Sony Corporation

Sony Electronics Inc

Other

Hewlett-packard Company

Joseph Alexander Dara-Abrams

Klaus Hofrichter

David Gaxiola

John C Eidson

Stanley P Woods

Ravi Gauba

Neil David Matthews

Simon J Gibbs

Harold Aaron Ludtke

Yoshifumi Yanagawa

Leonard S Cutler

Jon Arthur Fairhurst

Robin P Giffard

Annie Wang

James L Johnson

Clement Lau

Arunachalam Balaraman

Curtis Ray Eubanks

Wim Bronnenberg

Jun Ouyang

Thomas Edward Birmingham

A personal video recorder (PVR) enables delivery of audio-visual content and associated metadata to storage devices. The PVR is configured to access a plurality of services using a plurality of storage modules. Each storage module is dedicated to a single designated content provider. One or more of the storage modules are removably coupled to the PVR. A disconnected storage module can be reconnected to another PVR different from the PVR from which the storage module was disconnected. Where authorization is required to access content stored on the storage module, authentication is performed each time the removable storage module is reconnected to a PVR.

Method and system for content sharing and authentication between multiple devices

A system and method is provided for identifying, accessing, and managing service applications for use with associated consumer electronic devices in a home network system. A client side process, executed by a client computing system in the home network system, operates in conjunction with a server side process executed by a server computing system that is coupled with the client computing system via the Internet. The client computing system is implemented by a gateway device coupled with each of the devices via the home network. The client side process includes the steps of: determining device ID information associated with at least one selected one of the consumer electronic devices in the home network system; determining a home network system configuration profile based at least on the device ID information; providing the home network system configuration profile to a selected server computing system via the Internet; downloading an application from the selected server computing system, the application being operative to provide a process associated with the selected electronic devices; and executing the downloaded application at the gateway device to provide a remote interactive process associated with the selected electronic devices.

Content and application download based on a home network system configuration profile

A sending conversant uses a sending communication device to transmit voice and body state information over a communication network to a receiving communication device used by a receiving conversant. Model based rendering is used such that the model is transferred from the sending conversant to the receiving conversant along with the transmitted data. The sending device includes means for sensing the body state of the sending conversant, collected as body state measurements. The sending communication device also includes means for detecting speech uttered by the sending conversant, such as an audio microphone. The detected speech and body state measurements are encoded in a temporally synchronized manner and multiplexed into a communication signal which is transmitted to the receiving device.

Kinesiological model-based gestural augmentation of voice communication

A process is provided for identifying and managing support service applications associated with consumer electronic devices. The process is executed by a gateway device communicatively coupled with each of the electronic devices via a home network, the gateway device being operative to access the Internet and being communicatively coupled with a display unit. The process includes the steps of: determining device ID information associated with a selected one of the electronic devices for which a support service application is required; providing the device ID information to a selected server computing system via the Internet; downloading a support service application associated with the selected device from the selected server computing system; and executing the downloaded support service application at the gateway device to provide a remote interactive support service process for the selected device. The support service may include a remote interactive manual service providing educational instructions to a user of the home network system regarding operation of a selected device, a remote interactive maintenance/diagnostic service for instructing a home network system user in solving maintenance problems associated with a selected device, or a combination remote interactive manual/maintenance/diagnostic service.

Remote manual, maintenance, and diagnostic services for networked electronic devices

In one embodiment, when a problem with a consumer electronic device owned by a user is identified, a diagnostic procedure is provided to control the diagnosis of the potentially faulty consumer electronic device by a testing consumer electronic device. The testing consumer electronic device is a local device owned by the user that is operable to diagnose problems associated with the potentially faulty consumer electronic device. In one embodiment, the testing consumer electronic device and the potentially faulty consumer electronic device are part of a home network enabling their communication during the diagnosis. In another embodiment, the testing consumer electronic device and the potentially faulty consumer electronic device can communicate only during the diagnosis using a special purpose connectivity means. In yet another embodiment, the testing consumer device and the potentially faulty consumer electronic device can communicate using their user interfaces.

Using local devices as diagnostic tools for consumer electronic devices

A method and system for providing a user interface for a networked target device within a home audio/visual network. The DDI allows any DDI target to describe its physical appearance including controls and displays, etc., to a DDI controller. The controller can be a remote physical device or can be a software program resident on the same or separate device as the target. The controller interfaces with the target to obtain the DDI data and generates a user interface for the target including: 1) interactive controls; and 2) user display information pertinent to the target. The DDI allows the controller to trigger actions on the target as if a user had physically manipulated the controls of the target. The controller and the target are connected to the same communication network. A particular embodiment operates within the HAVi architecture. The controller communicates with the user by using the input and output devices of (typically) the device upon which the controller is executing. This communication can be done in a controller-implementation-dependent manner. The target can be a DCM that controls its device in a implementation-dependent manner. The controller may be written in a generic manner that does not need to be implemented with knowledge of a particular target in mind; all target-dependencies are represented in the DDI data provided by the target to the controller.

Data driven interaction for networked control of a DDI target device over a home entertainment network

A method and system for communicating state information for a target consumer electronic device in a home network to multiple controller devices, where the controller devices are each implementing a controller software element that conforms to a different protocol than the other. The target consumer electronic device is represented within the home network by a target software element. A first controller software element conforming to a data driven interaction (DDI) protocol accesses the target software element. A second controller software element conforming to a protocol different from the DDI protocol concurrently accesses the target software element. The first controller software element and the second controller software element cause a change in state of the consumer electronic device. The target software element notifies the first controller software element and the second controller software element of the state information for the target consumer electronic device. The target software element notifies the first controller software element according to the DDI protocol and notifies the second controller software element according to the protocol different from the DDI protocol. The first controller software element and the second controller software element use the state information to manage their respective user interfaces such that consistency is maintained between the user interfaces.

Synchronizing a data driven interaction controller and a non-data driven interaction controller

A distributed adaptable measurement network, which has flexible sensor or actuator nodes, takes multiple single valued measurements, such as temperature, pH, density, turbidity, velocity, breakdown strength, and strain as a function of time. The network can control large scale physical processes in response to these measurements. The flexible sensor or actuator node uses interchangeable common core modules, where each common core module uses a common description for data configuration and control of the measurement and response parameters. Although many physical variables can be affected, each variable is controlled in the same fashion. A transducer module selects the physical variable to which the common core module will be sensitive and whether its role will be that of a sensor or an actuator. The network may also contain system transducers which can control or alter the initial measurement and response parameters selected by the transducer module.

Smart distributed measurement and control system with a flexible

The local clocks within each node of a loosely distributed network system may be synchronized and syntonized by any of the nodes in the network. Each of the nodes contains a time packet detector (TPD) that detects and recognizes timing data packets and produces a recognition signal. This signal may be used to cause an action in the detecting node, in particular the node may contain a time service block (TSB) containing a local clock that may be used to record the time of the recognition signal. The recorded times may be used as the basis for correcting the local clocks of the nodes in the system. Transfer devices such as gateways, bridges, and routers may include TSBs and TPDs to allow for correction for the transit time of time packets through the transfer device. The TPD is normally connected within the media access device at the point of final encoding for transmission or recovery of the clock and data for receiving where the time jitter will be at a minimum.

Growing community of inventors

Los Altos, CA, United States of America

Joseph Alexander Dara-Abrams