Patents by Inventor Ralph A. Lipe

Ralph A. Lipe 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: 7155392
    Abstract: The present invention includes a context-free grammar (CFG) engine which communicates through an exposed interface with a speech recognition engine. The context-free grammar engine, in one illustrative embodiment, handles loading and unloading of grammars, as well as maintaining a desired activation state of the grammars which are loaded. Further, the CFG engine represents all loaded grammars, and their corresponding activation states, as a single grammar to the speech recognition engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Philipp Heinz Schmid, Ralph Lipe
  • Patent number: 7139709
    Abstract: The present invention provides an application-independent and engine-independent middleware layer between applications and engines. The middleware provides speech-related services to both applications and engines, thereby making it far easier for application vendors and engine vendors to bring their technology to consumers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Philipp Heinz Schmid, Ralph Lipe, Robert Chambers, Edward Connell
  • Patent number: 7099886
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and computer-readable medium for searching for programming objects on a computer system. Under one aspect of the invention, optional search attributes are used to order a list of references to found programming objects. Under a second aspect of the invention, object attributes that are stored outside of a static attribute storage area are inspected during the search for programming objects. Under a third aspect of the invention, different sets of object data are allowed to reference the same programming object class, and different objects of a single programming object class may be initialized in different ways so that they exhibit different attributes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ralph Lipe, Robert L. Chambers, Edward W. Connell, Abhijit Sarkar
  • Patent number: 7089189
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system and method of notifying a speech related application of events generated by a speech related engine. A middleware layer receives a notification selection from the application. The notification selection is indicative of a selected notification mechanism for notifying the application of the events. The middleware component receives an event indication from the engine. The event indication is indicative of an event generated by the engine. The event indication is transferred to the application according to the selected notification mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ralph Lipe, Philipp H. Schmid
  • Publication number: 20060085193
    Abstract: The present invention includes a context-free grammar (CFG) engine which communicates through an exposed interface with a speech recognition engine. The context-free grammar engine, in one illustrative embodiment, handles loading and unloading of grammars, as well as maintaining a desired activation state of the grammars which are loaded. Further, the CFG engine represents all loaded grammars, and their corresponding activation states, as a single grammar to the speech recognition engine.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2005
    Publication date: April 20, 2006
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Philipp Schmid, Ralph Lipe
  • Patent number: 7024350
    Abstract: A computer-loadable data structure is provided that represents a state-and-transition-based description of a speech grammar. The data structure includes first and second transition entries that both represent transitions from a first state. The second transition entry is contiguous with the first transition entry in the data structure and includes a last-transition value. The last-transition value indicating that the second transition is the last transition from the first state in the data structure. A method is also provided for retrieving information from a binary grammar. The method includes receiving an index into a set of transition entries and converting the index into a memory offset relative to the beginning of the binary grammar, where the offset is based on a memory offset to the beginning of the set of transition entries, the fixed size of each transition entry and the index.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Philipp H. Schmid, Ralph Lipe
  • Publication number: 20060026141
    Abstract: Data associated with a function instance corresponding to a resource on one computer system is published for use on another computer system. A function instance is created on the other computer system using the published data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 2, 2005
    Publication date: February 2, 2006
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Douglas Brubacher, Dale Sather, John Gehlsen, Kenneth Cooper, Kosar Jaff, Gary Raden, Ralph Lipe, Roland Ayala, Shannon Chan
  • Publication number: 20050262137
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and computer-readable medium for searching for programming objects on a computer system. Under one aspect of the invention, optional search attributes are used to order a list of references to found programming objects. Under a second aspect of the invention, object attributes that are stored outside of a static attribute storage area are inspected during the search for programming objects. Under a third aspect of the invention, different sets of object data are allowed to reference the same programming object class, and different objects of a single programming object class may be initialized in different ways so that they exhibit different attributes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2005
    Publication date: November 24, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ralph Lipe, Robert Chambers, Edward Connell, Abhijit Sarkar
  • Publication number: 20050251391
    Abstract: A computer-loadable data structure is provided that represents a state-and-transition-based description of a speech grammar. The data structure includes first and second transition entries that both represent transitions from a first state. The second transition entry is contiguous with the first transition entry in the data structure and includes a last-transition value. The last-transition value indicating that the second transition is the last transition from the first state in the data structure. A method is also provided for retrieving information from a binary grammar. The method includes receiving an index into a set of transition entries and converting the index into a memory offset relative to the beginning of the binary grammar, where the offset is based on a memory offset to the beginning of the set of transition entries, the fixed size of each transition entry and the index.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2005
    Publication date: November 10, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Philipp Schmid, Ralph Lipe
  • Publication number: 20050235338
