The Boeing Company

Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Virgil E Bourassa

Fred B Holt

William Radcliffe

Dennis Doherty

Patrick Sokolan

Claude Duguay

John Sheppard

Eric L Brechner

Tammy King

A data presentation system for a search engine may use classified or tagged elements in a resulting document to create a search result document that has portions redacted, modified, or changed based on the tags or classifications of elements within the document. The document may be rebuilt from the search engine database at presentation time with one or more elements changed or modified. The permission settings for a user or other factors may be used to determine which elements within the document are permitted to be accessed.

Search result presentation

A data collector may monitor a data source and identify updated data, which may be processed and prepared for inclusion into a search database. The data collector may have various handlers that may interact with a data source, which may be a database, web service, file system, collaboration system, or other source, and may store a identifying signature and content signature for each document or item. The signatures may be used to identify new, changed, or deleted items, and a payload may be created containing the updates.

Data collector

A document classifier may analyze documents for a search engine and tag the documents. A document classifier system may have several different classifiers, each with a separate algorithm for classification. Some of the data classifiers may learn or change the classification over time with a feedback loop. As those classifiers are modified, updated, replaced, or added, the documents that have already been classified by the classifier may be re-examined to update their classification. The document classifier system may maintain a database of documents with a timestamp that the document was classified that may be used to identify those documents whose classifications may be out of date.

Data classifier

A search engine database may a segmented structure that preserves individual document references and allows updating as well as scalability. A set of segment managers may receive new, updated, or deleted documents and update a set of term matrices from which a published search matrix may be generated. The database may have a very large term dictionary and may use a hash function to create term identifiers without having to look up terms in the dictionary. The database may be maintained by many systems operating in parallel for high scalability.

Search engine data structure

A method for a node in a network to determine an estimated diameter of a broadcast channel is disclosed. In particular embodiments, when a node receives a message from a neighbor computer, it can determine the received message's distance traveled and set that distance as an estimated diameter. It can then increment the distance traveled and forward the message to a neighbor computer. The node may be configured to set a new estimated diameter only if the new estimate is greater than the prior estimate. It may also be configured to send out a message broadcasting the new diameter estimate to its neighbors.

Method for determining an estimated diameter of a broadcast channel

A method of connecting to a network through a portal computer. A seeking computer dials the communications ports of a portal computer until it locates a call-in port. A port ordering algorithm is used to identify the call-in port. Communications ports selected by the port ordering algorithm may be re-ordered. The seeking computer uses the selected call-in port to request that the portal computer coordinate the connection of the seeking computer to the network.

Contacting a broadcast channel

A technique for adding a participant to a network is provided. This technique allows for the simultaneous sharing of information among many participants in a network without the placement of a high overhead on the underlying communication network. To connect to the broadcast channel, a seeking computer first locates a computer that is fully connected to the broadcast channel. The seeking computer then establishes a connection with a number of the computers that are already connected to the broadcast channel. The technique for adding a participant to a network includes identifying a pair of participants that are connected to the network, disconnecting the participants of the identified pair from each other, and connecting each participant of the identified pair of participants to the added participant.

Joining a broadcast channel

A technique for broadcasting data across a network is provided. An originating participant sends data to another participant, which in turn sends the data that it receives from a neighbor participant to its other neighbor participants. Communication in the broadcast network is controlled by a contact module that locates the neighbor participants to which the seeking participant can be connected and by a join module that establishes the connection between the neighbor participants and the seeking participant. Data is numbered sequentially so that data that is received out of order can be queued and rearranged.

Broadcasting network

A method for leaving a multicast computer network is disclosed. The method allows for the disconnection of a first computer from a second computer. When the first computer decides to disconnect from the second computer, the first computer sends a disconnect message to the second computer. Then, when the second computer receives the disconnect message from the first computer, the second computer broadcasts a connection port search message to find a third computer to which it can connect.

Leaving a broadcast channel

A computer network for providing an information delivery service for a plurality of participants over the network is disclosed. Each participant has connections to at least three neighbor participants. An originating participant sends data to the other participants by sending the data through each of its connections to its neighbor participants. Further, each participant sends data that it receives from a neighbor participant to its other neighbor participants. The network is m-regular where m is the exact number of neighbor participants of each participant and the network is an incomplete graph.

Information delivery service

A broadcast technique in which a broadcast channel overlays a point-to-point communications network is provided. The broadcasting of a message over the broadcast channel is effectively a multicast to those computers of the network that are currently connected to the broadcast channel. In one embodiment, the broadcast technique provides a logical broadcast channel to which host computers through their executing processes can be connected. Each computer that is connected to the broadcast channel can broadcast messages onto and receive messages off of the broadcast channel. Each computer that is connected to the broadcast channel receives all messages that are broadcast while it is connected. The logical broadcast channel is implemented using an underlying network system (e.g., the Internet) that allows each computer connected to the underlying network system to send messages to each other connected computer using each computer's address. Thus, the broadcast technique effectively provides a broadcast channel using an underlying network system that sends messages on a point-to-point basis.

Distributed game environment

Disclosed is a method for processing an arbitrary collection of objects, forming a complex structure, into a hierarchy of bounding volumes, from a root volume bounding all objects, to sub-volumes bounding individual objects or assemblies thereof, for use as successive approximations to said objects in a computer generated display. The method includes the first step of creating a bounding volume for each of the objects. Selected bounding volumes are then processed through a combining algorithm determining whether or not, based upon a geometric relationship between the bounding volumes and the higher level, root volume, the selected bounding volumes can be combined. If it is determined that the bounding volumes can be combined, a new bounding volume is created with the combined volumes comprising sub-volumes thereof. This process systematically repeats and attempts to combine all sub-volumes. The combining algorithm preferably allows a combination if the volumes of the combination of the sub-volume is smaller than a fixed percentage of the parent volume. When a pair can combine, it is replaced by a box bounding volume that contains the pair as sub-volumes, and the process continues. In this way, a bounding volume hierarchy for all objects and assemblies within a complex structure is created.

Growing community of inventors

Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Virgil E Bourassa