Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Facebook, Inc.

Meta Platforms, Inc.

Shyamalan Pather

Holly Knight

William Michael Zintel

Daniel R Weisman

Nora Micheva

Michelle Ruby Hwang

Christopher M Rude

Praveen Seshadri

Ravi Rao

Amar S Gandhi

Robert F Blanch

Mason K Bendixen

Philip Lawrence Garrett

Charles Tete Mensa-Annan

Paul J Leach

Jeffrey C Schlimmer

Niranjan Nilakantan

Peter Sewall Ford

Robert H Gerber

Ye Gu

Ting Cai

Donald R Ryan

Vincent H Curley

Jeffrey Michael Derstadt

Dwayne B Mercredi

Andrew Conrad

Pablo Jose Barvo

Sarita M James

Shahaf Abileah

Carl Yates Perry

Phil Garrett

Jason Duane Clark

Stephane Taine

Murali R Krishnan

Amanda K Silver

Andrew Layman

Paul Allen Vick, Jr

Michael Anthony Faoro

Colin Joseph Meek

Richard Dievendorff

Joel Alexander Bullard

Anne Raynor

Jeffrey E Reed

David E Sceppa

Darryn Owen Lavery

Hoang Le

Lon Eugene Fisher

Candace Button Disco

Joseph Stephen Gonzalez

Dick Dievendorff

Vince H Curley

Kelly Nicole Stevens

Exemplary embodiments relate to the application of coordinated or cooperative effects to a coordinated activity. A coordinated activity protocol is provided for synchronizing interactive effects and experiences across multiple devices. The protocol allows effects to be initiated and coordinated on multiple devices via a real-time communications (RTC) channel. Messages may be exchanged to cooperatively initiate the effect, and (once initiated) generic data may be exchanged via application programming interface (API) calls. According to some embodiments, the coordinated activity is a shared video experience, such as a video conference or shared video-watching experience. According to other embodiments, the coordinated activity relates to other types of experiences, such as single- or multi-player games, shared book reading, communal interactions with a photo album, etc.

Coordinated effects in experiences

In one embodiment, a method includes, by a client system of a first user, receiving a request from a second user to initiate a first game within a first layer of a communication interface, wherein the communication interface includes several layers, wherein a first layer includes a video communication of the second user, and wherein a second layer of the communication interface includes a thumbnail view of a video communication of the first user; generating a first game container in a third layer of the communication interface, wherein the third layer contains the first game in an augmented reality overlay; expanding the second layer into a full-screen view within the communication interface; and displaying the third layer as the augmented reality overlay over the second layer, wherein the first layer is closed responsive to the overlaying of the augmented reality overlay onto the second layer.

Augmented-reality game overlays in video communications

In one embodiment, a method includes, by a client system of a first user, presenting a communication interface including a plurality of layers, wherein a first layer of the communication interface includes a video communication of the second user, and wherein a second layer of the communication interface includes a thumbnail view of a video communication of the first user, receiving a request from the second user to initiate a first game, receiving a user input indicative an acceptance of the request to initiate the first game, generating a game container containing the first game in a third layer of the communication interface, reducing the first layer to a thumbnail within the communication interface, and overlaying the first layer onto the third layer, wherein the second layer is closed responsive to the overlaying of the first layer onto the third layer.

Initiating real-time games in video communications

Exemplary embodiments relate to the application of media effects to visual data such as a video. A coordinated activity protocol is provided for synchronizing interactive effects and experiences across multiple devices. The protocol allows effects to be initiated and coordinated on multiple devices via a real-time communications (RTC) channel. Messages may be exchanged to cooperatively initiate the effect, and (once initiated) generic data may be exchanged via application programming interface (API) calls. Accordingly, the system is both data-type and platform agnostic, allowing effects developers to define how data will be interpreted. In some embodiments, higher-level services may be provided to exchange data of predefined types (e.g., for common activities such as turn negotiations, turn yielding, scorekeeping, leadership elections, etc.).

