| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20090178026 | SELF-DESCRIBING RE-USABLE SOFTWARE COMPONENTS - Technologies are presented herein for self-describing re-usable software components. Metadata is generated and published with a re-usable software component that identifies the capabilities of the software component, identifies other software components that the re-usable software component may be integrated with, and identifies mechanisms for integrating the re-usable software component with other software components. The metadata can then be used to discover re-usable software components and to integrate the re-usable software components with other software components. | 07-09-2009 |
| 20090327328 | Platform-Independent Data Application Description Language - Technologies are described herein for generating a platform-independent data application. In one method, a definition of a data schema is received for defining data types. A definition of a user interface is also received for access data stored in the data types. Further, a definition of business logic is received for enforcing validation rules and actions associated with the data types. The definitions of the data schema, the user interface, and the business logic are each received in a platform-independent format and used to generate the platform-independent data application. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20100287459 | REUSABLE BUSINESS LOGIC ACROSS USER INTERFACE CONTAINERS - Embodiments are provided for a user interface to reuse business logic related to an ordered business process for managing data in an electronic document. Data may be received in the electronic document in an order-independent manner. The received data may include metadata defining business logic which includes one or more restrictions on a current state of the received data. The business logic may be used to determine whether the received data conforms to the one or more restrictions on the current state of the received data. The user interface may generate a visualization when the received data does not conform to the one or more restrictions on the current state of the received data in the electronic document. The visualization may include one or more actions associated with the presentation of the received data in accordance with the business logic. | 11-11-2010 |
| 20110242108 | VISUALIZATION OF COMPLEXLY RELATED DATA - A method for displaying complex relationships among data that includes selecting a first subset, a second subject, and a third subset of data from a database. Two or more relationships are identified among the first, second, and third subsets of data. One or more visualizations are provided that display the two or more relationships among the first, second, and third subsets of data. | 10-06-2011 |
| 20110246549 | ADAPTIVE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PROCESSING OF HIGHLY INTERACTIVE APPLICATIONS - An application defined by expressions whose execution may be dynamically distributed over multiple devices. An application defined by expressions may include a number of expressions that provide a symbolic representation of computations to be performed. The application defined by expressions may have input variables and output variables and provide a solution for the output variables using the input variables and the expressions that define the application. In providing a solution for the output variables, an expression engine may determine dependencies for the expressions to be solved and distribute the solution of some of those expressions dynamically at runtime to other devices based on the capabilities of the devices, privacy and security concerns, communications bandwidth and latency, the resources available to devices, and commercial or cost implications of where the processing is done. | 10-06-2011 |
| 20110252014 | APPLYING A MODEL OF A PERSONA TO SEARCH RESULTS - A data search and retrieval system that, in response to a search query, applies a model to search results to generate information to be returned to a user. The model may define characteristics of a persona such that the application of the model generates information consistent with the persona. A persona may be an individual person or a group of people having shared characteristics. A user may be presented with a list of identifiers of available models of personae. When the user selects a model of a particular persona to be applied, the information generated in return to the user may be consistent with the characteristics associated with the selected persona. | 10-13-2011 |
| 20110264526 | USER INTERFACE FOR INFORMATION PRESENTATION SYSTEM - A user interface for an information presentation system that displays information of interest to the user identified by the information presentation system based on selecting tasks that may be relevant to the user given the user's current context. The user interface displays options for the user to select from among relevant tasks and/or goals of completing the task. For each selected task and goal, the system may generate one or more sets of items that are relevant to completing the task. The user interface may present the user with the option to select from among the sets of items or to navigate among the sets of items. The user interface may be an easy-to-use interface on a portable computing device to support shopping applications. | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110264642 | DYNAMIC COMPUTATION ENGINE IN SEARCH STACK - A data search and retrieval