Patents Examined by Wilbert L. Starks, Jr.
  • Patent number: 7865454
    Abstract: A feature configuration analysis tool greatly reduces time, cost, and other resource expenditures associated with identifying permissible feature configurations for a product line so that vendors can offer consumers highly customizable products. Accordingly, the vendor may offer the consumer an extensive selection of features for a product, receive from the customer a customized selection of the features, and implement those features for the customer. A vendor may embed the feature configuration analysis tool into a user interface that enables consumers to consider feature configurations prior to purchasing a product. The feature configuration analysis tool provides a lightweight and efficient approach to rapidly determine permissible feature configurations for a product line, and verify the validity of a user requested combination of features.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited
    Inventor: Mark Grechanik
  • Patent number: 7865456
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for outlier detection in databases by determining sparse low dimensional projections. These sparse projections are used for the purpose of determining which points are outliers. The methodologies of the invention are very relevant in providing a novel definition of exceptions or outliers for the high dimensional domain of data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Trend Micro Incorporated
    Inventors: Charu C. Aggarwal, Philip Shi-Lung Yu
  • Patent number: 7860818
    Abstract: The present invention provides methods and apparatus for determining and utilizing case-based ranking methods, such as methods for machine condition monitoring. Specifically, the present invention provides a method for identifying and prioritizing labeled data. The method allows a monitored system to be associated with a calibrated and ordered set of states. Further, in machine condition monitoring, the machine condition is associated with the entire set of states in a particular order with one or more relevance zero-points. That is, a ranked set of calibrated data describing machine conditions is augmented with an annotation indicating a cut-off between relevant and non-relevant data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2010
    Assignee: Siemens Corporation
    Inventors: Klaus Brinker, Claus Neubauer
  • Patent number: 7860816
    Abstract: The present invention is a method and apparatus for safe ontology reasoning. In one embodiment, a method for building safe sub-ontology that includes one or more elements of a given ontology includes designating at least one the elements as a sensitive element, where a sensitive element is an element not to be revealed. The method then designates a safe sub-ontology such that the safe sub-ontology does not include any elements that, alone or in combination, allow inference of a sensitive element, in accordance with one or more given inference rules. In another embodiment, a method for building a potential sub-ontology includes designating at least one of the elements as a sensitive element and including a maximal number of the elements in the potential sub-ontology, wherein the maximal number includes the greatest number of elements that can be revealed, cumulatively, without allowing inference of a sensitive element, in accordance with one or more given inference rules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Achille Fokoue-Nkoutche, Genady Grabarnik, Nagui Halim, Aaron Kershenbaum, Edith Schonberg, Larisa Shwartz, Kavitha Srinivas
  • Patent number: 7856410
    Abstract: A system is disclosed that provides a goal based learning system utilizing a rule based expert training system to provide a cognitive educational experience. The system provides the user with a simulated environment that presents a business opportunity to understand and solve optimally. Mistakes are noted and remedial educational material presented dynamically to build the necessary skills that a user requires for success in the business endeavor. The system utilizes an artificial intelligence engine driving individualized and dynamic feedback with synchronized video and graphics used to simulate real-world environment and interactions. Multiple “correct” answers are integrated into the learning system to allow individualized learning experiences in which navigation through the system is at a pace controlled by the learner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited
    Inventors: Olivia Ruth Burgess, Benoit Patrick Bertrand, Joseph Michael Ciancaglini, Lauren E. Haff, Eric Jeffrey Lannert, Murray David Levitt, Mark Stewart Nichols, Alexander Han Leung Poon, John Kenneth Smith, Karen Therese Smith, Maureen Therese Zabloudil, Michael Joseph Walsh, Michael James Willow, Kerry Russell Wills
  • Patent number: 7853548
    Abstract: The invention relates to a system and method for providing efficient policy rule updates in policy-based data management. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for restraining the size of the set of data objects to be examined after a policy rule evaluation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Lan Huang, Windsor Wee Sun Hsu
  • Patent number: 7853539
    Abstract: Sound discrimination techniques are disclosed that can be employed, for example, in the task of discriminating speech and non-speech in a noisy environment and other noise classification applications. In one particular embodiment, a classifier system is provided that includes a linear Regularized Least Squares classifier used directly on a high-dimensional cortical representation of the target sound. The regularization constant lambda (?) can be selected automatically, yielding a parameter-free learning system. In addition, the high-dimensional hyperplane can be viewed directly in the cortical space, leading to greater interpretability of the classifier results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Ryan Rifkin
  • Patent number: 7853544
    Abstract: Systems, methods and software products analyze messages of a message stream based upon human generated concept recognizers. A sample set of messages, representative of messages from the message stream, are analyzed to determine interesting or useful categories. Text categorization engines are then trained, using the sample set and text classifiers are published. These text classifiers are then used to categorizing further text messages from the message stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignee: Overtone, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric D. Scott, Katrina A. Rhoads
  • Patent number: 7844556
    Abstract: A brain-based device (BBD) having a physical mobile device NOMAD controlling and under control by a simulated nervous system. The simulated nervous system is based on an intricate anatomy and physiology of the hippocampus and its surrounding neuronal regions including the cortex. The BBD integrates spatial signals from numerous objects in time and provides flexible navigation solutions to aid in the exploration of unknown environments. As NOMAD navigates in its real world environment, the hippocampus of the simulated nervous system organizes multi-modal input information received from sensors on NOMAD over timescales and uses this organization for the development of spatial and episodic memories necessary for navigation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: Neurosciences Research Foundation, Inc.
