Patents Examined by Tiffany Bui
  • Patent number: 7849114
    Abstract: The present invention provides a virtual database as well as a method, system, and program product for generating a virtual database. Specifically, under the present invention, Service Data Objects (SDOs) corresponding to a plurality of database tables are provided within a virtual container. Once provided, two or more of the SDOs are interrelated to yield the virtual database (having a Virtual Bounded Persistent Memory). In accordance with the present invention, the database tables can be stored within a single (e.g., conventional) database, or databases. In addition, the virtual database can be generated and removed on-demand. Still yet, the virtual database of the present invention can be queried using standard Structured Query Language (SQL) queries.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gregory J. Boss, Rick A. Hamilton, II, Kevin C. McConnell, John W. Miller, Timothy M. Waters
  • Patent number: 7831382
    Abstract: A method and system for differentiating duplicate yet disjoint localities, such as cities, within a state or other principal geographic unit of interest is for use with electronic maps and databases. Duplicate locality name entries are stored in a database, locality name database entries are condensed for localities having two or more similar names, and adornments for duplicate locality names are stored in the database. In the adornment selection process, for a first duplicate locality, a second duplicate locality is selected that is closest to the first. Selected adornments are first and second significant localities, such as large cities, and are closer to the first and second duplicate localities, respectively, than the first and second duplicate localities are to each other, and are more significant than the first and second duplicate localities. Adornments to duplicate localities are displayed to the user. The process is repeated for remaining duplicate localities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2010
    Assignee: TeleAtlas B.V.
    Inventor: Michael Geilich
  • Patent number: 7797295
    Abstract: Allowing unhosted user content feeds to a public search engine, such as a web search engine, involves a user easily identifying a file as a file the user wants to share with others by, for example, storing the file in a particular directory folder on the user's device. Once identified, the file is scanned and a corresponding entry is inserted into a search index. The storage location on the user's device may be captured, and that information added to the search index for linking to the stored file. The file may be uploaded to a caching server, for serving either primarily from the caching server or secondarily from the caching server when the file is not available from the user's storage. An access policy, which indicates what portion of the public has permission to access the file, may be associated with the shared file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2010
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Ronald S. Bell, Oliver M. Raskin, Duke T. Fan, Chris T. Kalaboukis, Ronald G. Martinez
  • Patent number: 7797349
    Abstract: A method for managing a user interface (UI) string table, comprising placing a UI string table at a string table management unit; administrator(s) editing the UI string table through an administrator interface of a UI string table manager; and read-only users (ROUs) accessing the UI string table through a ROU interface of the UI string table manager. The XML-formatted string table manager tool for printers and other devices is used by administrators to maintain the string table and by software and QA engineers to access it, possibly remotely. The result is a more efficient localization process, by eliminating the manual sharing and merging of multiple string tables by the localization team.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2010
    Assignees: Kyocera Mita Corporation, Kyocera Technology Development, Inc.