system that, in response to a search query, dynamically selects and applies a model of information to be returned to a user. The model may be selected based on the search query directly, or indirectly based on data returned by a search engine applying the query. For this purpose, the system may include an index of models, similar to a search index. Models may include expressions that may be descriptions of computations, equations, constraints or rules to define information to be returned. These elements of a selected model may be executed within to the search stack based on data identified in a search of web pages by executing the query or other dynamically obtained data. Execution of a model may lead to collecting new information, such as through further searching or performing computations, or may result in ordering or other formatting of data. | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110264645 | INFORMATION PRESENTATION SYSTEM - An information presentation system that identifies information of interest to a user based on identifying tasks that may be relevant to the user given the user's current context. The user may be presented with an option to select from among relevant tasks and/or goals of completing the task. For each selected task and goal, the system may generate one or more sets of items that are relevant to completing the task. The user may be presented with the option to select from among the sets of items or to navigate among the sets of items. Such a system may be used to provide an easy-to-use interface on a portable computing device to support shopping applications. | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110264665 | INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEM WITH CUSTOMIZATION - A data search and retrieval system that, in response to a search query, dynamically selects and applies a model of information to be returned to a user. The model may be selected based on the search query directly or indirectly based on data returned by a search engine applying the query. For this purpose, the system may include an index of models, similar to a search index. Models may be authored and contributed to the search and retrieval system by third parties, and an association between each such contributed model and characteristics of a search query, such as specific search query terms, may be stored in the index of models. A user of the search and retrieval system may provide feedback on a model that was used to generate information in response to the user's search query, and such feedback may be used to update the index of models. | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110264678 | USER MODIFICATION OF A MODEL APPLIED TO SEARCH RESULTS - A data search and retrieval system that, in response to a search query, applies a model to search results to generate information to be returned to a user. A user may modify the model via a set of controls displayed to the user. The modified model may then be applied to search results to generate information in compliance with the modified model. Modified models may be stored locally on a client system or stored in the search system and made available to other users so that the modified models can be applied to subsequent requests for information. The modified models and the results of a search may be stored on a client machine such that, as the model is modified, new information may be generated based on the original search, reducing communication bandwidth, which can improve the speed and cost of providing user interaction with data in a mobile environment. | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110270628 | COMPARISONS BETWEEN ENTITIES OF A PARTICULAR TYPE - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness with which entities or entities may be compared and contrasted across one or more dimensions. Some embodiments present on a user interface (UI) a small, visually navigable collection of entities, from which the user may select a “focus” entity that may then be compared with other entities of interest. The UI may employ a visual organization scheme that organizes information on entities according to one or more dimensions, which may be predefined and/or configurable. Embodiments may facilitate rapid cognition of the manner in which information is presented and organized, and enable a user to quickly and easily discern dissimilarities and/or similarities between the focus entity and one or more other selected entities. | 11-03-2011 |
| 20110270864 | COMPARISONS BETWEEN ENTITIES OF A PARTICULAR TYPE - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness with which entities or entities may be compared and contrasted across one or more dimensions. Some embodiments present on a user interface (UI) a small, visually navigable collection of entities, from which the user may select a “focus” entity that may then be compared with other entities of interest. The UI may employ a visual organization scheme that organizes information on entities according to one or more dimensions, which may be predefined and/or configurable. Embodiments may facilitate rapid cognition of the manner in which information is presented and organized, and enable a user to quickly and easily discern dissimilarities and/or similarities between the focus entity and one or more other selected entities. | 11-03-2011 |
