Anodes for electrochemical cells and batteries are described herein. In particular, and anode comprises silicon oxide particles on a transition metal current collector (e.g., copper, nickel, copper alloy, and the like), wherein the particles comprise nanocrystalline domains of silicon dispersed within a silicon oxide matrix. The particles do not include a metal oxide coating, and are produced by heating a silicon monoxide powder at a temperature in the range of about 400 to about 1100° C. under an inert atmosphere for about 2 to about 20 hours. In some embodiments, the particles are free from a metal oxide coating and have an average diameter of about 20 to 10000 nm; the nanocrystalline domains of silicon comprise about 10 to about 90 mole percent of the particles; and the nanocrystalline domains have dimensions of about 0.2 to about 50 nm in average diameter.

Limited energy resources and the growing demand to decrease greenhouse gas emissions have intensified research of carbon-free energy sources. Batteries that store high-energy densities play a large role in implementation of green energy technologies and non-petroleum vehicular mobility. To date, rechargeable Li-ion batteries (LIBs) offer the highest energy density of any battery technology, and are expected to provide a solution for our future energy-storage requirements. Unfortunately, LIBs have a number of limitations, such as capacity loss over time during long-term cycling due to phase transitions leading to detrimental volume changes in the electrode materials. The energy density of LIBs must be improved in order for the adoption of the technology to be more widespread and economically compelling. One reason LIBs do not provide sufficient energy density is because the electrodes, both the negative electrode (anode), typically graphite, and the positive electrode (cathode), typically, layered LiMO2 (M=Mn, Co, Ni), spinel LiMn2O4 and olivine LiFePO4, do not offer sufficient capacity or a high enough electrochemical potential to meet energy demands. Thus, there is an increasing need for new LIB technologies to provide higher energy densities than are currently available.
Silicon is considered to be a promising next-generation anode material for LIBs due to its large energy density and natural abundance. However large volume change and poor stability with electrolytes are problems that must still be resolved. Silicon monoxide is considered as an alternative to graphite and silicon to meet the high energy requirements for LIBs. Compared to commercial graphite electrodes, silicon monoxide electrodes offer significantly higher capacity. However, large irreversible capacity loss (ICL) and a limited cycle life for silicon monoxide reduce the energy output and efficiency of the cell, thereby compromising the management of cell/battery operation.
There is an ongoing need for new electrode materials to ameliorate the problems associated with the ICL and limited cycle life of silicon monoxide. The electrodes and electrode materials described herein address this need.

High energy, long cycle life electrode for lithium-ion batteries


A foundation pile or pile segment is described that provides support for a structure such as a building foundation. The pile includes a generally solid body having a top end wall, a bottom end wall adapted for providing end load bearing capacity, and all around sidewalls. The sidewalls extend between the top end wall and the bottom end wall and has at least a pair of oppositely disposed spiral ridges that extend generally about the surface of the sidewalls. Further, each spiral ridge extends in a generally spiral direction from the top end wall to the bottom end wall. The spiral ridges provide an offset surface that extends generally outward from the surface of the sidewalls. The offset surfaces provide additional load bearing capacity to the foundation pile.

The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for supporting above-ground structures and/or repairing structural foundations. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and system that includes a foundation pile segment, or a plurality of corresponding foundation pile segments, having enhanced supporting or underpinning capacity. The invention further relates to a method of support installation or underpinning utilizing such a pile or piles, whereby the pile is driven vertically into the earth.
Foundation pile segments, or simply, foundation piles, are driven into and installed in the earth to transfer thereto, the loads applied to or resulting from above-ground structures such as buildings, slabs, walls and columns. An installed foundation pile obtains its load bearing capacity primarily from two surface areas: the bottom surface and the sidewall surfaces. The bottom surface provides the primary, direct end load bearing capacity. The sidewall surfaces, on the other hand, frictionally engages the adjacent soil to provide frictional surface areas that resist the downwardly directed load.


After the user touches anywhere within a designated “group key” area of multiple characters or functions on the touch screen keyboard, a “keypad” is created that is centered around the user's touch. The keypad has the same layout of characters and functions as the group key, but the keypad moves as necessary from the location of the group key to re-centre at the point of the user's touch. Maintaining the touch, the user swipes a fingertip from a central dead zone on the keypad to one of the keys to select it. Audio and haptic indicators may also be provided. The keyboard may be active without being displayed.

Data entry by use of a touchscreen has had the inherent challenge of providing no tactile measure or response by which a person can be sure that the right key has been engaged when the smooth-surfaced screen is touched. Compounding this challenge has been the factor that many touchscreen devices, as for instance on mobile telephones, are small with tiny keys.
As a result, a person entering data has had to visually observe the touchscreen while entering data to be sure that the correct keys are selected. These difficulties have made data entry through touchscreen devices generally slower and more error-prone than through mechanical keyboards. What we do now with a mechanical desktop keyboard is essentially to pass our fingers over the keyboard and tap or depress the desired key, which provides tactile feedback. This can be done without looking, however, a touchscreen keyboard usually needs to be looked at in order to select the correct key.
In addition, visually impaired people may not be able to use smooth-surfaced touchscreens for keyboarding on electronic devices efficiently, without assistive technology. Touchscreens now have widespread and still growing acceptance in a wide range of applications. There have also been numerous attempts to make data entry through the use of touchscreens more efficient.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2011/0210850 to Tran discloses a touchscreen keyboard for small mobile devices that improves typing accuracy and speed by using directional swipes to select letters or symbols in combination keys containing multiple letters or symbols per key.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2013/0215037A1 to Mao embodies a two-handed keyboard interface for an electronic device with a multi-touch surface. The location of the pads with the keys is positioned in such a way that each pad is operable by a different one of the user's ten fingertips.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2013/0113714A1 also to Mao embodies a one-handed keyboard interface for an electronic device with a multi-touch surface. The location of the pads with the keys is positioned in such a way that each pad is operable by a different fingertip of the same hand.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.

