text:
|14. Juli 2009
|13. Nov. 2003
|3. Juli 2001
|Auch veröffentlicht unter
|Lawrence J. Karr, William H. Mitchell
|Ursprünglich Bevollmächtigter
|Microsoft Corporation
|Zitat exportieren
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patentzitate (82), Referenziert von (8), Klassifizierungen (31), Juristische Ereignisse (4)
|Externe Links: USPTO, USPTO-Zuordnung, Espacenet
This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 10/044,294, filed Oct. 26, 2001, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60/302,831, filed Jul. 3, 2001, which applications are incorporated herein by reference.
As society becomes increasingly mobile, mobile computing devices are enjoying a tidal wave of popularity and growth. Cell phones, wireless PDAs, wireless laptops and other mobile communication devices are making impressive inroads with mainstream customers. Constraining this growth and limiting customer satisfaction, however, is the lack of a truly adequate high-coverage-area, inexpensive, small, battery-efficient wireless communication system. Cellular data-transmit telephony-based solutions are far from power-efficient, and impose (relative) cost and size burdens that make them unusable. Likewise, other attempts to solve these problems have proved equally unsuitable. For instance, a few entities have attempted to make use of mobile devices that receive information over Frequency Modulated (FM) subcarriers. FM subcarriers (also known as "SCA" for Subsidiary Communications Authorization) utilize the available frequencies above FM stereo within the available modulation bandwidth of an FM station. Subcarriers are typically leased by radio stations, subject to FCC or other national regulation.
Some examples of FM subcarrier systems include the QUOTREK system owned and maintained by the Data Broadcast Corporation (DBC) to deliver stock price quotes to a handheld mobile device. However, the QUOTREK system is a single purpose system limited to receiving stock quotes. The system has various other limitations that make it unusable as a mobile computing device. Likewise, the Seiko Corporation implemented an FM subcarrier system wherein short messages were transmitted to a wrist-worn device. However, the hardware and communications scheme used were relatively primitive, resulting in a need for excessive redundancy in message transmission. These and other shortcomings rendered the Seiko system less than acceptable. Similarly, certain paging systems are based on FM subcarrier use, such as the Radio Data System (RDS) or Mobile Broadcasting System (MBS) systems. However, those systems involve short messages transmitted in a broadcast fashion with limited data rates. Unfortunately, an acceptable mobile device solution has eluded those skilled in the art.
The present invention provides a mobile device that includes two wireless communications modes, a wide area mode in which data may be broadcast over a large area and to many mobile devices, and a local area mode in which data is transmitted over a local area. In one embodiment, a broadcast mode is used to broadcast data over a Frequency Modulated (FM) subcarrier system, such as in unused portions of an FM radio stations bandwidth. In addition, a localcast mode is used to transmit information over a relatively short range, such as within an office or on a corporate campus. A mobile device, such as a specially configured watch, receives the transmissions in either the broadcast mode or localcast mode. In alternate embodiments, the mobile device may be operated as a stand-alone paging or messaging subscriber unit, or built into a mobile telephony device such as a cellular telephone. Advantageously, the mobile device is not limited to the use of either a wide area transmission system (such as a cellular network), or a local area transmission system (such as an infrared communication link), but, rather, reaps the benefits of both. A user may take advantage of the local area transmission system to receive information from the user's personal computer or another mobile device. The user may also take advantage of the wide area transmission system to receive information of a more general interest, such as may be transmitted over a broadcast medium, such as stock quotes and the like. Localcast mode is also useful to provide or enhance information transmission in areas where normal broadcasts cannot be received or reception is poor.
In one aspect, the present invention provides a mobile device configured to receive wireless transmissions in both a broadcast mode and a localcast mode. The mobile device is configured to receive broadcast data over an FM subcarrier communication link. The broadcast data is time diverse and includes synchronization information to allow the mobile device to accurately receive the broadcast data. The mobile device is configured to receive localcast data, transmitted by a localcast transmitter, over a locally-unused portion of the FM band. In this way, the mobile device makes use of the same radio electronics to communicate in both broadcast and localcast modes, thereby reducing size and power consumption.
In another aspect, the mobile device is configured to communicate in a peer-to-peer fashion by transmitting information to and receiving information from other mobile devices over a localcast communication link. The mobile device transmits and receives information in a locally-unused FM band. In this way, information may be shared between two or more mobile devices in a manner similar to that of mobile devices and laptops or personal computers communicating over IRDA infrared, without a need for additional communication components or circuitry.
In yet another aspect, the present invention provides a localcast transmitter configured to transmit data over a local area and in a locally-unused portion of the FM band. The localcast transmitter may be connected to a personal computer or the like and configured to transmit data to and receive data from a mobile device.
In still another aspect, the present invention provides a communication system in which a mobile device is in dual-mode communication with the system. In a first (broadcast) mode, information is broadcast over a wide area on a predetermined schedule. A mobile device may be scheduled to receive the broadcast information based on the predetermined schedule. Other information may additionally be transmitted in a second (localcast) mode over a much smaller area. The mobile device is further configured to transmit and receive information over the localcast mode.
The present invention is described in the context of a communication system including mobile communication devices. In the described embodiment, the mobile devices are wrist-worn watches such as are in common use today, except that the watches are specially configured to communicate in both a "broadcast" mode and a "localcast" mode, as is described in greater detail below. The ability to communicate in the two modes provides many advantages over existing personal communication devices, as will become apparent from a reading of the following detailed description. Likewise, minor deviations from the described embodiments will also become apparent without departing from the spirit of the invention.
The disclosed communication system 100 has three main operating modes: a subcarrier broadcast mode ("broadcast"), a localcast mode ("localcast"), and a Peer-to-Peer mode ("Peer-to-Peer"). Although introduced here for the purpose of discussion, each of these modes of operation is described in detail later. The normal operation of the watch 101 is receiving data broadcast via FM subcarrier (e.g., broadcast signal 109). A local direct FM "localcast" receiving mode is also available (e.g., localcast signal 111). Watches may also be set to communicate with nearby watches 121, other mobile devices 119, or even fixed computer systems, one-on-one, in a half-duplex two-way messaging mode as illustrated by localcast signals 117. Lastly, application data can be transferred to the watch during a localcast session. In addition, although described here in the context of a watch-based system, it will be apparent that the teachings of the application have equal applicability to many other mobile devices, such as portable computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular telephones, and the like. The use of a watch is for illustrative purposes only to simplify the following discussion, and may be used interchangeably with "mobile device."
Turning to
The antenna connects to, and is controlled by, the transceiver 209. Transactions between the MCU 211 and the radio components are mediated over the MCU-digital transceiver interface. The components of the watch are housed in a watch-sized enclosure and rely on battery power for operation.
In one embodiment, the MCU 211 includes a 32-bit general purpose CPU, RAM and Flash memory, an LCD display, and user-interface hardware including but not limited to buttons and a rotating bezel. Also included are power and clock circuits. The MCU's function is to control the functionality above OSI level 2, including running operating system, application, presentation, connection and data selection activities, as well as to drive the user I/O devices at the physical level. It interfaces to the rest of the watch through the transceiver 209.
The transceiver 209 generally includes two components, a digital signal processor (DSP) 221 which performs control, scheduling and post-processing tasks for the transceiver, and a real time device (RTD) 223, which includes a digital radio, and performs the functions of system timing, and real-time event dispatching. In one embodiment, the RTD 223 may be a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) plus a discrete analog radio 207. In an alternate embodiment, the functionality of the RTD is distributed between the DSP 221 and the MCU 211, negating the need for a separate RTD device. Alternatively, the DSP may be a DSP core plus sufficient RAM to accomplish required tasks, and may be embedded into a single device with the MCU and its memory and peripherals. The DSP function may also be realized through appropriate CPU instructions given a suitable CPU such as the ARM7 processor family.
