ng Using a physical phenomenon detector to control operation of a speech recognition engine By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A device may include a physical phenomenon detector. The physical phenomenon detector may detect a physical phenomenon related to the device. In response to detecting the physical phenomenon, the device may record audio data that includes speech. The speech may be transcribed with a speech recognition engine. The speech recognition engine may be included in the device, or may be included with a remote computing device with which the device may communicate. Full Article
ng Method for classifying audio signal into fast signal or slow signal By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Low bit rate audio coding such as BWE algorithm often encounters conflict goal of achieving high time resolution and high frequency resolution at the same time. In order to achieve best possible quality, input signal can be first classified into fast signal and slow signal. This invention focuses on classifying signal into fast signal and slow signal, based on at least one of the following parameters or a combination of the following parameters: spectral sharpness, temporal sharpness, pitch correlation (pitch gain), and/or spectral envelope variation. This classification information can help to choose different BWE algorithms, different coding algorithms, and different postprocessing algorithms respectively for fast signal and slow signal. Full Article
ng Comparison of character strings By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A computer-readable, non-transitory medium storing a character string comparison program is provided. The program causes, when executed by a computer, the computer to perform a process including splitting a first character string and a second character string into words; acquiring information including a semantic attribute that represents a semantic nature of each of the words and a conceptual code that semantically identifies said each of the words, from a storage device; identifying a pair of the words having a common semantic attribute between the first character string and the second character string; comparing the conceptual codes of the specified pair of the words between the first character string and the second character string; and generating a comparison result between the first character string and the second character string based upon a comparison result of the conceptual codes. Full Article
ng Analysis filterbank, synthesis filterbank, encoder, de-coder, mixer and conferencing system By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An embodiment of an analysis filterbank for filtering a plurality of time domain input frames, wherein an input frame comprises a number of ordered input samples, comprises a windower configured to generate a plurality of windowed frames, wherein a windowed frame comprises a plurality of windowed samples, wherein the windower is configured to process the plurality of input frames in an overlapping manner using a sample advance value, wherein the sample advance value is less than the number of ordered input samples of an input frame divided by two, and a time/frequency converter configured to provide an output frame comprising a number of output values, wherein an output frame is a spectral representation of a windowed frame. Full Article
ng Controlling a voice site using non-standard haptic commands By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An apparatus and an article of manufacture for controlling a voice site using a haptic input modality include validating a haptic input from an instrument capable of accessing a voice site, processing the haptic input on a server to determine a voice site command corresponding to the haptic input, and processing the voice site command at the server to control an interaction with the voice site. Full Article
ng Decoding apparatus, decoding method, encoding apparatus, encoding method, and editing apparatus By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A decoding apparatus (10) is disclosed which includes: a storing means (11) for storing encoded audio signals including multi-channel audio signals; a transforming means (40) for transforming the encoded audio signals to generate transform block-based audio signals in a time domain; a window processing means (41) for multiplying the transform block-based audio signals by a product of a mixture ratio of the audio signals and a first window function, the product being a second window function; a synthesizing means (43) for overlapping the multiplied transform block-based audio signals to synthesize audio signals of respective channels; and a mixing means (14) for mixing audio signals of the respective channels between the channels to generate a downmixed audio signal. Furthermore, an encoding apparatus is also disclosed which downmixes the multi-channel audio signals, encodes the downmixed audio signals, and generates the encoded, downmixed audio signals. Full Article
ng Apparatus for processing an audio signal and method thereof By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An apparatus for processing an audio signal and method thereof are disclosed. The present invention includes receiving a downmix signal and side information; extracting control restriction information from the side information; receiving control information for controlling gain or panning at least one object signal; generating at least one of first multi-channel information and first downmix processing information based on the control information and object information, without using the control restriction information; and, generating an output signal by applying the at least one of the first multichannel information and the first downmix processing information to the downmix signal, wherein the control restriction information relates to a parameter indicating limiting degree of the control information. Full Article
