Patents by Inventor Samuel S. Epstein

Samuel S. Epstein 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: 20210240749
    Abstract: Method, storage medium and apparatus associated with content preparation and/or selection are disclosed herewith. In embodiments, an apparatus may include a content preparation or selection module to receive, as part of a content preparation or selection, a representation of a concept; and determine, for the content preparation or selection, topical relevance of a content item (N) of a content hierarchy to the concept. The content hierarchy may include a plurality of content items, including N, and determining the topical relevance of N to the concept includes determination of propagation of influence among content items of the content hierarchy subject to constraints that bound the number of operations performed by the computing system to determine the propagation of influence among content items of the content hierarchy with a chosen constant. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2021
    Publication date: August 5, 2021
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Patent number: 11017003
    Abstract: Method, storage medium and apparatus associated with content preparation and/or selection are disclosed herewith. In embodiments, an apparatus may include a content preparation or selection module to receive, as part of a content preparation or selection, a representation of a concept; and determine, for the content preparation or selection, topical relevance of a content item (N) of a content hierarchy to the concept. The content hierarchy may include a plurality of content items, including N, and determining the topical relevance of N to the concept includes determination of propagation of influence among content items of the content hierarchy subject to constraints that bound the number of operations performed by the computing system to determine the propagation of influence among content items of the content hierarchy with a chosen constant. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Publication number: 20180365332
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention permit the specification and servicing of aggregations of content constituent parts that derive from electronic documents. An incorporated content constituent part may correspond to any constituent part of any accessible document. In various embodiments, information derived from the intended layouts of source documents is employed to construct specifications of the constituent parts. The specifications may include search conditions. Graphic methods may be employed to construct the specification. Embodiments of the present invention enable content aggregations to appear in display presentations whose layouts may be adaptive to varying degrees. In various embodiments, flexible content-shifting methods are employed for display presentations of content aggregations. Resultantly, the display of content aggregations on mobile and other devices may be effectuated without wasting download bandwidth and display screen real estate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2018
    Publication date: December 20, 2018
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Patent number: 10157222
    Abstract: Method, storage medium and apparatus associated with content preparation and/or selection are disclosed herewith. In embodiments, an apparatus may include a content preparation or selection module to receive, as part of a content preparation or selection, a representation of a concept; and determine, for the content preparation or selection, topical relevance of a content item (N) of a content hierarchy to the concept. The content hierarchy may include a plurality of content items, including N, and determine topical relevance of N to the concept may be based at least in part on interrelationships among at least some of the other content items of the hierarchy other than N, its ancestor content items, and/or its descendant content items. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2018
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Publication number: 20180300410
    Abstract: Embodiments of methods and apparatuses for searching contents, including structured search for search expressions associated with documents, are described herein. Embodiments may use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or other information to capture within search results relevant content, including sub-document constituents, and/or to improve the accuracy of rankings within search results, and/or to classify documents within hierarchies of documents, and/or to cluster documents. Embodiments may use distance and/or scoring functions to generate scores for the structures to indicate relevance, including usage of local geometry, and linear iteration over portions of the content at a level to capture potential of a portion to influence other portions of the level, and influence received by a portion from the other portions of the level, and influence received by a portion from lower levels. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2018
    Publication date: October 18, 2018
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Publication number: 20170329845
    Abstract: Method, storage medium and apparatus associated with content preparation and/or selection are disclosed herewith. In embodiments, an apparatus may include a content preparation or selection module to receive, as part of a content preparation or selection, a representation of a concept; and determine, for the content preparation or selection, topical relevance of a content item (N) of a content hierarchy to the concept. The content hierarchy may include a plurality of content items, including N, and determining the topical relevance of N to the concept includes determination of propagation of influence among content items of the content hierarchy subject to constraints that bound the number of operations performed by the computing system to determine the propagation of influence among content items of the content hierarchy with a chosen constant. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Publication date: November 16, 2017
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Patent number: 9600587
    Abstract: Methods, storage media, and apparatuses associated with evaluating a content item are disclosed herein. In various embodiments, a computer-implemented method may include receiving, by a search expression generator operated by a computer, the content item. Additionally, the method may include generating a search expression, by the search expression generator, based on the content item, to facilitate evaluating the content item based at least in part on searching other content items using the search expression. The search expression may indicate nested juxtapositions of sub-expressions of the search expression. In other embodiments, at least one storage medium may include instructions implementing a search engine that applies the search expression to a collection of other content items. In still other embodiments, an apparatus may include a configurator adapted to organize the collection of other content items. Other embodiments may also be disclosed and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: Zalag Corporation
