Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Valve Corporation

Kenneth J Birdwell

Brian K Moran

David A Feinleib

Carl R Witty

James Randall Sargent

David S Byrne

Steven J Fluegel

Aaron Leiby

Patrick C O'Hanlon

Tristan Reidford

David Sawyer

Kenneth Barnett

Alexander C Vlachos

Emily Ridgway

Ruston Panabaker

Sensory feedback ('chaperoning') systems and methods for guiding users in virtual/augmented reality environments such as walk-around virtual reality environments are described. Exemplary implementations assist with preventing collisions with objects in the physical operating space in which the user acts, among other potential functions and/or uses.

Sensory feedback systems and methods for guiding users in virtual reality environments

A method for encoding network data, such as Internet Protocol (IP) data, into a format for transmission over a satellite system is described. The network data is configured in a packet having a data block and header information. The network data packet is encoded into a variable-length multi-packet transport (MPT) frame. The MPT frame comprises a data frame to hold data and header information. The IP packet in inserted its entirety into the data frame of the MPT frame. The variable-length MTP frame is then encoded into one or more fixed-length MTP packets. Each MPT packet has a data fragment block comprising a portion of the MTP frame and associated header information to designate what portion of the MTP frame is contained in the data fragment block.

Multi-packet transport structure and method for encoding and transmitting network data over satellite network

A system and method for determining light illumination on a model in a virtual environment. A plurality of ambient cubes are defined in the virtual environment. A plurality of lights is detected. Indirect lights are also detected. Lights incident on the ambient cubes are divided into major and minor lights. For each ambient cube, six ambient cube values are calculated, each ambient cube value being related to the aggregate light illumination at a respective side of the ambient cube by the minor lights. The light illumination caused by the major lights is determined in real-time. The determined light illumination is modified by a value related to one or more ambient cube values associated with one of the plurality of ambient cubes.

Determining illumination of models using an ambient framing abstractions

A method for generating relatively realistic virtual eyes for a character in a virtual environment, such as a video game, chat room, and virtual world. Different types of visual effects and textures are layered to create relatively realistic virtual eyes for a character in the virtual environment. These layered visual effects include a sclera texture that is generated to cover the opening surrounded by the virtual eyelids for the character. Layered over the sclera texture is a transparent texture that also covers these openings and includes opaque virtual irises that are arranged in a position that is based on a direction that the character is looking. Additionally, a relatively light spot or additive 'glint' texture is layered in a position on top of the virtual iris for the transparent texture that is based at least in part on a summation of light sources that are illuminating the character in a scene of the virtual environment.

Generating eyes for a character in a virtual environment

Method and system for determining illumination of models using an ambient cube

A method for encoding network data, such as Internet Protocol (IP) data, into a format for transmission over a satellite system is described. The network data is configured in a packet having a data block and header information. The network data packet is encoded into a variable-length multi-packet transport (MPT) frame. The MPT frame comprises a data frame to hold data and header information. The IP packet in inserted its entirety into the data frame of the MPT frame. The variable-length MTP frame is then encoded into one or more fixed-length MTP packets. Each MPT packet has a data fragment block comprising a portion of the MTP frame and associated header information to designate what portion of the MTP frame is contained in the data fragment block. The MPT packets are sized to be embedded as a specific size payload of the satellite packet that is transmitted over a satellite network. Using this method, data received over a data network (i.e., Ethernet or Internet) in large network data packets are broken into smaller packets defined by the mult-packet transport. These smaller packets are then inserted as the data payload within standard fixed-size packets suitable for transmission across a particular distribution medium, such as satellite network. The network data remains independent of the underlying network and can be easily extracted at the receiver for use by computer applications.