    Inventors: Gerald M. Edelman, Jeffrey L. Krichmar, Douglas A. Nitz
  • Patent number: 7844566
    Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-based method for automatically identifying clusters of conceptually-related documents in a collection of documents, including the following steps: generating a document-representation of each document in an abstract mathematical space; identifying a plurality of document clusters in the collection of documents based on a conceptual similarity between respective pairs of the document-representations, wherein each document cluster is associated with an exemplary document and a plurality of other documents; and identifying a non-intersecting document cluster from among the plurality of document clusters based on (i) a conceptual similarity between the document-representation of the exemplary document and the document-representation of each document in the non-intersecting cluster and (ii) a conceptual dissimilarity between a cluster-representation of the non-intersecting document cluster and a cluster-representation of each other document cluster.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: Content Analyst Company, LLC
    Inventor: Janusz Wnek
  • Patent number: 7844561
    Abstract: A context-sensitive pre-evaluation analysis of a set of rules is performed based on the circumstance or the current state of a rule clause directed to an infrequently changing condition. A group of multiple-clause rules are identified which each have a clause defining an infrequently changing condition for evaluating a state of a resource. The current state of the resource is monitored. If the identified group of multiple-clause rules, which cannot evaluate as TRUE under the context of the current state the resource, the identified group of multiple-clause rules are excluded from consideration by the rules engine. The rules engine will then encounter fewer rules to evaluate for a solution. The identified group of multiple-clause rules is further analyzed in the context of the infrequently changing condition for the current resource state. State metrics that are defined by clauses of the identified multiple-clause rules, those that cannot evaluate as TRUE, are identified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David Louis Kaminsky, John Michael Lake
  • Patent number: 7844562
    Abstract: A system and method for reasoning about concepts, relations and rules having a semantic network comprising at least one node from a predetermined set of node types, at least one link from a predetermined set of link types, and zero or more rules from a predetermined set of rule types, a subset of the rule types being matching rule types, each node and each link being associated with a set of zero or more rules; a network reasoning data structure having a reasoning type database having at least one regular expression, each of the regular expressions being a class of sequences having at least three node types and two link types, wherein the network reasoning data structure further has a context being a set of rules; and a reasoning engine having an activator for activating one or more activated paths in the semantic network, the set of activated paths having a common starting node in the semantic network, wherein the reasoning engine further has a validator for selecting a subset of the activated paths being va
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Leiguang Gong, Leora Morgenstern, Erik T. Mueller, Doug Riecken, Moninder Singh
  • Patent number: 7840518
    Abstract: A method for object recognition includes generating a set of rules, using multiple systems to recognize a target object, applying the set of rules to a set of responses to determine an output, and displaying the output to a user. Each rule contains predicates and a consequent, each predicate comprising a rule token identifier and a rule probability of recognition. The rule token identifiers are generated from multiple systems. Each rule token identifier represents a system recognized object. Each rule is derived by associating a range of rule probabilities of recognition for one or more rule token identifiers to a known object. The range of rule probabilities of recognition is determined by at least one system and by combining multiple rule probabilities of recognition. Each system produces a response having a response token identifier and a response probability of recognition. Responses are combined to form the sets of responses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2007
    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: 7840521
    Abstract: A method, system and computer-readable medium are presented for computer-based supervised classification of digital documents that can exclusively identify an optimal category for the single class model by dividing a calculated score of each category into groups (thresholds can be automatically decided from the knowledge base) and can further predict whether it will be subjected to human examination and whether feedback learning should be performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Kazuo Aoki
  • Patent number: 7835997
