1261 results about "Video equipment" patented technology

The present invention relates to an apparatus for rapidly analyzing frame(s) of digitized video data which may include objects of interest randomly distributed throughout the video data and wherein said objects are susceptible to detection, classification, and ultimately identification by filtering said video data for certain differentiable characteristics of said objects. The present invention may be practiced on pre-existing sequences of image data or may be integrated into an imaging device for real-time, dynamic, object identification, classification, logging / counting, cataloging, retention (with links to stored bitmaps of said object), retrieval, and the like. The present invention readily lends itself to the problem of automatic and semi-automatic cataloging of vast numbers of objects such as traffic control signs and utility poles disposed in myriad settings. When used in conjunction with navigational or positional inputs, such as GPS, an output from the inventative systems indicates the identity of each object, calculates object location, classifies each object by type, extracts legible text appearing on a surface of the object (if any), and stores a visual representation of the object in a form dictated by the end user / operator of the system. The output lends itself to examination and extraction of scene detail, which cannot practically be successfully accomplished with just human viewers operating video equipment, although human intervention can still be used to help judge and confirm a variety of classifications of certain instances and for types of identified objects.

A control server, or similar central processor, manages the distribution of data (including audio and video), voice, and control signals among a plurality of devices connected via a wired and / or wireless communications network. The devices include audio / visual devices (such as, televisions, monitors, PDAs, notepads, notebooks, MP3, portable stereo, etc.) as well as household appliances (such as, lighting, ovens, alarm clocks, etc.). The control server supports video / audio serving, telephony, messaging, file sharing, internetworking, and security. A portable controller allows a user to access and control the network devices from any location within a controlled residential and / or non-residential environment, including its surrounding areas. The controllers are enhanced to support location-awareness and user-awareness functionality.

A markerless method is described for tracking the motion of subjects in a three dimensional environment using a model based on linked kinematic chains. The invention is suitable for tracking robotic, animal or human subjects in real-time using a single computer with inexpensive video equipment, and does not require the use of markers or specialized clothing. A simple model of rigid linked segments is constructed of the subject and tracked using three dimensional volumetric data collected by a multiple camera video imaging system. A physics based method is then used to compute forces to align the model with subsequent volumetric data sets in real-time. The method is able to handle occlusion of segments and accommodates joint limits, velocity constraints, and collision constraints and provides for error recovery. The method further provides for elimination of singularities in Jacobian based calculations, which has been problematic in alternative methods.

Applications, systems and methods for securely and remotely operating a remote computer from a local computer over a network while providing seamless, firewall-compliant connectivity. Secure and remote operation includes authenticating at least one remote computer for connection to at least one computer over the network and / or at least one local computer for connection to at least one remote computer over the network; establishing a secure connection between the at least one local computer and the at least one remote computer over the network; and integrating a desktop of at least one remote computer on a display of at least one local computer. The connections may be made over a public network, as well as through multiple firewalls without loss of functionality. A method of accessing and using at least one remote computer from a local computer over a public network may include centrally authenticating, at a location having a public address, a first computer having a first, firewall protected private address; creating a first firewall compliant connection between a publicly addressed connection server and the first computer upon authentication of the first computer; establishing a second firewall compliant connection between the publicly addressed connection server and a second computer having a second firewall protected private address; establishing a private-to-public-to-private communications tunnel, wherein the connection server routes communications from the first computer through the first firewall compliant connection and the second firewall compliant connection to the second computer, and from the second computer through the second firewall compliant connection and the first firewall compliant connection to the first computer; and performing at least one further step selected from the group consisting of: integrating a file structure of accessible files accessed at the second or first computer, into a file structure contained at the first or second computer, respectively; at least one of integrating a desktop of the second computer on a display of the first computer and integrating a desktop of the first computer on a display of the second computer; and directly operating the second computer from the first computer or the first computer from the second computer, wherein the computer that is directly operated is selected from the group consisting of: home appliances, video equipment, audio equipment, printers, fax machines, office equipment, medical devices, vehicles, cameras, RFID equipment, laboratory equipment, manufacturing machinery, GPS equipment, and devices having one or more embedded microprocessors.

A method of annotating video programs (media) with metadata, and making the metadata available for download on a P2P network. Program annotators will analyze a video media and construct annotator index descriptors or signatures descriptive of the video media as a whole, annotator scenes of interest, and annotator items of interest. This will serve as an index to annotator metadata associated with specific scenes and items of interest. Viewers of these video medias on processor equipped, network capable, video devices will select scenes and items of interest as well, and the video devices will construct user indexes also descriptive of the video media, scenes and areas of interest. This user index will be sent over the P2P network to annotation nodes, and will be used as a search tool to find the appropriate index linked metadata. This will be sent back to the user video device over the P2P network.

