An apparatus for supporting a two-sided emission Organic Electroluminescent Display (OELD) panel having a display element includes: a first support member having a first groove and supporting one side of four sides of the flat display panel; and a pair of second support members each having a second groove and supporting opposite sides excluding the one side of the four sides of the flat display panel. A side opposite to the one side of the four sides of the flat display panel is exposed, and the flat display panel is arranged in the first groove of the first support member and the second grooves of the pair of second support members and is supported by the first support member and the pair of second support members.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat panel display device, and more particularly, to a two-sided emission Organic ElectroLuminescent Display (OELD) panel support and to an OELD device including the support.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, flat panel display devices such as OELD devices or Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) devices include a flat display panel for implementing an image, a driving circuit for driving the flat display panel, and a Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) for connecting the driving circuit to the flat display panel.
The flat display panel includes a substrate on which a display element is arranged in an image display unit, an encapsulation substrate arranged to face the substrate and encapsulating the display element, and a sealing member such as a sealant for sealing the substrate and the encapsulation substrate.
The substrate is generally a glass substrate, a plastic substrate, or a metallic substrate, and a support member for supporting the substrate is needed.
Korean Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-0063614 discloses a support structure for supporting a liquid crystal module used as a flat panel display device, that is, a support structure for supporting different types of liquid crystal modules using one bracket.
In general, an OELD device is a self-emission device which includes upper and lower electrodes and an emission layer interposed between the upper and lower electrodes and in which light is emitted from the emission layer according to voltages supplied to the upper and lower electrodes, thereby displaying an image.
Electroluminescent display devices are classified as inorganic electroluminescent display devices, in which an emission layer interposed between the upper and lower electrodes is formed of an inorganic material, and OELD devices, in which an emission layer interposed between the upper and lower electrodes is formed of an organic material. The OELD devices have excellent characteristics such as wide view-angle, fast response speed and high contrast and thus, are considered to be the next-generation of flat panel display devices.
OELD devices are classified as high molecular OELD devices in which an emission layer is formed of a high molecular material, and low molecular OELD devices in which an emission layer is formed of a low molecular material, according to organic materials.
OELDs are also classified according to a path on which light is emitted from the emission layer including: a rear emission OELD device in which light is emitted from an emission layer in a direction of a substrate, a front emission OELD device in which light is emitted from an emission layer toward an encapsulation substrate which is in an opposite direction to the substrate, and a two-sided emission OELD device in which light is emitted from an emission layer towards both a substrate and an encapsulation substrate.
In the two-sided emission OELD device, since light is emitted from the emission layer towards both the substrate and the encapsulation substrate, an OELD panel support is needed that does not interfere with an emission path of light emitted from the emission layer.

Flat display panel support and flat panel display device including the support


A resonant DC-DC converter for generating high voltage MHz bi-polar DC pulses includes a left multi-level resonant rectifier bank [100] connected to a positive electrode [104] and coupled via capacitive isolation to a left RF amplifier terminal [128]; a right multi-level resonant rectifier bank [102] connected to a negative electrode [106] and coupled via capacitive isolation to a right RF amplifier terminal [130]. Each multi-level resonant rectifier bank comprises multiple resonant rectifier stages [112-122], where each stage comprises two capacitors for capacitively isolating the stage, an output capacitor, a MOSFET switch connected to an adjacent MOSFET switch of an adjacent stage, and a gating resonant circuit connected to the MOSFET switch, whereby MOSFET switches in the banks can be passively controlled by RF signals from a left RF amplifier and a right RF amplifier.

Electroporation is a technique that uses high pulsed electric fields to create pores in biological cell walls for medical, liquid sterilization and other applications. Many systems use mono-polar pulses for simplicity but electro-migration can limit electrode life.
Electroporation involves generating a large electric field between two conductive electrodes within a liquid. Biological cells exposed to the electric field develop pores in their cell walls. Reversible electroporation involves electric fields in the range of hundreds of volts per mm and can be used to move materials in and out of the cell. Irreversible electroporation, or pulse electric field (PEF) sterilization involves even higher electric fields and is used to usually destroy cell walls in bacteria in potable liquids and foodstuffs. Electroporation requires short pulses (≈10 s of μs) in order to limit ohmic heating of the liquid. Monopolar pulses are effective but bipolar pulses have been shown to increase electrode life by reducing electromigration of the conductor.
Conventional approaches for providing DC electrical pulses can be undesirably complicated, especially in cases (e.g., electroporation applications) where the pulses need to be bi-polar and/or need to have flexible pulse profiles.
Methods of generating square bipolar pulses typically consist of traditional high voltage power supplies to generate high voltage DC combined with capacitive discharge to deliver a pulse train. Conventional methods can present difficulties including slow startup, large energy storage within the circuit, voltage droop, limited pulse repetition, and limited pulse width. Gating can also become complicated for multilevel approaches with floating active switches.

Bipolar DC-DC converter topology using passive voltage reversal

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


An earphone comprises an earphone body, containing a speaker, and a projection, extending from a first surface of the earphone body, for location in the entrance to the user's ear canal. The earphone body comprises a sound outlet in the first surface, for allowing sounds generated by the speaker to leave the earphone body. The projection extends from the first surface of the earphone body, adjacent to the sound outlet, and contains a sound inlet port, connected to a microphone for detecting sounds entering the ear canal. A noise cancellation system includes noise cancellation circuitry, for applying a frequency dependent filter characteristic and applying a gain to an input signal representing ambient noise, at least one of the frequency dependent filter characteristic and the gain being adaptive. The earphone then has an ambient noise microphone, and an error microphone connected to the sound inlet port.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a noise cancellation system, and to an earphone for use with such a system.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known to provide a noise cancellation system, for use with a sound-reproducing device such as an earphone. The sound-reproducing device includes a speaker, for receiving electrical signals representing a wanted sound, such as music or speech, from a portable music player, telephone handset, or the like. The noise cancellation system includes a microphone provided on the sound-reproducing device, to generate an electrical signal representing ambient noise. This ambient noise signal is then applied to signal processing circuitry to generate a noise cancellation signal, and the noise cancellation signal is applied to the speaker.
The purpose of the signal processing circuitry is to generate a noise cancellation signal that, when applied to the speaker, produces a sound that is equal in magnitude but opposite in phase to the ambient sounds reaching the user's ear. If this can be achieved, destructive interference will have the effect of reducing the noise that can be heard by the user.
In order to achieve this, it is known, for example from GB-2441835A, that the signal processing circuitry needs to apply frequency-selective filtering to the ambient noise signal, and that this frequency-selective filtering needs to take account of the frequency-dependent amplitude and phase characteristics of: the response of the noise microphone; any electronic amplification in the signal processing circuitry; and the response of the speaker. These characteristics are generally relatively stable for any given individual earphone device and, subject to manufacturing tolerances, they can be determined for any model of earphone.
In addition, however, the frequency-selective filtering needs to take account of two further factors, namely the frequency-dependent amplitude and phase characteristics of the acoustic path from the surroundings into the ear of the user, and the phase and frequency response of the acoustic path from the speaker to the ear of the user. These are both dependent on the leakage characteristics of the earphone, that is, the leakage in the coupling of the earphone to the ear of the wearer.
It is known that the frequency-dependent characteristics of the leakage path can vary widely, depending on how the sound-reproducing device interacts with the ear of the user. More specifically, one important factor is the area of the leakage, which affects both the amplitude and phase of all signals perceived by the ear. For example, in the case of an earphone that is intended to be worn within the outer ear of the user, the frequency-dependent leakage characteristics will depend on the exact shape of the user's ear, and on how tightly the earphone is pushed into the ear.
This has the effect that it is difficult to perform frequency-selective filtering that is sufficiently representative of the frequency-dependent amplitude and phase leakage characteristics.

Cirrus Logic International Semiconductor Ltd.


Encoding digital data by using cues at a decoder. An encoder selects an index to indicate a target codeword from the complete space of all codewords to a decoder. The index identifies a group or a set of codewords that contain the target codeword. The sets are represented by a bit-length that is smaller than the code word bit-length thus achieving compression. Two or more codewords in such a set are separated by a predetermined distance and all such sets of codewords considered together form the complete space of all codewords. The encoder sends syntax information, including the index, to specify the decoding. The decoder then uses a set of candidate cues in a comparison operation to determine the target codeword from the indexed set. Processing complexity can be allocated among the encoder, decoder and other possible devices as, for example, in a digital network.

