DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING, STORAGE, AND TRANSMISSION OF MULTIMEDIA INFORMATION

摘要

A system and method for communicating and processing data. A home computer unit (12) engages in two-way communication with a mobile unit (14) over a communication path (20) having a wireless portion (22). The home computer unit receives a signal from the mobile unit over the communication path. The signal comprises a requestby the mobile unit for information from the home computer unit. The home computer unit extracts the requested information from a data source (16, 17, 18). If the extracted requested information does not satisfy a bandwidth constraint relating to the communication path or does not fit within available memory of the mobile unit, then the home computer unit restructures the requested information into downsized information such that the downsized information satisfies the bandwidth constraint and fits within the available memory of the mobile unit. The restructuring may involve the use of a multimedia dictionary (24). Then, the home computer unit transmits the downsized information to the mobile unit over the communication path.