Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Xerox Corporation

Kirusa, Inc.

Other

Navin Chaddha

Anoop Gupta

David Del Val

Edward Yan-bing Wang

Anders Edgar Klemets

Albert S Wang

Dawson F Dean

Sanjeev Kuwadekar

Srinivas Prasad Vellanki

Adesh Desai

Dan Sodhi

Philip Andrew Chou

Ling Tony Chen

James Gregory Hanko

J Duane Northcutt

Gerard A Wall

Mohan Vishwanath

Audi Purnaveja

Sanjeev Mehrotra

Anthony W Cannon

Brian Von Herzen

Hemanth Srinivas Ravi

Richard A Wotiz

David De Val

Edward Wang

Prasad Vellanki

A method and system for forwarding information such as data files to a recipient across disparate or incompatible communication networks, which are not constrained by incompatible user devices. The sender sends information such as a data file to an intended recipient via a messaging server. The messaging server communicates with the intended recipient using basic communication tools that are generally compatible regardless of the network that the recipient is subscribed to. The messaging server stores the information, creates and sends a notification message to the intended recipient that she has information to be retrieved. The notification message includes a unique access address associated with the message, at which the recipient can retrieve the information. Different unique access addresses are associated with different messages.

Method and system for communicating a data file

Method and system for communicating a data file over a network

The present invention is directed to a system, method, device and machine readable medium for a selecting a recipient device or address with which a sender communicates. A sender using a sender device communicates with a recipient device selection server to indicate he wishes to communicate with a recipient. The sender indicates in what communication mode he wishes to communicate. The recipient device selection server determines all of the recipient devices and which communication modes they can receive. The recipient device selection server then selects a recipient device for the sender.

Method and system for selecting a communication channel with a recipient device over a communication network

A multimedia compression system for generating frame rate scaleable data in the case of universally scaleable data. Universally scaleable data is scaleable across all of the relevant characteristics of the data (e.g., frame rate, resolution, and quality for video). The scaleable data generated by the compression system includes multiple additive layers for each characteristic across which the data is scaleable. For video, the frame rate layers are additive temporal layers, the resolution layers are additive base and enhancement layers, and the quality layers are additive index planes of embedded codes. Various techniques can be used for generating these layers (e.g., Laplacian pyramid decomposition or wavelet decomposition for generating the resolution layers; tree structured vector quantization or tree structured scalar quantization for generating the quality layers). The system further provides for embedded inter-frame compression in the context of frame rate scalability, and non-redundant layered multicast network delivery of the scaleable data.

Multimedia compression system with additive temporal layers

A method of interactively providing a number of client computers with a dynamically selectable and scalable range of multimedia data over a diverse computer network including local area networks (LANs) wide area networks (WANs) such as the internet. Multimedia data is provided by a server to the client computers includes a base layer and one or more enhancement layers. Enhancement layers can be spatial and/or temporal in nature. Depending on the implementation, the server may also provide information about the multimedia data to the client computers. The server splits the multimedia data for streaming via multiple multicast group (MMG) addresses. Information about the portion of the multimedia data carried by each MMG is broadcasted to the client computers. Armed with the information about the multimedia data, client computers can intelligently join and leave MMGs as needed. In some embodiments, the client computers provide feedback about the usage and/or need for the multimedia data, enabling the server to right-size, e.g., grow and/or prune, the multimedia data for network efficiency. With right sizing, the content of the base layer may be increased or decreased with the corresponding growing and pruning of the enhancement layers. Enhancement layers may also be grown and/or pruned independently of the base layer, i.e., without a corresponding change in the base layer.

Multiple multicasting of multimedia streams

A transmission method for video image data using an embedded bit stream in a hierarchical table-lookup vector quantizer comprises the steps encoding an image using hierarchical vector quantization and an embedding process to obtain an embedded bit stream for lossless transmission. The bit stream is selectively truncated and decoded to obtain a reconstructed image.

Method for transmitting data using an embedded bit stream produced in a hierarchical table-lookup vector quantizer

A cost effective method for generating and delivering personalized multimedia content targeted at specific end users or groups of end users via client computers coupled to local servers by a diverse computer network which includes local area networks (LANS) and/or wide area networks (WANs) such as the internet. In one embodiment, a global server provides global content via a computer network to a local server. The local server retrieves personal profile associated with the targeted end user(s) from a local database. Personalized content is generated based on the personal profile. Customized information which includes both the global and personalized content is then delivered to the targeted end user(s) via client computer(s) coupled to the computer network. Global and personalized content may or may not be related. For example, global content may be an action movie while unrelated personalized content may be an advertisement for a custom suit in the Color, style and size likely to please the targeted end user. Exemplary personal profile include indicators such as family income, hobbies and ages which provide useful indicators of the consumption habits of the end users. Such an arrangement is advantageous because the personalized content is targeted at end user(s) who have a higher probability of interest in the personalized content based on the personal profile.

System and method for selecting the transmission bandwidth of a data stream sent to a client based on personal attributes of the client's user

The present invention relates, in one aspect, to a method for processing video data that is divided into frames. The video data includes a current frame, which has an associated current macroblock, and an adjacent frame, which also has an associated macroblock. The method for processing video data involves obtaining an uncompressed current block that is a part of the current macroblock and an adjacent block that is part of the adjacent macroblock, and calculating a distance between the uncompressed current block and the adjacent block. It is determined whether the distance between the uncompressed current block and the adjacent block is acceptable. If the distance is unacceptable, then the current block is adoptively compressed.