    Abstract: A DVD jukebox or the like is integrated with a home network and serves as a centralized storage of multiple video/audio titles that can be selected and played on display devices, such as televisions, at different locations in the home. The jukebox is connected to a media server on the home network. The media server controls the jukebox and functions as its proxy to allow discovery and control of the jukebox by other devices on the home network. The media server generates a directory of the titles stored in the jukebox, which is sent via the home network to a media client connected to the display device. The media client presents an interactive user interface to allow the user to navigate the titles in the jukebox and select a title for viewing on the display device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2005
    Publication date: October 20, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Salim AbiEzzi, Ralph Lipe
  • Patent number: 6957184
    Abstract: The present invention includes a context-free grammar (CFG) engine which communicates through an exposed interface with a speech recognition engine. The context-free grammar engine, in one illustrative embodiment, handles loading and unloading of grammars, as well as maintaining a desired activation state of the grammars which are loaded. Further, the CFG engine represents all loaded grammars, and their corresponding activation states, as a single grammar to the speech recognition engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2005
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Philipp Heinz Schmid, Ralph Lipe
  • Publication number: 20050192927
    Abstract: A function instance associated with a resource specifies one or more interfaces for accessing the resource. The function instance further includes functionality to return an entity operable to implement the specified interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2005
    Publication date: September 1, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Douglas Brubacher, Dale Sather, Ralph Lipe, Roland Ayala
  • Publication number: 20050187924
    Abstract: A request is received for one or more function instances. The request specifies a resource category. A resource provider is selected from a plurality of resource providers based on the resource category. One or more function instances are created by the selected resource provider to satisfy the request. Each of the created function instance is associated with a resource and specifies resource metadata and activation data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2005
    Publication date: August 25, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Douglas Brubacher, Dale Sather, Ralph Lipe, Roland Ayala
  • Publication number: 20050187922
    Abstract: In response to receiving a request for function instances, underlying function instances are identified using API layer data. The requested function instances are then created based on the underlying function instances.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2005
    Publication date: August 25, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Douglas Brubacher, Dale Sather, Ralph Lipe, Roland Ayala
  • Publication number: 20050187921
    Abstract: An input including information specifying criteria for selecting computer resources is processed to produce an output comprising one or more function instances associated with computer resources satisfying the criteria. Included in each of the one or more function instances are metadata and information that specifies a mechanism for accessing a computer resource associated with the function instance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2005
    Publication date: August 25, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Douglas Brubacher, Dale Sather, Ralph Lipe, Roland Ayala
  • Patent number: 6931376
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system and method of notifying a speech related application of events generated by a speech related engine. A middleware layer receives a notification selection from the application. The notification selection is indicative of a selected notification mechanism for notifying the application of the events. The middleware component receives an event indication from the engine. The event indication is indicative of an event generated by the engine. The event indication is transferred to the application according to the selected notification mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2005
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ralph Lipe, Philipp Heinz Schmid
  • Publication number: 20050165767
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and computer-readable medium for searching for programming objects on a computer system. Under one aspect of the invention, optional search attributes are used to order a list of references to found programming objects. Under a second aspect of the invention, object attributes that are stored outside of a static attribute storage area are inspected during the search for programming objects.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2005
    Publication date: July 28, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ralph Lipe, Robert Chambers, Edward Connell, Abhijit Sarkar
  • Publication number: 20050159960
    Abstract: The present invention includes a context-free grammar (CFG) engine which communicates through an exposed interface with a speech recognition engine. The context-free grammar engine, in one illustrative embodiment, handles loading and unloading of grammars, as well as maintaining a desired activation state of the grammars which are loaded. Further, the CFG engine represents all loaded grammars, and their corresponding activation states, as a single grammar to the speech recognition engine.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2005
    Publication date: July 21, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Philipp Schmid, Ralph Lipe
  • Publication number: 20050154724
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and computer-readable medium for searching for programming objects on a computer system. Under the invention, object attributes that are stored outside of a static attribute storage area are inspected during the search for programming objects.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2005
    Publication date: July 14, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ralph Lipe, Robert Chambers, Edward Connell, Abhijit Sarkar
  • Publication number: 20050132405
    Abstract: A DVD jukebox or the like is integrated with a home network and serves as a centralized storage of multiple video/audio titles that can be selected and played on display devices, such as televisions, at different locations in the home. The jukebox is connected to a media server on the home network. The media server controls the jukebox and functions as its proxy to allow discovery and control of the jukebox by other devices on the home network. The media server generates a directory of the titles stored in the jukebox, which is sent via the home network to a media client connected to the display device. The media client presents an interactive user interface to allow the user to navigate the titles in the jukebox and select a title for viewing on the display device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2003
    Publication date: June 16, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Salim AbiEzzi, Ralph Lipe