Multi-packet transport structure and method for sending network data over satellite network

A method for encoding network data, such as Internet Protocol (IP) data, into a format for transmission over a satellite system is described. The network data is configured in a packet having a data block and header information. The network data packet is encoded into a variable-length multi-packet transport (MPT) frame. The MPT frame comprises a data frame to hold data and header information. The IP packet in inserted its entirety into the data frame of the MPT frame. The variable-length MTP frame is then encoded into one or more fixed-length MTP packets. Each MPT packet has a data fragment block comprising a portion of the MTP frame and associated header information to designate what portion of the MTP frame is contained in the data fragment block. The MPT packets are sized to be embedded as a specific size payload of the satellite packet that is transmitted over a satellite network. Using this method, data received over a data network (i.e., Ethernet or Internet) in large network data packets are broken into smaller packets defined by the multi-packet transport. These smaller packets are then inserted as the data payload within standard fixed-size packets suitable for transmission across a particular distribution medium, such as satellite network. The network data remains independent of the underlying network and can be easily extracted at the receiver for use by computer applications.

In a broadcast system in which computer data and other content are delivered from multiple content servers to multiple clients at least partly over a broadcast network, a transmission announcement system announces upcoming broadcast transmissions and instructs the clients on how to receive the broadcast transmissions. Announcement servers (which may or may not be the same as the content servers which serve the data for the broadcast transmissions) generate announcements containing information specifying how associated upcoming transmissions are to be delivered over the broadcast network. The announcement server makes the announcements available to the clients over the broadcast network or over a secondary link other than the broadcast network. As possible examples of the secondary link, the announcement servers might send the announcements to a multicast address over a public network, such as the Internet, or post the announcements at a publicly accessible site on a data network, such as a Web site on the Internet. The clients receive the announcements via the broadcast network or the secondary link. The clients filter the announcements according to predetermined criteria, keeping the announcements satisfying the criteria and discarding the rest. The client searches the announcements that are kept to extract information pertaining to retrieval of the broadcast transmission (e.g., a broadcast protocol, a broadcast locator, a transmission time, etc.). The client then tunes a broadcast receiver to the broadcast locator and launches a receiving application to receive the transmission according to the broadcast protocol.

Transmission announcement system and method for announcing upcoming data transmissions over a broadcast network

Transmission announcement system and method for announcing upcoming data

A data delivery system facilitates transmission of data packets from a content server to multiple clients over a unidirectional network. A redundancy formatter resident at the server groups multiple data packets into a redundancy group and generates at least one redundancy packet containing redundancy information derived from the data packets in the redundancy group. The data packets and redundancy packet are sent over the unidirectional network to the client. In the event that a packet is lost, a packet rebuilder resident at each client reconstructs the missing data packet from the successfully transmitted data packets in the redundancy group and the redundancy packet for the redundancy group.

Data delivery system and method for delivering data and redundant

A data delivery system facilitates broadcast delivery of computer data and other content from multiple content servers to multiple clients. The servers are connected to a broadcast center via a bi-directional data network, such as an ATM network or an Ethernet. The data is served over the data network from the content servers to the broadcast center where it is broadcast over a broadcast network (i.e., satellite, RF, microwave, etc.) to the clients. The clients are equipped to receive broadcast transmissions from the broadcast center. Due to the unidirectional broadcast link, the clients are unable to communicate with the servers to acknowledge receipt or pre-reserve bandwidth over the data network. The broadcast center performs this task on behalf of the clients. To assure delivery of the data from the servers over the data network to the broadcast center for retransmission, the content servers generate requests for reservation of bandwidth on the data network for an upcoming time period and submit the requests over the data network to the broadcast center prior to the time period. The broadcast network schedules reservations of the bandwidth for the upcoming time period and, when the time period arrives, reserves the bandwidth at the time the communication link between the server and the broadcast center is being established.

Data delivery system and method for delivering computer data over a

A broadcast transmission system transmits data packets from a server to a client over a unidirectional broadcast network. The system transmits both full-length data packets, which have uncompressed headers, and reduced-length data packets, which have compressed headers derived from associated uncompressed headers. The server compresses the data packets by compressing the packet header. Compressed packet headers contain fewer header fields than their associated uncompressed headers. The server transmits a series of intermixed full-length and reduced-length packets to the client. As the packets are received, the client determines whether the packets are full-length or reduced-length. If the packet is full-length, the client stores the uncompressed header in a header table. If the packet is reduced-length, the client rebuilds the compressed header from its corresponding uncompressed headers in the header table.

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Kenneth J Birdwell