Abstract: A network interface for a connection-based communication network has support for remote operations with reply, such as a remote read operation, that bypass host computer interaction. Such a network interface has support for general message processing operations which bypass host processor involvement. Message processing is low level processing of message between the host computer and the network. Such processing is performed on transmission in response to control information provided by the host and is performed on reception in response to control information included in incoming messages. Message processing includes low latency remote read and remote write operations, message filtering, and message demultiplexing. Such a network interface handles incoming messages containing destination control information indicating an operation to be performed, and possibly one or more operands.

Abstract: A system generates and arranges images depicting volume data using opacity nd color transfer functions for review and selection by a user. In volume rendering, an opacity and/or color transfer function is applied to three-dimensional scalar field data. The transfer functions have different characteristics represented as input parameters, such as control points of the function. The input parameters are then processed to determine images of the volumes and corresponding output vectors. The output vectors can be pixels in the images, or other characteristics of interest. The input vectors are selected to provide a dispersed set of output vectors. A large number of random input vectors can be generated and then culled to leave a dispersed set of output vectors. Alternatively, a set of randomly generated input vectors of a predetermined size are randomly perturbed, to further disperse the output vectors. The output vectors are displayed so that positions represent distances between the output vectors.

Abstract: A system for creating lighting for a photograph generates a large number of mages based upon structures determined from the photograph and randomly selected light positions, types and directions. One or more photographs are analyzed to determine the three-dimensional structures in the photographs. These structures are represented as gray surfaces, to which lighting is applied. The images are culled to provide a set of images which best spans the lighting space represented by the large number of images. The culling process is iterative; at each iteration, the image which is most dissimilar from a nearest neighbor in the selected set is added to the selected set. The images are organized in a hierarchical structure. A user interface allows the user to review and select images in the hierarchical structure. The images selected by the user are combined to create a final image with composite lighting. The lighting specifications can be saved for future reference by the lighting system or other applications.

Abstract: A system and method for creating lighting for an image generates a large number of images based upon randomly selected light positions, types and directions. The images are then culled to reduce the number of images to be reviewed by a user. The images are culled to provide a set of images which best spans the lighting space represented by the large number of images. The culling process is iterative; at each iteration, the image which is most dissimilar from a nearest neighbor in the selected set is added to the selected set. The images are organized in a hierarchical structure to ease review by the user. The hierarchical structure separates the images into multiple levels. At each level, the images are separated into sets of equal size. Each set includes images which are most similar. An average image from each set is picked as the visual representation for that set. In creating the hierarchical structure, a single image may or may not be included in different subsets.

Abstract: In a cell switched network such as an ATM network, a connection admission ntrol system is provided to establish connections which guarantee user requested end-to-end cell transmission delay bounds. The subject system uses, a bit stream approach to model the worst case cell generation pattern of a connection and provides mechanisms to construct new bit streams after the original ones are delayed, multiplexed, demultiplexed, or filtered within a network. Given arriving bit streams at a queueing point, a system is provided to obtain the worst-case cell queueing delay which is used to check if a connection can be established with the requested delay bounds. In one embodiment, the subject system uses the CBR/VBR traffic models as defined in the ATM Forum Traffic Management Specification Version 4.0 to derive the worst-case bit stream for a connection and calculates the worst case queueing delay based on the conventional static priority First In First Out, or FIFO, cell transmission scheduling at switches.

Abstract: In the subject invention, source information indicating an author, designer r other source of a three-dimensional computer model is embedded in the low-order digits or bits of floating point values representing vertices in the model. The changes in these low-order bits are undetectable visually because the lower-order bits provide more accuracy than is needed to display an image. In one embodiment, the first floating point value representing the model has its least significant digits in its mantissa set to a code representing the first character of the source information. The second floating point value in the model has its least significant digits in the mantissa set to a code representing the second character of the source information. With the third and following floating point values, a similar pattern is followed. Additional other methods may be used and a variety of pattern making and encoding techniques would allow someone to determine the source of a model and whether it was modified.

