Patents by Inventor Michael Hamilton Coward

Michael Hamilton Coward 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: 20220248074
    Abstract: The disclosed computer-implemented method may include a process for monitoring and improving end-to-end video quality based on scaled and/or interpolated perceptual quality scores across various video views. The method may also include a process for improving search experience for user expectations. Additionally, the method may include a process for providing hardware virtualization and simulation for server hosting. Furthermore, the method may include a process for filtering network traffic in a hosting environment. The method may additionally include a process for testing applications in a hosting environment. The method may further include a process for supporting multi-touch applications. The method may also include a process for optimized graphics rendering. Various other related methods and systems are also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 22, 2022
    Publication date: August 4, 2022
    Inventors: Shankar Lakshmi Regunathan, Haixiong Wang, Yun Zhang, Yu Liu, David Wolstencroft, Bakkama Srinath Reddy, Cosmin Vasile Stejerean, Sonal Gandhi, Minchuan Chen, Pankaj Sethi, Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward, David Ronca, Ioannis Katsavounidis, Zhen Liao, Wenting Wang, Bi Xue, Hong Yan, Guangdeng Liao, Yinzhe Yu, Qunshu Zhang, Xiaoxing Zhu, Yangpeng Ou, Jacob Matthew Okamoto, Francisco Javier Merino Guardiola, Carlos Lopez Menendez, Christopher Wickersham Clark, Puttaswamy Rahul Gowda, Yi Liu, Qi Ding, Junjin Pu, Sakphong Chanbai, Ming Cao
  • Patent number: 10602157
    Abstract: A method and system for allocating a variable number of bits per frame in a distributed video encoding using a complexity analyzer is disclosed. The method includes receiving an input video for allocating the number of bits for each segment based on the complexity of the segment. Further, the method includes splitting the input video into plurality of segments. Further, the method includes determining the number of bits to be allocated to the plurality of segments based on the complexity measurement of the input video. In an embodiment, single complexity analyzer can be used to determine the complexity of the plurality of segments. In another embodiment, separate complexity analyzer can be used for each segment to determine the complexity. Further, the method includes allocating the bits to the plurality of segments of the input video. Further, the method includes combining the plurality of segments to form a single output video; thereby, obtaining the encoded output video.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Hamilton Coward, Amit Puntambekar
  • Patent number: 10602153
    Abstract: Various of the disclosed embodiments relate to multiple video encoders that are used to simultaneously encode a video using encoders configured using different encoding parameters. A segment selector selects an encoded version of the encoded video segment using operational criteria such as video quality and bandwidth. A configuration determination module may analyze the video segment to make a decision about which encoding parameter configurations may be suitable for encoding the video segment. The configuration determination module may be trainable, based on past encoding results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Hamilton Coward, Amit Puntambekar, Wurzel David Parsons-Keir
  • Patent number: 10587669
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving multimedia content information associated with at least one segment of a multimedia content, receiving a request to view the at least one segment of the multimedia content from a client device, logging playback information associated with the viewing of the at least one segment of the multimedia content, determining a multimedia quality metric associated with the at least one segment of multimedia content based in part upon a portion of the received multimedia content information and a portion of the logged playback information, and classifying the at least one segment of the multimedia content with the multimedia quality metric.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Minchuan Chen, Shankar Lakshmi Regunathan, Sonal Gandhi, Yaming He, Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward
  • Patent number: 10582211
    Abstract: A neural network learning algorithm obtains a fingerprint of a video sequence. Using the fingerprint, selection of an appropriate video stabilization algorithm, and its parameter settings, is performed. The video thus stabilized is made more appealing for viewing and easier for subsequent video compression. The neural network may be trained during a training phase to select a correct fingerprint of each video sequence based on the effectiveness of resulting video stabilization and/or compression.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Melanie Sclar, Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward, Wurzel David Parsons-Keir
  • Patent number: 10542328
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can present one or more base segments of a first stream of a content item in a viewport interface, the content item being composed using a set of streams that each capture at least one scene from a particular direction, wherein the viewport interface is provided through a display screen of the computing device. A determination is made that a direction of the viewport interface has changed to a different direction during playback of a first base segment of the first stream. One or more offset segments of a second stream that correspond to the different direction are presented in the viewport interface, the offset segments being offset from the set of base segments of the first stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Hamilton Coward, Amit Puntambekar, David Young Joon Pio, Evgeny V. Kuzyakov
  • Patent number: 10506248
