Balancing simplicity and functionality in designing user-interface for an interactive TV

Recent computer vision and content-based multimedia techniques such as scene segmentation, face detection, searching through video clips, and video summarisation are potentially useful tools in enhancing the usefulness of an interactive TV (iTV). However, the technical nature and the relative immaturity of these tools means it is difficult to represent new functionalities afforded by these techniques in an easy-to-use manner on a TV interface where simplicity is critical and the viewers are not necessarily proficient in using advanced or highly-sophisticated interaction using a remote control. By introducing multiple layers of interaction sophistication and the unobtrusive semi-transparent panels that can be immediately invoked without menu hierarchy or complex sequence of actions, we developed an iTV application featuring powerful content retrieval techniques yet providing a streamlined and simple interface that gracefully leverages these techniques. Initial version of the interface is ready for demonstration

Expeditious Synthesis of Phenanthridines from Benzylamines via Dual Palladium Catalysis

A method for the synthesis of phenanthridines from benzylamines and aryl iodides which uses a dual palladium-catalyzed process is developed. The domino sequence ends via an intramolecular amination and an oxidative dehydrogenation. No protecting group or prefunctionalization of the amine is required, and the process uses dioxygen as the terminal oxidan

Synthesis of Triangular Tripalladium Cations as Noble-Metal Analogues of the Cyclopropenyl Cation

The first C-3-symmetric 44-core-valence-electron triangular palladium clusters, [{(SAr)(PAr3)Pd}(3)](+), have been synthesized by activation of the CS bond of isothioureas. Owing to delocalized metal-metal bonding, these stable complexes are the first noble-metal analogues of the -aromatic cyclopropenyl cation [C3H3](+), with their all-metal aromaticity involving d-type atomic orbital

Rearrangements of N-Acyl Isothioureas. Alternate Access to Acylguanidines from Cyanamides

We report a tin-free one-pot radical approach to the synthesis of N-acyl isothioureas and acylguanidines from N-acyl cyanamides. Photoactivated reduction of aromatic disulfides in the presence of Hünig’s base results in hydrothiolation of the cyanamide moiety, followed by spontaneous 1,3-migration of the acyl group. Onward reaction of the isothioureas obtained with amines led to the corresponding N-acylguanidines, where the acyl group is attached to the nitrogen atom formerly at the cyano-end of the starting materia

The Cyanamide Moiety, Synthesis and Reactivity

The cyanamide moiety provides many opportunities as a building block for the synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles. This review discusses the reported methods for the preparation of alkyl- and N-acylcyanamides and illustrates their reactivity vis-à-vis nucleophilic additions, cycloadditions, radical chemistry and coordination chemistr