Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Robin Speed

Mukund Sankaranarayan

Serge Smirnov

Geoffrey T Dunbar

Jai Srinivasan

Brian D Crites

Jayachandran Raja

Sean C McDowell

David S Bakin

Nicholas P Wilt

Dale Alan Sather

Michael B Jones

William G Parry

Forrest Curtis Foltz

Terje Kristian Backman

William Chambers Powell, Iii

George H Shaw

Andy R Raffman

Syon Bhattacharya

A method facilitating media processing is presented comprising generating a prediction of a region of encoded media content, receiving an indication of a quantity of remaining residual samples, on a per-region basis, and adding a first of such samples to the prediction to generate a modified prediction, and subtracting a second of such samples from the modified prediction, if so indicated.

Interface and related methods facilitating motion compensation in media processing

A flexible interface that enables an application to communicate directly with processing modules to easily control the processing of streaming data. The interface provides basic commands for applications to use to communicate with processing modules and provides the flexibility to adapt to changing standards. The interface enables an application to set the type of input and output data formats of a processing module and control when the processing module processes input data and generates output data. The processing modules enumerate its capabilities by category, by media type, or by both category and media type. Processing modules are registered by class ID, category, whether the application needs a key, the number and types of input data types, and the number and type of output data types to register.

Flexible interface for controlling streaming data in passive streaming plug-ins

Resource management architectures implemented in computer systems to manage resources are described. In one embodiment, a general architecture includes a resource manager and multiple resource providers that support one or more resource consumers such as a system component or application. Each provider is associated with a resource and acts as the manager for the resource when interfacing with the resource manager. The resource manager arbitrates access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers. A policy manager sets various policies that are used by the resource manager to allocate resources. One policy is a priority-based policy that distinguishes among which applications and/or users have priority over others to use the resources. A resource consumer creates an 'activity' at the resource manager and builds one or more 'configurations' that describe various sets of preferred resources required to perform the activity. Each resource consumer can specify one or more configurations for each activity. If multiple configurations are specified, the resource consumer can rank them according to preference. This allows the resource consumers to be dynamically changed from one configuration to another as operating conditions change.

Resource manager architecture utilizing a policy manager

A method to dynamically reconfigure multimedia streaming processing modules using interfaces that allow applications and modules to seamlessly change the configuration of streaming modules. Reconfigurations are initiated by a processing module in a stream or by an application by sending a notification packet through the processing modules in the portion of the stream being changed that informs that modules that a change is being made and the modules to complete processing of its data. Modules affected by the change are stopped once the notification packet is received by all processing modules in the stream being changed and modules are then added, removed, or replaced and the portion of the stream being changed resumes processing the data stream. The modules at the beginning of the portion being changed can resume operation as soon as they are reconnected to other modules.

Dynamic reconfiguration of multimedia stream processing modules

A flexible interface that enables an application to communicate directly with processing modules to easily control the processing of streaming data. The interface provides basic commands for applications to use to communicate with processing modules and provides the flexibility to adapt to changing standards. The interface enable an application to set the type of input and output data formats of a processing module and control when the processing module processes input data and generates output data. The processing modules enurmerate its capabilities by category, by media type, or by both category and media type. Processing modules are registered by class ID, category, whether the application needs a key, the number and types of input data types, and the number and type of output data types to register.

Resource management architectures implemented in computer systems to manage resources are described. In one embodiment, a general architecture includes a resource manager and multiple resource providers that support one or more resource consumers such as a system component or application. Each provider is associated with a resource and acts as the manager for the resource when interfacing with the resource manager. The resource manager arbitrates access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers. A policy manager sets various policies that are used by the resource manager to allocate resources. One policy is a priority-based policy that distinguishes among which applications and/or users have priority over others to use the resources. A resource consumer creates an &ldquo;activity&rdquo; at the resource manager and builds one or more &ldquo;configurations&rdquo; that describe various sets of preferred resources required to perform the activity. Each resource consumer can specify one or more configurations for each activity. If multiple configurations are specified, the resource consumer can rank them according to preference. This allows the resource consumers to be dynamically changed from one configuration to another as operating conditions change.

Resource manager architecture

The modification of timestamps of streams of data packets for seamless branching is disclosed. In one aspect of the invention, a computerized system has a plurality of multimedia play devices, and a multimedia read device. Each play device receives and plays data intended for that device. The multimedia read device reads a stream of packets of data, decodes the packets into data, and sends the data to a corresponding play device at appropriate times. The appropriate time is based on relative timestamps accounting for accumulated time gaps resulting from branches within the stream. The invention has applications including digital video disc (DVD) playback.

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Kirkland, WA, United States of America

Robin Speed