Abstract: A device with a toilet care action, provided with a reservoir having at least one compartment for an active liquid, a liquid collecting element which, during use, is in a constant communication with the contents of the at least one compartment, and provided with fastening means for fastening the device to a toilet in such a manner that, in an operative condition of the device, the liquid collecting element is located in a path of toilet flushing water, the liquid collecting element comprising a plate which on a side facing the flushing water stream is provided with liquid collecting means, while the side of the plate facing away from the flushing water stream is also provided with liquid collecting means which are in communication with the liquid collecting means of the side facing the flushing water stream via capillary channels provided in the plate.

Abstract: A system having a video display screen that provides video to a user. The position of the display screen is adjustable based upon the location of the user with respect to the display screen. The system includes at least one image capturing device trainable on a viewing region of the display screen and coupled to a control unit having image recognition software. The image recognition software identifies the user in an image generated by the image capturing device. The software of the control unit also generates at least one measurement of the position of the user based upon the detection of the user in the image.

Abstract: The present invention comprises an intelligent call processing platform for use with a home telephone system. The system consists of a processing unit interfaced with a variety of memory storage areas, a switching central office providing local telephone service and a plurality of telephone handsets. Using a variety of voice and/or pushbutton commands, a user is able to access a variety of telephone services from any telephone interfaced with the platform. Services provided include identification of incoming callers, automatic speed dialing of user-stored telephone numbers, storage of new numbers to the user-stored list of telephone numbers, and control of peripheral systems interconnected with the intelligent call processing platform.

Abstract: Provided in a data carrier (1) designed to modulate a carrier signal (CS) that can be received in a contactless manner are transmission means (2) designed to transmit the carrier signal (CS), and a data signal source (9) designed to generate and emit a data signal (DS), and modulation means (11), which modulation means (11) is designed to receive the data signal (DS) and, using the data signal (DS), to modulate the carrier signal (CS) occurring at the transmission means (2) and to generate an amplitude-modulated signal (S), which amplitude-modulated signal (S) has signal edges (SL), wherein, in addition, signal-edge influencing means (12) is provided, which is designed to influence the slope characteristic of the signal edges (SL) in the amplitude-modulated signal (S).

Abstract: In almost all contemporary TVs peaking techniques arc used today to enhance the picture. This means that the edges are sharpened in the luminance channel by using of peaking or peaking-like circuits such as, for instance, luminance transient improvement techniques. By such technique black parts near the edge are usually pushed towards more black color and white parts are pushed towards more white color. As a result the picture appears sharper and crisper. However, the picture also gives a “hard” impression in said parts, the reason for this being that the image signal has been corrected solely with regard to a luminance component and not with regard to a color component. The proposed method aims to increase the saturation level at those parts, in particular by processing the input image signal in a region of an edge location, wherein at least the image characteristics of a color component are corrected by amplifying the color component.

Abstract: A semiconductor package is proposed. The semiconductor package includes a discrete semiconductor chip on a die pad, a plurality of bond pads situated next to the chip and formed with a plurality of connecting mechanisms and an encapsulant for encapsulating the chip and the pads. In a preferred embodiment the die pad and/or the bond pads comprise means for vertically and laterally interlocking the pads to the encapsulant. The interlocking means of the bond pads and the die pad significantly enhance the bonding strength between the pads and the encapsulant for preventing delamination or cracking, so that quality and reliability of the quad flat non-leaded semiconductor package comprising a discrete can be assured.

Abstract: A computer memory arrangement comprises a first plurality of input port facilities (17-19) that are collectively coupled through a first router facility (32) to selectively feed a second plurality of memory modules (20-24). It furthermore comprises an output port facility that is collectively fed by said second plurality of memory modules (20-24). In particular, the computer memory arrangement comprises a detection facility (36-40) conflicting accesses through more than one of the first plurality of input port facilities, and for thereupon allowing only a single one among said simultaneous and conflicting accesses whilst generating a stall signal for signalling a mandatory stall cycle to a request source that implies an access latency thereto. The computer memory furthermore comprises a programming facility for having the access latency be selectably programmable according to an actual processing application.

Abstract: The invention relates to the use of osteopontin, or of an agonist of osteopontin activity, for treatment or prevention of a neurologic diseases.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of processing a digital image encoded and decoded in accordance with a pixel-block encoding technique, suitable for supplying a motion vector per block of pixels and a quantization step per image. Said method comprises a step of selecting said decoded image if its quantization step is larger than a predetermined threshold, and a step of detecting pixel blocks having a secondary grid. Said detection step comprises a sub-step of detecting a uniform block of the decoded image, a sub-step of selecting a uniform block of non-zero motion and with an amplitude which is smaller than a predetermined amplitude threshold, and a sub-step of localizing a secondary grid within a uniform block selected as a function or its motion vector. Such a method has the advantage that the performance of a method of correcting block effects or evaluating the quality of said decoded image is enhanced.

Abstract: In a solar power system a boost converter is used comprising a choke and a transformer. Alternately the choke is boosted in a first time interval while power transfer is taking place in a second time interval by means of the transformer. When the input voltage supplied by a solar panel is increased the first time interval is decreased while the second time interval is increased. As a result the boost converter can handle a wide range of input voltages.

Abstract: A metal cord (100) comprising at least two metal strands (101 A-G). At least one strand (lOlD) is welded, said welded strand having an elongation at rupture of more than 30% of the elongation at rupture of an identical strand without weld.

