The present invention provides an electro-optical distance measurement, wherein a light from a light source (6) is projected toward an object to be measured (2), a reflection light reflected by the object to be measured is received at a photodetection unit (8), the light from the light source is received by the photodetection unit as an inner light via an inner optical path (11), and a distance to the object to be measured is measured according to the result of photodetection of the reflection light and the inner light of the photodetection unit, and wherein a correction information is acquired based on the inner light, the acquired correction information is stored, a correction value is obtained from the correction information based on the reflection light and the inner light, and a distance is calculated from the correction value and the result of photodetection of the reflection light and the inner light.

A technique has been known in the past, according to which a laser beam is projected to an object to be measured, and a reflection light from the object to be measured is received by a photodetection element, and a distance to the object to be measured is determined.
In general, it is known in electro-optical distance measurement that error may occur in a result of distance measurement due to light quantity of a reflection light from the object to be measured. This is because electrical phase characteristics of a photodetection element and a photodetection circuit are subject to slight and minute change when a receiving light quantity is changed. For the purpose of reducing the changes of the phase characteristics as much as possible, it has been practiced in the past to perform an electric adjustment on the photodetection circuit for each machine or device in the manufacturing process.
FIG. 19 is a diagram to show phase characteristics A of a photodetection circuit under non-adjustment conditions and phase characteristics B after the adjustment. In FIG. 19, the light quantity is represented on the axis of abscissa, and the phase is represented on the axis of ordinate.
Here, the term "phase" means a time T1 as shown in FIG. 20(A). The time T1 means a time period up to the moment when the photodetection signal is turned to 0 for the first time when a light emission timing signal is issued and the photodetection element outputs a photodetection signal. The time T1 means a moment when it is judged that the photodetection element receives the light.
As shown in FIG. 20(B), when receiving light quantity (received light quantity) increases, a time T2 is extended by ΔT with respect to the time T1 of FIG. 20(A), and a delay (deviation of the phase) occurs in the light receiving time.
Therefore, as seen in FIG. 19, in case of non-adjustment (phase characteristics A), it is seen that the phase is changed considerably when the light quantity is changed. For this reason, in case of non-adjustment, error may be included in the result of distance measurement.
In case of the phase characteristics B, even when the receiving light quantity is changed as the result of adjustment of the photodetection circuit, almost no change occurs in the phase, and stable phase characteristics can be maintained for wider light quantity range.
Another adjustment method is disclosed in JP-A-2004-264116 (the Patent Document 1). According to the method described in JP-A-2004-264116 (the Patent Document 1), the change of the receiving light quantity occurs over total light receiving (photodetection) range in the manufacturing process. Then, a relation between the receiving light quantity over total photodetection range and electrical phase change is determined. This relation between the receiving light quantity and electrical phase change (i.e. information of receiving light quantity—phase change) is stored in a storage unit inside the device, and error is corrected according to (information of receiving light quantity—phase change) thus stored at the time of distance measurement.
Further, the phase characteristics of the photodetection element and the photodetection circuit are also changed according to the environment where the device is used and also to the changes over time. For instance, the distance measuring device is also used in various regions on the earth including cold climate region such as Russia or in tropical forests in equatorial region. Therefore, the distance measuring device is expected so that the operation can be performed over the temperature range from −30° C. to +60° C. In such case, the temperature of the photodetection element or the photodetection circuit is changed. As a result, changes also occur in the relation between the receiving light quantity and electrical phase characteristics, and the changes often appear as measurement error.
Because the error caused by the change of environment cannot be eliminated by electrical adjustment of the photodetection circuit at the time of manufacture, the photodetection circuit must be composed of electrical components with high performance characteristics over wide temperature range so that measurement error may be within the change specified in the specification of the product even when environmental conditions have changed. Accordingly, higher costs are required for the components and the manufacturing cost is increased.
