Abstract: The present invention relates to novel polymeric compositions that exhibit Reverse Thermal Gelation (RTG) properties for use as Support Materials (SM) in the manufacture of three-dimensional objects. These polymers are Temperature Sensitive Polymers that respond with a significant change of properties to a small change in temperature. Temperature Sensitive Polymers exhibit cloud point (CP) or lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in aqueous solutions. Water-soluble Temperature Sensitive Polymers are chosen to give low viscosity liquid at low temperature when dissolved in water and by that to permit easy dispensing at low temperature. Raising the temperature above their gelation temperature (Tgel) will result in solidification of the composition. At its gel position the material has favorable characteristics as a support and building material. The gel layers have the appropriate toughness and dimensional stability to support the model layers during the building process.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a rapid and large-scale production of tomato mutants by utilizing a miniature tomato plant which can be crossed with tomato commercial plants. Mutations are induced in the miniature tomato cultivars and desired mutants are subsequently identified in the resulting mutant tomato population.

Abstract: There is provided an hydraulic reeling-in device for a water-transmitting, flexible hose, having mounting elements, a hose reel, an hydraulic driver kinematically connected to the hose reel, a water inlet connectable to a water-supplying pipe line and a water outlet provided with a connector for the hose. There is further provided a valve having two positions, a first position in which the water is permitted to pass from the water inlet through the water outlet into the hose, and a second position in which water is permitted to pass from the water inlet to the hydraulic driver in order to reel-in the hose, and a tubular member adapted, in the second position of the valve, to conduct water to the hydraulic driver.

Abstract: The contrast of a digital image is enhanced by forming a histogram of the luma values of an active area of the image, computing “initial” bin indices that partition the histogram into bins of substantially equal population, mapping the “initial” bin indices into “final” bin indices that are more uniformly spaced than the “initial” bin indices, and adjusting the luma values of all the pixels in accordance with the “final” bin indices.

Abstract: The present invention relates to novel polymeric compositions that exhibit Reverse Thermal Gelation (RTG) properties for use as Support Materials (SM) in the manufacture of three-dimensional objects. These polymers are Temperature Sensitive Polymers that respond with a significant change of properties to a small change in temperature. Temperature Sensitive Polymers exhibit cloud point (CP) or lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in aqueous solutions. Water-soluble Temperature Sensitive Polymers are chosen to give low viscosity liquid at low temperature when dissolved in water and by that to permit easy dispensing at low temperature. Raising the temperature above their gelation temperature (Tgel) will result in solidification of the composition. At its gel position the material has favorable characteristics as a support and building material. The gel layers have the appropriate toughness and dimensional stability to support the model layers during the building process.

Abstract: A color defined by a chroma point and by a luma value is adjusted by defining a reference chroma point and shifting the chroma point towards the reference point if the chroma point is within a predefined tilted rectangle in the chroma coordinate plane that encloses the reference point; or if the chroma point is within both of two predefined polygons, in the chroma coordinate plane, that enclose the reference point; or if the luma value is within a predefined luma range. Preferably, the two polygons are a rectangle and a rhombus. The chroma point is shifted using a continuous shift function that vanishes on the rectangle and on the rhombus.

Abstract: There is provided an hydraulic reeling-in device for a water-transmitting, flexible hose, having mounting elements, a hose reel, an hydraulic driver kinematically connected to the hose reel, a water inlet connectable to a water-supplying pipe line and a water outlet provided with a connector for the hose. There is further provided a valve having two positions, a first position in which the water is permitted to pass from the water inlet through the water outlet into the hose, and a second position in which water is permitted to pass from the water inlet to the hydraulic driver in order to reel-in the hose, and a tubular member adapted, in the second position of the valve, to conduct water to the hydraulic driver.

Abstract: The present invention relates to novel polymeric compositions that exhibit Reverse Thermal Gelation (RTG) properties for use as Support Materials (SM) in the manufacture of three-dimentional objects. These polymers are Temperature Sensitive Poolymers that respond with a significant change of properties to a small change in temperature. Temperature Sensitive Polymers exhibit cloud point (CP) or lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in aqueous solutions. Water-soluble Temperature Sencitive Polymers are chosen to give low viscosity liquid at low temperature when dissolved in water and by that to permit easy dispensing at low temperature. Rising the temperature above their gelation temperature (Tgel) will result in solidification of the composition. At its gel position the material has favorable characteristics as a support and building material. The gel layers have the appropriate toughness and dimensional stability to support the model layers during the building process.

Abstract: Payment indicia generating schemes are described that enable users to customize the appearance of the payment indicium and to accommodate a wide variety of validation processing environments, while providing a substantial defense against fraudulent photocopy attack. In some embodiments, a corroborative digital token is generated from payment information, and a base image is modulated with a graphical encoding of the corroborative digital token to produce a payment indicium. In some embodiments, a payment indicium containing embedded payment information is rendered on a printing surface with a printing characteristic that degrades with photographic reproductions such that the embedded payment information is extractable from an original rendering of the payment indicium but is un-extractable from a photographic reproduction of an original rendering of the payment indicium.