This invention is related in general to representation of digital information and more specifically to a system where a representation of a target digital data is used to recover the target data with a data cue derivable at a device that assists in recovering the target value.
Digital compression techniques have become extremely important to reduce the size of digital content and thereby improve overall bandwidth of digital systems. For example, popular standards such as Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) promulgate various standards for compression of digital video. Many approaches to data compression are in use for various types of digital content such as video, still image, audio, etc.
A measure of the performance of compression and coding schemes is the "compression ratio." A compression ratio is a unit of the original content divided by the same unit's compressed size. For example, with schemes such as MPEG-2 and H.263 compression ratios of 20-30 are typically attainable.
A drawback of compression schemes is that they require digital processing to compress (or encode) the data at a transmitter, and also to decompress (or decode) compressed data at a receiver. Another property of many compression schemes is that higher compression ratios are only achieved by using more complex processing. In other words, to obtain higher compression ratios requires using more powerful and expensive processing chips, and results in a delay due to extended processing time. Low complexity processing typically achieves lower compression ratios.
For many of today's coding techniques e.g., digital video coding standards such as MPEG and H.26x, the overall complexity remains quite high and is unequally distributed between the encoder and the decoder. The encoder has a higher complexity and the decoder that operates in a slave mode to the encoder has a lower complexity. It is desirable to achieve a compression scheme that allows variance, management and distribution of processing complexity while also providing competitive compression performance.
For many of today's coding techniques such as digital video coding standards, the trend has been toward increasingly larger and more rigorous coding specifications, or syntaxes. This has resulted in higher compression ratios but has also made the compression schemes very inflexible. For example, the decoder operation is completely specified in terms of the prediction algorithm to be used. Every decoder must operate in the same way in order to successfully decode the highly specified syntax of the encoded streams. It is desirable to achieve a compression scheme that allows for more freedom in terms of algorithms that can be used at the decoder allowing smarter decoding algorithms to obtain better performance.
"Robustness" is the ability of a coding scheme to tolerate errors or dropouts in data and is another factor in data communication. Errors or dropouts can occur, for example, if a communication channel or physical link used to transfer data is "noisy" or otherwise prone to interference or deficiencies. Data corruption can also occur when data is being processed, stored or otherwise manipulated. Highly compressed data streams are usually more susceptible to errors that can occur during transmission than less compressed or uncompressed, data. Often, a compressed data stream transmission is made robust by adding forward error correction (FEC) codes to the compressed data stream or by allowing retransmissions (ARQ: Automatic Repeat reQuest) in case an error occurs. These approaches can require increased complexity and encoding delay. The latter results in increased delays and needs a communications channel in the reverse direction also. It is desirable to achieve a coding scheme that promises reliable performance with low complexity and low delay.

Encoding and decoding of digital data using cues derivable at a decoder

The Regents of the University of California


Laser apparatus and methods that permit actuation of a tuning element via a magnetically coupled drive assembly, and which provide for isolation of contamination-sensitive optical surfaces within a hermetically sealed enclosure with a magnetically coupled drive assembly that is external to the enclosure. The apparatus of the invention comprises a tuning element positioned in a light beam, and a drive element magnetically coupled to the tuning element. The apparatus may further comprise a hermetically sealed enclosure, with the tuning element positioned within the hermetically sealed enclosure, and the drive element located outside the hermetically sealed enclosure. The methods comprise positioning a tuning element in a light beam, magnetically coupling a drive element to the tuning element; and actuating the tuning element via magnetic coupling between the tuning element and the drive element. The methods may further comprise enclosing the tuning element in a hermetically sealed container.

The demand for increased bandwidth in fiberoptic telecommunications has driven the development of sophisticated transmitter lasers usable for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems wherein multiple separate data streams propagate concurrently in a single optical fiber. Each data stream is created by the modulated output of a semiconductor laser at a specific channel frequency or wavelength, and the multiple modulated outputs are combined onto the single fiber. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) presently requires channel separations of approximately 0.4 nanometers, or about 50 GHz, which allows up to 128 channels to be carried by a single fiber within the bandwidth range of currently available fibers and fiber amplifiers. Greater bandwidth requirements will likely result in smaller channel separation in the future.
DWDM systems have largely been based on distributed feedback (DFB) lasers operating with a reference etalon associated in a feedback control loop, with the reference etalon defining the ITU wavelength grid. Statistical variation associated with the manufacture of individual DFB lasers results in a distribution of channel center wavelengths across the wavelength grid, and thus individual DFB transmitters are usable only for a single channel or a small number of adjacent channels.
Continuously tunable external cavity lasers have been developed to overcome this problem. The advent of continuously tunable telecommunication lasers has introduced additional complexity to telecommunication transmission systems, as individual lasers must be able to provide stable, accurate tuning at narrowly separated channel wavelengths. Particularly, the tuning aspects of external cavity lasers involve multiple optical surfaces that are sensitive to contamination and degradation during use. Further, external cavity laser tuning typically involves drive elements that can introduce contaminants to the laser optical surfaces. These deficiencies have resulted in increased costs and decreased performance lifetimes for tunable telecommunication transmitter lasers.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Tunable laser with magnetically coupled filter


A dry etching method whereby an SiO.sub.2 layer and an Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 layer may be etched with high selectivity for each other. As etching gas, such sulfur fluorides as S.sub.2 F.sub.2 are used which, when dissociated by electric discharges, will form SF.sub.x.sup.+ as a main etchant for the SiO.sub.2 layer or F* as a main etchant for the Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 layer and release sulfur in the plasma. When the SiO.sub.2 layer is etched on the Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 layer as an underlying layer via a resist mask, nitrogen atoms, removed from the underlying layer upon exposure thereof to the plasma, will combine with sulfur in the plasma to form on the exposed surface thereof such sulfur nitride compounds as polythiazyl (SN).sub.x, which will, in turn, serve to achieve high selectivity for the underlying layer. The SiO.sub.2 layer can also be etched via an Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 mask patterned into a predetermined shape, in which case sulfur nitride compounds formed on the Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 mask will serve to achieve high selectivity therefor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dry etching method employed in such applications as production of semiconductor devices. More particularly, it relates to a dry etching method whereby a silicon oxide based material layer and a silicon nitride based material layer may be etched with high selectivity for each other.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The recent trend toward higher integration and performance of such semiconductor devices as VLSIs and ULSIs requires dry etching technologies for insulation films to achieve correspondingly higher anisotropy, higher etchrate, higher selectivity, lower pollution, and less damage with no compromise in these requirements.
Conventionally, etching gases typified by CHF.sub.3 gas, CF.sub.4 /H.sub.2 mixed gas, CF.sub.4 /O.sub.2 mixed gas, and C.sub.2 F.sub.6 /CHF.sub.3 mixed gas have been widely used to etch an insulation film composed of silicon oxide (SiO.sub.x ; particularly, x=2). All these etching gases are composed mainly of fluorocarbon based gas whose molecule has C/F ratio (the ratio of the numbers of carbon atoms to that of fluorine atoms in one molecule) of 0.25 or higher. The common functions of these gases include: (a) forming a C--O bond from a constituent element C on the surface of a SiO.sub.2 layer and cleaving or weakening an Si--O bond, (b) forming CF.sub.n.sup.+ (particularly, n=3) as a main etchant for an SiO.sub.2 layer, and (c) generating relatively carbon-rich plasma and thereby removing oxygen from SiO.sub.2 in the form of CO or CO.sub.2 while achieving a lower etchrate and higher selectivity for an underlying silicon layer as C, H, F, and other constituent elements contribute to deposition of carbonaceous polymers on the surface of the underlying layer.
It is to be noted that the above mentioned H.sub.2 and O.sub.2 are used to regulate selectivity for an underlying silicon layer, in other words, the apparent C/F ratio of an etching reaction system by increasing or decreasing the quantity of F*.
Basically, etching gases for an SiO.sub.2 layer are also used to etch an insulation layer composed of silicon nitride (Si.sub.x N.sub.y particularly, x=3 and y=4). While the SiO.sub.2 layer is etched mainly through an ion-assisted reaction, the Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer is etched at a higher rate through a radical reaction using F* as a main etchant. Such an etchrate difference is somewhat predictable from the descending order in binding energy of an Si--F bond (132 kcal/mole), Si--O bond (111 kcal/mole), and Si--N bond (105 kcal/mole). Incidentally, these binding energy values are cited from data shown in "Handbook of Chemistry and Physics" 69th Edition (1988) edited by R. C. Weast (published by CRC Press Inc. in Florida, U.S.A.) and may vary slightly according to any other calculation method.
Meanwhile, the recent trend toward higher integration of semiconductor devices requires correspondingly higher selectivity for an SiO.sub.x layer and an Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer.
For instance, an Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer formed on an SiO.sub.x layer as an underlying layer is etched in the LOCOS method where the Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer is patterned to define an element isolation region. This etching process requires extremely high selectivity for the underlying layer now that a pad oxide film (SiO.sub.2 layer) is decreased in thickness to minimize bird's beak length.
On the other hand, an SiO.sub.x layer formed on an SiN.sub.x layer as an underlying layer must be etched, for instance, in a contact hole forming process. In recent years, a thin Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer may be formed between the SiO.sub.x interlayer insulating film and the Si substrate for the purpose of reducing damage to the substrate in an over-etching process. To achieve this purpose, this etching process also requires extremely high selectivity for the underlying SiN.sub.x layer.
In principle, when achieving high selectivity for two laminated dissimilar material layers, it is preferable that there should be a great difference in interatomic bond energy between the chemical bonds of the layers. In the case of an SiO.sub.x layer and an Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer, in particular, it is essentially difficult to achieve high selectivity between these two layers because of little difference in bond energy between the bonds thereof (Si--O bond and Si--N bond, respectively) and common bases of the etching gas thereof. Therefore, persistent efforts have been made in industrial sectors to develop technologies for overcoming such difficulty.
In fact, some technologies have been reported for etching an Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer formed on an SiO.sub.x layer with high selectivity between these two layers.
For instance, the present inventor has disclosed in Japanese Patent "KOKAI" 61-142744 (1986) one such technology whereby CH.sub.2 F.sub.2 or any other gas with a low C/F ratio are used as etching gas with CO.sub.2 added at a molar ratio of 30 to 70%. More specifically, such gases with a low C/F ratio will form CF.sub.x.sup.+ (particularly, x=3) as an etchant for an SiO.sub.x layer only by recombining with F*. The quantity of CF.sub.x.sup.+ thus formed will decrease when a great quantity of CO* is fed to capture F* for removal from an etching reaction system in the form of COF. As a result, an etchrate for the SiO.sub.x layer will also decrease. Meanwhile, an Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer is etched by other ions than CF.sub.x.sup.+ and radicals, so that the etchrate thereof will remain almost unchanged even when a great quantity of CO.sub.2 is fed to the etching reaction system. Thus, high selectivity will be achieved between the SiO.sub.x layer and the Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer.
"Proceedings of Symposium on Dry Process", Vol. 88, No. 7, p. 86-94 (1987) has also reported another technology whereby an Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer formed on an SiO.sub.x layer is etched by FCl which will be formed in the gaseous phase by microwave discharge when NF.sub.3 and Cl.sub.2 are fed to a chemical dry etching apparatus. This technology is based on the fact that an Si--N bond with a 30% ionicity has a stronger covalency than an Si--O bond with a 55% ionicity. Namely, the Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer, whose chemical bond (Si--N bond) is similar in nature to the chemical bond (covalent bond) of single-crystal silicon, will be etched by F*, Cl*, and other radicals resulting from dissociation of FCl while the SiO.sub.x layer will almost never be etched by these radicals. Thus, high selectivity will also be achieved between the two layers.
As mentioned above, some technologies have been reported for selectively etching an Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer formed on an SiO.sub.x layer. This is a natural consequence considering the difference in etchrate between the two layers. When the Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer is etched mainly through a radical reaction, exposure of the SiO.sub.x layer to a plasma in the etching process will inevitably result in reduction of the etchrate.
However, there are some difficulties with the conventional technologies. For instance, anisotropic etching is essentially difficult with the above-mentioned technology using FCl because it is based on a radical reaction.
Conversely, no technology has been reported for selectively etching an SiO.sub.x layer formed on an Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer. This etching process etches the SiO.sub.x layer mainly through an ion-assisted reaction and involves even greater difficulty in achieving high selectivity between the two layers because radicals formed invariably in the etching reaction system will increase the etchrate upon exposure of the Si.sub.x N.sub.y layer to the plasma. In fact, it is certain that this etching process will be needed in the future and it is required to realize it as soon as possible.