The DSP 221 is connected to the MCU 211, and transceiver tasks are commanded by the MCU 211. Since the MCU 211 may not be aware of the actual timing of events on the subcarrier link, substantial interpretation of its commands by the DSP 221 may be necessary. In other words, the MCU 211 may be instructed (through user interaction or control) to retrieve selected data that is known to be broadcast over the communications network. The MCU 211 is configured to resolve the identified and selected data into particular packet numbers or identifiers, such as through the use of a lookup table or similar function. The MCU 211 passes this information to the DSP 221, which in turn resolves the particular packet numbers or identifiers into actual timing upon which to schedule the receiver to begin receiving.
One of the DSP's main tasks is to process data that is received in either the broadcast mode or in the local mode. This processing includes subcarrier phase recovery, baud recovery and/or tracking, compensation for fading effects, demodulation, deinterleaving, channel state estimation and soft-decision convolutional (Viterbi) error-correction. The post-processing of packets occurs when the entire packet has been received. While this occurs immediately after capture in the local mode instance, subcarrier packets are captured in time-separated segments, nominally over the course of a frame. These captured segments are stored in the DSP 221 memory.
Among the DSP 221 control tasks is the translation of requested subcarrier packet numbers to the exact set of broadcast segments that comprise the packet, scheduling the reception of each segment, interleaving this scheduling with other segments from other requested packets, and forming the low-level commands to the RTD 223 to accomplish these tasks. It also tracks each active broadcast station's timing with respect to the RTD's local clock to adjust for clock drift and frame offset among the various stations. The DSP 221 is also responsible for probing and acquiring timing for each actual and potential broadcast station, as requested by the MCU 211.
The tasks of the RTD 223 are two-fold. Its digital section contains system timebases, including the crystal oscillator that provides the system clock to the MCU 211 and DSP 221. The timebase also provides baud and sample timing for transmit and receive operations, start/stop control for radio operation, and controls the periods of clock suspension to the MCU 211 and DSP 221. The other task, is, of course, radio operation.
RTD 223 radio operation includes both subcarrier and local mode reception, and local mode transmission. These tasks use substantial numbers of common elements. The radio 207 receives either subcarrier segments or local mode packets, storing the received, filtered, baseband-converted A-to-D samples in a local RAM. When transmitting in the local mode, this RAM is filled with pre-computed transmit samples by the DSP 221, and these are then used by the RTD 223 to generate the FSK signal for local mode transmission.
The clock to the MCU 211 and DSP 221 is automatically halted during data capture, and restarted immediately thereafter. A warning interrupt is sent to the MCU 211 when the warm-up event triggers, roughly 1 mS prior to capture.
In the subcarrier broadcast mode, the watch transceiver 209 is in a receive-only mode. When commanded by the MCU to receive a broadcast packet, the DSP refers to its tracking information on the station indicated. If no information is present on this station, the receive request is aborted and an error is returned to the MCU. Using this information, the DSP determines the expected arrival times of the 16 segments that comprise the packet. A list of segment receive commands is generated and stored in the DSP memory.
The DSP's dispatch function monitors the list of pending receive segments, which may include segments for several pending packet requests. As the time for a given segment capture approaches, the dispatch function passes a series of commands to the RTD. These commands include the frequency, antenna tuning parameters, duration of capture, and start time. The DSP may enter a sleep state at this time. The RTD's hardware time comparator then triggers each command in sequence. Typically, these commands are "warm-up", "capture" and "stop." As the warm-up command is issued, the MCU is simultaneously notified that the clock is going to be stopped. The warm-up process takes roughly 1 mS. When the capture command executes, the clock stops, and resumes when the capture ends with the stop command.
The DSP is interrupted on command completion, and immediately retrieves the captured data. This may include data from several segments if there were contiguous segments requested. The segment data is then stored as a set of signal samples. This requires 4 bytes per source bit of data, plus overhead, or about 300 bytes per segment. Since, in one implementation, the RTD has 2560 bytes of internal storage, this would limit consecutive segment reception to 8 segments. This is less of a limitation that it first appears, since a hashing function separates logical packets (and hence, logical segments) from neighboring ones prior to transmission. Thus, packets are only consecutive by chance, not because they are related in content.
When the last segment of a packet is received, the DSP collects the received segments and begins post-processing the data, which is retrieved as a set of received signal samples. The general flow of operation is this: Timing Recovery, Data Demodulation, and Convolutional Decoding (Error Correction) (with a Viterbi algorithm, in one embodiment). This process may take several milliseconds per packet. The resulting data packet is then placed in a receive block in the DSP memory, along with the receive status information, and the MCU is notified that a new packet is available.
In the disclosed embodiment, broadcast data is divided at the data transmission network center (See
Considering broadcast mode in more depth,
The broadcast transmitter 103, at any given time, has two data arrays that it manages. One is the output FM subcarrier frame image 501 (see in
Due to the nature of the subcarrier frame ECC encoding, input data destined for a given output frame should be available several seconds before the transmission of the subcarrier frame begins. One exception is the "fast packet" data, which need only precede the quarter-frame in which it resides.
Returning to
The control processor 301 maintains system status, accepts periodic commands and control information from the uplink, makes period reports, calculates and adjusts the local time base to account for timing drift with respect to the uplink host, and controls operational modes with the broadcast transmitter. It also provides a direct RS-232 (DCE) control port 315 for local command and set-up. The control port 315 may also be implemented with any number of conventional protocols, such as, but not limited to RS-422, USB, or Ethernet interfaces.
The precision time base of the signal generator includes a 1-ppm oscillator, which can be trimmed to track the master time-base at the uplink host, with a resolution of 0.01 ppm. Nominally on the hour, each generator will be informed of the correct current time to an accuracy of roughly 100 microseconds, adjusted for transmission delay. The transmission delay may be based upon a known, fixed path (preferred), or may be calculated from a NTh protocol handshake.
The serial I/O controller 305 communicates with the uplink device (likely a satellite transceiver) via communications interface, e.g., an RS-422 serial interface 319. The data format may be HDLC. An SRAM 321 is attached to the serial I/O controller 305 for input buffering.
The encoding engine 309 takes the frames received from the uplink, hashes and places the packets physically within the frame, processes them through the encoding and time-diversity stages, and produces an output image for transmission. This component may be an FPGA. An SRAM 323 is attached to the encoding engine 309 for working storage.
The subcarrier signal generator 313 provides the subcarrier modulator, transmit filter, and amplification functions. It draws from the encoding engine's output data image at the baud rate. The subcarrier signal generator 313 may be implemented in an FPGA, a large sample ROM, and a subcarrier signal generator that comprises, in one embodiment, a digital-analog converter and an analog output filter.
Turning to
The generator interleaves, (or, equivalently "hashes"), packets to prevent significant amounts of related information from arriving at the mobile device receiver in sequential "on-air" packets. This may be necessary, in some embodiments, because receiver hardware may have limitations for sequential packet reception. It is presumed that the data is presented to the generator in sequential packets. Logical packet order is recreated at the mobile device receiver output; therefore, this hashing process is transparent to the data center and watch. Upon commencement of encoding, the encoding engine reads packets from the I/O block's storage SRAM in the hashed packet order 1205. Access to the I/O block SRAM is shared with the I/O block on a time-slice basis. Packets not marked as complete in the I/O block SRAM, when read, 1207 are considered empty or null and an alternate pattern may be substituted 1209.
