Patents by Inventor William L. Portnoy
William L. Portnoy 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: 11076007Abstract: The techniques discussed herein allow an agent that provides dialog-based services to converse with a user via any mode. A central service programmed to be able to communicate via any mode collects information from agents necessary to act on the agents' behalf. In order to ensure that an agent has a maximal presence across modes, the central service provides auxiliary services such as language translation, fidelity upgrading and/or downgrading, modal constraint conformation, etc. Moreover, the central service provides session tracking via user profiles stored at the intercom so that if a user changes a mode by which the user is conversing with an agent, the central service can keep the context of the conversation across the new mode. Furthermore, agents can communicate with other agents via the central service, allowing other agents to provide services to agents or to add their services to an ongoing dialog with a user.Type: GrantFiled: January 16, 2020Date of Patent: July 27, 2021Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLCInventors: Thomas Matthew Laird-McConnell, Lili Cheng, James H. Lewallen, Justin Cranshaw, Craig Jensen, Steve Ickman, William L. Portnoy, Qi Lu, Daniel J. Driscoll
-
Patent number: 10902533Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products for dispatching an incoming event are described. A scoring stack is accessed, the scoring stack comprising an identity of one or more tasks, each task corresponding to one or more scorable functions. A scorable tree is generated based on the one or more scorable functions corresponding to the one or more tasks of the scoring stack and the incoming event is processed using the scorable tree to generate one or more scores. One or more actions identified in the scorable tree are performed based on the one or more scores.Type: GrantFiled: June 12, 2017Date of Patent: January 26, 2021Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLCInventors: Christopher C. McConnell, William L. Portnoy, Steven W. Ickman, Shahin Shayandeh, John Anthony Taylor
-
Publication number: 20200153918Abstract: The techniques discussed herein allow an agent that provides dialog-based services to converse with a user via any mode. A central service programmed to be able to communicate via any mode collects information from agents necessary to act on the agents' behalf. In order to ensure that an agent has a maximal presence across modes, the central service provides auxiliary services such as language translation, fidelity upgrading and/or downgrading, modal constraint conformation, etc. Moreover, the central service provides session tracking via user profiles stored at the intercom so that if a user changes a mode by which the user is conversing with an agent, the central service can keep the context of the conversation across the new mode. Furthermore, agents can communicate with other agents via the central service, allowing other agents to provide services to agents or to add their services to an ongoing dialog with a user.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 16, 2020Publication date: May 14, 2020Inventors: Thomas Matthew LAIRD-MCCONNELL, Lili CHENG, James H. LEWALLEN, Justin CRANSHAW, Craig JENSEN, Steve ICKMAN, William L. PORTNOY, Qi LU, Daniel J. DRISCOLL
-
Patent number: 10587708Abstract: The techniques discussed herein allow an agent that provides dialog-based services to converse with a user via any mode. A central service programmed to be able to communicate via any mode collects information from agents necessary to act on the agents' behalf. In order to ensure that an agent has a maximal presence across modes, the central service provides auxiliary services such as language translation, fidelity upgrading and/or downgrading, modal constraint conformation, etc. Moreover, the central service provides session tracking via user profiles stored at the intercom so that if a user changes a mode by which the user is conversing with an agent, the central service can keep the context of the conversation across the new mode. Furthermore, agents can communicate with other agents via the central service, allowing other agents to provide services to agents or to add their services to an ongoing dialog with a user.Type: GrantFiled: March 28, 2016Date of Patent: March 10, 2020Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLCInventors: Thomas Matthew Laird-McConnell, Lili Cheng, James H. Lewallen, Justin Cranshaw, Craig Jensen, Steve Ickman, William L. Portnoy, Qi Lu, Daniel J. Driscoll
-
Patent number: 10437907Abstract: Various embodiments enable an application to obtain information associated with a link to content without navigating to the link. The application can be configured to identify a link, receive input to attain information associated with the link, and send a request to a service for the information. In one or more embodiments, a service can be configured to receive a request for information associated with a link, ascertain one or more sources from which to gather the information, determine appropriate mechanisms by which to obtain the information, and acquire the information. Alternately or additionally, the service can further assemble the information into a consumable format, and return the consumable format to a requesting application or device.Type: GrantFiled: July 18, 2014Date of Patent: October 8, 2019Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLCInventors: William L. Portnoy, Todd D. Newman, Steven W. Ickman
-
Patent number: 10423686Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure are directed towards increasing a community of interest group users of an interest group, e.g., a network site having a feed of posts generally related to a particular topic. Many newly created interest groups do not have enough content to keep users interested and attract new users. The technology described herein automatically obtains content that backfills such an interest group with additional related content. The backfilled content may be found by keywords search and/or by crawling general public data, data from specific sites, historical conversation data, and/or more widely scoped data. Also described is creating a new interest group and seeding the group with content based upon backfilling technology.Type: GrantFiled: May 16, 2017Date of Patent: September 24, 2019Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLCInventors: William L. Portnoy, James Lewallen, Richard Zaragoza
-