A playback control method of a multimedia device is provided for setting playback position and repetitive playback section of a multimedia file playing on the multimedia device intuitively with multi-touch behaviors on a touchscreen. The method includes sensing a multi-touch event on the touchscreen, extracting two contact points of the multi-touch event, determining coordinates of the contact points, calculating a distance between the coordinates, monitoring a variation of the distance, moving a playback position of a current playing multimedia file according to the variation of the distance, and restarting playback of the current playing multimedia file from the playback position when the contact points are released from the touchscreen.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multimedia playback device and, in particular, to a playback control method of intuitively setting a playback position and a repetitive playback section of a multimedia file playing on a multimedia device with multi-touch behavior on a touchscreen.
2. Discussion of the Background
Touchscreens are becoming more and more popular as user interfaces for multimedia playback devices. More recently, the advent of a multi-touch touchscreen has improved the utilization of touchscreen as an input device. The multi-touch touchscreen enables a system to distinguishably recognize various types of touch events, e.g. multiple touch events, on the touch screen. With the advent of the multi-touch touchscreen, many multi-touch interaction techniques have been proposed to sense various distinct touch events.
A multi-touch touchscreen may enable a user to interact with a system more efficiently and intuitively than a single-touch touchscreen. For example, the single-touch touchscreen may have a zoom-in/zoom-out bar such that a user drags the zoom-in/zoom-out bar to zoom in or zoom out on an image, whereas the multi-touch touchscreen may allow the user to zoom in or zoom out on an image intuitively by moving two touch objects (i.e. fingers, styluses, etc.) apart or together on the screen.
Conventional touchscreen-enabled multimedia devices may be configured such that the multimedia playback application is controlled with traditional single tapping and drag and drop events while other applications are controlled with diversified touch events featured by a multi-touch touchscreen, which may result in a lack of manipulation consistency in terms of user interface. Furthermore, since the multi-touch touchscreen may operate without supplemental control objects, the user should bear all applicable touch behaviors in mind.

Playback control method for multimedia device using multi-touch-enabled touchscreen


A system for creating a switched virtual circuit that includes a switch that receives initial information and a connection management system that is electrically connected to the switch, wherein the switch sends a signal to the connection management system that contains information as to the proper connection for the initial information and wherein the connection management system creates a virtual circuit that will reconfigure and transmit the initial information in such a manner that no information is lost when the initial information is transmitted by the virtual circuit.

Not applicable.
Not applicable.
Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system and method for creating switched virtual circuits that will not lose time sensitive and order sensitive information during transmission.
2. Discussion of Related Art
It is known in the art that a transport network utilizing Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology is an excellent vehicle for transferring information, via ATM cells, for a service where the arrival of the information at the terminating end is not time sensitive. For services such as voice and video, it is essential that the ATM cells arrive at the terminating end at specific times and in the proper order. One way of providing this capability is by creating switched virtual circuits between the switching entities on the ATM network. However, prior ways of creating switched virtual circuits has led to the loss of one or more cells during a transmission of cells. The loss of cells are lost in the switching fabric because of collisions when more than one cell attempts to exit on the same pipe at the same time. Since the cells are sent at random at the originating point, these collisions can occur quite frequently.
One aspect of the present invention regards a system for creating a switched virtual circuit that includes a switch that receives initial information and a connection management system that is electrically connected to the switch, wherein the switch sends a signal to the connection management system that contains information as to the proper connection for the initial information and wherein the connection management system creates a virtual circuit that will reconfigure and transmit the initial information in such a manner that no information is lost when the initial information is transmitted by the virtual circuit.
A second aspect of the present invention regards an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network that includes a switch that receives initial information that is in the form of one or more cells of information, wherein each cell comprises n number of bytes of information and a connection management system that is electrically connected to the switch, wherein the switch sends a signal to the connection management system that contains information as to the proper connection for the initial information and wherein the connection management system creates a virtual circuit based on the total number of cells necessary to meet the transfer rate of a call transmitting the initial information.
A third aspect of the present invention regards a method for creating a switched virtual circuit for information contained within a cell received from an initial virtual connection. The method includes the steps of determining the number n bytes of information contained within the cell and defining a megaframe of time to transmit the information, wherein the megaframe has a period T=n*p, where p is a predetermined period of time. The method further includes the steps of determining the number of cells C contained within the initial virtual connection, channelizing the initial virtual connection into C*n channels and transmitting the channelized information to a connection.
Each aspect of the present invention provides the advantage of creating a switched virtual circuit that will not only meet the arrival time and order requirements but will also insure that no cells are lost during the transmission.
Each aspect of the present invention provides the advantage of enhancing the management of an ATM network in that by assigning each cell a specific channel it is easier to know when more cells can be accepted into the network.
The foregoing features and advantages of the present invention will be further understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

System for creating switched virtual circuits to transport information over an ATM network


A duty cycle detection circuit may include a detection block configured to generate a duty detection signal by detecting a duty cycle of an input clock; and a current amount control block configured to control a current flowing through the detection block in response to the input clock, regardless of a variation in a frequency of the input clock.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments generally relate to a semiconductor apparatus, and more particularly, in one or more embodiments, to a duty cycle detection circuit and a semiconductor apparatus including the same.
2. Related Art
A synchronous semiconductor apparatus may be synchronized with a system bus. To put it another way, a synchronous semiconductor apparatus has a synchronous interface maintaining a fixed timing relationship between the synchronous semiconductor apparatus and another apparatus in the system, which is supposed to receive data outputted from the synchronous semiconductor apparatus, so that the data-receiving device can capture the data. A synchronous semiconductor apparatus uses a clock signal which is distributed throughout the system. Clock skew, however, occurs because the clock signal must be distributed using many transmission lines and transistors. Modern synchronous-communication systems with high data transmission rates may use delay-locked loop ("DLL") circuits or phase-locked loop ("PLL") to minimize data transmission errors due to clock skew.
Also, a semiconductor apparatus may include a duty cycle detection circuit for detecting the duty of a clock signal.
The duty cycle detection circuit may detect the duty cycle of the clock signal, that is, the ratio of a rising period and a falling period.

