Abstract: Sharing of resources of a device by an application is provided by a video device manager which defines contexts which are collections of logical entities, called a graph, which are used to produce a video composition and which are applied to a single collection of physical entities. One of these logical entities may be an input buffer or first-in first-out memory (FIFO). Another may be an output buffer or FIFO. Other entities may be defined for compression, decompression, video encoders and decoders, mixers and filters. Each entity also has memory locations to which it has access. An entity may adopt memory locations of another entity if the memory locations are accessible y the entity. Such buffer adoption reduces data copying by virtual devices.

Abstract: Recoloring an object may be performed by calculating an offset in the hue, saturation and luminance between the source and destination colors. The source image is then adjusted using these offsets to produce the desired color.

Abstract: A dockable equipment container includes an outer shell of a durable material and an inner metallic container. The inner container is suspended within the outer shell by blocks of energy absorbent material, such as SORBATHANE. The dockable equipment container further includes a connector at one end, which is covered by a protective door. When mated with external equipment, the protective door is moved to an open position by an alignment device, such as alignment pins, pressing against an end of the protective door. The alignment pins mate with corresponding alignment holes for ensuring that the connector properly mates with a corresponding connector in the external equipment. The dockable equipment container may contain various electronic equipment, which communicates with the external equipment through the connector. The electronic equipment may include disk drives, which are protected from the environment and from shock by the construction of the dockable equipment container.

Abstract: Random access to arbitrary images, whether frames or fields, of a video segment compressed using both interframe and intraframe techniques may be enhanced by including state information, for decoding and display, at appropriate points in the compressed bitstream to enable random access to each intraframe compressed image. The state information may be inserted during compression or by processing the bitstream of compressed data. An image index also may be generated that maps each temporal image in a decompressed output image sequence to an offset in the compressed bitstream of the data used to decode the image. The index may be created during compression or by processing the bitstream of compressed data. To access one or more samples starting with a specified point in time in a decompressed output image sequence, the index is accessed using the specified point in time to identify another sample in the decompressed output image sequence for which data is used to produce the specified sample.

Abstract: Audio associated with a video program, such as an audio track or live or recorded commentary, may be analyzed to recognize or detect one or more predetermined sound patterns, such as words or sound effects. The recognized or detected sound patterns may be used to enhance video processing, by controlling video capture and/or delivery during editing, or to facilitate selection of clips or splice points during editing.

Abstract: By limiting the extent to which the degree of quantization is lowered to increase the amount of compressed data, problems of data rate overshoots and image quality degradation in multi layer composites may be avoided. In particular, when a more complex image occurs after a simple image, the quantization used to compress the complex image will not cause as large of a change in the total amount of compressed data. Recovery from such a change also may occur more quickly. Where quantization tables are adjusted using a scaling factor, a limit on the scaling factor may be established such that the target data rate is not achieved for simple images. When rendering multi layer composites, this limit is such that recompression of previously compressed data does not result in additional loss of information. As a result, degradation of image quality in each layer of the composite is avoided.

Abstract: Multiple data processing devices may be interconnected through a switching mechanism while simultaneously conveying flow control information over the interconnect. Mechanisms are provided to ensure that the flow of data to and from interconnected devices has completed prior to changing the configuration of the switch. The switch may be a circuit switch, such as a crossbar switch, or a packet switch or a memory. The switch may be a separate device or may be part of either an input section or an output section of a data processing device. The configuration of the switch may be defined by command data loaded from a central controller, host computer, or other device connected to the switch, such as a sending device or a receiving device with a full duplex connection to the switch. The loading of a new configuration in the switch may be controlled by command data from a sending device, receiving device, or host computer, or by a controller that is responsive to a boundary signal transmitted over the interconnect.

Abstract: When processing a time varying effect that positions an input image into an interlaced output image, the input image is filtered first. The filtered input image then is positioned in the output image by mapping one line in the output image to one line in the input image space. The input image may be filtered once and the filtered image may be used to create all output fields for the effect. Thus, the overhead per output field used to create the output field from the input image is reduced in comparison to filtered subpixel positioning. In addition, equipment that is capable of performing only unfiltered subpixel positioning may use the filtered input image to reduce interlaced artifacts.

