Patents by Inventor Danny B. Lange

Danny B. Lange 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: 10614077
    Abstract: A system includes a processing device configured to execute instructions including accessing messages sent by a first user and other users. The instructions include identifying a first subset of messages that were sent by the first user and identifying a second subset of messages that are related to a first topic and were sent by the first user. The instructions include determining an authority value based on counts of the first and second subsets. The instructions include identifying a third subset of messages that resulted from the other users forwarding the second subset. The instructions include determining a power value based on a count of users that sent the third subset and computing an impact score for the first user on the first topic based on the authority and power values. The instructions include, based on the impact score, contacting the first user in relation to the first topic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2020
    Assignee: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Danny B. Lange, Hung-Chih Yang, Xiong Zhang, Graham A. Wheeler, Jason J. Joyce, David M. Moore, Bhalchandra Pandit
  • Patent number: 9934512
    Abstract: A system includes a memory storing a dataset representing a community of users of a social networking service, the social networking service providing a platform enabling a user within the community to communicate with at least one of a plurality of other users within the community. The system includes a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to determine a ranking of the service users in the dataset based on an initial influence score for at least one of the users. The processor is also configured to determine a contribution to a first user within the community by at least one second user of the plurality of other users within the community, and calculate an influence score for the first user. The ranking is revised based at least in part on the calculated influence score, and information is rendered to a target user based on the revised ranking.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Hung-Chih Yang, Danny B. Lange, Xiong Zhang
  • Publication number: 20170286429
    Abstract: A system includes a processing device configured to execute instructions including accessing messages sent by a first user and other users. The instructions include identifying a first subset of messages that were sent by the first user and identifying a second subset of messages that are related to a first topic and were sent by the first user. The instructions include determining an authority value based on counts of the first and second subsets. The instructions include identifying a third subset of messages that resulted from the other users forwarding the second subset. The instructions include determining a power value based on a count of users that sent the third subset and computing an impact score for the first user on the first topic based on the authority and power values. The instructions include, based on the impact score, contacting the first user in relation to the first topic.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 18, 2017
    Publication date: October 5, 2017
    Inventors: Danny B. LANGE, Hung-Chih YANG, Xiong ZHANG, Graham A. WHEELER, Jason J. JOYCE, David M. MOORE, Bhalchandra PANDIT
  • Patent number: 9672255
    Abstract: This patent relates to a system for identifying influential users of a social network platform. The system may access records of messages sent or received by a plurality of users. The system can determine a power of a user to reach other users based at least in part on the messages. The system can determine an authority of the user on a topic. The system can also compute an impact score that reflects both the power and the authority of the user on the topic. Such scores may be used to select users based on impact as part of social trend analysis, marketing or other functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Danny B. Lange, Hung-Chih Yang, Xiong Zhang, Graham A. Wheeler, Jason J. Joyce, David M. Moore, Bhalchandra Pandit
  • Publication number: 20160188604
    Abstract: A system for identifying influential users of a social network platform. The system may compute a score for each of multiple users. Such a score may be topic-based, leading to a more accurate identification of influential users. Such a topic-based score may indicate authority and/or impact of a user with respect to a topic. The impact may be computed based on authority combined with other factors, such as power of the user. The authority score may be simply computed, in whole or in part, directly from a tweet log without, for example creating a retweet graph. As a result, the scores may be computed, using MapReduce primitives or other constructs that allow the computations to be distributed across multiple parallel processors. Such scores may be used to select users based on impact as part of social trend analysis, marketing or other functions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2016
    Publication date: June 30, 2016
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Danny B. LANGE, Hung-Chih YANG, Xiong ZHANG, Graham A. WHEELER, Jason J. JOYCE, David M. MOORE, Bhalchandra PANDIT
  • Publication number: 20160125432
    Abstract: A system includes a memory storing a dataset representing a community of users of a social networking service, the social networking service providing a platform enabling a user within the community to communicate with at least one of a plurality of other users within the community. The system includes a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to determine a ranking of the service users in the dataset based on an initial influence score for at least one of the users. The processor is also configured to determine a contribution to a first user within the community by at least one second user of the plurality of other users within the community, and calculate an influence score for the first user. The ranking is revised based at least in part on the calculated influence score, and information is rendered to a target user based on the revised ranking.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2015
    Publication date: May 5, 2016
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Hung-Chih Yang, Danny B. Lange, Xiong Zhang
  • Patent number: 9294576
    Abstract: A system for identifying influential users of a social network platform. The system may compute a score for each of multiple users. Such a score may be topic-based, leading to a more accurate identification of influential users. Such a topic-based score may indicate authority and/or impact of a user with respect to a topic. The impact may be computed based on authority combined with other factors, such as power of the user. The authority score may be simply computed, in whole or in part, directly from a tweet log without, for example creating a retweet graph. As a result, the scores may be computed, using MapReduce primitives or other constructs that allow the computations to be distributed across multiple parallel processors. Such scores may be used to select users based on impact as part of social trend analysis, marketing or other functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Danny B. Lange, Hung-Chih Yang, Xiong Zhang, Graham A. Wheeler, Jason J. Joyce, David M. Moore, Bhalchandra Pandit
