CN102737611A - Automatic display brightness adjusting method and portable electronic device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method for automatically adjusting the brightness of a display and a portable electronic device. First, the method receives a plurality of brightness sensing signals and calculates an average ambient illumination value based on the signals. Next, the method receives a user setting signal. The user setting signal includes an increase or decrease value defined by the user. Then, the method finds a corresponding specific brightness control signal from a comparison table according to the average ambient illumination value and the increase or decrease value defined by the user. Afterwards, the method automatically adjusts the display brightness of the display according to the specific brightness control signal. The present invention can use the ambient illumination sensed by the ambient light sensor to automatically adjust the display brightness of the display.

Description

Display brightness automatic adjustment method and portable electronic device

technical field

The invention relates to brightness adjustment of a display, in particular to a method for automatically adjusting the brightness of a display and a portable electronic device.

Background technique

In recent years, with the advancement of light sensing technology, many advanced light sensing elements have been developed successively and widely used in various electronic products. For example, currently common portable electronic devices on the market, such as smart phones, notebook computers or tablet computers, etc., can already use ambient light sensors to sense ambient illuminance, and match the current backlight of their displays Brightness or in battery/charging mode, the display brightness is automatically adjusted.

Although the portable electronic devices on the market can automatically adjust the display brightness, users still feel that there are some defects when actually using the display brightness automatic adjustment function. For example, when the portable electronic device is in the automatic brightness adjustment mode, the portable electronic device will automatically adjust the display brightness of its display according to the ambient illuminance sensing result of the ambient light sensor and the power input mode, but ignores the most important The user's subjective perception of vision.

Regardless of whether the user feels that the brightness of the display automatically adjusted by the portable electronic device is too bright or too dark, the user cannot adjust the display brightness of the display of the portable electronic device in the automatic brightness adjustment mode according to his subjective visual experience. The action of brightening or dimming, on the contrary, makes the automatic adjustment function of the display brightness unable to meet the actual needs of the user, and even causes discomfort to the eyes of the user when watching the screen.

