Abstract: A fixture includes a plurality of brackets. Accessories such as wire hooks, shelves, bins, and so forth may be supported by one or more brackets. A load cell supports each bracket and generates a signal that is indicative of changes to the bracket as items are added or removed from the accessory. The brackets include features such as tabs that prevent accessories from moving laterally. The fixtures are easily reconfigured to accommodate accessories of different sizes that in turn may support items of different sizes.

Abstract: Various techniques and mechanisms allow customization of data for delivery to different end users. The data can be provided as a series of chunks. In some instances, a server has a number of modules used to customize and select chunks of data using a variety of factors such as user preferences, network bandwidth, subscription levels, etc. The chunks are distributed in and across a variety of network architectures such as client server, mesh, point-to-point, peer-to-peer, etc.

Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for delivering command functionality such as out-of-band data to a mobile device in a media stream. A media stream may be divided into multiple portions. One or more portions are modified to include command functionality. The command functionality associated with the media stream is extracted at a mobile device. In particular instances, the command functionality provides notification of an event. The command functionality may be executed using one or more virtual machines associated with the mobile device.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a system, method and apparatus for modularized transformation processing in a client-server network environment. In one embodiment, a network transaction between a client and a server is broken down into non-transformation and transformation stages, each handled by a module that can be plug-in to an application programming interface (API). As the network transaction is modularized, portions of the transaction information such as client requests and corresponding server responses may be transformed before delivery to their destinations. In one embodiment, transformed responses are cached at a proxy implementing the API.

Abstract: Systems and methods for improved performance in the storing and retrieving of objects. In one embodiment, the invention comprises a multi-tiered caching system implemented in a network transformation proxy. The proxy performs transformations on Web content received from a Web server and stores the transformed content in the caching system. The lowest tier of caches stores the content as cache objects, while higher tiers store references to lower tiers (such as the tier which stores the objects) as their cache objects. Cache entries are looked up using a plurality of keys. Each of the keys is used to look up an entry in a different tier of the cache.

Abstract: A method and system can comprise a software architecture that allows different applications in the same or different communications protocols to interact with shared resources. More specifically, code for a computer program may be written to increase the amount of code that is generic to (i.e., shared by) more than one application or communications protocol and reduce the amount of code that handle application-specific or protocol-specific actions. In one embodiment, a transaction may be broken down into a set of discrete actions. The discrete actions may include functions that are common to more than one application. These functions may be part of the shared resources. Each application may have its own set of software plug-in modules for the discrete actions.

Abstract: A transformation system for increasing the compressibility of digital images. In one embodiment, the pixels of a digital image are examined, one at a time. The color of the examined pixel is compared to that of its neighbors. If the difference in color from either of the neighboring pixels is below a threshold, the color of the neighbor that is closer to the color of the examined pixel is copied to the examined pixel. If neither of the neighbors is close enough in color, the color of the examined pixel is unchanged. The pixels are examined in a single pass. After each pixel has been examined, and possibly changed, the compressibility of the image using a dictionary-based technique, such as one of the Lempel-Ziv techniques, is typically improved.

Abstract: Systems and methods for processing network transactions by breaking down the transactions into several stages and performing the processing corresponding to each stage using a different plug-in module. One embodiment of the invention comprises an application programming interface (API) that enables the use of individual plug-in modules to perform different stages of the processing of a transaction. The API defines a series of interfaces to corresponding plug-in processing modules, where each interface corresponds to a stage of processing of a transaction and the API conveys transaction information from one plug-in module to the next, until all of the processing stages have been completed. The API may be embodied in a network transaction processing application that is adaptable to different functionalities and different protocols by plugging different modules into the interface provided by the API.

Abstract: Systems and methods for architectures for a compact and efficient multimedia player are disclosed. These architectures may increase the robustness of a multimedia player with respect to network fluctuations by compensating for the fluctuations of bandwidth in a network using at least two program threads, a network or reader thread and a rendering thread. Synchronization between the reader thread and rendering thread may be accomplished through a shared buffer into which data blocks received by the reader thread are written, and from which data blocks are retrieved and rendered by the rendering thread. This shared buffer, in turn, may be an array of individual buffers which are continually refilled and reused during execution of the multimedia player.

Abstract: Systems and methods for architectures for a compact and efficient multimedia player are disclosed. These architectures may consist of two threads which operate in parallel to read data over a network and render this data for a user of the multimedia player. Both threads are operable to perform read operations and render operations, however, the two threads do not simultaneously read or render data. The two threads may be kept out of phase via thread synchronization techniques, thus when one thread is reading the other may be rendering and vice versa. If one thread finishes its current phase before the other thread has completed its current phase, then the first thread blocks until the second thread completes its current phase; the threads can then exchange tasks.

Abstract: Systems and methods for data formats which facilitate the encapsulation, transmission, reception, decomposition and processing of heterogeneous sets of data are disclosed. Data may be encoded in one of these data formats, and sent to a recipient, which decodes the data format and renders the data. These data formats may consist of the concatenation of a set of commands, each of these commands in turn composed of a tag, length and a payload. Furthermore, these data formats may provide a compact way to deliver information which allows the rendering of video, images, caption audio as well as user interaction functionality, while simultaneously reducing the computational complexity required of the recipient to decode the data format and render the varying types of data.

Abstract: Systems and methods are described which allow data to be packaged and optimized for distribution to a certain device. These systems and methods may include separating incoming data into portions, and converting each of these portions into multiple formats. Each of these portions can then be encapsulated in a packet corresponding to one portion of the data represented in one format. A packet may then be selected for delivery to a device based upon the characteristics of that device at any particular moment. In this manner, the delivery of the data may be customized according to many different criterion without impeding the delivery or usage of that data.

Abstract: A system and a method for encoding, transmitting, decoding and storing a high-resolution video sequence using a low-resolution base layer and a higher-resolution enhancement layer. The base layer contains low-resolution video information and is compressed in a manner such that it can be decoded independently of the enhancement layer. The base layer may be encoded in an existing standard video format (such as MPEG-2). The enhancement layer, which contains high-resolution information, provides a variable amount of enhancement to the base layer. The compressed video sequence is transmitted in two layers and uses a minimum amount of bit rate by using information transmitted in the base layer in the decoding of both the base layer and the enhancement layer. In an enhanced decoder, both the base layer and the enhancement layer use this information that has been transmitted in the base layer.