Patents by Inventor John R. Franks

John R. Franks 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: 11645325
    Abstract: Under one aspect, a computer-implemented method includes obtaining one or more media objects having location-related content in response to a search query, wherein the location-related content represents one or more locations corresponding to one or more spatial references in the one or more media objects, obtaining respective spatial thumbnails for the one or more spatial references, obtaining respective summaries of the one or more media objects, obtaining a respective one or more hyperlinks referencing to the one or more media objects, and causing to display for the one or more media objects the respective spatial thumbnails, the respective summaries, and the respective one or more hyperlinks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2023
    Assignee: NOKIA TECHNOLOGIES OY
    Inventor: John R. Frank
  • Publication number: 20210073263
    Abstract: Under one aspect, a computer-implemented method includes obtaining one or more media objects having location-related content in response to a search query, wherein the location-related content represents one or more locations corresponding to one or more spatial references in the one or more media objects, obtaining respective spatial thumbnails for the one or more spatial references, obtaining respective summaries of the one or more media objects, obtaining a respective one or more hyperlinks referencing to the one or more media objects, and causing to display for the one or more media objects the respective spatial thumbnails, the respective summaries, and the respective one or more hyperlinks.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2020
    Publication date: March 11, 2021
    Inventor: John R. Frank
  • Patent number: 10810251
    Abstract: Under one aspect, a computer-implemented method of displaying information about a media object, the media object being associated with location-related content corresponding to a location, includes receiving a request to display a representation of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a summary of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a spatial thumbnail of the media object, the spatial thumbnail comprising an image of a spatial domain encompassing the location; and simultaneously displaying both the summary of the media object and the spatial thumbnail on a visual display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: NOKIA TECHNOLOGIES OY
    Inventor: John R. Frank
  • Publication number: 20170351672
    Abstract: Under one aspect, a computer-implemented method of displaying information about a media object, the media object being associated with location-related content corresponding to a location, includes receiving a request to display a representation of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a summary of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a spatial thumbnail of the media object, the spatial thumbnail comprising an image of a spatial domain encompassing the location; and simultaneously displaying both the summary of the media object and the spatial thumbnail on a visual display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2017
    Publication date: December 7, 2017
    Inventor: John R. Frank
  • Patent number: 9721157
    Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system with a display device to perform the functions of: displaying an image of a region of a metric vector space; obtaining a set of pixel extents in the image that contain apparent textual annotations; for each pixel extent of the set, obtaining a confidence score that the pixel extent actually contains a textual annotation; and displaying the set of pixel extents in a ranked list based on the corresponding confidence scores. In some embodiments, the program further causes the computer system to perform the functions of, for at least one pixel extent of the set, at least one of automatically generating a text string based on the apparent textual annotation, and accepting user input entering a text string based on the apparent textual annotation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventors: John R. Frank, Christopher Schmidt
  • Patent number: 9684655
    Abstract: Under one aspect, a computer-implemented method of displaying information about a media object, the media object being associated with location-related content corresponding to a location, includes receiving a request to display a representation of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a summary of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a spatial thumbnail of the media object, the spatial thumbnail comprising an image of a spatial domain encompassing the location; and simultaneously displaying both the summary of the media object and the spatial thumbnail on a visual display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventor: John R. Frank
  • Publication number: 20160342595
    Abstract: Under one aspect, a computer-implemented method of displaying information about a media object, the media object being associated with location-related content corresponding to a location, includes receiving a request to display a representation of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a summary of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a spatial thumbnail of the media object, the spatial thumbnail comprising an image of a spatial domain encompassing the location; and simultaneously displaying both the summary of the media object and the spatial thumbnail on a visual display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 2, 2016
    Publication date: November 24, 2016
    Inventor: John R. Frank
  • Publication number: 20160267058