Contents of the invention

The present invention provides a method for automatically adjusting the brightness of a display and a portable electronic device to solve the above-mentioned problems encountered in the prior art.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for automatically adjusting the brightness of a display. In an embodiment, the above method for automatically adjusting brightness of a display is applied to a display. The method for automatically adjusting the brightness of the display includes the following steps: receiving a plurality of brightness sensing signals, and calculating an average ambient illuminance value; receiving a user setting signal, the user setting signal includes a user-defined increase and decrease value; Find the corresponding specific brightness control signal from the comparison table according to the average ambient illuminance value and the increase/decrease value defined by the user; automatically adjust the display brightness of the display according to the specific brightness control signal.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the comparison table includes a plurality of ambient illumination values and corresponding adjustment level values and brightness control signals. The above-mentioned step of finding the specific brightness control signal includes the following steps: comparing the above-mentioned average ambient illuminance value with the above-mentioned comparison table to find out the first adjustment-level value corresponding to the above-mentioned average ambient illuminance value from the above-mentioned multiple adjustment-level values; Generate a second adjustment level value according to the first adjustment level value and the increase/decrease value defined by the user; compare the second adjustment level value with the above comparison table to find out the corresponding brightness control signal from the plurality of brightness control signals The above-mentioned specific brightness control signal for the second adjustment step value.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of comparing the second adjustment level value with the comparison table includes the following steps: judging whether the second adjustment level value has reached the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value; If the judgment result is yes, set the above-mentioned second adjustment level value as the above-mentioned maximum adjustment level value or the above-mentioned minimum adjustment level value; according to the above-mentioned maximum adjustment level value or the above-mentioned minimum adjustment level value, find out The above-mentioned specific brightness control signal corresponding to the above-mentioned maximum adjustment level value or the above-mentioned minimum adjustment level value.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the maximum adjustment step value and the minimum adjustment step value respectively correspond to the maximum display brightness or the minimum display brightness of the display. The step of automatically adjusting the display brightness of the display includes the following steps: controlling the display brightness of the display to be the maximum display brightness or the minimum display brightness according to the specific brightness control signal.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable electronic device. In one embodiment, the portable electronic device includes a display, a brightness sensing unit, a user interface, a processing unit, and a brightness control unit. The brightness sensing unit is used for sensing ambient illuminance and generating a plurality of brightness sensing signals accordingly. The user interface is used for generating user setting signals. The above-mentioned user setting signal includes user-defined increment and decrement values. The processing unit is coupled to the brightness sensing unit and the user interface, and is used to receive the plurality of brightness sensing signals and the user setting signal, and calculate an average ambient illuminance value according to the plurality of brightness sensing signals, And the corresponding specific brightness control signal is found from the comparison table according to the above-mentioned average ambient illuminance value and the increase/decrease value defined by the user. The brightness control unit is coupled to the processing unit and the display, and is used for automatically adjusting the display brightness of the display according to a specific brightness control signal.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the comparison table includes a plurality of ambient illumination values and corresponding adjustment level values and brightness control signals. The processing unit includes a calculation subunit and a comparison subunit. After the calculation subunit calculates the average ambient illuminance value according to the above-mentioned multiple brightness sensing signals, the comparison sub-unit is coupled to the above-mentioned calculation subunit to compare the average ambient illuminance value with the comparison table to obtain from the above-mentioned multiple adjustment steps. Find the value of the first adjustment order corresponding to the average ambient illuminance value from the values. Next, after the calculation subunit generates the second adjustment level value according to the first adjustment level value and the increase or decrease value defined by the user, the comparison subunit compares the second adjustment level value with the comparison table to obtain from the above-mentioned multiple brightness control signals Find the specific brightness control signal corresponding to the value of the second adjustment step.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the comparison subunit includes a judger, a setter and a comparer. The judger is used for judging whether the second adjustment level value has reached the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value. The setter is coupled to the judging unit, and if the judging result of the judging unit is yes, the setter sets the second adjustment level value as the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value. The comparator is coupled to the setter, and the comparator is used to find the specific brightness control signal corresponding to the maximum or minimum adjustment level value from the above-mentioned plurality of brightness control signals according to the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value .

The beneficial effect of the present invention is that, compared with the prior art, the method for automatically adjusting the brightness of the display proposed by the present invention can not only enable the portable electronic device using the above method to use the ambient illuminance sensed by the ambient light sensor (ambient light sensor) In addition to the automatic adjustment of the brightness of the display, the display brightness of the display can be further adjusted according to the brightness increase and decrease values defined by the user, so that it can fully meet the user's visual needs for the brightness of the display, and avoid When users watch the display of the portable electronic device, their eyes will feel uncomfortable.

The advantages and spirit of the present invention can be further understood through the following detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the functional block diagram of the portable electronic device of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a detailed functional block diagram of the processing unit in Fig. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an example of the comparison table of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method for automatically adjusting display brightness according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is the detailed flowchart of step S14 in Fig. 4;

FIG. 6 is a detailed flowchart of sub-step S144 in FIG. 5 .

Detailed ways

The first preferred embodiment according to the present invention is a portable electronic device. The aforementioned portable electronic device may be a smart phone, a notebook computer or a tablet computer, but is not limited thereto. Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 , FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the portable electronic device of this embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a detailed functional block diagram of the processing unit in FIG. 1 .

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , the portable electronic device 1 includes a display 10 , a brightness sensing unit 12 , a user interface 14 , a processing unit 16 , a BIOS unit 17 , a brightness control unit 18 , a CPU 19 and a storage unit 20 . The processing unit 16 includes a calculation subunit 160 and a comparison subunit 162 . The comparison subunit 162 includes a determiner 1620 , a setter 1622 and a comparer 1624 . The processing unit 16 is respectively coupled to the brightness sensing unit 12, the user interface 14, the brightness control unit 18 and the storage unit 20; the display 10 is coupled to the brightness control unit 18; the BIOS unit 17 is coupled to the processing unit 16; the central processing unit 19 is coupled to the BIOS unit 17; the comparison subunit 162 is coupled to the calculation subunit 160; the judging unit 1620 is coupled to the setting unit 1622; the setting unit 1622 is coupled to the comparator 1624.

