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Demi Lovato Seeks to Repeal 'R' Rating of 'Bully' Movie
Demi Lovato has never been afraid to speak her mind, and now she's encouraging her fans to do the same. The singer is part of a petition to repeal the 'R' rating on the movie 'Bully.'
'X Factor' Contestant Rachel Crow Inks Nickelodeon TV Deal + Recording Contract
Congratulations to Rachel Crow! Everyone's favorite pint-sized 'X Factor' contestant may not have won the competition (thanks a lot, Nicole Scherzinger!), but she's doing just fine on her own. Crow snagged a TV pilot with Nickelodeon and a record deal, so get ready to see a lot more of her.
Madonna Filming 'Girls Gone Wild' Video This Week
Listen to a Snippet of Justin Bieber and Far East Movement's 'Live My Life'
Justin Bieber is hard at work recording his upcoming album, 'Believe,' as well as a feature on Far East Movement's 'Live My Life' track. Finally, Beliebers, we can hear some of it!
Adele Purchases $6 Million Mansion
Aretha Franklin Cancels Performance at Whitney Houston's Funeral
Even the Queen of Soul gets sick sometimes. Aretha Franklin cancelled her performance at the funeral of goddaughter Whitney Houston.
Bobby Brown Releases Statement Explaining Early Exit from Whitney Houston's Funeral
When Bobby Brown left ex wife Whitney Houston's funeral early, massive speculation arose as to why: was he banned by her family? Did he simply not want to stay?
The world has its answer — at least one side of it, anyway. Brown released a statement explaining his early exit from Houston's heartwrenching memorial.
Kevin Costner Pays Touching Tribute to Whitney Houston at Funeral
"The song 'I Will Always Love You' wasn't supposed to be in the movie," Kevin Costner revealed in a moving speech for his costar in 'The Bodyguard,' Whitney Houston at her funeral. "The first choice was going to be 'What Becomes of a Broken Heart?'" he said. "So what becomes of our broken hearts?"
Whitney Houston Funeral – Bobbi Gets High Afterwards
They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, but this is a case where we wish it didn't apply. In a rather sad episode after Whitney Houston's death, her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, allegedly couldn't handle the situation, and her solution was to get high following her mother's funeral.
Is Gavin DeGraw Joining 'Dancing With the Stars'?
When Gavin DeGraw sang 'I Don't Want to Be,' we're guessing "a dancer" was deliberately left out of the lyrics. His pal, OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, revealed that DeGraw may well be dancing up a storm on the ABC hit 'Dancing With the Stars.'
Watch Whitney Houston Greet Clive Davis Just Before Her Death [VIDEO]
Whitney Houston has always had a warm relationship with her mentor and champion, Clive Davis. Two nights before her death, cameras caught the late legend greeting the man who made her a star.
Chaka Khan Lashes Out at Clive Davis After Whitney Houston's Death
Chaka Khan is not pleased with Clive Davis. The original 'I'm Every Woman' singer is furious that Davis continued on with his pre-Grammy party following the news of Whitney Houston's death.


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Mine doesn't ever ask to see more of his children. He did ask a few months ago about swapping custody so that I would have them over a weekend and he during the week but hasn't mentioned it since. I feel so sad that this loser is my children's father. He only seems to care about himself and his job and has shown that with his actions for a long time now.
It's stated in our parenting plan that he get 5 weeks, but due to our locations...I live in WA state and he in Illinois, it's usually 7-8 weeks. I'm fine with that and the kids enjoy hanging with their Dad. He's a great father, so I don't worry too much. It gives me a much needed break too. I love my kids dearly, but this Momma needs some time to herself to relax without 4 kids (2 teen girls).
The past 2 summers (now that he's re-married) he takes his full court decreed 30 days. She doesn't work, so she stays home with them.
It's something I try not to think about too much - that they are taken away from me (I'm a teacher, so I'm home with them in the summer) just to be left with OW. It's hard.
He was a terrible husband but is an excellent father. Very involved! We have been divorced since 05' and not once has he missed any of his scheduled time with our kids. He and I live an hour away from each other. In Los Angeles that can be a couple hours of travel time.
[This message edited by forced2moveon at 8:05 PM, June 24th (Monday)]
Yup, folks. He thinks it is perfectly acceptable to parent when he "has time".
I did give him one two week block, waiting to see how it goes.
He's a douche bag. Pretty much abandoned his four older girls as well.
You're not alone.
He has EOW plus half of the school holidays. He doesn't take them for his designated weeks over the holidays and frequently is "unavailable" (insert too busy with OW) on his designated weekends. I offer make up time when he is 'unavailable' he doesn't take this offer either. The kids are old enough now to realise they can't depend on him at all.
Best thing I gained in my divorce - my freedom.
Life's good.
There's no way any of them would make it. He told the older one she wasn't welcome at his house anymore about a month ago due to makeup use. The youngest went but was back in three days because she can't stand him, his new wife or her step-sister. Part of her complaint is he never spends time with her - he spends most of his time in his room with his wife, just watching TV.
So yes, he says he wants the time but does nothing constructive with it. He's always been a lazy, hands-off parent. If anything, he's gotten worse since we split. None of them want to be around him anymore.
[This message edited by wildbananas at 8:40 AM, June 25th (Tuesday)]

subset: commoncrawl


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Kimye say 'no' to the wedding reports - couple have yet to get hitched
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have reportedly not received their marriage license just yet.
The couple were the subject of rampant rumours over the weekend that they had technically tied the knot.
While Kim's spokesperson has yet to comment on the claims, a source tells America's People magazine the reality TV star has yet to officially become "Mrs. West".
Kim and Kanye were meanwhile seen arriving in New York City on Sunday for the annual Met Ball. The couple flew in from Paris, where they are rumoured to be planning an extravagant ceremony.
People reports the pair will return to the city later this month for the nuptials, apparently scheduled for May 24 at Chateau Louis XIV. RadarOnline previously reported the ceremony could take place closer to home, in Los Angeles.
Kim spotted at LAX Airport at the weekend
The couple were subject to rumours at the weekend that they had tied the knot
Reports have surfaced the couple's lawyers have advised that marrying in the US first would help them to avoid lengthy legal restraints overseas.
"Typically, the US recognises citizens getting married in France, but dealing with a foreign government and paperwork could be a nightmare," an insider explained to Radar. "So just to make sure it's legal, Kim and Kanye will first be having a civil ceremony in Southern California."
Kim and Kanye became engaged in October of last year, four months after she gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter named North.
It will be Kim's third marriage, and Kanye's first. The reality star was previously wed to basketball player Kris Humphries for 72 days in 2010.
Prior to that, Kim was married to Damon Thomas between 2000 and 2004.
Online Editors


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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.
LEADERS: Azerane Bam BinkyBunny JerseyGirl LBJ10 LittlePuffyTail LongEaredLions RabbitPam
Hi there binky bunny community,
This is my first post, I was hoping that it would be a happier one! I am a first time, excited and enthusiastic bunny owner, and I just picked up my 2 month old standard rex, stewie, today and brought him home. I have spent months and months reading about how to take care of a house rabbit, and acquiring necessary supplies, reading forums, etc, but apparently didn't research what to do in case of emergencies.
The first few hours at home were going well, Stewie was loving his new cage and home, running around, eating and drinking. All of a sudden I started hearing him making strange little gasping sounds, and noticed he was drooling. I frantically googled "choking/drooling rabbit" and found another forum with instructions on how to safely do a bunny heimlich. I am a biologist and know a fair about about animal handling, however not specifically bunnies, so I knew that it was important to ensure that his spine was stabilized while I was doing it to prevent further injury. He did not seem to like the few strokes of the heimlich (unsuprisingly), and seemed to kind of be making little peeps of protest, but not horrible squealing or anything. Anyways, I put him down, observed him for a while. He was justifiably flustered after the ordeal and breathing really heavy, but now that he is calmed down, he seems to be grooming himself fine, not drooling anymore and now is sleeping.
I am just terrified of A. leaving him, even though he appears fine now and B. that this will happen again. C. that he will hate me forever because of it. If anyone could tell me if they have had similar experiences, and what I should do in the future if it happens, also how to prevent it? I read that choking on pellets is a common problem. However I know that the breeder I picked him up from solely fed him pellets and hay, and gave vegetables/fruit as treats. Not sure how I should be treating him differently with feeding schedules/types of food since he is still so young. I seem to find conflicting views on whether you should introduce vegetables this young or keep them on all pellet/hay diets.
Thank you all in advance for your help, it is much appreciated, as my heart is beating faster than the poor bunnies is right now!


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CNC Operator
Make sure automated machinery is programmed and running properly.
Tends furnace that heats perlite to expel volatile material and reduce ore to powder for use as insulating material, plaster, and concrete aggregate: Dumps pulverized perlite onto shaker screen that sifts perlite to specified fineness. Starts conveyor that feeds screened material into furnace. Shovels calcined perlite into sack or fills sack by holding it under discharge hopper.


