Abstract: A method and apparatus for adaptive bit allocation and hybrid lossless entropy encoding in a lossy compression system. The invention includes three components: (1) a transform stage to decorrelate image data into a baseband and multiple subbands, (2) a quantization stage to quantize the resulting transform coefficients, and (3) a lossless entropy coder stage to encode the quantized indexes. In the preferred embodiment, the transform stage uses a wavelet transform algorithm. The quantization stage adaptively estimates values for parameters defining an approximation between quantization size and the logarithm of quantization error, and recursively calculates the optimal quantization size for each band to achieve a desired bit rate. The baseband and subbands are transformed into quantization matrices using the corresponding quantization sizes.

Abstract: A mechanism for seanilessly searching and accessing information available through the Internet and other resources is disclosed. The present invention maintains a database of file objects available from numerous sources. The present invention updates the database periodically to ensure the accuracy and completeness of it. The present invention also may access and retrieve data from numerous sources when prompted by a sige and simple command initiated by the user. The user is shielded from the quirks and intricacies of various information sources.

Abstract: A system and method for integrating an on-line service community with a foreign service such as the Internet World Wide Web. To take advantage of the present invention, on-line service subscribers access a membership module to complete a membership process in which they join communities each of which represents a specific area of interest. The present invention operates as an extension to a user's preferred Web browser and is manifested as a toolbar comprised of control buttons and a viewer on a computer user's screen. By interacting with the control buttons of the toolbar and the menus of the viewer, on-line service content is delivered to the user in response to the URLs specified by the user as he or she browses the Web. In addition, control buttons on the toolbar present opportunities for interacting with other community members.

Abstract: A system for customizing content and presentation of content for computer users is disclosed. The system monitors and records a user's navigational choices to determine the user's needs and preferences for subsequent computer displays. Displays are customized in accordance with the user's needs and preferences. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an electronic marketing and shopping system accessible via the WWW is described. The shopping environment--including the opportunities presented to the shopper (content) and the appearance of the displays (presentation of content)--is customized according to the shopper's preferences. The functions of data collection and display customization are performed automatically by the electronic shopping system. To customize the environment, various attributes of Web pages or other displays provided by participating merchants are modified as they are accessed by shoppers using the system.

Abstract: A system which processes information to identify product choices within a product domain for a user, presents structured data concerning attributes of products in the product domain to the user in a readily understandable and efficient manner, allowing the user to make the best choice according to his or her own personal profile. A user interface presents a sequence of input prompts to the user to gather preference and requirement data for a plurality of attributes of products in the product domain. A decision engine is coupled to the user interface and filters the product domain to present a set of products according to the gathered preference and requirement data as product choices to the user. The preference data comprises a variable associated with particular attributes specified by the user to have a degree of relevance to a product choice in the product domain but not an absolute requirement.

Abstract: A system is disclosed in which a user's personal computer may access a variety of information regarding products and services, through a computer network, in real time. The computer network collects product/service information from various sources, such as gift stores, clothiers, computer dealers, etc. and formats the information in a recognizable manner to enable the information to be viewed by a user at the user's personal computer. The network performs a single search from a single search command from the user.

Abstract: An audio coder/decoder ("codec") that is suitable for real-time applications due to reduced computational complexity, and a novel adaptive sparse vector quantization (ASVQ) scheme and algorithms for general purpose data quantization. The codec provides low bit-rate compression for music and speech, while being applicable to higher bit-rate audio compression. The codec includes an in-path implementation of psychoacoustic spectral masking, and frequency domain quantization using the novel ASVQ scheme and algorithms specific to audio compression. More particularly, the inventive audio codec employs frequency domain quantization with critically sampled subband filter banks to maintain time domain continuity across frame boundaries. The input audio signal is transformed into the frequency domain in which in-path spectral masking can be directly applied. This in-path spectral masking usually results in sparse vectors.

