Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Jeffrey V Johnson

Thomas F Fakes

Amit Gupta

Liang Zhang

Peter Gregory Davis

Raju Jain

Kiran Kumar

Dipesh Bhattarai

Mala Munisamy

A communal computing device, such as an interactive digital whiteboard, can become unlocked if a user is near the device. The communal computing device may use a sensor such as a camera to capture images of a person and obtain an identifier from a personal device such as a smartphone. A cloud-based provider that is trusted by both the communal computing device and the personal device may associate both the image and the identifier of the personal device with the same user identity. Obtaining the user identity from multiple, different sources provides a secure technique for the communal computing device to recognize a user without the user directly interacting with the communal computing device. If the sensor no longer detects the user or the personal device is no longer detected, then the communal computing device may log off the user. The personal device may be used to confirm log off.

Proximity-based unlocking of communal computing devices

Systems and methods for aggregating user feedback associated with digital media files is provided. User feedback is received from a user that includes metadata which may correspond to a digital media file. A batch of such user feedback is received and may be filtered to discard any low quality user feedback entries. It then may be determined whether a user feedback entry corresponds to an existing metadata record stored as aggregated feedback. If not, the new user feedback entry is added to the aggregated feedback. If there is an existing metadata record which corresponds to the user feedback entry, the metadata contained in the entry may be used to edit the existing metadata record.

Aggregation of metadata associated with digital media files

Page-view recording with click-thru tracking is described. In an embodiment, a tracking system receives a request for content that includes request-tracking information. The request-tracking information designates that the tracking system receive the content request before the request is communicated to a content provider. The request for content is communicated to the content provider that provides the content. The content includes content-tracking information that the tracking system receives from a requesting device when the content is provided to the requesting device. The tracking system maintains the request-tracking and the content-tracking information, and associates the request-tracking and the content-tracking information with the destination device.

Page-view recording with click-thru tracking

A tracking system receives a request for content that includes request-tracking information. The request-tracking information includes identifiers for the content, a content provider, a destination device for the content, a selectable data link that generates the request, rendered content that includes the data link, and a location of the data link within the rendered content. The request-tracking information designates that the tracking system receive the content request before the request is communicated to the content provider. The request for content is communicated to the content provider that provides the content. The content includes content-tracking information having identifiers for the content provider, the destination device, and the content. The tracking system receives the content-tracking information from the destination device when the content is provided to the destination device. The tracking system maintains the request-tracking and the content-tracking information, and associates the request-tracking and the content-tracking information with the destination device.

Growing community of inventors

Woodinville, WA, United States of America

Jeffrey V Johnson