Abstract: A variational model for spatially dependent gamut mapping is described that includes inputting a gamut constraint, choosing a one dimensional gamut projection scheme, including selecting a transform color coordinate system, computing transform equations, and verifying gamut conditions. The model also includes inputting an original image to be rendered, where the original image is in a given color coordinate system, transforming the gamut constraint, the image, and the transform equations to the transform color coordinate system, whereby a three dimensional function is transformed into a one dimensional quadratic functional, finding a minimum solution to the functional, and transforming a projected image in the transform color coordinate system into a color coordinate system of a rendering device.

Abstract: The present invention relates to novel polymeric compositions that exhibit Reverse Thermal Gelation (RTG) properties for use as Support Materials (SM) in the manufacture of three-dimensional objects. These polymers are Temperature Sensitive Polymers that respond with a significant change of properties to a small change in temperature. Temperature Sensitive Polymers exhibit cloud point (CP) or lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in aqueous solutions. Water-soluble Temperature Sensitive Polymers are chosen to give low viscosity liquid at low temperature when dissolved in water and by that to permit easy dispensing at low temperature. Raising the temperature above their gelation temperature (Tgel) will result in solidification of the composition. At its gel position the material has favorable characteristics as a support and building material. The gel layers have the appropriate toughness and dimensional stability to support the model layers during the building process.

Abstract: The present invention enables the rapid and large-scale production of mutants in crop plants. This is accomplished by utilizing a miniature plant which can be crossed with a commercial plant of the same species. Mutations are induced in the miniature cultivar, and the mutants subsequently identified in the resulting mutant plant population. Mutant genes of interest can be introgressed into a commercial cultivar by crossing selected mutant miniature plants with the commercial cultivar. Reverse genetics can be undertaken using a plant population of the miniature crop which contains random T-DNA or transposon insertion events and screening this population for insertions into genes of interest. Likewise, the miniature plant population is transformed with a DNA construct comprised of a promoter-less screenable marker gene within a mobile DNA.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for color image processing using gamut mapping reduces halo artifacts by correcting terms in a gamut mapping algorithm. The color image may be represented by f, the in gamut image by g, the target gamut by C, and the gamut constraint by c. The method for reducing halo artifacts includes two correction steps. First a color distance term L2 in the gamut mapping algorithm is corrected. Second, a distance measure of an image gradient in the gamut mapping algorithm is corrected. The first correcting step comprises computing a function u=projectC(ƒ). The second correcting step comprises computing a scaled down function for f. Next, a function g(x,y) is determined that minimizes a functional comprising the color distance term and the image gradient term. The solution may be determined by iteration using a gradient descent operation by first initializing g0=projectC(ƒ), and then performing one or more iteration steps to compute g(x,y).

Abstract: A digital image is hardcopy watermarked by modifying transform coefficients in a transform domain representation of the digital image, the transforms coefficients being modified according to bit values of an n-bit message. A message in a hardcopy watermarked image is identified by statistically decoding a transform domain representation of the watermarked image.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a rapid and large-scale production of tomato mutants by utilizing miniature tomato plants which can be crossed with tomato commercial plants. Mutations are induced in the miniature tomato cultivars and desired mutants are subsequently identified in the resulting mutant tomato population.

Abstract: A barcode system for generating and decoding a barcode with visual significance. The barcode system of the present invention includes an encoding module for receiving a message and a logo and generating a visually significant barcode based on these inputs. A decoding module is also provided for receiving an acquired version of a visually significant barcode that may have been degraded in a typical document handling channel (e.g., through the printing, scanning, or copying process) and for recovering the message specified by the visually significant barcode.

Abstract: A barcode system for generating and decoding a barcode with visual significance. The barcode system of the present invention includes an encoding module for receiving a message and a logo and generating a visually significant barcode based on these inputs. A decoding module is also provided for receiving an acquired version of a visually significant barcode that may have been degraded in a typical document handling channel (e.g., through the printing, scanning, or copying process) and for recovering the message specified by the visually significant barcode.

Abstract: Systems and methods for automatically generating and decoding a graphical bar code (i.e., an image that contains inconspicuous graphical modulations that encode embedded information) are described. In one aspect, an invertible graphical operation is applied between regions of a base image and information-encoding graphical templates that are selected from a predefined template set to produce a graphical bar code with regions from which graphical templates are recoverable by applying an inverse graphical operation between graphical bar code regions and corresponding base image regions. In another aspect, an invertible graphical operation is applied between regions of a graphical bar code and corresponding regions of a base image to produce a set of measurement blocks, and information-encoding graphical templates corresponding to the set of measurement blocks with the highest estimated probability is selected from a predefined template set.

Abstract: A transform domain watermarking technique which is based on a new encoding scheme referred to as scaled bin encoding which encodes a message in a set of transform coefficients by modifying their values in a way that preserves high image quality (i.e., low distortion levels) and adapts to expected noise level. Recapturing of the watermark image is performed via a decoding method using a maximum likelihood procedure (i.e., maximum likelihood decoding), based on the statistics of the transform coefficients and a worst case statistical model of the noise introduced to these coefficients by image processing operations or attack noise.

Abstract: An isolated polynucleotide encoding a novel plant phosphate transporter and, more particularly, to an essential phosphate transporter which, when inactivated, is associated with phosphate deficiency syndrome in plants, and to methods for using same to modulate, i.e., increase or decrease, phosphate uptake in plants.