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This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/657,181, filed Sep. 7, 2000, entitled, "Method and Device for Monitoring and Analyzing Signals."
This application claims the benefit of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/999,766, filed Jul. 23, 1997, entitled "Steganographic Method and Device"; pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/772,222, filed Dec. 20, 1996, entitled "Z-Transform Implementation of Digital Watermarks" (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,078,664); pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/456,319, filed Dec. 8, 1999, entitled "Z-Transform Implementation of Digital Watermarks" (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,853,726); pending U.S. patent application. Ser. No. 08/674,726, filed Jul. 2, 1996, entitled "Exchange Mechanisms for Digital Information Packages with Bandwidth Securitization, Multichannel Digital Watermarks, and Key Management"; pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/545,589, filed Apr. 7, 2000, entitled "Method and System for Digital. Watermarking" (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,007,166); pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/046,627, filed Mar. 24, 1998, entitled "Method for Combining Transfer Function with Predetermined Key Creation" (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,598,162); pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/053,628, filed Apr. 2, 1998, entitled "Multiple Transform Utilization and Application for Secure Digital Watermarking" (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,249); pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/281,279, filed Mar. 30, 1999, entitled "Optimization Methods for the Insertion, Protection, and Detection of Digital Watermarks in Digital Data (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,522,767)"; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09,594,719, filed Jun. 16, 2000, entitled "Utilizing Data Reduction in Steganographic and Cryptographic Systems" (which is a continuation-in-part of PCT application No. PCT/US00/06522, filed Mar. 14, 2000, which PCT application claimed priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/125,990, filed Mar. 24, 1999) (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,123,718); pending U.S. Application No. 60/169,274, filed Dec. 7, 1999, entitled "Systems, Methods And Devices For Trusted Transactions" (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,159,116); and PCT Application No. PCT/US00/21189, filed Aug. 4, 2000 (which claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/147,134, filed Aug. 4, 1999, and to U.S. Patent Application No. 60/213,489, filed. Jun. 23, 2000, both of which are entitled, "A Secure Personal Content Server"). The previously identified patents and/or patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference, in their entireties, as if fully stated herein.
In addition, this application hereby incorporates by reference, as if fully stated herein, the total disclosures of U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,004 "Steganographic Method and Device"; U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,569 "Method for Stega-Cipher Protection of Computer Code"; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,889,868 "Optimization Methods for the Insertion, Protection, and Detection of Digital Watermarks in Digitized Data."
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the monitoring and analysis of digital information. A method and device are described which relate to signal recognition to enhance identification and monitoring activities.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many methods and protocols are known for transmitting data in digital form for multimedia applications (including computer applications delivered over public networks such as the internet or World Wide Web ("WWW"). These methods may include protocols for the compression of data, such that it may more readily and quickly be delivered over limited bandwidth data lines. Among standard protocols for data compression of digital files may be mentioned the MPEG compression standards for audio and video digital compression, promulgated by the Moving Picture Experts Group. Numerous standard reference works and patents discuss such compression and transmission standards for digitized information.
Digital watermarks help to authenticate the content of digitized multimedia information, and can also discourage piracy. Because piracy is clearly a disincentive to the digital distribution of copyrighted content, establishment of responsibility for copies and derivative copies of such works is invaluable. In considering the various forms of multimedia content, whether "master," stereo, NTSC video, audio tape or compact disc, tolerance of quality will vary with individuals and affect the underlying commercial and aesthetic value of the content. It is desirable to tie copyrights, ownership rights, purchaser information or some combination of these and related data into the content in such a manner that the content must undergo damage, and therefore reduction of its value, with subsequent, unauthorized distribution, commercial or otherwise. Digital watermarks address many of these concerns. A general discussion of digital watermarking as it has been applied in the art may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,236 (whose specification is incorporated in whole herein by reference).
Further applications of basic digital watermarking functionality have also been developed. Examples of such applications are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,889,868 (whose specification is incorporated in whole herein by reference). Such applications have been drawn, for instance, to implementations of digital watermarks that were deemed most suited to particular transmissions, or particular distribution and storage mediums, given the nature of digitally sampled audio, video, and other multimedia works. There have also been developed techniques for adapting watermark application parameters to the individual characteristics of a given digital sample stream, and for implementation of digital watermarks that are feature-based—i.e., a system in which watermark information is not carried in individual samples, but is carried in the relationships between multiple samples, such as in a waveform shape. For instance, natural extensions may be added to digital watermarks that may also separate frequencies (color or audio), channels in 3D while utilizing discreteness in feature-based encoding only known to those with pseudo-random keys (i.e., cryptographic keys) or possibly tools to access such information, which may one day exist on a quantum level.
A matter of general weakness in digital watermark technology relates directly to the manner of implementation of the watermark. Many approaches to digital watermarking leave detection and decode control with the implementing party of the digital watermark, not the creator of the work to be protected. This weakness removes proper economic incentives for improvement of the technology. One specific form of exploitation mostly regards efforts to obscure subsequent watermark detection. Others regard successful over encoding using the same watermarking process at a subsequent time. Yet another way to perform secure digital watermark implementation is through "key-based" approaches.
A method for monitoring and analyzing at least one signal is disclosed, which method comprises the steps of: receiving at least one reference signal to be monitored; creating an abstract of the at least one reference signal; storing the abstract of the at least one reference signal in a reference database; receiving at least one query signal to be analyzed; creating an abstract of the at least one query signal; and comparing the abstract of the at least one query signal to the abstract of the at least one reference signal to determine if the abstract of the at least one query signal matches the abstract of the at least one reference signal.
A method for monitoring a plurality of reference signals is also disclosed, which method comprises the steps of: creating an abstract for each one of a plurality of reference signals; storing each of the abstracts in a reference database; receiving at least one query signal to be analyzed; creating an abstract of each at least one query signal; locating an abstract in the reference database that matches the abstract of each at least one query signal; and recording the identify of the reference signal whose abstract matched the abstract of each at least one query signal.
A computerized system for monitoring and analyzing at least one signal is also disclosed, which system comprises: a processor for creating an abstract of a signal using selectable criteria; a first input for receiving at least one reference signal to be monitored, the first input being coupled to the processor such that the processor may generate an abstract for each reference signal input to the processor; a reference database, coupled to the processor, for storing abstracts of each at least one reference signal; a second input for receiving at least one query signal to be analyzed, the second input being coupled to the processor such that the processor may generate an abstract for each query signal; and a comparing device, coupled to the reference database and to the second input, for comparing an abstract of the at least one query signal to the abstracts stored in the reference database to determine if the abstract of the at least one query signal matches any of the stored abstracts.
Further, an electronic system for monitoring and analyzing at least one signal is disclosed which system comprises: a first input for receiving at least one reference signal to be monitored, a first processor for creating an abstract of each reference signal input to the first processor through the first input; a second input for receiving at least one query signal to be analyzed, a second processor for creating an abstract of each query signal; a reference database for storing abstracts of each at least one reference signal; and a comparing device for comparing an abstract of the at least one query signal to the abstracts stored in the reference database to determine if the abstract of the at least one query signal matches any of the stored abstracts.
While there are many approaches to data reduction that can be utilized, a primary concern is the ability to reduce the digital signal in such a manner as to retain a "perceptual relationship" between the original signal and its data reduced version. This relationship may either be mathematically discernible or a result of market-dictated needs. The purpose is to afford a more consistent means for classifying signals than proprietary, related text-based approaches. A simple analogy is the way in which a forensic investigator uses a sketch artist to assist in determining the identity of a human.
In one embodiment of the invention, the abstract of a signal may be generated by the following steps: 1) analyze the characteristics of each signal in a group of audible/perceptible variations for the same signal (e.g., analyze each of five versions of the same song—which versions may have the same lyrics and music but which are sung by different artists); and 2) select those characteristics which achieve or remain relatively constant (or in other words, which have minimum variation) for each of the signals in the group. Optionally, the null case may be defined using those characteristics which are common to each member of the group of versions.
Lossless and lossy compression schemes are appropriate candidates for data reduction technologies, as are those subset of approaches that are based on perceptual models, such as AAC, MP3, TwinVQ, JPEG, GIF, MPEG, etc. Where spectral transforms fail to assist in greater data reduction of the signal, other signal characteristics can be identified as candidates for further data reduction. Linear predictive coding (LPC), z-transform analysis, root mean square (rms), signal to peak, may be appropriate tools to measure signal characteristics, but other approaches or combinations of signal characteristic analysis are contemplated. While such signal characteristics may assist in determining particular applications of the present invention, a generalized approach to signal recognition is necessary to optimize the deployment and use of the present invention.
