Patents Examined by Shelby A Turner
  • Patent number: 10621536
    Abstract: Embodiments are disclosed to detect whether an interaction has occurred between a customer and one or more store employees. By analyzing a how long a communication device used by the customer was within a threshold range of one or more devices worn by store employees, an interaction between the customer and one or more store employees may be identified. Employees whom the customer interacted with may be identified by processing transmission parameters broadcasted by the devices worn by the store employees. Thus, all employees in which a customer interacted with while visiting a store may be identified. The customer may be asked for feedback via the communication device upon detection that a customer has completed a transaction and/or left the store. Using the solicited feedback provided by the customer, various types of reports may be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Benjamin Weiss, Timothy P. McCauley, Nicholas L. Eby
  • Patent number: 10621521
    Abstract: A transaction processing system includes an engine to process transactions in accordance with rules and data. Changes can be made to the rules and data, transactions, and other parameters that have retroactive affects. The transaction processing system includes a reprocessing system to submit reprocessing requests that prompt a transaction processing engine to efficiently reprocess data to generate accurate output data. In addition to helping ensure accurate output results, the reprocessing operation selectively reprocesses information to avoid unnecessarily reprocessing every transaction. Additionally, embodiment of the compensation system allow parallel processing of current transactions and reprocessing operations using batch processing mechanisms. The transaction processing system can be implemented to perform a variety of transaction processing operations, such as processing of compensation related data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: Versata Development Group, Inc.
    Inventors: Paul W. Vaughan, David A. Brokaw
  • Patent number: 10579969
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention improve the calendar invite experience by providing a unified interface for managing calendar invites, regardless of the originating calendar service/messaging provider. When a calendar invite is received, the relevant information (date, time, location, etc.) is parsed from the invite and presented to the user through a calendar invite user interface. The calendar invite user interface can include selectable icons or links allowing a user to accept/decline an invite. Invites are often sent in ICS files or as accept/decline links. Based on the user action, the appropriate message can be returned so that the calendars of the invitees and the organizer can be properly updated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
    Inventors: Maxwell Johnson, Belinda Preno, Matthew Dierker
  • Patent number: 10572844
    Abstract: In some examples, a service provider may associate, with an employer profile of an employer, a plurality of employee profiles of employees that are available to be assigned to one or more shifts of a plurality of shifts. The service provider may determine, based at least in part on shift information and the employee profiles, a shift schedule that indicates employee assignments for individual shifts. In some cases, in response to determining that a first shift is unfilled, the service provider may add to the shift schedule an incentive for one of the employees to select the first shift. Alternatively, in response to determining, based at least in part on the employee profiles, that multiple employees indicated a preference to work a second shift, the service provider may leave the second shift unassigned to enable the employees to bid on being assigned to work the second shift.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: Square, Inc.
    Inventors: Dina Westland, Amir Nathoo, Yunus Sasmaz, Michael Kim, Claudia J. Ng, Scott Silver
  • Patent number: 10572848
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and other embodiments for providing scheduling of activities of a project plan associated with a computer application are described. In one embodiment, a project scheduling tool is configured to calculate a percentage time deviation, between an updated time duration and a planned time duration, for each present activity of a project to form a plurality of percentage time deviations. An arithmetic mean of the plurality of percentage time deviations is calculated and a planned time duration of at least one future activity of the project, related to each present activity, is transformed based on the arithmetic mean.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: ORACLE INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Aditya Sen, Priyamvada Tiwari, Manish Kumar, Vaibhav Aparimit
  • Patent number: 10467573
    Abstract: Embodiments are disclosed to detect whether an interaction has occurred between a customer and one or more store employees. By analyzing a how long a communication device used by the customer was within a threshold range of one or more devices worn by store employees, an interaction between the customer and one or more store employees may be identified. Employees whom the customer interacted with may be identified by processing transmission parameters broadcasted by the devices worn by the store employees. Thus, all employees in which a customer interacted with while visiting a store may be identified. The customer may be asked for feedback via the communication device upon detection that a customer has completed a transaction and/or left the store. Using the solicited feedback provided by the customer, various types of reports may be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Benjamin Weiss, Timothy P. McCauley, Nicholas L. Eby
  • Patent number: 10467600
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus and computer-readable media (transitory and non-transitory) are disclosed for determining one or more additional task features for a task of a user. In some implementations, the additional task features may be determined based on additional information from one or more sources that are distinct from the source(s) from which the task is identified or determined. The additional task features may be determined based on the additional information and based on user information that is associated with the user. For example, the additional information may define a superset of information and the additional task features may be a subset of the defined superset. The additional task features may be utilized to generate a task notification related to the task, and the task notification may be provided for presentation to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
    Inventors: Andrew Theodore Wansley, Amay Nitin Champaneria
  • Patent number: 10402840
