Patents by Inventor Oliver Williams

Oliver Williams 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: 8933931
    Abstract: A system and method for providing an augmented reality environment in which the environmental mapping process is decoupled from the localization processes performed by one or more mobile devices is described. In some embodiments, an augmented reality system includes a mapping system with independent sensing devices for mapping a particular real-world environment and one or more mobile devices. Each of the one or more mobile devices utilizes a separate asynchronous computing pipeline for localizing the mobile device and rendering virtual objects from a point of view of the mobile device. This distributed approach provides an efficient way for supporting mapping and localization processes for a large number of mobile devices, which are typically constrained by form factor and battery life limitations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Alexandru Balan, Jason Flaks, Steve Hodges, Michael Isard, Oliver Williams, Paul Barham, Shahram Izadi, Otmar Hiliges, David Molyneaux, David Kim
  • Publication number: 20140316225
    Abstract: A system and method for detecting vascular contamination by surgical anesthetic using non-invasive IR spectrophotometry. One embodiment is a method for operating an instrument such as an enhanced pulse oximeter to monitor a patient receiving local anesthetic marked with dye that absorbs infrared light. Light is applied to and detected from tissue of the patient. A signal representative of the detected light is processed to derive patient oxygenation information. The detected light is also processed to derive information representative of the presence of the dye-marked anesthetic. The oxygenation information and the information representative of the presence of anesthetic are displayed. The oxygenation monitoring and display and the anesthetic monitoring and display can occur separately or concurrently. Fluorescing dyes and fluorescence detection approaches are used for anesthetic detection in some embodiments.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2012
    Publication date: October 23, 2014
    Applicant: MAYO FOUNDATION FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
    Inventors: Steven R. Clendenen, Clifton R. Haider, Barry K. Gilbert, Oliver William Spees
  • Publication number: 20140310655
    Abstract: A system includes a processor configured to display a Geographic Information System (GIS) map, derive a data based on a user action associated with the map; associate a thumbnail image to the data; and display the thumbnail image representative of the map.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 11, 2013
    Publication date: October 16, 2014
    Applicant: General Electric Company
    Inventor: Oliver William Sims
  • Patent number: 8860663
    Abstract: A method of tracking a subject includes receiving from a source a depth image of a scene including the subject. The depth image includes a depth for each of a plurality of pixels. The method further includes identifying pixels of the depth image that image the subject and deriving from the identified pixels of the depth image one or more machine readable data structures representing the subject as a model including a plurality of shapes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Matthew Craig, Tommer Leyvand, Craig Peeper, Momin M. Al-Ghosien, Matt Bronder, Oliver Williams, Ryan M. Geiss, Jamie Daniel Joseph Shotton, Johnny Lee, Mark Finocchio
  • Publication number: 20140177956
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for describing and tracking edges within the field of view of one or more imaging devices. In one example, the present system defines a row of pixels taken across a width of the edge, and then determines a binary edge descriptor for the edge by comparing at least one of grayscale values and contrast of pixels within respective pixel pairs from the row of pixels, the result of the comparisons setting bits within the binary descriptor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 26, 2012
    Publication date: June 26, 2014
    Inventors: Britta S. Hummel, Oliver Williams, Abdelrehim Ahmed
  • Publication number: 20140078141
    Abstract: A method of tracking a subject includes receiving from a source a depth image of a scene including the subject. The depth image includes a depth for each of a plurality of pixels. The method further includes identifying pixels of the depth image that image the subject and deriving from the identified pixels of the depth image one or more machine readable data structures representing the subject as a model including a plurality of shapes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 22, 2013
    Publication date: March 20, 2014
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Matthew Craig, Tommer Leyvand, Craig Peeper, Momin M. Al-Ghosien, Matt Bronder, Oliver Williams, Ryan M. Geiss, Jamie Daniel Joseph Shotton, Johnny Lee, Mark Finocchio
  • Patent number: 8610665
    Abstract: A method of tracking a target includes receiving from a source a depth image of a scene including the human subject. The depth image includes a depth for each of a plurality of pixels. The method further includes identifying pixels of the depth image that belong to the human subject and deriving from the identified pixels of the depth image one or more machine readable data structures representing the human subject as a body model including a plurality of shapes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Matthew Craig, Tommer Leyvand, Craig Peeper, Momin M. Al-Ghosien, Matt Bronder, Oliver Williams, Ryan M. Geiss, Jamie Daniel Joseph Shotton, Johnny Lee, Mark Finocchio
  • Patent number: 8611607
