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).

  • Publication number: 20230393234
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2023
    Publication date: December 7, 2023
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 11740319
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Publication number: 20220113369
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2021
    Publication date: April 14, 2022
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 11221391
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Publication number: 20200116819
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: December 9, 2019
    Publication date: April 16, 2020
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 10616415
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2020
    Assignee: Noble Systems Corporation
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 10582059
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: Noble Systems Corporation
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 10539649
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 10477027
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: Noble Systems Corporation
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Publication number: 20190320284
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2019
    Publication date: October 17, 2019
    Applicant: INTELLECTUAL VENTURES FUND 79 LLC
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 10348904
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2019
    Assignee: Noble Systems Corporation
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 10225683
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: INTELLECTUAL VENTURES FUND 79 LLC
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 10200537
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: Noble Systems Corporation
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 10116798
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2018
    Assignee: Noble Systems Corporation
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 10091361
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2018
    Assignee: Noble Systems Corporation
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 9882989
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2018
    Assignee: Control4 Corporation
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 9854286
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: Control4 Corporation
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Publication number: 20170276763
    Abstract: 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: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2016
    Publication date: September 28, 2017
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 8761712
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Control4 Corporation
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard
  • Patent number: 8565228
    Abstract: 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: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: Control4 Corporation
    Inventor: Michael L. Howard