CHANNEL TO LINK TO COMPONENT ON DIFFERENT CHANNEL

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present principles of the embodiments generally relate to an apparatus and a method for processing contents and signaling of an aggregation of service or program components in an electronic device. For example, a receiver is described which is able to process metadata received from a service provider that represents program and system information. The receiver is able to dynamically locate and process the different program components of a selected program, in response to the metadata. In one example, the metadata comprises a service announcement which includes at least one pointer that associates a desired component such as an alternative or an absent component of the received broadcast program, to a second channel. The receiver, in response to the service announcement, tunes to the second channel to receive the desired component for the received broadcast program, while staying tuned to the first channel. In another example, a desired component may be located and obtained from a different service such as from a satellite service or a cable service, or from a streaming service such as Netflix, Hulu, or MGO. One example of an alternative or an absent component may be a close caption component.

Background Information

In digital television, a program is a bundle composed of several content components (e.g., a video component, one or more audio components representing different languages, a closed caption text component, and a metadata component representing, e.g., program and system information (PSI) protocol information which provides information on how to tune a channel and to acquire the program, and etc.). Historically, the aggregation is typically fixed, that is, each program on a channel is transmitted by combining and transmitting the corresponding content components inside a MPEG2 Transport Stream within the same service.

For example, when a digital television program such as the Evening News is broadcast on a digital television channel such as Channel 7.1 , the broadcasting station WCBS in New York City would transmit a MPEG2 transport stream having a bundle containing a video component representing the video content, a main audio component representing the English audio content, a secondary language component representing a foreign language content such as Spanish, a closed caption component, and metadata component containing program and system information. These components are associated together and transmitted on the same MEPG2 transport stream in the same channel of the same existing ATSC digital television broadcast service. Each of these components is identified by a respective MPEG2 program component packet identification. Similarly, all the other television programs on the other channels of the same ATSC digital system would also have similar aggregation of components representing the respective programs being broadcast on the respective channels.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention recognizes that it is possible to create a virtual service or program by aggregating components from different physical channels or even different services to provide a flexible architecture and system in the existing or new digital television environments. Therefore, an object of the present principles is to provide solutions in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

In accordance with an exemplary aspect of the present principles, an apparatus is presented, comprising:

a first tuner configured to tune to a first channel to receive a broadcast program on a broadcast service; wherein the received program includes a service announcement, wherein the service announcement includes at least one pointer which associates an absent component of the received broadcast program to a second channel; and

a second tuner configured to tune to the second channel to receive the absent component for the received broadcast program in response to the service announcement.

In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus is presented, comprising:

a demodulator configured to receive a program on a first service; wherein the received program includes a service announcement, wherein the service announcement includes at least one pointer which associates a desired component of the received program of the first service to another service wherein the another service is a streaming service; and

a communication interface configured to interface with the streaming service to receive the desired component of the received program from the streaming service in response to the service announcement.

In another exemplary embodiment, a method is presented comprising:

tuning to a first channel to receive a broadcast program on a broadcast service;

extracting a service announcement from the received broadcast program, wherein the service announcement includes at least one pointer which associates an absent component of the received broadcast program to a second channel ; and

tuning to the second channel, while staying tuned to the first channel, to receive the absent component for the received broadcast program in response to the service announcement.

In another exemplary embodiment, a method is presented comprising:

receiving, via a demodulator, a program on a first service; wherein the received program includes a service announcement, wherein the service announcement includes at least one pointer which associates a desired component of the received program of the first service to another service wherein the another service is a streaming service; and

interfacing, via a communication interface, with the streaming service to receive the desired component of the received program from the streaming service in response to the service announcement.

The aforementioned brief summary of exemplary embodiments of the present invention is merely illustrative of the inventive concepts presented herein, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any manner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of present principles, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the invention will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present principles;

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary system according to the present principles;

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary process according to the present principles;

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary user interface of an electronic device according to the present principles; and

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary metadata component comprising an exemplary service announcement according to the present principles;