| 20110282861 | EXTRACTING HIGHER-ORDER KNOWLEDGE FROM STRUCTURED DATA - Systems and methods are described for use in higher-order-knowledge-based searching of content available from a network of data-storage devices. In various embodiments, at least one computational expression representative of a relational framework for content is identified and provided to an information retrieval system for use in searching for content desired by a user. The relational framework for content may include rules, expressions, equations, and/or constraints, which bind, relate, or associate certain content with other content. A computational expression may be determined from processing structured data. The structured data may be identified during crawling of a network or may be expressly provided to an extractor. Use of a computational expression by an information retrieval system may more efficiently and accurately return desired content to a user than is possible with traditional information searching methods. | 11-17-2011 |
| 20110314400 | ASSISTED FILTERING OF MULTI-DIMENSIONAL DATA - Interactive and dynamic exploring of filter criteria for large amounts of numerical data having multiple dimensions is described. Exploration occurs without excessive amounts of computation or querying of a database based on a data set summary that may be obtained from a server in a search system and applied by a client device. A data set is summarized so as to capture relationships between distributions of items in the data set along multiple dimensions. To explore filter criteria, a user may interactively adjust a range of values that act as a filter criteria along a dimension and determine an effect on a distribution of items along another dimension. The client device may apply the data summary in reverse to determine, based on user input specifying aspects of a distribution along one dimension, filter criteria for another dimension that would result in the specified distribution. | 12-22-2011 |
| 20120030227 | SYSTEM OF PROVIDING SUGGESTIONS BASED ON ACCESSIBLE AND CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION - A system and method for offering suggestions to a user of a mobile computing device based on information relevant to the user and a context data. The mobile computing device has access to lists of data associated with the user. The mobile computing device also has a sensor for detecting data about the user's context. Based on the lists of information and the contextual data , the device generates a hypothesis as to information that may be of interest to the user. Using context data in conjunction with lists in this fashion focuses the system on information likely of interest, without requiring express user input. A search may be performed in accordance with the hypothesis. Based on the results of the search, one or more suggestions are then presented by the mobile computing device to the user. The user has the option to provide feedback input to the device resulting in an update of the suggestion. | 02-02-2012 |
| 20120102074 | APPLYING ANALYTIC PATTERNS TO DATA - Aspects described relate to analyzing data at a high level of abstraction. “Smarts,” incorporating one or more analytic patterns, may be applied to data sources. These Smarts may be in the form of at least one of an equation, rule, constraint or expression to generate a result from applying the analytic pattern to the data. Smarts may be pre-defined and selected from a library based on user preference and the data input. Any suitable user interface may be used to apply analytic pattern(s) to items of data as well as provide a visual environment for a user to make intuitive adjustments to the data, add controls in the user interface to filter or constrain the data, or combinations thereof, resulting in one or more modified results. | 04-26-2012 |
| 20120102419 | REPRESENTING DATA THROUGH A GRAPHICAL OBJECT - Aspects discussed relate to creating a presentation of data through an arbitrary graphical object that has the capacity to visually represent data. Based on parameters of the visual characteristics and/or the data set, dimensions of data may be bound to appropriate visual characteristics of the graphical object to render a data visual of the dimensions of data through the graphical object. Visual characteristics and/or dimensions of data may additionally be subject to applied filters and/or constraints. When filters and/or constraints are applied resulting in any modification of the graphical object and/or dimensions of data, a subsequent data visual may be rendered. For some cases, a user interface may enable renderings of data visuals to occur dynamically upon modification of visual characteristics and/or dimensions of data. | 04-26-2012 |
| 20120144325 | PROPOSING VISUAL DISPLAY COMPONENTS FOR PROCESSING DATA - A pattern of visual interactivity may be automatically proposed for processing a data set that exhibits dimensions of variability. A visual display component may be analyzed to assess whether it is capable of receiving user input representing changes that correspond to types of changes of the identified dimensions of the data set. A suitable visual display component may be provided as a suggestion on a user interface for potentially using the visual display component to allow a user to interact with the data. In some embodiments, a visual display component includes a number of visual objects and/or visually interactive components for use within a graphical user interface. A visual display component may include one or more analytic patterns having at least one of an equation, rule, constraint, expression or combination thereof that represents the analytic pattern. Alternatively, a visual display component may involve a visual display representation of data through visual characteristics of a graphical object. | 06-07-2012 |
