Apple Inc.

Alexander B Beaman

David G Opstad

Michael Roland Reed

Richard W Becker

Thomas E Dowdy

John Samuel Bushell

Samir Gehani

Daniel R Steinberg

Kevin Calhoun

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for creating and using media asset proxies. The media asset proxies represent a digital media asset and are created by filtering and modifying elements from the digital media asset. The media asset proxies can be queried in the same manner as their corresponding digital media asset.

Media asset proxies

Techniques are disclosed for managing data requests from multiple requestors. According to one implementation, when a new data request is received, a determination is made as to whether a companion relationship should be established between the new data request and an existing data request. Such a companion relationship may be appropriate under certain conditions. If a companion relationship is established between the new data request and an existing data request, then when data is returned for one request, it is used to satisfy the other request as well. This helps to reduce the number of data accesses that need to be made to a data storage, which in turn enables system efficiency to be improved.

Managing read requests from multiple requestors

Techniques are described herein for expanding the range of data targeted in I/O requests made by clients, so that the expanded range results in aligned I/O operations within the file system. Data that is included in the expanded range, but was not actually requested by the client, is trimmed off the data chunk returned by the file system, so that the client receives only the data required by the client. The blocks that contain the partially-read data are cached, so that they can be provided to the clients in response to subsequent I/O requests, without having to retrieve the blocks again from the file system. The I/O requests of multiple clients are handled by a read scheduler that uses a single global queue for all such requests. When appropriate, the read scheduler creates companionship relationships between the requests, and services the 'companion' requests based on the data returned for the requests with which the companion requests are associated.

Data tables that are required for the proper processing of font glyphs are automatically synthesized if they do not form part of an original font definition. The synthesized tables are stored in an annex file that is associated with the font, rather than being incorporated into the font definition. As a result, the integrity of the original font data is maintained, and does not adversely affect font protection systems that are based upon font data.

Automatic synthesis of font tables for character layout

Techniques for transferring data between multiple processing entities are described. A processing entity, such as a process or thread, transfers a first data structure to another processing entity. The first data structure represents a first amount of memory and references a second data structure of a similar type. The second data structure represents a second amount of memory. The second data structure contains a pointer to a block of memory. The second amount of memory includes at least a portion of the block of memory. The first amount of memory includes at least a portion of the block of memory. The transfer is performed without having to copy any portion of the block of memory.

Transferring memory buffers between multiple processing entities

A voice menu system is disclosed. The present invention generally allows for updateable audio menus. Although a device might have some pre-packaged menu components, other menu components can be received from a server. Each menu component, regardless of whether it is original or received from the server, has an associated voiced name. When a user highlights a menu choice, the voiced name can be played. The user then has the option of selecting the menu choice or scrolling to a new menu choice. In this way, a user could navigate the menu without having to actually see a visual display of the menu, which may be especially useful for users unable to see the visual display or users with visual disabilities.

Voice menu system

A system for typographic glyph construction includes a graphics system, a glyph server coupled to the graphics system, and an operating system coupled to the glyph server. An apparatus for typographic glyph construction of input text in a graphics system running on a computer system and output on an output device of the computer system includes a line layout core unit, a glyph cache unit coupled to the line layout core unit, an open font architecture services unit coupled to the glyph cache unit, at least one scaler unit coupled to the open font architecture unit, a font object management unit coupled to the at least one font scaler, and an attribute group support unit supporting a data structure for communication among the units of the apparatus. A method for processing input text in a graphics system running on a computer system and displaying typographic glyphs on a display device of the computer system includes mapping the input text into glyph codes, forming an initial glyph record array, the initial glyph record array comprising a plurality of glyph records for the glyph codes, processing a layout of the glyph codes to produce an updated glyph record array, rendering the updated glyph record array to produce a final glyph record array, and rendering a display of the typographic glyph output from the final glyph record array.

Method and apparatus for typographic glyph construction including a glyph server

A reader and writer access a ring buffer without using a locking mechanism, thereby avoiding any delays attendant to using a locking mechanism when performing read operations to supply the reader with data from the ring buffer. Other measures are used to reduce delayed performance of read operations. If data requested by a reader is not available in the ring buffer, rather than waiting until the data becomes available, substitute data not from the ring buffer is provided instead. The ring buffer's size may be dynamically increased or decreased to improve performance of read and write operations and/or to conserve computer resources.

Lockless access to a ring buffer

Colors are specified within the individual glyphs of a font by means of an indirect approach which employs multiple tables. The data values for individual pixels of a glyph identify entries in an index table, which pertains to a subset of all available colors. The entries in the index table map to a complete set of colors that are specified in a color table. As a result of this structure, the amount of data that is required to specify the individual pixels of a glyph can be minimized to the number of bits required to distinguish the colors within that glyph. The specification of all available colors within a single table permits that table to be shared among various resources, including bitmap fonts and outline fonts.

Method and system for the representation of color and other attributes in bitmap fonts

Aspects for achieving enhanced glyphs of a font are presented. In a method aspect, the method includes determining a glyph layer description for a selected glyph, and accessing at least one contour for the selected glyph. The method further includes accessing at least one layer style for the at least one contour of the selected glyph, and rendering the selected glyph in accordance with the at least one layer style to produced an enhanced glyph. In a system aspect, the system includes a mechanism for providing a hinted path. A glyph layer processor is coupled to the mechanism for providing and receives the hinted path. The glyph layer processor outputs enhanced glyph data. A drawing client for receiving the enhanced glyph data from the glyph layer processor for output from a computer system is further included.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Alexander B Beaman