Abstract: Surface processing in which the area to be processed is restricted to a predetermined pattern, can be achieved by: (a) providing a layer of a first reagent over a region of the surface to be processed which at least covers an area of the predetermined pattern; (b) providing one or more further reagents which are further reagents required for the processing of the surface; and (c) applying at least one of the further reagents over the region to be processed according to the predetermined pattern; such that the first reagent acts with the one or more of the further reagents to process the surface only in the area of the predetermined pattern. The process is particularly applicable to etching where an etchant having two or more components is used. In that case at least a first etchant component is applied over the surface and at least one further etchant component is applied in the predetermined pattern.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are described for forming a structure on a substrate. The structure may be a circuit element. The method uses a digital specification 910 for forming the structure, including specifications for printing and curing. The structure is printed (step 112) using a drop-on-demand printer 400, wherein the printing dispenses at least one material on the substrate 420 according to the digital specification 910. The structure is cured (step 130) by irradiating the dispensed material from one or more electromagnetic radiation sources 520, 525 in the printer 400, wherein curing parameters are specified by the digital specification 910 to obtain a desired electrical property when the structure is a circuit element. The curing specification may specify the intensity of the irradiation and the location of irradiation points in the print region.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method of constructing at least one data structure from at least one data source. A representation is constructed of the data source and at least one previous view of the data source. From the representations, at least one compulsory entity (eg. “branch”) is then identified. This may generally be performed by a user selection. The method then constructs the data structure comprising the compulsory entity and one or more context entities, where the context entities are obtained from the representation and context data obtained from the previous view. Typically the data source is hierarchical and the data structure is hierarchical.

Abstract: A query system (1600) is formed by a wizard (1605) operating to form a data server (1610) arranged to serve data from a data source (1615) to a client application (1630), each of the wizard, the client application, the data server and the data source being linked by a communications network (1650). The data source has native data types and data arranged in a data structure. The wizard operates to firstly identify the data source over the network. The wizard further provides an application program for traversing and examining at least one of the data structure and data of the identified data source. The application program is operable to generate a representative schema (1614) comprising mapping data for converting the native data types to predetermined data types of a common data model.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are described for forming a structure on a substrate. The structure may be a circuit element. The method uses a digital specification 910 for forming the structure, including specifications for printing and curing. The structure is printed (step 112) using a drop-on-demand printer 400, wherein the printing dispenses at least one material on the substrate 420 according to the digital specification 910. The structure is cured (step 130) by irradiating the dispensed material from one or more electromagnetic radiation sources 520, 525 in the printer 400, wherein curing parameters are specified by the digital specification 910 to obtain a desired electrical property when the structure is a circuit element. The curing specification may specify the intensity of the irradiation and the location of irradiation points in the print region.

Abstract: A method of establishing at least one variable of a new view of data, is disclosed where the variable is obtained from at least one data source (150-153). The method identifies at least one display type (1202, FIG. 15, 17 18), each display type having at least one corresponding template of data to be used by the new view of data. The template includes a plurality of data component slots (1250-1254) related according to the semantics of the identified display type. One or more data components to be included in the view of data are then identified, each identified data component being associated (1222) with a slot in the template. A list of recommendations is then formed for one or more unspecified data components of the new view of data, the recommendations being based on the semantics of the display type and the identified data components. Finally at least one data component from the list of recommendations is identified as a variable for said new view of data.

Abstract: Access to heterogeneous data sources may be obtained by interactively determining transformations for use in mapping at least one source data component from at least one data source to a target data component. Selection of at least one the source data component is detected. A corresponding list of representative data examples is generated for each selected source data component. A resulting list of representative data examples is compiled for the target data component from the lists of representative data examples of the selected source data components, the resulting list of data examples being representative of the target data component. A modification of an example is identified from the resulting list of examples representative of the target data component, the example being modified as a single textual entity. At least one transformation is determined, by inferring from the modified example, to be applied to at least one source data component.

Abstract: A method of browsing electronically-accessible resources using descriptions of the resources. These descriptions have descriptor components, which have attributes representative of at least two axes of access to the resources. These descriptions also have links to the corresponding resources. The method first reads the descriptions and displays a number of items (1608). Each one of these items are associated with a corresponding descriptor component of the read description that has an attribute. The method allows the browsing (1602,1603) of the descriptions and their corresponding electronically-accessible resources via the links using the displayed items.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for the detection of faces in a digital image captured under a variety of lighting conditions are provided. Rather than subjecting an entire image to computationally intensive face detection analysis, the image is subjected to computationally simply analysis to identify candidate pixels likely to be of skin colour. Only those pixels having such color are subject to computationally intensive face detection analysis. The pixels are selected by first selecting a color distribution model based on an image capture condition provided with the color digial image. Then, the color of the pixels is tested using the distribution model to determine those pixels having predominantly skin color. Preferably, the distribution model is selected from among a number of different distribution models with each of the distribution models associated with a different set of lighting conditions.

Abstract: A method (100) is disclosed for producing, using a multi-slot presentation skeleton (400), an image presentation from a set of source images (702). The method comprises establishing a duration of the presentation, an average slot duration, and based upon slot template rules, locations and properties of key slots in the skeleton (400). The method then generates (104) candidate groups of sub-image sets from the set of source images, and selects (106) sub-image sets from the candidate groups for the key slots. The method then fills (108) the non-key slots with sub-image sets from the candidate groups, and processes (110) the sub-image sets in the skeleton slots using effect and transition rules, to thereby form the image presentation.