Method and apparatus for implementing motion detection in video compression

Methods and apparatus for processing video data that is divided into frames are presented. In one aspect, this relates to a method for processing video data that is divided into frames. The video data includes a current frame, which has an associated current macroblock, and an adjacent frame, which also has an associated macroblock. The method for processing video data involves obtaining an uncompressed current block that is a part of the current macroblock and an adjacent block that is part of the adjacent macroblock, and calculating a distance between the uncompressed current block and the adjacent block. It is determined whether the distance between the uncompressed current block and the adjacent block is acceptable. If the distance is unacceptable, then the motion between the uncompressed current block and the adjacent block is estimated, and the uncompressed current block is adaptively compressed.

Method and apparatus for implementing motion estimation in video compression

A method of interactively providing a number of client computers with a dynamically selectable and scalable range of multimedia data over a diverse computer network including local area networks (LANs) wide area networks (WANs) such as the internet. Multimedia data is provided by a server to the client computers includes a base layer and one or more enhancement layers. Enhancement layers can be spatial and/or temporal in nature. Depending on the implementation, the server may also provide information about the multimedia data to the client computers. The server splits the multimedia data for streaming via multiple multicast group (MMG) addresses. Information about the portion of the multimedia data carried by each MMG is broadcasted to the client computers. Armed with the information about the multimedia data, client computers can intelligently join and leave MMGs as needed. In some embodiments, the client computers provide feedback about the usage and/or need for the multimedia data, enabling the server to right-size, e.g., grow and/or prune, the multimedia data for network efficiency. Enhancement layers may also be grown and/or pruned independently of the base layer, i.e., without a corresponding change in the base layer.

A system for classifying image elements comprising means for converting an image into a series of vectors and a hierarchical lookup table that classifies the vectors. The lookup table implements a pre-computed discrete cosine transform (DCT) to enhance classification accuracy. The hierarchical lookup table includes four stages: three of which constitute a preliminary section; the fourth stage constitutes the final section. Each stage has a respective stage table. The method for designing each stage table comprises a codebook design procedure and a table fill-in procedure. Codebook design for the preliminary stages strives to minimize a classification-sensitive proximity measure; codebook design for the final stage attempts to minimize Bayes risk of misclassification. Table fill-in for the first stage involves generating all possible input combinations, concatenating each possible input combination to define a concatenated vector, applying a DCT to convert the address vector to the spatial frequency domain, finding the closest first-stage codebook vector, and assigning to the address the index associated that codebook vector. Table fill-in for subsequent stages involves decoding each possible input combination to obtain spatial frequency domain vectors, applying an inverse DOC to convert the inputs to pixel domain vectors, concatenating the pixel domain vectors to obtain a higher dimension pixel domain vector, applying a DCT to obtain a spatial frequency domain vector, finding the closest same-stage codebook vector, and assigning the codebook vector index to the input combination.

Table-based low-level image classification and compression system

A multimedia compression system for generating frame rate scaleable data in the case of video, and, more generally, universally scaleable data. Universally scaleable data is scaleable across all of the relevant characteristics of the data. In the case of video, these characteristics include frame rate, resolution, and quality. The scaleable data generated by the compression system is comprised of multiple additive layers for each characteristic across which the data is scaleable. In the case of video, the frame rate layers are additive temporal layers, the resolution layers are additive base and enhancement layers, and the quality layers are additive index planes of embedded codes. Various techniques can be used for generating each of these layers (e.g., Laplacian pyramid decomposition or wavelet decomposition for generating the resolution layers; tree structured vector quantization or tree structured scalar quantization for generating the quality layers). The compression system further provides for embedded inter-frame compression in the context of frame rate scalability, and non-redundant layered multicast network delivery of the scaleable data.

An image compression system includes a vectorizer and a hierarchical vector quantization table that outputs embedded code. The vectorizer converts an image into image vectors representing respective blocks of image pixels. The table provides computation-free transformation and compression of the image vectors. Table design can be divided into codebook design and fill-in procedures for each stage. Codebook design for the preliminary stages uses a splitting generalized Lloyd algorithm (LBG/GLA) using a perceptually weighted distortion measure. Codebook design for the final stage uses a greedily-grown and then entropy-pruned tree-structure variation of GLA with an entropy-constrained distortion measure. Table fill-in for all stages uses an unweighted proximity measure for assigning inputs to codebook vectors. Transformations and compression are fast because they are computation free. The hierarchical, multi-stage, character of the table allow it to operate with low memory requirements. The embedded output allows convenient scalability suitable for collaborative video applications over heterogeneous networks.

Table-based compression with embedded coding

An image compression system includes a vectorizer and a hierarchical vector quantization table that outputs embedded code. The vectorizer converts an image into image vectors representing respective blocks of image pixels. The table provides computation-free transformation and compression of the image vectors. Table design can be divided into codebook design and fill-in procedures for each stage. Codebook design for the preliminary stages uses a splitting generalized Lloyd algorithm (LBG/GLA) using a perceptually weighted distortion measure. Codebook design for the final stage uses a greedily-grown and then entropy-pruned tree-structure variation of GLA with an entropy-constrained distortion measure. Table fill-in for all stages uses an unweighted proximity measure for assigning inputs a codebook vectors. Transformations and compression are fast because they are computation free. The hierarchical, multi-stage, character of the table allow it to operate with low memory requirements. The embedded output allows convenient scalability suitable for collaborative video applications over heterogeneous networks.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Navin Chaddha