Abstract: When a user has a portable telephone near the absolute end of its available battery power, the user can be caused to behave in a manner that more likely results in the preservation of some battery power for subsequent high priority high priority calls by conveying the illusion that the battery will soon be, or is, depleted even though there actually remains sufficient power in the battery to power the portable telephone for an additional period of time. To this end, at a predetermined time, e.g., two minutes, prior to a projected time at which the battery is expected to have power for only a particular additional amount of time, e.g., eight minutes, the user is signaled with an almost-out-of-power warning. This warning indicates that there remains in the battery enough power to operate the portable telephone only until the projected time, notwithstanding that there actually remains in the battery sufficient power to operate the portable telephone for the additional time beyond the projected time.

Abstract: For certain high-speed applications, where high-precision is not required analog-to-digital conversion may be performed by employing several comparators, each having their own offset. Each such comparator with an offset may be constructed by employing a differential amplifier with an offset followed by a conventional comparator. Advantageously, the time to obtain a conversion to digital of an analog sample is reduced in comparison to prior art converters, thus enabling high-speed operation.

Abstract: The problems with reaching unavailable mobile telephones, and the unnecessary costs associated therewith are avoided by a) marking as unavailable a wireless telephone to which a wireless telephone call could not successfully be completed; b) waiting for the wireless telephone to register, i.e., signal its availability to receive calls; and c) notifying the caller of the wireless telephone call that could not successfully complete that the wireless telephone is now available. Optionally, any call attempts to the wireless telephone during this waiting period are disallowed, i.e., no attempt is made to contact the wireless telephone over the wireless telephone service provider's network.

Abstract: An enhanced call waiting (ECW) feature is provided by a switch serving a called subscriber who, while still on a first telephone call, receives a subsequent telephone call.

Abstract: The general problem of conveying a particular meaning in a message so that the meaning is most understandable when an abridged version of the message is displayed is solved by supplying as the message a "tagged" string in which all characters in the unabridged version of the sting are tagged with respective priority indicator each having a value indicating a particular priority level. In a station set an abridged version of the string for a particular priority level is determined by selecting all characters from the received, unabridged version having a priority indicator value equal to or greater than that particular priority level. A priority level is elected such that the corresponding abridged string fits within the available display length.

Abstract: The problem that signal levels may change slowly over time, e.g., as a result of ranges in temperature, is overcome by employing an automatic gain control feedback loop using a comparator, hereinafter referred to as a feedback slicer, connected to the output of a programmable gain amplifier to determine whether the output of the programmable gain amplifier is higher or lower than the desired signal level to which it is known to correspond. In particular, the decision level for the feedback slicer is set so that it is equal to the desired amplitude of a correctly amplified symbol. The gain of the programmable gain amplifier is adjusted, e.g., slowly over time, so that the amplitude of the amplified symbol hovers about that level. More than one signal level may be tracked. If so, each level tracked employs its own feedback slicer.

Abstract: An enhanced call waiting (ECW) feature is provided by a switch serving a called subscriber who, while still on a first telephone call, receives a subsequent telephone call.

Abstract: An image, having N dimensions, is partitioned into a set of bounded arbitrarily shaped regions. This partitioning is achieved through the use of arbitrarily shaped N-1 dimensional surfaces which pass through the boundaries of the image. The arbitrarily shaped regions are represented in the leaf nodes of a binary tree and the arbitrarily shaped surfaces, which are used to partition the image, are represented in the non-leaf nodes of the tree. In a preferred embodiment, arbitrarily oriented lines passing through the image boundaries are employed to partition a two-dimensional image into a set of convex regions. The convex regions are represented in the leaf nodes of a binary tree and the arbitrarily oriented lines, which are used to partition the image, are represented in the non-leaf nodes of the tree. Furthermore, the arbitrarily oriented lines are selected through the use of a Hough transform and the image is partitioned, along the selected lines, in a recursive manner as the binary tree is developed.

Abstract: Communication, for example, via the internet protocol (IP), is facilitated among ATM-attached, LAN-attached and telephone-network-attached hosts, by a so-called "RouTel" and an address server. The RouTel provides gateway capabilities for connecting a) the telephone network, e.g., via 1) integrated services digital network basic rate interface (ISDN BRI), 2) ISDN primary rate interface (ISDN PRI), or 3) modem interfaces, and b) an ATM network, via one or more ATM interfaces. Optionally, the RouTel provides interfaces for directly attaching legacy LANs, e.g., Ethernet, FDDI, and Token Ring. More particularly, the RouTel can perform IP packet forwarding between 1) a telephone-network-attached host and an ATM-attached host; 2) two telephone-network-attached hosts; and 3) a telephone-network-attached host and a legacy LAN-attached host.

Abstract: In CELP coding, stochastic (noise-like) excitation is used in exciting a cascade of long-term and short-term all-pole linear synthesis filters. This approach is based on the observation that the ideal excitation, obtained by inverse-filtering the speech signal, can be modeled for simplicity as Gaussian white noise. Although such stochastic excitation resembles the ideal excitation in its global statistical properties, it contains a noisy component that is irrelevant to the synthesis process. This component introduces some roughness and noisiness in the synthesized speech. The present invention reduces this effect by adaptively controlling the level of the stochastic excitation. The proposed control mechanism links the stochastic excitation to the long-term predictor in such a way that the excitation level is inversely related to the efficiency of the predictor.

