Abstract: A system and method for mitigating microphone hiss may obtain a frequency spectrum characteristic for a microphone. A microphone that has limited dynamic range may create microphone hiss in an output signal. The microphone hiss may prevent a reproduction of a sound field, represented in an output signal of the microphone, from being perceived as a natural environment. The microphone frequency spectrum may be obtained using static measurements or calculated dynamically. A virtual noise floor may be calculated responsive to the microphone frequency spectrum and a desired noise floor. Gain coefficients may be calculated responsive to the output signal of the microphone. The gain coefficients may be calculated to mitigate undesirable signal content including background noise and echoes. The calculated gain coefficients may be modified responsive to the virtual noise floor. The modified gain coefficients may allow a reproduction of the sound field to be perceived as a natural environment.

Abstract: Methods are provided for monitoring and adjusting performance of a mobile computing device having a windowing system. The windowing system is advantageously employed for both purposes. It generates performance data related to an application executed by a processor of the device and provides the performance data to a DFVS module of the device, which in turn determines the operating point of the device based on that data. As a consequence, the DFVS refrains from scaling-down the operating frequency of the processor in certain cases wherein idleness of the processor might provoke such a scale-down by a DVFS module that was informed only of application-agnostic performance data. The avoidance of inappropriate scale-downs may, for instance, improve the perceived smoothness of a progression of images presented on a display unit of the device.

Abstract: A communication system includes a front-end audio gateway or bridge and a hands-free device. An automatic speech recognition platform accessible to the hands-free device provides or makes available one or more preprocessing schemes and/or acoustic models to the front-end audio gateway or bridge. The preprocessing schemes or acoustic models can be identified by or provided before a connection is established between the front-end audio gateway and the automatic speech recognition platform, when a connection occurs between the front-end audio gateway and the automatic speech recognition platform, and/or during a speech recognition session.

Abstract: A system and method for modal progress dialog may provide progress feedback to a user when an application accesses or uses system resources on a computing platform. The application may access or use the system resource by invoking an operation via a system interface. Execution of the application may be blocked pending receiving a result of the system resource operation. The progress feedback may be provided by the system interface without the involvement of the application. The progress feedback may include displaying a progress dialog. The progress dialog may be displayed in a window associated with the application. The progress dialog may include a visual indication of a degree of completion of the system resource operation. The progress dialog may mitigate a user misinterpreting delays in completion of the system resource operation as misoperation or failure of the application.

Abstract: Personalization of a mobile device, including receiving at the mobile device a unique code; selecting, from a plurality of personalization policies stored on the mobile device a personalization policy that corresponds to the unique code; and storing the selected personalization policy in a persistent protected storage element of the mobile device. Customizing a mobile device, including determining at the mobile device a unique code; selecting, from a plurality of customized data sets stored on the mobile device a data set that corresponds to the unique code; and activating the selected data set on the mobile device.

Abstract: A noise estimation control system may limit increases of a stored background noise estimate in response to a detected noise feedback situation. The system receives an input audio signal detected within a space, and a reference audio signal that is transmitted by a speaker as an aural signal into the space. A signal processor processes the input audio signal and the reference audio signal to determine a coherence value based on an amount of the aural signal that is included in the input audio signal. The signal processor also calculates an amount to adjust the stored background noise estimate based on the coherence value and a determined background noise level of the input audio signal.

Abstract: In a system and method for reproducing a sound field the orientation of a computing device may be detected. Several orientation indications may be used to detect the computing device orientation. The detected orientation may be relative to a sound field that is a spatial representation of an audible environment associated with the computing device. Audio transducers associated with the computing device may be selected in order to reproduce the sound field based on the detected orientation. A received encoding may be processed and reproduced with the selected audio transducers.

Abstract: In a system and method for maintaining the spatial stability of a sound field a background noise estimate may be estimated for each of a first signal and a second signal. A first gain coefficient may be calculated responsive to the first audio signal and the background noise estimate of the first audio signal. A second gain coefficient may be calculated responsive to the second signal and the background noise estimate of the second signal. The gain coefficients may be calculated using one or more gain coefficient calculators. A common gain coefficient may be selected from one of the first gain coefficient and the second gain coefficient. The selected common gain coefficient may be one that results in a least amount of audio signal modification and may be applied to each of the first signal and the second signal.

Abstract: In a system and method that provides a remote point of view, a user views an image (e.g., captured by an imaging device such as a camera) on a display. The position of the user's head relative to display device is detected and the image is processed in response to a ‘point of view’ derived from the position of the user's head relative to the display device. A change in the position of the user's head relative to the display device may be detected and the image may be reprocessed in response to a revised ‘point of view’ derived from the change in position of the user's head relative to the display device.

