International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Marvin L Williams

William J Johnson

Robert S Keller

Gregory Peter Fitzpatrick

Diana S Wang

Greg P Fitzpatrick

George C Manthuruthil

Frederick L Janis

Brion K Jackson

Abdolreza Salahshour

Michael D Smith

Roselyn H Yun

William E Warren

Paul L Miller

Pamela A Dugan

Thomas R Haynes

Larry M Lachman

David Kingsley Clark

Frank William Gilchrist

Hadyn A Inniss

Sophia M Johnson

Guillermo Vega

Thomas R Arbuckle

Haydn A Inniss

Abdorelza Salahshour

Daniel P Ristow

A method and apparatus for scheduling electronic calendar events using a facsimile transmission. The invention may be initiated using a designated facsimile transmission sheet or sheets which can invoke a specified electronic calendar operation. A data processing system, upon reception of the facsimile transmission sheet, interprets the sheet for a specified electronic calendar operation. Upon validation of specified operations, the operations are directed to an electronic calendar for processing. In addition, specified facsimile images from the facsimile transmission may be associated with a calendar event or events. Upon an originator's request, confirmation on the status of the electronic operations are directed to specified facsimile devices.

Electronic facsimile calendaring method and apparatus

A method and apparatus for notifying an originator when a recipient has accessed an isochronous mail object for a specified duration of time. A Document Relational Service (DRS) is provided that allows the originator to specify relationships of distributions with isochronous objects and other objects. These relationships allow the originator to be notified on an expenditure of time basis when particular combinations of objects have been accessed. The Document Relational Service allows the user to specify time ranges for particular objects in varying combinations. A time service monitors the duration of access time spent on specified objects. Fulfillment of all combinations and time criteria generates the confirmation notice.

Method and apparatus for providing confirmation notification for isochronous data

Temporal based objects, such as video or audio objects, are presented in a manner that is determined by the context through which the object is presented. When presented through one context, the object is presented in accordance with one set of presentation characteristics. When presented through another context, the object is presented in accordance with another set of presentation characteristics. A context can be an application program such as a calendar program or an inbasket program, or a context can be an output device such as a video monitor. Presentation characteristics determine which segments of an object are to be presented and how they are to be presented (such as by playing, pause play, fast forward, fast forward play, rewind, rewind play and stop play).

Method and system for contextual presentation of a temporal based object on a data processing system

An arrangement for emulating printer responses to combinations of applications, control commands and printers stores bit maps of characters which may be produced by a variety of printers connected to the system. Bit maps corresponding to characters within a text string, indicated by a cursor position within a text file are retrieved in accordance with a printer selection, a character code and a table address. The table address is retrieved from memory in response to a selected application profile and one or more selected commands. The printer response is produced in a window of the display as a sequential series of sub-windows corresponding to characters of the text string; each sub-window having a width corresponding to the width of each character image. The display also includes a plurality of menus for facilitating operator selection of a combination of application profiles, commands and printers to be emulated.

Display of selected printer response for distinct applications

A method and system for validating access to a computer system in an unobtrusive manner. A finite ordered series of substantive activities, such as icon manipulations, application invocations or file manipulations is specified and stored for future reference. Thereafter, each time access to the computer system is attempted, the initial activities of a prospective user are identified and compared to the stored finite ordered series of substantive activities. Access is validated and continued access permitted in response to a match between the prospective user's initial activities and the stored finite ordered series of substantive activities. In this manner, access to a computer system may be validated without the necessity of utilizing an explicit access/password screen which may be compromised. In one embodiment of the present invention, a selected application may be automatically invoked or a particular activity automatically executed in response to a validation of access.

Method and system for access validation in a computer system

A method and system which permits a user to selectively capture video and audio information from a multimedia presentation within a data processing system and associate the audio and video information to specified calendar events. Thereafter, the video and audio information is played back within the context of electronic calendar events. In addition, associated textual references may be made with the video and audio information to elaborate on the audio and video information associated to the calendar events.

Method and apparatus for multimedia information association to an

A method and apparatus for automatically decomposing an audio object into a relational structure develops a hierarchically arranged folder. A user defines a characteristic of interest and the system locates each occurrence of the characteristic within the object. Each occurrence of the specified characteristic is separated from an adjacent occurrence by a segment of the object, thereby defining a segment length. A set of user defined isochronous transposition rules then arranges the segment lengths as a hierarchical folder structure.

