Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for interpreting control commands received from a control element, wherein the control element sends control commands indicating start of activation (e.g., press operation) and end of activation (e.g., release operation) separately. Two time thresholds provided by respective timers (T1, T2) are used at the controlled device (20), a lower time threshold for determining the short activation and a higher time threshold for determining the long activation; the difference between the two time thresholds indicates a “dead zone” of no control action.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling power distribution by a control system that only requires a broadcast medium between a controller (30) and appliances or loads (20-1 to 20-n) and information about the current total power consumption of the system to precisely reach a target consumption level in a stepwise, fast converging way without “seesaw”effects and with “fair distribution” of any power reduction.

Abstract: The present invention is related to verifying an installed lighting system (300), in particular an Ethernet-based lighting system (300), without it being necessary to employ a designated lighting controller and allowing the automatic commissioning of the installed lighting system (300). According to an aspect of the invention, this is achieved by providing a network switch (200) that comprises a plurality of ports for coupling luminaires (312A, 312B, 312C, 312D) and sensors and or actuators (314A, 314B) of the lighting system (300) to the network switch (200); and by setting the network switch (200) such that a signal received at a first port (e.g. port 4) of the plurality of ports is only forwarded to pre-selected ports (e.g. ports 2,3,5,6 and 7) of the plurality of ports.

Abstract: A lamp is provided that is controlled by messages transmitted via a network. The lamp has an internal memory that stores an address and an internal control circuit that responds to received messages that refer to this address. The address is updated when the lamp is installation in a power supply socket, using for example an address from the first message that is transmitted after installation. The lamp contains a detector that detects disconnection of the lamp from the power supply socket, for example by monitoring a resistance value between two parts of one of the power supply terminals of the lamp. In response to this detection the control circuit of the lamp sets information that enables an update of the address in the memory. When it is detected that the lamp is again connected to a power supply socket the address is updated on condition that the update is enabled.

Abstract: A method and system for determining the level of allowed communication between devices. By addition of one or more tamper-resistant proximity check server(s), round-trip time measurements to estimate the distance between the communication devices are performed in order to determine the amount of communication allowed between these devices. In one embodiment, a single tamper-resistant proximity server computes the distance between communication devices that are implemented as trusted applications on open platforms.

Abstract: A switch module is designed to facilitate user definition of a group of switch modules that control the same lamp. A lamp unit (12) containing the lamp responds selectively to messages from the switch modules (10, 10?) when the messages comprise ID information matching with ID information stored in the lamp unit (12). A group is formed by detecting user control operation of sensors (100) in the switch modules (10, 10?), transmitting messages from the switch modules (10, 10?) in response and determining from the messages whether the switch modules (10?) have both been operated within a time interval with a duration of less than a predetermined threshold. If so, the ID information value in memories (104) of the switch module (10) and/or the further switch module (10?) are set to matching ID values, for use in the messages to control the lamp unit.

Abstract: A lamp is provided that is controlled by messages transmitted via a network. The lamp has an internal memory that stores an address and an internal control circuit that responds to received messages that refer to this address. The address is updated when the lamp is installation in a power supply socket, using for example an address from the first message that is transmitted after installation. The lamp contains a detector that detects disconnection of the lamp from the power supply socket, for example by monitoring a resistance value between two parts of one of the power supply terminals of the lamp. In response to this detection the control circuit of the lamp sets information that enables an update of the address in the memory. When it is detected that the lamp is again connected to a power supply socket the address is updated on condition that the update is enabled.

Abstract: A method and a device are described for generating a program stream of MPEG coded video and audio signal, wherein several functional tasks are distributed in an optimal manner between hardware on the one hand and software on the other hand. Forming the elementary streams is performed in hardware. Packer and packetiser functions are performed in hardware by pre-packing the elementary streams, filling-in packet header and pack header as much as possible. Parsing of the elementary streams is performed in hardware. Parse information is stored in a meta byte structure in each prepack. Maintaining the P-STD Model is performed in software. Deciding for an audio pack or a video pack is performed in software. Finishing the packet header and pack header is performed in software, on the basis of the parse information present in the meta byte structure in each prepack.

Abstract: This invention provides a method, proximity check server (203), system (200), and computer program product (207, 208) for determining the level of allowed communication between devices (201, 202) in e.g. a home network. By addition of one or more tamper-resistant devices, so-called proximity check server(s) (203,204), round-trip time measurements to estimate the distance between the devices are performed in order to determine the amount of communication allowed between these devices. In a specific embodiment, a single tamper-resistant proximity server computes the distance between communication devices that are implemented as trusted applications on open platforms.

