Abstract: A method and apparatus transcode an image. An encoded input bitstream of the image is analyzed to obtain a structure of the encoded input bitstream, in which the image includes a region-of-interest and a background region, and in which the encoded input bitstream is a stream of packets. A first quality value for the region-of-interest and a second quality value for the background region are determined. An encoded output bitstream is composed from a subset of the packets selected from the encoded input bitstream according to the structure, in which the subset of packets includes a first set of packets corresponding to the region-of-interest having the first quality value, a second set of packets corresponding to the background region and having second quality value, and empty packets.

Abstract: A system and method generates a progressive codestream representing an image. The codestream of packets representing an image is parsed to obtain a parsed packets and metadata for each parsed packet. The parsed packets are decomposed to decomposed packets according to the metadata and a progressive transmission policy. The decomposed packets are assigned to sequentially arranged segments according to the metadata and the transmission policy, in which each segment includes a header, and in which an ordering of the packet in the codestream is different than an ordering of the decomposed packets in the plurality of segments. A client composes the decomposed packets according to the header in the segments to progressively reconstruct the image in the client.

Abstract: A method presents a rank-ordered result set for a probabilistic input query. Terms in the query are recognized and a probability is assigned to each term. The probability expresses a confidence in correctly recognizing the term. A database is searched for items corresponding to the probabilistic query using the terms and the assigned probabilities to produce a result set. The result set is then highlighted according to the probabilities and presented to a user as a hierarchical graph, where a level in the hierarchy represents an ordering ranking of the result set.

Abstract: A method for distributed automatic speech recognition enables a user to request an audio web page from a speech server by using a browser of a speech client connected to the speech server via a communications network. A determination is then made whether persistent user parameters are stored for the user in a parameter file on the speech client accessible by the speech server. If false, the user parameters are generated in the speech client, and stored in the parameter file. If true, the user parameters are directly read from the parameter file by the speech server. In either case, the user parameters are set in a speech recognition engine of the speech server to perform an audio dialog between the speech client and the speech server.

Abstract: A message queuing system is provided that saves and stores messages and their state in an efficient single file on a single disk to enable rapid recovery from server failures. The single disk, single file storage system into which messages and their states are stored eliminates writes to three different disks, the data disk, the index structure disk and the log disk. The single disk, single file storage is made possible by clustering all information together in a contiguous space on the same disk. The result is that all writes are contained in one sweeping motion of the write head in which the write head moves only in one direction and only once to find the area where it needs to start writing messages and their states are stored.