All The Claims

1. A digital optical tape archival storage system comprising:
a digital optical tape recorder configured to simultaneously write data and two or more guide tracks onto a digital optical tape recording medium; and
a digital optical taper reader comprising:
a camera comprising an array of detectors to capture a two-dimensional image of the digital optical tape recording medium, and
an image processor to extract the data from the two-dimensional image,
wherein the camera captures the two-dimensional image of the digital optical tape recording medium without one-to-one alignment of individual data bits recorded on the digital optical tape recording medium to individual detectors within the camera.
2. The digital optical tape archival storage system of claim 1, wherein
the camera is configured to oversample the data such that a linear density of picture elements in the two-dimensional image captured by the camera is at least double a linear density of bits in the data recorded on the digital optical tape recording medium.
3. The digital optical tape archival storage system of claim 1, wherein
the guide tracks include fiduciary markers at periodic intervals along a length of the digital optical tape recording medium, and
the image processor is configured to extract the data from the two-dimensional image based, at least in part, on locations of the fiduciary markers within the two-dimensional image.
4. The digital optical tape archival storage system of claim 1, wherein the digital optical tape recorder further comprises:
a spatial light modulator comprising a linear array of individually controllable elements to write a corresponding line of data bits onto the digital optical tape recording medium;
a guide track generator to generate the two or more guide tracks; and
a data combiner to combine data to be stored and the guide tracks such that each line of data bits written on the digital optical tape recording medium includes a block of data and a corresponding portion of each of the two or more guide tracks.
5. A digital optical tape recorder comprising:
a spatial light modulator comprising a linear array of individually controllable elements to write a corresponding line of data bits onto the digital optical tape recording medium;
a guide track generator to generate the two or more guide tracks; and
a data combiner to combine data to be stored and the guide tracks such that each line of data bits written on the digital optical tape recording medium includes a block of data and a corresponding portion of each of the two or more guide tracks.
6. The digital optical tape recorder of claim 5, wherein
the guide tracks include fiduciary markers at periodic intervals along a length of the digital optical tape recording medium.
7. The digital optical tape recorder of claim 5, wherein
the two or more guide tracks are configured to provide a visual indication of an intended direction of travel of the digital optical tape recording medium.
8. The digital optical tape recorder of claim 5, wherein the two or more guide tracks are configured to provide a visual indication of a top edge and a bottom edge of the digital optical tape recording medium.
9. A method for archival data storage on a digital optical tape recording media, comprising:
generating two or more guide tracks;
combining data to be stored and the two or more guide tracks such that each line of data bits to be written on the digital optical tape recording medium includes a block of data and a corresponding portion of each of the two or more guide tracks; and
writing each line of data bits onto the digital optical tape recording medium by modulating a light beam using a spatial light modulator having a corresponding linear array of individually controllable elements.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein
the guide tracks include fiduciary markers at periodic intervals along a length of the digital optical tape recording medium.
11. The method of claim 9, wherein
the two or more guide tracks are configured to provide a visual indication of an intended direction of travel of the digital optical tape recording medium.
12. The method of claim 9, wherein the two or more guide tracks are configured to provide a visual indication of a top edge and a bottom edge of the digital optical tape recording medium.
13. A digital optical taper reader comprising:
a camera comprising an array of detectors to capture a two-dimensional image of a digital optical tape recording medium, and
an image processor to extract the data from the two-dimensional image,
wherein the camera captures the two-dimensional image of the digital optical tape recording medium without one-to-one alignment of individual data bits recorded on the digital optical tape recording medium to individual detectors within the camera.
14. The digital optical taper reader of claim 13, wherein
the camera is configured to oversample the data such that a linear density of picture elements in the two-dimensional image captured by the camera is at least double a linear density of bits in the data recorded on the digital optical tape recording medium.
15. The digital optical taper reader of claim 13, wherein
the image processor is configured to extract the data from the two-dimensional image based, at least in part, on locations of fiduciary markers within the two-dimensional image.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A method for communications device operations, the method comprising:
selecting a portion of a media content stream;
processing the portion to produce a processed portion;
generating a signature from the processed portion;
transmitting the signature; and
transmitting the media content stream.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the portion comprises scaling the portion.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the portion comprises reducing a bit-depth of the portion, reducing a color depth of the portion, reducing a dimension of the portion, compressing the portion, or combinations thereof.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a signature comprises providing the processed portion to a transformation function.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the transformation function comprises a wavelet filterbank decomposition function, a singular value decomposition function, a discrete cosine transform function, or combinations thereof.