Abstract: A system and method for on-demand user control may detect a user's intend to interact with a currently undisplayed user control. The user's intent may include, for example, a hand approaching a touch-sensitive screen device. In response to the detected intent, the currently undisplayed user control may be displayed. The choice and location of the displayed user control may be derived from a location associated with the detected intent. The user control may be displayed progressively giving the appearance of morphing, emerging or being extruded from the display screen. The user may interact with the displayed user control using, for example, gestures on the touch-sensitive screen device.

Abstract: In an adaptive phase discovery system a first audio signal is received via a first microphone and a second signal is received via a second microphone. Corresponding audio frames of the first and second signals are each transformed into the frequency domain and a plurality of frequency sub-bands are generated. A phase is determined for each frequency sub-band in each signal. Instantaneous phase differences are determined between the signals at each of the frequency sub-bands. Lower frequency instantaneous phase differences are filtered over time to determine current phase differences at lower frequencies. When SNR is high in lower frequency sub-bands, lower frequency sub-band phase differences are tracked to the higher frequency sub-bands. The tracked higher frequency phase differences are filtered over time to determine phase differences for the current frame. The phase differences may be used to rotate phases in each sub-band and sum signals and/or to reject off-axis signals.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for playing a media stream while a media system starts up. Media hardware, such as a display controller, may play media. A media driver may initialize the media hardware. A media module may receive the media stream from a media source. The media module and the display driver may start up before startup of the media system completes. The media module may provide the media stream directly or indirectly to the media hardware before and after startup of the media system completes without an interruption in playing of the media stream.

Abstract: A system and method provides a user interface for navigation context. The user interface may present visual indications to a user of where the user has navigated to in a hierarchy of the user interface. The representations of the multiple levels of the user interface navigated by the user may be partially overlaid. Portions of the previously navigated levels of the user interface may be partially non-overlaid in order show a path that the user has previously navigated to reach a current level in the user interface. The representation of the path navigated through the levels of the user interface provides a context to the user. The representation of the context by non-overlapping portions of previously navigated levels may provide for efficient use of limited screen area available on, for example, mobile computing devices.

Abstract: A system makes application image specific brightness and/or contrast adjustments. The system may include a light controller and an application that controls an application image. The light controller may receive a light adjustment request from the application or a different application. The light adjustment request may be a request for an adjustment that is specific to an application image in a display area. The light controller may set the brightness and/or the contrast of the application image differently than a portion of the display area that excludes the application image. The light controller may set the brightness and/or the contrast of the application image based on the light adjustment request.

Abstract: A method and system on an electronic device which uses speech recognition to initiate a communication from a mobile device having access to contact information for a number of contacts. The method includes: receiving through an audio input interface a voice input for initiating a communication, extracting from the voice input a type of communication and at least part of a contact name, and outputting, to an output interface, a selectable list of all contacts from the contact information which have the part of the contact name and which have a contact address associated with the type of communication. The mobile device may also be configured to access remote contact information from a remote server.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing applications to computing devices, where each application is provided with a user interface which is suited for the display characteristics of the computing device. The user interface data is correlated with an identifier associated to the display characteristics of the computing device. The user interface data is provided such that the same executable file may have different user interfaces.

Abstract: The present invention relates generally to computer graphics, and more specifically to methods of, and systems for, configuring, controlling and accessing multiple hardware graphics layers that are used to compose a single video display. One aspect of the invention is broadly defined as follows: in a computer environment including a software application and an operating system running on a computer, the computer including a graphics card and a video display, the graphics card being operable to render images to the video display. The operating system is operable to: receive draw events; and respond to draw requests from the software application by rendering the draw requests selectively to any of the available hardware layers on the graphics card; whereby the computer environment allows software applications to exploit available hardware layers on the graphics card.

Abstract: An application services interface system includes an automatic speech recognition control application program interface that receives a request for a recognition session from an application-based automatic speech recognition controller. An automatic speech recognition control engine directs the performance of an automatic speech recognition module. The automatic speech recognition module compares a spoken utterance to a vocabulary of active grammars to generate recognition results through limited data interchanges or exchanges.

Abstract: Information is shared between processing entities that each have a corresponding private data area by placing data corresponding to information for a first one of the private data areas for a first one of the processing entities directly into a second one of the private data areas for a second one of the processing entities without placing the data in an intervening shared data area and without directly invoking a system administrator-like entity. In addition, these private data areas can be pre-populated with a plurality of directories that each have a one-to-one correspondence to a particular predetermined information recipient and then providing a link to a given one of the recipients as corresponds to a given one of the directories when information is placed in that directory to provide the corresponding predetermined information recipient with at least read access to the information.

Abstract: A system and method wherein an intermediary process provides access to a restricted object associated with a source process on behalf of a destination process. The intermediary process may be a trusted process that is available as a service to other processes on the computing platform. The intermediary process may assume one or more privileges associated with the source process whereby the restricted object may be accessed by the intermediary process on behalf of the destination process. Secure access to the restricted object and the risk of malicious exploitation are mitigated since the intermediary process is a trusted service that is known to provide specific functionality.