Abstract: An interference canceller is described, comprising an adaptive filter for modeling an interference, such as an echo or noise, and a spectral processor for processing the modeled interference together with near end speech and the interference. The interference canceller further comprises an interference model mismatch compensator coupled to the adaptive filter for providing a mismatch signal to the spectral processor, said mismatch signal showing a speech independent decay. With the model mismatch signal of the interference canceller the interference power spectrum can be estimated very accurately leading to a significant convergence improvement of the acoustic canceller. Especially in the initial convergence phase at the start of a communication session a high quality operation of the acoustic canceller is achieved, which is important as this determines the first quality impression of the user.

Abstract: An electronic device has a data communication bus (200) mounted on a semiconductor substrate (120). The data communication bus (200) has a first conductor (102), a second conductor (104), a third conductor (106) and a fourth conductor (108). The conductors have been reordered and the distances (I1, I2, I3) between two neighboring conductors have been recalculated on the basis of the correlation between the data-bits conveyed by the conductors of the data communication bus (200), e.g. the number of times that the two transitions on two conductors have a predetermined value out of the total number of transitions on that conductor pair. Consequently, a data communication bus (200) is obtained in which the power consumption resulting from the charging of the cross-coupling capacitance between two neighboring conductors is reduced.

Abstract: A multi-stack optical data storage medium (20) for rewritable recording using a focused radiation beam (19) entering through an entrance face (16) of the medium (20) during recording is described. The medium (20) comprises a substrate (1) with deposited on a side thereof a first stack (2) L0 comprising a first phase-change type recording layer (6). The first recording stack (2) is present at a position most remote for the entrance face (16). At least one further recording stack (3)Ln, which comprises a further phase-change type recording layer (12), is present closer to the entrance face (16) than the first recording stack (2). A transparent spacer layer (9) is present between the recording stacks (2, 3).

Abstract: In binaural stereo coding, only one monaural channel is encoded. An additional layer holds the parameters to retrieve the left and right signal. An encoder is disclosed which links transient information extracted from the mono encoded signal to parametric multi-channel layers to provide increased performance. Transient positions can either be directly derived from the bit-stream or be estimated from other encoded parameters (e.g. window-switching flag in mp3).

Abstract: A laminated electroluminescent panel comprising: a supporting transparent substrate; an organic device formed on the transparent substrate defining a plurality of pixels; the organic device including an organic luminescent layer between a lower and an upper electrode layer, and a sealing layer positioned to form together with the substrate a hermetic, moisture proof encapsulation for the organic device. The sealing layer comprises an inorganic material, and a hydrogen gutter is located inside the encapsulation at a position in physical connection with the organic luminescent layer. The hydrogen gutter prevents the building-up of pressure inside the encapsulation due to hydrogen gas formed due to and during operation of the organic device.

Abstract: An optical disk drive (50) comprises a radial servo system (70) for driving the position of an optical head (52) for scanning an optical disk (10) comprising at least one recording track (11; 12, 13), a focus servo system (80) for controlling the focussing of an optical beam, and a data retrieval system (90) for regenerating the digital data recorded on disk. Operative parameters of the radial servo system (70) and/or focus servo system (80) and/or data retrieval system (90) are frozen or are set to predetermined values as soon as the optical head (52) reaches a predetermined location (17) along a current track (12; 13) which is determined on the basis of a defect entry location (17) along a previous track (11; 12).

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and a system (200) for communicating wirelessly between devices. Wireless communication can be a very appropriate way of interconnecting nearby devices, such as devices located within a home. However, equipping all devices with a wireless transceiver may not be desirable. Furthermore, an ordinary user should be able to connect devices in a straightforward and convenient way. The invention addresses these issues by means of a wireless communication key (250, 260, 270). This is a key-like object equipped with a transceiver. A key can be attached to a device (220, 230, 240) for which a wireless connection is required. A key may have to be powered by the device to which it gets attached and can then establish a wireless connection (280, 282) with another device. The other device is determined by the key used. A key may be associated with a fixed endpoint device (210), permanently equipped with a transceiver (212).

Abstract: The display panel (21) comprises a light guide (2), a second plate (4) and a movable element (3) between both plates for locally decoupling light out of the light guide (2). Voltages, applied to electrodes (5,6 resp. 25), associated with the light guide (2), the second plate (4) and the movable element (3), locally bring the movable element (3) into 5 contact with the light guide plate (2) or the second plate (4). If, between the light guide (2) and the first electrodes (5) a layer (51) is present with a second refractive index being smaller than the first refractive index of the light guide (2), and the light guide (2) is positioned between the first electrodes (5) and the movable element (3), absorption of the light transported through the light guide plate (2) is reduced, providing a display panel (21) with 10 improved power efficiency.

Abstract: In a data carrier (1) that is arranged to receive a signal (S) in a non-contacting manner, there is provided a circuit (2) that is arranged, by using the signal (S), to generate a supply voltage (V) for parts of the circuit (2), the circuit (2) having a storage stage (5) that is arranged to store information capacitively, the information being represented by a value of an information voltage (UI) arising at the storage stage (5), and the circuit (2) having an information-voltage generating stage (6) that is arranged to receive a control signal (CS), which control signal (CS) is of a voltage value that is at most equal to the value of the supply voltage (V), and that is arranged to generate the information voltage (UI) by using the control signal (CS), wherein the information-voltage generating stage (6) has a voltage-raising stage (8) that is arranged to raise the value of the voltage of the control signal (CS).