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Iran Parliament Debates Reply To U.N. Penalties
By NAZILA FATHI
Published: December 27, 2006
Parliament began debate on Tuesday on how to respond to sanctions imposed by a United Nations Security Council resolution on Saturday, but two high-level officials said they doubted that Iran would bar nuclear inspectors and drop out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Before the Security Council vote, hard-line politicians and conservative newspapers in Iran had called for taking those strong actions.
Kazem Jalali, an influential member of Parliament and its foreign policy committee, said it did not appear to be the right time to bar United Nations' inspectors or withdraw from the treaty, although he reserved Iran's right to do so later.
Muhammad Saeedi, the deputy leader of the country's Atomic Energy Organization, doubted a majority in Parliament wanted to pull out.
''They are upset about the resolution, but Parliament will make a reasonable decision,'' he said.
The Security Council resolution is meant to curb Iran's nuclear program and bans the import and export of materials and technology used in uranium enrichment, reprocessing and ballistic missiles. The resolution, weaker than what the United States proposed, has been debated in the United Nations since Iran ignored Council calls to suspend nuclear activities by Aug. 31.
Iran says its nuclear program is allowed under the treaty and is intended for domestic energy production. The United States and others contend that the program is a cover for a plan to produce nuclear bombs.
The discussions in Parliament were at an early stage on Tuesday, and no consensus was reached about what action should be taken, if any.
Newspapers here have been prohibited from criticizing Iran's nuclear policy, and none have done so.
But this week, several moderate newspapers indicated in editorials that the sanctions might have a greater economic effect than the government had acknowledged. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has vowed that the sanctions will not prevent the country from proceeding with its nuclear program.
An editorial on Tuesday in the daily, Aftab-e-Yazd, said an ''unreasonable and emotional'' reaction to the sanctions could be very dangerous.


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The acerpower 4300 is a very very good computer. its really really fast even though i am using microsoft windows xp it has a good graphics card and includes a good monitor in some cases. it has a set of two inbuilt speakers located in the back vent. the top cover is easily accesable and the hard drive the floppy disk drive and the cd-rom disk drive is really really easy to remove by a pair of two thumb screws. the top cover is easily removed by remove two thumb screws aswell which no screw driver is needed at all. the original acer keyboard and mouse are very good quality and the good thing about this computer is that it is manufactuered in the same country that the desktop computer is made in. this computer is the same as the acerpower se series just as the dekstop version though. i have a acerpower 4300 and i love it even though its 2008-2009-2010-2012-2013-2014 (so this doesnt expire.) i will never get rid of it.
Thanks Chris


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Enriquez gets important endorsement for mayor
Darryl Enriquez, former Journal Sentinel writer and candidate for mayor in Waukesha, just received the endorsement of State Representative Bill Kramer. From the press release:
State Representative Bill Kramer endorses Darryl Enriquez for Waukesha Mayor
Cites Enriquez's commitment to economic growth, controlling government spending
Waukesha, WI – Today, State Representative Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha) announced his endorsement of Darryl Enriquez's candidacy for Mayor of Waukesha.
Representative Kramer released the following statement:
"I've come to know Darryl as a professional and a friend, and I am happy to endorse his bid to be Mayor of Waukesha.
"His bold agenda – 10 for a better 2010 – is a great starting point to provide our city with a clear vision to grow the local economy, put people back to work, and make Waukesha streets safe.
"With state unemployment too high and Waukesha's local rate even worse with nearly 1 in 10 people out of work, the State Legislature needs local leaders that we can partner with to ensure that we work collaboratively to ease the challenges of the current economic downturn.
"Controlling government spending and committing to retaining and creating jobs in Waukesha will ensure that the community I grew up in and love will prosper and once again be an economic engine for Wisconsin."
The timing of the endorsement works out well for Enriquez. Enriquez is having another fundraiser this Tuesday 6:00-9:00 PM at Café Esperanza so we'll see if some fence-sitters start to see him as the one to challenge Mayor Larry Nelson. He has demonstrated broad support from conservatives like Kramer and from the not-so-conservative former Mayor Carol Lombardi, his ten point plan for Waukesha gives his campaign some shape, and my spies also tell me he's been hitting the doors pretty good, meeting the voters.
As for Kramer, I know some will wonder about his making an endorsement in the race when the incumbent mayor is running for re-election. Of course, that didn't stop Nelson (D) from endorsing Kramer's (R) opponent two years ago. They're big boys. They can handle it.
Still, it's pretty significant that Kramer would make an endorsement this early in the process.
The primary is a week from Tuesday. I'll have my own thoughts on the election in next Thursday's Waukesha Freeman, still just 50 cents.


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MILWAUKEE, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. federal and state lawmakers say they would work to ban the chemical bisphenol A from food and beverage containers.
Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., said he plans to re-introduce a bill when the 111th Congress convenes in January to ban BPA from food and beverage containers, citing an analysis conducted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
The Journal Sentinel measured the amounts of the chemical released after heating, and used the information to calculate how much BPA children of various ages and weights would consume if they were to eat from the
containers. The newspaper reported all 10 products it tested leaked toxic doses of the chemical when heated.
"This test of 'microwave safe' containers adds to the already vast and compelling body of knowledge indicating that BPA is dangerous and unsuitable for all food and beverage containers," Markey said.
The Journal Sentinel found 17 studies in which scientists looked at levels of BPA exposure in live laboratory animals that showed harmful effects.
In addition to Congress, 13 states have proposed bans on BPA. Wisconsin is not one of them.


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The Carver Elementary School Parent Teachers Organization will hold its Book Fair and Bag2School fund-raisers this Thursday at the elementary school. The PTO will collect items including adults and children's clothes, shoes (tied together), hats, belts, bags, soft toys, curtains, and bedding (not duvets or pillows) for the Bag2School fund-raiser. The organization receives $250 per ton of donated bagged items and uses the funds for classroom supplies and enrichment programs. Collection receptacles will be located near the entrance to the school's back building until 8 p.m. on Thursday. Parent-teacher conferences will take place in the school on the same evening. - Robert Knox
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.


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DenX - Unawareness
Credits & Info
- Uploaded
- Mar 16, 2012 | 5:18 PM EDT
- File Info
- Song
- 5 min 32 sec
- Score
- 4.33 / 5.00
Related Content
You might also enjoy:
Licensing Terms
Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.
- Score:
- Rated 4.33 / 5 stars
- Plays & Downloads:
- 1,644 Plays | 155 Downloads
- Share Links:
- Genres:
- Metal, Rock - Heavy Metal
- metal
- symphonic
- denx
- unawareness
Author Comments
Rated 5 / 5 stars
I've gone through and downloaded 90% of your music. Because its fucking epic. Just figured you should know lol.
Rated 4.5 / 5 stars
Yay! You got a singer!
Just one thing, the quality of this song is a little crappy, but I still like it.
Yeah sorry for the messy quality. I think you mean the guitar tone and the bass sometimes.
Don't know what happened. Re-mixing this song tomorrow!
Thanks for listening and reviewing! Means alot to me! :))
Rated 5 / 5 stars
Oww. I just listened to your older songs and now to that one and i have to say that you envolved your style and the quality of your songs damn fast. I mean (just for example) listen to "Sepulcrum" and then to this Song. It's just a huge difference. Your latest songs sounding more smooth, the guitar sounds as it should be. Just awesome IMO. Thanks for making this piece of music! Great work.
Gotta keep my eye on you ;)
Danke Alina! :)
Habe dein ersten Eintrag schon gelesen und da dort steht, dass Du ja flieÃYend deutsch kannst und auch in Deutschland geboren bist entschloss ich mich dazu, einfach diese Antwort auf deutsch zu schreiben:
Ich finde es sehr gut, dass Du meine älteren Lieder auch mit den neueren vergleichst, aber das ist kein wirklicher Vergleich. Habe zur Zeit auch ganz anderes Equipment als damals zum Aufnehmen und alles :)
Aber trotzdem danke ich Dir sehr dafür, dass Du meinem Song eine Chance gegeben hast!
Vielleicht können wir ja auch mal was zusammen machen in Richtung Collab? ;)
Meld' dich mal wenn Du Lust hast!!
Danke für's anhören!
Rated 4 / 5 stars
Not exactly my forte' of music, but certainly sounds good. The whole track is very solid, and smooth. The beginning really caught my attention, though it's constant repeating nature makes the song a bit repetitive. Not something I would listen to casually, but certainly a song that deserves alot more attention.
Damn, thank you!
Sorry for the late response, we just were in Holidays for almost 10 days now.
Yeah the main-theme is pretty repetitive, that's right. It was thought as a kind of recognition factor, you know?
Thanks for listening anyways!
Glad you liked it :))


