In an audio/video/computer graphics data synchronous reproducing/synthesizing system, a demultiplexer separates a bit stream in which an audio signal, a video signal, and computer graphics data are compressed and multiplexed, into compressed audio and video signal streams, audio and video signal time reference values, and a compressed computer graphics data stream. An audio PLL generates a first decoding clock. An audio decoder decodes the audio signal. An audio memory stores the decoded audio signal. A modulator modulates the audio signal in accordance with sound source control information. A video PLL generates a second decoding clock. A video decoder decodes the video signal. A video memory stores the decoded video signal. A CG decoder decodes the computer graphics data and event time management information. A CG memory stores the decoded computer graphics data. An event generator generates an event driving instruction. A detector detects viewpoint movement of an observer. A render engine receives the video signal, the computer graphics data, the event driving instruction, and viewpoint movement data and outputs a synthesized image of the video signal and the computer graphics data and the sound source control information. The method for this system is also disclosed.

The present invention relates to a system for synchronously reproducing/synthesizing an audio signal, a video signal, and computer graphics data.
Known international coding standards for a system which compresses, codes, and multiplexes an audio signal (or a speech signal) and a video signal, transmits/stores the multiplexed signal, expands the transmitted/stored signal, and decodes it to the original audio and video signals are MPEG1 and MPEG2 defined by the MPEG (Moving Picture Coding Experts Group) in working group (WG) 11 in SC29 under JTC1 (Joint Technical Committee 1) for handling common matters in the data processing field of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission).
The MPEG assumes a variety of applications. As for synchronization, systems using phase lock and systems not based on phase lock are assumed.
In synchronization using phase lock, an audio signal coding clock (sampling rate of an audio signal) and a video signal coding clock (frame rate of a video signal) are phase-locked to a common SCR (System Clock Reference).
A time stamp representing time of decoding/reproduction is added to a multiplexed bit stream. A decoding system realizes phase lock and sets a time reference. More specifically, synchronization between the coding system and the decoding system is established. In addition, the audio signal and the video signal are decoded on the basis of the time stamp, thereby realizing reproduction/display of the audio signal and the video signal which are synchronized with each other.
When phase lock is not employed, the audio signal and the video signal are independently processed and decoded in accordance with corresponding time stamps added by the coding system.
FIG. 16 shows the configuration of a system for reproducing/displaying an audio signal and a video signal from an MPEG system stream based on phase lock, which is described in ISO/IEC 13818-1, "Information Technology-Generic Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio Systems", November 1994.
Referring to FIG. 16, a demultiplexer 1 separates a bit stream in which an audio signal and a video signal are compressed and multiplexed in accordance with the MPEG standard, into a compressed audio signal stream, a time stamp, the SCR (System Clock Reference) or PCR (Program Clock Reference) of the audio signal, a compressed video signal stream, a time stamp, and the SCR or PCR of the video signal.
An audio buffer 2 buffers the compressed audio signal stream separated by the demultiplexer 1. An audio PLL (Phase Locked Loop) 3 receives the SCR/PCR of the audio signal separated by the demultiplexer 1 and generates a decoding clock. An audio signal decoder 4 decodes the compressed audio signal stream from the audio buffer 2 at a timing indicated by the time stamp of the audio signal in accordance with the decoding clock supplied from the audio PLL 3. An audio memory 5 stores the decoded audio signal supplied from the audio signal decoder 4 and outputs the audio signal.
A video buffer 7 buffers the compressed video signal stream separated by the demultiplexer 1. A video PLL 8 receives the SCR/PCR of the video signal separated by the demultiplexer 1 and generates a decoding clock. A video signal decoder 9 decodes the compressed video signal stream from the video buffer 7 at a timing indicated by the time stamp of the video signal in accordance with the decoding clock supplied from the video PLL 8. A video memory 10 stores the decoded video signal supplied from the video signal decoder 9 and outputs the video signal.
The audio PLL 3 and the video PLL 8 control the oscillation frequency such that the SCR/PCR of the coding system, which is supplied from the demultiplexer 1, matches the timer counter value of the STC (System Time Clock) of the audio PLL 3 and the video PLL 8. With this processing, the time reference of the decoding system is set, and synchronization between the coding system and the decoding system is established.
Next, the audio signal and the video signal are decoded at the timing indicated by the time stamp, thereby realizing synchronous reproduction/display of the audio signal and the video signal.
Along with recent development of the computer and LSI technologies, computer graphics (CG) is popularly used in various fields. Accordingly, attempts for integrating an audio signal (or a speech signal), a video signal, and computer graphics data and transmitting/storing the integrated data have been extensively made.
As shown in FIG. 15, a coding system 24 receives an audio signal, a video signal, and computer graphics data, codes these data, multiplexes these data or independently outputs these data to a transmission system/storage system 25.
A decoding system 26 extracts the integrated data from the transmission system/storage system 25, decodes the data, and outputs the audio signal and integrated image data of the video signal and computer graphics. Interaction from the observer using a pointing device such as a mouse or a joystick, e.g., viewpoint movement in a three-dimensional space on the display screen is received. A typical example is ISO/IEC WD 14772: "The Virtual Reality Modeling Language Specification: The VRML2.0 Specification" (VRML).
The VRML is a description language for transmitting/receiving CG data through a network represented by the Internet and forming/sharing a virtual space. The VRML supports ISO/IEC 11172 (MPEG1) which is standardized as an audio/video signal coding standard. More specifically, on the coding system side, the MPEG1 stream used the in VRML description, the sound source position of an audio signal, and a three-dimensional object on which a video signal is mapped are designated. On the decoding system side, a three-dimensional space is formed in accordance with the received VRML description, the audio sound source and the video object are arranged in the three-dimensional space, and the audio signal and the video signal are synchronously reproduced/displayed in accordance with time stamp information contained in the MPEG1 stream.
The VRML also supports an animation of a three-dimensional object. More specifically, on the coding system side, the start and end times of each event, the duration of one cycle, the contents of each event, and interaction between events are described in a script. On the decoding system side, a three-dimensional space is formed in accordance with the received VRML description, events are generated on the basis of unique time management, and an animation is displayed.
Alternatively, on the coding system side, time ti and parameters Xi (color, shape, normal vector, direction, position, and the like) of the object at the time ti are described and defined. On the decoding system side, the parameters of the object at time t (tl<t<tl+1) are obtained by interpolation, and an animation is displayed.
For the VRML, a binary format replacing the conventional script description has also been examined. This enables reduction of redundancy of a script description or shortening of the processing time for converting the script description into a high-speed rendering format on the decoding system, thereby improving the transmission efficiency and realizing high-speed three-dimensional display.
A description in, e.g., M. Deering, "Geometry Compression", Computer Graphics Proceedings, Annual Conference Series, pp. 13-20, Aug. 1995 can be referred to as a means for reducing redundancy of a script description. An efficient system for compressing vortex data expression for describing a three-dimensional object is described in this reference.
FIG. 17 shows the arrangement of a conventional decoding system (in the VRML, this system is normally called a "browser") for receiving the VRML description and displaying the three-dimensional space. Conventional decoding systems of this type are, e.g., "Live3D" available from Netscape, "CyberPassage" available from Sony, and "Web-Space" available from SGI which are opened to the public through the Internet.
Referring to FIG. 17, an AV buffer 21 buffers a bit stream in which an audio signal and a video signal are compressed and multiplexed. The demultiplexer 1 separates the bit stream in which the audio signal and the video signal are compressed and multiplexed, which is supplied from the AV buffer 21, into a compressed audio signal stream and a compressed video signal stream.
The audio signal decoder 4 decodes the compressed audio signal stream supplied from the demultiplexer 1. The audio memory 5 stores the decoded audio signal supplied from the audio signal decoder 4 and outputs the audio signal. A modulator 6 modulates the audio signal from the audio memory 5 on the basis of a viewpoint, the viewpoint moving speed, the sound source position, and the sound source moving speed, which are supplied from a rendering engine 15.
The video signal decoder 9 decodes the compressed video signal stream supplied from the demultiplexer 1. The video memory 10 stores the decoded video signal supplied from the video signal decoder 9.
A CG buffer 22 buffers a compressed computer graphics data stream (or a normal stream). A CG decoder 12 decodes the compressed computer graphics data stream supplied from the CG buffer 22 and generates decoded computer graphics data, and at the same time, outputs event time management information. A CG memory 13 stores the decoded computer graphics data supplied from the CG decoder 12 and outputs the computer graphics data.
An event generator 14 determines reference time on the basis of a clock supplied from a system clock generator 20 and outputs an event driving instruction in accordance with the event time management information (e.g., a time stamp) supplied from the CG decoder 12.
The rendering engine 15 receives the video signal supplied from the video memory 10, the computer graphics data supplied from the CG memory 13, the event driving instruction supplied from the event generator 14, and viewpoint movement data supplied from a viewpoint movement detector 17 and outputs the viewpoint, the viewpoint moving speed, the sound source position, the sound source moving speed, and the synthesized image of the video signal and the computer graphics data.
A video/CG memory 16 stores the synthesized image of the video signal and the computer graphics data and outputs the synthesized image. The viewpoint movement detector 17 receives a user input from a pointing device such as a mouse or a joystick and outputs it as viewpoint movement data.
Synchronization among the audio signal, the video signal, and the computer graphics data is realized by reproducing/displaying them using, as reference time, the system clock in the decoding system in accordance with the time stamp or event generation timing, as in synchronization not based on phase lock in the MPEG.
A synthesizing system for synchronizing a video signal and a computer graphics image is proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-212653. This conventional synthesizing system delays a fetched video signal by a time required for generation of a computer graphics image, thereby realizing synchronous synthesis/display of the video signal and the computer graphics data.
In the conventional audio signal/video signal synthesizing/reproducing system shown in FIG. 16, processing of computer graphics data is not mentioned at all.
In addition, the conventional audio signal/video signal/computer graphics data synthesizing/reproducing system shown in FIG. 17 assumes only synchronization without phase lock, and a method of establishing synchronization between the coding system and the decoding system is not referred to.
In FIG. 17, a preprocessing section 23 enclosed by a broken line operates asynchronously with the coding system and writes decoding results in the corresponding memories 5, 10, and 13.
Reproduction of the audio and video signals read out from the memories and the animation of the computer graphics data based on an event driving instruction are executed using the system clock unique to the decoding system as reference time.
The conventional decoding system (VRML browser) fetches all audio/video/computers graphics mixed data in advance, and starts audio reproduction, video reproduction, and animation of the computer graphics data based on an event driving instruction after all decoding results are written in the memories.
For this reason, this system can hardly cope with an application to a communication/broadcasting system which continuously transfers data. In addition, since all processing operations depend on the system clock unique to the decoding system, synchronous reproduction becomes hard when the transfer delay varies.
The system proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-212653 has the following problems.
(1) The system does not cope with an audio signal.
(2) The system does not cope with compression.
(3) The system does not separately consider the coding system and the decoding system.