  • Patent number: 9218630
    Abstract: Techniques for identifying influential users of a social networking service are provided. Influential users may be identified via an algorithm in which an influence score is assigned to each user based at least in part on other members of the community users having taken an affirmative step with respect to the user's communications. Iterative processing may be performed, with each user's influence score being determined by contributions from other users, and each contribution being determined by the contributor's influence score as of a prior iteration. A map-reduce framework may be employed, with data representing the community being partitioned into a plurality of discrete shards, a map process corresponding to each shard calculating an influence score for users represented in the shard, and reduce processes ranking users according to influence score across all shards.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Hung-Chih Yang, Danny B. Lange, Xiong Zhang
  • Publication number: 20140189000
    Abstract: A system for identifying influential users of a social network platform. The system may compute a score for each of multiple users. Such a score may be topic-based, leading to a more accurate identification of influential users. Such a topic-based score may indicate authority and/or impact of a user with respect to a topic. The impact may be computed based on authority combined with other factors, such as power of the user. The authority score may be simply computed, in whole or in part, directly from a tweet log without, for example creating a retweet graph. As a result, the scores may be computed, using MapReduce primitives or other constructs that allow the computations to be distributed across multiple parallel processors. Such scores may be used to select users based on impact as part of social trend analysis, marketing or other functions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 2, 2013
    Publication date: July 3, 2014
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Xiong Zhang, Hung-Chih Yang, Danny B. Lange, Scott J. Counts, David M. Moore, Graham A. Wheeler, Bhalchandra Pandit
  • Publication number: 20140189536
    Abstract: A system for identifying influential users of a social network platform. The system may compute a score for each of multiple users. Such a score may be topic-based, leading to a more accurate identification of influential users. Such a topic-based score may indicate authority and/or impact of a user with respect to a topic. The impact may be computed based on authority combined with other factors, such as power of the user. The authority score may be simply computed, in whole or in part, directly from a tweet log without, for example creating a retweet graph. As a result, the scores may be computed, using MapReduce primitives or other constructs that allow the computations to be distributed across multiple parallel processors. Such scores may be used to select users based on impact as part of social trend analysis, marketing or other functions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 2, 2013
    Publication date: July 3, 2014
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Danny B. Lange, Hung-Chih Yang, Xiong Zhang, Graham A. Wheeler, Jason J. Joyce, David M. Moore, Bhalchandra Pandit
  • Publication number: 20130254280
    Abstract: Techniques for identifying influential users of a social networking service are provided. Influential users may be identified via an algorithm in which an influence score is assigned to each user based at least in part on other members of the community users having taken an affirmative step with respect to the user's communications. Iterative processing may be performed, with each user's influence score being determined by contributions from other users, and each contribution being determined by the contributor's influence score as of a prior iteration. A map-reduce framework may be employed, with data representing the community being partitioned into a plurality of discrete shards, a map process corresponding to each shard calculating an influence score for users represented in the shard, and reduce processes ranking users according to influence score across all shards.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2012
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hung-Chih Yang, Danny B. Lange, Xiong Zhang
  • Publication number: 20130253888
    Abstract: Some embodiments of the invention employ algorithms enabling the calculation of one or more statistical moments in a single pass of a dataset. For example, some embodiments may apply algorithms for calculating statistical moments to a dataset using a map-reduce framework, whereby an input dataset is partitioned into multiple shards, a separate map process is used to apply an algorithm enabling calculation of one or more statistical moments in a single scan to each shard, and one or more reduce processes consolidate the results generated by the map processes to calculate the one or more statistical moments across the entire dataset. In other embodiments of the invention, a map-reduce framework may be employed to apply algorithms enabling calculation of a covariance between data elements expressed in a dataset, instead of or in addition to one or more statistical moments.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2012
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hung-Chih Yang, Xiong Zhang, Danny B. Lange
  • Patent number: 6282563
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to a mobile agent technique, and in particular to a method for moving/transmitting to a desired computer, an agent and a message that the agent issues. According to the present invention, a temporary storage area (a computer having a storage device) for a destination computer of a mobile agent and a message is provided. When a mobile agent or a message can not move directly to a destination computer, the mobile agent and the message are temporarily stored in the temporary storage area. At an appropriate time, the destination computer extracts from the temporary storage area the agent and the message addressed to it. Since the temporary storage area is provided, the movement of the agent and the transmission of the message are ensured. Also because the temporary storage device is provided, the destination computer can accept a mobile agent and a message in accordance with the situation and the condition of the destination computer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gaku Yamamoto, Kazuya Kosaka, Mitsuru Oshima, Danny B. Lange