Abstract: A system and method for detecting furniture cruising frequency to monitor gait decline. Embodiments of the invention monitor the frequency of furniture cruising in one's home in such a way that it does not require daily user intervention to operate. Here, shock sensors are attached or integrated into furniture in the normal walking paths for an individual in his or her home. Through the use of these shock sensors, embodiments of the invention are able to monitor the frequency of furniture cruising for the individual. If the frequency of furniture cruising exceeds a certain threshold, an assistive support device such as a walking stick or a walking frame may be required for the individual. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article for caching security records for access by a hardware offloading device are disclosed. A method for updating security record entries in a hardware table is disclosed that includes marking every security record entry in the hardware table as a replacement candidate based upon passage of a determined time interval, each security record entry having a set of security parameters. Upon receiving a packet having a security record, the hardware table is checked for a security record entry corresponding to the security record. A check is done to determine whether there is a replacement candidate in the hardware table if there is no security record entry corresponding to the security record. The security record entry containing the replacement candidate is replaced with the security record if there is a replacement candidate. Other embodiments are described.

Abstract: A method and system for automatically capturing user edits in a digital recording are described. The method involves determining a beginning time stamp for an edit segment in a digital recording and an ending time stamp for the edit segment in the digital recording. The method then receives an indication from a user whether to modify the edit segment for subsequent viewing of the digital recording.

Abstract: A reconfigurable memory in an integrated circuit includes an array of memory cells and a memory controller. The array of memory cells in the reconfigurable memory are tested to determine if they are unusable and if so, their associated physical addresses corresponding to their physical location. After determining the physical addresses where any failure exists, the physical addresses locations associated with the physical locations of unusable memory cells or memory blocks are mapped out to avoid addressing them. While mapping out unusable memory locations or memory blocks reduces the total capacity, the reconfigurable memory has sufficient capacity for the integrated circuit to remain functionally usable.

Abstract: A reconfigurable memory in an integrated circuit includes an array of memory cells and a memory controller. The array of memory cells in the reconfigurable memory are tested to determine if they are unusable and if so, their associated physical addresses corresponding to their physical location. After determining the physical addresses where any failure exists, the physical addresses locations associated with the physical locations of unusable memory cells or memory blocks are mapped out to avoid addressing them. While mapping out unusable memory locations or memory blocks reduces the total capacity, the reconfigurable memory has sufficient capacity for the integrated circuit to remain functionally usable.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for matching parent processor address translations to media processors' address translations and providing concurrent memory access to a plurality of media processors through separate translation table information. In particular, a page directory for a given media application is copied to a media processor's page directory when the media application allocates memory that is to be shared by a media application running on the parent processor and media processors.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for a generic, extensible and efficient data manager for virtual peripheral component interconnect devices (VPCIDs). The apparatus includes a data manager and a data repository, where the data manager utilizes the data repository to maintain information for at least one virtual machine (VM). The VM data structure contains elements to associate the VM with zero or more instances of multiple VPCIDs.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide an image display mode for displays, such as a television, that do not use the entire display field for displaying an image. A user selectable modification of the image display is provided, where the image may be stepped a predefined column of pixels, or predefined row of pixels, depending on viewing format, at a time at a very slow rate. The image may be stepped a predefined column of pixels per predefined time period until it is entirely to one side of the display, at which point it may be slowly stepped back to the other side of the display.

Abstract: A method of abstracting information through object interfaces is described. The object interfaces are used to present platform device information in a pre-boot service environment. Firmware tables such as Advanced Configuration and Power Interface and System Management Basic Input/Output System may be used to auto-configure diagnostic test suites through an abstracted software interface.

Abstract: A circuit for blending video signals and subpicture signals is provided. The circuit includes a palette to output at least one subpicture value based on a palette index. The circuit also includes an alpha-blend unit coupled to the subpicture palette to blend a set of luminance values of a video signal with a set of luminance values of a subpicture signal in one pass and to blend a set of chrominance values of a video signal with a set of chrominance values of the subpicture signal in a separate pass, the luminance and chrominance values are provided to the alpha-blend unit in a planar format. The video signals may be provided and blended in a YUV 4:2:0 format. In addition, a single dual-purpose palette can be used for both texturing and alpha-blending.

Abstract: In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes a method of processing bits of a frame. The method includes accessing a subset of bits of a frame and based, at least in part, on the subset of bits, determining an address of an instruction within a set of instructions that perform at least one framing operation on the bits. The method executes instructions at the determined instruction address.

