Patents by Inventor William Blank
William Blank 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).
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Publication number: 20240098076Abstract: A third-party server, delegated by organizations to manage application environment, may maintain a plurality of guided workflow plans. At least one of the guided workflow plans may include one or more steps associated with setting up an interaction control policy. The third-party server may receive an interaction report associated with the organization. The interaction report may include metadata of one or more devices that interacted with other devices. The third-party server may identify a particular device to which existing interaction control policies of the organization are inapplicable. The third-party server may search for additional out-of-band information of the particular device using the metadata in the interaction report. The third-party server may select an applicable guided workflow plan for setting up an applicable interaction control policy for the particular device. A guided workflow may be presented via a graphical user interface according to the applicable guided workflow plan.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 19, 2023Publication date: March 21, 2024Inventors: Seth Joshua Blank, Ashley Duane Wilson, Peter Martin Goldstein, Jack William Abbott, Robert Benjamin Barclay
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Patent number: 8971810Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides for systems and/or methods for a dynamic range wireless access point to initiate deliberate and/or selective communications with one or more wireless devices over a short range radio path. One embodiment of an access point system comprises a processor that transfers one or more wireless devices to a long range radio path once a transition condition has been met. In another embodiment, an access point system may affect transactions between user/customer's smart devices and a commercial place of business where the access point system and the smart devices initiate communications when the smart devices are deliberately placed within the proximity of the access point antenna and/or the smart devices are brought within the vicinity of the access point antenna such as by passing through the entrance or exit to the place of business.Type: GrantFiled: May 15, 2014Date of Patent: March 3, 2015Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLCInventors: Jeffrey Herron, Gerald DeJean, II, Darko Kirovski, Miller Abel, Craig Brenner, William Blank
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Publication number: 20140247822Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides for systems and/or methods for a dynamic range wireless access point to initiate deliberate and/or selective communications with one or more wireless devices over a short range radio path. One embodiment of an access point system comprises a processor that transfers one or more wireless devices to a long range radio path once a transition condition has been met. In another embodiment, an access point system may affect transactions between user/customer's smart devices and a commercial place of business where the access point system and the smart devices initiate communications when the smart devices are deliberately placed within the proximity of the access point antenna and/or the smart devices are brought within the vicinity of the access point antenna such as by passing through the entrance or exit to the place of business.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 15, 2014Publication date: September 4, 2014Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jeffrey Herron, Gerald DeJean, II, Darko Kirovski, Miller Abel, Craig Brenner, William Blank
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Publication number: 20070208930Abstract: A novel microprocessor interface circuit is described which can alternately emit and detect light using only an LED, two digital I/O pins and a single current limiting resistor. This technique is first applied to create a smart illumination system that uses a single LED as both light source and sensor. We then present several devices that use an LED as a generic wireless serial data port. An important implication of this work is that every LED connected to a microprocessor can be thought of as a wireless two-way communication port. We present this technology as a solution to the “last centimeter problem”, because it permits disparate devices to communicate with each other simply and cheaply with minimal design modification.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 1, 2006Publication date: September 6, 2007Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: William Blank, Robert Atkinson
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Publication number: 20050254662Abstract: The present invention is directed to a method and system for automatic calibration of an acoustic system. The acoustic system may include a source A/V device, calibration computing device, and multiple rendering devices. The calibration system may include a calibration component attached to each rendering device and a source calibration module. The calibration component on each rendering device includes a microphone. The source calibration module includes distance and optional angle calculation tools for automatically determining a distance between the rendering device and a specified reference point upon return of the test signal from the calibration component.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 14, 2004Publication date: November 17, 2005Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: William Blank, Kevin Schofield, Kirk Olynyk, Robert Atkinson, James Johnston, Michael Van Flandern
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Publication number: 20050093876Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for variable source rate sampling in connection with image rendering, which accumulate and resolve over all samples forward mapped to each pixel bin. In accordance with the invention, the textured surface to be rendered is sampled, or oversampled, at a variable rate that reflects variations in frequency among different regions, taking into account any transformation that will be applied to the surface prior to rendering and the view parameters of the display device, thus ensuring that each bin of the rendering process receives at least a predetermined minimum number of samples. A variety of image processing applications are contemplated wherein variable rate source sampling, and accumulation and resolution of forward mapped point samples can be applied, ranging from 3-D graphics applications to applications wherein images recorded in a recording/storage environment are mapped to the arbitrary requirements of a display environment.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 4, 2004Publication date: May 5, 2005Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: John Snyder, John Whitted, William Blank, Kirk Olynyk
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Publication number: 20050035973Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for variable source rate sampling in connection with image rendering, which accumulate and resolve over all samples forward mapped to each pixel bin. In accordance with the invention, the textured surface to be rendered is sampled, or oversampled, at a variable rate that reflects variations in frequency among different regions, taking into account any transformation that will be applied to the surface prior to rendering and the view parameters of the display device, thus ensuring that each bin of the rendering process receives at least a predetermined minimum number of samples. In one embodiment, the sampling rate is variably set such that each bin is assured to have at least one sample point. In another embodiment, a tiling approach to division of the surface is utilized.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 21, 2004Publication date: February 17, 2005Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: John Snyder, John Whitted, William Blank, Kirk Olynyk
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Patent number: 6427894Abstract: An electrode wire feeder, including a housing defining a sealed compartment for containing a suitable lubricant, respective pairs of feed rolls rotatably mounted exteriorly of said housing, on rotatable shafts, one of the shafts of each pair of feed rolls being mounted in eccentric mounting member rotatably mounted in one wall of the housing for moving one of the feed rolls of each pair between operative and inoperative positions, pinion gears mounted on the inner ends of the feed roll shafts inside the lubricant compartment with the pinion gears of the movable shafts moving into and out of meshing relation with the other pinion gears, a motor driven gear in the compartment and meshing with the pinion gears for driving the feed rolls, and manually operable levers for rotating the eccentric mounting members to move the feed rolls between operative and inoperative positions.Type: GrantFiled: October 19, 2000Date of Patent: August 6, 2002Assignee: The ESAB Group, Inc.Inventors: Leon William Blank, David Charles Griffin, Dale Thomas Wiersema