ng Audio controlling apparatus, audio correction apparatus, and audio correction method By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT According to one embodiment, an audio controlling apparatus includes a first receiver configured to receive audio signal, a second receiver configured to receive environmental sound, a temporary gain calculator configured to calculate temporary gain based on environmental sound received by second receiver, a sound type determination module configured to determine sound type of main component of audio signal received by first receiver, and a gain controller configured to stabilize temporary gain that is calculated by temporary gain calculator and set gain, when it is determined that sound type of main component of audio signal received by first receiver is music. Full Article
ng Systems and methods for identifying and suggesting emoticons By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for suggesting emoticons for insertion into text based on an analysis of sentiment in the text. An example method includes: determining a first sentiment of text in a text field; selecting first text from the text field in proximity to a current position of an input cursor in the text field; identifying one or more candidate emoticons wherein each candidate emoticon is associated with a respective score indicating relevance to the first text and the first sentiment based on, at least, historical user selections of emoticons for insertion in proximity to respective second text having a respective second sentiment; providing one or more candidate emoticons having respective highest scores for user selection; and receiving user selection of one or more of the provided emoticons and inserting the selected emoticons into the text field at the current position of the input cursor. Full Article
ng Extracting information from unstructured text using generalized extraction patterns By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for extracting information from unstructured text. Fact pairs are used to extract basic patterns from a body of text. Patterns are generalized by replacing words with classes of similar words. Generalized patterns are used to extract further fact pairs from the body of text. The process can begin with fact pairs, basic patterns, or generalized patterns. Full Article
ng Adaptive grouping of parameters for enhanced coding efficiency By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT The present invention is based on the finding that parameters including: a first set of parameters of a representation of a first portion of an original signal and a second set of parameters of a representation of a second portion of the original signal can be efficiently encoded when the parameters are arranged in a first sequence of tuples and a second sequence of tuples. The first sequence of tuples includes tuples of parameters having two parameters from a single portion of the original signal and the second sequence of tuples includes tuples of parameters having one parameter from the first portion and one parameter from the second portion of the original signal. A bit estimator estimates the number of necessary bits to encode the first and the second sequence of tuples. Only the sequence of tuples, which results in the lower number of bits, is encoded. Full Article
ng Method and apparatus for processing audio frames to transition between different codecs By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method (700, 800) and apparatus (100, 200) processes audio frames to transition between different codecs. The method can include producing (720), using a first coding method, a first frame of coded output audio samples by coding a first audio frame in a sequence of frames. The method can include forming (730) an overlap-add portion of the first frame using the first coding method. The method can include generating (740) a combination first frame of coded audio samples based on combining the first frame of coded output audio samples with the overlap-add portion of the first frame. The method can include initializing (760) a state of a second coding method based on the combination first frame of coded audio samples. The method can include constructing (770) an output signal based on the initialized state of the second coding method. Full Article
ng Encoder, decoder and methods for encoding and decoding data segments representing a time-domain data stream By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An apparatus for decoding data segments representing a time-domain data stream, a data segment being encoded in the time domain or in the frequency domain, a data segment being encoded in the frequency domain having successive blocks of data representing successive and overlapping blocks of time-domain data samples. The apparatus includes a time-domain decoder for decoding a data segment being encoded in the time domain and a processor for processing the data segment being encoded in the frequency domain and output data of the time-domain decoder to obtain overlapping time-domain data blocks. The apparatus further includes an overlap/add-combiner for combining the overlapping time-domain data blocks to obtain a decoded data segment of the time-domain data stream. Full Article
ng Audio encoder, audio decoder, methods for encoding and decoding an audio signal, and a computer program By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An encoder for providing an audio stream on the basis of a transform-domain representation of an input audio signal includes a quantization error calculator configured to determine a multi-band quantization error over a plurality of frequency bands of the input audio signal for which separate band gain information is available. The encoder also includes an audio stream provider for providing the audio stream such that the audio stream includes information describing an audio content of the frequency bands and information describing the multi-band quantization error. A decoder for providing a decoded representation of an audio signal on the basis of an encoded audio stream representing spectral components of frequency bands of the audio signal includes a noise filler for introducing noise into spectral components of a plurality of frequency bands to which separate frequency band gain information is associated on the basis of a common multi-band noise intensity value. Full Article
