Patents by Inventor Wei-Ying Ma

Wei-Ying Ma 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: 10891322
    Abstract: An example environment can automatically generate content for a conversation in response to a presented content item. An example computing device receives information associated with a content item produced by a source system, the content item being accessible to other the computing devices via a network. In response to receiving the information, the computing device identifies a start comment. In response to identifying the start comment, the computing device identifies a reply to the start comment using at least a ranking model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ming Zhou, Yu-Ting Kuo, Furu Wei, Lei Cui, Shaohan Huang, Kati London, Wei-Ying Ma, Haoyong Zhang
  • Patent number: 10891343
    Abstract: A method and system for recommending potential contacts to a target user is provided. A recommendation system identifies users who are related to the target user through no more than a maximum degree of separation. The recommendation system identifies the users by starting with the contacts of the target user and identifying users who are contacts of the target user's contacts, contacts of those contacts, and so on. The recommendation system then ranks the identified users, who are potential contacts for the target user, based on a likelihood that the target user will want to have a direct relationship with the identified users. The recommendation system then presents to the target user a ranking of the users who have not been filtered out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Dafan Liu, Hua Chen, Wei-Ying Ma
  • Patent number: 10732783
    Abstract: An image chat application generates comments to images based on features of the images. In one example, the image chat application searches through a repository of stored image-comment pairs to identify a stored image that is similar to the image, and generates a comment to the image based on an identified stored image-comment pair. In another example, the image chat application may identify and tag particular objects that dominate an image, and may generate a comment to the image based on characteristics of those particular objects. In this second example, the image chat application further generates a comment to the image based on comments previously associated with the identified tag.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Kuiyuan Yang, Wei-Ying Ma, Chunyan Liu, Di Li, Pengfei Xu, Yong Rui, Baoxun Wang
  • Patent number: 10691755
    Abstract: Many users make use of search engines to locate desired internet content by submitting search queries. For example, a user may search for photos, applications, websites, videos, documents, and/or information regarding people, places, and things. Unfortunately, search engines may provide a plethora of information that a user may be left to sift through to find relevant content. Accordingly, one or more systems and/or techniques for organizing search results are disclosed herein. In particular, user generated content, such as photos, may be retrieved based upon a search query. The user generated content may be grouped into clusters of user generated content having similar features. Search results of the search query may be obtained and organized based upon comparing the search results with the clusters. The organized search results and/or a table of content including the clusters may be presented to provide an enhanced user experience.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Xin-Jing Wang, Lei Zhang, Wei-Ying Ma
  • Publication number: 20180322188
    Abstract: An example environment can automatically generate content for a conversation in response to a presented content item. An example computing device receives information associated with a content item produced by a source system, the content item being accessible to other the computing devices via a network. In response to receiving the information, the computing device identifies a start comment. In response to identifying the start comment, the computing device identifies a reply to the start comment using at least a ranking model.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2016
    Publication date: November 8, 2018
    Applicant: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Ming ZHOU, Yu-Ting KUO, Furu WEI, Lei CUI, Shaohan HUANG, Kati LONDON, Wei-Ying MA, Haoyong ZHANG
  • Patent number: 10120883
    Abstract: Method and system for providing a user interface for presenting images of clusters of an image search result is provided. The user interface system displays the search result in a cluster/view form using a cluster panel and a view panel. The cluster panel contains a cluster area for each cluster. The view panel may contain thumbnails of images of the search result in a list view or a mix view. When a user selects a cluster area from the cluster panel, the user interface system displays a list view of thumbnails for that cluster in the view panel. The user interface system may display a thumbnail list near a cluster area of the cluster panel. The thumbnail list contains mini-thumbnails of the images of the selected cluster. The user interface system may also display a detail view of an image in the view panel when a user selects an image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Feng Jing, Lei Zhang, Ming Jing Li, Wei-Ying Ma, Kefeng Deng
  • Patent number: 9788080
    Abstract: Systems and methods for automatically inserting advertisements into source video content playback streams are described. In one aspect, the systems and methods communicate a source video content playback stream to a video player to present source video to a user. During playback of the source video, and in response to receipt of a request from the user to navigate portions of the source video (e.g., a user command to fast forward the source video, rewind the source video, or other action), the systems and methods dynamically define a video advertisement clip insertion point (e.g., and insertion point based on a current playback position). The systems and methods then insert a contextually relevant and/or targeted video advertisement clip into the playback stream for presentation to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Xian-Sheng Hua, Wei Lai, Wei-Ying Ma, Shipeng Li