When many years have elapsed after the manufacture, electrical characteristics at the time of manufacture are changed due to deterioration of the quality of electronic components. In this case, deviation gradually occurs among electrical adjustment at the time of manufacture, information for correction stored in the device and actual conditions of the device, and the deviation appears as errors in the measured distance.
Further, to perform electrical adjustment or to store information for correction, the facilities for such purposes are needed, and more time is required for the adjustment and this leads to the increase of the manufacturing cost.
To solve the above problems, the present invention provides an electro-optical distance measuring method and an electro-optical distance measuring device, by which it is possible to eliminate the procedures of electrical adjustment on the photodetection circuit in the manufacturing process and to perform distance measurement at higher accuracy to exclude the photodetection circuit, which shows lower phase changes over wide temperature range and without giving consideration on the deterioration of electronic components to the changes over time.    [Patent document 1] JP-A-2004-264116    [Patent Document 2] JP-A-2004-212058    [Patent Document 3] JP-A-2008-82895

Electro-optical distance measuring method and electro-optical distance measuring device


A pickup truck attachment apparatus is provided for a pickup truck having a cab and a cargo space truck bed with a pair of sidewalls and an end wall and a tailgate. The attachment includes a rigid cover for the pickup truck bed shaped to fit over the sidewalls with the rigid cover having a frame supporting a flat panel member attached thereto and having a top and bottom and two sides and two ends. Hinges having quick attaching/detaching hinge pins has one hinge leaf attached to the truck bed end wall and the other hinge leaf attached to one end of the rigid cover and adapted for the rigid cover to rotate on the plurality of hinges so that the rigid panel can be raised and lowered from the tailgate end and can be quickly removed from the truck. Accessory attachment members are attached to the rigid cover panel for attaching accessories, such as a cover or the like so that the rigid cover can support attachments thereto. The rigid cover can be rapidly removed from the truck and supported on another surface, such as a boat or can form the floor for a trailer.

The present invention relates to a pickup truck attachment and especially to a multiuse rigid platform which acts as a cover for the cargo space of the pickup truck but is readily detachable for other uses.
In the past, it has been common to provide pickup trucks with a wide variety of attachments for fitting into the cargo space. A common attachment is for tool boxes which are mounted in the cargo space and attached to the sides of the cargo space. There have also been a variety of dog boxes for attaching in pickup trucks as well as various types of camping bodies including covers for the cargo space or truck bed and there have been folding canopies and tent structures as well as camper bodies attachable to the cargo space of the truck.
In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,778 for a Pickup Truck Attachment Apparatus, I provided a truck attachment which allows a pickup truck to be used for carrying a dog box, a camping enclosure, and mounting seats on the back of the truck. In addition, the attachment provided for storage space and a foldable tent structure which could be mounted to the top thereof.
Typical prior art patents which show collapsible canopies or tent structures for pickup truck cargo space can also be seen in the Feather U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,787 for a longitudinal collapsible canopy for pickup trucks and analogous frames and in the Westmoreland U.S. Pat. No. 2,436,736 for a collapsible canopy frame for a pickup truck and in the Rodrigue U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,363 for a foldaway canopy for a flatbed truck. Also in U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,914 to Billet for a tent camper for a pickup truck and in the Bouregois U.S. Pat. No. 4,289,346 for a collapsible protective mechanism for a pickup truck and in the Cook U.S. Pat. No. 2,670,988 for a folding pickup truck top. These patents typically have a flexible canopy or tent covering material and a plurality of frame members which can be set up or folded to support the canopy to enclose all or part of the cargo space of a pickup truck.
In the Knaack et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,731, a vehicle storage drawer unit attaches to the bottom of a pickup truck cargo space to define a storage drawer which can still carry a load on top of the drawer. In the LeVee U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,695, a watertight, secured truck enclosure is provided in the pickup truck cargo space and the Musgrove et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,990 is a waterproof truck bed cover. The Ogilvie U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,713 is for a pickup truck body construction and the Beals U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,775 is a load bearing security cover for a pickup truck.
