Abstract: When the user pushes an input button 5, upper, lower, left and right input buttons 2, 4, 6 and 8 adjacent to the pushed button 5 are animated convergently toward the pushed button 5. Also, the input buttons adjacent to the pushed input button look as if a first side of each adjacent input button adjacent to the pushed input button rotated downward while the second side moved toward the pushed input button. Concerning the movement of one of the adjacent input buttons to be animated, the adjacent input button will look as if one side thereof adjacent to th pushed input button rotated downward about a second side thereof opposite to the first side while the second side moved toward the pushed input button. Thus, the present invention provides a highly user-friendly electronic appliance using a touch panel capable of displaying button images easily discernible by the user even if its display screen is limited in area and each on-screen button occupies the limited display area.

Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus for generating a time code compatible with 50P, 60P or 59.94P and having interchangeability with existing time codes. The apparatus includes: a microcomputer for dividing a frame number indicated by time address data in supplied code word data to obtain a quotient and a remainder; and the microcomputer and a time code reader for replacing the frame number indicated by the time address data in the code word data with the quotient and for generating a time code based on the code word data in which a value of a color frame flag is set to 0 if the remainder is 0 and for replacing the frame number with the quotient and for generating the time code based on the code word data in which the value of the color frame flag is set to 1 if the remainder is 1.

Abstract: A variable focus lens contains a conductive liquid material portion and an insulative liquid material portion in a cylindrical container and includes a first electrode which applies voltage to the conductive liquid material portion through a dielectric layer and a second electrode which directly contacts with the conductive liquid material portion, in which the dielectric layer is an anodized portion 22 made of a metal oxide formed by anodizing the first electrode.

Abstract: A detecting switch which is turned on/off in accordance with whether or not primary batteries have been attached to a primary battery holder is provided. In a normal state where no primary battery is attached, terminals (a, c) of a charge change-over switch are connected by a detection signal of the detecting switch, so that a voltage supplied from an external charger is inputted to a DC/DC converter. A secondary battery is charged by a predetermined value output of the DC/DC converter. When the primary batteries are attached, the detecting switch is turned on and terminals (b, c) of the charge change-over switch are connected, so that an output voltage of the primary batteries is inputted to the DC/DC converter. The secondary battery is charged by the predetermined value output of the DC/DC converter. Even when there is no charger, the secondary battery can be charged by the primary batteries and charging power sources are automatically switched.

Abstract: Both the beat and genre of music are used to select or generate a dance robot object for display of a robot icon on a computer monitor or for establishing the movements of a three-dimensional robot. The detected genre can define the type of dance performed by the robot. Also, the detected genre can be used to sort music. The genre can be detected using a neural network or by correlating the compressibility of the music to a genre.

Abstract: A switching power supply circuit which can achieve enhancement of the power conversion efficiency is disclosed. In a composite resonance converter wherein a current resonance type converter constructed on the primary side and a primary side partial voltage resonance circuit are combined, a primary side DC input rectification circuit is formed from a full-wave rectification circuit. Further, a gap G of the core of an insulating converter transformer (PIT) is set to 2.0 mm to set the coupling coefficient of the primary winding (N1) and the secondary winding (N2) to approximately 0.81 of a loose coupling state. Further, the numbers of turns of the primary winding (N1) and the secondary winding (N2) are selected so that the induced voltage per one turn of the secondary winding (N2) is 2 V or less.

Abstract: An ejection control device includes a memory for storing a correspondence table between gray-scale data items and ejection pattern data items, each gray-scale data item determining the number of droplets to be ejected to a corresponding pixel so as to express a desired gray-scale level of the pixel, each ejection pattern data item determining the ejection timing of droplets; and a converter for converting each gray-scale data item of the corresponding pixel to the corresponding ejection pattern data item by referring to the table. In the table, the setting of the ejecting position can be freely adjusted. In particular, an ejection pattern having ejection data bits discretely distributed for one pixel range can be easily achieved. Moreover, compliance with system changes can be achieved simply by rewriting the table.

Abstract: A wireless communication system of a simple configuration enabled to perform both data communication and accurate ranging. In the system, a second wireless unit receives a ranging signal after a lapse of a propagation time since a first wireless unit transmits the ranging signal. Then, after a delay of an image elimination period, the second wireless unit transmits a response signal. The first wireless unit receives the response signal after a lapse of a propagation time. Then, the first wireless unit obtains the propagation time, during which the signal propagates between the first and second wireless unit, according to an elapsed time since the ranging signal is transmitted. The distance therebetween is obtained by dividing the obtained propagation time by the velocity of light. Before the image elimination period elapses, in order to eliminate the physical reflection of radio waves, the first wireless unit is inhibited from opening a reception gate.

Abstract: When data is recorded onto a tape-shaped recording medium using N recording heads disposed on a rotary drum, of first and second series codes orthogonal to each other, the first series code is recorded by any one of the recording heads, and the second series code is recorded across N tracks formed by the N recording heads per revolution of the rotary drum. The redundancy rate of the second series code is set to 1/N or more. As a result, a recording apparatus and method can be provided, which can correct almost all errors at a ratio of one to N tracks even if one whole track of data is completely destroyed without increasing the redundancy rate.