Patent number: 10417039Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products for dispatching an incoming event are described. A scorable tree is obtained and the incoming event is submitted to a root node of the scorable tree for processing. The incoming event is augmented with scoring data generated by the root node to create a scoring event and the scoring event is iteratively passed from each parent node of the scorable tree to each corresponding child node of the scorable tree for further processing until each leaf node of each branch of the scorable tree is reached, wherein each child node augments an incoming scoring event with additional scoring data and each leaf node generates an intermediate scoring event.Type: GrantFiled: June 12, 2017Date of Patent: September 17, 2019Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLCInventors: Christopher C. McConnell, William L. Portnoy, Steven W. Ickman, Shahin Shayandeh, John Anthony Taylor
-
Publication number: 20180358006Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products for dispatching an incoming event are described. A scoring stack is accessed, the scoring stack comprising an identity of one or more tasks, each task corresponding to one or more scorable functions. A scorable tree is generated based on the one or more scorable functions corresponding to the one or more tasks of the scoring stack and the incoming event is processed using the scorable tree to generate one or more scores. One or more actions identified in the scorable tree are performed based on the one or more scores.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 12, 2017Publication date: December 13, 2018Inventors: Christopher C. McConnell, William L. Portnoy, Steven W. Ickman, Shahin Shayandeh, John Anthony Taylor
-
Publication number: 20180357096Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products for dispatching an incoming event are described. A scorable tree is obtained and the incoming event is submitted to a root node of the scorable tree for processing. The incoming event is augmented with scoring data generated by the root node to create a scoring event and the scoring event is iteratively passed from each parent node of the scorable tree to each corresponding child node of the scorable tree for further processing until each leaf node of each branch of the scorable tree is reached, wherein each child node augments an incoming scoring event with additional scoring data and each leaf node generates an intermediate scoring event.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 12, 2017Publication date: December 13, 2018Inventors: Christopher C. McConnell, William L. Portnoy, Steven W. Ickman, Shahin Shayandeh, John Anthony Taylor
-
Publication number: 20170279906Abstract: The techniques discussed herein allow an agent that provides dialog-based services to converse with a user via any mode. A central service programmed to be able to communicate via any mode collects information from agents necessary to act on the agents' behalf. In order to ensure that an agent has a maximal presence across modes, the central service provides auxiliary services such as language translation, fidelity upgrading and/or downgrading, modal constraint conformation, etc. Moreover, the central service provides session tracking via user profiles stored at the intercom so that if a user changes a mode by which the user is conversing with an agent, the central service can keep the context of the conversation across the new mode. Furthermore, agents can communicate with other agents via the central service, allowing other agents to provide services to agents or to add their services to an ongoing dialog with a user.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 28, 2016Publication date: September 28, 2017Inventors: Thomas Matthew Laird-McConnell, Lili Cheng, James H. Lewallen, Justin Cranshaw, Craig Jensen, Steve Ickman, William L. Portnoy, Qi Lu, Daniel J. Driscoll
-
Publication number: 20170249392Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure are directed towards increasing a community of interest group users of an interest group, e.g., a network site having a feed of posts generally related to a particular topic. Many newly created interest groups do not have enough content to keep users interested and attract new users. The technology described herein automatically obtains content that backfills such an interest group with additional related content. The backfilled content may be found by keywords search and/or by crawling general public data, data from specific sites, historical conversation data, and/or more widely scoped data. Also described is creating a new interest group and seeding the group with content based upon backfilling technology.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 16, 2017Publication date: August 31, 2017Inventors: William L. Portnoy, James Lewallen, Richard Zaragoza
-
Patent number: 9684723Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure are directed towards increasing a community of interest group users of an interest group, e.g., a network site having a feed of posts generally related to a particular topic. Many newly created interest groups do not have enough content to keep users interested and attract new users. The technology described herein automatically obtains content that backfills such an interest group with additional related content. The backfilled content may be found by keywords search and/or by crawling general public data, data from specific sites, historical conversation data, and/or more widely scoped data. Also described is creating a new interest group and seeding the group with content based upon backfilling technology.Type: GrantFiled: June 10, 2013Date of Patent: June 20, 2017Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLCInventors: William L. Portnoy, James Lewallen, Richard Zaragoza
-
Patent number: 9582610Abstract: The description relates to visual post builders. One example can receive a user search topic relating to a collage. This example can concurrently present a collage template and search results for the search topic. The collage template can be manifest as a grid of equal sized rectangles. The example can automatically populate a user selection from the search results into one or more rectangles of the collage template. The example can also automatically populate additional user selections into remaining rectangles of the collage template until all of the rectangles of the collage template are populated or the user indicates that the collage is complete.Type: GrantFiled: March 15, 2013Date of Patent: February 28, 2017Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLCInventors: Rajeev Karunakaran, Richard I. Zaragoza, Steven W. Ickman, Richard D. Marshall, David A. Raskino, William L. Portnoy
-