Increasingly, valuable information is being created and stored in digital form. For example, music, photographs and motion pictures can all be stored and transmitted as a series of binary digits—1's and 0's. Digital techniques permit the original information to be duplicated repeatedly with perfect or near perfect accuracy, and each copy is perceived by viewers or listeners as indistinguishable from the original signal. Unfortunately, digital techniques also permit the information to be easily copied without the owner's permission. While digital representations of analog waveforms may be analyzed by perceptually-based or perceptually-limited analysis it is usually costly and time-consuming to model the processes of the highly effective ability of humans to identify and recognize a signal. In those applications where analog signals require analysis, the cost of digitizing the analog signal is minimal when compared to the benefits of increased accuracy and speed of signal analysis and monitoring when the processes contemplated by this invention are utilized.
The present invention relates to identification of digitally-sampled information, such as images, audio and video. Traditional methods of identification and monitoring of those signals do not rely on "perceptual quality," but rather upon a separate and additional signal. Within this application, such signals will be called "additive signals" as they provide information about the original images, audio or video, but such information is in addition to the original signal. One traditional, text-based additive signal is title and author information. The title and author, for example, is information about a book, but it is in addition to the text of the book. If a book is being duplicated digitally, the title and author could provide one means of monitoring the number of times the text is being duplicated, for example, through an Internet download. The present invention, however, is directed to the identification of a digital signal—whether text, audio, or video—using only the digital signal itself and then monitoring the number of times the signal is duplicated. Reliance on an additive signal has many shortcomings. For example, first, someone must incorporate the additive signal within the digital data being transmitted, for example, by concatenation or through an embedding process. Such an additive signal, however, can be easily identified and removed by one who wants to utilize the original signal without paying for its usage. If the original signal itself is used to identify the content, an unauthorized user could not avoid payment of a royalty simply by removing the additive signal—because there is no additive signal to remove. Hence, the present invention avoids a major disadvantage of the prior art.
One such additive signal that may be utilized is a digital watermark—which ideally cannot be removed without perceptually altering the original signal. A watermark may also be used as a monitoring signal (for example, by encoding an identifier that uniquely identifies the original digital signal into which the identifier is being embedded). A digital watermark used for monitoring is also an additive signal, and such a signal may make it difficult for the user who wants to duplicate a signal without paying a royalty—mainly by degrading the perceptual quality of the original signal if the watermark (and hence the additive monitoring signal) is removed. This is, however, is a different solution to the problem.
The present invention eliminates the need of any additive monitoring signal because the present invention utilizes the underlying content signal as the identifier itself. Nevertheless, the watermark may increase the value of monitoring techniques by increasing the integrity of the embedded data and by indicating tampering of either the original content signal or the monitoring signal. Moreover, the design of a watermarking embedding algorithm is closely related to the perceptibility of noise in any given signal and can represent an ideal subset of the original signal: the watermark bits are an inverse of the signal to the extent that lossy compression schemes, which can be used, for instance, to optimize a watermarking embedding scheme, can yield information about the extent to which a data signal can be compressed while holding steadfast to the design requirement that the compressed signal maintain its perceptual relationship with the original, uncompressed signal. By describing those bits that are candidates for imperceptible embedding of watermark bits, further data reduction may be applied on the candidate watermarks as an example of retaining a logical and perceptible relationship with the original uncompressed signal.
Of course, the present invention may be used in conjunction with watermarking technology (including the use of keys to accomplish secure digital watermarking), but watermarking is not necessary to practice the present invention. Keys for watermarking may have many forms, including: descriptions of the original carrier file formatting, mapping of embedded data (actually imperceptible changes made to the carrier signal and referenced to the predetermined key or key pairs), assisting in establishing the watermark message data integrity (by incorporation of special one way functions in the watermark message data or key), etc. Discussions of these systems in the patents and pending patent applications are incorporated by reference above. The "recognition" of a particular signal or an instance of its transmission, and its monitoring are operations that may be optimized through the use of digital watermark analysis.
A practical difference between the two approaches of using a separate, additive monitoring signal and using the original signal itself as the monitoring signal is control. If a separate signal is used for monitoring, then the originator of the text, audio or video signal being transmitted and the entity doing the monitoring have to agree as to the nature of the separate signal to be used for monitoring—otherwise, the entity doing the monitoring would not know where to look, for what to look, or how to interpret the monitoring signal once it was identified and detected. On the other hand, if the original signal is used itself as a monitoring signal, then no such agreement is necessary. Moreover, a more logical and self-sufficient relationship between the original and its data-reduced abstract enhances the transparency of any resulting monitoring efforts. The entity doing the monitoring is not looking for a separate, additive monitoring system, and further, need not have to interpret the content of the monitoring signal.
Monitoring implementations can be handled by robust watermark techniques (those techniques that are able to survive many signal manipulations but are not inherently "secure" for verification of a carrier signal absent a logically-related watermarking key) and forensic watermark techniques (which enable embedding of watermarks that are not able to survive perceptible alteration of the carrier signal and thus enable detection of tampering with the originally watermarked carrier signal). The techniques have obvious trade-offs between speed, performance and security of the embedded watermark data.
In other disclosures, we suggest improvements and implementations that relate to digital watermarks in particular and embedded signaling in general. A digital watermark may be used to "tag" content in a manner that is not humanly-perceptible, in order to ensure that the human perception of the signal quality is maintained. Watermarking, however, must inherently alter at least one data bit of the original signal to represent a minimal change from the original signal's "unwatermarked state." The changes may affect only a bit, at the very least, or be dependent on information hiding relating to signal characteristics, such as phase information, differences between digitized samples, root mean square (RMS) calculations, z-transform analysis, or similar signal characteristic category.
There are weaknesses in using digital watermark technology for monitoring purposes. One weakness relates directly to the way in which watermarks are implemented. Often, the persons responsible for encoding and decoding the digital watermark are not the creator of the valuable work to be protected. As such, the creator has no input on the placement of the monitoring signal within the valuable work being protected. Hence, if a user wishing to avoid payment of the royalty can find a way to decode or remove the watermark, or at least the monitoring signal embedded in the watermark, then the unauthorized user may successfully duplicate the signal with impunity. This could occur, for example, if either of the persons responsible for encoding or decoding were to have their security compromised such that the encoding or decoding algorithms were discovered by the unauthorized user.
With the present invention, no such disadvantages exist because the creator need not rely on anyone to insert a monitoring signal—as no such signal is necessary. Instead, the creator's work itself is used as the monitoring signal. Accordingly, the value in the signal will have a strong relationship with its recognizability.
By way of improving methods for efficient monitoring as well as effective confirmation of the identity of a digitally-sampled signal, the present invention describes useful methods for using digital signal processing for benchmarking a novel basis for differencing signals with binary data comparisons. These techniques may be complemented with perceptual techniques, but are intended to leverage the generally decreasing cost of bandwidth and signal processing power in an age of increasing availability and exchange of digitized binary data.
So long as there exist computationally inexpensive ways of identifying an entire signal with some fractional representation or relationship with the original signal, or its perceptually observable representation, we envision methods for faster and more accurate auditing of signals as they are played, distributed or otherwise shared amongst providers (transmitters) and consumers (receivers). The ability to massively compress a signal to its essence—which is not strictly equivalent to "lossy" or "lossless" compression schemes or perceptual coding techniques, but designed to preserve some underlying "aesthetic quality" of the signal—represents a useful means for signal analysis in a wide variety of applications. The signal analysis, however, must maintain the ability to distinguish the perceptual quality of the signals being compared. For example, a method which analyzed a portion of a song by compressing it to a single line of lyrics fails to maintain the ability to distinguish the perceptual quality of the songs being compared. Specifically, for example, if the song "New York State of Mind" were compressed to the lyrics "I'm in a New York State of Mind," such a compression fails to maintain the ability to distinguish between the various recorded versions of the song, say, for example between Billy Joel's recording and Barbara Streisand's recording. Such a method is, therefore, incapable of providing accurate monitoring of the artist's recordings because it could not determine which of the two artists is deserving of a royalty—unless of course, there is a separate monitoring signal to provide the name of the artist or other information sufficient to distinguish the two versions. The present invention, however, aims to maintain some level of perceptual quality of the signals being compared and would deem such a compression to be excessive.