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method involving a corpus of documents. The method includes accepting search criteria from a user, the search criteria including a domain identifier identifying a domain and including a filter condition specifying a geometric relationship between co-referenced locations; in response to accepting the search criteria from the user, searching among the corpus of documents to identify a set of documents, wherein each document among the set of documents contains anywhere within the document location-related information that refers to a location within the domain and satisfies the filter condition, and wherein the set of documents only includes documents that satisfy the filter condition; and identifying to the user the documents in the set of documents.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2016
    Publication date: September 15, 2016
    Inventors: John R. Frank, Andras Kornai
  • Patent number: 9411896
    Abstract: Under one aspect, a computer-implemented method of displaying information about a media object, the media object being associated with location-related content corresponding to a location, includes receiving a request to display a representation of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a summary of the media object; in response to the request, obtaining a spatial thumbnail of the media object, the spatial thumbnail comprising an image of a spatial domain encompassing the location; and simultaneously displaying both the summary of the media object and the spatial thumbnail on a visual display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventor: John R. Frank
  • Patent number: 9286404
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method involving a corpus of documents. The method includes accepting search criteria from a user, the search criteria including a domain identifier identifying a domain and including a filter condition specifying a geometric relationship between co-referenced locations; in response to accepting the search criteria from the user, searching among the corpus of documents to identify a set of documents, wherein each document among the set of documents contains anywhere within the document location-related information that refers to a location within the domain and satisfies the filter condition, and wherein the set of documents only includes documents that satisfy the filter condition; and identifying to the user the documents in the set of documents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventors: John R. Frank, Andras Kornai
  • Patent number: 9201972
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method involving: gathering a set of files from one or more computers; analyzing the set of files to identify a plurality of files among the set of files that contain spatial information; storing information about the plurality of files, the stored information indicating that the identified files contain spatial information; and causing to be displayed to a user an indication that the identified files contain spatial information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2015
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventors: John R. Frank, Erik M. Rauch, Ursula Rauch, Manfred Rauch
  • Patent number: 8282047
    Abstract: A one-piece cable tie includes a locking head and an attached strap, the locking head being adapted to receive and selectively engage a portion of the strap when the tie is formed into a closed loop. The cable tie additionally includes an insert fastener formed onto the locking head that is sized and shaped to be retained within a rectangular slot formed in a panel. The insert fastener includes a pair of spaced apart, parallel arms which extend orthogonally away from an outer end wall of the locking head, a cross-member extending transversely across the free ends of the pair of arms and a pair of offset retention fingers. Each retention finger is connected at one end to the cross-member and is capable of being independently pivotally displaced along an arcuate path. As a result of the offset design of its retention fingers, the cable tie can be manufactured as a unitary plastic member using simplified and inexpensive molding techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2012
    Assignee: Avery Dennison Corporation
    Inventor: John R. Franks
  • Patent number: 8200676
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method of processing a geotext query, said method involving: receiving a first free-text query string from a user; and decomposing the first free-text query into a non-geographic query and a geographic query, wherein the non-geographic query is a second free-text query string derived from the first free-text query string and the geographic query is a geographical location description.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2012
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventor: John R. Frank
  • Patent number: 8037078
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for processing a plurality of toponyms, the method involving: in a large corpus, identifying geo-textual correlations among readings of the toponyms within the plurality of toponyms; and for each toponym selected from the plurality of toponyms, using the identified geo-textual correlations to generate a value for a confidence that the selected toponym refers to a corresponding geographic location. Also a method of generating information useful for ranking a document that includes a plurality of toponyms for which there is a corresponding plurality of (toponym,place) pairs, there being associated with each (toponym,place) pair of said plurality of (toponym,place) pairs a corresponding value for a confidence that the toponym of that (toponym,place) pair refers to the place of that (toponym,place) pair.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2011
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventor: John R. Frank
  • Patent number: 8015183
