Abstract: An online system uses, in various embodiments of the invention, credit report information, loan affordability screening and credit approval and management functionality to facilitate the purchase and finance of products online. The online system may include both sellers of products and lenders that offer financing to buyers seeking to purchase the products. The system may automatically obtain a buyer's credit report information and use that information to determine if the buyer is pre-approved, for example, to obtain financing for a particular product or products. The system also enables use of buyer credit information to identify only those of a seller's products for which the buyer is pre-approved, for example, to finance using one or more loans. The system then enables selection of an identified product or products for purchase, and selection of a loan, for example, for financing of the selected product or products.

Abstract: Aspects for secure access and communication of information in a distributed media network may include detecting when a legacy media peripheral is connected to a PC and/or a media processing system on the distributed media network. One or more identifiers associated with the legacy media peripheral may be established and utilized to facilitate communication of the legacy media peripheral over the distributed media network. At least one legacy media peripheral identifier and at least one identifier of a user utilizing the legacy media peripheral may be requested. The legacy media peripheral identifier may be a serial number of the legacy media peripheral, while the user identifier may be a user password and/or a user name. Media peripheral association software may be executed on the PC and/or the media processing system and utilized for media peripheral association and authentication in accordance with various embodiments of the invention.

Abstract: A media server component serves media programs to a plurality of client media players across a distribution network taking into consideration available data transfer rate and media player characteristics. The media programs are served adaptively, considering screen size, refresh rate required, frame rate, audio format, user preferences at the recipient media player's end and estimated available data transfer rate. The media server component responds to the channel conditions, recipient media audio and video characteristics and the user preferences at the recipient device's end in real time, by either delivering a stored program or transcoding the stored program in real time.

Abstract: An end-point device comprises multiple transceivers via which the end-point device associates with multiple access points simultaneously. The access points may belong to communicatively incompatible packet switched data networks. A backbone network communicatively connects all associated access points. The end-point device receives unique network address of an access point from the access point upon association and sends network addresses of other currently associated access points and first rule information to the access point either upon association or prior to detaching from the access point. One or more of the other currently associated access points may direct above action of the end-point device. The end-point device or one of the other access points generates the first rule information.

Abstract: A device and method for accessing, monitoring, and controlling home appliances in a media exchange network by establishing a communication link between a communication initiation device and at least one home appliance and communicating at least one command from the communication initiation device to the at least one home appliance via the communication link. The at least one home appliance then generates at least one response to the at least one command. The commands may include turning the home appliance(s) on and off, parameter adjustment commands, access commands, monitoring commands, mode change commands, and programming commands. Appliance responses may include powering on, powering off, changing a mode of operation, sending a status to the communication initiation device, adjusting an operational parameter, and changing a programmed operational step.

Abstract: A system providing search functionality supporting the exchange and consumption of media is disclosed. The searching of media on storage belonging to any of a pre-defined group of users of a personal media network is provided. In addition, media stored on designated servers may also be included in a search. The media stored may include audio, still images, video, and data. A user may search the stored media using a number of criteria including the time period of the media, the type of device, and the type of media. The system also provides support for the search of one or more media peripherals, which may be searched when the media peripherals are communicatively coupled to the system.

Abstract: Determining pixel behavior type of a pixel or a group of pixels of a LCD and triggering adjustment in drive power of the pixel or the group of pixels based on the pixel behavior type. The pixel behavior type indicates relative motion of areas on the LCD in a video. A pixel behavior determination module directs one or more selected pixels of the LCD to be driven relative slower or faster based upon content of video that the selected pixels display. Operations include identifying an active window from a plurality of windows corresponding to a plurality of applications running on the host device and setting the drive power of those pixels that correspond to the active window based on speed of a video displayed on the active window. Operation may also include adapting LCD drive power on a pixel by pixel basis based upon user input and/or remaining battery life.

Abstract: A hearing assist device is associated with an ear of a user. Health characteristics of the user are measured by sensors of the hearing assist device. The measured health characteristics may be analyzed in the hearing assist device, or transmitted from the hearing assist device for remote analysis. Based on the analysis, alerts, instructions, and other information may be displayed to the user in the form of text or graphics, or may be played by the hearing assist device in the form of sound/voice. Medical personnel may be alerted when problems with the user are detected by the hearing assist device. The user may provide verbal commands to the hearing assist device. The hearing assist device may be configured to filter sounds, and may be configured for a personal hearing frequency response of the user. The hearing assist device may be configured for speech recognition to recognize commands.

Abstract: Hearing assist devices and devices and services that are capable of providing external operational support thereto are described. In accordance with various embodiments, the performance of one or more functions by a hearing assist device is assisted or improved in some manner by utilizing resources of an external device and/or service to which the hearing assist device may be communicatively connected. Such performance assistance or improvement may be achieved, for example and without limitation, by utilizing power resources, processing resources, storage resources, sensor resources, and/or user interface resources of an external device or service to which the hearing assist device may be communicatively connected.

Abstract: A mobile communication device may be utilized to establish a localized user network that is accessible by client devices when the client devices are communicatively coupled to the mobile communication device. The mobile communication device is then operable to determine services that may be provided in the user network to the client devices, and to advertise these services within the user network. The services comprise network and/or data accessibility, and bandwidth availability. Mobile communication devices are also operable to provide, directly or via local and/or remote resources, additional services, comprising audio/video processing capability, storage, and/or processing. Offering of services in user networks is incentivized to the mobile communication devices and/or to client devices. Incentives comprise offering pay and/or credit to the mobile communication devices.