Adaptable touchscreen keypads with dead zone


A processing apparatus for fluid with a simple structure, high productivity, ability of precise dispersion, emulsification and grinding, is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing apparatus and method for fluid, and a deaerator with the apparatus.
2. Background of the Invention
To begin with, description is made of the conventional art for the processes of dispersion and emulsification.
There have been widely used dispersing systems generally called "media mill" in the producing systems for coating medium, inks, magnetic materials, ceramics, cells, adhesives, electronic materials, liquid crystal color filters, medicines, cosmetics, perfumes, foods, etc. This specific dispersing system is intended to obtain desired dispersion of fluid being processed by agitating said fluid being processed in the dispersion chamber filled with beads, sand, or balls, as called media, to apply a shear force, and impact to said fluid for dispersion.
As a first disadvantage consisting in this system, during process, friction between media, between the media and the agitating blades of the apparatus, between the media and the inner side of a container may bring about some chips ground from said matters so that said chips will be mixed into said fluid as impurity. As a result, frequent supplement of loss due to friction with fresh media and exchange of parts are needed, thus entailing extra troubles and cost accordingly.
A second disadvantage is that application of a stronger shear force or demand of smaller particle diameter requires the use of media of smaller diameter than those in the past, for example, use is often made of fine media in the size of 0.05 or 0.1 millimeter in diameter, and there is a tendency to seek for media of relatively small diameter. However, the smaller the diameter of media, the smaller the mass of each medium, which may cause decrease of the dispersible range of viscosity of the fluid to be processed with the consequence that only a substance of low viscosity is applicable.
Meanwhile, a roll mill and a colloid mill are known except for said media mill.
The colloid mill acts to give a shear force to the fluid to be processed by passing said fluid through the interval formed between two disks laid one upon another. In this case, the width of the interval can be determined mechanically by means of an adjusting handle, but the apparatus used is only capable of adjusting on the level of substantially more than several dozen microns (no adjustment was possible as to the level of less than 10 microns). Further reduction of the width may incur the risk of a serious accident on account of the contacts of the disks as occurred by thermal expansion or run-out of the rotary shaft.
The roll mill acts to apply a shear force to said fluid by rotating two or three rolls at different speeds and in different directions, respectively. The width of the interval between said rolls may be regulated mechanically. Also in this event, as in the case of the colloid mill, it is hard to adjust the width at the level of scores of micron. And it is necessary to provide adequate crowns for further regulation of the pressure occurring between the rolls, which operation needs human skills and involves risks of accidents. Moreover, the apparatus itself remains so opened that it is not useful for fluid containing rather evaporable solvent. As both the colloid mill and the roll mill are dependent on stronger intervals for efficient application of a shear force to fluid to be processed, which should be of a high viscosity.
Furthermore, a high-speed rotary homogenizer and a high-pressure homogenizer are also known. The former is employed as a pre-dispersing unit, but it is unavailable for precise dispersion. The latter is known that when used as industrial equipmentit, it is endowed with too many difficulties such as wear and tear of the orifice portion or stopping of capillary as well as seal wear of the booster pump.
In this connection has been sought for the development of a dispersing apparatus arranged such that inclusion of impurity can be avoided, a stronge shear force can be given to fluid having a wider application range of viscosity, and dispersion, emulsification and crushing can be performed at a high precision.
Next, the conventional art for attrition and pulverization will be described.
Conventional pulverizers based on hand mill principles include a pair of whetstones that are laid one upon another and adjustable in the interval therebetween, wherein a strong centrifugal force, an impact grinding force and shear are produced between said whetstones, thus a combined action of them performs attrition and pulverization. The attrition or pulverizing apparatuss provided with rotatable and/or stationary whetstones are disclosed by the following official gazette.                Patent document 1: Japanese (JP) design registration No. 655304        Patent document 2: JP design registration No. 845632        Patent document 3: JP examined patent application publication No. S62-51658        Patent document 4: JP examined patent application publication No. H03-1061        Patent document 5: JP examined patent application publication No. H04-55830
A rotary or stationary whetstone used here is generally called grinders, commonly having particle sizes 16#, 24# to 120#, and 240#. Though having different particle sizes, these grinders are uneven on the surface, and when they handle hard a substance to be processed, there is possibility that raised portion will be scraped or worn out to cause inclusion of impurity.
It has been reported that the grinding apparatus as disclosed in the following patent document 6 is capable of grinding a material into fine particles of the order of 1 to 5 microns, but it is unable to obtain fine particles of under 1 micron with said apparatus.                Patent document 6: JP examined patent application publication No. S62-51658
There is a report relating to the grinding system as disclosed by the following patent document 7. According to the report, in pulverization of a substance to be processed that contains high fat, much moisture, high protein, sugar, and specific enzymes, such particular properties tend to change because of stickiness, scorching, or transformation into film due to frictional heating, so that said substance are not marketable as in the form of powder. And if the peripheral velocity of the rotary whetstone has risen above a certain level, grinding ability thereof is rapidly increased, concurrently with the temperature rise due to frictional heat decreasing its degree, and when the peripheral velocity of 3,422 meters per minute has reached, problems in machine cost and mechanical security occur.                Patent document 7: JP laid-open patent Application No. H07-185372
Furthermore, the following patent document 8 discloses an automated controlling method for the clearance between the rotary and stationary whetstones. In this particular method, mechanical heat build-up occurs from the high-speed rotation, but in the absence of a buffer system for thermal expansion of the driving shaft and for run-out of the rotary whetstone, the minimum clearance is liable to widen over dozens of microns.                Patent document 8: JP laid-open patent application No. H08-1020
The following patent document 9 discloses the invention useful for grinding, dispersion and emulsification of fluid to be processed, in particular liquid. However, a fluid pressure applying mechanism for fluid and a head pressure are needed for processing the fluid.                Patent document 9: JP patent application No. 2002-207533
After all, in the event of supplying a material to be processed under the atmospheric pressure, each of the aforementioned systems are incapable of narrowing the clearance between the two whetstones (grinding members) laid one upon another to less than 15 microns. Namely, the foregoing clearance between the whetstones by means of the conventional mechanical means can not be suitable for micro-scale attrition or grinding. Meanwhile, the use of said mills for attrition and grinding operations may cause inclusion of foreign substances (chips resulting from the contact between the mills or the mill and other matters), and a grinding apparatus which may safely rotate at high speed for high performance is not available.
Here, description will be made of a conventional art for deaerating process.
Deaerators for a substance to be processed involve, for example, a unit that serves to remove bubbles from liquid.
This bubble removing unit comprises an external cylindrical rotor disposed within a vacuum vessel, an internal cylindrical rotor arranged in concentric alignment with the external rotor in the interior of said external rotor, and a hollow shaft driven for revolution by motor, the internal rotor being connected with said shaft and rotating in respect of the external rotor.
The peripheral face of said internal cylindrical rotor may be composed of a punching plate. The peripheral face of said external cylindrical rotor may be constituted of a screen of finer surface texture than that of said punching plate.
Next, the action of this bubble removing unit will be explained.
Said shaft has a passage for liquid to be processed thereinside. Said liquid travels through the shaft into the internal rotor. By the passage of liquid through the shaft rotating at high speed, the liquid phase is centrifuged toward the inner wall of the shaft, and bubbles toward the center of the shaft. At this time, prior to the liquid phase, the bubbles are drawn toward the center of the shaft, expanding before deaerated.
In said liquid phase as introduced into the internal rotor after said motion of the bubbles, the centrifugal force caused by the rotary motion effects film formation, which may forward the removal of bubbles. Then, the liquid phase passes through the punching plate of the internal rotor until it has been subjected to atomization, which may promote deaeration. Having passed through the punching plate, the liquid gets in contact with the external rotor, and passes through the screen. Then, the liquid is scattered in a spray within the vacuum, hitting the inner wall of the vessel to fall down along the inner wall before the termination of the removal of bubbles.
This particular bubble removing unit may chiefly perform atomization of substance by allowing the substance to pass through said punching plate and screen. Such atomization acts to promote emission of bubbles contained in the substance, and said unit may achieve smooth deaeration by the use of such action.
The size of bubbles resulting from the atomization is highly dependent on the fine texture of the punching plate and screen.
The fine division of the textures of the punching plate and screen has a physical limit, so that they are not useful for removal of bubbles much finer than the textures of the punching plate and screen. That is, with the bubble removing unit of the described construction, 10 to 20 microns is the limit of fine division, therefore, super fine division into 1 to 2 microns was impossible.
If a substance to be processed was emulsion or suspension, it was necessary to deaerate by means of said bubble removing unit the substance which had been emulsified or suspended, for example, through a high-speed agitating or dispersing unit in advance.
As the textures of the punching plate and screen are so smudged by the previous process operation that they may clog up, prior to use of said bubble removing unit for the next operation, the punching plate and screen must be cleaned sufficiently.
Said punching plate and screen cause nuisance of cleaning and removing of clogs thereof.
The present invention has been made based on said status of dispersion and emulsification processes, which invention may provide a dispersion and emulsification apparatus of a simple structure and high productivity, which is capable of making dispersion, emulsification, and shattering with high precision, on the basis of a unique idea of making use of the mechanical seal mechanism as means of dispersion and emulsification for solution of the foregoing problems.
That is, the object of the present invention is to provide a dispersion and emulsification apparatus which may prevent inclusion of impurity, and make highly precise dispersion, emulsification, and shattering.
In particular, the further object of the present invention is to provide a dispersion and emulsification apparatus which can set a predetermined width at the interval of the clearance between two processing faces relatively rotatable to each other, and furnish fluid to be processed with a strong shear force.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a dispersion and emulsification apparatus which can process a wide range of viscosity for fluid to be processed.
Additionally, for the purpose of solution of the abovementioned problems, the present invention provides a grinding apparatus which performs grinding that is absolutely required in the recent development of nanotechnology. Namely, the grinding apparatus makes it possible to perform highly precise grinding, preventing any inclusion of impurity, having a simple structure for ensuring high safety, and being manufactured at a low cost. Furthermore, the grinding apparatus may act to constantly grind a substance between two whetstones to a particle below a micron size, and cope with a wide range of substances in terms of the form and size of particles, specific gravity, degree of moisture, and various natures and properties of substances consisting of several kinds of particles which are different in form, size, specific gravity, degree of moisture.
Moreover, for solution of said problems, the present invention is made based on said circumstances for deaerating process to provide a deaerator including an atomizing mechanism totally different from said conventional counterparts, so that removal of micro-scale bubbles, which was not available in the past, can be performed by atomizing a substance to a finer degree. The deaerator may avoid the necessity of troublesome cleaning operation for punching plates and screens.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Processing apparatus and method for fluid, and deaerator therewith

Abstract: The apparatus of the present invention comprises at least two processing faces of a first face and a second face, both of which are arranged in a tight-closed passage and positioned opposite to each other to constitute part of said passage, and a contact pressure applying mechanism for putting both faces 1, 2 into closed contact with each other, wherein the rotation of the second processing face 2 in respect of the first processing face 1 may cause dispersion or emulsification of the fluid to be processed between both processing faces 1, 2. The first and second processing faces 1, 2 are placed in closed contact with or adjacent to each other by means of said contact pressure applying mechanism, and the fluid to be processed is actuated by said rotation to pass between the first and second processing faces 1, 2, as it is forming fluid films between said processing faces 1, 2, so that said fluid will be emulsified or dispersed to a desired extent.


