Interval Research Corporation

Vulcan Patents LLC

Interval Licensing LLC

Neal A Bhadkamkar

Subutai Ahmad

Paul A Freiberger

Philippe P Piernot

Michele Mae Covell

Brygg A Ullmer

Steve B Cousins

Marc Eliot Davis

David P Reed

Golan Levin

Emanuel E Farber

Sally N Rosenthal

Giles N Goodhead

Christopher D Horner

Todd A Agulnick

John-Thomas Calderon Ngo

Todd A Aqulnick

The invention enables the apparent display rate of an audiovisual display to be varied. The invention can modify an original set of audio data in accordance with a target display rate, then modify a related original set of video data to conform to the modifications made to the audio data set, such that the modified audio and video data sets are synchronized. When the modified audio and video data sets so produced are used to generate an audiovisual display, the audiovisual display has an apparent display rate that approximates the target display rate. The target display rate can be faster or slower than a normal display rate at which an audiovisual display system generates an audiovisual display from the original sets of audio and video data. The target display rate can be established solely by a user instruction, by analysis of the audiovisual data, or by modification of a user-specified nominal target display rate based upon analysis of the audiovisual data. Preferably, the method for modifying the original audio data set is one that produces a modified audio data set that can be used to generate an audio display having little or no distortion.

Variable rate video playback with synchronized audio

A system and method for review of news content (audio, video and/or textual news content), such that an overview of the news content can be quickly ascertained and flexibility in the manner in which it is presented are provided. News programs (e.g. television news programs) and news stories (e.g., on-line news) are acquired and the system enables the user to easily move among and randomly access the segments of news programs and quickly locate the segments of a particular subject. News stories related to the segment of news program being viewed can be identified and displayed. Flexible playback allows speeding-up the display of the news program while displaying summary of one or more program segments and accelerating playback of a paused program after resuming from the pause. The system can additionally indicate to the user which news story is currently being viewed, and which news stories have already been viewed.

Browser for use in navigating a body of information, with particular application to browsing information represented by audiovisual data

An attention manager presents information to a person in the vicinity of a display device in a manner that engages at least the peripheral attention of the person. The information is embodied by one or more sets of content data (e.g., video or audio data). Each set of content data is formulated by a content provider and made available for use by content display systems. Upon appropriate activation, each content display system displays images corresponding to the sets of content data in accordance with predetermined scheduling information. The attention manager makes use of 'unused capacity' of the display device and the person's attention, providing information to the person that the person might not otherwise expend adequate energy to obtain. The attention manager also affords an opportunity to content providers to disseminate their information to people that are interested in receiving such information, enabling the content providers to provide better directed information dissemination, as well as providing access to the previously unused attention capacity of those interested users.

Attention manager for occupying the peripheral attention of a person in the vicinity of a display device

The invention facilitates and enhances review of a body of information, such as a set of audio, video and text data or some combination thereof, enabling the body of information to be quickly reviewed so to obtain an overview of the content of the body of information and allowing flexibility in reviewing. In on embodiment, the content is acquired from a first set of one or more sources, i.e. TV news, and text news stories are acquired from a second set of one or more sources, i.e. On-line services. The invention enables the user to access the information randomly, thereby enhancing the speed of accessing/locating among news stories/programs pertaining particular subject. Additionally, the user while observing a particular news story, the invention can identify and display related news stories.

An attention manager presents information to a person in the vicinity of a display device in a manner that engages at least the peripheral attention of the person. The information is embodied by one or more sets of content data (e.g., video or audio data). Each set of content data is formulated by a content provider and made available for use by content display systems. Upon appropriate activation, each content display system displays images corresponding to the sets of content data in accordance with predetermined scheduling information. The attention manager makes use of &ldquo;unused capacity&rdquo; of the display device and the person's attention, providing information to the person that the person might not otherwise expend adequate energy to obtain. The attention manager also affords an opportunity to content providers to disseminate their information to people that are interested in receiving such information, enabling the content providers to provide better directed information dissemination, as well as providing access to the previously unused attention capacity of those interested users.

