Patents by Inventor Christopher Andrew Stephens

Christopher Andrew Stephens 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).

  • Patent number: 11887046
    Abstract: A system may use sensor data from a facility to generate tentative values associated with an event, such as the identification of an item removed from a shelf of the facility. A confidence value associated with each of the tentative values may be less than a confidence threshold. In response, inquiry data seeking confirmation of a tentative value from an associate is generated and sent to one or more associates in the facility. Responses from the associates are collected to determine a selection of one of the tentative values. The selected tentative value is designated as output data for the system. Thereafter, the output data and the original sensor data are designated as training data, which can then be used to train or update machine learning systems. Subsequent use of the updated machine learning systems can yield more accurate results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Christopher Andrew Stephens, Alexander Clark Prater, Alexander Michael McNamara, Sridhar Boyapati, David Echevarria Ignacio, David William Bettis, Korwin Jon Smith, Kevin Alexander Lee, Aaron Craig Thompson, Gary Paolo Raden, Sudarshan Narasimha Raghavan, Dilip Kumar, Félix Joseph Étienne Pageau
  • Publication number: 20210220746
    Abstract: Video game tasks are delegated using a sharing service. A first computing device is configured to execute a game application. The first computing device can receive a request from a first user to delegate play of the game application to a second user so that the second user can attempt to complete a game task on behalf of the first user by controlling the game application from a second computing device that is associated with the second user. Control of the game application can be made available from the second computing device to the first computing device via a sharing session that is created and managed by a sharing service to which the first computing device and the second computing device are connected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2017
    Publication date: July 22, 2021
    Inventors: Salman Aftab Paracha, Christopher Andrew Stephens, Calvin Yue-Ren Kuo, Won Suk Yoo
  • Patent number: 10796358
    Abstract: This disclosure describes a system for identifying users and/or their companions, utilizing the behavior and gestures of a user's companion to assist the user, and developing user paths based on user and/or companion preferences. A companion profile may be established to identify the companion and associated the companion with the user. Likewise, a user pattern that includes both the user and the companion may be established and used to track the location of the user and/or companion while in the materials handling facility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2020
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jon Robert Ducrou, Christopher Andrew Stephens, Ismael Medrano, Ammar Chinoy, Michel Leonard Goldstein, Elie Micah Kornfield
  • Patent number: 10733565
    Abstract: Described is an interactive data processing system configured to facilitate selection by a human associate of tentative values generated by an automated system from sensor data. In one implementation, an event may take place in a materials handling facility. The event may comprise a pick or place of an item from an inventory location, movement of a user, and so forth. The sensor data associated with the event is processed by an automated system to determine tentative values associated with the event. In some situations, an uncertainty may exist as to which of the tentative values accurately reflects the actual event. The sensor data and tentative values may be provided to a human associate. The associate may select one of the tentative values. The selected tentative value and the sensor data may be used to train the automated system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Christopher Andrew Stephens, Alexander Clark Prater, Alexander Michael McNamara, Sridhar Boyapati, David Echevarria Ignacio, David William Bettis, Korwin Jon Smith, Kevin Alexander Lee, Aaron Craig Thompson, Gary Paolo Raden, Sudarshan Narasimha Raghavan, Dilip Kumar, Félix Joseph Étienne Pageau
  • Patent number: 10657119
    Abstract: A fleet node management system may include a metadata store, a plurality of fleet nodes, and one or more metadata mutation devices. The metadata store may be configured to store dynamic metadata. The plurality of fleet nodes may be configured to determine, based on a gossip protocol, whether to continue performance of a function that uses a local version of the metadata. The one or more metadata mutation devices may be configured to determine, based on a global state of the fleet nodes, whether to modify the dynamic metadata for the fleet nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Alazel Acheson, David Carroll, Christopher Andrew Stephens, Seth William Markle, Jonathan Herman, Mihir Dharamshi, Rajesh Sampath, Shreeranga Puttur Ramakrishna, Rameez Sajwani
  • Patent number: 10649976
    Abstract: Routing data is copied from a primary data store to a local data store of a computing device. As the routing data is being copied by the computing device, changes to the data continue to occur. After copying all or a portion of the data, the computing device uses a value of a global sequence number (GSN) to determine if mutations have been made to the primary data. The routing data in the local data store is not consistent with the routing data stored in the primary data store when the value of the GSN is larger after the copying of the routing data as compared to the initial value of the GSN when the copying started. When changes have been made to the data, the computing device integrates the changes into the local data store before beginning routing operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2020
