Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide method and apparatus for determining audience affinity and/or aptitude in portions of media works and for developing information that represent measures of the audience affinity and/or aptitude. Further embodiments of present invention provide method and apparatus for utilizing the information to create altered media works and/or to present the altered media works to an audience. One embodiment of the present invention is a method for inferring audience affinity or aptitude with regard to content or properties of portions of a media work which includes: (a) presenting the media work to an audience; (b) obtaining user input regarding presentation rates for the portions of the media work; (c) correlating content or properties of the portion with the presentation rates; and; (d) associating audience affinity or aptitude with the correlated content or properties.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is a method for transmitting a work to a client which includes steps of: (a) saving at least a portion of the work for a first period of time; (b) receiving a request for the work from the client; (c) transmitting a time-scale modified version of the saved portion of the work for a second period of time, wherein the second period of time is substantially equal to a time it takes for the time-scale modified version to synchronize with the work, had the work been transmitted from a start of the first period; and (d) transmitting the work starting at the synchronized point.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is a method for generating a listener-interest-filtered work for an audio or audio-visual work, which method includes steps of: (a) generating one or more average speed contours for one or more audio or audio-visual works for one or more categories of users; (b) converting the one or more average speed contours to one or more conceptual speed association data structures; and forming a listener-interest-filtered conceptual speed association data structure from the one or more conceptual speed association data structures.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention is a method for presenting broadcast information that comprises steps of: (a) receiving broadcast information; (b) receiving guidance information relating to presentation of the broadcast information; (c) paying for a capability to alter or override at least a portion of the guidance information; (d) receiving user input to alter or override at least some of the guidance information; (e) analyzing the guidance information, the capability, and the user input to provide one or more presentation rates; and (f) presenting the information at the one or more presentation rates.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide method and apparatus for determining audience affinity and/or aptitude in portions of media works and for developing information that represent measures of the audience affinity and/or aptitude. Further embodiments of present invention provide method and apparatus for utilizing the information to create altered media works and/or to present the altered media works to an audience. One embodiment of the present invention is a method for inferring audience affinity or aptitude with regard to content or properties of portions of a media work which includes: (a) presenting the media work to an audience; (b) obtaining user input regarding presentation rates for the portions of the media work; (c) correlating content or properties of the portion with the presentation rates; and; (d) associating audience affinity or aptitude with the correlated content or properties.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is a method for broadcasting information from a server to a client which includes the steps of: (a) broadcasting information at predetermined starting times; (b) receiving a request for the information from the client at an arrival time different from the predetermined starting times; and (c) transmitting a time-scale modified version of the information to the client for a period of time.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is a method for generating a listener-interest-filtered work for an audio or audio-visual work, which method includes steps of: (a) generating one or more average speed contours for one or more audio or audio-visual works for one or more categories of users; (b) converting the one or more average speed contours to one or more conceptual speed association data structures; and forming a listener-interest-filtered conceptual speed association data structure from the one or more conceptual speed association data structures.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is an apparatus for preparing streaming media such as an audio or audio-visual work for playback which comprises: (a) a buffer which stores data corresponding to the streaming media; (b) a buffer monitor which determines an amount of data stored in the buffer; (c) a rate determiner, in response to output from the buffer monitor, that determines a playback rate; and (d) a time-scale modification system, responsive to the playback rate, that time-scale modifies at least a portion of the data in the buffer. In a further embodiments, a playback system plays back the time-scale modified data as a portion of the streaming media.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is an apparatus for preparing media for playback which comprises: (a) a buffer which stores data corresponding to the media; (b) a time-scale modification system that time-scale modifies data output from the buffer at a playback rate; and (c) a rate determiner that determines the playback rate over an interval to control the amount of data in the buffer.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is a method for presentation of information received from a broadcaster which comprises the steps of: (a) receiving broadcast information; (b) receiving guidance information relating to presentation of the broadcast information; (c) analyzing the guidance information to determine a presentation rate; and (d) presenting the information at the presentation rate.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is a method for generating a listener-interest-filled work for an audio or audio-visual work, which method comprises the steps of: (a) generating one or more average speed contours for one or more audio or audio-visual works for one or more categories of users; (b) converting the one or more average speed contours to one or more conceptual speed association data structures; and (c) forming a listener-interest-filtered conceptual speed association data structure from the one or more conceptual speed association data structures.

Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is a method for broadcasting information from a server to a client which includes the steps of: (a) broadcasting information at predetermined starting times; (b) broadcasting time-scale modified versions of the information for periods of time, at least one period starting before or after one of the predetermined starting times; (c) receiving a request for the information from the client between the predetermined starting times; and (d) transmitting one of the time-scale modified versions to the client.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for storing information wherein a user defines labels which relate to the stored information and the user defines a data structure, for example, a hierarchical structure, comprised of such labels and method and apparatus for retrieving the stored information wherein the user randomly accesses the information utilizing the labels and the structure. In one embodiment of the present invention, a keypad is provided with pads to select movement up, down, to the right, and to the left in a hierarchical structure. Further, the keypad is provided with keys to cause insertion, deletion or interchange of labels; replay of labels and replay of stored information. Still further, in the preferred embodiment, up, down, left, and right directional arrows are provided to show a user which directions of movement are permitted at a particular point in the hierarchical structure.

Abstract: In the present invention a predetermined number of bits are added to each entry in the process table. These bits are used to indicate the warmth of the cache with respect to the particular schedulable unit such as a process or thread of a process. The scheduler will then review, not only the priority of the schedulable unit, but the warmth of the cache in order to determine the schedulable unit to be scheduled next with respect to a particular processor. For example, these cache warmth bits may be used to identify the processor the schedulable unit previously executed on such that the scheduler will only schedule the schedulable unit with the processor previously executed on in order to take advantage of the schedulable unit data located in the the cache associated with the processor. The system may be extended to provide more sophisticated models for determining cache warmth and the scheduling of processes and process threads.

Abstract: Method for time-scale modification ("TSM") of a signal, for example, a voice signal, wherein starting positions of blocks in an input signal, referred to as analysis windows, are varied and an output signal is reconstructed by overlapping analysis windows using fixed window offsets, i.e., the duration of overlap between analysis windows is fixed during reconstruction. This is done by searching for segments of the input signal which are similar to the previous portion of the output signal. In one embodiment of the present invention a cross-correlation is used as a similarity measure to evaluate such similarity and the cross-correlation uses a fixed, predetermined minimum number of samples. The starting position of the analysis window which results in the greatest similarity in overlapping regions is determined as the starting position which provides the largest value of cross-correlation in the overlapping regions.