Abstract: A system is described in which a media browser (101), operating as a software application on a user terminal or preferably a server for a number of users, provides a user with a single user interface that facilitates browsing and searching different metadata collections over the Internet (102). A metadata server (212) is associated with each of the metadata collections. When the metadata server (212) receives a request from the media browser (101), the metadata server (212) interprets the request and replies with a description that satisfies the request and according to a predetermined scheme. The description contains at least one link which represents a return link which represents a return request to the metadata server (212).

Abstract: A method of classifying a digital image is disclosed. The method provides a region adjacency graph (310) representing the digital image and analyses the region adjacency graph (310) for predetermined patterns. For each identified pattern a classification of the digital image is selected. The region adjacency graph (310) is classified as one of a number of stereotypes.

Abstract: A method of extracting key frames from a video sequence, which video sequence comprises MPEG compressed video data having block motion vectors. The method initially partially decompresses (202) the MPEG compressed video data to obtain block motion vectors and converts (204) the block motion vectors to forward block motion vectors. The method then generates (206) global motion signals and generates (306) dominant global direction clusters. The method then selects (402, 404, 406) potential key frames of the video sequence using the generated dominant global direction clusters. The method lastly decompresses (408) the selected key frames to obtain the extracted key frames.

Abstract: The method discloses a method of segmenting an image. The method firstly (304) allocates pixels as seeds in areas of an image as a function of the luminance of the pixels and the size of those areas. The method then grows (306) regions from said seeds so as to segment the image into a number of regions. The method considers a number of pixels that border the growing regions and the pixel that is most similar in luminance to a region it borders is appended (528) to that region. The method then updates (528) the luminance of the appended region. The method continues until there are no more pixels bordering the growing regions. The method then encodes the segmented image (106). It does this by splitting (604) the image into a number of rectangular sub-images in a quadtree manner until each rectangular sub-image comprises a segmented image forming the dominant portion of the sub-image. The method then merges (606) rectangular sub-images which have a common dominant portion and share a common edge.

Abstract: A method of interpreting an image using a statistical or probabilistic interpretation model is disclosed. The image has associated therewith contextual information. The method comprises the following steps: providing the contextual information associated with the image for analysis; analyzing the additional contextual information to identify predetermined features relating to the image; and biasing the statistical or probabilistic interpretation model in accordance with the identified features.

Abstract: A method of establishing at least one variable of a new view of data, is disclosed where the variable is obtained from at least one data source (150-153). The method identifies at least one display type (1202, FIG. 15, 17 18), each display type having at least one corresponding template of data to be used by the new view of data. The template includes a plurality of data component slots (1250-1254) related according to the semantics of the identified display type. One or more data components to be included in the view of data are then identified, each identified data component being associated (1222) with a slot in the template. A list of recommendations is then formed for one or more unspecified data components of the new view of data, the recommendations being based on the semantics of the display type and the identified data components. Finally at least one data component from the list of recommendations is identified as a variable for said new view of data.

Abstract: The method discloses a method of segmenting moving objects and determining their motion from video data. The method generates (104) a motion vector field by comparing the current frame of video data with the previous frame, where a motion vector is determined for each pixel of the current frame. The method then generates (106) a motion parameter field by sliding a window over the motion vector field of the current frame, and determining a set of motion parameters for each pixel based on a motion model of the motion vector field. The method then distributes (108) seeds throughout the motion parameter field so that fewer seeds are allocated to those areas of the motion parameter field having homogeneous motion parameter sets. The method then grows (110) regions from said seeds so as to segment the motion parameter field into a number of regions.

Abstract: The method first segments both images into homogeneous regions (205A) and assigns (207A) semantic labels (such as “sky”, “cloud”, “water”, “foliage” etc) to the homogeneous regions to describe the content of the regions using a probabilistic method. This process also results in each assigned label for a region having an associated probability value expressing the confidence level of the label being correctly assigned The method then computes (108) a distance metric which averages over all corresponding pixels in the two images a value which is the product of a predetermined semantic difference between the assigned labels at the corresponding pixels and a weighting function which is derived from the associated probability values of the labels for each of the corresponding pixels. The semantic difference reflects similarities between the labels.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for generating a metadata object having links to temporal and spatial extents in a time-sequential digital signal is disclosed. The method includes the following steps. Firstly, identifying an object of interest in the time-sequential digital signal. Secondly, defining a link entity between metadata in the metadata object and the identified object, the link entity forming part of the metadata object. Thirdly, tracking the identified object in the time-sequential digital signal and updating the link entity in the metadata object to include the identified object's new temporal and spatial extent in the time-sequential digital signal. Finally, associating the generated metadata object with the time-sequential digital signal.

Abstract: Methods, programs (120) and apparatus (100) are disclosed for accessing heterogenous data sources (150-153). Specifically, access maybe obtained by a method of interactively defining transformations for use in mapping at least one source data component from at least one data source to a target data component, includes selecting (500) at least one source data component. For each selected source data component, a corresponding list of representative data examples is generated (510). A resulting list of representative data examples for the target data component is compiled from the lists of representative data examples of the selected source data components, the resulting list of data examples being representative of the target data component. An example (514) from the resulting list of examples representative of the target data component is then modified (516), the example being modified as a single textual entity.