Patents by Inventor Walton Lin

Walton Lin 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: 12289176
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for presenting an overview of participant reactions to a virtual conference. The program and method provide for a virtual conference between plural participants; provide, for each of the plural participants, display of reaction buttons which are selectable by the participant to indicate different reactions to the virtual conference; receive indication of selections of the reaction buttons by one or more of the plural participants; store an indication of the selections over time in association with recording the virtual conference; generate a graphical overview of reactions to the virtual conference based on the stored indication of the selections; and provide, for a first participant of the plural participants, display of the graphical overview.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2025
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Patent number: 12287961
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for providing bot participants for virtual conferencing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2025
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Cheng-Min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Publication number: 20250110611
    Abstract: Systems and methods for generating and serving stylized map tiles for a social media platform's map-based graphical user interface. Multiple earth imagery tiles corresponding to a geographical area are retrieved, each comprising a photographic image of a corresponding portion of the Earth's surface. Based on the earth imagery tiles, multiple stylized map tiles are generated. In response to receiving a request from a user device for display of a target area in the map-based GUI, a set of stylized map tiles corresponding to the target area is retrieved and transmitted to the user device. The generation of stylized map tiles may include retrieving a target earth imagery tile together with neighboring tiles, generating an expanded earth imagery tile, stylizing the expanded tile, and cropping to produce the final stylized map tile. Different neural networks may be used for stylizing tiles at different zoom levels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2024
    Publication date: April 3, 2025
    Inventors: Daniel Amitay, Jonathan Brody, Leonid Gorkin, Jeffrey Arthur Johnson, Andrew Lin, Walton Lin, Nayana Samaranayake, Evan Spiegel, Marcel M. Yung
  • Publication number: 20250088606
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for recreating keyboard and mouse sounds within a virtual working environment. The program and method provide for receiving, from a first client device of a first participant of a group of participants within a virtual working environment, a timing of keyboard and mouse input detected at the client device, the group of participants having been selected from among plural participants of the virtual working environment; generating, in response to the receiving, keyboard and mouse sounds that correspond to the timing of the keyboard and mouse input; and providing the generated keyboard and mouse sounds to one or more second client devices of respective one or more second participants of the group of participants, for presentation on the one or more second client devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 22, 2024
    Publication date: March 13, 2025
    Inventors: Brandon Francis, Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Patent number: 12244966
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for providing template rooms within a virtual conferencing system. The program and method provide for providing an interface to configure a template room for virtual conferencing; receiving, via the interface, an indication of user input specifying a configuration for the template room; accessing a data file comprising values for generating plural rooms based on the configuration for the template room; and providing, based on the configuration for the template room and on the data file, for virtual conferencing between plural participants across the plural rooms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2025
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Patent number: 12223156
    Abstract: A server system for a map-based social media platform maintains user location information to enable the rendering of friend icons on a map at a corresponding display locations. The system maintains a per user access control list (ACL) that lists all users whose icons can be viewed by a requesting user. The ACL can include a designation of respective display granularity levels for different friend users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2025
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Amitay, Jonathan Brody, Leonid Gorkin, Jeffrey Arthur Johnson, Andrew Lin, Walton Lin, Nayana Samaranayake, Evan Spiegel, Marcel M. Yung
  • Patent number: 12212425
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for providing a room preview within a virtual conferencing system. The program and method provide for virtual conferencing between plural participants within a first room of plural rooms, the plural rooms being included within a virtual space for virtual conferencing; and for each of the plural participants, provide a first audio channel associated with audio output of the first room, provide display of a room preview element within the first room, the room preview element corresponding to a live preview of a second room of the plural rooms, and provide a second audio channel associated with audio output of the second room.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2023
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2025
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Publication number: 20250021206
    Abstract: In a graphical user interface (GUI) for a social media platform, social media content is surfaced with variable visual attributes based on activity metrics. In a GUI for a social media platform, where the GUI provides access to posted social media items, an activity metric is determined for the underlying social media activity associated with each of multiple collections of social media items. The GUI displays user-selectable interface elements, such as icons, corresponding to these collections, with each icon having a visual attribute that varies depending on the activity metric. This results in visual differences between collection icons based on differences in their corresponding activity metrics.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 26, 2024
    Publication date: January 16, 2025
    Inventors: Daniel Amitay, Jonathan Brody, Leonid Gorkin, Jeffrey Arthur Johnson, Andrew Lin, Walton Lin, John Rauser, Amer Shahnawaz, Evan Spiegel, Marcel M. Yung
  • Patent number: 12199784
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for configuring broadcast media quality within a virtual conferencing system. The program and method provide, in association with designing a room for virtual conferencing, an interface for configuring plural participant video elements which are assignable to respective participant video feeds; receive an indication of user input for setting a broadcast media quality for a first participant video element, such that the broadcast media quality set for the first participant video element differs from that set for a second participant video element; provide for presentation of the room based on the broadcast media quality set for each of the first and second participant video elements; and assign, for each participant, a participant video feed corresponding to the participant with a respective participant video element of the plural participant video elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2025
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Patent number: 12192675
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for recreating keyboard and mouse sounds within a virtual working environment. The program and method provide for receiving, from a first client device of a first participant of a group of participants within a virtual working environment, a timing of keyboard and mouse input detected at the client device, the group of participants having been selected from among plural participants of the virtual working environment; generating, in response to the receiving, keyboard and mouse sounds that correspond to the timing of the keyboard and mouse input; and providing the generated keyboard and mouse sounds to one or more second client devices of respective one or more second participants of the group of participants, for presentation on the one or more second client devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2025
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon Francis, Andrew Cheng-Min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Patent number: 12185028
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for providing contact information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2024
    Assignee: SNAP INC.
