In a case where a weighted mean value is calculated by calculating weights according to a degree of similarity based on a target pixel, the mean value is affected by noise included in the target pixel. The mean value thereby converges at a value different from a true pixel value without noise and this appears as a remaining noise. To solve this problem, an output value of the target pixel is determined based on a correlation established among a weighted mean value of multiple reference pixels, a pixel value of the target pixel, and the true value of the target pixel.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method. To be more specific, the present invention relates to a technique of reducing noise in image data.
Description of the Related Art
The sensitivity of a camera is desired to be increased from those of conventional ones to capture darker scenes and subjects moving at a higher speed than before. However, since increasing the sensitivity of a camera increases noise, a noise reduction process for attenuating noise at a greater degree is required. In a case where the noise reduction process is performed by simple averaging or the like, the resolution of an image deteriorates. In view of this, techniques for reducing noise while preserving edges and textures are laid open (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-245977 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-536662). In these noise reduction techniques, a weighted mean value is calculated by calculating similarity between a target pixel for which noise is to be reduced and each of reference pixels around the target pixel, and then determining a weight according to the similarity. Then, the value of the target pixel is determined by using the weighted mean value.
However, in a case where the weighted mean value is calculated by calculating the weight according to the similarity based on the target pixel as described above, the mean value is affected by the noise included in the pixel value of the target pixel itself. Hence, such a technique has a problem that the weighted mean value converges not at a true pixel value of the target pixel but at a value different from the true pixel value without noise, even if the number of reference pixels is increased, and this appears as remaining noise.

Image processing apparatus and method to perform noise reduction on an image and determine an output pixel value


An organosiloxane-modified novolak resin comprising structural units having formula (1) wherein R1 is an organosiloxy group having a monovalent C1-C10 hydrocarbon group bonded to silicon, and R2 is H or C1-C4 alkyl or alkoxy. The resin has high heat resistance and high strength inherent to novolak resins and low stress inherent to organosilicon compounds.

A variety of silicone-modified novolak resins are known in the art. Many documents including JP-A S58-122922, for example, describe novolak resins in which phenolic hydroxyl groups are silicone modified. With these structures, the characteristics of silicone compounds are outstandingly exerted because the characteristic of phenolic hydroxyl group which is one of characteristics of novolak resins is excluded. Another class of silicone-modified novolak resins includes siloxane-modified novolak resins having a conjugated double bond as described in JP-A H03-97710. Since the siloxane modifier used in this document is an organopolysiloxane having hydrosilyl groups at both ends, intramolecular and/or intermolecular bonds are formed, posing limits to molecular motion. In addition, since the resin has a conjugated double bond and an epoxy group within a molecule, the low stress characteristic of silicone is compromised despite good mechanical properties after final curing. Also, novolak type phenolic resins which are silicone modified by block copolymerization are known from JP-A H05-59175, for example. Since they are obtained from copolymerization of telechelic novolak resin with telechelic polysiloxane, they have the drawbacks that preparation of such intermediates is cumbersome, and the alkali dissolution rate is slow because of the structure containing polysiloxane in the backbone. It would be desirable to have a novolak resin having a high alkali dissolution rate and low stress.

Organosiloxane-modified novolak resin and making method


The demodulator of this invention is directed toward improving S/N ratio of the demodulator resulting from increase in the peak value of a received signal due to fading. The demodulator is composed of a roll-off filter (not shown), variable amplifier 16, multiplier 10, compressor 11, variable dynamic range analog/digital converter 12, transversal filter 13, expander 14, tap coefficient control circuit 15, and signal level detector 17. Signal level detector 17 detects the magnitude of waveform distortion from the output of tap coefficient control circuit 15 and controls the gain of variable amplifier 16 and the dynamic range of analog/digital converter 12, thereby reducing nonlinear distortion in multiplier 10 that is caused by increases in the peak value due to waveform distortion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a demodulator, and particularly to improving equalization capabilities when waveform distortion occurs due to fading in a demodulator in a digital radio-communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the development of digital radio-communication systems in recent years, the number of signal points in QAM have been advanced as a means of raising the utilization of radio frequencies. Because digital radio-communication systems are easily influenced by waveform distortion caused by fading, the advancement of the number of signal points in QAM has been accompanied by the development of adaptive equalizers that equalize waveform distortion. One example of such an adaptive equalizer that has been put to practical use is the adaptive time domain equalizer having transversal filter which adaptively controls the tap coefficient of a transversal filter.
One example of a demodulator that employs an all-digital adaptive equalizer (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 110930/91: Automatic Equalizer) is shown in FIG. 1.
This prior-art demodulator is made up of a rolloff filter (not shown) for waveform shaping, multiplier 10, compressor 11, analog/digital (A/D) converter 12, transversal filter 13, variable expander 14, and tap coefficient control circuit 15. A controlled input signal 1 of an intermediate frequency band or a radio frequency band is multiplied by a regenerated carrier signal 3 at multiplier 10, and a demodulated baseband signal is outputted such that the output level of transversal filter 13 is a fixed level. The demodulated baseband signal is inputted to compressor 11 and compressed at a prescribed compression ratio, and then inputted to A/D converter 12. A rolloff filter is arranged either before or after the multiplier. The compression-ratio of compressor 11 is set so as not to exceed the range of the permissible input level (dynamic range) of the A/D converter even when waveform distortion occurs due to fading in the transmission line. This compression ratio is here defined as post-compression amplitude/pre-compression amplitude!. If the output of compressor 11 is set to the full dynamic range of A/D converter 12 in a state in which there is no waveform distortion due to fading, the demodulator will be unable to perform correct waveform equalizing because, when fading does occur, a signal exceeding the dynamic range will be inputted to A/D converter 12 and nonlinear distortion will occur in A/D conversion.
The AID converted digital signal is next inputted to all-digital transversal filter 13, automatically equalized by a tap coefficient control signal from tap coefficient control circuit 15, and inputted to expander 14. Expander 14 multiplies the input signal by an expansion ratio equal to the inverse of the compression ratio in order to restore the original signal that was compressed by compressor 11, and outputs the result to terminal 2.
Another demodulator is provided with a compression/expansion ratio control circuit (not shown) that varies the compression ratio of compressor 11 and the expansion ratio of expander 14 based on a tap coefficient control signal, and such a demodulator is devised as a method of reducing quantization error during A/D conversion in a steady state, and preventing saturation of the A/D converter during A/D conversion in a fading state.
As described hereinabove, in an adaptive equalizer of the prior art, the input signal level of multiplier 10 must be set to a low value so as not to exceed the dynamic range when waveform distortion occurs as a result of fading. However, reducing the input signal level introduces the problem that the S/N ratio of the demodulator is also reduced.

Demodulator having variable gain amplifier and A/D converter controlled by signal level


Example apparatus disclosed herein are to identify encoded information present in audio obtained for a time period. Disclosed example apparatus are also to generate a signature of the audio for comparison with signatures of reference media. Disclosed example apparatus are also to generate a first determination that a media presentation device was in an off state during a first portion of the time period based on a gain level applied by an automatic gain controller to collect the audio. Disclosed example apparatus are also to override the first determination that the media presentation device was in the off state during the first portion of the time period with a second determination that the media presentation device was in an on state during the first portion of the time period, the second determination based on at least one of the encoded information or the signature.

Media ratings and other audience metering information are typically generated by collecting media exposure information from a group of statistically selected households. Each of the statistically selected households, also called metered households, typically has a data logging and processing unit commonly referred to as a "home unit," "meter" or "audience measurement device." In metered households or, more generally, metering sites having multiple media presentation devices, the data logging and processing functionality may be distributed among a single home unit and multiple site units, where one site unit may be provided for each media presentation device or media presentation area and provides data to the home unit for processing and/or communicating to a central processing site. The home unit (or the combination of the home unit and the site units) includes sensors to gather data from the monitored media presentation devices (e.g., audio-video (AV) devices) at the selected site.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and apparatus for crediting a media presentation device


The quick-fitting coupling (1) has arranged thereon spring-loaded flat-face sealing couplings with interengaging male and female members (2,3) to serve as hydraulic couplings. The female member (2) of each flat-face sealing coupling is provided with an outwardly projecting peripheral flange (14) for precise embedded engagement with a respective peripheral groove on a mounting opening for the female member arranged on the fixed support plate (4), the arrangement being such that the flat end face (17) of the female member (2) comes to lie in a common plane with the coupling side (18) of the support plate (4) and is in abutting relationship therewith. Furthermore, the male members (3) are rigidly fastened to the movable support plate (5) and are projecting therefrom to a point so as to cause the two support plates (4,5), when the flat-face sealing couplings are in the coupled position, to be in abutting engagement with each other. This arrangement will render the quick-fitting coupling very compact and enable it to be coupled and uncoupled, even when under pressure, without leakage of hydraulic fluid. Due to the absolutely rigid mounting of the female members (2) as well as the male members (3) on the respective support plates (4,5), the interengaging coupling members of the flat-face sealing coupling are not subjected to any transverse forces during the coupling and uncoupling procedures and at the time when the coupling is in the coupled position. This feature is of particular advantage when using such quick-fitting couplings in the agricultural field and under relatively rugged conditions.

