Patents by Inventor William Porter

William Porter 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: 9805187
    Abstract: A customer initiated password reset system resets user passwords on a variety of network entities, such as internal systems, allowing simultaneous reset with a minimum number of user specified passwords that nonetheless satisfy the password specifications of these internal systems. Thereby, the user avoids the tedium of logging into each of these systems, changing their password, logging out, etc., for each system with the likelihood of creating unique passwords for each system that have to be remembered. By further incorporating a score metric based upon how many character sets are touched, a required degree of complexity can be measured and enforced against the password specifications. Advantageously, a table-based approach to enforcing password reset against the multiple password specifications facilitates making and fielding updates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A.
    Inventors: Jeffrey John Jancula, Charles William Porter, Linda Lee Fix
  • Patent number: 9778653
    Abstract: Devices such as vehicles, remote sensors, and so forth consume energy during operation. Described herein are systems, devices, and methods for transferring energy from an uncrewed autonomous vehicle to a vehicle such as a car. The uncrewed autonomous vehicle may locate the vehicle at a rendezvous location, and connect with the vehicle while the vehicle moves. Once the uncrewed autonomous vehicle connects to the vehicle, the uncrewed autonomous vehicle may transfer the energy to the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jon Arron McClintock, Daniel Buchmueller, Varadarajan Gopalakrishnan, Fabian Hensel, Jesper Mikael Johansson, Brandon William Porter, Andrew Jay Roths
  • Publication number: 20170277615
    Abstract: Methods and systems for implementing dynamic rate adjustment for interaction monitoring are disclosed. At an entity, the collection of trace information is initiated according to a first sampling rate. The trace information is indicative of interactions between the entity and one or more additional entities. A second sampling rate is determined based at least in part on information external to the entity. The second sampling rate is determined after the collection of the trace information is initiated at the entity according to the first sampling rate. At the entity, the collection of additional trace information is initiated according to the second sampling rate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2017
    Publication date: September 28, 2017
    Applicant: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: DANIEL WADE HITCHCOCK, BRANDON WILLIAM PORTER
  • Patent number: 9767701
    Abstract: This disclosure describes a system and method for operating an automated aerial vehicle wherein influences of a ground effect may be utilized for sensing the ground or other surfaces. In various implementations, an operating parameter of the automated aerial vehicle may be monitored to determine when a ground effect is influencing the parameter, which correspondingly indicates a proximity to a surface (e.g., the ground). In various implementations, the ground effect based sensing techniques may be utilized for determining a proximity to the ground, as a backup for a primary sensor system, for determining if a landing location is uneven, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Amir Navot, Brian C. Beckman, Daniel Buchmueller, Gur Kimchi, Fabian Hensel, Scott A. Green, Brandon William Porter, Severan Sylvain Jean-Michel Rault
  • Publication number: 20170263136
    Abstract: A system and method for operating an automated aerial vehicle are provided wherein influences of ground effects (e.g., which may increase the effective thrusts of propellers by interfering with the respective airflows) are utilized for sensing the ground or other surfaces. In various implementations, operating parameters of the automated aerial vehicle are monitored to determine when ground effects are influencing the parameters associated with each of the propellers, which correspondingly indicate proximities to a surface (e.g., the ground). Utilizing such techniques, different propellers of an automated aerial vehicle may provide different sensing data (e.g., for detecting issues with an uneven landing area, a sloped ground, determining an automated aerial vehicle's location based on a unique ground surface profile, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 26, 2017
    Publication date: September 14, 2017
    Inventors: Amir Navot, Brian C. Beckman, Daniel Buchmueller, Gur Kimchi, Fabian Hensel, Scott A. Green, Brandon William Porter, Severan Sylvain Jean-Michel Rault
  • Patent number: 9741255
    Abstract: Described is an airborne monitoring station (“AMS”) for use in monitoring a coverage area and/or unmanned aerial vehicles (“UAVs”) positioned within a coverage area of the AMS. For example, the AMS may be an airship that remains at a high altitude (e.g., 45,000 feet) that monitors a coverage area that is within a line-of-sight of the AMS. As UAVs enter, navigate within and exit the coverage area, the AMS may wirelessly communicate with the UAVs, facilitate communication between the UAVs and one or more remote computing resources, and/or monitor a position of the UAVs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Amir Navot, Gur Kimchi, Brandon William Porter, Avi Bar-Zeev, Daniel Buchmueller
  • Patent number: 9714088
    Abstract: An unmanned vehicle determines how to perform a task based at least in part on a message received from another unmanned vehicle. At a later time, the unmanned vehicle detects that the other unmanned vehicle has become untrusted. The unmanned vehicle recalculates how to perform the task such that the recalculation is independent of any messages from the other unmanned vehicle. The unmanned vehicle may also transmit messages to other unmanned vehicles to provide notification of untrustworthiness of the other unmanned vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Darren Ernest Canavor, Varadarajan Gopalakrishnan, Jesper Mikael Johansson, Jon Arron McClintock, Brandon William Porter, Andrew Jay Roths
