Abstract: Systems and methods for providing distributed debugging in an extensible SOAP environment of asynchronous software web services are disclosed. Such a system may include a message originator, a diagnostics tagger, an intended message receiver, and a debug controller, which may communicate with one another via SOAP messages. The message originator originally puts the SOAP message onto the network. The diagnostics tagger modifies the SOAP message to include certain diagnostics elements that cause a breakpoint to be triggered. The intended message receiver eventually receives the message and is expected to trigger the breakpoint. The debug controller is a process that is called by the intended message receiver when a breakpoint is detected. The header of the SOAP message may include a security element and a diagnostics element. The diagnostics element may include one or more breakpoint elements. Each breakpoint element may include a debugging controller element, and one or more condition elements.

Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that provide a framework for developing and deploying distributed robotic applications. The framework allows a robotic application to be distributed across robotic services. Communications with a robotic service are performed via a URI. An operation is performed on a data element exposed through the robotic service. The system facilitates asynchronous operations of a robotics application across services. A development environment allows the user to create a robotics project that uses the distributed framework. A visualization/simulation environment allows for communication with virtual devices and real world devices for simulating the operation of asynchronous robotic applications.

Abstract: A method for performing image recognition is disclosed. The method includes obtaining a collection of pixels and grouping at least some of the pixels into a set of cluster features based on gradient magnitude. For each cluster feature in the set, statistical variables are generated. The statistical variables represent a collective property of the pixels in the cluster feature. The statistical variables are utilized as a basis for comparing the collection of pixels to a different collection of pixels.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for declaring concurrency of the execution of one or more processes. The processes may include messages and/or methods associated with services. Messages may post to a queue in a concurrency control. Instructions are executed responsive to the posting of the messages. Any number of instructions may be executed concurrently with an underlying state. The underlying state may further be declared by an attribute. The attribute may include a service handler and may further indicate a type of concurrency control, for example, concurrent, exclusive or teardown.

Abstract: An apparatus and method provide for providing services using an attribute. In one example, the attribute may hide complexity of an underlying infrastructure and may call methods in the infrastructure to locate partner services. Any number of partner services may include a policy in which a pre-existing instance of a partner service may be used to perform desired services. Alternatively, an instance of a service may be created. In another example, a manifest in a partner list entry may be used for identifying a set of services at a node.

Abstract: Described is a service visualizer that presents a high-level view of services currently running in a distributed operating system. The service visualizer, which itself may be a service, is visual-based and uses objects (e.g., spheres) suspended in space to represent the ports of services that are currently running. Messages sent between services are represented by particles. The visualizer creates a visual collection for each service port, which in turn creates a port monitor to watch for messages on the port. The resulting visualization may be interacted with, such as for purposes of debugging.

Abstract: Integrating voice communication into a game console to minimize or eliminate voice data processing by a primary processor. Input voice data from a microphone or a network is processed by a secondary processor and stored in a circular buffer. Drift between storing and reading the processed voice data may result from differing data rates, interrupts, and other latencies. If the circular buffer, accumulates an amount of data that exceeds a predefined threshold corresponding to a human perceptible latency, a pointer in the circular buffer is reset, so that only a portion of the processed voice data is output. A stream of packet contexts each indicate a location and length of voice data in the circular buffer to be output. Preferably, the output voice data is encoded in a standard digital format, such as universal serial bus. The output voice data may be communicated to a network or a sound transducer.

Abstract: Multiple copies of web services reside on associated computing devices, each having an associated reputation. A client may desire to access the web service having the highest or best reputation to be ensured of a greater degree of accuracy and confidence. The client does a search, and attaches to whichever web service has the highest reputation. By running multiple copies of the web services, they may vote amongst themselves on the results in the event that one or more of the services starts giving incorrect or otherwise inconsistent results. Combining the voting with reputation data associated with each copy of the web service allows a service's reputation to be dynamically adjusted based upon how faithfully it computes the results of work items sent to it.

Abstract: A computer being controlled is coupled via a communications bus to at least one other device comprising one or more authorized management devices. The one or more authorized management devices are coupled to a management port. Only management commands received from authorized management devices via the management port may be executed or otherwise responded to. Management commands received from other devices are ignored. In a preferred embodiment, the communication bus is an IEEE 1394 serial bus. In this manner, the present invention provides for the use of more direct communication technologies, such as the IEEE 394 serial bus, while simultaneously providing a greater degree of security than previously available.

Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that improve failure handling and debugging in message driven environments. A diagramming tool allows a user to graphically nest one or more functional components of the data flow diagram to create a fault handler. The fault handler is associated with a failure component to be called when a failure occurs within any one or more of the nested functional components. One or more application executables are synthesized from the data flow diagram. When the nested component is created at runtime, a causality is created for the nested component. The causality has an exception port for receiving fault messages that are unhandled within the nested data flow associated with the nested component. The causality also has a coordination port to allow any messages in the causality context and/or other applications to access the error history and the message coordination history.

Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that provide a framework for developing and deploying distributed robotic applications. The framework allows a robotic application to be distributed across robotic services. Communications with a robotic service are performed via a URI. An operation is performed on a data element exposed through the robotic service. The system facilitates asynchronous operations of a robotics application across services. A development environment allows the user to create a robotics project that uses the distributed framework. A visualization/simulation environment allows for communication with virtual devices and real world devices for simulating the operation of asynchronous robotic applications.