| 20120148088 | EXTENSIONS FOR MODIFYING A GRAPHICAL OBJECT TO DISPLAY DATA - A graphical manipulation tool to create and/or make modifications to a graphical object suitable for visually representing data. The graphical manipulation tool analyzes the graphical object to determine parameters of visual characteristics of the graphical object that can be used to visually represent data. A computing system, through the graphical manipulation tool, may generate metadata that defines a capacity for visual characteristics to represent data. In some cases, a preview is displayed on a user interface indicating to a user how the metadata, if incorporated with the graphical object, may result in the visual characteristics of the graphical object being used to visually represent data. If incorporating the metadata with the graphical object is desirable, the user may provide to include the additional metadata with the graphical object. | 06-14-2012 |
| 20120150784 | Immersive Planning of Events Including Vacations - The subject disclosure is directed towards a web service or the like that assists users in generating a plan, such as a vacation plan. In one aspect, a user chooses a model that generates a plan, including by selecting content objects (e.g., found by searching) corresponding to plan objects. Selection is based upon user input, along with rules, constraints and/or equations associated with the model. A presentation mechanism produces a presentation (e.g., an audiovisual experience) from the content/plan objects, such as a linear narrative, a timeline, a schedule, a calendar, a gallery, a list, and/or a map. The plan may be annotated with annotation data. The plan may be interacted with to re-plan it, and may be saved and/or provided to another user for viewing and/or re-planning. Plan versions may be compared to see the changes made. | 06-14-2012 |
| 20120150787 | Addition of Plan-Generation Models and Expertise by Crowd Contributorst - The subject disclosure is directed towards a web service that maintains a set of models used to generate plans, such as vacation plans, in which the set of models includes models that are authored by crowd contributors via the service. The models include rules, constraints and/or equations, and may be text based and declarative such that any author can edit an existing model or combination of existing models into a new model. Users can access the models to generate a plan according to user parameters, view a presentation of that plan, and interact to provide new parameters to the model and/or with objects in the plan to modify the plan and view a presentation of the modified plan. | 06-14-2012 |
| 20120151348 | Using Cinematographic Techniques for Conveying and Interacting with Plan Sagas - The subject disclosure is directed towards obtaining a linear narrative synthesized from a set of objects, such as objects corresponding to a plan, and using cinematographic and other effects to convey additional information with that linear narrative when presented to a user. A user interacts with data from which the linear narrative is synthesized, such as to add transition effects between objects, change the lighting, focus, size (zoom), pan and so forth to emphasize or de-emphasize an object, and/or to highlight a relationship between objects. A user instruction may correspond to a theme (e.g., style or mood), with the effects, possibly including audio, selected based upon that theme. | 06-14-2012 |
| 20120151350 | Synthesis of a Linear Narrative from Search Content - The subject disclosure is directed towards automatically synthesizing content found via one or more searches into a linear narrative such as a slideshow and/or other audiovisual presentation, for playback to a user. A model in conjunction with user input parameters may assist in obtaining the search content, comprising content objects. The model applies rules, constraints and/or equations to generate a plan comprising plan objects, and a content synthesizer processes the plan objects into the linear narrative. The user may interact to change the input parameters and/or the set of plan objects, resulting in a modified narrative being re-synthesized for playback. | 06-14-2012 |
| 20120154402 | DISCOVERING AND CONFIGURING REPRESENTATIONS OF DATA VIA AN INSIGHT TAXONOMY - An insight that a user desires to obtain from graphically presenting and manipulating a data set may be identified. A graphical object may be selected for representation and analysis of the data set based on whether the graphical object is capable of revealing the desired insight. The selection may be made based visual characteristic(s) of the graphical object and parameters, such as a type, of data in the data set. Different graphical objects may be selected to gain different insights about the data set. For example, a bar chart may be selected to gain an insight such as a trend in the data. The selected graphical object may be provided as a suggestion on a user interface for potentially using the graphical object to represent the data. A graphical object may include visually interactive components for use within a graphical user interface. The interactive components may be used to receive user input indicating a change in representation of the data set so that appearance of visual characteristics of the graphical object is modified to reflect the change. