Patents by Inventor Eric W. Will

Eric W. Will 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: 8086574
    Abstract: The present invention generally provides systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for maintaining a data warehouse having a plurality of fields updated with data from one or more data sources. Rather than automatically update every field of data available in the warehouse, a limited subset of fields identified through their involvement in queries issued against the warehouse are updated. By limiting the fields that are updated, the network bandwidth required to transmit the updates to the data warehouse may be reduced. Further, by removing fields from the data warehouse that are not in use, the size of the data warehouse may be reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 8086623
    Abstract: Articles of manufacture and systems for searching collections of data using context sensitive expanded term searching are provided. The collection of data may be a relational database, text document, or any other type of searchable collection of data. In either case, a query including a search condition based on a specified search term may be modified to include additional conditions based on a set of expanded (e.g., conceptually-related) search terms. For some embodiments, a user may be given the ability to control the level of expansion and the context in which the terms may be expanded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, David G. Herbeck, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Eric W. Will, Christopher Chute, James Buntrock, Serguei Pakhomov
  • Patent number: 8041702
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for searching for a documents residing on a network comprises receiving a search request from a user. The search request comprises one or more search terms of an ontology. The ontology includes a plurality of terms. One or more of the plurality of terms includes a plurality of sub-category terms. One or more documents residing on the network is identified based on the one or more search terms and an ontology index. The ontology index comprises a plurality of relationships between the plurality of terms and sub-category terms of the ontology and a plurality of documents residing on the network. One or more search results that describe the one or more documents is presented to the user. The one or more documents contain the one or more search terms, or one of the plurality of sub-category terms of the one or more search terms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas John Eggebraaten, Jeffrey Wayne Tenner, Shannon Everett Wenzel, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 8032765
    Abstract: The present invention generally is directed to systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for securing sensitive information involved in database transactions. Embodiments of the present invention selectively encrypt only portions of transactions involving sensitive data, thereby reducing or eliminating the processing overhead resulting from wastefully encrypting non-sensitive data. The sensitive data may be identified by a document. The document may be accessed by a requesting entity to determine which portions of a query should be encrypted prior to sending the query to a database server over a network. The document may also be accessed by a database server to determine which portions of query results should be encrypted prior to sending the query results to the requesting entity over the network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 8001389
    Abstract: The present invention generally is directed to systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for securing sensitive information involved in database transactions. Embodiments of the present invention selectively encrypt only portions of transactions involving sensitive data, thereby reducing or eliminating the processing overhead resulting from wastefully encrypting non-sensitive data. The sensitive data may be identified by a document. The document may be accessed by a requesting entity to determine which portions of a query should be encrypted prior to sending the query to a database server over a network. The document may also be accessed by a database server to determine which portions of query results should be encrypted prior to sending the query results to the requesting entity over the network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 7992010
    Abstract: The present invention generally is directed to systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for securing sensitive information involved in database transactions. Embodiments of the present invention selectively encrypt only portions of transactions involving sensitive data, thereby reducing or eliminating the processing overhead resulting from wastefully encrypting non-sensitive data. The sensitive data may be identified by a document. The document may be accessed by a requesting entity to determine which portions of a query should be encrypted prior to sending the query to a database server over a network. The document may also be accessed by a database server to determine which portions of query results should be encrypted prior to sending the query results to the requesting entity over the network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20100211586
    Abstract: Methods, articles of manufacture and systems are provided for simplifying a query building process by limiting the number of fields presented to a user for building queries. The number of fields presented to the user may be limited by hiding one or more logical fields from the user based on usage characteristics. For example, a logical field that is rarely used or has not been used within a predetermined period of time may be hidden from the user. For some embodiments, a fallout manager may monitor the use of logical fields in building queries, update usage characteristics, and mark logical fields as hidden based on the usage characteristics. A graphical user interface may not present to a user logical fields that have been marked as hidden.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 28, 2010
    Publication date: August 19, 2010
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20100185634
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention allow structured data to be transferred between a source application and target applications that process structured data in different formats. For example, structured data may have associated rules which transform the structured data based on some variables. The source application may register variable definitions for each variable in a registry. Each target application may read the registry and register values for the variables. Once values are registered, the source application transfers the structured data to a transformation engine that applies the rules, using the registered values for the variables, to transform the structured data into a format compatible with the target applications. The transformation engine may also determine distinct sets of variable values and transform structured data based on each distinct set. In doing so, the number of transformed data generated is limited to the number of distinct sets, thereby avoiding generating duplicate transformed data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2009
    Publication date: July 22, 2010
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Shannon E. Wenzel, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20100185635
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention allow structured data to be transferred between a source application and a service-oriented target application that process data in different formats. The data to be transferred may be divided into different sections, where each section is processed by a respective service of the target application. To transform each section of data into a format compatible with a respective service, the data may have a set of associated rules which transform data based on a set of variables. The source application may provide variable definitions for each of the variables. Each service of the target application may specify values for each of the variables. Once the variables have a specified value, a transformation engine may transform each section of the data and subsequently transfer the transformed sections of the data to respective services of the target application for processing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2009
    Publication date: July 22, 2010
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Shannon E. Wenzel, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20100185696