  • Publication number: 20170270222
    Abstract: Many users make use of search engines to locate desired internet content by submitting search queries. For example, a user may search for photos, applications, websites, videos, documents, and/or information regarding people, places, and things. Unfortunately, search engines may provide a plethora of information that a user may be left to sift through to find relevant content. Accordingly, one or more systems and/or techniques for organizing search results are disclosed herein. In particular, user generated content, such as photos, may be retrieved based upon a search query. The user generated content may be grouped into clusters of user generated content having similar features. Search results of the search query may be obtained and organized based upon comparing the search results with the clusters. The organized search results and/or a table of content comprising the clusters may be presented to provide an enhanced user experience.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2017
    Publication date: September 21, 2017
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Xin-Jing WANG, Lei ZHANG, Wei-Ying MA
  • Patent number: 9703782
    Abstract: Techniques for identifying near-duplicates of a media object and associating metadata of the near-duplicates with the media object are described herein. One or more devices implementing the techniques are configured to identify the near duplicates based at least on similarity attributes included in the media object. Metadata is then extracted from the near-duplicates and is associated with the media object as descriptors of the media object to enable discovery of the media object based on the descriptors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Xin-Jing Wang, Lei Zhang, Ming Liu, Yi Li, Wei-Ying Ma
  • Patent number: 9703895
    Abstract: Many users make use of search engines to locate desired internet content by submitting search queries. For example, a user may search for photos, applications, websites, videos, documents, and/or information regarding people, places, and things. Unfortunately, search engines may provide a plethora of information that a user may be left to sift through to find relevant content. Accordingly, one or more systems and/or techniques for organizing search results are disclosed herein. In particular, user generated content, such as photos, may be retrieved based upon a search query. The user generated content may be grouped into clusters of user generated content having similar features. Search results of the search query may be obtained and organized based upon comparing the search results with the clusters. The organized search results and/or a table of content based upon the clusters may be presented to provide an enhanced user experience.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Xin-Jing Wang, Lei Zhang, Wei-Ying Ma
  • Publication number: 20170185236
    Abstract: An image chat application generates comments to images based on features of the images. In one example, the image chat application searches through a repository of stored image-comment pairs to identify a stored image that is similar to the image, and generates a comment to the image based on an identified stored image-comment pair. In another example, the image chat application may identify and tag particular objects that dominate an image, and may generate a comment to the image based on characteristics of those particular objects. In this second example, the image chat application further generates a comment to the image based on comments previously associated with the identified tag.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2015
    Publication date: June 29, 2017
    Inventors: Kuiyuan Yang, Wei-Ying Ma, Chunyan Liu, Di Li, Pengfei Xu, Yong Rui, Baoxun Wang
  • Publication number: 20170177732
    Abstract: A method and system for recommending potential contacts to a target user is provided. A recommendation system identifies users who are related to the target user through no more than a maximum degree of separation. The recommendation system identifies the users by starting with the contacts of the target user and identifying users who are contacts of the target user's contacts, contacts of those contacts, and so on. The recommendation system then ranks the identified users, who are potential contacts for the target user, based on a likelihood that the target user will want to have a direct relationship with the identified users. The recommendation system then presents to the target user a ranking of the users who have not been filtered out.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2017
    Publication date: June 22, 2017
    Inventors: Dafan Liu, Hua Chen, Wei-Ying Ma
  • Patent number: 9678992
    Abstract: Techniques are described for online real time text to image translation suitable for virtually any submitted query. Semantic classes and associated analogous items for each of the semantic classes are determined for the submitted query. One or more requests are formulated that are associated with analogous items. The requests are used to obtain web based images and associated surrounding text. The web based images are used to obtain associated near-duplicate images. The surrounding text of images is analyzed to create high-quality text associated with each semantic class of the submitted query. One or more query dependent classifiers are trained online in real time to remove noisy images. A scoring function is used to score the images. The images with the highest score are returned as a query response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Xin-Jing Wang, Lei Zhang, Wei-Ying Ma
  • Patent number: 9626648
    Abstract: A method and system for recommending potential contacts to a target user is provided. A recommendation system identifies users who are related to the target user through no more than a maximum degree of separation. The recommendation system identifies the users by starting with the contacts of the target user and identifying users who are contacts of the target user's contacts, contacts of those contacts, and so on. The recommendation system then ranks the identified users, who are potential contacts for the target user, based on a likelihood that the target user will want to have a direct relationship with the identified users. The recommendation system then presents to the target user a ranking of the users who have not been filtered out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Dafan Liu, Hua Chen, Wei-Ying Ma
