Patents by Inventor Toby H. Walker

Toby H. Walker 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: 20160350401
    Abstract: The ranking quality of a ranked list may be evaluated. In an example embodiment, a method is implemented by a system to access log data, ascertain which entries of a ranked list are skipped, and determine a ranking quality metric from the skipped entries. More specifically, log data that reflects user interactions with a ranked list having multiple entries is accessed. The user interactions include at least indications of which of the multiple entries are selected entries. It is ascertained which entries of the multiple entries of the ranked list are skipped entries based on the selected entries. The ranking quality metric for the ranked list is determined responsive to the skipped entries.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2016
    Publication date: December 1, 2016
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Kuansan Wang, Toby H. Walker, Zijian Zheng, Frederic H. Behr, JR., Yu Chen, Robert C. Wang
  • Patent number: 9449078
    Abstract: The ranking quality of a ranked list may be evaluated. In an example embodiment, a method is implemented by a system to access log data, ascertain which entries of a ranked list are skipped, and determine a ranking quality metric from the skipped entries. More specifically, log data that reflects user interactions with a ranked list having multiple entries is accessed. The user interactions include at least indications of which of the multiple entries are selected entries. It is ascertained which entries of the multiple entries of the ranked list are skipped entries based on the selected entries. The ranking quality metric for the ranked list is determined responsive to the skipped entries.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Kuansan Wang, Toby H. Walker, Zijian Zheng, Frederic H. Behr, Jr., Yu Chen, Robert C. Wang
  • Publication number: 20100082566
    Abstract: The ranking quality of a ranked list may be evaluated. In an example embodiment, a method is implemented by a system to access log data, ascertain which entries of a ranked list are skipped, and determine a ranking quality metric from the skipped entries. More specifically, log data that reflects user interactions with a ranked list having multiple entries is accessed. The user interactions include at least indications of which of the multiple entries are selected entries. It is ascertained which entries of the multiple entries of the ranked list are skipped entries based on the selected entries. The ranking quality metric for the ranked list is determined responsive to the skipped entries.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 1, 2008
    Publication date: April 1, 2010
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kuansan Wang, Toby H. Walker, Zijian Zheng, Frederic H. Behr, JR., Yu Chen, Robert C. Wang
  • Patent number: 7594189
    Abstract: An apparatus and methods advantageously select content items for dynamically-generated web pages in an intelligent and virtually autonomous manner. This permits the operator of the web site to rapidly identify and respond to trends, thereby advantageously updating the web site relatively quickly and efficiently without or with less time consuming and expensive manual labor. User interaction for a plurality of users with the web site is collected in a database. For various content items, the database is mined to extract relationships between probability and references of select attributes in probability models. When a new web page is requested, attributes, which can include attributes associated with a user, are used as references to the applicable probability models of selected content items, combined with value weighting to generate expected values, and selected for use in the web page at least partially based on the expected values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2009
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Toby H. Walker, David L. Selinger, John M. Rauser, Patrik P. Sundberg