Patents by Inventor Robert G. Hawking

Robert G. Hawking 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: 11777798
    Abstract: A settings management system in a remote server environment generates user interface displays with settings management user input mechanisms, and detects actuation of those user input mechanisms. Settings configuration metadata is generated, for a given setting, based upon the detected actuation. The settings metadata is output for access by a plurality of different, heterogeneous, computing environments, and the settings metadata is consistent across all of those environments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Seshadri Mani, Robert G. Hawking, Omid Mola, Dongping (Donna) Huang
  • Publication number: 20200313966
    Abstract: A settings management system in a remote server environment generates user interface displays with settings management user input mechanisms, and detects actuation of those user input mechanisms. Settings configuration metadata is generated, for a given setting, based upon the detected actuation. The settings metadata is output for access by a plurality of different, heterogeneous, computing environments, and the settings metadata is consistent across all of those environments.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2020
    Publication date: October 1, 2020
    Inventors: Seshadri MANI, Robert G. Hawking, Omid Mola, Dongping (Donna) Huang
  • Patent number: 10728092
    Abstract: A settings management system in a remote server environment generates user interface displays with settings management user input mechanisms, and detects actuation of those user input mechanisms. Settings configuration metadata is generated, for a given setting, based upon the detected actuation. The settings metadata is output for access by a plurality of different, heterogeneous, computing environments, and the settings metadata is consistent across all of those environments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Seshadri Mani, Robert G. Hawking, Omid Mola, Dongping (Donna) Huang
  • Patent number: 10581670
    Abstract: Users in a given organization are tagged with a data center identifier (or data location) that identifies a data center where the user's resources are located. A user request is detected, that indicates that the user wishes to access a resource that is tied to the user. The user is automatically navigated to the user's corresponding data center, where the user permissions are analyzed to selectively grant access to the requested resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Robert G. Hawking, Shiguang Dong, Roberto C. Taboada, Burra Gopal, Seshadri Mani
  • Patent number: 10547621
    Abstract: A computing system is configured to provide access to electronic content. The computing system includes a processor, a data store, an access control system, and a user interface component. The data store is coupled to the processor and is configured to store the electronic content. The access control system control system is configured to selectively allow a requestor to access the electronic content based on a stored metadata setting that is associated with the link. The user interface component is configured to receive a setting change related to a share associated with the link and to persist metadata associated with the setting change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2020
    Assignee: MICROSIFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Eugene S. Lin, Robert G. Hawking, Hui Huang, Rafael Lopez-Uricoechea, Sean L. G. Livingston
  • Publication number: 20180152460
    Abstract: A computing system is configured to provide access to electronic content. The computing system includes a processor, a data store, an access control system, and a user interface component. The data store is coupled to the processor and is configured to store the electronic content. The access control system control system is configured to selectively allow a requestor to access the electronic content based on a stored metadata setting that is associated with the link. The user interface component is configured to receive a setting change related to a share associated with the link and to persist metadata associated with the setting change.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2016
    Publication date: May 31, 2018
    Inventors: Eugene S. Lin, Robert G. Hawking, Hui Huang, Rafael Lopez-Uricoechea, Sean L. G. Livingston
  • Patent number: 9880992
    Abstract: Tools and techniques for providing multi-client collaboration to access and update structured data elements are disclosed. Client systems may present user interfaces that provide libraries of published data elements that are available for collaboration. The clients may request selected data elements, while referencing unique identifiers associated with the selected data elements. Those clients that publish data elements for collaboration by others may present user interfaces that provide representations of candidate structured data elements, and receive selections of those data elements chosen for publication. The publishing clients may then send the selected data elements for publication. The client systems may interact with servers or collaboration services, which may receive structured data elements that the clients have published for access by others.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventor: Robert G. Hawking
  • Publication number: 20170099181
    Abstract: Users in a given organization are tagged with a data center identifier (or data location) that identifies a data center where the user's resources are located. A user request is detected, that indicates that the user wishes to access a resource that is tied to the user. The user is automatically navigated to the user's corresponding data center, where the user permissions are analyzed to selectively grant access to the requested resource.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2015
