1. A tobacco product or article for generating tobacco smoke with reduced amounts of undesirable small molecules, comprising:
a tobacco material; and
a catalyst composition associated with the tobacco material, the catalyst composition comprising:
a plurality of active atoms dispersed to form nanoparticles having a size less than about 100 nm and being capable of reducing the concentration of at least one type of undesirable small molecule in tobacco smoke; and
a dispersing agent comprising at least one functional group selected from the group consisting of a hydroxyl, a carboxyl, a thiol, a sulfonic acid, a sulfonyl halide, a carbonyl, an amine, an amide, an amino acid, an acyl halide and combinations thereof.
2. A tobacco product or article as in claim 1, wherein the nanoparticles catalyze the conversion of CO to CO2 during combustion of the tobacco material.
3. A tobacco product or article as in claim 1, wherein the active atoms are selected from the group consisting of manganese, manganese oxides, iron, iron oxide, platinum, palladium, vanadium oxide, aluminum oxide, silica, titania, yttria, and combinations thereof.
4. A tobacco product or article as in claim 1, wherein the active atoms consist essentially of one or more of iron, iron oxide, and a noble metal.
5. A tobacco product or article as in claim 1, wherein the nanoparticles are attached to a support material.
6. A tobacco product or article as in claim 5, wherein the support material comprises the tobacco material.
7. A tobacco product or article as in claim 5, wherein the support material comprises a plurality of particles selected from the group consisting of carbon black, graphite, silica, alumina, calcium carbonate, zeolites, metal oxides, and polymers.
8. A tobacco product or article as in claim 5, wherein the supported nanoparticles are on or within a cigarette filter adjacent to the tobacco material.
9. A tobacco product or article as in claim 5, wherein the supported nanoparticles are on or in a cigarette paper wrapped around the tobacco material.
10. A tobacco product or article as in claim 5, wherein the dispersing agent is bound to the nanoparticles and to the support material in order to anchor the nanoparticles to the support material.
11. A tobacco product or article as in claim 1, wherein the dispersing agent is selected from the group consisting of small organic acids and polymers.
12. A tobacco product or article as in claim 1, wherein the dispersing agent is selected from the group consisting of glycolic acid, oxalic acid, malic acid, citric acids, pectins, amino acids, celluloses, and combinations thereof.
13. A tobacco product or article as in claim 1, wherein the nanoparticles have a size less than about 20 nm.
14. A tobacco product or article as in claim 1, wherein the nanoparticles have a size less than about 5 nm.
15. A tobacco composition for generating tobacco smoke with reduced undesirable small molecules, comprising:
a tobacco material; and
a catalyst composition mixed with the tobacco material, the catalyst composition comprising,
a plurality of nanoparticles comprising iron and having a size less than about 100 nm, the nanoparticles being capable of reducing the concentration of CO in a tobacco smoke; and
a dispersing agent comprising at least one functional group selected from the group consisting of a hydroxyl, a carboxyl, a thiol, a sulfonic acid, a sulfonyl halide, a carbonyl, an amine, an amide, an amino acid, an acyl halide and combinations thereof; and
wherein the mixture of the catalyst composition and the tobacco material has an iron loading less than about 30% by weight.
16. A tobacco composition as in claim 15, wherein the mixture of the catalyst composition and the tobacco material has an iron loading less than about 15% by weight.
17. A tobacco composition as in claim 15, wherein the mixture of the catalyst composition and the tobacco material has an iron loading less than about 5% by weight.
18. A tobacco composition as in claim 15, the catalyst composition further comprising a noble metal.
19. A method of making a tobacco composition, comprising:
(a) providing a tobacco material that produces hot gasses when combusted or pyrolyzed;
(b) preparing a plurality of catalyst nanoparticles by reacting together:
(i) a plurality of catalyst atoms comprising at least one member selected from the group consisting of noble metals, rare earth metals, base transition metals, and non-metals; and
(ii) a dispersing agent comprising at least one functional group selected from the group consisting of a a hydroxyl, a carboxyl, a thiol, a sulfonic acid, a sulfonyl halide, a carbonyl, an amine, an amide, an amino acid, an acyl halide and combinations thereof; and
(c) mixing the catalyst nanoparticles with the tobacco material such that upon combustion or pyrolysis of the tobacco material, hot gasses generated from the tobacco material come into contact with the catalyst nanoparticles and catalyze the degradation of at least one type of undesirable small molecule.
20. A method as in claim 19, wherein the catalyst atoms comprise iron.
21. A method as in claim 19, wherein the catalyst nanoparticles are chemically bonded to the tobacco material.
22. A method as in claim 19, wherein (b) further comprises reacting the catalyst atoms and dispersing agent in a liquid.
23. A method of reducing the concentration of carbon monoxide or other undesirable small molecules in tobacco smoke, comprising:
providing a tobacco material;
providing a catalyst composition, the catalyst composition comprising:
a plurality of catalyst nanoparticles having a size less than about 100 nm; and
a dispersing agent associated with the catalyst nanoparticles, the dispersing agent comprising at least one functional group selected from the group consisting of a hydroxyl, a carboxyl, a thiol, a sulfonic acid, a sulfonyl halide, a carbonyl, an amine, an amide, an amino acid, an acyl halide and combinations thereof; and
associating the catalyst composition with the tobacco material such that upon combustion or pyrolysis of the tobacco material, the catalyst nanoparticles reduce the percentage of carbon monoxide or nitric oxide in the gasses generated by the combustion or pyrolysis of the tobacco material.