Abstract: A context-based dictionary entry access system includes selecting and rang an entry based on the part-of-speech assigned to the given word in a sentence. The entries corresponding to the word in context are first selected, followed by availability of entries that are not relevant to the current context. The part of speech of the given word in context is selected based on the utilization of a part-of-speech tagger such that only those entries are selected in which the corresponding word makes syntactic sense in the sentence.

Abstract: A system is provided for eliminating time-consuming, unnecessary transfers f data over networks such as the the World Wide Web while at the same time guaranteeing timeliness of the data used by recipients. Timeliness is assured by immediately sending small data-notification messages whenever data becomes relevant or changes. Efficiency is guaranteed by transmitting the data itself only when requested by the recipient of a data-notification message. In particular, recipients are alerted to the presence of, and changes in, data they might use by data-notification messages containing a timestamp, the data location, and a checksum. Based on the timestamp, the recipient can determine whether the data-notification message contains timely information or should be ignored. Based on the data location and checksum, the recipient can determine whether it already has the current version of the data in question, for example stored in a cache.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a discourse manager which permits effective collaboration between a user and a computer agent. The system operates according to a theory of collaborative discourse between humans, with the computer agent playing the same role as a human collaborator. The present invention does not concern the internal operation of a particular agent, but relates rather to the structures for managing a collaborative discourse between any type of agent and the user. The discourse manager includes a memory in which application-specific recipes are stored and a memory in which the discourse state is stored. Each recipe specifies a set of actions or subtasks which are performed to achieve an objective. The discourse state includes structures to track the agent's and user's current objectives, a selected recipe for each objective, and completed steps in each recipe.

Abstract: An asynchronous transfer mode computer network system in which a first coter executes a first plurality of application programs, and a second computer executes a second plurality of application programs. The asynchronous transfer mode network connects the first computer to the second computer, for supporting communication between application programs on the first computer and application programs on the second computer. An application program on the first computer and an application program on the second computer are assigned an application channel having a period, a message size and a deadline. A plurality of application channels are assigned to a single virtual channel on the asynchronous transfer mode network, wherein the virtual channel has a bandwidth determined as a function of a sum of the message sizes of the application channels and the larger deadline of the application channels. Messages with an earliest deadline are transmitted firstover their assigned virtual channel.

Abstract: In a grammar checking system in which a sentence is first tagged as to pa of speech, the probability of the sequence of the parts of speech being correct is utilized to correct improper use of troublesome words, especially those identical sounding words which are spelled differently. The system corrects word usage based not on the probability of the entire sentence being correct but rather on the probability of the sequence of the parts of speech being correct. As part of the subject invention, the parts of speech sequence probability is utilized in part of speech sequence verification, underlying spelling recovery, auxiliary verb correction, determiner correction, and in a context-sensitive dictionary lookup.

Abstract: A system is provided to automatically control input permission when multi users and/or software agents interact with a single, shared application in a window-based computing environment, and to indicate to all users which user or software agent currently is providing input or seeking input permission. The system operates by providing each user and agent with a specialized cursor icon that is used for displaying input-permission status and for requesting and relinquishing input-permission. Cursors have three modes with distinct appearances indicating whether the corresponding user or agent has, does not have, or desires input permission. Cursors are replicated on all displays, so that all users can at all times easily see who has or desires input permission. Users interact with the input-permission system by moving and clicking their mouse. Software agents achieve the same effects by sending control requests directly to a software interface provided as part of the invention.

Abstract: A system assures smooth motion in a distributed virtual reality environment y categorizing the information to be transmitted as to the predictability of future motion and applying appropriate smoothing algorithms based upon knowledge of what the future motion is likely to be. The system switches between a linear interpolation algorithm for less predictable data and a Catmull-Rom spline for more predictable data.

