Patents by Inventor Mark D. Hetherington

Mark D. Hetherington has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7395202
    Abstract: Upon receiving (101) a vocoded voice frame and detecting (102) that the received vocoded voice frame comprises an erased frame, one automatically replaces (103) the erased frame with a valid frame having at least one error condition. In a preferred approach this error condition is one that is known to cause a receiving target platform to invoke a corresponding erasure process with respect to the valid frame when received.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2008
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark D. Hetherington, Michael J. Kirk, Lee M. Proctor, Zhongwei Zhuang
  • Patent number: 7080009
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for improving the audio quality of a signal by reducing the effect of mis-determining the frame rate of a frame. The method includes the steps of determining that the frame rate of the current frame of information is eighth rate (324/340), determining that the previous frame was a full rate frame (334) and resetting the filter states of a speech decoder (336). The method further comprises the steps of utilizing alternative symbol error thresholds based on the number of consecutive frames with the same frame rate (308/328).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2006
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Lee M Proctor, Mark D Hetherington, Nai S Wong, William K Morgan
  • Patent number: 7003045
    Abstract: A convolutional encoder (112) comprises a controller (201), having a transmission rate (e.g. frame rate) as an input. The controller (201) initializes the encoder (112) to an initial state based on a transmission rate currently being utilized. When decoding, a decoder (300) utilizes a Trellis diagram having an initial and final state based upon the frame rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2006
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: William K. Morgan, Lee M. Proctor, Nai Sum Wong, Mark D. Hetherington
  • Patent number: 6859456
    Abstract: An apparatus (18) and method (100) provide RLP data checking. The apparatus (10) includes a frame serialization stage (20) and a bad frame filter (22) that detects possible bad frames and reclassifies these bad frames as erasures. In this manner, bad frame data are not passed to the RLP layer (16), and unnecessary resetting and resynchronization steps are avoided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2005
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark D. Hetherington, Lee M. Proctor, Nai Sum Wong, John M. Harris
  • Publication number: 20030182108
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for improving the audio quality of a signal by reducing the effect of mis-determining the frame rate of a frame. The method includes the steps of determining that the frame rate of the current frame of information is eighth rate (324/340), determining that the previous frame was a full rate frame (334) and resetting the filter states of a speech decoder (336). The method further comprises the steps of utilizing alternative symbol error thresholds based on the number of consecutive frames with the same frame rate (308/328).
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2001
    Publication date: September 25, 2003
    Applicant: MOTOROLA, INC.
    Inventors: Lee M. Proctor, Mark D. Hetherington, Nai S. Wong, William K. Morgan
  • Patent number: 6570509
    Abstract: In a data transmitter having a data encoder, an encoder mode is detected. Thereafter, an excluded codeword output by the encoder operating in the encoder mode is identified. Next, a selected bit in the excluded codeword caused to have a predetermined value to produce a non-excluded codeword. Finally, the excluded codeword is substituted with the non-excluded codeword, wherein the non-excluded codeword is selected to mitigate effects of a decoding error in a receiver associated with the excluded codeword.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2003
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark D. Hetherington, Lee Michael Proctor
  • Publication number: 20020141507
    Abstract: A convolutional encoder (112) comprises a controller (201), having a transmission rate (e.g. frame rate) as an input. The controller (201) initializes the encoder (112) to an initial state based on a transmission rate currently being utilized. When decoding, a decoder (300) utilizes a Trellis diagram having an initial and final state based upon the frame rate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 31, 2001
    Publication date: October 3, 2002
    Applicant: MOTOROLA, INC.
    Inventors: William K. Morgan, Lee M. Proctor, Nai Sum Wong, Mark D. Hetherington
  • Publication number: 20020030612
    Abstract: In a data transmitter having a data encoder, an encoder mode is detected. Thereafter, an excluded codeword output by the encoder operating in the encoder mode is identified. Next, a selected bit in the excluded codeword caused to have a predetermined value to produce a non-excluded codeword. Finally, the excluded codeword is substituted with the non-excluded codeword, wherein the non-excluded codeword is selected to mitigate effects of a decoding error in a receiver associated with the excluded codeword.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2001
    Publication date: March 14, 2002
    Inventors: Mark D. Hetherington, Lee Michael Proctor
  • Patent number: 6285682
    Abstract: Because prior-art rate determination algorithms are prone to falsing, a sub-rate discrimination metric generator (160) is provided herein. The generator (160) correlates a received frame with known characteristics of sub-rate frames to generate additional metrics useful in rate determination. These metrics are passed to a modified rate determination algorithm (150).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2001
    Assignee: Motorola, Inc.
    Inventors: Lee M. Proctor, Mark D. Hetherington, Nai Sum Wong, William K. Morgan