Abstract: The present invention discloses coated inserts particularly useful for milling of compacted graphite iron under wet conditions at moderate cutting speeds comprising a cemented carbide body and a coating. The cemented carbide body comprises WC, from about 7.3 to about 7.9 wt-% Co and from about 1.0 to about 1.8 wt-% cubic carbides of Ta and Nb and a highly W-alloyed binder phase. The radius of the uncoated cutting edge is from about 25 to about 45 ?m. The coating comprises: a first, less than about 1 ?m, TiCxNyOz layer adjacent to the cemented carbide having a composition of x+y=1, x is greater than or equal to 0; a second, from about 1 to about 2 ?m, TiCxNyOz layer having a composition of x greater than about 0.4, y greater than about 0.4 and z is less than about 0.1 and equal to or greater than zero; a third, less than about 1 ?m, TiCxNyOz layer having a composition of x+y+z greater than or equal to about 1 and z greater than about 0; an ?-Al2O3-layer with a thickness of from about 2.1 to about 3.

Abstract: A method of and devices for encoding an information stream (20) into a variable bit rate (VBR) encoded information stream (24) have been proposed. The application discloses an improved constraint variable bit rate (CVBR) encoding, which guarantees that in a particular recording mode on a record carrier, any contiguous selection from the recording on this record carrier can be copied to another record carrier having a storage capacity corresponding to said recording mode, without the necessity to employ a lower average bit rate an while still using the maximum variable bit rate freedom within the window to be archived.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a menu picture generating method and to a recording device for recording a menu picture on a record carrier (20), wherein a key frame picture is scaled and then compressed before being assembled by a slice replacement operation. The entire menu picture assembly operation is performed in the compressed picture domain, wherein no pictures need to be decoded and only small part of the menu picture, corresponding to the scaled key frame picture, needs to be encoded. Thereby, the normal encoding-decoding pipeline of the recording device is not required for menu generation, such that hardware and software requirements can be reduced.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a power failure recovery mechanism for a recording and reproducing device such as a DVD player, wherein a recording indication information and a recovery pointer information is written in a non-volatile random access memory, while a recovery information is recorded on a record carrier such as a recordable optical disc. At a power-up operation, the recording indication information is used to determine a power failure and the pointer information is used to reproduce the recovery information in case of a determined power failure. Thus, the pointer information indicates the location of incremental recovery data structures on the record carrier, such that a recovery can be achieved after a power failure without requiring a restart of the entire recording.

Abstract: A method for recording and reproducing event signals supplied at particular times from at least one source as well as preset data selectively input by a user which data establishes an event signal to be recorded and the time of recording that event signal, wherein audio and video signals are to be recorded on or reproduced from at least one record medium dependent on at least said preset data, said method comprising the steps of: -selectively producing said preset data to select source, time and duration of event signals to be recorded; -storing said preset data; and -providing management data each related to the recording and reproducing operation of a specific record medium; is characterized by -storing at least said management data on a storage medium different from said at least one record medium.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a menu picture generating method and to a recording device for recording a menu picture on a record carrier (20), wherein a key frame picture is scaled and then compressed before being assembled by a slice replacement operation. The entire menu picture assembly operation is performed in the compressed picture domain, wherein no pictures need to be decoded and only small part of the menu picture, corresponding to the scaled key frame picture, needs to be encoded. Thereby, the normal encoding-decoding pipeline of the recording device is not required for menu generation, such that hardware and software requirements can be reduced.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a power failure recovery mechanism for a recording and reproducing device such as a DVD player, wherein a recording indication information and a recovery pointer information is written in a non-volatile random access memory, while a recovery information is recorded on a record carrier such as a recordable optical disc. At a power-up operation, the recording indication information is used to determine a power failure and the pointer information is used to reproduce the recovery information in case of a determined power failure. Thus, the pointer information indicates the location of incremental recovery data structures on the record carrier, such that a recovery can be achieved after a power failure without requiring a restart of the entire recording.

Abstract: A method and a device are described for generating a program stream of MPEG coded video and audio signal, wherein several functional tasks are distributed in an optimal manner between hardware on the one hand and software on the other hand. Forming the elementary streams is performed in hardware. Packer and packetiser functions are performed in hardware by pre-packing the elementary streams, filling-in packet header and pack header as much as possible. Parsing of the elementary streams is performed in hardware. Parse information is stored in a meta byte structure in each prepack. Maintaining the P-STD Model is performed in software. Deciding for an audio pack or a video pack is performed in software. Finishing the packet header and pack header is performed in software, on the basis of the parse information present in the meta byte structure in each prepack.