Abstract: Presented herein are systems and methods for pause and freeze functions for digital video streams. A particular picture is displayed for a plurality of video display periods. A next picture is displayed at the video display period immediately following the plurality of video display periods, the next picture immediately following the particular picture in a display order. A system clock reference is loaded with a time stamp associated with the next picture when displaying the next picture.

Abstract: Presented herein are systems and methods for slow motion and high speed for digital video. In one embodiment, there is presented a method for displaying pictures. The method comprises displaying a top field from a particular picture, for a predetermined number of consecutive vertical synchronization pulses; and displaying a bottom field from the particular picture for the predetermined number of consecutive vertical synchronization pulses.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and system for modifying images characterized in that it includes the ability to assign colour intensity values to pixels exposed during image manipulation operations comprising: means for using the color intensity values of remaining pixels in the original image, and means for assigning color values to the exposed pixels that are similar to those of the surrounding pixels so that the exposed regions blends smoothly with the surrounding region. The instant invention also provides a configured computer program product for carrying out the above method.

Abstract: A system, method, and program storage device implementing the method for modifying images has the ability to assign color intensity values to pixels exposed during image manipulation operations. The method comprises using the color intensity values of remaining pixels in the original image, and assigning color values to the exposed pixels that are similar to those of the surrounding pixels so that the exposed regions blend smoothly with the surrounding region.

Abstract: Presented herein is a direct memory access engine for providing data words in the reverse order. The data words are fetched in batches comprising a predetermined number of data words starting from the last data word and proceeding to the first data word. The batches are stored in a local buffer. The contents of the local buffer are transmitted in reverse order.

Abstract: Presented herein is a direct memory access engine for providing data words in reverse order. The data words are fetched in batches comprising a predetermined number of data words starting from the last data word and proceeding to the first data word. The batches are stored in a local buffer. The contents of the local buffer are transmitted in reverse order. A set of multiplexers reverses the bit positions of the words in the local buffer.

Abstract: Described herein is a system and method for audio visual synchronization. The picture are displayed by receiving an identifier, said identifier associated with a frame buffer storing a picture; extracting a presentation time stamp associated with the picture, wherein the picture is associated with a time stamp; comparing a local time clock value to the presentation time stamp; determining that the picture is mature for presentation if the presentation time stamp exceeds the local time clock value by less than a first predetermined threshold; and determining that the picture is mature for presentation if the local time clock value exceeds the presentation time stamp by less than a second predetermined threshold.

Abstract: A method is presented for marking high-quality digital images with a robust and invisible watermark. It requires the mark to survive and remain detectable and authenticatable through all image manipulations that in themselves do not damage the image beyond useability. These manipulations include JPEG “lossy” compression and, in the extreme, the printing and rescanning of the image. The watermark also has the property that it can detect if the essential contents of the image has changed. The first phase of the method comprises extracting a digest or number N from the image so that N only (or mostly) depends on the essential information content, such that the same number N can be obtained from a scan of a high quality print of the image, from the compressed form of the image, or in general, from the image after minor modifications (introduced inadvertently by processing, noise etc.). The second phase comprises the marking.

Abstract: Schemes for rewinding a HITS stream in video recorder and playback systems are presented herein. Reference pictures are stored for a group of pictures, allowing subsequent pictures to be decoded from the reference pictures. The foregoing significantly reduces the number of picture decodes required to display a HITS stream in reverse order.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transferring data between a handheld device and a network over a wireless communications link. A datapool manager breaks files into virtual blocks and adds the virtual blocks to a datapool. A communications manager converts the virtual blocks into transportation packets and controls the transfer of the transportation packets between the handheld device and the network. After a transportation packet is transferred, an acknowledgment is returned indicating that the transfer was successful. If the transfer of a file is interrupted, then, upon reestablishing the wireless link, only those transportation packets for which an acknowledgment has not been returned are transferred. To properly reconstruct the file, a pointer indicates the location of each transportation packet in the file. Furthermore, to enable the use of a partially transferred file, a table of information is maintained indicating the validity of the partially transferred file.

