Abstract: This invention provides a video information transmission apparatus for efficiently transmitting a digital video such as MPEG video at real time while controlling congestion on a QoS non-guaranteed IP network and suppressing degradation of a video quality. A transmission control section 13 on a sender side outputs bit rate feedback information in accordance with congestion information on the network to a real-time encoder 12, and controls a transmission bit rate to change the transmission bit rate in accordance with congestion information on the network. The bit rate feedback information is obtained based on the congestion information on the network on the sender side, or obtained on a receiver side and fed back.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to establish, for an LSI having a stacked interconnection structure of Cu interconnect/Low-k material, a narrow pitch wire bonding technique enabling a reduction in damage to a bonding pad and application similar to the conventional LSI of an aluminum interconnection. In a semiconductor device having a multilayer interconnection made of a Cu interconnect/Low-k dielectric material, the above-described object can be attained by a bonding pad structure in which all the wiring layers up to the uppermost cap interconnect are formed of a Cu wiring layer and a bonding pad portion formed of a Cu layer is equipped with a refractory intermediate metal layer such as Ti (titanium) filmor (tungsten) film on the Cu layer and an aluminum alloy layer on the intermediate metal layer.

Abstract: A volume data encoder with high encoding efficiency is provided. The object of the coding is volume data which contains a plurality of tomogram planes output from a CT and an MRI. A header analysis unit separates each plane image into header information and pixel information. A header compression unit compresses the separated header information. On the other hand, a two-dimensional transform unit conducts frequency decomposition on the pixel information. A skip portion detection and table generation unit detects skip portions that are the same in all coefficients in a z-direction, and stores them in a table. A one-dimensional transform unit conducts one-dimensional transform on the pixel information for coefficients except the skip portions. A unit block division unit divides each subband into unit blocks. An entropy encoding unit determines a parameter for entropy encoding according to statistical properties of all coefficients in all unit blocks included in each class.

Abstract: A feature description method capable of high-speed, efficiently searching audio data or grasping a summary of the audio data by giving considerations to elements and characteristics peculiar to the audio data, is provided. Also, an audio video data feature description collection construction method for collecting feature descriptions from multiple pieces of audio video data based on a specific feature type makes it possible to efficiently, clearly describe a feature description collection.

Abstract: Provided is a transcoder for coded video the encoding mode of that is changed according to the coded data, itself, that has been compressed by transcoding, or information prepared by decoding only a part thereof. A coded data extractor partially decodes DV coded data (a) that has been input, and sends DCT coefficients (b) to an approximate image generator and to a decoder, and outputs quantization parameters (c) to a first motion vector detector. The approximate image generator generates an approximate image according to a part of the DCT coefficients (b). A first motion vector detector roughly detects motion vector candidates (e). A second motion vector detector, using the motion vector candidates (e) as an initial position, hierarchically detects a motion vector (f).

Abstract: A variance between sequential video pictures is extracted, and then, a GOP boundary position is decided based on inter-frame variance information. Furthermore, simple motion estimation is carried out with respect to video pictures inside one GOP. If a motion variation between the video pictures is large, a small predictive frame interval is taken; to the contrary, if the motion variation is small, a large predictive frame interval is taken. The simple motion estimation is carried out between two downscaled feature planes at a timewise fixed interval with respect to a video picture which is discriminated to be an interlaced video picture, wherein a motion compensatory prediction error at that time is output as image variance information. If the image variance is small, coding is conducted by a frame structure; to the contrary, if the image variance is large, the coding is conducted by a field structure.

Abstract: Provided is a semiconductor device comprising a first metal film formed above a semiconductor chip, a ball portion formed over said first metal film and made of a second metal, and an alloy layer of said first metal and said second metal which alloy layer is formed between said first metal film and said ball portion, wherein said alloy layer reaches the bottom of said first metal film, and said ball portion is covered with a resin; and a manufacturing method thereof. The present invention makes it possible to improve adhesion between the bonding pad portion and ball portion of a bonding wire over an interconnect, thereby improving the reliability of the semiconductor device.

Abstract: The present invention provides a real-time live picture information compression-transmission apparatus and method using a connection-less type protocol for a computer network. The compression-transmission apparatus is constituted to divide frame data output from a real-time encoder compressing live picture information into packets, and to transmit the live picture information in a real time manner according to the connection-less type protocol while suppressing burst transmission by conducting transmission control. The present invention also provides a compressed video data decoding apparatus capable of reducing compressed video decoding processing load without deteriorating picture quality and decreasing the number of played back picture planes when playing back a picture.

Abstract: A variance between sequential video pictures is extracted, and then, a GOP boundary position is decided based on inter-frame variance information. Furthermore, simple motion estimation is carried out with respect to video pictures inside one GOP. If a motion variation between the video pictures is large, a small predictive frame interval is taken; to the contrary, if the motion variation is small, a large predictive frame interval is taken. The simple motion estimation is carried out between two downscaled feature planes at a timewise fixed interval with respect to a video picture which is discriminated to be an interlaced video picture, wherein a motion compensatory prediction error at that time is output as image variance information. If the image variance is small, coding is conducted by a frame structure; to the contrary, if the image variance is large, the coding is conducted by a field structure.

Abstract: The present invention intends to provide a classification apparatus for broadcasted sport videos for classifying various scenes constituting a sport video, depending on the importance level without being limited to any particular sport video by using visual and audio features. A sport video classification processing portion determines and classifies a play scene, a close-up shot and the like using an audio and a color feature extracted from motion picture data. Because the determination of the most frequent color can be changed adaptively for each inputted sport video, it is not necessary to determine any particular color to the most frequent color previously.