    Publication date: April 6, 2017
    Inventors: Robert G. Hawking, Shiguang Dong, Roberto C. Taboada, Burra Gopal, Seshadri Mani
  • Publication number: 20160323142
    Abstract: A settings management system in a remote server environment generates user interface displays with settings management user input mechanisms, and detects actuation of those user input mechanisms. Settings configuration metadata is generated, for a given setting, based upon the detected actuation. The settings metadata is output for access by a plurality of different, heterogeneous, computing environments, and the settings metadata is consistent across all of those environments.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 15, 2015
    Publication date: November 3, 2016
    Inventors: Seshadri Mani, Robert G. Hawking, Omid Mola, Dongping (Donna) Huang
  • Patent number: 9275032
    Abstract: Techniques for performing a process during a real time collaboration by multiple users or clients on a spreadsheet file are disclosed herein which may permit calculations to be performed locally by at least one of the clients. By doing so, increases in performance are realized since only data updates need to be provided to the host machine. As such, a determination is preferably made whether calculations performed locally can result in different data. If conflicting data is a possibility, then the calculations for the spreadsheet file will usually be performed remotely by a host machine. If not, then each client capable of doing so will perform the calculations locally and then provide only the updated data to the host machine. The determination of whether to perform the calculations locally or not may also be made dynamically, such as when one or more new formulas are added to the spreadsheet file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Johnny S. Campbell, Joseph M. Chirilov, Michael H. Smith, Robert G. Hawking, Rishabh Tandon
  • Publication number: 20150019947
    Abstract: Tools and techniques for providing multi-client collaboration to access and update structured data elements are disclosed. Client systems may present user interfaces that provide libraries of published data elements that are available for collaboration. The clients may request selected data elements, while referencing unique identifiers associated with the selected data elements. Those clients that publish data elements for collaboration by others may present user interfaces that provide representations of candidate structured data elements, and receive selections of those data elements chosen for publication. The publishing clients may then send the selected data elements for publication. The client systems may interact with servers or collaboration services, which may receive structured data elements that the clients have published for access by others.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2014
    Publication date: January 15, 2015
    Inventor: Robert G. Hawking
  • Patent number: 8862979
    Abstract: Tools and techniques for providing multi-client collaboration to access and update structured data elements are disclosed. Client systems may present user interfaces that provide libraries of published data elements that are available for collaboration. The clients may request selected data elements, while referencing unique identifiers associated with the selected data elements. Those clients that publish data elements for collaboration by others may present user interfaces that provide representations of candidate structured data elements, and receive selections of those data elements chosen for publication. The publishing clients may then send the selected data elements for publication. The client systems may interact with servers or collaboration services, which may receive structured data elements that the clients have published for access by others.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Robert G Hawking
  • Publication number: 20120216103
    Abstract: Techniques for performing a process during a real time collaboration by multiple users or clients on a spreadsheet file are disclosed herein which may permit calculations to be performed locally by at least one of the clients. By doing so, increases in performance are realized since only data updates need to be provided to the host machine. As such, a determination is preferably made whether calculations performed locally can result in different data. If conflicting data is a possibility, then the calculations for the spreadsheet file will usually be performed remotely by a host machine. If not, then each client capable of doing so will perform the calculations locally and then provide only the updated data to the host machine. The determination of whether to perform the calculations locally or not may also be made dynamically, such as when one or more new formulas are added to the spreadsheet file.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2012
    Publication date: August 23, 2012
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Johnny S. Campbell, Joseph M. Chirilov, Michael H. Smith, Robert G. Hawking, Rishabh Tandon
  • Patent number: 8190987
    Abstract: Techniques for performing a process during a real time collaboration by multiple users or clients on a spreadsheet file are disclosed herein which may permit calculations to be performed locally by at least one of the clients. By doing so, increases in performance are realized since only data updates need to be provided to the host machine. As such, a determination is preferably made whether calculations performed locally can result in different data. If conflicting data is a possibility, then the calculations for the spreadsheet file will usually be performed remotely by a host machine. If not, then each client capable of doing so will perform the calculations locally and then provide only the updated data to the host machine. The determination of whether to perform the calculations locally or not may also be made dynamically, such as when one or more new formulas are added to the spreadsheet file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Johnny S. Campbell, Joseph M. Chirilov, Michael H. Smith, Robert G. Hawking, Rishabh Tandon