Abstract: A method and apparatus supporting the handling of calls using multimedia information are disclosed. Multimedia information exchanged by an associated access device and a gateway. The access device may request for the multimedia information to be recorded during a call. The gateway may store the received multimedia information locally or may communicate the multimedia information to storage.

Abstract: A system and method providing low-power operation in a multimode communication device. Various aspects of the present invention may, for example, include at least one radio module that is adapted to communicate in a plurality of communication modes. The at least one radio module may also be adapted to operate in at least a first power-save mode. At least one module may, for example, be adapted to analyze at least one non-informational aspect of a signal (e.g., a received radio signal) to determine whether a first communication network corresponding to a first communication mode of the plurality of communication modes might be available. The at least one module may then, for example, be adapted to determine, based at least in part on the determined availability of the first communication network, whether to operate the at least one radio module in a respective mode other than the first power-save mode.

Abstract: Methods are disclosed for a 3rd party system to indirectly access, control, monitor, and test a media peripheral (MP) device on a media exchange network by establishing a communication link between the 3rd party system and the media peripheral (MP) device via at least one media management system (MMS). A third party may select an operation of a MP device via a MMS over the communication link, causing the MP device to perform the selected operation. The 3rd party may monitor at least one status parameter of a MP device via a MMS over the communication link and respond to the status parameter. As a service, the 3rd party may push digital information (e.g., digital data, digital audio, digital images, digital video, etc.) to a MP device via a MMS over the communication link and bill an account associated with the MP device on the media exchange network.

Abstract: Certain aspects of the invention may be found in a method and system for setting up devices for communication on a communication network and may include a headend that may detect when a first device is initially coupled to the communication network and assign an address to the first device. The headend may transfer the assigned address to the first device and in response to receiving the transferred assigned address and/or an identifier of the first device from the first device, the headend may communicate the transferred received assigned address and/or the identifier of the first device to at least one communication server coupled to the communication network. The assigned address of the first device may be a static address, a dynamic address and/or an embedded device address such as a MAC address. The identifier of the first device may be a digital certificate and/or a serial number.

Abstract: A system supporting a common user interface for the consumption of media is disclosed. In an embodiment of the present invention, a set top box and a personal computer may have user interfaces that are substantially the same, providing users of such systems substantially the same look and feel in exchanging and consuming media. The media in such an embodiment may comprise audio, still images, video, real time video, and data. In addition, a media peripheral may also have a user interface supporting the exchange and consumption of media, and the user interface may be substantially the same interface as that of a set top box or a personal computer, having substantially the same look and feel.

Abstract: A system supporting the remote management of options related to media consumption in a media exchange network is disclosed. Such a system may comprise a set top box communicatively coupled to a television display and storage. The set top box may be used for the consumption of media via a communication network. In such an embodiment, server software may enable the remote modification, via a communication network, of options related to the consumption of media by a user of the set top box. The media consumed may be one or more of digital audio, a digital still image, digital video, and digital data. Other aspects of the present invention may be seen in a personal computer monitor and personal computer circuitry, communicatively coupled to a storage and a communication network. An embodiment of the present invention may also enable the modification of TV viewing options via a telephone voice response system.

Abstract: A system for processing information received from a plurality of source devices. Various aspects of the present invention provide a first video generating device that produces a first video output that comprises compressed video information representative of a sequence of video frames, the compressed video information comprising inter-frame comparison information. A second video generating device is also provided, which produces a second video output. A processing module is communicatively coupled to the first and second video generating devices and independent of such devices. The processing module may decompress the first video output from the first video generating device. A video presentation device is provided, which may generate a display corresponding to the first video output via the processing module and a display corresponding to the second video output via the processing module. Generally analogous components for processing audio information are also provided.

Abstract: A system and method in a multimode mobile communication device for providing communication configuration update capability. Various aspects of the present invention may comprise establishing a first communication link characterized by a first communication mode of a plurality of communication modes in which the multimode communication device is capable of communicating. Such a first communication link may, for example, be established utilizing a first communication interface module. Communication configuration (or profile) information for a second communication mode may be received over the first communication link. The communication configuration information for the second communication mode may then be utilized to configure the mobile communication device to perform communications in the second communication mode (e.g., utilizing a second communication interface module).

Abstract: A search operation can provide geographically restricted and verified information to a user. A two-step approach is used to perform these searches. The first step is to obtain high relevance search results by searching only in a specific region defined for a search operation. The second step further improves the quality of the search results by performing contact address correlation. If the search server finds a reliable reference address in the search results, then these search results can be presented to the user, whereby search results that are not correlating well with legitimate and registered addresses for the site are removed from the search result lists. Therefore, the region-restricted search does searching in a selected geographical region and only presents legitimate web pages or search results to a user.

Abstract: A system and method monitors and weeds out illegitimate/illegal websites during search engine indexing and domain name registration. The whois database generated during domain name registration is used as a reference database for correlation with a database generated by the search crawler on a search engine server. A whois analyzer from the search engine server extracts a set of URLs into a database called the uncorrelated URL database. The uncorrelated URL database contains those URLs from both the aggregate whois database and reverse index database after removing common URLs. The uncorrelated URLs are contacted and advised by the whois administrator to take necessary action to be listed in the whois database and properly be indexed during search engine crawling. This process ensures that every URL is properly registered and identified on the Internet thus eliminating the success of illegal/unwanted websites.