text:
|Numķro de publication
|Type de publication
|Numķro de demande
|Date de publication
|28 mai 1991
|Date de dķp¶t
|16 ao¹t 1990
|Date de prioritķ
|16 ao¹t 1990
|╔tat de paiement des frais
|Numķro de publication
|Charles J. Rosenberg
|Cessionnaire d'origine
|Hewlett-Packard Company
|Exporter la citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Citations de brevets (11), Citations hors brevets (36), Rķfķrencķ par (49), Classifications (16), ╔vķnements juridiques (5)
|Liens externes: USPTO, Cession USPTO, Espacenet
This invention relates to algorithms for compressing the bit map description of a data field for efficient storage in a memory, and more particularly to application of these algorithms to efficient description of character symbols used in pictographic languages such as Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, Tamil and Farsi.
Data compression techniques, applicable to text, graphics and other representatives of information, have been used in many areas of communications such as voice, video, telemetry transmission and storage and retrieval of voluminous data. Of the techniques developed, adaptive data compression is one of the most attractive, because of its ability to increase the bandwidth utilization efficiency for data by reducing the data redundancy. C.A. Andrews et al., in "Adaptive Data Compression", Proc. I.E.E.E., Vol. 55 (1967) pp. 267-277, have noted that data compression techniques can be divided into four categories. "(1) Direct data compression techniques, which include variable rate compressors such as interpolators, polynomial predictors and bit-plan encoding, and fixed rate compressors such as optimum prediction, differential coding, probabilistic coding and adaptive sampling; (2) Linear and nonlinear transformation compression techniques that use pre-process filters, logarithmic amplifiers, filters, limiters/clippers, companders, Fourier filters and Karhunen-Loeve optimum discrete compression filters; (3) Parameter extraction compression techniques, in which one or more parameters associated with or derivable from the signal are use to represent the signal; and (4) Selective monitoring compression techniques that monitor the data and select a portion thereof for transmission or storage.
The efficient representation and storage of collections of ideographic characters or symbols from languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Hebrew is of particular interest here because of the large number of characters required in any reasonable language set. For example, a system of Chinese character patterns should contain 2500-4000 characters in order to adequately represent at least 99.5% of the characters that appear in ordinary text in that language. Chinese characters are also used in Japan, but the total number of characters is indefinite. For example, the Japanese Ministry of Education has identified 881 characters to be learned in elementary and middle schools and an additional 969 characters that should be known for ordinary daily use. Daily newspapers in Japan use about 4000 characters, and one standard code system for such characters contains 6349 characters. In another standard Japanese character set, 6802 characters appear. The most elaborate dictionary for Chinese characters in Japan contains approximately 50,000 characters. According to statistics accumulated on character use, a selected set of about 3000 characters covers about 99.9% of all the characters that appear in newspapers and journals in Japan. Even if one retreats to this smaller number, the task of representing such a large set, each described by a rectangular pattern of M dots by N dots, the task is daunting. If, instead, one concentrates on a larger and more adequate set of 6349 characters or 6802 characters that includes many specialized professional and scholarly characters, the task becomes more daunting.
Crane et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,102, disclose separation of recognition of complex characters, such as Kanji, into an algorithmic technique, which serves to identify a first set of all possible characters that are consistent with a given observed pattern of pixels, and a disambiguation technique, which serves to remove the ambiguity or possible confusion among all the characters of the first set by use of additional features or parameters associated with the target character. The inventors observe that, statistically, a Kanji character having more than 20 strokes or fewer than 5 will be much easier to distinguish, as compared with a Kanji character having approximately 10 strokes. Stroke characteristics are relied upon for the algorithmic portion of pattern recognition here, with statistics on different categories of statistics being accumulated and analyzed.
Use of pixel neighborhoods surrounding or adjacent to a pixel for optical character recognition purposes is disclosed by Casey et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,657. A probability table is constructed for recognition of characters expressed in a new font, based on the probabilities associated with characters expressed in a known font. A decision tree is generated and used to analyze the new font. This approach requires the use of a reference font, or something similar, for recognition of characters expressed in a new font.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,026, Jeng et al. disclose extraction of all useful features of a set of characters expressed in a given font, as a character feature database. The particular database features discussed here are vertical, horizontal and diagonal character strokes within each of a sequence of rectangular groups of pixels that cumulatively cover all pixels on the screen.
Several techniques have been proposed for data compression of Chinese or Japanese character patterns. M. Nagao, in "Data Compression of Chinese Character Patterns", Proc. I.E.E.E., Vol. 68 (1980) pp. 818-829, reviews several techniques that have been proposed for such compression, using statistics of the patterns and other approaches. Two-dimensional predictive coding has been proposed in which a character pattern is divided into a sequence of rectangular pixels and the black versus white value of a particular pixel is predicted by use of the pattern of four nearest neighbor pixels. Pattern coding by m-by-n sub-blocks has also been used, relying on the fact that Chinese characters are primarily straight lines. Other techniques include stroke representation, where the strokes are straight line segments represented by vertical, horizontal and ▒45░ strokes on a mesh grid. Contour coding has been used to account for the fact that some portions of Chinese characters are curvilinear rather than being straight line segments. Weighted sums of four adjacent surrounding points has been used for pixel prediction as well.
In "Machine Recognition of Printed Chinese Characters Via Transformation Algorithms", Pattern Recognition, vol. 5 (1973), pp. 303-321, Wang and Shiau identify 63 characteristic sub-patterns on the left side of Chinese characters and an unspecified number of subpatterns on the right side thereof, which together make up whole characters. Their general pattern recognition system includes: (1) receptor module that represents each Chinese character received as a rectangular matrix of pixels; (2) a pre-processor module that uses a Fourier, Hadamard, Rapid or other two-dimensional transform technique to transform the character to a form that is more easily recognized and processed; (3) a classifier module that examines each pixel pattern and assigns it to one of a number of categories based on a decision rule such as minimum-distance-to-mean of a reference character or feature; and (4) a memory module to store each of the classified characters for later retrieval. The classification step appears to introduce some loss of information here, and a character is force-fitted into one of the reference character categories so that the character may be incorrectly recognized and categorized.
Yamamoto and Mori, in "Recognition of Handprinted Characters By An Outermost Point Method," Pattern Recognition, vol 12 (1980), pp. 229-236, used a 64ū64 pixel pattern, with each pixel having any of 16 levels of darkness, and construct the convex hull of each character examined. A hole, which arises from a plurality of dark pixels that completely surround one or more light pixels, is treated separately. The convex hull of each character is expressed as a mask, and the collection of masks forms a dictionary for character recognition.
F-H. Cheng, et al. in "Recognition of Hand Written Chinese Characters by Modified Hough Transform Techniques", I.E.E.E. Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 11 (1989) pp. 429-439, uses a modified Hough transform technique plus dynamic programming to characterize and recognize hand written Chinese characters. In the Hough transform technique, a new twodimensional coordinate space is generated in which all points that lie on a straight line segment will map into a single point in the Hough transform space. The Hough transform technique has also been applied to printed and hand written Hebrew characters by M. Kushnir et al., in "An Application of the Hough Transform to the Recognition of Printed Hebrew Characters", Pattern Recoonition, Vol. 16 (1983) pp. 183-191, and in "Recognition of Hand Printed Hebrew Characters Using Features Selected in the Hough Transform Space", Pattern Recognition, Vol. 18 (1985) pp. 103-114.
Siromoney et al., in "Computer Recognition of Printed Tamil Characters," Pattern Recognition, vol. 10 (1979), pp. 243-247, use a run length encoding approach, applied to each line of a digitized character, to recognize and distinguish between Tamil characters.
Chinnuswamy et al., in "Recognition of Handprinted Tamil Characters," Pattern Recognition, vol. 12 (1980), pp. 141-152, apply stroke characterization techniques to linear and curvilinear segments that make up a Tamil character and use computed correlation coefficients for character recognition.
In "Automatic Recognition of Farsi Texts," Pattern Recognition, vol. 14 (1982), pp. 395-403, Parhami et al. discuss five difficulties in recognition of Farsi text and disclose a method that combines digitization, line separation, sub-word and character separation and geometrical characterization for Farsi character and text recognition.
In "Computer Recognition of Arabic Cursive Scripts," Pattern Recognition, vol. 21 (1988), pp. 293-302, El-Sheikh et al. use segmentation of words to obtain individual characters and use truncated Fourier analysis to obtain descriptors of each Arabic character.
Yhap et al. disclose the use of 72 constituent shapes or stroke combinations for Chinese character recognition in "An On-line Chinese Character Recognition System," IBM Jour. Res. Develop. vol. 25 (1981), pp. 187-195. About 2200 characters can be recognized by this method, but not all characters are described solely in terms of these constituent shapes.
Spivey, in "Data Compression Technique for APA Printer (Change Block Skipping), IBM Tech. Disclos. Bull. vol. 23 (1981), pp. 5464-5467, compare each scan line of pixels representing an image with the preceding scan line, noting only the changes, if any, in each corresponding group of four or eight consecutive pixels. The net compression achievable in the example given by Spivey would probably disappear when applied to a complex shape such as a Kanji character. The following article by Spivey, ibid., pp. 5468-5470, also discusses application of Change Block Skipping.
K. Toraichi et al., in "Handprinted Chinese Character Database", published in Computer Recognition and Human Production of Handwriting, ed. by R. Plamondon et al., World Scientific Publishing Co., 1988, pp. 131-148, have analyzed 48,000 characters, divided into 12 sets of 4,000 categories each, of handprinted Chinese characters and have determined statistical profiles of each category (numbers of connected components, "holes", contours, etc.). They have also determined the "horizontal complexity" and "vertical complexity", and "contour gradients", as defined therein, of each category. Much data are presented, but the significance of several of the statistical parameters is not made clear.