The French publication FR 26 45 242 discloses a multiple coupling device for hydraulic line connections and electric plug and socket type connections wherein the hydraulic coupling is in the form of a spring-loaded quick-fitting coupling of the ball-locking type. A lower pan-shaped plate with upwardly projecting plug members of the quick-fitting coupling is fixedly mounted on the tractor, while the sleeve members of the coupling connections are mounted on a housing which is engaging the lower pan-shaped plate from above in a cover-like fashion, and including clamping levers which are adapted for rotation about a common axis, said clamping levers being provided with arcuate slots for engagement with clamping studs which are laterally projecting from the lower plate and which are equipped with rollers.
The upper box-like housing has an upper fixed plate from which the sleeve members of the quick-fitting coupling project downwardly so as to extend through a second plate which is movable relative to the upper fixed plate and which is connected with the sliding bushings of the sleeve members for the ball locking mechanism. This second movable intermediate plate is mounted for reciprocating movement in vertical laterally arranged slots on the box-like housing, and is adapted, by way of arcuate tracks on the lateral clamping levers, for movement, upon each coupling and decoupling action, relative to the upper fixed plate in such a manner that the ball locking mechanisms of the sleeve members are engaging into corresponding peripheral keyways provided in the plug-in members or are being disengaged therefrom.
The disadvantage of this prior art multiple coupling is that, with each coupling and decoupling event, hydraulic fluid is escaping on the quick-fitting couplings which collects in the fixedly mounted pan-shaped lower member. Therefore, the multiple coupling cannot be mounted onto the vehicle in a position that varies from the lower dish-shaped plate. Furthermore, because of the additional movable plate needed for the operation of the ball locking mechanisms, the design of this coupling is relatively complex, and the sleeve members of the quick-fitting couplings cannot be mounted onto the cover-like upper portion with sufficient rigidity so as to ensure a reliable wear-resistant connection. For instance, flexible pipes or hoses containing pressurized fluid may cause displacement or misalignment between the plug members and the sleeve members of the couplings and may adversely affect the function of the same. Furthermore, a precise mutual positioning of the two movable plates of the multiple coupling must be assured by the lever system.
According to another prior art quick-fitting coupling for coupling members equipped with valves, which is disclosed in the German Publication DE-AS 12 56 006, each of the two clamping levers is provided with an arcuate track which terminates in a catch for receiving clamping studs that project from the oppositely positioned support plate. Furthermore, parallel oriented guide pins are extending from the lower support plate adjacent to the sleeve members of the valve couplings. The guide pins are adapted for engagement, with relatively little play, into corresponding recesses provided on the other support plate with the plug members. However, in this arrangement the sleeve members extend relatively high up from the lower support member, which makes this coupling rather bulky, and there is also the disadvantage that the hydraulic fluid leaking out after each coupling and decoupling operation is causing the coupling to be contaminated and therefore necessitates frequent cleaning which is relatively cumbersome.
German Publication DE 32 28 434 describes a coupling device for the energy supply to interchangeable working units of an injection molding machine which is equipped with so-called quick-locking couplings, with the coupling members being comprised of a pin bushing and a pin which is adapted for axial insertion therein. The locking means are in the form of locking balls which engage into a peripheral groove of the pin and which are retained in the engaged position by a locking sleeve which is axially movable against the bias of a spring. This locking sleeve must be separately actuated during each coupling and decoupling procedure. Furthermore, this prior art coupling device is not equipped with manually operable pivoting levers for putting the members into the coupled position. Instead, the coupling procedure for all couplings is done simultaneously by means of an unduly complicated piston and cylinder arrangement which is controlled, for instance, hydraulically and automatically from a control desk, so that the coupling procedure is taking place fully automatically without any additional manual manipulation.
Another multiple coupling with a plurality of self-sealing interlocking coupling members has been disclosed in German Publication DE- 39 18 250 A1. In this coupling device, either all plug-in members and/or all bushing members are being retained, respectively, in a mounting plate adjacent to the connecting housing with a relatively large lateral play transversely to the axial centerline of respective coupling, and allowance is made for some limited sliding movement. However, this lateral play during the coupling procedure causes difficulties when the respective plug-in and bushing members are connected with flexible pipes or hoses, as was already pointed out earlier in connection with the French Publication FR 26 45 242.

Quick-fitting coupling for simultaneously connecting or disconnecting a plurality of couplings


Color television apparatus and color monitors are provided with a device, in particular with an electron lens system, to vary the mutual spacing of the electron beams generated in an electron beam generating system. By reducing the mutual spacing between the generated electron beams, in accordance with the deflection of the electron beams, the spacing of the shadow mask to the viewing screen can be increased at an increasing distance to the center of the screen, and thereby a less expensive shadow mask design can be used without having to take the former disadvantages of a flat screen into account.

The present invention relates to a color television receiver or a color monitor having a flat screen.
Color television receivers and (computer) monitors serve for converting electric signals into color images. Television receivers as well as monitors nowadays usually have an interface for various video signal formats (such as composite signals, analog or digital component signals). These signals are converted in a television receiver or monitor into analog RGB signals for controlling a cathode ray tube. The video signals supplied to a television receiver or monitor are converted in such a manner that the video signal to be displayed includes luminance and chrominance values for each individual pixel of a display screen. To display an image contained in a video signal, three electron beams (one for each base color of the additive color mixture: red, green, blue) are generated in a color image display tube of a color television receiver or monitor, said electron beams being deflected towards the corresponding pixel on the viewing screen of the color display tube in accordance with the position of the pixel information in the video signal.
In a color display tube an additive color mixture is generated by a pixel-wise superposition of three chrominance component pictures. The viewing screen of such a color display tube consists of approximately 400,000 color triads; these are phosphor dots arranged in groups of three each composed of a red shining, green shining and blue shining phosphor dot. The diameter of such a phosphor dot is approximately 0.3 mm. Each of these dots is made to shine by one of the three electron beams, which are generated by the electron beam generating system in the neck of the color display tube. The deflection unit deflects the electron beams in a manner that they successively impinge on all pixels of the viewing screen. A shadow mask is arranged in the interior of the color display tube at a spacing of approximately 15 mm to the viewing screen, said shadow mask having a hole in exact allocation to each color triad. The holes having a diameter of approximately 0.25 mm are etched into the shadow mask at regular spacings. The three electron beams meet in the respective hole of the shadow mask controlled by the common beam deflection and impinge onto the phosphor dots of the viewing screen arranged behind said hole. A large part of the electrons generated by the electron beam generation system lands on the shadow mask. This leads to a heating-up and an expansion of the shadow mask, wherein in particular the holes located on the edge of the mask may be displaced in position with respect to the phosphor dots of the viewing screen. Such a displacement usually aggravates the color purity, since each of the three electron beams is allowed to impinge only onto the phosphor dot of the viewing screen associated to it.
Besides shadow masks which are provided as masks having holes, shadow mask in the form of strip masks are also used. In these strip masks the viewing screen of a color display tube is not provided with phosphor dots but with phosphor strips. Accordingly, the shadow mask comprises strip-like openings for the individual electron beams, which are each associated to the strips on the viewing screen.
To achieve that the chrominance component pictures appear congruent, the three electron beams must impinge onto the matching phosphor dots of a color triad across the entire surface of the viewing screen. Thus, the convergence of the three electron beams is adjusted in accordance with the position of its impingement point on the viewing screen of a display tube, i.e. in accordance with the deflection (so-called dynamic convergence).
The direct spacing between two adjacent phosphor dots of the same color is called dot pitch. In conventional color display tubes, the spacing between two phosphor dots or phosphor strips of the same color increases towards the edge. The resolution of a color display tube is defined by the size of the dot pitch. A variation of the dot pitch or mask pitch is an easy means to influence the curvature of the shadow mask in a desired manner. Since, however, a dot pitch that is too large is perceived by the viewer as an interfering stripe structure, a pixel resolution minimally to be kept must be obeyed when designing a shadow mask.
During the last years, color display tubes (color cathode ray tubes) were developed with screens becoming flatter and flatter. Accordingly, the radii of curvature or mask contours of the masks (shadow masks or masks having holes) also became flat. A development of flatter and flatter masks became possible by the use of invar as mask material and by coating the masks for temperature reduction during operation. A further increase of the flatness of the masks is, however, not possible in this way. Despite all effort it was not succeeded to realize screens with shaped shadow masks, which have a fully planar screen. The reason for this is the extremely small bulging of a shadow mask that is required for such a flat screen. The main problem of an extreme flat mask is the sensitivity over mechanical strain and its strong deformation in case of local heating during normal operation.
A known solution of this problem is to be seen in so-called tension masks. By means of these tension masks it is possible to use shadow masks for absolutely flat screens. The shape of these masks is defined in that they are mechanically pre-loaded either in the vertical direction only or simultaneously in the vertical and horizontal direction. This either leads to planar or cylindrical shapes. The mask remains dimensionally stable as long as the thermal expansion of the mask during operation does not compensate for the mechanical pre-load. The disadvantage of this solution is, however, that the generation of the high mechanical pre-loads requires very massive mask frame constructions. This increases the costs and the weight of a color television receiver or monitor.
For this reason, a use of conventionally shaped masks for television receivers and monitors having a flat screen would be desirable. If such an arrangement is used, the spacing between the mask and the viewing screen extremely increases at increasing distance to the center of the screen. Accordingly, the spacing of the individual phosphor dots of a color triad on the screen increases in the direction towards the edges of a screen, so that individual phosphor dots or strips in the margins become disturbingly visible to the viewer (in case of display tubes having an image side ratio of 16:9 in particular in the lateral rim portions).
Thus, it is the object of the present invention to provide a color television receiver or a color monitor having an increased reproduction quality.
This object is solved by a television receiver or a color monitor comprising the features of claim 1.
According to the invention, a color television receiver or a color monitor includes a device, in particular an electron lens system, which may vary the mutual distance of the electron beams generated in an electron beam generating system. By reducing the mutual spacing between the generated electron beams, in accordance with the deflection of the electron beams, the spacing of the shadow mask to the viewing screen can be increased at an increasing distance to the center of the screen without having to take the known disadvantages into account.
Thereby for instance the shadow mask can be curved stronger than conventionally between the center of the screen and the rim of the screen also in case of a flat viewing screen. Thus, curved masks can be used for flatter or even absolutely planar screens, without special mask materials (e.g. invar) having to be used or without having to take a larger dot pitch, i.e. a coarser resolution in the marginal areas into consideration.
The mutual distance between the electron beams is preferably adjusted in accordance with the following formula:
s≈Tri/3*(Iasxe2x88x92q)/q
This formula defines that the mutual spacing between the electron beams in the convergence plane depends proportional on the desired size of the triad dimensions Tri and on the ratio of the spacing between the convergence plane and the mask to the spacing between the mask and the viewing screen.
An electron lens system, which may effect a variable spacing of electron beams, is in the simplest case effected by a magnetic quadrupole, which is attached in the proximity of the deflection plane. By means of such a quadrupole, the two laterial beams of the electron beams generated by the electron beam system are influenced in accordance with the deflection by the deflection field of the deflection unit. Such a double magnetic quadrupole has the advantage that the desired variation of the spacings between the electron beams can be particularly easily achieved.
A further advantageous possible realization is the use of a double controllable electrostatic deflection element e.g. in the electron beam generation system. By means of a such a deflection element the spacings can also be influenced in an aimed manner.
An advantageous connection of the above-described advantages of magnetic or electrostatic elements is a combination of an electric and a magnetic quadrupole/deflection element. Such a solution is an advantageous compromise between an inexpensive realization by means of magnetic quadrupoles and the advantageous controllability by means of electrostatic deflection elements.
A further alternative form of realization is the integration of the quadrupole functions into the deflection unit, wherein the deflection unit deviates from the ideal dynamic convergence in an aimed manner and at the same time effecting a correction of this deviation by an electrostatic or magnetic quadrupole/deflection element. In this manner an inexpensive realization can be combined with an aimed influence on the variation of the spacing of the electron beams.
Especially favorable results can be achieved when the planes of the two quadrupoles used do not fall below a certain minimum spacing.
Moreover, better results can be achieved in that the effect of both quadrupoles used is compensated for with respect to the static and dynamic convergence.

