Patents by Inventor Michael L. Howard
Michael L. Howard 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).
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Publication number: 20230393234Abstract: An apparatus for indicating a direction of a radio transmission is described. The apparatus includes at least one vector detection device including two or more antennas and an attenuating material between at least one of the antennas and a source of a radio transmission. The attenuating material is arranged to vary an amount of attenuation with an angle of the source with respect to at least one of the antennas. The apparatus is configured to generate a signal indicating a direction of the radio transmission by comparing received signal strengths from the two or more antennas.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 18, 2023Publication date: December 7, 2023Inventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 11740319Abstract: An apparatus for indicating a direction of a radio transmission is described. The apparatus includes at least one vector detection device including two or more antennas and an attenuating material between at least one of the antennas and a source of a radio transmission. The attenuating material is arranged to vary an amount of attenuation with an angle of the source with respect to at least one of the antennas. The apparatus is configured to generate a signal indicating a direction of the radio transmission by comparing received signal strengths from the two or more antennas.Type: GrantFiled: December 21, 2021Date of Patent: August 29, 2023Inventor: Michael L. Howard
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Publication number: 20220113369Abstract: An apparatus for indicating a direction of a radio transmission is described. The apparatus includes at least one vector detection device including two or more antennas and an attenuating material between at least one of the antennas and a source of a radio transmission. The attenuating material is arranged to vary an amount of attenuation with an angle of the source with respect to at least one of the antennas. The apparatus is configured to generate a signal indicating a direction of the radio transmission by comparing received signal strengths from the two or more antennas.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 21, 2021Publication date: April 14, 2022Inventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 11221391Abstract: An apparatus for indicating a direction of a radio transmission is described. The apparatus includes at least one vector detection device including two or more antennas and an attenuating material between at least one of the antennas and a source of a radio transmission. The attenuating material is arranged to vary an amount of attenuation with an angle of the source with respect to at least one of the antennas. The apparatus is configured to generate a signal indicating a direction of the radio transmission by comparing received signal strengths from the two or more antennas.Type: GrantFiled: December 9, 2019Date of Patent: January 11, 2022Inventor: Michael L. Howard
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Publication number: 20200116819Abstract: An apparatus for indicating a direction of a radio transmission is described. The apparatus includes at least one vector detection device including two or more antennas and an attenuating material between at least one of the antennas and a source of a radio transmission. The attenuating material is arranged to vary an amount of attenuation with an angle of the source with respect to at least one of the antennas. The apparatus is configured to generate a signal indicating a direction of the radio transmission by comparing received signal strengths from the two or more antennas.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 9, 2019Publication date: April 16, 2020Inventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 10616415Abstract: Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for routing a communication involving a party in a contact center. Specifically, a treatment is selected for the communication. The selected treatment includes a plurality of range intervals in which each interval includes a value range and has agents assigned to the range interval from a plurality of agents who handle communications placed in the treatment. A communication value is determined for the communication that defines an expected payback from applying the treatment to the communication and a particular range interval is identified based on the communication value being within the value range for the interval. A target agent is then identified from the agents assigned to the particular range interval based on a matchup score for the agent. Here, the matchup score provides a measure of how well the agent is matched to the remote party.Type: GrantFiled: August 27, 2019Date of Patent: April 7, 2020Assignee: Noble Systems CorporationInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 10582059Abstract: Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for routing a communication in a contact center. Specifically, a treatment is selected for a communication from a plurality of treatments. Here, each treatment includes a plurality of agents to handle communications placed in the treatment and a set of queues in which each queue includes a value range. A determination is made as to whether the communication is using a chaining or non-chaining channel. If the communication is using a chaining channel, then a target agent designated to handle communications placed in the treatment using the chaining channel and corresponding queue are identified based on a value of the communication. If the communication is using a non-chaining channel, then a queue is selected from the set of queues for the treatment based on