Scan-oriented methods of character recognition and encoding scan the original character, for example, line by line in a horizontal or vertical direction, in a predetermined path that is independent of the character. These approaches are the easiest and least expensive to implement but often produce only modest data compression. Fitch and Spivey, in "Font Data Reduction by Scan Compression for Ink Jet Printers", IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 23 (1981), pp. 5471-5472, disclose use of a run length encoding scheme, change block skipping, in which only the positions of changes in pixel values (dark-to-light or light-to-dark) are encoded. In "Compression/Decompression of Font Patterns", IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 28 (1986), pp. 3563-3564 (anonymous), consecutive scan lines of all-light pixels are represented by a single number, and only scan lines with one or more dark pixels therein are represented by full-detail bit patterns. Each of these approaches achieves a modest reduction in the amount of bit map information required to represent a character. However, as noted above, pure scan-oriented methods may produce no reduction when applied to complex characters such as those drawn from a Kanji or Hebrew character set.
Horizontal, vertical and slanted strokes (line segments) are used by Sugita et al. for Kanji character recognition and encoding in "Multi-font Kanji Generator", Trans. I.E.C.E., vol. E66 (1983), pp. 377-382. The two pixel end points of the line segment are specified, and intermediate (dark) pixels are determined by interpolation. This is a variation on a one-dimensional scanoriented approach in which scan lines in any and all directions are used. Changes of the fonts used, for example, from the well known Mincho font to another style is implemented by changing the interpolation rules.
Maeder, in "Local Block Pattern Methods for Binary Image Encoding", Proceedings of the 1988 Ausgraph Conference, discloses use of a neighborhood expansion approach in which each of a collection of dark and light pixel neighborhoods is expanded one row or line at a time, using a collection of like-row or like-column expansion rules that are only partly enumerated in the paper. Applied to a complex Kanji character, this approach would likely produce a large number of small neighborhoods with little or no similarity to one another. However, this approach does attempt to exploit two-dimensional similarity in character recognition and encoding.
Many of these techniques produce some characters that are either incomplete, contain extra line segments, are not esthetically pleasing, or offer relatively little reduction in the information required to be stored in memory to represent each character in the character set. What is needed is an approach that will provide a 30-70 percent reduction in the amount of information required to exactly represent each character in a character set and will provide the same amount of resolution, upon decompression, as is used to represent each of the characters in the original images.
These needs are met by a method of data compression that describes a character or symbol represented on a block of pixels in which the block is decomposed into a plurality of mutually exclusive, rectangular subblocks each of a selected size J pixels by K pixels, with the sub-blocks being numbered consecutively s=1, 2, . . ., S beginning at one corner of the block and proceeding consecutively row-by-row or column-by-column. Each sub-block is also represented by unique two-dimensional, row-and-column coordinates (J,K) (j=1, 2, . . ., J; k=1, 2, . . ., K), where the row (coordinate m) containing the selected corner has sub-blocks with coordinates (1,1), (2,1), . . ., (J,l) and the column (coordinate n) containing the selected corner has sub-blocks with coordinates (1,1), (1,2), . . ., (l,K). The exact pixel configuration is initially determined for each of the sub-blocks numbered (m,n)=(1,1), (2,1), . . ., (J,l), (1,2), (1,3), . . ., (l,K), and this information is used to predict the pixel configuration for each of the other sub-blocks that make up the block representing a given character.
For each pixel sub-block numbered (j,k) with j≧2, k≧1 or j≧1, k≧2, the pixel values of certain "Contiguous Pixels" in the sub-blocks numbered (j-1, k-1), (j, k-1) and (j-1, k), are determined, using the "Statistical Profile" of each separate pattern of contiguous pixels for all sub-blocks in the block of pixels. The sub-blocks are also consecutively numbered s=1, 2, . . ., S. Using a Statistical Profile of Contiguous Pixels, the rth most probable patterns of pixels in that sub-block are determined for r=1, 2, . . ., R-1, where R is a selected integer greater than or equal to 2. An index ars, corresponding to the choice of the rth most probable pattern for the sub-block numbered s, is assigned to that sub-block. For each sub-block numbered s =1, 2, . . ., S, the index ars corresponding to the correct pattern for sub-block s is associated with that subblock, if one of the R-1 pixel patterns corresponding to the indices ars (r=1, 2, . . ., R-1), is the correct pixel pattern. Otherwise, a flag or index aRs, which corresponds or "points" to the exact pattern for subblock s, is assigned to that sub-block and the exact pattern is provided. Finally, each sub-block numbered s=1, 2, . . ., S is associated with the assigned index ars (r=1, 2, . . ., R-1 or R) as an ordered pair of numbers (s, ars) The collection of these pairs of numbers provides a method of compression of data in a manner such that the compression exactly reproduces the character, with the same resolution as available in the original representation. The decompression process consists of assigning the pixel pattern corresponding to the index ars to the sub-block number s for each sub-block in the block of pixels and assembling the sub-blocks of pixel patterns in the appropriate order.
The percentage compression or reduction of information (number of bits) required to describe the original data field is 30-70 percent. That is, the information required to represent a Chinese character pattern, on average, is 30-70 percent of the bit map information required to represent that character in a straightforward bit map approach.
FIG. 1 illustrates the neighborhood prediction calculation, applied to a rectangular sub-block that is 4 bitsū2 bits in size.
FIG. 2 illustrates a typical Kanji character used in the Japanese language.
FIG. 3 illustrates a group of pixel patterns present in an example discussed in the specification.
FIG. 4 illustrates a first embodiment of the invention (one-level) applied to the character shown in FIG. 2.
FIG. 5 illustrates a second embodiment of the method (two-level) applied to the character shown in FIG. 2.
FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 illustrate other neighborhood predictor configurations that may be used with a 4 bitū2 bit sub-block according to the invention.
FIG. 9 illustrates a more general pixel neighborhood that can be used in accord with the invention.
FIG. 10 illustrates a general choice of initial row and column of sub-blocks that can be used in accord with the invention.
With reference to FIG. 1, one suitable neighborhood predictor configuration is illustrated in which the pixel pattern or configuration in a 4 bitū2 bit sub-block, designated 11 for convenient reference, is to be predicted, using the pixel pattern shown in eight pixels, numbered 1, 2, . . ., 8 that lie near the upper left corner of the sub-block 11 and outside this subblock. Alternatively, the pixel numbered 1 may be replaced by the pixel numbered 1' in FIG. 1. The pixels numbered 1, 2, 3, . . ., 8 (or 1', 2, 3, . . ., 8) in FIG. 1 will be referred to herein as "Contiguous Pixels" and are used to predict the correct pixel pattern or configuration of the sub-block 11. The Contiguous Pixels form a pixel neighborhood of the sub-block 11 of interest, with an associated neighborhood value given by ##EQU1## where each numerical coefficient Ch is equal to 1 if the Contiguous Pixel numbered h is dark or "on" and is equal to 0 if that Contiguous Pixel is light or "off". The neighborhood value number NV has 28 =256 numerical values, namely the number 0, 1, 2, 3, ..., 255, and each such sum NV uniquely specifies the pixel pattern of light and dark pixels for the Contiguous Pixel configuration used. If the Contiguous Pixel denoted 1 in FIG. 1 is replaced by the Contiguous Pixel denoted 1', the neighborhood value NV is defined analogously.
This assumes that a character or other ideographic symbol, such as the Japanese Kanji character shown in FIG. 2, is decomposed into a rectangular array of pixels as shown, and that the array of pixels is further divided into rectangular sub-blocks of size 4 pixels width by 2 pixels height as shown. Each pixel in the pixel representation of a character has one of two values, 0 or 1, corresponding to that pixel having a dark shading or a light shading, respectively, in a manner well known to workers in this field.
The 4 pixel by 2 pixel rectangular sub-block 11 shown in FIG. 1 may be replaced more generally by a J pixel by K pixel rectangular sub-block 11A as shown in FIG. 1A, with the Contiguous Pixels being an array of L pixels that lie adjacent to the upper edge or the left-hand edge of this sub-block, as illustrated in FIG. 1A. The number L need bear no relationship to the size (JūK) of the sub-block llA, but for the particular configuration shown in FIG. 1A it is easily verified that L =J+K+2. In this instance, the neighborhood value of the pixel neighborhood of the sub-block llA is defined by ##EQU2##
A typical Japanese character set, including all of the Japanese Industrial Standard characters (JIS code) has 6802 characters. If each character is represented by a rectangular array of 24 bitsū24 bits, this corresponds to 72 bytes per character or approximately 500 Kbytes of font data for the entire character set. If each character is represented by a rectangular array 40 bitsū40 bits, a character requires 200 bytes, and the entire character set requires approximately 1.4 Mbytes of font data for its representation. Any font compression algorithm should losslessly encode and decode the characters. This is difficult with Kanji characters because of their complexity. Redundancy removal techniques try to identify horizontal or vertical lines of character data that are identical to other lines in the character and code and decode that relationship. Unfortunately, Kanji characters typically do not exhibit such regularity. However, certain regularities may be seen in Kanji character sets, when viewed by sub-block pixel patterns, and the invention uses this to advantage.
The invention uses a neighborhood predictor coder ("NPC"), related to the neighborhood value NV computed above, that identifies and takes advantage of certain horizontal and vertical regularities within a character by representing the character as an assembly of sub-blocks of the same size. The character is stored as a sequence of pixel scan lines of these sub-blocks. The ability to predict the "next" or target sub-block, given information about pixel patterns in three particular preceding sub-blocks, allows the information required to represent a given character to be compressed considerably (30-70 percent) on average. Each sub-block value in the character representation has an associated index that serves as a pointer to a lookup table of predicted pixel patterns, using the pixel patterns of the preceding sub-blocks as an index. A special pointer value or indicator or flag is used where the pixel patterns of the preceding sub-blocks do not produce a prediction of the exact pixel pattern desired for the target sub-block. In this case, which does not occur often, the actual sub-block pixel pattern is stored and a special index is associated with it. The index associated with a target sub-block may, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, have a single bit (having two values, 0 and 1) associated with each sub-block or may have a p-bit index with 2P possible different values thereof. In each case, one index value is chosen that corresponds to a flag indicating the actual sub-block pixel pattern that is to be substituted, and the remaining index values (1 for a single bit index, and 2p -1 for the p-bit index) may be chosen to correspond to other probable pixel patterns (possibly, including the actual pixel pattern) that are predictable from the Contiguous Pixel pattern.