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Alazel Acheson, Christopher Andrew Stephens, Seth William Markle, Subhakanta Kar
  • Patent number: 10536492
    Abstract: A computing device executes an application that is configured to call a sharing service application programming interface (“API”) to create a sharing session via a sharing service. The application can call the sharing service API to utilize one or more methods exposed by the sharing service API to connect to the sharing service and initiated the creation of the sharing session. The computing device can join the sharing session with one or more other computing devices. The computing device can receive data via the sharing session from one or more of the other computing devices. The data can include screen data and/or application data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Won Suk Yoo, Christopher Andrew Stephens, Calvin Yue-Ren Kuo, Salman Aftab Paracha
  • Patent number: 10460120
    Abstract: A key-value store is adapted to represent hierarchical structures, such as directory structures, to be associated with objects otherwise mapped to a flat keyspace. For example, one or more key-value pairs stored in the key-value store are designated to have a key indicating the name of a hierarchical structure, and an associated value that maps the structure to a namespace (e.g., of a group of objects to be associated with a directory). Inbound requests for operations related to the objects in a given namespace and defining the structure are checked against such “redirecting” key-value pairs, as well as one or more policies associated with the structure, the namespace, the key-value pairs, or some combination thereof, to determine whether the structure is related to the namespace objects and whether one or more requested actions are authorized against that structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Andrew Stephens, Alazel Acheson, Douglas Stewart Laurence, Seth William Markle
  • Patent number: 10303669
    Abstract: A key-value store is adapted to represent hierarchical structures, such as directory structures, to be associated with objects otherwise mapped to a flat keyspace. For example, one or more key-value pairs stored in the key-value store are designated to have a key indicating the name of a hierarchical structure, and an associated value that maps the structure to a namespace (e.g., of a group of objects to be associated with a directory). Inbound requests for operations related to the objects in a given namespace and defining the structure are checked against such “redirecting” key-value pairs to determine whether the structure is related to the namespace objects, and if so, the request is internally processed to perform the requested operations against the actual key-value pair(s) associated with the objects without necessitating identification of the objects with a fully qualified name as represented in the flat keyspace.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Andrew Stephens, Alazel Acheson, Douglas Stewart Laurence, Seth William Markle
  • Patent number: 9731206
    Abstract: Video game tasks are delegated using a sharing service. A first computing device is configured to execute a game application. The first computing device can receive a request from a first user to delegate play of the game application to a second user so that the second user can attempt to complete a game task on behalf of the first user by controlling the game application from a second computing device that is associated with the second user. Control of the game application can be made available from the second computing device to the first computing device via a sharing session that is created and managed by a sharing service to which the first computing device and the second computing device are connected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Salman Aftab Paracha, Christopher Andrew Stephens, Calvin Yue-Ren Kuo, Won Suk Yoo
  • Publication number: 20170223073
    Abstract: A computing device executes an application that is configured to call a sharing service application programming interface (“API”) to create a sharing session via a sharing service. The application can call the sharing service API to utilize one or more methods exposed by the sharing service API to connect to the sharing service and initiated the creation of the sharing session. The computing device can join the sharing session with one or more other computing devices. The computing device can receive data via the sharing session from one or more of the other computing devices. The data can include screen data and/or application data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 14, 2017
    Publication date: August 3, 2017
    Inventors: Won Suk Yoo, Christopher Andrew Stephens, Calvin Yue-Ren Kuo, Salman Aftab Paracha
  • Patent number: 9672051
    Abstract: A computing device executes an application that is configured to call a sharing service application programming interface (“API”) to create a sharing session via a sharing service. The application can call the sharing service API to utilize one or more methods exposed by the sharing service API to connect to the sharing service and initiated the creation of the sharing session. The computing device can join the sharing session with one or more other computing devices. The computing device can receive data via the sharing session from one or more of the other computing devices. The data can include screen data and/or application data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Won Suk Yoo, Calvin Yue-Ren Kuo, Salman Aftab Paracha, Christopher Andrew Stephens