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Ferguson, WA

Bryan Ferguson, Redmond, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20110282867IMAGE SEARCHING WITH RECOGNITION SUGGESTION - Image management applications allow users to upload, modify, organize, search, and/or share images. Unfortunately, current image management applications may have separate search modes and tagging modes. Accordingly, one or more systems and/or techniques for providing a user with a seamlessly integrated search, view, and/or tag experience are disclosed herein. Search results comprising tagged images and untagged images may be provided in response to a user search query. The untagged images may be contextually relevant to features of the tagged images and/or the user search query. Tagging suggestions for untagged images may be presented that allow a user to confirm or deny a tagging suggestion for an untagged image. Additionally, confirmable thumbnails corresponding to the untagged images may be presented. A confirmable thumbnail may allow a user to confirm or deny tagging a corresponding untagged image.11-17-2011

Bryan P. Ferguson, Redmond, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100054600Tagging Images With Labels - An image to be shared with other users based on input from a first user is received. A second user is identified from a tag of the image, and information is provided, based at least in part on the tag, to one or both of the first user and the second user. Additionally, after editing of an image a determination can be made as to whether a region of the image having an associated tag has been affected by the editing. The tag associated with the region is altered if the region has been affected by the editing, otherwise the tag associated with the region is left unaltered. Furthermore, the tag can include a first portion storing data identifying a region of the image to which the tag corresponds, and a second portion storing data identifying a person shown in the region.03-04-2010
20100054601Image Tagging User Interface - A global tag for an image is received identifies one or more objects in the image, and a region-specific tag for the image identifies one or more objects in a region of the image. The global tag and the region-specific tag are stored with the image. Displayed, along with the image, is an identifier for each of the one or more objects identified in the global tag, and an identifier for each of the one or more objects identified in the region-specific tag. Different users are able to maintain different names for the same person, allowing the same tag of the image to be used as the basis for displaying the image with different names for the different users. Additionally, the tags can be used as a basis for generating a credits list of people that are included in a compilation of images.03-04-2010
20110067087ORGANIZING DOCUMENTS THROUGH UTILIZATION OF PEOPLE TAGS - A method disclosed herein includes the acts of receiving a document that has a people tag assigned thereto, wherein the people tag comprises first data that is indicative of an identity of a first individual that corresponds to the document, and wherein the people tag is assigned to the document by an assignor, and accessing contact data pertaining to a second individual, wherein the contact data comprises second data that is indicative of identities of contacts of the second individual, wherein the second data comprises data that is indicative of the identity of the first individual. The method also includes comparing the contact data with the first data, and displaying the document on a computer screen in conjunction with text that identifies the first individual to the third individual, wherein the text indicates a name of the first individual as assigned to the first individual by the second individual.03-17-2011

Chris Ferguson, Redmond, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090159395METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONDITIONING COINS PRIOR TO DISCRIMINATION - A coin conditioner is provided for cleaning or otherwise conditioning coins in a coin discriminator apparatus prior to transfer to a coin sensor. Coins enter through a feed tray and move down the length of a perforated tumbler, preferably without the use of gravity, such as under screw force, mechanical or centrifugal force. The spinning tumbler is preferably rotated about its longitudinal axis by a motor. In one embodiment, a blower or vacuum draws or moves air from one area to another, with the air preferably being filtered. As coins move through and down a tumbler, projections such as vanes, fins, ridges, dimples, spines or other raised features cause mechanical agitation and/or abrasion as coins are lifted and dropped while passing longitudinally through the tumbler. The coins are conditioned and non-coin matter is collected as it is separated and/or abraded from the coin surfaces. Tumbler perforations permit non-coin matter to pass through the perforations into a collection tray or other apparatus and/or are collected into filter media as a result of the air flow. In one embodiment, the air pressure system eliminates or reduces the occurrence of low density or light non-coin matter, such as hair or dust, and prevents these materials from settling or being carried through downstream portions of the coin processing system.06-25-2009

