Patents by Inventor Wilson Harron

Wilson Harron 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).

  • Publication number: 20220241985
    Abstract: Exemplary implementations may: receive one or more inputs including parameters or measurements regarding a physical environment from the one or more input modalities; identify a user based on analyzing the received inputs from the one or more input modalities; determine if the user shows signs of engagement or interest in establishing a communication interaction by analyzing a user's physical actions, visual actions, and/or audio actions, the user's physical actions, visual actions and/or audio actions determined based at least in part on the one or more inputs received from the one or more input modalities; and determine whether the user is interested in an extended communication interaction with the robot computing device by creating visual actions of the robot computing device utilizing the display device or by generating one or more audio files to be reproduced by one or more speakers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2021
    Publication date: August 4, 2022
    Inventors: Stefan A. Scherer, Mario E Munich, Paolo Pirjanian, Caitlyn Clabaugh, Wilson Harron, Asim Naseer, Albert Ike Macoco, Jr.
  • Publication number: 20220207426
    Abstract: Systems and methods for creating a view of an environment are disclosed. Exemplary implementations may: receive parameters and measurements from at least two of one or more microphones, one or more imaging devices, a radar sensor, a lidar sensor, and/or one or more infrared imaging devices located in a computing device; analyze the parameters and measurements received from the one or more multimodal input devices, the one or more multimodal input devices including the one or more microphones, one or more imaging devices, a radar sensor, a lidar sensor, and/or one or more infrared imaging devices; generate a world map of an environment around the computing device; and repeat the receiving of parameters and measurements from the multimodal input.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2021
    Publication date: June 30, 2022
    Inventors: Stefan Scherer, Mario E Munich, Paolo Pirjanian, Wilson Harron
  • Patent number: 11308731
    Abstract: Systems and methods of identifying unknown video content are described. An example method may include receiving a first fingerprint and a second fingerprint. The first fingerprint may be a color-based fingerprint derived from colors in a portion of the unknown video content, and the second fingerprint may be at least partially based on a feature other than the colors of the unknown video content. A reference database of reference fingerprints may then be queried using one of the first fingerprint or the second fingerprint to obtain a candidate group of fingerprints. The candidate group of fingerprints may then be queried using the other of the first fingerprint and the second fingerprint to identify at least one query fingerprint. The unknown video content may then be identified using the at least one query fingerprint.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: Roku, Inc.
    Inventors: Wilson Harron, Markus K. Cremer
  • Publication number: 20220092270
    Abstract: Systems and methods for managing conversations between a robot computing device and a user are disclosed. Exemplary implementations may: initiate a first-time user experience sequence with the user; teach the user the robot computing capabilities and/or characteristics; initiate, utilizing a dialog manager, a conversation with the user; receive, one or more command files from the user via one or more microphones; and generate conversation response files and communicating the generated conversation files to the dialog manager in response to the one or more received user global command files to initiate an initial conversation exchange.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2021
    Publication date: March 24, 2022
    Inventors: Stefan A. Scherer, Mario E Munich, Paolo Pirjanian, Kevin D Saunders, Wilson Harron, Marissa Kohan
  • Patent number: 11140452
    Abstract: Example methods and systems for displaying actionable elements over playing content, such as video content, are described. In some example embodiments, the methods and systems identify video content currently playing within a display environment provided by a playback device, and display an actionable element within the display environment provided by the playback device that is based on the identified video content and includes one or more user-selectable options to perform an action associated with the identified video content. Further, in some example embodiments, the methods and systems may perform an action (e.g., present supplemental content and/or information) in response to a selection of one or more of the user-selectable options.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: Roku, Inc.
    Inventors: Markus K. Cremer, Wilson Harron
  • Patent number: 11134314
    Abstract: Example methods and systems for displaying actionable elements over playing content, such as video content, are described. In some example embodiments, the methods and systems identify video content currently playing within a display environment provided by a playback device, and display an actionable element within the display environment provided by the playback device that is based on the identified video content and includes one or more user-selectable options to perform an action associated with the identified video content. Further, in some example embodiments, the methods and systems may perform an action (e.g., present supplemental content and/or information) in response to a selection of one or more of the user-selectable options.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: Roku, Inc.
