Patents by Inventor Barney Pell

Barney Pell has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20140160432
    Abstract: Methods and system for determining a physiological parameter of a subject through interrogation of an eye of the subject with an optical signal are described. Interrogation is performed unobtrusively. The gaze direction of the eye of the subject is determined and an interrogation signal source and/or response signal sensor are moved into alignment with the eye using an actuator to facilitate detection of the signal from the eye of the subject.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2012
    Publication date: June 12, 2014
    Applicant: ELWHA LLC
    Inventors: Allen L. Brown, JR., Douglas C. Burger, Eric Horvitz, Roderick A. Hyde, Edward K.Y. Jung, Eric C. Leuthardt, Jordin T. Kare, Chris Demetrios Karkanias, John L. Manferdelli, Craig J. Mundie, Nathan P. Myhrvold, Barney Pell, Clarence T. Tegreene, Willard H. Wattenburg, Charles Whitmer, Lowell L. Wood, JR., Richard N. Zare
  • Publication number: 20140160433
    Abstract: Methods and systems for determining a physiological parameter of a subject through interrogation of an eye of the subject with an optical signal are described. Interrogation is performed unobtrusively. The physiological parameter is determined from a signal sensed from the eye of a subject when the eye of the subject is properly aligned with regard to an interrogation signal source and/or response signal sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2012
    Publication date: June 12, 2014
    Applicant: ELWHA LLC
    Inventors: Allen L. Brown, JR., Douglas C. Burger, Eric Horvitz, Roderick A. Hyde, Edward K.Y. Jung, Eric C. Leuthardt, Jordin T. Kare, Chris Demetrios Karkanias, John L. Manferdelli, Craig J. Mundie, Nathan P. Myhrvold, Barney Pell, Clarence T. Tegreene, Willard H. Wattenburg, Charles Whitmer, Lowell L. Wood, JR., Richard N. Zare
  • Patent number: 8639708
    Abstract: Computer-readable media and a computer system for implementing a natural language search using fact-based structures and for generating such fact-based structures are provided. A fact-based structure is generated using a semantic structure, which represents information, such as text, from a document, such as a web page. Typically, a natural language parser is used to create a semantic structure of the information, and the parser identifies terms, as well as the relationship between the terms. A fact-based structure of a semantic structure allows for a linear structure of these terms and their relationships to be created, while also maintaining identifiers of the terms to convey the dependency of one fact-based structure on another fact-based structure. Additionally, synonyms and hypernyms are identified while generating the fact-based structure to improve the accuracy of the overall search.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Martin Henk Van Den Berg, Daniel Bobrow, Robert D. Cheslow, Barney Pell, Giovanni Lorenzo Thione, Chad Walters
  • Patent number: 8463593
    Abstract: Technologies are described herein for probabilistically assigning weights to word senses and hypernyms of a word. The weights can be used in natural language processing applications such as information indexing and querying. A word hypernym weight (WHW) score can be determined by summing word sense probabilities of word senses from which the hypernym is inherited. WHW scores can be used to prune away hypernyms prior to indexing, to rank query results, and for other functions related to information indexing and querying. A semantic search technique can use WHW scores to retrieve an entry related to a word from an index in response to matching an indexed hypernym of the word with a query term applied to the index. More refined and accurate query results may be provided based on reduced user inputs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Barney Pell, Rion Snow, Scott A. Waterman
  • Patent number: 8346756
    Abstract: Tools and techniques related to calculating valence of expressions within documents. These tools may provide methods that include receiving input documents for processing, and extracting expressions from the documents for valence analysis, with scope relationships occurring between terms contained in the expressions. The methods may calculate calculating valences of the expressions, based on the scope relationships between terms in the expressions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Livia Polanyi, Martin Henk Van den Berg, Barney Pell
  • Publication number: 20120265585
    Abstract: A system and methods using applications for entry and exit from registered locations, where a registered location has an associated geo-fence of any size or shape. A registered location may be mobile or stationary. An internet-connected device running an app transmits the current geographic location of the device, and a remote processing center executes a default action when finding correspondence between the geo-fence of a registered location and the current geographic information of an end user's device, and in one embodiment, the default action may be to enter and pay for parking at a registered location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2012
    Publication date: October 18, 2012
    Applicant: QUICKPAY CORP.