A battery connector, used to connect the battery and PCB, includes an insulating housing and a number of contacts received in the housing. Each contact is equipped with a retaining portion, a soldering portion extending downwardly from a lower edge of the retaining portion, and a contacting portion extending forwardly from a front edge of the retaining portion. A first notch is defined between a lower junction part which is formed between a lower edge of the retaining portion and a rear edge of the contacting portion and the first notch positioned beside the soldering portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a battery connector, and more partially to a battery connector effectively connecting between a battery and a printed circuit board.
2. Description of Related Art
With high-speed development of technology and economy, and people's life is promoted and electronic products such as mobile phones become more and more popular. It is also widely used for battery connector which is installed in electronic products for electrical connection between a PCB.
TW. Utility Model Pat. No. M324892 issued to Zhang on Jan. 1, 2008 discloses a battery connector including an insulating housing and a plurality of contacts received in the housing. The insulating housing defines a retaining groove. The contacts include a retaining part retained in the retaining groove, a contacting part which is electrically contacted with the battery and an connecting part between the retaining part and the contacting part. The bottom of the retaining part is connected with a soldering part. In soldering, excessive soldering material may accumulate around the soldering part and even flow to the contacting part so that it will affect the good connection between the contacting part and the battery.
Hence, an improved battery connector is desired to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.

Battery connector having terminal contact with a first notch and a second notch


A method, a system and a computer programmable product have been provided for arbitrating bus cycles among a plurality of device nodes. Requests for bus grant are received from the device nodes. Each request includes values of one or more arbitration parameters. The requests grouped at a first stage, with two requests in each group. A comparison is performed in each group, based on the values of the one or more parameters. Further, winners from each comparison are forwarded to a next stage. Subsequently, comparisons are performed over one or more stages to select a winner of the bus grant.

1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate, in general, to bus arbitration in a network of devices. More specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to multi-port bus arbiters.
2. Description of the Background Art
In network architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data between various connected device nodes. The device nodes may be devices such as Central Processing Units (CPU), Direct Memory Access (DMA) controllers, etc. The bus logically connects the device nodes over a single set of wires. Further, one device node can transfer data over the bus at a point of time. Transfer of data is termed as a transaction. With regard to the transaction over the bus, time is divided into clock cycles called bus cycles that synchronize the bus operations. The device node has to send a request and receive a bus grant from a bus-control mechanism to perform the transaction.
In busy systems, a number of device nodes often simultaneously request the bus grant. In such a case, a control mechanism called bus arbitration has to decide upon the device node that gets the bus grant. Bus arbitration is a technique that selects one device node out of a number of requesting device nodes and grants bus cycles to that particular device node. Bus arbitration is based on a bus arbitration algorithm. The bus arbitration algorithm selects one device node to which the bus will be granted. Arbitration criteria used to make a grant decision can include priority of a device, priority of a data packet, byte count, number of bytes per second, and so forth. The time taken to make a single bus arbitration decision is termed as an arbitration cycle.
Various bus arbitration algorithms are being used for arbitration applications. One existing algorithm takes a single criterion input from each device node that is requesting the bus grant. In case more than one device node provides an identical value of the criterion to create more than one identical-priority requests at the same time, a simple round-robin is employed as a tie-breaker to grant bus cycles. Another existing algorithm uses more than one criterion from each device node requesting the bus grant. However, increase in the number of criteria and the number of device nodes in the system leads to complexity in the algorithm. Therefore, implementation of the bus arbitration algorithm becomes difficult.
One of the existing techniques described in the US patent publication 20030188065 is based on a binary tree concept. The algorithm relies on nodes in the binary tree to forward arbitration decisions along tree branches up to the root of the binary tree. The root signifies the one device node that is selected by the algorithm to receive the bus grant. However, each node has to indicate a flag for the selection of a left or a right branch of the node. The flag indication is based on the probability of priority of the left and right branches. The probability is based on several decision criteria clustered together. In general, priority of request, which may be one of the decision criteria, has only two levels, high and low. Moreover, consideration of multiple priorities leads to queuing up of lower priority requests for long durations. Further, the priority values are limited. They cannot be varied across a range of values. The device node that is selected at the completion of the arbitration has to be informed regarding its selection by a downward traversal of the binary tree. This technique takes into account an increase in the number of device nodes as well as decision criteria. However, as the complexity of the algorithm increases, more processing power is required to implement the technique. Moreover, hardware cost also increases in proportion to the complexity of the algorithm.

Method and system for n dimension arbitration algorithm—scalable to any number of end points


A ballast (100) includes an inverter (140,144,146) and a protection circuit that prevents excessive lamp-to-earth-ground fault current. The protection circuit includes a transformer (202,204,206,208,210) and an inverter disable circuit (300). The transformer measures a first current going out of one set of ballast output terminals (106,108) and a second current going into another set of ballast output terminals (206,208). In response to a substantial imbalance between the first current and the second current, inverter disable circuit (300) terminates inverter switching. Preferably, protection circuit further includes a restart timer circuit (400) that, following termination of inverter switching in response to a fault condition, prevents the inverter from restarting for a predetermined delay period.

The present invention relates to the general subject of circuits for powering discharge lamps. More particularly, the present invention relates to a ballast with circuitry for protecting against a lamp-to-earth-ground fault condition.
Fluorescent lamps used with electronic ballasts periodically fail and require replacement. In most cases, replacement of a failed lamp is performed while AC power is still applied to the ballast; this practice is sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9clive relamping.xe2x80x9d Since many newer ballast designs have non-isolated outputs, the possibility exists for high frequency output current to travel from the ballast output, through the lamp, through the person replacing the lamp, to fixture ground. Because an electrical shock may be suffered under such circumstances, safety agencies such as Underwriters Laboratories now require that ballasts be tested for this condition. Thus, standards have been established for the maximum current that is allowed to flow from the ballast output through the lamp to fixture ground. For many ballasts, these standards are readily met. However, for some ballasts, such as those models which are designed to operate with higher line voltages (e.g., 277 volts) or shorter lamp lengths (e.g., 2 foot lamps), these standards can be met only by incorporating special protective circuitry in the ballast.
Some ballast manufacturers have attempted to address the problem of excessive lamp-to-earth-ground current by trying to sense the high frequency leakage current that, in the event of a fault condition, flows out of the ballast output, into the grounded fixture, and back into the ballast via the ballast ground wire that is electrically connected to the fixture during ballast installation. An example of such an approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,018. The main problem with this type of detection circuit is that this same type of leakage current normally flows even in the absence of a fault condition, and is actually quite desirable because it aids lamp ignition. Moreover, because the voltage applied to the lamps prior to ignition is much higher than voltage applied after ignition, the magnitude of this xe2x80x9cnormalxe2x80x9d leakage current will be many times higher during the start-up mode than during the steady-state operating mode. Because the magnitude of the normal leakage current that flows into the ballast ground during normal starting conditions can be very close to the magnitude of the undesirable leakage current that flows through the body of a person who accidentally touches the ballast output and fixture ground, the prior art circuits cannot accurately discriminate between xe2x80x9cnormalxe2x80x9d leakage current and the leakage current that occurs due to a true fault condition.
What is needed, therefore, is a ballast with a protection circuit that is capable of more reliably detecting a lamp-to-earth-ground fault condition. A ballast with such a protection circuit would represent a significant advance over the prior art.