The examples set out herein illustrate exemplary embodiments of the invention. Such examples are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present principles may be applied to existing MPEG2 compatible systems, or to new digital television systems such as, e.g., Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) Standard 3.0, currently being developed in the United States. Although the details of ATSC 3.0 are still being defined, it is envisioned that ATSC 3.0 will utilize H.265 High Efficiency Video Compression (HEVC) standard, including having Ultra-High (UH) definition format (e.g. 4k resolution). The physical layer of ATSC 3.0 will move from VSB modulation to OFDM modulation. The service will also transition from MPEG2 Transport Streams to an IP-based transport layer such as, e.g., UDP multicast. The audio service for ATSC 3.0 will likely to have an immersive audio solution requiring even higher bandwidth. The service will also have several instances of audio components such as, e.g. English, Spanish, closed caption for visually-impaired, and etc. The present inventor recognizes that the overhead of simulcasting these audio components including the closed-caption data may be significantly higher in view of the enhanced audio experience in the new ATSC 3.0 environment being envisioned. Therefore, according to the present principles, a simulcast service is presented which is able to provide a virtual service that may signal or aggregate a plurality of different elementary component streams of a selected program from its simulcast peers in the same service or different services. For example, a High Definition (HD) simulcast of a 4K HD program or service could point to a plurality of associated secondary audio streams and a closed caption stream of a simulcast Standard Definition (SD) broadcast channel on the same broadcast service, and vice versa, instead of duplicating the same audio streams in its own bundle.

In another exemplary embodiment, the substitute audio streams may also be obtained from a different service, other than the service providing the currently selected broadcast channel, such as, e.g., from a satellite or cable service, or even from a streaming service such as, e.g., Netflix, Hulu, or MGO via internet. The bandwidth savings could be significant, particularly for terrestrial or satellite broadcasts. Accordingly, a receiver employing the present principles is described which is capable of processing metadata representing program and system information including a service announcement, and is able to dynamically locate and process the different components correspond to a selected program from the same or a different service, in response to the received metadata.

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1 , FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of an electronic device 100 capable of processing audio and video signals in accordance with the present principles. As described herein, apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 is a device capable of receiving and processing channel and program contents compatible with, e.g., the current existing digital television systems, an ATSC 3.0 compatible system as it is currently being envisioned or implemented in the future, or other current and future digital media receiving systems. For example, apparatus 100 may receive and process different video contents compressed in different video compression formats such as MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MPEG-4 Part 10 (H.264), HEVC (H.265), VP8, and etc. Apparatus 100 is also capable of receiving and processing contents being transported using e.g., MPEG2 transport packet streams, or IP-based transport packet streams such as UDP or TCP/IP. In addition, apparatus 100 may embody different types of exemplary user devices such as, e.g., television or set top box receivers, mobile devices such as cellular telephones, tablets, PCs, laptops, devices combining computer and television functions such as the so-called "PC/TVs", or devices combining one or more of the functions of the devices mentioned above.

The term "program" as used herein may represent any form of content data such as digital video, audio information, auxiliary information such as metadata, including streaming and stored data content received via cable, satellite, broadcast and other telecommunications networks, or via local or long-distance networks or connections, such as WiFi, USB, Firewire, or ATM connections. The content may be from a remote source (e.g., a server) or from a local source, such as from a local storage media (e.g., hard drives, memory cards or USB memory sticks, etc.)

As an overview, in a video receiver apparatus of FIG. 1 , a carrier signal modulated with video and audio data is received by antenna 10 and processed by input processor unit 1 5. The resultant digital output signal is then demodulated by demodulator section 20 and decoded by decoder 30. The output from the decoder 30 is processed by transport system component 25. System 25 provides compressed data outputs for storage, further signal processing, or communication to other devices. Video and audio decoders 85 and 80 respectively decode the compressed data from system 25 to provide outputs for a display 89 and speakers 88. Data port 75 provides an interface for communication of digital data from apparatus 100 to/from other devices such as a computer or a High Definition Digital Television (HDTV), for example. Storage device 90 stores data from system 25 on storage medium 105. Device 90, in a playback mode also supports retrieval of the compressed or uncompressed video and audio data from storage medium 105 for processing by system 25 for decoding, communication to other devices, or storage on a different storage medium (not shown to simplify drawing). Considering FIG. 1 in detail, a carrier modulated with video, audio and/or metadata, received by antenna 10, is converted to digital form and processed by input processor 1 5. As noted above, in the current ATSC digital television system, the carrier is modulated via VSB modulation, and in ATSC 3.0, it is envisioned that the carrier will be modulated via OFDM. Although only one representative antenna is shown on the drawing of FIG. 1 , one skilled in the art may readily recognize that more than one antenna may be used to receive other types of television services, such as, e.g., a satellite antenna to receive programs on a satellite service. Likewise, input processor 15 includes a cable input 19 for connection to a cable service in order to receive cable programming.

