Abstract: A method of replicating service state among a plurality of nodes in a computer system includes sending a request for a service to an owner node, the owner node being selected based on the service targeted by the request; receiving a completion of the request after execution of a handler of a service instance on the owner node, where the service instance is an instance of the service and the completion indicates that the handler successfully updated a state of the service on the owner node; replicating the updated state of the service as a proposed state among a plurality of peer nodes and receiving replies from the plurality of peer nodes about verification of the proposed state; and providing a response to the request, from the owner node, for transmission to a client that originated the request, the response being generated based on the replies.

Abstract: A method of managing memory of a control plane for services in a computer system that includes executing a service host process of the control plane on a software platform of the computer system, the service host process including runtime software configured to manage lifecycles of objects representing the services, the objects being associated with the service host process and being marked as available; determining an amount of memory in the computer system consumed by the objects; marking a plurality of the objects as paused in response to the amount of memory consumed by the objects exceeding a threshold; storing at least a portion of a runtime context of each of the plurality of objects in storage of the computer system; and disassociating the plurality of objects from the service host process to reclaim memory consumed by the objects.

Abstract: A method managing a state of a service of a control plane in a computer system includes: executing a service host process of the control plane on a software platform of the computer system; creating, by the service host process, a service object representing the service and a service document object representing the state of the service; modifying the service document object to update the state of the service; parsing at least a first portion of the service document to designate data to be indexed and at least a second portion of the service document to designate data to be persistently stored; and updating index data of an index stored in storage of the computer system with the data to be indexed and updating auxiliary data in the index with the data to be persistently stored.

Abstract: A method of controlling access to a target resource of a plurality of resources managed by a control plane executing on a computing system includes: receiving, at the control plane, a request for the target resource by a client, the request including a user indicator; identifying a user group in which the user indicator is a member; identifying a role that includes an access policy, applicable to the user group, for accessing a group of the plurality of resources, the group of resources defined by a query executable against an index of states of the plurality of resources; obtaining a state of the target resource in response to the request; and applying the access policy of the role to the request for the target resource based on a determination of whether the state of the target resource satisfies a query filter corresponding to the query of the role.

Abstract: A method of managing a transaction in a control plane executing on a computing system that manages a plurality of services includes: receiving, at the control plane from a client, a plurality of first requests for at least one target service of the plurality of services, each of the plurality of first requests including a transaction indicator identifying the transaction; executing at least one handler of the at least one target service to process the plurality of first requests; receiving, at the control plane from the client, a commit request for the transaction coordinator service, the commit request including an instruction to commit the transaction; and executing a handler of the transaction coordinator service to process the commit request and notify the at least one target service of a status of the commit request.

Abstract: A method of implementing a control plane for services in a computer system includes: executing a service host process on a software platform of a host computer, the service host process including a framework that provides a plurality of functionalities; creating a service instance as an object in the service host process based on a specification of a service, the service instance including a representational state transfer (REST) application programming interface (API), the specification defining declared options for the service; selectively enabling one or more of the plurality of functionalities provided by the framework for use by the service instance based on the declared options for the service; and processing requests for the service through the REST API of the service instance, the service instance using one or more of the enabled functionalities provided by the framework in response to the requests.

Abstract: A node on a serial bus, preferably a device such as a personal computer (PC), can emulate other devices using virtual device drivers. A PC connected to a 1394 bus exposes its CROM on the bus which presents an image to other nodes on the 1394 bus and describes the functional units supported by the node. The CROM can be changed dynamically by adding unit directories to the CROM detailing peripherals connected to the PC. The PC can then be enumerated as the connected device by other PCs on the bus. The PC can emulate or morph itself into any desired device or even multiple devices at the same time. The invention also allows a PC to create devices that don't yet exist on the bus. The invention allows a user to create virtual device objects with device properties to have just in case a user plugs the particular device in to the PC.

Abstract: A technology can be provided for change invariant scene recognition of an environment by an agent that uses image sensors to capture images. An example method can include grouping the images into situation image sets to form an image database. A navigation image can be captured by the agent at the agent's current location. Another operation can be searching through images by separately loaded situation image set to identify images that are a probable match for the navigation image. Error values can be computed between the navigation image and situation image sets. A probability can be calculated that situation image sets are to be used as a relevant situation image set based on the error values. Then the relevant situation image set can be searched for matching purposes with the navigation image while the error value is below a defined threshold.

Abstract: A technology can be provided for change invariant scene recognition of an environment by an agent that uses image sensors to capture images. An example method can include grouping the images into situation image sets to form an image database. A navigation image can be captured by the agent at the agent's current location. Another operation can be searching through images by separately loaded situation image set to identify images that are a probable match for the navigation image. Error values can be computed between the navigation image and situation image sets. A probability can be calculated that situation image sets are to be used as a relevant situation image set based on the error values. Then the relevant situation image set can be searched for matching purposes with the navigation image while the error value is below a defined threshold.

Abstract: A technology can be provided for change invariant scene recognition of an environment by an agent that uses image sensors to capture images. An example method can include grouping the images into situation image sets to form an image database. A navigation image can be captured by the agent at the agent's current location. Another operation can be searching through images by separately loaded situation image set to identify images that are a probable match for the navigation image. Error values can be computed between the navigation image and situation image sets. A probability can be calculated that situation image sets are to be used as a relevant situation image set based on the error values. Then the relevant situation image set can be searched for matching purposes with the navigation image while the error value is below a defined threshold.