In contrast to the prior art, patents for a pickup truck cargo space tarps and covers, the present invention provides for a rigid supporting platform and cover hingedly mounted to the pickup truck which is rapidly detachable and which converts to an attachment for a boat or for the floor of a tent structure which also has supports for supporting the rigid cover and platform in different raised positions.


Provided is a method for scheduling activities. The method includes partitioning tasks provided for scheduling. The partitioning is accomplished by receiving at least one task including at least one data type. The data type is reviewed to determine at least one scheduling criteria and the task is routed to a queue based on the determined scheduling criteria. Each queue also has at least one queue characteristic. The method also includes scheduling the partitioned tasks. The scheduling is accomplished by retrieving the at least one task from the queue in response to a trigger. The retrieved task is routed to at least one scheduler. In a first instance the routing is based on the queue characteristic. In a second instance the routing is based on at least one scheduler characteristic. A scheduling system for performing this method is also provided.

Simply stated, a schedule informs a party of what activity/activities are to take place, when the activity/activities will take place, and who will perform the activity/activities. A schedule may run for an hour, day, week, month, or other interval of time. Generally, the "when" quality is a specific reference to start an activity at a specific time and/or end that activity at a later specific time.
With respect to the "what" quality, a schedule may provide very generic activity information such as sleeping, eating, building, or some other activity. The "what" quality may also provide resource information—sleeping in bed 2, eating at table 5, or building at station 4.
With respect to the "who" quality—a schedule may provide information to observers of an activity regarding who is performing the activity, or the schedule may provide direction to a party to commence with or finish an activity. Typically, a schedule will also indicate free time, as in unscheduled time, as well as the busy time, as in time currently scheduled for activities.
A schedule may be assembled by scheduling activities in the order in which they are received, or in which they logically occur. A schedule may also be assembled by prioritizing activities in descending or ascending order of preference. Where the time that an activity is to occur or might occur is important, the focus of placement may shift from simple order of preference to level of priority at a specified time.
In many real world settings there are specific demands upon schedules. For any given resources (such as an aircraft, a satellite or a computer) there may be a finite availability both in terms of how long something may occur and how much may occur. Computer speeds are continuing to increase, but for each second of time a computer (CPU) has a finite number of operations to perform. A more powerful CPU resource may indeed execute more operations than a less powerful CPU resource, and such an option may or may not be taken into account when forming a schedule. In another example, an aircraft or satellite may not be over a particular spot on the earth at all times, and even when over a target area, may only be able to observe, deploy, gather, or perform a finite number of activities before returning to base or passing out of range.
To fill a schedule with activities competing for time slots, or to enter new activities into an existing schedule where the new activities compete with existing scheduled activities is far from easy. Many problems, and the algorithms that may be applied to them, are linear—double or triple the input and they will take twice or three times as long to complete. Others may be quadratic, cubic or another polynomial. When a class of problems is encountered where the solution is not polynomial, it may well be a nondeterministic polynomial—more commonly referred to as "NP-hard".
Filling a schedule and inserting new activities into a schedule are activities that qualify as NP-hard. NP-hard problems are well known and frequently encountered, yet no algorithm to solve them to optimality in polynomial time is known. A fast algorithm is one that will return the best solution quickly enough for the solution to actually be useful. If the solution takes years to compute, it is quite likely that the term of usefulness will have long expired.
A famous example of such an NP-hard problem is the Traveling Salesman. A salesman desires to visit each state capital and wants to minimize his or her driving time. Within the 50 states there are 49! possible choices—and no algorithm is known to exist that will solve this problem in a reasonable amount of time.
For a schedule, it may be that, given an infinite amount of time, a best solution may be found. However, during the instantiation of a schedule, and the subsequent modification of a schedule, real time continues to progress. As a result, by the time a best solution has been found, it is entirely possible that too much time will have passed and the issue will be moot.
