2358results about "Database querying" patented technology

The invention is related to methods and apparatus that use a visual sensor and dead reckoning sensors to process Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). These techniques can be used in robot navigation. Advantageously, such visual techniques can be used to autonomously generate and update a map. Unlike with laser rangefinders, the visual techniques are economically practical in a wide range of applications and can be used in relatively dynamic environments, such as environments in which people move. Certain embodiments contemplate improvements to the front-end processing in a SLAM-based system. Particularly, certain of these embodiments contemplate a novel landmark matching process. Certain of these embodiments also contemplate a novel landmark creation process. Certain embodiments contemplate improvements to the back-end processing in a SLAM-based system. Particularly, certain of these embodiments contemplate algorithms for modifying the SLAM graph in real-time to achieve a more efficient structure.

Audio fingerprinting and other media matching technologies can be used to identify broadcast media, such as television shows and radio broadcasts. A user device can record image, audio, and / or video information and upload information to a matching service that is able to use matching technology to identify the media and provide supplemental content or information to the user. The user might receive information identifying a product in an advertisement, identifying an actor on screen in a movie at a particular time, or other such information. In some embodiments, the user can receive access to a digital copy of the captured media, such as the ability to download a copy of a program in which a user expressed interest. Since a user might capture media information after the point of interest, a device can buffer a window of recently captured media in order to attempt to identify the intended media.

A system and method for managing churn among the customers of a business is provided. The system and method provide for an analysis of the causes of customer churn and identifies customers who are most likely to churn in the future. Identifying likely churners allows appropriate steps to be taken to prevent customers who are likely to chum from actually churning. The system included a dedicated data mart, a population architecture, a data manipulation module, a data mining tool and an end user access module for accessing results and preparing preconfigured reports. The method includes adopting an appropriate definition of churn, analyzing historical customer to identify significant trends and variables, preparing data for data mining, training a prediction model, verifying the results, deploying the model, defining retention targets, and identifying the most responsive targets.

A system and method of creating affinity groups of portable communication device users, and distributing targeted content to said users is disclosed. The user affinity groups may be formed by comparing user profiles with each other or with a predefined affinity group profile definition.

In one embodiment, a method includes maintaining a data store of nodes and edges and for each of one or more users: scanning items of content associated with the corresponding user node; identifying a candidate item of content; searching for matches between the candidate item of content and existing nodes; determining whether or not a match between the candidate item of content and an existing node exists; and when it is determined that at least one match exists, generating an edge from the user node to the existing node for which the best match is determined; and when it is determined that no match exists, generating a new node based on the candidate item of content, and generating an edge from the user node to the new node.

A method and system for matching a search request to a human assistant and / or other items based on information indicated in a profile associated with the search request is described. A ranking of a guide is determined based on matching of information associated with the guide and information associated with a search request. Profile information such as demographic, geographic, personality, areas of interest, people, hobbies, etc. may be used in addition to other information such as keywords or categories which are associated with a request in order to select a guide. Items such as a search result, an advertisement, a search resource, a previous query, etc. may be selected based on profile information associated with the item. Profile information may be associated with an item based on profile information associated with a guide and / or a user who has expressed an opinion regarding the item.

Search systems and methods for searching structured data and enhancing the relevancy of search results provided to a requesting user or application. Enhanced search results are provided by searching a cache of a users most recently used items to eliminate or reduce search indexing latency. Also, more relevant search results are provided by re-ranking results based on use history, data security models and / or hierarchical user role models. Further, enhanced search results are provided by including user information in the search index.

Searching data is disclosed. A searchable index is used to determine which, if any, data objects comprising a set of backup data are responsive to a search query. For the search query, a search result is generated. The search result includes, in the event a first data object that is responsive to the search query comprises a version of one or more other data objects that are responsive to the search query, data indicating that the first data object comprises a version of said one or more other data objects.

A method of disambiguating user intent in conversational interactions for information retrieval is disclosed. The method includes providing access to a set of content items with metadata describing the content items and providing access to structural knowledge showing semantic relationships and links among the content items. The method further includes providing a user preference signature, receiving a first input from the user that is intended by the user to identify at least one desired content item, and determining an ambiguity index of the first input. If the ambiguity index is high, the method determines a query input based on the first input and at least one of the structural knowledge, the user preference signature, a location of the user, and the time of the first input and selects a content item based on comparing the query input and the metadata associated with the content item.

A system and method of generating an overall top N query result from multiple sets of sessionized network events that correspond to different time periods include identifying a subset within each set of network events whose event attributes satisfy a predefined query, generating an aggregation result table for each identified subset of network events in accordance with an aggregation attribute, identifying matching first and second entries in first and second aggregation result tables that have a same aggregation attribute value, generating a new entry in a query result table by merging the matching first and second entries together, and selecting entries in the query result table that have highest session counts as the overall top N query result.

A method and device are disclosed for an associative and approximate, analog or digital scanning of databases that allows for the asynchronous accessing of data from a mass storage medium. The invention includes providing dedicated analog and digital circuitry and decision logic at the mass storage medium level for determining a key identifying the data of interest, continuously comparing the key to a signal generated from a reading of the data from the mass storage medium with an approximate or exact matching circuit to determine a pattern match, determining a correlation value between the key and the data as it is read in a continuous fashion, and determining a match based upon a preselected threshold value for the correlation value. The pattern matching technique eliminates any need to compare data based on its intrinsic structure or value, and instead is based on an analog or digital pattern. The key and data may be either analog or digital. This device and method may be provided as part of a stand-alone computer system, embodied in a network attached storage device, or can otherwise be provided as part of a computer LAN or WAN.