The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 05, 2011
Filed:
Jan. 29, 2001
Jong S. Huang, Bellevue, WA (US);
Ian Marriott, Issaquah, WA (US);
Curtis N. Von Veh, Redmond, WA (US);
Jong S. Huang, Bellevue, WA (US);
Ian Marriott, Issaquah, WA (US);
Curtis N. von Veh, Redmond, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for facilitating high-density interactive voting (such as during a live event) using a computer network and tabulating and providing voting results in real-time. In general, the high-density interactive voting system of the present invention includes five major components that reside on the voting network: (1) a Live Event Wizard; (2) a Live Event Staging Component; (3) a Live Event Database; (4) a Live Event Object (LEO); and (5) a Live Event Display Engine. The Live Event Wizard is enables a user to quickly and easily create polling questions for distribution and presentation to a voter. The Live Event Staging Component ensures the validity of the polling questions and sends a copy of a live event definition and the polling questions to the Live Event Database. The Live Event Database tabulates current voting results at specified (or pre-determined) time intervals and performs statistical calculations of voting results. The present invention also includes a Live Event Object (LEO) that resides and remains in memory (such as random access memory (RAM)). The LEO establishes and maintains persistent connections with the Live Event Database such that these connections do not have to be continually opened and closed, thus greatly reducing the burden on the server and increasing system performance. The Live Event Display Engine receives the live event definition from the LEO and renders the definition and results on a display device for voters to view.