Abstract: The invention provides an enciphering apparatus and method, a deciphering apparatus and method and an information processing apparatus and method by which illegal copying can be prevented with certainty. Data enciphered by a 1394 interface of a DVD player is transmitted to a personal computer and a magneto-optical disk apparatus through a 1394 bus. In the magneto-optical disk apparatus with which a change to a function is not open to a user, the received data is deciphered by a 1394 interface. In contrast, in the personal computer with which a change to a function is open to a user, the enciphered data is deciphered using a time variable key by a 1394 interface, and a result of the decipherment is further deciphered using a session key by an application section.

Abstract: A lower magnetic layer magnetized and formed in a first direction and an upper magnetic layer magnetized and formed in a second direction opposite to the lower magnetic layer are laminated on a base. A ratio T1/T2 of a thickness T1 of the upper magnetic layer to a thickness T2 of the lower magnetic layer is located within a range of 0.6 to 0.9. Thus, in a herringbone type dual evaporated tape in which data is recorded and reproduced in a serpentine fashion, a vertical magnetization component is canceled to reduce the difference in the waveform distortion of a reproducing signal between a forward direction and a reverse direction.

Abstract: A portable communication equipment comprises a radio communication sections (13), (14) for transmitting and receiving a CDMA signal, a base band modem section (16) for modulating a speech signal into a CDMA signal and demodulating a CDMA signal into a speech signal, and a CPU (17) for controlling the transmission and reception of a CDMA signal. When the equipment fails in capturing a selected channel and falls in a condition when a system was lost, the CPU (17) retries to capture the selected channel. The CPU (17), when it fails in capturing the selected channel, selects another channel only when it tries to capture the selected channel for a predetermined number of times as well as it does not obtain an overhead message. With this arrangement, it is possible to capture an appropriate channel if an unsuitable channel is selected and the portable communication equipment falls into a condition when a system was lost.

Abstract: An formation processing apparatus that performs language translations, wherein content data includes text data having the same meaning, written in a plurality of languages, and enclosed by <Multi> and </Multi>. Text data written in each language is enclosed by <Phrase lang=“language attribute”> and </Phrase>. When text data is written in two languages, English and Japanese, the language attributes are “en” for English and “ja” for Japanese. A display apparatus extracts text data written in a desired language(s) from the content data by referring to the language attribute, to display the data in various display methods.

Abstract: A display device is formed by burying at least part of a light emitting device in an insulating material, wherein a drive electrode for the light emitting device is formed so as to be extracted on a surface of the insulating material. A display unit is produced by two-dimensionally arraying such light emitting devices on a base body. Since the display device is modularized by burying a light emitting device finely formed in an insulating material, to re-shape the light emitting device into a size easy to handle, it is possible to suppress the production cost of the display unit using such display devices, and to ensure a desirable handling performance of the light emitting device; for example, facilitate the carrying of the light emitting device or the mounting thereof on a base body.

Abstract: A wavelet inverse transform method includes a decoding object coefficient extracting step of extracting only coefficients necessary for decoding a specified area from wavelet transform coefficients, and a wavelet inverse transform step of inverse transforming coefficients extracted from the decoding object coefficient extracting step. The decoding object coefficient extracting step extracts transform coefficients not only inside the specified area but also those outside the specified area. This enables only an optional partial picture to be decoded without decoding the entire picture. A corresponding wavelet inverse transform device is also disclosed.

Abstract: Disclosed is a disk-like recording medium, a disk recording apparatus and a disk recording method, and a disk playback apparatus and a disk playback method. Disk ID is recorded over a circle of a burst cutting area on an optical disk. The circle is divided into n blocks, each of the blocks is divided into m frames, and ID information is recorded in each of the frames with k channel bits.

Abstract: The present invention provides an image processing apparatus and method destined for processing image data sent via a communication system. In the apparatus and method, image data corresponding to designation data supplied from the user are coupled to each other for grouping, features of the image data corresponding to the designation data, and the image data once coupled together as in the above are uncoupled according to the features of the grouped image data, to thereby accurately localize an area the user is interested in. Also, according to the present invention, a time interval between the designation data is computed, and the image data are coupled to each other when the computed time interval is less than a predetermined threshold, while they are not coupled to each other when the computed time interval exceeds the predetermined threshold, thereby detecting when the user's interest shifts to another image area.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an information-processing system, an information-processing apparatus and an information-processing method. At a step S1, a PDA transmits a request for purchase of a content to a server. At steps S11, S12 and S14, the server receives the request for purchase of a content from the PDA and transmits the content to the PDA. At a step S5, the PDA transmits a request for preservation of the content to the server. At a step S16, the server generates a preservation ID based on a user ID for identifying the user of the PDA and based on a content ID for identifying the content, and issues the preservation ID to the PDA. At the next step S17, the server stores the issued preservation ID in a preservation-ID database by associating the preservation ID with the content ID. At a step S6, the PDA receives the issued preservation ID from the server and stores the preservation ID in a memory. The present invention can also be applied to an information management system.

Abstract: To make a magneto-optical disk to have higher track density and enable stable tracking servo to be performed thereon. On an magneto-optical disk, a first groove Gv1, a second groove Gv2, and a third groove Gv3 are formed so as to be adjacently arranged. The first groove Gv1 and the second groove Gv2 are deep grooves, and the third groove Gv3 is a shallow groove. Data is recorded on six recording tracks of these three grooves and three lands between respective grooves. A CTS signal is obtained by a sum signal (A+B+C+D) of a photo-detector 6, and a push-pull signal is obtained by a difference signal (A+D)?(B+C) of a photo-detector 8.