Audio/Video/Computer graphics synchronous reproducing/synthesizing system and method


A curved display device includes a first substrate, a pixels and a second substrate. The first substrate is curved along a first direction and includes a pixel area through which light is transmitted and a non-pixel area which blocks light transmission therethrough. The pixel is disposed in the pixel area. The second substrate is curved along the first direction, and is opposite to and coupled to the first substrate. First trenches are defined in at least one substrate among the first and second substrates and extending in a second direction intersecting the first direction.

The invention relates to a curved display device. More particularly, the invention relates to a curved display device including a curved display area.
Flat display devices, such as a liquid crystal display device and an organic electroluminescence display device, have been used in order to display an image in a variety of information processing devices, such as a television, a monitor, a notebook and a portable phone.
A curved display device including the flat display device has been developed. The curved display device includes a display area having a curved shape to provide an image with improved three-dimensional effect, immersion effect and presence effect to users.

Curved display device including trenches in substrate


The present invention provides a semiconductor device including an N channel MIS type transistor and a P channel MIS type transistor. The semiconductor device includes a first inter-layer film formed on the NMIS transistor and having a tensile stress, and a second inter-layer film formed on the first inter-layer film and a PMIS transistor and having a compressive stress, and the compressive stress in the second inter-layer film is relaxed on the upper side of the first inter-layer film.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and a method of manufacturing the same. A tensile stress film is formed on an N channel MIS type transistor, and a compressive stress film is formed on a P channel MIS type transistor, whereby it is easy to contrive enhancement of the current drive performance of both the transistors.
Enhancement of the performance of MIS type transistors has been conducted by miniaturization of a gate or the like. However, it is presumed that enhancing the performance by miniaturization has its limitation, and search for a break-through technology superior to the miniaturization technology has come to be vigorously made at present. One of the candidates for the break-through technology is a technology in which the stress in a channel portion is varied by utilizing the stress in a silicon nitride (SiN) inter-layer film, so as to enhance the current drive performance.
It is known that the current drive performance of an N channel MIS type transistor is enhanced by forming a silicon nitride (SiN) film having a tensile stress. It is known, on the other hand, that the current drive performance is degraded when a silicon nitride (SiN) film having a compressive stress is formed. In addition, it is known that the current drive performance of a P channel MIS type transistor is enhanced by forming a silicon nitride (SiN) film having a compressive stress. On the other hand, the current drive performance is known to be degraded when a silicon nitride (SiN) film having a tensile stress is formed. Thus, both of the compressive stress film and the tensile stress film are in a trade-off relationship as to the P channel type transistor and the N channel type transistor.
Accordingly, in order to simultaneously enhance the current drive performance of an N channel MIS type transistor and the current drive performance of a P channel MIS type transistor, it may be necessary to produce a structure in which a silicon nitride (SiN) film having a tensile stress is formed on the N channel MIS type transistor, while a silicon nitride (SiN) film having a compressive stress is formed on the P channel MIS type transistor.
Here, one example of the method of producing the above-mentioned structure in the related art (see, for example, Re-published PCT Patent (A1) WO 02/043151) will be described below, referring to FIGS. 5A to 5H.
As shown in FIG. 5A, a silicon substrate 111 is formed with an N channel MIS type transistor (hereinafter referred to as NMIS transistor) 121 and a P channel MIS type transistor (hereinafter referred to as PMIS transistor) 131. Thereafter, a first inter-layer film 141 composed of a silicon nitride (SiN) film having a tensile stress is formed by a thermal CVD process or a plasma CVD process. In this instance, the stress possessed by the first inter-layer film 141 is regulated by the film forming conditions such as the film forming temperature, the pressure of the film forming atmosphere, etc. It is known that, when a inter-layer film having a stress is thus formed, the stress in a channel portion of each MIS type transistor is influenced by the stress and the thickness of the inter-layer film and the structure of the MIS type transistor (see, for example, Re-published PCT Patent (A1) WO 02/043151).
Next, as shown in FIG. 5B, a silicon oxide (SiO2) film 142 is formed on the first inter-layer film 141 having the tensile stress. This film 142 serves as a stopper film for preventing the first inter-layer film 141 having the tensile stress from being etched when a second inter-layer film having a compressive stress on the NMIS transistor 121 will later be removed by dry etching.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 5C, the NMIS transistor 121 is covered with a resist pattern 151 by a lithography process.
Next, as shown in FIG. 5D, using the resist pattern 151, the silicon oxide film 142 on the PMIS transistor 131 is removed by dry etching. Thereafter, the resist pattern 151 is removed. The removal of the resist pattern 151 is carried out, for example, by an asher process.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 5E, using the silicon oxide film 142 as a hard mask, the first inter-layer film 141 having the tensile stress on the PMIS transistor 131 is removed by dry etching.
Next, as shown in FIG. 5F, the second inter-layer film 143 having a compressive stress is formed so as to cover the whole surface on the side of the PMIS transistor 131, by a thermal CVD process or a plasma CVD process. The second inter-layer film 143 is composed, for example, of a silicon nitride (SiN) film having a compressive stress. In this instance, the stress possessed by the second inter-layer film 143 is controlled by the film forming conditions such as the film forming temperature, the pressure of the film forming atmosphere, etc.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 5G, the PMIS transistor 131 is covered with a resist pattern 152 by a lithography process. In this case, for enhancing the adhesion of the resist to the under film, a silicon oxide (SiO2) film (not shown) having a thickness of several nanometers may be formed on the second inter-layer film 143 having the compressive stress, or the surface of the second inter-layer film 143 may be oxidized by an ashing treatment.
Next, as shown in FIG. 5H, using the resist pattern 152 [see FIG. 5G], the second inter-layer film 143 having the compressive stress on the NMIS transistor 121 is removed by dry etching.

Semiconductor device having inter-layers with stress levels corresponding to the transistor type


A method for reliably starting a gas turbine engine includes commanding a rapid transient enrichment of the fuel quantity delivered to the engine combustion chamber, maintaining the fuel quantity at the enriched level while operating the engine's ignition system, and, upon the expiration of a fixed time interval or an indication of successful ignition, commanding a derichment to a fuel quantity equal to that which would be obtained during a conventional startup procedure. The degree of transient enrichment depends on the operating environment and operational state of the engine. In one embodiment of the invention the rate of enrichment corresponds to a virtual step change in the commanded fuel quantity and the rate of derichment is less than the rate of enrichment.

