Abstract: Techniques for multiple master devices accessing one or more slave devices via a single data bus are disclosed. According to one aspect of the techniques, a bus controller coupled between the master devices and the slave device, wherein the bus controller is configured to receive bus signals from the master devices, select one of the bus signals from one of the master devices and forwards the selected bus signal to the slave device. After the slave device receives the bus signal from the one of the master devices, the slave device sends a bus response signal to the master devices over the bus controller, and the master device from which the bus signal is selected identifies and receives the bus response signal.

Abstract: Techniques for designing optical devices with high reflection isolation are disclosed. According to one aspect of the devices, a pair of conjugate optical filters is used. To preserve the performance of the filters and minimize insertion loss, a lens has a first side and a second side, the first side being preferably perpendicular to an optical axis of the lens, and the second side being nearly perpendicular to the optical axis of the lens. Thus one of the conjugate optical filters is deposed towards the first side of the lens and the other one of the conjugate optical filters is deposed towards the second side of the lens. When a reflected light from one filter, presumably carrying residuals of a transmitted signal, hits another filter, the residuals are blocked, resulting in great isolation for the R-channel from the T-channel.

Abstract: Techniques for managing access to a file allocation table in an external storage device are disclosed. According to one aspect of the techniques, an accelerated apparatus, as an interface, is provided between an external storage and a device (or a host processor thereof). The accelerated apparatus comprises a center controlling unit, a FAT storage sector calculating unit, a FAT storage sector accessing unit, a buffer and a result storing unit and configured to manage the access to the FAT so that the host process is freed up to perform other tasks.

Abstract: Techniques for direct modulation of a switching-mode power amplifier with adaptive digital predistortion are disclosed. A baseband digital modulated signal is decomposed into an amplitude signal and a phase signal in polar coordinates. The amplitude signal is used to modulate supply voltages of the power amplifier. The phase signal is used to modulate a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) of a phase-locked loop (PLL), which generates a phase-modulated radio-frequency (RF) carrier coupled to the input of the power amplifier. The digital predistortion is implemented by using a feedback demodulator, which regenerates the baseband amplitude and phase information from the output of the power amplifier. The VCO drift and other non-linear effects of the power amplifier are compensated. High power efficiency and high linearity for different modulation standards are achieved.

Abstract: An audio/video distribution system with enhanced digital rights management. configured for use with a source of programming, a third party responsible for authorization, and an audio/video output device at a recipient location, includes a source encryptor and a receiver and authentication device disposed at a recipient location. The source encryptor is responsible for transmitting the programming (including any applicable plus policies, rights and/or rules) in encrypted form with missing content to the recipient location. The receiver includes an input for receiving the programming, a decryptor, an output for delivering the programming to the audio/video output device, a bi-directional link for communicating with a third party authenticator, a sensor for receiving a programming request from the programming request device, and a processor.

Abstract: Techniques for transmitting data between devices based on two-dimensional symbols are disclosed, where the devices are generally not equipped with the traditional networking capabilities, or at least these traditional networking capabilities are not used for the data communication. According to one aspect of the techniques, two devices communicate with each other by displaying one or more two-dimensional symbols. Data is encoded into one or more symbols that are displayed on one of the devices. Images of the symbols are taken by another one of the devices to receive the data. These images are sequentially processed and decoded so that the data is now received. To accommodate various environments, the system is configured to adjust parameters pertaining to the symbols to achieve an optimum transmission rate.

Abstract: Techniques for providing backlight techniques in liquid crystal flat panel displays are disclosed. According to one aspect of the techniques, the source to backlight a liquid crystal panel includes a plurality of light emitting diodes that are in at least three colors. The exact colors of the light emitting diodes are chosen to cover or exceed a full spectrum of color reproductions in accordance with a television standard (e.g., NTSC or PAL) in addition to a balanced white. In one embodiment, a set of control signals is configured to ensure that the light emitting diodes provide desired and consistent backlighting to a LCD panel. One of the control signals adaptive to a scene or content of a scene causes the backlighting to change accordingly or drastically to create artistic effects required or desired in the scene.

Abstract: Techniques for a cover layer with uniform thickness are disclosed. The cover layer is formed with a type of material, such as glue, in hardened form. In one embodiment, a certain amount of the material in liquid form is dispensed onto a dispensing structure. After the dispensing structure is engaged to hold a disc, the dispensing structure and the disc as a whole unit is rotated at a predefined speed. While the dispensed material on the dispensing structure is being dispersed evenly onto the surface of the disc as result of the centrifugal force, a heater is employed to retain or control the temperature of the dispensed material so that the flow of the dispensed material outwards can be effectively controlled to form a cover layer of uniform thickness on the disc.