ng Dynamic language model By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for speech recognition. One of the methods includes receiving a base language model for speech recognition including a first word sequence having a base probability value; receiving a voice search query associated with a query context; determining that a customized language model is to be used when the query context satisfies one or more criteria associated with the customized language model; obtaining the customized language model, the customized language model including the first word sequence having an adjusted probability value being the base probability value adjusted according to the query context; and converting the voice search query to a text search query based on one or more probabilities, each of the probabilities corresponding to a word sequence in a group of one or more word sequences, the group including the first word sequence having the adjusted probability value. Full Article
ng System and methods for matching an utterance to a template hierarchy By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A system and methods for matching at least one word of an utterance against a set of template hierarchies to select the best matching template or set of templates corresponding to the utterance. Certain embodiments of the system and methods determines at least one exact, inexact, and partial match between the at least one word of the utterance and at least one term within the template hierarchy to select and populate a template or set of templates corresponding to the utterance. The populated template or set of templates may then be used to generate a narrative template or a report template. Full Article
ng System, method and program product for providing automatic speech recognition (ASR) in a shared resource environment By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A speech recognition system, method of recognizing speech and a computer program product therefor. A client device identified with a context for an associated user selectively streams audio to a provider computer, e.g., a cloud computer. Speech recognition receives streaming audio, maps utterances to specific textual candidates and determines a likelihood of a correct match for each mapped textual candidate. A context model selectively winnows candidate to resolve recognition ambiguity according to context whenever multiple textual candidates are recognized as potential matches for the same mapped utterance. Matches are used to update the context model, which may be used for multiple users in the same context. Full Article
ng Language model creation device By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT This device 301 stores a first content-specific language model representing a probability that a specific word appears in a word sequence representing a first content, and a second content-specific language model representing a probability that the specific word appears in a word sequence representing a second content. Based on a first probability parameter representing a probability that a content represented by a target word sequence included in a speech recognition hypothesis generated by a speech recognition process of recognizing a word sequence corresponding to a speech, a second probability parameter representing a probability that the content represented by the target word sequence is a second content, the first content-specific language model and the second content-specific language model, the device creates a language model representing a probability that the specific word appears in a word sequence corresponding to a part corresponding to the target word sequence of the speech. Full Article
ng Biometric voice command and control switching device and method of use By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A biometric voice command and control switching device has a microphone assembly for receiving a currently spoken challenge utterance and a reference utterance, and a voice processing circuit for creating electronic signals indicative thereof. The device further includes a memory for storing the electronic signals, and a processor for comparing the electronic signals to determine if there is a match. If there is a match, an interface circuit enables the operable control of the controlled device. Full Article
ng Messaging response system providing translation and conversion written language into different spoken language By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A messaging response system is disclosed wherein a service providing system provides services to users via messaging communications. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, multiple respondents servicing users through messaging communications may appear to simultaneously use a common “screen name” identifier. Full Article
ng Speech recognition and synthesis utilizing context dependent acoustic models containing decision trees By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A speech recognition method including the steps of receiving a speech input from a known speaker of a sequence of observations and determining the likelihood of a sequence of words arising from the sequence of observations using an acoustic model. The acoustic model has a plurality of model parameters describing probability distributions which relate a word or part thereof to an observation and has been trained using first training data and adapted using second training data to said speaker. The speech recognition method also determines the likelihood of a sequence of observations occurring in a given language using a language model and combines the likelihoods determined by the acoustic model and the language model and outputs a sequence of words identified from said speech input signal. The acoustic model is context based for the speaker, the context based information being contained in the model using a plurality of decision trees and the structure of the decision trees is based on second training data. Full Article
