Patents by Inventor Eric K. Ringger

Eric K. Ringger 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: 20140133767
    Abstract: A method for converting digital images to words includes receiving a digital image comprising text, generating a binary image from the digital image for each of N binarization threshold values to provide N binary images, converting each of the N binary images to text, and aligning the text from the N binary images to provide a word lattice for the digital image. Aligning the text may include prioritizing the text from the N binary images according to error rates on a training set. The training set may be a synthetic training set. An apparatus corresponding to the above method is also disclosed herein.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2013
    Publication date: May 15, 2014
    Applicant: Brigham Young University
    Inventors: William B. Lund, Eric K. Ringger
  • Patent number: 7868786
    Abstract: A location history is a collection of locations over time for an object. A stay is a single instance of an object spending some time in one place, and a destination is any place where one or more objects have experienced a stay. Location histories are parsed using stays and destinations. In a described implementation, each location of a location history is recorded as a spatial position and a corresponding time at which the spatial position is acquired. Stays are extracted from a location history by analyzing locations thereof with regard to a temporal threshold and a spatial threshold. Specifically, two or more locations are considered a stay if they exceed a minimum stay duration and are within a maximum roaming distance. Each stay includes a location, a starting time, and an ending time. Destinations are produced from the extracted stays using a clustering operation and a predetermined scaling factor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Kentaro Toyama, Ramaswamy Hariharan, Ross G. Cutler, John R. Douceur, Nuria M. Oliver, Eric K. Ringger, Daniel C. Robbins, Matthew T. Uyttendaele
  • Patent number: 7788086
    Abstract: The present invention provides a system for identifying, extracting, clustering and analyzing sentiment-bearing text. In one embodiment, the invention implements a pipeline capable of accessing raw text and presenting it in a highly usable and intuitive way.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Simon H. Corston-Oliver, Anthony Aue, Eric K. Ringger, Michael Gamon
  • Patent number: 7788087
    Abstract: The present invention provides a system for identifying, extracting, clustering and analyzing sentiment-bearing text. In one embodiment, the invention implements a pipeline capable of accessing raw text and presenting it in a highly usable and intuitive way.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Simon H. Corston-Oliver, Anthony Aue, Eric K. Ringger, Michael Gamon
  • Patent number: 7596485
    Abstract: A method or module for creating an Language Neutral Syntax (LNS) representation of a sentence from a language particular syntax representation such as found in the Penn Treebank for use by different applications. The method or module includes a node generator configured to create hierarchical and dependent nodes using phrasal and constituent nodes of the language particular syntax. A node dependency generator is configured to create an unordered hierarchical dependency structure for the hierarchical and dependent nodes using a semantic relation between the hierarchical and dependent nodes derived from the language particular syntax.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2009
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Richard G. Campbell, Eric K. Ringger
  • Patent number: 7593843
    Abstract: A method of decoding an input semantic structure to generate an output semantic structure. A set of transfer mappings are provided. A score is calculated for at least one transfer mapping in the set of transfer mappings using a statistical model. At least one transfer mapping is selected based on the score and used to construct the output semantic structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2009
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Anthony Aue, Eric K. Ringger, Christopher B. Quirk, Arul A. Menezes, Robert C. Moore
  • Patent number: 7496500
    Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods that determine intent for received data (e.g., email, voice, graphics . . . ) and respond to the data based on the intent. The systems and methods employ various combinations of features based on shallow and deep linguistic analysis (e.g., semantic and syntactic) to yield very high accuracy. The systems and methods analyze and categorize received data to locate data that can include intent. This data can be further refined by extracting features related to the intent. The features can be utilized by a classifier to determine the intent. If the intent warrants a response, the data are further scrutinized and reformulated to generate a description that is indicative of the intent. The reformulation can include representing the features in a logical form, transforming the form and generating a description of the intent that can be presented to a user visually and/or audibly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2009
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: David R. Reed, Eric K. Ringger, Michael Gamon, Richard G. Campbell, Robert G. Atkinson, Simon H. Corston, Malcolm E. Pearson
  • Patent number: 6983247
    Abstract: A language model comprising a plurality of augmented-word n-grams and probabilities corresponding to such n-grams. Each n-gram is comprised of a sequence of augmented words. Each augmented word is comprised of the orthographic representation of the word together with a tag representing lexical information regarding the word, such as syntactic or semantic information. Also disclosed are a method of building such a language model, a method of automatically recognizing speech using the language model and a speech recognition system that employs the language model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Eric K. Ringger, Lucian Galescu
  • Patent number: 6606597
    Abstract: A language model comprising a plurality of augmented-word n-grams and probabilities corresponding to such n-grams. Each n-gram is comprised of a sequence of augmented words. Each augmented word is comprised of the orthographic representation of the word together with a tag representing lexical information regarding the word, such as syntactic or semantic information. Also disclosed are a method of building such a language model, a method of automatically recognizing speech using the language model and a speech recognition system that employs the language model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2003
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Eric K. Ringger, Lucian Galescu
  • Publication number: 20030083863
    Abstract: A language model comprising a plurality of augmented-word n-grams and probabilities corresponding to such n-grams. Each n-gram is comprised of a sequence of augmented words. Each augmented word is comprised of the orthographic representation of the word together with a tag representing lexical information regarding the word, such as syntactic or semantic information. Also disclosed are a method of building such a language model, a method of automatically recognizing speech using the language model and a speech recognition system that employs the language model.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 12, 2002
    Publication date: May 1, 2003
    Inventors: Eric K. Ringger, Lucian Galescu