Publication number: 20160328681Abstract: Streamlining default actions associated with features of computing systems based at least in part on training models using user behaviors and relevant attributes is described. Specifically, techniques describe streamlining availability (e.g., free/busy) information associated with electronic calendars to facilitate scheduling meetings between two or more users. Additionally, the techniques describe streamlining the functioning of reminder dialogs associated with electronic calendars. The techniques described herein are based at least in part on learning models using user behavior and relevant attributes associated with electronic calendar invitations. That is, by applying the models trained via machine learning, the techniques describe predicting whether a user is likely to respond to an electronic calendar invitation and implementing personalized default actions in an absence of user action.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 8, 2015Publication date: November 10, 2016Inventors: William L. Portnoy, Lili Cheng
-
Publication number: 20140372864Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure are directed towards opportunity cards that provide a user with straightforward access to other content of a website that may be interesting to a user, as well as other information and recommendations. Opportunity cards are generated for a user based upon user profile data, and may recommend and provide links to other website content that the user is likely to be interested in and/or has likely not already seen. The opportunity cards may be presented in conjunction with the content, such as inline, interspersed among a stream of posts of content.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 12, 2013Publication date: December 18, 2014Inventors: Richard Zaragoza, Colleen Griffiths Estrada, Jennifer Lauren Rodenhouse, James Lewallen, Todd D. Newman, Craig A. Jensen, William L. Portnoy
-
Publication number: 20140365460Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure are directed towards increasing a community of interest group users of an interest group, e.g., a network site having a feed of posts generally related to a particular topic. Many newly created interest groups do not have enough content to keep users interested and attract new users. The technology described herein automatically obtains content that backfills such an interest group with additional related content. The backfilled content may be found by keywords search and/or by crawling general public data, data from specific sites, historical conversation data, and/or more widely scoped data. Also described is creating a new interest group and seeding the group with content based upon backfilling technology.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 10, 2013Publication date: December 11, 2014Inventors: William L. Portnoy, James Lewallen, Richard Zaragoza
-
Publication number: 20140331116Abstract: Various embodiments enable an application to obtain information associated with a link to content without navigating to the link. The application can be configured to identify a link, receive input to attain information associated with the link, and send a request to a service for the information. In one or more embodiments, a service can be configured to receive a request for information associated with a link, ascertain one or more sources from which to gather the information, determine appropriate mechanisms by which to obtain the information, and acquire the information. Alternately or additionally, the service can further assemble the information into a consumable format, and return the consumable format to a requesting application or device.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 18, 2014Publication date: November 6, 2014Inventors: William L. Portnoy, Todd D. Newman, Steven W. Ickman
-
Publication number: 20140280054Abstract: The description relates to visual post builders. One example can receive a user search topic relating to a collage. This example can concurrently present a collage template and search results for the search topic. The collage template can be manifest as a grid of equal sized rectangles. The example can automatically populate a user selection from the search results into one or more rectangles of the collage template. The example can also automatically populate additional user selections into remaining rectangles of the collage template until all of the rectangles of the collage template are populated or the user indicates that the collage is complete.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 15, 2013Publication date: September 18, 2014Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Rajeev Karunakaran, Richard I. Zaragoza, Steven W. Ickman, Richard D. Marshall, David A. Raskino, William L. Portnoy
-
Patent number: 8819168Abstract: Various embodiments enable an application to obtain information associated with a link to content without navigating to the link. The application can be configured to identify a link, receive input to attain information associated with the link, and send a request to a service for the information. In one or more embodiments, a service can be configured to receive a request for information associated with a link, ascertain one or more sources from which to gather the information, determine appropriate mechanisms by which to obtain the information, and acquire the information. Alternately or additionally, the service can further assemble the information into a consumable format, and return the consumable format to a requesting application or device.Type: GrantFiled: December 14, 2010Date of Patent: August 26, 2014Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: William L. Portnoy, Todd D. Newman, Steven W. Ickman
-
Publication number: 20130159839Abstract: Embodiments relate to semantic compression of cascading style sheets. Starting with a markup page having markup elements and a reference to a cascading style sheet, based on the reference to the cascading style sheet, the cascading style sheet is retrieved. The cascading style sheet has a plurality of style rules. The cascading style sheet is applied to the markup page to identify one or more of the style rules to be modified or omitted (e.g., rules that are redundant with respect to the markup page or inapplicable to the markup page). A compressed cascading style sheet is generated by excluding the identified rules from the compressed cascading style sheet or modifying the identified rules. The compressed cascading style sheet can then be applied to the markup sheet with similar effect as the uncompressed cascading style sheet.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 14, 2011Publication date: June 20, 2013Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Flynn Joffray, Steve Ickman, William L. Portnoy