A control server, or similar central processor, manages the distribution of data (including audio and video), voice, and control signals among a plurality of devices connected via a wired and / or wireless communications network. The devices include audio / visual devices (such as, televisions, monitors, PDAs, notepads, notebooks, MP3, portable stereo, etc.) as well as household appliances (such as, lighting, ovens, alarm clocks, etc.). The control server supports video / audio serving, telephony, messaging, file sharing, internetworking, and security. A portable controller allows a user to access and control the network devices from any location within a controlled residential and / or non-residential environment, including its surrounding areas. The controllers are enhanced to support location-awareness and user-awareness functionality.

A collaborative information system.

An alarm interface module is described that permits an alarm monitoring system to be operational through an existing wide area network (WAN) modem that is linked to an existing local area network (LAN) system wherein the alarm interface module has a first LAN port coupled to the LAN system, a second LAN port coupled to an output port of an alarm control panel of the alarm monitoring system, a WAN port coupled to the WAN modem, and programming means capable of recognizing an identifying address dynamically assigned to the alarm control panels to route data from a remote alarm server to the alarm control panel while also permitting data communications to said LAN system from said WAN modem that are not initiated from the remote alarm server. The security system interface module of the present invention can be used with any security alarm panels, sensors, video devices, etc.

A PC-based home automation system uses a low data-rate transport layer and COM-based software components for control of devices in a home automation network. The home automation system is merged with a messaging-based HAVi-network that uses IEEE 1394 as a high data-rate transport layer. The HAVi-network controls audio / video equipment in a home entertainment system. The home automation services and devices are registered as a HAVi-compliant elements with the HAVi network's FAV or IAV device. The home automation resources (devices and services) have both COM OLE Automation Interfaces and HAVI-compliant interfaces to permit control of the home automation system from the HAVi-network.

A control server, or similar central processor, manages the distribution of data (including audio and video), voice, and control signals among a plurality of devices connected via a wired and / or wireless communications network. The devices include audio / visual devices (such as, televisions, monitors, PDAs, notepads, notebooks, MP3, portable stereo, etc.) as well as household appliances (such as, lighting, ovens, alarm clocks, etc.). The control server supports video / audio serving, telephony, messaging, file sharing, internetworking, and security. A portable controller allows a user to access and control the network devices from any location within a controlled residential and / or non-residential environment, including its surrounding areas. The controllers are enhanced to support location-awareness and user-awareness functionality.

An identification code signal is hidden in a carrier signal (such as an electronic data signal or a physical medium) in a manner that permits the identification signal later to be discerned. The carrier signal can thereby be identified, or some machine responsive action can thereby be taken. The technique can be applied in video imagery embodiments to control associated video equipment, e.g. to serve as a copy control signal.

An audio / video (A / V) device having a volume control function for external audio reproduction units by using volume control buttons of a remote controller is provided. The A / V device includes speakers, an audio output port for externally outputting an audio signal, an audio signal processing unit for reproducing and amplifying the audio signal and applying the amplified audio signal to the speakers or the audio output port, a memory unit for storing volume control values, and a control unit for applying to the audio signal processing unit any of the volume control values stored in the memory based on whether the external audio reproduction unit is plugged in the audio output port. The control unit controls the audio signal processing unit to adjust the volume control values for the audio output port by the volume control buttons when the external audio reproduction unit is plugged in the audio output port.

Systems and methods for a creating a music-based video game are described as is a portable music and video device housing a memory for storing executable instructions and a processor for executing the instructions. Creating video game content using musical content supplied from a source other than the game includes analyzing musical content to identify at least one musical event extant in the musical event; determining a salient musical property associated with the at least one identified event; and creating a video game event synchronized to the at least one identified musical event and reflective of the determined salient musical property associated with the at least one identified event.

Example techniques are provided for controlling volume of A / V devices using an improved volume control. The volume control may be implemented as a slider, where the sliding element is temporarily slid in response to user input (e.g., touched and dragged by the user), but then automatically “snaps” back to the center of the slider's range when the user input ends (e.g., is released by the user). Movement of the element from the center is interpreted as a relative volume adjustment, with the rate of volume change being proportional to the distance between the center of the range and the temporary position of the element. An indicator is provided indicating the rate, to provide user feedback. The volume control may be utilized as a master volume control in a home automation system.

Apparatus and method which integrates and automates AV system to control peripheral devices with one remote control including wireless bridge connected to peripheral devices through a network and a host device which receives a remote control input of a user, transmits a control signal to wireless bridge wirelessly, receives a video and an audio from the wireless bridge wirelessly, and displays received video and audio to user. A video device includes a wireless bridge transmitting a control signal for controlling a peripheral device to the peripheral device through a communication cable, receiving a response signal for the control signal from the peripheral device and receiving an AV signal from the peripheral device through an AV cable according to the control signal, and a host device for wirelessly receiving the inputted AV signal from the wireless bridge and displaying a video or an audio restored from the AV signal to user.