6. The method of claim 4, wherein the transformation function produces an output, and wherein the signature comprises a portion of the output.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the signature comprises a statistically significant portion of the output.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting, the processing, the generating, and the transmitting the signature are performed in response to receiving an instruction to generate a signature.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting, the processing, the generating, and the transmitting the signature are performed at specified intervals.
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising an indication of a location of the portion in the media content stream.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving a quality measure of a received version of the media content stream, wherein the quality measure is generated in accordance with the signature and the received version of the media content stream; and
adjusting the media content stream based on the quality measure.
12. A communications device comprising:
a portion selector configured to select a portion of a media content stream;
a signature unit coupled to the portion selector, the signature unit configured to process the portion and to generate a signature from the processed portion; and
a transmitter coupled to the signature unit, the transmitter configured to transmit the signature and the media content stream.
13. The communications device of claim 12, wherein the portion selector is further configured to produce an indication of a location of the portion in the media content stream.
14. The communications device of claim 12, wherein the signature unit processes the portion by scaling, reducing a bit-depth of the portion, reducing a color depth of the portion, reducing a dimension of the portion, compressing the portion, or combinations thereof.
15. The communications device of claim 12, wherein the signature unit generates the signature by applying a transformation unit to the processed portion.
16. The communications device of claim 15, wherein the transformation unit comprises a wavelet filterbank decomposition function, a singular value decomposition function, a discrete cosine transform function, or combinations thereof.
17. The communications device of claim 16, wherein the signature unit selects a statistically significant portion of an output of the transformation unit as the signature.
18. The communications device of claim 12, further comprising a quality processor configured to responsively respond to an instruction or at a specified time to initiate a generation of a signature and a transmission of the generated signature.
19. The communications device of claim 12, further comprising:
a receiver configured to receive a quality report; and
a quality processor configured to adjust the media content stream in accordance with the quality report.
20. A method of communications device operations, the method comprising:
receiving a second media content stream;
receiving a first signature, wherein the first signature is based on a first portion of a first media content stream;
selecting a second portion of the second media content stream, wherein the second portion corresponds to the first portion of the first media content stream;
processing the second portion to produce a processed second portion;
generating a second signature from the processed second portion; and
generating a quality report from the first signature and the second signature.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein processing the second portion comprises processing the second portion using a technique used to process the first portion.
22. The method of claim 20, wherein generating a quality report comprises:
determining a difference between the first signature and the second signature; and
generating an indicator in accordance with the difference.
23. The method of claim 22, wherein generating an indicator comprises providing the difference to a classification function.
24. The method of claim 23, wherein the classification function comprises a Kernel Gaussian Mixture model, Canonical Correlation Analysis model, or a combination thereof.
25. The method of claim 24, wherein the classification function is trained a priori and results of the training is stored for subsequent use in classifying the difference.
26. A communications device comprising:
a receiver configured to receive a second media stream and a first signature, wherein the first signature is based on a first portion of a first media content stream;
a portion selector coupled to the receiver, the portion selector configured to select a second portion of the second media stream, wherein the second portion corresponds to the first portion of the first media content stream;
a signature unit coupled to the portion selector, the signature unit configured to process the second portion and to generate a second signature from the processed second portion; and
a quality generator coupled to the signature unit, the quality generator configured to generate a quality report based on the first signature and the second signature.
27. The communications device of claim 26, wherein the quality generator is configured to determine a difference between the first signature and the second signature and to generate an indicator in accordance with the difference.
28. The communications device of claim 27, wherein the quality generator generates the indicator by providing the difference to a classification function.
29. The communications device of claim 28, wherein the classification function comprises a Kernel Gaussian Mixture model, Canonical Correlation Analysis model, or a combination thereof.
30. The communications device of claim 29, wherein the classification function makes use of training data stored in a memory of the communications device.