Color television receiver or color monitor having a flat screen

Matsushita Display Devices (Germany) GmbH


Poinsettia `745 ` is a new cultivar, distinguished by dark red flower bracts, dark green foliage, self-branching characteristics and 9-week flowering response time. Secondary flower bracts are tightly clustered around the cyathia giving a full appearance to the bract presentation. The new plant produces a very desirable branched flowering pot plant for the mid-season holiday market. Poinsettia `745` is resistant to epinasty after being confined to shipping containers. The post-production foliage and bract retention are excellent even under low light intensities in the consumer's home.

This new Poinsettia cultivar, `745`, originated as an induced self-branching sport of a seedling known as `M-25`(not patented) in my greenhouse in Encinitas, Calif. It was selected because of its dark red flower bracts, dark green foliage, self branching characteristics, and mid-season flowering response; traits that distinguish it from other poinsettia cultivars, and seem to make it a desirable plant for commercial greenhouse production. After selection, `745` was vegetatively reproduced from stem cuttings for test purposes in Encinitas, Calif. `M-25` is a proprietary plant and there are no specimens in the public domain. Poinsettia `M-25` is not self-branching in that no axillary branches develop as long as the apical bud is not removed (pinched). `745` is self-branching in that during development axillary branches elongate without removal of the apical bud. Under short day conditions, the axillary branches will develop inflorescences.
Poinsettia `745` most closely resembles Poinsettia `718` (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,244), but differs in these aspects: `745` has darker red flower bracts, a flatter flower bract presentation and flowers earlier than `718` under the same cultural conditions. By subjecting clones of `745` to successive generations of vegetative propagation, it was demonstrated that the distinctive characteristics of `745` held true from generation to generation.


A new transcription factor coding gene induced by water deficit or abscisic acid of Helianthus annuus, having a homeodomain associated to a leucine zipper, was characterized. The transcription factor is useful to be cloned in DNA constructions for transforming host cells and plants. The transgenic plants comprising the transcription factor gene are tolerant and resistant to harmful environmental conditions such as water stress and high salinity. A nucleic acid promoting sequence is also provided wherein the sequence is induced by water deficit or abscisic acid. Constructions, host cells and transgenic plants that comprise the transcription factor gene are provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a new gene that encodes a transcription factor induced by water deficit conditions and abscisic acid from Helianthus annuus, having a homeodomain associated to a leucine zipper. The transcription factor is useful to be cloned in DNA constructions for transforming host cells and plants. The transgenic plants comprising the transcription factor are resistant to harmful environment conditions such as the water deficit stress and high salinity. A nucleic acid promoting sequence is also provided wherein the sequence is inducible by water deficit or abscisic acid, constructions, host cells and transgenic plants that comprise the sequence.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The homeodomain is a 60 amino acid motif present in a number of eukaryotic transcription factors involved in developmental processes (Gehring, Science 236, 1245-1252, 1987). Genes containing homeoboxes have been isolated from many eukaryotic organisms including fungi, mammals and plants (Gehring, W. J., et al., Annu. Rev. Biochem. 63, 487-526, 1994). Plant homeoboxes can be divided into several families according to sequence conservation and structure in and outside the homeodomain (Chan, R. L., et al. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1442 (1), 1-19, 1998). Members of one of these families have a distinct feature: they code for proteins termed Hd-Zip, because they contain an homeodomain associated with a leucine zipper, a coiled-coil structure involved in dimerization. Hd-Zip proteins bind DNA efficiently only as dimers (Sessa, G., et al., EMBO J. 12, 3507-3517, 1993; Palena C. M., et al., Biochem J. 341, 81-87, 1999). It has been suggested that these proteins may be involved in regulating developmental processes associated with the response of plants to environmental conditions (Chan, R. L., et al. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1442 (1), 1-19, 1998, Carabelli, M., et al., Plant J. 4, 469-479, 1993; Schena, M., et al., Genes Devel. 7, 367-379, 1993). One of the most common environmental stresses to which plants are exposed is dehydration. Although many seeds tolerate extreme dehydration, tolerance is rare in vegetative parts of the plant. Plants respond to water stress with the expression of a specific set of genes, which allows them to adapt to the altered environmental conditions (Bray, E. A. Trends Plant Sci. 2, 48-54, 1997 y Shinozaki, K. and Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K. Plant Physiol. 115, 327-334, 1997). The hormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays an important role in a sub-set of these responses (Shinozaki, K. and Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K. Plant Physiol. 115, 327-334, 1997 y Leung, J. and Giraudat, J. Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 49, 199-222, 1998).
The characterization of the promoting regions of the genes involved in the tolerance or resistance to water stress shown the existence of an element that responds to ABA, namely ABRE, and an element responding to desiccation, namely DRE.
Söderman et al. have disclosed [described] the [two] genes, ATHB-7 and -6 of Arabidopsis that is [are] induced by abscisic acid and water deficit (Söderman E. et al., The Plant Journal 10: 375-381, 1996 and Soderman E. et al. Plant Molecular Biology 40: 1073-1083, 1999). The authors have not shown that the over-expression of these genes provide tolerance to water deficit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,981,729 discloses a new gene that is induced by water deficit and abscisic acid and that encodes a transcription factor of A. Thaliana. This patent does not discloses any reference to transgenic plants carrying the gene of the present invention and resisting to water stress conditions.

Transcription factor gene induced by water deficit conditions and abscisic acid from


The invention automatically inspects the bond of a wire to a contact pad on a semiconductor chip. The apparatus includes a movable platform for holding semiconductor chips situated in lead frames; a video camera for sensing images; illumination means for illuminating a chip in a lead frame; an image processor to digitize and analyze the images; a bonding mechanism; and a host controller electronically connected to bonding mechanism, movable platform, video camera, and image processor. Image processor locates a bond on a pad in a digitized image and provides a first nominal center of ball bond image. The invention aligns the center of a polar coordinate transform image having one or more segments with the nominal center of ball bond image and evaluates ball bond image using the polar coordinate transform image to create a polar projection histogram array and store it. An edge filter is applied to histogram array to detect peaks and store their number and values. Polar coordinate transform image is aligned with a next nominal ball center location until a predetermined number of potential ball center locations is exhausted. The maximum peak in the list of stored peaks is selected as the radius of bond from which the size and position of bond is computed and reported to host controller for further action.

