Patents by Inventor Benjamin L. Johnson

Benjamin L. Johnson 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: 20240116386
    Abstract: Utility vehicles include ground engaging members, a frame supported by the ground engaging members, a motor supported by the frame operably coupled to the ground engaging members, and a battery configured to provide electrical power to the motor. The battery may be removable and configured to be easily charged by outside power sources such as generators and external batteries. A charger may be configured to receive instructions to charge the battery using a specific charger operating characteristic. The vehicle may also include a variety of accessory ports configured to electrically couple to accessories that use AC or DC power.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2023
    Publication date: April 11, 2024
    Applicant: Polaris Industries Inc.
    Inventors: Yassin M. Kelay, David F. Buehler, Chiao George Liu, Aaron D. Deckard, Jacob Gerten, Benjamin R. Bauer, Akshay A. Biyani, Naval K. Agrawal, Kathryn L. Johnson, Austin A. Holt
  • Patent number: 11556803
    Abstract: Mechanisms for automatically modifying a set of instructions based on an expanded domain specific knowledge base is provided. The mechanisms generate a domain specific knowledge base comprising a set of entities and corresponding domain specific attributes and expand the domain specific knowledge base to include values for the domain specific attributes through an automated bootstrap learning process that performs natural language processing and analysis of natural language content using a set of pre-condition annotated action terms. The mechanisms receive electronic content comprising an initial set of instructions to perform an operation and evaluate the initial set of instructions based on the expanded domain specific knowledge base to identify a missing instruction. The mechanisms modify the initial set of instructions to include an additional instruction based on the missing instruction and thereby generate a modified set of instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donna K. Byron, Benjamin L. Johnson, Dan G. Tecuci
  • Patent number: 11521158
    Abstract: A method includes receiving, by a first device of a transportation provider, a device ID of a particular device of a user and purchase information regarding a purchase, by the user, of one or more goods or services. The method includes sending, by the first device, the device ID of the particular user device to a central server. The method includes receiving, by the first device from the central server, information regarding the particular user device. The method includes determining, by the first device, a selected transportation vehicle based on the purchase information and the information regarding the particular user device. The method includes sending, by the first device, a vehicle ID of the selected transportation vehicle to the central server. The method includes providing a transportation service to the user using the particular user device and the selected transportation vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Donna K. Byron, Carmine M. DiMascio, Benjamin L. Johnson, Jacquelyn A. Martino, Florian Pinel
  • Patent number: 11226997
    Abstract: A chatbot answer database can be generated from a question and answer document. A question/answer processor can receive a document that includes questions and answers. A set of entities can be determined from the answers in the document. A set of triplets can be constructed from the answers, and stored in a chatbot database. For each answer, the question/answer processor can determine text for slots of the triplet based on the entities extracted from the answer. The triplet can be stored as a tree structure in a database of tree structures associated with the document. A chatbot can receive questions, and provide answers based on the database of tree structures associated with the document.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Florian Pinel, Donna K. Byron, Carmine Dimascio, Benjamin L. Johnson
  • Patent number: 11188199
    Abstract: A website navigation system has an analysis system which receives a request for an Internet web page from a client device. The analysis system receives web page data associated with the web page from the Internet and performs a data analysis process to organize the web page data for use in a virtual conversation with the user in order to present the web page in an audible format. The analysis system identifies separate elements of the web page from the web page data and extracts information from the separate elements based on the web page data. The analysis system groups the separate elements into categories based on the extracted information and sorts the groups of separate elements based on usage statistics. The analysis system then generates a prompt for being output to the user by the client device as audible output based on the sorted groups of separate elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Florian Pinel, Donna K. Byron, Christian Ewen, Carmine Dimascio, Benjamin L. Johnson
  • Patent number: 11164562
    Abstract: A system for entity-level clarification in conversation services includes a memory having instructions therein. The system also includes at least one processor in communication with the memory. The at least one processor is configured to execute the instructions to receive a conversation services training example set, build an entity usage map using the conversation services training example set, receive a user utterance, and, responsive to a reception of the user utterance, generate a clarification response using the entity usage map. The at least one processor is also configured to execute the instructions to provide the clarification response to a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Carmine M. DiMascio, Donna K. Byron, Benjamin L. Johnson, Florian Pinel
  • Patent number: 11144869