  • Patent number: 9684524
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for implementing optimization of a service-oriented system using trace data are disclosed. One or more call graphs are determined based on trace data for a plurality of service interactions between individual ones of a plurality of services. The trace data comprises performance data for the service interactions. The call graphs comprise one or more call paths, and the call paths represent individual ones of the service interactions between the services. An optimized configuration for the services is determined based on the performance data. The optimized configuration improves a total performance metric for one or more call paths in the one or more call graphs. A location of one or more of the services is modified based on the optimized configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon William Porter, Anton Vladilenovich Goldberg, Srinivasa Susheel Kumar Mannepalli, Kyle Bradley Peterson, Ajit Ashok Varangaonkar
  • Patent number: 9684914
    Abstract: A request to view an item may be received in an electronic marketplace. The request may cause an offer request to be sent to one or more merchants. The merchants may respond with corresponding offers. Upon receipt of the offer, so long as the offered is received during a time when offers are being accepted, a price may be determined for the item based at least in part on the received offers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon William Porter, Martin Robert Frank, Simon Kurt Johnston
  • Patent number: 9663226
    Abstract: An unmanned vehicle receives a message from another unmanned vehicle. The recipient unmanned vehicle uses information included with the message to determine whether a quorum of other unmanned vehicles have vetted information in the message. If a quorum of unmanned vehicles have vetted the message, the unmanned vehicle uses the information in the message to determine how to perform one or more operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Darren Ernest Canavor, Varadarajan Gopalakrishnan, Jesper Mikael Johansson, Jon Arron McClintock, Brandon William Porter, Andrew Jay Roths
  • Patent number: 9634920
    Abstract: Methods and systems for implementing trace deduplication are disclosed. One or more interactions between a plurality of components are determined. The interactions relate to a trace. A fingerprint for the trace is generated. The fingerprint is compared with a plurality of stored fingerprints representing a plurality of stored traces. The trace is stored if the fingerprint does not match any of the plurality of stored fingerprints. The trace is determined to be a duplicate if the fingerprint matches one of the plurality of stored fingerprints.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Anton Vladilenovich Goldberg, Brandon William Porter
  • Patent number: 9633653
    Abstract: In some implementations, a digital work provider may provide language model information related to a plurality of different contexts, such as a plurality of different digital works. For example, the language model information may include language model difference information identifying a plurality of sequences of one or more words in a digital work that have probabilities of occurrence that differ from probabilities of occurrence in a base language model by a threshold amount. The language model difference information corresponding to a particular context may be used in conjunction with the base language model to recognize an utterance made by a user of a user device. In some examples, the recognition is performed on the user device. In other examples, the utterance and associated context information are sent over a network to a recognition computing device that performs the recognition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Brandon William Porter
  • Patent number: 9626275
    Abstract: Methods and systems for implementing dynamic rate adjustment for interaction monitoring are disclosed. At an entity, the collection of trace information is initiated according to a first sampling rate. The trace information is indicative of interactions between the entity and one or more additional entities. A second sampling rate is determined based at least in part on information external to the entity. The second sampling rate is determined after the collection of the trace information is initiated at the entity according to the first sampling rate. At the entity, the collection of additional trace information is initiated according to the second sampling rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Wade Hitchcock, Brandon William Porter
  • Patent number: 9563845
    Abstract: Techniques are described for employing precomputed results of applying rules to content items, the rules applicable to determine whether content items may be electronically published. On receiving a request for a content item, rules applicable to the content item may be identified. A datastore of precomputed results of rule application may be accessed to determine whether the datastore includes a result of applying a current or previous version of each rule. If the datastore includes a current result, the current result may be employed in determine whether the content item may be presented. If the datastore includes a previous result, the previous result may be so employed. If the datastore includes a previous result or no appropriate result, a job may be queued to calculate the current result asynchronously relative to the request for the content item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon William Porter, Robert Stanley Bailes, Aaron Ben Fernandes, Michael James McInerny, Vishal Parakh, Harsha Ramalingam, Karthik Tamilmani
  • Patent number: 9559928