    Abstract: Video foreground and background detection is performed on a received video sequence on a macroblock by macroblock basis using motion vector encoding information associated with each macroblock. Some of the macroblocks in each frame, for example, edge or corner macroblocks, may be exempt from the foreground and background detection. The detection information, along with the video data, is passed to an image stabilization algorithm that prepares the video for subsequent video compression.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Melanie Sclar, Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward, Wurzel David Parsons-Keir
  • Patent number: 10506235
    Abstract: Video encoding operation is performed in a distributed video encoding system to meet a service layer agreement such as a target time for completion of the video encoding operation. Each of multiple videos being encoded is split into smaller jobs corresponding to video segments of the videos. The jobs are processed according to a job queue. The sequence of jobs in the job queue is periodically updated such that jobs corresponding to each video are processed within the corresponding target encoding time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Hamilton Coward, Amit Puntambekar, Randall Eugene Rizun
  • Patent number: 10499070
    Abstract: A method and system for encoding a segment of an input video with accurate placement of key frames, e.g., I-Frames, using Group of Pictures (GOPs) length for output in a distributed video encoding system with two or more encoders is disclosed. The method includes creating overlapping segments in order to allow precise key frame placement. Further, the method includes using desired segment length and the desired key frame placement to create the overlapping segments. Further, the method includes skipping a certain number of frames at the beginning of the segment, and a certain number of frames at the end of the segment, thereby achieving accurate placement of key frames.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Hamilton Coward, Amit Puntambekar
  • Patent number: 10476943
    Abstract: An online system more efficiently streams multimedia content over the Internet for play back on client devices with varying computing power and network bandwidths by generating enhanced manifest files that more efficiently identify suitable media representations of the multimedia content. Each media representation has multiple media segments according to predefined byte ranges and a manifest file, which identifies location of the media file, bitrates, resolution, byte range, total duration, and other metadata. The online system customizes a manifest file for a user based on various factors including device capacity, network connectivity type and geolocation of the user. The online system also generates manifest fetch commands, which more efficiently fetch media segments for streaming. In response to changes of streaming server and media file (e.g., increased popularity), the online system dynamically updates corresponding manifest files.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Minchuan Chen, Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward
  • Patent number: 10440085
    Abstract: An online system more efficiently streams multimedia content over the Internet for play back on client devices with varying computing power and network bandwidths by generating enhanced manifest files that more efficiently identify suitable media representations of the multimedia content. Each media representation has multiple media segments according to predefined byte ranges and a manifest file, which identifies location of the media file, bitrates, resolution, byte range, total duration, and other metadata. The online system customizes a manifest file for a user based on various factors including device capacity, network connectivity type and geolocation of the user. The online system also generates manifest fetch commands, which more efficiently fetch media segments for streaming. In response to changes of streaming server and media file (e.g., increased popularity), the online system dynamically updates corresponding manifest files.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Minchuan Chen, Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward
  • Patent number: 10425378
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a computer server machine generates a time map associated with the video stream. The video stream comprises one or more time slices. The computer server machine identifies a non-relevant time frame. The computer machine receives a comment and a localized comment time stamp, and associates the comment with one or more time slices. One or more client devices communicates a request for one or more time slices to the computer server machine, and the computer server machine determines whether the localized comment time stamp is within the requested one or more time slices. When the localized comment time stamp is within the requested one or more time slices, computer server machine transforms the localized time stamp to a synchronized comment time stamp. Computer server machine sends information regarding the synchronized comment time stamp to the one or more client devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Sonal Gandhi, Sabyasachi Roy, Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward, Mathieu R. Henaire
  • Patent number: 10375156
    Abstract: Various of the disclosed embodiments relate to a distributed video encoding or transcoding system may utilize multiple encoding nodes to encode a video sequence by splitting the video into multiple smaller video segments. The assignment of video segments to the encoding nodes is performed to balance the use of the encoding nodes by selecting a node based on its encoding capabilities, e.g., whether the node employed a central processing unit (CPU) based encoding or a graphics processor unit (GPU) based encoding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Hamilton Coward, Amit Puntambekar
  • Patent number: 10341561
    Abstract: In a distributed video encoding system, a video is encoded by splitting into video segments and encoding the segments using multiple encoders. Prior to segmenting the video for distributed video encoding, image stabilization is performed on the video. For each frame in the video, a corresponding transform operation is first computed based on an estimated camera movement. Next, the video is segmented into multiple video segments and the corresponding per-frame transform information for the multiple video segments. The video segments are then distributed to multiple processing nodes that perform the image stabilization of the corresponding video segment by applying the corresponding transform. The results from all the stabilized video segments are then stitched back together for further video encoding operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward
