Author: claimsbot

1. A method for enhancing the front sound image from a listening position during reproduction in a listening space of a stereo sound program, comprising the steps of:
receiving left and right channels of the stereo sound program;
generating a virtual center channel signal from the left and right channels of the stereo sound program;
driving a physical center channel speaker with the virtual center channel signal; and
producing a virtual sound source at a central location in a front portion of the listening space dispose between the physical center channel speaker and a listener position, said virtual sound source produced by a combination of physical left and right speakers disposed proximate the right and left ears of a listener a d the physical center channel speaker.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating comprises the steps of:
processing the left and right channels of the stereo sound program in first and second networks respectively, while substantially maintaining the original overall bandwidth in each left and right channel and providing first left and right output signals each having an output level substantially corresponding to the respective original left and right channel signal levels;
blending the processed first left and right output signals to provide the virtual center channel signal; and
conditioning the virtual center channel signal for driving the center channel loudspeaker.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of processing further comprises the step of:
redistributing the spectral content of each left and right input channel within the audible range of frequencies.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of redistributing the spectral content of each respective channel comprises the steps of:
applying the respective signal to the input of a comb filter network having a defined phase shift characteristic; and
coupling each respective comb filtered output to an input of the blending network.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of applying comprises the step of:
defining the phase shift characteristic for the comb filter at zero degrees.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of blending comprises the step of:
summing the processed left and right channel signals.
7. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of conditioning comprises the step of:
controlling the level of the blended signal in an amplifying circuit having an adjustable gain.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
processing the left and right input channels of the stereo sound program in first and second head related transfer function (HRTF) networks for each respective channel to provide second left and right output signals; and
transmitting the second left and right output signals to respective left and right inputs to a localized speaker system configured as a headset for playback.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of processing further comprises the step of:
redistributing the spectral content of each left and right input channel within the audible range of frequencies.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of redistributing comprises the step of:
applying the respective signal to the input of a comb filter network having a defined phase shift characteristic.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of applying comprises the step of:
defining the phase shift characteristic for the comb filter at ninety degrees.
12. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of processing comprises the step of:
providing each of the second left and right output signals from the first and second HRTF networks in the form of an unshadowed, nearest ear component signal and a shadowed, farthest ear component signal.
13. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of transmitting comprises the step of:
coupling the second left and right output signals via a wireless link.
14. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of transmitting comprises the step of:
coupling the second left and right output signals via a conducting link.
15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the steps of:
processing each left and right input channel of the stereo signal in first and second head related transfer function (HRTF) networks for each respective channel to provide second left and right output signals; and
transmitting the second left and right output signals to respective left and right inputs to a localized speaker system configured as a headset for playback.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of processing further comprises the step of:
redistributing the spectral content of each left and right input channel within the audible range of frequencies.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of redistributing comprises the step of:
applying the respective signal to the input of a comb filter network having a defined phase shift characteristic.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of applying comprises the step of:
defining the phase shift characteristic for the comb filter at ninety degrees.
19. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of processing comprises the step of:
providing each of the second left and right output signals from the first and second HRTF networks in the form of an unshadowed, nearest ear component signal and a shadowed, farthest ear component signal.
20. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of transmitting comprises the step of:
coupling the first end second pairs of output signals via a wireless link.
21. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of transmitting comprises the step of:
coupling the first and second pairs of output signals via a conducting link.
22. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of transmitting further comprises:
placing left and right, rearward-facing loudspeakers substantially in the plane of the zygomatic arch of a listener and proximate a respective left and right ear of the listener.
23. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of producing a virtual sound source further comprises:
listening to the stereo sound program being reproduced via front left, front center and front right loudspeakers and a localized speaker system.