Abstract: Searching online catalog databases by shoppers is improved by performing similarity searching on searches performed by the shopper, in conjunction with adjusting the similarity metric used during the search to interactively improve the relevance of the resulting search results to the shopper. This involves using relevance feedback and/or product redefinition to learn the “implied concept” of the shopper's stated product requirements; that is, the quality of the search results is enhanced through understanding the concept implied by the shopper's queries by, for example, learning from the product results marked as “relevant” or “irrelevant” by the shopper. This approach is in contrast with attempts to enhance search results using, for example, the shopper's past orders or previous actions, or the past orders or previous actions of other shoppers who may have a purchase history similar to that of the current shopper.

Abstract: Presented herein are systems, methods, and apparatus for improving performance of video decoders during rewind and fast forward operation. Video decoder performance is improved by avoiding repetitive decoding of prediction pictures. When a decoded prediction picture is stored in a frame buffer, techniques are presented for decoding multiple pictures in the rewind order which are dependent thereon, displaying the picture directly from the frame buffer, and setting one type of prediction picture as another type of prediction picture.

Abstract: A user at a client machine can customize components of a database search performed at a server. The user does this by sending executable code to the database server. Software code runs as middleware on the database server machine to communicate between the database server and the client and performs the functions of supplying the client with vital information required for generating code which will be used for customizing various processes of the database retrieval session. Typically, the server comprises a set of database servers and the middleware runs on each database server machine to communicate between the database servers and the client. The middleware provides a virtual machine on which the user-supplied code written in a virtual machine language is executed, giving a uniform interface across the set of database servers on which the same user-supplied code will be executed ensuring that the user-supplied code executes under database server specified access privileges.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus for reducing the video decoder processing requirements for rewinding a HITS stream are presented herein. During rewind of a HITS stream, the video decoder builds a clean reference picture. The clean reference picture is built by decoding each of the P-pictures in the EP-EP segment. However, because the P-pictures are not displayed, the decoder does not decode the portion of the P-picture below the last intracoded slice. The decoder can build the clean reference picture without decoding the portions of the P-pictures below the last intracoded slice because the subsequent pictures do not use the said portions for prediction.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus for reducing the video decoder processing requirements are presented herein. During a rewind operation, a reference picture for a group of pictures is decoded and stored into a reference frame buffer. By storing a reference picture for the group, the reference picture need not be decoded to display each picture in the group during the rewind operation.

Abstract: A caching system and method supporting improved trick mode performance in video decoding systems are presented herein. During a rewind operation, various pictures of an EP-EP segment that are decoded to display the last picture in the EP-EP segment are cached. The pictures are cached to avoid repetitive decoding.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and system for modifying images characterized in that it includes the ability to assign colour intensity values to pixels exposed during image manipulation operations comprising:

Abstract: Searching online catalog databases by shoppers is improved by performing similarity searching on searches performed by the shopper, in conjunction with adjusting the similarity metric used during the search to interactively improve the relevance of the resulting search results to the shopper. This involves using relevance feedback and/or product redefinition to learn the “implied concept” of the shopper's stated product requirements; that is, the quality of the search results is enhanced through understanding the concept implied by the shopper's queries by, for example, learning from the product results marked as “relevant” or “irrelevant” by the shopper. This approach is in contrast with attempts to enhance search results using, for example, the shopper's past orders or previous actions, or the past orders or previous actions of other shoppers who may have a purchase history similar to that of the current shopper.

Abstract: A methodology of highly interactive intra-object relevance feedback is used to retrieve multimedia data from a database. The query object could consist of one or more images, images derived from video, a video sequence, or an audio clip. The query is adjusted using the information fed-back by the user about the relevance of previously extracted part(s) from the object itself, such that the adjusted query is a better approximation to the user's perception. The information fed-back by the user during intra-query modification is used for intra-object learning of the user's perception. The refined query is subsequently used for inter-object relevance feedback where data is retrieved from the database based on parameters learnt by intra-query object feedback mechanism, and the user provides feedback by ranking the retrieved objects in order of their relevance to him or her.