Ballast with lamp-to-earth-ground fault protection circuit


The present disclosure provides approaches to facilitating virtual reality and cross-device experiences. In some implementations, an environmental snapshot is captured which includes an image of a virtual reality (VR) environment presented on a VR device and corresponding depth information of the VR environment. The image of the environmental snapshot is presented on a different device than the VR device. A user modification to content associated with the presented image is translated into the environmental snapshot based on the depth information. The environmental snapshot comprising the user modification is translated into the VR environment. The VR environment comprising the translated user modification is presented. The environmental snapshot may correspond to a personal space of a user and may be accessed by another user through a social networking interface or other user networking interface to cause the presentation of the image.

Virtual reality devices, such as head-mounted virtual reality devices, may be used in a variety of real and/or virtual world environments and contexts. Augmented reality devices are types of virtual reality devices that can support direct or indirect views of a real world environment along with augmented reality objects digitally projected on the real world scene. Augmented reality devices can also operate as scene-aware devices that have an understanding of a real world environment defined as an augmented reality environment (i.e., virtual environment) supported by the augmented reality device. An augmented reality device can support presentation of the augmented reality objects, which are virtualized entities (e.g., holographic content or mixed-reality content), that are rendered for a user associated with the augmented reality device. The augmented reality objects can be rendered based on the real world environment captured by the augmented reality device.

Virtual reality and cross-device experiences


An adjustable headphone comprising a pair of self-adjusting earpieces interconnected by a headpiece that includes a stiff resilient headband assembly and a soft flexible headstrap resting against a wearer""s head. The headstrap is anchored at least at one end to a corresponding sliding block movably joined with the headband assembly having a bifurcated gear rack on its inner surface. The sliding block is equipped with at least one spring-loaded detent coming in contact with the gear rack. The headband assembly forms with at least one earpiece a hollow ball-and-socket joint where the spherical driver cup works as a ball part of the joint, and it mates to the arm""s inner spherical surface which is a socket part of the joint. This joint provides the earpiece substantial angular motion in all directions thus enabling it to adjust to any ear shape.