Abstract: Systems and methods for providing resource management in a distributed network are disclosed. A loose collection of devices in a network may not be aware of the power restrictions for other devices. Wall powered devices will generally have drastically different power settings than battery powered mobile devices. The invention provides a federation policy for time that can be used to slave to a local service responsible for understanding the local resource requirements of each device (or node) on the network. In such a distributed time system, all services in a particular time domain may be sped up, slowed down, or completely halted.

Abstract: A node on a serial bus, preferably a device such as a personal computer (PC), can emulate other devices using virtual device drivers. A PC connected to a 1394 bus exposes its CROM on the bus which presents an image to other nodes on the 1394 bus and describes the functional units supported by the node. The CROM can be changed dynamically by adding unit directories to the CROM detailing peripherals connected to the PC. The PC can then be enumerated as the connected device by other PCs on the bus. The PC can emulate or morph itself into any desired device or even multiple devices at the same time. The invention also allows a PC to create devices that don't yet exist on the bus. The invention allows a user to create virtual device objects with device properties to have just in case a user plugs the particular device in to the PC.

Abstract: The subject disclosure is directed towards driving a robot or other mobile device safely through an environment by using a depth camera to obtain depth data, and then using the depth data for collision avoidance. Horizontal profile information may be built from the depth data, such as by collapsing a two-dimensional depth map into one-dimensional horizontal profile information. The horizontal profile information may be further processed by fusing the depth camera-detected obstacle data with any closer obstacle data as detected via infrared-based sensing and/or sonar-based sensing. Driving suggestions from a user or program are overridden as needed to avoid collisions, including by driving the robot towards an open space represented in the horizontal profile information, or stopping/slowing the robot as needed.

Abstract: A node on a serial bus, preferably a device such as a personal computer (PC), can emulate other devices using virtual device drivers. A PC connected to a 1394 bus exposes its CROM on the bus which presents an image to other nodes on the 1394 bus and describes the functional units supported by the node. The CROM can be changed dynamically by adding unit directories to the CROM detailing peripherals connected to the PC. The PC can then be enumerated as the connected device by other PCs on the bus. The PC can emulate or morph itself into any desired device or even multiple devices at the same time. The invention also allows a PC to create devices that don't yet exist on the bus. The invention allows a user to create virtual device objects with device properties to have just in case a user plugs the particular device in to the PC.

Abstract: A system described herein includes a receiver component that receives a first image and a symmetry signature generator component that generates a first global symmetry signature for the image, wherein the global symmetry signature is representative of symmetry existent in the first image. The system also includes a comparer component that compares the first global symmetry signature with a second global symmetry signature that corresponds to a second image, wherein the second global symmetry signature is representative of symmetry existent in the second image. The system additionally includes an output component that outputs an indication of similarity between the first image and the second image based at least in part upon the comparison undertaken by the comparer component.

Abstract: Technologies for a high-accuracy timer in a tasked-based, multi-processor computing system without using dedicated hardware timer resources.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the present invention transform devices into Web services or special-purpose servers that are capable of communicating with personal computers. Various embodiments of the present invention allow various low-level aspects of device drivers to reside in the devices, eliminating the need for the devices to be compatible with legacy specification. Various embodiments of the present invention allow various devices to be shipped from the factory with low-level software already built in so that users are liberated from having to deal with the experience of installing and upgrading device drivers. In various embodiments of the present invention, each device is preferably a network node identifiable by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

Abstract: A Decentralized System Services (DSS) architecture defines a framework for building fault-tolerant distributed applications across decentralized and heterogeneous systems. DSS enables “complexity through composition” by defining distributed designs as compositions of limited function and observable services which may be quickly and dynamically assembled to perform higher level functions. DSS defines a standardized interaction between distributed services using sessionless, asynchronous communications with explicit failure semantics. Accounting for latency, failure and state management all become a natural part of the design process. DSS includes a runtime implementation for managing concurrent services—the Common Concurrency Runtime (CCR), a protocol for service interactions—the Web Services Application Protocol (WSAP), and a set of required service behaviors which provide for composibility, location independence, and fault tolerance—Distributed Protocol Oriented Programming (DPOP).

Abstract: A node on a serial bus, preferably a device such as a personal computer (PC), can emulate other devices using virtual device drivers. A PC connected to a 1394 bus exposes its CROM on the bus which presents an image to other nodes on the 1394 bus and describes the functional units supported by the node. The CROM can be changed dynamically by adding unit directories to the CROM detailing peripherals connected to the PC. The PC can then be enumerated as the connected device by other PCs on the bus. The PC can emulate or morph itself into any desired device or even multiple devices at the same time. The invention also allows a PC to create devices that don't yet exist on the bus. The invention allows a user to create virtual device objects with device properties to have just in case a user plugs the particular device in to the PC.

Abstract: A method for performing image recognition is disclosed. The method includes obtaining a collection of pixels and grouping at least some of the pixels into a set of cluster features based on gradient magnitude. For each cluster feature in the set, statistical variables are generated. The statistical variables represent a collective property of the pixels in the cluster feature. The statistical variables are utilized as a basis for comparing the collection of pixels to a different collection of pixels.