As each packet is read in its interleaved order, it is passed through a data whitener, which performs an exclusive-OR 1211 between the data and a whitening pattern. The whitening pattern, in one embodiment, may be a function of a table and the packet number of the packet being processed. The whitened data is then passed 1213 to the convolutional encoder. In one implementation, a ˝-rate, constraint-length-9, tail-biting, convolutional encoder may be used. An encoder of this type produces 2 output bits for each input bit, and spreads the information content of each input bit across several subsequent output bit-pairs, with the last input bits coupled to the first input bits in a tail-biting fashion. The output of the encoder, consisting of a pair of bits for each input bit, is then passed as two streams to two separate bit-interleave modules 1215. The bit-interleave modules use the packet number and the bit index to place 1217 the encoded bit streams into segments in the output frame image SRAM. In one implementation, the bit-interleavers are simple modular adders that transpose one bit position to another, and are configured so that as few related encoder-output bits as possible reside in the same output segment. One method is to rotate the encoder bits linearly through the 16 segments, so that the 17th bit out the encoder will be the second bit into the first segment, and the 18th bit out will be the second bit into the second segment, and so forth. This process is also illustrated in
The two output streams are then joined 1219, with one bit from each stream providing the two bits of each output symbol. The 2048 symbols created this way are then divided into 16 segments of 64 symbols each (See 1221 on
Modulation of the data is performed symbol by symbol under transmit clock timing. This requires that frame data sections be ready for transmission prior to the time that the first symbol of the relevant section is required by the modulator. The first fast frame and the normal data frame data must be ready at the beginning of the frame 501 (
Turning now to
Two different implementations of the localcaster may be realized. In one, the localcast transmitter provides a local, one-way, data broadcast to one or more nearby mobile devices. This broadcast can either replicate one or two on-air channels, provide one or two local-content channels, or a combination of the two. When operating in these modes, the data format and speed is identical to that on the on-air channels. The speed may be configured to be higher in a special application mode, depending on the desired range.
The second localcaster implementation provides a local 2-way data communication ability, which provides for the above-described 1-way mode of broadcast as well as an application mode by which data may be transmitted from the localcaster to the watch or mobile device, and also from the device to the localcaster. This mode, also called broadcast simulation mode, provides for the application-specific determination of two-way data traffic based on traditional handshaking techniques.
In one embodiment, as described more fully below, the localcast transmitter includes a USB interface to a PC or similar device, a control function, two encoders, a packet assembler, an FCC Part 15 direct FM modulator, and an antenna. With the exception of the antenna and a discrete analog filter, these components may be implemented in a monolithic standard-cell ASIC. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the localcast transmitter may be comprised of circuit elements such as an ASIC, filter network, crystal, and antenna, and one or more connectors.
The interface 401 connects the localcast transmitter to its data source. The interface 401 may be implemented with any number of standard interface protocols, such as, but not limited to USB, RS-232, or IEEE-1394. In one embodiment, this is implemented as an IP block which is combined into a localcaster IC. The data source transmits packets of data over this link. In one embodiment, these packets contain 64 bytes of data, and in alternate embodiments, the packets transferred may be 68 or 132 bytes long, including 4 bytes of header information. The exact formatting of this link depends upon the IP characteristics.
The control function 403 collects the transmit data packets from the data source, and performs handshaking. It sets the desired transmission frequency, mode and signal power.
The encoding function 405 (which includes a system information encoder and an optional data encoder) formats the data for transmission as baseband (audio) samples. It has a convolutional encoder for the system information block, and an optional convolutional encoder for the packet data. Upon collecting the packet from the USB, the localcast transmitter 105 processes it via a data encoder. The packet data portion of this encoder is identical to the data encoder in the subcarrier generator 103, except that data whitening uses a fixed pattern, unrelated to the packet number. This process generates 128 bytes of encoded data from the 64 bytes of raw input data. In the case of the "turbo" or high-speed, short distance mode, this encoding is bypassed as shown in encoding function 405, and 128 unencoded bytes are passed directly to the modulator function.
The processing logic 407 adds correlation information for synchronization (described below), and in one embodiment, interleaves the encoded system information and data into segments to protect against noise. The resulting bit stream is then converted to baseband audio samples and the result passed to the modulator.
The direct FM modulator 409 takes the audio samples provided by the processing section and generates the FM frequency output. The antenna 411 for the localcast transmitter or transceiver can either be a loop or a dipole, depending upon the form factor required.
A special case arises in broadcast simulation mode. First, the localcast data payload must be adjusted to match the payload size of broadcast packets. In one embodiment, the localcast 64 byte-payload must be adjusted to match the 128 byte broadcast packet size. This is done by splitting broadcast packets into two localcast packets prior to transmission, and reassembling the packets in the transceiver firmware. Second, broadcast packet numbers are associated with the local mode packets by encoding them into the localcast header. These packet numbers are used by the transceiver firmware to allow the mobile devices' microprocessor to retrieve locally broadcast packets transparently to higher-level software.
Data Transmission Format
What follows is a discussion, in conjunction with
Data is transmitted and received in the communication system on two types of channel: A broadcast channel (i.e., in broadcast mode) (See
A flame is the basic partition in a data stream. One sample frame format 501 is shown in
A packet is the smallest retrievable unit in a flame, including, in one embodiment, 64 bytes of information. In this application there are preferably 2560 packets in each broadcast flame. In another embodiment, 128 bytes of information may be used in a packet, and each packet broadcast flame will contain 1280 packets. Certain of the packets in a flame may be designated as fast packets. These packets are processed and transmitted with less latency than normal packets. In one described implementation, there are 512 fast packets and 2048 normal packets in each broadcast flame. In this embodiment, packets 0-2047 are "normal packets," and packets 2048-2559 are "fast" packets. In an alternate implementation, there are 256 fast packets and 1024 normal packets in each broadcast flame, with packets 0-1023 being "normal packets" and packets 1024-1280 being "fast packets." Packet 0 is a system packet and contains the frame number, time, and other housekeeping information, such as roaming local channel frequencies. Local channel packets may contain a header of 20 bytes to allow local data to be transferred without pre-arrangement, as well as to allow variable sizing of Local frames.
In the Broadcast stream, packets are comprised of 8 segments at the physical level. As shown in
In one embodiment, a physical frame may be composed of 20,480 (8*2560) segments. Each segment is composed of partial data from one of the 2560 packets, and a 4 symbol header. At the physical level, packet data is encoded so that one symbol represents one bit (with redundancy), and these symbols are then distributed among 8 segments, which are separated in time. The segments that make up normal packets are distributed evenly throughout the frame. Segments for fast packets are distributed evenly through a quarter of a frame, also known as a sub-frame. For the purposes of timing recovery and synchronization, each segment has a header of four raw (unencoded) symbols so that each symbol represents 2 bits (see
As previously mentioned, and shown on
Broadcast Mode
The broadcast mode involves the simplex transfer of information from one or more broadcast transmitters to one or more watches. FM subcarrier modulation is employed to transmit the information over commercial FM stations. The watches 101, 121 receive this FM subcarrier signal via an antenna embedded in the watchband, demodulate and parse the received data and pass the information to the controlling MCU.
Localcast and Peer-to-Peer Modes
The local mode is divided into two modes, a localcast mode and a peer-to-peer mode. The modes share a common transmission format. Direct FM modulation is employed to transmit the information over locally-unused FM frequencies. The watches receive and transmit this FM signal via an antenna embedded in the watchband, demodulate and parse the received data and pass the information to the MCU.
The Localcast (or local broadcast) mode represents either a 1 or 2-way transmission from the localcast transmitter attached to a PC or other high-level controller, to a watch or mobile device. The area over which the local broadcast is transmitted is small as compared to the broadcast mode transmissions. Data transmitted in the localcast mode may be either a local replication of broadcast mode data, or local content in the same format, or application data sent via special application-layer protocols. The Peer-to-Peer mode is an inherently bi-directional, half-duplex link in which the channel switches (or "ping-pongs") between two participating watches.
In one embodiment of both localcast and peer-peer modes, the local data mode communicates in packets using direct FSK modulation. This uses the same ˝-rate convolutional encoding as the main channel. Localcast communication is half-duplex, and uses a shared FM station frequency. In any given metropolitan area, a subset of the FM broadcast frequencies will be unused and therefore available for FCC Part 15 communication. A list of these frequencies might be disseminated in the broadcast mode or even in localcast mode from a PC-connected localcaster. In any event, the MCU provides the transceiver with the selected station frequencies. Note that some local channel operations preclude main channel operations. Conflicts between local and broadcast operation are resolved in favor of the local mode task.
Unlike the broadcast mode, packets in the local mode are 64 bytes, not 128—this is partially due to FCC Part 15 cycle timing, and partially due to the desire to keep packet cycle times short enough to allow real-time duplex applications, such as speech.