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for identifying objects captured by a depth camera by condensing classified image data into centroids of probability that captured objects are correctly identified entities. Output exemplars are processed to detect spatially localized clusters of non-zero probability pixels. For each cluster, a centroid is generated, generally resulting in multiple centroids for each differentiated object. Each centroid may be assigned a confidence value, indicating the likelihood that it corresponds to a true object, based on the size and shape of the cluster, as well as the probabilities of its constituent pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew Bronder, Oliver Williams, Ryan Geiss, Andrew Fitzgibbon, Jamie Shotton
  • Patent number: 8565485
    Abstract: A method of tracking a target includes receiving from a source a depth image of a scene including the human subject. The depth image includes a depth for each of a plurality of pixels. The method further includes identifying pixels of the depth image that belong to the human subject and deriving from the identified pixels of the depth image one or more machine readable data structures representing the human subject as a body model including a plurality of shapes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Matthew Craig, Tommer Leyvand, Craig Peeper, Momin M. Al-Ghosien, Matt Bronder, Oliver Williams, Ryan M. Geiss, Jamie Daniel Joseph Shotton, Johnny Lee, Mark Finocchio
  • Patent number: 8553939
    Abstract: A method of tracking a target includes receiving from a source a depth image of a scene including the human subject. The depth image includes a depth for each of a plurality of pixels. The method further includes identifying pixels of the depth image that belong to the human subject and deriving from the identified pixels of the depth image one or more machine readable data structures representing the human subject as a body model including a plurality of shapes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Matthew Craig, Tommer Leyvand, Craig Peeper, Momin M. Al-Ghosien, Matt Bronder, Oliver Williams, Ryan M. Geiss, Jamie Daniel Joseph Shotton, Johnny Lee, Mark Finocchio
  • Publication number: 20130243255
    Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for recognizing and tracking a user's skeletal joints with a NUI system. The system includes one or more experts for proposing one or more skeletal hypotheses each representing a user pose within a given frame. Each expert is generally computationally inexpensive. The system further includes an arbiter for resolving the skeletal hypotheses from the experts into a best state estimate for a given frame. The arbiter may score the various skeletal hypotheses based on different methodologies. The one or more skeletal hypotheses resulting in the highest score may be returned as the state estimate for a given frame. It may happen that the experts and arbiter are unable to resolve a single state estimate with a high degree of confidence for a given frame. It is a further goal of the present system to capture any such uncertainty as a factor in how a state estimate is to be used.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 6, 2013
    Publication date: September 19, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Oliver Williams, Ryan Geiss
  • Publication number: 20130241833
    Abstract: A method of tracking a target includes receiving from a source a depth image of a scene including the human subject. The depth image includes a depth for each of a plurality of pixels. The method further includes identifying pixels of the depth image that belong to the human subject and deriving from the identified pixels of the depth image one or more machine readable data structures representing the human subject as a body model including a plurality of shapes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2013
    Publication date: September 19, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Robert Matthew Craig, Tommer Leyvand, Craig Peeper, Momin M. Al-Ghosien, Matt Bronder, Oliver Williams, Ryan M. Geiss, Jamie Daniel Joseph Shotton, Johnny Lee, Mark Finocchio
  • Publication number: 20130169626
    Abstract: A system and method for providing an augmented reality environment in which the environmental mapping process is decoupled from the localization processes performed by one or more mobile devices is described. In some embodiments, an augmented reality system includes a mapping system with independent sensing devices for mapping a particular real-world environment and one or more mobile devices. Each of the one or more mobile devices utilizes a separate asynchronous computing pipeline for localizing the mobile device and rendering virtual objects from a point of view of the mobile device. This distributed approach provides an efficient way for supporting mapping and localization processes for a large number of mobile devices, which are typically constrained by form factor and battery life limitations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2012
    Publication date: July 4, 2013
    Inventors: Alexandru Balan, Jason Flaks, Steve Hodges, Michael Isard, Oliver Williams, Paul Barham, Shahram Izadi, Otmar Hiliges, David Molyneaux, David Kim
  • Patent number: 8437506
    Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for recognizing and tracking a user's skeletal joints with a NUI system. The system includes one or more experts for proposing one or more skeletal hypotheses each representing a user pose within a given frame. Each expert is generally computationally inexpensive. The system further includes an arbiter for resolving the skeletal hypotheses from the experts into a best state estimate for a given frame. The arbiter may score the various skeletal hypotheses based on different methodologies. The one or more skeletal hypotheses resulting in the highest score may be returned as the state estimate for a given frame. It may happen that the experts and arbiter are unable to resolve a single state estimate with a high degree of confidence for a given frame. It is a further goal of the present system to capture any such uncertainty as a factor in how a state estimate is to be used.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Oliver Williams, Ryan Geiss