A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to machine vision systems and semiconductor chip wire bonding devices, and similar bonding apparatus, and particularly to a method and apparatus for performing automated optical inspection of a wire bond formed on a contact pad of a semiconductor chip. In order to perform an automated, in-process inspection of the ball bonds formed by the wire bonder, a system must first locate each bond formed on a chip before an inspection can take place. Applicants' Assignee's Co-pending United States patent applications:
Automated Optical Inspection Apparatus, filed Oct. 6, 1993, Ser. No. 08/132,532; and PA1 Automated Optical Inspection Apparatus Using Nearest Neighbor Interpolation, a continuation-in-part of the latter, filed Apr. 30, 1994, Ser. No. 08/236,215; and Method and Apparatus for Aligning Oriented Objects, a continuation-in-part of the latter, filed Jan. 3, 1995, Ser. No. 08/367,478; and PA1 Using Cone Shaped Search Models for Solder Ball Location filed Apr. 30, 1994, Ser. No. 08/236,211; describe systems for locating the nominal placement of a bond with sufficient speed and accuracy to permit an inspection of bond size and position to occur.
B. Background
Semiconductor devices, such as integrated circuit chips, are electrically connected to leads on a lead frame by a process known as wire bonding. The wire bonding operation involves placing and connecting a wire to electrically connect a pad residing on a die (semiconductor chip) to a lead in a lead frame. Once all the pads and leads on the chip and lead frame have been wire bonded, it can be packaged, often in ceramic or plastic, to form an integrated circuit device. In a typical application, a die or chip may have hundreds or thousands of pads and leads that need to be connected.
There are many types of wire bonding equipment. Some use thermal bonding, some use ultra-sonic bonding and some use a combination of both. A post-process inspection step, commonly called the third optical inspection, typically involves locating and inspecting the position and size of all bonds on the device, the wire connections and the wire heights using optical means to insure that a good connection was created by the bond. This is done after wire bonding is complete and before encapsulation of the integrated circuit.
Heretofore the third optical inspection has been accomplished only after the device is completely bonded and sent to a separate machine or operator, but most usually by a human operator using a microscope. The inspection is often done on a sampled basis. While sampling reduces the number of inspections, bad connections may be missed.
Vision systems or image processing systems (systems that capture images, digitize them and use a computer to perform image analysis) are used on wirebonding machines to align devices and guide the machine for correct bonding placement, but have heretofore not been used during the process for inspection purposes. Separate machines are available to perform inspections outside of and after the bonding process, but this requires another piece of capital equipment in the production line.
Bonds formed on the contact pad of the semiconductor chip are inspected to insure that their placement and size are within specified tolerances. In actual application in the field, almost all of these wirebond inspections are done manually. Manual inspection is very slow. Expensive parts may need to be inspected 100% on an individual basis, rather than sampled, and if this is done manually as well, this can further reduce productivity and add to costs.
While proprietary machines sold by Canon and Shinkawa are known to be available to inspect wire bonds, these are believed to operate only as post bond inspection systems. As a result, defective bonds may not be detected until later in the assembly process or after its completion. Productivity is thus lowered, and some defective bonds may not be detected at all.
Even when the location of a ball bond can be found quickly, however, one of the major problems both with in process or post process systems with trying to locate and measure ball bond edges in an image is the large number of confusing edges present. These are due to the circuitry, probe marks and bond pads in the image. Most semiconductor chips have a considerable amount of visual detail (such as the images of the circuits themselves) which must be circumvented in analyzing the post-bond image to find the bond edges. Some of this detail can be mistaken for parts of the bonds. Visual imperfections on the pads caused by probe marks, discoloration, or imperfect illumination further complicate these difficulties.
Existing techniques for locating circular or elliptical edges such as those formed by ball bonds on circuit pads, while they may be accurate, are often too slow to permit their use in an in-process inspection system.


A DAC includes a gamma voltage generator for generating a plurality of gamma voltages, and a decoder for receiving an M-bit digital value for selecting one of the gamma voltages, wherein the decoder comprises a first thermometer encoder, a first selector and a second selector. The first thermometer encoder is utilized to receive N bits of the digital value to generate a first thermometer code with 2N bits, wherein N is smaller than M, and M and N are positive integers. The first selector has a plurality of selecting groups, each selecting group having 2N switches controlled by the first thermometer code to output one gamma voltage, where the second selector receives the gamma voltages outputted by the selecting groups of the first selector and outputs one gamma voltage selected from the received gamma voltages based on the (M−N) bit of the digital value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) configuration, and more particularly, to a DAC that uses fewer switches and has a more efficient circuit configuration.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional DAC 100 is formed by a resistor string 110 and a plurality of binary selectors 120. The resistor string 110 is electrically connected between a first voltage level V1 and a second voltage level V2 so that each terminal of the resistors in the string 110 has a specific and different voltage level. Each binary selector 120 includes two switches 122 and 124 respectively controlled by a binary bit and its inverse. The switch that corresponds to the bit having a value equal to '1 ' will be switched on, while another switch that corresponds to the bit having a value equal to '0 ' will be switched off. Please refer to FIG. 2, which shows an example illustrating how the DAC 100 converts a digital value 'b0 b1 b2 b3 ' into an analog value. The binary selectors 120 are arranged in four stages, wherein the binary selectors 120 in the first stage are controlled by the first bit b0 and its inverse b0b, the binary selectors 120 in the second stage are controlled by the second bit b1 and its inverse bib, and so on. When the input digital value is '0011 ', the switches of the binary selectors 120 controlled by b0b, b1b, b2 and b3 are turned on, generating a conducting path that couples the output of the DAC 100 to the target terminal in the resistor string 110. The DAC 100 therefore transforms the digital value '0011' into an analog value, i.e. the voltage level at the target terminal.
As can be seen, the conventional DAC requires 30 switches to convert a digital value with 4 bits. In general, to convert n-bit digital value, 2×(2n−1) switches are needed. As the bit number of the digital value increases, the number of switches required grows significantly, resulting in increases of chip area and power consumption for the DAC.

Digital-to-analog converter having efficient switch configuration

Fonghua Village, Sinshih Township, Tainan County


A scrambling sequence generation method is disclosed for reference signals, data, and downlink and uplink control channels. The scrambling sequence generation method determines an initial seed value used to calculate the scrambling sequence. The initial seed value is based on different parameters relating to the to be transmitted signals, and some of these parameters are explicitly defined for New Radio.

The Evolved Packet Core (EPC), the core network of advanced mobile communication systems, allows different radio access technologies (RATs), such as first generation wireless Local Area Networks (LANs), second generation (2G) systems, such as Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), third generation (3G) systems, such as the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), fourth generation (4G) systems, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced, (LTE-A), and fifth generation (5G) technology, known as New Radio (NR), to operate in an integrated manner. Under LTE, a User Equipment (UE) connects to the EPC over the LTE access network known as E-UTRAN (short for Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) and communicates with a base station known as the Evolved NodeB (eNB), which may physically consist of multiple base stations and/or radio heads. Under NR, the base station is known as a 5th generation Node B (gNB). The EPC, part of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specification, is a packet-switched network in which the Internet Protocol is used for all transport services
In 3GPP, both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) transmissions are described in terms of a radio frame having subframes. Once synchronization between the eNB and the UE has been established, known reference signals (RS), of which there are several types, are inserted into the transmitted signal structure, in other words, along the radio frame at predefined locations in the subframe.
Mobile communication has evolved from early voice systems to highly sophisticated integrated communication platforms. 5G (NR) enables information and sharing of data anywhere and anytime by various users and applications. NR is expected to be a unified network/system that targets to meet different and sometimes conflicting performance dimensions and services. Such diverse multi-dimensional specifications are driven by different services and applications. In general, NR will evolve based on the 3GPP LTE Advanced with additional potential new RATs to promote better, simple, and seamless wireless connectivity solutions. NR is designed to deliver fast and rich content and services to connected wireless entitles.

Scrambling sequence initial seed configuration for reference signals, data, and control channel for new radio


A bump structure for electrically coupling semiconductor components is provided. The bump structure includes a first bump on a first semiconductor component and a second bump on a second semiconductor component. The first bump has a first non-flat portion (e.g., a convex projection) and the second bump has a second non-flat portion (e.g., a concave recess). The bump structure also includes a solder joint formed between the first and second non-flat portions to electrically couple the semiconductor components.

Semiconductor devices are used in a large number of electronic devices, such as computers, cell phones, and others. Semiconductor devices comprise integrated circuits that are formed on semiconductor wafers by depositing many types of thin films of material over the semiconductor wafers, and patterning the thin films of material to form the integrated circuits. Integrated circuits include field-effect transistors (FETs) such as metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors.
As the demand for smaller electronic products grows, manufacturers and others in the electronics industry continually seek ways to reduce the size of integrated circuits used in the electronic products. In that regard, three-dimensional type integrated circuit packaging techniques have been developed and used.
One packaging technique that has been developed is Package-on-Package (PoP). As the name implies, PoP is a semiconductor packaging innovation that involves stacking one package on top of another package. In PoP package designs, the top package may be interconnected to the bottom package by reflowing a solder paste disposed on opposing copper bumps to form an electrical connection between the packages.
Corresponding numerals and symbols in the different figures generally refer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. The figures are drawn to clearly illustrate the relevant aspects of the embodiments and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


The invention involves the reception of particular nonapeptides by HLA molecules. The nonapeptides are derived from expression products of the MAGE gene family. The resulting complexes are identified by cytolytic T cells. Such recognition may be used in diagnostics, or therapeutically.

