Abstract: For a world that has a portion of the world distant from the point of view of the user represented in only two dimensions as a video on a video screen, when an object on the video screen undergoes a trajectory that takes at least a portion of it to a location in the world that is not represented by the video but instead is a location in the world that is represented by computer graphics, in addition to being able to continue to see such an object when it is rendered as computer graphics in the computer graphics part of the world, i.e., popped out from the video, one is able to interact with such an object. Thus, an object which pops out from a video into the computer graphics part of the world may be “investigated” by a viewer of the world. For example, the user could enter a store which popped out of the video, and engage in virtual shopping therein. The particular store which is actually entered may be customized on a per user basis, e.g., as a function of geography.

Abstract: A method of effectuating a change in the operation of a portable communication device such as a laptop or palmtop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a cellular telephone. The device can communicate with a remote host or server using one of two or more different communication arrangements. Various signals indicative of the environment in which the device is operating are monitored, to anticipate or predict a change or transition from one communication arrangement to the other. If the change is determined to be both imminent and significant, the operation change is effected substantially simultaneously, by changing parameters in the transport and/or application protocol layer in the device.