Patents by Inventor Karen Fries

Karen Fries 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).

  • Publication number: 20080244401
    Abstract: Various embodiments provide a wizard integrated as part of an application to assist a user in operating within the application. In one or more embodiments, the wizard comprises an inline portion of the application's user interface and is designed to enable a user to express a desired goal and then present one or more choices that appear to satisfy the user's desired goal. The choices are titled in a manner that obscures or abstracts away more complex choices and concepts with which a user may not be familiar. When the user selects a particular displayed choice, the wizard can present further choices which are progressively narrowed to focus on the user's desired goal, thus directing the user to a suitable feature to accomplish his or her goal and providing just-in-time conceptual information about the feature to enable the user to use that feature.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2007
    Publication date: October 2, 2008
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Aravind Bala, Karen Fries, Peter F. Leonard
  • Patent number: 7305389
    Abstract: Systems and methods providing computer-implemented content propagation for enhanced document retrieval are described. In one aspect, reference information directed to one or more documents is identified. The reference information is identified from one or more sources of data that are independent of a data source that includes the one or more documents. Metadata that is proximally located to the reference information is extracted from the one or more sources of data. Relevance between respective features of the metadata to content of associated ones of the one or more documents is calculated. For each document of the one or more documents, associated portions of the metadata is indexed with the relevance of features from the respective portions into original content of the document. The indexing generates one or more enhanced documents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Hua-Jun Zeng, Benyu Zhang, Zheng Chen, Wei-Ying Ma, Hsiao-Wuen Hon, Daniel B. Cook, Gabor Hirschler, Karen Fries, Kurt Samuelson
  • Patent number: 7289985
    Abstract: Systems and methods for enhanced document retrieval are described. In one aspect, a search query from an end-user is received. Responsive to receiving the search query, search results are retrieved. The search results include an enhanced document and a set of non-enhanced documents. The enhanced document and the non-enhanced documents include term(s) of the search query. The enhanced document is derived from a base document. The base document was modified with metadata mined from one or more different documents. The metadata is associated with one or more respective references to the base document. The one or more different documents are independent of the base document.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Hua-Jun Zeng, Benyu Zhang, Zheng Chen, Wei-Ying Ma, Hsiao-Wuen Hon, Daniel B. Cook, Gabor Hirschler, Karen Fries, Kurt Samuelson
  • Publication number: 20070214425
    Abstract: A user can access a searching component that allows the user to enter search terms to search for commands associated with a computer program. The most likely commands are provided to the user, and a command can be selected for execution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2006
    Publication date: September 13, 2007
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Aravind Bala, Karen Fries
  • Publication number: 20050234952
    Abstract: Systems and methods providing computer-implemented content propagation for enhanced document retrieval are described. In one aspect, reference information directed to one or more documents is identified. The reference information is identified from one or more sources of data that are independent of a data source that includes the one or more documents. Metadata that is proximally located to the reference information is extracted from the one or more sources of data. Relevance between respective features of the metadata to content of associated ones of the one or more documents is calculated. For each document of the one or more documents, associated portions of the metadata is indexed with the relevance of features from the respective portions into original content of the document. The indexing generates one or more enhanced documents.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2004
    Publication date: October 20, 2005
    Inventors: Hua-Jun Zeng, Benyu Zhang, Zheng Chen, Wei-Ying Ma, Hsiao-Wuen Hon, Daniel Cook, Gabor Hirschler, Karen Fries, Kurt Samuelson
  • Publication number: 20050234880
    Abstract: Systems and methods for enhanced document retrieval are described. In one aspect, a search query from an end-user is received. Responsive to receiving the search query, search results are retrieved. The search results include an enhanced document and a set of non-enhanced documents. The enhanced document and the non-enhanced documents include term(s) of the search query. The enhanced document is derived from a base document. The base document was modified with metadata mined from one or more different documents. The metadata is associated with one or more respective references to the base document. The one or more different documents are independent of the base document.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2004
    Publication date: October 20, 2005
    Inventors: Hua-Jun Zeng, Benyu Zhang, Zheng Chen, Wei-Ying Ma, Hsiao-Wuen Hon, Daniel Cook, Gabor Hirschler, Karen Fries, Kurt Samuelson
  • Patent number: 6460029
    Abstract: A computer-readable medium has computer-executable instructions for retrieving a search query provided by a user and locating an ambiguity in the search query that affects the optimization of the search query. The instructions also provide for requesting additional information from the user to clarify the text of the search query. Additional aspects of the invention allow the user to see and select past search queries. Further aspects of the invention automatically construct a boolean search query from a non-boolean query. Other aspects of the invention modify a search query based on its scope. In one embodiment of the invention a search query is modified based on natural language parse data produced by performing a natural language parse of the search query.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2002
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Karen Fries, John M. Tippett, Jeffrey Richter