Duty cycle detection circuit and semiconductor apparatus including the same


An improved zoom lens system includes at least three lens groups which are arranged, in order from the object side, as a first lens group having a positive focal length, a second lens group having a positive focal length and a third lens group having a negative focal length. When zooming is carried out from the wide angle to the telephoto end, the first, second and third lens group are all moved towards the object so that the distance between the first and second lens groups increases whereas the distance between the second and third lens groups decreases. The first lens group has a first lens element with a concave lens surface on the side the closest to object while satisfying specific conditions.

The present application is based upon Japanese Patent Application No. HEI 3 310288 filed Sep. 13, 1991, a disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a zoom lens system that is suitable for use with compact cameras which have a small constraint on back focus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a zoom lens system that features a high zoom ratio of 2.5 and more.
Various types of zoom lens systems have heretofore been known for use with compact cameras. Zoom lenses consisting of three lens groups or more with a zoom ratio exceeding 2 are categorized as follows:
(i) Four-group zoom lens systems comprising a positive first lens group, a negative second lens group, a stop diaphragm disposed behind the second lens group, as well as a positive third lens group and a negative fourth lens group, all lens groups being moved independently of each other towards the object (this type includes a system where some of the four lens groups are moved in unison). Examples of such zoom lens systems are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications No. SHO 63-43115, No. SHO 63-159818 and No. SHO63-157120. PA1 (ii) Three-group zoom lens systems comprising a positive first lens group, a positive second lens group (which includes a stop diaphragm and comprises a negative sub-group 2a disposed closer to the object than the diaphragm and a positive sub-group 2b disposed closer to the image plane than the diaphragm and which is equivalent to the second and third lens groups of the four-group zoom lens system (i)), and a negative third lens group (which is equivalent to the fourth group of the four-group zoom lens system (i)), all lens groups being moved independently of each other towards the object. Examples of this zoom lens system are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications No. SHO 63-153511 and No. SHO 63-161423. PA1 (iii) Three-group zoom lens systems comprising a positive first lens group, a positive second lens group (as in the system (ii), this positive lens group comprises, in order from the object side, a negative sub-group 2a and a positive sub-group 2b but no stop diaphragm is included), a stop diaphragm disposed behind the second lens group, as well as a negative third lens group with all lens groups being moved towards the object (see, for example, commonly assigned Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 2-73211). PA1 the radius of curvature of the surface on the object side of the first lens element in the first lens group; and PA1 r12: PA1 the radius of curvature of the surface on the image plane side of the first lens element in the first lens group.
(iv) A practically four-group zoom lens system that is the same as the system (iii) except that the sub-groups 2a and 2b are moved independently of each other (see Example 3 in the specification of commonly assigned Japanese Patent Application No. SHO 63-225294, supra).
The above-described conventional zoom lens systems have their own problems. In the system (i), all of the four lens groups have to be moved independently of each other, so a large number of cams must be used in a restricted small space, causing difficulty in designing an effective mechanical composition.
In the systems (i) and (ii), the stop diaphragm is disposed between the sub-groups 2a and 2b (in the case of the four-group type, the stop diaphragm is disposed between the second and third lens groups); however, the shutter block also serving as a stop diaphragm must be disposed between the two lens groups which are subject to substantial deterioration in performance due to any manufacturing errors, so the overall lens arrangement will become complex, making it difficult to insure high mechanical precision. In addition, the high optical sensitivity of either system has made it difficult to achieve stabilization in optical performance.
Further, all systems (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) have one problem in common; that is, the overall compactness of those systems is insufficient for using them with a compact camera and this is because the negative first lens element has a concave surface of such a large curvature on the image plane side that the overall length of the first lens group is increased, which is unfavorable for the purpose of reducing the lens diameter and the overall length of the entire lens system.
The present invention has been accomplished under these circumstances and has as an object providing a zoom lens system for use with a compact camera that is particularly improved in the first lens group to achieve a high zoom ratio of 2.5 and more. Another object of the present invention is to provide a zoom lens system suitable for use with a compact camera that successfully achieves reduction in the lens diameter and the overall lens length.


A circuit-terminal connecting device comprising an electrical connector having an insulated housing mounted on a main circuit board and a plurality of resilient contacts arranged on the insulated housing, and a flat circuit member having a reinforced portion attached to a reinforcing board member operative to engage with the insulated housing of the electrical connector, wherein each of the resilient contacts has a board connecting portion provided to be connected to a first circuit-terminal provided on the main circuit board, a fixable portion provided to be fixed to the insulated housing, and a resilient arm portion extending from the fixable portion and provided with a contact point for coming into press-contact with a second circuit-terminal provided on the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member and a locking portion for engaging with the reinforcing board member to lock the same.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a circuit-terminal connecting device, and more particularly to an improvement in a circuit-terminal connecting device used for connecting first circuit-terminals provided on a mail circuit board with second circuit-terminals provided on a flat circuit member, such as a flexible printed circuit board (hereinafter, referred to as an FPC), which is mounted on the main circuit board to be electrically coupled with the main circuit board.
2. Description of the Prior Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98
There has been proposed, for the purpose of saving a space in an electronic apparatus, to lay a flat circuit member, such as a relatively small-sized FPC, on top of a main circuit board on which various electrical or electronic parts are mounted when the flat circuit member is electrically coupled with the main circuit board in the electronic apparatus. Such an electrical coupling between the main circuit board and the flat circuit member wherein the flat circuit member is laid on top of the main circuit board is hereinafter referred to as an electrical piled coupling.
There have been also previously proposed several means for connecting a plurality of circuit-terminals provided on a flat circuit member, such as an FPC, respectively with a plurality of another circuit-terminals provided on a main circuit board in a condition wherein the main circuit board and the flat circuit member are put in the electrical piled coupling. With one of such means previously proposed, there has been constituted a circuit-terminal connecting structure in which an electrical connector having an insulated housing is mounted on a main circuit board, a flat circuit member is provided with a reinforced portion attached to a reinforcing board, and the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member attached to the reinforcing board is directly engaged with the insulated housing of the electrical connector so that a plurality of circuit-terminals provided on the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member are connected respectively with a plurality of circuit-terminals provided on the main circuit board, as disclosed in, for example, the Japanese patent application published before examination under publication number HEI 6-68940 (hereinafter, referred to as a published prior art document 1).
In the circuit-terminal connecting structure disclosed in the published prior art document 1, an electrical connector (a connector (3)) having an insulated housing (an insulator (30)) provided to be fixed to a main circuit board (a printed circuit board) is mounted on the main circuit board and a flat circuit member (an FPC cable (1)) has a reinforced portion thereof which is reinforced with a reinforcing board member (2). The insulated housing (30) of the electrical connector (3) is provided with a board member holding portion on which a plurality of contacts (33) are arranged and by which the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) is held. A pair of board member locking portions (locking members (37)) are provided to stand respectively at a pair of end portions of the board holding portion in a direction along which the contacts (33) are arranged (a contact-arrangement direction) so that the contacts (33) are arranged between the board member locking portions (37) opposite to each other. An engaging hole (37a) is formed on each of the board member locking portions (37).
The reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) is provided with a plurality of circuit-terminal s arranged on a lower surface thereof and the reinforcing board member (2) attached to an upper surface thereof. The reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) with its lower surface on which the circuit-terminals are arranged is held, together with the reinforcing board member (2) attached thereto, by the board member holding portion of the insulated housing (30) of the electrical connector (3). The reinforcing board member (2) is provided with a pair of projections (engaging projections (23) formed respectively at a pair of end portions thereof in its longitudinal direction extending to be coincide with the contact-arrangement direction when the reinforcing board member (2) is held by the board member holding portion of the insulated housing (30).
When the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) with the reinforcing board member (2) attached to the upper surface of the reinforced portion is held by the board member holding portion of the insulated housing (30) of the electrical connector (3), the contacts (33) arranged on the board member holding portion of the insulated housing (30) and soldered respectively to a plurality of circuit-terminal s of the main circuit board are caused to come into resilience-contact with the circuit-terminals arranged on the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1). Further, the projections (23) formed at the end portions of the reinforcing board member (2) attached to the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) are put in engagement respectively with the engaging holes (37a) formed on the board member locking portions (37) standing respectively at the end portions of the board holding portion. Thereby, the end portions in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member (2) are locked respectively by the board member locking portions (37) so that it is expected that a condition wherein the contacts (33) arranged on the board member holding portion of the electrical connector (3) are put in resilience-contact with the circuit-terminals arranged on the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) is stably maintained.
When the end portions in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member (2) are locked respectively by the board member locking portions (37) as described above in the circuit-terminal connecting structure disclosed in the published prior art document 1, the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) and the reinforcing board member (2) attached thereto are resiliently pushed up from the side of the lower surface of the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) by the contacts (33) arranged on the board member holding portion of the insulated housing (30) of the electrical connector (3). Thereby, it is feared that the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) and the reinforcing board member (2) attached thereto are compulsorily curved so that a middle portion between the end portions in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member (2) protrudes to go away from the board member holding portion of the insulated housing (30). If the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) and the reinforcing board member (2) attached thereto are practically subjected to a condition to be curved as mentioned above, for example, the circuit-terminals arranged on the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) are adversely affected by the curve brought about on the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (1) and the reinforcing board member (2) attached thereto.
Accordingly, there has been further previously proposed an improved circuit-terminal connecting structure which is able to avoid the disadvantages accompanied with the above-described circuit-terminal connecting structure disclosed in the published prior art document 1, as disclosed in, for example, the Japanese patent application published before examination under publication number 2012-252912 (hereinafter, referred to as a published prior art document 2).
In the circuit-terminal connecting structure disclosed in the published prior art document 2, when a reinforced portion of a flat circuit member (a FPC cable (301)) is held, together with a reinforcing board member (a reinforcing board (304)), by a board member holding portion of an insulated housing (a housing (102)) of an electrical connector (a flat cable connector (101)) mounted on a main circuit board (a circuit board (201)), a pair of end portions in a longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member (304) are locked respectively by a pair of board member locking portions (locking portions (103)) provided on the insulated housing (102). Under such a condition, a plurality of contacts (contacts (105)) arranged on the board member holding portion of the insulated housing (102) of the electrical connector (101) along the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member (304) and soldered respectively to a plurality of circuit-terminal s of the main circuit board (201) are caused to come into resilient-contact with a plurality of circuit-terminals (terminals (302A)) arranged on the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (301). Thereby, the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (301) and the reinforcing board member (304) attached thereto are resiliently pushed up from the side of a lower surface of the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (301) by the contacts (105) arranged on the board member holding portion of the insulated housing (102) under the condition wherein the end portions in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member (304) are locked respectively by the board member locking portions (103) provided on the insulated housing (102).
The reinforcing board member (304) attached to the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (301) is provided, at one of side ends each extending in a longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member (304), with a bent portion (an engaging projection (304E)) spreading over the side ends. The bent portion (304E) is operative to prevent the reinforcing board member (304) from being curved in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member (304). As a result, even if the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (301) and the reinforcing board member (304) attached thereto are resiliently pushed up from the side of the lower surface of the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (301) by the contacts (105) arranged on the board member holding portion of the insulated housing (102) under the condition wherein the end portions in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member (304) are locked respectively by the board member locking portions (103) provided on the insulated housing (102), the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member (301) and the reinforcing board member (304) attached thereto are prevented, by the bent portion (304E) provided at the side end of the reinforcing board member (304) to spread over the same, from being caused to curve in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member (304) so that a middle portion between the end portions in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member (304) is also prevented from protruding to go away from the board member holding portion of the insulated housing (102).
In the case of such a previously proposed circuit-terminal connecting structure used as disclosed in the published prior art document 2 in which the circuit-terminal s provided on the flat circuit member are caused to come into contact respectively with circuit-terminals provided on the main circuit board under the condition wherein the main circuit board and the flat circuit member are put in the electrical piled coupling, it is also desired to reduce as much as practicable a thickness of the electrical connector mounted on the main circuit board and therefore it is considered to make the insulated housing of the electrical connector relatively thin so that the electrical connector is subjected to reduction in thickness.
When the insulated housing of the electrical connector is made to be relatively thin so as to reduce the thickness of the electrical connector, the stiffness of the insulated housing is also reduced undesirably. Under a condition wherein the insulated housing of the electrical connector is made to be relatively thin, when the reinforcing board member attached to the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member is provided with the bent portion spreading over the side end extending in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member and thereby the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member and the reinforcing board member attached thereto are prevented, by the bent portion provided at the side end of the reinforcing board member, from being caused to curve in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member so that the middle portion between the end portions in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member is also prevented from protruding to go away from the board member holding portion of the insulated housing even if the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member and the reinforcing board member attached thereto are resiliently pushed up from the side of the lower surface of the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member by the contacts arranged on the board member holding portion of the insulated housing under the condition wherein the end portions in the longitudinal direction of the reinforcing board member are locked respectively by the board member locking portions provided on the insulated housing, a resilient press-force caused to act on the reinforced portion of the flat circuit member and the reinforcing board member attached thereto by the contacts arranged on the board member holding portion of the insulated housing brings about a reactive force acting on the insulated housing. With such a reactive force thus brought about, it is feared that the insulated housing with its stiffness undesirably reduced is compulsorily curved so that a middle portion between a pair of end portions of the insulating housing opposite to each other in a longitudinal direction of the insulating housing along which the contacts are arranged protrudes to go away from the flat circuit member and the reinforcing board member attached thereto.
In the case where the insulated housing with its stiffness undesirably reduced is compulsorily curved in such a manner as mentioned above, an undesirable stress is inflicted on soldering portions on the main circuit board at which the contacts arranged on the insulated housing are soldered respectively to the circuit-terminals provided on the main circuit board and thereby it is feared that undesirable cracks are brought about on the soldering portions.