This invention relates to immunogenetics and to peptide chemistry. More particularly, it relates to a class of nonapeptides useful in various ways, such as immunogens and as materials which target and bind MHC/HLA molecules, as well as a cellular model useful in the testing of peptides and other molecules as vaccines, especially cancer vaccines. Most particularly, it relates to the so-called xe2x80x9ctumor rejection antigensxe2x80x9d, in particular the MAGE family of these antigens.
The study of the recognition or lack of recognition of cancer cells by a host organism has proceeded in many different directions. Understanding of the field presumes some understanding of both basic immunology and oncology.
Early research on mouse tumors revealed that these displayed molecules which led to rejection of tumor cells when transplanted into syngeneic animals. These molecules are xe2x80x9crecognizedxe2x80x9d by T-cells in the recipient animal, and provoke a cytolytic T-cell response with lysis of the transplanted cells. This evidence was first obtained with tumors induced in vitro by chemical carcinogens, such as methylcholanthrene. The antigens expressed by the tumors and which elicited the T-cell response were found to be different for each tumor. See Prehn, et al., J. Natl. Canc. Inst. 18: 769-778 (1957); Klein et al., Cancer Res. 20: 1561-1572 (1960); Gross, Cancer Res. 3: 326-333 (1943), Basombrio, Cancer Res. 30: 2458-2462 (1970) for general teachings on inducing tumors with chemical carcinogens and differences in cell surface antigens. This class of antigens has come to be known as xe2x80x9ctumor specific transplantation antigensxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cTSTAsxe2x80x9d. Following the observation of the presentation of such antigens when induced by chemical carcinogens, similar results were obtained when tumors were induced in vitro via ultraviolet radiation. See Kripke, J. Natl. Canc. Inst. 53: 333-1336 (1974).
While T-cell mediated immune responses were observed for the types of tumor described supra, spontaneous tumors were thought to be generally non-immunogenic. These were therefore believed not to present antigens which provoked a response to the tumor in the tumor carrying subject. See Hewitt, et al., Brit. J. Cancer 33: 241-259 (1976).
The family of tumxe2x88x92 antigen presenting cell lines are immunogenic variants obtained by mutagenesis of mouse tumor cells or cell lines, as described by Boon et al., J. Exp. Med. 152: 1184-1193 (1980), the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference. To elaborate, tumxe2x88x92 antigens are obtained by mutating tumor cells which do not generate an immune response in syngeneic mice and will form tumors (i.e., xe2x80x9ctum+ xe2x80x9dcells). When these tum+ cells are mutagenized, they are rejected by syngeneic mice, and fail to form tumors (thus xe2x80x9ctumxe2x88x92xe2x80x9d). See Boon et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 74: 272 (1977), the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference. Many tumor types have been shown to exhibit this phenomenon. See, e.g., Frost et al., Cancer Res. 43: 125 (1983).
It appears that tumxe2x88x92 variants fail to form progressive tumors because they elicit an immune rejection process. The evidence in favor of this hypothesis includes the ability of xe2x80x9ctumxe2x88x92xe2x80x9d variants of tumors, i.e., those which do not normally form tumors, to do so in mice with immune systems suppressed by sublethal irradiation, Van Pel et al., Proc. Natl, Acad. Sci. USA 76: 5282-5285 (1979); and the observation that intraperitoneally injected tumxe2x88x92 cells of mastocytoma P815 multiply exponentially for 12-15 days, and then are eliminated in only a few days in the midst of an influx of lymphocytes and macrophages (Uyttenhove et al., J. Exp. Med. 152: 1175-1183 (1980)). Further evidence includes the observation that mice acquire an immune memory which permits them to resist subsequent challenge to the same tumxe2x88x92 variant, even when immunosuppressive amounts of radiation are administered with the following challenge of cells (Boon et al., Proc. Natl, Acad. Sci. USA 74: 272-275 (1977); Van Pel et al., supra; Uyttenhove et al., supra).
Later research found that when spontaneous tumors were subjected to mutagenesis, immunogenic variants were produced which did generate a response. Indeed, these variants were able to elicit an immune protective response against the original tumor. See Van Pel et al., J. Exp. Med. 157: 1992-2001 (1983). Thus, it has been shown that it is possible to elicit presentation of a so-called xe2x80x9ctumor rejection antigenxe2x80x9d in a tumor which is a target for a syngeneic rejection response. Similar results have been obtained when foreign genes have been transfected into spontaneous tumors. See Fearon et al., Cancer Res. 48: 2975-1980 (1988) in this regard.
A class of antigens has been recognized which are presented on the surface of tumor cells and are recognized by cytotoxic T cells, leading to lysis. This class of antigens will be referred to as xe2x80x9ctumor rejection antigensxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cTRAsxe2x80x9d hereafter. TRAs may or may not elicit antibody responses. The extent to which these antigens have been studied, has been via cytolytic T cell characterization studies, in vitro i.e., the study of the identification of the antigen by a particular cytolytic T cell (xe2x80x9cCTLxe2x80x9d hereafter) subset. The subset proliferates upon recognition of the presented tumor rejection antigen, and the cells presenting the antigen are lysed. Characterization studies have identified CTL clones which specifically lyse cells expressing the antigens. Examples of this work may be found in Levy et al., Adv. Cancer Res. 24: 1-59 (1977); Boon et al., J. Exp. Med. 152: 1184-1193 (1980); Brunner et al., J. Immunol. 124: 1627-1634 (1980); Maryanski et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 124: 1627-1634 (1980), Maryanski et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 12: 406-412 (1982); Palladino et al., Canc. Res. 47: 5074-5079 (1987). This type of analysis is required for other types of antigens recognized by CTLs, including minor histocompatibility antigens, the male specific H-Y antigens, and a class of antigens, referred to as xe2x80x9ctum-xe2x80x9d antigens, and discussed herein.
A tumor exemplary of the subject matter described supra is known as P815. See DePlaen et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85: 2274-2278 (1988); Szikora et al., EMBO J 9: 1041-1050 (1990), and sibille et al., J. Exp. Med. 172: 35-45 (1990), the discloures of which are incorporated by reference. The P815 tumor is a mastocytoma, induced in a DBA/2 mouse with methylcholanthrene and cultured as both an in vitro tumor and a cell line. The P815 Line has generated many tumxe2x88x92 variants following mutagenesis, including variants referred to as P91A (DePlaen, supra), 35B (Szikora, supra), and P198 (Sibille, supra). In contrast to tumor rejection antigensxe2x80x94and this is a key distinctionxe2x80x94the tumxe2x88x92 antigens are only present after the tumor cells are mutagenized. Tumor rejection antigens are present on cells of a given tumor without mutagenesis. Hence, with reference to the literature, a cell line can be tum+, such as the line referred to as xe2x80x9cP1xe2x80x9d, and can be provoked to produce tumxe2x88x92variants. Since the tumxe2x88x92 phenotype differs from that of the parent cell line, one expects a difference in the DNA of tumxe2x88x92 cell lines as compared to their tum+ parental lines, and this difference can be exploited to locate the gene of interest in tumxe2x88x92 cells. As a result, it was found that genes of tumxe2x88x92 variants such as P91A, 35B and P198 differ from their normal alleles by point mutations in the coding regions of the gene. See Szikora and Sibille, supra, and Lurquin et al., Cell 58: 293-303 (1989). This has proved not to be the case with the TRAs of this invention. These papers also demonstrated that peptides derived from the tumxe2x88x92 antigen are presented by the Ld molecule for recognition by CTLs. P91A is presented by Ld, P35 by Dd and P198 by Kd.
PCT application PCT/US92/04354, filed on May 22, 1992 assigned to the same assignee as the subject application, teaches a family of human tumor rejection antigen precursor coding genes, referred to as the MAGE family. Several of these genes are also discussed in van der Bruggen et al., Science 254: 1643 (1991). It is now clear that the various genes of the MAGE family are expressed in tumor cells, and can serve as markers for the diagnosis of such tumors, as well as for other purposes discussed therein. See also Traversari et al., Immunogenetics 35: 145 (1992); van der Bruggen et al., Science 254: 1643 (1991). The mechanism by which a protein is processed and presented on a cell surface has now been fairly well documented. A cursory review of the development of the field may be found in Barinaga, xe2x80x9cGetting Some xe2x80x98Backbonexe2x80x99: How MHC Binds Peptidesxe2x80x9d, Science 257: 880 (1992); also, see Fremont et al., Science 257: 919 (1992); Matsumura et al., Science 257: 927 (1992); Latron et al., Science 257: 964 (1992). These papers generally point to a requirement that the peptide which binds to an MHC/HLA molecule be nine amino acids long (a xe2x80x9cnonapeptidexe2x80x9d), and to the importance of the first and ninth residues of the nonapeptide.
Studies on the MAGE family of genes have now revealed that a particular nonapeptide is in fact presented on the surface of tumor cells, and that the presentation of the nonapeptide requires that the presenting molecule be HLA-A1. Complexes of the MAGE-1 tumor rejection antigen (the xe2x80x9cTRAxe2x80x9d or nonapeptidexe2x80x9d) leads to lysis of the cell presenting it by cytolytic T cells (xe2x80x9cCTLsxe2x80x9d). This observation has both diagnostic and therapeutic implications, as discussed herein.
It has also been found that, when comparing homologous regions of various MAGE genes to the region of the MAGE-1 gene coding for the relevant nonapeptide, there is a great deal of homology. Indeed, these observations lead to one of the aspects of the invention, which is a family of nonapeptides all of which have the same N-terminal and C-terminal amino acids. These nonapeptides can be used for various purposes which includes their use as immunogens, either alone or coupled to carrier peptides. Nonapeptides are of sufficient size to constitute an antigenic epitope, and the antibodies generated thereto may then be used to identify the nonapeptide, either as it exists alone, or as part of a larger polypeptide.
The nonapeptides may also be used as agents to identify various HLA subtypes on the surface of tumor cells, such as melanomas. Via this ability they may serve either as diagnostic markers, or as therapeutic agents. These features are discussed infra.
Also considered part of the invention are the nucleic acid sequences which code for the nonapeptides. These nucleic acid sequences may serve as diagnostic probes for tumor presence.
It has also been found that a cellular model can now be used, wherein a non-human cell can be transfected with a nucleic acid sequence coding for a human HLA molecule. The resulting transfectant can then be used to test for nonapeptide specificity of the particular HLA molecule, or as the object of a second transfection with a MAGE gene. The co-transfectant can then be used to determine whether the particular MAGE based TRA is presented by the particular HLA molecule. These, and other features of the invention, are set forth in the description which follows.

