Patents by Inventor Frank C. M. Defoort

Frank C. M. Defoort has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Video server memory management method
    Patent number: 5553005
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a video server memory management for a video server transmitting video signals (VS) to user stations in response to control signals issued by these stations. This method includes the steps of providing a memory constituted by a plurality of random access memories (HD1/ . . . /HD4) and subdividing each of said video signals in a plurality of distinct blocks (BL1/ . . . /BLQ) each typically corresponding to less than a second of the video signal. It is further proposed to include in this method the step of storing any two blocks (BL1/ . . . /BLQ) which normally are to be consecutively retrieved from the memory in distinct random access memories (HD1/ . . . /HD4). In this way the full interactive video on demand service, giving the user stations control over the way in which the blocks are retrieved from the memory, is improved as is the rate at which a predetermined sequence of blocks is retrieved from the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 1994
    Date of Patent: September 3, 1996
    Assignee: Alcatel N.V.
    Inventors: Bart F. Voeten, Christophe D. G. Vermeulen, Frank O. Van der Putten, Frank C. M. Defoort
  • Video on demand network, including a central video server and distributed video servers with random access read/write memories
    Patent number: 5550577
    Abstract: A video on demand network (VODN), transmits video signals (VS) to user stations (US11, . . . , US2N) pursuant to the receipt of control signals (CS) issued by these user stations. In order to optimize the retrieval costs, this video on demand network maintains a large video library in a central video server (CS) and stores locally popular video signals in a plurality of local distributed video servers (DS1/2) from which the latter video signals are transmitted to the user stations. The video signals provided by the local distributed servers are updated from the central server based upon the changing popularity of the video signals. The present invention proposes in particular to store the video signals in the local distributed servers in random access read/write memories (HDA), e.g.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 27, 1996
    Assignee: Alcatel N.V.
    Inventors: Willem J. A. Verbiest, Bart F. Voeten, Christophe D. G. Vermeulen, Frank O. Van der Putten, Frank C. M. Defoort
  • Video server for video-on-demand system with controllable memories and with pause, fast-forward and rewind functions
    Patent number: 5528282
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a video server (DS) for transmitting video signals (VS) to user stations in response to the receipt of control signals issued by these user stations and including a plurality (HDA) of memories (HDASA, HDASB) which are controlled by a plurality of memory controllers (OBC, SCSIC-A/B). The memory controllers are controlled based on the control signals by a server control means (DSC, PCM1/PCMN) which includes a server controller (DSC) and a plurality of program control modules (PCM1/PCMN) each of which is associated with a subset (HDA1/HDAN) of the plurality (HDA) of memories (HDASA, HDASB) and to a subset of the plurality of memory controllers (OBC, SCSIC-A/B).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 1994
    Date of Patent: June 18, 1996
    Assignee: Alcatel N.V.
    Inventors: Bart F. Voeten, Christophe D. G. Vermeulen, Frank O. Van der Putten, Frank C. M. Defoort