Bizarre Patents
Pet Toilet-Like Water Disk and Food Storage
One pet-friendly inventor patented "a device for watering pets, e.g., a dog or cat." The device, he helpfully noted, "has the general shape of a toilet."
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8079056 | Synchronizing a media center on a correct channel A media center and an audio visual (AV) unit may be remotely synchronized on the same remodulation channel. A system may include a media center connected to an audio visual (AV) unit; and a remote control unit to activate the media center. The remote control unit ma... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8065711 | Chaincast method and system for broadcasting information to multiple systems within the internet A method and system for performing chaincast communication to multiple communication systems within a system of coupled electronic devices. In one implementation the electronic devices can be computer systems and the system of coupled electronic devices includes the... | 11/22/2011 |
| 8032916 | Single master clock control of Ethernet data transfer over both a cable TV return path and an Ethernet forward path An optical signal return path system analog RF signals are sampled using a master clock frequency, and combined with digital data such as Ethernet data at a cable node. The cable node sends the combined signals on a return path over a fiber optic medium to the cable... | 10/04/2011 |
| 7984474 | Method and apparatus for a digitized CATV network for bundled services A cost-efficient digital CATV network to improve signal quality, provide reliability, and offer the ability to meet demands for interactive services is described. Analog or digital video downstream channels are converted to a digital format by a digital headend tran... | 07/19/2011 |
| 7979885 | Real time bit rate switching for internet protocol television A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for delivering television programming to a subscriber. In one aspect the method includes receiving one or more channels of program content, and encoding each channel a plurality of times, each time at a d... | 07/12/2011 |
| 7793328 | Gateway power synchronization A system for receiving network video includes a remote control with a power control input. A video receiver, controlled by the remote control, powers up or powers down based on a control signal indicating activation of the power control input. The video receiver rec... | 09/07/2010 |
| 7730514 | Method and system for providing a home cable network A system for converting digital signals in a cable network is provided. A cable head end provides a plurality of digital signals. The plurality of digital signals are grouped into a first portion and a second portion, the first portion being in a first frequency ban... | 06/01/2010 |
| 7624419 | Re-transmitter and digital broadcast receiving system Information indicating which of channels is selected in a digital broadcasting receiver 17 is fed from a control signal transmitter 16 to a retransmitter 14. A terrestrial wave digital broadcasting wave from a transmitting station is inputted to... | 11/24/2009 |
| 7610608 | Digital broadcast system in passive optical network Provided is a digital broadcast system that receives digital broadcast services on a passive optical network (PON). The data separator separates a signal input thereinto from the outside into an Ethernet frame for data service and an Ethernet frame for digital broad... | 10/27/2009 |
| 7610607 | Chaincast method and system for broadcasting information to multiple systems within the internet A method and system for performing chaincast communication to multiple communication systems within a system of coupled electronic devices. In one implementation the electronic devices can be computer systems and the system of coupled electronic devices includes the... | 10/27/2009 |
| 7552462 | Method and apparatus for assigning communication nodes to CMTS cards A method and apparatus for assigning nodes to CMTS cards in a communication system. In order to avoid bottlenecks and to efficiently use resources of the cards in a hybrid fiber-coax architecture, the nodes are assigned to the cards using linear programming techniqu... | 06/23/2009 |
| 7526789 | System for the transmission of audiovisual signals between source nodes and destination nodes A system for the transmission of audiovisual signals between at least one source node and at least one destination node comprises: at least one central switch to which at least one source node is connected and at least two home audiovisual networks, each comprising ... | 04/28/2009 |
| 7424730 | Multimedia presentation latency minimization Systems and methods for presenting time-varying multimedia content are described. In one aspect, a lower quality data stream for an initial portion of the multimedia content is received. The lower quality data stream is received at a rate faster than a real-time pla... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7404001 | Videophone and method for a video call A videophone. The videophone can include an imaging mechanism for taking a video picture of a scene. The videophone can include a mechanism for producing a first video stream of the scene and a second video stream of the scene from the video picture and sending the ... | 07/22/2008 |
| 7401116 | System and method for allowing remote users to specify graphics application parameters for generation of interactive images A visual server system (10) includes a server (12) having a graphics application (20). The graphics application (20) generates image content and position information. The server (12) streams the image content and the position infor... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7392281 | System and method for providing guaranteed delivery of messages to embedded devices over a data network The present disclosed system is directed toward a communication and management system that dynamically targets network devices for content deployment, such as application programs, device drivers, configuration files, and registry subhives. Moreover, the present sys... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7392531 | Recommendation-based electronic program guides with user-imperceptible preferences A method and apparatus for enabling the operators of television broadcasting systems or other content distribution systems to effectively alter the program viewing patterns of viewers or subscribers to direct viewership traffic to selected television programs or oth... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7386873 | System and method for provisioning a single physical drop to accomodate multiple devices A method and system for allowing a plurality of devices at a physical drop to receive access to video and/or data services from a plurality of video/data service providers in a digital broadband network serviced by a telecommunication services provider utilizes a br... | 06/10/2008 |