In a first implementation of the method, the sub-block size is chosen to be four pixels wide by two pixels high (J=4, K=2) as shown in FIG. 1, so that each sub-block contains exactly one byte, if one bit is associated with each of the eight pixels therein. A p-bit flag or index is associated with each sub-block, with p=2 being chosen for illustration here. Eight bits or one byte is chosen for the collection of Contiguous Pixels used to predict the pixel pattern of a target subblock in order to speed decoding and make efficient use of predictive information. The number of pixels that make up the Contiguous Pixel configuration may be greater than or smaller than eight, using analogous approaches. The use of a two-bit index provides three possible pixel pattern predictions for each sub-block, plus a flag pointing to or indicating the location of the exact pixel pattern if none of these three predictions is correct. A predicted pixel pattern within the target sub-block is made by combining the eight nearby Contiguous Pixels shown in FIG. 1 that lie above and to the left of the target sub-block and using these eight pixel values as an eight-bit value, called the neighborhood value. A two-bit index is associated with this neighborhood, and the rth most probable pixel patterns numbered r=1, 2, . . ., 2P -1=3 are chosen from a Statistical Profile (described below) of possible sub-block pixel patterns that is generated for the collection of characters in the character set. Because each sub-block has eight pixels therein, 28 =256 possible pixel patterns are available for each rth most probable pixel pattern (r=1,2,3), and three tables with 256 one-byte entries each are required here. More generally, 2P -1 tables of 256 entries each would be required here. With reference to any pixel subblock, the group of pixels that make up the neighborhood predictor code ("NPC") used to predict the pixel pattern in that sub-block are referred to as the group of Contiguous Pixels for that sub-block, as discussed above.
A Contiguous Pixel for a given sub-block that ends up off or beyond the edge of the pixel array used to represent that character, is assigned a pixel value of zero. Thus, a sub-block that is positioned on the top row or on the left-most column of sub-blocks will have some or all of its Contiguous Pixels blank or "light". The set of Contiguous Pixels thus determined for this sub-block is then used to predict the pixel pattern of the sub-block, using the Statistical Profile information discussed below, in the same manner as any other subblock would be treated. Alternatively, a sub-block that is positioned on the top row or on the left-most column of sub-blocks may be given an indicator or flag that points to the location of the exact pixel pattern for that sub-block. Using either of these approaches, each sub-block positioned on the top row and/or on the left-most column of the pixel block (array of sub-blocks) has its exact pixel pattern determined; and determination of the pixel patterns of all other sub-blocks in the array proceeds in a straightforward manner, using the NPC. These two approaches are referred to herein as "determination of the exact pixel pattern" of the sub-block of interest.
A 4ū2 sub-block is converted into a word W, with a bit value assignment expressed as follows:
More generally, a word W of a JūK sub-block will have J.K ordered entries, by analogy.
With each character in a character set, the following components are associated: (1) the 2p -1 predicted pixel patterns (and 2p -1 associated index values) associated with each of the 256 Contiguous Pixel patterns (always the same size); and (2) an index value and associated exact or actual pixel pattern for each sub-block whose pixel pattern cannot be predicted from (is not among) the 2p -1 pixel patterns available from the Statistical Profile (total number of these indices may vary with the size and nature of the character).
The Statistical Profile is generated by examining the pixel pattern of each target sub-block and associating with it either the pixel pattern of the Contiguous Pixels or, equivalently, the neighborhood value NV of the Contiguous Pixels for this target sub-block. A collection of these pairs, namely a target sub-block pixel pattern and an associated neighborhood value NV, is generated for all sub-blocks of each character in the set. For each of the 256 different pixel patterns of a pixel neighborhood of eight Contiguous Pixels, the collection of all sub-block pixel patterns associated with the neighborhood pixel pattern is analyzed, and the number of identical sub-block pixel patterns is counted for each of the possible 256 pixel neighborhood values NV. This produces a histogram, and the rth most probable subblock pixel patterns may be identified for r=1, 2,. . .,2p -1 for each fixed neighborhood pixel pattern of Contiguous Pixels. These most probable sub-block pixel patterns provide a Statistical Profile for each such fixed neighborhood pixel pattern.
Compressing the information required to exactly represent each character in a character set requires two passes through the set of characters. First, a Statistical Profile is developed, as discussed above, by scanning through all characters in the set before any compression takes place, in order to determine the rth most probable sub-block pixel patterns (r=1, 2, . . ., 2p -1) for each pixel neighborhood pattern of Contiguous Pixels present for the collection of characters and a given choice of sub-block size (4ū2 or, more generally, JūK). A second pass through each character in the character set is made to determine an ordered set of 2p -1 or 2p sub-block pixel patterns for the set of Contiguous Pixels associated with each sub-block for each character. If the configuration shown in FIG. 1 is used, eight Contiguous Pixels are used for each sub-block, with the possible exception of the sub-blocks lying in the uppermost row of sub-blocks and leftmost column of sub-blocks that include the upper left corner of the rectangular array of pixels used to represent each character in the character sets. The pixel patterns for sub-blocks lying in the uppermost row or in the leftmost column may be prescribed exactly (no predictions) in order to initiate the process, because these particular sub-blocks have one or more Contiguous Pixels absent.
The algorithm used for pixel pattern prediction here may also be implemented by generating a more general Statistical Profile using a plurality of sets of characters. These sets may be mutually exclusive or may have some overlap in the character contained in each such set. Using this generalized Statistical Profile, any other character could be encoded by a single pass that produces the Contiguous Pixel pattern or equivalent neighborhood value NV for each target sub-block in the pixel representation of this character. However, because the generalized Statistical Profile may not include the effects of this (new) character, the performance of this algorithm may be degraded somewhat, and a higher percentage of "flagged" exact patterns may be required to represent that character.
Although the size of the data required to represent each character is variable, because of the required use occasionally of an exact pixel pattern, the total overhead introduced here is 2p -1 tables, each having 2JK entries for the general situation in FIG. 1A. For the particular choices p=2, J=4 and K=2 illustrated in FIG. 1, this overhead is not significant because it is shared among all 6802 characters. The overhead of (2p -1) 2JK is also not significant in the general case for reasonable choices of p, J and K, for the same reason.
An example is presented here to illustrate the use of this formalism for the choices p=2, J=4, K=2, as in FIG. 1. Assume that the Statistical Profile produces the following "most probable" sub-block pixel patterns, using the format for Contiguous Pixels discussed above. Only four neighborhood values NV=0 (00000000), 1 (00000001), 2 (00000010) and 3 (00000011) are considered for convenience, out of the 28= 256 possible neighborhood values NV or Contiguous Pixel configurations that may occur in the Statistical Profile. For the choice p=2, 22 -1=3 "most probable" sub-block pixel patterns are chosen for each neighborhood val corresponding to the prediction values PV=0, 1 and 2. The prediction value PV=3 corresponds to the exact pixel pattern.
TABLE 1______________________________________Neighborhood Values/Predicted Pixel PatternsPV = 0(00) 1(01) 2(10) 3(11)______________________________________NV = 0 3 14 6 correct (unpredicted) pattern 1 13 7 31 correct (unpredicted) pattern 2 15 46 11 correct (unpredicted) pattern 3 6 7 14 correct (unpredicted) pattern______________________________________
Assume the following (shortened) sequence of sub-block pixel patterns is encountered: 3(NV=0); 14(NV=3); 12(NV=1); 6(NV=0); 13(NV=1); 17(NV=2), corresponding to sub-blocks numbered s=1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively. The pixel patterns for the sub-blocks numbered s=3 and s=6 must be specified exactly (corresponds to PV=3) rather than by reference to the predicted pixel patterns available from the Statistical Profile. The sub-block numbers plus the associated prediction value PVs can be expressed as an ordered pair of numbers (s,PVs) that indicates exactly the pixel pattern for each of these sub-blocks s=1, 2, . ., 6. The sequence of these ordered pairs then becomes (1,0), (2,2), (3,3), (4,2), (5,0), (6,3). In this example, four of the six sub-block pixel patterns are predictable from the Contiguous Pixel neighborhood values NV associated with the various sub-blocks, using the Statistical Profile information set forth in Table 1 above. The remaining two pixel patterns must be specified exactly by reference to the Contiguous Pixel predictor value PV =3, which flags or points to the location of the exact pixel patterns for these two sub-blocks, maintained in a supplementary list. FIG. 3 illustrates the eight subblock pixel patterns present in the entries in Table 1.
The total number of bits required for the sequence of predictor values PV (expressed in the binarycoded decimal form shown in Table 1) is 6ū2+8 (subblock s=3)+8 (sub-block s=6)=28 bits, as compared to a conventional bit map that would require 6ū8=48 bits. In practice, the percentage reduction in the total number of bits required for compressed representation of a character set is 30-70 percent, corresponding to a compression ratio of 7:5 up to 10:3.
Decompression, for the purpose of representing a character as an assembly of sub-block pixel patterns, proceeds as follows.
______________________________________Sub-block______________________________________s = 1 NV = 0; pixel pattern = 3s = 2 NV = 3; pixel pattern = 14s = 3 NV = 1; pixel pattern = 12 (in supplementary list)s = 4 NV = 0; pixel pattern = 6s = 5 NV = 1; pixel pattern = 13s = 6 NV = 2; pixel pattern = 17 (in supplementary list)______________________________________
As each sub-block is added to the array, for a given character, the neighborhood value NV produced by the Contiguous Pixel patterns from preceding sub-blocks is used together with the predictor value PV to determine the pixel pattern of this new sub-block.
Simulation testing of the first embodiment, involving a single level of 2p -1=1,3 or 7 "most probable" pixel patterns has been performed on two subsets of 225 characters each from a Kanji character set. The prediction tables were calculated independently for each character subset. For a 24 pixel-by-24 pixel array representing each character in each subset, Table 2 presents the average bit savings or compression percentage (reduction) achieved for these two subsets.
TABLE 2______________________________________Bit Savings Using One-levelNeighborhood PredictionNumber of Prediction Bits Bit Savings______________________________________ p = 1 33.65% 2 39.86% 3 39.70%______________________________________
The best choice from these results for one-level prediction appears to be p=2 (three predictions plus exact value, if no prediction is correct). This best choice may vary with the size and nature of the character subset chosen, but it is expected that one of the two choices p=2 or p=3 will generally be the best choice.
FIG. 4 illustrates some of the results of testing and analysis of the character shown in FIG. 2, in which black pixel values could not be correctly predicted as such (exact configuration used) and gray or cross-hatched pixels were predicted to be black using the Statistical Profile information. The black pixel values were thus part of sub-blocks whose pixel patterns were prescribed exactly from the supplementary list, using the index r=4 (PV=3) for the two-bit index (p=2). A white pixel is always displayed as such so as not to clutter the figure.