Gas turbine engines, particularly those used for aircraft propulsion, must be capable of being reliably started under a wide variety of environmental and operational conditions. For example, ground starts of an aircraft engine may take place at airports whose elevations range from approximately sea level to over 14000 feet. In addition, it is desirable to restart an engine which has become temporarily disabled in flight. These in-flight starts, customarily referred to as airstarts, are conducted while the aircraft is moving forward at a considerable velocity and at altitudes which may exceed 40000 feet.
The ability to reliably start an aircraft engine is important to aircraft operators and airport operators alike. Trouble free ground starting minimizes the likelihood of aircraft departure delays which engender passenger dissatisfaction and disrupt operations at busy, congested airports. Reliable and successful airstarting of a temporarily disabled engine is obviously desirable, even on multi-engine aircraft, to restore full propulsive power to the aircraft.
Among the factors which can inhibit successful engine starting is circumferential or radial nonuniformity of the fuel-air ratio in the interior of the engine's combustion chamber. For example, the overall ratio of fuel to air in the combustion chamber may be well within the limits for achieving a successful start, but the fuel-air ratio may be excessively lean in the immediate vicinity of the engine ignitors. Nonuniformities in the fuel-air ratio may arise from a number of causes such as uneven distribution of the airstream flowing through the combustion chamber, irregularities in the spray pattern of fuel issuing from the fuel injectors or inadequate atomization of the fuel.
One obvious way to mitigate an inability to start is, of course, to identify and correct the underlying cause of the problem. Unfortunately, the identification of a root cause can require considerable time and effort with no guarantee of success. Even if the cause is accurately determined, it may not be possible to readily implement corrective measures, particularly if those measures include modifications to the fuel injectors, combustion chamber or other internal engine hardware. Such modifications are especially objectionable if the affected hardware is subject to time consuming and costly development and if the hardware must be retrofit into existing engines.
Hardware modifications are also unappealing in view of the common practice among aircraft engine manufacturers of producing multiple, closely related variants or models of engines within a generic engine family. A hardware modification which successfully mitigates an inability to start one engine model within a family may be nonoptimal or completely ineffective for a related model in the same family. Thus, a starting problem which affects multiple models of an engine family may compel the engine manufacturer to develop a number of model specific hardware modifications. The resultant absence of hardware commonality within the family complicates maintenance and repair logistics and is objectionable to the engine's owner.
Another potential solution is to simply replace the exciters, which apply voltage across the ignitors to generate electrical sparks, with exciters of higher capacity so that the ignitor sparks extend further from the ignitors and into a region of the combustion chamber where the fuel-air ratio is more favorable for ignition. Since the exciters are mounted on the exterior of the engine and are readily available in a variety of capacities, this approach may be less objectionable than one which involves modifications or changes to internal engine hardware. However even if the more energetic sparks are capable of reaching a region of adequate fuel-air ratio within the combustion chamber, the expense of higher capacity exciters makes this option unappealing. Higher capacity exciters also add weight and consume additional space--distinct disadvantages in aircraft applications--and may reduce ignitor life.
Another possible strategy is to enrich the fuel-air mixture near one or more of the ignitors during the engine start sequence by distributing a disproportionate share of the engine's fuel to the fuel injectors in the vicinity of the ignitors. Such fuel reapportionment may be effected by changes or adjustments to a fuel metering unit in the engine's fuel system. However, as is the case with other hardware modifications, changes or adjustments to the metering unit introduce undesirable hardware noncommonality into an engine family.
Yet another possible solution is to adjust the behavior of the engine controller, a device which automatically regulates various aspects of engine operation. Gas turbine engine controllers customarily include a starting fuel schedule which governs the quantity of fuel delivered to the combustion chamber during engine starting. Since the starting fuel schedule is typically adjustable, the schedule can be raised to increase the quantity of fuel delivered during an engine start, thereby increasing the likelihood of successful ignition. Such an increase, however, affects the quantity of fuel delivered throughout the entire duration of the start, not just during the ignition phase of the start. Once ignition has occurred, the increased fuel quantity causes the engine to accelerate so rapidly that the aerodynamic stability of the engine compressors is compromised and the engine is unable to complete its acceleration to idle speed.

Starting fuel control method for a turbine engine


Multiple video and/or content feeds are combined and synchronized in real-time into a single mobile IP data network compatible stream for presenting as a coherent display on a mobile device.

Field
The present invention is related to synchronizing multiple data feeds for optimized transmission and presentation on a mobile device display.
Description of the Related Art
Multi-feed streaming, such as picture in picture and for providing leaderboard information for display on a mobile device along with a video of a live event presents challenges to network bandwidth demand and responsiveness to user selection of the individual feeds. In addition, a mobile device user often is unable to select how he would like to receive such multiple data feeds when such feeds may be delayed with respect to one another. Also, coherent display of multiple related feeds that are not synchronized generally cause poor user experience.

Time synchronizing of distinct video and data feeds that are delivered in a single mobile IP data network compatible stream


A bicycle shaft component includes an outer tubular member and an inner member non-movably attached to the outer member. The outer tubular member includes a first end portion and a second end portion with an interior longitudinal passageway extending between the first and second end portions. The interior longitudinal passageway has a longitudinal center axis extending through it. The inner member is non-movably attached to the outer tubular member within the interior longitudinal passageway. The outer tubular member is constructed of a first material having a first specific gravity and the inner member is constructed of a second material having a second specific gravity that is lower than the first specific gravity of the first material.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a bicycle shaft component. More specifically, the present invention relates to a bicycle shaft having a tubular outer member and a lighter weight material inner member attached within the tubular outer member.
2. Background Information
Bicycling is becoming an increasingly more popular form of recreation as well as a means of transportation. Moreover, bicycling has become a very popular competitive sport for both amateurs and professionals. Whether the bicycle is used for recreation, transportation or competition, the bicycle industry is constantly improving the various components of the bicycle. One component that has been extensively redesigned is the bicycle shaft component.
Bicycles utilize shaft components in a number of areas on the bicycle. For example, shaft components are utilized within the crank assemblies as crank axles, and within hub assemblies as hub axles. In the past, shaft components were constructed as solid metal rods. These shaft components were relatively heavy. Accordingly, more recently, shaft components have been constructed as solid rods from lighter weight metal alloys and/or have been constructed as tubular members in order to reduce weight. Tubular shaft components have been most widely used when the shaft component has a relatively wide width (i.e. where a solid shaft component would be very heavy). In either case, these prior shaft components are still not always as strong and/or lightweight as desired by some riders. Moreover, these prior shaft components can be relatively complicated and/or expensive to manufacture and/or assemble.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved bicycle shaft component. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.


An exercise device includes a post extended upward from a base, a track laterally supported on the base, a pair of foot pedals slidably disposed on the track, four pulleys disposed on the base, and an elastic band engaged over the pulleys and having two ends coupled to the foot pedals respectively. The foot pedals are movable sidewise against the elastic band in order to simulate skiing exercise.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exercise device, and more particularly to an exercise device for simulating skiing exercises.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical exercise device for simulating skiing exercise is shown in FIG. 5 and comprises a pair of parallel tracks 90 formed as a base portion, a pair of handles 92 extended upward therefrom, and a foot pedal 94 slidably engaged on each of the tracks 90, the foot pedals 94 are movable forward and rearward and can not move laterally.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional exercise mechanisms.

Exercise device for simulating skiing exercise

Liu Pao Village, Ta Ya Hsiang, Taichung Hsien


An airflow arresting apparatus is provided configured to reside above an electronics rack within a data center. The apparatus includes an airflow arrester and a track mechanism. The airflow arrester includes a collapsible panel sized and configured to reside above the electronics rack, and when operatively positioned above the electronics rack, to extend vertically above the electronics rack and at least partially block airflow from passing over the electronics rack between the air outlet and air inlet sides of the rack. The track mechanism is sized and configured to reside above the electronics rack, and the airflow arrester is slidably engaged with the track mechanism. Positioning of the airflow arrester at a desired location above the electronics rack is facilitated by the airflow arrester slidably engaging the track mechanism.

The power dissipation of integrated circuit chips, and the modules containing the chips, continues to increase in order to achieve increases in processor performance. This trend poses a cooling challenge at both the module and system level. Increased airflow rates are needed to effectively cool high power modules and to limit the temperature of the air that is exhausted into the computer center.
In many large server applications, processors along with their associated electronics (e.g., memory, disk drives, power supplies, etc.) are packaged in removable drawer configurations stacked within a rack or frame. In other cases, the electronics may be in fixed locations within the rack or frame. Typically, the components are cooled by air moving in parallel airflow paths, usually front-to-back, impelled by one or more air moving devices (e.g., fans or blowers). In some cases it may be possible to handle increased power dissipation within a single drawer by providing greater airflow, through the use of a more powerful air moving device or by increasing the rotational speed (i.e., RPMs) of an existing air moving device. However, this approach is becoming problematic at the rack level in the context of a computer installation (i.e., a data center).
The sensible heat load carried by the air exiting the rack is stressing the ability of the room air-conditioning to effectively handle the load. This is especially true for large installations with "server farms" or large banks of electronics racks close together. In such installations not only will the room air-conditioning be challenged, but the situation may also result in recirculation problems with some fraction of the "hot" air exiting one rack unit being drawn into the air inlet of the same rack or a nearby rack. This recirculating flow is often extremely complex in nature, and can lead to significantly higher rack inlet temperatures than expected. This increase in cooling air temperature may result in components exceeding their allowable operating temperature and in a reduction in long term reliability of the components.