    Abstract: A method includes receiving, by a first device of a transportation provider, a device ID of a particular device of a user and purchase information regarding a purchase, by the user, of one or more goods or services. The method includes sending, by the first device, the device ID of the particular user device to a central server. The method includes receiving, by the first device from the central server, information regarding the particular user device. The method includes determining, by the first device, a selected transportation vehicle based on the purchase information and the information regarding the particular user device. The method includes sending, by the first device, a vehicle ID of the selected transportation vehicle to the central server. The method includes providing a transportation service to the user using the particular user device and the selected transportation vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donna K. Byron, Carmine M. DiMascio, Benjamin L. Johnson, Jacquelyn A. Martino, Florian Pinel
  • Patent number: 11140308
    Abstract: A life-logging system is configured to register a plurality of cameras and a plurality of users to a life-logging network. The life-logging system receives a plurality of camera profiles associated with the plurality of cameras and a user profile associated with a user. The life-logging system determines location information associated with the user and identifies a camera of the plurality of cameras for capturing an image of the user based on the plurality of camera profiles, the user preferences, and the location information. The life-logging system arranges for the image of the user captured by the camera to be delivered to a client device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Florian Pinel, Benjamin L. Johnson, Donna K. Byron
  • Patent number: 11138506
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for building a semantic analysis model. In one embodiment, the computer-implemented method includes creating proxy tags comprising a set of surface form variants. The computer-implemented method creates training examples comprising a combination of terminal tokens and at least one of the proxy tags. The computer-implemented method builds the semantic analysis model using the training examples.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donna K. Byron, Benjamin L. Johnson, Ladislav Kunc, Mary D. Swift
  • Publication number: 20210182783
    Abstract: A method includes receiving, by a first device of a transportation provider, a device ID of a particular device of a user and purchase information regarding a purchase, by the user, of one or more goods or services. The method includes sending, by the first device, the device ID of the particular user device to a central server. The method includes receiving, by the first device from the central server, information regarding the particular user device. The method includes determining, by the first device, a selected transportation vehicle based on the purchase information and the information regarding the particular user device. The method includes sending, by the first device, a vehicle ID of the selected transportation vehicle to the central server. The method includes providing a transportation service to the user using the particular user device and the selected transportation vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2021
    Publication date: June 17, 2021
    Inventors: Donna K. Byron, Carmine M. DiMascio, Benjamin L. Johnson, Jacquelyn A. Martino, Florian Pinel
  • Patent number: 11003857
    Abstract: A method, system and computer-usable medium for augmenting the training of a conversational system. In certain embodiments, the method comprises: ingesting a training set to be used in training of the conversational system, the training set including objects for use in the training, wherein the objects include one or more object types, wherein the object types include one or more of an entity or intent; generating proposed reductions for inclusion in an augmented training set, wherein the proposed reductions include one or more of: reduction candidates generated using properties of objects included in the training set; reduction candidates obtained from search queries of one or more external resources, wherein the search queries relate to one or more objects included in the training set; filtering the proposed reductions to generate a reduced set of proposed reductions; and augmenting the training set with the reduced set of proposed reductions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Joanne M. Santiago, Donna K. Byron, Benjamin L. Johnson, Priscilla Moraes
  • Patent number: 10929865
    Abstract: Embodiments provide dynamic consumer incentive generation by generating a combination discount offer that provides a total discount value to a customer in response to verifying that the customer executes a commercial activity at each of different (first and second) ones of a discount grouping plurality of businesses, in response to determining that it is probable as a function of historic purchasing data that the customer will purchase an item from the first business when they make a purchase from the second business; and allocating different portions of the total discount value as costs to the first and second businesses that have different values determined as a function of a difference between a first probability that the customer will purchase an item from the first business and a second probability that the customer will purchase an item from the second business.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Benjamin L. Johnson, Florian Pinel, Donna K. Byron, Carmine Dimascio, Christie Ewen
  • Patent number: 10896444
    Abstract: A computer program product for computer generation of digital content, said computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processing resource to cause the processing resource to determine demographic designators associated with users of user devices that render interactive digital contents; group together similar input questions input into the interactive digital contents of the user devices; for each group of similar questions, create an answer to each group of similar questions; create a script from each answer; record each script and the corresponding group of similar input questions in a data repository; and insert a script from the data repository into a digital content template.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donna K. Byron, Carmine M. DiMascio, Benjamin L. Johnson, Florian Pinel
  • Publication number: 20200356553
