Patents by Inventor Nicholas A. Whyte

Nicholas A. Whyte 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).

  • Patent number: 9817831
    Abstract: A method to monetize multimedia queries is provided. The method includes receiving a multimedia query from a client device. In response, to the multimedia query a collection of thumbnails representing multimedia files is created. Position information for advertisement information is generated based on multimedia content included in the multimedia files. The position information specifies where the advertisement information should be displayed. Accordingly, advertisement information associated with advertisers that pay above a specified threshold is displayed with thumbnails of the multimedia content or with the actual multimedia content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Hugh J. Williams, Julia H. Farago, Nicholas A. Whyte
  • Patent number: 8005857
    Abstract: A unique object navigation system, user interface, and method that facilitate faster and smoother navigation of objects are provided. For example, the system can generate a plurality of objects that can be rendered on a display space that spans a single page in length, thereby mitigating the need to navigate through multiple pages. The system can determine the length of the page according to the number of objects generated. To view off-screen objects, an infinite scroll component can be employed. The amount of scroll space needed to view the plurality of objects can be determined in part by the length of the page and/or by the number of objects. The objects can also be viewed in a film strip format that is infinitely scrollable. The film strip view allows a view of the objects to be maintained while also viewing a selected object in greater detail at the same time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Julia H. Farago, Hugh E. Williams, James E. Walsh, Nicholas A. Whyte, Kavi J. Goel, Philip Fung, Ariel J. Lazier, Kenneth A. Moss, Ethan N. Ray
  • Patent number: 7849093
    Abstract: Architecture is provided for performing multimedia searches and returning media galleries, and then prominently displaying the galleries to a user. The disclosed innovation generates a gallery classifier and then displays found galleries to the user in a new and informative user interface. In one aspect, a system is provided that facilitates searching data for gallery pages. The system includes a gallery classifier that receives web data associated with web pages, and identifies a web page as a gallery page during a search operation. The system also includes a gallery user interface that presents a gallery page and associated content as part of the search process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Julia H. Farago, Nicholas A. Whyte, Ramez Naam
  • Patent number: 7702681
    Abstract: An image query system, and associated method and computer program product are disclosed that enhance and accelerate image-based querying. To this end, the present invention presents a digital image query with implict and explicit associated metadata and retrieval of visually similar images or other pertinent information from a large collection of images stored on local, networked, or web-linked repositories.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Brett D. Brewer, Eric B. Watson, Randall J. Macbeth, Nicholas A. Whyte
  • Patent number: 7664739
    Abstract: A unique object navigation system, user interface, and method that facilitate faster and smoother navigation of objects are provided. For example, the system can generate a plurality of objects that can be rendered on a display space that spans a single page in length, thereby mitigating the need to navigate through multiple pages. The system can determine the length of the page according to the number of objects generated. To view off-screen objects, an infinite scroll component can be employed. The amount of scroll space needed to view the plurality of objects can be determined in part by the length of the page and/or by the number of objects. The objects can also be viewed in a film strip format that is infinitely scrollable. The film strip view allows a view of the objects to be maintained while also viewing a selected object in greater detail at the same time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Julia H. Farago, Hugh E. Williams, James E. Walsh, Nicholas A. Whyte, Kavi J. Goel, Philip Fung, Ariel J. Lazier, Kenneth A. Moss, Ethan N. Ray
  • Publication number: 20080208831
    Abstract: Computer readable media, systems, and methods for controlling search indexing are described. In embodiments, a search index control instruction is received and, if permitted by the search index control instruction, content pertaining to the received instruction is indexed and presented in accordance therewith. In one embodiment, receiving the search index control instruction includes traversing the Internet with a web crawler and analyzing one or both of a robots.txt file and source code associated with a website of interest to locate instructions. Search index control instructions may include, by way of example only, exclusionary instructions (e.g., excluding specified domains from linking to portions of the content associated with a website) and modification instructions (e.g., permitting indexing and presentation of content associated with a website but only in a modified form to reduce the risk of content theft).
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2007
    Publication date: August 28, 2008
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Julia H. Farago, Hugh E. Williams, Darren A. Shakib, Nicholas A. Whyte, Srinath R. Aaleti
  • Publication number: 20080010238
    Abstract: An index of a search engine includes two portions: a long-term portion that is optimized for lookup performance and is stored in bulk storage, for example, non-volatile memory, and a short-term portion that is easily updatable and is stored solely or primarily in random access memory (RAM). Both portions of the index are searchable. The vast majority of documents in the location space are indexed in the long-term portion in a format optimized for lookup, while new documents are immediately searchable in the easily updatable short-term portion, which has a different format. The long-term portion is updated with indexing information of the short-term portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2006
    Publication date: January 10, 2008
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Nicholas A. Whyte, Gaurav Sareen, Oren Firestein, Ronnie I. Chaiken
  • Publication number: 20070162428
    Abstract: A method to monetize multimedia queries is provided. The method includes receiving a multimedia query from a client device. In response, to the multimedia query a collection of thumbnails representing multimedia files is created. Position information for advertisement information is generated based on multimedia content included in the multimedia files. The position information specifies where the advertisement information should be displayed. Accordingly, advertisement information associated with advertisers that pay above a specified threshold is displayed with thumbnails of the multimedia content or with the actual multimedia content.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2005
    Publication date: July 12, 2007
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Hugh J. Williams, Julia H. Farago, Nicholas A. Whyte