Airflow arresting apparatus and method for facilitating cooling of an electronics rack of a data center

International Business Machines Corporation


A surge modification circuit controls surge current flows which may occur when a computer and AC adapter are connected. The surge current flows are controlled using active circuitry since passive circuitry, which is in place continuously, sustains large uninterrupted heating power losses in the order of watts that are wasted over time. In one embodiment, a surge modification circuit in an AC adapter includes a control element that operates as a power analog switch with a slow transition time to reduce the steepness of a surge wavefront resulting from the connection of the output terminals of the AC adapter to a computer while the AC adapter is energized. In a second embodiment, a surge modification circuit in an AC adapter employs a pair of power converter control circuits including a main power converter control circuit for performing the power conversion and a sensing power converter control circuit for determining whether the AC Adapter is connected to a computer and informing the main power converter control circuit of the connection status so that the main power converter is disabled when the computer is not attached. In some embodiments, an optoelectronic coupler is advantageously used to communicate a message indicative of the status of a connection between the AC Adapter and the computer. The optoelectronic coupler transfers the status message using optical isolation to maintain a barrier of isolation supplied by the transformer between the computer, mutually isolating AC and DC power.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to power supply circuits. More specifically, the present invention relates to power supply circuits and associated operating methods for controlling current flow in an AC adapter.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computers such as laptop computers are powered by an AC power source or, if AC power is not available, an installed rechargeable battery. To ensure that a user of a computer has sufficient battery charge available when AC power is only intermittently available and available for a short time, developers and manufacturers of AC adapters, charging circuits and rechargeable batteries have developed battery charging systems and rechargeable batteries that restore charge to the batteries very quickly. The fast charging character of these systems and batteries is achieved by adapting the AC adapter, the charging circuits and the battery to greatly increase the amount of power that is applied to the battery. Present-day AC adapters have increased in power to the range of 65 to 100 watts.
Unfortunately, the large increase in power in charging circuits and AC adapters results in a substantial electrical stress to the power control system. First, a large current surge to the AC adapter occurs when the adapter is connected to AC power lines. Second, a large current surge takes place when the AC adapter is connected to the computer. Peak current surges in excess of 50 amperes have been measured. Peak current surges of this magnitude can be highly destructive to bulk capacitors both in the computer and in the AC adapter. In addition, peripheral system interconnect components are stressed due to inductive coupling of energy between the AC adapter cabling and the interconnect components.

System and method for controlling current flow in an AC adapter


There are disclosed techniques for encoding and/or decoding multiple image information, e.g. through recurrent neural network based stereo compression.

The present invention refers to techniques for encoding and/or decoding multiple image information. The techniques may also implement, for example, recurrent neural network based stereo image compression using image and state warping.
In recent years, researchers have proposed deep learning-based single-image compression methods [1], [2], [9], [6]. These methods use a non-linear mapping in form of a neural network, to generate a latent code representation of the input image, which is then quantized into discrete symbols and losslessly coded using a learned entropy model. Some of these methods consist of an encoder-decoder network architecture. The encoder aims to encode the input into latent representation, and the decoder reconstructs the image from the latent code.
Following advancements in the single-image compression domain, researchers also proposed a few deep learning-based stereo image compression (SIC) methods. In [7], the authors proposed a parametric skip function and conditional entropy model to take advantage of the overlapping region between the stereo pairs leading to a significant bitrate saving. The purpose of the parametric skip connection is to warp the features of the left image network to generate the feature maps for the right image network, allowing to pass the information from one feature map accurately to the corresponding spatial position of the other. Similarly, information sharing between the stereo image networks using a homography matrix is presented in [3]. Following the success of homography transformations for tasks like image stitching [4] and light-field compression [5], this is the first attempt to use it for SIC. Moreover, they also introduced two different conditional entropy models, namely a Gaussian mixture model based entropy and a context-based entropy model, to jointly encode the stereo images. A cross-quality enhancement module at the decoder side to further enhance the quality of the reconstructed stereo pair is another added feature of the proposed method. However, both the methods use a variational autoencoder network [2] trained by minimizing the Lagrangian function (Rate+λ*Distorion). Therefore, the main drawback of both compression methods is the retraining of the networks for different values or different points on the rate-distortion curve (RD-curve). Additionally, [7] is computationally very complex, i.e., training and testing are very time-consuming.
The Prior Art Includes:    1—Johannes Ball'e, Valero Laparra, and Eero P Simoncelli. End-to-end optimized image compression. arXiv preprint arXiv:1611.01704, 2016.    2—Johannes Ball'e, David Minnen, Saurabh Singh, Sung Jin Hwang, and Nick Johnston. Variational image compression with a scale hyperprior. arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.01436, 2018.    3—Xin Deng, Wenzhe Yang, Ren Yang, Mai Xu, Enpeng Liu, Qianhan Feng, and Radu Timofte. Deep homography for efficient stereo image compression. In Proc. of the IEEE Int. Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pages 1492-1501, 2021.    4—Junhong Gao, Seon Joo Kim, and Michael S Brown. Constructing image panoramas using dual-homography warping. In Proc. of the IEEE Int. Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pages 49-56, 2011.    5—Xiaoran Jiang, Mikael Le Pendu, Reuben A Farrugia, and Christine Guillemot. Light field compression with homography-based low-rank approximation. IEEE J. of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, 11(7):1132-1145, 2017.    6—Alekh Karkada Ashok and Nagaraju Palani. Autoencoders with variable sized latent vector for image compression. In Proc. of the IEEE Int. Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops, pages 2547-2550, 2018.    7—Jerry Liu, Shenlong Wang, and Raquel Urtasun. Dsic: Deep stereo image compression. In Proc. of the IEEE Int. Conference on Computer Vision, pages 3136-3145, 2019.    8—Majid Rabbani. Jpeg2000: Image compression fundamentals, standards and practice. J. of Electronic Imaging, 11(2):286, 2002.    9—George Toderici, Damien Vincent, Nick Johnston, Sung Jin Hwang, David Minnen, Joel Shor, and Michele Covell. Full resolution image compression with recurrent neural networks. In Proc. of the IEEE Int. Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pages 5306-5314, 2017.    10—Toderici, G. D., O'malley, S., Sukthankar, R., Hwang, S. J., Vincent, D., Johnston, N., . . . & Covell, M. (2019). U.S. Pat. No. 10,192,327. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.    11—Covell, M., Vincent, D., Minnen, D. C., Singh, S., Hwang, S. J., Johnston, N., . . . & Toderici, G. D. (2020). U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/617,484.]

Encoder and decoder for encoding and decoding images

Abstract: In an image encoder (1), a primary block (100) encodes a primary image information, and a secondary block (300) encodes a secondary image information. States for the primary block are transformed onto states for the secondary block at a transformation block (200), which keeps into account correspondence information (e.g. disparity information) between the first image information and the second image information.

Abstract: In an image decoder (1b), a primary block (100) decodes an encoded version of a primary image information, and a secondary block (300) encodes an encoded version of a secondary image information. States for the primary block are transformed onto states for the secondary block at a transformation block (200), which keeps into account correspondence information (e.g. disparity information) between the first image information and the second image information.

FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FÖRDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.


A storage element for a solid electrolyte battery is provided. The storage element has a main member having a porous matrix of sintered ceramic particles in which particles that are made of a metal and/or a metal oxide and jointly form a redox couple are embedded. Along a preferred direction, the storage element has a certain concentration gradient of the particles made of the metal and/or the metal oxide and/or a certain gradient of a pore density and/or a pore size, thereby allowing the diffusion behavior of oxygen ions within the main member to be controlled and thus the charge and discharge kinetics, the life and the capacity of the battery to be improved.

Solid electrolyte batteries are based on the principle of solid electrolyte fuel cells, which are enhanced by adding storage elements to the battery. These storage elements conventionally have ceramic base bodies in which particles of a metal and/or a metal oxide, which together form a redox pair, are incorporated. In the charged state of the battery, the particles are in this case reduced to the metal. By electrochemical oxidation with atmospheric oxygen, it is possible to obtain energy which can be drawn as electrical energy at the tapping poles of the battery. Once the metal particles have been fully oxidized to the respective metal oxide, the battery is discharged. In order to recharge the battery, the fuel cell is then operated in electrolysis mode, hydrogen which reduces the metal oxides back to the metal being formed.
In the manufacture of such batteries, the problem arises of exploiting the theoretically existing storage capacity of the storage elements as effectively as possible, and of permitting a discharging characteristic in potentiometric or galvanostatic operation which is as constant as possible. It is furthermore of great importance to ensure longterm stability both under charging/discharging cycles and in standby operation.
Of great importance in this case is the accessibility of the active metal species in the storage element for the redox reaction, which in particular influences the degree of utilization and the reaction kinetics of the charging and discharging process, as well as the susceptibility to degradation.
Hitherto conventional storage elements have an isotropic skeleton-like structure of the ceramic base body with uniformly distributed open, or closed pores. In order to prevent losses of the storage capacity by sintering of the reactive metal particles together, and concomitant reduction of the available active surface area, so-called ODS (oxide dispersion strengthened) metal particles are mostly used nowadays, which are mixed with coarse-grained zirconium dioxide, dry-pressed and slightly sintered.

Storage element and method for the production thereof


A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a lower mold having lower layers stacked on a substrate and lower channel structures passing therethrough; forming an upper mold including upper layers stacked on the lower mold and upper channel structures passing therethrough; removing the upper mold to expose an upper surface of the lower mold; separating an upper original image in which traces of the upper channel structures are displayed, and a lower original image in which the lower channel structures are displayed, from an original image capturing the upper surface of the lower mold; inputting the upper original image into a learned neural network to acquire an upper restored image in which cross sections of the upper channel structures are displayed; and comparing the upper restored image with the lower original image to verify an alignment state of the upper and lower molds.

