Abstract: The video server provides a service of lower quality than that of the service which a user demanded within the limits of a reservable bandwidth, when a bandwidth required for providing the service which a user has demanded cannot be reserved. Therefore, although quality is lower than the quality which a user demands, a service can be received at least when a user wants to receive the service. Therefore, a user's dissatisfaction can be released, as compared with the case where service is not provided at all.

Abstract: The resource management server manages the information concerning the resource reservation status and the information of groups of all electronic equipments connected to the hubs. When an electronic equipment is newly connected to a port of one of the hubs, the electronic equipment issues a resource request and the group information to the resource management server. The resource management server sets up a network path between the newly connected electronic equipment and the other electronic equipments belonging to the same group as the newly connected electronic equipment, and judges if the resource request can be accepted on the setup network path.

Abstract: Picture quality loss is minimized and buffer underflow and overflow are prevented when extracting and recombining a plurality of consecutive scenes from an MPEG stream. The smallest number of pictures (equivalent at most to 1 second) that must be re-encoded so that the scene can be independently reproduced is detected to identify the re-encoding target picture. Then the picture type (I, P, B) after the pictures are re-encoded is determined. Buffer fullness is calculated, and the code allocation to the re-encoding range is calculated from buffer fullness and target picture count. The code allocation to each target picture is then calculated, and the target pictures are re-encoded and connected.

Abstract: Access points for supporting wireless communications, a packet transmission device, and terminals for handing over between service areas are provided and an existing terminal is provided with respect to this access point for performing QoS guarantee, so that when a new terminal is handed over to be engaged in wireless communications with this access point, the priority of the packet associated with the existing terminal and/or new terminal is changed.

Abstract: A learning-support device offers a sufficient learning effect even in a field of learning that sets its goal on mastering a motion itself. A question-screen display part displays a question-screen composed of a question and moving images as choices for an answer. A selection reception part receives a user-selection indicating which of the moving images on the question-screen is selected by a user. A correct/incorrect determination part determines whether the user-selection is correct or incorrect. When the user-selection is determined as correct, a correct-answer-explanation-screen display part displays a correct-answer-explanation-screen including an explanation for the correct answer and the correct moving image. When the user-selection is determined as incorrect, an incorrect-answer-explanation-screen display part displays an incorrect-answer-explanation-screen including an explanation for the incorrect answer and the correct moving image.

Abstract: A justification/authentication personal certificate system stores in a remote database a counterpart of an identifier and a digital watermark contained in the personal certificate. The personal certificate includes the digital watermark embedded in an authentic image such as a facial photograph, a retinal scan, or a fingerprint. When the personal certificate is used, the authentic image is read from the personal certificate, and the digital watermark information is extracted. The digital watermark information and the identifier are compared with the counterparts stored in the database. If the extracted digital watermark information is identical to the information in the database, then the personal certificate is judged to be unjustifiable. In one embodiment, at least one of the identifier and digital watermark are changed each time the system justifies the personal certificate.

Abstract: The present invention provides an aqueous curable resin composition which comprises: [A] a resin component containing, as functional groups, a specific aprotic onium salt-containing group, a hydroxyl group, an epoxy group, and a hydrolyzable group directly bound to a silicon atom or a hydroxysilyl group, and [B] a metal chelate compound selected from aluminum chelate compound, zirconium chelate compound and titanium chelate compound. The composition of the present invention is an aqueous composition which has an excellent storage stability and good curability and is capable of giving a cured product having a high water resistance.