Abstract: A wireless device connects to one or more network node devices that are in turn connected to one or more wirelines. The wireless device has one or more wireless signal generators supporting one or more of the wireless connections and one or more memories to store an identifier. One or more negotiators negotiate with the network node device in order to establish a connection to one or more wirelines connected to the network node and a requesting process requests bridging to a call in progress.

Abstract: The method of the present invention allows a viewer/listener to schedule a future event based on information which is embedded in a multimedia presentation, such as a promotional commercial. The viewer or the viewer's equipment, on the basis of the viewer's preferences, causes the event to be scheduled at the appropriate time. The types of events that can be scheduled include: scheduling the reception of a future television/radio/data download program, including turning the processing device on and switching to a correct channel or station; scheduling play of audio or visual reminders for informing of the imminent start of a scheduled program; scheduling the recordation of future program or data imbedded in such a program on a recording device, e.g., VCR, audio recorder, computer medium recorder; and schedule the downloading of data.

Abstract: A method and structure for emulating on a single display platform an application's user interface as it would appear on each of a number of target devices, given a set of device characteristics for any device to be emulated and a formal description of one or more applications to be emulated. The method includes combining a selected one or more of the device characteristics and a selected one of the application formal descriptions and providing a simultaneous and consistent display representation for the selected application, so as to provide a stylized rendering of the selected application's interface in a uniform appearance and in which the selected application's interface for more than one target device can be simultaneously viewed. The method also synchronizes the display representation, so that a simultaneous update to all of the selected target device representations is updated when information in a device-independent portion of the formal description is changed.

Abstract: The number of instances of an application running in a computing environment are controlled by monitoring the current load on the application, and altering the current number of instances of the application based on results of the monitoring. The load may be monitored by monitoring the current number of instances of the application running in the computing environment. Where a maximum, minimum and/or initial number on startup, of instances of the application are specified, the altering is done based on comparing the current number to one or more of the specified numbers of instances.

Abstract: A system enabling television viewers to participate in an audio conference from audio-enabled remote control devices that are equipped with microphones and speakers without requiring the viewer to “dial in” as in a conventional conference call. The system determines the TV channel being watched by the viewer and collects the viewer information that is coming from the remote control device. The user input information is transmitted to an audio conference control center. The information regarding all the viewers interested in participating in an audio conference are collected and processed at an audio conference control center. An operation entity is connected to the audio conference control center for reserving the conference resources provided in an audio bridge device for the viewed TV program channel.

Abstract: A technique for reliably multicasting a message within a router network in a sequenced order with other messages is provided. At least one special router in the network has associated persistent storage for sequencing a message being routed to one or more clients. When a message is received at this sequencer node, the sequencer places a sequence number for the message in persistent storage and sends a sequencing acknowledgment back to those routers to which the message was originally routed, as well as back towards the source of the message. The sequencer acknowledgment includes the message id, and the sequencing number. When the sequencer acknowledgment is received by a router, it looks up the routing information from the original message, and sends the acknowledgment to those neighboring routers to which the original message was sent, excluding the link from which the sequencer acknowledgment was received.

Abstract: A facility is provided for distributing events to consumers in a content-based publish-subscribe system, wherein the consumers each have at least one subscription. The facility includes deriving a set of g approximate multicast groups from a larger set of G possible multicast groups in the publish-subscribe system. The deriving includes exploiting knowledge of subscription predicates of the consumers of the publish-subscribe system. The set of G possible multicast groups is collapsed to the smaller set of g approximate multicast groups, while minimizing the expected performance penalty in using the approximate multicast groups. The set of g approximate multicast groups is then used to forward events to consumers within the publish-subscribe system.

Abstract: A system and method for demultiplexing a TDM channel by redirecting all transport packets communicated on said channel as containing one of a multitude of possible PIDs, while recreating the CBR of the original transport packet transmission by restoring all discarded IDLE packets to enable time delayed re-transmission utilizing a generic TDM function.

Abstract: In a system with hardware main memory compression, the method of this invention monitors the physical memory utilization and if physical memory is near exhaustion it forces memory to be paged out, thus freeing up real memory pages. These pages are then zeroed, thus they are highly compressible and therefore reduce the physical memory utilization. Pages that have been forced out due to high physical memory utilization are not made available for allocation. In systems where operating system changes are permitted, this invention dynamically controls the minimum size of the free page pool and zeros pages upon freeing. When the physical memory utilization falls below a critical threshold the mechanism reduces the minimum size of the free pool to allow further allocation. In systems where operating system changes are not possible, pages are allocated by a module (e.g. Device driver) and then zeroed.

Abstract: Techniques for arranging operations performable on information in an information processing system are provided. In a system having a plurality of information producers and a plurality of information subscribers, paths are identified over which information traverses, and within which the information is subject to select and/or transform operations. The present invention optimizes the system by reorganizing the sequence of select and transform operations so that transforms follow select operations; and by combining multiple select and transform operations into single select and transform operations, respectively. Using these optimizations, the processing resources of the system can be reorganized, and/or information flow graphs describing the system can be designed, so that the select operations are “pushed” toward the producers, and transform operations are “pushed” toward the subscribers. Efficient content-based routing systems can then be used to implement the select operations.