Input processor 15 includes one or more radio frequency (RF) tuners 16-1 to 16-N for tuning to one or more broadcast, satellite and/or cable channels concurrently. The intermediate frequency (IF) mixer and amplifier 17 of the input processor 15 then down-converts the input signals to a lower frequency band suitable for further processing. The resultant digital output signal is demodulated by a demodulator section 20 and decoded by decoder 30. The output from decoder 30 is further processed by transport system 25. As is well known in the art, demodulator section 20 may comprise one or more demodulators (not shown). The one or more demodulators in the demodulator section 20 may be used to demodulate one or more of the different types of signals from the different tuners 16- 1 to 16-N, to adaptively demodulate the signals from the different services, such as terrestrial, satellite or cable services. Multiplexer (mux) 37 of service detector 33 is provided, via selector 35, with either the output from decoder 30, or the decoder 30 output is further processed by a descrambling unit 40. Descrambling unit 40 may be, for example, a removable unit such as a smart card in accordance with ISO 7816 and NRSS (National Renewable Security Standards) Committee standards (the NRSS removable conditional access system is defined in EIA Draft Document IS-679, Project PN-3639), or a CableCARD used in U.S. digital cable systems.

The data provided to mux 37 from selector 35 is in the form of either an MPEG compliant packetized transport data stream as defined e.g., in MPEG2 Systems Standards ISOJEC 13818-1 , an UDP packet stream, a TCP/IP stream, or the like. The packet stream may include metadata information such as a service announcement which may include service, channel and/or program components description information of one or more programs being selected, as shown in FIG. 5 and to be discussed later. The individual component packets that comprise particular programs are identified by packet identifiers (PIDs). As used herewith, packet identifiers (PIDs) are used generically to refer to packet header identification information which is used to identify a plurality of packets corresponding to different video, audio or metadata components of selected content. Again, PIDs may be used to identify packets either in e.g., MPEG2, IP-based transport protocols such as UDP, or TCP/IP, or any other types of data packets.

The transport stream contains metadata which are program and system information (PSI) for use in identifying the program identifiers and assembling individual data packets corresponding to service or content components such as video, audio, and metadata service components to recover the content of all the program components correspond to a selected program. Transport system 25, under the control of the system controller 1 15, acquires and collates program and system information from the input transport stream, storage device 90 or an Internet service provider via the communication interface unit 1 16. The individual packets that comprise either particular program channel content or program guide information are identified by their packet identifiers contained within header information. Additionally, besides containing information for tuning and acquisition of the selected program from the same or different services as to be described in detail later, the program and system information may also contain descriptions of a program such as, e.g., title, star, rating, detailed event description, and etc., related to the content of the program.

The user interface incorporated in the video receiver shown in FIG. 1 enables a user to activate various features by selecting a desired feature from an on-screen display (OSD) menu. The OSD menu may include an electronic program guide (EPG) and other selectable user features according to the present principles, and to be described in more detail below in connection with FIGs. 3 and 4. Data representing information displayed in the OSD menu is generated by, e.g., system controller 1 1 5 in response to downloaded and/or stored program and system information, graphics information, system and user interface control information as described herein and in accordance with an exemplary control program 300 to be shown in FIG. 3 and to be described in detail below. The software control program 300 may be stored, for example, in an embedded non-transitory memory of system controller 1 1 5 (not shown), a non-transitory storage medium 105, or other suitable non-transitory memory (not shown), as well known by one skilled in the art.

Using remote control unit 125 (or other user selection device such as a mouse, voice or other gesture activated devices, etc.), a user can select from the OSD menu items such as, for example, an icon to be selected, a plurality of programs to be selected for viewing or storing, or a plurality of video and/or audio components from a plurality of different services for a selected program (as shown in FIG. 4 and to be described below), and etc.

In addition, when a user selects programs for viewing or storage, system controller 1 15 generates selected version (e.g., condensed version) of program and system information corresponding to the selected programs and suitable for the selected storage device and media. Controller 1 15 also configures system 25 elements 45, 47, 50, 55, 65 and 95 by setting control register values within these elements via a data bus and by selecting signal paths via muxes 37 and 1 1 0 with control signal C.

In response to control signal C, mux 37 selects either, the transport stream from unit 35, or in a playback mode, a data stream retrieved from storage device 90 via store interface 95. In normal, non-playback operation, the data packets comprising the program that the user selected to view are identified by their packet identifiers by selection unit 45. If an encryption indicator in the header data of the selected program packets indicates the packets are encrypted, unit 45 provides the packets to decryption unit 50. Otherwise unit 45 provides non-encrypted packets to transport decoder 55. Similarly, the data packets comprising the programs that the user selected for storage are identified by their packet identifiers by selection unit 47. Unit 47 provides encrypted packets to decryption unit 50 or non-encrypted packets to mux 1 10 based on the packet header encryption indicator information.

