Abstract: The disclosed invention is a enhancement to the Video Encoder component of the MPEG standard to improve both the efficiency and quality of the video presentation at the display device. The inventions described below pertain to the enhancement of video compression technology. In general, they are compatible with MPEG video standards (as in current art), but represent novel enhancements thereof. The above inventions apply to several transmission media and networks including cable, DSL, wireless, satellite and IP networks. Another category of invention in this disclosure enhances networking performance by recognizing that the transmitted information is video, rather than data. This invention can be scaled to other classes of multimedia data such as speech or audio or images.

Abstract: Methods and systems that support downstream media signal insertion into a digital signal without affecting digital signal quality is presented here. The methods and systems can utilize pre-defined bitrate values assigned to media signals and allocate that bitrate to a portion of a digital signal that will be replaced by the media signal. The methods are equally applicable to both open and closed-loop encoding systems.

Abstract: Methods and systems for integrated transcoding on a plurality of data channels to convert one or more data channels from an incoming encoding format to an outgoing encoding format are disclosed.

Abstract: The disclosed invention is a enhancement to the Video Encoder component of the MPEG standard to improve both the efficiency and quality of the video presentation at the display device. The inventions described below pertain to the enhancement of video compression technology. In general, they are compatible with MPEG video standards (as in current art), but represent novel enhancements thereof. The above inventions apply to several transmission media and networks including cable, DSL, wireless, satellite and IP networks. Another category of invention in this disclosure enhances networking performance by recognizing that the transmitted information is video, rather than data. This invention can be scaled to other classes of multimedia data such as speech or audio or images.

Abstract: Provided is an enhancement to the Video Encoder component of the MPEG standard to improve both the efficiency and quality of the video presentation at the display device.

Abstract: Methods and systems for integrated transcoding on a plurality of data channels to convert one or more data channels from an incoming encoding format to an outgoing encoding format are disclosed.

Abstract: A method for content delivery comprising transmitting content via a first network to a content aggregation point and transmitting the content from the content aggregation point via a second network to a receiver at the request of the receiver. A system for content delivery comprising a content provider, a content aggregation point operatively coupled to the content provider via a first network wherein the content aggregation point receives content from the content provider, and a receiver operatively coupled to the content aggregation point via a second network wherein the receiver is configured to request content from the content aggregation point. Also disclosed are methods for improving the network functionality through in-band measurement of network statistics, multi-constraint based QoS routing, and back up path determination.

Abstract: The invention determines the degree of similarity between a target image and each of a plurality of reference images. The measure used for the degree of similarity between images is based on the human perceptive system, so that images that appear to a human to be similar in color have a higher similarity measure than images that appear to a human to be dissimilar in color. Each of the most populous colors of each partition of the target image is associated with a color in a corresponding partition of the reference image that is closest to the target image color. The similarity measure is based on the number of occurrences of each of these associated colors in the corresponding partitions, as well as the color difference between these associated colors. Thus, images that have similar, albeit not identical, colors, will have a higher similarity measure than images that have dissimilar colors. In a preferred embodiment, color difference is determined based upon the CIE luminance-chrominance color space.

Abstract: Methods and systems that support downstream media signal insertion into a digital signal without affecting digital signal quality is presented here. The methods and systems can utilize pre-defined bitrate values assigned to media signals and allocate that bitrate to a portion of a digital signal that will be replaced by the media signal. The methods are equally applicable to both open and closed-loop encoding systems.

Abstract: A system and method for creating multi-priority streams of compressed video data. Included is a method for assigning priority to streams of compressed video data, comprising the steps of: determining a relative importance of each macroblock in a video frame based on how often each macroblock acts as a reference macroblock; and prioritizing each of the macroblocks in the video frame based on the relative importance.

Abstract: A method for content delivery comprising transmitting content via a first network to a content aggregation point and transmitting the content from the content aggregation point via a second network to a receiver at the request of the receiver. A system for content delivery comprising a content provider, a content aggregation point operatively coupled to the content provider via a first network wherein the content aggregation point receives content from the content provider, and a receiver operatively coupled to the content aggregation point via a second network wherein the receiver is configured to request content from the content aggregation point. Also disclosed are methods for improving the network functionality through in-band measurement of network statistics, multi-constraint based QoS routing, and back up path determination.

