1. A method for obtaining information relating to features of content, the method comprising:
forwarding a plurality of representations, extracted from the content by a client unit, to a server, the representations being a subset of available representations of the content;
forwarding at least one additional representation, extracted from the content by the client unit, to the server in an event of a request by the server; and
obtaining information relating to the features of content from server by the client unit.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, using the client unit, compressing the features of content to produce the plurality of representations.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein compressing the features of content includes compressing the features of content using a lossy compression engine.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein compressing the features of content using a lossy compression engine includes running the lossy compression engine at a predetermined compression rate.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the predetermined compression rate is user-determined or determined based on a negotiation between client unit and the server.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein forwarding the plurality of representations and forwarding the at least one additional representation from the client unit utilize a bandwidth-limited link to the server.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprising, using the client unit, extracting the plurality of representations from at least one of an image, text, video stream, or audio stream.
8. The method of claim 1 further comprising, using the client unit:
classifying the content into one or more groups of representations; and
extracting at least one representative representation describing each group of representations.
9. The method of claim 1 further comprising reporting the information from the client unit to a module that makes use of the information.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein forwarding the at least one additional representation includes forwarding refinement information for the server to use in obtaining information relating to the features of content.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein the refinement information represents a difference between the plurality of representations extracted from the content and the available representations of the content.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining the information relating to the features of content includes obtaining an estimated representation of the content by the client unit from the server.
13. An apparatus for obtaining information relating to features of content, the apparatus comprising:
an extraction module configured to extract a plurality of representations from the content and forward the plurality of representations to a server, the representations being a subset of available representations of the content, extract at least one additional representation, and forward the at least one additional representation to the server in an event of a request by the server; and
an information module configured to obtain information relating to the features of content from server.
14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the information of the content includes information about text found within the content.
15. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising a compression module configured to compress the features of the image to produce the representations at the initial and successive levels of granularity.
16. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising a lossy compression engine to compress the features of the image.
17. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the client unit and the server are in operative communication via a bandwidth-limited link.
18. A method for providing information relating to features of content, the method comprising:
obtaining, by a server, a plurality of representations, extracted by a client unit of the content, the representations being a subset of available representations of the content;
determining information relating to the features of content, using the server, and, in an event a sufficient number of representations describing the features of content is not available, obtaining, by the server, at least one additional representation extracted from the content from the client unit; and
reporting, by the server, the information relating to the features of content to the client unit.
19. The method of claim 18 wherein the plurality of representations obtained from the client unit by the server include representations of at least one of an image, text, video stream, an audio stream.
20. The method of claim 18 further including, by the server, obtaining the plurality of representations and the at least one additional representation via a bandwidth limited link from the client unit.
21-45. (canceled)
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 transparent plastic foil with improved weathering resistance and increased intrinsic stability, comprising
a) poly(meth)acrylate and polyvinylidene fluoride in a ratio of from 1:0.01 to 1:0.5 (ww); and
b) a mixture composed of UV stabilizers and of UV absorbers.
2. The foil according to claim 1, wherein
the foil is a single-layer foil.
3. The foil according to claim 1, wherein
the foil is a multilayer foil.
4. The foil according to claim 3, wherein
the foil comprises at least two sublayers, of which at least one comprises poly(meth)acrylate and at least one other comprises polyvinylidene fluoride.
5. The foil according to claim 4, wherein
the foil comprises two sublayers, of which one is a poly(methyl) methacrylate layer and the other is a polyvinylidene fluoride layer.
6. The foil according to claim 3, wherein the foil has been coextruded.
7. The foil according to claim 1, wherein a transparency of the foil is greater than 91.5%.
8. The foil according to claim 1, wherein
a weight-average molar mass MM of the poly(meth)acrylate a) is at least 80,000 gmol, determined by of gel permeation chromatography against PMMA calibration standards.
9. The foil according to claim 8, wherein
the weight-average molar mass MM of the poly(meth)acrylate a) is at least 120,000 gmol, determined by gel permeation chromatography against PMMA calibration standards.