    Inventor: Naohiko Kosaka
  • Patent number: 7792783
    Abstract: A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for determining aggregate values of health data items from heterogeneously coded databases containing heterogeneously coded medical data. The data, in heterogeneous databases, is queried using a series of semantic layers including i) cascaded asymmetric association tables and ii) semantic search. The heterogeneously coded medical data items are translated into conformal dimensions and denominator files of combinations of disease data are derived. The denominator files of combinations of disease are aggregated based on a mapping of the coded medical and demographic conditions. The data is stored in a target data repository.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Friedlander, Richard Hennessy, James R. Kraemer
  • Patent number: 7788213
    Abstract: Exemplary illustrative embodiments provide for a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for mapping data. The mapping is defined by a user and maps a source datum to a target datum having a target attribute. The mapping is defined using metadata. Source specific information is omitted from the mapping and stored in a target data repository.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Robert R. Friedlander, Richard A. Hennessy, James R. Kraemer
  • Patent number: 7778988
    Abstract: The present invention provides an information processing device including a generating section, a calculating section, a link detecting section, and a presenting section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Kei Tateno
  • Patent number: 7761464
    Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides systems and/or methods that facilitate diversifying search results to improve searching and/or personalized searching. An interface component can receive a query. Additionally, a result diversification component can modify diversity of a set of search results obtained by a search engine in response to a query based at least in part upon one or more dimensions of diversity. The dimensions of diversity can include document topic, document type, document genre, domain of document, document age, location associated with the document, commercial characteristics of the document, user intent, and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Filip Radlinski, Susan T. Dumais, Eric J. Horvitz
  • Patent number: 7752230
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a data processing system includes a first database 304 maintained by a first party (such as a customer); a second database 324, 328 maintained by a second party (such as a vendor) different from the first party; a work queue 316 to specify data to be added to the second database; an extract, transform and load module 308 to write data from the first database to the work queue; and a data import module operable 320 to import data from the work queue to the second database. In the system, the first party is not privileged to write the data directly to the second database but is privileged to write the data to the work queue. The import module transforms the data written to the work queue to a form semantically compatible with the second database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: M. Alan Bland, Stephan Edward Friedl, Terry Don Jennings, Jeffery James Olson, Barbara Jo West
  • Patent number: 7743037
    Abstract: A system and method to facilitate editing of content data. An update metadata identification block identifies metadata that is affected (or must be updated) by destructive edit processing by a material data destructive edit processing block. If the metadata is required for updating, a realtime metadata update block updates realtime metadata and a nonrealtime metadata update block updates nonrealtime metadata in correspondence with the destructive edit processing. A proxy data update block updates proxy data. A clip information file update block updates a clip information file. A clip write block records the data of each clip updated by the above-mentioned processing to an optical disc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hideki Ando, Kazuo Ido, Noboru Oya, Mitsutoshi Shinkai
  • Patent number: 7734607
    Abstract: The invention relates to a framework system and methods for connecting a plurality of tools. The system comprises a plug-in mechanism configured to dynamically load the plurality of tools, a data pool having storage space configured to store data sets associated with the plurality of tools, a linking mechanism configured to establish communications links between the loaded plurality of tools to enable coordinated operation of the loaded plurality of tools, a session component configured to record the process history of the operations of the loaded plurality of tool and the system states corresponding to the process history of the operations and an annotation module configured to associate user-provided data corresponding to one or more of the stored data sets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2010
    Assignee: University of Massachusetts
    Inventors: Georges Grinstein, Alexander Gee, Urska Cvek, Howard Goodell, Hongli Li, Min Yu, Jianping Zhou, Vivek Gupta, Mary Beth Smrtic, Christine Lawrence, Chih-Hung Chiang
  • Patent number: 7734596
    Abstract: Techniques used in an automatic failover configuration having a primary database system, a standby database system, and an observer for preventing divergence among the primary and standby database systems while increasing the availability of the primary database system. In the automatic failover configuration, the primary database system remains available even in the absence of both the standby and the observer as long as the standby and the observer become absent sequentially. The failover configuration further permits automatic failover only when the observer is present and the standby and the primary are synchronized and inhibits state changes during failover. The database systems and the observer have copies of failover configuration state and the techniques include techniques for propagating the most recent version of the state among the databases and the observer and techniques for using carefully-ordered writes to ensure that state changes are propagated in a fashion which prevents divergence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2010
    Inventors: Stephen John Vivian, Raymond Guzman, Douglas Andrew Voss, Benedicto Elmo Garin, Jr.
  • Patent number: 7720860
    Abstract: Systems and methods for processing an index are described. A pulse in an inverted index refers to a group of items that do not occur in any other pulse in the index. When processing a query against an inverted index in which pulses are present, the query is processed against a single pulse. The end of the pulse is determined based on the characteristics of the pulse and the linked list nodes that comprise the postings lists from which the index was generated. In some embodiments, index updates are applied to the query result obtained from a single pulse to provide an efficient and up to date query result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2010
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: John Martin Hornkvist
  • Patent number: 7716257
    Abstract: A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to receive context information specifying dimensional criteria defining a first value in a first data source. A context transfer to a second value in a second data source is generated based upon the dimensional criteria. The context transfer is performed in accordance with a translation model with a translation map for mapping between multiple data sources. The second value is supplied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignee: Business Objects Software Ltd.
