Abstract: A technique for integrating a multi-touch surface into a desktop environment is disclosed. One or more multi-touch display devices are placed on the horizontal surface surrounding or beneath a keyboard or mouse. At least one region on the multi-touch surface is defined to display one or more user interface tools on the multi-touch surface. The one or more user interface tools displayed via the multi-touch surface may control or display information associated with desktop applications displayed via a primary display device.

Abstract: A technique for integrating a multi-touch surface into a desktop environment is disclosed. One or more multi-touch display devices are placed on the horizontal surface surrounding or beneath a keyboard or mouse. At least one region on the multi-touch surface is defined to display one or more user interface tools on the multi-touch surface. The one or more user interface tools displayed via the multi-touch surface may control or display information associated with desktop applications displayed via a primary display device.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for generating a status update message. The method involves defining one or more status update criteria and monitoring user activity in a software application for the one or more status update criteria. The method further involves determining, based on the user activity, that the one or more status update criteria have been met and generating, via a processing unit, a status update message. The status update message includes multimedia content related to a project associated with the software application.

Abstract: Information regarding application usage on an actor device may be provided through activity notifications and activity reports. An activity notification describing current application activity on an actor device is sent, via wireless connection, to an observer device which displays the activity notification. Activity notifications provide different granularity levels of information based on a received level selection or based on a distance (proximity) between the actor device and the observer device. An activity report representing the history of application usage on an actor device may be displayed on the actor device. For example, the activity report may be triggered to by displayed when the actor device is placed flat. The activity report provides a graphical representation of the application usage on the actor device for a predetermined time period of prior usage. The graphical representation may comprise a plurality of stripes, each stripe representing a particular application or application type.

Abstract: Information regarding application usage on an actor device may be provided through activity notifications and activity reports. An activity notification describing current application activity on an actor device is sent, via wireless connection, to an observer device which displays the activity notification. Activity notifications provide different granularity levels of information based on a received level selection or based on a distance (proximity) between the actor device and the observer device. An activity report representing the history of application usage on an actor device may be displayed on the actor device. For example, the activity report may be triggered to by displayed when the actor device is placed flat. The activity report provides a graphical representation of the application usage on the actor device for a predetermined time period of prior usage. The graphical representation may comprise a plurality of stripes, each stripe representing a particular application or application type.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for providing application command recommendations to a privacy-sensitive client device. The technique includes receiving a command log from each general client device included in a plurality of general client devices and analyzing the command logs to generate a command recommendation file. The command recommendation file may indicate a relationship between one or more application commands executed by at least one of the general client devices and one or more application commands that are available for execution by the privacy-sensitive client device. The technique further includes transmitting the command recommendation file to the privacy-sensitive client device.

Abstract: An opacity engine for automatically and dynamically setting an opacity level for a scatterplot based on a predetermined value for a mean opacity level of utilized pixels (MOUP) in the scatterplot. The opacity engine may automatically set the opacity level for the scatterplot to produce the predetermined MOUP value in the scatterplot. A utilized pixel in the scatterplot comprises a pixel displaying at least one data point representing data. The MOUP value in the scatterplot may be equal to the sum of the final opacity levels of all utilized pixels in the chart, divided by the number of utilized pixels in the chart. The predetermined MOUP value may be between 35%-45%, such as 40%. The opacity engine may adjust the determined opacity level for charts having relatively low over-plotting factors.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for playing sequential video streams. The technique involves initiating playback of a first video stream within a foreground of a display region and loading at least a portion of a second video stream during the playback of the first video stream. The technique further involves detects an event associated with the playback of the first video stream, and, in response, initiating playback of the second video stream within the foreground of the display region.

Abstract: Disclosed is a technique for generating chronological event information. The technique involves receiving event data comprising a plurality of events, where each event is associated with a different position in a video stream. The technique further involves determining that a current playhead position in the video stream corresponds to a first position associated with a first event, and, in response, causing the first event to be displayed in an event list as a current event, causing a second event to be displayed in the event list as a previous event, where the second event is associated with a second position in the video stream that is before the first position, and causing a third event to be displayed in the event list as a next event, where the third event is associated with a third position in the video stream that is after the first position.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for providing help content related to a software application to a user. The technique involves receiving a first discussion element associated with a first user and including textual input related to a first software application and first contextual information related to the first software application. The technique further involves receiving second contextual information associated with a second user and related to the first software application, determining a measure of correlation between the first contextual information and the second contextual information, determining that the first discussion element should be transmitted to the second user based on the measure of correlation, and transmitting the first discussion element to the second user.