10. The foil according to claim 9, wherein
the weight-average molar mass MM of the poly(meth)acrylate a) is at least 150,000 gmol, determined by gel permeation chromatography against PMMA calibration standards.
11. The foil according to claim 1, wherein
a weight-average molar mass MM of the poly(meth)acrylate a) is in the range from 80,000 gmol to 180 000 gmol, determined by gel permeation chromatography against PMMA calibration standards.
12. The foil according to claim 1, wherein
the poly(meth)acrylate a) is obtained by polymerization of a composition whose polymerizable constituents comprise:
a) from greater than 50% by weight to 99.9% by weight of methyl methacrylate,
b) from 0.1% by weight to less than 50% by weight of an acrylate having an ester radical of a C1-C4 alcohol, and
c) from 0% by weight to 10% by weight of monomers copolymerizable with the monomers a) and b)
13. The foil according to claim 1, wherein
the poly(meth)acrylate a) is obtained by polymerization of a composition comprising:
a) from 88% by weight to 92% by weight of methyl methacrylate,
b) from 8% by weight to 12% by weight of an acrylate having an ester radical deriving from a C1-C4 alcohol, and
c) from 0% by weight to 10% by weight of monomers copolymerizable with the monomers a) and b).
14. The foil according to claim 1, wherein
the poly(meth)acrylate comprises an impact modifier, and the poly(meth)acrylate is impact resistant.
15. The foil according to claim 1, wherein
an amount of the impact modifier is from 1% to 50% by weight, based on the total weight of the poly(meth)acrylate and the impact modifier.
16. The foil according to claim 14, wherein
the poly(meth)acrylate and the impact modifier are in the form of a core-shell polymer, where the shell forms a matrix comprising the polymer in the foil.
17. The foil according to claim 1, wherein
the mixture of UV stabilizers and of UV absorbers comprises:
from 0.1% by weight to 10% by weight of a benzotriazole UV absorber; and
from 0.0% by weight to 5% by weight of a hindered amine light stabilizer (HALS) compound.
18. The foil according to claim 17, wherein
the % weight of the benzotriazole UV absorber is from 0.2% to 6% by weight, and
the % weight of the HALS compound is from 0.1% to 3% by weight.
19. The foil according to claim 18, wherein
the % weight of the benzotriazole UV absorber is from 0.5% to 4% by weight,
and
the % weight of the HALS compound is from 0.2% to 2% by weight.
20. The foil according to claim 1, wherein a thickness of the foil is from 10 to 200 \u03bcm.
21. A process for the production of a plastic transparent foil having increased weathering resistance and improved intrinsic stability, the process comprising:
molding a foil in a chill-roll process from a composition which comprises:
a) poly(meth)acrylate and polyvinylidene fluoride in a ratio of from 1:0.01 to 1:0.5 (ww);
and
b) a mixture comprising a UV stabilizer and a UV absorber.
22. A process for the production of a transparent plastic multi-sublayer foil with increased weathering resistance and improved intrinsic stability, the process comprising:
coextruding or laminating to one another a poly(meth)acrylate foil and a polyvinylidene fluoride foil, wherein at least one of the foils comprises a mixture comprising a UV stabilizer and a UV absorber, or wherein one of the foils comprises at least one UV stabilizer and the other foil comprises at least one UV absorber, and wherein a ww ratio of the poly(meth)acrylate to the polyvinylidene fluoride from 1:0.01 to 1:0.5 (ww).
23. A protected plastics mouldings comprising the foil according to claim 1 on a plastic substrate to be protected.
24. The coating according to claim 23, wherein the plastic substrate comprises polyvinyl chloride.
25. A design of a high-specification, durable surface finish for substrate materials comprising the foil according to claim 1.
26. The protected moulding according to claim 23, wherein the foil is applied to the substrate by coextrusion.
27. The protected moulding according to claim 23, wherein the foil is applied to the substrate by lamination.
28. The protected moulding according to claim 23, wherein the foil is applied to the substrate by extrusion coating.