This analogy can be made clearer if it is understood that there are a large number of approaches to compressing a signal to, say, 1/10,000th of its original size, not for maintaining its signal quality to ensure computational ease for commercial quality distribution, but to assist in identification, analysis or monitoring of the signal. Most compression is either lossy or lossless and is designed with psychoacoustic or psychovisual parameters. That is to say, the signal is compressed to retain what is "humanly-perceptible." As long as the compression successfully mimics human perception, data space may be saved when the compressed file is compared to the uncompressed or original file. While psychoacoustic and psychovisual compression has some relevance to the present invention, additional data reduction or massive compression is anticipated by the present invention. It is anticipated that the original signal may be compressed to create a realistic or self-similar representation of the original signal, so that the compressed signal can be referenced at a subsequent time as unique binary data that has computational relevance to the original signal. Depending on the application, general data reduction of the original signal can be as simple as massive compression or may relate to the watermark encoding envelope parameter (those bits which a watermarking encoding algorithm deem as candidate bits for mapping independent data or those bits deemed imperceptible to human senses but detectable to a watermark detection algorithm). In this manner, certain media which are commonly known by signal characteristics, a painting, a song, a TV commercial, a dialect, etc., may be analyzed more accurately, and perhaps, more efficiently than a text-based descriptor of the signal. So long as the sender and receiver agree that the data representation is accurate, even insofar as the data-reduction technique has logical relationships with the perceptibility of the original signal, as they must with commonly agreed to text descriptors, no independent cataloging is necessary.
The present invention generally contemplates a signal recognition system that has at least five elements. The actual number of elements may vary depending on the number of domains in which a signal resides (for example, audio is at least one domain while visual carriers are at least two dimensional). The present invention contemplates that the number of elements will be sufficient to effectively and efficiently meet the demands of various classes of signal recognition. The design of the signal recognition that may be used with data reduction is better understood in the context of the general requirements of a pattern or signal recognition system.
The first element is the reference database, which contains information about a plurality of potential signals that will be monitored. In one form, the reference database would contain digital copies of original works of art as they are recorded by the various artists, for example, contain digital copies of all songs that will be played by a particular radio station. In another form, the reference database would contain not perfect digital copies of original works of art, but digital copies of abstracted works of art, for example, contain digital copies of all songs that have been preprocessed such that the copies represent the perceptual characteristics of the original songs. In another form, the reference database would contain digital copies of processed data files, which files represent works of art that have been preprocessed in such a fashion as to identify those perceptual differences that can differentiate one version of a work of art from another version of the same work of art, such as two or more versions of the same song, but by different artists. These examples have obvious application to visually communicated works such as images, trademarks or photographs, and video as well.
The second element is the object locator, which is able to segment a portion of a signal being monitored for analysis (i.e., the "monitored signal"). The segmented portion is also referred to as an "object." As such, the signal being monitored may be thought of comprising a set of objects. A song recording, for example, can be thought of as having a multitude of objects. The objects need not be of uniform length, size, or content, but merely be a sample of the signal being monitored. Visually communicated informational signals have related objects; color and size are examples.
The third element is the feature selector, which is able to analyze a selected object and identify perceptual features of the object that can be used to uniquely describe the selected object. Ideally, the feature selector can identify all, or nearly all, of the perceptual qualities of the object that differentiate it from a similarly selected object of other signals. Simply, a feature selector has a direct relationship with the perceptibility of features commonly observed. Counterfeiting is an activity which specifically seeks out features to misrepresent the authenticity of any given object. Highly granular, and arguably successful, counterfeiting is typically sought for objects that are easily recognizable and valuable, for example, currency, stamps, and trademarked or copyrighted works and objects that have value to a body politic.
The fourth element is the comparing device which is able to compare the selected object using the features selected by the feature selector to the plurality of signals in the reference database to identify which of the signals matches the monitored signal. Depending upon how the information of the plurality of signals is stored in the reference database and depending upon the available computational capacity (e.g., speed and efficiency), the exact nature of the comparison will vary. For example, the comparing device may compare the selected object directly to the signal information stored in the database. Alternatively, the comparing device may need to process the signal information stored in the database using input from the feature selector and then compare the selected object to the processed signal information. Alternatively, the comparing device may need to process the selected object using input from the feature selector and then compare the processed selected object to the signal information. Alternatively, the comparing device may need to process the signal information stored in the database using input from the feature selector, process the selected object using input from the feature selector, and then compare the processed selected object to the processed signal information.
The fifth element is the recorder which records information about the number of times a given signal is analyzed and detected. The recorder may comprise a database which keeps track of the number of times a song, image, or a movie has been played, or may generate a serial output which can be subsequently processed to determine the total number of times various signals have been detected.
Other elements may be added to the system or incorporated into the five elements identified above. For example, an error handler may be incorporated into the comparing device. If the comparing device identifies multiple signals which appear to contain the object being sought for analysis or monitoring, the error handler may offer further processing in order to identify additional qualities or features in the selected object such that only one of the set of captured signals is found to contain the further analyzed selected object that actually conforms with the object thought to have been transmitted or distributed.
Moreover, one or more of the five identified elements may be implemented with software that runs on the same processor, or which uses multiple processors. In addition, the elements may incorporate dynamic approaches that utilize stochastic, heuristic, or experience-based adjustments to refine the signal analysis being conducted within the system, including, for example, the signal analyses being performed within the feature selector and the comparing device. This additional analyses may be viewed as filters that are designed to meet the expectations of accuracy or speed for any intended application.
Since maintenance of original signal quality is not required by the present invention, increased efficiencies in processing and identification of signals can be achieved. The present invention concerns itself with perceptible relationships only to the extent that efficiencies can be achieved both in accuracy and speed with enabling logical relationships between an original signal and its abstract.
The challenge is to maximize the ability to sufficiently compress a signal to both retain its relationship with the original signal while reducing the data overhead to enable more efficient analysis, archiving and monitoring of these signals. In some cases, data reduction alone will not suffice: the sender and receiver must agree to the accuracy of the recognition. In other cases, agreement will actually depend on a third party who authored or created the signal in question. A digitized signal may have parameters to assist in establishing more accurate identification, for example, a "signal abstract" which naturally, or by agreement with the creator, the copyright owner or other interested parties, can be used to describe the original signal. By utilizing less than the original signal, a computationally inexpensive means of identification can be used. As long as a realistic set of conditions can be arrived at governing the relationship between a signal and its data reduced abstract, increases in effective monitoring and transparency of information data flow across communications channels is likely to result. This feature is significant in that it represents an improvement over how a digitally-sampled signal can be cataloged and identified, though the use of a means that is specifically selected based upon the strengths of a general computing device and the economic needs of a particular market for the digitized information data being monitored. The additional benefit is a more open means to uniformly catalog, analyze, and monitor signals. As well, such benefits can exist for third parties, who have a significant interest in the signal but are not the sender or receiver of said information.
As a general improvement over the art, the present invention incorporates what could best be described as "computer-acoustic" and "computer-visual" modeling, where the signal abstracts are created using data reduction techniques to determine the smallest amount of data, at least a single bit, which can represent and differentiate two digitized signal representations for a given predefined signal set. Each of such representations must have at least a one bit difference with all other members of the database to differentiate each such representation from the others in the database. The predefined signal set is the object being analyzed. The signal identifier/detector should receive its parameters from a database engine. The engine will identify those characteristics (for example, the differences) that can be used to distinguish one digital signal from all other digital signals that are stored in its collection. For those digital signals or objects which are seemingly identical, except that the signal may have different performance or utilization in the newly created object, benefits over additive or text-based identifiers are achieved. Additionally, decisions regarding the success or failure of an accurate detection of any given object may be flexibly implemented or changed to reflect market-based demands of the engine. Appropriate examples are songs or works or art which have been sampled or re-produced by others who are not the original creator.
In some cases, the engine will also consider the NULL case for a generalized item not in its database, or perhaps in situations where data objects may have collisions. For some applications, the NULL case is not necessary, thus making the whole system faster. For instance, databases which have fewer repetitions of objects or those systems which are intended to recognize signals with time constraints or capture all data objects. Greater efficiency in processing a relational database can be obtained because the rules for comparison are selected for the maximum efficiency of the processing hardware and/or software, whether or not the processing is based on psychoacoustic or psychovisual models. The benefits of massive data reduction, flexibility in constructing appropriate signal recognition protocols and incorporation of cryptographic techniques to further add accuracy and confidence in the system are clearly improvements over the art. For example, where the data reduced abstract needs to have further uniqueness, a hash or signature may be required. And for objects which have further uniqueness requirements, two identical instances of the object could be made unique with cryptographic techniques.
Accuracy in processing and identification may be increased by using one or more of the following fidelity evaluation functions:
1) RMS (root mean square). For example, a RMS function may be used to assist in determining the distance between data based on mathematically determinable Euclidean distance between the beginning and end data points (bits) of a particular signal carrier.
2) Frequency weighted RMS. For example, different weights may be applied to different frequency components of the carrier signal before using RMS. This selective weighting can assist in further distinguishing the distance between beginning and end points of the signal carrier (at a given point in time, described as bandwidth, or the number of total bits that can be transmitted per second) and may be considered to be the mathematical equivalent of passing a carrier signal difference through a data filter and figuring the average power in the output carrier.