Typically, upon MCU command, the transceiver tests an MCU-selected station for main channel signal (and the cadence of that signal), and for the presence of a subcarrier signal. The first part of local discovery is to use a provided station list to scan the FM band and categorize the available frequencies according to observed usage. To do this, received signal strength (RSSI) is filtered and digitized with a bandwidth of perhaps one kilohertz. Possible results include an active FM station, a local channel transmission, or an empty channel. The watch will be capable of storing tracking information on all frequencies available to it, simultaneously. An active FM station would appear ideally as an unvarying signal, or with significant multipath, as a varying RSSI uncorrelated with our localcast format. If an appropriate subcarrier signal is detectable on the station, this will also be reported. A local channel transmission would appear as a particularly steady RSSI, serrated with a much lower RSSI corresponding to the inter-packet power-off intervals of the localcast format. The transceiver will report information on the cadence found, but final decisions about type of transmission should be done at the data level by the MCU. Finally, an empty channel would have continuously low RSSI.
Note that the RSSI detection can occur with signals much too weak to reliably demodulate, and will also allow rapid analysis of the FM spectrum for local operation. This allows detection of watches engaged in communication, where one of them is outside of normal range. The RSSI analysis also yields the approximate cycle timing of the received exchanges. Thus, RSSI temporal analysis will yield a list of active and/or empty localcast channels. This result will be reported back to the MCU for further commands.
Upon command from the MCU, the transceiver begins beaconing or acquires one of the active channels. In the latter case, the transceiver captures a packet from the FM channel. It then determines the precise timing of the selected localcast signal. This is done by receiving and analyzing the specially constructed correlation sequences, which provide both instantaneous symbol timing and an estimate of inter-device clock drift. Once timing information has been extracted, the transceiver captures the data in the following packet and reports this data to the MCU. Presumably, the contents of this packet are sufficient for the MCU to take subsequent action, which could be some sort of handshake reply, a command to begin retrieving data, a command to analyze another channel, or a command to send a beacon on an empty channel.
In a peer-to-peer connection, the initiator is treated as the clock master. The other participant slaves its transmit clock to the clock derived from the received data. This allows the beaconing peer to immediately process the data in the first response packet, without a timing analysis phase.
After any necessary handshaking is completed, the MCU may command the transceiver to enter one of several communication modes, with transmit and receive packets being passed to and from the MCU. This mode continues until otherwise commanded. Loss of signal is reported to the MCU as a suddenly poor signal quality value. The MCU may end the communication mode at this or any other interpacket time.
Packets to be transmitted are stored by the MCU in the DSP's memory space in structures called transmit blocks. These blocks also contain control information, such as the FM frequency to use. Prior to transmission, the DSP pre-filters the data and converts it to the transmit samples needed by the RTD. The localcast physical layer packet structure is also added at this time. In one implementation, the 512-bit localcast packet becomes 2304 bytes of signal samples when presented to the RTD.
The DSP controls the timing of transmission, according to information recovered when the local connection was established, and, in certain duplex cases, according to the timing of the last local data received.
In the localcast mode, the RTD records an entire cycle time of localcast data. The DSP then uses the associated RSSI information to locate the localcast packet samples. Using the correlation sequences in the beginning and end of each localcast packet, the fine timing of the other localcast device is determined, and this information stored. The MCU may now begin to receive or transmit on the acquired channel.
Although the preceding description describes various embodiments of the system, the invention is not limited to such embodiment, but rather covers all modifications, alternatives, and equivalents that fall within the spirit and scope of the following claims.
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Effective date: 20130714
|15. Jan. 2015
Owner name: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC, WASHINGTON
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:MICROSOFT CORPORATION;REEL/FRAME:034766/0001
Effective date: 20141014


text:
Lynzee is preceded in death by her grandmother, Virginia Bachman.
Lynzee is survived by her parents, William "Pete" and Christien Bachman of Hagarville; her twin brother, Lucas Bachman; grandfather, Roy Lucas of Oark; grandmother, Louvine Lucas of Hunt; grandfather, Larry Bachman of Hagarville; and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and great-grandparents.
Visitation was Tuesday, November 20, 2012, at Roller-Cox Funeral Home. Lynzee's graveside service will be at 2 p.m., Wednesday, November 21, 2012, at Annie's Chapel Cemetery, with Bro. Leo Villines officiating.
The family requests memorial contributions be made to:
Ronald McDonald House 26345 Network Place Chicago, IL 60673-1263 or
Arkansas Children's Hospital 1 Children's Way Little Rock, AR 72202-3591. Arrangements are under the direction of Roller-Cox Funeral Home 754-2201.
Online guestbook www.rollerfuneralhomes.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Bicycler wrote:And I agree with Mick. We are not going to have a UKIP government after the next general election. However, if enough people vote for UKIP then the main political parties will have to start acknowledging the concerns people have.
But we may well have a hung parliament, with UKIP becoming holding the balance of power.


text:
First off, I'm not one to think bigger means better. Chuck Hayes is 6'6" and can get the job done at center. When you have the bigs to get it done defensively though, and you don't go all out with it, you're doing it wrong.
Before the season started I was amazed the Knicks had Chandler AND Camby. Kurt Thomas and Sheed? WTF? AWESOME. I know there were injuries, and some that may have been worse than let on, but Woodson did not seem to want to take full advantage of this. If he wanted to have a three guard rotation, fine, but have there being a bunch of playing time in which Camby and Chandler play together. Camby is a shot blocking and rebounding machine. At least he tried Martin and Chandler in the Playoffs.
This team also had players who could drive the basketball, shoot, pass, it was a mix of EVERYTHING.
What are the chances of the Knicks EVER having this many well above average bigs on a team? Highly unlikely even if you had the most money to spend in the league and were shooting to spend only big contracts on big men.


text:
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text:
MasterCard International and its affiliates respect your Privacy. Our Privacy Notice for Priceless Cities and Love This City has been updated and will be effective as of the Effective Date posted in this Privacy Notice. In general, we have recently updated many of our Site(s) to bring Priceless Cities and Love This City users a more enhanced experience. We have consolidated all of our various privacy notices into one global Privacy Notice to govern all Priceless Cities and Love This City Sites. A summary of the revisions are set forth below but we encourage you to read the entire Privacy Notice below.
1. Preamble and How To Contact Us - We have clarified the various MasterCard data controllers for Priceless Cities Sites operated in the EEA, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia and the rest of the world and added their contact information in the "How to Contact Us" section.
2. Personal Information You Provide Directly To Us – In general, we have clarified how we use the personal information that we use about you.
3. Registration Process - As our Priceless Cities Site(s) now allow for social media registration and integration, we have added more information on the data that we collect in connection with social media interactions.
4. Social Media – Although you may "share", "follow", "tweet", or "like" our content via social media networks, none of our Site(s) allow users to post to our Site(s) without our permission. We have clarified that we may contact you to seek your permission before using your social media posts and content on our Site(s).
5. Personalized Services and Recommendations – In addition to the personal data that you provide to us, we may also use information obtained about you from third parties or publically available information systems to deliver personalized services and recommendations that may be of interest to you.
6. Interest-Based Advertising - In addition to the personal data that you provide to us, we may also use information obtained about you from third parties or publically available information systems to deliver advertising and offers that may be of interest to you.
7. Personal Data We Collect Automatically - We have added a provision, Information collection from mobile devices, which discusses our data collection when you interact with our Sites via a mobile device.
8. Your Rights and Choices – One some Sites, we may offer users choices to manage their cookie preferences through the Ghostery Cookie Consent Tool.
9. Information We Share - We have clarified that we use commercial partners that provide redemption fulfillment services on our behalf and redemption of offers on commercial partner sites will be governed by their respective privacy policies.