Method for treating cancer by administering MAGE-derived peptides


The filling of an internally coated capillary with a gel in its polymerized state without damaging the gel. The coating prevents bonding of the gel to the inside of the capillary, The gel comprises up to 6% acrylamide and 0-5% crosslinker. The gel can be advantageously and conveniently used in automated electrophoresis systems for automatic replacement of spent gel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to capillary gel electrophoresis, and more particularly to refilling capillaries using a polymerized gel.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrophoresis is one of the most widely used separation techniques in the biologically related sciences. Molecular species such as peptides, proteins, and oligonucleotides (analytes) are separated by causing them to migrate at different rates in a separation medium under the influence of an electric field. The separation medium can be a buffer solution, or a low to moderate concentration of an appropriate gelling agent such as agarose or polyacrylamide. When gel separation medium is used, separation of analytes is partly based on their molecular sizes as the analytes are sieved by the gel matrix. Smaller molecules move relatively more quickly than larger ones through a gel of a given pore size which depends in part on the concentration of the polymer in the gel.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,855,706 and 4,865,707 to Barry L. Karger and Aharons Cohen describe gel compositions suitable for capillary electrophoresis. A fused silica capillary having inner diameter in the order of 75 xcexcm is first filled with a mixture of acrylamide monomer and other ingredients and polymerization is then allowed to go to completion in the capillary. The time taken to complete polymerization is a minimum of one hour. The polymerized gel has a limited storage life. Also, performance of the gel deteriorates after a period of use. This may be due to gradual accumulation of macromolecules in the gel matrix after repeated runs. The applied electric field may cause disintegration of the polymer material after repeated use. In the past, the gel-filled capillary columns have to be discarded after their useful life.
The gel columns have heretofore been used in laboratory set-ups involving many manual steps, e.g. placement of buffer containers with respect to the ends of the gel column, etc. Also spent gel column has to be manually replaced by a new gel column. To take advantage of automation in carrying out electrophoresis, due considerations should be given to eliminate as many of the manual steps in the design of an automated electrophoresis system.
The present invention is directed to filling an internally coated capillary using a gel which is polymerized before filling the capillary. The internal coating on the capillary walls prevents bonding of the gel to the capillary walls. The gel is of a composition which allows it to fill the capillary in its polymerized state without damage to the gel and to be removed from the capillary after the gel has expended its useful life. The capillary can then be refilled with fresh gel. This can be handled automatically by an automated capillary electrophoresis system.
In the illustrated embodiment, the formulation of the gel comprises up to 6% of acrylamide monomer and buffer. In addition, optional amounts of crosslinker, catalyst, initiator, urea, and other additives may be added to adjust for the desired pore size, separation efficiency and life of the gel. The composition results in a gel of a consistency which can be forced into and out of the internally coated capillary without damaging the gel.

Capillary electrophoresis using replaceable gels


Methods are provided for identifying user-directory records that match input strings entered into a packet-based telephone. Each input string comprises symbols associated with character sets, and each record comprises multiple attributes. A record matches a set of input strings when, independent of the order of the input strings, there is a one-to-one correspondence matching the input strings with an equal number of attributes of the record. An input string matches an attribute when, on a character-by-character, symbol-by-symbol basis, the characters of at least a portion of the attribute are elements of the character sets associated with the symbols of the input string. Subsets of matching records are dynamically sent to the packet-based telephone for display.

1. Technical Field
The present methods are related to identifying matching user-directory records in a database and, more particularly, to an improved searching technique that reduces the number of keystrokes and the number of server calls needed to identify matching records.
2. Description of Related Art
Since the development of the telephone more than one hundred years ago, the prevalence and importance of telephones have continued to grow. For most of that time, users have used circuit-switched telephones to communicate over circuit-switched networks such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
Eventually, Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems were developed to serve the needs of, for example, businesses with many employees. PBX systems typically include a central entity that connects callers within an office system to each other, and to the PSTN via "outside lines." PBX systems are typically arranged such that each user has assigned to them a phone number such as 555-555-1234. An outside caller calling this number would be routed by the central entity to the telephone associated with the "1234" extension. A user within the system typically would be able to reach the same endpoint by dialing only the extension.
Certain features have been developed for use in PBX systems. For example, a "caller ID" feature has been developed whereby, when a user having an extension such as 1234 calls another user having an extension such as 5678, the called party's telephone may display information related to the caller, such as the "1234" extension and/or the caller's name. To provide such features, telephones have been developed specifically for PBX implementations. These telephones typically have a display, such as an LCD, as well as some number of buttons designed to correspond to some number of provided features.
Recently, the popularity of the Internet has risen dramatically. Along with the rise of the Internet has come Internet or packet-based telephony, also known as IP (Internet Protocol) telephony, or VoIP (Voice over IP). In packet-based telephony, users' audible inputs are converted to digital data, which is then packetized, or broken into multiple packets, and transmitted using a packet-switched protocol such as IP. Incoming packet data is then arranged in the proper sequence, converted to analog sounds, and output to a user. If one party is using a packet-based telephone and the other party is using a conventional telephone connected to the PSTN, a media gateway may convert between the two types of data transmission.
Increasingly, companies and other institutions are transitioning from PBX systems to packet-based telephony systems. Since most of these institutions already have packet-switched networks to manage data communications such as e-mail, employing a packet-based telephony system obviates the need to also have a circuit-switched network for telephony purposes such as telephone calls and fax messaging. Predictably, packet-based telephones have been developed for use in these systems. Like their PBX counterparts, these packet-based telephones typically have at least a display screen (such as an LCD) and a number of buttons, which may be programmable to provide a number of features.
Among the features that have been developed for packet-based telephones is a user directory. To use this feature, a user would typically press a button to launch a user-directory application. The packet-based telephone may then display one or more user-directory records (e.g., name and extension). The user may scroll through the records and/or use the telephone's number pad to jump to entries beginning with a certain letter of the alphabet. Furthermore, the user typically has the option to place a call to an extension or telephone number associated with a displayed record, perhaps by pressing one or more buttons or by picking up a handset.

Simple and fast directory search with reduced keystrokes and reduced server calls


A dry-cast concrete block system for use in a structure. The dry-cast concrete block system comprises a support block comprising a first coupling part and a face block comprising a second coupling part. The first coupling part and the second coupling part enable the face block to be coupled to the support block. The face block comprises a surface adapted to be exposed when the face block is coupled to the support block and the dry-cast concrete block system is positioned in the structure. In one embodiment, at least a portion of the surface has a cast texture with a natural stone appearance. In one embodiment, the structure is a wall and the concrete block system is a wall block system. For example, the wall may be a retaining wall and the wall block system may be a retaining wall block system. In another embodiment, the structure is a column and the concrete block system is a column block system. In yet another embodiment, the structure is steps and the concrete block system is a steps block system.

Concrete blocks intended to serve as wall blocks (e.g., retaining wall blocks), column blocks, step blocks or other types of structural blocks are sometimes provided with a natural stone appearance over an exposed portion thereof. Such concrete blocks can then be assembled into walls, columns, steps or other structures that have a natural and aesthetic look.
While various configurations, sizes and looks exist, these concrete blocks are conventionally monolithic elements made of various types of concrete. This monolithic character often detrimentally affects versatility of existing concrete blocks and their capability to accommodate design constraints of structures to be constructed.
Also, depending on their constituent concrete, concrete blocks can be broadly divided into dry-cast concrete blocks and wet-cast concrete blocks. Different processes are used to manufacture these two types of concrete blocks and, in particular, to provide them with a natural stone appearance.
Wet-cast concrete blocks may have a natural stone appearance realized directly during casting, but relatively long production times and requirements for numerous molds typically render impractical their efficient mass-production. For their part, dry-cast concrete blocks normally have relatively short production times and require only one or a few molds, which facilitates their mass-production. However, these relatively short production times impose constraints on a degree of surface irregularity that may be imparted to dry-cast concrete blocks during casting, thereby preventing realization of a natural stone appearance during casting. Dry-cast concrete blocks are thus typically subjected after casting to a mechanical artificial aging/weathering process (e.g., tumbling, splitting/breaking, object impacting, etc.) to realize desired natural stone characteristics, which decreases production efficiency.
There is therefore a need for improvements in concrete blocks, in particular those with a natural stone appearance, that may be used in walls, columns, steps and other types of structures.


