Elwha LLC

Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Qi Lu

William Henry Gates, Iii

Lowell L Wood, Jr

Roderick A Hyde

Clarence T Tegreene

Edward K Y Jung

Nathan P Myhrvold

Mark A Malamud

Royce A Levien

Marc Eliot Davis

Matthew Graham Dyor

Satya Nadella

Harry Shum

Xuedong D Huang

Robert W Lord

Richard T Lord

Jordin T Kare

Daniel Reed

Danny Allen Reed

Lili Cheng

William L Portnoy

Thomas Matthew Laird-McConnell

Daniel James Driscoll

Steve Ickman

Justin Brooks Cranshaw

James H Lewallen

Craig Jensen

Jan O Pedersen

Darren Arthur Shakib

Derrick Leslie Connell

Xeudong Huang

Mao Yang

Jing Bai

Yue-Sheng Liu

Thomas Matthew Laird-Mcconnell

A new architecture is provided to support a precise information retrieval system on a web scale. The architecture provides algorithms to generate candidates and select the top N results via ranking models (e.g., Semantic ranking models, Aggregation ranking models) to capture term relationships between query and result contents at search-time.

Relevant passage retrieval system

The techniques discussed herein allow an agent that provides dialog-based services to converse with a user via any mode. A central service programmed to be able to communicate via any mode collects information from agents necessary to act on the agents' behalf. In order to ensure that an agent has a maximal presence across modes, the central service provides auxiliary services such as language translation, fidelity upgrading and/or downgrading, modal constraint conformation, etc. Moreover, the central service provides session tracking via user profiles stored at the intercom so that if a user changes a mode by which the user is conversing with an agent, the central service can keep the context of the conversation across the new mode. Furthermore, agents can communicate with other agents via the central service, allowing other agents to provide services to agents or to add their services to an ongoing dialog with a user.

Multi-modal conversational intercom

A unified experience environment supports mechanisms that collect and utilize contextual metadata to associate information in accordance with its relevance to a user's current context. An ambient data collector obtains contextual and activity information coincident with a user's creation, editing or consumption of data and associates it with such data as contextual metadata. A context generator that utilizes contextual metadata to identify relationships between data and enable the proactive presentation of data relevant to a user's current context. Proactive presentation includes a context panel that is alternatively displayable and hideable in an application-independent manner and a unified activity feed that comprises correlated data groupings identified by correlation engines, including a universal, cross-application correlation engine and individual, application-specific correlation engines that exchange information through data correlation interfaces. The context panel and unified activity feed enable users to more efficiently access data and increase their interaction performance with a computing device.

Unified presentation of contextually connected information to improve user efficiency and interaction performance

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, devices and systems are described that carry out accessing at least one persona that includes a unique identifier that is at least partly based on a first user's device-identifier data and the first user's network-participation data; verifying the persona by comparing the first user's device-identifier data and the first user's network-participation data of the unique identifier to a second user's device-identifier data and the second user's network-participation data; and presenting the persona in response to a request for personal information.

Computational systems and methods for verifying personal information during transactions

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, devices and systems are described that carry out accepting at least one request for personal information from a party to a transaction; evaluating the transaction; and negotiating presentation of at least one persona to the party to the transaction at least partly based on an evaluation of the transaction.

Computational systems and methods for regulating information flow during interactions

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, devices and systems are described that carry out accepting at least one persona from a party to a transaction; evaluating the transaction; and negotiating receipt of at least one different persona from the party to the transaction at least partly based on an evaluation of the transaction.

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, devices and systems are described that carry out accepting at least one email communication from at least one member of a network; disambiguating the at least one search term including associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data; and presenting the sender profile in association with the at least one email communication.

Computational systems and methods for identifying a communications partner

Structures and protocols are presented for facilitating a search partly based on a movement status of a search-capable device or on a position of a person's limb or on an association with another search-capable device.

Context-sensitive query enrichment

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, devices and systems are described that carry out accepting from a user identifier encryption entity at least one encrypted identifier corresponding to a user having at least one instance of data for encryption; encrypting the at least one instance of data to produce level-one-encrypted data; associating the at least one encrypted identifier with the level-one-encrypted data, wherein a level-one decryption key for the level-one-encrypted data is inaccessible to the user identifier encryption entity; and transmitting the level-one-encrypted data and associated encrypted identifier.

Computational systems and methods for encrypting data for anonymous storage

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, devices and systems are described that carry out accepting at least one search term corresponding to at least one member of a network; disambiguating the at least one search term including associating the at least one search term with at least one of network-participation identifier data or device-identifier data; and presenting a disambiguated search term at least partly based on at least one of the network-participation identifier data or the device-identifier data.

Computational systems and methods for disambiguating search terms corresponding to network members

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, devices and systems are described that carry out accepting at least one indication of an interaction involving at least one member of a network; creating a persona corresponding to the at least one member of a network, wherein the persona is at least partly based on the indication of an interaction; and presenting the persona for use in the interaction involving the at least one member of the network.

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Qi Lu