    Abstract: A dynamic pricing algorithm is used to price a large set of items so that their aggregate margin is above a pre-specified level even under uncertain demand. The algorithm automatically hedges the profit loss associated to low-margin items with profit gains associated to higher-margin items, and does so even when the realized demand is different than the expected one. The algorithm leverages the separability of a re-formulation of the robust counterpart of the nominal revenue maximization problem. This separability results into a nested bisection algorithm where each iteration in the procedure requires only computation of a number of independent, one-dimensional optimization problems, one for each product to price. The algorithm is easily implemented in a parallel architecture such a multi-core computer or a cluster of computers, where each core handles an independent one-dimensional problem corresponding to an item and its data is stored locally.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: WALMART APOLLO, LLC
    Inventors: Arnau Tibau-Puig, Laurent El Ghaoui, Nipun Bhatia
  • Patent number: 10373208
    Abstract: An information providing method for providing a user who uses a device with information via a mobile owned by the user, the method generating the information to be provided to the user, in accordance with: lifestyle information obtained by a lifestyle information obtaining unit receiving the lifestyle information from the device used by the user, the lifestyle information being information on a state of operation of the device; and location information obtained by a location information obtaining unit receiving the location information indicating a location to which the user traveled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
    Inventors: Koichi Kusukame, Ryo Kitamura, Tetsuji Fuchikami, Motoji Ohmori
  • Patent number: 10318994
    Abstract: Provided is an information providing method for generating and providing information, in accordance with: lifestyle information obtained by a lifestyle information obtaining unit receiving, from each of plural devices used by plural users, information on a state of operation of the device; and location information of each user traveled, which is obtained by a location information obtaining unit receiving the location information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2019
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
    Inventors: Koichi Kusukame, Ryo Kitamura, Tetsuji Fuchikami, Motoji Ohmori
  • Patent number: 10049374
    Abstract: Changes in the supply chain of one product may affect the price and availability of many other products. Likewise, a product may be composed of a number of smaller parts. Changes in the cost or availability of any of the parts that comprise a product may result in changes in cost or availability of the product as well as many other related products. A supply chain analysis engine is used to model a supply chain. The supply chain analysis engine may identify dependencies between products, sub products, and supply chains. The dependencies may be used to analyze the impact of a change in the supply chain on all relevant products.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Anup Kumar Jha, Ashish Pathak, Fan Yang, Ivan Canales Pineda, Rixin Zhu, Bryan Siu Him So, Ramchand Raman
  • Patent number: 9892422
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments of sales security integration. At least one embodiment of a method includes the steps of receiving contact data regarding a sales contact for a network site, and performing at least one security check on the contact data to determine a likelihood that the sales contact is a security risk for nefarious activity. In response to determining that the sales contact is a security risk for nefarious activity, the step of implementing at least one security measure is performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2018
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: David Erdmann
  • Patent number: 9881310
    Abstract: An eliciting system is provided. The eliciting system may embody a method for collecting market research data by eliciting customer input through an interactive, competitive game format. The eliciting system may provide the game format by including a controllable object, a control unit and a display platform, wherein the display platform provides a plurality of scan codes presented in an eye-catching manner. The control unit provides a user interface and is adapted to remotely control the controllable object as it hovers over the display platform. The controllable object may provide a scanner for reading the plurality of scan codes. Each scan code may provide a market association with a good and/or service. Each market association scanned by the scanner is represented on the user interface, whereby the user of the control unit can view and approve of or disapprove of it, while the user controls the controllable object hovering over the display platform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2018
    Inventors: Thomas Lee Register, Dionne Trottie-Register, Charmaine Trottie
  • Patent number: 9824323
    Abstract: Embodiments are disclosed to detect whether an interaction has occurred between a customer and one or more store employees. By analyzing a how long a communication device used by the customer was within a threshold range of one or more devices worn by store employees, an interaction between the customer and one or more store employees may be identified. Employees whom the customer interacted with may be identified by processing transmission parameters broadcasted by the devices worn by the store employees. Thus, all employees in which a customer interacted with while visiting a store may be identified. The customer may be asked for feedback via the communication device upon detection that a customer has completed a transaction and/or left the store. Using the solicited feedback provided by the customer, various types of reports may be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Benjamin Weiss, Tim McCauley, Nicholas Eby
  • Patent number: 9785956
    Abstract: A system and method of enhancing the lead exchange process simultaneously and in real-time calculates a quality index of a lead or plurality of leads within the lead exchange process. The quality index provide a measure of the quality of the leads with the lead exchange process. The calculations are done electronically by a computer system and are based on differences to the mean, allowing for relative indices, which permit the use in a dynamic environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: ReviMedia, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander van der Laan, Sebastiaan Offers
  • Patent number: 9576259
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide systems, methods, and apparatus for receiving input information including at least one of generator parameters, energy output requirements, fuel cost, fuel availability, and a maintenance schedule; creating a resource model based on the input information wherein creating the resource model includes linearizing a quadratic objective function and linearizing a quadratic gas constraints function; generating an optimized operating schedule, fuel mix, and allocation plan from the resource model based on the input information; and controlling the generator resources to optimally meet energy output requirements using the operating schedule fuel mix, and allocation plan. Numerous other aspects are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: SIEMENS INDUSTRY, INC.
    Inventors: Tao Li, Ashmin Mansingh