ng Multi-resolution switched audio encoding/decoding scheme By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An audio encoder for encoding an audio signal has a first coding branch, the first coding branch comprising a first converter for converting a signal from a time domain into a frequency domain. Furthermore, the audio encoder has a second coding branch comprising a second time/frequency converter. Additionally, a signal analyzer for analyzing the audio signal is provided. The signal analyzer, on the hand, determines whether an audio portion is effective in the encoder output signal as a first encoded signal from the first encoding branch or as a second encoded signal from a second encoding branch. On the other hand, the signal analyzer determines a time/frequency resolution to be applied by the converters when generating the encoded signals. An output interface includes, in addition to the first encoded signal and the second encoded signal, a resolution information identifying the resolution used by the first time/frequency converter and used by the second time/frequency converter. Full Article
ng Multilingual electronic transfer dictionary containing topical codes and method of use By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A multilingual electronic transfer dictionary provides for automatic topic disambiguation by including one or more topic codes in definitions contained the dictionary. Automatic topic disambiguation is accomplished by determining the frequencies of topic codes within a block of text. Dictionary entries having more frequently occurring topic codes are preferentially selected over those having less frequently occurring topic codes. When the topic codes are members of a hierarchical topical coding system, such as the International Patent Classification system, an iterative method can be used with starts with a coarser level of the coding system and is repeated at finer levels until an ambiguity is resolved. The dictionary is advantageously used for machine translation, e.g. between Japanese and English. Full Article
ng Apparatus and method for encoding and decoding an audio signal using an aligned look-ahead portion By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 02 Jun 2015 08:00:00 EDT An apparatus for encoding an audio signal having a stream of audio samples has: a windower for applying a prediction coding analysis window to the stream of audio samples to obtain windowed data for a prediction analysis and for applying a transform coding analysis window to the stream of audio samples to obtain windowed data for a transform analysis, wherein the transform coding analysis window is associated with audio samples within a current frame of audio samples and with audio samples of a predefined portion of a future frame of audio samples being a transform-coding look-ahead portion, wherein the prediction coding analysis window is associated with at least the portion of the audio samples of the current frame and with audio samples of a predefined portion of the future frame being a prediction coding look-ahead portion, wherein the transform coding look-ahead portion and the prediction coding look-ahead portion are identically to each other or are different from each other by less than 20%; and an encoding processor for generating prediction coded data or for generating transform coded data. Full Article
ng Method, system, and computer readable medium for creating clusters of text in an electronic document By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Jul 2015 08:00:00 EDT Disclosed herein are systems and methods for navigating electronic texts. According to an aspect, a method may include determining text subgroups within an electronic text. The method may also include selecting a text seed within one of the text subgroups. Further, the method may include determining a similarity relationship between the text seed and one or more adjacent text subgroups that do not include the selected text seed. The method may also include associating the text seed with the one or more adjacent text subgroups based on the similarity relationship to create a text cluster. Full Article
ng Error concealment method and apparatus for audio signal and decoding method and apparatus for audio signal using the same By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 08:00:00 EDT An error concealment method and apparatus for an audio signal and a decoding method and apparatus for an audio signal using the error concealment method and apparatus. The error concealment method includes selecting one of an error concealment in a frequency domain and an error concealment in a time domain as an error concealment scheme for a current frame based on a predetermined criteria when an error occurs in the current frame, selecting one of a repetition scheme and an interpolation scheme in the frequency domain as the error concealment scheme for the current frame based on a predetermined criteria when the error concealment in the frequency domain is selected, and concealing the error of the current frame using the selected scheme. Full Article
ng Methods and systems for creating a shaped playlist By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Methods and systems are described for generating media playlists, or selecting a media asset, according to a “shape” selected by a user. Specifically, a user may “shape” the playlist by designating specific sub-categories of media assets that should be presented at selected times in the playlist. The media application then interpolates the sub-categories for a media asset between the selected times such that adjacent media assets have smooth categorical transitions (e.g., feature incremental changes in the range of sub-categories). Full Article
ng Voice commands for online social networking systems By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges, receiving from a first user a voice message comprising one or more commands, receiving location information associated with the first user, identifying edges and nodes in the social graph based on the location information, where each of the identified edges and nodes corresponds to at least one of the commands of the voice message, and generating new nodes or edges in the social graph based on the identified nodes or identified edges. Full Article