24. A method for enhancing the sound field image from a listening position during reproduction of multi-channel sound, comprising the steps of:
receiving left and right channels of the stereo sound program;
generating a virtual center channel signal from the left and right channels of the stereo sound program;
driving a physical center channel speaker with the virtual center channel signal;
producing a virtual sound source at a central location in a front portion of the listening space dispose between the physical center channel speaker and the listener position;
and feeding respective left and right binauralized output signals resulting from processing the left and right channels of the stereo sound program in a binauralizer to respective left and right localized loudspeakers positioned in rearward-facing orientation in the plane of the zygomatic arch proximate each respective left and right ear of a listener, such left and right binauralized output signals from the left and right localized loudspeakers in combination with the output of the center channel speaker providing the virtual sound source.
25. The method of claim 24, wherein the step of generating comprises the steps of:
processing the left and right channels of the stereo sound program in first and second networks respectively, while substantially maintaining the original overall bandwidth in each left and right channel and providing first left and right output signals each having an output level substantially corresponding to the respective original left and right channel signal levels;
blending the processed first left and right output signals to provide the virtual center channel signal; and
conditioning the virtual center channel signal for driving the center channel loudspeaker.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of processing further comprises the step of:
redistributing the spectral content of each left and right input channel within the audible range of frequencies.
27. The method of claim 26, wherein the step of redistributing the spectral content of each respective channel comprises the steps of:
applying the respective signal to the input of a comb filter network having a defined phase shift characteristic; and
coupling each respective comb filtered output to an input of the blending network.
28. The method of claim 27, wherein the step of applying comprises the step of:
defining the phase shift characteristic for the comb filter at zero degrees.
29. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of blending comprises the step of:
summing the processed left and right channel signals.
30. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of conditioning comprises the step of:
controlling the level of the blended signal in an amplifying circuit having an adjustable gain.
31. The method of claim 24, wherein the step of producing a virtual sound source further comprises:
listening to the stereo sound program being reproduced via front left, front center and front right loudspeakers and a localized speaker system.

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 creating thin clones of a virtual machine (VM) using the VM’s associated storage system to copy and deduplicate storage for the thinly cloned VMs, comprising:
creating a base VM in a directory of a storage container attached to a hypervisor;
mapping the storage container to a volume on a storage system;
copying files associated to the base VM into one or more desired locations within the storage container using a snapshot of the respective files associated to the base VM, comprising:
creating metadata that identifies physical storage locations of the files associated to the base VM; and
copying the metadata to the one or more desired locations within the storage container;

customizing the one or more cloned VMs by modifying the respective one or more VMs’ parameters; and
registering the one or more cloned VMs within the hypervisor.
2. The method of claim 1, comprising:
determining whether the base VM is valid within the hypervisor context; and
determining whether the base VM comprises desired configuration data.
3. The method of claim 1, comprising determining that VM cloning is completed comprising checking a clone’s identification returned from respective clone start invoke operations.
4. The method of claim 1, comprising mapping the storage container having one or more VMs to a volume on the storage system using a snapshot of the storage container.
5. The method of claim 4, comprising:
creating storage container metadata that acts as a reference pointer to physical storage locations of file associated to the storage container; and
copying the storage container metadata to one or more locations within the volume on the storage system.
6. The method of claim 4, comprising presenting a cloned mapped storage container to the hypervisor.
7. The method of claim 6, comprising at least one of:
for network attached storage (NAS) devices, provisioning the presenting of a newly mapped storage container to the hypervisor as one of:
a \u201cNetwork File System\u201d (NFS) export; and
a \u201cCommon Internet File System\u201d (CIFS) share; and

for storage area network (SAN) devices, brining one or more block-based objects in the storage container online and mapping them to the hypervisor.
8. The method of claim 4, comprising performing discovery of a clone mapped storage container in the hypervisor environment.
9. The method of claim 1, for storage containers comprising block-based hypervisor objects, copying respective files comprising specifying a range of blocks within the storage container to be copied simultaneously.
10. The method of claim 9, for storage area network (SAN) devices, presenting of a newly mapped storage container to the hypervisor comprising mapping the block-based objects to the hypervisor.