Abstract: A system for creating still image or video collections for guests of amusement parks and the like a) identifies individuals by a unique tag assigned to the individual, b) automatically records the images of the individuals while they are at various attractions, c) collects the images over a communications network, d) arranges the images in a collection, and e) presents a personal set of collected images to the guest. For example, cameras may be located throughout an amusement park. Each guest is associated with a unique identifier. This identifier may be contained within a readable tag, e.g., a card, badge or pendant. Tag readers identify guest when they are at a particular location and provide identification and location information to a control system. A communications network is used to interconnect the cameras, tag readers, control system and image recording devices. The control system controls the recording and storage of the appropriate image(s) associated with that guest.

Abstract: A signal form synthesizer comprises a digital generator circuit (1) for generating the synthesis signal to produce a first series of digital samples which are representative of this signal and formed by binary words of N bits, and a digital-to-analog converter circuit (30) for producing an analog version of this signal. Furthermore, there is provided an assembly (40) for filtering in accordance with a band-pass characteristic curve the samples of the first series and for supplying to said digital-to-analog converter circuit (30) a second series of samples formed by binary words of N' bits, where N.gtoreq.N'. A negative feedback loop (45) subtracts the samples of the second series from the samples of the first series.

Abstract: A speech processing arrangement has at least two microphones for supplying microphone signals formed by speech components and noise components to microphone signal branches that are coupled to an adder device used for forming a sum signal. The microphone signals are delayed and weighted by weight factors in the microphone signal branches.

Abstract: Automatic gain control circuit comprising amplifier means (10) which produce an output signal that has an amplitude controlled by a control signal (CT). Recursive filter apparatus (20) (22) measures the power of the output signal and yield a measure of power which is compared (24) with a window of permitted power values to generate the control signal (CT). Depending on the result of the comparison, an initialization signal (INI) is transmitted which enforces a reference power value on a recursive filter to accelerate the gain control. Utilization in apparatus that use signals that have fast and considerable amplitude variations, as in digital modulation signal receivers.

Abstract: In a system for providing telecommunications relay service, the delay in assigning an attendant to an established relay session after the text-to-speech conversion process may be controlled by establishing new relay sessions, in response to requests therefor, only if a) less than a predetermined maximum number K of relay sessions have already been established, b) none of the established relay sessions are queued and waiting for an attendant and c) an attendant is available. An established relay session is one that is 1) being served by an attendant, 2) is waiting to be reconnected to an attendant or 3) is in the midst of the text-to-speech conversion process. The value of K is greater than or equal to the number of attendants. It is determined dynamically, as a function of 1) a given set of performance objectives, 2) the current set of traffic characteristics, 3) the current performance characteristics and 4) the resources available at the telecommunications relay service center.

Abstract: The electric incandescent lamp has a filament (2) centrically supported in a tubular envelope (1) by constrictions (6) in the envelope at areas where a refractory metal member (7) short-circuits turns (3') of the filament. The refractory metal member (7) is a sleeve around the filament (2).

Abstract: A carrier of telecommunications traffic provides different call treatment when the carrier receives a code indicative of that carrier as opposed to when no code has been entered. For example, by entering the access code of the telecommunications carrier, a caller may invoke a special service. One such service is the "follow me anywhere" service whereby the carrier completes a call originally directed to a called party to another telephone number previously specified by the called party. Another service that may be invoked by entering the carrier access code is voice messaging whereby a call originally directed to the called party may be stored in a voice mail box when the called party is unable to answer the call.

Abstract: A point to point communication apparatus, such as a digital radiopager (RP), having a non-volatile electrically programmable store which stores a radio identification code (RIC) or apparatus configuration information. The store can be programmed/reprogrammed by sending coded light signals to a light sensor. The coded programming/reprogramming light signals are supplied from an external source, such as a personal computer, and conform to a protocol which on being recognized causes a controller to permit access to the programmable store. The light sensor may also be used to sense the ambient light and control energization of a back light of a LCD panel.

Abstract: We have recognized that in the prior art, to insure that there is at least some communication between the calling and called parties, when the called party is unavailable to take a call, the calling party may be connected to an alternate destination, e.g., a voice messaging system, and the caller's telephone call is considered completed. If the called party thereafter becomes available, the called party is not connected to the caller's telephone call. However, in accordance with the principles of the invention, this problem is overcome by, in response to receipt of an indication that the called party is available for a caller's telephone call after the caller's telephone call has already been connected to an alternate destination, a) disconnecting the caller's telephone call from the alternate destination and, instead, b) connecting it the called party, thus interrupting the connection between the caller and the alternate destination.

Abstract: The use of stolen mobile identification number (MIN) and electronic serial number (ESN) information to fraudulently place wireless calls is prevented by having the switches of multiple wireless carriers forward or direct, over a telephone connection, all calls placed from selected MINs to a central authentication platform that serves the multiple wireless carriers. The central authentication platform engages in a so-called "challenge-response" authentication with local processors that are interfaced to the wireless telephones from which non-fraudulent calls originate. The challenge-response authentication uses a shared secret key (S-Key) that is not broadcast over the interface, thus preventing the key from being "stolen".