A system and method for card control includes a card control computing system configured to enforce a card control rule based upon transactions made with a payment card. The card control computing system includes a memory unit configured to store information associated with a card control dashboard, and a processing unit configured to cause presentation of the card control dashboard via a display associated with a remote computing device, such that the card control dashboard is associated with the payment card and the card control rule. The card control dashboard includes a user interface. The processing unit is further configured to receive an input via the user interface to activate or deactivate one or more features associated with the card control rule, and trigger the card control rule based upon the one or more features that are activated or deactivated.

Payment cards, such as credit cards and debits cards, are used commonly to make a variety of purchases. Due to the widespread use of payment cards, unauthorized use and payment card fraud are also on the rise. While various fraud prevention mechanisms are used to protect users against unauthorized use and fraud, such mechanisms often provide after-the-fact protection and cause the users' payment card to be canceled and re-issued. While other mechanisms may operate more proactively to prevent a fraudulent transaction before it happens, these fraud prevention mechanisms are often still inconvenient for the users.


An improved 3He nuclear reactor with provision for direct electric conversion of a relativistic proton stream into useable electric power at a voltage level compatible with the national power grid (one million V DC). Various embodiments include multiple collector cages for extracting relativistic protons of various energy levels, diverter wires for deflecting high-energy proton streams to either side of lower energy cages to avoid unwanted impact. Other embodiments include arrangements for dividing multi-megavolt voltages down to a useable one megavolt level compatible with the national power grid. Further embodiments comprise guiding the proton stream by the cusps of magnetron cavities to permit conversion of the relativistic proton energies into microwave power. A proposal is also made for harvesting 3He from the Moon to supply earth-bound and space-bound reactors. A solution to the problem of charging a potential well-forming anode in an electrostatic fusion reactor without electrical arcing is further disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical current generation from nuclear fusion. More particularly, the invention concerns improvements in a Helium-3 (3He) fusion device, and particularly a (3He—3He) fusion device with electrostatic reaction confinement.
2. Description of Prior Art
By the year 2050 AD, the Earth may have run out of all economically recoverable fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas. There should still be plenty of coal, but only if mankind is willing to put up with its associated greenhouse gasses. Also, there may be no place to put the toxic residues of present nuclear fission reactors. West Valley N.Y. doesn't want them and neither does Nevada. Worse yet, in 2050 AD all the alternate sources of energy, like hydroelectric, wind, wood, tidal, geothermal and solar, will not supply even 25% of the energy mankind will need to feed the 10 billion people that will populate Earth by that time.
Present day nuclear fission reactors operate like a slow atomic ("A") bomb, splitting heavy plutonium or uranium atoms into smaller elements and giving off power. American and Russian nuclear engineers and physicists have succeeded in slowing down the fission reaction to produce useful power, as exemplified by Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl, (a mixed blessing!). Others have accomplished this more successfully. France generates a significant part of its energy requirements from fission reactors and has achieved a perfect safety record. Their reactors are all of the same design and are run by nuclear engineers. In the U.S., the reactors are built differently and their operation is left mostly to technicians. But France still has the same problem that the U.S. has in regard to the disposal of the toxic residues.
Mankind may have no alternative but to develop the ability to harness useful energy from nuclear fusion. To date, however, it has not been feasible to produce a controlled, sustainable nuclear fusion reaction, at least not to the point of producing useful power. Nuclear fusion devices must operate like a slow hydrogen ("H") bomb, fusing light weight atoms such as hydrogen or helium.
Present nuclear fusion devices are classified by the methods used to support the nuclear fusion reaction, which takes place at a temperature much hotter than the surface of the Sun. No container on Earth can hold it. The reaction must therefore be suspended by either electromagnetic, gravitational (inertial) or electrostatic fields.
A fusion device known as the "TOKAMAK" at Princeton, N.J. operates by magnetic confinement in a huge 250 ton supercooled electromagnet. The electromagnet exquisitely controls and shapes a magnetic field, which physically supports the reaction. As far as known, the TOKAMAK device has never operated longer than a few seconds at a time and the federal government has withdrawn its support.
With inertial confinement, hundreds of powerful lasers are pointed concentrically at a gold capsule containing a small amount of hydrogen. The pressure and the temperature of the capsule are raised to fusion levels and produce a burst of energy. This process must then be repeated, perhaps 100 times per second, to provide a reasonably continuous flow of power. Two such devices exist in the USA, one in Rochester, N.Y. and one in Livermore, Calif. As far as known, neither has ever approached "break-even" in power generation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,646 of Bussard, the contents of which are incorporated herein by this reference, discloses a fusion device using electrostatic confinement of the reaction. The fusion reaction is confined by electrostatic forces in a large potential well within a vacuum chamber. The potential well is created by confining electrons using a quasi-spherical-cusp magnetic field to form a highly negatively charged virtual anode. Positive ions, such as Deuterium (D), Tritium (T), and/or 3He are introduced into the vacuum chamber and pulled into the well, where they have an opportunity to fuse according to fusion reactions involving D-T, D-D, and D-3He.
Dr. Gerald Kulcinski and co-investigators at the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin/Madison are seeking to demonstrate nuclear fusion energy using inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) and combinations of 3He and D ion starting materials. The fusion reaction is confined in a 1000 pound cylindrical aluminum vacuum chamber. This chamber has an inner diameter of 91 cm and an inner height of 65 cm. It contains a pair of concentric, tungsten alloy spherical grids with a very strong electrostatic field inside them. The outer grid is 45 cm in diameter and is grounded. The inner grid is 10 cm in diameter and is connected to a large negative potential via a ceramic insulated electrode that feeds through a small opening in the vacuum chamber. When positive ions (e.g., 3He or D ions) are introduced into the vacuum chamber, they fall into the potential well created by the electrostatic field within the grids and oscillate backwards and forward at increasing speed until two ions collide, fusing into a 4He ion and releasing high energy protons.
This device has been used to successfully demonstrate D-3He and D-D fusion with significant high-velocity proton generation at 40 kV acceleration voltages across the two grids. Although these are significant achievements, no provision has been made to recover useful energy from the device in excess of the input power required to sustain the reactions. Moreover, as far as known, the foregoing device has produced no successful reaction based on the fusion of two 3He ions into one 4He ion with the release of a stream of high velocity protons in the 1 to 10 MeV range. To achieve 3He—3He fusion will require a 200 kV grid voltage. However, the investigators at the Fusion Technology Institute have not been able to use voltages over 80 kV because of arcing between the ceramic insulated electrode and the vacuum chamber. A fusion reaction using 3He alone would be desirable because the fuel (He-3) is non-radioactive, the process is non-radioactive, and the residue (He-4) is non-radioactive. In fact, the residue, He-4, is used to inflate childrens' balloons. Thus, He-3 may be the perfect fuel for fusion-based nuclear reactions. On the other hand, the D-3He and D-D fusion reaction generates a steady stream of neutrons, protons, electrons, helium-4 (He-4), tritium, gamma and x-rays.
Accordingly, improvements are indicated in the construction and implementation of fusion devices.


