| Patent Number |
Title Of Patent |
Date Issued |
| 5998972 |
Method and apparatus for rapidly charging a battery of a portable computing device |
December 7, 1999 |
| Improved techniques for charging batteries within portable computing devices are disclosed. The improved techniques operates to charge a battery at an approximately constant power level by adjusting a charge current as the battery voltage changes. As a result, the battery is able to |
| 5995633 |
System and method for multiplexing control signals over data signal conductors |
November 30, 1999 |
| A system and method for multiplexing control signals over data signal conductors comprises an audio source for generating audio signals, a speaker device for monitoring the audio signals, a first high-pass filter for filtering the audio signals, a signal cable over which the audio si |
| 5995110 |
Method and system for the placement of texture on three-dimensional objects |
November 30, 1999 |
| Morphing techniques are employed to enable a user to locally deform a texture image on a three-dimensional object, and thereby align image features in a texture map with geometric features of the object. An affine transformation can be applied to the texture map to provide a rough fit of |
| 5995103 |
Window grouping mechanism for creating, manipulating and displaying windows and window groups on |
November 30, 1999 |
| A window grouping mechanism for creating, organizing and manipulating windows and, more specifically, window groups for display to a user of a computer system is disclosed. The window grouping mechanism preferably includes a series of linked data structures configured to organize inf |
| 5993241 |
Modular, redundant, hot swappable, blind mate power supply system |
November 30, 1999 |
| The present invention provides a floating-plate connector assembly which includes a mounting plate on which are mounted a combined power and signal pin connector, an alternating current connector and a pair of guide pins. The mounting plate is in turn mounted on the rear panel of a power |
| 5991542 |
Storage volume handling system which utilizes disk images |
November 23, 1999 |
| Disk images, and the like, are used to emulate storage volumes for the distribution of computer software. An image of a data storage volume, such as a hard disk drive, is stored in a file having a format that enables it to exhibit a behavior which is the same as the storage volume itself |
| 5991465 |
Modular digital image processing via an image processing chain with modifiable parameter control |
November 23, 1999 |
| Aspects for allowing variably controlled alteration of image processing of digital image data in a digital image capture device include forming an image processing chain with two or more image processors to process digital image data, and providing one or more parametric controls within |
| 5990861 |
Method of and apparatus for reprogramming a video controller |
November 23, 1999 |
| A method for reprogramming a video input device to multiplex video data from at least two different video sources is disclosed. A video input device contains control registers for controlling the behavior of the video input device. At least first video data from a first source and a |
| 5987704 |
Dual axis hinge apparatus with braking mechanism |
November 23, 1999 |
| An improved hinge mechanism for use with a portable computing device is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a hinge mechanism includes a first gear and a first deformable braking mechanism that is coupled to the first gear. The first deformable braking mechanism is substantially axia |
| 5987567 |
System and method for caching texture map information |
November 16, 1999 |
| A system for caching texel information in a cache data store, for use in a graphics rendering system which uses interpolative sampling to compute texture color values. The system includes a texel memory storing texel information, a graphics application program for using interpolative |
| 5987401 |
Language translation for real-time text-based conversations |
November 16, 1999 |
| A real-time language translation technique for text-based conversations. The messages forming the text-based conversation amongst a plurality of participants to the conversation are translated in real-time either from a user language to a conversation language of the conversation, or fro |
| 5986667 |
Mechanism for rendering scenes using an object drawing subsystem |
November 16, 1999 |
| A graphics rendering system allows retained-mode building and editing of a model, independently of the choice of renderer. Application program calls to the rendering system to draw an object specify not only the object to draw, but also the renderer to use to do so. In an embodiment, the |
| 5983279 |
Buffer management mechanism for distributed multimedia applications |
November 9, 1999 |
| The present invention allocates a buffer within a buffer pool to each connection to an application or to each application. By managing the user of the buffers in this manner, the present invention avoids the conventional problems of the possibility of a dominant application monopoliz |
| 5983261 |
Method and apparatus for allocating bandwidth in teleconferencing applications using bandwidth c |
November 9, 1999 |
| In the present invention, in some embodiments, an administrator assigns a total bandwidth allocation to at least one other computer system, and the computer system parcels the bandwidth among the applications running on the computer system. In the operation of one embodiment of the prese |
| 5983245 |
Method and apparatus for implementing universal resource locator menus |
November 9, 1999 |
| Disclosed is a method for generating universal resource locator links in a graphical user interface based HTML file. The method includes the operations of selecting one of a picture object and text contained within the graphical user interface based HTML file. Once one of the picture |
| 5982365 |
System and methods for interactively generating and testing help systems |
November 9, 1999 |
| An authoring system for interactively generating and testing help systems preferably comprises a central processing unit (CPU), a display device, an input device, a data storage device and a memory. The memory further comprises a code generator, display routines, linking routines, indexi |
| 5978893 |
Method and system for memory management |
November 2, 1999 |