In many instances, scheduling algorithms are designed on a case by case basis to address what is perceived as a specific scheduling need. Although effective, this can lead to significant inefficiency as many scheduling systems may utilize similar if not identical operations. In addition, if an issue of priority effecting one or more tasks changes suddenly due to a real world crisis, a customized algorithm may be unable to favorably adapt.
Indeed there are many different types of scheduling methodologies, and even for the same type of event scheduling, different methodologies may be more or less favored at different times.
Where the desire is to schedule the maximum number of activities, regardless of priority, an English Auction may be quite effective. However, if there is a premium placed on the scheduling of higher priority activities, then an English Auction may not offer the best solution. Indeed, if the mandate is to schedule as many events as possible, but no higher priority activity may ever be usurped by one or more lower priorities, then the English Auction approach will not be acceptable. And again, though an English Auction method may be appropriate for some tasks in a scheduling problem it may not be the most desirable method for all tasks in the scheduling problem.
Mixed Integer methods have also been proposed to provide schedule modification. In a Mixed Integer method, however, each and every allowable possible permutation of activities is considered and evaluated. Even with the speed of modern computers, the focus upon trying all permutations for comparison makes Mixed Integer methods vastly impractical for large scale scheduling problems, but may be ideal for small, time insensitive problems.
Further a system designed to effectively process on-demand tasking may not be ideal for scheduling and rescheduling a list of standing or repeated tasks known to occur at some point beyond the immediate here and now.
Hence, there is a need for a task scheduling method that overcomes one or more of the technical problems found in existing scheduling systems.


First several possible working points are stored with different mappings to available modules. Each of these working points involves different trade-offs for important criteria related to performance and costs. At the design stage, these trade-off points for the criteria are not calibrated to the actual run-time conditions. Subsequently, based on actual values of the leakage criteria caused by temperature variations and/or ageing at given run-time conditions for (a subset of) the working points, it is possible to calibrate the trade-off curves and use a run-time controller to select the most suited working points afterward for an actual circuit. These active working points are selected to just meet the necessary system requirements on performance, while minimizing any of the important cost parameters.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to design methodologies for electrical systems, more in particular electrical circuits (especially digital circuits), to circuitry designed with said methodologies and to circuit parts, specially designed and incorporated within said digital circuits to enable operation of said circuits in accordance with the proposed concepts.
2. Description of the Related Art
Technology scaling has historically improved the performance of embedded systems, both in energy consumption and in speed. Scaling minimum feature sizes below 100 nm however, brings a host of problems, which cannot be completely solved at technology level. Back-end performance degradation and increased leakage currents are only a few examples. It is know in the art that future deep submicron (DSM) technologies will suffer more and more from leakage problems. Such leakage problems are temperature an/or ageing dependent.
Currently available thermal management of platforms already react on too high temperatures for certain modules but they try to remedy the situation when it has become "critical". So if the temperature within the modules reaches a too high value, they shut off the module and move the operations to other spare modules.
Leakage in future technology nodes is assumed to be dominated by gate and subthreshold leakage. The gate leakage can be kept under control by not reducing the oxide thickness too much and by using high-k materials. So technology innovations should keep that contribution low up till at least 45 nm. The subthreshold leakage, however, is not solvable by technology innovations. For the subthreshold leakage, either the threshold voltage Vt has to be kept high enough, or the temperature low enough (because subthreshold leakage rises exponentially with reducing threshold voltage). Keeping the threshold voltage Vt high means a significant penalty on delay, especially if the supply voltage Vdd is low enough to keep also the dynamic power low in future technology nodes.
Due to the stochastic nature of leakage caused by temperature variations and/or ageing, the only way to maximize the parametric system yield, i.e. the number of samples that meet the timing constraints, is either by incorporating corner-point analysis in the designs, or by run-time techniques which can measure the actual variability and adapt the operation of the system, because it is impossible to predict the impact of leakage caused by temperature variations and/or ageing on a system before the chip is processed, in particular in view of the temperature-dependence.