10. Information We Share - We have added a provision that discusses data collection and use through the Google mapping tool on mobile versions of our Sites.Back to top
Click on one of the links below to jump to the listed section:
- Introduction
- Personal Data We Collect And How We Use It
- Personal Data You Provide To Us Directly
- Personal Data We Collect Automatically
- Your Rights And Choices
- Information We Share
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- Records Retention
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MasterCard respects your privacy. In the context of the Love This City and Priceless Cities programs ("Priceless Cities", "Love This City" or "Program(s)"), this Privacy Notice describes how we process personal data, the types of personal data we collect, for what purposes we use that personal data, with whom we share it, and the choices you can make about our use of the personal data. We also describe the measures we take to protect the security of the personal data and how you can contact us about our privacy practices.
MasterCard International Incorporated is the entity responsible for the processing of your personal data in the context of the Program(s) websites operated in North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa found at www.priceless.com or our related blog site, Love This City, operated at www.lovethiscity.com (the "Site(s)").
MasterCard Europe, MasterCard UK, and MasterCard France are the entities responsible for the processing of your personal data in the context of the Program(s) for our Sites operated in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, Russia and Turkey.
Your visit to the Site(s) and participation in the Program(s) is subject to this Privacy Notice, applicable Terms of Use and to the Cookies Notice to the extent that you live in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or Canada. Our privacy practices may vary among the countries in which we operate to reflect local practices and legal requirements. This Privacy Notice applies to the personal data collected via Priceless Cities and Love This City only. It does not cover the collection and use of your personal data on any MasterCard branded websites or by your MasterCard Card issuers (e.g., your bank), or any other information or communications that may reference to MasterCard outside the Program(s) (e.g., communications from banks, card issuers). For more information about MasterCard's privacy practices outside the scope of Priceless Cities or Love This City, please visit our Global Privacy Notice at www.mastercard.com.
Children and minors (under the age of 18) are not eligible to use Priceless Cities.Back to top
Personal Data We Collect And How We Use It
We collect personal data in the context of Priceless Cities, Love This City or from other MasterCard programs and services. By personal data we mean "any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person." The personal data we process is either provided directly by you or collected automatically.Back to top
Personal Data You Provide To Us Directly
The personal data you provide to us directly via the Program(s) are processed and used only for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice. You are not required to provide personal data to access the Sites, but you may be required to provide us with personal data to participate in the Programs or for us to provide you with our services. If you choose not to provide some data, this may affect the way you navigate on the Site(s) or the services that we can offer you. We may use the personal information we obtain about you to:
• Create and manage your profile account, provide the services, and to respond to your inquiries;
• Tailor content, recommendations, advertising and offers we display to you on the Sites and elsewhere online;
• Provide, administer and communicate with you about services, offers and promotions (including contests, sweepstakes, programs and other offers) and changes to our policies;
• Operate, evaluate and improve our business (including by developing new products, offers and features; analyzing our offers; facilitating the functionality of our Sites);
• Assist us and third parties in the provision of offers to you via the Sites;
• Monitor the use of and improve our interactive assets, including the Sites;
• Perform data analyses (including anonymization of personal information) to determine, among other measurements, business performance, number of registrants, channels and Site(s) performance;
• Enforce our Terms of Use and other legal rights;
• Comply with applicable legal requirements and industry standards and our policies;
• As may be required by applicable laws and regulations or requested by any judicial process or governmental agency having or claiming jurisdiction over MasterCard or MasterCard's affiliate; and
• Perform auditing, research and analysis in order to maintain, protect and improve our services.
Please find below information on how you may provide this data, the types of data you may submit, and how we may use the data:
Registration Process: You may register to Priceless Cities through the Priceless Cities Site(s). In order to register and depending on your country that you register your account, we ask you to provide us with some of your personal data, such as your e-mail address, password, first and last name, date of birth, country of permanent residence and post code. You will also be asked to provide the first 8 digits of your MasterCard credit card through the registration process, offer redemption process or through your profile account. In addition, to complete your registration, you must accept the Priceless Cities Terms of Use, Privacy Notice and if applicable, the required Cookie Notice for the relevant Sites. Your registration will be activated once you respond to the confirmation email that we will send you.
Some Sites may allow you to login, register, access or otherwise connect to Priceless Cities via a social media network. If you choose to login, register, access or otherwise connect to Priceless Cities, through a social media network such as Facebook, we may receive your first and last name, and email address (should you elect to provide your email information to us). In that case, your social media network will require you to agree that we receive your personal data from your social network provider in order to verify your credentials, populate your registration form and for future logins into your account. If you provide any personal data to us through a social media network, including through social media plugins located on Priceless Cities, and including by authorizing such social media network to provide information to us, then we may collect such information, and our use and disclosure of such information will be subject to this Privacy Notice. Note that we do not receive or store your social media password from these social media networks.
Sign up Process for Communications: You may sign up on the Priceless Cities Sites to receive communications informing you about the Priceless opportunities via email, text or social media ("Communications"). In addition to signing up for Communications for Priceless, you may consent to receive information via email, text or social media about other MasterCard products and services including rewards, loyalty or privileges programs related products and services, opportunities or private events that become available. In order to send you Communications or information about Priceless Cities and/or MasterCard products and services, we use your personal data such as your name, e-mail address or mobile number, if applicable. You can, at any time and free of charge, choose not to receive any of those email Communications or through your profile account, by clicking on the unsubscribe link within the e-mail or by e-mailing us using this link: https://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/general/email-opt-out.html. For other methods of Communications (i.e. text or social media), we will advise you of ways to opt-out of those Communications at the time that you receive those Communications or by other means. We will not use your personal data for sending marketing Communications unless we have received your consent.
Your account: At any time after activating your registration and/or logging-in you can access your account on Priceless Cities by clicking on "My Account" where you can review or change your personal details (e.g., name, email address, country, password, etc.) or manage your e-mail subscriptions or preferences.
Social media: You may select to "share", "follow", "tweet" or "like" Priceless Cities or an offer via various social media providers. Social media networks are independent from MasterCard and any information collected by social media networks (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.) in connection with Priceless Cities (including through social media plugins located on Priceless Cities) may be made public and subject to the applicable social media provider's privacy policy, and not this Privacy Notice. You can control what data you share through privacy settings available on some social media sites. For more information about how you can customize your privacy settings and how third party social media sites handle your personal data, please refer to their privacy help guides, privacy policies and terms of use. MasterCard cannot be held liable for any of these social media networks' content, use, or privacy practices.
You may select to "share", "follow", "tweet" or "like" Love This City or an article that appears on Love This City via various social media providers, such posts will be governed by the applicable social media provider's privacy policy, and not this Privacy Notice. You may not post any content to any of our Sites without our permission. From time to time, we may also feature certain social media posts (including user name and photos) on our Sites using the hashtag, #LoveThisCity or other related hashtags ("User Submissions"). We will obtain the user's consent prior to posting any User Submissions on our Sites and such User Submissions shall be subject to our Terms of Use.
Personalized Services and Recommendations: If you sign up for Communications, we may use your personal data to provide you with personalized services, offers and recommendations. We may also use other information obtained about you from companies that use or facilitate the use of other MasterCard products or services and from publicly available information systems to deliver personalized services, offers and recommendations that may be of interest to you. For example, we may suggest products or other special marketing activities that may be of particular interest to you. In order to provide you with personalized content and the most relevant offers, content or messages, we will gather the personal data that you have provided directly and the personal data that we have collected automatically in order to create a user profile.
Other Features: We offer users of our Program various features for their information and enjoyment (e.g., sweepstakes, promotions, contests, blog), which we may change from time to time. We may ask you to submit certain personal data so we can provide you with these features. For more information about how your data will be processed for these specific features, please refer to the relevant privacy notice, if any.Back to top
Personal Data We Collect Automatically
We may collect certain information by automated means (e.g., cookies, log-file, web beacons) when you visit the Sites. The data collected automatically are processed in order to improve the Program and to provide you with the best information and services. The information we collect in this way tells us, for example, how many users visited our website and the pages accessed, whether you have visited us before or if you are a new visitor, and helps us to identify features in which you may have the greatest interest. This information also allows us to make improvements and to enhance your experience.