24. A method as in claim 23, wherein the active atoms are selected from the group consisting of manganese, manganese oxides, iron, iron oxide, platinum, palladium, vanadium oxide, aluminum oxide, silica, titania, yttria, and combinations thereof.
25. A method as in claim 23, wherein the catalyst is associated with the tobacco by directly mixing the catalyst with the tobacco material.
26. A method as in claim 23, wherein the catalyst composition is associated with the tobacco material by placing the catalyst composition in or on a filter positioned adjacent to the tobacco material within a cigarette.
27. A method as in claim 23, wherein the catalyst composition is associated with the tobacco material by placing the catalyst composition on or in a cigarette paper that is wrapped around the tobacco material.
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 method for generating images for display on a display device, the method comprising:
applying a filter to an input image;
determining a presence of motion in the input image;
generating an output image by combining the input image and the filtered image proportional to an amount of the motion in the input image; and
generating sub-images from the output image, wherein the sub-images have a lower resolution than the output image.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the output image is down-sampled to form the sub-images.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein a number of the sub-images is dependent upon an arrangement of pixels in the display device.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein each sub-image has a resolution that is less than or equal to a display resolution of the display device.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the presence of motion comprises computing a motion value for each pixel in the input image.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the generating of the output image comprises:
computing a filtered coefficient and an unfiltered coefficient for each pixel in the input image based upon the pixel’s motion value;
multiplying the pixel with the unfiltered coefficient;
multiplying a corresponding pixel in the filtered image with the filtered coefficient; and
combining the results of the multiplyings to produce a pixel in the output image.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the filtered coefficient and the unfiltered coefficient are stored in a look-up table.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the filter is an anti-aliasing filter.
9. A motion adaptive anti-aliasing (MAA) circuit comprising:
a filter coupled to a signal input, the filter configured to eliminate high frequency components in an input signal provided by the signal input;
a motion detect unit coupled to the signal input, the motion detect unit configured to generate a motion value for the input signal;
an output multiplexer coupled to the filter, the motion detect unit, and the signal input, the output multiplexer configured to proportionally combine an output of the filter and the input signal based upon the motion value to generate an output image; and
a sub-frame generation unit coupled to the output multiplexer, the sub-frame generation unit configured to down-sample the output image into a plurality of sub-images, wherein each sub-image has a lower resolution than the output image.
10. The MAA circuit of claim 9, wherein the input signal is a series of input images, wherein the filter, the motion detect unit, and the output multiplexer operate on pixels of information, and wherein for each pixel in an input image, the output multiplexer computes a filtered coefficient and an unfiltered coefficient based upon the pixel’s motion value, and multiplies the pixel with the unfiltered coefficient and multiplies a corresponding filtered pixel with the filtered coefficient and combines the results of the multiplies to produce a pixel in the output image.
11. The MAA circuit of claim 10, wherein the output multiplexer comprises:
a memory to store a filtered coefficient and an unfiltered coefficient for each of a plurality of motion values;
a first multiplier coupled to the memory and the filter, the first multiplier to multiply the corresponding filtered pixel with the filtered coefficient;
a second multiplier coupled to the memory and the signal input, the second multiplier to multiply the pixel with the unfiltered coefficient; and
a combiner coupled to the first multiplier and the second multiplier, the combiner to combine the results of the first multiply and the second multiply.
12. The MAA circuit of claim 11, wherein the filtered coefficients and the unfiltered coefficients are stored in a look-up table that is indexed by the motion value.
13. The MAA circuit of claim 9 wherein the resolution of each sub-image is less-than or equal to a display resolution of a display device coupled to the MAA circuit.
14. The MAA circuit of claim 9 , wherein the filter is an anti-aliasing filter.
15. A display system comprising:
a motion adaptive anti-aliasing (MAA) circuit coupled to a signal input, the MAA circuit configured to produce an output image from an input image provided by the signal input, wherein portions of the output image containing motion are filtered and portions of the output image not containing motion are unfiltered, and configured to down-sample the output image into a plurality of sub-images, wherein each sub-image has a lower resolution than the output image; and
a display device coupled to the MAA circuit, the display device configured to display each sub-image of the plurality of sub-images, wherein the plurality of sub-images are displayed within a single frame time.
16. The display system of claim 15 further comprising a display screen coupled to the display device, the display screen to permit viewing of projected sub-images.
17. The display system of claim 15, wherein the MAA circuit comprises:
a filter coupled to the signal input, the filter configured to eliminate high frequency components in the input image;
a motion detect unit coupled to the signal input, the motion detect unit configured to generate a motion value for the input image;
an output multiplexer coupled to the filter, the motion detect unit, and the signal input, the output multiplexer configured to proportionally combine an output of the filter and the input signal based upon the motion value to produce the output image; and
a sub-frame generation unit coupled to the output multiplexer, the sub-frame generation unit configured to perform the down-sample of the output image into the plurality of sub-images.
18. The display system of claim 15, wherein the display device is a digital micromirror device.
19. The display system of claim 15, wherein the display device uses pixels arranged in a diamond configuration, and wherein each output image is down-sampled into two sub-images.
20. The display system of claim 15, wherein the display device uses pixels arranged in a rectilinear configuration, and wherein each output image is down-sampled into four sub-images.
21. The method of claim 1, wherein the display device has a lower resolution than a resolution of the input image.