    Inventors: Markus K. Cremer, Wilson Harron
  • Patent number: 11095950
    Abstract: Example methods and systems for displaying actionable elements over playing content, such as video content, are described. In some example embodiments, the methods and systems identify video content currently playing within a display environment provided by a playback device, and display an actionable element within the display environment provided by the playback device that is based on the identified video content and includes one or more user-selectable options to perform an action associated with the identified video content. Further, in some example embodiments, the methods and systems may perform an action (e.g., present supplemental content and/or information) in response to a selection of one or more of the user-selectable options.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2021
    Assignee: ROKU, INC.
    Inventors: Markus K. Cremer, Wilson Harron
  • Publication number: 20210182592
    Abstract: In one aspect, an example method includes a processor (1) applying a feature map network to an image to create a feature map comprising a grid of vectors characterizing at least one feature in the image and (2) applying a probability map network to the feature map to create a probability map assigning a probability to the at least one feature in the image, where the assigned probability corresponds to a likelihood that the at least one feature is an overlay. The method further includes the processor determining that the probability exceeds a threshold, and responsive to the processor determining that the probability exceeds the threshold, performing a processing action associated with the at least one feature.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 25, 2021
    Publication date: June 17, 2021
    Inventors: Wilson Harron, Irene Zhu
  • Publication number: 20210185410
    Abstract: In one aspect, an example method includes (i) receiving, by a computing system, media content; (ii) generating, by the computing system, a fingerprint of the received media content; (iii) determining, by the computing system, that a channel-change operation was performed; (iv) responsive to determining that the channel-change operation was performed, transmitting, by the computing system, the generated fingerprint to a content identification server to identify the received media content; and (v) performing an action based on the identified media content.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2021
    Publication date: June 17, 2021
    Inventors: Wilson Harron, Konstantinos Antonios Dimitriou
  • Publication number: 20210185399
    Abstract: Example methods and systems for displaying actionable elements over playing content, such as video content, are described. In some example embodiments, the methods and systems identify video content currently playing within a display environment provided by a playback device, and display an actionable element within the display environment provided by the playback device that is based on the identified video content and includes one or more user-selectable options to perform an action associated with the identified video content. Further, in some example embodiments, the methods and systems may perform an action (e.g., present supplemental content and/or information) in response to a selection of one or more of the user-selectable options.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2021
    Publication date: June 17, 2021
    Inventors: Markus K. Cremer, Wilson Harron
  • Publication number: 20210185398
    Abstract: Example methods and systems for displaying actionable elements over playing content, such as video content, are described. In some example embodiments, the methods and systems identify video content currently playing within a display environment provided by a playback device, and display an actionable element within the display environment provided by the playback device that is based on the identified video content and includes one or more user-selectable options to perform an action associated with the identified video content. Further, in some example embodiments, the methods and systems may perform an action (e.g., present supplemental content and/or information) in response to a selection of one or more of the user-selectable options.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2021
    Publication date: June 17, 2021
    Inventors: Markus K. Cremer, Wilson Harron
  • Publication number: 20210127172
    Abstract: Techniques of providing an interactive programming guide with a personalized lineup are disclosed. In some embodiments, a profile is accessed, and a personalized lineup is determined based on the profile. The personalized lineup may include a corresponding media content identification assigned to each one of a plurality of sequential time slots, where each media content identification identifies media content for the corresponding time slot. A first interactive programming guide may be caused to be displayed on a first media content device associated with the profile, where the first interactive programming guide includes the personalized lineup.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2021
    Publication date: April 29, 2021
    Inventors: Wilson Harron, Oscar Celma Herrada, Irene Zhu, Markus K. Cremer
  • Publication number: 20210127159
    Abstract: A client device accesses a video input stream from an intermediate device for display. The client device analyzes the video input stream to determine that the video input stream matches a template indicating a change of speed. In some example embodiments, the analysis is performed while the client device is generating a video output stream that replaces video content received from a content source via the intermediate device. Based on the video input stream matching the template, the client device modifies the video output stream to show the change of speed. For example, commercials transmitted from a national content provider to a smart TV via a set-top box may be replaced with targeted commercials. During the replacement, fast-forwarding of the commercial may be detected by matching a template with the video input stream. While the video input stream is being fast-forwarded, the smart TV fast-forwards the targeted commercial.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 15, 2020