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Publication number: 20160070807
    Abstract: Methods, storage media, and apparatuses associated with evaluating a content item are disclosed herein. In various embodiments, a computer-implemented method may include receiving, by a search expression generator operated by a computer, the content item. Additionally, the method may include generating a search expression, by the search expression generator, based on the content item, to facilitate evaluating the content item based at least in part on searching other content items using the search expression. The search expression may indicate nested juxtapositions of sub-expressions of the search expression. In other embodiments, at least one storage medium may include instructions implementing a search engine that applies the search expression to a collection of other content items. In still other embodiments, an apparatus may include a configurator adapted to organize the collection of other content items. Other embodiments may also be disclosed and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 2, 2015
    Publication date: March 10, 2016
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Publication number: 20160012131
    Abstract: Embodiments of methods and apparatuses for searching contents, including structured search for search expressions associated with documents, are described herein. Embodiments may use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or other information to capture within search results relevant content, including sub-document constituents, and/or to improve the accuracy of rankings within search results, and/or to classify documents within hierarchies of documents, and/or to cluster documents. Embodiments may use distance and/or scoring functions to generate scores for the structures to indicate relevance, including usage of local geometry, and linear iteration over portions of the content at a level to capture potential of a portion to influence other portions of the level, and influence received by a portion from the other portions of the level, and influence received by a portion from lower levels. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 24, 2015
    Publication date: January 14, 2016
    Applicant: ZALAG CORPORATION
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Patent number: 9208218
    Abstract: Methods, storage media, and apparatuses associated with evaluating a content item are disclosed herein. In various embodiments, a computer-implemented method may include receiving, by a search expression generator operated by a computer, the content item. Additionally, the method may include generating a search expression, by the search expression generator, based on the content item, to facilitate evaluating the content item based at least in part on searching other content items using the search expression. The search expression may indicate nested juxtapositions of sub-expressions of the search expression. In other embodiments, at least one storage medium may include instructions implementing a search engine that applies the search expression to a collection of other content items. In still other embodiments, an apparatus may include a configurator adapted to organize the collection of other content items. Other embodiments may also be disclosed and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: Zalag Corporation
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Publication number: 20150339402
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention permit the specification and servicing of aggregations of content constituent parts that derive from electronic documents. An incorporated content constituent part may correspond to any constituent part of any accessible document. In various embodiments, information derived from the intended layouts of source documents is employed to construct specifications of the constituent parts. The specifications may include search conditions. Graphic methods may be employed to construct the specification. Embodiments of the present invention enable content aggregations to appear in display presentations whose layouts may be adaptive to varying degrees. In various embodiments, flexible content-shifting methods are employed for display presentations of content aggregations. Resultantly, the display of content aggregations on mobile and other devices may be effectuated without wasting download bandwidth and display screen real estate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 1, 2014
    Publication date: November 26, 2015
    Applicant: Zalag Corporation
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Publication number: 20150169580
    Abstract: Method, storage medium and apparatus associated with content preparation and/or selection are disclosed herewith. In embodiments, an apparatus may include a content preparation or selection module to receive, as part of a content preparation or selection, a representation of a concept; and determine, for the content preparation or selection, topical relevance of a content item (N) of a content hierarchy to the concept. The content hierarchy may include a plurality of content items, including N, and determine topical relevance of N to the concept may be based at least in part on interrelationships among at least some of the other content items of the hierarchy other than N, its ancestor content items, and/or its descendant content items. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2013
    Publication date: June 18, 2015
    Applicant: Zalag Corporation
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Patent number: 9047379
    Abstract: Embodiments of methods and apparatuses for searching contents, including structured search for atomic search expressions, including proximately associated atomic search expressions, are described herein. Embodiments may use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or other information to capture within search results relevant content, include sub-document constituents, to reduce the incidence of false positives within search results, and/or to improve the accuracy of rankings within search results. Embodiments may use distance and/or scoring functions to generate scores for the structures to indicate relevance, including usage of local geometry, and linear iteration over portions of the content at a level to capture potential of a portion to influence other portions of the level, and influence received by a portion from the other portions of the level. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: Zalag Corporation
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Patent number: 8751922