Abstract: The invention allows a user to construct a collection of resolutionally non-uniform, captured digital image views of static scene, thereby defining the more interesting sections of the scene for viewing. The invention provides a system and a method for continuous zooming and display of composite image representation having different levels of resolution at different locations. The invention discloses techniques for acquisition of multiple resolution and overlapping digital images, composite representation of those captured images, and the continuous zooming display of the complete image data.

Abstract: Transport packet multiplexing system and methodology that provides accurate bandwidth control, allowing bandwidth requirements to vary per multiplexed data stream while guaranteeing bandwidth availability. Accurate timing control is provided by implementing a real-time scheduling mechanism for adjusting the timing information based upon timing information obtained at the time of multiplexing to accurately represent environmental changes.

Abstract: A technique for optimizing published event message sequences destined for information subscribers in an information processing system. Subscribers specify event interpretation rules which map event message streams into states. The event interpretation rules are maintained elsewhere in the system in preparation for providing optimized, possibly shorter, event message streams to subscribers, sufficient to correctly update the states. If a subscriber temporarily loses access to its event message stream, the optimized event message stream is determined using a shortest path graph search technique between the states defined by the start and end of the missing portion of the stream. Optimizations to the shortest path graph search technique are disclosed for use when the event interpretation rule is in replacement form, in which estimator functions based on extended rules are employed.

Abstract: A system and method for enabling real-time searching of patterns over a shared media including the capability of simultaneously searching multiple logical streams over the shared media. Patterns found are reported to the host system using some pre-assigned messages. One particular application of this invention is to search an MPEG-2 program stream, indicating the points (e.g., start-codes) where a new picture starts.

Abstract: A system and method for re-mapping the Packet Identifier (PID)'s for a set of MPEG-2 single program streams prior to multiplexing onto one multi-program transport stream. The system eliminates any ambiguity when generating the multiplexed transport stream in 10 order to avoid PID conflicts when multiplexing several single programs containing non-unique PID values. The system includes a mechanism to assign new PID values, in such a way that it ensures that all new PID's are unique for the multiplexed transport stream. Furthermore, it performs this re-mapping in real-time as the packets are being transmitted over the multi-program transport stream.

Abstract: The present invention is a process in which broadcasters can supplement existing multimedia streams such as video and audio with additional multimedia streams in a coordinated and integrated way, allowing users, after reception of the broadcast stream, to select which substream to use, without requiring an upstream channel to communicate this user preference back to the server or any additional bandwidth to broadcast these additional streams.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for mapping the character and location of small surface variations on a planar surface. Energy in the form of pulses is supplied to an object in close proximity to the planar surface to thereby raise the temperature of the object and at part of the surface. A change in temperature of the object is detected when it is in proximity to the variation to define the location and character of the variation. By supplying the energy in the form of pulses, the size of the thermal signature produced in the planar surface is limited wherein a more accurate and more sensitive mapping method and apparatus are provided. The energy supply may be thermal energy or optical energy but preferably is electrical energy which heats a resistive element. Preferably, the object is a magnetoresistive head of a disk drive assembly and the surface may be that of a magnetic recording material. The change in temperature is detected by monitoring the resistance of the magnetoresistive coil of the head.

Abstract: Resources are checkpointed in order to save the state of the resources. The resources can then be brought back to the same running state, during a restart procedure, by making use of the saved state. The determination of when to take a checkpoint or when to restart a resource is made by an entity, such as a cluster manager, external to the entity initiating or taking the checkpoint or performing the restart. The decision to checkpoint/restart a resource is provided by the cluster manager to a resource manager associated with the resource. This communication is facilitated by interfaces to the cluster manager provided by the resource manager.

Abstract: A method and system for analyzing dynamic behavior of a computer program using user-defined classifications of an execution trace. The method comprises the step of forming a database describing the executions of the program. The database includes static information obtained from the program source, and dynamic information describing particular executions of the program. The database is structured into entities, and each of the entities is comprised of a single type of information about the program execution. Each entity is comprised of elements representing individual program elements of said single type, and each element has attributes with values describing the element. The database is augmented by classifying every element of the database as a member of zero or more user defined execution slices; and dynamic behavior of the program is analyzed using the execution slices.

Abstract: The present invention is a novel management system for selectively distributing applications and databases from a server computer to a plurality of intermittently connected handheld devices. The applications and databases to be downloaded and deleted are first selected from an application list maintained by handheld devices. After established a connection with the server computer, the application list of selected applications is copied to the server computer which maintains an access control list indicating which applications are permitted to be downloaded to which handheld devices. The server computer examines the application list and the access control list to determine which applications are both selected and are authorized for use by the handheld device. After determining that requested applications are authorized for requesting devices, these applications are downloaded. If the connected handheld device does not have that the application list, the application list is created for it and downloaded.