Abstract: A system and method to provide computer support for a meeting of invitees comprises accessing one or more sensory data streams providing digitized sensory data responsive to an activity of one or more of the invitees during the meeting, the one or more sensory data streams including at least one audio stream. The method also comprises subjecting the at least one audio stream to phonetic and situational computer modeling to recognize a sequence of words in the audio stream and to assign each word to an invitee, subjecting the sequence of words to semantic computer modeling to recognize a sequence of directives in the sequence of words, and releasing one or more output data streams based on the sequence of directives, the one or more output data streams including one or more notifications.

Abstract: Examples are disclosed that relate to deferring a message based upon a target situation for message presentation. One example provides a computing device including an output subsystem including one or more output devices, an input subsystem including one or more user input devices, and a logic device. The computing device further includes memory storing instructions executable by the logic device to receive a message from a remote computing system, output a notification of the message via the output subsystem, and receive via the input subsystem a request for a deferral of the message, the request for the deferral including an annotation to be stored for a later presentation with the message.

Abstract: A method for diagnosing aircraft airbag initiators in air bag systems includes: providing a diagnostic circuit per aircraft seat, the diagnostic circuit being in a normally off condition and enabled by a user activation; providing a power supply independent of aircraft power; providing a momentary switch; providing a visual indicator; receiving a signal indicating user activation of the momentary switch; and responsive to receiving the signal: completing a circuit, regulating a current into the diagnostic circuit to prevent a squib from firing during diagnostic evaluation; detecting a voltage; and providing feedback to the user.

Abstract: Techniques for enabling an artificial intelligence system to infer grounded intent from user input, and automatically suggest and/or execute actions associated with the predicted intent. In an aspect, core task descriptions are extracted from actionable statements identified as containing grounded intent. A machine classifier receives the core task description, actionable statements, and user input to predict an intent class for the user input. The machine classifier may be trained using unsupervised learning techniques based on weakly labeled clusters of the core task description extracted over a training corpus. The core task description may include verb-object pairs.

Abstract: Aspects of the technology described herein provide an efficient user interface that enables users to respond to tasks quickly by providing automated quick task notifications via an audio channel. An audio channel quick task system includes components for recognizing and extracting quick tasks from content (e.g., interpersonal communications, composed content, line of business (LOB) application documents), and for prioritizing and routing the quick tasks to the user via an audio channel at an appropriate and relevant time. The system is enabled to process a user response, determine an action for handling the quick task, and execute the action on behalf of the user (e.g., pass a reply to a requestor, pass an instruction to an application or service, queue the quick task notification, delegate the quick task to another user or bot, forward the quick task to a companion device, or launch an application on a companion device).

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a faceted browser for decision-making that enables interactive visualization of a decision space as choices are made. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises receiving a selection of a first choice from a user. The first choice is displayed in a user interface that includes a plurality of facets, each facet including a plurality of choices. The method further comprises disabling at least one second choice in response to the selection of the first choice, and determining a first result set in response to the selection of the first choice. The user interface is then updated in real-time to display the selected status of the first choice, the disabled status of the second choice, and the first result set to the user.

Abstract: A system that analyses content of electronic communications may automatically extract requests or commitments from the electronic communications. In one example process, a processing component may analyze the content to determine one or more meanings of the content; query content of one or more data sources that is related to the electronic communications; and based, at least in part, on (i) the one or more meanings of the content and (ii) the content of the one or more data sources, automatically identify and extract a request or commitment from the content. Multiple actions may follow from initial recognition and extraction, including confirmation and refinement of the description of the request or commitment, and actions that assist one or more of the senders, recipients, or others to track and address the request or commitment, including the creation of additional messages, reminders, appointments, or to-do lists.

Abstract: A photodialysis device that can desalinate saline streams is described herein. The device can have a desalination rate that is significantly faster than current solar thermal desalination technology. Salt is removed from water by passing ionic current derived from sunlight through this water using dye-sensitized membranes. The device can serve as a distributed, low-cost technology that can efficiently and effectively desalinate low salinity sources of water, which is particularly useful for agriculture and drinking water applications.

Abstract: Systems and methods related to engaging with a virtual assistant via ancillary input are provided. Ancillary input may refer to non-verbal, non-tactile input based on eye-gaze data and/or eye-gaze attributes, including but not limited to, facial recognition data, motion or gesture detection, eye-contact data, head-pose or head-position data, and the like. Thus, to initiate and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant, a user need not articulate an attention word or words. Rather the user may initiate and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant more naturally and may even include the virtual assistant in a human conversation with multiple speakers. The virtual assistant engagement system may utilize at least one machine-learning algorithm to more accurately determine whether a user desires to engage with and/or maintain interaction with a virtual assistant. Various hardware configurations associated with a virtual assistant device may allow for both near-field and/or far-field engagement.

