Abstract: A magneto-optical flying head utilizes a steerable mirror in combination with a light source and a lens to write and read data onto a magneto-optical storage disk. A beam of laser light transmitted from the light source to the optical head is reflected onto a steerable micro-machined folding mirror. The reflected light from the folding mirror is directed through an embedded micro-objective GRIN lens. Fine tracking and short seeks to adjacent tracks are performed by rotating the mirror about an axis of rotation. In this way a focus spot is scanned back and forth in a direction which is approximately parallel to the radial direction of the storage disk.

Abstract: A system and method for using a substitute directory to automatically install an update program preferably comprises a plurality of computer systems that are connected to a distributed network such as the Internet. Download modules on the computer systems automatically access and download update programs from the distributed network. Install modules then automatically create a unique substitute directory and install the downloaded update programs into the substitute directory to complete the software installation procedure, in accordance with the present invention.

Abstract: A system comprises a refined psycho-acoustic modeler for efficient perceptive encoding compression of digital audio. Perceptive encoding uses experimentally derived knowledge of human hearing to compress audio by deleting data corresponding to sounds which will not be perceived by the human ear. A psycho-acoustic modeler produces masking information that is used in the perceptive encoding system to specify which amplitudes and frequencies may be safely ignored without compromising sound fidelity. The present invention includes a system and method for efficiently implementing a masking function in a psycho-acoustic modeler in digital audio perceptive encoding. In the preferred embodiment, the present invention comprises a non-logarithmically based representation of individual masking functions utilizing minimally-sized look-up tables.

Abstract: The present invention comprises an efficient system and method for computing and encoding error detection sequences in digital audio encoding. In one embodiment, an AC-3 encoder appends a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) frame check sequence at the front of each data frame. Furthermore, this frame check sequence may be evaluated in the same kind of circuitry that is used to evaluate the CRC frame check sequence appended at the end of each data frame. In one embodiment of the present invention, a shift register contains feedback elements located in reference to a generating polynomial derived from the given generating polynomial for the CRC frame check sequence appended at the end of each data frame. The data bits are sent through the shift register in reverse time order, and, upon sending the last data bit in reverse time order, the shift register contains the required CRC frame check sequence.

Abstract: The present invention comprises an efficient system and method for reading and writing data from memory that is organized to represent either field or frame video data in a wide-word configured memory. A memory controller is configured to read or write either sequential wide-words or alternate wide-words in a DMA transfer as directed by software. After the DMA transfer is initiated, the memory read or write operations proceed automatically until the DMA transfer is completed. The ability to read or write either sequential or alternate wide-words beneficially supports operations to convert between field video data for interlaced video displays and frame video data for progressive-scan displays.

Abstract: A system and method for determining processing capabilities of devices in an electronic network comprises a host device that creates and locally registers one or more processor FCMs that include self-describing data from corresponding remote hosted devices in the electronic network. A device application from the host device may then query the self-describing data to determine relative processing capabilities of the hosted devices in order to perform a first-level load-balancing procedure. The device application may also utilize the various processor FCMs to determine current processing-load levels for the various hosted devices to thereby perform a second-level load-balancing procedure. In addition, the device application may utilize the processor FCM to perform one or more sniplet procedures in which hosted devices may advantageously download and execute segments of software code from the device application to assist in a particular task.

Abstract: A system and method for creating a substitute registry when automatically installing an update program preferably comprises a plurality of computer systems that are connected to a distributed network such as the Internet. Download modules on the computer systems automatically access and download update programs from the distributed network. Install modules then automatically create unique substitute registries that correspond to the downloaded update programs. Finally, the install module loads the update programs onto the computer systems to complete the software installation procedure, in accordance with the present invention.

Abstract: A system and method for implementing self-device control modules in an electronic network comprises a first device that transmits an event communication to a second device across the electronic network in accordance with a first communications protocol. A self-device control module in a local set of network software on the second device responsively accesses and converts the received event communication into a translated communication that complies with a second communications protocol which is compatible with the local set of network software on the second device. In accordance with the present invention, the self-device control module also may provide the translated communication to sets of remote network software across the electronic network.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for implementing a variable-speed audio data playback system comprises a processor that truncates audio data into frames and then performs a series of synchronized crossfades to discard excess audio data that is unneccessary during variable-speed playback. During the synchronized crossfade, the processor stores a source frame and a destination frame into memory. The processor then locates a maximum crosscorrelation point between the source frame and the destination frame and performs a synchronized crossfade that starts at the maximum crosscorrelation point to thereby produce high-quality reproduced sound to a system user during a variable-speed playback mode.

Abstract: A system and method for generating position error signals within a magneto-optical computer memory device whose track pitch is close to the full width half maximum width of the laser spot, the narrow track being typical of data stored on magnetic super resolution media. The magneto-optical computer memory device comprises a storage media for storing information, position marks embossed on the storage media, a head device coupled to the storage media for sensing the position marks to generate position error signals, and a correction device coupled to the head device to access the position error signals and responsively position the head device to correctly sense the stored information.

