Abstract: Methods and systems for determining the location of an agent within an environment using a hybrid approach are provided. The hybrid approach allows a potentially large physical space to be compressed in the form of a directed graph, in which edges are paths and nodes are locations. An image comparison produces observations for each location and path, which can be used to probabilistically locate the agent in the environment and to select a portion of the 3D point cloud for comparison. The agent can then be localized within the 3D point cloud, or metric-accurate map, using the same features utilized for image matching in the probabilistic location.

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 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 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: 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: 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 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.

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.

Abstract: Described is a Web Services Application Protocol (WSAP) comprising a SOAP-based protocol that defines a web service application model based on a set of common message operations. WSAP provides a foundation for defining web services in terms of how they interact with each other. In WSAP, the behaviors of a service are each provided with an individual port, (e.g., URI), whereby the service's behaviors may be interacted with directly. WSAP also defines shared semantics for operations that identify what a message is, what the processing of message is, and how it affects the state/behavior of the receiver. The ordering of messages also provides context to what is occurring. As a result of the known characteristics of the operations and the ordering, an intermediary can process exchanged messages to add value to communications. A SOAP processing model defines composing multiple web services to run in parallel or sequentially.

Abstract: Functionality is described for probabilistically determining the location of an agent within an environment. The functionality performs this task using a topological representation of the environment provided by a directed graph. Nodes in the directed graph represent locations in the environment, while edges represent transition paths between the locations. The functionality also provides a mechanism by which the agent can navigate in the environment based on its probabilistic assessment of location. Such a mechanism can use a high-level control module and a low-level control module. The high-level control module determines an action for the agent to take by considering a plurality of votes associated with different locations in the directed graph. The low-level control module allows the agent to navigate along a selected edge when the high-level control module votes for a navigation action.

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: The common concurrency runtime (CCR) provides a simple and self-consistent set of concurrency primitives that developers can use to more readily split their computation into more discrete chunks that can scale better with additional processors. This set of primitives provides for very scalable applications that are well suited for the coming world of ubiquitous communication and very large scale out for the number of local processors. The CCR may be implemented as a single library in C# that implements channels with input and asynchronous output capabilities, along with an atomic test-and-input primitive. On top of this, richer derived operators (e.g., choice, join, replication, reader-writers, scatter-gather, etc.) may be encoded. Thus, existing C# may be built upon to provide the capability to concurrently issue I/O requests to remote systems while simultaneously performing other functions locally to increase the efficiency of the distributed system.

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: In various embodiments of the present invention, a customizable, tag-based message is a unit of information transmitted electronically from one device to another that may contain one or more references to one or more pieces of information without the need for these pieces of information to be embedded in the customizable, tag-based message. The customizable, tag-based message can comply with any suitable protocol. One suitable protocol includes a customizable, tag-based protocol, such as SOAP, but other protocols can be used.

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 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 present invention provides a port-based technique to manage processing resources that can be utilized by an Operating System. The systems and methods consider time parallelism and pre-emption through sends, receives, and execution context, wherein scheduling of execution units occurs via (aperiodic and/or periodic) communication rather than time slicing. The systems and methods employ a resource manager that listens behind a port associated with a processor, which enables the processor to transition to a reduced power consumption state. When a request for processing resources arrives at the port, the resource manager can allocate the processing resources, wake the processor, and/or return a communication, which can include a location of allocated memory and an execution context of the processor, to a reply channel. Alternatively, the resource manager can preempt the request to mitigate processing resources consumption.

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

Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that improve failure handling and debugging in message driven environments. A diagramming tool allows a user to graphically nest one or more functional components of the data flow diagram to create a fault handler. The fault handler is associated with a failure component to be called when a failure occurs within any one or more of the nested functional components. One or more application executables are synthesized from the data flow diagram. When the nested component is created at runtime, a causality is created for the nested component. The causality has an exception port for receiving fault messages that are unhandled within the nested data flow associated with the nested component. The causality also has a coordination port to allow any messages in the causality context and/or other applications to access the error history and the message coordination history.

Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that improve failure handling and debugging in message driven environments. A diagramming tool allows a user to graphically nest one or more functional components of the data flow diagram to create a fault handler. The fault handler is associated with a failure component to be called when a failure occurs within any one or more of the nested functional components. One or more application executables are synthesized from the data flow diagram. When the nested component is created at runtime, a causality is created for the nested component. The causality has an exception port for receiving fault messages that are unhandled within the nested data flow associated with the nested component. The causality also has a coordination port to allow any messages in the causality context and/or other applications to access the error history and the message coordination history.