An apparatus and method for exercising muscles of a body part, especially the neck, waist, torso, legs, and glutes from any angle with variable resistance while taking up minimal floor space. The apparatus improves the ability of athletes, including football players and wrestlers, to better prepare for contact from any angle while engaged in their sport. The apparatus includes a ring having a guide track therein. Another inner ring may also be provided in different sizes and shapes to accommodate a variety of users. A car connected to a source of resistance rides freely along the guide track. The source of resistance may be other gym equipment including a bungee cord, a cable cross over machine, springs, and the like. As the user freely exercises by moving the body part the car adapts to the user's position to facilitate a full range of motion.

Traditional gym equipment for exercising, and available equipment for exercising the neck, legs, and gluteus maximus, in particular, takes up a large amount of floor space which can be very valuable in a gym environment. Gym space must be bought or leased and more space taken up by one piece of equipment limits the number of other pieces of equipment that may fit into the gym. The total amount of equipment available in turn limits the number of people that can comfortably workout at the same time and this can influence the optimal number of memberships sold. Equipment that takes up little floor space provides advantages of being able to fit more equipment into the gym so that more people can workout simultaneously and more memberships may be sold, increasing revenues for the fitness club.
Most gyms offer some form of group exercise classes which tend to be particularly popular to keep people motivated. New varieties of group exercise classes are continually emerging in an effort to keep exercise fun and interesting. Some types of group exercise classes provide some equipment with which the individual class members each work with independently while following a class instructor. For example, there are aerobic step classes in which each member has a step to work with and other strength training classes in which each member has a set of weights. For group classes incorporating some work with gym equipment, given the potentially large number of attendees or class members it is desirable to have reasonably priced equipment for class members to use that provides a myriad of exercise possibilities so that the class instructor can be creative and provide an effective workout.
Traditional gym machines for exercising the neck, legs, gluteus maximus, and other body parts are not ideal because they only workout the body part at limited angles with a limited range of motion. In many sports, especially contact sports like football, athletes may be subjected to force from any angle. Accordingly, exercise machines that only exercise the neck, legs, gluteus maximus, or other body part at limited angles do not adequately prepare and protect the athlete for the often unpredictable environment to which they are subjected on the playing field.
The cervical spine and muscles of the neck of the human body are extremely complex, such that the movement of the head with respect to the body requires an integrated movement of many muscles in coordination with the articulation of the cervical spine. As such, many people suffer from conditions resulting from improper orientation of the cervical spine, imbalance of the posterior cervical muscles and compression of the spine. These conditions may result from faulty or sustained postures, trauma, emotional stress and the like.
Indeed, many people exhibit a variety of discomforts caused by the misalignment of the cervical spine and imbalance of the associated muscles. For example, localized pain, headaches, decreased circulation and soreness, to name a few, decrease the quality of life of persons suffering from these conditions. These conditions have an associated cycle of pain and muscle contraction that leads to decreased function and potential soft tissue dysfunction.
The most common way to attempt to alleviate this pain is with medication. Another way to alleviate pain in this area is by strengthening and stretching the muscles in or around the head, neck, and shoulders. More specifically, the group of muscles targeted includes longissimus capitis, suboccipital, emispmalis capitis, longissimus cervicis and levator scapula. Free weights, dumbbells, and exercise/weight machines are known for building and training various muscles in the body. Despite the wide variety of exercise strengthening devices, neck muscle strengthening devices for strengthening the core muscles of the neck are not well known or widely used.
At some gyms the available floor equipment for exercising the legs and gluteus maximus is crowded and quickly filled. It is counterproductive to the goal of staying in motion to stand around waiting for desired equipment to become available.
It would be desirable to provide an apparatus for exercising the legs and gluteus maximus that an exerciser can use in an open space, empty studio, or at home, instead of waiting for gym floor equipment to become available, and that provides a greater number of possibilities for exercising the muscles from new angles to keep muscles continually challenged.
It would be desirable to provide an easy to use apparatus for strengthening and stretching the muscles of the head, neck, spine, shoulder, upper back, torso, legs, gluteus maximus, and others at any angle with variable resistance and variable size settings to accommodate a variety of users that takes up minimal space on a gym floor. It would also be desirable to provide a size-adjustable apparatus that takes up minimal floor space and can be interchangeably engaged with various sources of resistance for exercising a selected body part at any angle, including the chest, back, oblique side muscles, torso, abdominals, arms, legs, gluteus maximus, and any other body part. The present invention meets these and other needs.

Exercise ring for improving strength and flexibility of a body part


Provided are methods of suppressing complement alternative pathway in a mammalian subject in need thereof, comprising administering to said subject a therapeutically effective amount of C1q and tumor necrosis factor related protein 6 (CTRP6) or a functional analog thereof.

The complement system is an enzyme cascade by serine proteases that mainly assists in defense against infection. The complement system bridges innate immunity and adaptive immunity by amplifying antibody responses and immune memory, lysing foreign cells, removing immune complexes and apoptotic cells, and the like. Many complement components are proteins present as inert zymogens in the serum and play a role in a number of biological functions (chemotactic stimulation, induction of IgE-independent degranulation of mast cells, and the like). Three pathways, the classical pathway, lectin pathway, and alternative pathway, are known in complement activation.
In the classical pathway, the starting point of activation is the interaction of the complement component C1 protein and an antigen-IgM complex or antigen-IgG complex. The lectin pathway (mannose-binding lectin pathway) is activated independent of antibodies by bonding of mannose-binding lectin with mannose groups on the bacterial cell wall, following an activation pathway similar to that of the classical pathway. The alternative pathway is a pathway in which C3 (H2O) produced by adventitious hydrolysis is activated by factor B and factor D. It is spontaneously activated all the time, but is controlled by factor H, factor I, and other such control factors.
All three of the above pathways finally merge into a common pathway. This common pathway begins with C3 convertase cleaving C3 protein into C3a and C3b. The cleavage of C3 promotes the formation of membrane attack complexes that dissolve foreign cells, and the like.
The C1q molecule is the target recognition protein of the classical pathway. The C1q molecule is a heterocomplex constructed from chain A, chain B, and chain C and has a globular domain (gC1q domain) that recognizes the target. Each chain has a short N-terminal region followed by a collagen-like region (CLR), with a gC1q domain located on the C-terminal side of the collagen-like region (Non-patent Reference 1).
Many non-complement proteins having a similar structure to the gC1q domain (also referred to simply as "C1q domain" in this specification) of the C1q molecule are also known. There is a protein group called the C1QTNF superfamily based on the similarity of the tertiary structure of the gC1q domain to TNF. The CTRP (C1QTNF-related protein) family is part of this superfamily as a subfamily especially similar to complement C1q. Seventeen CTRP members have been found in humans.
CTRP1 is a protein discovered as a protein related to the G-protein-coupled receptor. It is expressed mainly in the heart and has a strong anti-troponin effect. CTRP6 and CTRP8 are homologs of CTRP1 and have similar domain structures, but differ in intron-exon pattern. CTRP2 and CTRP7 are thought to belong to the same subfamily based on sequence homology, similarity of domain structure, and intron-exon pattern. CTRP3 is known to promote the differentiation and growth of cartilage cells. CTRP4 alone among this group has one or more C1q domains. CTRP5 was discovered as a protein related to late-onset retinal degeneration and is expressed mainly in the retinal pigment epithelium, liver, lung, brain, and placenta (Patent Reference 1).
Since CTRP1 manifests a strong effect in the prevention of artery blockage and platelet activation, as was mentioned above, and its administration apparently does not induce any bleeding complications, it may be clinically useful in the treatment of various conditions associated with vascular damage, including coronary angioplasty, intimal resection of the carotid artery, and stroke (Patent Reference 2).
However, no relationship between CTRP6 and autoimmune disease due to complement activation is predicted in any of the prior art.

