1. A gravity driven valve switch, comprising:
an acted component, which defines an internal receiving space having a bottom forming a through hole;
an acting component, which is received in the acted component; and
a driving component, which is arranged below the acted component in a movable manner and forms at least one through hole;
characterized in that:
the acting component forms a coupling portion and the driving component forms a connection section that is received through the through hole of the acted component whereby the coupling portion and the connection section are engageable with each other to allow for easy coupling and separation of the acting component and the driving component and whereby the driving component provides a weight that, together with a gravitational force acting on the acting component, drives the acting component downward to precisely and tightly seal the through hole of the acted component or the driving component, when acted upon by a pushing force, drives the acting component upward to completely open the through hole of the acted component; and
the acted component has a lower circumference forming a flange that has a diameter greater than the driving component in order to protect the driving component from being contacted by an external force to ensure protection and safety.
2. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 1, wherein the through hole of the acted component receives therein a sleeve that is made of a resilient material and defines a bore and wherein the bore has an upper circumference along which a contact wall is formed to provide a tight engagement with the acting component.
3. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 2, wherein a circumferential projection is formed around the through hole of the acted component and wherein the sleeve forms a retention slot and a retention ring, the retention slot being fit over the projection and the sleeve being securely retained inside the through hole of the acted component by the retention ring engaging a counterpart portion of the acted component.
4. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 2, wherein a groove is formed in and adjacent to the contact wall of the sleeve.
5. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 1, wherein the through hole of the driving component is provided with a plurality of ribs that intersect at a central portion having a bottom forming a cone.
6. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 1, wherein the acted component forms on an underside thereof a support in which a plurality of slide slots 151 is defined and wherein the driving component forms a plurality of pegs corresponding to the slide slots, whereby the pegs are received in the slide slots so that the pegs are movable up and down inside the slide slots to thereby make the driving component movable up and down under the acted component.
7. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 1, wherein the connection section forms a step that provides a stop for fitting the acting component.
8. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 1, wherein one of the coupling portion of the acting component and the connection section of the driving component is in the form of a hole and the other is in the form of a bar to allow for fitting connection between the coupling portion and the connection section.
9. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 8, wherein one of the hole and the bar forms a projecting portion, while the other forms a recessed portion for forming fitting connection therebetween.
10. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 1, wherein the coupling portion of the acting component and the connection section of the driving component are threadingly coupled to each other through threaded structures.
11. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 1, wherein one of the coupling portion of the acting component and the connection section of the driving component is in the form of a barbed bar, while the other is made a hole of a shape corresponding to the barbed bar to allow for a fitting connection between the acting component and the driving component.
12. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 1 further comprising a fastener penetrating through the coupling portion of the acting component and the connection section of the driving component.
13. The gravity driven valve switch according to claim 1, wherein one of the coupling portion of the acting component and the connection section of the driving component is in the form of a multi-bladed bar, while the other is made a hole of a shape corresponding to the multi-bladed bar to allow for a fitting connection between the acting component and the driving component.
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. Method for introducing information into a data stream comprising data about spectral values representing a short-term spectrum of an audio signal, the method comprising:
processing the data stream to obtain the spectral values of the short-term spectrum of the audio signal;
combining the information with a spread sequence to obtain a spread information signal;
generating a spectral representation of the spread information signal to obtain a spectral spread information signal;
establishing psychoacoustic maskable noise energy as a function of frequency for the short-term spectrum of the audio signal, the psychoacoustic maskable noise energy being variable over frequency, wherein the psychoacoustic maskable noise energy is smaller or the same as the psychoacoustic masking threshold of the short-term spectrum;
weighting the spectral spread information signal by using the established psychoacoustic maskable noise energy being varying over frequency to generate a weighted information signal, wherein the energy of the introduced information is varying over frequency and is substantially equal to or below the psychoacoustic masking threshold;
summing the weighted information signal with the spectral values of the short-term spectrum of the audio signal to obtain sum spectral values comprising the short-term spectrum of the audio signal and the information; and
processing the sum spectral values to obtain a processed data stream comprising the data about the spectral values of the short-term spectrum of the audio signal and the information to be introduced,
wherein the processing the data stream, the combining, the generating, the establishing, the weighting, processing the sum spectral values or the summing is performed using a processor.
2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the data stream comprises quantized spectral values as data about spectral values, the step of processing the data stream comprising the following sub-step:
inverse quantizing the quantized spectral values to obtain the spectral values; and
with the step of processing the summed spectral values comprising:
quantizing the summed spectral values to obtain quantized summed spectral values; and
forming the processed data stream using the quantized summed spectral values.
3. Method according to claim 2 wherein the quantized spectral values in the data stream are entropy-encoded, with the step of processing the data stream comprising the following sub-step:
entropy-decoding the entropy-encoded spectral values to obtain the quantized spectral values; and
the step of processing the summed spectral values comprising:
entropy-encoding the quantized summed spectral values.
4. Method according to claim 1, wherein the step of establishing the psychoacoustic maskable noise energy comprises:
computing the psychoacoustic masking threshold as a function of frequency using a psychoacoustic model, which is based on the spectral values of the audio signal.
5. Method according to claim 1, wherein the data stream further comprises side information comprising scale factors by which the spectral values will be multiplied in groups in an audio encoder prior to quantizing, the step of processing the data stream further comprising the following sub-step:
extracting the scale factors from the data stream; and
the step of establishing comprising:
computing the noise energy introduced into the audio encoder when quantizing as a function of frequency by using the scale factors for the short-term spectrum and by using the spectral values as well as knowing a quantizer used in the audio encoder, the introduced noise energy being a measure for the psychoacoustic maskable noise energy used in weighting.
6. Method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of processing the sum spectral values, the same quantizing step sizes as in the original data stream are used.
7. Apparatus for introducing information into a data stream comprising data about spectral values representing a short-term spectrum of an audio signal, the apparatus comprising:
a processor for processing the data stream to obtain the spectral values of the short-term spectrum of the audio signal;
a combiner for combining the information with a spread sequence to obtain a spread information signal;
a generator for generating a spectral representation of the spread information signal to obtain a spectral spread information signal;
an establisher for establishing psychoacoustic maskable noise energy as a function of frequency for the short-term spectrum of the audio signal, the psychoacoustic maskable noise energy being variable over frequency, wherein the psychoacoustic maskable noise energy is smaller than or the same as the psychoacoustic masking threshold of the short-term spectrum;
a weighter for weighting the spectral spread information signal by using the established psychoacoustic maskable noise energy being varying over frequency to generate a weighted information signal, wherein the energy of the introduced information is varying over frequency and is substantially equal to or below the psychoacoustic masking threshold;
a summer for summing the weighted information signal with the spectral values of the short-term spectrum of the audio signal to obtain spectral values comprising the short-term spectrum of the audio signal and the information; and
another processor for processing the summed spectral values to obtain a processed data stream comprising the data about the spectral values of the short-term spectrum of the audio signal and the information to be introduced.