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention allow structured data to be transferred between a source application and a target application that process structured data in different formats. For example, structured data may have a set of associated rules which transform the structured data based on a set of variables. The source application may register variable definitions for each of the variables in a registry. The target application may read the registry and register values for each of the rule variables. Once values are registered for the variables, the source application may transfer the structured data to a transformation engine that applies the rules, using the registered values for the variables, to transform the structured data into a format compatible with the target application. In doing so, the transformation engine can generate a document in any format compatible with the target application and subsequently transfer the generated document to the target application.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2009
    Publication date: July 22, 2010
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Shannon E. Wenzel, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 7734646
    Abstract: The present invention generally provides methods, articles of manufacture and systems for simplifying a query building process by limiting the number of fields presented to a user for building queries. The number of fields presented to the user may be limited by hiding one or more logical fields from the user based on usage characteristics. For example, a logical field that is rarely used or has not been used within a predetermined period of time may be hidden from the user. For some embodiments, a fallout manager may monitor the use of logical fields in building queries, update usage characteristics, and mark logical fields as hidden based on the usage characteristics. A graphical user interface may not present to a user logical fields that have been marked as hidden.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20100057811
    Abstract: Articles of manufacture and systems for searching collections of data using context sensitive expanded term searching are provided. The collection of data may be a relational database, text document, or any other type of searchable collection of data. In either case, a query including a search condition based on a specified search term may be modified to include additional conditions based on a set of expanded (e.g., conceptually-related) search terms. For some embodiments, a user may be given the ability to control the level of expansion and the context in which the terms may be expanded.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 6, 2009
    Publication date: March 4, 2010
    Applicants: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, MAYO FOUNDATION FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, David G. Herbeck, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Eric W. Will, Christopher G. Chute, James D. Buntrock, Serguei V. Pakhomov
  • Publication number: 20100010980
    Abstract: Methods, articles of manufacture and systems for searching collections of data using context sensitive expanded term searching using dynamic term expansion are provided. The collection of data may be a relational database, text document, or any other type of searchable collection of data. In either case, a query including a search condition based on a specified search term may be modified to include additional conditions based on a set of expanded (e.g., conceptually-related) search terms dynamically linked with the query. For some embodiments, a user may be given the ability to choose whether the set of expanded search terms are dynamically linked with the query or not.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2009
    Publication date: January 14, 2010
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, David G. Herbeck, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20090300471
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention may be used to improve enforcement and compliance with publishing rules in an automated and provable manner. Prior to publication, documents may be processed using publishing rules (workflows) based on conceptual analysis of document content. Additionally, embodiments of the invention include a content creation system configured to provide prompt feedback on content coverage. Such a system enables the creator of information to better understand what approval requirements apply to content they create and intend to publish, as the content is being created.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2008
    Publication date: December 3, 2009
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20090300705
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention may be used to improve enforcement and compliance with publishing rules in an automated and provable manner. Prior to publication, documents may be processed using publishing rules (workflows) based on conceptual analysis of document content. Additionally, embodiments of the invention include a content creation system configured to provide prompt feedback on content coverage. Such a system enables the creator of information to better understand what approval requirements apply to content they create and intend to publish, as the content is being created.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2008
    Publication date: December 3, 2009
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20090300064
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention may be used to improve enforcement and compliance with publishing rules in an automated and provable manner. Prior to publication, documents may be processed using publishing rules (workflows) based on conceptual analysis of document content. Additionally, embodiments of the invention include a content creation system configured to provide prompt feedback on content coverage. Such a system enables the creator of information to better understand what approval requirements apply to content they create and intend to publish, as the content is being created.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2008
    Publication date: December 3, 2009
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Brian E. Olson, Eric W. Will
  • Publication number: 20090299984
    Abstract: The present invention generally provides methods, articles of manufacture and systems for exposing, on a client device, fields of a data model representing an underlying database for use in building queries against the database. For some embodiments, the client device may be a device having limited resources, such as a handheld computing device. Therefore, rather than load and expose the entire data model on the client at once, a limited portion of the data model may be exposed on a client in a “just in time” (JIT) basis. The limited portion may be determined, for example, based on input received from a user and system parameters, such as the system memory and network bandwidth available to the client device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2009
    Publication date: December 3, 2009
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 7627597
    Abstract: The present invention generally provides systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for maintaining a data warehouse having a plurality of fields updated with data from one or more data sources. Rather than automatically update every field of data available in the warehouse, a limited subset of fields identified through their involvement in queries issued against the warehouse are updated. By limiting the fields that are updated, the network bandwidth required to transmit the updates to the data warehouse may be reduced. Further, by removing fields from the data warehouse that are not in use, the size of the data warehouse may be reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
  • Patent number: 7617196
    Abstract: Methods, articles of manufacture, and systems for searching collections of data using context sensitive expanded term searching are provided. The collection of data may be a relational database, text document, or any other type of searchable collection of data. In either case, a query including a search condition based on a specified search term may be modified to include additional conditions based on a set of expanded (e.g., conceptually-related) search terms. For some embodiments, a user may be given the ability to control the level of expansion and the context in which the terms may be expanded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, David G. Herbeck, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Eric W. Will, Christopher G. Chute, James D. Buntrock, Serguei V. Pakhomov
  • Patent number: 7593929
    Abstract: Methods, articles of manufacture, and systems for searching collections of data using context sensitive expanded term searching using dynamic term expansion are provided. The collection of data may be a relational database, text document, or any other type of searchable collection of data. In either case, a query including a search condition based on a specified search term may be modified to include additional conditions based on a set of expanded (e.g., conceptually-related) search terms dynamically linked with the query. For some embodiments, a user may be given the ability to choose whether the set of expanded search terms are dynamically linked with the query or not.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, David G. Herbeck, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Eric W. Will