In practical applications, the display 10 can be a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a light-emitting diode (LED) display; the brightness sensing unit 12 can be a light sensor with an ambient illuminance sensing function, such as an ambient light sensor (ambient light sensor); use The operator interface 14 can be a button or a touch screen of the portable electronic device 1, for the user to input or set an action; the processing unit 16 can be a microcontroller (MCU) or other computing processor; the BIOS unit 17 serves as The role of an intermediary between the central processing unit 19 and the processing unit 16 can also be coupled to a BIOS memory (not shown); the brightness control unit 18 can be a backlight circuit board for controlling the display brightness of the display 10; the storage unit 20 It can be any form of storage medium, such as memory or hard disk, but is not limited thereto.

Next, each unit included in the portable electronic device 1 and its functions will be described respectively.

In this embodiment, when the portable electronic device 1 is in the battery-powered mode, that is, when the portable electronic device 1 is not coupled to an AC power source through an adapter, the brightness sensing unit 12 will automatically sense the ambient illuminance and A plurality of brightness sensing signals are generated. In fact, the brightness sensing unit 12 can be disposed on the upper left or upper right of the display 10 of the portable electronic device 1 , or integrated in the network camera unit together with the CMOS sensor and the microphone, but not limited thereto. It should be noted that the brightness sensing unit 12 is actually an IC disposed in the housing of the portable electronic device 1 , which is coupled to a flexible flat cable (FPC) and coupled to the processing unit 16 through I2C. The brightness sensing unit 12 includes two photosensitive elements for sensing visible light and infrared rays respectively, and outputting these brightness sensing signals after signal processing.

In this embodiment, the user interface 14 is used to generate a user setting signal, and the user setting signal includes an increase or decrease value defined by the user. In fact, the user can use the user interface 14 (such as keys or touch screen) of the portable electronic device 1 to select an operating system ( For example, in the environment of Windows operating system), the user-defined increase and decrease values are set through the application program, but not limited thereto.

In this embodiment, the processing unit 16 will receive these brightness sensing signals output by the brightness sensing unit 12 and the user setting signal output by the user interface 14, and calculate the average environment according to these brightness sensing signals. The illuminance value, and find out the corresponding specific brightness control signal from the comparison table according to the average ambient illuminance value and the increase or decrease value defined by the user. In fact, the processing unit 16 can use different calculation methods to calculate the average ambient illuminance value according to actual needs, such as arithmetic average method, weighted average method, median fraction average method, etc., and there is no specific limitation.

In practical applications, the look-up table may include a plurality of ambient illuminance values and a plurality of corresponding adjustment level values and a plurality of brightness control signals. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 , the comparison table T can record 16 ambient illumination values and corresponding 16 adjustment level values L0-L15 and 16 brightness control signals, but it is not limited thereto. It should be noted that FIG. 3 is only a schematic diagram of six adjustment orders. In fact, the average ambient illuminance value calculated by the processing unit 16 , the user-defined increase/decrease value output by the user interface 14 and the comparison table can all be stored in the storage unit 20 , but not limited thereto.

In detail, as shown in FIG. 2, after the calculating subunit 160 calculates the average ambient illuminance value according to these brightness sensing signals, the comparison subunit 162 will compare the average ambient illuminance value with the ambient illuminance values stored in the comparison table. The illuminance value is used to find the first adjustment level value corresponding to the average ambient illuminance value from the adjustment level values in the comparison table. Next, after the calculation subunit 160 generates the second adjustment level value according to the first adjustment level value and the increase or decrease value defined by the user, then the comparison subunit 162 compares the second adjustment level value with the comparison table to obtain from the comparison table Among the brightness control signals, a specific brightness control signal corresponding to the value of the second adjustment step is found.