Abstract: A semiconductor device comprising a plurality of wires for electrically connecting a plurality of electrode pads arranged on a main surface of a semiconductor chip along one side of the semiconductor chip to a plurality of connecting portions arranged on the main surface of a wiring substrate along one side of the semiconductor chip, respectively, wherein second wires out of the plural wires consisting of first and second wires adjacent to each other have a larger loop height than the first wires, one end portions of the second wires are connected to the electrode pads at positions farther from one side of the semiconductor chip than the one end portions of the first wires, and the other end portions of the second wires are connected to the connecting portions at positions farther from one side of the semiconductor chip than the other end portions of the first wires.

Abstract: A semiconductor device comprising a plurality of wires for electrically connecting a plurality of electrode pads arranged on a main surface of a semiconductor chip along one side of the semiconductor chip to a plurality of connecting portions arranged on the main surface of a wiring substrate along one side of the semiconductor chip, respectively, wherein second wires out of the plural wires consisting of first and second wires adjacent to each other have a larger loop height than the first wires, one end portions of the second wires are connected to the electrode pads at positions farther from one side of the semiconductor chip than the one end portions of the first wires, and the other end portions of the second wires are connected to the connecting portions at positions farther from one side of the semiconductor chip than the other end portions of the first wires.

Abstract: A highly reliable semiconductor device provided herein can prevent a junction between a pad and a wire from coming off, and pads from peeling off an underlying insulating layer on the interface thereof. The semiconductor device has plugs formed in a region in which an electrode pad is formed over a substrate. The plugs protrude into the electrode pad.

Abstract: A first block size motion searching device (4) detects a motion vector with respect to each of blocks by a unit of variable blocks in the smallest first block size. A feature value extracting device (6) detects a feature value between the adjacent blocks. A motion search determining device (7) determines by utilizing the feature value whether or not the motion search should be executed in the second to nth block sizes. A search center generating device (8), a search area generating device (9) and a selected block size motion searching device (10) selects the second to nth block sizes and detects the motion vector. A block size determining device (11) determines the block size having a high efficiency.

Abstract: In the conventional bump forming method that can be applied to a semiconductor device in which a large number of bumps are required to be formed, there are various limitations on the material of which the bumps are made, due to enough cubic volume of bumps and to small scattering of the bump height. According to the invention, solder balls and a tool having a large number of through-holes are used, and under the condition that the through-holes of the tool are aligned with the pads of the semiconductor device, the solder balls are charged into the through-holes, pressed to be fixed on the pads, and then reflowed to form bumps.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to establish, for an LSI having a stacked interconnection structure of Cu interconnect/Low-k material, a narrow pitch wire bonding technique enabling a reduction in damage to a bonding pad and application similar to the conventional LSI of an aluminum interconnection. In a semiconductor device having a multilayer interconnection made of a Cu interconnect/Low-k dielectric material, the above-described object can be attained by a bonding pad structure in which all the wiring layers up to the uppermost cap interconnect are formed of a Cu wiring layer and a bonding pad portion formed of a Cu layer is equipped with a refractory intermediate metal layer such as Ti (titanium) filmor (tungsten) film on the Cu layer and an aluminum alloy layer on the intermediate metal layer.

Abstract: Conversion encoding coefficients which are accumulated in an input memory and read out from the memory is input into converting means. Conversion matrix integration means multiplies a basis matrix of conversion encoding coefficient by, arbitrary interpolation matrix or thinning matrix which is input from resolution conversion matrix inputting means and sampling conversion matrix inputting means to produce a converting matrix, and outputs the same to the converting means. Alternatively, the conversion matrix integration means selects a converting matrix which is previously calculated and stored in the memory, and outputs the same to the converting means. The converting means inputs the converting matrix from the conversion matrix integration means and the conversion encoding coefficients from the input memory, and achieves the resolution conversion and sampling conversion by matrix product computation of the conversion encoding coefficients in row unit.

Abstract: The present invention provides a scene classification apparatus for classifying uncompressed or compressed video into various types of scenes at low cost and with high accuracy using characteristics of a video and audio characteristics accompanied by the video. When video are compressed data, their motion intensity, spatial distribution of motion and histogram of motion direction are detected by using values of motion vectors of predictive coding images existing in respective shots, and the respective shots of the video are classified into a dynamic scene, a static scene, a slow scene, a highlight scene, a zooming scene, a panning scene, a commercial scene and the like based on the motion intensity, the spatial distribution of motion, the histogram of motion direction and shot density.

Abstract: A volume data encoder with high encoding efficiency is provided. The object of the coding is volume data which contains a plurality of tomogram planes output from a CT and an MRI. A header analysis unit separates each plane image into header information and pixel information. A header compression unit compresses the separated header information. On the other hand, a two-dimensional transform unit conducts frequency decomposition on the pixel information. A skip portion detection and table generation unit detects skip portions that are the same in all coefficients in a z-direction, and stores them in a table. A one-dimensional transform unit conducts one-dimensional transform on the pixel information for coefficients except the skip portions. A unit block division unit divides each subband into unit blocks. An entropy encoding unit determines a parameter for entropy encoding according to statistical properties of all coefficients in all unit blocks included in each class.

Abstract: It is made possible to concretely estimate actual transmission bit rate in a frame of grasping a line state by using a report packet.