Abstract:

In an example, a text sentence comprising a plurality of words is obtained. Each of the plurality of words is passed through a deep compositional character-to-word model to encode character-level information of each of the plurality of words into a character-to-word expression. The character-to-word expressions are combined with pre-trained word embeddings. The combined character-to-word expressions and pre-trained word embeddings are fed into one or more bidirectional long short-term memories to learn contextual information for each of the plurality of words. Then, sequential conditional random fields are applied to the contextual information for each of the plurality of words.

Country: United States
Grant Date: February 28, 2023
INVENTORS: Ethan Hart, Jean-David Ruvini, Steven Xin

Abstract:

Techniques for automatically modulating a physical configuration of a reconfigurable building structure. A reconfigurable building structure may be constructed of physical elements that are movable with respect to one another to facilitate actuating the reconfigurable building structure between a plurality of different physical configurations. The physical configuration of a reconfigurable building structure may be adjusted to accommodate for physical dimensions of an item that is going to be moved into the reconfigurable building structure. For example, a spacing between two shelves may be expanded in response to an order being placed for a large item. In this way, when the item is delivered to a physical address associated with the reconfigurable building structure, various physical characteristics of the reconfigurable building structure may have already been modulated to accept the item.

Country: United States
Grant Date: February 7, 2023
INVENTORS: DILEEP KUMAR BASAM, Andrew Chalkley, Ethan Rubinson, Jean-David Ruvini, Bindia Saraf, Qiaosong Wang

Abstract:

A method of propagating annotations of content items to a search query is disclosed. A strength of a correspondence between a search query and a listing of an item on a network-based publication system is determined. The strength of the correspondence is based on an analysis of a set of actions by a set of users who submitted the search query. A set of annotations is generated. The set of annotations is propagated to a search engine and used to enhance search results.

Country: United States
Grant Date: January 17, 2023
INVENTORS: Sunil Mohan, Smruthi Mukund, Jean-David Ruvini, Hassan Sawaf

Abstract:

A counterfeit item detection system detects counterfeit items during an item listing processes provided by an online marketplace. The system enhances the ability of the online marketplace to identify and reject potential counterfeit items. The system collects item data in various formats. The item data is analyzed using speech-to-text software and natural language processing to determine data elements representing items, item features, and language context. Questions are generated using the items and item features, and stored for each item. Answers to the questions have associated counterfeit indication weights. The weights are modified and used to rank the questions as feedback is received about counterfeit items. The ranking determines future question selection, allowing the best questions to continually be identified and provided. The counterfeit item detection system also trains a neural network to detect counterfeit items in images, where the training images are obtained from videos related to the item.

Country: United States
Grant Date: November 22, 2022

Abstract:

An apparatus and method for predicting a brand name of a product are disclosed herein. A product identification number for the product is converted into a normalized global trade item number (GTIN). For each of a plurality of GTIN prefixes corresponding to the normalized GTIN, brand names and counts of each of the brand names using product information stored in a product catalog are identified. A probability distribution of the brand names is determined in accordance with the brand names and the counts of the brand names for the plurality of the GTIN prefixes. A predicted brand name for the product is identified from among the brand names for the plurality of the GTIN prefixes, the predicted brand name having a highest probability score in the probability distribution of the brand names.

Country: United States
Grant Date: July 19, 2022
INVENTORS: Arun Lakshminarayanan, Jean-David Ruvini, Gurudatta Shivaswamy

Abstract:

Systems and methods for improving an information provisioning system using a natural language conversational assistant is provided. A machine agent initiates an interactive natural language conversation with a user to provide the user with guidance on one or more products. The machine agent receives a request for information from the user, and accesses, from a product knowledge database, textual statements about features of the one or more products, whereby the textual statements are obtained by a machine-based offline knowledge extraction process that extracts the textual statements from reviews or product guides. Based on the accessed textual statements and an overall empirical utility of each of the accessed textual statements, the machine agent determines one or more statements of the accessed textual statements to convey to the user. The machine agent causes presentation of the one or more statements to the user.