| 7373591 | Binary format for MPEG-7 instances An encoding and a decoding method for transmitting and storing description element(s) of an XML-like document which is an instance of an XML-like schema. ... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7360233 | Broadcast carousel system access for remote home communication terminal Systems and methods are disclosed for providing objects to a remote digital home communication terminal (remote DHCT) via a gateway device located at a customer premises. One such method, among others, includes receiving a message from a remote DHCT requesting a car... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7353229 | Post-session internet advertising system The present invention is directed to a post-session advertising system that may be used in media such as computers, personal digital assistants, telephones, televisions, radios, and similar devices. In one preferred embodiment, a first display is viewed in a first p... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7353530 | Method and apparatus for assigning communication nodes to CMTS cards A method and apparatus for assigning nodes to CMTS cards in a communication system. In order to avoid bottlenecks and to efficiently use resources of the cards in a hybrid fiber-coax architecture, the nodes are assigned to the cards using linear programming techniqu... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7342675 | Systems and methods for improved operation and troubleshooting of a printing device Systems and methods are described herein for improved operation and troubleshooting of a printing device. A printing device includes a master module wherein printing device operation data can be stored in non-volatile memory. The master module is provided with non-v... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7343347 | Electronic media player with metadata based control and method of operating the same A method and apparatus is described that prevents viewing or other type of playback of unauthorized copies of media files, whether received through a network or retrieved from a magnetic or optical disc. The apparatus uses data in a metadata field that forms a part ... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7340263 | Methods and apparatus for displaying textual data embedded in broadcast media signals According to embodiments of the present invention, a broadcast media signal is received at a broadcast media receiver. The broadcast media signal includes textual data. The textual data is extracted and is transmitted over a wireless coupling to a wireless terminal.... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7332234 | Optoelectronic device capable of participating in in-band traffic An optoelectronic device that has a network address (e.g., IF address) and participates in in-band traffic for purposes of performing functions (e.g., network diagnostics, network control, network provisioning, fault isolation, etc.) that are traditionally performed... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7333510 | Method and apparatus for providing IPv6 networks to communicate with overlapping IPv4 networks using NAT-PT A method for providing handling of data sent between a first network and at least a second network and a third network, wherein the first network is of a first protocol and the at least second and third networks are of a second protocol at least partially overlap is... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7299488 | System and method for provisioning a single physical broadband drop to accommodate multiple specific devices A method and system for provisioning a specific device to receive video and/or data services from a plurality of service providers at a physical drop in a digital broadband network serviced by a telecommunication services provider utilizes a broadcast manager for tr... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7295518 | Broadband network for coaxial cable using multi-carrier modulation A broadband local area data network uses coaxial cable wiring for interconnection of terminal devices. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with bit loading is used to overcome channel impairments and provide a path for terminal devices to transmit to a... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7295543 | Network interconnection apparatus, network interconnection method, name resolution apparatus and computer program A power source of a LAN terminal at a home such as home server is turned on from the outside the home via the Internet. A home gateway apparatus receives such a start request by proxy and transmits a start instruction packet to corresponding equipment on the home LA... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7289513 | Switching fabric port mapping in large scale redundant switches A method and system for mapping logical fabric ports to line ingress queues. The system provides for the mapping of line ingress queues to logical destination ports instead of to physical fabric ports. The association of ingress queues with logical destination ports... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7289669 | Data managing method and apparatus for providing divisional data A data managing device includes divisional decoded data storage for at least storing divisional data obtained by dividing data of a predetermined unit; and priority order management for at least determining the priority as to erasure of the stored divisional data by... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7290046 | System and method for detecting customer premise equipment behind a router on a data-over-cable system A system and method permits a network management agent executing on a customer premise equipment (CPE) component to determine whether a router is coupled between the CPE component and the cable modem through which the CPE component communicates with a data-over-cabl... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7286651 | Method and system for multi-modal interaction A method and system manages content delivery to a multi-modal client device. The system may include a session manager logically connected between a server and the client device. The session manager can maintain a record of the state of a user's session, and if the u... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7286488 | Multimedia communications in a telecommunications network A communications network configuration for delivery of multimedia services comprises a packet network to which a plurality of terminal devices are connected, a service provider network for providing multimedia services to the terminal devices, a virtual circuit swit... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7278152 | Video pedestal network An architecture for distributing digital information to subscriber units wherein selection from among multiple digital services is accomplished by transmitting a tuning command from a subscriber unit to an intermediate interface. The intermediate interface selects t... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7278094 | Variable text processing for an electronic press A software system is useful for generating a page file from a template file and database entries. The database entries are representative of variable information and the template file includes data designating a variable text area. The software system includes a com... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7275246 | Executing programs for a first computer architecture on a computer of a second architecture Executing programs coded in an instruction set of a first computer on a computer of a second, different architecture. An operating system maintains an association between each one of a set of concurrent threads and a set of computer resources of the thread's context... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7275115 | Cable modem system and method for supporting packet PDU compression A cable modem system and method are provided for using a data compression dictionary to transmit compressed payload data in a DOCSIS network while utilizing conventional cable modem termination system (CMTS) equipment. A cable modem system in accordance with the inv... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7272847 | System for return bandwidth minimization using selective sampling In a cable television system a system for supporting SCU return in FTTB-MDU and FTTC/FTTcab configurations. Fiber, baseband transceiver and networking capabilities are shared with data and voice portions of the system for enabling communication from the SCUs to the ... | 09/18/2007 |