The present inventive concepts relate to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device.
Semiconductor devices may include various elements formed on a substrate. Recently, in an effort to increase the degree of integration of semiconductor devices, the elements included in the semiconductor devices have been implemented using various structures extending in a direction perpendicular to an upper surface of the substrate. When the heights of the structures extending in the direction perpendicular to the upper surface of the substrate increase, at least one of the structures may be divided into a plurality of structures formed by a plurality of operations. In the event that the plurality of structures are not aligned correctly, the reliability of a semiconductor device may be deteriorated.

Manufacturing method of semiconductor device


A metallic sliding member which is improved in initial compatibility and significantly reduced in frictional resistance: and a process for producing the member. The process comprises causing fine particles of molybdenum disulfide to collide against the surface of a base to form a layer containing molybdenum disulfide, serving as a solid lubricant, as a surface layer having a depth not larger than 20 μm from the surface.

As a technique for reducing the sliding resistance of sliding members, hitherto, it has been known to coat the sliding surface of a sliding member with a solid lubricant such as molybdenum disulfide, tetrafluoroethylene resin, or tin oxide. Such solid lubricants are not only low in frictional resistance but are also relatively soft, and hence are easily worn in an initial phase of operation, and the so-called initial fitting is terminated at an early stage, and the sliding resistance and wear amount are stabilized at a low level. As the coating methods for solid lubricants, a method for dispersing and applying a solid lubricant on a binder resin, and a coating method by plating are known. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-193455 discloses a technique of forming a molybdenum sulfide film on the sliding surface of a sliding member by sputtering.
However, in the method for applying a solid lubricant on the binder resin, the function of the solid lubricant is not exhibited sufficiently due to the presence of the binder portion (for example, about 50%). In addition, common problems in the prior art include changes in dimensions of sliding members by formation of solid lubricant film, difficulty in control of thickness of solid lubricant film, risk of peeling of solid lubricant film, and shortness of service life. In particular, the method for forming a solid lubricant film by sputtering is higher in equipment cost and manufacturing expenses, and it is difficult to treat curved surfaces.
Pistons for internal combustion engines (hereinafter called pistons) are designed to maintain their position by receiving a part of an explosion pressure in a combustion chamber by a piston ring sliding on a sleeve, and bringing a skirt portion provided at the lower side of the piston ring into contact with the sleeve. Therefore, if the skirt portion and sleeve do not contact with each other favorably, the sliding resistance increases and the fuel economy is sacrificed, or possibly due to abnormal contact between the piston and the sleeve, galling, seizure, or unusual sounds may occur.
Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 52-16451 and Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 57-193941 propose methods for forming fine dimples by sand blasting or shot peening in the skirt of the piston, but such methods are known not to be effective for preventing occurrence of unusual sounds.

Metallic sliding member, piston for internal combustion engine, method of surface-treating these, and apparatus therefor


A moisture resistant handbill is rolled to form a coil that is retained within a collapsible cup as it is ejected from an elongated tube and delivered to its destination. The collapsible cup has a cylindrical wall and a bottom member at one end that does not contribute to the structural strength of the cup. The elongated tube is connected to a controllable source of pressurized fluid that is used to eject the handbill assembly from the tube. The handbill assembly and delivery system avoids the problems of prior assemblies and systems that projected cone-shaped paper flyers through the air. Moisture resistance is provided by a plastic sheet, which may be larger than the coiled handbill, that wraps the handbill along its length prior to insertion.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a system for pneumatically launching a handbill assembly from a tube.
2. Description of Related Art
A system for launching handbill assemblies by pneumatic ejection from a tube is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,599. The system is described as prior art in the Detailed Description of Exemplary Embodiments set forth herein, and includes an elongated tube with one closed end, having coiled handbill sheets inserted in the tube. Another system, uses shrink-wrapped, coiled handbill sheets with no tube.
While the foregoing launchable handbill assembly systems may function generally with respect to the purposes for which they were designed, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention, as hereinafter described. For example, such systems do not provide what is needed, that is an enhanced pneumatically launched handbill assemblies utilizing improved materials and configurations for displaying messages on ejectable handbills, protecting the handbill sheets from the elements, and optimizing the interaction between the handbill assembly and the pressurized fluid used to pneumatically eject the handbill assembly.


A knee protecting apparatus includes a top plate that is rigid and has a top side, a bottom side, a front edge, a rear edge, a first lateral edge and a second lateral edge. A panel for receiving a person's knee is attached to and selectively positioned on the top plate. A lower plate is resiliently compressible and has a same shape and size as the top plate. A coupler releasably couples the lower plate to the top plate. A knee strap extends through side edges of the panel. The knee strap is extendable around a leg of the person adjacent to the knee. Securing members releasably secure together free ends of the knee strap.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to knee protecting devices and more particularly pertains to a new knee protecting device for protecting a person's knees when they are kneeling and performing work duties.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of knee protecting devices is known in the prior art. While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for a device that not only protects the knees of a person while they kneel on a support surface, but may also be used to increase the friction between the person and the support surface when the support surface is angled to reduce slippage on the support surface.


An in-vehicle communication system capable of performing power supply control of the system according to the user's preference while simplifying the configuration of a control device for controlling a device based on information to be relayed. A control part of a GW device extracts information required for power supply control of loads from CAN messages received by first to third communication parts, specifies vehicle state based on the extracted information, determines power supply states in which the loads preliminarily stored into a power supply state table are to be, by associating the states with the specified vehicle state, and then transmits control information for providing an instruction of the determined power supply state to the power supply control device. The power supply state table in the storage part is rewritable, and a part of the power supply state table may be updated according to the preference of a vehicle's user.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-vehicle communication system that includes a relay device for a relay of information among different communication buses. In particular, the present invention relates to an in-vehicle communication system capable of properly controlling power supply of the system according to the user's preference while simplifying the configuration of a control device for controlling devices based on information to be relayed.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of vehicle control, the configuration in which a number of electronic control units (ECU) for respectively controlling devices mounted in a vehicle are connected by communication buses to transmit/receive information mutually for executing various processing is commonly used. Since the number of ECUs connected to a communication bus is limited or a communication speed is varied according to the function of an ECU, a configuration is adopted in which ECUs are divided into a plurality of groups, each of which is connected to a communication bus, and a relay device (gateway) is connected between different communication buses.
With an in-vehicle communication system having a relay device, each communication device transmits an information group with a collection of multiple pieces of information based on a communication protocol, and, between different communication buses, a relay device receives the information group collectively transmitted from each communication device and determines whether or not the information group without modifications thereto is transmitted to another communication bus, to achieve a relay.
Specifically, in an example based on a CAN (Controller Area Network) generally used in the field of an in-vehicle communication system related to vehicle control, FA (Factory Automation) or OA (Office Automation), each ECU stores signal information obtained from devices in the data part of a CAN message identified by CAN ID and collectively transmits the information. A relay device achieves relay processing with a message routing function by referring to, for each of the received CAN messages, a routing table which is stored for each CAN ID and which specifies a communication bus of a relay destination, and by transmitting, as for the CAN message required for a relay, the received CAN message without modification thereto to the communication bus of a relay destination.
Power saving of the whole control system is demanded particularly in the field of vehicle control. Therefore, an in-vehicle communication system including a power management ECU connected to any one of communication buses in an in-vehicle communication system for power supply control such as the distribution of power to in-vehicle devices mounted to a vehicle according to a vehicle state is disclosed.


A composition and a process for producing the composition are disclosed. The composition comprises an alkoxylated phosphite ester which has the formula of (HO[{CH(R)}mO]n)3P in which each R can be the same or different and can be independently hydrogen or an alkyl group, or combinations of two or more thereof and m is a number from 2 to about 20 and n is a number from 2 to about 20. The process comprises contacting a trialkyl phosphite with an alkylene glycol or polyalkylene glycol to produce a mixture followed by heating the mixture. Also disclosed in a process for using the composition, which comprises contacting a carbonyl compound, in the presence of the composition, with an alcohol.

Polyesters such as, for example, polyethylene terephthalate, polytrimethylene terephthalate and polybutylene terephthalate, are a class of important industrial polymers. They are widely used in thermoplastic fibers, films, and molding applications.
Polyesters can be produced by transesterification of a dialkyl terephthalate ester with a glycol followed by polycondensation or by direct esterification of terephthalic acid with the selected glycol followed by polycondensation.
Organic titanates, such as tetraisopropyl and tetra n-butyl titanates, are known to be effective catalysts for producing polyester and frequently are the catalyst of choice. However, these catalysts tend to generate a significant amount of yellow discoloration when used as polyesterification catalysts.
Therefore, there is an increasing need for developing a new composition that can be used as stabilizer for polyester and to reduce color formation of polyester.