The functions of decryptors 40 and 50 may be implemented in a single removable smart card which may be compatible with the NRSS standard. This approach places all security related functions in one removable unit that easily can be replaced if a service provider decides to change encryption technique or to permit easily changing the security system, e.g., to descramble a different service.

Units 45 and 47 employ packet identifiers detection filters that match the PIDs of incoming packets provided by mux 37 with PID values pre-loaded in control registers within units 45 and 47 by controller 1 15. The pre-loaded packet identifiers are used in units 47 and 45 to identify the data packets that are to be stored and the data packets that are to be decoded for use in providing a video image. The preloaded packet identifiers are stored in look-up tables in units 45 and 47. The packet identifiers look-up tables are memory mapped to encryption key tables in units 45 and 47 that associate encryption keys with each pre-loaded packet identifiers. The memory mapped packet identifiers and encryption key look-up tables permit units 45 and 47 to match encrypted packets containing a pre-loaded packet identifiers with associated encryption keys that permit their decryption. Non-encrypted packets do not have associated encryption keys. Units 45 and 47 provide both identified packets and their associated encryption keys to decryptor 50. The packet identifiers look-up table in unit 45 is also memory mapped to a destination table that matches packets containing pre-loaded packet identifiers with corresponding destination buffer locations in packet buffer 60. The encryption keys and destination buffer location addresses associated with the programs selected by a user for viewing or storage are pre-loaded into units 45 and 47 along with the assigned packet identifiers by controller 1 15. The encryption keys are generated by, e.g., ISO 7816-3 compliant smart card system 130, or a CableCard, from encryption codes extracted from the input data stream. The generation of the encryption keys is subject to customer entitlement determined from coded information in the input data stream and/or pre- stored on the insertable smart card or cable card itself.

The packets provided by units 45 and 47 to unit 50 are encrypted using an encryption techniques such as the Data Encryption Standard (DES) defined in Federal Information Standards (FIPS) Publications 46, 74 and 81 provided by the National Technical Information Service, Department of Commerce. Unit 50 decrypts the encrypted packets using corresponding encryption keys provided by units 45 and 47 by applying decryption techniques appropriate for the selected encryption algorithm. The decrypted packets from unit 50 and the non-encrypted packets from unit 45 that comprise the program for display are provided to decoder 55. The decrypted packets from unit 50 and the non-encrypted packets from unit 47 that comprise the program for storage are provided to mux 1 10. Unit 60 contains four packet buffers accessible by controller 1 1 5. One of the buffers is assigned to hold data destined for use by controller 1 15 and the other three buffers are assigned to hold packets that are destined for use by application devices 75, 80 and 85. Access to the packets stored in the four buffers within unit 60 by both controller 1 15 and by application interface 70 is controlled by buffer control unit 65. Unit 45 provides a destination flag to unit 65 for each packet identified by unit 45 for decoding. The flags indicate the individual unit 60 destination locations for the identified packets and are stored by control unit 65 in an internal memory table. Buffer control unit 65 determines a series of read and write pointers associated with packets stored in buffer 60 based on the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) principle. The write pointers in conjunction with the destination flags permit sequential storage of an identified packet from units 45 or 50 in the next empty location within the appropriate destination buffer in unit 60. The read pointers permit sequential reading of packets from the appropriate unit 60 destination buffers by controller 1 15 and application interface 70.

According to the present principles, packets that contain metadata such as program and system information, including service announcement packets, are recognized by unit 45 as destined for the controller 1 15 buffer in unit 60. The PSI packets are directed to this buffer by unit 65 via units 45, 50 and 55 in a similar manner to that described for packets containing program content. Controller 1 1 5 reads the program and system information from unit 60 and control the apparatus to acquire program components being simulcast in the same or another service according to the present principles to be described in detail below. Packets received by decoder 55 from units 45 and 50 that contain program content including audio, video, caption, and other information components, are directed by unit 65 from decoder 55 to the designated application device buffers in packet buffer 60. Application control unit 70 sequentially retrieves the audio, video, caption and other data from the designated buffers in buffer 60 and provides the data to corresponding application devices 75, 80 and 85. The application devices comprise audio and video decoders 80 and 85 and high speed data port 75. For example, packet data corresponding to a composite program guide generated by the controller 1 15 as described above, may be transported to the video decoder 85 for formatting into video signal suitable for display on a display monitor 89 connected to the video decoder 85. Also, for example, data port 75 may be used to provide high speed data such as computer programs, for example, to a computer. Alternatively, port 75 may be used to output or receive data to and from an HDTV to display or process images corresponding to a selected program or a program guide, for example.

