Lucent Technologies Inc.

At+t Corp.

At&t Ipm Corp.

Anthony James Grewe

Howard M Singer

Kevin A Shelby

Michael John Nuttall

Charles Richard Lewis, Jr

Michael P Zambelli

David C Stowers

Harish S Mangrulkar

Michael Philip Zambelli

Myra L Ensor

Theodore Sizer

Nuggehally Sampath Jayant

Katherine Grace August

B Waring Partridge, Iii

Larry Allen Marcus

Charles David Caldwell

Donald Marion Keen

William J Mclaughlin

Steven M Herbst

David Carroll Stowers

Carl S Ledbetter, Jr

Michael Kerwin

Theodore Ii Sizer

The present invention is a smart tray for an in-home audio player adapted to play pre-recorded music stored on a semiconductor music chip storage medium. Music chips are loaded into the smart tray which holds a predetermined number of chips and is inserted as part of the audio player. Each tray will have a low cost, low power microprocessor on board to handle routing and accessing of the music from an individual chip on the tray. For instance, the tray level microprocessor will be able to cue up a next song selection while a digital signal processor (DSP) within a base portion of the audio player finishes decoding the current selection. The smart tray minimizes music selection search times and allows the DSP to focus on processing the encoded music from the chips thereby minimizing housekeeping activities performed by the DSP and increasing efficiency. The smart tray allows for active music selections by the user so that the user can select a particular artist, song, music style, etc. with the touch of a button. This can be done since the music chips self-register content and music style to the smart tray upon power up. The audio player can be expanded by adding additional smart trays up to a predetermined limit.

Smart tray for audio player

A memory device for digital storage of pre-recorded audio. Contained within a housing adapted for insertion into a solid state audio player is an array of memory cells for storage of digitally recorded audio. Each of the memory cells is individually addressable over a parallel address bus and data is read and/or written over a parallel data bus. Data is transmitted to and from the device by means of a serial interface with the solid state audio player. Shift registers within the memory device are coupled to the serial interface for transmitting serial data to and receiving serial data from the audio player. Data buffers are interposed between the address bus, data bus and respective shift registers for storing data to be placed on the address bus and receiving data from the data bus. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a series of capacitive plates is included to provide a contact-less interface between the memory device and the associated solid state audio player.

Memory chip architecture for digital storage of prerecorded audio data

A contactless interface for transfer of data between a semiconductor music chip and a solid state audio player Data is transferred between the chip and audio player by way of a capacitive interface. The interface comprises a set of conductive plates or electrodes with outer dielectric surfaces on both the music chip and the audio player. Corresponding capacitive plates on the music chip and audio player facilitate data communication by forming a series of capacitors once the music chip is inserted within the audio player so that the capacitive plates of each device are aligned and in close proximity with one another. In accordance with one aspect of the invention a set of four capacitive plates is included on both the music chip and the audio player forming four capacitors. In this arrangement, two plates on each device are utilized to transmit data and two plates are utilized to receive data. The data is serially transferred between devices in a differential scheme utilizing differential receive and drive amplifiers. The differential data transfer minimizes transmission errors and makes the audio player less susceptible to noise. Contacts are also provided as part of the interface for transfer of power, ground and clock signals from the audio player to the music chip.

Capacitive interface for coupling between a music chip and audio player

A protocol for labeling various types of data contained in a music chip. The protocol includes a hierarchical arrangement of headers for storing information about selections on the chip and the method in which they were coded in the memory of the chip. A global header located at the very start of memory will specify information needed to successfully decode the content of the music chip. This will include, for example, the necessary bit rate, as well as information pertaining to a specific PAC (Perceptual Audio Coding) algorithm employed in recording audio on the chip. In addition to the global header, each chip will have a section of memory allocated to a table of contents. The table of contents will include information on play times, song titles, music category and artist. Individual track selections will be listed as part of the table of contents by individual headers. The individual header contains a music field to which a track belongs, for example, classical, jazz, country, rock, etc., an artist field, and an address field which pertains to the information for addressing each track selection. Information from the headers is self-registered or automatically downloaded when a chip is loaded into a player/juke box device. The concept of self-registering general information included within the headers allows a user to select by type of music, artist, etc. for music selections made over a period of time. In addition, the present invention provides a method for segmenting memory in an integrated circuit chip wherein the integrated circuit chip is adapted for use in an audio player and the memory has pre-recorded audio stored therein. The method includes the steps of storing in a global header parameters corresponding to encoding techniques used in storing the pre-recorded audio in memory and coding in at least one individual header data fields indicative of general description information for individual tracks of the pre-recorded audio.