    Abstract: Methods and systems for implementing test coverage measurement are disclosed. A first set of interactions among a set of production services are determined. The first set of interactions comprises a plurality of service requests between individual ones of the set of production services. A second set of interactions among a set of test services are determined. The second set of interactions comprises a plurality of service requests between individual ones of the set of test services. A test coverage metric is generated. The test coverage metric indicates an amount of the first set of interactions that are covered by the second set of interactions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Brandon William Porter, Slavik Dimitrovich, Anton Vladilenovich Goldberg, Aram Grigoryan
  • Patent number: 9550561
    Abstract: This disclosure describes a system and method for determining the center of gravity of a payload engaged by an automated aerial vehicle and adjusting components of the automated aerial vehicle and/or the engagement location with the payload so that the center of gravity of the payload is within a defined position with respect to the center of gravity of the automated aerial vehicle. Adjusting the center of gravity to be within a defined position improves the efficiency, maneuverability and safety of the automated aerial vehicle. In some implementations, the stability of the payload may also be determined to ensure that the center of gravity does not change or shift during transport due to movement of an item of the payload.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Brian C. Beckman, Brandon William Porter, Gur Kimchi, Daniel Buchmueller, Jeffrey P. Bezos, Frederik Schaffalitzky, Amir Navot
  • Patent number: 9550577
    Abstract: This disclosure describes a system and method for operating an automated aerial vehicle wherein the battery life may be extended by performing one or more electricity generation procedures on the way to a destination (e.g., a delivery location for an item). In various implementations, the electricity generation procedure may include utilizing an airflow to rotate one or more of the propellers of the automated aerial vehicle so that the associated propeller motors will generate electricity (e.g., which can be utilized to recharge the battery, power one or more sensors of the automated aerial vehicle, etc.). In various implementations, the airflow may consist of a wind, or may be created by the kinetic energy of the automated aerial vehicle as it moves through the air (e.g., as part of a normal flight path and/or as part of an aerial maneuver).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Brian C. Beckman, Amir Navot, Daniel Buchmueller, Gur Kimchi, Fabian Hensel, Scott A. Green, Brandon William Porter, Severan Sylvain Jean-Michel Rault
  • Patent number: 9524648
    Abstract: Uncrewed autonomous vehicles (“UAVs”) may navigate from one location to another location. Described herein are systems, devices, and methods providing countermeasures for threats that may compromise the UAVs. A plurality of UAVs may establish a mesh network to distribute information to one another. A first UAV may receive external data from a second UAV using the mesh network. The external data may be used to confirm or cross-check data such as location, heading, altitude, and so forth. Disagreement between data generated by the first UAV with external data from the second UAV may result in the determination that the first UAV is compromised. Remedial actions may be taken, such as the first UAV may be directed to a safe location to land or park, may receive commands from another UAV, and so forth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Varadarajan Gopalakrishnan, Jesper Mikael Johansson, James Domit Mackraz, Jon Arron McClintock, Brandon William Porter, Andrew Jay Roths
  • Publication number: 20160323154
    Abstract: Various embodiments of a system and method for tracking service requests are described. Embodiments may include call tree generation logic configured to receive multiple request identifiers associated with a respective one of multiple service requests. Each given request identifier may include an origin identifier, a depth value, and a request stack comprising one or more interaction identifiers. The call tree generation logic may also be configured to, based on multiple request identifiers that each include an origin identifier associated with a particular root request, generating a data structure that specifies a hierarchy of services called to fulfill that particular root request. Based on one or more of the interaction identifiers and one or more of the depth values, the generated data structure may specify for each given service of the hierarchy: a parent service that called the given service, and one or more child services called by the given service.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 11, 2016
    Publication date: November 3, 2016
    Applicant: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeff B. Beal, Alan Stuart Robbins, Jeromey R. Goetz, Brandon William Porter, Grant Alexander MacDonald McAlister, Joseph L. Ellsworth
  • Publication number: 20160306947
    Abstract: Method, systems, and devices for designing a test molecule are disclosed. An example method includes using a molecular simulator to generate sets of simulation data. Each set of simulation data may include simulation data indicative of simulated locations in a solvent of (i) molecules of a reference molecule and (ii) molecules of one of M test molecules. The method may also include determining a probability of contact between an a species and a ? species for each set of simulated data. A contact may occur when a particle of the ? species is within a range of radials distances from a particle of the ? species. Each of the a species and the ? species may be one of the reference molecule, the solvent, or one of the M test molecules. The method may further include determining a simulation result based on at least one probability of contact.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2014
    Publication date: October 20, 2016
    Applicants: DOW GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES LLC, THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
    Inventors: Ronald LARSON, Prateek JHA, Robert SCHMITT, William PORTER, III