In practical applications, since the display 10 of the portable electronic device 1 itself has a maximum display brightness and a minimum display brightness, which respectively correspond to the maximum adjustment level value (L15) and the minimum adjustment level value (L0) in the comparison table T of FIG. 2 , Therefore, in order to avoid the second adjustment order value obtained by the calculation subunit 160 from exceeding the range between the maximum adjustment order value (L15) and the minimum adjustment order value (L0) in the comparison table T, the judger of the comparison subunit 162 Step 1620 will determine whether the second adjustment level value has reached the maximum adjustment level value (L15) or the minimum adjustment level value (L0).

If the judging result of the judging unit 1620 is yes, that is, the second adjustment level value has reached the maximum adjustment level value (L15) or the minimum adjustment level value (L0), the setter 1622 will set the second adjustment level value as The maximum adjustment step value (L15) or the minimum adjustment step value (L0). Next, the comparator 1624 finds out the specific brightness corresponding to the maximum adjustment level value (L15) or the minimum adjustment level value (L0) from these brightness control signals according to the maximum adjustment level value (L15) or the minimum adjustment level value (L0). Brightness control signal.

Since the maximum adjustment level value (L15) and the minimum adjustment level value (L0) correspond to the maximum display brightness or the minimum display brightness of the display 10 respectively, the brightness control unit 18 will control the display brightness of the display 10 according to a specific brightness control signal to be Maximum display brightness or minimum display brightness.

On the contrary, if the judging result of the judging unit 1620 is negative, that is, the second adjustment level value has not reached the maximum adjustment level value (L15) or the minimum adjustment level value (L0), the comparator 1624 will adjust according to the second adjustment level value A specific brightness control signal corresponding to the value of the second adjustment level is found out from the brightness control signals. Afterwards, the brightness control unit 18 automatically adjusts the display brightness of the display 10 according to the specific brightness control signal.

The second preferred embodiment according to the present invention is a method for automatically adjusting the brightness of a display. In this embodiment, the method for automatically adjusting brightness of a display is applied to a display. Actually, the display is set on a portable electronic device, the display may be a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a light emitting diode (LED) display, and the portable electronic device may be a smart phone, a notebook computer or a tablet computer, but not with This is the limit.

Please refer to FIG. 4 , which is a flowchart of a method for automatically adjusting brightness of a display in this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4 , first, the method executes step S10 to receive a plurality of brightness sensing signals and calculate an average ambient illuminance value based on them. In practical applications, these brightness sensing signals can be obtained by sensing ambient illuminance around the portable electronic device through a light sensor of the portable electronic device, such as an ambient light sensor, but not limited thereto.

Next, the method executes step S12 to receive a user setting signal including a user-defined increase or decrease value. In practical applications, the user can set the user-defined increase or decrease value through the application program in the environment of the operating system (OS) through the user interface such as the button of the portable electronic device or the touch screen, but this does not constitute a limit.

Afterwards, the method executes step S14 to find out the corresponding specific brightness control signal from the comparison table according to the average ambient illuminance value and the increase/decrease value defined by the user. In practical applications, the look-up table may include a plurality of ambient illuminance values and a plurality of corresponding adjustment level values and a plurality of brightness control signals. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 , the comparison table T can record 16 ambient illumination values and corresponding 16 adjustment level values L0-L15 and 16 brightness control signals, but it is not limited thereto. It should be noted that FIG. 3 is only a schematic diagram of six adjustment orders.

In detail, as shown in FIG. 5 , step S14 includes the following three sub-steps S140 - S144 . In sub-step S140, the method compares the average ambient illuminance value with the look-up table to find out the first adjustment-level value corresponding to the average ambient illuminance value from these adjustment-level values. For example, assuming that the ambient illuminance value is 60, it can be known from the comparison table T in FIG. 3 that the first adjustment step value corresponding to the ambient illuminance value of 60 is L12.

Next, in sub-step S142 , the method generates a second adjustment level value according to the first adjustment level value and a user-defined increase or decrease value. Continuing from the above example, it is known that the value of the first adjustment level is L12. If the value defined by the user is (+1), that is, the user feels that the brightness of the display of the portable electronic device is not bright enough, so he wants to change the original value of the first adjustment level to L12. Adding 1 to an adjustment level value ( L12 ) results in a second adjustment level value ( L13 ).