The invention facilitates and enhances review of a body of information (that can be represented by a set of audio data, video data, text data or some combination of the three), enabling the body of information to be quickly reviewed to obtain an overview of the content of the body of information and allowing flexibility in the manner in which the body of information is reviewed. In a particular application of the invention, the content of audiovisual news programs is acquired from a first set of one or more information sources (e.g., television news programs) and text news stories are acquired from a second set of one or more information sources (e.g., on-line news services or news wire services). In such a particular application, the invention can enable the user to access the news stories of audiovisual news programs in a random manner so that the user can move quickly among news stories or news programs. The invention can also enable the user to quickly locate news stories pertaining to a particular subject. Additionally, when the user is observing a particular news story in a news program, the invention can identify and display related news stories. The invention can also enable the user to control the display of the news programs by, for example, speeding up the display, causing a summary of one or more news stories to be displayed, or pausing the display of the news stories. Additionally, the invention can indicate to the user which news story is currently being viewed, as well as which news stories have previously been viewed.

The invention enables the display of an image to be paused, then, at the end of the pause, resumed at an accelerated rate until a time at which the content of the display corresponds to the content that would have been displayed had the image been displayed at the normal display rate without the pause, at which time display of the image at the normal display rate resumes. The invention can be used with display systems that display pre-recorded images (such as are found on video or audio cassettes, or video or audio compact discs, for example) or with display systems that display images based upon display data that is only momentarily available to the display system (such as occurs in the display of television or radio broadcasts). The invention can be used with either analog or digital display systems. Further, the invention can be used with any type of image display, such as, for example, audio displays, video displays or audiovisual displays. The invention enables a great deal of flexibility in observing the display of an image, allowing a user to pause and resume the display as desired, without having to spend more time to view the displayed image than would otherwise be the case, and without missing any part of the displayed image.

Display pause with elastic playback

An attention manager presents information to a person in the vicinity of a display device in a manner that engages at least the peripheral attention of the person. The information is embodied by one or more sets of content data (e.g., video or audio data). Each set of content data is formulated by a content provider and made available for use by content display systems. Upon appropriate activation, each content display system displays images corresponding to the sets of content data in accordance with predetermined scheduling information. The attention manager makes use of 'unused capacity' of the display device and the person's attention, providing information to the person that the person might not otherwise expend adequate energy to obtain. The attention manager also affords an opportunity to content providers to disseminate their information to people that are interested in receiving such information, enabling the content providers to provide better directed information dissemination, as well as providing access to the previously unused attention capacity of those interested people.

Attention manager for occupying the peripheral attention of a person in

Two or more microphones are mounted in an environment that contains an equal or lesser number of distinct sound sources. Acoustic energy from each source, with its attendant echoes and reverberation, impinges on each microphone. Using direction-of-arrival information, a first module attempts to extract the original source signals as if the acoustic environment were anechoic. Any residual crosstalk between the channels, which may be caused by echoes and reverberation, is removed by a second module. The first and second modules may be implemented using existing technology.

Directional acoustic signal processor and method therefor

This invention is a component of an adaptive filter signal processor whose purpose is to separate a mixture of signals received by each of a plurality of transducers. This invention accomplishes a key step in that separation: it estimates, from the transducer signals, the relative propagation delays among the transducers for each source. First, it randomly generates a fixed number of sets of delay parameters, called a population. Thereafter, the following events occur at each clock cycle. Each set is processed by an instantaneous-performance calculator, to generate an instantaneous-performance value. The instantaneous performance value of each set is added to a cumulative performance value. The set with the greatest cumulative performance value is transferred to the adaptive filter signal processor. New parameter sets are generated at random. Whenever a parameter set is found whose instantaneous performance value exceeds that of the set in the population with the least instantaneous performance value, it is incorporated into the population. The set with the least cumulative performance value is deleted from the population, and the new parameter set is assigned an initial cumulative performance value that falls short of the greatest cumulative performance value in the population by a fixed amount.

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Neal A Bhadkamkar