Abstract: A reconfigurable multi-media system, method and device provides monitoring and reconfiguration of a plurality of communication layers of a communications stack to dynamically reconfigure the modulation and coding of software defined radio (SDR).

Abstract: A system and method for verifying and authenticating multimedia objects. Provided is a system for splitting a watermark into at least a first and second part, inserting the first part of the watermark into a first component of the multimedia object, and inserting the second part into a second component of the multimedia object, and outputting a watermarked multimedia object. The watermark may be provided by obtaining a signature of the original multimedia object. Also included are systems and methods for checking the validity and authenticity of a received watermarked multimedia object, wherein the multimedia object includes individual watermarked media components.

Abstract: A system and method that selects an encoder redundancy scheme based on the projected cost of concealing the errors using an anticipated error concealment strategy. The invention provides a system for encoding a data set, comprising: a system that anticipates an error concealment strategy that will be used by a decoder in the event that the data set contains errors when received by the decoder; an analysis system that projects a cost for concealing the errors using the error concealment strategy; and a system that selects a redundancy scheme for encoding the data set based on the projected cost of concealing the errors using the error concealment strategy. Also provided is a decoder system for decoding packets of data, comprising: at least one error concealment strategy for concealing errors in an erroneously received packet of data; and a feedback system that provides feedback information regarding the error concealment strategy used by the decoder system to conceal the errors.

Abstract: A system and method for providing cross media error protection for multimedia data. The cross media error protection comprises: a packaging system for packaging the multimedia data into discrete packets, wherein each packet includes a plurality of fields, and wherein data segments from each of the media streams are placed into different ones of the plurality of fields; and an insertion system for inserting error protection data into one of the plurality of fields in each packet. In addition, a size of each of the plurality of fields may be made proportional to the size of each of the plurality of media streams over a time interval.

Abstract: A method of scaling image and video processing computational complexity according to the maximum available quantities of computational includes performing a plurality of data multiplications which processes digital image and video data, the performance of each data multiplication requiring a predetermined quantity of computational resource units; selecting one of the data multiplications; selecting a shift/add-, a shift/subtract or a shift-operation using a data independent value associated with the selected multiplication that requires a quantity of computational resource units which is less than the predetermined quantity of computational resource units required for performing the selected multiplication; and performing the selected multiplication with the selected operation. Also, a decoder which scales video and still image decoding computational complexity with available computational resources according to the above method.

Abstract: A method and system for creating authentication signatures for digital images and video frames is provided. The method and system involves partitioning the image into multiple blocks, comparing characteristics from each block and generating data bits based on the comparison. Each block is then broken up into additional blocks and those blocks are compared to create additional signature bits which are combined with the signature sets from the first set of blocks. Each of these new smaller blocks can be further broken up and the procedure can be repeated to provide an authentication signature of desired length.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for compressing facsimile documents based on arithmetic coding. A combination of one-dimensional and two-dimensional arithmetic coding is employed to ensure that the effect of a transmission error is not propagated to the whole document. Appropriate contexts for the probabilistic models associated with arithmetic coding for one and two dimensional cases are presented. An error detection scheme to identify the presence of transmission errors is also presented.

Abstract: An image retrieval system contains a database with a large number of images. The system retrieves images from the database that are similar to a query image entered by the user. The images in the database are grouped in clusters according to a similarity criterion so that mutually similar images reside in the same cluster. Each cluster has a cluster center which is representative for the images in it. A first step of the search to similar images selects the clusters that may contain images similar with the query image, by comparing the query image with the cluster centers of all clusters. A second step of the search compares the images in the selected clusters with the query image in order to determine their similarity with the query image.

Abstract: The disclosed invention is a enhancement to the Video Encoder component of the MPEG standard to improve both the efficiency and quality of the video presentation at the display device. The inventions described below pertain to the enhancement of video compression technology. In general, they are compatible with MPEG video standards (as in current art), but represent novel enhancements thereof. The above inventions apply to several transmission media and networks including cable, DSL, wireless, satellite and IP networks. Another category of invention in this disclosure enhances networking performance by recognizing that the transmitted information is video, rather than data. This invention can be scaled to other classes of multimedia data such as speech or audio or images.