A method for obtaining high-quality well logging data acquired during a drilling operation includes acquiring well logging data during a pump-off period when a mud pump is turned off; and extracting a subset of data from the acquired well logging data, wherein the subset of data corresponds to a quiet period within the pump-off period, wherein the quiet period is substantially free of interference from turning the mud pump on or off.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods of acoustic measurements and determinations of subsurface parameters in a wellbore and its surrounding formation.
2. Background Art
The oil and gas industry uses various tools to probe the formation penetrated by a borehole in order to locate hydrocarbon reservoirs and to determine the types and quantities of hydrocarbons. For example, resistivity tools may be used to measure the conductivity of the formations, and sonic tools may be used to provide valuable information regarding formation mechanics. Such measurements can be performed with wireline tools, logging-while-drilling (LWD) tools, measurement-while-drilling (MWD) tools, or logging-while-tripping (LWT) tools. In this description, the difference between LWD and MWD is not germane. Therefore, LWD will be used herein to include both LWD and MWD tools or measurements.
LWD tools have become popular in recent years due to their ability to measure fresh formations shortly after a wellbore is drilled. In LWD logging, one or more tools are included in a bottom-hole assembly (BHA) that is disposed right behind the drill bit on the lower end of a drill string. The LWD tool takes measurements while a drilling operation is in progress. While LWD can provide formation measurements before the near wellbore region is significantly contaminated by the drilling fluids, it has its downside. Various techniques used in formation logging are sensitive to the mud flow, weight-on-bit, motion of the drill string, etc. Such undesirable interference can degrade the quality of the LWD data. For example, for LWD sonic measurements, the biggest factor affecting the quality of the logs is the drilling related acoustic noise.
In a typical drilling operation, sections of drill pipes have to be added from time to time to the existing drill string so that the drill bit can reach deeper formations. When addition of drill pipes is needed, the drilling fluid pump is stopped and the drill string is more or less stationary in the bottom hole during these periods, which are referred to as pump-off periods. Pump-off periods are also needed in certain operations, such as fishing operations.
During the pump-off periods, the LWD tools typically continue the measurements because they are programmed to take measurements at preset time intervals before the tool is lowered into a borehole. However, such measurement data are typically discarded because the tool is stationary at a specific depth where measurements have been taken before the pump is shut off. In addition, measurements acquired during the pump-off periods occur when mud telemetry is not available.
Data collection during pump-off periods is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,404 issued to Crary et al. and assigned to the present assignee. This patent is incorporated by reference in its entirety. This patent discloses methods that make use of the pump-off periods to obtain formation measurements that take a long time or that benefit from a quiet environment. Measurements acquired during pump-off periods may contain high-quality data that are otherwise unavailable. Therefore, it is desirable to have methods that make use of such high-quality data.

Pump off measurements for quality control and wellbore stability prediction


An object of the present invention is to produce an ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier which has few pinholes and small surface roughness and which has an the thickness of less than 5 μm, and to produce the method of producing the foil, and further to produce a printed circuit board for fine pattern, a multilayer printed circuit board and a chip on film circuit board by using the ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier. The present invention provides an ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier produced by stacking a peeling layer and an ultra thin copper foil in order on the surface of a carrier copper foil which is made smooth so that the mean surface roughness of at least one side is Rz of 0.01 to 2.0 μm by the chemical polishing, the electrochemical dissolution, or the smoothing plating processing method independently, combining two or more, or further combining the mechanical polishing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing an ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier and an ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier produced by the same, in particular, to an ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier suitable for a printed circuit board for high density ultra-fine circuit applications (fine pattern), a multilayer printed circuit board and a chip on film circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printed circuit board is produced as follows.
First, a thin foil for forming a surface circuit is put on an electrically insulating board comprised of a glass-epoxy resin, a glass polyimide resin, etc., and then they are heated and pressed to produce a copper-cladding laminate board.
Next, this copper-cladding laminate board is successively formed with the through holes and plated at the through holes, then the copper foil at the surface of the copper-cladding laminate board is etched to form circuit patterns of the desired line widths and pitches of adjacent lines. Finally, a solder resist is formed and other finishing works are performed.
The copper foil used for the copper-cladding laminate board is roughened at the side to be hot-bonded to the base board, exhibits an anchoring effect on the boards by the roughened surface, to improve the peel strength between the base board and the copper foil to thereby ensure reliability on the printed circuit board. Further, recently, the roughened surface of the copper foil is covered with a resin for bonding such as an epoxy resin, and the copper foil with resin that this resin for bonding is made to an insulating resin layer in semi-cured state (B stage) is used as a copper foil for forming a surface circuit, then a printed circuit board, in particular a build up circuit board is produced by hot-bonding the side of the insulating resin layer to the substrate. A "build-up circuit board" is a type of a multilayer circuit board and a printed circuit board obtained by forming an insulating layer and circuit patterns one by one in turn on an insulating board, plating holes (via holes) formed by a laser method or photolithography, and stacking the circuit layers while connecting the layers conductively.
This circuit board can handle the increasingly higher densities of various electronic parts. By making the via holes increasingly small, the circuit patterns can also made higher in density. Therefore, there is a demand for a printed circuit board with circuit patterns enabling a circuit of fine line widths and pitches of adjacent lines, that is, fine patterns. For example, in the case of a printed a board having a high density ultra-fine circuit of line widths and pitches of adjacent lines of around 30 μm has been demanded.
If a thick copper foil as the copper foil for forming such a fine printed circuit board is used, the etching time until reaching the surface of the board becomes longer. As a result, the verticality of the sidewalls of the circuit patterns formed is ruined, and it may lead to disconnection when the circuit line width of the circuit pattern to be formed is narrow. Therefore, as the copper foil used for fine pattern applications, copper foil having a thickness of less than 9 μm is being required.
However, such a thin copper foil (hereinafter, it may be called an ultra-thin copper foil) has weak mechanical strength, is easily wrinkled and creased, and the foil sometimes goes out when producing a printed circuit board, so as an ultra-thin copper foil used for fine pattern applications, an ultra-thin copper foil layer on one surface of a carrier copper foil through a peeling layer is being used.
Now, an ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier which has the thickness of about 5 μm is mostly used, and furthermore it is required for a thinner foil.
By the way, as for a printed circuit board, density growth is progressing in the IC mounting board which drives the liquid crystal display which is a display part, such as a personal computer, a cellular phone, a plasma display unit, etc. The IC mounting board is also called as a chip on film (COF), since the IC is directly mounted on the board film.Spec pages at page 26
In COF mounting, the position of the IC is detected by the light passing through the film where a copper foil is etched away for forming circuit patterns. However, the visibility (capability of detecting The IC position by light) of the film that used a conventional ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier is not so good. The cause is that the surface roughness of an ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier is large. The film part through which light passes is a part that is removed by etching of the unnecessary part of a copper foil other than the circuit part formed by a copper foil. When the copper foil is bonded on the film, the unevenness of the surface of the copper foil is printed on the surface of the film, and then the unevenness of the surface of film enlarges. When light passes, because of the unevenness a quantity of light going straight ahead lessens. Therefore visibility gets bad. That is to say, it gets bad visibility that the roughness of the surface of the bonding copper is large.
An ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier is a thing that a peeling layer and an electroplated copper layer are formed in this order on the one side of a carrier foil. And the outermost surface of this electroplated copper layer is made as a roughened surface. Although the electroplated copper layer is used as the copper foil for a circuit baseboard, the condition of the surface roughness of the carrier foil has a very large impact on the number of pinholes of the electroplated copper layer or visibility in COF. Therefore, in a case of using an electrodeposited copper foil as a carrier foil, by using a shiny side that roughness is small (the side of an electrodepositing drum), historically the number of pinholes is decreased as much as possible and surface roughness is reduced (refer to Japanese unexamined patent publication No.2000-269637). However the control of the surface roughness has been performed by controlling the surface of the electrodepositing drum because roughness of the shiny side of the electrodeposited copper foil depends on surface roughness of the electrodepositing drum, there is a ceiling to control level, and administrative and maintenance expense increases to control it. Therefore it is expensive, the present condition is being unable to spend such expense in a usual product.
Moreover, when a rolled material is used as a carrier foil, because the surface roughness of a rolled material is smaller than an electrodeposited copper foil, a rolled material is more excellent in visibility than a case that an electrodeposited copper foil is used as a carrier foil. However, it was very difficult to produce a carrier foil that satiate user's specification, because the current cost of a rolled material is more expensive than an electrodeposited copper foil, and because it will be occur that rolling lines remain in the surface, etc.
Already mentioned, it resolved that the number of pinholes and the surface roughness (visibility of film) of an ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier depend on the surface roughness of the carrier foil, and the dependence become larger, as thickness of an ultra-thin copper foil is thinner. However, it is the present condition that the method of producing the ultra-thin copper foil with a carrier, without changing the current cost of production manufacturing, and using a carrier foil which has such a small surface roughness that satisfies user's way, is not developed.

Method of producing ultra-thin copper foil with carrier, ultra-thin copper foil with carrier produced by the same, printed circuit board, multilayer printed circuit board and chip on film circuit board


A bed comprises an inflatable mattress supported on a platform of articulable links by a support system mounted on a base frame. A connector assembly is used to couple the cells to the platform, to adjacent cells, and to tubes connected to other cells. The mattress includes lateral cushions or cells that have a general triangular shape with larger upper cells forming a patient support surface and smaller base cells laterally supporting the upper cells. The upper cells may be elevated at the ends to form a broad U or V shape. Alternative embodiments include shorter base and upper cells with a box-shaped restraining cell on each end that extends above the upper cells. Modified upper cells have end pouches that store separate restraint cells when deflated, and provide inflation pressure when removed by a fixed connecting tube. The restraint cells are positionable along the host upper cell and anchor to catches mounted on the adjacent base cells.