Abstract: A technique for integrating a multi-touch surface into a desktop environment is disclosed. One or more multi-touch display devices are placed on the horizontal surface surrounding or beneath a keyboard or mouse. At least one region on the multi-touch surface is defined to display one or more user interface tools on the multi-touch surface. The one or more user interface tools displayed via the multi-touch surface may control or display information associated with desktop applications displayed via a primary display device.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for providing application command recommendations to a privacy-sensitive client device. The technique includes receiving a command log from each general client device included in a plurality of general client devices and analyzing the command logs to generate a command recommendation file. The command recommendation file may indicate a relationship between one or more application commands executed by at least one of the general client devices and one or more application commands that are available for execution by the privacy-sensitive client device. The technique further includes transmitting the command recommendation file to the privacy-sensitive client device.

Abstract: A computing device for processing a video file. The video file comprises an audio track and contains at least one event comprising a scene of interest. One or more audio criteria that characterize the event are used to detect events using the audio track and an offset timestamp is recorded for each detected event. A set of offset timestamps may be produced for a set of detected events of the video file. The set of offset timestamps for the set of detected events may be used to time align and time adjust a set of real timestamps for a set of established events for the same video file. A user interface (UI) is provided that allows quick and easy search and playback of events of interest across multiple video files.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for providing help content related to a software application to a user. The technique involves receiving textual input related to a first software application from a first user and comprising help content and generating a first discussion element based on the textual input. The technique further involves receiving first contextual information associated with the first user and related to the first software application, associating the first contextual information with the first discussion element, and transmitting the first discussion element to a server machine for processing.

Abstract: One embodiment of the invention sets forth a mechanism for recommended commands to a designer of a graphics design application. Each time a command is executed within the graphics design application, a resource module receives command use information associated with the executed command. In response, the resource module generates and transmits one or more recommendation lists to the designer, where each recommendation list includes a list of recommended commands that may be executed by the designer next. The resource module generates the recommendation lists based on frequency information associated with the recommended commands stored within a local frequency store. The frequency information is received by the resource module from a central server that processes command use information associated with different designers in the community to produce the frequency information.

Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein include a method, a non-transitory computer-readable medium, and a system for generating video clips for teaching how to apply a tools in various application programs for editing documents. The method includes identifying one or more characteristic features of a video clip. The method also includes providing the one or more characteristic features to a trained machine learning analysis module. The method further includes evaluating the characteristic features to generate a clip rating. The method also includes determining whether to discard the video clip based on the clip rating.

Abstract: A visualization engine is configured to generate a network visualization that represents the evolution of a network over time. The visualization engine generates the network visualization based on a network dataset that describes various nodes within the network, and links between those nodes, over a sequence of time intervals. Initially, the visualization engine generates a stable simulated network based on initial network data, and then subsequently animates changes to that simulated network that derive from differences between the initial network data and subsequent network data. The visualization engine visually indicates changes to different nodes in the network via color changes, size changes, and other changes to the appearance of nodes.

Abstract: A computing device is configured to generate a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows an end-user to search for particular document or documents within a large collection of documents. The GUI provides a view of the overall document collection and affords the end-user the ability to reduce the number of visual document thumbnails by means of keyword search. When the end-user identifies a candidate among the reduced number of thumbnails, the end-user may select the page view of the candidate document and conduct further review. If the selected candidate is not the target document, the end-user may select adjacent documents to seamlessly transition between reading and searching. An advantage to this approach is that the visual qualities of the documents, such as images, graphical layout, and color, among others, may be incorporated into the search process. Searching for a particular target document is, thus, expedited.

Abstract: A video processing engine is configured to generate a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows an end-user of the video processing engine to select a specific video and search through the specific video to detect a desired target scene. The video processing engine provides a grid array of video thumbnails that are configured to each display a segment of the video so that multiple scenes may be visually scanned simultaneously. When the end-user identifies a scene within a video thumbnail that may be the desired target scene, the end-user may launch the content of the video thumbnail in full-screen mode to verify that the scene is in fact the desired target scene. An advantage of the approach described herein is that the video processing engine provides a sampled overview of the video in its entirety, thus enabling the end-user to more effectively scrub the video for the desired target scene.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for generating a status update message. The method involves defining one or more status update criteria and monitoring user activity in a software application for the one or more status update criteria. The method further involves determining, based on the user activity, that the one or more status update criteria have been met and generating, via a processing unit, a status update message. The status update message includes multimedia content related to a project associated with the software application.