| A method and a system are provided for managing fixed size memory blocks in a graphic imaging system. A system memory includes at least one queue containing a linked list of fixed size memory blocks and a page pool of variable size memory blocks. A system memory manager allocates memory |
| 5978745 |
System and method for automatically calibrating display monitor beam currents |
November 2, 1999 |
| A system and method for automatically-calibrating display monitor beam currents. A device selects a target beam current within a display monitor. A current sampler measures a present beam current within the display monitor. A beam current controller increases a gain of an amplifier withi |
| 5973724 |
Merging multiple teleconferences |
October 26, 1999 |
| An automatic method in a teleconferencing system for merging at least two ongoing teleconferences. A first endpoint transmits a merge request message to the at least two teleconferences to a second endpoint. The merge request message includes a list of members in one of the at least |
| 5970461 |
System, method and computer readable medium of efficiently decoding an AC-3 bitstream by precalc |
October 19, 1999 |
| A method and system for providing an inverse transform for an audio compression decoding algorithm in software precalculates a plurality of identified values; each of which is computationally intensive. The method and system then performs a pre-inverse transform complex multiply util |
| 5969705 |
Message protocol for controlling a user interface from an inactive application program |
October 19, 1999 |
| Method and apparatus for a first process operative in a computer system controlling a user interface on a computer system display under control of a second process operative in the computer system. An event handler is installed for the second process, the event handler servicing events |
| 5968152 |
Method and apparatus for extending key space in a plug and play ROM |
October 19, 1999 |
| A computer system comprises a plurality of nodes interconnected by point-to-point links and forms a serial bus. At least one of the plurality of nodes includes an associated configuration memory storing configuration information. The configuration memory is arranged into a plurality of |
| 5966717 |
Methods for importing data between database management programs |
October 12, 1999 |
| A computer-implemented method in a computer for importing data from an import database to a target database. The method includes displaying a plurality of import items associated with one of the plurality of import records in an import window of a display screen of the computer. The |
| 5966545 |
System for interfacing network applications with different versions of a network protocol by pro |
October 12, 1999 |
| A system and method for allowing a network application to interface with both a first transaction protocol and a second transaction protocol. The system and method provides an object-oriented base class for use by the network application. A first subclass is invoked from the base class w |
| 5966441 |
Method and apparatus for creating a secure autonomous network entity of a network component syst |
October 12, 1999 |
| A technique is provided for creating an autonomous network entity that stores sensitive information in a cryptographically secure manner. The autonomous entity comprises a data structure that encapsulates cryptographically-transformed information along with the inputs of a secret key |
| 5966124 |
Method for adjusting image geometry in a video display monitor |
October 12, 1999 |
| A method for adjusting image geometry in a system having a video display monitor, an input device and an input device pointer visually representing the position of the input device on the video display monitor comprises the steps of generating an image geometry adjustment screen, hiding |
| 5963255 |
System and method for managing utilization of a battery |
October 5, 1999 |
| A power supply provides a voltage to a digital camera. If the power supply voltage falls below a predetermined threshold, a voltage sensor generates a signal to a power manager. In response, the power manager configures the camera into a lower power consumption state. As the power source |
| 5963206 |
Pattern and color abstraction in a graphical user interface |
October 5, 1999 |
| Systems and methods for providing a user with increased flexibility and control over the appearance and behavior of objects on a user interface. Sets of objects can be grouped into themes to provide a user with a distinct overall impression of the interface. Themes can be switched dy |
| 5963201 |
Color processing system |
October 5, 1999 |
| A system for processing color information is based on carrying with color data, an indicator of the color space in which the data is represented. In this manner, the system is enabled to process color data from a variety of sources independent of the color space of the sources, because i |
| 5961623 |
Method and system for avoiding starvation and deadlocks in a split-response interconnect of a co |
October 5, 1999 |
| A system and method for avoiding starvation and deadlocks in a split-response-bus multiprocessor computer system. The multiprocessor computer system includes a first node and a second node coupled to the a split-response bus, wherein the first and second nodes communicate by passing |
| 5961614 |
System for data transfer through an I/O device using a memory access controller which receives a |
October 5, 1999 |
| A method and system for transferring units of data between a computer memory and an external system in which a DMA controller stores and uses information from an I/O device interfacing with the external system to transfer data more efficiently. |
| 5961585 |
Real time architecture for computer system |
October 5, 1999 |
| A method and apparatus for operating a computer system at the interrupt level. Rather than having a primary task list that is interrupted to service interrupts, all tasks derive from interrupts. To this end, interrupt-time data structures and representations are precomputed and repre |
| 5960108 |
Method and system for creating an image-based virtual reality environment utilizing a fisheye le |
September 28, 1999 |
| The present invention provides a method and system for providing a virtual reality environment utilizing images from a lens on a display of a data processing system is disclosed. The method and system comprises providing a plurality of images, each of the plurality of images including a |
| 5959624 |
System and method for customizing appearance and behavior of graphical user interfaces |
September 28, 1999 |