Methods and systems for initiating a coordinated effect

Coordinated effects in videos

In one embodiment, a method includes, by a client system of a first user, receiving an input to initiate a game within a first layer of a communication interface, wherein the communication interface comprises one or more layers containing a live video communication between the first user and a second user, wherein the first layer comprises a video communication of the second user; executing a gaming protocol associated with the game; generating a game container in a second layer of the communication interface, wherein the second layer contains the game in an augmented reality overlay; and displaying the second layer as the augmented reality overlay over the first layer containing the video communication of the second user, wherein the game in the second layer contains one or more game elements that correspond to one or more features in the video communication of the second user in the first layer.

In one embodiment, a method includes, by a client system of a first user, receiving an input to initiate a first game within a first layer of a communication interface, wherein the communication interface comprises one or more layers containing a live video communication between the first user and a second user, wherein the first layer comprises a video communication of the second user; executing a gaming protocol associated with the first game; generating a game container in a second layer of the communication interface to contain the first game in a full-screen view of the communication interface; reducing the first layer containing the video communication of the second user to a thumbnail within the communication interface; and overlaying, by the client system, the first layer onto the second layer based on one or more parameters set by the gaming protocol.

Users of multiple clients participate in a video chat session by exchanging video streams. A user initiates generation of a high-quality composite image of the video chat session. The clients each capture high-quality local images and send the images to a chat server via a communications channel that is out-of-band from the video streams. The chat server stores the images in a repository. The initiating user views the images and selects images and a layout to use for the composite image. The chat server assembles the composite image based on the selections and saves the composite image to the repository. The initiating user can retrieve the composite image and view it, post it to social media, and/or use it for other purposes.

Generating images of video chat sessions

There is alteration of a late-bound expression produced by a compiler into an early-bound structure. Alteration of the late-bound expression can occur at runtime and a visitor pattern can be used to create the alteration. In one instance, a conversion from late-bound to early-bound takes place through replacing a late-bound property with a statically typed call. The early-bound structure can translate into an expression tree to enable an implementation of a store specific query operated upon storage.

Translating late bound LINQ expressions into database queries

Programmers typically like operating with databases through use of classes. Classes allow a user to function with a database through use of a non-database programming language. To ease use of the classes, a class context is generated at runtime that does not force a programmer to handle various source files that are a product of class generation. Therefore, the user can have the ease of using classes without having to perform extra actions.

Runtime class database operation

The present invention relates to a system and methodology to facilitate subscription, delivery, processing, and reception of notification services. A global service framework is provided that operates in conjunction with a notification platform architecture to deliver information from one or more event sources to one or more notification sinks that receive information from the services. The global framework includes discovery and description components that provide information relating to available notification services. Subscriptions can be obtained via subscription events, whereby notifications can be delivered via notification events, wherein such events can be modeled as part of the global service framework. Various communications protocols can also be provided to facilitate communications with the notification services and global services framework. Furthermore, various notification delivery protocols can be provided that operate with structured database technologies to facilitate bulk message delivery and service in a reliable manner while mitigating network problems such as delivering notifications under power-interrupting conditions.

System and method for providing notification(s) in accordance with middleware technologies

A device hosting framework provides hosting for software-implemented logical devices (including peripheral devices bridges) on a computer to expose their services as controlled devices per a peer networking protocol. The device hosting framework encapsulates discovery, description and control protocol operations of the peer networking protocol, which frees the developers of the hosted devices from having to individually implement the peer networking protocol in the hosted devices' software and need implement only the core functionality of the hosted device. The device hosting framework operates as a host supporting device interoperability via the peer networking protocol for multiple hosted devices.

Peer networking host framework and hosting API

The present invention relates to a system and methodology to facilitate automated delivery of notifications according to various applications that can be employed with the framework of a notification platform. The applications are described by models that enable users to easily/conveniently interact with the notification platform. The application models can be incorporated within and/or associated with the notification platform. Moreover, the models can be employed to enhance subscription experiences for users, whereby users can easily and economically subscribe and unsubscribe to one or more notification services. In addition, subscriptions can be dynamically adjusted based upon explicit commands from the user, inferred from contextual user states, and/or based upon incentives or other factors directed to the user.

Framework for providing a subscription based notification system

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Shyamalan Pather