    Abstract: The invention is a system for remotely conducting psychotherapy between a client having and a therapist over the internet. The system includes a first web enabled computer device operated by the client, said first computer device having a web browser and being operatively coupled to the Internet. The system further includes a second web enabled computer device operated by the therapist, said second computer device having a web browser and being operatively coupled to the Internet. The system also includes a server operatively coupled to the Internet and a web server application resident on the server and a web site resident on the server. The web server application is operatively coupled to a private web based chat application, said chat application being activated by the client by engaging a first link on the web site.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Inventors: Sudhir Rajkhowa, Nathan Kumar Rajkhowa
  • Patent number: 7836003
    Abstract: Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, a user experiencing cognitive decline or a similar affliction may be assisted with the performance of daily tasks or routines. An information handling system installed in a central room of the user's living quarters, such as a kitchen, to observe the user and determine if the user is having difficulty completing the task or routine. If it is determined that the user is experiencing difficulty, the information handling system may provide one or more cues to the user to assist the user in remembering what the user has just completed in order to indicate to the user what part of the task remains to be completed. For example, the steps recently taken by the user may be retraced by projecting an image of those footsteps onto the floor to show the user where she has recently been.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Terry Dishongh, Simon Roberts, Julie Behan
  • Patent number: 7836006
    Abstract: A behavior estimation apparatus inputs a prediction period, an annual consumption expenditure, extracts, from behavioral statistical data including an occurrence probability of each of behaviors of human during each time period, the occurrence probability of each behavior within the prediction period as a prior probability distribution, obtains a consumption time ratio between replaceable behaviors, and calculates estimated occurrence probabilities of the behaviors which minimize a Kullback-Leibler divergence with respect to the prior probability distribution and satisfy a condition that a ratio between estimated occurrence probabilities of the replaceable behaviors within the prediction period equals a consumption time ratio between the replaceable behaviors, a condition that a sum of expenditures of the behaviors per unit time equals an expenditure per unit time calculated from the annual consumption expenditure, and a condition that a sum of the occurrence probabilities and a sum of the estimated occurrenc
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Hideki Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Hondo
  • Patent number: 7831533
    Abstract: Methods and systems for grouping video frames. The video frames may be from a multiplexed stream of video frames from a plurality of video sources. In some embodiments video frames are grouped by determining if the video frames share meaningful modes for values representative of features of the video frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2010
    Assignee: Cognitech, Inc.
    Inventors: Leonid I. Rudin, Jose Luis Lisani, Jean Michel Morel, Ping Yu
  • Patent number: 7831534
    Abstract: A method for providing a polyhierarchical classification includes identifying properties of objects useful for distinguishing objects under classification. A plurality of criteria are identified for specializing the identified properties. A form is chosen for attributive expressions that describe classification categories. The attributive expressions are customizable and encode compositions of object properties in terms of attributes from the plurality of criteria. A domain of applicability is identified for each criterion that is representable by attributive expressions, and a dependence relationship between criteria is defined by the inclusion of attributes in the attributive expressions, where a selected criterion depends on another criterion if its domain of applicability includes at least one attribute by the other criterion. A generating polyhierarchy of criteria is automatically established by the dependence relationships between the criteria.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2010
    Inventors: Pavel Babikov, Oleg Gontcharov, Maria Babikova
  • Patent number: 7827124
    Abstract: A mobile brain-based device (BBD) includes a mobile platform with sensors and effectors, which is guided by a simulated nervous system that is an analogue of the cerebellar areas of the brain used for predictive motor control to determine interaction with a real-world environment. The simulated nervous system has neural areas including precerebellum nuclei (PN), Purkinje cells (PC), deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN) and an inferior olive (IO) for predicting turn and velocity control of the BBD during movement in a real-world environment. The BBD undergoes training and testing, and the simulated nervous system learns and performs control functions, based on a delayed eligibility trace learning rule.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2010
    Assignee: Neurosciences Research Foundation, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey L. McKinstry, Gerald M. Edelman, Jeffrey L. Krichmar