Patents by Inventor Scott C. Catlin

Scott C. Catlin 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).

  • Controlling behavior of entities in funnel sections of a computer-represented environment
    Patent number: 10406438
    Abstract: Innovations in the area of controlling behavior of computer-controlled entities such as cars in a computer-represented environment are presented herein. In various examples described herein, the behavior of computer-controlled cars is controlled by an artificial intelligence (“AI”) behavior engine. The AI behavior engine performs operations to determine if the behavior (driving pattern, etc.) of a computer-controlled car should change for a funnel section. If so, the AI behavior engine switches the computer-controlled car to a trailing mode configuration and selects a candidate car to follow in the funnel section based on various criteria. The AI behavior engine also determines how to follow the candidate car by selecting a racing path and setting rules to determine the speed to use for following the candidate car. Control values are then set. The described innovations also generally apply to other racing scenarios, self-driving/autonomous cars, and other applications with robotic equipment and devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Scott C. Catlin, Jeffrey C. Schlimmer
  • CONTROLLING BEHAVIOR OF ENTITIES IN FUNNEL SECTIONS OF A COMPUTER-REPRESENTED ENVIRONMENT
    Publication number: 20190030432
    Abstract: Innovations in the area of controlling behavior of computer-controlled entities such as cars in a computer-represented environment are presented herein. In various examples described herein, the behavior of computer-controlled cars is controlled by an artificial intelligence (“AI”) behavior engine. The AI behavior engine performs operations to determine if the behavior (driving pattern, etc.) of a computer-controlled car should change for a funnel section. If so, the AI behavior engine switches the computer-controlled car to a trailing mode configuration and selects a candidate car to follow in the funnel section based on various criteria. The AI behavior engine also determines how to follow the candidate car by selecting a racing path and setting rules to determine the speed to use for following the candidate car. Control values are then set. The described innovations also generally apply to other racing scenarios, self-driving/autonomous cars, and other applications with robotic equipment and devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 28, 2017
    Publication date: January 31, 2019
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Scott C. Catlin, Jeffrey C. Schlimmer