: William K. Krug, James Zhang
  • Patent number: 12058501
    Abstract: An apparatus for generating a description of a combined audio scene, includes: an input interface for receiving a first description of a first scene in a first format and a second description of a second scene in a second format, wherein the second format is different from the first format; a format converter for converting the first description into a common format and for converting the second description into the common format, when the second format is different from the common format; and a format combiner for combining the first description in the common format and the second description in the common format to obtain the combined audio scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2024
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FÖRDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Guillaume Fuchs, Jürgen Herre, Fabian Küch, Stefan Döhla, Markus Multrus, Oliver Thiergart, Oliver Wübbolt, Florin Ghido, Stefan Bayer, Wolfgang Jaegers