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention permit the specification and servicing of aggregations of content constituent parts that derive from electronic documents. An incorporated content constituent part may correspond to any constituent part of any accessible document. In various embodiments, information derived from the intended layouts of source documents is employed to construct specifications of the constituent parts. The specifications may include search conditions. Graphic methods may be employed to construct the specification. Embodiments of the present invention enable content aggregations to appear in display presentations whose layouts may be adaptive to varying degrees. In various embodiments, flexible content-shifting methods are employed for display presentations of content aggregations. Resultantly, the display of content aggregations on mobile and other devices may be effectuated without wasting download bandwidth and display screen real estate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Assignee: Zalag Corporation
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Patent number: 8489574
    Abstract: Embodiments of methods and apparatuses for searching contents, including structured search are described herein. Embodiments of the present invention use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or content category information to capture within search results relevant content that would otherwise be missed, to reduce the incidence of false positives within search results, and to improve the accuracy of rankings within search results. Embodiments of the present invention further use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or content category information to extend search results to include sub-document constituents. Embodiments of the present invention also support the use of distribution properties as criteria for ranking search results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2013
    Assignee: Zalag Corporation
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Publication number: 20130173578
    Abstract: Embodiments of methods and apparatuses for searching contents, including structured search for atomic search expressions, including proximately associated atomic search expressions, are described herein. Embodiments may use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or other information to capture within search results relevant content, include sub-document constituents, to reduce the incidence of false positives within search results, and/or to improve the accuracy of rankings within search results. Embodiments may use distance and/or scoring functions to generate scores for the structures to indicate relevance, including usage of local geometry, and linear iteration over portions of the content at a level to capture potential of a portion to influence other portions of the level, and influence received by a portion from the other portions of the level. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2013
    Publication date: July 4, 2013
    Applicant: Zalag Corporation
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Publication number: 20130103662
    Abstract: Methods, storage media, and apparatuses associated with evaluating a content item are disclosed herein. In various embodiments, a computer-implemented method may include receiving, by a search expression generator operated by a computer, the content item. Additionally, the method may include generating a search expression, by the search expression generator, based on the content item, to facilitate evaluating the content item based at least in part on searching other content items using the search expression. The search expression may indicate nested juxtapositions of sub-expressions of the search expression. In other embodiments, at least one storage medium may include instructions implementing a search engine that applies the search expression to a collection of other content items. In still other embodiments, an apparatus may include a configurator adapted to organize the collection of other content items. Other embodiments may also be disclosed and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2011
    Publication date: April 25, 2013
    Applicant: Zalag Corporation
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Publication number: 20120191684
    Abstract: Embodiments of methods and apparatuses for searching contents, including structured search are described herein. Embodiments of the present invention use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or content category information to capture within search results relevant content that would otherwise be missed, to reduce the incidence of false positives within search results, and to improve the accuracy of rankings within search results. Embodiments of the present invention further use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or content category information to extend search results to include sub-document constituents. Embodiments of the present invention also support the use of distribution properties as criteria for ranking search results.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 6, 2012
    Publication date: July 26, 2012
    Applicant: ZALAG CORPORATION
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Publication number: 20120143841
    Abstract: Embodiments of methods and apparatuses for searching contents, including structured search are described herein. Embodiments of the present invention use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or content category information to capture within search results relevant content that would otherwise be missed, to reduce the incidence of false positives within search results, and to improve the accuracy of rankings within search results. Embodiments of the present invention further use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or content category information to extend search results to include sub-document constituents. Embodiments of the present invention also support the use of distribution properties as criteria for ranking search results.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 10, 2012
    Publication date: June 7, 2012
    Applicant: ZALAG CORPORATION
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein
  • Patent number: 8140511
    Abstract: Embodiments of methods and apparatuses for searching contents, including structured search are described herein. Embodiments of the present invention use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or content category information to capture within search results relevant content that would otherwise be missed, to reduce the incidence of false positives within search results, and to improve the accuracy of rankings within search results. Embodiments of the present invention further use tree structures (or more generally, graph structures), layout structures, and/or content category information to extend search results to include sub-document constituents. Embodiments of the present invention also support the use of distribution properties as criteria for ranking search results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Zalag Corporation
    Inventor: Samuel S. Epstein