Patents by Inventor Ray A. Bittner

Ray A. Bittner 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: 20160117321
    Abstract: One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for creating socially authored, or community authored, summaries of documents and/or for navigating a forum comprising such summaries. In one embodiment, at least some of the summaries are generated automatically when a document is written and/or discovered (e.g., by a web crawler), for example. In another embodiment, the documents are created by users of the forum. A plurality of summaries of a document may be created (e.g., by different users), and users can provide feedback, such as comments or ratings, that may assist other users in identifying which summary or summaries better describe the document. Moreover, the users can navigate the forum and retrieve summaries by browsing categories (and subcategories) to identify a topic of interest and/or by performing a search based upon user inputted search term(s).
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 7, 2016
    Publication date: April 28, 2016
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Steven M. DRUCKER, Ray A. BITTNER, Curtis G. WONG
  • Patent number: 8174508
    Abstract: An input device includes an array of adjacent capacitive sensors arranged into rows and columns. Each capacitive sensor exhibits a capacitance characteristic when in proximity to a conductive element. A plurality of mechanical hysteresis mechanisms are each deposited on and in contact with each of the capacitive sensors and configured to be actuated by a corresponding push button. Each capacitive sensor exhibits an electrical characteristic upon actuation of the corresponding mechanical hysteresis mechanism. An insulating overlay layer positioned over the array of capacitive sensors and the plurality of mechanical hysteresis mechanisms defines each push button and defines a surface for accommodating the conductive element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Michael J. Sinclair, Ray A. Bittner, David W. Voth