ng Method for configuring displets for an interactive platform for analyzing a computer network performance By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method for configuring an interactive platform for monitoring the performance and the quality of a computer network, the monitoring data being suitable to be displayed on a dynamic page of type webpage in a form of graphic components called “displets”; including providing, on the interactive platform a configuration interface in which are defined, for at least one given user, filtering criteria for displaying displets, the criteria being defined in the form of parameters for configuring the rights of the at least one user. Full Article
ng Information processing apparatus, information processing system, information processing apparatus control method, and storage medium By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An information processing apparatus according to this invention, being capable of communicating with a Web server via a network, receives from the Web server a response to a processing request issued to a Web application of the Web server. The information processing apparatus changes, when screen control information described in a header of the response contains information which designates priority of a screen display by a Web browser of the information processing apparatus, priority of the screen display by the Web browser to the designated priority. When an event to display a screen other than a screen by the Web browser occurs while the Web browser presents a screen display corresponding to the response, the information processing apparatus inhibits an interrupt display by the event in order for the designated priority. Full Article
ng Electronic device and method for providing menu using the same By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An electronic device and a method for providing a menu are disclosed. The electronic device displays a plurality of words on the screen, detects a first action specifying selection of at least one of the displayed words, searches an option item related to the word selected by the first action, generates at least one menu item based on the selected word and the searched option item, and displays the generated menu item in a first area of the screen. Full Article
ng Information processing apparatus for displaying screen information acquired from an outside device in a designated color By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An information processing apparatus configured to display a user interface on a display unit according to screen information acquired from an outside device changes the screen information according to a display attribute set by a user, and if setting of a display attribute of an object included in the screen information is unchangeable, color conversion processing of a specified object included in the screen information is performed and the screen information obtained by executing conversion processing according to the display attribute set by the user with respect to the screen information including the object which has undergone the color conversion processing is displayed. Full Article
ng System and method for applying a text prediction algorithm to a virtual keyboard By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT An electronic device for text prediction in a virtual keyboard. The device includes a memory including an input determination module for execution by the microprocessor, the input determination module being configured to: receive signals representing input at the virtual keyboard, the virtual keyboard being divided into a plurality of subregions, the plurality of subregions including at least one subregion being associated with two or more characters and/or symbols of the virtual keyboard; identify a subregion on the virtual keyboard corresponding to the input; determine any character or symbol associated with the identified subregion; and if there is at least one determined character or symbol, provide the at least one determined character or symbol to a text prediction algorithm. Full Article
ng System and method for managing and displaying securities market information By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A message screen display comprises a static non-scrollable display area for display of at least part of a first message, the first message having an associated first message time. The message screen display further comprises a scrollable display area for display of at least part of a second message, the second message having an associated second message time. The message screen display further comprises a feature applied to at least part of the first message that varies based on time as referenced to the associated first message time. Full Article
ng User interfaces for displaying relationships between cells in a grid By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT User interfaces for displaying relationships between cells in a grid. In one example embodiment, a user interface includes a grid including rows and columns and a plurality of cells each having a specific position in the grid. A first one of the cells is related to a second one of the cells. The grid is configured to display, upon selection of the first cell or second cell, a visual representation of the relationship between the first cell and the second cell. Full Article
ng Representation of overlapping visual entities By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Various embodiments present a combined visual entity that represents overlapping visual entities. The combined visual entity can include a primary visualization that represents one of the overlapping visual entities and annotations that represent others of the overlapping visual entities. For example, a map view can include multiple geographical entities that overlap. A primary visualization can be rendered that represents one of the multiple geographical entities. The primary visualization can be visually annotated (e.g., with symbols, letters, or other visual indicators) to indicate others of the multiple geographical entities. In some embodiments, a zoom operation can cause visual entities to be added and/or removed from the combined visual entity. Full Article