Then, in sub-step S144 , the method compares the second adjustment level value with the look-up table to find a specific brightness control signal corresponding to the second adjustment level value from the brightness control signals. Based on the above example, it is known that the second adjustment level value is L13, and it can be known from the comparison table T in FIG. 2 that the specific brightness control signal corresponding to the second adjustment level value L13 is (0xAB).

In practical applications, since the display of the portable electronic device itself has a maximum display brightness and a minimum display brightness, which correspond to the maximum adjustment level value (L15) and the minimum adjustment level value (L0), therefore, in order to avoid the method from performing sub-step S142 The obtained second adjustment level value exceeds the range between the maximum adjustment level value (L15) and the minimum adjustment level value (L0), and the sub-step S144 may include the following three sub-steps S1440-S1446. As shown in FIG. 6, in sub-step S1440, the method judges whether the second adjustment level value has reached the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value.

Continuing from the above example, since the second adjustment order value is L13, it has not reached the maximum adjustment order value (L15) or the minimum adjustment order value (L0), that is, the judgment result of the method execution sub-step S1440 is No, at this time the method The sub-step S1442 will be executed to find the specific brightness control signal corresponding to the second adjustment level value from the brightness control signals according to the second adjustment level value.

In another example, when the second adjustment level value is L15 or L0, since the second adjustment level value (L15 or L0) has reached the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value, that is, the method executes the judgment of sub-step S1440 If the result is yes, then the method will execute sub-step S1444 to set the second adjustment level value as the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value. Next, the method executes sub-step S1446 , finding a specific brightness control signal corresponding to the maximum or minimum adjustment level value from the brightness control signals according to the maximum or minimum adjustment level value.

Returning to FIG. 4 , after the method has found the specific brightness control signal through the above steps, the method will execute step S16 to automatically adjust the display brightness of the display according to the specific brightness control signal. It should be noted that when the second adjustment level value has reached the maximum adjustment level value (L15) or the minimum adjustment level value (L0), after the method executes sub-step S1446, step S160 will be executed to control the brightness according to a specific brightness control signal. The display brightness of the monitor is the maximum display brightness or the minimum display brightness.

In practical applications, the portable electronic device controls the display brightness of its display through the backlight module. Generally speaking, there are two ways for a portable electronic device to output a specific brightness control signal to a backlight module: one is through direct current (DC) signals of different voltages, and the other is through pulse-width modulation (Pulse-Width Modulation). Modulation, PWM) signal, but not limited thereto.

Compared with the prior art, the method for automatically adjusting the display brightness proposed by the present invention can not only enable the portable electronic device using the method to automatically adjust the display brightness by using the ambient illuminance sensed by the ambient light sensor, but also The display brightness of the display can be further adjusted according to the brightness increase or decrease value defined by the user, so it can fully meet the user's visual demand for display brightness, and prevent the user's eyes from blurring when watching the display of a portable electronic device. feel sick.

Through the above detailed description of the preferred embodiments, it is hoped that the features and spirit of the present invention can be described more clearly, rather than limiting the scope of the present invention by the preferred embodiments disclosed above. On the contrary, the intention is to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements within the scope of the appended claims of the present invention.

Claims (8)