A second implementation of the invention uses a 4ū2 (or, more generally, a JūK) rectangular block of pixels as shown in FIG. 1 but includes two levels of prediction of the target sub-block pixel patterns, using the Contiguous Pixels enumerated 1 (or 1'), 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 as shown in FIG. 1. In a first embodiment of this second implementation, each character corresponds to (1) a table of 1 bit per sub-block for a first level prediction thereof and (2) a list of Q-1 second level predictions (Q≧2) plus the exact configuration of the target sub-block. At the first or lowest level of prediction, the only predicted configuration of the target sub-block is the most probable configuration (PV=0 or r=1) corresponding to the neighborhood value NV of the Contiguous Pixels. This corresponds to bit no. 1 having the value 0. If this prediction is incorrect, the value of bit no. 1 is set equal to 1 and the second level of prediction is used. At this second level of prediction, the rth most probable configurations are presented (r=2, 3, . . ., Q) to predict the target sub-block configuration. For convenience and efficiency, one can choose Q=2q, where q is a positive integer, for example, q=4. With Q=2q, bits 2, 3, . . ., q+1 represent the Q-1 predictions available at this second level. As an example, let the (q+1)- tuple (a1, a2, . . ., aq+1) be the bits representing the first and second level predictions and the exact pixel pattern, if needed. The first level prediction corresponds to a1 =0, with the bit values for a2, . . ., aq+1 being unimportant. For the second level predictor, a1 =1, and among the remaining q bits a2,..., aq=1 at least one of these bits has the value 0. If none of the Q-1 =2q -1 predictions at the second level is correct, all the bit values a1, a2, . . ., aq=1 are set equal to 1 and the exact sub-block configuration is used here. For example, if q=4 is chosen here, the first level prediction has a single predicted configuration; and the second level of prediction has 15 predicted values plus the exact pixel pattern for the target sub-block, if needed. The number of bits required for q =4 in this embodiment of the second implementation is 1(first level) prediction +4 (second level prediction) =5 bits or 5+8 (exact pixel configuration, as a default) =13 bits.
This second implementation may be generalized by providing t bits at the first level, corresponding to 2t -1 predictions at the first level, plus q bits at the second level of prediction as discussed above, where t is a positive integer that may be chosen independently of the integer q. In practice, the choice t=1 or t=2 and q=4 is satisfactory here. Tables 3 and 4 present the bit savings or percentage compression using a two-level neighborhood prediction code for the choices q=4 and t=1, 2 or 3, for a 24ū24 font fragment and a 40ū40 font fragment, respectively. The choice T=1 appears to be the best choice here for the 6802-character set discussed above. Note that, for the larger font size, the average bit savings can exceed 68 percent.
TABLE 3______________________________________Bit-Savings Using Two-LevelNeighborhood Prediction (24 ū 24 pixels)Number of Prediction Bits Bit Savings______________________________________ t = 1 52.73% 2 50.74% 3 47.13%______________________________________
TABLE 4______________________________________Bit-Savings Using Two-LevelNeighborhood Prediction (40 ū 40 pixels)Number of Prediction Bits Bit Savings______________________________________ t = 1 68.79% 2 63.75% 3 57.07%______________________________________
This second implementation can be further generalized by use of H prediction levels, with prediction level number h (=1, 2, 3,..., H) having th different predictions, which may depend on the level number h, of pixel patterns for each of the different Contiguous Pixel patterns for a sub-block of pixels. The prediction process would proceed from prediction level h to prediction level h+1 (h=1, 2,..., H-1), until the correct pixel pattern is determined by prediction or the exact pixel pattern is flagged by default.
FIG. 5 illustrates the result of the two-level prediction, applied to the Kanji characters shown in FIG. 2 for a 24ū24 character representation with two levels of prediction. In FIG. 5, the block positions that are shaded black represent pixels that could not be predicted at either level of prediction so that the exact values had to be used for that sub-block. The dark gray pixels could be predicted at the second level of prediction, but not at the first level, and the light gray pixels could be predicted at the first level of prediction. The white pixels are always displayed as such, as discussed above in connection with FIG. 4.
FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 illustrate three other neighborhood predictor configurations (Contiguous Pixels, enumerated 1 or 1', 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8) with a 4 bit ū2 bit sub-block, using the neighborhood predictor code according to the invention. Each of the neighborhood predictor configurations shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 may be used in a one-level prediction scheme or in a twolevel prediction scheme, as discussed above. As discussed earlier, the 4 bit ū2 bit sub-block shown in any of FIGS. 1, 6, 7 and 8 may be replaced by a more general J bit ūK bit rectangular sub-block for purposes of application of the invention.
Another neighborhood predictor configuration is illustrated in FIG. 9, where a sub-block 21 that is J pixels wide by K pixels high is surrounded by a set B 2J +2K+4 contiguous pixels, numbered c1, c2, c3,..., c(2J+2K+3), c(2J+2K+4). A subset B1 of L pixels ("Contiguous Pixels") from the set B of 2J+2K+4 boundary pixels is chosen, and a Statistical Profile of the sub-block 11 is developed using the L pixels of the set B of boundary pixels. For each sub-block 11, the Statistical Profile of the set B1 of L Contiguous Pixels is used to construct the rth most probable pixel pattern for the sub-block 11 (r=1,2,...,2P -1), as described above. If one of these 2P -1 pixel patterns achieves an exact match, a flag or other indicia is used to indicate or point to the exact pixel pattern, and this exact pixel pattern is used as described above.
For example, with the choice J=4 and K=2 the maximum number of boundary pixels is 2J+2K+4=16 for the 8-pixel sub-block. The set B1 of Boundary Pixels could consist of all 16 contiguous or of a proper subset of L of these, where L may be any smaller positive integer such as L=3 or L=8. The choice L=2, 4 or 8 is attractive here.
In another embodiment of this invention, the requirement that the pixel pattern of the sub-block 11 (FIGS.1, 1A, 6, 7, 8) or 21 (FIG. 9) be predicted exactly by the neighborhood predictor is relaxed so that, of the JĘK pixels in the sub-block, it is sufficient if some smaller number V be predicted correctly, where V<JĘK. Two attractive choices are V=JĘK-1 and V=JĘK-2. As before, the Statistical Profile of sub-block pixel patterns corresponding to each set of Contiguous Pixels/or Boundary Pixels) is constructed; the particular set of Contiguous Pixels (or Boundary Pixels) for each sub-block is analyzed; and the rth most probable sub-block pixel patterns (r=1,2,...,2P -1) are compared with the actual or exact pixel pattern. If V=JĘK-w (w=1 or 2 or ...), a predicted pixel pattern that differs from the exact pixel pattern of the sub-block 11 or 21 by as many as w pixels is accepted as a (sufficiently close) match. This embodiment, in which the predicted pixel pattern of the sub-block 11 or 21 may have 0,1,2,..., or up to w pixel mismatches, will be referred to as an Augmented Pixel Match of Level w (w≧1).
The methods disclosed here may also be applied to prediction and encoding of any image representable as an array of pixels of two levels (e.g., dark and light). Thus, the method is not restricted to use on collections of ideographic symbols.
Given an embodiment which utilizes the Augmented Pixel Match scheme, it may be desirable to calculate the Statistical Profile by a slightly different method. In this method, the probability of a particular sub-block is calculated from the frequency of occurrence of an exact sub-block pattern given the NPC and from frequency of close matches to that sub-block pattern. The frequency of exact matches can be combined with those of Augmented Pixel Matches through the use of a weighted sum. This allows the effect of Augmented Pixel Matches to be controlled when choosing the most probable sub-block values.
The construction of the pixel pattern, one sub-block at a time, is not limited to proceeding from a selected corner such as illustrated in FIGS. 1, 1A, 6, 7 and 8. As illustrated in FIG. 10, an arbitrary column n=n1 and an arbitrary row m=m1 can be chosen and fixed within the block of MūN sub-blocks, and the exact pixel patterns for each of the sub-blocks with coordinates (m,n) with m=m1 or n=n1 or both can be determined. As ndicated in FIG. 10, the choice of m=m1 and n=n1 (for 1 <m1 <M and 1<n1<N) will divide the original block of pixels into four groups of sub-blocks with the following coordinates (m,n):
Group I : 1≦m≦m1-1; 1≦n≦n1-1;
Group II : m+1≦m≦M; 1≦n≦n1-1;
Group III: 1≦m≦m1-1; n1+1≦n≦N;
Group IV : m1+1≦m≦M; n1+1≦n≦N.
The pixel patterns of each sub-block in each of the Groups I, II, III and IV is unknown and is to be constructed from knowledge of the exact pixel pattern of each sub-block in a fifth group, namely
Group V : m=m1; 1≦n≦N; and 1≦m≦M; n=n1.
A Statistical Profile of all sub-blocks in Group IV is provided, using the Contiguous Pixel pattern (assumed known) located to the left and above each such sub-block as illustrated in FIG. 1. A Statistical Profile of all sub-blocks in Group III is provided, using the Contiguous Pixel pattern (assumed known) located to the right and above each such sub-block as illustrated in FIG. 6. A Statistical Profile of all sub-blocks in Group I is provided, using the Contiguous Pixel pattern (assumed known) located to the right and below each such sub-block as illustrated in FIG. 7. Finally, a Statistical Profile of all sub-blocks in Group II is provided, using the Contiguous Pixel pattern (assumed known) located to the left and below each such sub-block as illustrated in FIG. 8.
Note that the Statistical Profile for each of the Groups I, II, III and IV is determined using a different location for the Contiguous Pixels used to predict the pixel pattern of each sub-block within that Group. For each of the Groups I-IV of sub-blocks, prediction begins with the known pixel patterns in each of the sub-blocks in Group V and proceeds outward toward the boundaries of the block of pixels.
If the choice m1=1 is made, Groups I and III disappear and only Groups II and IV remain so that only two Statistical Profiles are required, for Contiguous Pixel patterns illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 1, respectively. Similarly, if the choice m1=M is made, Groups II and IV disappear and only Groups I and III remain. Similarly, if the choice n1=1 is made, Groups I and II disappear and only Groups III and IV remain. Similarly, if the choice n1=N is made, Groups III and IV disappear and only Groups I and II remain. If m1 is chosen to be 1 or M and n1 is chosen to be 1 or N, three of the four Groups disappear and only one Group remains, corresponding to proceeding from one of the four selected corners as illustrated in FIGS. 1, 1A, 6, 7 and 8, as discussed above.
The invention has been illustrated with reference to a set of 6802 Kanji characters. The invention is equally applicable to a different set of Kanji characters of any size, a set of Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, Tamil or Farsi language characters. The invention may be applied to any set of reasonable size of ideograph symbols used to represent sounds, words or phrases, or to represent any image that is representable by two levels or shades of pixels.
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|18 mars 1991
Owner name: HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY, PALO ALTO, CA, A CORP. OF
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST.;ASSIGNOR:ROSENBERG, CHARLES J.;REEL/FRAME:005637/0040
Effective date: 19900815
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Year of fee payment: 4
|25 nov. 1998
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 8
|16 janv. 2001
Owner name: HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY, COLORADO
Free format text: MERGER;ASSIGNOR:HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY;REEL/FRAME:011523/0469
Effective date: 19980520
|23 sept. 2002
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DARKIE TOOTHPASTE IN ORIGINAL BOXA RATHER UNUSUAL ITEM, TO SAY THE LEAST. This vintage box of toothpaste was bought in Hong Kong in the mid 80's during my Military travels when stationed on the USS MIDWAY out of Japan. I'm a packrat and picked up unusual items from around the world. My wife and I are downsizing (the kids grew up) and I don't have room for all the 'things' I've aquired during my Military career. This toothpaste is in it's original box with the original price tag from Hong Kong on the bottom. It was made by Hawley and Hazel and this tube is labeled "economy size" ?? It meaures 7". Thank you for looking! Have a PATRIOTIC day! Please check out our other auctions. We strive to describe all our vintage items as accurately as possible. We encourage any questions before bidding. We sell all vintage items "as is." Adding ins. is encouraged as we are not responsible for lost, stolen or broken items once we ship. We prefer paypal but will gladly accept money orders and cashier's checks. We only ship to the lower 48.