In addition, controller 1 1 5 is coupled to a communication interface unit 1 16. Unit 1 16 provides the capability to upload and download information to and from the Internet. Communication interface unit 1 16 includes, for example, communication circuitry for connecting to an Internet service provider, e.g., via a wired or wireless connection such as an Ethernet, WiFi connection, or via cable, fiber or telephone line. The communication capability allows the system shown in FIG. 1 to provide, e.g., Internet related features such as receiving streaming contents and web browsing, in addition to receiving television programming.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an exemplary control program 300 which may be executed by, e.g., controller 1 15 of FIG. 1 , or any other suitably programmed control arrangement of an electronic device. A computer program product comprising the software control program 300 may be stored, for example, in an embedded non- transitory memory of system controller 1 15 (not shown), or a non-transitory storage medium 105 shown in FIG. 1 , as well known by one skilled in the art. In addition, it may be appreciated that the exemplary control program 300 may be implemented using various different kinds of hardware (e.g., a very large scale IC or processor, etc.), software, or a combination thereof.

The exemplary control program 300, when executed, facilitates display of a user interface shown, for example, in FIG. 4, and its interaction with a user. A person skilled in the art would readily recognize that the control program 300 when executed by apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 or any other suitably programmed electronic device will provide substantially the same features and advantages in accordance with the present principles. Therefore, to avoid redundancy, the control program 300 will be described below only with respect to the exemplary hardware implementation 100 shown in FIG. 1 .

At step 310 of FIG. 3, the electronic apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 tunes to a first channel to receive a broadcast program on a broadcast service such as the current ATSC digital broadcast service, or an envisioned ATSC 3.0 digital broadcast service. As shown in an exemplary user interface screen 400 of FIG. 4, an area 405 of the screen 400 indicates to a user that, for example, a currently selected broadcast program titled "BEACH" 410 is being received by apparatus 100 on Channel 7.1 of the ATSC 3.0 digital broadcast service, as shown in area 430 of FIG. 4. At step 315 of FIG. 3, electronic apparatus 100 of FIG. 1 extracts a service announcement message from the received broadcast program. According to the present principles, one exemplary embodiment of a service announcement is shown in FIG. 5 and is implemented in XML. As shown in FIG. 5, service announcement 500 includes one or more pointers 505-1 to 505-3 that associate an alternative or an absent component of the received broadcast program to a second channel and/or a different service. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the service announcement 500 provides the pointers 505-1 to 505-3 which indicate one or more location and type information for different alternatives or substitutions of audio streams and a closed caption component not present in the selected broadcast program on Channel 7.1 of the ATSC 3.0 broadcast service. The alternative or absent components are either being simulcast with the selected program on Channel 7.1 of the ATSC 3.0 broadcast service, or may be available from streaming services via internet. The three exemplary alternative or missing elementary components and their corresponding channel and service information are: Channel 9.1 of the same ATSC 3.0 broadcast service 505-1 , Channel 300 of Comcast Cable service via cable 505-2, and a closed caption component from MGO streaming service via internet 505-3. The pointer for the streaming service may be e.g., a URL as shown in FIG. 5, an IP address, and etc. At step 320, based on the received exemplary service announcement 500 shown in FIG. 5, electronic apparatus 100 tunes to a second channel to receive and process the alternative or absent component of the selected broadcast program being received on the first broadcast service of ATSC 3.0, while staying tuned to the first channel. In a non-limiting example, instead of using a second tuner to tune to a second channel, apparatus 100 of FIG.1 uses communication interface 1 16 of FIG. 1 to communicate with a streaming service such as MGO, using the web or IP address provided by pointer 505-3 of the service announcement message 500 shown in FIG. 5. Apparatus 100 then obtains an alternative or an absent component from the stream service. Accordingly, apparatus 1 00 is able to provide to a user a complete content having all of the desired audio and video components from different services or sources in response to the service announcement signal, according to the present principles. At step 325 of FIG. 3, and as shown in an exemplary user interface screen