11. The method of claim 1, customizing the one or more cloned VMs comprising:
remotely accessing a hypervisor environment;
issuing one or more commands to query one or more of a cloned VM’s parameters; and
modifying one or more VM parameters.
12. The method of claim 11, customizing the one or more cloned VMs utilizing one or more application programming interfaces (APIs).
13. A system for creating thin clones of a virtual machine (VM) using the VM’s associated storage system to copy and deduplicate storage for the thinly cloned VMs, comprising:
a base VM component in a directory of a storage container attached to a hypervisor;
a mapping component configured to map the storage container to a volume on a storage system;
a physical storage metadata generator component configured to generate metadata identifying a location of files associated to the base VM in physical storage;
a metadata copier component configured to copy metadata identifying a location of files associated to the base VM in physical storage to a new location within the storage container;
a cloned VM customization component configured to utilize one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) to customize one or more cloned VMs’ parameters; and
a cloned VM registration component configured to register the one or more cloned VMs within the hypervisor,
where one or more of the components are executed by a processor.
14. The system of claim 13, comprising a base VM validator configured to determine whether the base VM comprises desired configuration data.
15. The system of claim 13, comprising a storage container cloning component configured to map the storage container having one or more VMs to a volume on the storage system using a snapshot of the storage container, the storage container cloning component comprising:
a storage container metadata generator configured to generate metadata identifying a location of files associated to the storage container;
a metadata copier configured to copy metadata identifying a location of files associated to the storage container to one or more locations within the volume on the storage system.
16. The system of claim 15, comprising a storage container presentation component configured to present a cloned mapped storage container to the hypervisor.
17. The system of claim 15, comprising a storage container discovery component configured to discover a cloned mapped storage container in a hypervisor environment.
18. The system of claim 13, the cloned VM customization component comprising:
a hypervisor accessing component configured to remotely access the hypervisor environment;
a VM querying component configured to issue commands to query one or more of a cloned VM’s parameters; and
a VM parameter modification component configured to modify one or more VM parameters.
19. A computer program product for creating thin clones of a virtual machine (VM) using the VM’s associated storage system to copy and deduplicate storage for the thinly cloned VMs, comprising:
computer code that creates a base VM in a directory of a storage container attached to a hypervisor;
computer code that copies respective files associated to the base VM into one or more new locations within the storage container using a snapshot of the respective files associated to the base VM, comprising:
creating metadata that acts as a reference pointer to physical storage locations of the files associated to the base VM; and
copying the metadata to the one or more new locations within the storage container;

computer code that customizes the one or more cloned VMs by modifying the respective one or more VMs’ parameters;
computer code that registers the one or more cloned VMs within the hypervisor; and
a computer readable medium that stores the computer codes.
20. A method for creating a plurality of customized thin clones of a base virtual machine (VM) using the VM’s associated storage system to copy and deduplicate storage of the plurality of cloned VMs, comprising:
determining whether the base VM comprises appropriate configuration information and data for a hypervisor context utilized in the storage system;
determining a storage volume location of the base VM;
creating base VM metadata that identifies physical storage locations of the files associated to the base VM;
copying the base VM metadata to one or more desired VM clone locations within the storage volume;
creating base VM clones at the desired locations in the storage volume that utilize the files associated to the base VM through the copied metadata;
customizing the one or more cloned VMs by modifying the respective one or more VMs’ parameters; and
registering the one or more cloned VMs within the hypervisor.
21. The method of claim 20, comprising determining that VM cloning is completed comprising checking a clone’s identification returned from respective clone start invoke operations.
22. The method of claim 20, comprising mapping the storage volume having one or more VMs to a storage container on the storage system using a snapshot of the storage volume.
23. The method of claim 22, comprising:
creating storage volume metadata that acts as a reference pointer to physical storage locations of file associated to the storage volume; and
copying the storage container metadata to one or more locations within the container on the storage system.