Country: United States
Grant Date: February 1, 2022
INVENTORS: Jean-David Ruvini

Abstract:

There is provided a method and system for qualification testing in a social network service. Qualification testing provides access control into a social network, wherein qualification is based on answers to questions related to a topic. In one example, members admitted to the network provide guidance, notes and research assistance to another member. The social network members access the social network from an external networked computing service, such as another social network, to facilitate easy connection to potential members. The social network may be implemented as an application overlay to the external service, or may access connections in the external network.

Country: United States
Grant Date: December 14, 2021
INVENTORS: Hill Nguyen, Jean-David Ruvini, Badrul Sarwar, Neel Sundaresan

Abstract:

Techniques for automatically modulating a physical configuration of a reconfigurable building structure. A reconfigurable building structure may be constructed of physical elements that are movable with respect to one another to facilitate actuating the reconfigurable building structure between a plurality of different physical configurations. The physical configuration of a reconfigurable building structure may be adjusted to accommodate for physical dimensions of an item that is going to be moved into the reconfigurable building structure. For example, a spacing between two shelves may be expanded in response to an order being placed for a large item. In this way, when the item is delivered to a physical address associated with the reconfigurable building structure, various physical characteristics of the reconfigurable building structure may have already been modulated to accept the item.

Country: United States
Grant Date: November 9, 2021
INVENTORS: DILEEP KUMAR BASAM, Andrew Chalkley, Ethan Rubinson, Jean-David Ruvini, Bindia Saraf, Qiaosong Wang

Abstract:

In some embodiments, a method includes receiving an electronic document that comprises a plurality of sections. The method includes marking the plurality of sections as a content section or a non-content section using a visual attribute of the sections that includes at least one of a width of the section, a density of the plurality of hyperlinks in the section, a size of a font of text in the section and whether a title of the electronic document overlaps with text in the section. The method also includes storing the marking of the plurality of sections of the electronic document in a machine-readable medium.

Country: United States
Grant Date: November 2, 2021
INVENTORS: Jean-David Ruvini

Abstract:

A computer-implemented system and method for providing information tagging in a networked system is disclosed. The apparatus in an example embodiment includes a tag engine configured to process a database of categorized product listings; to receive a user-provided tag associated with at least one of the product listings; to retain the user-provided tag; and to serve the user-provided tag to a user viewing at least one of the product listings

Country: United States
Grant Date: July 13, 2021
INVENTORS: Musaab At-Taras, Alvaro Bolivar, Jason Heidema, Brian Johnson, Brian Johnson, Daniel Kramer, Rajyashree Mukherjee, Jean-David Ruvini, Badrul Sarwar, Randall Shoup, Benny Soetarman, Venkatakrishnan Sundaranatha, Neel Sundaresan

Abstract:

An apparatus and method for predicting a brand name of a product are disclosed herein. A product identification number for the product is converted into a normalized global trade item number (GTIN). For each of a plurality of GTIN prefixes corresponding to the normalized GTIN, brand names and counts of each of the brand names using product information stored in a product catalog are identified. A probability distribution of the brand names is determined in accordance with the brand names and the counts of the brand names for the plurality of the GTIN prefixes. A predicted brand name for the product is identified from among the brand names for the plurality of the GTIN prefixes, the predicted brand name having a highest probability score in the probability distribution of the brand names.

Country: United States
Grant Date: May 19, 2020
INVENTORS: Arun Lakshminarayanan, Jean-David Ruvini, Gurudatta Shivaswamy

Abstract:

A method of propagating annotations of content items to a search query is disclosed. A strength of a correspondence between a search query and a listing of an item on a network-based publication system is determined. The strength of the correspondence is based on an analysis of a set of actions by a set of users who submitted the search query. A set of annotations is generated. The set of annotations is propagated to a search engine and used to enhance search results.

Country: United States
Grant Date: February 11, 2020
INVENTORS: Sunil Mohan, Smruthi Mukund, Jean-David Ruvini, Hassan Sawaf

Abstract:

In some embodiments, a method includes receiving an electronic document that comprises a plurality of sections. The method includes marking the plurality of sections as a content section or a non-content section using a visual attribute of the sections that includes at least one of a width of the section, a density of the plurality of hyperlinks in the section, a size of a font of text in the section and whether a title of the electronic document overlaps with text in the section. The method also includes storing the marking of the plurality of sections of the electronic document in a machine-readable medium.