3) Absolute error criteria, including particularly the NULL set (described above) The NULL may be utilized in two significant cases: First, in instances where the recognized signal appears to be an identified object which is inaccurately attributed or identified to an object not handled by the database of objects; and second, where a collision of data occurs. For instance, if an artist releases a second performance of a previously recorded song, and the two performances are so similar that their differences are almost imperceptible, then the previously selected criteria may not be able to differentiate the two recordings. Hence, the database must be "recalibrated" to be able to differentiate these two versions. Similarly, if the system identifies not one, but two or more, matches for a particular search, then the database may need "recalibration" to further differentiate the two objects stored in the database.
4) Cognitive Identification. For example, the present invention may use an experience-based analysis within a recognition engine. Once such analysis may involve mathematically determining a spectral transform or its equivalent of the carrier signal. A spectral transform enables signal processing and should maintain, for certain applications, some cognitive or perceptual relationship with the original analog waveform. As a novel feature to the present invention, additional classes may be subject to humanly-perceptible observation. For instance, an experience-based criteria which relates particularly to the envisioned or perceived accuracy of the data information object as it is used or applied in a particular market, product, or implementation. This may include a short 3 second segment of a commercially available and recognizable song which is used for commercials to enable recognition of the good or service being marketed. The complete song is marketed as a separately valued object from the use of a discrete segment of the song (that may be used for promotion or marketing—for the complete song or for an entirely different good or service). To the extent that an owner of the song in question is able to further enable value through the licensing or agreement for use of a segment of the original signal, cognitive identification is a form of filtering to enable differentiations between different and intended uses of the same or subset of the same signal (object). The implementation relating specifically, as disclosed herein, to the predetermined identification or recognition means and/or any specified relationship with subsequent use of the identification means can be used to create a history as to how often a particular signal is misidentified, which history can then be used to optimize identification of that signal in the future. The difference between use of an excerpt of the song to promote a separate and distinct good or service and use of the excerpt to promote recognition of the song itself (for example, by the artist to sell copies of the song) relates informationally to a decision based on recognized and approved use of the song. Both the song and applications of the song in its entirety or as a subset are typically based on agreement by the creator and the sender who seeks to utilize the work. Trust in the means for identification, which can be weighted in the present invention (for example, by adjusting bit-addressable information), is an important factor in adjusting the monitoring or recognition features of the object or carrier signal, and by using any misidentification information, (including any experience-based or heuristic information), additional features of the monitored signal can be used to improve the performance of the monitoring system envisioned herein. The issue of central concern with cognitive identification is a greater understanding of the parameters by which any given object is to be analyzed. To the extent that a creator chooses varying and separate application of his object, those applications having a cognitive difference in a signal recognition sense (e.g., the whole or an excerpt), the system contemplated herein includes rules for governing the application of bit-addressable information to increase the accuracy of the database.
5) Finally, the predetermined parameters that are associated with a discrete case for any given object will have a significant impact upon the ability to accurately process and identify the signals. For example, if a song is transmitted over a FM carrier, then one skilled in the art will appreciate that the FM signal has a predetermined bandwidth which is different from the bandwidth of the original recording, and different even from song when played on an AM carrier, and different yet from a song played using an 8-bit Internet broadcast. Recognition of these differences, however, will permit the selection of an identification means which can be optimized for monitoring a FM broadcasted signal. In other words, the discreteness intended by the sender is limited and directed by the fidelity of the transmission means. Objects may be cataloged and assessing with the understanding that all monitoring will occur using a specific transmission fidelity. For example, a database may be optimized with the understanding that only AM broadcast signals will be monitored. For maximum efficiency, different data bases may be created for different transmission channels, e.g., AM broadcasts, FM broadcasts, Internet broadcasts, etc.
For more information on increasing efficiencies for information systems, see The Mathematical Theory of Communication (1948), by Shannon.
Because bandwidth (which in the digital domain is equated to the total number of bits that can be transmitted in a fixed period of time) is a limited resource which places limitations upon transmission capacity and information coding schemes, the importance of monitoring for information objects transmitted over any given channel must take into consideration the nature and utilization of a given channel. The supply and demand of bandwidth will have a dramatic impact on the transmission, and ultimately, upon the decision to monitor and recognize signals. A discussion of this is found in a co-pending application by the inventor under U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/674,726 "Exchange Mechanisms for Digital Information Packages with Bandwidth Securitization, Multichannel Digital Watermarks, and Key Management" (which application is incorporated herein by reference as if fully setforth herein).
If a filter is to be used in connection with the recognition or monitoring engine, it may be desirable for the filter to anticipate and take into consideration the following factors, which affect the economics of the transmission as they relate to triggers for payment and/or relate to events requiring audits of the objects which are being transmitted: 1) time of transmission (i.e., the point in time when the transmission occurred), including whether the transmission is of a live performance); 2) location of transmission (e.g., what channel was used for transmission, which usually determines the associated cost for usage of the transmission channel); 3) the point of origination of the transmission (which may be the same for a signal carrier over many distinct channels); and 4) pre-existence of the information carrier signal (pre-recorded or newly created information carrier signal, which may require differentiation in certain markets or instances).
In the case of predetermined carrier signals (those which have been recorded and stored for subsequent use), "positional information carrier signals" are contemplated by this invention, namely, perceptual differences between the seemingly "same" information carrier that can be recognized as consumers of information seek different versions or quality levels of the same carrier signal. Perceptual differences exist between a song and its reproduction from a CD, an AM radio, and an Internet broadcast. To the extent that the creator or consumer of the signal can define a difference in any of the four criteria above, means can be derived (and programmed for selectability) to recognize and distinguish these differences. It is, however, quite possible that the ability to monitor carrier signal transmission with these factors will increase the variety and richness of available carrier signals to existing communications channels. The differentiation between an absolute case for transmission of an object, which is a time dependent event, for instance a live or real time broadcast, versus the relative case, which is prerecorded or stored for transmission at a later point in time, creates recognizable differences for signal monitoring.
The monitoring and analysis contemplated by this invention may have a variety of purposes, including, for example, the following: to determine the number of times a song is broadcast on a particular radio broadcast or Internet site; to control security though a voice-activated security system; and to identify associations between a beginner's drawing and those of great artists (for example to draw comparisons between technique, compositions, or color schemes). None of these examples could be achieved with any significant degree of accuracy using a text-based analysis. Additionally, strictly text-based systems fail to fully capture the inherent value of the data recognition or monitoring information itself.
A database of audio signals (e.g., songs) is stored or maintained by a radio station or Internet streaming company, who may select a subset of the songs are stored so that the subset may be later broadcast to listeners. The subset, for example, may comprise a sufficient number of songs to fill 24 hours of music programming (between 300 or 500 songs). Traditionally, monitoring is accomplished by embedding some identifier into the signal, or affixing the identifier to the signal, for later analysis and determination of royalty payments. Most of the traditional analysis is performed by actual persons who use play lists and other statistical approximations of audio play, including for example, data obtained through the manual (i.e., by persons) monitoring of a statistically significant sample of stations and transmission times so that an extrapolation may be made to a larger number of comparable markets.
The present invention creates a second database from the first database, wherein each of the stored audio signals in the first database is data reduced in a manner that is not likely to reflect the human perceptual quality of the signal, meaning that a significantly data-reduced signal is not likely to be played back and recognized as the original signal. As a result of the data reduction, the size of the second database (as measured in digital terms) is much smaller than the size of the first database, and is determined by the rate of compression. If, for example, if 24 hours worth of audio signals are compressed at a 10,000:1 compression rate, the reduced data could occupy a little more than 1 megabyte of data. With such a large compression rate, the data to be compared and/or analyzed may become computationally small such that computational speed and efficiency are significantly improved.
With greater compression rates, it is anticipated that similarity may exist between the data compressed abstractions of different analog signals (e.g., recordings by two different artists of the same song). The present invention contemplates the use of bit-addressable differences to distinguish between such cases. In applications where the data to be analyzed has higher value in some predetermined sense, cryptographic protocols, such as a hash or digital signature, can be used to distinguish such close cases.
In a preferred embodiment, the present invention may utilize a centralized database where copies of new recordings may be deposited to ensure that copyright owners, who authorize transmission or use of their recordings by others, can independently verify that the object is correctly monitored. The rules for the creator himself to enter his work would differ from a universally recognized number assigned by an independent authority (say, ISRC, ISBN for recordings and books respectively). Those skilled in the art of algorithmic information theory (AIT) can recognize that it is now possible to describe optimized use of binary data for content and functionality. The differences between objects must relate to decisions made by the user of the data, introducing subjective or cognitive decisions to the design of the contemplated invention as described above. To the extent that objects can have an optimized data size when compared with other objects for any given set of objects, the algorithms for data reduction would have predetermined flexibility directly related to computational efficiency and the set of objects to be monitored. The flexibility in having transparent determination of unique signal abstracts, as opposed to independent third party assignment, is likely to increase confidence in the monitoring effort by the owners of the original signals themselves. The prior art allows for no such transparency to the copyright creators.
