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 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: In a magneto-optical storage device, a digitally adjustable preamplifier stage balances polarization signal levels through use of a digital compensation value. A separate digital compensation value is stored for the signals corresponding to each detector head. Each time a different detector head is activated, the digital compensation value for the polarization signals corresponding to that head is accessed. The accessed digital compensation value is input to a digital to analog converter (DAC), which produces a voltage for setting the gain of the adjustable amplifier.

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 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 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.

Abstract: A system and method to manipulate information in an audio decoder, the system having a demultiplexer to separate the information into packets of audio data and packet parameters, a control manager for controlling the packet parameters, and an audio decoder to manipulate the packets of audio data in response to the packet parameters. The invention also includes a control processor for passing host parameters to the control manager and a digital-to-analog converter to convert the audio information from a digital signal to an analog signal.

Abstract: Curvilinear servo sector patterns are produced on a master media by determining a series of offsets between a radially aligned reference and the desired curvilinear servo sector and expressing each offset as a delay that can be expressed in settings for controlling a master writer. Incorporation of the delay into the master writer allows a curvilinear servo sector pattern to be produced using data mapping that is ordinarily used for the radially aligned servo sector pattern. Thus, curvilinear servo sector patterns with a desired resolution are produced without increasing computational overhead or memory requirements, or decreasing throughput. The delay can be converted into control settings such as sector delay, clock cycle delay and residual fractional delay settings that each represent a portion of the delay.

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: A system and method for efficiently designing integrated circuits provides a verification manager for verifying an integrated circuit design, a synthesis manager for synthesizing the integrated circuit design, a backend manager for implementing the integrated circuit design, and a processor for simultaneously controlling the verification manager, the synthesis manager, and the backend manager to create the integrated circuit design. The system and method generates a series of regression checkpoints controlled by the verification manager, and a series of timing checkpoints controlled by the synthesis manager to facilitate and expedite the integrated circuit design procedure.

Abstract: A method for reducing noise distortions in a speech recognition system comprises a feature extractor that includes a noise-suppressor, one or more time cosine transforms, and a normalizer. The noise-suppressor preferably performs a spectral subtraction process early in the feature extraction procedure. The time cosine transforms preferably operate in a centered-mode to each perform a transformation in the time domain. The normalizer calculates and utilizes normalization values to generate normalized features for speech recognition. The calculated normalization values preferably include mean values, left variances and right variances.

Abstract: A system and method for multi-level context switching in an electronic network comprises a control state machine configured to implement a data priority scheme, a return address generator configured to hold and release return addresses for interrupted instruction modules in accordance with the data priority scheme and context information from the electronic network, and a processor configured to process data from the electronic network in accordance with the data priority scheme and the context information. Receive registers stores data received from the electronic network. The control state machine includes a switch address generator and a program counter select. The switch address generator outputs a switch address, which is an address for a first instruction for a selected-context instruction module. The return address generator holds and releases the return addresses, which are addresses of next consecutive instructions, when an instruction module is interrupted for a context switch.

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 refined approximation to the experimentally derived individual masking spread function, which allows superior performance when used to calculate the overall amplitudes and frequencies that may be ignored. The present invention also includes an enhanced tonal component determiner, which allows for the more accurate identification of significant tonal components.