  • Publication number: 20190190976
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method includes receiving multimedia content information associated with at least one segment of a multimedia content, receiving a request to view the at least one segment of the multimedia content from a client device, logging playback information associated with the viewing of the at least one segment of the multimedia content, determining a multimedia quality metric associated with the at least one segment of multimedia content based in part upon a portion of the received multimedia content information and a portion of the logged playback information, and classifying the at least one segment of the multimedia content with the multimedia quality metric.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2017
    Publication date: June 20, 2019
    Inventors: Minchuan Chen, Shankar Lakshmi Regunathan, Sonal Gandhi, Yaming He, Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward
  • Patent number: 10237608
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can generate a first set of fingerprints that correspond to at least one media stream of a content item. A second set of fingerprints that correspond to at least one media stream of an encoded version of the content item are generated. A first curve is generated based at least in part on the first set of fingerprints. A second curve is generated based at least in part on the second set of fingerprints. A determination is made whether the encoded version of the content item is synchronized based at least in part on the first curve and the second curve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2019
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward
  • Patent number: 10063872
    Abstract: A distributed video encoding system splits an input video into video segments. The video segments are encoded using multiple video encoding nodes. Prior to the process of splitting the sequence into video segments, the video is analyzed to generate a dependency map. Intelligent segmentation is performed using the dependency map so that each video segment includes all the video frames from which other video frames within that segment have been encoded in the input video. For example, picture headers are inspected to determine the temporal distance of the farthest past and future reference frames used for encoding frames of a video.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2018
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Hamilton Coward, Amit Puntambekar, Thomas George
  • Publication number: 20180191799
    Abstract: An online system more efficiently streams multimedia content over the Internet for play back on client devices with varying computing power and network bandwidths by generating enhanced manifest files that more efficiently identify suitable media representations of the multimedia content. Each media representation has multiple media segments according to predefined byte ranges and a manifest file, which identifies location of the media file, bitrates, resolution, byte range, total duration, and other metadata. The online system customizes a manifest file for a user based on various factors including device capacity, network connectivity type and geolocation of the user. The online system also generates manifest fetch commands, which more efficiently fetch media segments for streaming. In response to changes of streaming server and media file (e.g., increased popularity), the online system dynamically updates corresponding manifest files.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Inventors: Minchuan Chen, Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward
  • Publication number: 20180191586
    Abstract: An online system more efficiently streams multimedia content over the Internet for play back on client devices with varying computing power and network bandwidths by generating enhanced manifest files that more efficiently identify suitable media representations of the multimedia content. Each media representation has multiple media segments according to predefined byte ranges and a manifest file, which identifies location of the media file, bitrates, resolution, byte range, total duration, and other metadata. The online system customizes a manifest file for a user based on various factors including device capacity, network connectivity type and geolocation of the user. The online system also generates manifest fetch commands, which more efficiently fetch media segments for streaming. In response to changes of streaming server and media file (e.g., increased popularity), the online system dynamically updates corresponding manifest files.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Inventors: Minchuan Chen, Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward
  • Publication number: 20180191587
    Abstract: An online system more efficiently streams multimedia content over the Internet for play back on client devices with varying computing power and network bandwidths by generating enhanced manifest files that more efficiently identify suitable media representations of the multimedia content. Each media representation has multiple media segments according to predefined byte ranges and a manifest file, which identifies location of the media file, bitrates, resolution, byte range, total duration, and other metadata. The online system customizes a manifest file for a user based on various factors including device capacity, network connectivity type and geolocation of the user. The online system also generates manifest fetch commands, which more efficiently fetch media segments for streaming. In response to changes of streaming server and media file (e.g., increased popularity), the online system dynamically updates corresponding manifest files.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Inventors: Minchuan Chen, Amit Puntambekar, Michael Hamilton Coward