1-31. (canceled).
32. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 59, wherein the material on the printing plate has photocatalyst function, and
wherein the whole of the surface of the printing plate is made hydrophilic first by irradiating light having a wavelength activating the photocatalyst function, and then a part of the surface of the printing plate is heated at the second temperature to form a hydrophobic region.
33. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 32, wherein the second temperature is 50 to 250\xb0 C.
34. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 32, wherein the claimed steps are repeated to reuse the printing plate after cleaning the surface thereof to remove ink left after the printing.
35. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 32, wherein the hydrophobic region forming step is performed by one recording means selected from a thermal transfer recording head and a photothermal converting type radiant rays.
36. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 32, wherein the hydrophobic region forming step is performed in an atmosphere in which an organic compound exists.
37. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 36, wherein the organic compound has a vapor pressure of at least 1 mmHg or higher at 400\xb0 C., and is stable at the first temperature.
38. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 36, wherein the organic compound has a boiling point of 30 to 400\xb0 C., and is stable at the first temperature.
39. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 32, wherein the material on the printing plate is constituted by at least one of metal selected from a group consisting of elements belonging to third to sixth period of the periodic table and elements not belonging to group 0 and group VIIA (halogen elements) and a group of oxides of the metal.
40. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 32, wherein the material on the printing plate is constituted by at least one type of metal oxide selected from a group consisting of Ti02, RTi03 (where R is an alkaline earth metal atom), AB2-xCxD3-xExO10 (x is an arbitrary value from 0 to 2), and Sn02, Bi203, Si02, Ge02, Al203, ZnO and FeOx, (x is an arbitrary value from 1 to 1.5), and
wherein A is a hydrogen atom or an alkaline metal atom, B is an alkaline earth metal atom or a lead atom, C is a rare earth atom, D is a metal atom belonging to elements in group 5A of the periodic table, and E is a metal atom belonging to elements in group 4A.
41-45. (canceled).
46. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 59, wherein the material on the printing plate has photocatalyst function, and
wherein the whole of the surface of the printing plate is made hydrophobic first by heating at the second temperature, and then a part of the surface of the printing plate of the printing plate is irradiated by light having a wavelength activating the photocatalyst function to form a hydrophilic region.
47. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 46, wherein the second temperature is 50 to 250\xb0 C.
48. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 46, wherein the claimed steps are repeated to reuse the printing plate after cleaning the surface thereof to remove ink left after the printing.
49. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 46, wherein the hydrophobication step is performed in an atmosphere in which an organic compound exists.
50. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 49, wherein the organic compound has a vapor pressure of at least 1 mmHg or higher at 400\xb0 C., and is stable at the second temperature.
51. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 49, wherein the organic compound has a boiling point of 30 to 400\xb0 C., and is stable at the second temperature.
52. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 46, wherein the material on the printing plate is constituted by at least one of metal selected from a group consisting of elements belonging to third to sixth period of the periodic table and except for elements not belonging to group 0 and group VIIA (halogen elements) and a group of oxides of the metal.
53. The offset printing method as set forth in claim 46, wherein the material on the printing plate is constituted by at least one type of metal oxide selected from a group consisting of Ti02, RTiO3 (where R is an alkaline earth metal atom), AB2-xCxD3-xExO10 (x is an arbitrary value from 0 to 2), and Sn02, Bi203, Si02, Ge02, Al203, ZnO and FeOx (x is an arbitrary value from 1 to 1.5), and
wherein A is a hydrogen atom or an alkaline metal atom, B is an alkaline earth metal atom or a lead atom, C is a rare earth atom, D is a metal atom belonging to elements in group 5A of the periodic table, and E is a metal atom belonging to elements in group 4A.
54-58. (canceled).
59. An offset printing method, comprising the steps of:
preparing a printing plate having a surface converted to hydrophilic due to light energy generated at a first temperature, the surface being converted to hydrophobic due to the heat energy generated at a second temperature;
making forcibly the whole surface of the printing plate either one of hydrophobic or hydrophilic in nature;
forming a region having the other one nature of hydrophobic and hydrophilic on a part of the surface of the printing plate so as to correspond to an image to be printed;
supplying ink onto the region having the hydrophobic nature; and
transferring the ink onto a printing medium to print the image.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A mediator for optimizing the transmission of media contents between a multimedia resource function and a plurality of terminals
when these terminals are conferees in a same video call conference created by a telephony server; comprising\u2014:
means for receiving video content requests from said terminals when they request to take part in said video call conference,
and then forwarding the received video streams to the terminals that have requested them, when a same video stream has been requested by several terminals,
and means for commanding the telephony server to accept conferees in the video call conference, as a function of the video content requests from said terminals, for receiving the video streams that have been requested, from the multimedia resource function;
means for optimizing these requests, in order to avoid requesting any redundant video stream from the multimedia resource function. and then forwarding the optimized requests to the multimedia resource function; and
means for implementing virtual conferees as a function of the video content requests from said terminals, for receiving the video streams that have been requested by the optimized requests, from the multimedia resource function.
2. A gateway for optimizing the transmission of media contents between a multimedia resource function and a plurality of terminals via this gateway, when these terminals are conferees in a same video call conference created by a telephony server; comprising
means for implementing conferees when a same video stream has been requested by several terminals;
wherein said means for implementing conferees implement virtual conferees in the video call conference, these virtual conferees forwarding the received video streams to the terminals that have requested them, in a broadcast way, when a same video stream has been requested by several terminals.
3. A multimedia resource for optimizing the transmission of media contents between this multimedia resource function and a plurality of terminals when these terminals are conferees in a same video call conference created by a telephony server;
comprising:
means for receiving video content requests from said terminals when they request to take part in said video call conference,
and means for commanding the telephony server to accept virtual conferees in the video call conference;
wherein for optimizing these requests, in order to avoid requesting any redundant video stream from the multimedia resource function, said means for commanding the telephony server to accept conferees, comprise
means for commanding the telephony server to accept virtual conferees in the video call conference, these virtual conferees forwarding the received video streams to the terminals that have requested them, in a broadcast way, when a same video stream has been requested by several terminals.