the value of the communication falling within the value range for the queue.Type: GrantFiled: August 8, 2019Date of Patent: March 3, 2020Assignee: Noble Systems CorporationInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 10539649Abstract: An apparatus for indicating a direction of a radio transmission is described. The apparatus includes at least one vector detection device including two or more antennas and an attenuating material between at least one of the antennas and a source of a radio transmission. The attenuating material is arranged to vary an amount of attenuation with an angle of the source with respect to at least one of the antennas. The apparatus is configured to generate a signal indicating a direction of the radio transmission by comparing received signal strengths from the two or more antennas.Type: GrantFiled: March 28, 2016Date of Patent: January 21, 2020Inventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 10477027Abstract: Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for routing a communication in a contact center. Specifically, a treatment is selected for a communication from a plurality of treatments. Here, each treatment includes a plurality of agents to handle communications placed in the treatment and a set of queues in which each queue includes a value range. A determination is made as to whether the communication is using a chaining or non-chaining channel. If the communication is using a chaining channel, then a target agent designated to handle communications placed in the treatment using the chaining channel and corresponding queue are identified based on a value of the communication. If the communication is using a non-chaining channel, then a queue is selected from the set of queues for the treatment based on the value of the communication falling within the value range for the queue.Type: GrantFiled: May 3, 2019Date of Patent: November 12, 2019Assignee: Noble Systems CorporationInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Publication number: 20190320284Abstract: Examples are generally described that include methods and systems for providing a reminder and/or identifying availability of a good or service, or both. In many examples, a reminder may be provided when a computing device satisfies one or more criteria associated with a reminder request. For instance, a reminder may be provided when the location associated with a computing device is proximate a destination and when the direction of travel associated with a computing device indicates that the proximity of the computing device is increasing or decreasing relative to a predetermined location. In other examples, a computing device may be utilized to identify an entity that associated with a requested good or a requested service, or both. In some examples, a location associated with the computing device may be determined and servers associated with an entity within a range of the location may be searched to identify the request good or the requested service, or both.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 15, 2019Publication date: October 17, 2019Applicant: INTELLECTUAL VENTURES FUND 79 LLCInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 10348904Abstract: Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for routing a communication in a contact center. Specifically, a treatment is selected for a communication from a plurality of treatments. Here, each treatment includes a plurality of agents to handle communications placed in the treatment and a set of queues in which each queue includes a value range. A determination is made as to whether the communication is using a chaining or non-chaining channel. If the communication is using a chaining channel, then a target agent designated to handle communications placed in the treatment using the chaining channel and corresponding queue are identified based on a value of the communication. If the communication is using a non-chaining channel, then a queue is selected from the set of queues for the treatment based on the value of the communication falling within the value range for the queue.Type: GrantFiled: December 11, 2018Date of Patent: July 9, 2019Assignee: Noble Systems CorporationInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 10225683Abstract: Examples are generally described that include methods and systems for providing a reminder and/or identifying availability of a good or service, or both. In many examples, a reminder may be provided when a computing device satisfies one or more criteria associated with a reminder request. For instance, a reminder may be provided when the location associated with a computing device is proximate a destination and when the direction of travel associated with a computing device indicates that the proximity of the computing device is increasing or decreasing relative to a predetermined location. In other examples, a computing device may be utilized to identify an entity that associated with a requested good or a requested service, or both. In some examples, a location associated with the computing device may be determined and servers associated with an entity within a range of the location may be searched to identify the request good or the requested service, or both.Type: GrantFiled: August 2, 2010Date of Patent: March 5, 2019Assignee: INTELLECTUAL VENTURES FUND 79 LLCInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 10200537Abstract: Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for routing a communication in a contact center. Specifically, a treatment is selected for a communication from a plurality of treatments supported by the contact center. Here, each treatment includes a set of sub-queues and is applicable to a reason and/or opportunity for conducting a communication with a party. Each sub-queue includes a value range and a plurality of agents assigned