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120154403 | INCREMENTAL CREATION OF A GRAPHICAL OBJECT TO VISUALLY REPRESENT A DATA SET - A computerized tool to visually display data using a graphical object. Visual display components may be identified that can represent a portion of the data and may be proposed to a user, based on visual characteristics of each of the visual display components and parameter(s) of the data. A visual display component selected from these components based on user input may be linked to the portion of the data set so that the visual display component will modify the appearance of the graphical object in a way that represents the portion of the data. Different visual display components may be identified and suggested for a user's selection to represent other portions of the data using the graphical object. The graphical object may thus be incrementally refined to ultimately result in the visual representation of the data. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120156662 | Models for Guiding Physical Work - The subject disclosure is directed towards guiding a user through a physical work task. A model comprising, rules, constraints and equations corresponding to the task generates a work plan based upon user input data and work-related data. The model determines a subtask to perform based upon the data and the current state of the task, and outputs data (plan objects) used to generate of visualization that instructs the user as to how to perform the subtask, e.g., what other part to attach a current component to, what tool is needed, advice, risk assessment, alternatives and so forth. The model may base the current state on a scene input to the model that represents the current state of the task and/or historical data that indicates the current state of the task. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120159312 | REPRESENTATION OF AN INTERACTIVE DOCUMENT AS A GRAPH OF ENTITIES - Techniques for representing and publishing an interactive document useful for analyzing data. The document may be represented as a directed acyclic graph of entities interconnected by edges. The entities may be of multiple types. Yet, a broad range of interactive documents may be represented by a limited number of types of entities and the capabilities to interconnect entities of different types and to share a data schema across entities of different types. A tool may enable a user to author such documents. The tool may also facilitate publishing of the document. For publishing, the document may be converted to an executable form. Prior to such a conversion, the graph may be modified for more efficient processing. The graph may also be partitioned such that portions of the graph, when distributed across tiers of a computing system, such as a cloud-based platform, execute on computing devices that provide efficient operation. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120159326 | RICH INTERACTIVE SAGA CREATION - One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for creating a saga from signal-rich digital memories. User-related content, such as media elements and/or other signals, are captured and used to generate a digital memory graph, comprising the captured user-related content and associated metadata. An interactive saga of digital media elements is created using the digital memory graph by combining at least a portion of a plurality of digital media elements, from the captured user-related content, based on one or more user interactions. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120159333 | REPRESENTATION OF AN INTERACTIVE DOCUMENT AS A GRAPH OF ENTITIES - Techniques for representing and publishing an interactive document useful for analyzing data. The document may be represented as a directed acyclic graph of entities interconnected by edges. The entities may be of multiple types. Yet, a broad range of interactive documents may be represented by a limited number of types of entities and the capabilities to interconnect entities of different types and to share a data schema across entities of different types. A tool may enable a user to author such documents. The tool may also facilitate publishing of the document. For publishing, the document may be converted to an executable form. Prior to such a conversion, the graph may be modified for more efficient processing. The graph may also be partitioned such that portions of the graph, when distributed across tiers of a computing system, such as a cloud-based platform, execute on computing devices that provide efficient operation. | 06-21-2012 |
| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20100218139 | SEARCH-FRIENDLY TEMPLATES - Embodiments are provided for searching for templates utilized for managing data in a computer application program. Multiple templates for managing data are indexed as individual documents to facilitate the searching of data contained therein. Each individual document includes multiple subdocuments and a model which describes the multiple subdocuments. A data query may be received in the computer application program for one or more templates to utilize in managing the data. In response to receiving the data query, the indexed templates are searched for one or more templates which satisfy the data query. One or more template suggestions may then be displayed as a search result for satisfying the data query. | 08-26-2010 |