Another embodiment of the invention relates to visual images, which of course, involve at least two dimensions.
Similar to the goals of a psychoacoustic model, a psychovisual model attempts to represent a visual image with less data, and yet preserve those perceptual qualities that permit a human to recognize the original visual image. Using the very same techniques described above in connection with an audio signal, signal monitoring of visual images may be implemented.
One such application for monitoring and analyzing visual images involves a desire to find works of other artists that relate to a particular theme. For example, finding paintings of sunsets or sunrises. A traditional approach might involve a textual search involving a database wherein the works of other artists have been described in writing. The present invention, however, involves the scanning of an image involving a sun, compressing the data to its essential characteristics (i.e., those perceptual characteristics related to the sun) and then finding matches in a database of other visual images (stored as compressed or even uncompressed data). By studying the work of other artists using such techniques, a novice, for example, could learn much by comparing the presentations of a common theme by different artists.
Another useful application involving this type of monitoring and analyzing is the identification of photographs of potential suspects whose identity matches the sketch of a police artist.
Note that combinations of the monitoring techniques discussed above can be used for audio-visual monitoring, such as video-transmission by a television station or cable station. The techniques would have to compensate, for example, for a cable station that is broadcasting a audio channel unaccompanied by video.
Other embodiments and uses of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. The specification and examples should be considered exemplary only with the true scope and spirit of the invention indicated by the following claims. As will be easily understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, variations and modifications of each of the disclosed embodiments can be easily made within the scope of this invention as defined by the following claims.


text:
What's your favourite chamber work?
We share our favourite chamber works
We're putting together a festival celebrating chamber music with Kings Place, London and we need your help! The centrepiece of the festival will be the 50 greatest chamber works – as voted by you.
Find out more about the festival and how to vote here. Once you've voted you'll be entered into a prize draw to win a trip on Eurostar, a night in the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel and other great prizes.
In the meantime, the BBC Music Magazine team give their twopennyworth about the chamber works which make them sit up and listen. Here are our favourites…
Rebecca Franks, reviews editor
The first violin might argue that Mendelssohn's Octet is more of a concerto than a chamber piece… but then, there are quite a lot of notes for everyone else too. Whether you're listening to or playing the Octet, it's hard not to be swept up by its warm, open-hearted energy, or to be moved by its moments of tender simplicity. Surely this phenomenal work – a masterpiece by any composer's standards, let alone a teenage one – would have to be taken to a desert island?
Oliver Condy, editor
The arrangement of JS Bach's Art of Fugue for string quartet highlights the composer's incredible counterpoint. I'd heard Bach's Preludes and Fugues in arrangements for string quartet by Mozart, which led me to this version of one of his final masterpieces. No one really knows whether the Art of Fugue was written specifically for the keyboard; all we really know is that it was a work that got Bach thinking about the fugue in all its forms, taking it to its limits. Hearing the work arranged for string quartet sets it free, in my view.
Alice Pearson, cover CD editor
I find it impossible to choose a favourite piece from the rich and varied chamber music repertoire. However, I think the String Quintet in C, D.956, Schubert's last work composed a few months before he died, is a sublime piece. Acknowledged as one of the high points of the chamber repertoire, it certainly is for me. I first heard it when I was feeling uninspired with studying for exams and the beautiful second theme of the first movement immediately transported me into another world. The exquisite combination of melody and dialogue between instruments in the Quintet is at times, I think, unsurpassed.
Jeremy Pound, deputy editor
It was on an idyllic evening at the Bledington Festival in Gloucestershire that I found myself charmed by Bax's First String Quartet. OK, so it may not leave one emotionally shattered like Schubert's Death and the Maiden or thrill with the virtuosic fireworks of, say, Shostakovich at his most impassioned, but its three movements combine a wonderful lightness of spirit with gorgeous lyricism – not least when, in the Third, a lively Russian-sounding dance gives way to a haunting Irish-style folk tune. Did Bax write that tune himself, as he claimed, or was it already in existence, as others reckon? We will probably never know…
Elizabeth Davis, editorial assistant
When it comes to chamber music, I tend to the view that you can't go wrong with Beethoven. Every piece he wrote for small ensemble – from the delightful Spring Violin Sonata to the Septet in E flat – provides moments of elation, wit and profundity. But if I had to choose a current favourite from his work, I'd plump for the String Quartet No. 13, Op. 130 with the Grosse Fuge (Op. 133). I recently heard the work live and was reminded of its playfulness and seemingly endless invention.
- Article Type: | Blog |

subset: commoncrawl


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Jenwyeth necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 85 diseños de 18 diseñadores freelance.
Jennifer Wyeth Photography
I am an outgoing, fun person and am looking for a logo that portrays that for my photography company. My pictures have a lot of emotion, both fun and serious so I want my logo to be fun but still classy.
I am a boutique photographer which means that I am targeting upper middle class families. I photograph infants, children, families, and seniors. When they come to me they will receive a unique and custom photo shoot with all kinds of special treatment and bonuses.
My logo will be the spring board for all of my branding, packaging, webite, etc so it's VERY important that it portray me and my photography. I want it to be simple but catchy.
Here is an example of a design that I really like:
Another one I like, although not quite as much:
I really like this couch from anthropologie and would like to maybe use some of the colors in my logo (but NOT yellow).
I am attaching a scrapbooking paper that I adore! I 100 % want to use the blue in that in my logo and as a lot of my branding. I am not opposed to adding another color to it as well.
I have also included two different fronts (megan hand and abscissa) that I like. I am not 100% sold on them but am very drawn to them.
Thanks for all your help!
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Background: Person-centred care (PCC) is when the person seeking care get's involved in their care and are seen as more then their illness or ailment. PCC as a concept began in dementia care, but is now the approach that most healthcare institutions strive after. To achieve the improved care that PCC can bring, there is need for a well- planned and clear implementation plan from the management.
Aim: To describe the nursing staffs experience of implementing person-centred care as a work procedure in inpatient care.
Method: An inductive qualitative study where eleven interviews was completed. Eight interviews were strategically chosen and a content analysis was carried out.
Result: There is hope among the participants that implementation will bring a better and safer care, but also concerns about fear of change among the healthcare staff and increased workloads. Participants experience that PCC will place higher demans on the healthcare staff, especially nurses, regarding time, knowledge and communication skills.
Conclusion: To provide the best care, there has to be dedicated and competent staff who also have the support and understanding from the management. Despite the obstacles that seem to exist, there is a positive spirit among the nurses in relation to the implementation of person-centred care. There is hope that person-centred care, among other things, will increase participation that could lead to shorter hospital stays and risk of needing to seek care again short after being discharged from the hospital. Ultimately it provides a better care in the whole for the individual person seeking care.
Studiens syfte är att ur professionellas perspektiv undersöka hur personer med kognitiva funktionshinder är delaktiga i beslut gällande flytt till egen bostad samt hur professionellas handlingsutrymme påverkar besluten. Studien genomfördes som en kvalitativ intervjustudie med hermeneutisk ansats och kvalitativ innehållsanalys som bearbetningsmetod. Intervjuer gjordes med fem anställda, de flesta av dem socionomer inom en offentlig organisation som producerar tjänster för personer med kognitiva funktionshinder. Resultatet visar att personer med kognitivt funktionshinder har begränsad delaktighet och få valmöjligheter i beslut gällande flytt till egen bostad. Delaktigheten påverkas av klientens och socialarbetarens förmåga att kommunicera med varandra men trots det användes inga kommunikationshjälpmedel i utredningen. Anhöriga antar ofta rollen som klientens tolkningsföreträdare och när det gäller beslut om flytt till egen bostad är det anhöriga som tar beslutet oberoende klientens grad av funktionshinder. Socialarbetarna upplever sig styrda av överordnade men det hindrar dem inte från att ibland överskrida det formella handlingsutrymmet för att göra det som de anser vara det bästa för klienten.