Abstract: A system is disclosed that includes a component, a fault table configured to receive fault information associated with the component, and a diagnosis processor configured to read the fault information from the fault table and initiate corrective action as a function of the fault information. A method for handling faults in the system is also disclosed.

Abstract: Systems and methods of managing power provide for applying a voltage from a voltage regulator to a component of a computing system and reducing the voltage based on a power saving parameter that is dedicated to the component. The reduction can be in conjunction with the entry of the component into a low power state such as a standby state or an off state, where the power saving parameter defines a voltage such as a minimum operating voltage or minimum sustainable voltage for the component, respectively. In one embodiment, the component is a central processing unit.

Abstract: Embodiments provide for ray tracing traversal that relies on selected geometrical properties of the application to reduce the number of operations required during each traversal step. The traversal algorithm does not depend on the number of rays in the group. As a result, multi-level traversal schemes may be implemented, starting with a large number of rays in a group and then reducing it as needed to maintain group coherency. Multi-level traversal schemes may be created by splitting large groups of rays while traversing acceleration structures.

Abstract: A system and method for supporting two infrared signaling protocols in a single computing device is provided. The computing system operates in a default mode unless a priority signaling request is generated by an application program. Priority signaling requests are given processing priority, and default mode transmission packets may be dropped during priority mode processing. Handling of dropped default mode packets is relinquished to an upper protocol layer of a network stack, which recovers and sends the dropped transmissions to the infrared device when the computing device returns to the default mode.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for presenting categorical programs. The method causes information of a plurality of programs fitting categories defined in a request to be retrieved from a database. The method then causes a first tabular layout to be generated. The first tabular layout comprises a first level of content details for each of the plurality of programs. The first tabular layout has a first total dimension. The method causes the first level of content details for a selected program to be adjusted to a second level of content details in response to an interaction by a user. The method then causes the spaces occupied by the plurality of programs to be resized according to the second level of content details. The method then causes a second tabular layout to be generated. The second tabular layout has a second dimension that is substantially the same as the first total dimension.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for enabling secure content decryption within a set-top box are described. The method includes performance of security authentication of a content driver by a content decryption component. Security authentication is performed in order to verify an identity of the content driver as a secure content driver. Next, the content decryption component receives an encrypted content stream from the secure content driver. Once received, the content decryption component performs integrity authentication of a run-time image of the secure content driver. Finally, while integrity authentication of the secure content driver is verified, the content decryption component streams decrypted content to the secure content driver to enable playback of the decrypted content to a user.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide for generation of SMI from ACPI ASL control method code to execute complex tasks including, but not limited to, transferring or searching through large amounts of data dynamically. Instead of executing certain tasks using limited ASL functionality, an SMI is generated in an ASL code execution path to enable usage of a CPU instruction set accessible to the SMM handler. In particular, an ACPI operation region is defined for an I/O address location capable of triggering an SMI. An ACPI control method accesses the SMI generation I/O address location to generate an SMI during ASL code execution when a predefined complex task is encountered, thus enabling the SMI handler code to advantageously execute the complex task.

Abstract: A method of and an apparatus for designing a test environment providing reliable test signal integrity, and of evaluating performance of the test environment and an electronic device during testing of the electronic device. A virtual test environment is created emulating an actual test environment in which the electronic device is to be tested. A virtual calibration of the virtual test environment may be performed, to more closely emulate the actual test environment. A virtual device emulating the actual electronic device is implanted into the virtual test environment, and that virtual device is stimulated with an input test signal emulating the actual input signal that is applied to the actual electronic device in the actual test environment. The integrity of the input test signal and the resulting output signal is evaluated.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are described for specifying arbitrary words in a rule-based grammar, such as a context-free grammar. A wildcard identifier is used in a context-free grammar file in place of a predefined category of words. Artificial phoneme combinations that represent generic words in a speech engine's vocabulary database, and that represent pronunciations of the predefined category of words are defined by rules. A speech engine uses the artificial phoneme combinations to determine acceptable words to listen to, and generates a results object comprising generic words corresponding to the artificial phoneme combinations, as well as non-generic words that do not exist in a given CFG, where the generic and non-generic words exist in the speech engine's vocabulary database. The word having the highest confidence level that is not a generic word is selected as the word most likely to have been spoken by the user.