Abstract: The present invention provides an information processing system that can have the optimum number of FIFO stages dynamically at any given time so that the system makes it possible to omit analyzing of the number of FIFO stages from data characteristics so as to improve the performance. The information processing system includes a data FIFO 22 for storing data sets and a next pointer 29 having the same number of storage positions as that of the data FIFO 22. A preceding data set is stored in the storage position “1” of the data FIFO 22 and a subsequent data set is stored in the storage position “7” of the data FIFO 22. At this time, the storage position “1” of the next pointer 29 stores “7” as information on a storage position for the subsequent data set. According to this information “7”, the subsequent data set is read from the storage position “7” of the data FIFO 22.

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: A system and method for providing automatic scheduling and establishment of telephone conferences over a network such as the Internet. A user inputs conference information to a desktop application, and the scheduling, the contacting of participants, and the control of the conference are conducted automatically. If the conference is scheduled to dial out to the participants and is marked as a calendar entry, the desktop application stores the conference information, including the start/end time of a conference, the telephone numbers of the participants, the choice of service provider, and an account id. Once a teleconference calendar entry is created, the process starts and the conference is established automatically. At the scheduled time, the desktop application warns the user by running an alarm function to remind them of the time of the conference.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided to capture a real three dimensional scene, including both color and depth information, and subsequently use the resulting color and depth information to produce separate images for a viewer's left and right eyes, thereby producing a stereoscopic view of the original scene.

Abstract: The invention provides method and apparatus for an improved data processing system having an administrative control server; an administrative control database, connected to said administrative control server; and at least one group of servers having similar, but not necessarily identical, configurations adapted for communication with the administrative control server for administrative control thereby, in which the control server can change the configurations of the administered servers to a new desired configuration for each administered server where the new configuration is in synchronization with the configuration of each of said other administered server, by generating synchronization instructions from parameterized synchronization scripts stored in the control database.

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: For a network with a distributed hierarchical broadcast architecture, a method for efficiently and reliably distributing data content and remotely managing the storage of content. Both the distribution and the storage management methods are rule-based, utilizing network resources in an efficient manner. Simple and reliable mechanisms are provided for ensuring both data integrity and control over storage utilization. At each stage throughout the network hierarchy, content is distributed to nodes in the subsequent stage based on rules. The rules may be modified at each stage. Only one device in the hierarchy is required to maintain detailed information of the storage characteristics of storage devices and content therein in stages which are subsequent to it in the network. The recipient device owner specifies a set of preferences which may be used for local filtering, or which the owning (or other) entity may use to select data which targets the client's interests.

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 method, encoded in a logic medium, is provided which determines a carrier-frequency offset in an output signal of a transmission system. Such a transmission system uses a periodic training sequence having an associated spectrum. A measured spectral characteristic of an overall channel and an ideal spectral characteristic are given as inputs. The method comprises (a) determining a frequency shift in the overall channel characteristic by obtaining a spectral characteristic of the measured channel, and (b) utilizing the amount by which the measured spectral characteristic is shifted with respect to the ideal spectral characteristic to estimate the carrier frequency offset.

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 method and system for operating an input/output circuit for driving peripheral devices controlled by an embedded system. For increasing the overall system availability the invention proposes to add some limited, repeatedly-performed status storing functionality preferably into a register storage of the I/O devices. The stored information can be easily exploited (i.e., read out from external of the input/output devices) via the controller of the embedded system.

Abstract: A method for achieving agreement among n participating network devices to an agree-value in a network is disclosed. The method proposes an optimistic approach to the consensus problem, whereby the number t of faulty devices is less than n/3. It is distinguished between an optimistic and pessimistic case. In the pessimistic case, a fallback agreement protocol is performed that reaches the same agree-value as the method in the optimistic case outputs.

Abstract: This invention relates to optoelectronic transceivers used in optical communication systems, and in specific to an optical transceiver configured for transmission and reception of optical signals or rays within an asymmetrically shaped optical profile. The invention provides a transceiver for communicating optical rays through relatively-positioned, shaped lenses while preventing the saturation of a photodetector by an adjacent LED, thereby avoiding any idling of the communication system, minimizing the transceiver's size, and isolating the optical profiles for optimum transmission and reception of optical rays. The transceiver may operate in a half duplex mode, while being capable of operating without additional modifications in a full duplex mode.

Abstract: The invention pertains to an improved method for generating ALU instruction sequences for performing integer multiplication. The invention analytically helps to find an optimal sequence of shift, add and subtract instructions for performing integer multiplication by trying to add or subtract all powers of 2 less than the integer multiplier itself and then trying to factor evenly the resulting sum or difference by that power of 2 plus or minus one. If each such resulting factor value factors by a power of 2, the corresponding factor set is a favorable one for generating an optimal ALU instruction sequence.

Abstract: A mechanism for inter-process communication (IPC) redirection is defined that enables flexible and dynamic management of IPC paths. In some cases, it is desirable to interpose a process on a communication channel. There are a number of uses of such interposition, ranging from auditing communication to capturing requests for a debugger to authorizing operations expressed in the communication. Prior IPC mechanisms typically do not enable dynamic and flexible interposition. Either interposition is ingrained in the process identity or is done in an ad hoc manner (e.g., by inserting code into the kernel). An IPC mechanism is defined that enables a communication from a source to a destination to be arbitrarily redirected. Services, called redirection controllers, are defined that are able to specify the redirections for IPC paths.

Abstract: A method of monitoring the performance of a CTI enabled business application for a call center is described. The method comprises the steps of acquiring telephony network information such as an Automatic Number Identification from the telephony network when a telephone call is made to the call center and searching for information stored by the business application such as the customer name which is associated with the ANI from the telephony network. This search is made at the beginning of the call and the customer name is stored with ANI in a call log. Additional information associated with the call such as an order taken during the call is searched for after the call is completed and this additional business information is also stored with said telephony information in the call log.

Abstract: Systems involving generation of a complex node representation of a PNNI peer group are provided. Use is made of a set of restrictive costs, such as a transition matrix, defining the restrictive costs of paths between pairs of border nodes of the peer group. The complex node representation generation method is based on the group evolution process of the logical group representation of a peer group, and use is also made of the spanning tree representation of a network. Complex node representations generated by the disclosed methods are optimal in that they contain the minimum possible number of exception bypasses.

Abstract: A system and method wherein a sender can create an e-mail or other communication cancellation request which identifies a previously-sent communication, bears the communication type designation of a cancellation request as its “subject” or “reference”, and is automatically communicated to all of the same sites to which the previously-sent communication was sent. At the receiving end, a cancellation agent monitors the “subject” of all incoming communications to determine if any are cancellation requests. If a cancellation request is detected at the receiving end, the cancellation agent locates the identified communication and deletes same. Once the communication has been deleted, the cancellation agent replies to the cancellation request by notifying the sender of the location at which the identified communication was found (e.g., inbox folder, trash folder, etc.) and of deletion of the communication.

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.