Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Michael Douglas McQueen

Robert Steven Murdock

Eric Alan Breitbard

Meng Li

Julien George Beguin

Gregory Michael Hart

Scott Ian Blanksteen

David Edward Bliss

David A Limp

Stephan Josef Andrizzi

Justin-Josef Angel

Sean Robert Ryan

Colin Neil Swann

Ryan Charles Chase

Peter Van Tuyl Bentley

Angela Lam

Methods, systems and apparatus for associating electronic devices together based on received audio commands are described. Methods for associating an audio-controlled device with a physically separate display screen device such that information responses can then be provided in both audio and graphic formats using the two devices in conjunction with each other are described. The audio-controlled device can receive audio commands that can be analyzed to determine the author, which can then be used to further streamline the association operation.

Audio associating of computing devices

A video display hub is mounted in a common household area such as a kitchen or family room. The display hub is configured to display various types of information for users in the area, such as weather, traffic updates, schedules, notes, messages, lists, news, etc. When the user is at a distance from the display hub, information is presented at a relatively low density, with a low level of granularity and detail in conjunction with large fonts, graphics, and icons. When the user is close to the display hub, information is presented at a relatively high density, with a high level of granularity and detail in conjunction with small fonts, graphics, and icons.

Variable density content display

Systems and methods for displaying prioritized content using a display array are described herein. In some embodiments, a display array may include two or more display devices, which may render content thereby. If an update or change to the content occurs, or if new content is requested, then that content may be assigned a higher priority level. A computing system may include a device management system that continually monitors the availability of the various display devices of the display array, and based on the content received by an applications management system of the computing system, determines which display device should render which content. For instance, an update to content displayed on a second display device may be caused to be displayed on a first display device in response to the device management system determining that the first display device is to be used for displaying high priority content.

Content prioritization for a display array

Systems including physical devices, such as button and switches, that receive audio when a user performs a specific interaction are described. The audio may correspond to a particular spoken command to be executed by a system in a time-delayed fashion. At a later time, when another interaction is performed with the physical device, the device may send the stored audio to a server for processing to determine a command associated with the audio. A device may store multiple audio data segments corresponding to multiple different commands, and each piece of audio data corresponding to a command may be associated with a specific physical operation of a device. If audio data is determined as corresponding to a multiple-input command, additional information needed to perform the multiple-input command may be audibly gathered from a user.

Storing audio commands for time-delayed execution

A synchronous video communication session may be established between two devices having corresponding device profiles that are symmetrically or asymmetrically whitelisted with respect to each other. A first device located in a first environment may receive user input indicating a request to whitelist a second device located in a second environment. Whitelisting of the second device by the first device may cause a continuous live video stream to be presented on the second device. The continuous video stream may depict at least a portion of the first environment in which the first device is located. The continuous video stream may be initially at least partially obscured. Upon initiation of a video communication session between the first device and the second device, an audio stream may begin to be delivered between the devices and the video stream may no longer be obscured and a clear video image may be presented.

Video communication sessions between whitelisted devices

A video display hub is mounted in a common household area such as a kitchen or family room. During times that have been designated as being available for communications, devices in first and second households exchange and display blurred video, allowing users in each household to see vague shapes and movements of the other household. Upon noticing activity, a user in the first household may initiate a video conversation, causing the video from the first household to be unblurred and causing unobscured voice to be transmitted to the second household. A user in the second household may respond by allowing the video conversation to be fully enabled, allowing the video from the second household to be unblurred and unobscured voice to be transmitted back to the first household.

Automatically staged video conversations

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed for detecting handwritten text on a writing surface, determining one or more layout and/or content attributes of the handwritten text, determining application functionality that corresponds to the layout and/or content attribute(s), executing the application functionality to obtain an execution result, and presenting an indication of the execution result on the writing surface in association with at least a portion of the handwritten text.

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Michael Douglas McQueen