    Inventors: CARL MUIRBROOK, Michael Hunter, Barney Pell
  • Patent number: 8229970
    Abstract: A role tree having nodes corresponding to semantic roles in a hierarchy is defined. A posting list is generated for each association of a term and a semantic role in the hierarchy. The posting lists are stored contiguously on a physical storage medium such that a subtree of the hierarchy of semantic roles can be loaded from the storage medium as a single contiguous block. The posting lists for a subtree of the hierarchy are retrieved by obtaining data identifying the beginning location on the physical storage medium of the posting lists for the term at the top of a desired subtree of the hierarchy and data identifying the length of the posting lists of the desired subtree of the hierarchy. A single contiguous block that includes the posting lists for the desired subtree of the hierarchy is then retrieved from the beginning location through the specified length.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Chad Walters, Giovanni Lorenzo Thione, Barney Pell, Lukas Biewald, Brendan O'Connor
  • Patent number: 8209321
    Abstract: Computer-readable media, computerized methods, and computer systems for conducting semantic processes to present search results that include highlighted regions which are relevant to a conceptual meaning of a query are provided. Initially, content of document(s) is accessed and semantic representations are derived by distilling linguistic representations from the content. These semantic representations may be stored at a semantic index. Also, a proposition is derived from the query by parsing search terms of the query, and distilling the proposition from the search terms. Typically, the proposition is a logical representation of the conceptual meaning of the query. The proposition is compared against the semantic representations at the semantic index to identify a matching set. Regions of the content within the document, from which the matching set of semantic representations are derived, are targeted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Barney Pell, Scott Prevost, Giovanni Lorenzo Thione, Brendan O'Connor, Lukas Biewald
  • Patent number: 7984032
    Abstract: Tools and techniques are described that relate to iterators for applying term occurrence-level constraints in natural language searching. These tools may receive a natural language input query, and define term occurrence-level constraints applicable to the input query. The methods may also identify facts requested in the input query, and may instantiate an iterator to traverse a fact index to identify candidate facts responsive to the input query. This iterator may traverse through at least a portion of the fact index. The methods may receive candidate facts from this iterator, with these candidate facts including terms, referred to as term-level occurrences. The methods may apply the term occurrence-level constraints to the term-level occurrences. The methods may select the candidate fact for inclusion in search results for the input query, based at least in part on applying the term occurrence-level constraint.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Giovanni Lorenzo Thione, Barney Pell, Chad Walters, Richard Crouch
  • Publication number: 20090132521
    Abstract: A role tree having nodes corresponding to semantic roles in a hierarchy is defined. A posting list is generated for each association of a term and a semantic role in the hierarchy. The posting lists are stored contiguously on a physical storage medium such that a subtree of the hierarchy of semantic roles can be loaded from the storage medium as a single contiguous block. The posting lists for a subtree of the hierarchy are retrieved by obtaining data identifying the beginning location on the physical storage medium of the posting lists for the term at the top of a desired subtree of the hierarchy and data identifying the length of the posting lists of the desired subtree of the hierarchy. A single contiguous block that includes the posting lists for the desired subtree of the hierarchy is then retrieved from the beginning location through the specified length.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Publication date: May 21, 2009
    Applicant: POWERSET, INC.
    Inventors: Chad Walters, Giovanni Lorenzo Thione, Barney Pell, Lukas Biewald, Brendan O'Connor
  • Publication number: 20090089047
    Abstract: Technologies are described herein for probabilistically assigning weights to word senses and hypernyms of a word. The weights can be used in natural language processing applications such as information indexing and querying. A word hypernym weight (WHW) score can be determined by summing word sense probabilities of word senses from which the hypernym is inherited. WHW scores can be used to prune away hypernyms prior to indexing, to rank query results, and for other functions related to information indexing and querying. A semantic search technique can use WHW scores to retrieve an entry related to a word from an index in response to matching an indexed hypernym of the word with a query term applied to the index. More refined and accurate query results may be provided based on reduced user inputs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Publication date: April 2, 2009
    Applicant: POWERSET, INC.
    Inventors: Barney Pell, Rion Snow, Scott A. Waterman
  • Publication number: 20090077069
    Abstract: Tools and techniques related to calculating valence of expressions within documents. These tools may provide methods that include receiving input documents for processing, and extracting expressions from the documents for valence analysis, with scope relationships occurring between terms contained in the expressions. The methods may calculate calculating valences of the expressions, based on the scope relationships between terms in the expressions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Publication date: March 19, 2009
    Applicant: POWERSET, INC.
    Inventors: Livia Polanyi, Martin Henk Van den Berg, Barney Pell
  • Publication number: 20090070298
    Abstract: Tools and techniques are described that relate to iterators for applying term occurrence-level constraints in natural language searching. These tools may receive a natural language input query, and define term occurrence-level constraints applicable to the input query. The methods may also identify facts requested in the input query, and may instantiate an iterator to traverse a fact index to identify candidate facts responsive to the input query. This iterator may traverse through at least a portion of the fact index. The methods may receive candidate facts from this iterator, with these candidate facts including terms, referred to as term-level occurrences. The methods may apply the term occurrence-level constraints to the term-level occurrences. The methods may select the candidate fact for inclusion in search results for the input query, based at least in part on applying the term occurrence-level constraint.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Publication date: March 12, 2009
    Applicant: POWERSET, INC.
    Inventors: Giovanni Lorenzo Thione, Barney Pell, Chad Walters, Richard Crouch
  • Publication number: 20090063472
    Abstract: Computer-readable media, computerized methods, and computer systems for conducting semantic processes to present search results that include highlighted regions which are relevant to a conceptual meaning of a query are provided. Initially, content of document(s) is accessed and semantic representations are derived by distilling linguistic representations from the content. These semantic representations may be stored at a semantic index. Also, a proposition is derived from the query by parsing search terms of the query, and distilling the proposition from the search terms. Typically, the proposition is a logical representation of the conceptual meaning of the query. The proposition is compared against the semantic representations at the semantic index to identify a matching set. Regions of the content within the document, from which the matching set of semantic representations are derived, are targeted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2008
    Publication date: March 5, 2009
    Applicant: Powerset, Inc., A Delaware Corporation
    Inventors: Barney Pell, Scott Prevost, Giovanni Lorenzo Thione, Brendan O'Connor, Lukas Biewald