Patent applications by Chris Ferguson, Redmond, WA US

Heather Ferguson, Centralia, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20080201434Context-Sensitive Searches and Functionality for Instant Messaging Applications - In one or more embodiments, in the context of an instant messaging application, a conversation is analyzed and contextually or textually relevant keywords and/or phrases are identified. These keywords or phrases are then highlighted in a visually-identifiable manner for selection by an individual participating in the conversation. Once selected by an individual, a user interface is presented and exposes the individual or individuals in the conversation to various contextually- or textually-relevant material or functionality that pertains to the selected word or phrase. In one or more embodiments, an individual can also manually select a word or phrase to access the user interface that exposes contextually or textually-relevant material or functionality. In the various embodiments described below, at least some of this relevant material or functionality is presented to the user in the context of the instant messaging application and in a manner in which it can be consumed by the individual within the instant messaging application itself.08-21-2008
20100229105INTEGRATED EXPERIENCE OF VOGUE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SHARED INTEGRATED ONLINE SOCIAL INTERACTION - A novel application and user interface for facilitating group interactions over a network integrates messaging, file sharing, media playing, journaling, profiles, and gaming into a cohesive environment. The groups facilitated by the invention are persistent and mobile in that a user does not have to recollect and reconfigure the group each time he or she wants to interact with the group online and, while online, the group may be taken from one activity to another without having to disband and reconnect at the second activity. The application is modular so as to be extensible to include other activities and functionalities. In an embodiment, the group interaction application utilizes a peer-to-peer network environment to facilitate network communications between group members.09-09-2010

Patent applications by Heather Ferguson, Centralia, WA US

Heather Ferguson, Seattle, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090327299REPLICATING MODIFICATIONS MADE TO CONTENTS OF A SHARED FOLDER - Replicating modifications made to contents of a shared folder. As a part of replicating modifications made to contents of a shared folder, modifications made to a shared folder located on a first computer system and replicated in a second folder that is located on a second computer system are accessed from a second computer system. One or more folders are identified that are associated with the second folder and that are accessible from one or more other computer systems. The one or more folders are caused to have replicated in them modifications that were made to the shared folder.12-31-2009

Howard L. Ferguson, Elk, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20110249006VENTILATOR BREATH DISPLAY AND GRAPHIC INTERFACE - The invention is directed to a ventilation control system for controlling the ventilation of a patient. The ventilation control system utilizes a user-friendly user interface for the display of patient data and ventilator status. The user interface includes a graphic representation of a breath cycle that displays the breath cycle currently being ventilated, and is also responsive to changes in ventilation settings to assist the user in evaluation the effect of those changes on the ventilator strategy before the changes are implemented.10-13-2011

Jeffrey D. Ferguson, Monroe, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090233625SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXTRACTION OF LOCATION RELATED DATA IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - A system and method to collect data related to the geographical location of a mobile station communicating with a GSM network and to use the location related data to determine the geographical location of the mobile station. A tap is place in an Abis link between a base station and a base station controller, the tap providing a copy of a signal carried by the Abis link. The copy signal is routed to a protocol analyzer that extracts location related data from the copy signal. A location processor uses the location data to determine the geographical location of the mobile station. The geographical location data is used by a data analyzer to provide location based services, such as estimating traffic intensity and speed of mobile stations.09-17-2009

Karen M. Ferguson, Colbert, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20110231786Medical Information Generation and Recordation Methods and Apparatus - Computer-implemented medical information recording methods are described. According to one aspect, a computer-implemented medical information recording method includes displaying a graphical user interface including a graphical representation of the human anatomy, accessing user inputs interacting with the graphical representation of the human anatomy, and generating an electronic record comprising data pertaining to the health of the patient using the user inputs interacting with the graphical representation of the human anatomy.09-22-2011