Methods, apparatus, and systems for sharing resources across a plurality of computing platforms. Firmware provided on each platform is loaded for operating system runtime availability. Shared resources are presented to operating systems running on the platforms as local resources, while in reality they are generally hosted by other platforms. An operating system resource access request is received by a requesting platform and rerouted to another platform that actually hosts a target resource used to service the resource access request. Global resource maps are employed to determine the appropriate host platforms. Communications between the platforms is enabled via an out-of-band (OOB) communication channel or network. A hidden execution mode is implemented to effectuate data rerouting via the OOB channel such that the method is performed in a manner that is transparent to operating systems running on the platforms. The shared resources include storage, input, and video devices. The method can be used to support shared KVM resources, and shared disk storage.

Control of audio / video equipment is provided by an apparatus constructed like a computer, with audio and video subsystems. The audio subsystem includes a programmable analog mixer and several analog and digital multiplexers to route and mix multiple inputs to multiple outputs. Databases are stored in computer mass storage to record preferences for playback of digital versatile discs, compact discs and audio files stored in the mass storage device, such as MP3 files. The playback preferences may include video output format, language, surround sound mode, etc. for DVDs and surround sound effects for CDs and audio files.

Video programming signals from a broadband source are distributed on installed telephone wiring to the individual units of a commercial structure or multiple unit dwelling. In all methods and associated devices a first transponder device centrally located in a utility space is paired with a second terminal transponder device located on a telephone subscriber premises. The devices cooperate in converting a video signal into a form suitable for transmission on telephone lines and deconverting that signal into a form suitable for reception by consumer video equipment. The methods and devices discussed differ in placement of the central device, and in the particular method of signal conversion.

Disclosed herein are methods of scheduling and conducting video visits, as well as computer architecture for providing such scheduling and conducting, where the participants in the visit are not required or able to interact with the audio / video equipment for the initial connection to start the video visit. In some embodiments, participants are also not able to interact with the equipment during the actual visit, and thus the equipment employed during the video visit may be isolated from physical contact by the participants. To initiate or terminate a video visit, a data center establishes a data connection with each participant, and thus the flow of data between the participants moves across a computer network and via the data center. The visit may be monitored in virtually real-time by splitting the data transmitted between the participants and sending it to a monitoring terminal, rather than establishing a separate connection for the monitoring.

A video tagging method and a video apparatus using the video tagging method are provided. The video apparatus includes a player module which plays a video; a face recognition module which recognizes a face of a character in the video; a tag module which receives a tagging key signal for tagging a scene of the video including the character and maps a tagging key corresponding to the tagging key signal and a number of scenes including the face recognized by the face recognition module; and a storage module which stores the result of mapping performed by the tag module.

A method and apparatus for effectively performing optimal connection configuration by recognizing the connection status between a video device and external peripheral devices. The method for identifying predetermined peripheral devices connected to a video device over serial communication control lines, includes, transmitting a command to establish connection of a current peripheral device having no given device ID to its upper peripheral device among the predetermined peripheral devices, and transmitting a command to disconnect a connection to its lower peripheral device; requesting unique device identification information to the predetermined peripheral devices; receiving a response to the request from the current peripheral device; and giving a device ID to the current peripheral device.

A video apparatus having a bookmark function for searching a program, and a method for creating a bookmark are provided. The video apparatus includes a storage unit which stores at least one program, a program detector which detects whether the program changes, and a bookmark creator which creates a bookmark at a point where the program changes, and stores the created bookmark in the storage unit if the program detector detects the program change. Accordingly, a bookmark is automatically created at the start position of the program, and thus, each of the stored programs can be easily played back using the bookmark and it is possible to play back the program from the beginning.

The invention relates to a social insurance identity authentication method based on face recognition and living body detection, which comprises implementation steps as follows: a face template base database is established and a social insurance user logs on to an identity authentication module which completes the combination of face recognition and living body detection,, a face template online update module, an audit query module, a complaint processing module and a multiple auditing module. The authentication method runs in the following way that: a user logins to generate a face template of the user, the identity authentication module which combines face recognition and living body detection is used to perform identity authentication of face video streams of the user displayed in a front-end video device; if authentication succeeds, auditing is performed while updating the template, and social insurance fund is issued; if authentication fails, a complaint program is used for multiple auditing, and if auditing by all staff passes, the social insurance can be issued. The method can improve the service quality and working efficiency of social insurance processing and can effectively restrain the loss of the social insurance fund.

An identification code signal is hidden in a carrier signal (such as an electronic data signal or a physical medium) in a manner that permits the identification signal later to be discerned. The carrier signal can thereby be identified, or some machine responsive action can thereby be taken. The technique can be applied in video imagery embodiments to control associated video equipment, e.g. to serve as a copy control signal.