    Inventors: Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Patent number: 12167168
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for presenting a time-limited video feed within a virtual working environment. The program and method provide, within a virtual working environment for plural participants, display of an interface element which is user-selectable to capture video for sending to a group of participants within the virtual working environment, the group of participants having been selected from among the plural participants; receive, based on user selection of the interface element by a first participant in the group of participants, a time-limited video feed from a client device of the first participant; and provide, in response to the receiving and for each participant in the group of participants, display of the time-limited video feed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2024
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon Francis, Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Publication number: 20240402877
    Abstract: A map-based graphical user interface (GUI) for a public messaging platform allows a user location-based to their own expired ephemeral content. Such expired content is no longer available to other users for online viewing. The user can, however, switch the GUI between a live mode and a historical mode, access to their own expired content in the historical mode being facilitated in a manner closely similar to that for viewing live publicly available content.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 12, 2024
    Publication date: December 5, 2024
    Applicant: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Amitay, Jonathan Brody, Maxwell Gale, Timothy Jordan Garcia, Daniel Vincent Grippi, Jeffrey Arthur Johnson, Sheridan Kates, Andrew Lin, Walton Lin, Gaurav Misra, Suraj Vindana Samaranayake, Amer Shahnawaz, Evan Spiegel
  • Patent number: 12131003
    Abstract: A map-based graphical user interface (GUI) for a public messaging platform allows a user location-based to their own expired ephemeral content. Such expired content is no longer available to other users for online viewing. The user can, however, switch the GUI between a live mode and a historical mode, access to their own expired content in the historical mode being facilitated in a manner closely similar to that for viewing live publicly available content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2023
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2024
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Amitay, Jonathan Brody, Maxwell Gale, Timothy Jordan Garcia, Daniel Vincent Grippi, Jeffrey Arthur Johnson, Sheridan Kates, Andrew Lin, Walton Lin, Gaurav Misra, Suraj Vindana Samaranayake, Amer Shahnawaz, Evan Spiegel
  • Patent number: 12132769
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for communicating with a user external to a virtual conference. The program and method provide, in association with designing a room for virtual conferencing, an interface for configuring an external communication element to communicate with an external user; receive, via the interface, an indication of first user input for setting properties for the external communication element; provide, in association with virtual conferencing for the room, the external communication element in the room based on the properties; receive an indication of second user input selecting the external communication element; and provide, in response to receiving indication of the second user input, for communication with the external user based on the properties.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2023
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2024
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Publication number: 20240353969
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for presenting participant reactions within a virtual working environment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2024
    Publication date: October 24, 2024
    Inventors: Brandon Francis, Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Patent number: 12120460
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for updating a room element within a virtual conferencing system. The program and method provide for providing, in association with designing a room for virtual conferencing, an interface for setting properties of elements within a room; receiving, via the interface, an indication of first user input setting a property of an element within the room; providing, based on the first user input, a virtual conference between plural participants within the room, the room including the element; receiving, via the interface and during the virtual conference, an indication of second user input updating the property of the element within the room; and updating, based on the second user input and during the virtual conference, the property of the element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2024
    Assignee: SNAP INC.
    Inventors: Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Walton Lin
  • Publication number: 20240340192
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for coordinating a side conversation within a virtual conferencing system. The program and method provide, for each of plural participants within a room, display of a participant video element correspond to the participant and including a user-selectable button to initiate a side conversation with the participant; receive indication of a user selection, by a first participant, of the user-selectable button for initiating the side conversation with a second participant; provide for a side conversation between a first device of the first participant and a second device of the second participant, the first and second participants maintaining presence in the room during the side conversation; and cause, for each of the plural participants, modified display of the participant video elements corresponding to the first and second participants, to indicate the side conversation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2024
    Publication date: October 10, 2024
    Inventor: Walton LIN
  • Patent number: 12112013
    Abstract: A map-based graphical user interface for a social media application displays to special social media activity information based on submission of geo-tagged social media items to the platform. For users and or submitted items that need predefined location fuzzing criteria, such activity is represented in the graphical user interface at an intentionally inaccurate position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2024
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Amitay, Jonathan Brody, Leonid Gorkin, Jeffrey Arthur Johnson, Andrew Lin, Walton Lin, John Rauser, Amer Shahnawaz, Evan Spiegel, Marcel M. Yung
  • Patent number: 12107698
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing a program and method for providing breakout sessions based on tagging users within a virtual conferencing system. The program and method provide, in association with designing a virtual space for virtual conferencing between plural participants, display of a first user interface for assigning tags to the plural participants; receive indication of first user input, via the first user interface, assigning a tag to a subset of the plural participants; provide display of a second user interface for configuring a breakout session; receive indication of second user input, via the second user interface, setting properties for the breakout session including the tag and an identification of a room to associate with the tag; and provide for the breakout session in the room, the breakout session including at least the subset of the plural participants.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2024
    Assignee: SNAP INC.
    Inventors: Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Walton Lin