Abstract: An encoding/decoding method and apparatus encodes an input data stream for compression purposes, and decodes the compressed data stream for use. The encoding process identifies trends in the data stream, and stores information about the trends in an encoded block. The trends may include runs, in which sequential, corresponding gropus in the data stream have constant values. The trends may also include ramps, where sequential, corresponging components in the data stream increase or decrease by a linear value. An encoded block may also be provided to transfer raw data. The encoded blocks do not store type information describing the type of the component associated with the block. Rather, the decoder infers the type of the components associated with the encoded block according to an original order of components in the data stream, the order of the encoded block in the sequence of encoded blocks and a number of the corresponding components encoded by each of the preceding encoded blocks.

Abstract: Systems and methods for correlating color correction instruction between two color correcting devices are disclosed. The method includes performing a nulling test on a representation a first device has of a known standard and retaining the results of the test. A second color correcting device performs a nulling test on the same known standard and the results of this test are retained. From the results of these two tests a color correction instruction of one of the devices may be converted to a color correction instruction on the other device so that substantially the same color correction effect is achieved.

Abstract: A system has a hierarchical organization for modifying and applying tools for manipulating data types. The system has a user interface for displaying the hierarchical organization, an inspector for viewing and modifying an internal structure of the tools and a button for launching each of the inspectors.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for generating at a computerized workstation a special effect that is derived by numerical processing of the digital sample values associated with an analog signal. The analog signal is partitioned into wavefragments which are crossfaded at both a micro and macro level to generate the effect.

Abstract: A user-interface (UI) device allows the assignment of multiple parameter values to a multiple-selection of objects through a familiar UI mechanism. A multiple selection of objects is made. A object inspector is opened such as would normally be used to enter single values to be applied to properties of all the selected objects. For example, a group of graphical objects is selected and a line-weight parameter is adjusted to make the lines of the objects heavier. According to the invention, the same type of inspector device may be used to apply multiple values by providing for the indication of a function definition instead of an explicit value in a field normally used to enter a single value. The text boxes normally used for entry of values are provided with the ability to accept symbolic notation, e.g, a string, to indicate value ranges instead ofjust discrete values.

Abstract: Noise is reduced in a disk drive enclosure by using vibration damping materials on the inside surface of the enclosure. These materials and their placement on the inside surface of the enclosure reduce noise without thermally insulating the disk drive. A temperature controlled fan may be used to remove heat by convection while generating a minimum amount of noise. The connection between the disk drive and the external connector of the disk drive enclosure is made more reliable by using a printed circuit board instead of a cable. Because a printed circuit board has a fixed location and fixed layout, variability among disk drive enclosures can be minimized. Also, errors in manufacturing of the disk drive enclosure can be reduced. To facilitate the use of the disk drive in a stripe set, the disk drive enclosure has a set of mechanical interlocks that permit the enclosures to be stacked vertically.

Abstract: The problems of latency, flow control and data loss, and data movement within a client system memory are solved in a distributed multimedia system so as to enable real-time transmission of broadcast quality media data over the network. Latency is reduced by an estimation by the server of client needs. Data loss is prevented and flow control is provided by permitting the server to send only as much information as the network interface can reliably receive. Data movement is minimized by copying data directly from the network interface to memory in a display processor or audio processor.

Abstract: A system, method and product are provided for resolution-independent image translation. Such system, method and product convey, through the use of a resolution-independent coordinate system, a description of location, shape, color, spline, and other distinguishing characteristics of images, including edited effects, rendered on a low-resolution image. The low-resolution images upon which the effects are imposed may be user-selected without converting high-resolution, non-digital, images into high-resolution, digital, images. Such resolution-independent information based on low-resolution images may be applied automatically, ie., without human intervention, to reproduce the special effects on a corresponding high-resolution image. In a typical application, the user-selected, low-resolution, images upon which the effects are imposed are analog or digital video images. Also typically, the corresponding high-resolution images upon which the effects are automatically reproduced are film images.

Abstract: A digital multimedia newsroom production system allows users of the system to create, browse and catalog multimedia assets. The system includes a multimedia capture and encoding system that captures multimedia data, and substantially simultaneously provides a first compressed version of the multimedia data having a first resolution, and a second compressed version of the multimedia data having a second resolution that is different than the first resolution; a multimedia storage system, coupled to the multimedia capture and encoding system, that stores multimedia information including the first and second compressed versions of the multimedia data; and a video editing and playback system coupled to the multimedia storage system.