  • Patent number: 8379919
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for identifying objects captured by a depth camera by condensing classified image data into centroids of probability that captured objects are correctly identified entities. Output exemplars are processed to detect spatially localized clusters of non-zero probability pixels. For each cluster, a centroid is generated, generally resulting in multiple centroids for each differentiated object. Each centroid may be assigned a confidence value, indicating the likelihood that it corresponds to a true object, based on the size and shape of the cluster, as well as the probabilities of its constituent pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Matthew Bronder, Oliver Williams, Ryan Geiss, Andrew Fitzgibbon, Jamie Shotton
  • Publication number: 20130028476
    Abstract: A method of tracking a target includes receiving from a source a depth image of a scene including the human subject. The depth image includes a depth for each of a plurality of pixels. The method further includes identifying pixels of the depth image that belong to the human subject and deriving from the identified pixels of the depth image one or more machine readable data structures representing the human subject as a body model including a plurality of shapes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2012
    Publication date: January 31, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Robert Matthew Craig, Tommer Leyvand, Craig Peeper, Momim M. Al-Ghosien, Matt Bronder, Oliver Williams, Ryan M. Geiss, Jamie Daniel Joseph Shotton, Johnny Lee, Mark Finocchio
  • Publication number: 20120315212
    Abstract: A method for obtaining diamond particles from aggregate structures which contain diamond particles with an average particle diameter of less than 10 nm. The aggregate structures are heated under a gas atmosphere such that the diamond particles are obtained from the aggregate structures. It is essential that the aggregate structures are heated under a gas atmosphere which, in terms of reactive gases, contains hydrogen gas in a proportion of at least 80%.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 25, 2011
    Publication date: December 13, 2012
    Applicant: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur Forderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.V.
    Inventor: Oliver Williams
  • Publication number: 20120306850
    Abstract: A system and method for providing an augmented reality environment in which the environmental mapping process is decoupled from the localization processes performed by one or more mobile devices is described. In some embodiments, an augmented reality system includes a mapping system with independent sensing devices for mapping a particular real-world environment and one or more mobile devices. Each of the one or more mobile devices utilizes a separate asynchronous computing pipeline for localizing the mobile device and rendering virtual objects from a point of view of the mobile device. This distributed approach provides an efficient way for supporting mapping and localization processes for a large number of mobile devices, which are typically constrained by form factor and battery life limitations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2011
    Publication date: December 6, 2012
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Alexandru Balan, Jason Flaks, Steve Hodges, Michael Isard, Oliver Williams, Paul Barham, Shahram Izadi, Otmar Hilliges, David Molyneaux, David Kim
  • Patent number: 8295546
    Abstract: A method of tracking a target includes receiving from a source an observed depth image of a scene including the target. Each pixel of the observed depth image is labeled as either a foreground pixel belonging to the target or a background pixel not belonging to the target. Each foreground pixel is labeled with body part information indicating a likelihood that that foreground pixel belongs to one or more body parts of the target. The target is modeled with a skeleton including a plurality of skeletal points, each skeletal point including a three dimensional position derived from body part information of one or more foreground pixels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Matthew Craig, Tommer Leyvand, Craig Peeper, Momin M. Al-Ghosien, Matt Bronder, Oliver Williams, Ryan M. Geiss, Jamie Daniel Joseph Shotton, Johnny Lee, Mark Finocchio
  • Publication number: 20120162065
    Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for recognizing and tracking a user's skeletal joints with a NUI system and further, for recognizing and tracking only some skeletal joints, such as for example a user's upper body. The system may include a limb identification engine which may use various methods to evaluate, identify and track positions of body parts of one or more users in a scene. In examples, further processing efficiency may be achieved by segmenting the field of view in smaller zones, and focusing on one zone at a time. Moreover, each zone may have its own set of predefined gestures which are recognized.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2012
    Publication date: June 28, 2012
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Philip Tossell, Andrew Wilson, Alex Aben-Athar Kipman, Johnny Chung Lee, Alex Balan, Jamie Shotton, Richard Moore, Oliver Williams, Ryan Geiss, Mark Finocchio, Kathryn Stone Perez, Aaron Kornblum, John Clavin