CTRP6 which can be used as therapeutic and prophylactic agent for autoimmune diseases


A plasma display panel (PDP) which can realize low voltage driving, to thus reduce power consumption, and which can improve luminous efficiency through a long gap. The PDP includes a first substrate and a second substrate opposing each other, barrier ribs arranged in a space between the first substrate and the second substrate to define a plurality of discharge cells, phosphor layers formed in each of the plurality of discharge cells, address electrodes formed on the second substrate, and display electrodes provided on the first substrate. The display electrodes include igniter electrodes having ends protruding towards insides of the discharge cells, the igniter electrodes opposing the address electrodes within the discharge cells.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel (PDP) for display an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a PDP is a display device in which vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) rays emitted from the plasma generated by gas discharge excite phosphors to emit red, green, and blue visible light and thereby realize predetermined images. The PDP can provide a large-scale screen of more than 60 inches with a thickness of less than 10 centimeters. Since the PDP is a self emission display device, it typically has no distortion due to view angle and has outstanding color reproduction. Moreover, its manufacturing process is simpler than that of an LCD, so the PDP has advantages in productivity and cost. Accordingly, the PDP has been highlighted for televisions and flat panel displays for industrial purposes.
In a typical AC PDP, address electrodes are formed along one direction on a rear substrate, and a dielectric layer is formed on an entire surface of the rear substrate, covering the address electrodes. Over the dielectric layer, a plurality of barrier ribs are formed in a stripe pattern between each of the address electrodes, and red, green and blue phosphor layers are formed between each of the barrier ribs.
Further, display electrodes having a pair of transparent electrodes and a pair of bus electrodes, are typically formed in a direction intersecting the address electrodes on a surface of a front substrate opposing the rear substrate. A dielectric layer and an MgO protective layer are formed sequentially covering the display electrodes.
Discharge cells are defined in the region where the address electrodes on the rear substrate intersect a pair of the display electrodes on the front substrate.
In the aforementioned PDP, more than a million matrix type discharge cell units are arranged. To simultaneously drive matrix type discharge cells of an AC PDP, a memory characteristic is used which will be described in more detail below.
In order to induce discharge between an X electrode and a Y electrode, forming a pair of display electrodes, a potential difference of not less than a predetermined critical voltage is required. The predetermined critical voltage is referred to a firing voltage Vf. An address voltage Va is applied between the Y electrode and the address electrode, and the discharge occurs forming plasma within discharge cells. This occurs because electrons and ions in the plasma shift toward electrodes with opposite polarities, thereby permitting the flow of electric current.
Dielectric layers are formed on the respective electrodes of the AC PDP. Most of the charge carriers (for example, electrons or ions) are deposited on whichever of the dielectric layers has polarity opposite that of the charge carrier. The net potential between the Y electrode and the address electrode is smaller than the originally applied address voltage Va, so that the discharge becomes weak, resulting in dissipation of address discharge. In such a case, a relatively small amount of electrons is deposited on the X electrode, while a relatively large amount of ions is deposited on the Y electrode. The charge deposited on the dielectric layer covering the X and Y electrodes is a wall charge Qw. A space voltage formed between the X and the Y electrodes due to the wall charge is a wall voltage Vw.
Subsequently, when a predetermined voltage, that is, a discharge sustain voltage Vs, is applied between the X electrode and the Y electrode of the selected discharge cell, plasma discharge is effected when the sum of the discharge sustain voltage Vs and the wall voltage Vw, that is, (Vs+Vw), exceeds a discharge firing voltage Vf. Accordingly, vacuum ultraviolet rays (VUVs) are emitted from discharge gas excited by plasma discharge. The VUVs excite phosphors so that they emit visible light through the transparent front substrate.
However, if any address discharge is not induced between the Y electrode and the address electrode, that is, if the address voltage Va is not applied thereto, no wall charge is deposited between the X and Y electrodes. As a result, no wall voltage exists between the X and Y electrodes. In such a case, only the discharge sustain voltage Vs applied between the X and Y electrodes is made within the discharge cell. Since the discharge sustain voltage Vs is lower than the firing voltage Vf, the gas space between the X and Y electrodes may not cause the discharge.
The PDP driven in the above-described manner undergoes several operational steps from inputting of power to finally obtaining of visible light. In this regard, on the one hand, in order to initiate sustain discharge, the X and Y electrodes are required to be rather close to each other or a considerably high sustain discharge voltage needs to be applied thereto. On the other hand, in order to increase the luminous efficiency through excitation of phosphor layers formed on discharge cells, a long gap must be maintained throughout the area where sustain discharge takes place.


A fuselage structure including an upper fuselage portion defined by a first cross-section including at least three different radii of curvature. The fuselage structure may also include a lower fuselage portion defined by a second cross-section including at least three different radii of curvature, wherein the first cross-section is different from the second cross-section.

The present invention relates to aircraft, aerospace vehicles or the like and more particularly to an optimized fuselage structure for an aircraft or aerospace vehicle.
Large aircraft fuselages are structurally designed to endure the effects of vehicle maneuvers in the air and on the ground. The altitude of vehicle flight requires that internal fuselage pressure is maintained at levels comfortable to pilots and passengers. Because of the combination of these loads, properties of aluminum material, and structural configuration (skin, stringer, and other structural members), circular cross-sectional fuselages have been the standard structure. However, circular cross-sectional designs may not provide the lowest possible drag and do not generate lift under any flight conditions. Additionally, circular fuselage cross-sections may not be the optimum for passenger seating, cargo containment, and rotational clearance for take-off and landing where circular cross-sectional fuselages may require longer landing gear for added clearance and thus add weight to the aircraft.


This invention relates to aqueous emulsions based on acrylic polymers and their use for preparing films to be used in processes of preparation of cathode ray tubes, having filming temperature between about 20.degree. and 40.degree. C. which after drying produce films which, submitted to heating in nitrogen atmosphere, have a weight loss, for films having a thickness of 1-2 mm, and for the following cycle of heating:. 11.degree. C./minute from 25.degree. to 375.degree. C., PA1 5.degree. C./minute from 375.degree. to 440.degree. C., PA1 isotherm at 440.degree. C. for 45 minutes, PA1 respectively of:. from 25.degree. to 245.degree. C. lower than 15% by weight PA2 from 245.degree. to 375.degree. C. from 30 to 70% by weight PA2 from 375.degree. to 440.degree. C. of 97-99% by weight PA2 after the isotherm at 440.degree. C. the remaining residue is lower than about 0.3% by weight, the curve gradient in the on set point ranging from 0.03 to 0.08 mg/.degree.K., and at 360.degree. C. from 0.12 to 0.30 mg/.degree.K.; the on set temperature being at most of 300.degree. C.

Filming methods utilizing solvent-based filming lakes are known, which, when deposited on a humid phosphor layer, produce a thin and continuous film on which a metal layer condenses by sputtering.
Such processes produce handmade articles having good characteristics, however they have the drawback of requiring the employment of solvent which must be subsequently evaporated and recovered to avoid environmental pollutions. The production plants need therefore units for the solvent recovery.
For this reason films deriving from drying of aqueous emulsions have been studied since long.
On the panel carrying the screen, the aqauecus emulsion deposits, which is dried by heating.
The purpose of this polymeric film is to remove the irregular surface of the phosphor particles forming the screen, and to provide a very uniform sublayer on which the sputtered metal then deposits in order to form a surface like a mirror to reflect the screen light.
Thanks to this polymeric film the metal does not penetrate into the screen below even though the phosphor particles can jut outside the film.
The screen then undergoes a treatment at high temperature from 400.degree.-450.degree. C. (the so called baked-out) to remove the polymeric film. The gaseous products of the polymeric film decomposition come out of the holes of the metal layer.
A drawback of this process consists in that the carbon residues deriving from the film decomposition lead to an insufficient gloss of the screen.
These processes require therefore an additional process of slow prebaking to completely remove all the organic materials.
Processes wherein sufficient amounts of air are used during baking to volatilize the acrylic polymer, are also known. See for instance U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,217,015 and 4,350,514.
This needs process changes for introducing air, leading to more expensive and complex processes.
Aqueous emulsions based on acrylic polymers capable of forming films for preparing cathode tubes are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,511. It is a process for manufacturing cathode tubes with only one step of film removal deriving from the emulsion simultaneously with the sealing of the cathode tube panel.
To this purpose it must be noticed that any filming acrylic emulsion cannot be employed in the process of the patent indicated from an industrial point of view. In fact tests carried out by the Applicant (see the examples hereafter) have shown that the emulsions based on acrylic esters utilized in said patent do not succeed in meeting industrial requirements, i.e., in useful times, compared with conventional processes. The necessary times for having the film decomposition are high. As a matter of fact said tests have shown that the decomposition of said acrylic polymers leaves also considerable organic residues, from about 0.5-2% by weight which are detrimental for the screens gloss.