24. The method of claim 22, comprising presenting a cloned mapped storage volume to the hypervisor.
25. The method of claim 24, comprising at least one of:
for network attached storage (NAS) devices, provisioning the presenting of a newly mapped storage volume to the hypervisor as one of:
a \u201cNetwork File System\u201d (NFS) export; and
a \u201cCommon Internet File System\u201d (CIFS) share; and

for storage area network (SAN) devices, brining one or more block-based objects in the storage volume online and mapping them to the hypervisor.
26. The method of claim 22, comprising performing discovery of a clone mapped storage volume in the hypervisor environment.
27. The method of claim 20, for storage volumes comprising block-based hypervisor objects, copying respective files comprising specifying a range of blocks within the storage volume to be copied simultaneously.
28. The method of claim 27, for storage area network (SAN) devices, presenting of a newly mapped storage volume to the hypervisor comprising mapping the block-based objects to the hypervisor.
29. The method of claim 20, customizing the one or more cloned VMs comprising:
remotely accessing a hypervisor environment;
issuing one or more commands to query one or more of a cloned VM’s parameters; and
modifying one or more VM parameters.

1. A system that simplifies the creation of user-defined custom elements for use in a graphical modeling application comprising:
a graphical modeling application configured to graphically facilitate a creation of a semantic model utilizing a plurality of static graphical elements and a plurality of semantic data elements; and
a custom element definition tool configured to facilitate a creation of a user-defined custom element within the graphical modeling application, wherein the user-defined custom element comprises at least one of at least one static graphical element and at least one semantic data element.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the custom element definition tool generates at least one custom element definition file during the creation of the user-defined custom element, wherein the at least one custom element definition file is stored in a storage location local to and accessible by the graphical modeling application.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein, after a transference of the at least one custom element definition file from an originating device to a secondary device, the user-defined custom element is usable by an instance of the graphical modeling application operating on the secondary device.
4. The system of claim 2, wherein a deletion of the user-defined custom element within the graphical modeling application deletes the at least one custom element definition file.
5. The system of claim 2, wherein, when the user-defined custom element is defined by a plurality of custom element definition files, the plurality of custom element definition files comprises at least one of a template file containing references to the at least one static graphical element contained in the user-defined custom element and a display file.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one semantic data element comprises at least one of a relationship type of the at least one static graphical element, a requirement of the at least one static graphical element, a metadata value of the at least one static graphical element, and a property of the at least one static graphical element, and, wherein the at least one semantic data element represents a complex relationship between at least two static graphical elements.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the user-defined custom element created by the custom element definition tool is accessible within a user interface of the graphical modeling application.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the user-defined custom element defines a static graphical element absent from the plurality of static graphical elements available in the graphical modeling application.
9. A method for simplifying the creation of user-defined custom elements for use in a graphical modeling application comprising:
capturing compositional data and semantic data related to at least one user-selected static graphical element of a semantic model within a graphical modeling application;
storing the captured compositional data and semantic data as a user-defined custom element within at least one custom element definition file in a user-specified location, wherein the user-specified location is local to and accessible by the graphical modeling application; and
automatically registering the user-defined custom element with the graphical modeling application, wherein the user-defined custom element is made accessible from within the graphical modeling application.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the capturing step further comprises:
receiving a plurality of user-configurable data items that identify the user-defined custom element.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of user-configurable data items comprise at least one of an identifier for the user-defined custom element, a textual description of the user-defined custom element, an icon to graphically represent the user-defined custom element, and a storage location for the user-defined custom element.
12. The method of claim 9, wherein the semantic data comprises at least one of a relationship type of the at least one static graphical element, a requirement of the at least one static graphical element, a metadata value of the at least one static graphical element, and a property of the at least one static graphical element.
13. The method of claim 9, wherein, when the user-defined custom element is stored as a plurality of custom element definition files, the plurality of custom element definition files comprises at least one of a template file containing the captured compositional and semantic data and a display file.