Especially deep submicron (DSM) technologies, e.g. process technology nodes for 65 nm and beyond, suffer from large variability in integrated circuit (IC) parameters. These variations may be due to, amongst others, the following reasons:                "temporal" differences due to "degradation" processes, i.e. ageing. These include electromigration (which influences resistance R and partly capacitance C of lines), self-annealing of Cu (which influences resistance R of lines), stability of low-k dielectrics (which influences R/C of lines) and of high-k dielectrics (which influences threshold voltage Vt), hot electron trapping (which also influences threshold voltage Vt) and cross-talk (which causes "pseudo C" changes and noise). These temporal differences should be relatively slow and easy to "follow up" or monitor.        "temperature-related" differences due to strong variations in temperature T over time. Because of this, threshold voltage Vt and resistance R of lines are influenced. These temperature-related differences can vary quite fast (up to msec range) and hence are more difficult to monitor and calibrate.
Memories are among the most leakage sensitive components of a system. The reason is that most of the transistors in a memory are minimum-sized and are thus more prone to leakage caused by temperature variations and ageing. Additionally some parts of the memories are analog blocks, whose operation and timing can be severely degraded by leakage caused by temperature variations and ageing.
In a target domain of multimedia applications, memories occupy the majority of the chip area even in current designs and contribute to the majority of the digital chip energy consumption. Therefore they are considered to be very important blocks for a system.
Leakage caused by temperature variations and ageing have thus become a serious problem for continued technology scaling. It becomes harder and harder to deal with this at the technology and circuit levels only. Several proposed schemes are not even scalable to deep-submicron technologies because the body-bias effect will become very small.
If these effects have to be characterized at "design time", and furthermore it has to be guaranteed that the design will still work under all possible conditions, in particular temperature conditions, the slack that will have to be introduced will become prohibitive in the deep-submicron era.
Maximizing parametric yield in memories via corner-point analysis and design will, by the size of the "clouds" due to leakage caused by temperature variations and ageing, lead to severe overheads in energy consumption and delay. The reason is that the memory design will use over-sized circuits and conservative timing margins to improve the predictability of the memory behavior by trading off performance.

Method and apparatus for designing and manufacturing electronic circuits subject to leakage problems caused by temperature variations and/or aging


A method of remanufacturing a process cartridge includes a step of removing a pin to thereby separate a drum unit and a developing container, a step of separating a developing frame and a developer frame from each other to thereby separate the developing container, a step of resupplying the developer to a developer containing portion of the developer frame, a step of superposing a reseal member on end portion seal members provided at lengthwise one end and other end of a developer supply opening for supplying the developer contained in a developer containing portion to a developing roller, and interposing the reseal member on each of widthwise one end and other end of the developer supply opening along the lengthwise direction of the developer supply opening, and reuniting the developing frame and the developer frame, and a step of reuniting the reconstructed developing container and the drum unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of remanufacturing a process cartridge detachably mountable to the main body of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus and a developing device.
Here, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus forms an image on a recording medium by the use of the electrophotographic image forming process. Examples of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus include an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrophotographic printer (such as a laser printer or an LED printer), a facsimile apparatus and a word processor.
Also, the process cartridge refers to charging means, developing means or cleaning means as process means and an electrophotographic photosensitive member integrally made into a cartridge, which is made detachably mountable to the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. It also refers to at least one of charging means, developing means and cleaning means as process means and an electrophotographic photosensitive member integrally made into a cartridge, which is made detachably mountable to the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. It further refers to at least developing means as process means and an electrophotographic photosensitive member integrally made into a cartridge, which is made detachably mountable to the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. Also, the developing device refers to developing means and a developer containing portion integrally made into a cartridge which is made detachably mountable to the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
In image forming apparatuses using the electrophotographic image forming process, there has heretofore been adopted a process cartridge system in which an electrophotographic photosensitive member and process means for acting on the electrophotographic photosensitive member are integrally made into a cartridge which is made detachably mountable to the main body of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus. According to this process cartridge system, the maintenance of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus can be done by a user himself without resort to a serviceman and therefore, operability can be markedly improved. So, this process cartridge system is widely used in the electrophotographic image forming apparatuses.
