Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090040028 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMMUNICATING DATA VIA A WIRELESS HIGH SPEED LINK BETWEEN MOBILE COMPUTERS AND ARCHIVAL STORAGE DEVICES - Desktop and portable computers to backup their data can backup their storage device over a wireless link where the storage device and the computer are always communicating whenever the link is established. Unlike existing technologies that provide wireless access between computers and storage devices the present invention does not require the storage device to be aware of operating systems or file system. All intelligence for file system access and how the data is archived resides with the desktop or portable computer. | 02-12-2009 |
20090083323 | Renting or purchasing digital media data selectable by a plurality of methods and delivered to customer by a plurality of delivery methods - A customer can rent digital content that is encoded onto rewritable media at the time of rental or purchase. The user has the ability to select the digital content, the media that the content is encoded onto, the method of delivery, and the period of the rental if applicable, and options for the cost for the purchase or rental. This system gives the customer control over the complete transaction from first contact with the system to acquisition of the content. | 03-26-2009 |
20090083482 | Increasing the speed at which flash memory is written and read - Flash memory often cannot be written at speeds approaching those of rotating magnetic storage speeds. This embodiment permits normal NAND flash to be written much faster and to be read at speeds exceeding typical speeds and through put for normal hard disk storage and enables these speeds while removing incremental cost from the device packaging. | 03-26-2009 |
20090124108 | Insertable card format - A housing and memory card, usable to store data, and where the operation connects directly to contacts on the memory devices that are housed within the card. The pinouts can be usb pinouts. | 05-14-2009 |
20090154703 | Content Protection Using Encryption Keys Where only part of the private key is associated with end user data - The current invention addresses the problem of securely encrypting video content or any other content where a secret symmetrical key is used to decrypt the data by a hardware device such as a DVD player. The invention uses the same length of symmetrical key as used by current technology but the key is changed for every dataset encrypted. The symmetrical key is itself contained inside a packet attached to the first encryption data set where the packet is encrypted with a device's public key. The invention further adds to the security of the asymmetrical private key where the device itself only has part of the private key and the user has the other part of the private key. | 06-18-2009 |
20090157553 | Purchase of electronic content after a trial or rental period of using content without access to an internet connection - A customer can rent and later buy digital content that is encoded onto rewritable media where the customer had selected at least one piece of content to be encoded on the media. The user has the ability to use the previously selected content and later purchase the content without the need to interact with the content seller indicating the desire to purchase the content. Purchased content is transferred to customer's local storage device. The rewritable media can also contain other digital content from which the user can temporary access after which he can rent or purchase the content. | 06-18-2009 |
20090175490 | Watermark display controller and method - A method and device for displaying a watermark on a display | 07-09-2009 |
20090192814 | Method for updating metadata on write once media containing digital audio and/or video - Write once media is used to store many different versions of metadata along with recorded video program. The metadata can be written many times over, for example once for each renter. The metadata can include rental information, or movie trailers, or other information. | 07-30-2009 |
20090193479 | Method and apparatus for automatically notifying a renter of digital content when the rental period has expired - Digital content contained on physical media rented to a customer who fails to return said media once the rental term has expired. Date information encoded onto the media or encoded within the content is used to determine that the rental period has expired. If the media containing the expired content is residing in a media player, the user is notified through a plurality of notification schemes. Customers of expired digital content can also be notified if the media player is connected to the internet even if the media containing the content is not currently residing in the media player. This invention solves several problems currently effecting content rental services and allows the rental services to conserve costs normally associated with notifying customers that their rental has expired. | 07-30-2009 |
20090278861 | Displaying still and moving images of a constant size or images that occupy a specified percentage of a screen across different size display screens - Advertisers specify the size of an ad in pixels or in physical units such as inches or millimeters. The physical square area of an ad specified in pixels will change as the physical size of the television screen or computer display screen varies. The number of pixels of an ad specified in inches or millimeters will also change as the physical size of the television screen or computer display screen varies. The present invention manages the issue of keeping the physical area size of an image constant across television display screens regardless of the physical size of the screen. | 11-12-2009 |
20100002150 | Method and apparatus for turning off a digital television screen when the viewer or an application is running that does not require a display screen - A system and apparatus that allows the user or an application to turn off the display screen on a television when said application does not display images while it is active or the viewer is only interested in listening to the audio of a program. An example of this would be playing music received over a cable or satellite set top box or through a plurality of other means through the television speakers. Blanking or turning off the television display screen during this time results in a substantial energy savings. Another example is the viewer only being interested in the audio for a sports program such as basketball or baseball. | 01-07-2010 |