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Finding apartments to rent for holiday purposes is very easy. Sometimes it happens that you want to indulge a little bit and find yourself a nice apartment but you can't afford if completely. And the easiest thing to do in these cases is to call all your friends to see whether they are willing to rent an apartment with you or not. They will probably agree because everyone loves a good holiday but you have to fix some living rules before even thinking of sharing an apartment.
If you decided to rent an apartment a little bit more expensive that you can afford before even visiting the apartments, it is a good thing to talk to your friend and fix a budget for the rent. You don't want to visit apartment rentals in Las Vegas without clear ideas in your head...Read More


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Live Commentary
And that's it from a dramatic afternoon at Goodison Park, where Everton and Norwich both take a point.
As ever, controversy tinged the end of the match with Moyes unhappy about the Norwich free kick, but undoubtedly he will be fuming at the missed chances of the team.
The home side failed to move within one point of Chelsea after conceding Bassong's first ever Norwich goal! Hughton's side grabbing nothing less than they deserve.
94'And that's full time! The home side are booed off after a 90 minute equaliser from Bassong.
90' + 2'SubstitutionSteven Naismith Apostolos Vellios
The first sub for Everton is the introduction of Vellios, who replaces the goalscorer Naismith.
90'Assist Javier Garrido
90'Goal S. Bassong
GOAL!! Bassong's header crawls over the line to the pleasure of Hughton's side after a cross from Garrido.
90'The free kick was by the touch-line, very close to the half way line but the looping ball confuses the Everton defence.
89'SubstitutionRobert Snodgrass Simeon Jackson
Snodgrass is brought off for Simeon Jackson, with Hughton's side now going for three in attack.
88'Yellow Card Alexander Tettey
88'Baines' effort is just over the bar, to the relief of Bunn.
87'Yellow Card Javier Garrido
Garrido brings down Oviedo just outside the Norwich penalty area. The defender is booked and Baines looks to line up for a shot.
87'Tettey runs out towards Baines before the free-kick is taken and he is booked by the referee.
85'Now a Norwich chance! A headed effort is parried away by Howard and his defence clear up the rest by passing the ball up to the half-way line after Pilkington's attempt.
83'A chance for Naismith to wrap up the game! The goalscorer runs towards the light Norwich defence and tries to cross the ball to the waiting Oviedo but it goes off for a goal kick.
82'Yellow Card John Heitinga
82'SubstitutionJohn Ruddy Mark Bunn
82'Baines overhits the corner and pressure on Norwich is relieved. The visitors then go up towards the Everton goal but a smart header from Distin helps clear the ball.
80'A corner for Everton. But play is delayed as Ruddy is substituted for Bunn who will be thrown into the deep end as his side defend a corner.
78'Whittaker collects the ball from the half-way line and crosses the ball into the Everton penalty area, but the ball flies over all the attackers and a goal-kick is awarded is to Everton.
77'Ruddy looks to have picked up an injury, with the goalkeeper calling upon his defence to take the goal kicks.
75'SubstitutionWesley Hoolahan Steve Morison
The first substitution of the game has seen Norwich take off Hoolahan, bringing on Morrison. The Canaries look like they want to take something out of the game!
73'Both sides failing to create a chain of passes so Baines decides to go on his own! The defender forces a save from Ruddy but Norwich beat Naismith to clear the ball.
70'Chance! Snodgrass with a chance but it's cleared off the line by Heitinga! Everton go back deep into the Norwich half but Pienaar's cross fails to connect with anyone and is cleared by Norwich.
68'Yellow Card Bradley Johnson
First booking of the game for Norwich's Bradley Johnson, who makes a clumsy tackle deep in the Everton half.
63'Whittaker concedes a free kick just in the Norwich half as Pienaar and the defender collide as they both reach for a 50/50 ball. The free kick goes off for an Everton corner however.
60'The first dangerous attack from Everton in the second half is a header from Distin. The centre-back however headed the ball straight into the hands of Ruddy following a Hitzlsperger cross.
58'Chance! Holt gets the ball after a long-range through ball from the Norwich defence. Howard with another great save to prevent Holt scoring from the one-on-one.
56'Pilkington with a great free kick, heading for the top-left corner. A smart save from Howard however keeps Everton's lead. Norwich looking very dangerous since the start of the second half.
54'Pressure is lifted on the home team as the referee gives Everton a free kick after Holt has a little tussle with Distin. Osman is caught offside however and the ball is passed back into the Everton half where Heitinga concedes a free kick just outside of the penalty area.
51'Holt goes down after being fouled by Distin. The striker's already taken a few knocks this half.
49'Holt wins a free kick from an Osman foul just outside the box but the ball flies over the bar after Tetley hits the rebound too powerfully.
46'Norwich begin the half with a well-worked move, passing the ball across the width of the field. Everton begin the half struggling to regain possession, before Distin kicks the ball off the pitch for a Norwich throw.
The teams make their way back onto the pitch for the second half, with Norwich kicking off this time.
Everton look the stronger side at half-time, but Moyes will go in the happier man with his team leading at the break. The home side will feel they can get a another goal or two in the second half but Everton's defence were becoming more exposed in the later periods of the half, which Holt and company could look to utilise.
The referee blows for half-time after Snodgrass fails to make use of a free-kick awarded at the expense of Baines.
45'Two minutes of added time.
43'Holt is caught offside again but Everton give away possession with a long pass. They quickly reclaim the ball however.
41'A corner for Norwich after Pienaar heads the ball clear. Snodgrass takes the corner but little comes of the opportunity for Hughton's side.
39'Howard clears the ball down the field to Naismith who appeals for a foul, but no whistle is blown and the ball rolls out for a Norwich goal-kick.
36'A corner for Everton after the ball goes off Bassong, but a foul is given to Norwich after Whittaker appears to be shoved by Jelavic.
34'Naismith, Jelavic and Hitzlsperger all involved in a smart Everton move of short passes, confusing the Norwich defence. Ruddy with another good save by rushing out to collect the ball, beating Naismith who would've had a very good chance to double Everton's lead.
32'Osman with a chance from outside the area following a Baines cross, all resulting from the free-kick. Ruddy with a comfortable save however.
30'Bassong puts in a strong challenge against his former Tottenham team-mate Pienaar but manages to escape without a caution.
29'Norwich look dangerous in midfield, with Snodgrass and Tetley passing the ball around the field stretching play. Tetley looks for Hoolahan on the wing but over-hits the pass which results in an Everton goal-kick.
26'Baines collects the ball from the goal-kick and passes to Oviedo. He then spots Naismith in the middle of the pitch who gives the ball to Pienaar who was running up the touchline. He slides the ball to Jelavic who is flagged offside however.
25'Holt with a wasted opportunity! The striker weaves his way just outside of the penalty area with a clear shot on goal. The Englishman fails to hit the target however.
24'Norwich try to diagonally cross the ball into Hoolahan, but Norwich are caught offside for the fourth time this match.
22'Everton are looking dangerous on the attack forcing Bennett into a few long clearances. Fortunately for Norwich, Everton can't seem to connect with Jelavic in the final third.
19'Baines dribbles down the left side of the field, and gradually edges his way down the field where he crosses the ball into Jelavic. The Croatian fails to connect with the incoming ball and it goes off for a Norwich goal-kick.
17'A penalty shout! Naismith goes down just outside the inside the penalty area but the referee waves play on, to the relief of Tetley.
15'The home side get close again with an effort from Osman but Ruddy saves the chance by tipping the ball away.
13'Norwich look to bounce back immediately forcing a corner from the home side but it's comfortably cleared. Hoolahan picks up the loose ball but shoots it wide.
13'More on the goal - Baines collects the ball from the Ruddy's goal-kick where he lobs the ball to Oviedo to the surprise of Whittaker. He crosses the ball to an unmarked Naismith to give the lead to the home side.
12'Assist Bryan Oviedo
12'Goal Steven Naismith
GOAL!! 1-0 to Everton! Naismith goal!
9'Everton attack from the offside free kick, with Osman working his way to the corner flag after some inter-play with Jagielka. Bassong forces it out for a throw-in but Jelavic fails to head the crossed ball and it goes off for a Norwich goal-kick.
7'Snodgrass collects the ball off Tettey who claimed the ball from an Everton throw in the Norwich half. This forces a foul from Hitzlsperger but little comes from the free-kick, with Norwich being flagged as offside again.
5'Some sloppy passing from Norwich forced Bassong to hit the ball out for a throw, with Bassong catching Pienaar on the way through. The Everton midfielder looks to be in pain but hobbles his way to his feet.
3'Johnson passes the ball to Garrido, where the ball creeps through to Holt who is then flagged as offside, to the relief of Jagielka and Distin.
2'The ball sneaks through to the Norwich box where Naismith claims the ball from a long pass back in the Everton half. He passes it to Osman where he shoots the ball inches wide of the far post.
1'Everton have kicked us off!
A win for Everton can see them shorten the gap behind Chelsea to only one point. But Norwich can level points with Tottenham if Hughton's side grab a victory today at Goodison Park.
And it's handshakes all around for the two teams as kick-off is only minutes away!
Everton and Norwich are on their way out, to a loud ovation from the fans.
Norwich come into the game following their 1-0 win last week against Manchester United, whereas Everton will be looking to put their defeat against Reading behind them with a convincing victory today.
The Norwich team is: Ruddy, Garrido, Bassong, R.Bennett, Whittaker, Pilkington, Johnson, Tettey, Snodgrass, Hoolahan, Holt. Subs: Bunn, L.Bennett, Tierney, Howson, E. Bennett, Morison, Jackson.
The Everton team is as follows: Howard; Jagielka, Baines, Heitinga, Distin; Hitzlsperger, Osman; Oviedo, Naismith, Pienaar; Jelavic. Subs: Mucha, Duffy, Hibbert, Gueye, Barkley, Vellios, Kennedy.
Good afternoon! I'm Matt Davis and welcome to Goal.com's live commentary of Everton - Norwich at Goodison Park.