Log files and IP addresses: Log files are web server files (containing information such as the domain name or IP address, URL, the http response code, the website from where you visit us or the date and duration of your visit) that are automatically created when an Internet user visits a site. An IP address is a unique identifier that certain electronic devices use to identify and communicate with each other on the Internet. When you visit the Site(s), we may collect the IP address of the device you use to connect to the Internet. For example, when you request a page from the Site(s), our servers log your IP address. In combination with other data, this information helps us to learn what pages are most attractive to our visitors, which of our products most interest our customers, and what types of offers our customers like to see. In addition, log files help us to detect disruptions to telecommunication equipment and to detect abuse of our telecommunication services.
Information collection from mobile devices: If you access our Site(s), on your mobile telephone or other mobile device, we also may collect your unique device identifier and mobile device IP address (e.g. MAC address), as well as information about your device's operating system, mobile carrier, mobile Internet browsers, and other information described in this Privacy Notice. In some regions, we may also have a Priceless Cities mobile application ("App"). Note that the App has a separate privacy notice that will apply to the data collection and privacy practices and this Privacy Notice shall not apply to the App.
Cookies, web beacons and tracking links: We may use third-party web analytics services on our Site(s). The analytics providers that administer these services use technologies such as cookies, web server logs and web beacons to help us analyze how visitors use our Site(s). The information collected through these means (including IP address) is disclosed to these analytics providers, who use the information to evaluate use of our Site(s). We may offer users of our Site(s) choices to manage their preferences via our Cookie Consent Tool accessible via our AdChoices icon or via the Cookie Consent icon on our Sites. Otherwise, you can opt out at http://www.aboutads.info/choices/. To learn more about Cookies, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ orhttp://www.adobe.com/privacy/opt-out.html or our Cookies Notice available on the Site(s) in the European Economic Region, Turkey, Switzerland and Canada.
Interest-Based Advertising: In some regions, we may collect information about your online activities on our Site(s) for use in providing you with advertising about materials and services tailored to your individual interests. We may also use your personal data and other information obtained about you from companies that use or facilitate the use of other MasterCard products or services and from publicly available information systems to deliver advertising and offers that may be of interest to you. You may see certain ads on other websites because we (and our partners) use data collected on our Site(s) to customize advertisements to you on third-party websites. This collection and use allows us to target our messaging to users through demographic, interest-based and contextual means. In connection with providing you customized advertisements, third parties on our websites may track your online activities over time and across third-party websites by collecting information through automated means, including through the use of cookies, web server logs and web beacons. The information collected includes information about your visits to certain websites, the pages or advertisements you view and the actions you take on those websites. This data collection takes place both on our Site(s) and on third-party websites. This process also helps us track the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. To learn about more about your ability to opt out of interest-based advertising, click here.Back to top
Your Rights And Choices
You have the right to receive information about the data we store about you and to access your personal data by using the contact information provided in the "How To Contact Us" section below. You may also request at any time that your personal data be rectified, blocked or deleted if it is incorrect, inaccurate or outdated. Following any data request for access, rectification or deletion, we will accommodate your inquiry as required by applicable law. At any time, you may object on compelling legitimate grounds relating to your particular situation to the processing of your personal data by MasterCard, except when otherwise provided by the applicable law. We will not use any technical mechanism to subject you to a decision which produces legal effects and which is based solely on automated processing of data.
If you decide you no longer want MasterCard to process your personal data, at your request we will make information about you anonymous in the database, and any reference to you will be deleted.
You can, at any time and free of charge, choose not to receive any of those email Communications or information by clicking on the unsubscribe link within the e-mail or by e-mailing us using this this link: https://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/general/email-opt-out.html . For other methods of Communications (text or social media), we will advise you of ways to opt-out of those Communications at the time that you receive those Communications or by other means. We will not use your personal data for sending marketing Communications unless we have received your consent.
On some Sites, we may offer users of our site choices to manage their cookie preferences through the Cookie Consent tool displayed in the bottom right corner or accessible via the AdChoices icon. Your browser may tell you how to be notified and opt out of receiving certain types of cookies, including analytics and advertising cookies.
If we fall short of your expectations in processing your personal data or you wish to make a complaint about our privacy practices, please tell us because it gives us an opportunity to fix the problem. You may contact us using the contact details provided in the "How To Contact Us" section below. To assist us in responding to your request, please give full details of the issue. We will review and respond to all complaints within a reasonable time.
If you are located in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, you may direct us not to share your personal data with third parties, except (i) with service providers we have retained to perform services on our behalf, (ii) in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets, (iii) if disclosure is required by law or legal process, or (iv) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss, or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual fraud or other illegal activity. If you are located in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, we use your personal data only for the purposes indicated in this Privacy Notice unless we have a legal basis, such as consent, to use it for other purposes. Where required by law, MasterCard obtains your prior opt-in consent at the time of collection for the processing of (i) personal data for marketing purposes and (ii) personal data deemed sensitive pursuant to applicable law.
If you are located in Latin America Countries (see Appendix 1), the procedure to exercise your personal data protection rights before MasterCard is the following:
In all cases, your request to exercise data protection rights must be made in writing and contain and/or enclose the following:
I. The name of the data owner and its domicile and/or other means to communicate to the same our response to the request received;
II. The documents needed to evidence the data owner's identity or, when applicable its proxy's identity and legal representation faculties;
III. The specific indication of the data protection right which you wish to exercise; and,
IV. A clear and precise description of the personal data for which the exercise of any data protection rights is pursued.
The validity of your request to exercise any data protection rights requires that the same meets all the requirements provided for it under the applicable legislation. In all cases the requestor shall accredit its status as owner of the personal data or alternatively its proxy condition with respect to the owner of the data as it may correspond.
MasterCard will communicate to you its decision within the term that is provided in the applicable law.Back to top
Information We Share
We do not disclose personal data collected in the context of the Program, except as described here.
We may share your personal data with our headquarters and affiliates, including MasterCard International Incorporated, MasterCard Europe sprl, MasterCard UK, and MasterCard France. We may also share your personal data provided with service providers we have retained to perform services on our behalf and in relation to the purposes described in this Privacy Notice. Examples include our operating platform providers, platform hosting providers, redemption fulfillment providers and customer service providers. When we use third party service providers, we take all necessary steps to ensure that our service providers maintain a high level of data protection. We require our service providers by contract to process the data in accordance with our instructions and to have safeguards in place designed to protect your personal data. These service providers are not authorized by us to use or disclose the data, except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or to comply with legal requirements.
When you redeem or purchase offers via Priceless Cities, you may be redirected to our commercial partner's website where you will be asked to provide your personal data directly to the commercial partner and you will be governed by the privacy policy of their website. We may also share your personal data with our commercial partners in charge of redemption. These commercial partners will also process personal data for their own purposes under the terms of the agreement MasterCard has with each commercial partner in the context of the Program. For more information on each commercial partner's privacy practices, we invite you to consult their respective privacy notice accessible on their redemption sites.
If you are using the mapping tool available within the mobile web version of some Site(s), that mapping tool service is provided by Google. Their collection and use of any data through your interaction with their mapping tool is governed by Google's privacy policy and terms of use, which we suggest you read.
In addition, we may disclose personal data about you (i) if we are required to do so by law or pursuant to legal process, (ii) in response to a request from a court, law enforcement authorities or government officials, or (iii) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual criminal activity.
