Align Technology, Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

Oracle International Corporation

Silicon Gaming, Inc.

Zenprise, Inc.

Gregory P Bala

Muhammad Chishti

Huafeng Wen

Elena I Pavlovskaia

Brian Freyburger

Timothy N Jones

Waheed Qureshi

Kelly Brian Roach

Tanvir Hassan

Koji Koyamada

Eagle I Berns

Roger P Lawrence

Computer systems and methods are disclosed for managing a deployment of a software application. One system includes an application model describing the deployment, the application model comprising a representation of physical and logical objects in a domain of the deployment, configuration data about the objects, and information about relationships between the objects. The system also includes a root cause analysis module configured to identify one or more problematic objects of the application model, and to use pattern-recognition on the application model to find root cause candidates that may be a root cause of one or more problems associated with the problematic objects. The root cause analysis module can be further configured to apply diagnostic unit tests on one or more objects associated with the root cause candidates, the diagnostic unit tests configured to narrow down a list of possible root causes of the problems. Various pattern-recognition techniques are disclosed, including looking for recent property or configurational changes in the application model, clustering of problematic objects, examining links between objects in the application model, comparisons between pairs of non-problematic objects as well as between problematic objects and non-problematic objects, temporal comparisons of the state of the application model, and examining objects that are near the problematic objects in the application model.

Automated root cause analysis of problems associated with software application deployments

Methods and corresponding apparatus for segmenting an orthodontic treatment path into clinically appropriate substeps for repositioning the teeth of a patient include providing a digital finite element model of the shape and material of each of a sequence of appliances to be applied to a patient; providing a digital finite element model of the teeth and related mouth tissue of the patient; computing the actual effect of the appliances on the teeth by analyzing the finite elements models computationally; and evaluating the effect against clinical constraints. The appliances can be braces, polymeric shells, or other forms of orthodontic appliance.

Defining tooth-moving appliances computationally

A computer or other digital circuitry is used to assist in the creation of a digital model of an individual component, such as a tooth or gum tissue, in a patient's dentition. The computer receives a data set that forms a three-dimensional (3D) representation of the patient's dentition, applies a test to the data set to identify data elements that represent portions of the individual component, and creates a digital model of the individual component based upon the identified data elements. Many implementations require the computer to identify data elements representing a 2D cross-section of the dentition lying in a 2D plane that is roughly parallel to or roughly perpendicular to the dentition's occlusal plane. The computer analyzes the 2D cross-section to identify dentition features that represent boundaries between individual dentition components.

Subdividing a digital dentition model

A programmed computer is used to create a digital model of an individual component of a patient's dentition. The computer obtains a 3D digital mode of the patient's dentition, identifies points in the dentition model that lie on an inter-proximal margin between adjacent teeth in the patient's dentition, and uses the identified points to create a cutting surface that separates portions of the dentition model representing the adjacent teeth.

Manipulating a digital dentition model to form models of individual dentition components

A programmed computer is used to create a digital model of an individual component of a patient's dentition. The computer obtains a 3D digital model of the patient's dentition, identifies points in the dentition model that lie on an inter-proximal margin between adjacent teeth in the patient's dentition, and uses the identified points to create a cutting surface that separates portions of the dentition model representing the adjacent teeth.

Methods and corresponding apparatus for segmenting an orthodontic treatment path into clinically appropriate substeps for repositioning the teeth of a patient. The methods include providing a digital finite element model of the shape and material of each of a sequence of appliances to be applied to a patient; providing a digital finite element model of the teeth and related mouth tissue of the patient; computing the actual effect of the appliances on the teeth by analyzing the finite elements models computationally; and evaluating the effect against clinical constraints. The appliances can be braces, polymeric shells, or other forms of orthodontic appliance. Implementations can include comparing the actual effect of the appliances with an intended effect of the appliances; and identifying an appliance as an unsatisfactory appliance if the actual effect of the appliance is more than a threshold different from the intended effect of the appliance and modifying a model of the unsatisfactory appliance according to the results of the comparison. The model and resulting appliance can be modified by modifying the shape of the unsatisfactory appliance, by adding a dimple, by adding material to cause an overcorrection of tooth position, by adding a ridge of material to increase stiffness, by adding a rim of material along a gumline to increase stiffness, by removing material to reduce stiffness, or by redefining the shape to be a shape defined by the complement of the difference between the intended effect and the actual effect of the unsatisfactory appliance.

A method for ordering all of the possible hands into a particular sequence is presented. Due to the particular manner in which the hands are ordered and sequenced, any one of the hands can be accessed fairly quickly by the methods provided herein which simplifies complex calculations to table look-up operations. Given a particular hand (the first five cards given to the player in a five-card draw poker), all of the possible hands arising from the particular hand (as a result of the number of cards kept by the player) is iterated and the types of all possible resulting hands tabulated. The combination of hands resulting from the number of cards kept is considered in the iteration. After the iteration is completed, the results obtained is a tabulation of each combination of hands obtained.

Method for tabulating payout values for games of chance

A technique for identifying an object selected from a plurality of objects displayed on an output display is disclosed. The technique includes grouping the objects into a plurality of scenes based on natural groupings. An identifier for each object is generated that uniquely identifies each object displayed. The identifier is dynamically partitioned into 'n' segments based on the graphics subsystem, and each segment is mapped to a color representation in the graphics subsystem. In response to user selection of one of the objects, location information, which identifies the location of an object on the display, is generated. During each of 'n' time intervals, a color mapped segment for each object is painted in a back buffer of a double buffered graphics subsystem, and the back buffer is subsequently queried for the color at the user selected location. The segments are accumulated to assemble the identifier for the selected object.

Method and apparatus for identifying an object selected on a computer

Methods and apparatus are provided for generating isosurfaces, given input data that includes (1) the representation of a set of points in three-dimensional space; (2) connectivity information with respect to the set of points and (3) a scalar field. The methods and apparatus allow the desired isosurfaces to be produced efficiently on all hardware platforms, including those not equipped to rapidly generate such isosurfaces using normally computation intensive processes, by utilizing a precomputed isofacet configuration table and predefined tetrahedron component labeling data (preset relationships among the vertices, edges and faces of a tetrahedron). Further aspects of the methods and apparatus include (1) methods and apparatus which support the selective display of isosurface and contour line images, and (2) methods and apparatus which utilize parallel processing techniques to enhance the efficiency of the isosurface generation process.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Gregory P Bala