Alkoxylated phosphite ester and process therefor


A display device including a display module configured to display a content corresponding to a video on a main screen of the display device; an interface module configured to receive an enlargement input request from a remote controller; and a controller configured to enter an enlargement mode in accordance with the enlargement input request received from the remote controller, display a window including the content displayed on the main screen, display an indicator for selecting a specific area of the displayed content within the displayed window, enlarge the selected specific area of the displayed content, and display the enlarged selected specific area of the displayed content on the main screen.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device, and more particularly, to a display device and controlling method thereof. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for enlarging a user desired portion of an image, adjusting a location of the enlarged portion, and modifying a screen enlargement magnification, on a smart TV, STB or the like.
Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, a number of users have used display devices such as a smart TV and the like. According to the related art, a user can enlarge a full screen or adjust a screen ratio using a screen ratio adjustment function. However, a function of only enlarging a user desired specific portion on a screen has not been supported.
For instance, on a TV home shopping channel, a user may want to watch and enlarge a detailed part and a price information of a product. According to the related art, because the adjustment of the screen ratio or an enlargement of the full screen is only supported, it is difficult for a user to enlarge the desiring portion at a time and to recognize which portion of an original screen is enlarged, thereby causing inconvenience to the user.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Display device and controlling method thereof


A lighting apparatus for visible light communication includes at least one luminaire body and a visible-light-communication-signal-outputting part. The luminaire body includes a light source that includes an LED. The visible-light-communication-signal-outputting part is configured to output a modulation signal to the luminaire body. The luminaire body further includes: a power supply circuit configured to dim the light source; a switch element for modulating an output current that is supplied from the power supply circuit to the light source; a resistor connected in parallel with the switch element; and a photo-coupler configured to receive the modulation signal output from the visible-light-communication-signal-outputting part. The visible-light-communication-signal-outputting part is provided outside the luminaire body, and is configured to transmit the modulation signal via the photo-coupler.

Conventionally, there has been known a visible light communication system, configured to transmit a communication signal with illumination light. In the visible light communication system, when plural lighting apparatuses are located in a predetermined space and each lighting apparatus has a visible light communication function, communication signals transmitted from the lighting apparatuses may interfere with each other, and accordingly, there is a case where a receiver cannot accurately receive communication information.
In view of this, there has been known an optical transmission system, in which a receiver can accurately receive communication information even in such a space where illumination light including a communication signal is output from each of plural lighting apparatuses (e.g., see JP 2005-176257 A). In this optical transmission system, a lighting apparatus is provided with a receiving unit that is configured to receive a communication signal included in illumination light output from another light source. The lighting apparatus is configured to determine whether or not the communication signal received by the receiving unit agrees with a communication signal to be output from its own light source, and output again an identical communication signal if those communication signals disagree with each other.
However, the optical transmission system in the above-mentioned document needs to provide the lighting apparatus with the receiving unit configured to receive the communication signal, and accordingly, the cost for the system configuration is increased. On the other hand, there is a method of synchronizing, with a single signal, plural lighting apparatuses in the same area to prevent interference of the communication signals. According to this method, one communication signal circuit is connected to a lighting circuit of each lighting apparatus through an electric wire, and the communication signal circuit is configured to output, to each lighting apparatus, a dimming signal on which a modulation signal for modulating light intensity of each light source is superposed. However, in this method, because a relatively-large current, on which the modulation signal is superposed, flows through the electric wire connecting the communication signal circuit and each lighting apparatus, radiation noise increases and accordingly there is a case where the communication signal circuit cannot accurately transmit the modulation signal. In addition, because general purpose electric wires and general purpose lighting apparatuses are mostly non-insulated type of things, it is not easy to secure insulation properties when connecting those.

Lighting apparatus for visible light communication, and visible light communication system using the apparatus

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


A display device including a display module and an information processing device having the same is described herein. The display device includes a display module, a supporting frame, and a fixing frame. The supporting frame supports a rear face of the display module corresponding to a peripheral area, a side face of the display module, and includes a coupling portion used for connecting the fixing frame to an information input device. A rear housing receives the display device. A front housing is connected to the rear housing and has an opening to expose a display screen of the display module.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and an information processing device having the display device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a flat panel display device having a novel frame structure and an information processing device having the display device.
2. Related Art
A flat panel display (FPD) device, for example, includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, a plasma display panel (PDP) device, an electroluminescent display (ELD) device, a vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) device, a light-emitting diode (LED) device, a field emission display (FED) device, etc.
The flat panel display device has many merits such as a slim size, low weight, and low power consumption. A thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD device displays an image with high quality, and has been developed to provide image display quality substantially equivalent to a cathode ray tube (CRT) device. The LCD device is widely used, and PDP devices are also used in various fields.
FPD devices are classified into categories such as an active-type light-emitting display device and a passive-type light-receiving display device based on the type of light source. In a light-receiving display device, a display panel and a light source part are assembled into a module using a member such as a mold frame connecting the display panel to the light source part or a chassis.
For example, an LCD module such as a monitor of a notebook computer includes a backlight disposed on a rear face of a liquid crystal panel, and the backlight includes frames such as a receiving mold frame or a metal back cover. The liquid crystal panel and the backlight part are then assembled into the LCD module using another frame such as a top chassis.
When an information processing device such as the notebook computer or a wall-hanging television receiver set includes the LCD module, the information processing device may include the LCD panel, brackets, and a cover. The cover is a housing that covers the LCD panel. The LCD panel is fixed to the cover, and covered and protected by the frames such as the brackets.
In the assembly structure mentioned above, the LCD module is assembled using frames such as the back cover, and the top chassis, while the information processing device is assembled using another frame such as the bracket. Thus, the number of elements used in the information processing device is increased. Also, the volume and weight of the information processing device may be increased, and assembly efficiency may be decreased.

Display device and information processing device having the same


A kitchen utensil for fruits, vegetables and the like, including a tool having a head portion for engaging a fruit, a vegetable and the like, a handle for gripping the tool, and a flexible portion disposed between the head portion and the handle portion for permitting the head portion to pivot relative to the handle. The flexible portion includes a serpentine section having one end thereof integrally connected to the handle, and an opposite end thereof integrally connected to the head portion to provide a one piece integral construction. The serpentine section provides a series of loops, where wedge-shaped reinforcement members are transversely disposed between the loops to maintain the loops in the serpentine configuration. A flexible web portion is provided in each of the loops to maintain the loop configuration thereof while permitting expansion and contraction of the loops under pressure. Preferably, the tool is a fruit and vegetable peeler, where the head portion is provided with a cutting blade extending in the same longitudinal direction as the handle to be in an aligned position therewith. The cutting blade is inwardly curved along its longitudinal length to provide a bow-shaped construction. The flexible portion permits the cutting blade to follow the natural contour of fruits and vegetables so that the cutting blade easily passes over imperfections on the surface of the fruit or vegetable.

The invention relates to a kitchen utensil for fruits, vegetables and the like, and more particularly, to a fruit and vegetable peeler having a cutting blade which is inwardly curved along its longitudinal length, and a flexible portion including a serpentine section disposed between the cutting blade portion and the handle to permit the cutting blade portion to pivot relative to the handle so that the cutting blade can follow the natural contour of the fruits and vegetables and pass over imperfections on the surface of the fruit or vegetable.
Fruit and vegetable peelers are well known in the kitchen utensil art. Many prior art peelers are provided with a curved blade which is secured only at one end to a handle. U.S. Pat. No. 1,452,930 and U.S. Pat. No. 1,794,823 show such a prior art peeler, where U.S. Pat. No. 1,508,628 shows a similar prior art peeler having a bend provided in the blade for insertion into the stem depression of the fruit or vegetable.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,264,196 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,786 also discloses a prior art peeler having a curved blade secured only at one end to the handle. However, the blade in these latter patents has two longitudinally extending, spaced apart cutting edges therein.
Accordingly, there is presently a need for a fruit and vegetable peeler that includes a longitudinally curved cutting blade that is secured at both opposite ends thereof, which includes a flexible portion to permit the cutting blade to follow the natural contour of fruits and vegetables and to easily pass over imperfections on the surface of the fruit or vegetable, and which is inexpensive to manufacture and therefore can be sold at a reasonable price.


In a network device to be used for a packet handling, the network device includes a first unit to communicate with a controller according to a first protocol, and to receive a packet handling rule from the controller which is capable of sending the packet handling rule to a plurality of the network devices via a network between the controller and the network device. A second unit classifies, based on a classification rule for classifying a received packet, whether to handle the packet according to the packet handling rule sent from the controller or to handle the packet according to a table entry that the network device autonomously set based on a second protocol. A third unit requests the packet handling rule to the controller when the packet handling rule for forwarding the received packet is not set in the network device.

In recent years, a technology called OpenFlow has been proposed (refer to Patent Literature 1 and Non Patent Literatures 1 and 2). OpenFlow treats communication as an end-to-end flow, and performs path control, failure recovery, load balancing, and optimization for each flow. An OpenFlow switch, the specification of which is defined in Non Patent Literature 2, comprises a secure channel for communicating with an OpenFlow controller functioning as a control device, and operates according to a flow table suitably added or rewritten by the OpenFlow controller. In the flow table, a set of matching rules (header field) matched against a packet header, flow statistic information (Counters), and an action (Actions) defining the contents of processing is defined for each flow (refer to FIG. 19).
A communication system 1 using the OpenFlow technology can be constituted by, for instance, a controller 114 corresponding to the OpenFlow controller and OpenFlow switches (referred to as "OFS" hereinafter) 121 to 123, and 131 to 133 as shown in FIG. 20.
For instance, when a communication terminal 140 starts to communicate with a communication terminal 142, the system operates as shown in FIG. 21. Upon receiving a packet sent by the communication terminal 140, the OFS 121 searches an entry having matching rules compatible with the header information of the received packet in a flow table. If no entry matching the received packet is found as a result of the search, the OFS 121 sends a new flow detection notification (Packet-In) message equipped with information about the received packet to the controller 114 via a secure channel after buffering the received packet, and requests the controller 114 to determine the path of the packet based on the sender and the receiver of the received packet. The controller 114 specifies the communication terminal 142 as the destination of the packet from the information of the new flow detection notification, sends a flow entry (processing rule) setting (FlowMod) message to set a flow entry realizing communication between the communication terminal 140 and the communication terminal 142 in the OFSs on the path. The OFS 121 forwards the buffered packet using the entry stored in the flow table as a processing rule. A subsequent packet flow is forwarded without requesting the controller 114 to determine the path since the corresponding entry already exists.
Further, Patent Literature 2 discloses a method for configuring a hierarchical network recognizing connection states between devices constituting the network as a hierarchical structure and based on topology information including hierarchy information. Patent Literature 2 states that a server managing each layer or an information relay device having functions of a server determines identification information usable by downstream relay devices connected to the server or the information replay device through an interface on the downstream side of the server or the information relay device, and informs the determined identification information to the downstream relay devices so as to realize effective address distribution in the hierarchical network configuration.