  • Publication number: 20170099526
    Abstract: Systems and methods for automatically inserting advertisements into source video content playback streams are described. In one aspect, the systems and methods communicate a source video content playback stream to a video player to present source video to a user. During playback of the source video, and in response to receipt of a request from the user to navigate portions of the source video (e.g., a user command to fast forward the source video, rewind the source video, or other action), the systems and methods dynamically define a video advertisement clip insertion point (e.g., and insertion point based on a current playback position). The systems and methods then insert a contextually relevant and/or targeted video advertisement clip into the playback stream for presentation to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2016
    Publication date: April 6, 2017
    Inventors: Xian-Sheng Hua, Wei Lai, Wei-Ying Ma, Shipeng Li
  • Patent number: 9554093
    Abstract: Systems and methods for automatically inserting advertisements into source video content playback streams are described. In one aspect, the systems and methods communicate a source video content playback stream to a video player to present source video to a user. During playback of the source video, and in response to receipt of a request from the user to navigate portions of the source video (e.g., a user command to fast forward the source video, rewind the source video, or other action), the systems and methods dynamically define a video advertisement clip insertion point (e.g., and insertion point based on a current playback position). The systems and methods then insert a contextually relevant and/or targeted video advertisement clip into the playback stream for presentation to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Xian-Sheng Hua, Wei Lai, Wei-Ying Ma, Shipeng Li
  • Publication number: 20160357741
    Abstract: Method and system for providing a user interface for presenting images of clusters of an image search result is provided. The user interface system displays the search result in a cluster/view form using a cluster panel and a view panel. The cluster panel contains a cluster area for each cluster. The view panel may contain thumbnails of images of the search result in a list view or a mix view. When a user selects a cluster area from the cluster panel, the user interface system displays a list view of thumbnails for that cluster in the view panel. The user interface system may display a thumbnail list near a cluster area of the cluster panel. The thumbnail list contains mini-thumbnails of the images of the selected cluster. The user interface system may also display a detail view of an image in the view panel when a user selects an image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2016
    Publication date: December 8, 2016
    Inventors: Feng Jing, Lei Zhang, Ming Jing Li, Wei-Ying Ma, Kefeng Deng
  • Patent number: 9483577
    Abstract: A large web page is analyzed and partitioned into smaller sub-pages so that a user can navigate the web page on a small form factor device. The user can browse the sub-pages to find and read information in the content of the large web page. The partitioning can be performed at a web server, an edge server, at the small form factor device, or can be distributed across one or more such devices. The analysis leverages design habits of a web page author to extract a representation structure of an authored web page. The extracted representation structure includes high level structure using several markup language tag selection rules and low level structure using visual boundary detection in which visual units of the low level structure are provided by clustering markup language tags. User viewing habits can be learned to display favorite parts of a web page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Yu Chen, Hong-Jiang Zhang, Wei-Ying Ma, Ming-Yu Wang
  • Patent number: 9460122
    Abstract: Described herein is a technology that facilitates efficient large-scale similarity-based retrieval. In several embodiments documents, images, and/or other multimedia files are compactly represented and efficiently indexed to enable robust search using a long-query in a large-scale corpus. As described herein, these techniques include performing decomposition of a file, e.g., an image, a document containing an image, or a document-like representation of an image. The techniques use dimension reduction to obtain three parts, low-dimensional representations (major semantics), file specific terms (minor semantics), and background words, representing the major semantics in a feature vector and the minor semantics as keywords. Using the techniques described, file vectors are matched in a topic model and the results ranked based on the keywords.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Zhiwei Li, Lei Zhang, Rui Cai, Wei-Ying Ma, Heung-Yeung Shum
  • Patent number: 9396214
    Abstract: A method and system for providing a user interface for presenting images of clusters of an image search result is provided. The user interface system displays the search result in a cluster/view form using a cluster panel and a view panel. The cluster panel contains a cluster area for each cluster. The view panel may contain thumbnails of images of the search result in a list view or a mix view. When a user selects a cluster area from the cluster panel, the user interface system displays a list view of thumbnails for that cluster in the view panel. The user interface system may display a thumbnail list near a cluster area of the cluster panel. The thumbnail list contains mini-thumbnails of the images of the selected cluster. The user interface system may also display a detail view of an image in the view panel when a user selects an image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Feng Jing, Lei Zhang, Ming Jing Li, Wei-Ying Ma, Kefeng Deng