Abstract: A network protocol and interface using direct deposit messaging provides low overhead communication in a network of multi-user computers. This system uses both sender-provided and receiver-provided information to process received messages and to deposit data directly in memory and to conditionally interrupt a host processor based on control information. Message processing is separated into data delivery, which bypasses the host processor and operating system, and message actions which may or may not require host processor interaction. In this protocol, a message includes an indication of the operation desired by the sender, an operand specified by the sender and an operand which refers to some information stored at the receiver. The receiver ensures that the desired action is permitted and then, if the action is permitted, performs the action according to both the operand specified by the sender and the state of the receiver.

Abstract: Methods of adaptively encoding a sequence of frames of image information resenting multiple video objects in which the video object information is digitally encoded as to texture, motion and shape characteristics to produce code bits at a variable rate for transmission via a buffer having a fixed bit rate output, and a target number of bits is estimated for encoding video objects in a video object plane and the target is distributed and quantization parameters are adjusted according to header bits associated with a previous frame.

Abstract: A system for simultaneously creating similar constructive solid geometry G) representations for multiple objects in bit map or voxel form iteratively creates, mutates and optimizes a population of potential CSG representations of the objects. The system includes a first part which creates and revises two identical populations of CSG representations. Initially, the populations are randomly generated. Thus, each CSG tree includes a random number of primitives of different types, sizes and positions. The primitives are randomly organized in a tree structure which includes randomly selected boolean operators at the nodes. The trees are then modified through an evolutionary process to improve the CSG representations of the objects. Corresponding trees in each population are randomly mutated in the same manner to form new trees. Mutations can include (1) changes in types of primitives, (2) changes in a subtree structure, (3) addition of new subtrees, and (4) deletions of subtrees.

Abstract: A compact convenient hand-held, accelerometer-based computer control device s utilized to control on-screen animated characters presented by a computer-driven display in which the movement, persona, or style of the character is controlled through movement of the device in a predetermined pattern which results in recognizable patterns of accelerations that are detected to give the on-screen character a particular persona or style determined by the user. Thus, the system requires only a series of easily learned hand movement patterns for corresponding character control. In an alternative embodiment, once a movement has been determined, the style or emotional content of the movement is specified directly from gross accelerometer output without pattern matching. In another embodiment, the outputs of two or more accelerometers are combined, with the combined waveforms constituting a language for graphical object control.

Abstract: A system is provided to enhance the capability of a display system which format digital images of different types from multiple input data streams for a high-resolution screen of arbitrary shape and size, with the display system adapted to receive independent data streams from different data sources at the same time and control how and where the images from the data streams are presented on the screen in a type-independent manner. The screen layout is controlled by an active screen format that specifies which data streams are to be received, where on the screen to present the images and how to present the images. Type-independent data formatting is accomplished by choosing the preprocessing handler/transformation handler pair suitable for the type of a data stream and activating the handlers so that they restore images from the data stream and transform them to fit on the preallocated portion of the screen on the fly.

Abstract: A packet based data transmission system includes a flexible optimized nonocking transmit interface that incorporates optimized buffer modes, dynamic and static chaining, streaming and the utilization of small packet formats. Static chaining refers to connecting together the linked list for successive packets for the same transmit channel or virtual channel. Dynamic chaining refers to means by which the network interface performs this chaining automatically, thereby solving a blocking problem. On the transmit side, streaming refers to initiating the transmission of packet data before the entire packet data has been presented to the interface. This, in turn, permits more rapid recycling of the buffer space. On the receive side, streaming refers to initiating the processing of packet data before the entire packet has been received.

Abstract: A system is disclosed for computing an initial partition of a graph comprising nodes and the edges that connect the nodes. In one embodiment this initial partition is presented for subsequent use by the Kernighan-Lin system of graph partitioning. The Subject System uses a combination of a seed-growth heuristic and a stochastic-search process to compute an initial partition. The seed-growth heuristic builds a partition by iteratively augmenting an initial set of seed nodes. The search process searches for good sets of seed nodes to use. The resulting combination of seed-growth heuristic, stochastic-search process, and the Kernighan-Lin algorithm constitutes a superior system for partitioning graphs. The Subject System can be applied to graph-partitioning problems that arise in circuit design, computer architecture, routing in computer networks, database design, distributed and parallel processing, and many other domains.