Streaming information appliance with circular buffer for receiving and selectively reading blocks of streaming information
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsWilliam G. Parry, Mingtzong Lee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to a streaming information appliance for receiving and selectively reading blocks of streaming information. The information appliance includes a buffer, a writer module which receives blocks of streaming information and writes the blocks to the buffer at a write position, and a reader module which selectively reads the blocks from the buffer at a read position. An adjustment mechanism adjusts the relative positions of the read and write position.
Claims51
A processor implemented method of handling streaming information for storage in a buffer, the method comprising:
- receiving streaming information;
- writing the streaming information to the buffer at a write position;
- reading the streaming information selectively from the buffer at a read position;
- and
- adjusting the read position with respect to the write position as a function of a user input and a distance between the write position and the read position.
A processor implemented method of handling multiple broadcast channels for storage in a buffer, the method comprising:
- receiving streaming information;
- writing the streaming information to the buffer at a write position;
- reading the streaming information selectively from the buffer at a read position;
- receiving a signal from a user operated switch to select one of the multiple broadcast channels;
- and
- adjusting the read position to be adjacent to the write position when the switch is operated.
An information appliance for receiving streaming information, the information appliance comprising:
- a buffer;
- a writer module which receives blocks of streaming information and writes the blocks to the buffer at a write position;
- a reader module adjustably positioned with respect to the writer module and adapted to selectively read the blocks from the buffer at a read position;
- and
- an adjustment mechanism that adjusts the read position with respect to the write position as a function of a user input and a distance between write position and the read position.
A computer readable medium including instructions readable by a computer appliance having a buffer which, when implemented, cause the computer appliance to handle streaming information by performing steps comprising:
- receiving streaming information;
- writing the streaming information to the buffer at a write position;
- reading the streaming information selectively from the buffer at a read position;
- and
- adjusting the read position with respect to the write position as a function of a user input and a distance between the write position and the read position.
An information appliance for receiving streaming information comprising multiple broadcast channels, the information appliance comprising:
- a buffer;
- a write module which receives blocks of, streaming information and writes the blocks to the buffer at a write position;
- a reader module adjustably positioned with respect to the writer module and adapted to selectively read the blocks from the buffer at a read position;
- a rendering device coupled to the reader module to receive information indicative of blocks read from the buffer, the rendering device rendering the information to a user;
- a switch operable by the user to select one of the multiple broadcast channels to be rendered;
- and
- an adjustment mechanism which automatically positions the read position adjacent to the write position upon operation of the switch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.