We reserve the right to transfer any data we have about you in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets (including in the event of a reorganization, dissolution or liquidation). Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will endeavor to use reasonable efforts to seek that the transferee uses the personal data you have provided through the Program in a manner consistent with this Privacy Notice.Back to top
Data Transfers
We may transfer the personal information we collect about you to countries other than the country in which the information was originally collected. Those countries may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided the information. In the context of this Program, MasterCard may transfer, process or store your personal data in a centralized database located at MasterCard International Incorporated – MasterCard's headquarters located in the United States. When we transfer your information to other countries, we will protect that information as described in this Privacy Notice. If you live in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, you agree that in the context of the Program(s), MasterCard may transfer, process and store your personal data in a centralized database located at MasterCard International Incorporated - MasterCard's headquarters located in the U. S. MasterCard International Incorporated is certified under the EU-U.S. Safe Harbor privacy framework as set forth by the U. S. Department of Commerce, and the European Commission to provide adequate protection to your personal data. Please visit www.MasterCard.com or click here to view our Safe Harbor Privacy Notice.Back to top
Links To Other Websites
On the Site(s), we may provide links to other websites (including partner or third party sites) for your convenience. In particular, Priceless Cities offers you the possibility to share, link to or mention on social media outlets, such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or Twitter, anything you may find of interest. These sites operate independently from the Program(s) and are not under our control. These sites may have their own privacy policies in place, which we strongly suggest you review when you visit them. We are not responsible for the content of these sites, any products or services that may be offered through these sites, the data processing activities that are conducted via those sites, or any other use of these sites.Back to top
Records Retention
MasterCard only retains personal data for as long as needed to fulfill the purposes for which they were collected, unless otherwise provided by law.Back to top
Data Security
We may hold your personal data in a variety of ways, including in electronic form.
We maintain appropriate administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, accidental loss, unauthorized alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, misuse, and any other unlawful form of processing of the personal data in our possession.
When you provide personal data online, we use the industry standard for encryption on the Internet – Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology – to help protect the information that you provide. This Internet encryption standard scrambles data as it travels from your device to our server. You will know that you are in a secure area of the Site(s) when a lock icon appears on your screen that the "http" prefix of our URL address changes to "https". The "s" represents "secure". We also use digital certificates to ensure that you are connected to the authentic Site(s).
Please note however that no collection or data transmission can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any data transmission.
We will never ask you for your password in any unsolicited communication (including unsolicited correspondence, such as letters, phone calls or e-mail messages). If you believe your user name and password have been compromised, please contact us by following the instructions provided in the section on "How To Contact Us" below.Back to top
Browser Do Not Track Signals
Although the Site(s) currently do not have a mechanism to recognize the various web browser Do Not Track signals, we may offer users of our Site(s) choices to manage their preferences via our Cookie Consent Tool on our Sites and we will honor your preferences. To learn more about browser tracking signals and Do Not Track, please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.Back to top
Update To This Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice may be updated periodically and without prior notice to you to reflect changes in our personal information practices. We will post a prominent notice on our Site(s) to notify you of any significant changes to our Privacy Notice and indicate at the top of the Privacy Notice when it was most recently updated.Back to top
How To Contact Us
If you are located in North America, the Asia Pacific, Middle East or Africa, the Caribbean, Central or South America, and (i) you would like us to update information we have about you or your preferences, or rectify, block or delete any personal data relating to you; (ii) you would like to obtain more information on how we process your personal data or access your personal data; (iii) you would like to withdraw your consent given for certain types of data processing; (iv) you would like to remove your e-mail address from our mailing lists; or (v) if you have any questions, comments, complaints or concerns about this Privacy Notice or our privacy practices, you may contact us by email at firstname.lastname@example.com or write to us at:
Global Privacy Officer
MasterCard Worldwide
2000 Purchase Street
Purchase, New York 10552
If you are located in the United Kingdom, the entity responsible for the collection and use of your personal data in the context of the Program(s) available at www.priceless.com/london or www.lovethiscity.com/eu/london (or such other Site(s) that we may develop from time to time in connection to a city located in the United Kingdom) is MasterCard UK. If you would like to (i) obtain more information on how we process your personal data or to access your personal data; (ii) rectify, block or delete any personal data relating to you; (iii) withdraw your consent given for certain types of data processing; (iv) remove your e-mail address from our mailing lists; or (v) if you have any questions, comments or concerns about our privacy practices, please contact us by emailing us at email@example.com or by addressing your mail to:
MasterCard UK
Marketing Department
10 Upper Bank Street
Canary Wharf
London E14 5NP
If you are located in France, the entity responsible for the collection and use of your personal data in the context of the Priceless Cities available at https://www.priceless.com/en/tourist/US/FR/paris/city.html ((or such other Site(s) that we may develop from time to time in connection to a city located in France) is MasterCard France. If you would like to (i) obtain more information on how we process your personal data or to access your personal data; (ii) rectify, block or delete any personal data relating to you; (iii) withdraw your consent given for certain types of data processing; (iv) remove your e-mail address from our mailing lists; or (v) if you have any questions, comments or concerns about our privacy practices, please contact us by emailing us email@example.com or by addressing your mail to:
MasterCard France
Service Marketing
112 avenue Kleber
75016 Paris
With the exception of the United Kingdom and France, if you are located in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, Russia or Turkey, MasterCard Europe sprl may be the entity processing your personal information. If you would like to (i) obtain more information on how we process your personal data or to access your personal data; (ii) rectify, block or delete any personal data relating to you; (iii) withdraw your consent given for certain types of data processing; (iv) remove your e-mail address from our mailing lists; or (v) if you have any questions, comments or concerns about our privacy practices, please contact us by email email@example.com write to us at:
Global Privacy Officer
MasterCard Europe sprl
Chaussée de Tervuren 198A
B-1410, Waterloo
To assist us in responding to your request, please give full details of the issue. We will review and respond to all complaints within a reasonable time. If you are not satisfied with how we respond, you may take your complaint to the applicable regulator in your jurisdiction.
For all other enquiries about your MasterCard card and your purchase, you must contact your Issuing Bank or the Participating Merchant. More information about how to contact them can be found on their respective websites.Back to top


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The Trial Division has principal responsibility for prosecuting misdemeanor and felony crimes. It is comprised of six trial bureaus, and a number of specialized bureaus and units which target certain types of crimes or have other specialized knowledge, training and experience.
The trial bureaus are each staffed by approximately 50 Assistant District Attorneys of varying levels of experience. In addition to the legal staff and supervisors, each bureau has a bureau administrator, investigative analysts and paralegals.
After a comprehensive training program, first-year Assistant District Attorneys begin by handling misdemeanor prosecutions in Criminal Court, including a wide variety of cases such as misdemeanor assault, driving while intoxicated, drug possession, and theft offenses. As assistants gain experience, they handle more serious felony cases in Supreme Court. These cases include homicides, shootings, stabbings, sexual assaults, burglaries, assaults, drug and gun possession, robberies, and other types of violent crime.
Assistants in the Trial Division prosecute cases vertically. This means that they are assigned cases immediately after arrest and are responsible for those cases to final disposition by trial or plea. This vertical prosecution system means that one prosecutor will usually stay with the case from start to finish, better serving the victims, witnesses and law enforcement officials involved in the prosecution of crime. For more information on the criminal justice process, see Arrest to Sentence.
Felony assistants in the specialized bureaus and units develop expertise in certain types of crimes, involving sex crimes, child abuse, domestic violence, elder abuse, cybercrimes, identity theft, hate crimes, vehicular crimes, and other serious violent crime.
The Trial Division also handles public assistance fraud, litigation surrounding psychiatric evaluations, landlord-tenant narcotics evictions, as well as a crime strategies unit that identifies groups and individuals most responsible for committing crimes in our communities.
The Special Victims Bureau, created by District Attorney Vance in September 2010, is committed to prosecuting crimes against some of Manhattan's most sensitive and vulnerable victims, whose lives are significantly changed by the nature of the crimes committed against them. The Bureau oversees four units that specialize in handling cases involving special victims: the Sex Crimes Unit, Child Abuse Unit, Domestic Violence Unit, and Elder Abuse Unit. By joining these units, we seek to better serve the victims of these crimes by coordinating Office, law enforcement and social services resources. The Bureau provides the Assistant District Attorneys who work in these units with the most advanced training for investigating and prosecuting these cases with standardized best practices to ensure that our victims are protected and able to restore safety in their lives. In addition, the Bureau is proactive in participating in legislative reform to ensure effective and successful prosecutions. Our mission is to bring order and stability to victims' lives while ensuring that their voices are heard in the criminal justice process.