20100023425 | System, Method and Apparatus for Geographical Restriction of Offers for Sale - An application for a method of presenting items of a catalog in various geographic regions includes providing a catalog of items, each item having associated therewith at least one geographic code. A search term and a geographic location are provided. The catalog is searched for matching items that are related to the search term and in which the geographic code indicates the item is suitable for the geographic location. | 01-28-2010 |
20100043039 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTEGRATING MESSAGING WITH A TELEVISION - An application for a digital television platform includes a display, a television receiver operatively coupled to the display and a processor operatively coupled to both the display and to the television receiver. A memory and a non volatile storage medium is communicably coupled to the processor. A communication link is also communicably coupled to the processor and a communication event is detected signaling reception of a communication on the communication link. Responsive to the communication event, a set of instructions is executed by the processor, the set of instructions is configured to receive the communication and to process the communication with respect to a set of user preferences. | 02-18-2010 |
20100050209 | Method and apparatus for freezing a video stream on a digital television display such that the frame freeze point is before the viewer initiates the event - A viewer of a digital television trying to freeze the video at a particular frame. Generally the human delay and the delay introduced by the remote control device and the control software executing on the television results in the frame that is displayed by the freeze event is some number of frames or seconds after the frame that the viewer wanted frozen. A small amount of memory that constantly buffers several seconds of digital video such that once the viewer initiates the freeze event the frame that is displayed is effectively some seconds in the past. The viewer then has the ability to single frame step to the frame that he actually was interested in viewing. The viewer's actions are refined by a rules based algorithm that allows it to more closely target and display what it believes will be the final frame the viewer wanted to be displayed. | 02-25-2010 |
20100058223 | Metadata driven control of navigational speed through a user interface - Scroll wheels have simplified the movement of cursors and changes in focus as a users navigate their way through menus, lists, tables, and other objects typically found in graphical user interfaces. Also typical of navigation schemes driven by scroll wheels is the ability of the user to accelerate the rate of movement of the cursor or focus by spinning the scroll wheel faster. One issue with this behavior is that a user who over accelerates the scroll wheel will often wind up overshooting his intended target and reversing the direction of the scroll wheel several times. The embodiment addresses this problem by giving control of the speed of the cursor or focus movement to the object being navigated. If the granularity of the list, table, menu, or other objects become smaller, the object has the ability to filter the speed input of the scroll wheel. | 03-04-2010 |
20100062075 | Germicidal coating on hand held remote control devices for controlling electrical and electronic devices - The current invention addresses an issue where hand held remote control devices and other consumer electronics products can become a carrier of infectious germs or bacteria once touched by a person or animal carrying a pathogen or infectious agent. School aged children and house hold pets may be the carrier of such pathogens. Adults or any other person inflicted with a common illness such as a cold or flu can infect a hand held remote or other consumer electronic product which in turn can transmit those germs to the next person or persons who handle the remote. The present invention is intended to minimize the effects of pathogen transmission from person to person by killing the pathogens once they are deposited on such a consumer electronic product. | 03-11-2010 |
20100066904 | Synchronizing operational states of closed captioning and audio mute - The current invention addresses the problem of causing closed captioning to be launched or not launched automatically when a viewer mutes the audio on a digital television. The current invention allows for individualized options associated with a particular viewer. These options can be selected from a plurality of options either manually or automatically as determined by the viewer settings or viewer behavior. | 03-18-2010 |
20110154385 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR VIEWER DETECTION AND ACTION - An application for a television has a detector capable of determining the identity and/or presence of at least one viewer in a viewing area of the television. In response to viewers entering and leaving the viewing area of the television, the television adjusts its operation based upon settings for the currently present viewers (e.g., enables channels, content, etc). | 06-23-2011 |
20130086217 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMMUNICATING DATA VIA A WIRELESS HIGH SPEED LINK BETWEEN MOBILE COMPUTERS AND ARCHIVAL STORAGE DEVICES - Desktop and portable computers to backup their data can backup their storage device over a wireless link where the storage device and the computer are always communicating whenever the link is established. Unlike existing technologies that provide wireless access between computers and storage devices the present invention does not require the storage device to be aware of operating systems or file system. All intelligence for file system access and how the data is archived resides with the desktop or portable computer. | 04-04-2013 |