Patents by Inventor Dimitris Achlioptas

Dimitris Achlioptas 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: 7464372
    Abstract: Methods and systems of testing software and modeling user actions are described. In some embodiments, multiple different algorithms are provided for operating on a software model. The software model describes behavior associated with software that is to be tested. Different sets of algorithms can be selected for operating on the software model to produce a sequence of test actions that are to be used to test the software. The algorithms can be mixed and matched to achieve a desired testing result. In some embodiments, the different algorithms comprise deterministic algorithms, random algorithms, and various types of algorithms therebetween. In one embodiment, the software model comprises a state graph having nodes that represent state, and links between the nodes that represent actions. The different algorithms that are available for selection can have different graph traversal characteristics such that the state graph can be traversed in different manners.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dimitris Achlioptas, Christian H. Borgs, Jennifer T. Chayes, Henry J. Robinson, James R. Tierney
  • Patent number: 7433850
    Abstract: Methods and systems for finding a low rank approximation for an m×n matrix A are described. The described embodiments can independently sample and/or quantize the entries of an input matrix A, and can thus speed up computation by reducing the number of non-zero entries and/or their representation length. The embodiments can be used in connection with Singular Value Decomposition techniques to greatly benefit the processing of high-dimensional data sets in terms of storage, transmission and computation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dimitris Achlioptas, Frank D. McSherry
  • Patent number: 7337443
    Abstract: A procedure identifies a program image and generates a basic block flow graph associated with the program image. Execution of the program image is benchmarked and the basic block flow graph is annotated with the results of the benchmarking of the program image. Basic blocks of the program are then grouped into bins. When the program image is executed, a drafting scheduler stops threads before they leave a bin and schedules any threads queued for the same bin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Robert V. Welland, Galen C. Hunt, Dimitris Achlioptas
  • Patent number: 7318078
    Abstract: Systems and methods that facilitate dimensional transformations of data points are disclosed. In particular, the subject invention provides for a system and methodology that simplifies dimensional transformations while mitigating variations of a distance property between pairs of points. A set of n data points in d dimensional space is represented as an n×d input matrix, where d also corresponds to the number of attributes per data point. A transformed matrix represents the n data points in a lower dimensionality k after being mapped. The transformed matrix is an n×k matrix, where k is the number of attributes per data point and is less than d. The transformed matrix is obtained by multiplying the input matrix by a suitable projection matrix. The projection matrix is generated by randomly populating the entries of the matrix with binary or ternary values according to a probability distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Dimitris Achlioptas
  • Publication number: 20080004037
    Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides systems and/or methods that facilitate automatically maintaining a database of base stations. A location component can obtain a query that includes a listing of detected base stations. Additionally, the location component can identify whether the detected base stations are included in a base station database. Further, the location component can generate an estimated location related to the query. Moreover, a database update component can modify the base station database based at least in part upon the query.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2006
    Publication date: January 3, 2008
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Dimitris Achlioptas, John C. Krumm, Eric J. Horvitz
  • Publication number: 20070011109
    Abstract: Immortal information storage is leveraged to provide an interactive means to retrieve information associated with a physical artifact. The information persists for a substantial portion of the life of the artifact. This allows users to interact with an artifact that symbolically represents an entity, where the entity can be an organic and/or non-organic entity. A physical artifact that symbolically represents a person, animal, or a structure can be utilized. The storage system can contain easy to discover information about building a decoder or providing power and interpreting the information stored therein. A personalized interaction model can also be utilized to facilitate in providing an interactive model that responds to user queries in a fashion characteristic of the entity. Access to the immortalized information can be controlled by identity of entity seeking access, the amount of time that has passed, or events that have occurred.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2005
    Publication date: January 11, 2007
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew Wilson, Eric Horvitz, Dimitris Achlioptas
  • Publication number: 20070004385
    Abstract: A system is provided that facilitates information processing of a user. The system includes an analyzer to automatically determine one or more states of a user's availability based on patterns of the user's interruptability. A deferral component generates or forwards messages or alerts to the user in accordance with a cost-minimization analysis and determined availability. For example, the deferral component can process interrupts to the user and determine at least one of optimal and approximately optimal deferral times in which to direct an information item to the user, the information item is one of an email message, an incoming phone call, a push-to-talk message, an instant message, an alert, and requests, offers of assistance, status or error reports, or a task from another application or autonomous system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2005