The Sex Crimes Unit thoroughly investigates and prosecutes cases involving sexual assaults and other related crimes. The Unit's experienced, specially-trained prosecutors strive to bring the strongest prosecutions for victims of these heinous crimes, while ensuring that those who are falsely accused are not prosecuted and are cleared as early in the process as possible. The Unit endeavors to treat everyone with the respect and consideration appropriate for dealing with these serious and sensitive cases.
How to get help: 212-335-9373
The Child Abuse Unit's mission is to stop child abuse and child abusers, to protect children, and to keep children and families safe, healthy, and strong. The Unit specializes in investigating and prosecuting cases involving the abuse of children and uses a child-friendly setting to help children feel comfortable and safe. We partner with local and national experts to seek just outcomes and to provide support, medical care, and mental health services to victims and their families.
The Domestic Violence Unit specializes in investigating and prosecuting crimes committed against intimate partners. Its mission is to reduce crimes against intimate partners through vigorous prosecution by highly-trained prosecutors devoted to protecting victims and holding the perpetrators accountable. The Unit applies a multi-disciplinary approach to assisting our victims by working with victim advocates, social workers and counselors. We believe in working with the community in order to help break the cycle of violence through outreach, education, and training. The safety of our victims is our number one priority.
Hotline: 212-335-4308
The Elder Abuse Unit investigates and prosecutes crimes involving victims, 60 years of age and older, including those who are impaired. The Unit handles crimes committed against older victims of crimes, including physical abuse, domestic violence, financial exploitation and neglect. We work closely with the New York Police Department and other agencies throughout New York City to improve the older crime victims' quality of life while providing guidance and assistance as they navigate their way through the criminal justice system.
How to get help: 212-335-8920
Human Trafficking degrades and victimizes countless individuals every year through forced labor, sexual exploitation, and other forms of servitude. Victims are often physically abused, psychologically coerced, and fearful of reporting their abuse to authorities. Trafficked individuals are forced, tricked, or coerced to work in a variety of jobs or in the sex industry. These victims are often emotionally and economically dependent upon their abusers, and remain silent as their worlds grow smaller and more dangerous. Along with our partners in law enforcement and the advocate community, we've made it easier for trafficked individuals to report crime and obtain services.
How to get help: (212) 335-3400
The Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau ("CITB") is committed to protecting the public by combating sophisticated cybercrime and identity theft schemes in Manhattan and worldwide. Recognizing that the Internet is the crime scene of the 21st century, the Bureau employs cutting-edge technology to thwart cybercriminals by prosecuting check and credit card fraud, cyber impersonation, child exploitation and pornography, cyber-stalking, cyber-bullying, computer hacking, as well as white collar crimes involving money laundering and threats to financial institutions. Formed in March 2010 by District Attorney Vance, the Bureau works on prosecutions in both the Trial and Investigation Divisions.In addition to highly trained attorneys, the Bureau includes a dedicated team of investigators and forensic analysts, led by nationally-recognized computer crimes and computer forensic experts.
The Crime Strategies Unit works closely with the New York Police Department, other law enforcement agencies and members of the community to identify groups and individuals most responsible for committing crimes that impact our communities, from violent crimes to lower-level, quality-of-life offenses. The Unit's Assistant District Attorneys forge partnerships with local community residents and police precincts to gain knowledge about the crimes that plague their communities and to identify ways to address crime trends in Manhattan neighborhoods. The Unit works with its partners in the community, including law enforcement and other agencies, to develop and implement intelligence-driven prosecution strategies targeting priority offenders and neighborhoods.
The Forensic Sciences/Cold Case Unit, created in April 2010, specializes in the use of state-of-the-art forensic science to enhance investigations and prosecutions in a manner that comports with the highest standards in the field. The Unit serves in an advisory capacity to the Trial Division on all cases that involve forensic science, regardless of the nature and severity of the charges, and is designed to ensure that all have access to the tools needed to prosecute the variety of cases that involve forensic scientific evidence. Furthermore, the Unit provides training to ADAs on forensic science and the handling of cold cases to ensure that our Office continues to use the most sophisticated forensic evidence in prosecutions. The Unit also reviews motions for post-conviction DNA testing and conducts systematic reviews of every unsolved homicide in Manhattan committed in the last 30 years to determine whether the homicides can be solved using state-of-the-art forensic testing techniques.
Created by DA Vance in May 2010, the Hate Crimes Unit investigates and prosecutes hate and bias crimes committed in New York County. The Unit collaborates with the New York City Police Department and community organizations to develop strategies that seek to prevent bias-motivated crimes, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. The Assistants District Attorneys assigned to the Hates Crimes Unit have been specifically trained to investigate and prosecute these types of crimes with the assistance of experienced investigators.
If you believe that you may be the victim of a hate or bias crime in Manhattan, call the District Attorney's Office's Hate Crimes Hotline at 212-335-3100.
The Vehicular Crimes Unit oversees and provides support to Assistants District Attorneys office-wide in cases including Vehicular Homicide, Assault, DWI and other vehicle-related crimes. These cases are often very technical and involve obtaining blood search warrants, conducting analyses to reconstruct crash scenes, determining speed from skid and yaw marks, and analyzing pedestrian throw and impact findings. The Unit works closely with the New York Police Department's Collision Investigation Squad and Highway Unit, frequently interacting with detectives from the time a crash occurs. Assistants routinely go to crash scenes to enhance the investigation of these cases. Assistants receive on-going training on issues involving vehicular cases, with more than 40 ADAs today trained in vehicular prosecution.
The Violent Criminal Enterprises Unit is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of violent organized crime in Manhattan and beyond, including drug-related homicides, armed street gangs, interstate gun runners and narcotics dealers. The Unit's current principal focus is combating violent street crime committed by gangs, particularly gang shootings, and the possession and sale of illegal firearms. The Unit works with the elite units of the NYPD, as well as with federal agents from Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and New York City's joint firearms and narcotics task forces to reduce violent street crime by disarming violent offenders. The Unit was created by District Attorney Vance in June of 2010.
New York State's welfare programs, particularly its Medicaid program, are rife with the potential for abuse and fraud. The Public Assistance Fraud Unit (PAFU), in partnership with New York City's Human Resources Administration, prosecutes fraud and abuse committed by recipients of public assistance. By investigating and prosecuting these cases to the fullest extent of the law, PAFU recovers money for the city and state, and also helps discourage future crimes against welfare programs. The Unit also helps fight a growing problem: the illegal sale of prescription drugs, particularly medication intended for the treatment of pain management or AIDS. Often, these medications are obtained by Medicaid recipients through forged prescriptions, aided by unethical doctors who are often paid for writing these prescriptions. The prosecution of Medicaid clients who abuse their Medicaid privileges and the doctors who participate in this type of fraud are a main focus of PAFU's prosecutions.
The Unit works closely with law enforcement agencies, including the Human Resources Administration's Bureau of Fraud Investigations, New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General, New York City Police Department, New York State Department of Health, and the United States Department of Health. Created in 1995, the Unit has uncovered more than $7 million in fraud involving public assistance programs.
Given its diversity of practice, the Special Litigation Bureau often serves as a consultant throughout the District Attorney's Office and law enforcement community. In addition to the investigation and prosecution of homicides and other felony offenses, the bureau represents the Office in civil matters, including psychiatric litigation involving defendants found to be not responsible for their crimes as a result of a mental disease or defect. The Bureau is in charge of the Office's Narcotics Eviction Program, which utilizes civil statutes to evict individuals who use their residential or commercial premises in connection with an illegal business. It represents the Office and its personnel in litigation brought against the Office and coordinates with various executive and law enforcement authorities for the extradition of fugitives apprehended in Manhattan. The Bureau also receives all requests for information made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law.


text:
- Sexton
- Join Date: 3/9/2012
- Posts: 343
- Member Details
I am so excited for those monk changes. Finally we can stray from keeping sweeping wind up and spamming my mantra. Glorious day for monks
I can see what you see not. Vision milky, then eyes rot.
When you turn, they will be gone. Whispering their hidden song.
Then you see what cannot be. Shadows move where light should be.
Out of darkness, out of mind. Cast down into the Halls of the Blind