Abstract: A body stroking apparatus having a housing with a channel extending longitudinally therealong, an arm extending outwardly from the housing through the channel and vertically upwardly therefrom, a crossbar extending outwardly transversely to the arm, a plurality of flexible members affixed to the crossbar and extending downwardly therefrom, and a translation mechanism for moving the arm back and forth along the channel. The plurality of flexible members can include a plurality of flexible strips, a plurality of beaded lines and a plurality of flexible strands. A mat can be provided with a surface suitable for receiving a human body thereon such that the mat is positioned against a side of the housing with the crossbar extending over a top of the mat.

Abstract: A communication system implements detection of bad frames of information by utilizing multiple bit correction thresholds. Equipment used within the communication system adapts to different signaling environments by dynamically altering the bit correction threshold based on a history of the number of consecutive bad frames of information that have been previously erased and the number of bits corrected by a channel decoder (202). By implementing this dynamic bit correction threshold, sufficient bad frame indication (BFI) detection and receiver sensitivity can be obtained simultaneously, which results in an improved perceived audio quality to the end user.