Abstract: Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that improve failure handling and debugging in message driven environments. A diagramming tool allows a user to graphically nest one or more functional components of the data flow diagram to create a fault handler. The fault handler is associated with a failure component to be called when a failure occurs within any one or more of the nested functional components. One or more application executables are synthesized from the data flow diagram. When the nested component is created at runtime, a causality is created for the nested component. The causality has an exception port for receiving fault messages that are unhandled within the nested data flow associated with the nested component. The causality also has a coordination port to allow any messages in the causality context and/or other applications to access the error history and the message coordination history.

Abstract: Multiple copies of web services reside on associated computing devices, each having an associated reputation. A client may desire to access the web service having the highest or best reputation to be ensured of a greater degree of accuracy and confidence. The client does a search, and attaches to whichever web service has the highest reputation. By running multiple copies of the web services, they may vote amongst themselves on the results in the event that one or more of the services starts giving incorrect or otherwise inconsistent results. Combining the voting with reputation data associated with each copy of the web service allows a service's reputation to be dynamically adjusted based upon how faithfully it computes the results of work items sent to it.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for automatically loading drivers on computers for devices coupled to a communication medium such as an IEEE 1394 serial bus. Operating systems running on the computers detect when a device is connected to the communication medium. The operating systems then determine whether one of the drivers stored in memory on the device will enable the computers to utilize the device. The operating systems will then load the appropriate drivers for their respective computers and allow access to the device. If none of the drivers on the memory are suitable for a particular computer, then its operating system will prompt a user to manually insert a computer-readable medium containing the appropriate drivers. Thus, the present invention provides methods and apparatus for automatically loading device drivers.

Abstract: A Decentralized System Services (DSS) architecture defines a framework for building fault-tolerant distributed applications across decentralized and heterogeneous systems. DSS enables “complexity through composition” by defining distributed designs as compositions of limited function and observable services which may be quickly and dynamically assembled to perform higher level functions. DSS defines a standardized interaction between distributed services using sessionless, asynchronous communications with explicit failure semantics. Accounting for latency, failure and state management all become a natural part of the design process. DSS includes a runtime implementation for managing concurrent services—the Common Concurrency Runtime (CCR), a protocol for service interactions—the Web Services Application Protocol (WSAP), and a set of required service behaviors which provide for composibility, location independence, and fault tolerance—Distributed Protocol Oriented Programming (DPOP).

Abstract: The common concurrency runtime (CCR) provides a simple and self-consistent set of concurrency primitives that developers can use to more readily split their computation into more discrete chunks that can scale better with additional processors. This set of primitives provides for very scalable applications that are well suited for the coming world of ubiquitous communication and very large scale out for the number of local processors. The CCR may be implemented as a single library in C# that implements channels with input and asynchronous output capabilities, along with an atomic test-and-input primitive. On top of this, richer derived operators (e.g., choice, join, replication, reader-writers, scatter-gather, etc.) may be encoded. Thus, existing C# may be built upon to provide the capability to concurrently issue I/O requests to remote systems while simultaneously performing other functions locally to increase the efficiency of the distributed system.

Abstract: Systems and methods for providing resource management in a distributed network are disclosed. A loose collection of devices in a network may not be aware of the power restrictions for other devices. Wall powered devices will generally have drastically different power settings than battery powered mobile devices. The invention provides a federation policy for time that can be used to slave to a local service responsible for understanding the local resource requirements of each device (or node) on the network. In such a distributed time system, all services in a particular time domain may be sped up, slowed down, or completely halted.

Abstract: Indicating a spatial location of a virtual sound source by determining an output for each of one or more physical speakers as a function of an orientation of corresponding virtual speakers that track the position and orientation of a virtual listener relative to the virtual sound source in a virtual environment or game simulation. A vector distance between the virtual sound source and each virtual speaker is used to determine a volume level for each corresponding physical speaker. Each virtual speaker is specified at a fixed location on a unit sphere centered on the virtual listener, and the virtual sound source is normalized to a virtual position on the unit sphere. All computations are performed in Cartesian coordinates. Preferably, each virtual speaker vector distance is used in a nonlinear function to compute a volume attenuation factor for the corresponding physical speaker output.

Abstract: Efficient recursive audio processing of one or more input data streams using a multistage processor for performing one or more predetermined functions and programmable audio effects. A first stage performs a first predetermined function, such as frequency shifting function. Intermediate results are preferably mixed. The second stage applies programmable audio effects to the mixed data, such as a reverberation effect, and stores the second stage output in a destination mix bin. The second stage output is preferably transferred to a main memory accessible to a primary processor. The second stage output is directed back to the first stage of the multistage processor to perform a second predetermined function, such as three dimensional spatialization. The primary processor modifies parameters of the first predetermined function to efficiently perform dynamic operations, such as Doppler shifts and volume transitions between multiple sound sources and a mixture of those sounds as a single point source.

Abstract: The invention provides quality-of-service (QoS) delivery services over a computer bus having isochronous data transfer capabilities. A transmitting node on the bus transmits a message to an intended recipient indicating a requested bandwidth for a connection. If the intended recipient has sufficient resources, it allocates an isochronous data channel on the bus and notifies the transmitter of the allocated channel. Thereafter, the transmitter transmits the data on the allocated channel. If the recipient cannot allocate a channel, it does not respond, and the transmitter thereafter detects a time-out condition and begins transmitting using a “best efforts” scheme (i.e., non-guaranteed time delivery). In a second variation, a receiving node detects that it is receiving large quantities of data from a transmitting node. In response, the receiving node allocates an isochronous data channel on the bus and notifies the transmitter of the allocated channel.