Abstract: An apparatus for decoding a discrete cosine transform coded image signal includes an image restoration circuit which comprises a first conversion block for converting the reconstructed image signal into its frequency domain image signal including image signal phase components and image signal amplitude components thereof; a predictive quantization noise generation block for responding to the quantization parameter and for generating a predictive quantization noise having a known probability density function; a second conversion block for converting the predictive quantization noise into its frequency domain noise including noise phase components and noise amplitude components; an adder circuit for generating compensated amplitude components representative of the difference between the image signal amplitude components and the noise amplitude components; and a inverse conversion block responsive to the image signal phase components and the compensated amplitude components for converting them to restore the ima

Abstract: A novel apparatus, capable of adaptively encoding input digital audio signals from N number of channels, comprises N number of filters for filtering the input digital audio signals, respectively; a first estimator for estimating a first parameter for each of the input digital audio signals; a second estimator for estimating perceptual entropies of the respective frames for each of the input digital audio signals based on the first parameter, to thereby derive a mean and a standard deviation of a first frame group, and for generating second frame groups including F number of frames for each of the N number of channels; a first bit allocation unit for determining bits for each of the second frame groups based on the perceptual entropies for the second frame groups and mean and standard deviation parameters and for generating bit allocation information corresponding to the determined bits for the second frame groups; a second bit allocation unit for determining bits for the respective subbands of each frame incl

Abstract: A novel apparatus, capable of adaptively encoding input digital audio signals from N number of channels, includes N number of subband filters arranged in parallel for filtering the input digital audio signals, respectively, on a subband-by-subband basis; an estimator for estimating perceptual parameters for each subband, each frame and a frame group including N.times.

Abstract: A novel apparatus, capable of adaptively encoding an input digital audio signal, comprises a subband filtering device for receiving the input digital audio signal and filtering the received digital audio signal, on a subband-by-subband basis; a first estimator for estimating signal-to-mask ratio data, sound pressure levels and masking thresholds for the respective subbands of the digital audio signal; a second estimator for estimating perceptual entropies for the respective frames of the input digital audio signal based on the estimated signal-to-mask ratio data, sound pressure levels and masking thresholds and for deriving a mean and a standard deviation parameters for a frame group including two or more current and previous frames which corresponds to the estimated perceptual entropies; a bit allocation unit for adaptively determining bits for each of the subbands based on the estimated signal-to-mask ratio data, perceptual entropies, and mean and standard deviation parameters and for generating bit allocat

Abstract: An improved method for determining optimum motion vectors of video signals employs a similarity measurement between a search block in a current frame and each of a plurality of candidate blocks included in a corresponding search region in a previous frame along with a spatial correlation measurement between pixel data in each of error signals generated from the search block and the candidate blocks. The method comprises the steps of providing error signals, calculating an error function and index of correlation for each of said error signals, and generating a motion vector corresponding to an optimum error signal determined based on error functions and indices of correlation of the error signals.

Abstract: A combined lighter and pen includes a pen part and a lighter part detachably combined with each other. The pen part has an internally threaded top section. The lighter part includes a gas container provided at its upper end with an ignition device as well as a gas nozzle, and at its lower end with an externally threaded engagement section detachably engageable with the threaded top section of the pen part. The gas container is slidably received by a hollow outer casing which engages with an internally threaded upper cap. The upper cap is provided with a removable metal net which is heated by a flame projected from the gas nozzle. The lighter is operated by an operating piece movably received by a side opening of the outer casing such that its pressing part rests on a side section of the nozzle control piece and comes into close contact with a top end of the ignition switch of the ignition device. When pressed down, the operating piece presses down the nozzle control piece as well as the ignition switch.

Abstract: There is provided an improved apparatus and method which include precisely adjustable digital circuitries employing psychoacoustic modeling so that the results obtained have a best consistency with actual human auditory perception. The apparatus comprises a first estimator for estimating a power density spectrum of an input digital audio signal to the audio system; a detector for determining a masking threshold depending on the power density spectrum of the input digital audio signal as an audible limit reflecting human auditory faculty; a second estimator for estimating a power density spectrum of an error signal representative of the difference between the input digital audio signal and its output digital audio signal from the audio system; and a third estimator for estimating the power density spectrum of the error signal which exceed the masking threshold and for calculating a perceptual spectrum distance(PSD) representative of the audio distortion.

Abstract: An adaptive echo cancellation apparatus disclosed herein has three channels and a channel selection circuit. The first channel serves to block an outgoing digital signal from flowing to a transceiver. The second channel is used to directly couple the outgoing digital signal to the transceiver. The third channel serves to subtract a predicted echo signal, estimated by using the incoming digital signal, from the outgoing digital signal and to couple an error signal, representative of the difference therebetween, to the transceiver. The adaptive channel selection circuit is used to select one of the channels depending on the presence of the valid outgoing and incoming digital signals in order to effectively reduce the estimation operation. Further, the third channel is provided with a filter wherein the filter coefficients are adaptively updated by using the signs of a predetermined number of samples, thereby achieving a considerable reduction in the computational complexity.

Abstract: A cigarette-shaped gas lighter suitable for carrying in a conventional cigarette pack. The gas lighter includes a solid main body having a mounting base, a spark generating unit having a lighter flint and a serrated spool sparker, a gas injection regulating unit including a cylinder and a gas regulating member received in the cylinder such that the gas inlet chamber is received in the cylinder and the gas nozzle protrudes out of the main body. A lever pin is provided for lifting the gas injection regulating unit to allow gas to be projected from the gas nozzle, a cap having a gas recharger is hermetically screwed on the bottom of the main body with a packing interposed therebetween, and a top cover is mounted on the mounting section of the main body and having a flame projection opening for allowing a flame to rush to the outside of the gas lighter. The gas regulating member includes a gas inlet chamber which communicates with the gas nozzle as well as with the inside of the cylinder.