    Inventors: Neil Thomson, Andre Paiement, Dave Gould, Martin Petitclerc, Brian Donnelly, Gordon Chow
  • Patent number: 7707137
    Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for browsing a collection of metadata to locate media content associated with an item of metadata. The system operates by receiving a selection of an affinity from a user, wherein the affinity specifies a baseline preference of the user. Next, the system determines a value for each item of metadata in the collection of metadata that specifies how well each item of metadata fits the affinity. Finally, the system arranges the collection of metadata in a view, so that items of metadata with similar values are arranged in close proximity within the view, and so that items of metadata with dissimilar values are not arranged in close proximity within the view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2010
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: David S. Nazarian, Brenda K. Laurel, Kimberly A. Perzel
  • Patent number: 7693882
    Abstract: Techniques are provided for managing replicated data items in a cluster of shared nothing nodes. The techniques include synchronously propagating changes to one or more replicas, while asynchronously propagating changes to the remaining replicas. Because the replicas to which the change is synchronously replicated may be a relatively small percentage of the total number of replicas, the overhead associated with performing an update is reduced. The process of selecting which nodes are involved in the synchronous update operation may take into account a variety of factors, including which replicas are available at the time the update operation is being performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2010
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Ken Lee, Alok K. Srivastava, Sameer Joshi
  • Patent number: 7676496
    Abstract: The invention provides a user with a key or a visual clue to a desired content. There is provided a random search mode searching the content randomly when a user has no object for searching the content, and a specific search mode with object or search condition specified. The search condition is randomly generated or the content is extracted regardless of the search condition under the random search mode while the content is extracted based on the search condition such as a media type of the content input by the user or other content attributes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Misa Tamura
  • Patent number: 7676509
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for modifying a data stream of backup data to be provided to a fixed position delta reduction backup method are disclosed. When the data stream is received, at least a portion of the data stream is parsed into a plurality of data blocks and a plurality of sets of validation bytes, wherein each of the plurality of data blocks corresponds to one of the plurality of sets of validation bytes. One or more modified data streams are then generated such that the plurality of data blocks are separate from the plurality of sets of validation bytes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2010
    Assignee: i365 Inc.
    Inventors: Jacques Diederik Swanepoel, Guangsheng Fu
  • Patent number: 7653625
    Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed using the internet (or similar) to provide, publish and maintain a database for stolen items. The method and apparatus further disclose the utilization of this database as a backbone for an internet portal, providing for automated contact of interested parties, automated e-commerce for replacement of assets, and immediate distribution of published information. The preferred embodiment would provide a means for extracting the information from entered police reports to create an all encompassing database. The present invention provides a new mechanism for deterring the selling of stolen items, increasing the potential of recovering stolen or missing items, and simplifying the claim processing process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2010
    Inventors: Fred Frankel, Allen David Hertz, Henrietta Frankel
  • Patent number: 7653672
    Abstract: Under program execution environment, a file size of a heap dump is reduced which is acquired so as to detect memory leaks, and so as to investigate occurrence causes of the memory leaks. In order to provide a memory leak investigating means which can be used even in a large-scaled system, the below-mentioned heap dump acquiring method is provided: When a heap dump is acquired, only such an object within objects stored in a heap memory is outputted which is adapted to the following conditions: That is, in a condition (1), an object exists among objects which are newly produced within a designated time period, and in another condition (2), an object is present on a reference path defined from a root set to the object which satisfies the above-explained condition (1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2010
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Koji Doi, Hiroyasu Nishiyama, Motoki Obata