Communication system, communication device, controller, and method and program for controlling forwarding path of packet flow


An inkjet recording method comprising ejecting ink droplets on an image-receiving material according to recording signals to record an image on the image-receiving material, wherein at least one of the ink and the image-receiving material comprises an acid precursor capable of releasing an acid by a chemical reaction.

Accompanying recent popularization of computers, an inkjet printer is widely used for printing letters or an image on paper, film, cloth or the like not only in offices but also at homes.
The inkjet recording method includes a system of jetting out (ejecting) a liquid droplet by applying a pressure using a piezo element, a system of jetting out a liquid droplet by generating a bubble in an ink under heat, a system of using an ultrasonic wave, and a system of jetting out a liquid droplet by suction using an electrostatic force. The ink composition used for such inkjet recording includes an aqueous ink, an oily ink and a solid (fusion-type) ink. Among these inks, an aqueous ink is predominating in view of production, handleability, odor, safety and the like.
The coloring agent used in such an ink for inkjet recording is required to have high solubility in a solvent, enable high-density recording, provide good color, exhibit excellent fastness to light, heat, air, water and chemicals, ensure good fixing on an image-receiving material and less blurring, give an ink having excellent storability, have high purity and no toxicity, and be available at a low cost. However, it is very difficult to find out a coloring agent satisfying these requirements in a high level.
Various dyes and pigments for inkjet use have been already proposed and actually used, however, a coloring agent satisfying all requirements is not yet found out at present. Conventionally well-known dyes and pigments having a color index (C.I.) number can hardly satisfy both color hue and fastness required of the ink for inkjet recording. Studies have been heretofore made on dyes having good color and fastness with an attempt to develop an excellent coloring agent for inkjet use. However, in the compound called a water-soluble dye, a water-soluble group is necessarily substituted. If the number of the water-soluble groups is increased to as to enhance the stability of ink, this has been found to incur a problem that the image formed is readily blurred under high humidity conditions, that is, it is difficult to combine the stability of ink and the resistance against blurring.
In silver salt diffusion transfer, it is described in JP-A-3-63648 that carbonyl aceto compound can be used to prevent blurring of a transferred image. Also, in JP-A-2-309352, it is described that carboxy ester or sulfo ester can be used for the same purpose. However, it had not been considered about such method for preventing of blurring in the field of a transferred image of ink jet recording using other kinds of dyes.


A method and system for determining a body impedance (Zbody) of a user are disclosed. The method comprises coupling a sensor device to the user, wherein the sensor device includes at least a first and a second electrode. The method includes applying a voltage signal (Vin) through a first impedance (Zin1) to the first electrode and through a second impedance (Zin2) to the second electrode to produce an output signal. The method includes measuring a differential voltage (Vbody) across the first and second electrodes and calculating the body impedance (Zbody) using the measured differential voltage (Vbody), the voltage signal (Vin), the first impedance (Zin1), and the second impedance (Zin2).

Approximately 60% of an average person's body weight is composed of water. A person's body weight composition varies due to a variety of factors including age, diet, weight, and gender. Despite these variations, the majority of a person's body weight composition is made up of water. Physiologically, "body water" or "hydration level" are terms utilized to describe the water content of the body. A person's hydration level can be described in liters or as a percentage of the person's total body weight.
Maintaining a reasonable and healthy hydration level is crucial to the overall health of a person. Additionally, even small decreases in a person's hydration level can significantly affect athletic performance levels. Conventional methods of testing a body's hydration level include monitoring body mass changes and testing blood and urine for various markers. However, these conventional methods are inefficient, costly and require time consuming laboratory analysis to arrive at the proper hydration level.
These issues limit the monitoring of a person's hydration level. Therefore, there is a strong need for a cost-effective solution that overcomes the above issues by non-invasively calculating body impedance in real-time using sensor devices to enable the monitoring of health related values.
Local fluid status is also a useful metric to track. A determination of fluid buildup in lungs could be used in diagnosing or predicting pneumonia as well as addressing the need in Chronic Heart Disease (CHF) patients to determine whether a diuretic should be administered.
Respiratory rate and respiratory volume are very important vital signs. They can be used to determine a health of an individual and potentially diagnose certain ailments. Respiratory rate and respiratory volume can also be used as a predictive measure and determine whether the health of an individual is improving or deteriorating.
Body composition is also a useful parameter in determining the health of a patient. Determining a person's body composition (i.e. the percentage of fat, muscle, etc) is commonly tracked and used for determining overall health. Tracking changes in a person's body composition is useful in many applications including weight loss.
One vital sign that can be used on its own or in combination with other vital signs to determine hydration level, local fluid status, respiratory rate, respiratory volume and body composition is bio-impedance. The present invention addresses these needs.

Method and system for determining body impedance


Frame quality information is transmitted and updated within a core network (CN) and a RAN downlink to UE. In the CN, CRC checks are done and the FQC field is set according to the results of the CRC check and the received FQC field's value, and transferred to the next node in the communication path. A server, or servers, instruct(s) MGWs and RNCs within the communications path to apply CRC checks and generate the FQC field according to the received FQC field and the applied CRC check. The lu framing protocol is used to transfer the FQC between the CN and RNC. A radio protocol, such as RRC protocol, is used between the RNC and the mobile to transport the FQC field in the downlink to the UE. Within the CN, the FQC field is transported over the Nb interface.