ng Position editing tool of collage multi-media By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT In accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, methods and apparatus are provided for flexible and user-friendly position editing of loaded media in a multi-media presentation. In one embodiment, a method for editing the position of loaded media comprises loading a page of a collage document to a client device, the page having a plurality of layers with each layer being associated with a media object, and creating a list of layers of the loaded page with each layer indexed by at least a position in the collage document. The method further includes selecting a first media object, selecting a position editing tool to group the first media object and at least one other media object adjacent to the first media object; and moving the grouped first media object and the at least one other media object to a different position in the collage document. A client device for position editing loaded media is also disclosed. Full Article
ng Graphical display for sorting and filtering a list in a space-constrained view By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT Techniques for sorting and filtering a list in a space-constrained viewing area are described. A filter widget and a list of items are displayed in a view of an electronic display screen. In response to user input selecting the filter widget, and without changing to a different view, a filter category overlay is displayed in the view to provide various selectable filter categories. In response to selection of a filter category, a visual depiction of the selected filter category is displayed in the view. The list of items is filtered according to the selected filter category and displayed in the view without changing to any other view. Subsequently added visual depictions are linearly stacked in the view. Further, a filter modification overlay, which provides selectable filtering attributes, is displayed upon selection of a visual depiction. Full Article
ng Data processing apparatus, data processing method of data processing apparatus, and computer-readable memory medium storing program therein By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT To freely establish a peripheral equipment selection operating environment of excellent operability which can remarkably reduce an operation burden which is applied until construction information of selectable peripheral equipment can be confirmed and can easily confirm the construction information of the selectable peripheral equipment by everyone by a simple operating instruction, a CPU obtains construction information of a printer that is being selected and default setting on the basis of a selection instructing state relative to a selectable printer candidate on a network and allows them to be caption-displayed at a position near the position indicated by a cursor on a printer selection picture plane displayed on a CRT. Full Article
ng Apparatus and method for user input for controlling displayed information By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, a method for proximity based input is provided, comprising: detecting presence of an object in close proximity to an input surface, detecting a displayed virtual layer currently associated with the object on the basis of distance of the object to the input surface, detecting a hovering input by the object, and causing a display operation to move at least a portion of the associated virtual layer in accordance with the detected hovering input. Full Article
ng Detecting automated identities in computer user communities By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 May 2015 08:00:00 EDT A computer-implemented method of detecting automated identities, including. The method includes, using one or more computing devices, providing for display to a user a first representation of a first profile for a first identity and a second representation of a second profile for a second identity, providing for display to the user a choice indication mechanism for indicating a judgment about the first representation of the first profile for the first identity and the second representation of the second profile for the second identity, receiving an indication of the judgment from the user about the first representation of the first profile for the first identity and the second representation of the second profile for the second identity, and determining whether at least one of the first identity, the second identity, or the user is more or less likely to be automated, based at least in part on the received indication. Full Article
ng Device, method, and graphical user interface for managing concurrently open software applications By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 16 Jun 2015 08:00:00 EDT A method includes displaying a first application view. A first input is detected, and an application view selection mode is entered for selecting one of concurrently open applications for display in a corresponding application view. An initial group of open application icons in a first predefined area and at least a portion of the first application view adjacent to the first predefined area are concurrently displayed. The initial group of open application icons corresponds to at least some of the concurrently open applications. A gesture is detected on a respective open application icon in the first predefined area, and a respective application view for a corresponding application is displayed without concurrently displaying an application view for any other application in the concurrently open applications. The open application icons in the first predefined area cease to be displayed, and the application view selection mode is exited. Full Article