Abstract: A system, method and related software architecture are disclosed as a platform for developing and deploying RFID-enabled software applications. The platform is a framework between these applications and their connected physical RFID devices. The runtime version of this platform can be thought of as a logical RFID device. The platform allows RFID-enabled applications securely communicate with physical RFID devices to monitor their status and to access their tag data. The platform includes externalized APIs for accessing tag data, an event manager to alert applications of events coming from RFID devices and tags, data manager to filter and reconcile data returned from physical RFID readers before relaying them to applications, device manager to monitor the RFID device status for network management, and secured communication channels with data encryption.

Abstract: Techniques for extending memory addressing with more accessing range are disclosed. According to one aspect of the techniques, an apparatus for extending addressing space comprises a plurality of extended memories, each being allocated an unique identifier, a direct addressing memory reserving a data cell as a public identifier cell for receiving the identifier of each of the extended memories to be accessed, a decision unit determining that which one of the extended memories is to be accessed by comparing an identifier received by the public identifier cell with the identifier of each of the extended memories, and a mapping unit mapping one of the extended memories determined by the decision unit to be accessed onto the direct addressing memory so that the one of the extended memories can be indirectly accessed by directly accessing the direct addressing memory.

Abstract: Techniques to facilitate a system to capture, process, and archive a series of user interactive events and subsequently retrieve the stored user interactive events are disclosed. The captured information is indexed and stored for future access either on a terminal device or an accessible remote server device.

Abstract: New designs of optical devices, particularly for adding or dropping a selected wavelength or a group of wavelengths as well as multiplexing a plurality of signals into a multiplexed signal or demultiplexing a multiplexed signal into several signals are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a reflected light beam from an optical filter is caused to go through the same optical filter at least one more time to minimize a residual signal embedded in the reflected light beam, wherein the residential signal is caused by the imperfect spectral characteristics of the optical filter. According to another aspect of the present invention, a reflective element is so positioned that the reflected light beam is bounced back to the optical filter. When the reflective element is another optical filter being substantially similar to that optical filter, the reflected light beam is equivalent to having transmitted.

Abstract: Techniques for a cover layer with uniform thickness are disclosed. The cover layer is formed with a type of material, such as glue, in hardened form. In one embodiment, a certain amount of the material in liquid form is dispensed onto a dispensing structure. After the dispensing structure is engaged to hold a disc, the dispensing structure and the disc as a whole unit to be rotated at a predefined speed. The dispensed material on the dispensing structure is dispersed evenly onto the surface of the disc as result of the centrifugal force. A curing process (e.g., using UV lighting) is then engaged to harden the material near the edge of the disc to prevent the dispersed material from shrinking.

Abstract: Improved designs of optical devices for processing optical signals with one or more specified wavelengths are disclosed. According to embodiment, a filter mirror assembly appears an “L” shape and provides a filtering function as well as a reflecting function. The filter mirror assembly is so mounted that a rotation thereof will not alter the optical path the beam positions of signals resulted from a rotation of the filter mirror assembly. To cancel or minimize a lateral shift introduced to a light beam going through an optical filter, an optical compensator is introduced and rotates oppositely whenever the optical filter rotates.

Abstract: An integrated circuit for streaming media over wireless networks is disclosed. The integrated circuit includes a media module that is designed to process media data. When non-media data is in, switching means is provided to avoid the non-media data being processed in the media module. One of important features in the integrated circuit is the underlying designs that are capable of facilitating wireless communication in different wireless networks. In one embodiment, a baseband processor is provided to facilitate wireless communications in more than one standard. The baseband processor is uniquely designed to facilitate wireless communications in a Wi-Fi network as well as a WiMAX network. As a result, same chips may be used to stream media data across different wireless networks.

Abstract: This invention improves upon existing pay-per-click arrangements periodically generating a code associated with the search-engine users. This code, preferably in the form of a serial number, is compared to the user of the website, such that by observing a metric like the number of clicks for a given period of time, be it a short time or a longer period, such as a day or a week, the system can automatically determine if certain clicks are illegitimate. This allows the pay-per-click company to more fairly invoice the merchants, thereby preventing fraudulent over use.

Abstract: Architectures of multi-stage sample rate converters are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a received signal with a higher sampling rate is converted to a lower sampling rate. To prevent aliasing in the resultant signal, an anti-aliasing filter is introduced. The passband of the anti-aliasing filter is so adjusted according to the conversation rate of a sample rate converter. To keep the implementation relatively simple, the coefficients of the filter are kept constant. Therefore, the conversation rate of a sample rate converter is constrained in a limited range, thus requiring only a constant anti-aliasing filter. A series of halfband filters are then used to convert the signal to a desired sampling rate.