Data protocol and method for segmenting memory for a music chip

An interactive communication system includes a portable unit of a cordless telephone for providing wireless telephone communications and integrating telephone functions and control of remotely operated devices, such as television sets, video cassette recorders and cable converters. The portable unit advantageously provides controlling information to a remotely operated device in response to voice and data communications occurring over the telephone network.

Interactive system for communications between a cordless telephone and a

A pen computer has a double hinge connector and a first member which is rotatably connected to the connector. The first member has a pen sensitive screen. A second member, having a flat surface, is also rotatably connected to the connector. The pen computer is in a closed position when an angle between the first and second members is equal to zero degrees. The pen computer is in an open position when the angle between the first and second members is substantially equal to 180 degrees. When the pen computer is in the open position, the flat surface of the second member is substantially level with the pen sensitive screen of the first member, such that the flat surface is operable as a palm rest for facilitating the use of the pen sensitive screen.

Mobile pen computer having an integrated palm rest

Hand-held remote control unit

Combined portable memory card reader and player

A versatile device is obtained with a PDA that includes means for cordless connecting to specialized accessories. The PDA can operate in its conventional mode, or it can be enhanced by interconnecting it with some or all of its accessories. In one embodiment, the PDA is combined with a cellular telephone that is adapted to physically mate with the PDA and form thereby a single integrated apparatus. In another embodiment, the PDA is combined with a landline telephone that is adapted to mate with the PDA and form thereby another single integrated apparatus. In a still another embodiment, the PDA (whether or not mated with a telecommunication device) is combined with a keyboard to form a laptop computer.

Modular communication apparatus

A remote control unit for use with an in-home audio player adapted to play pre-recorded music stored on a semiconductor music chip storage medium. In accordance with one preferred embodiment of the invention, the remote unit is a battery powered, hand held device which enables customized music selection to be made at the audio player from a distant position. The remote control unit includes an LCD display, a series of control buttons and an infrared communication interface for transmitting and receiving data from the audio player. A docking port is included in the audio player for mating with the remote control in order to download general information stored in memory of the audio player regarding each of the music chips which it has loaded. A processor within the remote control guides the user through a menu driven software routine for making music selection at the player. A user scrolls through the various menus by use of a navigation pointer. Soft keys on the remote take on different functions depending on the location within the menu driven software routine. For example, a user can choose to play individual music tracks according to a category of music, musical artist or specific song. Other functions of the remote include play, pause, scan (forward and reverse) and fast scan, as well as On/Off and volume control.

Remote control device capable of downloading content information from an

A telephone message system overcomes the problems and limitations of presently available systems that seek to enhance inter-and intra-premises communications. The system advantageously comprises a controller unit with Caller ID capabilities and one or more adjunct units that are bridged onto a single wire-pair at a user's residential location in a parallel electrical connection. These customer installable units are merely plugged into any telephone jack and share a telephone wire-pair with existing telephone extensions without interference. Such operation is possible since communication between the controller unit and the adjunct units is limited to a frequency band different from the audio frequency band used by the existing telephone extensions on the single wire-pair. The controller unit, in one configuration, operates as an answering machine with multiple mailboxes. This functionality is advantageously combined with Caller ID, intercom and speakerphone capabilities. The adjunct units may be added to any of existing telephone devices thereby providing access to the functions available at the controller unit throughout the premises.

Telephone message center

Combined multiple memory card reader and player

A telephone message system overcomes the problems and limitations of presently available systems that seek to enhance inter-and intra-premises communications. The system comprises a controller unit with Caller ID capabilities and one or more adjunct units that are all bridged onto a single wire-pair at a user's residential location in a parallel electrical connection. For facilitating a message routing capability, a mailbox of groups of telephone numbers are associated with a particular party at the residence. These telephone numbers are preprogrammed into the controller unit so that upon receipt of an incoming call from one of these telephone numbers, identified through caller ID, the incoming call is associated with the particular called party and the controller unit routes the incoming call directly to the called party's mail box where the calling party is able to leave a message. A user may easily access received messages stored in his or her mailbox in the message system which may be configured as either open or restricted. If the message system is open, then a user may access not only messages in his or her mailbox but also access messages in any of other mailboxes also in the system. If the message system is restricted, however, then a user is allowed access only to messages in his or her mailbox.

Apparatus and method for routing messages in a telephone message center

Packaging for memory device

Pen-based personal communicator

Growing community of inventors

Holmdel, NJ, United States of America

Anthony James Grewe