Intel Corporation

International Business Machines Corporation

University of Washington

Vaughn Scott Iverson

John Whitley Richardson

Thomas R Gardos

Todd A Schwartz

Richard J Qian

Jeffrey S McVeigh

Sudheer Sirivara

Ram R Rao

Robert T Adams

Gary A Martz, Jr

Daniel R Wagner

Kenneth M Salzberg

Bruce D Bridges

Mark A Pietras

David E Dent

Arturo A Rodriguez

Thomas E Walsh

Jeffrey N Kidder

Robert F Kantner, Jr

Doug Brucks

Chihuan Michael Lin

Kenneth Morse

Eve A Riskin

A digital content pricing apparatus may include a sales computer and a memory used to retain digital content items associated with a base price and one or more option prices, along with a final price related to the base and option prices by a final pricing formula. A method may include selecting a digital content item and at least one configuration option associated with the item, calculating the item price using appropriate adjustment factors, and calculating the final price using a final pricing formula. Pricing information, in the form of prices, adjustment factors, and formulae may be defined in meta-data descriptors included in the digital content.

Digital content pricing methods and articles

An apparatus, a system, an article including a machine-accessible medium, and methods for pricing digital content are disclosed. The digital content pricing apparatus may include a sales computer and a memory used to retain digital content items associated with a base price and one or more option prices, along with a final price related to the base and option prices by a final pricing formula. The method may include selecting a digital content item and at least one configuration option associated with the item, calculating the item price using appropriate adjustment factors, and calculating the final price using a final pricing formula. Pricing information, in the form of prices, adjustment factors, and formulae may be defined in meta-data descriptors included in the digital content.

Digital content pricing apparatus

A media signal is controlled using a portable media content device. The media signal is received and encoded into an encoded media signal for a portable media content device. The encoded media signal is stored for playback on the portable media content device.

Transcoding media content from a personal video recorder for a portable device

A method for providing an appliance personality is presented comprising ascertaining a current location/location type for the electronic appliance, selecting a suitable electronic appliance personality based, at least in part, on the ascertained location/location type of the electronic appliance and provisioning the selected appliance personality on the electronic appliance.

Method and apparatus for providing a location based appliance personality

A manifest is created that represents a created work in electronic form. The manifest may reference multiple digital resources that together make up the good, as well as related resources not originally a part of the good. For example, an electronic version of a music album may include image files for the cover art, audio files for the songs, and text files for the lyrics. The manifest may include structured meta-data to facilitate finding, obtaining, exchanging the digital content. The manifest and referenced content may have associated meta-data describing, for example, manifest contents or distribution rules. A receiver of the manifest may apply global and/or user rules or policies to meta-data to determine what portions of the manifest, if any, comply thereto, and to edit or delete the manifest accordingly.

Digital content distribution

An information object configured for automatic authentication of information contained therein includes an information segment to be authenticated, an authenticator address corresponding to a predetermined authenticator, and a set of instructions for establishing a communications link between the information object and the predetermined authenticator using the authenticator address, transmitting an authentication request to the predetermined authenticator, and receiving a responsive communication from the predetermined authenticator for authenticating the information segment.

Method and apparatus for authenticating information

A filter for restricting access to a user's destination to authorized senders. The filter generates a unique address identification (ID) for each authorized sender. The address ID may be formatted into a unique address by associating with a machine address. The address IDs are stored in a database along with information identifying the sender to which it was issued. The user may revoke a sender's authorization by removing the address ID from the database, or restrict access with policies associated with the address ID.

Method and apparatus for private and restricted-use electronic addresses

System for finding a user with a preferred communication mechanism

Different data sets are parsed from a video clip for sequential transmission from one computer system to another computer system over a communications link. The receiving node is able to play back a version of the video clip after receiving each successive data set, with the received data sets being interleaved together for playback. In one embodiment, the video clip is divided into key frames and delta frames and each frame is encoded as a plurality of bands, where each band is part of an independent band sequence. For example, for subsampled YUV data, the Y component plane of each frame may be globally composed into four bands Y0-Y3. Each of the six bands (Y0, Y1, Y2, Y3, U, and V) is then encoded independent of the other bands as part of a separate band sequence. That is, the Y0 band sequence is based on the Y0 band from each frame in the video clip. The encoded video data for the different bands and different frames can then be grouped into different data sets for sequential transmission. For example, the first data set may consist of only the Y0, U, and V data for only the key frames. After this first data set has been received, an initial version of the video clip (albeit of reduced quality) can be played. In addition or alternatively, one or more other versions of the video clip can be played back by interleaving subsequently received data sets with the first data set. The present invention reduces the delay before the user is able to see at least some version of the video clip.

System for progressive transmission of compressed video including video

The resolution of one or more components of image data is changed to generate scaled image data and transparency processing is applied to the scaled image data, wherein the transparency processing is taken into account during the changing of the resolution of the image data. In a preferred embodiment in which a video codec applies transparency processing during the compression of subsampled video data, the capture processor applies the same transparency mask during data subsampling to decrease color-bleeding effects that may otherwise appear in the decoded video stream.

Method and apparatus for scaling image data having associated

A method and apparatus for protecting user privacy by providing an inaccurate measure of network systems automatically initiates one or more non-user requested accesses to one or more network systems. The data received from the host system corresponding to the one or more non-user requested accesses is then automatically ignored.

Method and apparatus for protecting user privacy by providing an

Multimedia signals are encoded with certain values to control a user's access to the decoding of the multimedia signals. In a preferred embodiment in which the multimedia signals contain video signals, a lock word and a checksum value are encoded into each frame header of the video stream. The lock word is the result of applying a specified hash function to the checksum value for the current frame and a specified access word. A decoder will decode the encoded video signals for the current frame only if the result of applying the hash function to the access word (received from a decoding application) and the checksum value (retrieved from the frame header) is equal to the lock word (retrieved from the frame header). If the hash function result does not equal the lock word, then the decoder assumes that decode access is not permitted. In that case, the decoder will not decode the current frame and instead will send an error message to the decoding application (preferably after a specified delay).

Decode access control for encoded multimedia signals

Block-level statistical measures are generated and then used to generate macroblock-level statistical measures, which are in turn used to determine how to encode the macroblocks of the image. In a preferred embodiment, a macroblock-level intra-SAD measure is generated by summing four block-level intra-SAD measures generated from the four blocks of the macroblock. The macroblock-level intra-SAD measure is then used to determine whether to encode the macroblock using intraframe encoding or interframe encoding. Basing macroblock-level statistics on block-level measures can provide a more accurate prediction as to how the macroblock would be encoded using intraframe encoding techniques.

Encoding images using block-based macroblock-level statistics

Blocks of video frames are classified for encoding, for example, as empty blocks, inter blocks, or Intra blocks. This block classification is based on (at least) one statistical measure for each block. The classification is based on a comparison of the statistical measure for each block to a threshold value, but the threshold value can change, for example, from block to block or from frame to frame. In a preferred embodiment, the threshold values change as quantization (Q) level changes. In embodiments in which more than one statistical measure is used for block classification of each block, the more than one corresponding threshold values change as Q level changes.

Growing community of inventors

Beaverton, OR, United States of America

Vaughn Scott Iverson