Beds generally, and hospital beds in particular have recently been undergoing a design transformation. Early beds were very basic devices providing limited support and care features. More recently, bed designs have been taking advantage of technological developments to provide improvements in bed articulation, mattress inflation, patient access, convenience and control.
Inflatable mattress cushions or cells in such beds are often connected to a support surface of a base platform or frame. These connections may be provided by a connector having an inner channel or passageway, that attaches the cell to a port extending through the support surface. Further, it is known to connect two cells together with a passageway formed in the connection to allow air to flow between the connected cells. An example of such an arrangement is disclosed by Pertchik in U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,824 for "Cushion for Decubitus Ulcers". Pertchik discloses a cushion for sitting formed of a plurality of elongate cells that are connected at contact points to provide inflation of all the cells from a single inlet.
Various forms of cushions and mattresses have been designed in order to provide improved support for a patient. Viesturs et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,078 entitled "Body Supporting Mattress", disclose an elongate inner cell supported on a pad having a peripheral inflated tube. Generally U-shaped cells that alternate and are offset for use in turning a patient are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,654 issued to Vrzalik for a "Method and Apparatus for Alternating Pressure of a Low Air Loss Patient Support System". In U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,249 entitled "Patient Support Structure", Goodwin discloses a more conventional low air loss mattress formed of upright cells extending across the width of the bed.
Such mattresses as shown by Goodwin and Vrzalik are prone to bend or lean into an adjoining cell location when the adjoining cell is deflated. This tends to reduce the effectiveness of controlling the support pressure and location, which is necessary in the avoidance and treatment of bed sores, and also in the articulation of the bed.
It is also known to provide mattresses that have multiple layers. Grant, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,674,019 entitled "Dual Layer Cellular Inflatable Pad", describes a pad formed of offset layers of interdigitated inflatable sections. Welch, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,149 entitled "Beds and Mattresses", discloses a similar mattress, except the layer cells are aligned and separated by a preformed foam. Such mattresses assure resilient support for a patient, but provide limited control of support by adjacent cells.
Various cushions are also known for restraining a person. An elaborate example is disclosed by Boyce in U.S. Pat. No. 3,218,103 entitled "Pneumatic Restraint System". This patent discloses a chair having inflatable bands shiftable in position for selectively restraining a person. A restraining device that is releasably attached to a support platform for placement across the body of an infant is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,669 issued to Hamann for "Diaper-Changing Aid".
There thus remains a need for a means for restraining a person on a bed. In particular, it is desirable to have lateral cushions that conform to the sides of a person, and selectively inflatable cushions that are positionable over a person for keeping the person in the bed.


A packaging and applicator device for applying a cosmetic composition including a casing housing at least one composition, in particular in solid-cake form, and an applicator including at least one applicator roller that turns about an axis of rotation for moving over the composition along a rolling direction, the overall dimension of the applicator, measured along the axis of rotation, being less than or equal to a dimension of the composition, measured perpendicularly to the rolling direction of the applicator roller over the composition.

In general, cosmetic compositions consisting of a care product and/or of makeup for the skin, and more particularly for the face, are applied by depositing one or more dabs of composition on one or more localized zones of the face, the deposit(s) then being spread using a finger or a sponge so as to cover the entire surface of the face.
This conventional application method does not make it possible to guarantee the composition is of sufficiently uniform thickness over all of the zones of the face. Generally, the zones on which the composition was initially dabbed, benefit from composition that is thicker. In contrast, the zones of the face furthest from those zones are coated in composition more thinly. This lack of uniformity is generally visible in the makeup effect, and is not appreciated by the user when a natural look is desired.
It has also been proposed to apply liquid foundations using applicators comprising a block of foam that, during application, may be secured to a reservoir containing the composition, or in variants, may be separate therefrom.
Patents FR 985 064 and FR 1 524 192, and applications FR 2 882 505 and US 2006/027072 disclose packaging and applicator devices each comprising an applicator roller that is secured to a reservoir containing the composition for application.
Patent 1 281 338 describes an applicator with an applicator roller that is constituted by the composition itself.
Application FR 2 903 584 discloses an eyeliner applicator including an applicator wheel that makes it possible to draw a relatively fine line on the skin. The wheel may be loaded with composition on bringing it into contact with the composition prior to application.

Packaging and applicator device including an applicator roller


A method of operating a system including a digital network interconnected intelligent digital devices (IDDS) generating and receiving eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents containing data and respective Document Type Definitions (DTDs) describing the data content. Preferably, the method includes steps for transmitting a generated XML document from a first IDD to a second IDD, and, when the respective DTD for the generated XML document satisfies a predetermined criteria, operating on the data contained in the XML document at the second IDD. In a first exemplary case, the second IDD maintains a list of trusted DTDs, and the predetermined criteria is equality between the name of the respective DTD and the name of a trusted DTD. Alternatively, the predetermined criteria is satisfied by inclusion of the name of a program residing on the second IDD in the respective DTD. In a second exemplary case, the transmitting step includes transmitting the generated XML document from the first IDD to the second IDD and a third IDD, the operating step includes operating on the data contained in the XML document at the second IDD when the respective DTD for the generated XML document satisfies a first predetermined criteria, and the method further includes the step of operating on the data contained in the XML document at the third IDD when the respective DTD for the generated XML document satisfies a second predetermined criteria. A system composed of IDDs interconnected by an in home digital network (IHDN) or other mechanism, which system can be operated by the method mentioned above, is also described.

The present invention relates generally to data communications between intelligent information and entertainment digital devices (IDDs) forming an in home digital network (IHDN). More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel way to use eXtensible Markup Language (XML) as a mechanism to initiate action in one or more of the IDDs connected to an IHDN to facilitate interoperability and integration thereof.
A myriad of different intelligent digital devices (IDDs) for providing information and entertainment to the user have come into widespread use. These devices include, but are not limited to, conventional (analog) televisions (TVs) and digital TVs (DTVs), such as high definition televisions (HDTVs), Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) receivers, cable/terrestrial/satellite set-top boxes (STBs), conventional VCRs, digital video recorders (DVRs), telephones, stereo systems, personal computers (PCs), cellular phones, DVD players, CD-I players, video game consoles, e.g., the recently introduced Sega Dreamcast system, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), intelligent Remote Control Devices (RCDs), video cameras, digital cameras, etc. All of the above-mentioned IDDs incorporate one of a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), microcontroller, microprocessor, system-on-a-chip (SOC), Programmable Logic Device (PLD), Programmable Logic Array (PLA), or other digital data processing means.
The rank and file of the computer electronics industry in general and the software industry in particular have been searching for the next "killer" applications, i.e., an application that could drive the sale of hardware just like the Visicalc program drove the sale of the Apple computer. This killer application, as envisioned by many manufacturers, is a single application with a set of features that a consumer would buy for a premium price. A single new device may not be this killer application. What may be the application that builds customer loyalty and enables widening of profit margins is the ability of a suite of devices to work together to address the needs of the household as no single device can. This inter-operability of devices can increase the value and functionality of the collection of devices in the home and can allow these devices, in concert, to provide services that no single device can adequately provide. Thus, one possible advance akin to a "killer" application is a consumer friendly software set that could be shared by, or distributed among, multiple devices, the ultimate goal being to enable the different intelligent devices to work together in a cooperative and integrated fashion, i.e., as if the entire collection of such devices were a single, distributed, multi-function device. The holy grail of the "home electronics" industry is a mechanism that would allow diverse IDDs to exchange data and act on the exchanged data in a seamless and transparent manner. Thus, two elements needed to implement this "killer" application are a network to connect the IDDs and software permitting the IDDs to act on shared information.
With respect to the first requirement, one way to enable this interconnectivity of consumer devices is to have a communications backbone present in the home. It will be appreciated that this backbone, or network, would allow any capable consumer device to communicate with any other device attached to the network. Many consumers are already beginning to install PC networks in their homes to share, for example, a cable modem or digital subscribed line (DSL) fast internet connection. Moreover, in home digital networks (IHDNs) have been proposed to interconnect a multiplicity of IDDs. The devices connected to such an IHDN can communicate with another over any suitable communications medium, e.g., via an IEEE 1394 serial communications bus, also known as "Fire Wire", or via a wireless communications medium. The IHDN would solve many existing problems of combining devices. Connecting a television, a VCR, a satellite dish, a PC, a stereo and six speakers would no longer require dozens of cables, multiple splitters purchased at an electronics store, and a degree in electrical engineering. All that would be required is connecting each of these devices to the IHDN and turning it on. However, these connected IDDs could still not operate in concert.
What is needed is a method and corresponding system permitting the exchange of information between IDDs. Preferably, what is needed is a method and corresponding system permitting the exchange of information to initiate an operation responsive to receipt of the exchanged information by one of the devices on a network. It would be beneficial if the method and corresponding system could operate on a plurality of the exchanged information. What is also needed is a method to facilitate data exchanges between incompatible intelligent digital devices connected to one another via an IHDN.

Methods for initiating activity in intelligent devices connected to an in home digital network using extensible markup language (XML) for information exchange and systems therefor