    Publication date: April 29, 2021
    Inventors: Markus K. Cremer, Peter Dunker, Steven D. Scherf, David Henry Pearce, Sherman Ling Fung Li, Wilson Harron, Konstantinos Antonios Dimitriou, Dewey Ho Lee
  • Patent number: 10979771
    Abstract: Example methods and systems for displaying actionable elements over playing content, such as video content, are described. In some example embodiments, the methods and systems identify video content currently playing within a display environment provided by a playback device, and display an actionable element within the display environment provided by the playback device that is based on the identified video content and includes one or more user-selectable options to perform an action associated with the identified video content. Further, in some example embodiments, the methods and systems may perform an action (e.g., present supplemental content and/or information) in response to a selection of one or more of the user-selectable options.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Markus K. Cremer, Wilson Harron
  • Patent number: 10970588
    Abstract: In one aspect, an example method includes a processor (1) applying a feature map network to an image to create a feature map comprising a grid of vectors characterizing at least one feature in the image and (2) applying a probability map network to the feature map to create a probability map assigning a probability to the at least one feature in the image, where the assigned probability corresponds to a likelihood that the at least one feature is an overlay. The method further includes the processor determining that the probability exceeds a threshold, and responsive to the processor determining that the probability exceeds the threshold, performing a processing action associated with the at least one feature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Wilson Harron, Irene Zhu
  • Patent number: 10965991
    Abstract: Example methods and systems for displaying actionable elements over playing content, such as video content, are described. In some example embodiments, the methods and systems identify video content currently playing within a display environment provided by a playback device, and display an actionable element within the display environment provided by the playback device that is based on the identified video content and includes one or more user-selectable options to perform an action associated with the identified video content. Further, in some example embodiments, the methods and systems may perform an action (e.g., present supplemental content and/or information) in response to a selection of one or more of the user-selectable options.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Markus K. Cremer, Wilson Harron
  • Patent number: 10965992
    Abstract: Example methods and systems for displaying actionable elements over playing content, such as video content, are described. In some example embodiments, the methods and systems identify video content currently playing within a display environment provided by a playback device, and display an actionable element within the display environment provided by the playback device that is based on the identified video content and includes one or more user-selectable options to perform an action associated with the identified video content. Further, in some example embodiments, the methods and systems may perform an action (e.g., present supplemental content and/or information) in response to a selection of one or more of the user-selectable options.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Markus K. Cremer, Wilson Harron
  • Publication number: 20210064654
    Abstract: Methods and systems to identify video content based on video fingerprint matching are described. In some example embodiments, the methods and systems generate a query fingerprint of a frame of video content captured at a client device, query a database of reference fingerprints, determine the query fingerprint of the frame of captured video content matches a reference fingerprint, and identify the video content based on the match of fingerprints.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 12, 2020
    Publication date: March 4, 2021
    Inventor: Wilson Harron
  • Patent number: 10939185
    Abstract: In one aspect, an example method includes (i) receiving, by a computing system, media content; (ii) generating, by the computing system, a fingerprint of the received media content; (iii) determining, by the computing system, that a channel-change operation was performed; (iv) responsive to determining that the channel-change operation was performed, transmitting, by the computing system, the generated fingerprint to a content identification server to identify the received media content; and (v) performing an action based on the identified media content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Wilson Harron, Konstantinos Antonios Dimitriou
  • Patent number: 10917697
    Abstract: Techniques of providing an interactive programming guide with a personalized lineup are disclosed. In some embodiments, a profile is accessed, and a personalized lineup is determined based on the profile. The personalized lineup may include a corresponding media content identification assigned to each one of a plurality of sequential time slots, where each media content identification identifies media content for the corresponding time slot. A first interactive programming guide may be caused to be displayed on a first media content device associated with the profile, where the first interactive programming guide includes the personalized lineup.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2021
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Wilson Harron, Oscar Celma Herrada, Irene Zhu, Markus K. Cremer