Leading zero

Abstract: Magnetic stripe documents are identified and authenticated on the basis of repeatable magnetic characteristics of a stripe recorded with digital data. Stripes are sensed to provide an analog signal, only a portion of which is used, specifically, the portion storing leading zeros. Cyclically, the leading zeros are sampled and digitized as a target number of samples using a frequency locked loop. The target number of samples for each zero is then reduced by a selection process that attains a predetermined number of digital samples that represent a magnetized portion of a leading zero, specifically, a space between data transitions. Groups of selected predetermined number of digital samples are then combined to provide a card magnetic characteristic identifier. The harmonic content of the characteristic identifier is tested as a measure of the quality of the stripe sensing. A predetermined level of quality conditions verification. Documents are verified by correlating reference and recent characteristic identifiers. Specific forms of sensor structures are utilized for the applications involving multitudes of different documents and sensor structures.

Abstract: Emperor Joseph II: My dear young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect. Mozart: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty? Emperor Joseph II : Well, there it is. Quotation from the film Amadeus (1984) As a statistical reviewer for Archives and BMJ I am interested in the presentation of numerical data.1 It concerns me that numbers are often reported to excessive precision, because too many digits can swamp the reader, overcomplicate the story and obscure the message. A number's precision relates to its decimal places or significant figures (or as preferred here, significant digits ). The number of decimal places is the number of digits to the right of the decimal point, while the number of significant digits is the number of all digits ignoring the decimal point, and ignoring all leading zeros and some trailing zeros (for a fuller definition see ‘significant figures’ on Wikipedia). Ideally data should be rounded appropriately, not too much and not too little (one might call it Goldilocks rounding).2 The European Association of Science Editors guidelines include the useful rule of thumb: “numbers should be given in (sic) 2–3 effective digits” . 3 Take as an example the odds ratio (OR) of 22.68 (95% CI 7.51 to 73.67) comparing beta mimetics with placebo for side effects requiring a change of medication.4 Its two decimal places and four significant digits are excessive when the effect size and confidence interval (CI) are so large. Reporting it rounded to two significant digits, as 23 (7.5 to 74), or even as 23 (8 to 70), with one significant digit for the CI, would be simpler …

Abstract: A novel technique for decoding variable length encoded data in a bit stream such as video data compressed in accordance with JPEG, MPEG, or DV standards is disclosed. The disclosed technique preprocesses the input data to generate a pointer to a variable length code table from the encoded code word, the entry in the variable length table providing the information necessary to decode the code word. Preprocessing of the input data includes encoding leading ones or leading zeros and selecting a subset of bits following the leading ones or zeros. The pointer to the variable length code table is generated from a base value corresponding to the symbol type being decoded. The base values for the symbols being decoded may be stored in a first look up table which may contain multiple entries for one or more of the symbol types, the number of entries corresponding to the number of leading ones or zeros.

Abstract: In a digital computer system in which arithmetic operands are addressed in instructions by their most significant digits, and in which operands need not start or end on particular boundaries in system memory, apparatus is provided for calculating information from data available during instruction decoding and for using that information during operand fetching to fetch operands least significant digit first, and to store them in a scratchpad memory right-justified on double-word boundaries and filled with leading zeros.