Abstract: Automatic extraction and application of conditional tasks from content is provided. A conditional task system includes a classifier that is trained and used to identify conditional tasks and to learn appropriate times and methods to engage a user for reminding the user about conditional tasks. The conditional task system includes components for enabling an automated detection of a conditional task, extracting of attributes that characterize a condition associated with the task, using information about the condition to determine how to monitor for satisfaction of the condition, determining when and how to engage the user about the task, and notifying the user at an appropriate time and using an appropriate method when the condition is satisfied.

Abstract: Implementations provide user access to software functionality. In some implementations, a method includes selecting one or more portions of text. The method also includes employing the one or more portions to select software functionality. The method also includes presenting one or more user interface controls in combination with a representation of the text, where the one or more user interface controls includes a user selectable outline around one or more keywords in combination with a drop-down menu.

Abstract: Recommending one or more relevant skills to a user that are appropriate for the user's current context is provided. A machine learning contextual skills model is trained on data associated with skills that are invoked by the particular user and by various users and context data that defines characteristics of the context of the users, the users' computing devices, and the users' environments in association with the invoked skills. Responsive to a trigger event associated with the user and a computing device, current context data and user data is collected and passed to the contextual skills system. The contextual skills model is applied to the collected data and generates a ranked list of skills. One or more top-ranking skills are selected and provided to the user as one or more skill recommendations that are determined to be relevant to the user and relevant to the user's current context.

Abstract: One or more content providers push data related to: movies, movie products, digital movie content over a network (e.g., a LAN, a WAN, the Internet, or a wireless network) onto an information filling station which, in turn, wirelessly transacts (over a network based on the 802.11b protocol) and transmits any requested data to a portable computer-based device (e.g., laptop, a pen-based computer device, a PDA, a wireless phone, or a pager). The portable device performs financial transactions for: purchasing movie tickets (directly or via auctions), downloading digital entertainment content of interest (e.g., copy of a movie of interest, copy of a movie identified based on a pre-stored profile, copy of soundtrack of a movie of interest), or movie related products. Any purchased digital content is either transferred wirelessly onto the portable device or, optionally, sent on a storage medium to a physical address associated with the profile.

Abstract: Generating talking points on behalf of a user and providing the talking points to the user is provided. Talking points can help users to quickly and easily start a personalized conversation that enables participants of the conversation to make a connection, thus eliciting better communication and collaboration. Talking points can be generated based on commitments or requests identified in a previous conversation, anomalies or patterns identified in context data, or information items of interest collected from various data sources. One or more top-ranking talking points are surfaced to the user to help the user start a new conversation or to continue a previous conversation.

Abstract: A staged steam injection system for a flare tip that can discharge waste gas into a combustion zone is provided. The staged steam injection system includes, for example, a first gas injection assembly and a second stage gas injection assembly. The first gas injection assembly is configured to inject steam at a high flow rate and a high pressure into the flare tip or the combustion zone. The second gas injection assembly is configured to inject a gas (for example, steam and/or a gas other than steam) at a low flow rate and a high pressure into the flare tip or the combustion zone. A flare tip including the staged steam injection system is also provided.

Abstract: Implementations provide user access to software functionality. In some implementations, a method includes selecting one or more portions of text. The method also includes employing the one or more portions to select software functionality. The method also includes presenting one or more user interface controls in combination with a representation of the text, where the one or more user interface controls includes a user selectable outline around one or more keywords in combination with a drop-down menu.

Abstract: The systems and methods described create a mathematical representation of each of the media objects for which user ratings are known. The mathematical representations take into account the subjective rating value assigned by a user to the respective media object and the user that assigned the rating value. The media object with the mathematical representation closest to that of the seed media object is then selected as the most similar media object to the seed media object. In an embodiment, the mathematical representation is a vector representation in which each user is a different dimension and each user's rating value is the magnitude of the vector in that dimension. Similarity between two songs is determined by identifying the closest vectors to that of the seed song. Closeness may be determined by subtracting or by calculating the dot product of each of the vectors with that of the seed media object.

Abstract: Technologies pertaining to automatically identifying sets of query attribute values that are highly correlative with user dissatisfaction with a search engine are described. Dissatisfied queries are automatically identified through analysis of search logs, wherein a dissatisfied query is a query submitted to a search engine by a user, wherein the user was dissatisfied with search results provided by the search engine responsive to receipt of the query. Sets of query attribute values that are highly correlated with dissatisfied queries, and thus user dissatisfaction, are automatically identified based at least in part upon the identifying of the dissatisfied queries. Subsequent to identifying a set of query attribute values, a segment-specific ranker is learned that is configured to rank search results responsive to receipt of a query with the set of query attribute values, wherein the segment-specific ranker outperforms a general purpose ranker for queries having the set of query attribute values.