14. The method of claim 9, wherein the registering step utilizes an application programming interface (API) of the graphical modeling application.
15. The method of claim 9, wherein said steps of claim 9 are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program stored in a computer readable media, said computer programming having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.
16. A method for sharing user-defined custom elements for use in a graphical modeling application comprising:
creating a user-defined custom element using a custom element definition tool within a graphical modeling interface, wherein the user-defined custom element comprises at least one of at least one static graphical element and at least one semantic data element, and, wherein the user-defined custom element is contained within at least one custom element definition file; and
distributing a copy of the at least one custom element definition file to a plurality of users of the graphical modeling application.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the distributing step further comprises:
storing the copy of the at least one custom element definition file within a version control system (VCS).
18. The method of claim 17, wherein a listening mechanism associated with the VCS synchronizes the stored copy of the at least one custom element definition file with the copy provided to the plurality of users.
19. The method of claim 16, wherein, when the user-defined custom element is stored as a plurality of custom element definition files, the plurality of custom element definition files comprises at least one of a template file and a display file.
20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:
storing the provided copy of the at least one custom element definition file at a specified path within a local data store; and
the plurality of users independently accessing the user-defined custom element within the graphical modeling application.

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 of forming an isolation film in a semiconductor device comprising:
sequentially forming a pad oxide film and a pad nitride film on a semiconductor substrate;
removing the pad nitride film and the pad oxide film in an isolation region so that tapered, inwardly extending protrusions of a tail profile are formed from the pad nitride and pad oxide films at top corners of the isolation region;
etching the semiconductor substrate in the isolation region, while using the protrusions of the pad nitride and pad oxide films as an anti-etch film, to form a trench the top corners of which are made rounded; and
filling the trench with an insulating material and then removing remaining portions of the pad nitride film and the pad oxide film on the semiconductor substrate to form an isolation film.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the protrusions are formed by implementing an over-etch process using a CHF3 gas during 1\u02dc10% of time taken to remove the pad nitride film after the pad nitride film in the isolation region is removed.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the protrusions are formed by implementing an etch process with a high selectivity ratio to oxide in the etch process for removing the pad nitride film and the pad oxide film.
4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the etch process is implemented using a CF4 gas and a CHF3 gas as an etch gas and wherein the CHF3 gas is more supplied than the CF4 gas so that the selectivity ratio to oxide is increased.
5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the supply ratio of the CHF3 gas and the CF4 gas is 2:1\u02dc10:1.
6. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the etch process is implementing by setting a time point when an oxide component of the pad oxide film is detected as an end of point (EOP).
7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a photoresist pattern is formed on the pad nitride film in order to define the isolation region, and wherein the photoresist pattern is removed before the trench is formed after the pad nitride film and the pad oxide film on the isolation region are removed, so that polymer occurring from the photoresist is prevented to affect an etch process for forming the trench.
8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the etch process for forming the trench is implemented in-situ with no time delay at the etch chamber by which the pad nitride film and the pad oxide film are removed, in order to prevent a native oxide film from being formed on the semiconductor substrate of the isolation region.
9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the etch process for forming the trench includes the steps of:
performing a first etch process for the semiconductor substrate only with a process condition having a high selectivity ratio to the protrusions to form the trench the top corners of which are not made rounded; and
performing a second etch process, using a post etch treatment (PET) with a process condition having a low selectivity ratio to the protrusions, to form etch tilt faces at the top corners of the trench while removing the protrusions, thereby forming the trench that is made rounded.
10. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the etch selectivity ratio to the protrusions and the semiconductor substrate is controlled by adjusting the flux of an HBr gas among etch gases.
11. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein in the first etch process, the semiconductor substrate only is etched by increasing the flux of the HBr gas and in the second etch process, the top corners of the trench along with the protrusions are etched by relatively reducing the flux of the HBr gas.