Luke Ferguson, Seattle, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100098593Sensitive Materials for Gas Sensing and Method of Making Same - A gas detection device comprising a measuring circuit, said measuring surface comprising a substrate, a resistance heater bonded to said substrate and a coating, said coating comprising SnO04-22-2010

Niels T. Ferguson, Redmond, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100211802Storage Volume Protection Supporting Legacy Systems - A storage volume is encrypted using a particular encryption technique, the storage volume including an access application and one or more cover files. The access application can be executed by a computing device having an operating system lacking support for the particular encryption technique, and allows the computing device to access data on the storage volume encrypted using the particular encryption technique.08-19-2010
20100212002CONSTRAINING A LOGIN TO A SUBSET OF ACCESS RIGHTS - This document describes tools that constrain a login to a subset of access rights. In one embodiment, the tools generate a constrained password by executing a cryptographic algorithm on a user ID, general password, and one or more desired constraints. The constrained password is used in place of the general password to gain access rights that are a subset of the access rights that would be granted if the general password were used instead.08-19-2010
20110022856Key Protectors Based On Public Keys - In accordance with one or more aspects, a key protector for a storage volume is created by generating an intermediate key and protecting, based at least in part on a public/private key pair, the intermediate key. A volume master key for encrypting and decrypting one or more volume encryption keys that are used to encrypt the storage volume can be encrypted in different manners, including being encrypted based at least in part on the intermediate key. A key protector for the storage volume is stored that includes both the encrypted volume master key and information indicating how to obtain the intermediate key. Subsequently, the key protector can be accessed and, based at least in part on a private key of the entity associated with the key protector, the intermediate key can be decrypted. The intermediate key can then be used to decrypt the volume master key.01-27-2011

Patent applications by Niels T. Ferguson, Redmond, WA US

Niels Thomas Ferguson, Redmond, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20080256616UNIFIED AUTHENTICATION FOR WEB METHOD PLATFORMS - An authentication mechanism is provided for a web method platform that allows homogeneous access for different types of clients according to a bootstrapping procedure utilized to establish the session. Different clients can be assigned different levels of trust based in part on the bootstrapping procedure and/or information provided during the procedure. The bootstrapping procedure can produce a token that is used by the clients in subsequent requests to provide previous authentication or state information to the platform. The token can comprise a shared secret used to ensure integrity of communications in some cases, and the token can be opaque to the client. Tokens can expire and require a client to re-bootstrap to provide higher levels of authentication protection, and tokens can be shared among a plurality of application servers to facilitate effective handling of requests in a farmed environment.10-16-2008
20100002873Cipher For Disk Encryption - Encryption is provided with additional diffusion components to construct a block cipher with a large and variable block size. The cipher incorporates an encryption system or algorithm such that the cipher is at least as secure as the encryption system or algorithm. Additional components of the cipher provide improved diffusion. This combination ensures that the cipher is at least as strong as the encryption algorithm, and at the same time it provides additional security properties due to its improved diffusion.01-07-2010
20100208898MANAGING GROUP KEYS - In an example, one or more cryptographic keys may be associated with a group. Any member of the group may use the key to encrypt and decrypt information, thereby allowing members of the group to share encrypted information. Domain controllers (DCs) maintain copies of the group's keys. The DCs may synchronize with each other, so that each DC may have a copy of the group's keys. Keys may have expiration dates, and any client connected to a DC may generate a new key when a key is nearing expiration. The various clients may create new keys at differing amounts of time before expiration on various DCs. DCs that store keys early thus may have time to propagate the newly-created keys through synchronization before other DCs are requested to store keys created by other clients. In this way, the creation of an excessive number of new keys may be avoided.08-19-2010
20100306525EFFICIENT DISTRIBUTION OF COMPUTATION IN KEY AGREEMENT - In Transport Layer Security (TLS) or other communication protocols, the load on the server may be lowered by reducing the number of expensive decryption operations that the server has to perform. When a client contacts a server, the client sends the server the client's public key. The server chooses a secret value, encrypts the value with the client's public key, and sends the encrypted value to the client. When the client decrypts the secret, the server and client share a secret value, which may be used to derive an encryption key for further messages. In many key agreement schemes, the client chooses and encrypts the secret value, and the server recovers the value with an expensive decryption operation. By instead having the server choose the value and send it to the client, an expensive decryption operation is redistributed from the server to the client, thereby freeing server resources.12-02-2010

