Patents by Inventor Richard J. Wolf

Richard J. Wolf 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: 6268924
    Abstract: A server application associated with a document provides a document object with a print interface to support programmatic document printing. A client application interacts with the document object through the print interface to control printing. The print interface supports progress monitoring and print cancellation during printing using a call back interface of the client program. The print interface also supports opaquely conveying document-specific print options, so that the client program can perform subsequent print operations with the same or similar document object using the same print options without the client program manipulating the print options. The document object also has a print preview interface which supports programmatic print previewing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 1996
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2001
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Srinivasa R. Koppolu, Robert G. Atkinson, Nathaniel Brown, Richard J. Wolf, Matthew William Pearson
  • Patent number: 6026416
    Abstract: Ordered binder document sections having different file formats stored within a binder file. The binder file maintains the order of binder document sections and the native file format of each section. The ordered sections can be viewed and edited through a viewport of a frame displayed by a binder program module. By selecting graphical images displayed in a selection area of the frame the content of a binder document section can be viewed and edited without viewing the content of other binder document sections. The graphical images can be icons or graphical images derived from the content of sections called thumbnail images. A thumbnail image can be derived from either the first page or from multiple pages of an individual section. The binder program module can also dispatch the underlying application program modules that created each binder document section to print, spell check, and grammar check the binder document sections as a single data processing task.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 1996
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2000
    Assignee: MicroSoft Corp.
    Inventors: Heikki J. Kanerva, Srinivasa R. Koppolu, Richard J. Wolf, Robert Marcus Girling
  • Patent number: 6014428
    Abstract: Method and a system for a user-customizable interactive voice mail/voice response system are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, an interactive voice mail/voice response ("IVR") system of the present invention enables a user to build and operate custom IVR functions using voice templates. An interactive voice mail/voice response ("IVR") system of the present invention enables a user to build and operate custom IVR menus. The system comprises a voice menu system that includes a plurality of menus, each comprising a plurality of script records implemented using voice templates made up of voice template elements of various types, the characteristics and behavior of which will be determined by their user-designated type and the characteristic of the voice response record with which they are associated. As a result, the voice elements, and in turn, the voice templates they comprise, dynamically exhibit a behavior that is appropriate to the current environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2000
    Assignee: AST Research, Inc.
    Inventor: Richard J. Wolf
  • Patent number: 5946377
    Abstract: User-customizable method and system for enabling a user easily and conveniently to navigate one or more IVR systems regularly accessed by the user are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, a script-based DTMF information retrieval system of the present invention enables a user to build scripts that may be used to access information in an IVR system so that the need for remembering menu picks, account numbers and passwords is eliminated. Using the system of the present invention, a user may enter information about a service, such as the telephone number and name thereof. The user may then enter information about one or more accounts within each service, including account numbers and any passwords associated therewith. At that point, the user may construct scripts that can be used automatically to access information from or execute orders in connection with the service. Each script includes script records of various types depending on the type of action to be performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 1995
    Date of Patent: August 31, 1999
    Assignee: AST Research, Inc.
    Inventor: Richard J. Wolf
  • Patent number: 5875232
    Abstract: A personalized voice mail identification system is enclosed. In a preferred embodiment, the system of the present invention resides on a personal computer (PC) connected to a phone line via a TAPI-compliant or other appropriate device for enabling telephone functions to be performed by the PC. In one aspect of the invention, when a caller calls a system subscriber, a callerID code, if present, is detected and a determination is next made whether there is an ID recording comprising the spoken caller's name associated with the callerID code already stored in a database of the system. If there is an ID recording for the caller in the database, the recording is accessed and played to the subscriber as part of a call screening function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 1996
    Date of Patent: February 23, 1999
    Assignee: AST Research, Inc.
