Vibe Solutions Group Patent Estate
Issued Utility Patents
Low Bandwidth Television (Montgomery et al.)
USPN 6,380,950 B1
Issued April 30, 2002
This invention is concerned with client-side production in a personal computer environment of low bandwidth images and audio. A series of low bandwidth still images along with a "script" and audio data is sent over a network in a client/server architecture or is read from a compact disk or other memory. A "director" module residing in a client personal computer uses the "script" to tell the computer how to execute a sequence of "moves" on the still images. These moves include cuts, dissolves, fades, wipes, focuses, flying planes and digital video effects such as push and pull. Moves within a still image occur in real time, and are relatively smooth and continuous as compared to prior art network video. Low bandwidth is achieved because most of the production is done at the client location without relying upon slow, bandwidth-limited downloading of conventional network video formats.
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Low Bandwidth Television (Montgomery et al.)
USPN 6,380,950 B2
Issued September 6, 2005
A production module authoring system, for use in a low bandwidth video system, comprising: (a) a computer having a display screen, memory, image files, video files, and audio files; and (b) a software application, residing in said memory, which presents a graphical user interface on said display screen that allows a user to use point-and-click operations to build a production module for use in said low bandwidth video system, said software application comprising: (1) a director module residing in said memory; and (2) said production module, including a script module, an image module, an audio module, and a new effects module; wherein said director module (1) uses said image module, new effects module, and instructions in said script module to compute a series of real-time screen transitions; and (2) combines said real-time screen transitions with associated audio to render high quality digital video on said display screen.
Video Image Compression/Decompression Apparatus and Method (Schaem)
USPN 6,535,634
Issued March 18, 2003
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A method of compressing a video image comprising a two-dimensional array of pixels, the image being divided into an array of contiguous blocks, the method comprising the steps of: (1) calculating, for each pixel within a block, a difference between a predicted luminance and an actual luminance; (2) assigning a frequency characteristic to the block based on a magnitude of the differences of the pixels within the block; (3) determining, for each pixel within the block, a quantized difference code based on the calculated difference and the assigned frequency characteristic; and (4) storing the frequency characteristic of the block and the quantized difference codes for each pixel within the block; and wherein the step of assigning comprises calculating a sum of the squares of the differences of all pixels within the block, and selecting the frequency characteristic from a set of predetermined frequency characteristics based on the calculated sum.
Method and Apparatus for Controlling the Visual Presentation of Data
USPN 7,102,643 B2
Issued September 6, 2006
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This invention relates to a novel use of transition effects between scenes or slides (and user control over how those transition effects are selected and placed into a visual presentation of data).
Pending Utility Patent Applications
Method and System for On-Demand Delivery of Personalized Internet-Based Content for Television Viewers
(Brown; Briscoe)
U.S. Serial No. 11/015,325
A method of delivering personalized content to customers of a subscription television service for display on their televisions, the method comprising: (a) converting Internet-based content from an Internet based format to a format suitable for display on a customer’s television through a customer’s set top box, and (b) after the conversion, delivering the converted content to a set top box associated with that customer for display on that customer’s television. With such a method, the customer’s set top box need not be Internet-enabled. Preferably, the customer’s subscription television service is a cable television service.
Method and Apparatus for a Web Browser-Based Multi-Channel Player
(Walikis; Briscoe; Mihalevich; Herrick)
Patent Pending USPN 60/956,611
Filed August 2007
This invention is concerned with a multi-channel content player that is configured as a “web browser-based” content player. The player includes the ability to configure “multiple channels”, whereby “channel” refers to a grouping of content titles. This concept is similar to that found in cable television where different cable television channels provide their own lineups of content titles. Each of these channels has an associated playlist, wherein each playlist comprises at least one title (and preferably a plurality of titles). The content player also provides users with the ability to navigate among the different titles of a channel playlist to play the desired title. Thus, not only does the multi-channel content player provide a user with the ability to navigate among multiple channels, but it also provides users with the ability to navigate among the different titles within each channel, all from within the player itself, and preferably in real time.
