A plastic ball grid array semiconductor package employs a metal heat spreader having supporting arms embedded in the molding cap, in which the embedded supporting arms are not directly affixed to the substrate or in which any supporting arm that is affixed to the substrate is affixed using a resilient material such as an elastomeric adhesive. Also, a process for forming the package includes steps ...

An effects module including an elongated body. An image processor within the body applies one or more effects (such as borders, clip art, etc.) to a stored image. A connector is incorporated into one end of the body for connecting the effects module to a bus that provides power and data between the effects module and the stored image. A second connector is incorporated into the other end of the bo...

Content is streamed from a providing device to a receiving device, where the content is successively buffered in a receiving buffer, and then successively removed for processing. Periodically, the likelihood of the receiving buffer becoming empty or reaching an unacceptable low threshold is assessed, and the streaming rate is adapted based on the result of the determination. In one embodiment, a p...

A circuit and method are contemplated herein for improving instruction fetch time by determining mapping information prior to storage of the mapping information in a lower-level memory device. In one embodiment, the circuit and method are adapted to format and align the prefetched instructions into predecoded instructions, and determine mapping information relating the prefetched instructions to t...

A system and method for automatically reallocating resources among partitions based on factors including relative resource pain rates and user assigned priority. A tuner executes several tasks, including determining relative memory pain rates for partitions and allocating memory among partitions so that future relative memory pain rates obtained after the allocation will be more evenly distributed...

In an apparatus, menu items are displayed on a screen, and when a predetermined menu item is selected, a function corresponding to the selected menu item is executed. The menu item displaying method comprises the steps of determining whether a function corresponding to a menu item displayed on the screen can be executed, and when it is determined that the function cannot be executed, disabling the...

The invention enables and/or facilitates the display of personalized content to content observers by content providers (e.g., advertisers) who disseminate content over a network. The invention enables identification of particular content observers at a content display site using analysis of content observation behavior at a content display site, data regarding one or more physical characteristics ...

Broadcast information is classified in categories to facilitate user selection and filtration of the broadcast information which is processed for presentation to the user. The broadcast information is transmitted in the form of a meta frame and one or more category frames which are repeated in a continuous cycle. Meta frames and category frames are distinguished and identified by major and minor c...

The circuit has power MOSFETs (PM 12, PM 14, NM22, NM24), each with a current sensor to detect an over-current condition in a bridge. The MOSFETs transmits signals taken to a logic driver circuit (14) that removes an amplifier input circuit when the logic driver circuit indicates that an over-current condition is present. Current through the monitoring MOSFETs is transmitted through a speaker (20)...

A self-contained liquefied gas supply system has a tank for storing a liquefied gas, a primary pump for delivering the liquefied gas from the tank, a secondary pump for pressurizing the liquefied gas delivered from the primary pump, a vaporizer for vaporizing the liquefied gas discharged from the secondary pump into a vaporized gas, an expander for actuating the secondary pump with the vaporized g...

An apparatus and method for collecting and transporting concrete waste includes a container, a cart for supporting and moving the container and a mechanism attached to the frame of a cement truck for lifting the cart and container off the ground for transport. The apparatus may be stored on a cement truck so that the apparatus prevents disposal of cement and concrete waste in an unlawful or unsigh...

Provided is a tire air pressure monitoring system in which identification ("ID") registration is automatically made while specifying a tire position to reduce the manpower of the registration operation and further to prevent mistaken registration. In this system, when an ignition switch is changed from an OFF state to an ON state to satisfy a tire position detection condition, a command is issued ...

A multi-mode electromagnetic target discrimination sensor system for transmitting an electromagnetic signal and receiving a reflected signal from at least one target is disclosed having a variable inductance antenna having a variable inductance transmitter and a variable inductance receiver for varying at least one of operating bandwidth, sensitivity and size of the antenna, a processor for altern...

A monitoring system for an infant, child, invalid, or other person requiring care uses computer vision and hearing, and inputs of other modalities, to analyze the status of a caretaker and/or cared-for person and its environment. The conditions are classified as normal or alarm conditions and an informative alarm signal is generated which may include records of the vision audio and other inputs. T...

Methods and systems for providing distributed functionality to a plurality of clients comprise the use of more provider servers which publish function objects to clients upon request. Each function object corresponds to a function that is supported by the provider server or a connected downstream provider server. Group definition can also be published by the provider server. The client software is...

The present invention relates to a method for producing a synthetic fiber for use in an artificial grass sports field, including the steps of supplying a layer of synthetic material; and obtaining the synthetic fiber from the layer of synthetic material, wherein the layer of synthetic material comprises at least two layers of different synthetic materials, using a co-extrusion process. The inventi...

The apparatus has an extraction unit to extract high and low frequency signals from an image signal. A temporary weight value calculation unit (220) calculates a predetermined value based on luminance level of the image signal. A decision unit (240) determines high-frequency signals involved in gamma correction based on calculated value. A gamma correction unit applies the correction to the signal...

The invention relates to a catheter. This catheter comprises a tube-like basic body with a proximal end and a distal end, a connecting member arranged at the proximal end and an electrode array carried at the distal end. The electrode array is plate-like and arranged on a pliable carrier which can be moved between a folded state and an unfolded state transversely to the catheter. Folding means hav...

A coding apparatus includes: a context generator generating a context signal from a reconstructed symbol, a predictor generating a prediction signal indicating a prediction value which is a prediction of a symbol to be coded, based on the context signal, and a prediction error signal which is a difference between the prediction value and the symbol; a quantizer generating a quantized prediction er...