to handle communications placed in the sub-queue. Accordingly, in particular embodiments, a communication value is determined for the communication based on a computation specific to the selected treatment and a sub-queue is selected from the set of sub-queues based on the communication value falling within the value range for the sub-queue. The communication is then placed in the selected sub-queue so that it can be connected to an agent assigned to handle communications placed in the sub-queue.Type: GrantFiled: September 25, 2018Date of Patent: February 5, 2019Assignee: Noble Systems CorporationInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 10116798Abstract: Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for routing a communication in a contact center. Specifically, a treatment is selected for a communication from a plurality of treatments supported by the contact center. Here, each treatment includes a set of sub-queues and is applicable to a reason and/or opportunity for conducting a communication with a party. Each sub-queue includes a value range and a plurality of agents assigned to handle communications placed in the sub-queue. Accordingly, in particular embodiments, a communication value is determined for the communication based on a computation specific to the selected treatment and a sub-queue is selected from the set of sub-queues based on the communication value falling within the value range for the sub-queue. The communication is then placed in the selected sub-queue so that it can be connected to an agent assigned to handle communications placed in the sub-queue.Type: GrantFiled: August 3, 2018Date of Patent: October 30, 2018Assignee: Noble Systems CorporationInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 10091361Abstract: Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for routing a communication in a contact center. Specifically, a treatment is selected for a communication from a plurality of treatments supported by the contact center. Here, each treatment includes a set of sub-queues and is applicable to a reason and/or opportunity for conducting a communication with a party. Each sub-queue includes a value range and a plurality of agents assigned to handle communications placed in the sub-queue. Accordingly, in particular embodiments, a communication value is determined for the communication based on a computation specific to the selected treatment and a sub-queue is selected from the set of sub-queues based on the communication value falling within the value range for the sub-queue. The communication is then placed in the selected sub-queue so that it can be connected to an agent assigned to handle communications placed in the sub-queue.Type: GrantFiled: January 19, 2018Date of Patent: October 2, 2018Assignee: Noble Systems CorporationInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 9882989Abstract: A method for providing remote assistance for controlling a site is disclosed. A remote assistance request may be received from a control device. The remote assistance request may be sent from the control device to a remote server. Communication between the remote server and the control device may be established.Type: GrantFiled: January 22, 2007Date of Patent: January 30, 2018Assignee: Control4 CorporationInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 9854286Abstract: A method for optimizing the broadcast of multimedia is described. Multimedia is broadcast to at least one multimedia user device. User information is received from the at least one multimedia user device. The user information relates to user behavior from the at least one multimedia user device. The user information is processed to select future multimedia to broadcast. The future multimedia is broadcast.Type: GrantFiled: April 8, 2008Date of Patent: December 26, 2017Assignee: Control4 CorporationInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Publication number: 20170276763Abstract: An apparatus for indicating a direction of a radio transmission is described. The apparatus includes at least one vector detection device including two or more antennas and an attenuating material between at least one of the antennas and a source of a radio transmission. The attenuating material is arranged to vary an amount of attenuation with an angle of the source with respect to at least one of the antennas. The apparatus is configured to generate a signal indicating a direction of the radio transmission by comparing received signal strengths from the two or more antennas.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 28, 2016Publication date: September 28, 2017Inventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 8761712Abstract: A method for roaming control of nodes at multiple locations is described. The method may include various elements. The method may include identifying a first location. The method may include mapping a control function based on the first location. The method may include communicating with a first node at the first location.Type: GrantFiled: January 23, 2007Date of Patent: June 24, 2014Assignee: Control4 CorporationInventor: Michael L. Howard
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Patent number: 8565228Abstract: Systems and methods for selecting and/or ranking video streams to be transmitted to a client node are described. A first set of video streams is received at a receiving node. A set of display criteria is also received at the receiving node. One or more of the video streams from the first set of video streams is selected and/or ranked to form a second set of video streams. The second set of video streams is transmitted to a client node. The second set of video streams may then be displayed at the client node.Type: GrantFiled: March 28, 2007Date of Patent: October 22, 2013Assignee: Control4 CorporationInventor: Michael L. Howard