Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Richard D Prologo

David J Lee

Joshua Debner

Clifford Paul Strom

Jason White

Benjamin J Smith

Brian Patrick Evans

Eduardo P Oliveira

Eitan Sharon

Anand Paka

Enrique De La Garza

David Alles

Saleel Sathe

Ankur Khator

Praveen Kumar Vemparala

Michael G Lucero

Virginia M Musante

James Morris Alkove

Geoffrey T Dunbar

Troy Batterberry

Benjamin Brooks Cutter, Jr

Owen W Paulus

Joshua Bryan Weisberg

Mark Sievert Larsen

Stacia L C Scott

Bruce D Katis

Systems and methods for selecting representative photos for a photo album are described. An example computing device may include a display, a logic device, and a storage device storing instructions executable by the logic device to, for each known individual recognized in one or more photos of the album, determine an affinity score for that known individual indicating a connection of that known individual to a) a user of the computing device and b) a context corresponding to the album. The instructions may be further executable to select one or more known individuals based on the affinity score to be included in a subset of the known individuals recognized in one or more photos of the album, and select a representative photo of each of the subset of the known individuals to be included in one or more of a highlight photoset and a cover photo for the album.

Visual representations of photo albums

Media files may be curated for a user based on a location of a client device associated with the user. A user carrying a client device may arrive at a particular location on a given day. A computer-implemented process may include determining whether the given day and/or the particular location is 'unique' to the user in some fashion, which may be based on one or more criteria used to quantify or otherwise evaluate uniqueness of the day or location. At least partly in response, media file sharing service may be queried to identify shared media files that were created at the particular location, wherein the shared media files are associated with one or more entities having social connections to the user. A curated subset of the identified media files may be automatically created and a notification may be issued to the user.

Curating media from social connections

This document describes techniques and apparatuses enabling brand detection in audiovisual media. The techniques detect a brand exposed within audiovisual media, such as a name or logo for a product or service, and based on this brand, present a brand advertisement or enable selection of an interactive experience that is associated with the brand. By so doing, marketers enable viewers to quickly and easily learn more about the product or service.

Brand detection in audiovisual media

A method is provided for a computing device to copy (burn) a playlist of tracks to a portable medium, where each track corresponds to a piece of digital content. At least one of the pieces of content is rights-management (RM) protected and accordingly is burned to the portable medium only in accordance with a corresponding digital license.

Playlist burning in rights-management context

A method of registering network devices in a digital rights management system (DRMS) includes receiving a digital certificate transmitted by the network device requesting registration and verifying the validity of the certificate. The DRMS may then send cryptographic information to the applying network device. The network device may be authorized for registration via a user interface to the DRMS. The DRMS may conduct a proximity test to determine of the network device is proximate to the DRMS. If the certificate is validated, authorization is received, and the proximity test indicates that the network device is proximate to the DRMS, the network device may be registered. A registered network device is then authorized to play protected digital content.

Method and system for device registration within a digital rights management framework

A sink sends a registration request to a source and the source validates same, and the source sends a registration response including a secret to the sink. The source then sends a proximity message including a nonce to the sink and concurrently notes a start time. The sink employs the secret and the nonce to generate a proximity value and sends same to the sources. The source receives the proximity value and concurrently notes an end time, verifies the proximity value based on the secret and the nonce, calculates from the noted start and end times an elapsed time, compares the elapsed time to a predetermined threshold value, decides from the comparison whether the sink satisfies the proximity requirement, and registers the sink as being able to access content from such source if the sink satisfies the proximity requirement.

Proximity detection employed in connection with rights management system or the like

A system and method for automating the testing of processing environment changes are described. Input data having corresponding known-good output based on the processing of the input data in a first state of a processing environment is received by a comparison mechanism. The comparison mechanism processes the input data in a changed processing environment as compared with the processing environment in the first state. The comparison mechanism automatically evaluates the generated output against the known-good output to identify differences between the generated output and the known-good output. If no differences are found between the generated output and the known-good output, the comparison mechanism stores the generated output as the known-good output. The comparison mechanism may also generate an error log if there are differences between the generated output and the known-good output, generate an email message including the error log, and transmit the email message to a tester responsible for evaluating the error log. The generated output, the known-good output, and the error log may be formatted in an extensible markup language format. In addition, the comparison mechanism may test the generated output for compliance with another format, such as an electronic filing format.

System and method for automating the testing of software processing environment changes

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Richard D Prologo