xe2x80x9cNot Applicablexe2x80x9d
xe2x80x9cNot Applicablexe2x80x9d
xe2x80x9cNot Applicablexe2x80x9d
This invention relates in general to the design of headphones and, in particular, to headphones that have an inner flexible headband or a headstrap coming in contact with the user""s head, and this headstrap may alter in length or size to ensure proper fit of an earpiece to the head. The headstrap is anchored at each end to an outer headband, interconnecting a pair of earpieces, and also providing a resilient inner force to hold the headphone in place. Secondly, this invention relates to the headphones having particular cup structure designed to fit the earpiece over the user""s ear.
There are numerous headphones having the mentioned above structure varying in acoustical parameters, design specifics and so forth. Nevertheless, it is rather hard to find an inexpensive headphone which can be worn comfortably for a relatively long period of time in one session. This is especially true for young computer users who spend long hours in front of the computer screen playing games or surfing the Net for their favorite musical and video files. A headphone""s ability to adjust completely and comfortably to a particular user is becoming as important as its acoustical parameters.
The problem of a headphone adjustment mainly consists of two components that can be classified by a particular function which has to be performed to have comfortable and sustained accommodation to the user. Firstly, a headphone""s headband has to provide proper positioning of the earpiece in a vertical axial direction in order to accommodate the distance from the scalp to the ear which varies from user to user. It constitutes the axial adjustment problem. Secondly, the headphone""s driver unit has to fit closely and comfortably to the outer part of the ear, the pinna, in order to create an ergonomically and acoustically necessary coupling space between them. This is a problem of adjustment to the pinna.
There are two commonly used ways to to adjust a headphone in a vertical axial direction. The first is when an earpiece and a headband are movably connected, providing telescopically adjustable positioning to the earpiece. This is telescopic detent-based adjustment. The second is when the vertical adjustment is based on changing the geometry of a headstrap having some elastic members, without manually moving parts, thus providing a headphone with axial self-adjustment.
Telescopic Detent-Based Adjustment
In the first case, the telescopically connected earpiece is moved manually, and its holding in place is made possible by means of a special positioning member, a detent, releaseably engaging one of corresponding depressions or openings. The detent can be part of either a headband or an earpiece. Consequently, the earpiece assembly, as well as the headband, can include a plurality of depressions or openings being designed to accommodate the detent. There are several headphone designs based on this concept. The design with the plurality of openings and the wedge shaped detent is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,788 to Schenke et al. (1980). The elastic projecting member at the headband""s end is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,457 to Jingu Akira (1984). The headphone with progressively shallow depressions is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,465 to James T. MacDonald (1992).
The main disadvantage of this design concept is a certain contradiction inherent to it. The detent""s holding power has to be substantial enough to secure the earpiece in place, and, at the same time, it becomes a source of inconvenience when one needs to move the earpiece in order to adjust it. The greater is the holding power of the detentxe2x80x94the more resistance it creates to adjust the earpiece. Moreover, a headphone detent""s ability to function greatly depends on its material properties. The wide application of plastic with significantly less resilience and durability, than that of stainless steel, results in lesser holding power, which can be applied by the detent. It means that during use the earpiece support becomes liable to get loose or shift from the headband, causing dislocation of the earpiece from the proper position on the pinna.
Therefore an optimal axial adjustment mechanism that balances the ease of use with precise and sustainable accommodation to the wearer is rather difficult to achieve in a framework of the telescopic detent-based adjustment. Alternatively, a concept of axial self-adjustment has been employed to satisfy users needs for a quick and comfortable fit of the headphones.
Axial Self-Adjustment
The conventional way of vertical axial self-adjustment is based on the use of some structural resilience in various embodiments. The most common way is when a headstrap is connected to earpieces by means of an elastic suspension in the form of elastic members, such as helical springs, flat coil springs or bands. Initially this idea was embodied in a headphone design described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,501 to Cech et al. (1975). A rather sophisticated suspension concept is realized in the form of a wind-in mechanism which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,037 to Nageno et al (1995). The idea of having a suspender member consisting of some expendable and non-expendable sections is realized in U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,795 to Seki (1996).
Despite the differences the basic self-adjustment concept requires that the elastic member suspends the earpieces in such a manner that they are retracted upwardly by the resilient force of this elastic member and must be extended downward manually from their retracted position during the application to a wearer""s ears. During the downward movement elastic member is stretched and it produces a return force corresponding to the respective distance between the top of the user""s head and the ear opening. This return force pulls earpieces upward, and in order to hold them in place it must be counteracted by the friction between the earpiece pad and the ear. The friction is directly proportional to the opposite horizontal forces pressing the earpieces against the user""s ears. These forces are produced by the headband""s resilient resistance to its being pulled apart as a result of adjustment to the head.
Apparently, in order to have a headphone comfortably fitting the user, all these forces affecting the wearer""s head must be balanced. The more elastic member is stretchedxe2x80x94the greater friction has to be applied to balance the return forces created by this action. Thus, the disadvantage of this concept is that the system inevitably creates excessive pressure on the scull and ears, and especially, if the wearer""s head is bigger than the average one. Additionally, the typical problem of these adjustment mechanisms based on the material""s elasticity is that after some period of usage some of them are beginning to slacken off, causing dislocation of the earpiece from the proper position on the pinna. The common way to avoid this is to increase the stiffness of the elastic member, consequently making the initial pressure even greater. Considering the nature of these balanced forces and the great variety of human forms and shapes the necessary equilibrium can be reached either for a limited number of people or for a limited time only.
Therefore this type of adjustment provides quick but eventually uncomfortable and unsustainable accommodation to the user, and thus it is best suited for a situation when a headphone has to be shared by a group of users. For instance, headphones in musical records stores are generally used by different people for a relatively short period of time. To the contrary, in regards to personal usage, the most typical situation is when a headphone is used for a relatively long period of time by one person, and that requires to have comfortable, precise and sustainable accommodation to the user.
The apparent diversity of ear shapes creates a problem of an earpiece""s proper adjustment in order to provide close and comfortable fit to the pinna. The earpiece""s close fit allows to form an acoustically desirable coupling space between a driver and the auditory canal of the user""s ear.
The common way is to combine adjustment in a horizontal plane by using a C-shape arm holding the earpiece, and adjustment in a vertical plane by having a hinge connecting the headband and the bracket. This structure is designed on the assumption that a sculpturally complex three-dimensional shape, like the human ear, can be significantly simplified without losing its essential properties. It can be accepted as a basic design model if a headphone is used for a relatively short working session, but for prolonged usage it becomes a source of the user""s discomfort.
The more advanced approach allows to perceive the human shapes as complex as they really are. In regards to the ear it means allowing for the earpiece to have some relative angular motion in different directions in order to accommodate the driver unit in relation to the user""s pinna. There are some headphones where a driver unit is attached to a headband by a means of a ball-and-socket joint providing certain angular motion.
For instance, this way of attachment allowing biaxial motion of a face plate carrying a transducer is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,836 to Andre et al. (1990). A small ball integrally formed on the hub of the spider element belonging to the face plate, is fitted into a socket, provided by a socket plate, which is permanently attached to the inside surface of the cover. The certain disadvantage of this joint is its bulky and complex supporting structure. Accordingly, it necessitates to have additional room to accommodate the joint, and this significantly increases the headphone""s overall size. Secondly, after some period of usage and consequent mechanical wear, this type of joint can unexpectedly fall apart, because its design only relies on material properties and the joint is not secured in any other way.
An alternative way to accommodate a conventional ball-and-socket joint is employed in the HD 475 Expression Line headphone manufactured by Sennheiser Electronic GmbH and Co. KG, Am Labor, Germany. This headphone sports a joint placed in a special recessed area of the driver housing 12. Its way of adjustment is shown in FIGS. 1 through 2B. The small spherical knob 13 belongs to the driver unit 12, and the mating socket 11, consisting of two longitudinally placed ribs, is part of the headband 10. The unwanted ramification of the joint""s recessed positioning is that it negatively affects the acoustical quality of the driver housing 12. When a speaker driver is activated, it vibrates and pushes air forward, producing sound. At the same time sound waves are transmitted backward bouncing off the recessed area and other housing""s walls differently, thus producing standing waves and other forms of sound diffraction.
Thereafter, the disadvantages of the adjustment in current systems of headphones can be summarized according to the functions which they perform:
(a) The telescopic detent-based adjustment is a conceptually contradictory system. The detent""s holding power has to be strong enough to secure the earpiece in place, and, at the same time, it becomes a nuisance when one needs to move the earpiece in order to adjust it. The greater is the holding power of the detentxe2x80x94the more resistance it creates to adjust the earpiece.
(b) With the introduction of plastic as a main structural material the earpiece detent-based support becomes liable to get loose or shift from the headband, causing dislocation of the earpiece from the proper position on the pinna, thus making the adjustment unsustainable.
(c) Considering the nature of forces which are involved in the self-adjustment process and the great variety of human forms, the axial self-adjustment system inevitably creates excessive pressure on the scull and ears, and especially, if the wearer""s head is bigger than the average one. Therefore this type of adjustment provides quick but eventually unsustainable and uncomfortable accommodation to the user. The accommodation is unsustainable because the system""s elastic member gets loose due to its continuous usage, and it is uncomfortable because of gradually increasing impact of excessive pressure over the time of wearing.
(d) The ball-and-socket joint based on the xe2x80x9cspherical knob at the end of a shaftxe2x80x9d concept is rather bulky and often needs a complex supporting structure. Accordingly, it necessitates having additional room to accommodate the joint, and this significantly increases the headphone""s overall size.
(e) In some embodiments the joint can be positioned in a special recessed area of the driver cup in order to reduce its size. The side effect of this design is that it compromises the acoustical quality of the cup. Sound waves bounce off the recessed area parallel walls and other cup""s walls in a different way, thus generating standing waves as well as other forms of sound diffraction.
(f) After some period of usage and consequent mechanical wear, this type of joint could unexpectedly fall apart, because its design only relies on material properties and the joint is not secured in any other manner.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a headphone device which avoids the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art, and to match the needs of various wearers by its complete and comfortable adjustment to them. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a headphone device capable of quick, precise and sustainable axial adjustment in a wide range of motion without causing uncomfortable pressure on the user""s scull or ears. Another object of the present invention is to create an ergonomically correct and acoustically desirable interface between the ear and the headphone.
This innovative headphone design has evolved from the observation of a conventional self-adjusting headset quite often not fitting comfortably and creating excessive pressure either on the scull or ears. These problems preclude the user from wearing it comfortably for a relatively long time in a single session. Also, the apparent diversity of human shapes, sculls, and ears in particular, is much greater than it was originally assumed as the basis for development of the conventional self-adjustable headset. This has to be taken into account by enabling earpieces to have substantial angular motion in all directions, and thus allowing to align the earpieces with any kind of user""s pinna.
These problems are solved in the proposed headphone by creating two innovative systems of adjustment, headpiece vertical axial adjustment and earpiece self-adjustment, and then incorporating them into the proposed headset. Therefore, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) The headphone axial adjustment, being essentially an accommodation to the head""s parameters, has a wide range of motion and provides means for the user to choose and then keep the most comfortable earpiece position in relation to the size and shape of his or her head. A sliding block-gear rack mechanism provides substantial holding power to secure the earpiece in place, and, at the same time, it allows to reduce it to a necessary minimum when the user moves the earpiece in order to adjust it.
(b) All structural elements, including detents, of the sliding block-gear rack mechanismxe2x80x94are inexpensive injection molded plastic. Its innovative design allows to hold a chosen position of the earpiece for any period of time without being loose or dislocated.
(c) The proposed axial adjustment mechanism does not produce vertical return forces with corresponding excessive pressure on the head that any conventional self-adjustment mechanism generates. It allows to reduce the pressure created by the headband to a minimally necessary level only for balancing the headphone weight and to hold earpieces in an acoustically proper position, thus providing precise and sustainable adjustment of the headpiece to the user.
(d) The earpieces self-adjustment is provided by the innovative hollow ball-and-socket joint design. It incorporates the spherical driver housing, driver cup, and the headband arm as main structural elements of the joint. It does not require any additional space to accommodate the joint.
(e) With the present invention the driver cup""s geometry is defined by acoustical requirements as well as structural ones. The acoustically optimal spherical driver cup does not produce standing waves and other distortions of sound. Also, the range of motion is substantially greater than that of a conventional ball-and-socket joint based on the xe2x80x9cspherical knob at the end of a shaftxe2x80x9d design.
(f) The proposed hollow ball-and-socket joint can endure prolonged usage because its all structural elements are securely hold together by sandwiching the driver cup between the arm and the holder.
With this invention a wearer adjusts the headphone by a simple downward move of the earpieces while simultaneously depressing the release buttons with either the index or middle finger, making it easy to use. When a comfortable position of the earpieces is reached, the release buttons are set free thus allowing for locking the earpieces directly in that location. Further manipulation is unnecessary, because the earpieces are completely self-adjustable in respect to the user""s ears.
The synergetic combination of the axial degree of freedom in vertical adjustment with the three rotational degrees of freedom in the ball-and-socket joint allows to create an ergonomically and acoustically necessary coupling space between the user""s ear and the headphone without causing uncomfortable pressure either on the scull or the ear. It radically differs from the commonly used methods by giving the user a means to control the process of adjustment while keeping this process as quick and simple as that of a conventional self-adjustable headset. Therefore, the proposed adjustment system balances the ease of use with comfortable, precise and sustainable accommodation to the user. Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.