Method and system for segmenting an audio object according to a

Objects on a data processing system are provided to a multimedia presentation device for presentation purposes. Each object is provided with one or more attributes. These attributes are registered before the presentation. When an object is selected for presentation, the object is transformed into a presentable format in accordance with its attributes. Such attributes include whether the object is restricted for display, the particular presentation device or devices that will present the object, the types of transforms to be performed on the object to ready the object for presentation, whether the object should be segmented into plural segments and if so, then the manner in which the segments are presented. After the transformation, the object is provided to the appropriate presentation device.

Method and apparatus for controlling presentations of objects on a user

An electronic mail object on a data processing system contains a request that the recipient perform an action. In addition, the electronic mail object contains an action or command for carrying out the request. Upon receipt of the electronic mail object, the recipient can carry out the request by selecting the action. The action is marked by starting and ending markers so that it can be isolated and extracted from the electronic mail object. Once extracted, the action is executed on the data processing system. In addition, the recipient can establish criteria for evaluating whether the selected command should be executed.

Method and system for providing actions by way of electronic

Method of, and apparatus for, optical character recognition of predominate and non-predominate color coded characters based on hypothesis testing utilizing both geometric optical character recognition and color coded optical character recognition techniques. In this hypothesis testing technique, geometric OCR is used to generate a null hypothesis that a target character has been recognized, and an alternative hypothesis that the target character has not been recognized. Color coded OCR is used to select either the null hypothesis or the alternative hypothesis. Alternatively, the roles of geometric OCR and color coded OCR may be reversed such that color coded OCR is used for hypothesis generation, and geometric OCR is used for hypothesis selection.

Method of and apparatus for optical character recognition based on

A method and apparatus for optical identification an unknown character from a plurality of known characters. Each of the known characters includes a predominant color and a nonpredominant color in preselected proportions. The unknown character has at least one geometric feature and a plurality of pixels including a predominant color and a nonpredominant color. The method and apparatus of the present invention include an examination of at least one geometric feature of the unknown character. A hypothetical identity for the unknown character is generated in response to the examination of at least one geometric feature of the unknown character. A portion of the plurality of pixels of the unknown character is sampled and a proportion between the predominant color and the nonpredominant color within the sampled portion of the plurality of pixels is determined from the sampled pixels. A comparison of the determined proportion with a preselected proportion associated with a known character corresponding to the hypothetical identity is made. The hypothetical identity is assigned to the unknown character if the determined proportion falls within the preselected range of the preselected proportion for the known character corresponding to the hypothetical identity.

Method and apparatus for optical character recognition utilizing

A method and data processing system are disclosed for media boundary traversal. In one embodiment, the invention transforms an electronic data processing file to a printed output that is understandable to humans and then transforms the printed output back to an electronic data processing file without loss of nonprintable characters. The embodiment gets an input file including both printable characters and nonprintable characters; writes the printable characters to an output file; determines locations among the printable characters of the nonprintable characters; transforms the nonprintable characters to printable character sequences; writes the printable character sequences and the locations of the nonprintable characters to an output file separately from the printable characters; and prints the output file. The printable characters of the input file remain understandable by humans in the printed output. The embodiment also comprehends scanning the printed output and performing optical character recognition; transforming the printable character sequences back to nonprintable characters and inserting the nonprintable characters among the printable characters at the written locations; thereby recreating the original input file.

Media boundary traversal method and apparatus

A method and apparatus are provided for camping on an electronic calendar. In one embodiment, the invention determines, in response to an input of a date, a time and a duration of a proposed meeting between a meeting requester and a target, that a conflicting event appears on the target's electronic calendar, monitors the target's electronic calendar to detect the removal of the conflicting event, and schedules a meeting between the requester and the target on their electronic calendars in response to the detection of the removal of the conflicting event.

Meeting conflict resolution for electronic calendars

A method and apparatus for analyzing audio input events. A template is utilized to analyze audio input events. A speech audio input event is identified. The identified speech audio input event is recorded. The recorded speech audio input event is processed to create a first entry in a template. A selected non-speech audio input event which occurs in a selected environment is identified. The identified non-speech audio input event is recorded. Then the recorded non-speech audio input event is processed to create a second entry in the template. Thereafter, a speech audio input event and a non-speech audio input event is distinguished by comparing an audio input event to the template.

Growing community of inventors

Lewisville, TX, United States of America

Marvin L Williams