| 20120158622 | INTERACTIVE RECOMMENDATIONS - An interactive recommendation system generates one or more recommendations (e.g., recommended products, travel destinations, etc.) for a user based on a recommendation model. The recommendation model includes one or more criteria that are used to analyze a datastore of user characteristics (e.g., a user's age, location, past online behavior, etc.) and generate one or more recommendations based thereon. The interactive recommendation system further presents a user interface that allows the user to interactively modify the criteria of the recommendation model and to apply the modified recommendation model to the datastore in order to generate one or more modified recommendations. In this manner, for example, the user can customize the recommendations he or she receives by interacting with the recommendation system to modify the recommendation model used to generate such recommendations. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120158643 | Data Mining in a Business Intelligence Document - A business intelligence document provides functionality for testing a hypothesis on aggregated data in a business intelligence document (e.g., a spreadsheet-like document), wherein one or more of the input data values and transformation properties are designated as constrained (e.g., invariant or constrained within a range, set, enumeration, or domain). The hypothesis, which is articulated as a data mining assertion, is input through the user interface of the business intelligence document (e.g., via an expression interface or properties of a row, column, or cell) and solved over the aggregated data. The solution is then presented through the user interface of the spreadsheet-like document, such as in a table, graph, histogram, etc. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120158644 | DATA FEED HAVING CUSTOMIZABLE ANALYTIC AND VISUAL BEHAVIOR - A data marketplace infrastructure allows a data source company or a third party to associate to a data feed with a customizable preview application having analytic and visual features (e.g., business logic and a user interface). A potential customer can use discovery services of the data marketplace infrastructure to identify one or more data feeds offering sample data in a domain of interest of the potential customer. The data feed can transmit the customizable preview application to allow the potential customer to interact with the data from the data feed before purchasing the data. The potential customer may also customize the preview application so as to change the default application behavior in a manner that improves the potential customer's understanding and appreciation of the data feed. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120158732 | BUSINESS APPLICATION PUBLICATION - A data marketplace infrastructure provides a crowd sourcing solution to development, discovery and publication of decision applications. Applications can be submitted from a user to a data warehouse in association with a data feed. One or more discovery properties are determined with regard to each application. The applications are made available to other client systems in association with the data feed. A relevant data feed and a relevant application can be identified based on satisfaction of a discovery request by the one or more determined discovery properties of the application. The application can be selected and downloaded to the user for evaluation and customization. The customized application can then be submitted to the data warehouse for publication with the other applications associated with the data feed. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120158754 | AUTOMATED GENERATION OF ANALYTIC AND VISUAL BEHAVIOR - A data marketplace infrastructure allows a data source company or a third party to automate generation of one or more applications in association a data feed. In contrast to custom, manual development of applications, the data marketplace infrastructure constructs applications that suggest applicability to the data feed. Factors suggesting applicability include without limitation similarity of data structures and similarity of subject matter. Based on an applicability determination, patterns of historical visual usage and patterns of historical business logic usage may be used to identify expressions specifying the visuals and business logic that may be copied to and used in a new application in association with the data feed. Furthermore, previewers can provide feedback to help tune which automatically generated applications are maintained in association with the data feed and which are discarded or altered in some way. | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120159465 | BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE DOCUMENT - A business intelligence (BI) document preserves references to identities and formats of remote data sources and allows a local computing device to offload analytical operations to remote data sources. The BI document specifies a graph of entities connected by directed edges from the output of one entity to an input of another entity. An entity, for example, can represent without limitation a data structure, an external data source, a control element, an external event source, a visualization, or an update service. The entities of a BI document at a local computing device can reference data at an original data source—rather than extracting data from the original data source to a preferred local datastore. An entity of the BI document can direct a remote data source to execute transformations on the remote data before returning a solution to the local computing device. | 06-21-2012 |