Country: United States
Grant Date: October 22, 2019
INVENTORS: Jean-David Ruvini

Abstract:

There is provided a method and system for qualification testing in a social network service. Qualification testing provides access control into a social network, wherein qualification is based on answers to questions related to a topic. In one example, members admitted to the network provide guidance, notes and research assistance to another member. The social network members access the social network from an external networked computing service, such as another social network, to facilitate easy connection to potential members. The social network may be implemented as an application overlay to the external service, or may access connections in the external network.

Country: United States
Grant Date: September 3, 2019
INVENTORS: Hill Nguyen, Jean-David Ruvini, Badrul Sarwar, Neel Sundaresan

Abstract:

A system and method of metadata refinement using behavioral patterns is disclosed. In some embodiments, user behavioral data for results of a search query is received. The results can include an untagged item and a plurality of tagged items. A determination can then be made that the tagged items have been assigned a plurality of types of metadata. The untagged item can then be identified as a candidate to be tagged with at least one of the plurality of types of metadata assigned to the tagged items. In some embodiments, the user behavioral data comprises clickstream data indicating that a user selected the untagged item and at least one of the tagged items during a single search event.

Country: United States
Grant Date: June 25, 2019
INVENTORS: Prakash Arunachalam, Jean-David Ruvini, Hugh Williams

Abstract:

An apparatus and method for predicting a brand name of a product are disclosed herein. A product identification number for the product is converted into a normalized global trade item number (GTIN). For each of a plurality of GTIN prefixes corresponding to the normalized GTIN, brand names and counts of each of the brand names using product information stored in a product catalog are identified. A probability distribution of the brand names is determined in accordance with the brand names and the counts of the brand names for the plurality of the GTIN prefixes. A predicted brand name for the product is identified from among the brand names for the plurality of the GTIN prefixes, the predicted brand name having a highest probability score in the probability distribution of the brand names.

Country: United States
Grant Date: November 27, 2018
INVENTORS: Arun Lakshminarayanan, Jean-David Ruvini, Gurudatta Shivaswamy

Abstract:

A computer-implemented system and method for providing information tagging in a networked system is disclosed. The apparatus in an example embodiment includes a tag engine configured to process a database of categorized product listings; to receive a user- provided tag associated with at least one of the product listings; to retain the user-provided tag; and to serve the user-provided tag to a user viewing at least one of the product listings.

Country: United States
Grant Date: June 26, 2018
INVENTORS: Musaab At-Taras, Alvaro Bolivar, Jason Heidema, Brian Johnson, Brian Johnson, Daniel Kramer, Rajyashree Mukherjee, Jean-David Ruvini, Badrul Sarwar, Randall Shoup, Benny Soetarman, Venkatakrishnan Sundaranatha, Neel Sundaresan

Abstract:

Methods and systems to perform image searches in a network-based publication system, such as image searches for items available for purchase via the network-based publication system, are described. In some example embodiments, the methods and systems access an image of an item, identify a purchaser of and/or user associated with the item in the image, query, using the image, a collection of images whose contents include items that are associated with the purchaser and that are offered for purchase by a network-based publication system, and match the item in the image to one or more of the items offered for purchase based on a result of the query. The network-based publication system may then present the matched one or more items, or recommendations for the matched items, to a user that provided the image.

Country: United States
Grant Date: February 13, 2018
INVENTORS: Jean-David Ruvini

Abstract:

A system and method of metadata refinement using behavioral patterns is disclosed. In some embodiments, user behavioral data for results of a search query is received. The results can include an untagged item and a plurality of tagged items. A determination can then be made that the tagged items have been assigned a first type of metadata not assigned to the untagged item. The untagged item can then be identified as a candidate to be tagged with the first type of metadata assigned to the tagged items based on the user behavioral data. In some embodiments, the user behavioral data comprises clickstream data indicating that a user selected the untagged item and the tagged items during a single search event.

Country: United States
Grant Date: January 30, 2018
INVENTORS: Prakash Arunachalam, Jean-David Ruvini, Hugh Williams

Abstract:

A method of propagating annotations of content items to a search query is disclosed. A strength of a correspondence between a search query and a title of a listing of an item on a network-based publication system is determined. The strength of the correspondence is based on an analysis of a set of actions by a set of users who submitted the search query. A set of annotations corresponding to the title is generated. The set of annotations is propagated to an additional search query such that the set of annotations and the strength of the correspondence are used by a search engine to enhance search results corresponding to the additional search query.