1. A Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tag, comprising:
a plastic substrate having a bottom surface;
a fibrous substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface and including at least a portion of an RFID circuit on the bottom surface, wherein the RFID circuit is diffused into the fibrous substrate;
a chip directly connected to the portion of the RFID circuit on the bottom surface of the fibrous substrate and affixed to the bottom surface of the fibrous substrate;
a first adhesive layer adjacent the bottom surface of the plastic substrate and the top layer of the fibrous substrate and configured to affix the plastic substrate to the fibrous layer; and
a second adhesive layer adjacent the portion of the RFID circuit and the chip and configured to affix the portion of the RFID circuit and the chip to an object surface, wherein the RFID circuit is substantially destroyed in response to at least an attempt to remove the fibrous substrate from the object surface.
2. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the RFID circuit includes a metallic ink.
3. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the RFID circuit includes a tuning loop such that the tuning loop is substantially destroyed in response to at least an attempt to remove the tag.
4. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the RFID circuit is destroyed in response to at least shearing substantially parallel to a plane of the fibrous substrate.
5. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the RFID circuit is destroyed in response to at least shearing substantially perpendicular to a plane of the fibrous substrate.
6. The RFID tag of claim 1, further comprising a release liner affixed to at least a portion of a surface of the fibrous substrate using the second adhesive layer.
7. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the RFID circuit is at least partially diffused into the fibrous substrate using one or more thermal processes.
8. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the chip comprises a memory connected to the RFID circuit using thermal compression.
9. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the RFID circuit is passive.
10. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the tag is inoperable when the portion of the RFID circuit is destroyed.
11. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the portion of the RFID circuit is destroyed when the substrate is torn during an attempt to remove the tag.
12. A method of manufacturing a Break On Removal (BOR) tag, comprising:
printing a least a portion of an RFID circuit on a bottom surface of a fiber material;
heating the fiber material for a period of time to diffuse at least a portion of the RFID circuit into the bottom surface of the fiber material;
affixing a top surface of the fiber material to a bottom surface of a plastic substrate using a first adhesive layer;
affixing a memory chip the bottom surface of the fiber material;
directly connecting the memory chip to the at least portion of RFID circuit diffused into the bottom surface of the fiber material; and
affixing a release liner to the RFID circuit and the chip on the fiber material using a second adhesive layer.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the portion of the RFID circuit is printed using flexography.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the RFID circuit is printed using conductive ink.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the fiber material is paper.
16. The method of claim 12, wherein the fiber material is heated to 100\xb0 C. or greater.
17. The method of claim 12, further comprising affixing a facing material adjacent the RFID circuit using an adhesive.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A device comprising:
a pivot coupled to a water craft;
a lever arm pivotally coupled to the pivot at one end;
a tow spool coupled to the lever arm at an end opposite the pivot, the tow spool configured to provide an attachment for a towline; and
a pneumatic shock absorber coupled to the water craft at one end and coupled to the lever arm at the opposing end, the pneumatic shock absorber adapted to store energy as a towing drag force is applied to the tow spool to cause the lever arm to move from a first position to a second position and to provide a restoring force to cause the lever arm to move from the second position to the first position as the towing drag force is reduced, the restoring force being pneumatically adjustable by a pressurized air line.
2. The device of claim 1 further comprising a pivot plate pivotally coupled to the water craft wherein the pivot and one end of the pneumatic shock absorber are coupled to the water craft by means of the pivot plate such that the lever arm may rotate relative to the water craft about an axis that is generally perpendicular to a deck of the water craft.
3. The device of claim 2 wherein the pivot plate is coupled to the water craft by a structure that vertically elevates the pivot plate above the surfaces of the water craft.
4. The device of claim 1 wherein the pneumatic shock absorber is adjustably coupled to the lever arm to provide an adjustable restoring force.
5. The device of claim 1 wherein the pivot is coupled to the water craft by a structure that vertically elevates the pivot above the surfaces of the water craft.