ng Handheld electronic device and method for performing spell checking during text entry and for providing a spell-check learning feature By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 16 Jun 2015 08:00:00 EDT A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with a disambiguation routine that is operable to disambiguate text input. In addition to identifying and outputting representations of language objects that are stored in the memory and that correspond with a text input, the device is able to perform a spell check routine during input of a text entry and to learn and automatically correct mistakes typically made by the particular user. Full Article
ng Altering a view of a document on a display of a computing device By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 23 Jun 2015 08:00:00 EDT A document authoring program provides different views of a document opened by a user. In the editing view, the user can view the document contents and edit the contents in using a menu bar. In the semantic zoom view, the user is presented with a heading pane and a thumbnail pane and the menu bar is removed. The user can toggle from the editing view to the semantic zoom view by zooming out past a defined threshold using various user interface controls. Once the threshold is exceeded, the semantic view is presented. The editing view is returned to by selecting a heading or a thumbnail page, which respectively returns the user the page incorporating the selected heading or to the page incorporating the selected heading. This page will be displayed in the editing view at the same zoom level prior to toggling to the semantic zoom view. Full Article
ng Translating user motion into multiple object responses By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 07 Jul 2015 08:00:00 EDT A system for translating user motion into multiple object responses of an on-screen object based on user interaction of an application executing on a computing device is provided. User motion data is received from a capture device from one or more users. The user motion data corresponds to user interaction with an on-screen object presented in the application. The on-screen object corresponds to an object other than an on-screen representation of a user that is displayed by the computing device. The user motion data is automatically translated into multiple object responses of the on-screen object. The multiple object responses of the on-screen object are simultaneously displayed to the users. Full Article
ng Method of rendering a user interface By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 07 Jul 2015 08:00:00 EDT A user interface (UI) is presented in which a UI client engine is associated with an application, and a UI rendering engine is associated with the client engine. The UI rendering engine receives the scene graph and data items associated with elements of the scene graph, and processes a rendering thread to render a UI in accordance with the scene graph and the data items, independently of further input from the client UI engine. Full Article
ng Controlling the rendering of supplemental content related to electronic books By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 25 Aug 2015 08:00:00 EDT Architectures and techniques are provided to control the rendering of supplemental content associated with electronic books. For example, electronic books may be associated with content that is in addition to the content originally provided to an individual acquiring the electronic book, such as annotations, social networking site information, media outlet information, and the like. Individuals may control the supplemental electronic book content that is rendered via their client devices via actuation of a physical input device or a representation of an input device shown via a touch sensitive display. The amount of supplemental content that is rendered may correspond to information associated with a specified number of categories of supplemental electronic book content based on a supplemental content rendering level. In other implementations, the amount of supplemental electronic book content that is rendered may correspond to an amount of supplemental content to be rendered for each category of supplemental content. Full Article
ng Minimizing and maximizing between portrait dual display and portrait single display By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 13 Oct 2015 08:00:00 EDT Methods and devices for minimizing and maximizing displayed output associated with applications are provided. More particularly, an application presented as two or more pages in a portrait mode can be minimized to present one of the two or more pages following a minimization operation. The page that continues to be displayed can comprise a primary or preferred page, while the page that is dismissed can comprise a secondary or ancillary page. With respect to a maximization operation received with respect to a page of an application results in the display of an additional page associated with that application. Maximization can include controlling the respective screens on which first and second pages of the maximized application are displayed. Full Article
ng Method and apparatus for annotating an electronic document By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Nov 2015 08:00:00 EST A method and apparatus to mark-up an electronic document (i.e., a second electronic document) that is superimposed on a first electronic document keeping the first electronic document unchanged. The second electronic document is optionally viewed concurrently with the first electronic document. The second electronic document is capable of being viewed or modified using different application programs so long as the different application programs process the format used by the second electronic document. The second electronic document is saved as a separate document independent of the first electronic document. Full Article
ng Soft-sending chat messages By www.freepatentsonline.com Published On :: Tue, 26 Jan 2016 08:00:00 EST Techniques are disclosed for supplying users in an online environment with a safe and effective chat facility. The chat facility is “safe” in the sense that the ability of users to compose inappropriate messages is greatly restricted, while “effective” in the sense that users are still allowed a broad range of expressivity in composing and exchanging chat messages. Full Article