    Abstract: A system for engaging in a recommendation-dialog with a user includes a memory having instructions therein. The system also includes at least one processor in communication with the memory. The at least one processor is configured to execute the instructions to access a recommendation domain, use a structure-mapping technique to generate a data structure based on source material from the recommendation domain, use semantic analyses to generate an ontology based on the data structure and the recommendation domain, generate recommendation-dialog queries based on properties of the data structure, generate a dialog tree based on the ontology and the recommendation-dialog queries, receive a recommendation dialog input, navigate the dialog tree to determine a recommendation, and provide the recommendation to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 9, 2019
    Publication date: November 12, 2020
    Inventors: Nicholas B. Moss, Donna K. Byron, Benjamin L. Johnson, Joanne M. Santiago
  • Patent number: 10832591
    Abstract: Mechanisms for training a human user to perform an operation and provided. The mechanisms generate a domain specific knowledge base comprising a set of entities and corresponding domain specific attributes and expand the domain specific knowledge base to include values for the domain specific attributes through an automated bootstrap learning process that performs natural language processing and analysis of natural language content using a set of pre-condition annotated action terms, thereby generating an expanded domain specific knowledge base. The mechanisms evaluate an input from another device identifying an action associated with an entity in the set of entities, based on a retrieved domain specific attribute value and the retrieved pre-condition annotation from the expanded domain specific knowledge base. The mechanisms output a notification to a user computing device indicating whether the input is correct or incorrect to thereby train a user associated with the user computing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donna K. Byron, Benjamin L. Johnson, Dan G. Tecuci
  • Patent number: 10831564
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for constructing a conversation model using documentation of an application programming interface (API) are disclosed. The conversation model can be used to train a natural language classifier. API endpoints may be represented in the API documentation as (verb, resource, element) tuples. These tuples can be converted into intent and parameters of the API endpoints can be converted into entities. In addition, example utterances may be created for each intent. The conversation model can be generated using the intents, example utterances, and/or entities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2020
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Carmine Dimascio, Benjamin L. Johnson, Florian Pinel
  • Patent number: 10803491
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method includes receiving input questions through interactive digital content and determining demographic designators associated the questions. The method further includes grouping together similar input questions and, for each group of similar questions, creating an answer. Scripts are created from each answer and each script and the corresponding group of similar input questions is recorded into a data repository.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donna K. Byron, Carmine M. DiMascio, Benjamin L. Johnson, Florian Pinel
  • Patent number: 10755035
    Abstract: In an approach to determining one or more logical breaks in a digital text, a computer determines a reading speed of a user for a current reading session of a digital text and an available time for the current reading session for the user. The computer then determines, based, at least in part, on the reading speed and the available time, a user range in the digital text for the current reading session, and then one or more possible logical breaks within the user range. The computer further determines a first logical break, based on the determined user range, of the one or more possible logical breaks for the current reading session.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Florian Pinel, Donna K. Byron, Benjamin L. Johnson, Carmine DiMascio
  • Patent number: 10726338
    Abstract: Mechanisms for automatically modifying a set of instructions based on an expanded domain specific knowledge base are provided. The mechanisms generate a domain specific knowledge base comprising a set of entities and corresponding domain specific attributes and expand the domain specific knowledge base to include values for the domain specific attributes through an automated bootstrap learning process that performs natural language processing and analysis of natural language content using a set of pre-condition annotated action terms. The mechanisms receive electronic content comprising an initial set of instructions to perform an operation and evaluate the initial set of instructions based on the expanded domain specific knowledge base to identify a missing instruction. The mechanisms modify the initial set of instructions to include an additional instruction based on the missing instruction and thereby generate a modified set of instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donna K. Byron, Benjamin L. Johnson, Dan G. Tecuci
  • Publication number: 20200234150
    Abstract: Mechanisms for automatically modifying a set of instructions based on an expanded domain specific knowledge base is provided. The mechanisms generate a domain specific knowledge base comprising a set of entities and corresponding domain specific attributes and expand the domain specific knowledge base to include values for the domain specific attributes through an automated bootstrap learning process that performs natural language processing and analysis of natural language content using a set of pre-condition annotated action terms. The mechanisms receive electronic content comprising an initial set of instructions to perform an operation and evaluate the initial set of instructions based on the expanded domain specific knowledge base to identify a missing instruction. The mechanisms modify the initial set of instructions to include an additional instruction based on the missing instruction and thereby generate a modified set of instructions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2020
    Publication date: July 23, 2020
    Inventors: Donna K. Byron, Benjamin L. Johnson, Dan G. Tecuci