In a digital X-ray apparatus for exposing an X-ray transmitted through an object onto a photostimulable phosphor plate, for scanning the photostimulable phosphor plate by an excitation beam, and for obtaining an X-ray image, the digital X-ray apparatus includes a switch unit connected to a storage unit and switching between a standard photographing mode and an actual photographing mode; a correction coefficient conversion unit converting the X-ray image data to an image data having a standardized lightness; a first storage unit storing an initial correction coefficient after standardization in the correction coefficient conversion unit; a second storage unit storing a correction coefficient after standardization in the correction coefficient conversion unit; a detection unit comparing a value of the correction coefficient from the second storage unit with a value of the initial correction coefficient from the first storage unit, and detecting whether or not a difference between the value of the correction coefficient at each picture element and the value of the initial correction coefficient at each picture element exceeds a predetermined threshold value; and a generation unit displaying a number of abnormal picture elements detected by the detection unit and generating an alarm message when the number of abnormal picture elements exceeds a predetermined number, the predetermined number being defined by a ratio of the number of abnormal picture elements to the number of all the picture elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a X-ray apparatus, more particularly, it relates to a digital X-ray apparatus mainly used in the field of medical equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
An X-ray apparatus is widely used in various fields, particularly in the medical field. Conventionally, as an X-ray apparatus having high sensitivity and high resolution, there is a digital X-ray apparatus displaying an image on a cathode-ray tube (CRT) instead of a conventional X-ray film.
The digital X-ray image can be obtained by the following steps. That is, when the X-ray is irradiated on to an object, for example, a human body, the X-ray transmitted through the object is exposed on a stimulable phosphor plate constituted by a sheet-like fluorescence medium which is able to accumulate a part of the X-ray energy. When the photostimulable phosphor plate is scanned by an excitation beam (for example, a laser beam), the accumulated energy is excited by the laser beam and a fluorescent light is emitted from the photostimulable phosphor plate.
The fluorescent light is collected by collection equipment, for example, bundled optical fibers, and converted to analog electrical signals by an optical-to-electrical converter. Further, the analog electrical signals are converted to digital signals to obtain the digital X-ray image on the CRT.
Conventionally, however, some problems occur in this method when obtaining the X-ray image. That is, there is deterioration in the characteristics (for example, S/N ratio) of the photostimulable phosphor plate caused by absorption of moisture, and further by damage or dust on the photostimulable phosphor plate and optical device including the laser beam adjuster. This deterioration, causes an abnormal picture on the X-ray image displayed on the CRT which may result in an incorrect diagnosis when an operator evaluates the displayed image.
Accordingly, the most important matter of the digital X-ray apparatus is to increase the precision of the X-ray image so as to prevent incorrect diagnosis caused by abnormal picture elements on the displayed image. Therefore, it is necessary to detect abnormal picture elements before the X-ray apparatus is actually used for diagnosis. Further, it is necessary to display a distribution state of the abnormal picture elements, and to generate an alarm message when the number of the abnormal picture elements exceeds a predetermined threshold level.


A method and apparatus for externally aided self adjusting real time clock have been disclosed. A circuit having a pulse train output is coupled to an adjusting circuit, a real-time clock is coupled to the adjusting circuit, and a proportional integral derivative time processor is coupled to the adjusting circuit, and where the adjusting circuit affects the pulse train output.

Autonomous clocks may drift with time. This drift may not be noticed if clocks are tied and/or synchronized to atomic clocks via, for example, some communication channel. When disconnected for a while, we may notice that our independent clock will diverge from the correct real time. One such example is the clock in our computers. If we disconnect them from a network for a few days, the clock will continue ticking but it will drift seconds away from other computers' clocks that are synchronized to atomic clocks. This drift may present a problem, such as, incorrect creation dates of files, etc.

Method and apparatus for externally aided self adjusting real time clock


A milling machine includes a frame, a rotor coupled to the frame and vertically adjustable, a chamber coupled to the frame and at least partially surrounding the rotor, a speed sensor configured to measure a speed of the machine, a height sensor configured to measure a height of the rotor, a ground characteristic sensor configured to measure a ground characteristic, and a controller. The controller is configured to receive the speed of the machine from the speed sensor, receive the height of the rotor from the height sensor, receive the ground characteristic from the ground characteristic sensor, determine a target speed for the machine, determine a target height for the rotor, adjust the speed of the machine to the target speed, and adjust the height of the rotor to the target height.

A milling machine may be used as a soil stabilizer to cut, mix, and pulverize native in-place soils with additives or aggregates to modify and stabilize the soil for a strong base. A milling machine may also be used as a road reclaimer to pulverize a surface layer, such as asphalt, and can mix it with an underlying base to create a new road surface and stabilize deteriorated roadways. Optionally, a milling machine can add asphalt emulsions or other binding agents to create a new road surface during pulverization or during a separate mix pass. A milling machine may also be used to remove a layer from the ground.
Milling machines generally use a rotor equipped with cutting tools to cut into the ground. The rotor may be damaged if it comes into contact with an underground object. An operator of a milling machine may be unaware of the presence of the underground object and may not have any knowledge a U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,205 to Burdick discloses an automatic object responsive control system for controlling a work implement of a work machine. The control system includes a work implement, ground penetrating means, object detecting means, and implement control means. The object detection means determine the presence of an undesirable object and sends a signal to the implement control means to raise the work implement. The present application provides additional benefits to those presented in the Burdick patent.

Ground characteristic milling machine control


A system for preventing driving a vehicle by an alcohol intoxicated person, includes at least one alcohol sensor for detecting a presence of an alcohol in a potential driver; a door of a vehicle provided with a door lock; and a unit operatively connected with said sensor and with a door lock and configured for preventing unlocking of said door lock of said door of a vehicle and opening said door of a vehicle when said alcohol level sensor senses an alcohol level in the potential driver which is not within an allowable range.

The present invention relates to systems for preventing driving of a vehicle by alcohol intoxicated persons.
Systems of the above mentioned general type are known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,845 discloses an apparatus for preventing the operation of machinery by an operator who is intoxicated, which includes an alcohol sensor and a proximity sensor in the control area of the machinery affecting starting of the machinery.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,919 discloses a blood alcohol monitor which measures ethanol levels expelled through a subject's skin to monitor blood alcohol level at regular or random intervals, and the device measures a distance from the subject's skin thereby preventing the subject from moving the device far enough away to provide an inaccurate indication of the amount of alcohol in the blood and providing another tamper indication if the device is removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,292 discloses a system which inhibits use of a hand-operated machine by detecting in a user toxin in the area of the machine which the user regularly engages.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,661 discloses a method of continuing tracking of blood alcohol with the use of a potential and diffusion-controlled electrochemical solid electrolyte sensor that continuously and concurrently measures very low concentration of ethanol vapor at the surface of the skin and also skin properties such as temperature and ionic conductivity.
A system as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,615 discloses a portion of a machine which an operator regularly engages with his or her hands and which is provided with a plurality of passage ways through which a vacuum is applied to draw vapor emitted by the hands of the individual and drawn through a sampling apparatus to produce a single indicative of an alcohol content of the individual.
U.S. patent application publication no. 2004/0083031 discloses an alcohol sensitive apparatus and method for vehicles, in which a blood alcohol sensing device senses that a potential driver of a vehicle has a blood alcohol content above a limit and sends a signal which causes operation of the vehicle to be disabled. A blood alcohol content limit may be transmitted by a transmitter and received by a vehicle.
A system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,236,094 includes means attached to a covering of a steering wheel for sensing trans-dermal messages from skin of a human being including alcohol content and temperature and logic circuit means activating switching means to shut off electric current in the ignition system to an engine if excessive alcohol content is detected.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,377,186 discloses a sensor system in which a steering wheel has a structural skeleton forming a core within an outer covering and having U-shaped cross-section with ethanol detectors communicating with a wire harness and an electrical circuit for receiving electrical signals indicative of presence of ethanol vapors.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,413,047 discloses an alcohol ignition interlock system with an alcohol concentration reader in combination with a vehicle ignition interlock circuit preventing an intoxicated person from operating a vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,671,752 discloses a car alcohol monitoring system with a vapor analyzer system for detecting an amount of alcohol in a driver operating the car and a speed controller setting a maximum speed of the car to a predetermined level in the event that the amount of detected alcohol is above a predetermined threshold.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,700,044 discloses a chemical vapor sensor that passively measures a chemical species with high sensitivity and chemical specificity to detect a motor vehicle drive alcohol that exceeds a legal limit of blood alcohol concentration, with a channel of infrared detection making the sensor less costly.
A system disclosed in U.S. patent application publication 2010/0269566 includes an array of sensors imbedded into the steering mechanism of a motorized vehicle and ascertaining the driver's alcohol concentration so as to prevent the operation of motorized vehicle by a driver with excessive alcohol content.
U.S. patent application publication 2010/0921502 discloses an operation control system with a transmitter circuit connector, a transmitter interace, an engine start button switch, a receiver unit, and an engine ECU operating so as to provide the engine's start depending on alcohol level of a driver.
It is believed that the existing systems of this type can be further improved.

System and method for preventing driving of a vehicle by an alcohol intoxicated person


A method includes performing an integration test on executable software units. The integration test fails and identifies a symptomatic executable software unit at which the failure of the integration test is detected. One or more modified source code files, including instructions likely responsible for the failure of the integration test, are located from a plurality of modified source code files. The location involves searching a binary change database for change history records relating to both the plurality of modified source code files and the executable software units. Degrees of functional interaction between portions of modified source code files corresponding to the change history records and portions of a source code file corresponding to the symptomatic executable software unit are determined. Based on this determination, the modified source code file(s) including the instructions likely responsible for the failure of the integration test are identified.