    Inventor: Richard J. Wolf
  • Patent number: 5818447
    Abstract: An email client invokes a DocObject-enabled mail note to display an email message and related features of the user interface. The mail note, which is a DocObject container, creates a DocObject server by invoking a DocObject-enabled word processor. The mail note provides a view port in which the word processor displays and edits the body of the email message. The word processor provides its formatting and editing features in the context of the mail note. OLE menu merging provides both email and word processing interoperability while editing the message. Programming interfaces between the mail note and the word processor allow the mail note to translate message data back and forth between the word processor's format and the format imposed by the email client. This ensures that messages created with the word processor can be read by other email clients.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 1996
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1998
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Richard J. Wolf, Srinivasa R. Koppolu, Suryanarayanan Raman, Steven J. Rayson
  • Patent number: 5771276
    Abstract: Method and a system for a user-customizable interactive voice mail/voice response system are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, an interactive voice mail/voice response ("IVR") system of the present invention enables a user to build and operate custom IVR functions using voice templates. An interactive voice mail/voice response ("IVR") system of the present invention enables a user to build and operate custom IVR menus. The system comprises a voice menu system that includes a plurality of menus, each comprising a plurality of script records implemented using voice templates made up of voice template elements of various types, the characteristics and behavior of which will be determined by their user-designated type and the characteristic of the voice response record with which they are associated. As a result, the voice elements, and in turn, the voice templates they comprise, dynamically exhibit a behavior that is appropriate to the current environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 23, 1998
    Assignee: AST Research, Inc.
    Inventor: Richard J. Wolf
  • Patent number: 5737393
    Abstract: Method and a system for a user-customizable interactive voice mail/voice response system are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, an interactive voice mail/voice response ("IVR") system of the present invention enables a user to build and operate custom IVR functions. The system comprises a voice menu system comprising a plurality of menus, each comprising a plurality of script records, and a scripting engine for providing event queuing functions to the voice mail system. When a menu is activated in response to an incoming call, the activated menu queues appropriate events with the script engine for playing a greeting to the telephone line and optionally requesting and verifying a password input by the caller. The menu then requests each record to queue events for providing a prompt indicating the key association and the purpose of the record.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 1997
    Date of Patent: April 7, 1998
    Assignee: AST Research, Inc.
    Inventor: Richard J. Wolf
  • Patent number: 5640579
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for logically partitioning a view of a document object from a frame in which the view is displayed. This enables a document object to control the appearance of its view when embedded within a container. The method and system enable a document object to control the page model of the view that it provides. The system may be implemented through "MICROSOFT" OLE 2.0 Interfaces. A view of a document object may be displayed in multiple frames and a frame may be used to display multiple views from different object types.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 17, 1997
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Srinivasa R. Koppolu, Richard J. Wolf, C. Douglas Hodges
  • Patent number: 5546525
    Abstract: A computer user interface includes a system and methods to provide a control hierarchy, control marking, a hybrid grammar, and resized and/or repositioned dialog boxes. Control hierarchy divides controls, assigns each control a label, displays the labels according to a design hierarchy, and operates on the controls according to a functional hierarchy. Control marking distinguishes controls, via addition of graphic elements or changes in labels--referred to as glyphs. Hybrid grammar simultaneously allows a user to specify operations and data objects in a noun verb relationship or verb noun relationship. Finally, resized and/or repositioned dialog boxes enable a user to select a control that requires selection of data objects that are possibly obscured by the dialog box.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 1989
    Date of Patent: August 13, 1996
    Assignee: Lotus Development Corporation
    Inventors: Richard J. Wolf, Donald J. Fossgreen, Robert Rosen, Christopher M. Vento, Doris Wells-Papanek
  • Patent number: 5517605
    Abstract: A graphics image management system registers each image in a graphical database which can be used to select and organize the images to generate a display record identifying images which meet certain user defined criteria. Each record contains a filename and contains an index name that does not need to be unique. The graphic image management system also includes a mechanism for displaying representations of each image on a display screen. The displayed graphic images can be scrolled in a picture browser window in any order as determined by the database. Index names may be used for selection of a graphical image in a combo box. In addition, a descriptive phrase can be associated with each image in order to further identify the image and these phrases can be searched to locate a particular image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 1993
    Date of Patent: May 14, 1996
    Assignee: AST Research Inc.
    Inventor: Richard J. Wolf
  • Patent number: 5103498
    Abstract: An intelligent help system which processes information specific to a user and a system state is described. The system incorporates a monitoring device to determine which events to store as data in an historical queue. These data, as well as non-historical data (e.g., system state), are stored in a knowledge base. An inference engine tests rules against the knowledge base data, thereby providing a help tag. A display engine links the help tag with an appropriate solution tag to provide help text for display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 1990
    Date of Patent: April 7, 1992
    Assignee: Tandy Corporation
    Inventors: Charles D. Lanier, Richard J. Wolf, Leticia Villegas