Abstract: An audio coder/decoder ("codec") that is suitable for real-time applications due to reduced computational complexity, and a novel adaptive sparse vector quantization (ASVQ) scheme and algorithms for general purpose data quantization. The codec provides low bit-rate compression for music and speech, while being applicable to higher bit-rate audio compression. The codec includes an in-path implementation of psychoacoustic spectral masking, and frequency domain quantization using the novel ASVQ scheme and algorithms specific to audio compression. More particularly, the inventive audio codec employs frequency domain quantization with critically sampled subband filter banks to maintain time domain continuity across frame boundaries. The input audio signal is transformed into the frequency domain in which in-path spectral masking can be directly applied. This in-path spectral masking usually results in sparse vectors.

Abstract: A data compression method that uses selective encoding is disclosed. A block of data is compressed using a combination of the LZ77 and Huffman coding techniques. Each compressed block consists of a pair of Huffman code trees that describe the representation of the compressed data part and a compressed data part. Compressed data may consist of literal data that has not been detected as duplicated and length/backward pairs indicating the location of a duplicated string. Compressed data is arranged in a deflate format.

Abstract: A system is disclosed which allows for an electronic discussion group user to communicate with another user who speaks a different language. Machine translators and other software are incorporated to translate messages, thereby creating parallel discussion groups in different languages.

Abstract: A system and method for scheduling temporal data and non-temporal data to create a unified stream of data that includes both the temporal and non-temporal data and for processing the unified data stream. The temporal and non-temporal data is preferably in a compressed format. The system preferably includes a scheduler that takes temporal data (e.g., sound data) and non-temporal data (e.g., image data) and interleaves them together to form the unified data stream. The system also includes a processor that decompresses the compressed image data and produces an output image from both the decompressed image data and any uncompressed image data. The processor also plays the temporal data while it concurrently decompresses the compressed temporal data. The system can handle temporal data in any format, including voice data and MIDI files, as well as any type of image data, including videos and still images.

Abstract: A system is disclosed that integrates through a single client application access to information resources from a proprietary online service and the Internet. Using a single Web-based client, subscribers enter selections regarding the type of information they would like to retrieve. Relevant information is retrieved from the Internet using the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) addressing scheme of the Internet to locate information on the Internet. Relevant information is retrieved from the online service using extensions to the URL addressing scheme. The extensions map to a proprietary protocol used to obtain information resources from the online service. The client application understands the URLs and extended URLs and manages presentation of the information regardless of the source. Using the present invention, subscribers to online services are no longer required to toggle between a Web browser and service provider communication software in order to view content from both locations.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for authenticating one or both of two parties, for example, a user and a host computer. The first party and second party each know the same password. The first party sends a challenge to the second party. The second party generates and sends to the first party a response based on a first function of the password, the first party's challenge, and an extra value unknown to the first party. The first party, which knows only the length of the extra value, then attempts to match the response by using the same function, password, and challenge by cycling through the possible values for the extra value of known format. A method of bi-directional authentication may be achieved by having the first party return to the second party a response using a different function of the password, a preferably different challenge, and the extra value. The second party already knows the input values, including the extra value, and therefore, does not incur the costs associated with learning the extra value.

Abstract: The present invention addresses the critical needs of publishers seeking to create and publish hypermedia content in electronic form across wide area networks ("WAN's") such as the World Wide Web. Toward this end, a client-server development platform is provided for handling the important functions of document authoring, content-based indexing and retrieval of documents, management and control of proprietary assets, and support for developing form-driven interactive services, all in a manner that is uniquely and seamlessly WAN-integrated.

Abstract: A system and method for compressing data, including image data. The image data is formed by a pixel array, the pixel array having target pixels and prior pixels, each prior pixel being located in a position within the pixel array prior to each of the target pixels. The method of the present invention includes compressing the image data to obtain a compressed image. In the compression step, the pixel array is traversed according to a predetermined non-linear two-dimensional traversing pattern. A longest matching prior pixel string, if any, is located for each string of target pixels having a string of matching prior pixels. If no matching prior pixel is found for a target pixel, each such target pixel is characterized as an unmatched pixel. Finally, the compressed image is encoded and may be either transmitted or stored.