Software code development efforts result in the delivery of a software product. Once the software product is in operation, defects may be uncovered, operating environments may change, and new needs may surface. Thus, maintenance or support for the software product is needed. The objective of software maintenance is to modify existing software while preserving its integrity.
Software engineers in an organization that develops and maintains software typically make their best effort to share written code features (e.g., individual code units such as functions or modules). Changes to the shared code features may be tracked by "checking in" the changes (e.g., modified files) to a common/centralized revision control system shared by the developers/engineers of the organization. Modified source code may be provided from the revision control system to a code building system that may compile the code and produce build results, which may include executable files. Tests may be carried out by running the executable files under different test conditions.
In organizations having large codebases and a large number of developers, the software code may undergo numerous changes over a relatively short period of time. This high change rate may necessitate code testing in batches (e.g., an integration test). The discovery of a break or failure in a batch of changes may mean that the break could have occurred anywhere in the range of changes tested. Narrowing down a range of changes to a single offending change may be substantially time and resource consuming.


Disclosed herein is an low power output stage coupled between a supply node and a ground node, configured to drive an output, and controlled by first, second, and third control nodes. A current sinking circuit controlled by an input signal and configured to sink current from the first and second control nodes when the input signal transitions to a first logic level, thereby resulting in decoupling of the output stage from the ground node and sourcing of current to the output by the output stage. When the input signal transitions to a second logic level different than the first logic level, the current sinking circuit sinks current from a third control node, thereby resulting in decoupling of the output stage from the supply node and sinking of current from the output by the output stage.

The Internet of Things (IOT) is a term used to describe networks of numerous devices, other than the commonly connected computers, laptops, smartphones, and tablets, communicating over the Internet. Some projections are that there will be billions of such devices connected over the Internet in the near future.
Some building blocks used in IOT devices include ultra-low power microcontrollers and systems on chips (SoCs). In order to exchange data within such devices, digital general purpose input output (GPIO) connections are used. Since a design challenge in IOT devices is the desire for ultra low power consumption at a low component cost, it is highly desirable to reduce power consumed by GPIO connections. GPIOs can operate in an active node and in a standby mode, and it is desirable to reduce leakage current in both modes. For example, it is desirable for leakage currents to be less than 1 microampere in active mode, and less than 20 nanoamperes in standby mode.
Current GPIOs for used in IOT devices may still have undesirably high leakage currents, and thus greater power consumption than desirable. This is particularly of concern in IOT applications powered by batteries, for example. Thus, further development in the area of GPIO circuitry is desirable.

Low power general purpose input/output level shifting driver


A solid cosmetic composition, which drastically improves the shape-retaining ability and usability, which has a good, tender feeling, good spreadability when applied and is glossy looking is provided by use of a wax composition solidifier, which has a good shape-retaining ability without use of a conventional solidifier such as ceresin is provided. A solid cosmetic composition has (a) Fischer-Tropsch wax having average molecular weight of 300 to 1200 and (b) Microcrystalline wax in the weight ratio of (a):(b)=60:40 to 99.9:0.1