| Systems and methods for providing a user with increased flexibility and control over the appearance and behavior of objects on a user interface are disclosed. Sets of objects can be grouped into themes to provide a user with a distinct overall impression of the interface. These themes ca |
| 5956736 |
Object-oriented editor for creating world wide web documents |
September 21, 1999 |
| An object-oriented HTML based editor for creating Web documents to be published on the World Wide Web. Each HTML command is treated as a unique object having associated properties. A user using an input device, such as a mouse, clicks and drags representations of objects representing HTM |
| 5956030 |
Computer system with graphical user interface including windows having an identifier within a co |
September 21, 1999 |
| A window management mechanism allows a user to open a window as a drawer or, perhaps more appropriately named, a pop-up window. The drawer is an opened window that a user has dragged down to a drawer region at the bottom of the screen such that only the title bar or some drawer handle |
| 5953514 |
Method and apparatus for transparent remote execution of commands |
September 14, 1999 |
| Improved method and apparatus for remote execution of commands are disclosed. A local computer issues a command to be executed on a remote computer. The improved method and apparatus operate to synchronize a working directory on the remote computer to a working directory on the local |
| 5951669 |
Method and apparatus for serialized interrupt transmission |
September 14, 1999 |
| A computer system in which interrupt signals are serially transmitted from an input/output (I/O) controller is disclosed. The I/O controller initially receives the interrupt signals and then serially transmits them to an interrupt controller where the received interrupt signals are m |
| 5951644 |
System for predicting and managing network performance by managing and monitoring resourse utili |
September 14, 1999 |
| A system to manage network resources of a network so that network performance is predictable and manageable is disclosed. According to the system, network resource utilization is monitored and then computer systems seeking to transmit or receive data over the network as requested to |
| 5949981 |
Deadlock avoidance in a bridge between a split transaction bus and a single envelope bus |
September 7, 1999 |
| A mechanism is provided for avoiding deadlock, in particular, a Read/Read deadlock, in a computer system in which a split-transaction bus is bridged to a single-envelope bus. In one embodiment, deadlock is avoided using a closely-coupled master and slave circuit on the split-response bus |
| 5949979 |
Method and apparatus for dynamic addition of buses to a computer system |
September 7, 1999 |
| A technique for dynamic addition or removal of buses to a computer system. The technique operates even though the computer system and its operating system are in use. As buses are added or removed from the operational computer system for each peripheral device added or removed, bus c |
| 5949432 |
Method and apparatus for providing translucent images on a computer display |
September 7, 1999 |
| A method and apparatus for producing a translucent image over a base image created on the display screen of a computer system by a selected first application program, and conducting image operations either on said base image created by the selected application program with reference to t |
| 5949160 |
System and method for double fault protection within a digital camera device |
September 7, 1999 |
| The invention comprises a battery coupled to a power bus, an external power connector coupled to the power bus for receiving an external power plug, and two switching devices for disconnecting the battery from the power bus when the external power plug is coupled to the connector. The ba |
| 5946647 |
System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data |
August 31, 1999 |
| A system and method causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data. The system provides an analyzer server, an application program interface, a user interface and an action processor. The analyzer server receives from an application running |
| 5946499 |
Method and apparatus for processing text inputs from multiple input devices in a plurality of ap |
August 31, 1999 |
| A method, and system for supporting a plurality of textual manipulations and inputs in a computer system transparently to application programs running on the computer system, with the computer system including a text services manager, are described. A method aspect includes receiving inp |
| 5946410 |
Adaptive classifier for compound characters and other compound patterns |
August 31, 1999 |
| A statistical classifier utilizes combined output values to determine posterior probabilities for certain output classes. In the field of handwriting recognition, compound characters are factored into classes of base letter forms and diacritical marks. A separate output activation va |
| 5946403 |
Directional microphone for computer visual display monitor and method for construction |
August 31, 1999 |
| A directional microphone intended for use in a computer visual display monitor, and methods for construction of same. The integral directional microphone assembly comprises a cardioid electret microphone capsule retained therein by acoustically transparent foam. The microphone housing |
| 5940600 |
Isochronous channel having a linked list of buffers |
August 17, 1999 |
| A computer system consists of a plurality of nodes, each with an associated local host, coupled together with a plurality of point-to-point links. An isochronous data channel is established within the computer system between a first subset of the plurality of nodes. The isochronous data |
| 5940581 |
Dynamic font management for large character sets |
August 17, 1999 |
| When a document imaging operation commences, a document is examined to detect each font, and each glyph of a font, appearing in the document. If all of the detected fonts are currently stored in an imaging device, the document is sent to the device. If one or more detected fonts is not |
| 5940546 |
Apparatus for guiding a manually-operated scanning device |
August 17, 1999 |
| Apparatus for scanning an image comprising a manually-operated scanning device with a photoelectric source and having a light tunnel extending from the photoelectric source to a side of the manually-operated scanning device. The scanning device with light tunnels offers high contrast edg |