An improved garbage disposal assembly with an apparatus and related method for selectively varying the sink-side appearance of the garbage disposal assembly. In its preferred embodiment, the apparatus of the present invention includes a decorative flange mask for covering a sink flange of a garbage disposal. A sink flange includes an open cylindrical body portion for insertion through a drainage hole of a sink bottom and an annular lip portion extending radially outward from one end of the cylindrical body portion for location above the sink bottom. The decorative flange mask, in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, includes an open cylindrical mask body for insertion into the cylindrical body portion of the sink flange and an annular mask lip connected to and extending radially outward from one end of the cylindrical mask body for covering the annular lip portion of the sink flange.

The present invention relates generally to the field of garbage disposals, and, in its most preferred embodiments, to the field of garbage disposal sink attachments.
Ordinary stainless steel sinks have existed for many years. More recently, sinks have become available in a variety of colors to match various kitchen interior designs. While colored sinks often enhance the appearance of a kitchen, an ordinary stainless steel sink flange of a garbage disposal frequently sticks out like a sore thumb when installed in a colored sink. The typical garbage disposal is supplied with an ordinary stainless steel sink flange. When installed, the ordinary stainless steel sink flange does not match the colored sink and, therefore, detracts from the overall appearance of the sink.
One method of achieving continuity in color between the sink and the disposal sink flange is to replace the ordinary stainless steel disposal sink flange with an appropriately colored replacement sink flange. There are, however, many problems related to this course of action. Many garbage disposal assemblies are relatively difficult to disassemble and reassemble with new sink flanges. Furthermore, many consumers are unable, or unwilling, to engage in a task which is usually quite unpleasant and requires an extensive amount of time. Therefore, the various problems relating to disassembling and reassembling garbage disposals render this option impractical for many people in many environments.
There is, therefore, a need in the industry for an apparatus which solves these and other related, an unrelated, problems.

Garbage disposal assembly with decorative sink flange mask


A spring steel wire that has a tensile strength of at least 2,000 N/mm.sup.2 and a surface roughness of not more than 5 .mu.m in terms of Rz, and a spring steel wire that consists essentially of from 0.5 to 0.8% by weight of C, from 1.2 to 2.5% by weight of Si, from 0.4 to 0.8% by weight of Mn, from 0.7 to 1.0% by weight of Cr, from 0.005 to 0.030% by weight of N and at least two elements selected from the group consisting of from 0.1 to 0.6% by weight of V, from 0.05 to 0.50% by weight of Mo and from 0.05 to 0.50% by weight of W, with the balance being Fe and incidental impurities containing not more than 0.005% by weight of Al and not more than 0.005% by weight of Ti, said wire having a surface roughness of not more than 5 .mu.m in terms of Rz, as well as production processes therefor.

Conventional techniques on springs having high fatigue-resisting characteristics have been described, e.g., in JP-A-4-367346 in which the surface of steel wires is electropolished or chemically polished so as to remove micro-defects on it, thereby improving the fatigue resistance or the wires. (The term "JP-A" as used herein means an unexamined published Japanese patent application.) This approach which involves electropolishing or chemically polishing the surface of spring steel wires is effective to a certain extent in improving the fatigue limit since the surface of the wires is made smooth. However, further improvements in the fatigue limit have been impossible on account of the low materials strength.
The present inventors have made an attempt to improve the fatigue resistance of a wire in which some kinds of elements for enhancing the strength of materials are added. However, the attempt at achieving high fatigue resistance by enhancing the materials strength has had the problem in that the increase in materials strength is accompanied by increasing defect sensitivity and that a micro-defect developing on the surface can propagate to cause flexural failure due to fatigue. Hence, it has been impossible to achieve improvement in the fatigue limit beyond a certain value.
The present invention has been accomplished under these circumstances.


A transcoder and a method of transcoding which reduces computational requirements without picture deterioration. A mode decision unit decides a mode of a scaled output macro block based on an area of the scaled macro block overlapped with a non-scaled macro block of a reference frame and a mode of the overlapped macro block. A motion vector decision unit decides a reference motion vector of the output macro block based on a motion vector with respect to the overlapped macro blocks. A picture quality preference mode selection unit receives a user picture quality preference command. A motion vector compensation unit compensates the motion vector of the output macro block based on the decided reference motion vector and the picture quality preference command.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transcoder and a method of transcoding, and more particularly to a transcoder for deciding a mode and a motion vector in a transcoding mode and a method of deciding a motion vector in a transcoding mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
A motion picture signal has a vast amount of data, thus data is transmitted or recorded after compression coding the motion picture signal and converting the motion picture signal into a bit stream. As one compression coding method, International Standards Organization (ISO) 11172 Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is usually used.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional transcoder. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional transcoder comprises a VLD (variable length decoder) 101, IQs (inverse quantizers) 103a and 103b, IDCTs (inverse discrete cosine transformers) 105a and 105b, adders 107a and 107b, MCs (motion compensators) 109a and 109b, a subtractor 111, a DCT (discrete cosine transformer) 113, a quantizer 115, a VLC (variable length coder) 117, and a motion vector information transformer 119.
The VLD 101 reduces an entire amount of data flow by marking frequently generated data as a short sign and data not frequently generated as a relatively long sign. As an I picture, the VLD 101 reduces a considerable amount of bits in a picture that is constructed with only DCT coefficients. The VLD 101 performs Huffman coding for further reducing the amount of the bits.
The IQ 103a inverse quantizes the DCT coefficients coded by the VLD 101. The IQ 103a transmits the inverse quantized DCT coefficients to the IDCTs 105a. The IDCT 105a provides an estimation error signal, which is gained by inverse DCT converting the inverse quantized DCT coefficients, to the adder 107a. The adder 107a adds the estimation error signal input to the adder 107a and an MC estimation signal provided by the MC 109a. The 'estimation' means calculating a difference of pixel data between a frame and a field. In other words, a macro block having a best match data on a current frame and field and a macro block on a preceding frame and field is searched for, and a motion direction of the searched for macro block is detected by a motion vector.
From the input motion vector, the MC 109a estimates the motion compensation from the preceding frame or plural preceding frames by the order of coding, and transmits the MC estimation signal to the adder 107a. The adder 107a adds the input estimation error signal and the MC estimation signal, and transmits the added signal to the subtractor 111 via the integer scaler 110. The subtractor 111 subtracts a second MC estimation signal from the scaled estimation error signal, and provides a resulting estimation error signal as an input to the DCT 113. The DCT 113 DCT converts the input estimation error signal, and provides the gained DCT coefficients to the quantizer 115. The quantizer 115 quantizes the input DCT coefficients. The quantizer 115 provides the quantized DCT coefficients to the VLC 117 and at the same time to the IQ 103b. The IQ 103b inverse quantizes the input DCT coefficients. The IQ 103b provides the inverse quantized DCT coefficients to the IDCT 105b. The IDCT 105b inverse DCT converts the input DCT coefficients, and provides an estimation error signal as an input to the adder 107b. The adder 107b adds the input estimation error signal and the estimation signal, and provides the gained signal to the MC 109b. From the input motion vector, the MC 109b estimates the motion compensation from the preceding frame or the plural preceding frames by the order of the coding. That is, the MC 109b calculates an input motion vector with respect to consecutively input images, i.e., frames, and estimates a motion compensation based on the calculated motion vector. The order of the coding means an order of the input image signals being processed by the MC 109b. The MC 109b provides the gained estimation signal to the subtractor 111 and at the same time to the adder 107b. The VLC 117 variable length codes the input picture coding type, the motion vector, and the quantized DCT coefficients, and outputs a gained bit stream. The motion vector information transformer 119 transforms a value (MOTION VECTOR INFORMATION) provided by the VLD 101 to an appropriate form useable by a coder.
However, the conventional transcoder only supports for scaling 2N multiples or integral number multiples to re-use the motion vector from the input bit stream. Therefore, since the conventional transcoder, as shown in FIG. 2, does not consider scaling of non-integral number multiples, there is a shortcoming that the conventional transcoder is not suitable for an application of the transcoder that supports various resolutions. In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the conventional transcoder considers only the motion vector in a motion estimation to reduce computational complexities, but does not consider computational requirements for deciding a macro block mode, thus application of the conventional transcoder is limited.