Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

At&t Intellectual Property I, L.p.

Microsoft Corporation

Peter W Wong

Ganesh Pandey

Zhanbing Wu

Amanda Nguyen

Alvin Scholten

Eigo Shimizu

Jason Sikes

Christopher Michael Novak

Todd Wallace

David Scott Jones

Amanda Gian-Tien Nguyen

Alistair J Baxter

Billy Thompson

Amanda Giang-Tien Nguyen

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, obtaining an indication that a communication device can access a communication service via a first radio access technology, configuring, responsive to the obtaining of the indication, the communication service in accordance with the first radio access technology, resulting in a configured communication service, receiving a request for the communication service from the communication device, and providing the configured communication service to the communication device responsive to the receiving of the request. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Apparatuses and methods for predicting resource utilization in communication networks

The present invention is directed generally toward computer-implemented methods for targeting objects in a gaming system. One aspect of the invention is directed toward a method for targeting an object in a gaming system that includes receiving a soft lock command and applying a soft lock to an object in the game. The soft lock designates an action site on a portion of the object that was proximate to an aiming reference when the soft lock was commanded. The action site is proximate to a location where a selected game action will occur if the game action is commanded. Once the soft lock is applied, the aiming reference can be moved away from the action site. Another aspect of the invention is directed toward a method of targeting an object in a gaming system that includes receiving a command to hard lock a portion of an object, applying the hard lock, and displaying at least one selectable sub-target associated with the object. During the hard lock, the aiming reference remains at least proximate to the portion of the object. When selected, a sub-target includes an action site on part of the object proximate to a location where game action will occur if selected.

Games with targeting features

A method for controlling a device capable of performing an operation in response to a job ticket includes comparing the job ticket with options within the capabilities of the device for fulfilling the job. One such device is a printer coupled to a computer for printing text and the like in accordance with such a job ticket. The job configuration and the options defining the plurality of operations may be stored in data structures, such as XML files validated under an XML schema defining options for a universe of similar operations. Each comparison of the job configuration with a device capability option results in a score. These scores are compared to obtain an optimal or preferred option which best approximates the job ticket within the capabilities of the device.

Device option configuration selection

A method is provided for use in a computer system to describe and obtain arbitrary data relating to a subject. The method provides a meta-language 'Generic Object Oriented Description of Structured Data (GDL)' and a Parser. GDL allows a user to organize, define and describe subjects through the use of a schema known as a Template. Templates can be used to define the semantics for each subject element as well as, to define how each element fits into a larger data framework. Through the concept of Inheritance, Templates can be extended and defined to various levels of nesting, while still having a common core of properties. GDL allows the features and attributes of a subject to be quickly and readily extended or modified by altering a source file. A GDL parser provides a structured and hierarchical representation of the information, validation of text-entry semantics and a means to traverse through information obtained from the source file.

Method for generic object oriented description of structured data (GDL)

A computer system and method for outputting printer commands to a printer in response to a print request from an application program are presented. The printer includes a device font whose characters are addressed for printing via a single, double, or n-byte code. The text data, however, utilizes the Unicode Standard to identify its characters. The system, therefore, includes a graphics device interface, which is compatible to read the Unicode data, to invoke the printer driver functions for controlling the outputting of the text data to the printer. A printer OEM supplied minidriver contains a characterization of the printer, including information identifying the device font resident in the printer and the code used to identify the individual characters of the font. A printer driver uses this information to translate the text data to be printed from the Unicode Standard to a code capable of selecting a device font provided character.

Printer driver supporting worldwide single binary font format with built in support for double byte characters

A method for controlling a device capable of performing an operation in response to a job ticket includes comparing the job ticket with options within the capabilities of the device for fulfilling the job. One such device is a printer coupled to a computer for printing text and the like in accordance with such a job ticket. The job configuration and the options defining the plurality of operations preferably are stored in data structures, most preferably XML files validated under an XML schema defining options for a universe of similar operations. Each comparison of the job configuration with a device capability option results in a score. These scores are compared to obtain an optimal or preferred option which best approximates the job ticket within the capabilities of the device.

Device control using job ticket scoring

Printer driver and method for supporting worldwide single binary font format with built in support for double byte characters

A modular Universal Printer Driver is provided which dramatically improves the extensibility of the driver architecture and the support for printer features. This driver operates in conjunction with OEM developed minidrivers which utilize the text based Generic Printer Description (GPD) format of the instant invention. The universal driver allows the GPD text based minidrivers to add and define new features introduced by the printer OEM. The universal driver also allows the GPD minidriver to modify, add, or replace the standard user interface provided by the universal driver. The universal driver and the text based GPD minidrivers are included in a computer system for outputting data to an output device, such as a printer. This system includes an application program which invokes a plurality of graphics device interface functions to control the sending of data to the printer. Within the system, a graphics device interface invokes device driver functions for controlling the outputting of data. The text based minidriver contains a characterization of the output device, and an implementation of device specific device driver functions invoked by the graphic device interface. This text based minidriver outputs this data to the universal driver. This universal driver incorporates the text based characterization passed by the minidriver. The universal driver implements the device specific driver functions and controls the outputting of data to the printer in accordance with the incorporated text based characterization.

Modular and extensible printer device driver and text based method for characterizing printer devices for use therewith

A computer system and method for outputting printer commands to a printer in response to a print request from an application program are presented. The printer includes a device font whose characters are addressed for printing via a single, double, or n-byte code. The text data to be printed, however, utilizes the Unicode Standard to identify its characters. The system, therefore, includes a graphics device interface, which is compatible to read the Unicode data, to invoke the printer driver functions for controlling the outputting of the text data to the printer. A printer OEM supplied minidriver contains a characterization of the printer, including information identifying the device font resident in the printer and the code used to identify the individual characters of the font. A printer driver uses this information to translate the text data to be printed from the Unicode Standard to a code capable of selecting a device font provided character. This system and method greatly enhance printer performance by utilizing, to the maximum extent possible, printer resident device fonts. This system also eliminates the need for separate printer drivers to support separate language symbol sets. Printing of both proportional and fixed pitch characters in the same device font is also provided.

A system and method of printing documents having merged text and graphics is presented which overcomes the Z-order problem of merging text and graphics on a raster printer and which enhances printing performance. The system and method analyze a location of the text and graphics elements to be printed to determine if and where any potential merging problems exist. In these regions, the system and method selectively redraws the text as part of the merged bitmap graphic. The remainder of the text on the document is printed with device resident fonts, either directly or through downloading the device font, if possible. This greatly enhances printing performance. If the text information is not supported or supportable by a device font, the text elements are drawn as bitmaps to be printed by the printer.

System and method for printing a document having merged text and graphics contained therein

A method and system for displaying a color image with a display device using vector error diffusion. Each pixel of the color image is represented by an active color vector, which typically, but not necessarily, is an RGB (red, green, blue) triplet. Often, the display device cannot display the exact color vector desired, so it displays the closest active color to the desired color, thereby resulting in an error vector for each pixel. The method computes the error vector by vector subtracting a color vector representing the active color displayed from the color vector of the desired color. The computed error vector is diffused to adjacent pixels by adjusting the color vectors of the adjacent pixels by fractions of the computed error value. Preferably, the method characterizes each color that can be displayed on the display device by measuring the color directly using a colorimeter which eliminates errors caused by non-linear combinations of the color coordinates of the color vectors. Preferably, the method also adjusts the desired color vector for each pixel to compensate for color bleeding between pixels.

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Woodinville, WA, United States of America

Peter W Wong