1. A display brightness automatic adjustment method, is characterized in that, comprises the following steps: Receive multiple brightness sensing signals and calculate the average ambient illuminance value based on them; receiving a user setting signal, the user setting signal includes a user-defined increase and decrease value; find out the corresponding specific brightness control signal from the comparison table according to the above-mentioned average ambient illuminance value and the above-mentioned increase/decrease value defined by the user; and The display brightness of the display is automatically adjusted according to the above-mentioned specific brightness control signal. 2. The method for automatically adjusting the brightness of a display according to claim 1, wherein the comparison table includes a plurality of ambient illuminance values and a plurality of corresponding adjustment steps and a plurality of brightness control signals, and the above-mentioned specific brightness is found The step of controlling the signal comprises the following steps: Comparing the above-mentioned average ambient illuminance value with the above-mentioned comparison table to find out the first adjustment-order value corresponding to the above-mentioned average ambient illuminance value from the above-mentioned multiple adjustment-order values; generating a second adjustment level value according to the first adjustment level value and the user-defined increase or decrease value; and Comparing the second adjustment step value with the comparison table to find out the specific brightness control signal corresponding to the second adjustment step value from the plurality of brightness control signals. 3. The method for automatically adjusting brightness of a display according to claim 2, wherein the step of comparing the above-mentioned second adjustment order value with the above-mentioned comparison table comprises the following steps: Judging whether the above-mentioned second adjustment level value has reached the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value; If the judgment result of the above-mentioned judging step is yes, setting the above-mentioned second adjustment step value as the above-mentioned maximum adjustment step value or the above-mentioned minimum adjustment step value; and The specific brightness control signal corresponding to the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value is found from the plurality of brightness control signals according to the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value. 4. The method for automatically adjusting brightness of a display according to claim 3, wherein the above-mentioned maximum adjustment level value and the above-mentioned minimum adjustment level value correspond to the maximum display brightness or the minimum display brightness of the above-mentioned display respectively, and the above-mentioned automatic adjustment of the brightness of the above-mentioned display The above step of displaying brightness includes the following steps: The display brightness of the display is controlled to be the maximum display brightness or the minimum display brightness according to the specific brightness control signal. 5. A portable electronic device, characterized in that it comprises: monitor; a brightness sensing unit, used for sensing ambient illuminance and generating a plurality of brightness sensing signals accordingly; The user interface is used to generate a user setting signal, and the user setting signal includes an increase and decrease value defined by the user; a processing unit, coupled to the brightness sensing unit and the user interface, for receiving the plurality of brightness sensing signals and the user setting signal, and calculating an average ambient illuminance value according to the plurality of brightness sensing signals , and find the corresponding specific brightness control signal from the comparison table according to the above-mentioned average ambient illuminance value and the above-mentioned user-defined increase/decrease value; and The brightness control unit is coupled to the above-mentioned processing unit and the above-mentioned display, and is used for automatically adjusting the display brightness of the above-mentioned display according to the above-mentioned specific brightness control signal. 6. The portable electronic device according to claim 5, wherein the comparison table includes a plurality of ambient illuminance values and a plurality of corresponding adjustment level values and a plurality of brightness control signals, and the processing unit includes: a calculation subunit, configured to calculate the above-mentioned average ambient illuminance value according to the above-mentioned multiple brightness sensing signals; and The comparison subunit is coupled to the calculation subunit, and is used to compare the above-mentioned average ambient illuminance value with the above-mentioned comparison table, so as to find out the first adjustment step corresponding to the above-mentioned average ambient illuminance value from the above-mentioned multiple adjustment step values value, the calculation subunit generates a second adjustment level value according to the first adjustment level value and the increase or decrease value defined by the user, and the comparison subunit compares the second adjustment level value with the comparison table to obtain from the above The specific brightness control signal corresponding to the second adjustment step value is found among the plurality of brightness control signals. 7. The portable electronic device according to claim 6, wherein the comparison subunit comprises: A judging device, used to judge whether the above-mentioned second adjustment level value has reached the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value; a setter, coupled to the judging unit, if the judging result of the judging unit is yes, the setting unit sets the second adjustment level value as the maximum adjustment level value or the minimum adjustment level value; and The comparator is coupled to the above-mentioned setter, and is used to find out the brightness control signal corresponding to the above-mentioned maximum adjustment-level value or the above-mentioned minimum adjustment-level value from the above-mentioned multiple brightness control signals according to the above-mentioned maximum adjustment-level value or the above-mentioned minimum adjustment-level value The above specific brightness control signal. 8. The portable electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the maximum adjustment step value and the minimum adjustment step value respectively correspond to the maximum display brightness or the minimum display brightness of the display, and the brightness control unit according to the specific brightness The control signal controls the display brightness of the display to be the maximum display brightness or the minimum display brightness.

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