Patents by Inventor Yao MING

Yao MING 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: 20250344918
    Abstract: A cleaning apparatus includes a combing unit including a series of spaced protrusions or teeth extending into a cleaning roller for preventing build up and removing debris (such as hair, string, and the like). The protrusions extend along a substantial portion of the cleaning roller and extend partially into the cleaning roller to intercept the debris as it passes around the roller. The protrusions have angled leading edges that are not aligned with a rotation center of the cleaning roller and are directed into or against a direction of rotation of the cleaning roller. The combing unit and protrusions have a shape and configuration designed to facilitate debris removal from the cleaning roller with minimal impact on the operation of the cleaning apparatus. The cleaning apparatus may include a surface cleaning head of an upright vacuum cleaner or sweeper or a robotic vacuum cleaner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 22, 2025
    Publication date: November 13, 2025
    Inventors: Jason B. THORNE, Yao MING, Daniel R. DER MARDEROSIAN, Daniel MEYER, Patrick CLEARY, Gordon HOWES, David WU, Nancy GAO WENXIU
  • Patent number: 12390064
    Abstract: A cleaning apparatus includes a combing unit including a series of spaced protrusions or teeth extending into a cleaning roller for preventing build up and removing debris (such as hair, string, and the like). The protrusions extend along a substantial portion of the cleaning roller and extend partially into the cleaning roller to intercept the debris as it passes around the roller. The protrusions have angled leading edges that are not aligned with a rotation center of the cleaning roller and are directed into or against a direction of rotation of the cleaning roller. The combing unit and protrusions have a shape and configuration designed to facilitate debris removal from the cleaning roller with minimal impact on the operation of the cleaning apparatus. The cleaning apparatus may include a surface cleaning head of an upright vacuum cleaner or sweeper or a robotic vacuum cleaner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2023
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2025
    Assignee: SharkNinja Operating LLC
    Inventors: Jason B. Thorne, Yao Ming, Daniel R. Der Marderosian, Daniel Meyer, Patrick Cleary, Gordon Howes, David Wu, Nancy Gao Wenxiu
  • Publication number: 20230240492
    Abstract: A cleaning apparatus includes a combing unit including a series of spaced protrusions or teeth extending into a cleaning roller for preventing build up and removing debris (such as hair, string, and the like). The protrusions extend along a substantial portion of the cleaning roller and extend partially into the cleaning roller to intercept the debris as it passes around the roller. The protrusions have angled leading edges that are not aligned with a rotation center of the cleaning roller and are directed into or against a direction of rotation of the cleaning roller. The combing unit and protrusions have a shape and configuration designed to facilitate debris removal from the cleaning roller with minimal impact on the operation of the cleaning apparatus. The cleaning apparatus may include a surface cleaning head of an upright vacuum cleaner or sweeper or a robotic vacuum cleaner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2023
    Publication date: August 3, 2023
    Inventors: Jason B. THORNE, Yao MING, Daniel R. DER MARDEROSIAN, Daniel MEYER, Patrick CLEARY, Gordon HOWES, David WU, Nancy GAO WENXIU
  • Patent number: 11647881
    Abstract: A cleaning apparatus includes a combing unit including a series of spaced protrusions or teeth extending into a cleaning roller for preventing build up and removing debris (such as hair, string, and the like). The protrusions extend along a substantial portion of the cleaning roller and extend partially into the cleaning roller to intercept the debris as it passes around the roller. The protrusions have angled leading edges that are not aligned with a rotation center of the cleaning roller and are directed into or against a direction of rotation of the cleaning roller. The combing unit and protrusions have a shape and configuration designed to facilitate debris removal from the cleaning roller with minimal impact on the operation of the cleaning apparatus. The cleaning apparatus may include a surface cleaning head of an upright vacuum cleaner or sweeper or a robotic vacuum cleaner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Assignee: SharkNinja Operating LLC
    Inventors: Jason B. Thorne, Yao Ming, Daniel R. Der Marderosian, Daniel Meyer, Patrick Cleary, Gordon Howes, David Wu, Nancy Gao Wenxiu
  • Patent number: 11593589
