Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Eric Ledoux

Paul L Kollmorgen

Alexander Dadiomov

Xinhua Ji

Vinayak A Bhalerao

Robin L Goldstein

Daniel J Miller

Hazim Shafi

David M Maymudes

Stuart T Laney

Alexey Kamenev

Mayank Agarwal

Eric Fisk

Matthew L Jacobs

James Rapp

David P H Gorbet

Daniel Griffing

Ben Nesson

Drake A Campbell

Paulo Cesar Sales Janotti

William T Colburn

Eugene Robert Goodrich

Jason Michael Palmer

Jared Robert Van Leeuwen

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for linking diagnostic visualizations to regions of application code. Diagnostic visualizations emitted during execution of an application are displayed. The diagnostic visualizations partially represent the abstract objective of the application (e.g., as envisioned by a developer). Diagnostic data for at least one of a plurality of components is displayed. The diagnostic data indicates the performance of the at least one of the plurality of components during execution of the application. The displayed one or more diagnostic visualizations and the displayed diagnostic data is correlated to link the one or more diagnostic visualizations to the at least one of the plurality of components. Linking the one or more diagnostic visualizations to the at least one of the plurality of components can better indicate how the application's behavior reconciles the abstract objective.

Linking diagnostic visualizations to application code

A method of providing a visualization of states of a process includes identifying a set of potential states that can occur during the process and a corresponding set of colors, with each color in the set of colors corresponding to one of the potential states. A fixed ordering is established for the set of colors. A timeline graph including a plurality of colored vertical bars is displayed. Each colored vertical bar corresponds to a time interval of the process and includes at least one color selected from the set of colors based on at least one state occurring during the time interval corresponding to the vertical bar. The plurality of colored vertical bars includes a set of multiple-color vertical bars that each include a plurality of colors appearing in a vertical order based on the fixed ordering.

Visualization of states of a process

Enabling an organization to control user assignments and assessment results while enabling a proprietary provider to maintain control over both network distribution of proprietary content comprising the assignments and use of proprietary assessment functions that evaluate the user's performance of the assignments. A student uses a browser to submit a request to a learning management system (LMS) that includes a URL to a network node hosting the proprietary learning content and assessment functions. The LMS sends a hidden form to the browser, causing the browser to automatically redirect to the network node. The proprietary provider then controls distribution of the proprietary learning content to the browser and controls the student's interaction with the proprietary learning content to accomplish the assignment. When the student submits responses to the assignment, the proprietary provider performs proprietary assessment functions and redirects only results data to the LMS through the browser.

Controlling access to protected data and assessment functions via browser redirection

A method and system are provided for allowing a sound designer to design and implement interactive soundscapes based on existing waveform audio files, MIDI files, or audio streams. This is accomplished by using a set of tools consisting of an authoring tool for creating specifications of interactive soundscapes visually without having to write complex code, and a graph builder object that recreates the authored soundscape and interacts with it in real-time according to its specification. To give non-programmers the ability to specify and test how a soundscape will interact with programmatic events and user input in an application, the following tools are also provided: an interface to construct a 'control panel;' a graphical 'trigger-condition-action' specification that defines what actions to take when input from the control panel or application interface is received; a preview mode that enables the sound designer to interact with the soundscape in the same way that the application will; and the ability to save the soundscape as a file that can be edited or used at run-time to recreate the soundscape. Once the interface between the soundscape and the application has been agreed to, the tools allow the sound designer to work independently of the programmer of the media application.

Method and system for authoring a soundscape for a media application

Data stored on a server are synchronized with corresponding data on a plurality of client computers. To facilitate synchronization of the data, the data for a class of nodes on the server are provided with a version identifier (a serial number) that is incremented each time the data are modified on the server. During synchronization, the version identifier for the data stored on the client is transferred to the server, and the nodes stored on the client are updated by downloading nodes modified on the server since the last synchronization. Data on the client that have been modified are then uploaded to the server. Collisions between nodes of the data that have been modified on two different clients are detected, and a user is given an opportunity to resolve a collision.

Handling collisions during synchronization of data between client and server computers

A method and system are provided for allowing a sound designer to design and implement interactive soundscapes based on existing waveform audio files, MIDI files, or audio streams. This is accomplished by using a set of tools consisting of an authoring tool for creating specifications of interactive soundscapes visually without having to write complex code, and a graph builder object that recreates the authored soundscape and interacts with it in real-time according to its specification. To give non-programmers the ability to specify and test how a soundscape will interact with programmatic events and user input in an application, the following tools are also provided: an interface to construct a &ldquo;control panel;&rdquo; a graphical &ldquo;trigger-condition-action&rdquo; specification that defines what actions to take when input from the control panel or application interface is received; a preview mode that enables the sound designer to interact with the soundscape in the same way that the application will; and the ability to save the soundscape as a file that can be edited or used at run-time to recreate the soundscape. Once the interface between the soundscape and the application has been agreed to, the tools allow the sound designer to work independently of the programmer of the media application.

Displaying an image at a particular level of opacity on a pixel-oriented output device by selecting a dithered pattern corresponding to the desired opacity level. The image is divided into tiles of a predetermined pixel width and height. The dither pattern comprises a predetermined number of bits, each bit corresponding to a pixel in a tile. When a bit in the dither pattern is set to a binary 1 value, the corresponding pixel is displayed opaque. In contrast, if a bit in the dither pattern is set to a binary 0 pattern, the corresponding bit is displayed transparent. The pixels in each tile in a row are displayed according to the dither pattern. A new dither pattern is then created by shifting the dither pattern by a random number of bits. The pixels of another row are displayed according to the new dither pattern. New dither patterns can be created for each row in the image, thereby generating an image having a desired opacity level.

Method and system for displaying an image at a desired level of opacity

A method for compressing video movie data to a specified target size using intraframe and interframe compression schemes. In intraframe compression, a frame of the movie is compressed by comparing adjacent pixels within the same frame. In contrast, interframe compression compresses by comparing similarly situated pixels of adjacent frames. The method begins by compressing the first frame of the video movie using intraframe compression. The first stage of the intraframe compression process does not degrade the quality of the original data, e.g., the method uses run length encoding based on the pixels' color values to compress the video data. However, in circumstances where lossless compression is not sufficient, the method utilizes a threshold value, or tolerance, to achieve further compression. In these cases, if the color variance between pixels is less than or equal to the tolerance, the method will encode the two pixels using a single color value--otherwise, the method will encode the two pixels using different color values. The method increases or decreases the tolerance to achieve compression within the target range. In cases where compression within the target range results in an image of unacceptable quality, the method will split the raw data in half and compress each portion of data separately. Frames after the first frame are generally compressed using a combination of intraframe and interframe compression. Additionally, the method periodically encodes frames using intraframe compression only in order to enhance random frame access.

Method and system for compressing video data

Growing community of inventors

Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Eric Ledoux