400 of FIG. 4, apparatus 100 of FIG. 1 may also display the different sources or services where a user may select the one or more of the alternative or absent components. A user may make such selections by e.g., highlighting and selecting the one or more of the available components 420-1 to 420-n, via a mouse icon 450 of FIG. 4. In another embodiment, apparatus 100 automatically selects, for example, a component which has the best audio or video quality representation that the device is capable of rendering as a default in case there is no user selection and/or if there is a conflict between multiple user selections. In addition, FIG. 2 shows an exemplary system 200 according to the present principles. A terrestrial broadcast television station 210 such as, e.g., WABC in NYC, may transmit a plurality of video, audio and metadata components on Channel 7.1 to an exemplary receiver 220. Based on the metadata component packets or streams received by receiver 220, a request 280-1 may be transmitted to a different service, such as a streaming service 230-1 . Request 280-1 is formulated by receiver 220 based in part by the information provided in the metadata component including a service announcement message or packet sent from the terrestrial broadcast station 210 to receiver 220. In one example, in response to the request message 280-1 , a streaming service 230-1 such as Netflix, Hulu or MGO, may transmit one or more desired or absent content components which may contain e.g., audio, video, electronic book or media, electronic games, software, and etc., back to receiver 220 to be shown to a user, as shown in 290-1 of FIG. 2. The foregoing has provided by way of exemplary embodiments and non- limiting examples a description of the method and systems contemplated by the inventor. It is clear that various modifications and adaptations may become apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the description. However, such various modifications and adaptations fall within the scope of the teachings of the various embodiments described above.

The embodiments described herein may be implemented in, for example, a method or a process, an apparatus, a software program, a data stream, or a signal. Even if only discussed in the context of a single form of implementation (for example, discussed only as a method), the implementation of features discussed above may also be implemented in other forms (for example, an apparatus or program). An apparatus may be implemented in, for example, appropriate hardware, software, and firmware. The methods may be implemented in, for example, an apparatus such as, for example, a processor, which refers to processing devices in general, including, for example, a computer, a microprocessor, an integrated circuit, or a programmable logic device. Processors also include communication devices, such as, for example, computers, cell phones, portable/personal digital assistants ("PDAs"), and other devices that facilitate communication of information between end-users. Reference to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" or "one implementation" or "an implementation" of the present principles, as well as other variations thereof, mean that a particular feature, structure, characteristic, and so forth described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present principles. Thus, the appearances of the phrase "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" or "in one implementation" or "in an implementation", as well any other variations, appearing in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Additionally, this application or its claims may refer to "determining" various pieces of information. Determining the information may include one or more of, for example, estimating the information, calculating the information, predicting the information, or retrieving the information from memory. Further, this application or its claims may refer to "accessing" various pieces of information. Accessing the information may include one or more of, for example, receiving the information, retrieving the information (for example, from memory), storing the information, processing the information, transmitting the information, moving the information, copying the information, erasing the information, calculating the information, determining the information, predicting the information, or estimating the information.

Additionally, this application or its claims may refer to "receiving" various pieces of information. Receiving is, as with "accessing", intended to be a broad term. Receiving the information may include one or more of, for example, accessing the information, or retrieving the information (for example, from memory). Further, "receiving" is typically involved, in one way or another, during operations such as, for example, storing the information, processing the information, transmitting the information, moving the information, copying the information, erasing the information, calculating the information, determining the information, predicting the information, or estimating the information.

As will be evident to one of skill in the art, implementations may produce a variety of signals formatted to carry information that may be, for example, stored or transmitted. The information may include, for example, instructions for performing a method, or data produced by one of the described embodiments. For example, a signal may be formatted to carry the bitstream of a described embodiment. Such a signal may be formatted, for example, as an electromagnetic wave (for example, using a radio frequency portion of spectrum) or as a baseband signal. The formatting may include, for example, encoding a data stream and modulating a carrier with the encoded data stream. The information that the signal carries may be, for example, analog or digital information. The signal may be transmitted over a variety of different wired and/or wireless links, as is known. The signal may be stored on a processor-readable medium. While several embodiments have been described and illustrated herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision a variety of other means and/or structures for performing the functions and/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantages described herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications is deemed to be within the scope of the present embodiments. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations described herein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters, dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon the specific application or applications for which the teachings herein is/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specific embodiments described herein. It is, therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presented by way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof, the embodiments disclosed may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described and claimed. The present embodiments are directed to each individual feature, system, article, material and/or method described herein. In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems, articles, materials and/or methods, if such features, systems, articles, materials and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent, is included within the scope of the present embodiments.