International Business Machines Corporation

Susan Crayne

Richard Scott Schwerdtfeger

Peter Gustav Fairweather

Samuel Roy Detweiler

Beth Rush Tibbitts

Vicki Lynne Hanson

Frances C Brown

Lisa Maire Brown

Sharon Mary Trewin

Lisa Marie Brown

Stephen Paul Farrell

Frances B Brown

A method and system that provide browser-based functions by injected into a web page a control button, form text field or similar browser-based function control such that both the browser controls and the content of the web page can be transformed for accessibility. A proxy machine retrieves a web page for a user, and then injects the user selected browser function controls into the web page itself. The injected browser controls are supported by web-based application services, preferably resident in an intermediary proxy machine, for producing web content that is representative of that function. The web page is transformed into a style that is accessible for that particular user, such as magnifying the page, reformatting background schemes, etc. The user can select which browser function buttons are injected into the web page, and as the web page is transformed for accessibility, the browser controls on the page are likewise transformed.

Method and system for providing browser functions on a web page for client-specific accessibility

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for identifying a particular region in an image based on a user specification and information in the image, such as color and texture information. Initially, the user specifies a region using a single closed contour. The user input specifies the region of interest in the image. The present invention thereafter identifies a region that is (i) near the user input; (ii) about the same size as the initial region; (iii) the most likely boundary based on proximity to the initial boundary, region dissimilarity across the boundary, and similarity in region change along the boundary; and (iv) includes all points of homogeneous sub-regions that are initially mostly included. The present invention identifies the region accurately segmented and appropriately measured. By using local color information, edge information, and the user input, the present invention is capable of segmenting extremely complex regions including regions with highly irregular contours and regions composed of several visually different sub-regions or textures, or both.

Method and apparatus for determining a region in an image based on a user input

A method and system that provide an accessibility gateway to Internet e-mail through the use of a web intermediary server. The web intermediary server preferably includes server-generated applications for modifying accessibility settings for supported client devices, registering the user for authority to use the intermediary server services, and generating mail web pages capable of allowing access and use of the Internet mail server. A request for e-mail from any mail server is sent from the client device to the intermediary server. The intermediary server retrieves the requested e-mail from a mail server, transcodes the server-based e-mail into a web-based e-mail, and applies user-defined transformations to the e-mail for accessibility, which is then sent back to the client device. If the e-mail is from a secure mail server, the intermediary server functions as a proxy for the user device to establish the requisite secure connection with the mail server.

Method and system for providing accessibility to electronic mail

A method and system that provide a central repository for client specific accessibility applications to a user from an accessible server. The repository is updated on a periodic basis with new solutions provided by the service provider, who also manages licensing agreements between the user and the owner of the accessibility application. Accessibility programs, such as page magnification, screen readers, background changes, input modification, etc., are downloaded into the client device being used by the user customer by clicking link buttons from a web page generated by the service provider's server. The accessibility programs downloaded are then resident on the client device until changed by the user. In a preferred embodiment, the service provider also provides a universal transcoding service to apply the user selected accessibility transformations to any type of client device used by the user.

Method and system for providing a central repository for client-specific accessibility

A method and system using for establishing an intermediary connection between a client device and a secure website using a web proxy machine. In the preferred embodiment, a secure connection is established between the web proxy and the secure content server. A response from the content server, typically in HTML format, is sent to the proxy machine through a secure connection. The proxy machine is then able to manipulate the secure response from the secure server, in ways such as transcoding the response to a format readable by the user device, storing sensitive financial data in cookies in the proxy machine, and to return a response from the content provider to the client device with or preferably without cookies.

System and method for transcoding support of web content over secure connections

A system for removing and saving in an intermediary web server Internet cookies being transmitted from a web content server to a client device. Internet cookies, being persistent client data for a specific user and a specific content provider, typically contain sensitive data, including a history of past purchases or financial information about the user such as a credit card number. To protect the security of the cookies, and to allow an authorized user to use the cookies from multiple devices, such as different desktop computers, PDA's or cellular telephones, the cookies are removed from the data response from the web content server and stored in an intermediary web server, where they are accessible to the user.

Method and system for remotely managing persistent state data

A method and system that provide an accessibility gateway to the Internet through the use of a web intermediary server, which may belong to a different domain than the web content server. The web intermediary server includes server-generated applications for modifying accessibility settings for supported client devices, registering the user for authority to use the intermediary server services, and generating web-based, user-specific browser service replacements such as history lists and bookmarks. A request for any web page is sent from the client device to the intermediary server. The intermediary server retrieves the requested web document, and applies user-defined transformations to the web document, which is then sent back to the user device's user agent. If the web document is from a secure web page, the intermediary server functions as a proxy for the user device to establish the requisite secure connection with the web page.

Method and system for delivering accessibility using a distributed environment

A method and system using directive script in a web intermediary proxy machine that provides the function of a transcoder. The intermediary machine's transcoders are controlled by directive script that directs the order and properties of transcoder operations executed on one or more transcoders in the intermediary machine. These directive scripts are stored in an on-the-fly modifiable directive database accessible to the web intermediary proxy machine. The user's client machine browser passes an HTTP request to the web intermediary machine, which passes the HTTP request to a web content server, which returns an HTML response back to the web intermediary machine. This HTML response is sent to at least one transcoder that resides in or is at least accessible to the intermediary proxy machine. The transcoder identifies the type of device being used by the client from the HTTP request. The user's preference transcoding settings are retrieved in the form of directives from a directive script, preferably in XML format, retrieved from a settings database, and applied to the transcoders. The tailored transcoded response is then sent back to the user's client machine.

Method and system of use of transcode directives for distributed control of transcoding servers

A still image from a digital video sequence by a computer system executing a strobe process. After an initialization step, the strobe process interatively selects two of the still frames in a sampled order. An attribute differencing step is performed that determines the difference of the attribute of the selected frames using a frame to frame comparison (attribute difference) and determines if the attribute difference from one frame to the other frame exceeds an attribute sensitivity. The attribute difference is stored along with the motion statistics of the attribute difference and if the attribute difference meets certain conditions, a relevant motion is determined. If a relevant motion is determined, a segmentation mask at one or more mask locations corresponding to the frame locations is updated. A strobe photo is also updated with the relevant motion at one or more photo locations corresponding to the mask and frame locations so that a history of relevant motions is recorded on the strobe photo.

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Hartsdale, NY, United States of America

Susan Crayne