6. A device for use in a water craft towing a towed watersports enthusiast engaged in a water sport, the towed watersports enthusiast being towed by a towline attached to the water craft at a rope attachment point, the device comprising:
a plurality of lever means each having at a first end a means for attaching to the rope attachment point, the lever means each having at a second end a means for attaching to the water craft, the first end of each lever means being movable from a first position to a second position, the second position being horizontally distal from the first position in the direction of the towed watersports enthusiast, wherein the plurality of lever means is a plurality of segmented rods,
each rod including a pivot means between the first and second ends thereof,
each lever means further including a recoil support base attached to the second end of the lever means proximate to the pivot means at one end and to the water craft at a second end; and

a plurality of recoil means for preferentially maintaining the first end of each lever means in the first position,
the recoil means having one end attached to the first end of the lever means proximate to the pivot means,
the recoil means having a second end attached to the recoil support base,
whereby the first end of the lever means may pivot around the pivot means between the first and second positions;

whereby the towed watersports enthusiast may store energy in the recoil means by creating additional drag on the towline, and then release said stored energy in the recoil means by reducing drag on the towline.
7. The device of claim 6 wherein the lever means is a recoiling pylon, mounted generally vertically onto the water craft at the second end thereof, the rope attachment point being formed in the first end thereof.
8. The device of claim 6 further including a tower attachment means for holding a tower base fixed in relation to the tower, the base further including a pivot means for pivotably supporting a pivot plate such that the pivot plate may rotate with respect to a vertical axis, the second end of each lever means attached to one end of the pivot plate, the recoil means having one end attached to the lever means, the recoil means having a second end attached to the pivot plate.
9. The device of claim 8 wherein the plurality of lever means is exactly two and the rope attachment point attachment means is a cross bar held between each one end of both lever means, the rope attachment point being fixed on the cross bar.
10. The device of claim 9 wherein the recoil means is a pair of pneumatic shock absorbers, the recoil tension of each shock absorber being pneumatically adjustable by a pressurized air line.
11. The device of claim 8 wherein the recoil means is a pneumatically adjustable shock absorber, the recoil tension of the shock absorber being pneumatically adjustable by a pressurized air line.
12. A device for use in a water craft towing a towed watersports enthusiast engaged in a water sport, the towed watersports enthusiast being towed by a towline attached to the water craft at a rope attachment point, the device comprising:
a plurality of lever means each having at a first end a means for attaching to the rope attachment point, the lever means each having at a second end a means for attaching to the water craft, the first end of each lever means being movable from a first position to a second position, the second position being horizontally distal from the first position in the direction of the towed watersports enthusiast;
a plurality of recoil means for preferentially maintaining the first end of each lever means in the first position; and
a tower attachment means for holding a tower base fixed in relation to the tower, the base further including a pivot means for pivotably supporting a pivot plate such that the pivot plate may rotate with respect to a vertical axis, the second end of each lever means attached to one end of the pivot plate, the recoil means having one end attached to the lever means, the recoil means having a second end attached to the pivot plate;
whereby the towed watersports enthusiast may store energy in the recoil means by creating additional drag on the towline, and then release said stored energy in the recoil means by reducing drag on the towline.
13. The device of claim 12 wherein the recoil means is a pneumatically adjustable shock absorber, the recoil tension of the shock absorber being pneumatically adjustable by a pressurized air line.
14. A method of providing a boost in speed to a towed water sports enthusiast relative to a speed of a towing water craft, the method comprising:
coupling a pivot to a water craft;
pivotally coupling one end of a lever arm to the pivot;
coupling a tow spool to the lever arm at an end opposite the pivot, the tow spool configured to provide an attachment for a towline;
coupling a recoil device to the water craft at one end and to the lever arm at the opposing end;
applying a towing drag force to the tow spool to store energy in the recoil device by causing the lever arm to move from a first position to a second position; and reducing the towing drag force to cause the lever arm to move from the second position to the first position and provide the boost in speed to the towed water sports enthusiast sufficient to prolong the time the towed watersports enthusiast is above the surface of the water.
15. The method of claim 14 further comprising pivotally coupling a pivot plate to the water craft wherein the pivot and one end of the recoil device are coupled to the water craft by means of the pivot plate such that the lever arm may rotate relative to the water craft about an axis that is generally perpendicular to a deck of the water craft.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein the pivot plate is coupled to the water craft by a structure that vertically elevates the pivot plate above the surfaces of the water craft.
17. The method of claim 14 further comprising moving the coupling of the recoil device to the lever arm to adjust a restoring force of the recoil device.
18. The method of claim 17 wherein the recoil device is a pneumatic shock absorber, the method further comprising adjusting the restoring force by adjusting an air pressure.
19. The method of claim 14 wherein the pivot is coupled to the water craft by a structure that vertically elevates the pivot above the water craft.