    Abstract: A novel interpretable and steerable deep sequence modeling technique is disclosed. The technique combines prototype learning and RNNs to achieve both interpretability and high accuracy. Experiments and case studies on different real-world sequence prediction/classification tasks demonstrate that the model is not only as accurate as other state-of-the-art machine learning techniques but also much more interpretable. In addition, a large-scale user study on Amazon Mechanical Turk demonstrates that for familiar domains like sentiment analysis on texts, the model is able to select high quality prototypes that are well aligned with human knowledge for prediction and interpretation. Furthermore, the model obtains better interpretability without a loss of performance by incorporating the feedback from a user study to update the prototypes, demonstrating the benefits of involving human-in-the-loop for interpretable machine learning.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Panpan Xu, Liu Ren, Yao Ming
  • Patent number: 11513673
    Abstract: A deep sequence model with prototypes may be steered. A prototype overview is displayed, the prototype overview including a plurality of prototype sequences learned by a model through backpropagation, each of the prototype sequences including a series of events, where for each of the prototype sequences, statistical information is presented with respect to use of the prototype sequence by the model. Input is received adjusting one or more of the prototype sequences to fine-tune the model. The model is updated using the plurality of prototype sequences, as adjusted, to create an updated model. The model, as updated, is displayed in the prototype overview.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2022
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Panpan Xu, Liu Ren, Yao Ming, Furui Cheng, Huamin Qu
  • Publication number: 20210181931
    Abstract: A deep sequence model with prototypes may be steered. A prototype overview is displayed, the prototype overview including a plurality of prototype sequences learned by a model through backpropagation, each of the prototype sequences including a series of events, where for each of the prototype sequences, statistical information is presented with respect to use of the prototype sequence by the model. Input is received adjusting one or more of the prototype sequences to fine-tune the model. The model is updated using the plurality of prototype sequences, as adjusted, to create an updated model. The model, as updated, is displayed in the prototype overview.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2019
    Publication date: June 17, 2021
    Inventors: Panpan XU, Liu REN, Yao MING, Furui CHENG, Huamin QU
  • Publication number: 20200364504
    Abstract: A novel interpretable and steerable deep sequence modeling technique is disclosed. The technique combines prototype learning and RNNs to achieve both interpretability and high accuracy. Experiments and case studies on different real-world sequence prediction/classification tasks demonstrate that the model is not only as accurate as other state-of-the-art machine learning techniques but also much more interpretable. In addition, a large-scale user study on Amazon Mechanical Turk demonstrates that for familiar domains like sentiment analysis on texts, the model is able to select high quality prototypes that are well aligned with human knowledge for prediction and interpretation. Furthermore, the model obtains better interpretability without a loss of performance by incorporating the feedback from a user study to update the prototypes, demonstrating the benefits of involving human-in-the-loop for interpretable machine learning.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 31, 2020
    Publication date: November 19, 2020
    Inventors: Panpan XU, Liu REN, Yao MING
  • Publication number: 20170215667
    Abstract: A cleaning apparatus includes a combing unit including a series of spaced protrusions or teeth extending into a cleaning roller for preventing build up and removing debris (such as hair, string, and the like). The protrusions extend along a substantial portion of the cleaning roller and extend partially into the cleaning roller to intercept the debris as it passes around the roller. The protrusions have angled leading edges that are not aligned with a rotation center of the cleaning roller and are directed into or against a direction of rotation of the cleaning roller. The combing unit and protrusions have a shape and configuration designed to facilitate debris removal from the cleaning roller with minimal impact on the operation of the cleaning apparatus. The cleaning apparatus may include a surface cleaning head of an upright vacuum cleaner or sweeper or a robotic vacuum cleaner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2017
    Publication date: August 3, 2017
    Inventors: Jason B. THORNE, Yao MING, Daniel R. DER MARDEROSIAN, Daniel MEYER, Patrick CLEARY, Gordon HOWE, David WU, Nancy GAO WENXIU
  • Patent number: D849345
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2019
    Assignee: SharkNinja Operating LLC
    Inventors: Jason B. Thorne, Yao Ming, Daniel R. Der Marderosian, Daniel Meyer, Patrick Clearly, Gordon Howes, David Wu, Nancy Gao Wenxiu
  • Patent number: D872955
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Assignee: SharkNinja Operating LLC
    Inventors: Jason B. Thorne, Yao Ming, Daniel R. Der Marderosian, Daniel Meyer, Patrick Cleary, Gordon Howes, David Wu, Nancy Gao Wenxiu