    Publication date: January 4, 2007
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Eric Horvitz, Dimitris Achlioptas
  • Publication number: 20060233106
    Abstract: The invention relates to an architecture that facilitates load balancing among a plurality of hosts and preserve session affinity to a given host. An incoming stream of data packets that include packet sessions is input to one or more forwarding mechanisms for forwarding to one or more hosts. The forwarders generate a routing function that takes into consideration host availability, and distributes session packets according to the routing function. A session is distributed to the same host to preserve session affinity. When host availability changes, a new routing function is generated, such that any new session is routed according to the new routing function and existing sessions are routed according to the old routing function. When the old routing function becomes irrelevant, it is phased out. An optimization utilizes a maximally backward compatible hash function to minimize the differences between the old and new routing functions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 14, 2005
    Publication date: October 19, 2006
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dimitris Achlioptas, Sean House
  • Patent number: 7043514
    Abstract: Systems and methods that facilitate dimensional transformations of data points are disclosed. In particular, the subject invention provides for a system and methodology that simplifies dimensional transformations while mitigating variations of a distance property between pairs of points. A set of n data points in d dimensional space is represented as an n×d input matrix, where d also corresponds to the number of attributes per data point. A transformed matrix represents the n data points in a lower dimensionality k after being mapped. The transformed matrix is an n×k matrix, where k is the number of attributes per data point and is less than d. The transformed matrix is obtained by multiplying the input matrix by a suitable projection matrix. The projection matrix is generated by randomly populating the entries of the matrix with binary or ternary values according to a probability distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Dimitris Achlioptas
  • Publication number: 20060041543
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided that enable searches of social networks by acting as a “compass” that assists users in navigating the social network. Individual user participation is not required in response to queries from other users. The systems and methods offer navigational assistance or information as opposed to a traditional search which returns requested information, thus currently acceptable social mechanisms for arbitrating trust can be exploited. As a result, users do not make their personal information publicly searchable, while at the same time, they are protected from potential misrepresentations of facts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2005
    Publication date: February 23, 2006
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Dimitris Achlioptas
  • Patent number: 6996805
    Abstract: Methods and systems of testing software and modeling user actions are described. In some embodiments, multiple different algorithms are provided for operating on a software model. The software model describes behavior associated with software that is to be tested. Different sets of algorithms can be selected for operating on the software model to produce a sequence of test actions that are to be used to test the software. The algorithms can be mixed and matched to achieve a desired testing result. In some embodiments, the different algorithms comprise deterministic algorithms, random algorithms, and various types of algorithms therebetween. In one embodiment, the software model comprises a state graph having nodes that represent state, and links between the nodes that represent actions. The different algorithms that are available for selection can have different graph traversal characteristics such that the state graph can be traversed in different manners.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dimitris Achlioptas, Christian H. Borgs, Jennifer T. Chayes, Henry J. Robinson, James R. Tierney
  • Publication number: 20060015588
    Abstract: The present invention provides a unique system and method that facilitates reducing network traffic between a plurality of servers located on a social-based network. The system and method involve identifying a plurality of vertices or service users on the network with respect to their server or network locations. The vertices' contacts or connections can be located or determined as well. In order to minimize communication traffic, the vertices and their connections with respect to their respective server locations can be analyzed to determine whether at least a subset of nodes should be moved or relocated to another server to facilitate mitigating network traffic while balancing user load among the various servers or parts of the network. Thus, an underlying social network can be effectively partitioned. In addition, the network can be parsed into a collection of nested layers, whereby each successively less dense layer can be partitioned with respect to the previous (partitioned) more dense layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2004
    Publication date: January 19, 2006
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dimitris Achlioptas, Frank McSherry
  • Publication number: 20050273767
    Abstract: Methods and systems of testing software and modeling user actions are described. In some embodiments, multiple different algorithms are provided for operating on a software model. The software model describes behavior associated with software that is to be tested. Different sets of algorithms can be selected for operating on the software model to produce a sequence of test actions that are to be used to test the software. The algorithms can be mixed and matched to achieve a desired testing result. In some embodiments, the different algorithms comprise deterministic algorithms, random algorithms, and various types of algorithms therebetween. In one embodiment, the software model comprises a state graph having nodes that represent state, and links between the nodes that represent actions. The different algorithms that are available for selection can have different graph traversal characteristics such that the state graph can be traversed in different manners.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2005