An ecosystem approach to innovation and business has become increasingly relevant in contemporary research but research knowledge is scattered across divergent disciplines. The aim of this study is thus, on the basis of an extensive, multidisciplinary literature review to integrate the extant knowledge on innovation and business ecosystems and analyze how they are conceptualized, analyzed, captured and depicted. By conducting a systematic multi-phase content analysis of over 230 articles selected from the Web of Science, we will build a comprehensive picture on the research streams of innovation/business ecosystem research, the used methods, foci, illustrations/visualizations of business/innovation ecosystems and build a research agenda for future research. This article contributes by providing a structured analysis on this multi-disciplinary research area, aggregating the current knowledge and generating a research agenda on innovation/business ecosystems - a theme that is emergent, multifaceted, and crucial to innovative companies as well as researchers in the fields of innovation, management, technology and marketing.
Light therapy is applied to older people with dementia as a treatment to reset the biological clock, to improve the cognitive functioning, and to reduce behavioral symptoms. Although the methodological quality of light therapy studies is essential, many aspects concerning the description of the lighting applied are missing. This study reviewed light therapy studies concerning the effects on people with dementia as a way to check the methodological quality of the description of light from a light engineering perspective. Twelve studies meeting the inclusion criteria were chosen for further analysis. Each study was scored on a list of aspects relevant to a proper description of lighting aspects. The overview demonstrates that the overall quality of the methodologies is poor. The studies describe the lighting insufficiently and not in the correct metrics. The robustness of light therapy studies can be improved by involving a light engineer or specialist.
Long-term care facilities are currently installing dynamic lighting systems with the aim to improve the well-being and behaviour of residents with dementia. The aim of this study was to investigate the implementation of dynamic lighting systems from the perspective of stakeholders and the performance of the technology. Therefore, a questionnaire survey was conducted with the management and care professionals of six care facilities. Moreover, light measurements were conducted in order to describe the exposure of residents to lighting. The results showed that the main reason for purchasing dynamic lighting systems lied in the assumption that the well-being and day/night rhythmicity of residents could be improved. The majority of care professionals were not aware of the reasons why dynamic lighting systems were installed. Despite positive subjective ratings of the dynamic lighting systems, no data were collected by the organizations to evaluate the effectiveness of the lighting. Although the care professionals stated that they did not see any large positive effects of the dynamic lighting systems on the residents and their own work situation, the majority appreciated the dynamic lighting systems more than the old situation. The light values measured in the care facilities did not exceed the minimum threshold values reported in the literature. Therefore, it seems illogical that the dynamic lighting systems installed in the researched care facilities will have any positive health effects.
When determining the effects of light on human beings, it is essential to correctly measure the effects, and to correctly measure the adequate properties of light. Therefore, it is important to know what is being measured and know the quality of the measurement devices. This paper describes simple methods for identifying three quality indices; the directional response index, the linearity index and the temperature index. These indices are also checked for several commonly used portable light measurement devices. The results stresses what was already assumed, the quality and the outcome of these devices under different circumstances were very different. Also, the location were these devices are normally worn has an impact on the results. The deviation range between worn vertically at eye level and the wrist is between 11% (outdoor) to 27% (indoor). The smallest deviation, both in indoor and outdoor, was found when the device was placed on the sides of the eye (7%).
Business Intelligence (BI) system facilitates informed and timely decision making incompetitive business environment. However, decision making can turn out to be highlychallenging if information delivered by BI system does not meet certain level of quality.Organization can benefit from provided information if they are correct, comprehensive,current, and accessible. The organizational members who use BI application to make decisionare best informants to verify the quality of delivered information. Additionally,the implementers of BI system are the one who must be aware of delivering high qualityof information and can explain the reason of failures if any. It is critical to inquire bothimplementers and users. Therefore, the factors that can affect the quality of informationwere studied through comprehensive literature review. Low quality of information maymake customers/ suppliers' relationship worse, shrink the efficiency of the business performance,decrease the level of trust on BI, and eventually cause to lose the competitivenessin market place. This thesis is intended at investigating fundamental dimensionsthat hinder effective utilization of information in BI system and realizing how these dimensionscan affect the quality and outcome of decisions. Study with an exploratorypurpose was designed and conducted at a chain retail stores in Iran to gather empiricaldata from both group of BI users and implementers through focus group interview. Theresult of investigation shows the main BI system utilized to facilitate customer/ supplierrelationship management and store operation management. Business areas and activitiesinfluenced by the quality of information include, inventory management, customer loyalty,competitiveness, and supplier management. The information quality issues are encounteredmainly due to technical failures, lack of competent system developers, changesin business environment, inappropriate documentation during the system developmentlifecycle, and logical error in programming and designing algorithms. The time, effort,and resources spent on exploring and resolving problems regarding to the quality of informationhad a great influence on efficiency and effectiveness. Documentation duringsystem development life cycle is emphasized as a crucial factor that necessitates furtherstudy in documentation subject. The preliminary findings signify the importance of study to consider information quality in BI practice.
In a society like ours we are in need for effective internal communication. Distance will no longer be a problem in order to inform and communicate with all employees within a company. The daily communication previously been eye to eye is now replaced by an equivalent virtual communication.
This study aims to investigate the ideal image of an intranet based on the needs of employees in the John Bauer Organization. What features are requested by the employees and should all of the information and communication take place via an intranet? What other channels in addition to intranet should there be according to the employees?
Focus groups have been chosen as the interview method with employees from John Bauer Organization. A content analysis has been done to obtain trends and opinions among the employees.
Findings of the survey show that there should be an integrated system which only requires one login to access all programs. Empowerment over their own intranet page is also requested, in which employees want to be able to choose the information they want to read. In addition to an intranet, employees also felt that there should be continuous newsletters from leadership and management. In addition, employees expressed the view that there should also be a staff magazine for increasing the "we-feeling" in John Bauer Organization. All the employees interviewed felt that the physical meeting was an important element for the exchange of ideas and understanding among the staff.
By applying the methods of Critical Discourse Analysis this paper aims to explore how ideology works within the discursive construction of class, in the representation of the supporters and opponents of the government of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. News items from New York Times (US), El País (Uruguay) and Dagens Nyheter (Sweden) constitute the analyzed material. The paper argues that class-markers are important in the representation of government supporters, whom many times are constructed as belonging to the poorer sectors of society. Class is however less explicit in the representation of Chávez-opposition, which in fact is lead by elite groups. It is therefore argued that class in this context becomes a marker of deviance, which in turn works ideologically in legitimizing oppositional groups and disqualifying the support for Chávez' government.
Despite scholarly consensus about the importance of the media for democracy, scant attention has been paid to what democracy means to journalistic discourse and how discourses on democracy are interrelated with legitimacy. The aim of this paper is to explore how (il)legitimate democracy is constructed in newspaper discourse. By using critical discourse analysis (CDA), this paper examines foreign news items about Venezuela, a country that under the presidency of Hugo Chávez has challenged the dominant global political and economic orders. The analysis section focuses on two discourses about the Venezuelan government: the constructions of populism and power concentration, which serve to mark deviance from what is perceived as a legitimate democracy. This paper argues that a liberal perception of democracy constitutes a central framework for the construction of (il)legitimate democracy, which is revealed not least by news discourse's focus on what is morally unacceptable political conduct according to liberal democratic norms. In this respect, the media discourse serves to denounce potential abuses of governmental power but fail to recognize democracy in the context of a social struggle against the effects of neoliberalism and capitalism. In this case, the news media is hegemonic in the Gramscian sense, because it provides a framework of democracy that remains within the dominant economic and political structures.
This study examines the media discourse on the 2002 coup d'état against the government of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, with the aim of exploring how ideology in media discourse helps construct democracy in a Latin American political context. Critical discourse analysis is used to examine written pieces from Dagens Nyheter (Sweden), El País (Uruguay), and the New York Times (US). The study finds that the discourse on the overthrow and the events preceding it constructs the coup as a potential victory for democracy and as the definitive end of Chávez. However, after the failure of the coup and the reinstallation of Chávez one can perceive discursive renegotiations, such as the publishing of non-fundamental criticism of the overthrow. The study argues that the media discourse on the coup displays a highly relativistic attitude towards democracy, which serves the interests of the elite classes in Venezuela and of US hegemony in global politics. The article also argues that the flexibility of the discourse at hand shows the need for a detailed analysis of how ideology is (re)formed in media discourse.
This study examines hos Swedish news media recontextualize knowledge about the effects of artificial turfs on the environment, and how they create expert voices about this. The purpose with this endeavor is to deepen the understanding about how the news media negotiate and create expert knowledge about environmental questions and environmental risks. Items from nine Swedish news media are analyzed using critical discourse analysis. The results show that the construction of artificial turfs as an environmental risk is central in the reporting, especially the risk of spreading microplastics in the water. At times, constructions of this kind take the form of alarmism. At the heart of the construction of risk, and central for constructing expert knowledge on the matter, is a report ordered by a government agency, which names artificial turfs as the second biggest source of microplastics. The media show difficulties in problematizing this report, which at times leads to the determination of the negative environmental effects of artificial turfs, but also to constructions of uncertainty. Moreover, the strategy of scientification is important for both constructing artificial turfs as an environmental risk and to offsetting such discourses. The media also show difficulties in handling scientific uncertainty, which sometimes is used to underscore the environmental risk in question. The study concludes with a discussion about how the conditions of journalism and dominating worldviews serve to highlight risk discourses and push back holistic perspectives on the environment.