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid cosmetic composition. More particularly, the present invention relates to a solid cosmetic composition with superior shape-retaining ability, superior spreadability, and gloss.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the cosmetic field, lipstick, lip-balm, foundation, pencil shaped cosmetics, and hair stick are known as solid cosmetic compositions.
Among these, oil-based solid cosmetic compositions is (a) a liquid oil component such as caster oil, jojoba oil, squalene, lanolin, chemically synthesized ester oil, liquid paraffin, and (b) a wax component which is a solidifier such as carnauba wax, candelilla wax, ceresin wax, microcrystalline wax, hydrogenated animal oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil, beeswax, and (c) a powder component. The powder component is dispersed in the mixture of liquid oil component and wax component.
Generally, the product must satisfy the shape-retaining ability and usability. Usability requires especially good spreadability and gloss, which is controlled by the blending ratio of a wax component and a liquid oil component. But it is quite difficult to satisfy the demands for enough shape-retaining ability and good usability simultaneously. Because the wax component is an essential ingredient for solidifying the liquid oil component, it should be a large amount of the formula in order to retain the product shape while in use and in order to allow storing at various temperatures. When the amount of the wax component is high, spreadability of the product tends to be heavy, and the gloss that is provided by the liquid oil component tends to be decreased. Because of this contradiction, it is difficult to satisfy the demands for enough shape-retaining ability and good usability simultaneously. It is also demanded that a solid cosmetic composition have superior shape-retaining ability and usability for a long period of time.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a small amount of wax giving high hardness to the product may be selected Such a wax usually has a high melting point and there is a problem that it is not easy to produce. Such a wax requires additional heating process in order to melt the wax ingredient at a high temperature during production and the filling property tends to become undesirable due to the relatively high melting point. Further more, when the solid cosmetic composition contains water such as an emulsified type lipstick, extra heating at high temperature causes loss of the water ingredient.
An object of the present invention is to provide a solid cosmetic composition, which dramatically improves the shape retaining ability and usability without an extra heating process, which avoids a problem of the high melting point of the wax ingredient.
The inventors conducted research to solve the aforementioned problem and discovered that when combining a) Fischer-Tropsch wax having average molecular weight of 300 to 1200 and b) Microcrystalline wax in a specific ratio, that the liquid oil component when solidified was unexpectedly high hardness. It was without loss of good spreadability and gloss and extra heating process during the production.
The present invention relates to a wax composition, which gives enough hardness to a product such as solid cosmetics, which contain a liquid oil component. The invention provides solid cosmetics having superior shape-retaining ability and spreadability and gloss. The aforementioned problem due to the high melting point of wax ingredient is eliminated.
The present invention relates to a solid cosmetic composition comprising:
(a) Fischer-Tropsch wax having an average molecular weight of 300 to 1200 and
(b) Microcrystalline wax and (a):(b)=60:40 to 99.9:0.1 by weight ratio.
The present invention relates to a solid cosmetic composition further comprising a liquid oil component.
The present invention relates to a solid cosmetic composition comprising a solidifier consisting of wax components (a) and (b).
The present invention relates to a solid cosmetic composition further comprising a colorant and/or pigment.
The present invention relates to a solid cosmetic composition such as lip stick.
The present invention relates to a wax composition comprising:
(a) Fischer-Tropsch wax having average molecular weight of 300 to 1200.
(b) Microcrystalline wax and (a):(b)=60:40 to 99.9:0.1 by weight ratio.
The present invention is described in detail below.
In the present invention, the ingredient (a) Fischer-Tropsch wax is a synthetic hydrocarbon wax, obtained by the xe2x80x9cFischer-Tropsch synthesisxe2x80x9d, which has an average molecular weight of 300 to 1200, and preferably 400 to 1100, and more preferably 500 to 700.
When the average molecular weight of Fischer-Tropsch wax is less than 300, solidability tends to be decreased. When the average molecular weight of Fischer-Tropsch was is more than 1200, the melting point of the wax is too high to produce the produce the product and extra processes are required. The average molecular weight in this specification is calculated by a conventional method, and it is defined as xe2x80x9cMean average molecular weight,xe2x80x9d which is the number-average molecular weight.
In the present invention, an average molecular weight in the above mentioned range is necessary. It is preferable to use a Fischer-Tropsch wax having a molecular distribution curve with a sharp peak, in order to close to single distribution of the molecular range.
Fischer-Tropsch wax in the present invention is available as commercial product. For example, commercial products having an average molecular weight of 300 to 1200 are as follows: xe2x80x9cParaflint C77xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cParaflintC80xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cParaflint H1xe2x80x9d (Products of SCHUMANN SAZOL.LTD.) xe2x80x9cFT100xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cMDP-7010xe2x80x9d (Products of NIPPON SEIRO CO., LTD.)
The amount of the ingredient (a) is defined according to the aforementioned specific range of the ratio of ingredient (a) and (b), it is preferably 0.06 to 29.97 mass %, more preferably 0.6 to 19.98 mass %, and more preferably 3.0 to 14.98 mass % in the total solid cosmetic composition.
For Ingredient (b) of the present invention, microcrystalline wax is a hydrocarbon wax conventionally used in cosmetic compositions such as lipstick, creams and the like. It uses a commercially available material. It is preferable that the Microcrystalline wax have a melting point which is 70xc2x0 C. or more, and less than 100xc2x0 C. and more preferably more than 80 to 95xc2x0 C. for best shape-retaining ability. The amount of the ingredient (b) Microcrystalline wax formulated in the present invention is 0.01 to 12 mass %, preferably 0.05 to 8 mass %, more preferably 0.25 to 6 mass % in the total solid cosmetic composition.
In the present invention, when the wax composition, the blended ingredients (a) and (b) are in the ratio of (a):(b)=60:40 to 99.0:0.1 (in mass ratio), the composition can be used as solidifier in a solid cosmetic composition.
The blend ratio of (a) and (b) is preferably (a):(b)=80:20 to 99.8:0.2 (in mass ratio), and more preferably (a):(b)=90:10 to 95:5 (in mass ratio).
When ingredients (a) and (b) are blended in aforementioned ratio, the hardness of the product has a critical point and the wax component has an excellent effect as solidifier.
In the present invention, the wax component is blended just by mixing ingredient (a) and (b), in the aforementioned ratios, and the pre-mixed wax component can be used for raw material for solid cosmetics. Furthermore, ingredients (a) and (b) can be separately mixed to a liquid oil component and blended into the solid cosmetic composition in the process of the production.
Since this wax composition gives only enough hardness to the solid cosmetic composition, spreadability and gloss are not deteriorated. The solid cosmetic composition containing this wax composition has an excellent shape-retaining ability without a problem of a high melting point in the production process.
The wax composition of the present invention has a good solidifier property for the liquid oil component. It has great value as a substitute material for the conventionally used solidifier such as ceresin wax.
The amount of the wax composition (total amount of ingredient (a) and (b)) to total amount of the solid cosmetic composition, it is defined according to the type of solid cosmetic composition. It is preferably 0.1 to 30 mass % of total amount of a solid cosmetic, more preferably 1 to 20 mass %, more particularly preferably 5 to 15 mass % to total amount of a solid cosmetic. If the blend ratio is less than 0.1 mass %, the solidifier effect is not performed and the shape-retaining ability of the product tends to be a problem On the other hand, if the blend ratio is more than 30 mass %, the hardness of the product of the solid cosmetic tends to be too hard and good spreadability and gloss tend to deteriorate.
In the present invention, the liquid oil component is in a liquid form at ordinary temperatures (15xc2x0 C.). The oil is not limited and available for this invention if the oil is usable for cosmetics.
Preferably examples of the liquid oil component are as follows:
Glyceryl tri-2-ethylhexsanoate, glyceryl diisostearate, diisostearyl malate, dimethyl polysiloxane, decamethyl pentasiloxane, macademia nuts oil, trimethylolpropane trioctanoate, diglyceryl triisostearate, heptylundecyl hydroxystearate, jojoba oil, squarane, liquid lanolin, glyceryl triisostearate/hydrogenated rosinate, methylphenyl polysiloxane, glyceryl triusostearate, and polybutene.
It is particulaly preferable for lipstick compositions and other compositions for lips, to use liquid lanolin, glyceryl triisostearate/hydrogenated rosinate, methylphenyl polysiloxane, glyceryl triisostearate, or polybutene.
It is preferable in terms of long lastingness (lasting power: staying on the skin for long time against a sebum) when it is applied to the skin, to use volatile liquid oils (ring type silicone oils such as octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane, decamethylcyclopentasiloxane, dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane).
The amount of liquid oil component formulated in the present invention is preferably 30 to 99.9 mass %, and more preferably 50 to 59 mass % in the total solid cosmetic composition.
When the amount of liquid oil component is little, spreadability tends to be heavy.
In the present invention of a solid cosmetic composition, in addition to a liquid oil, if necessary, it can also be blended into a solid oil component and/or into semi-solid oil component.
In addition to the aforementioned essential ingredients, any other ingredients, which are commonly blended in solid cosmetic compositions, can be blended in if they do not deteriorate the effect of the present invention. For example: other waxes, other oils, humectants, preservatives, antioxidants, ultraviolet absorbers, ultraviolet scattering agents, polymers, surface active agents, colorants, pigments, powders, drugs, alcohols, solvents, fragrances, flavors, etc, are available. The solid cosmetic composition of the present invention can be produced by common production process.
In the present invention, specific examples of solid cosmetic compositions are as follows: Make-up cosmetics such as lipstick, lip-gloss, lip balm, foundations, eye shadow, hair cosmetics such as hair stick, and pomades are examples. The solid cosmetic compositions refer to a broad range of compositions used for cosmetics and are not limited to a solid cosmetic composition. A stick form solid cosmetic is preferable, especially a lipstick containing a pigment and/or a colorant.
In the present invention, the solid cosmetic composition is in solid form at ordinary room temperature (25xc2x0 C.).
The solid cosmetic composition of the present invention having superior shape-retaining ability and usability is obtained by blending a wax component of aforementioned ingredient (a) having particular average molecular weight, and the ingredient (b). Reason of the effect is not known, but it is believed to be as follows.
The solid cosmetic composition comprising the wax component and the liquid oil component has a network structure of a wax component in micro crystal form, when the wax and oil are combined with each other, the liquid oil component is included in this structure and the shape stays in solid form.
The shape and size of the wax micro-crystal structure, and the types of the liquid oil components form the structure and character of the solid cosmetics. The wax composition of the present invention is balanced to maximize the shape-retaining ability and usability by solidifying the liquid oil component.


Embodiments of the invention provide a method, system and computer program product for manifest integrity management via radio frequency identification (RFID). A manifest integrity management method can include scanning different RFID tags affixed to different objects for placement in a container. The method also can include determining both common data for all of the different RFID tags, and unique data for each of the different RFID tags. Finally, the method can include encoding an RFID tag for the container with an entry for the common data for the different RFID tags, and each unique data for each of the different RFID tags. In this way, a manifest can be created for the objects in the container.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and more particularly to manifest integrity management through RFID.
2. Description of the Related Art
RFID is an area of automatic identification that has quietly been gaining momentum in recent years and is now being seen as a radical means of enhancing data handling processes, complimentary in many ways to other data capture technologies such bar coding. The object of any RFID system is to carry data in suitable transponders, generally known as tags, and to retrieve data, by machine readable means, at a suitable time and place to satisfy particular application needs. Data within a tag may provide identification for an item in manufacture, goods in transit, a location of an item, the identity of a vehicle, an animal or an individual. By including additional data the prospect is provided for supporting applications through item specific information or instructions immediately available on reading the tag.
An RFID object tracking system requires, in addition to tags, a means of reading or interrogating the tags and some means of communicating the data to a host computer or information management system. In this respect, an RFID object tracking system also can include a facility for programming data into the tags. Notably, the tags can be active and powered in nature, or passive and unpowered in nature. Communication of data between tags and a reader can be by wireless communication. Two methods distinguish and categorize RFID object tracking systems, one based upon close proximity electromagnetic or inductive coupling and one based upon propagating electromagnetic waves. Coupling is via 'antenna' structures forming an integral feature in both tags and readers. While the term antenna is generally considered more appropriate for propagating systems it is also loosely applied to inductive systems.
RFID systems can be roughly grouped into four categories: electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems, portable data capture systems, networked systems and positioning systems. EAS systems typically involve a one bit system used to sense the presence or absence of an item. Portable data capture systems, by comparison, can be characterized by the use of portable data terminals with integral RFID readers and can be used in applications where a high degree of variability in sourcing required data from tagged items may be exhibited. Networked system applications can generally be characterized by fixed position readers deployed within a given site and connected directly to a networked information management system. The transponders are positioned on moving or moveable items, or people, depending upon application. Finally, positioning systems use transponders to facilitate automated location and navigation support for guided vehicles.
Despite the ability to track an item or identify an item readily according to RFID, tracking a single item in of itself cannot cure the challenges facing the mass shipment of product. In particular, once product has been encapsulated within a container for shipment, verifying the identity of a single parcel in the container can be physically near impossible as to do so would require the physical retrieval of the parcel to ensure the correct RFID tag has been read to the exclusion of other RFID tags on other parcels in the container. The problem of ensuring a manifest for a container (namely, the listing of contents of a container) not only is a supply chain problem, but also a problem of security and loss prevention.

Manifest integrity management via radio frequency identification (RFID)

International Business Machines Corporation