  • Patent number: 8161372
    Abstract: Individual cells within a spreadsheet may contain an extensible value as defined by an extensible value type. The extensible value type is a user defined value type that is incorporated into the spreadsheet as a supported data type. Generally, the extensible data types provide support for types that are not internally defined by a spreadsheet. When the extensible value type is defined, an associated set of functions are developed to operate on the type. These functions are added to the set of base functions supported by the spreadsheet. The functions, therefore, behave in a substantially similar manner to the set of base spreadsheet functions. The extensible values that are contained within the cells may be acted upon in the same way that supported base types are acted upon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Charles D. Ellis, Matthew J. Androski, Robert G. Hawking, Simon Peyton Jones
  • Publication number: 20100312748
    Abstract: Cube functions may be used to obtain data from a multidimensional database. The cube functions may be contained within one or more cells of a spreadsheet. These cube functions behave similarly to the standard functions that may be included within a spreadsheet. Exemplary cube functions include obtaining: a cube member, a cube value, a cube set, a ranked member, a KPI, a member property and a count relating to a set. The cube functions within the spreadsheet may access the cube data from one or more multidimensional databases. Using the cube formulas in individual cells allows the user to add/delete rows and/or columns from within the spreadsheet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 6, 2010
    Publication date: December 9, 2010
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Howard J. Dickerman, Brian W. Boon, Charles D. Ellis, Kaicheng Hu, Robert G. Hawking
  • Patent number: 7805433
    Abstract: Cube functions may be used to obtain data from a multidimensional database. The cube functions may be contained within one or more cells of a spreadsheet. These cube functions behave similarly to the standard functions that may be included within a spreadsheet. Exemplary cube functions include obtaining: a cube member, a cube value, a cube set, a ranked member, a KPI, a member property and a count relating to a set. The cube functions within the spreadsheet may access the cube data from one or more multidimensional databases. Using the cube formulas in individual cells allows the user to add/delete rows and/or columns from within the spreadsheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Howard J. Dickerman, Brian W. Boon, Charles D. Ellis, Kaicheng Hu, Robert G. Hawking
  • Patent number: 7792847
    Abstract: Data corresponding to a structured report or multi-dimensional presentation is converted to formulas within cells of a spreadsheet. The cell formulas operate on a multi-dimension database that was the data source for the structured report. Therefore the layout of the data in the cells is similar to the layout of the data in structured report. The user is able to move the formulas around in the spreadsheet resulting in any custom layout the user desires. Because the data is no longer in a structured report, it is no longer subject to the layout restrictions of the report.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Howard J. Dickerman, Kaicheng Hu, Robert G. Hawking
  • Patent number: 7756824
    Abstract: Techniques for collaborating on a spreadsheet file by client computers in real time are disclosed herein. In particular, a revision manager module is preferably provided with a host machine which receives updates from the client computers, processes such updates, and then applies them to the spreadsheet file. Additionally, a technique is described for handling updates sent to the revision manager by clients simultaneously or near simultaneously. In this case, the revision manager determines whether the updates to the spreadsheet file are transformable or able to be merged. If so, the updates are combined into the spreadsheet file and applied thereto. If the updates are not transformable, the revision manager confirms that all clients have received all previous updates before applying the non-transformable update to the spreadsheet file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Johnny S. Campbell, Joseph M. Chirilov, Michael H. Smith, Rishabh Tandon, Robert G. Hawking, Robert L. Archer
  • Patent number: 7698287
    Abstract: The present invention provides several database formulas that can manipulate large sets of data. Each database formula is customizable and repeatable without user intervention. Thus, users may enter numerous options that can cover the user's desire for data output in certain forms or formats, select a set of input data, and consistently receive a set of output data. In some embodiments, the user may refer to the set of data semantically instead of specifying a range of cells to use in the database formula. Referring to the data semantically allows the database formulas to adjust to changes in the range of cells new data may occupy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew J. Becker, Charles D. Ellis, Joseph M. Chirilov, Juha P. Niemisto, Matthew J. Androski, Robert C. Collie, Robert G. Hawking, Simon Peyton-Jones