The objective of this study is to examine the framing of artificial turf as an environmental question in Swedish news media. This is done with the twofold purpose to (a) expand the knowledge of how the media covers environmental questions tied to microplastics – something that hitherto is unexplored – and (b) contribute with knowledge about how the media portrays the environmental gains with artificial turf (recycling and circular economical practices) vis-à-vis the environmental risks with the materials (the spread of plastics). 15 Swedish news media and a census of 250 articles published between 2014 and 2018 have been analyzed using content analysis. The results show that artificial turf as an environmental question is reported sparingly, although the coverage has increased from 2016 compared to the previous years. From that year, artificial turf is more clearly connected to the spread of plastics and rubber, which also is the most common environmental problem that artificial turf is associated with in the materials. Viewed against the backdrop of the traditional media logic's tendencies of favoring problems and risks, the linking of artificial turf with the spread of plastics can explain the increased media interest for the topic. Environmental gains with artificial turf are not normally present in the coverage, which means that this aspect is overshadowed by the environmental risks and problems associated with artificial turf. However, about every third article whose main topic centers on artificial turf and the environment does express uncertainty about the environmental impacts of artificial turf. The framing of artificial turf as an environmental question is to some degree shaped by the public debate about plastics, which gives the media frames of interpretation, as well as makes the topic itself newsworthy.
This study focuses on the relationship between the media and other stakeholders in the context of environmental communication and is centered on the mediation of environmental hazards related to artificial turfs and microplastics. Using semi-structured interviews, the study examines the communication strategies of key actors related to the mediation of these environmental issues. This is done with the purpose of contributing to the theorization of how different communication strategies and institutional logics meet and are negotiated in the communication about specific environmental issues. The study relies on 14 interviews with a total of 15 journalists and editors, government agency representatives, politicians, researchers, and tire-industry representatives. A thematic analysis shows that the question of artificial turfs is interesting for the media because they can exploit supposed (environmental) problems attached to the artificial turfs, and the scientific uncertainty that revolves around the microplastic pollution caused by artificial turf pitches is subordinated to the strategies used in the journalistic craft. The study also shows that communication strategies that are in line with the so-called media logic enable stakeholders to reach out with their perspectives in the media, and vice versa. This pattern can for example be seen in the tire-industry's communicational work about artificial turfs. The study also shows that is the Environment Protection Agency, with a central role in the question of microplastics, has employed an ambivalent communication strategy. The agency has both adopted and disregarded from the media logic. The study also discusses the risks that come with adapting environmental communication to the media logic, an adaption that can become a sustainability problem.
This paper examines the representation of the then president of Uruguay, José Mujica, in a long-read feature story published in the Saturday supplement of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. This is done with the aim of contributing to the understanding of how international journalism constructs distance and proximity in the reporting of distant subjects, and more specifically, how such constructions connect the Swedish audience to (or disconnect it from) political processes and relations in Latin America. In this way, the study contributes to the field of media representation in general, as well as to research on the representation of Latin America, more specifically. Critical discourse analysis is used to analyze the text and visuals. Three result topics are presented. The first comprises discourses that construct difference, such as those highlighting personal characteristics that make Mujica different from other presidents. The second centers on discourses that construct proximity between Mujica and the audience, such as those addressing sustainability and the connections between Sweden, Uruguay and Mujica. The third highlights discourses that distance or downplay difference and revolve around constructions about Mujica's political past. The paper ends with a discussion of how this representation is able to construct Mujica as a close other without, in the process, abandoning key tenets of contemporary capitalist ideology.
This paper discusses news journalism about inequality from a critical point of view, with the aim of contributing to the critical theorization of the relationship between journalism and sustainability. Sustainability and journalism on social inequality are perceived as intersecting in at least two ways. On one level, journalism can serve sustainable development by providing high-quality content that can help citizens to better understand the causes behind social inequality and how it can be overcome. On another level, journalism would itself gain much from sustainable development on a global level, since that would provide a good ground for a high-quality journalism characterized by its professional and democratic ethics rather than one that is strained by market-logics. The paper focuses on reification and problematizes the ways in which social inequality is reified in news journalism. Basing the argumentation on examples from international journalism, it is argued that although the existence of social inequality in a specific country can be acknowledged in the reporting – for example by the reference to rich and poor people and rich and poor geographic spaces – the social, political and historical causes of this inequality remain abstracted. In this sense, reification provides a rather objectivist account on inequality, which in turn limits the critique of the mechanisms that lie behind it. On the long run such constructions serve the legitimation of social inequality, which indeed ought to be seen as a sustainability problem. The paper also argues that for a more sustainable journalism to take place, a shift in the attitude towards social inequality and sustainable development must take place in the broader sociocultural context that surrounds journalism.
This study analyzes the journalistic construction of the ongoing international renegotiation of cannabis, with the aim of contributing to the theorization of how journalism mediates between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic positions at times of crisis of hegemonic values. The study perceives the many ongoing attempts of legalizing and decriminalizing cannabis for recreational use as providing a disequilibrium to the hegemonic view of the substance as a dangerous narcotic that is rightly banned, and as intensifying a hegemonic struggle over the meaning of cannabis. Swedish print news journalism about cannabis legalization in different countries and contexts is studied, using critical discourse analysis. The analysis shows that journalism allows for debate between positive and skeptic discourses about the effects of recreational cannabis consumption and its medical benefits, and that voices that argue for cannabis legalization to combat organized crime are given important framing power. This means that a measure of legitimacy is given to discourses that counter the prohibitionist hegemony in Sweden, which means that mainstream journalism in this specific case serves as an arena for challenging hegemonic values that are in crisis.
This study examines the reporting on legal cannabis in order to explore the operation of neoliberal ideology in journalistic discourse. Cannabis legalisation is here understood as a way for capitalism to create new market opportunities, besides being a turn away from the so-called 'war on drugs'. The study understands neoliberalism as operating via market-based logics that are interrelated with other social logics, such as those pertaining to journalism (Phelan 2014). Critical discourse analysis is used for studying Swedish newspaper reporting on legal cannabis between 2013 and 2018. The study shows that a struggle between market-based logics and journalistic practices is visible, where journalism has difficulties in challenging core tenets of neoliberal ideology. The article concludes with a discussion of how the current conditions of journalism limit its ability to challenge neoliberal perspectives.
Despite that the notion of democracy has a central place in the Western self-image, and also in media studies, research that focuses on how democracy is ideologically loaded in journalistic content is still in its infancy. In recent times, democracy has been used with great enthusiasm by Western political leaders, while the meaning of democracy perhaps is more fuzzy than ever. In times of economic and political crisis, and of a weak Left in most European countries, it is important to examine how journalism constructs notions of democracy, and how such notions reflect specific political positions and interests. This study, which is theoretically rooted in ideology critique, and methodologically inspired by critical discourse analysis, examines how news journalism in the coverage of Venezuela and the Ukraine conflict constructs notions of democracy. The study is specially interested in exploring and discussing the ideological interconnections between imperialism and geopolitical interests, and the journalistic construction of democracy.
This study aims to explore the construction of difference in foreign news discourse on culturally similar but politically different non-Western subjects. Applying critical discourse analysis (CDA) together with a critique of Eurocentrism, the study examines difference in newspaper constructions of government supporters and oppositional groups in Venezuela. Discursive differences are evident in the strategies used for constructing the two groups with regard to political rationality and violence. Government supporters are associated with social justice, Venezuela's poor, dogmatic behavior, and the use of political violence. The opposition, in contrast, is constructed as following a Western democratic rationale that stresses anti-authoritarianism. This group is primarily associated with victims of violence. While the opposition is conveyed as being compatible with Eurocentric values and practices, government supporters to great extent deviate from these norms. Such constructions serve to legitimize politico-ideological undercurrents of Eurocentrism, as the defense of liberalism.