    Abstract: Under one aspect, an interface program stored on a computer-readable medium causes a computer system with a display device to perform the functions of: accepting search criteria from a user, the search criteria including a domain identifier identifying a domain and a free text query entry; in response to accepting said search criteria from the user, receiving a set of document-location tuples from a corpus of documents, wherein each document: (a) contains information that is responsive to the free text query entry; and (b) contains location-related information that refers to a location within the domain; requesting and receiving a result from an additional query based at least in part on the domain identifier, the result not being a document-location tuple; and displaying a visual representation of at least a subset of the document-location tuples and a visual representation of the result of the additional query on the display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventor: John R. Frank
  • Patent number: 7953732
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for searching a corpus of documents for documents that are responsive to a query specifying one or more search words and spatial information, the method involving: storing in memory a spatial document index for the corpus of documents, wherein the spatial document index indexes documents in the corpus according to spatial references found within the documents; storing in a storage medium a plurality of spatial keyword document indexes for the corpus of documents, wherein each of the spatial keyword document indexes is for a different keyword and indexes those documents among the corpus that are responsive to that keyword; and intersecting a portion of the spatial document index and selected indexes among the plurality of spatial keyword document indexes to identify a result set of those documents from among the corpus of documents that are responsive to the query.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventors: John R. Frank, Erik M. Rauch, Ursula Rauch, legal representative, Manfred Rauch, legal representative
  • Patent number: 7917464
    Abstract: A method for displaying information about documents in a corpus of documents, the method involving: accepting search criteria including a free text entry query and a domain identifier identifying a domain; in response to accepting the search criteria, identifying a set of documents among the corpus of documents, wherein each document of the set of documents: (1) contains anywhere within the document location-related information that locates that document within the domain; and (2) contains anywhere within the document information that is responsive to the free text entry query, wherein said identified documents are identified by a plurality of document identifiers; displaying a multi-dimensional representation of the domain on the display device; and displaying within the representation of the domain a plurality of visual indicators as representations of the documents identified by the plurality of document identifiers, wherein each visual indicator of the plurality of visual indicators represents a correspon
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: Metacarta, Inc.
    Inventors: John R. Frank, Erik M. Rauch, Ursula Rauch, legal representative, Manfred Rauch, legal representative
  • Patent number: 7908280
    Abstract: A method of querying a first corpus of documents and a second corpus of documents, the method involving: accepting search criteria from a user, the search criteria including a free text entry query and a domain identifier identifying a domain; requesting a search of the first corpus of documents to identify a first set of documents, wherein each document of the first set of documents: (1) contains anywhere within the document location-related information that identifies a location within the domain; and (2) contains anywhere within the document information that is responsive to the free text entry query, wherein said identified documents are identified by a plurality of document identifiers; receiving a first result set for the first corpus of documents, the first result set identifying the first set of documents in order of relevance; requesting a search of the second corpus of documents to identify a second set of documents, wherein each document of the second set of documents: (1) contains anywhere within
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2011
    Assignee: Nokia Corporation
    Inventors: John R. Frank, Erik M. Rauch
  • Patent number: 7793895
    Abstract: A cable tie includes a locking head and an attached strap, the locking head being adapted to receive and engage the strap when the tie is formed into a closed loop. The cable tie additionally includes a fir-tree fastener connected to the locking head by an elongated standoff that includes a stem and an enlarged member which separates the stem into first and second sections. In use, a plurality of wires bundled together by the tie can be secured to an automotive valve cover by inserting the fastener and the first section of the stem through a corresponding bore formed in the valve cover. With tie inserted as such, the second section of the stem serves to space the bundled wires away from the valve cover, with the first section of the stem and the enlarged member together serving to stabilize the tie within the bore of the valve cover.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2010
    Assignee: Avery Dennison Corporation
    Inventor: John R. Franks
  • Patent number: 7762503
    Abstract: A one-piece cable tie includes a locking head and an attached strap, the locking head being adapted to receive and selectively engage a portion of the strap when the tie is formed into a closed loop. The cable tie additionally includes a fastener formed onto the locking head that is designed for connection with the electrical connector for an oxygen sensor for an automotive emissions control system. The fastener includes a flattened platform that is spaced away from the top surface of the locking head by an inverted T-shaped standoff, the flattened platform being sized and shaped to be slidably disposed within a corresponding slot formed in the electrical connector. A ratchet tooth is formed onto the flat top surface of the platform and is shaped to engage the electrical connector in order to retain the fastener secured within the slot in the electrical connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2010
    Assignee: Avery Dennison Corporation
    Inventor: John R. Franks