Abstract: One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for joining two or more devices in a multi-device communication session. A request is received from a first device, such as at a session hosting service on a remote server, to initiate a multi-device communication session, such on the session hosting service. A visual tag is sent to the first device, such as from the session service, where the visual tag comprises device-session pairing information, such as session service identification and session authorization. A multi-device communication session joining request is received from a second device, where the request from the second device comprises the device-session pairing information retrieved from the visual tag displayed by the first device, and captured by the second device.

Abstract: A computing device includes a touch display, a collection module, a characterization module, and an adjustment module. The collection module is configured to identify one or more touch attributes of an input tool interacting with the touch display. Each such touch attribute represents an interaction characteristic of the input tool with the display. The characterization module is configured to generate a touch map based on the one or more touch attributes. The adjustment module is configured to set one or more input-receiving parameters of an interface displayed on the touch display based on the touch map.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for handling both proprietary and non-proprietary formatted compact discs in the same video playback system. In one embodiment, the audio and video data signals are in a Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) format. Portions of the novel system operate within a high level format independent software library and portions of the novel system operate within a low level software driver of the playback system that receives disc information from a proprietary or non-proprietary disc present to the playback system to be played. The novel system of the present invention includes a disc format determinator for checking the data contained on a disc to see if it includes proprietary information specific to the playback system. In the present invention the proprietary information may be either VideoCD or CD-I disc format information. If a disc presented to the playback system is formatted for a non-proprietary disc format i.e.

Abstract: A system and method for handling errors encountered in an audio/video data stream during playback. In one application, the audio/video data stream originates from an MPEG (e.g., Motion Pictures Expert Group) source and is a playback file of the MPEG format. Upon receiving an error interrupt originating from a hardware video processor unit, the novel system executes a group of predetermined error handling processes. A playback error can result from bad data within the playback file's data stream, the data bus, or other transmission error. One error recovery process used by the novel system causes the playback system to skip B and P frames until an I frame is reached which is processed normally and playback resumes. Another error recovery process causes the playback system to seek forward a predetermined number of seconds and/or frames to resume normal playback in order to avoid a bad media sector.

Abstract: A method for causing a computer controlled digital playback system to seek to a requested location within a selected playback file recorded in variable data rate encoding format (e.g., MPEG). The playback file is stored in a suitable recording media. The novel method receives a seek command to a requested playback time referenced by a time unit (e.g., seconds) or a frame number and also accesses an upper rate bound from a system header. The rate bound indicates the maximum data rate of the encoded data in the playback file. Using the rate bound and the requested playback time, an approximate location is determined in the playback file and the playback file is seeked to that approximate location. The method reads a first available time stamp near the approximate location and checks if the discovered time stamp matches with the requested playback time within a predetermined degree. If not, the novel method computes an adjusted data rate based on the discovered time stamp and the approximate location.

Abstract: A method and system for synchronizing audio and video data signals that are in a signal format wherein the audio and video data signals are not interleaved but originate from separate sources and arrive at a constant frame rate. In one embodiment, the audio and video data signals are in an Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) format. Portions of the novel system operate within the hardware of a video processor unit and portions of the novel system operate within a software driver of a computer system that receives the audio and video data signals. Audio and video data signals are referenced by a presentation time stamp (e.g., VPTS for video and APTS for audio) encoded in the data. Using these stamps, the novel system (via the video processor unit) determines if the video signal is ahead or behind the audio signal by a small number of frames, x, and if so, the video processor unit either pauses or skips frames in its video display unit hardware to regain synchronization.