Country: United States
Grant Date: November 21, 2017
INVENTORS: Sunil Mohan, Smruthi Mukund, Jean-David Ruvini, Hassan Sawaf

Abstract:

A system and method of metadata refinement using behavioral patterns is disclosed. In some embodiments, user behavioral data for results of a search query is received. The results can include an untagged item and a plurality of tagged items. A determination can then be made that the tagged items have been assigned a first type of metadata not assigned to the untagged item. The untagged item can then be identified as a candidate to be tagged with the first type of metadata assigned to the tagged items based on the user behavioral data. In some embodiments, the user behavioral data comprises click-stream data indicating that a user selected the untagged item and the tagged items during a single search event.

Country: United States
Grant Date: February 28, 2017
INVENTORS: Prakash Arunachalam, Jean-David Ruvini, Hugh Williams

Abstract:

In some embodiments, a method includes receiving an electronic document that comprises a plurality of sections. The method includes marking the plurality of sections as a content section or a non-content section using a visual attribute of the sections that includes at least one of a width of the section, a density of the plurality of hyperlinks in the section, a size of a font of text in the section and whether a title of the electronic document overlaps with text in the section. The method also includes storing the marking of the plurality of sections of the electronic document in a machine-readable medium.

Country: United States
Grant Date: May 31, 2016
INVENTORS: Jean-David Ruvini

Abstract:

A computer-implemented system and method for providing information tagging in a networked system is disclosed. The apparatus in an example embodiment includes a tag engine configured to process a database of categorized product listings; to receive a user-provided tag associated with at least one of the product listings; to retain the user-provided tag; and to serve the user-provided tag to a user viewing at least one of the product listings.

Country: United States
Grant Date: April 26, 2016
INVENTORS: Musaab At-Taras, Alvaro Bolivar, Jason Heidema, Brian Johnson, Brian Johnson, Daniel Kramer, Rajyashree Mukherjee, Jean-David Ruvini, Badrul Sarwar, Randall Shoup, Benny Soetarman, Venkatakrishnan Sundaranatha, Neel Sundaresan

Abstract:

An item record in an item database contains an item description generated by a seller of an item. A server machine is configured to access the item database, analyze the item description, and extract descriptive information by inferring an attribute and a corresponding attribute value from the item description. The attribute and its attribute value constitute an attribute-value pair. The server machine uses the attribute-value pair to map the item record to a product record stored in a product database. The mapping of the item record to the product record is based on comparing the attribute-value pair of the item record to a reference attribute-value pair in the product record to identify the product record. The mapping is performed upon detection of a match between the attribute-value pairs.

Country: United States
Grant Date: September 10, 2013
INVENTORS: Jean-David Ruvini, Badrul Sarwar, Neel Sundaresan

Abstract:

In some embodiments, a method includes receiving an electronic document that comprises a plurality of sections. The method includes marking the plurality of sections as a content section or a non-content section using an attribute of the sections that includes at least one of a width of the section, a density of the plurality of hyperlinks in the section, a size of a font of text in the section and whether a title of the electronic document overlaps with text in the section. The method also includes storing the marking of the plurality of sections of the electronic document in a machine-readable medium.

Country: United States
Grant Date: October 30, 2012
INVENTORS: Jean-David Ruvini

Abstract:

An item record in an item database contains an item description generated by a seller of an item. A server machine is configured to access the item database, analyze the item description, and extract descriptive information by inferring an attribute and a corresponding attribute value from the item description. The attribute and its attribute value constitute an attribute-value pair. The server machine uses the attribute-value pair to map the item record to a product record stored in a product database. The mapping of the item record to the product record is based on comparing the attribute-value pair of the item record to a reference attribute-value pair in the product record to identify the product record. The mapping is performed upon detection of a match between the attribute-value pairs.

Country: United States
Grant Date: October 9, 2012
INVENTORS: Jean-David Ruvini, Badrul Sarwar, Neel Sundaresan

Jean-David Ruvini