Abstract: A method for implementing a speech verification system for use in a noisy environment comprises the steps of generating a confidence index for an utterance using a speech verifier, and controlling the speech verifier with a processor, wherein the utterance contains frames of sound energy. The speech verifier includes a noise suppressor, a pitch detector, and a confidence determiner. The noise suppressor suppresses noise in each frame in the utterance by summing a frequency spectrum for each frame with frequency spectra of a selected number of previous frames to produce a spectral sum. The pitch detector applies a spectral comb window to each spectral sum to produce correlation values for each frame in the utterance. The pitch detector also applies an alternate spectral comb window to each spectral sum to produce alternate correlation values for each frame in the utterance. The confidence determiner evaluates the correlation values to produce a frame confidence measure for each frame in the utterance.

Abstract: A system comprises an enhanced downsampling operation for digital data. In the preferred embodiment, a downsampling filter has a quantity of filter coefficients equal to 4(a)+1, where (a) is an integer. In this case the even-numbered coefficients are, to the degree of accuracy required, equal to zero. Also the central even-numbered coefficient is equal to ½. As multiplication by ½ in a binary digital system may be executed by a simple right shift, the total number of coefficient-sample multiplications may be reduced to 2(a). The filter design wherein the even-numbered coefficients equal zero also has the additional benefit of reducing the number of storage locations for the filter coefficients. A further aspect of the present invention is the segregation of the input data stream into even and odd-numbered sample buffers.

Abstract: A method for effectively implementing a wireless television system comprises a wireless base station that processes and combines various program sources to produce a processed stream. A transmitter then responsively transmits the processed stream as a broadcast output stream to various portable wireless display devices for flexible viewing at variable remote locations.

Abstract: A system and method for incorporating image data into electronic mail documents, comprising an image input device to generate image data, a processor to manipulate the image data, a text input module to receive text data, and a display module to combine the image data with the text data. The invention also includes a graphic conversion module to convert the image data into graphic data format, an e-mail conversion module to convert the graphic data and text data into an e-mail document, and means for sending the e-mail document to the Internet.

Abstract: A method for implementing bandwidth reservation in an electronic network comprises the setup of a new connection between at least two nodes in a network, while preventing the overload of individual nodes, and the overload of the network bus, or a radio network. In one embodiment, the present invention is implemented through the use of a plug traffic list for each node to indicate the total capability to sink and/or receive, the outgoing communications, and the incoming communications. The invention also preferably includes a bus traffic list to indicate the load of the network bus. According to the present invention, a node that wishes to establish a new communication preferably first determines whether all nodes that are planned to participate in the new connection have enough capacity to handle the additional plug traffic, whereafter the capacity of the network bus is checked.

Abstract: A system and method for preventing artifacts in an audio data encoder device comprises a filter bank for filtering source audio data to produce frequency sub-bands, a psycho-acoustic modeler for calculating signal-to-masking ratios for the source audio data, and a bit allocator for using the signal-to-masking ratios to assign a finite number of allocation bits to represent the frequency sub-bands. In the absence of a defined significant event, the bit allocator performs a sub-band forcing strategy, including a prebit allocation procedure, to prevent artifacts or discontinuities in the encoded audio data.

Abstract: A method for effectively suppressing background noise in a speech detection system comprises a filter bank for separating source speech data into discrete frequency sub-bands to generate filtered channel energy, and a noise suppressor for weighting the frequency sub-bands to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the resultant noise-suppressed channel energy. The noise suppressor preferably includes a subspace module for using a Karhunen-Loeve transformation to create a subspace based on the background noise, a projection module for generating projected channel energy by projecting the filtered channel energy onto the created subspace, and a weighting module for applying calculated weighting values to the projected channel energy to generate the noise-suppressed channel energy.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for building a URL menu to access Internet web sites. The URL menu is stored in a set top box after accessing from a server. A URL is divided into a plurality of fields, e.g. three. Discrete fields are stored in databases within a server, and may be accessed and stored independently by the user into corresponding locations within the set top box. These three fields are individually and separately selected by the user with a plurality of buttons on a remote control. In another embodiment, URLs are obtained by keying on information in a broadcast vertical blanking interval, such as close-captioning data. A further embodiment involves generating URLs from a history of previously-accessed URLs. A final embodiment involves keying on information in a current document to select a word or term that may be utilized in a URL.

Abstract: The present invention comprises an efficient system and method for writing specific bytes in a wide-word configured memory. A memory controller is configured to write from a wide-word databus to specific bytes in a wide-word addressed memory. The memory controller uses wide-word memory addresses which possess resolution capable of addressing specific bytes, and, in addition, data mask bytes which inhibit data write operations to those bytes in a wide-word which are not intended to be written in a given memory write operation. In one embodiment of the present invention, data mask bytes are created by shifting predetermined bit patterns to the right by an amount calculated by arithmetically combining bits in the wide-word memory address. A flexible individual address generating scheme allows memory write operations which do not depend upon the memory write operation's data boundaries being evenly aligned with the boundaries of wide-words.

Abstract: A method for implementing a speech recognition system for use during conditions with background noise includes the steps of calculating, in real-time, sequential short-term delta energy parameters for speech energy from a spoken utterance, determining threshold values in the speech energy, and identifying a beginning point and an ending point for the spoken utterance based on the relationship between the threshold values and the short-term delta energy parameters.