We are witnessing the renegotiation of cannabis substances in many parts of the world. After being classified as narcotics and subjected to a worldwide ban for several decades, cannabis has now been legalized in Uruguay and in several US states, and decriminalized in some other countries. This paper aims to study how the ongoing renegotiation of cannabis, which involves the legalization of the substance in different parts of the world, is constructed in Swedish print news journalism. This is done with the purpose of understanding how news journalism in a context of a traditionally strong drug prohibition (de)legitimizes different positions and perspectives in the ongoing renegotiation of cannabis, and to what extent journalism in such a context offers challenges to the reigning prohibitionist hegemony. Although cannabis and the media has been researched extensively, very few studies have been conducted by media and communication or journalism scholars, and contributions have been placed mainly in areas as for example drug policy, drug use and misuse, and public health. The current study, in contrast, wishes to contribute to the critical study of drug journalism. The paper draws on critical theory, understanding the ongoing renegotiation of cannabis as bringing disequilibrium to the hegemonic view of cannabis as dangerous drug that needs to be banned. Journalism is perceived as playing a key role in this context, since journalism is an arena where different discourses on cannabis struggle for prominence. Journalism can in this sense serve the strengthening of counter-hegemonic discourses on cannabis or the reinforcement of the prohibitionist hegemony. The study uses critical discourse analysis as a method to study 49 print newspaper items. The results show that the studied media invites opposed discourses regarding the health risks and the medical benefits of cannabis to be part of the news pages, which creates a somewhat pluralistic view on cannabis. The study also finds that the construction of cannabis legalization as a means to combat organized crime is given significant framing power. These results suggest that the ongoing renegotiation of cannabis in different parts of the world invites Swedish journalism to broaden the debate on the substance and to provide certain legitimacy to positive discourses on cannabis that are otherwise considered deviant in the Swedish drug debate. This serves as an example of how changes in distant political contexts affect the ways in which journalism ascribes legitimacy to specific discourses on drugs.
This research report focuses on the users of e-government in a social science perspective. Our aim is to study how different social groups, registered at the Swedish Public Employment Service, relate to the internet, the agency and the services offered on its website (www.ams.se).
The field of e-government research is dominated by studies that centre attention on the supply side (videlicet research investigating the entrance of IT in organizations and the implications that new technology have to these), while usercentred research (demand side) is still scarce. Our study, focusing on how citizens relate to the internet in general and e-government in particular, therefore helps to bridge a knowledge gap within the field.
Our survey is based on a questionnaire sent to 2 000 randomly selected persons, all registered at the Swedish Public Employment Service. Of these, 762 job seekers responded, which gives us a frequency rate of 40 percent. The questions asked were related to the job seekers' usage of and attitudes towards the internet in general and the agency's webpage in particular, but also to their attitudes to the Swedish Public Employment Service.
The main results show that social factors, particularly education, play a major role for the job seekers' ability to use the web based services offered by the agency. People with a lower educational level are less inclined to use the agency's website, and at the same time they experience the site as more complicated to use. We also found a strong link between the relations to the internet (access, usage, experience and attitudes) and the relations to the agency's website. Those with advantaged internet relations – mostly well educated people, white collars and people living in bigger cities – also use the agency's website more diligently and tend to have more positive attitudes towards it (and vice versa). Thus, its necessary to talk in terms of digitally well equipped and less well equipped groups.
The unequal relations to the internet in general and the agency's website in particular not only indicate that e-government is more suitable for the digitally well equipped, but that it in fact exclude those with less digital resources. This new kind of exclusion has great implications for the job seekers' possibilities to enter the labour market, and to act their role as citizens. If e government also means a reformation of the citizen role – in the sense of increased individual responsibility towards the government - not bridging the digital divide will carry even more exclusion to those that's already excluded.
I föreliggande rapport studeras vilka sociala värden som elitidrotten och kulturen genererar för invånarna i landsortspräglade län som Blekinge, Halland, Kalmar och Kronoberg. Studien syftar till att lämna ett bidrag till den samhällsvetenskapliga idrottsforskningen, och ge ökad kunskap om idrottens och kulturens betydelse för den regionala utvecklingen.
Studiens material vilar på en postenkät skickad till 1500 slumpmässigt utvalda personer i respektive län. Det sammanlagda antalet besvarade enkäter uppgick till 3181 stycken, vilket ger en nettosvarsfrekvens på 54 procent.
Rapporten visar bland annat att både idrott och kultur värderas relativt högt och konsumeras i relativt stor utsträckning. Beträffande idrott konsumeras främst breddidrottsliga evenemang, och vad gäller kultur besöks bibliotek och biografer oftare än exempelvis teatrar.
Studien visar också att de kultur- respektive idrottsintresserade skiljer sig åt vad gäller demografi, men även vad gäller livsstil. De idrottsintresserade har en mer folklig och lantlig prägel, medan de kulturintresserade är att betrakta som en välutbildad kosmopolitisk grupp. Med tanke på de sistnämndas ökade rörlighet är satsningar på kultur ej att förringa. Denna typ av satsningar kan få denna resursstarka grupp att dels stanna kvar i landsorten, dels flytta in till densamma.
Background: Lung cancer and malignant melanoma are diseases investigated by the dual-modality positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). There are radiation risks with the examination that can appear as stochastic effects such as cancer. The aim of this study was to compare the radiation doses between the lung cancer group (suspected or verified) and the malignant melanoma group by calculating the total effective radiation dose and to declare the risk with the PET/CT examination. Material and method: The material contained parameters regarding the examination and the sample contained 20 patients from the two groups. The method was retrospective with a quantitative approach. Results: There was a significant difference (p <0,001) between these two groups, were the lung cancer group received 11,95 milliSievert (mSv) and the malignant melanoma group 6,03 mSv and the percentage risk for lethal cancer increased by 0,06% and 0,03%, respectively. Conclusions: The lung cancer group received twice as much effective dose than the malignant melanoma group. However, the effective dose is so low that the risk increase of the lethal cancer is marginal, and the benefit of the examination outweighs the risks.
The overall aim was to investigate municipal guidelines for paid dependent care which were available online, i.e. documents regarding situations where a relative is hired to care for a next-to-kin. The overall aim has been built on the following three research questions regarding how municipalities describe: 1) which situations qualify for paid dependent care, 2) how the elderly person's needs are met in case of paid dependent care and 3) how the dependent caregivers' rights and well-being are ensured?
There is no legal basis for demanding cash-for-care setting, and the local self-government determines whether the municipality offers this form of care. Recently, paid dependent care has been restricted and banned in several Swedish municipalities, and according to some statistics paid dependent care is allowed in 55–65 % of the Swedish municipalities. It is mostly women of foreign origin who are dependent caregivers nowadays, and feminist care research and the media lift up cash-for-care settings as a trap for women and for migrant integration.
The study included guidelines from a total of 21 municipalities, which were analyzed using qualitative content analysis according to Elo & Kyngäs (2007). The guidelines analysed were found from the websites of Sweden's 121 medium and large municipalities (more than 20 000 inhabitants). The results were processed using feminist theory (Hirdman 2012).
The results show that overall there are few guidelines available in Sweden's municipalities and that the regulations differ in the different municipalities' guidelines. The guidelines that are available often contain general or vague descriptions. One conclusion is therefore that many municipalities ensure their own discretion and prevail through vague and general rules in their guidelines. From a feminist perspective, these different municipal policies create unfair structures and differences in conditions and terms for the elderly and their family caregivers regarding cash-for-care settings. Finally, the result shows that the few detailed descriptions prioritize elder people's rights over their caregivers'. Ensuring the paid dependent caregivers' rights is mainly described to be done by checking and controlling them. In other words, the paid dependent caregivers are often invisible in the guidelines, are often regarded as pseudo-employees and therefore fall between the cracks in terms of their need for support (Sand 2010).
This report concerns the implementation of a simulation framework to evaluate an emerging peer-to-peer network topology scheme using 8-point hypercircles, entitled HyperCircle. This topology was proposed in order to alleviate some of the drawbacks of current P2P systems evolving in an uncontrolled manner, such as scalability issues, network overload and long search times. The framework is supposed to be used to evaluate the advantages of this new topology. The framework has been built on top of an existing simulator software solution, the selection of which was an important part of the development. Weighing different variables such as scalability and API usability, the selection fell on OverSim, an open-source discreet-event simulator based on OMNET++.
After formalizing the protocol for easier implementation, as well as extending it for better performance, implementation followed using C++ with OverSim's API and simulation library. Implemented as a module (alongside other stock modules providing their own protocols such as Chord and Kademlia), it can be used in OverSim to simulate a user-defined network using one of the simulation routine applications provided (or using a custom application written by the user). For the purposes of this thesis, the standard application KBRTestApp was used; an application sending test messages between randomly selected nodes, while adding and removing nodes at specific time intervals. The adding and removing of nodes can be configured with probability parameters.
Tentative testing shows that this implementation of the HyperCircle protocol has a certain performance gain over the OverSim implementations of the Chord and Kademlia protocols, measurable in the time it takes a message to get from sender to recipient. Further testing is outside the scope of this thesis.