Comcast Cable Communications Management, LLC

Tvworks, LLC

Liberate Technologies, Inc.

Antoine Boucher

Allan Lodberg

Paul Ernest McRae

Peter G N Scheyen

Peter G Scheyen

Paul E Mcrae

Peter J Coumans

Brent Elphick

Vasanthan Gunaratnam

James Lee Fischer

Peter Scheyen

Tong Qiu

A system and method for managing bandwidth of an upstream communications channel in a communications system.

Upstream bandwidth management methods and apparatus

A store and forward (S&F) architecture is provided that supports multiple applications within an extensible network to direct information of various formats to any of multiple destinations. In the presently preferred embodiment of the invention, Java applications running on a client send non-priority data to any server on the application network or, alternatively, anywhere on a global telecommunications network such as the Internet, at some time in the future. In the preferred embodiment, S&F allows a client application to send usage statistics to a database on the application network. It also enables T-commerce purchases to be made by the user, where the purchase and other relevant information is sent to a destination web server as if the purchase had taken place on the web via a full web browser on an Internet-connected PC.

Store and forward architecture

A data storage, multiplexing, and distribution method is provided for use in a digital data distribution system. The system provides simultaneous transmission of a plurality of uniquely identified, independent data streams within an assigned channel bandwidth of local, metropolitan and wide area distribution media. The independent data streams can include presentations specifically requested by the receiving user. Upon request from some number of users from their premises, the system assembles a combination of optional image elements such as motion and still frame video, background and descriptive audio, text and graphical overlays into presentation data streams appropriate to the user requests. Individual data streams are multiplexed within a higher bandwidth data stream for simultaneous delivery within the bandwidth assigned for this data transmission. The techniques unique to the system, in regard to storage, timing and synchronization, can be implemented using techniques described within the MPEG profile.

System and method for interactive distribution of selectable presentations

Various embodiments of the invention provide increased speed and decreased computer processing for playing and navigating multimedia content by using two types of data objects for displaying the multimedia content. The first data object type includes rendered multimedia content data. The second data object type provides semantic content corresponding to the rendered multimedia content. The storage medium in which these two types of data objects are contained is referred to as a rendered cache. The semantic content can include locations, sizes, shapes, and target universal resource identifiers of hyperlinks, multimedia element timing, and other content play instructions. The very fast play of content stored in the rendered cache is due to the elimination of the steps of laying out the content, rendering the content, and generating the semantic representation of the content. These steps are required each time the content is played after retrieval from a conventional cache. The only steps required for playing content from the rendered cache are to read the rendered content, read the semantic content, restore the semantic representation, and play the content. A traditional web browser visiting a web site that resides in a rendered cache provides an almost instantaneous display of the web site. The caching mechanism provided by various embodiments of the invention is independent of content file format and the stored semantic content file format. As long as a client application, such as a content browser, can recognize and play the multimedia content and recognize and interpret the semantic content, the application can realize the benefits provided by the rendered cache.

Methods, apparatus, and systems for storing, retrieving and playing multimedia data

Various embodiments of the invention provide increased speed and decreased computer processing for playing and navigating multimedia content by using two types of data objects for displaying the multimedia content. The first data object type includes rendered multimedia content data for a rendered cache, or rendering instructions for a paint stream cache or a layout cache. The paint stream cache and layout cache can take advantage of increased client processing capabilities. The second data object type provides semantic content corresponding to the rendered multimedia content. The storage medium in which these two types of data objects are contained is referred to as a rendered cache. The semantic content can include locations, sizes, shapes, and target universal resource identifiers of hyperlinks, multimedia element timing, and other content play instructions. The very fast play of content stored in the rendered cache is due to the elimination of the steps of laying out the content, rendering the content, and generating the semantic representation of the content. These steps are required each time the content is played after retrieval from a conventional cache. The only steps required for playing content from the rendered cache are to read the rendered content, read the semantic content, restore the semantic representation, and play the content. The caching mechanism provided by various embodiments of the invention is independent of content file format and the stored semantic content file format.

Systems and methods are described for preparing multimedia data using digital video data compression. Various embodiments of the invention use pre-rendering and encoding techniques that format the video image data into fat macroblocks. The fat macroblocks include header information that identifies the beginning locations of strips of macroblocks representing slices of the image, and of the macroblocks disposed within the strips. The header information enables macroblocks disposed in a strip of fat macroblocks to be individually addressed thereby providing transmission bandwidth, data processing, and data storage advantages for preparing and transmitting data for updating video images including less than full screen motion. The advantages are achieved in part because updates only require that the first macroblock of each strip of macroblocks be transmitted. Further efficiencies can be realized by using a zero displacement motion vector instead of the actual values of the first macroblock if the first macroblock is not changing. Methods using fat macroblock formatted data sets provide advantages for encoding and transmitting large bitmaps of static content, scrolling the static content, enabling animation of small areas of the display, supporting picture-in picture functionality, and allowing for overlay and combination of different image data from different sources on the display. The methods of preparing the multimedia data include pre-rendering a bitmap to create a compressed form of the bitmap, and determining a viewable area of the video images to be displayed. The viewable area of the video images can be smaller than the full-sized area of the video images.

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London, Canada

Antoine Boucher