The present invention is related to communication in a telecommunication system, and more particularly to improving end-to-end communication in a modern telecommunication system.
Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems (UMTS) provide a third generation (3G), broadband, packet-based network architecture. UMTS is endorsed by major standards bodies and manufacturers as the planned standard for mobile users around the world. The UMTS network transports text, digitized voice, digitized video, and multimedia at data rates up to and possibly higher than 2 Mbps. Once fully implemented, computer and phone users will be able to travel staying connected to the Internet with a consistent set of capabilities. Access is obtained through a combination of terrestrial wireless and satellite transmissions.
FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of a UMTS network. The network includes a core network part (CN) 1, which may be a network handling voice calls using UMTS Mobile-Services Switching Centers (UMSCs) 2 or may be a data network such as a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network including Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSNs) 2. The CN 1 may also include one or more Media Gateways (MGW) (not shown) to control data flow within the CN 1 and between the CN 1 and other networks. A subscriber or User Equipment (UE) 3 is coupled to the CN 1 via an access network 4 referred to as a Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). More particularly, the UMSCs/SGSNs 2 are connected to Radio Network Controllers (RNCs) 5,6 of the UTRAN 4 over an interface referred to as the lu interface.
Each RNC 5, 6 forms part of a Radio Network Subsystem (RNSs) 7,8 which also comprises a set of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) 9 referred to in UMTS terminology as Node B's. The interface between a RNC 5,6 and a Node B 9 is known as the lub interface. A Node B 9 provides the connection point for a UE 3 to the UTRAN 4, with the interface between the Node B 9 and the UE 3 known as the Uu interface. The interface between two RNCs 5,6 is known as the lur interface. The RNS (RNS 7 in FIG. 1) which connects a UE 3 to the CN 1 at any given time is referred to as the Serving RNS (SRNS) for that particular UE 3. Two UEs 3, 10 may also communicate with each other via respective RNCs through the CN 1 involving one or more MGWs. The interface used to convey data between consecutive MGWs in the CN 1 is the Nb interface.
FIG. 2 illustrates in general terms the bearer structure used by a UTRAN to carry user data between the UE 3 and the CN 1. When it is required to establish a user plane (UP) connection, the responsible UMSC or SGSN 2 instructs the UTRAN 4 to establish a logical connection between the UMSC or SGSN 2 and the UE 3. This logical connection is referred to as a Radio Access Bearer (RAB). The established RAB inherits the requirements of the requested UMTS service, e.g., Quality of Service, etc. Based on the inherited requirements of the RAB, the RNC 5,6 establishes UP connections with the CN 1 (i.e., UMSC or SGSN 2) and with the UE 3. The connection between the RNC 5,6 and the CN 1 is referred to as the lu bearer, while the connection between the RNC 5,6 and the UE 3 is referred to as the Radio Bearer (RB). Both of these bearers represent further logical channels, with the RNC performing a mapping between them. The bearers themselves are mapped onto appropriate traffic channels for transmission over the respective interfaces (Nb, lu, lub, and Uu). A Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specifies the UE3 to UTRAN 4 radio interface.
In addition to carrying user data, the lu bearer carries related control information between the UTRAN 4 and the CN 1. Work is currently ongoing under the auspices of the 3GPP to specify the lu UP protocol for carrying this control information.
As of the filing date of the above-identified priority application, the current 3GPP specification was R99. Accordingly, in this document, reference is made to the then published lu UP specification TS 25.415 version 3.5.0 and RRC specification TS 25.331, version 3.5.0 (the first Nb UP specification was published after the priority date). Currently, the lu UP specification is TS 25.415 (v4.2, 2001-9), the Nb UP specification is TS 29.415 (v4.1, 2001-9), and the RRC specification is TS 25.331 (v4.1, 2001-3).
Referring to FIG. 3, a functional model of the lu UP protocol layer in Support Mode is illustrated. The lu UP protocol layer in Support Mode includes three sets of functions: frame handler functions; procedure control functions; and non access stratum (NAS) data streams specific functions. The frame handler function is responsible for framing and de-framing the different parts of an lu UP protocol frame. This function takes the different parts of the lu UP protocol frame and sets the control part field to the correct values, including the handling of the frame number. It also ensures that the frame control part is semantically correct. This function is responsible for interacting with the Transport layers. This function is also responsible for the CRC (cyclic redundancy checking) check of the lu UP frame header. The lu UP frame with header CRC check error is discarded.
The NAS Data Streams specific function(s) are responsible for a "limited manipulation" of the payload and the consistency check of the frame number. If a frame loss is detected due to a gap in the sequence of the received frame numbers, it is reported to the procedure control function. These functions are responsible for the CRC check and frame quality classification handling as described below. The functions interact with the upper layers by exchanging lu data stream blocks of lu UP frame payload and provide service access to the upper layers for the procedure control functions.
On the lu UP in Support Mode the frames are classified with the Frame Quality Classifier (FQC). This classifying is based on the radio frame classification and the setting of the RAB attribute 'Delivery of erroneous SDUs'. The RAB attribute 'Delivery of erroneous SDUs' indicates whether erroneous frames should be delivered or not. If it is set to YES then the UP entity implements, error checking and sets FQC bits (FQC field) accordingly; bad frames are delivered to the UP layer. If it is set to NO then the UP entity performs error checking and if a bad frame is detected then it is discarded. These settings are required only when the payload is to be examined by upper layer services. If it is set to NA then no checking is performed. See 3GPP TS 29.232, version 0.3.0 (current version 4.0.0), Media Gateway Controller—Media Gateway Interface.
FIG. 4 illustrates the main input and output information for the frame quality classification function on the lu UP. The FQC information in the uplink path is handled by a serving RNC (SRNC) in the UTRAN 400. In the SRNC on the sending side, the Support Mode functions 420 receive the radio frame quality information as input together with the frame. Based on this information, the FQC is set for the frame, a CRC is or is not added (depending on the protocol data unit type) and the frame is sent to the CN.
Tables 1–3 below outline how the FQC is defined by R99. Table 1 below outlines the SRNC behavior on the uplink path for each associated FQC field setting and 'Delivery of erroneous SDUs (service data units)' RAB attribute:
Table 1: FQC Handling in the RNC on Uplink (lu interface)
INPUTACTION(for each subflow)(on lu UP frame)Delivery of erroneousRadio FrameAction taken in SRNC on theSDUsClassificationsending sideYesBadSet FQC to 'bad radio'NoBadFrame not sentno-error-detection-Any valueSet FQC to 'good'considerationAny valueGoodSet FQC to 'good'
Referring to Table 1, if there is at least one subflow with the 'Delivery of erroneous SDUs' set to "No" and for at least one of those subflows the radio frame classification is "Bad" then the lu UP frame is not sent. If there is at least one subflow with the 'Delivery of erroneous SDUs' set to "Yes" and for at least one of those subflows the radio frame classification is "Bad" then the lu UP frame is sent with FQC set to "Frame bad due to radio." Otherwise the lu UP frame is sent with FQC set to "frame good". This is because only one FQC is sent for all RBs mapping into one lu, Nb bearer.
The Support Mode Functions 430 in the CN 410 on the receiving side performs a CRC check of the frame payload, if the CRC is present, and passes the appropriate frame and the appropriate frame quality classification information through the radio network layer service access point (RNL-SAP). Tables 2a and 2b below outline the CN behavior on the downlink and uplink path, respectively, for each associated CRC check result and 'Delivery of erroneous SDUs' RAB attribute scenario for the received frames:
TABLE 2aFQC Handling in the CN/RNC on Downlink (lu)INPUT(for each subflow)ACTIONDelivery of erroneous(on lu UP frame)SDUsPayload CRC check resultActions taken at CN on the receiving(for each subflow)(on lu UP frame)sideYes (at least one of theNot OKFrame forwarded with FQC set to 'bad'subflows have this valuebut none have 'No')No (at least one of theNot OKDrop frame, send lu-UP-Statussubflows have this value)primitive indicating 'no data' at theRNL-SAP, if CNno-error-detection-Any resultFrame forwarded with FQC as setconsideration (all subflowshave this value)
TABLE 2bFQC Handling in the CN on received Uplink (lu)INPUT(for each subflow)ACTIONDelivery of erroneous(on lu UP frame)SDUsPayload CRC check resultActions taken at CN on the(for each subflow)(on lu UP frame)receiving sideYes (at least one of theNot OKFrame forwarded with FQC set tosubflows have this value'bad'but none have 'No')No (at least one of theNot OKDrop frame, send lu-UP-Statussubflows have this value)primitive indicating 'no data' at theRNL-SAPno-error-detection-Any resultFrame forwarded with FQC as set byconsideration (allUTRANsubflows have this value)Any valueOKFrame forwarded with FQC as set byUTRAN
Referring to Tables 2a and 2b, if a CRC is available and the CRC check indicates that the lu UP is "Bad" and at least one subflow has the 'Delivery of erroneous SDUs' set to "No", then the lu UP frame is dropped. If a CRC is available and the CRC check indicates that the lu UP frame is "Bad" and at least one subflow has the 'Delivery of erroneous SDUs' set to "Yes", then the lu UP frames are forwarded with the FQC set to "Bad." Otherwise, the lu UP frame is forwarded with the FQC as received.
The Support Mode Functions 430 in the CN 410 on the sending side adds a CRC, if necessary to the frame payload and passes it together with the FQC. If the payload stems from a transcoding unit of the NAS within the CN 410 the FQC is always set to good.
The Support Mode Functions 420 in the SRNC of the UTRAN 400 then perform a CRC-check, if the CRC is present. Based on the CRC check, a decision is made whether to deliver the frame or not, as outlined in Table 3 below:
TABLE 3Conventional FQC Handling in the RNC on DownlinkINPUTACTION'Delivery ofCRC check(on lu UP frame)erroneous SDUs'(if payload CRC present)Actions taken at SRNC on the(for each subflow)FQC(on lu UP frame)receiving sideYes'good'Not OKDrop frameNo'good'Not OKDrop frameno-error-detection-'good'Any resultPass the frame to radio interfaceconsiderationprotocolsAny value'good'OKPass the frame to radio interfaceprotocolsAny value'bad' orAny resultDrop frame'bad radio'
Referring to Table 3, if a CRC is available and the CRC check indicates that the lu UP is "Bad" then the frame is dropped, regardless of the 'Delivery of erroneous SDUs' RAB attribute indication. Otherwise, the frames are passed to radio interface protocols. The FQC field is not forwarded to the UE. When the received FQC is set to 'bad' or 'bad radio', the frame is dropped.
Cellular networks depend heavily on codecs to compress speech in order to efficiently utilize the expensive bandwidth resources both in the radio interface and in the transmission networks. Unnecessary transcoding of speech significantly degrades quality and, therefore, cellular systems try to avoid it for mobile-to-mobile calls when both UEs and the network support a common codec type. A transcoder functions to change the encoding of information from one particular encoding scheme to another, most commonly to/from a compressed speech algorithm from/to pulse code modulation (PCM).
The 3GPP standardization includes Transcoder Free Operation (TrFO), which allows the configuration of speech or multimedia calls without a transcoder device being physically present in the communication path and hence no control, conversion, or other functions are associated with the call. For TrFO calls, the compressed speech is carried end to end (RNC to RNC or between RNC and another compressed voice terminal).
The Nb UP operates in the UP of the CN and is used to convey data between MGWs. The Nb UP protocol is initiated at one MGW and acknowledged by an adjoining MGW. The Nb framing protocol is inherited from the lu framing protocol. The Support Mode is used for compressed voice.
In TrFO, a transcoder is no longer located where the lu interface terminates. However, without a transcoder the FQC function will not work correctly. Faults can occur inside the CN and the quality of TrFO calls will drop drastically when the quality of the transmission over the air interface decreases. Currently, FQCs are neither transported within the CN nor to the UE via the downlink path. A mechanism is needed to provide for the handling of CRC and FQC information on the network level for all applications, data or multimedia, that rely on these functions, thereby improving quality end-to-end.