Patent applications by Niels Thomas Ferguson, Redmond, WA US

Robert Ferguson, Richland, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090099004CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF CARBON NANOMATERIALS USING A HIGH TEMPERATURE INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA - High-power inductively coupled plasma technology is used for thermal cracking and vaporization of continuously fed carbonaceous materials into elemental carbon, for reaction with separate and continuously fed metal catalysts inside a gas-phase high-temperature reactor system operating at or slightly below atmospheric pressures. In one particularly preferred embodiment, in-flight growth of carbon nanomaterials is initiated, continued, and controlled at high flow rates, enabling continuous collection and product removal via gas/solid filtration and separation methods, and/or liquid spray filtration and solid collection methods suitable for producing industrial-scale production quantities. In another embodiment, the reaction chamber and/or filtration/separation media include non-catalytic or catalytic metals to simultaneously or separately induce on-substrate synthesis and growth of carbon nanomaterials. The on-substrate grown carbon nanomaterials are produced in secondary chambers that are selectively isolated for periodic removal of the product.04-16-2009
20100025225CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF CARBON NANOMATERIALS USING A HIGH TEMPERATURE INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA - High-power inductively coupled plasma technology is used for thermal cracking and vaporization of continuously fed carbonaceous materials into elemental carbon, for reaction with separate and continuously fed metal catalysts inside a gas-phase high-temperature reactor system operating at or slightly below atmospheric pressures. In one particularly preferred embodiment, in-flight growth of carbon nanomaterials is initiated, continued, and controlled at high flow rates, enabling continuous collection and product removal via gas/solid filtration and separation methods, and/or liquid spray filtration and solid collection methods suitable for producing industrial-scale production quantities. In another embodiment, the reaction chamber and/or filtration/separation media include non-catalytic or catalytic metals to simultaneously or separately induce on-substrate synthesis and growth of carbon nanomaterials. The on-substrate grown carbon nanomaterials are produced in secondary chambers that are selectively isolated for periodic removal of the product.02-04-2010

Patent applications by Robert Ferguson, Richland, WA US

Stanley D. Ferguson, Renton, WA US

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20090321572FAIRING AND AIRFOIL APPARATUS AND METHOD - An airfoil for use on a high speed, jet powered airborne mobile platform and secured to an exterior surface of said mobile platform at a location so as to be disposed within a boundary layer during flight of the mobile platform. The airfoil produces a peak Mach number for airflow over a longitudinal centerline of said airfoil that is no greater than about Mach 1.2 when said mobile platform is moving at a speed of about Mach 0.85 with a relative constant Mach number flow over a region defined as at least an approximate 20% length of maximum thickness of said airfoil. The airfoil also has a pressure distribution (Cp) that is positive at a trailing edge thereof.12-31-2009
20100038488ANTENNA FAIRING AND METHOD - A fairing suitable for enclosing a component mounted on an exterior surface of a mobile platform, and more particularly on an outer surface of a high speed mobile platform such as a jet aircraft or an aerospace vehicle. The fairing provides aggressive closure angles for optimum RF performance when used to house an antenna that is scanned to varying azimuth and elevation angles. The fairing further provides low aerodynamic drag, is scalable to enclose components having wide ranging dimensions, and provides attached flow with minimum separation of airflow thereover for airflows experienced by high speed jet aircraft, and reduces or eliminates RF reflections within the fairing from the RF beam of the antenna.02-18-2010

Patent applications by Stanley D. Ferguson, Renton, WA US