text:
DEC puts off decision on biowaste permit for Marilla farmer until Sept. 19
The Marilla Town Board reported at its work session Tuesday that the Department of Environmental Conservation has extended until Sept. 19 a decision on whether to issue a permit sought by local farmer Stanley Travis to store biowaste on his Eastwood Road farm.
Supervisor George Gertz told the board, "We can't stop the permit process, but what is applied for and what is approved are two different things. ... The DEC has complete control. Even if the Town Board had declared lead agency, they (DEC) would have taken it away from us."
Gertz also said a local farmer in Marilla wants to spread this product on his land.
Gertz said, "Even if the DEC approves the permit, what we can do is place a moratorium on biowaste storage and spreading for a six-month period because it is considered a new product and unknown to us.
"Once we know what we are dealing with, we'll place the moratorium. It will buy us six months. A lawsuit against us could happen, but probably we would win it. The second thing we will do is hire an environmental engineer to write a law against it."
The Town Board asked Town Attorney Joel Kurtzhalts to write a letter to the DEC regarding the permit applied for by Trav-Co Farms, owned by Stanley Travis, that storage of the effluent is against some of the town's zoning laws, but some of the wording must be revised before the board can sign it.
Resident Randy Reichert told board members he didn't think they could stop the storage because Quasar Energy Group, owners of the digester that produces the effluent, is funded by a federal grant.
The effluent made from biowaste is to be spread on animal cropland in place of regular fertilizer. According to Quasar Energy Group, the effluent makes crops grow faster and larger and is cheaper than regular fertilizer.
Town residents are concerned about the effect the effluent would have on groundwater and their wells if the storage tank overflows in a heavy rain.
Reichert said he was disappointed at the behavior of some of those attending last Thursday's informational meeting put on by Quasar Energy. "Personal attacks on people were unnecessary at the meeting," he said.
The board agreed with him that the crowd of over 400 people attending the meeting Thursday were told to be polite, but many were not.
Reichert said the effluent is considered by the DEC as a Class B product, which can only be spread on crops intended for animal feed, versus a Class A product, which is heated more but is too expensive." He added that "Stanley almost is as much a victim as we are. He did us a favor and opened our eyes."
Farmer Evan Gerhardt told the board some of the things the town can do is regulate the dispersal of the product, require a lot of testing and other actions because of the newness of the product.
He said farmers are already regulated by what and how much they can spread on their land.


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