Abstract: Architecture that enables shared social selection by multiple participants of a route (or routes) to a physical destination based at least in part on estimated time-of-arrival (ETA) of the participants to the destination as a group, and joint selection of the destination as a group. The individuals of the group may travel from different locations and along same or different routes to the destination. The architecture assists in planning shared (and/or separate) routes to the destination and estimating the time the group as a whole will be together at the destination. The ETA for the group can be based on the person of the group estimated to arrive at the destination last in time. Interaction capabilities (e.g., texting) are facilitated between group members as part of the navigation system, and dynamic destination decisions can be based on user locations, calculated routes, and/or the type of destination.

Abstract: In the field of computing, many scenarios involve the execution of an application within a virtual environment (e.g., web applications executing within a web browser). In order to perform background processing, such applications may invoke worker processes within the virtual environment; however, this configuration couples the life cycle of worker processes to the life cycle of the application and/or virtual environment. Presented herein are techniques for executing worker processes outside of the virtual environment and independently of the life cycle of the application, such that background computation may persist after the application and/or virtual environment are terminated and even after a computing environment restart, and for notifying the application upon the worker process achieving an execution event (e.g., detecting device events even while the application is not executing).

Abstract: An embodiment of the invention provides a check-in verification system (VCS) that verifies a check-in by a user using a smartphone to check-in at a venue, by verifying that a geolocation provided by the smartphone agrees with a location of the venue and that a password used by the user and the venue are the same.

Abstract: Architecture that identifies and learns repeated user behavior (habits) related to routes of travel and points of interest. Once learned, the habits of an individual can be used to make an algorithm more efficient, and hence, the user experience of an application more effective and enjoyable. The capability to more accurately infer user behavior based on user history can be employed to operate (e.g., power down or place in components standby to conserve power) user device resources in a more efficient manner. It can be identified that a user has deviated from a routine route that has associated points of interest to a new route that has associated new points of interest. Once identified, the original set of points of interest for the routine route is then updated with new points of interest. The identification of fixed routes can be determined dynamically as well as deviation from a fixed route.

Abstract: An embodiment of the invention provides a method of determining a location of a mobile target that processes locations for the target provided by a wireless location technology tracker system to determine if the locations are outliers, discards locations that are determined to be outliers, and uses locations determined not to be outliers as locations for the target.

Abstract: An embodiment of the invention provides a method of determining a location of a mobile target, that use data characterizing features of the target, data characterizing an environment in which the target is located, and a region of uncertainty for a location of the target provided by a wireless location technology tracker to provide a location for the target having a region of uncertainty that is smaller than that provided by the wireless technology.

Abstract: Architecture that enables a user to define areas of interest in advance, and while in motion (e.g., driving, walking, riding, etc.), the architecture automatically notifies the user and/or user device based on notification criteria such as when the user (user device) is near a specific point of interest which matches a category of points of interest (e.g., museum, restaurants, concerts, police radar, etc.), is heading in the direction of the point of interest, anticipates time of arrival to the point of interest, etc. The architecture enables the discovery of points of interest that did not exist when the user defined the location query for the category of points of interest. Moreover, points of interest that change in location and/or time can also be discovered. Implicit location queries can be processed based on a product of interest or service of interest as well.

Abstract: Information is automatically located which is relevant to source content that a user is viewing on a user interface without requiring the user to perform an additional search or navigate links of the source content. The source content can be, e.g., a web page or a document from a word processing or email application. The relevant information can include images, videos, web pages, maps or other location-based information, people-based information and special services which aggregate different types of information. Related content is located by analyzing textual content, user behavior and connectivity relative to the source. The related content is scored for similarity to the source. Content which is sufficiently similar but not too similar is selected. Similar related content is grouped to select representative results. The selected content is filtering in multiple stages based on attribute priorities to avoid unnecessary processing of content which is filtered out an early stage.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are disclosed for operating system-based application recovery. A particular method saves an application state of an application executing at a computer. When a failure of the application is detected, the operating system provides an option to initiate recovery of the application by reverting to the saved application state. When the option to initiate recovery is selected by a user of the computer, the operating system recovers the application by reverting to the saved application state.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are disclosed for operating system-based application recovery. A particular method saves an application state of an application executing at a computer. When a failure of the application is detected, the operating system provides an option to initiate recovery of the application by reverting to the saved application state. When the option to initiate recovery is selected by a user of the computer, the operating system recovers the application by reverting to the saved application state.

Abstract: Information is automatically located which is relevant to source content that a user is viewing on a user interface without requiring the user to perform an additional search or navigate links of the source content. The source content can be, e.g., a web page or a document from a word processing or email application. The relevant information can include images, videos, web pages, maps or other location-based information, people-based information and special services which aggregate different types of information. Related content is located by analyzing textual content, user behavior and connectivity relative to the source. The related content is scored for similarity to the source. Content which is sufficiently similar but not too similar is selected. Similar related content is grouped to select representative results. The selected content is filtering in multiple stages based on attribute priorities to avoid unnecessary processing of content which is filtered out an early stage.