Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Google Inc.

Paul E Newson

Roderick Michael Toll

Eric J Horvitz

Patrick W O'Kelley, Ii

David Shaw

John Charles Krumm

James William Scott

Raman Kumar Sarin

William B Fulton

Boyd Cannon Multerer

Aaron William Ogus

Mark Daniel VanAntwerp

Michael F Schwartz

Robert D Young

Dinarte R Morais

Vincent H Curley

Johan Peter Hansen

Darren L Anderson

Evan J Schrier

Erkki Ville Juhani Aikas

Benjamin O Zotto

James Mason Boswell

Michael J Narayan

Neel R S Malik

Mitsuo Koikawa

James Scott

A social matchmaking service selects matches of on-line game players based on personal/social characteristics of the players. The social matching service evaluates several criteria to obtain a list of available, socially compatible, game sessions. Criteria about the player include a player's friends, positive feedback about the player, negative feedback about the player, games completed with other players, players to avoid, and the player's gamer zone, country and language. Criteria about hosts of potentially compatible game sessions are also considered. Social matching utilizes a multi-pass approach, applying rules for prioritizing social criteria at each pass. The multi-pass approach starts with a narrow search and broadens the search at each successive pass. At each successive pass, sessions are added to the list of potential sessions until a reasonable number of sessions is achieved. Game sessions are assigned session values in accordance with affiliations between players.

Social matching of game players on-line

Systems, methods, and devices are described for implementing map matching techniques relating to measured location data. Probabilistic models, including temporal Bayesian network models and Hidden Markov Models, may be used for combining multiple classes of evidence relating to potential locations of points traversed on routes over time. Multiple route segments and overall routes may be maintained under relative uncertainty as candidates. The candidate route segments and overall routes may then be reduced into a smaller number of candidates or a single most likely route as a trip progresses. As the trip progresses, route segments in proximity to each location point are identified and candidate matches are determined. A probability of an entity traversing a candidate match at a given time and a probability of an entity traversing between a first candidate match at a first time and a second candidate match at a second time are determined based on a plurality of factors. Different modalities may be used to measure and transmit the location data.

Probabilistic map matching from a plurality of observational and contextual factors

A hosted storage system includes a namespace that contains object identifiers. A first object containing a first data component is stored. A first object identifier in the namespace uniquely identifies the first object. A second object containing a second data component is stored. A second object identifier in the namespace uniquely identifies the second object. A compose object request that designating the first object identifier, the second object identifier, and a third object identifier in the namespace is received. A third object that includes the first data component and the second data component without duplicating the first data component and the second data component is created. The third object identifier is associated with the third object such that the third object identifier uniquely identifies the third object.

Composing objects in hosted storage

Methods and systems for conserving power using predictive models and signaling are described. Parameters of a power management policy are set based on predictions based on user activity and/or signals received from a remote computer which define a user preference. In an embodiment, the power management policy involves putting the computer into a sleep state and periodically waking it up. On waking, the computer determines whether to remain awake or to return to the sleep state dependent upon the output of a predictive model or signals that encode whether a remote user has requested that computer remain awake. Before returning to the sleep state, a wake-up timer is set and this timer triggers the computer to subsequently wake-up. The length of time that the timer is set to may depend on factors such as the request from the remote user, context sensors and usage data.

Conserving power using predictive modelling and signaling

A game hosting service manages game sessions and groups of players. The service creates, starts, and ends a game session. The service also manages the joining and deleting of players and groups of players both prior to and during game play. The service collects, stores, and optionally arbitrates statistics for each player such a game score and relative ranking with other players. The service assigns a group ID to a group of players to allow the group to migrate across game sessions. The game hosting service utilizes session management APIs to nest multiple sessions, thus enabling groups of players to remain intact across multiple sessions.

On-line gaming session and party management

Discovery and distribution of game session security information includes receiving a request to generate a new game session from a computing device and maintaining a record of a game session identifier for the new game session and a game session key for the new game session, and making the new game session available for other computing devices to join. A request for information describing one or more of a plurality of game sessions may also be received and responded to with the information describing the one or more game sessions as well as a session key that can be used to communicate with at least one of the one or more other computing devices that are part of the game session.

Discovery and distribution of game session information

A multi-layered network for transporting data comprises a first network layer that provides a first session topology, and a second network layer that provides a second session topology. The second network layer uses the first network layer to transport data. In one embodiment of the invention, the data sent by the second layer is real-time audio data, such as voice. Each session topology may be either peer-to-peer or client/server. The first and second layers may have different topologies and/or different session hosts. A deterministic algorithm is provided whereby a new session host is selected when the current host leaves the session.

System and method for multi-layered network communications

Methods and systems for dynamically adjusting the length of delay before playback as a function of the amount of transmission jitter is disclosed, whereby a target error rate is received, error rates at different delays are tracked and current delay is adjusted as a function of tracked error rates.

Adaptive queuing for data transmission over a network

Method and system for managing a jitter buffer

Apparatus and system for configuring a wireless bridge for a computing device such as a game console. The wireless bridge must include a key (not known to the public) employed in producing a digest. The digest is passed to the game console to authenticate that the wireless bridge is compatible and can thus be configured by the game console. Once the wireless bridge proves its compatibility, a configuration procedure included in an operating system on the game console configures the wireless bridge to connect to a wireless network so that the game console can communicate through the wireless bridge with a gaming site that is accessed over the Internet. The configuration is done without using a web browser program or a configuration program that is specific to a particular model and manufacturer of the wireless bridge.

Bridging a gaming console with a wireless network

Growing community of inventors

Kirkland, WA, United States of America

Paul E Newson