    Publication date: December 8, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dimitris Achlioptas, Christian Borgs, Jennifer Chayes, Henry Robinson, James Tierney
  • Publication number: 20050268287
    Abstract: Methods and systems of testing software and modeling user actions are described. In some embodiments, multiple different algorithms are provided for operating on a software model. The software model describes behavior associated with software that is to be tested. Different sets of algorithms can be selected for operating on the software model to produce a sequence of test actions that are to be used to test the software. The algorithms can be mixed and matched to achieve a desired testing result. In some embodiments, the different algorithms comprise deterministic algorithms, random algorithms, and various types of algorithms therebetween. In one embodiment, the software model comprises a state graph having nodes that represent state, and links between the nodes that represent actions. The different algorithms that are available for selection can have different graph traversal characteristics such that the state graph can be traversed in different manners.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2005
    Publication date: December 1, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dimitris Achlioptas, Christian Borgs, Jennifer Chayes, Henry Robinson, James Tierney
  • Publication number: 20050086185
    Abstract: Methods and systems for finding a low rank approximation for an m×n matrix A are described. The described embodiments can independently sample and/or quantize the entries of an input matrix A, and can thus speed up computation by reducing the number of non-zero entries and/or their representation length. The embodiments can be used in connection with Singular Value Decomposition techniques to greatly benefit the processing of high-dimensional data sets in terms of storage, transmission and computation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2004
    Publication date: April 21, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dimitris Achlioptas, Frank McSherry
  • Publication number: 20050071479
    Abstract: The present invention provides for systems and methods that facilitate conveying user information between and among users effectively to thereby create a collaborative filtering environment with maintained user privacy. More specifically, the present invention allows user-profile building to occur coincident with user-browsing, for example. This can be accomplished in part by incorporating an input component on the user interface used for browsing and/or searching. A user who has opted-in to construct a personal profile makes declarations regarding his relationship with at least a portion of the information being currently viewed. The declarations are annotated to the user's profile. At the user's discretion, the user's profile can be disseminated to others in whole or in part such that other people can make use of the user's expertise, experience or opinions. In addition, the user profiles can be machine-readable and searchable.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2003
    Publication date: March 31, 2005
    Inventor: Dimitris Achlioptas
  • Publication number: 20050033708
    Abstract: Methods and systems for finding a low rank approximation for an m×n matrix A are described. The described embodiments can independently sample and/or quantize the entries of an input matrix A, and can thus speed up computation by reducing the number of non-zero entries and/or their representation length. The embodiments can be used in connection with Singular Value Decomposition techniques to greatly benefit the processing of high-dimensional data sets in terms of storage, transmission and computation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2004
    Publication date: February 10, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dimitris Achlioptas, Frank McSherry
  • Publication number: 20040268350
    Abstract: A procedure identifies a program image and generates a basic block flow graph associated with the program image. Execution of the program image is benchmarked and the basic block flow graph is annotated with the results of the benchmarking of the program image. Basic blocks of the program are then grouped into bins. When the program image is executed, a drafting scheduler stops threads before they leave a bin and schedules any threads queued for the same bin.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2003
    Publication date: December 30, 2004
    Inventors: Robert V. Welland, Galen C. Hunt, Dimitris Achlioptas
  • Patent number: 6807536
    Abstract: Methods and systems for finding a low rank approximation for an m×n matrix A are described. The described embodiments can independently sample and/or quantize the entries of an input matrix A, and can thus speed up computation by reducing the number of non-zero entries and/or their representation length. The embodiments can be used in connection with Singular Value Decomposition techniques to greatly benefit the processing of high-dimensional data sets in terms of storage, transmission and computation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2004
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dimitris Achlioptas, Frank D. McSherry
  • Publication number: 20040148275
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided that enable searches of social networks by acting as a “compass” that assists users in navigating the social network. Individual user participation is not required in response to queries from other users. The systems and methods offer navigational assistance or information as opposed to a traditional search which returns requested information, thus currently acceptable social mechanisms for arbitrating trust can be exploited. As a result, users do not make their personal information publicly searchable, while at the same time, they are protected from potential misrepresentations of facts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2003
    Publication date: July 29, 2004
    Inventor: Dimitris Achlioptas