Also, in the electrophotographic image forming apparatuses of such a process cartridge type, the user himself must interchange the cartridge. Therefore, some of the electrophotographic image forming apparatuses are provided with developer amount detecting means to inform the user when a developer has been consumed. As the developer amount detecting means, there is a method of detecting any change in the capacitance among a plurality of electrodes disposed in the process cartridge to thereby detect the amount of developer.
As the constructions of these electrodes, there are a construction in which electrode bars are disposed at predetermined intervals from a developing roller (the capacitance between the developing roller and the electrode bars is detected), a construction in which a plurality of opposed electrode plates are disposed at a location the developer can enter, and a combination of these.
There is also a construction in which the connecting portion of these electrodes is disposed in the ultrasonic welding united portion between a developing container and a developer container to thereby improve the reliability of the contact.
There has heretofore been desired a simple method of remanufacturing a process cartridge and a developing device which have lost their commercial values with a developer therein consumed and capable of commercializing them again.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of remanufacturing a process cartridge or a developing device having the above-described construction.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a remanufacturing method in which the maintenance of the sealability of a developer when a developing container and a developer container that are separated from each other are reunited and the remanufacturability are compatible.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of remanufacturing a process cartridge and a developing device from which a developer does not leak in spite of their having been remanufactured.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a simple method of remanufacturing a process cartridge and a developing device.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of remanufacturing a process cartridge and a developing device which can again commercialize a process cartridge and a developing device that have lost their commercial value as a process cartridge and a developing device with a developer therein consumed to such a degree that they cannot form an image of a quality with which the user will be satisfied.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a process cartridge and a developing device which can seal two frames having their united surfaces disassembled without the leakage of a toner.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of remanufacturing a process cartridge and a developing device which can improve the reliability of an electrical contact and can easily remanufacture a process cartridge and a developing device.
There and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Method of remanufacturing process cartridge and developing device


A touch input device includes a substrate, plural sensible conductive layers and plural first switch units. The substrate is provided with an upper surface, the sensible conductive layers are all configured on the upper surface and are arranged in columns and rows. The first switch units are configured on the substrate and are electrically connected with the sensible conductive layers. By the first switch units, same columns of the sensible conductive layers can conduct electrically with one another and same rows of the sensible conductive layers can conduct electrically with one another.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input device, and more particularly to a touch input device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many existing electronic equipment, such as a hand-held electronic device and a computer including a cell phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) and a Global Positioning System (GPS) navigator, will usually require an input device like a keyboard, a mouse or a touch panel, to operate. As the touch panel can be integrated with a screen of the electronic equipment to form a touch screen, the touch panel is used widely.
FIG. 1A shows a top view of a conventional touch panel and FIG. 1B is a cutaway view along the line I-I of FIG. 1A. As shown in the drawings, the conventional touch panel 100 includes a transparent glass plate 110, plural vertical conductive strips 120, plural horizontal conductive strips 130 and a chip 140.
The transparent glass plate 110 is provided with an upper surface 112 and a lower surface 114 which is opposite to the upper surface 112. The vertical conductive strips 120 are all configured on the upper surface 112, and the horizontal conductive strips 130 are all configured on the lower surface 114. In other words, the vertical conductive strips 120 and the horizontal conductive strips 130 are configured respectively on the two opposite surfaces of the transparent glass plate 110.
Accordingly, the vertical conductive strips 120 and the horizontal conductive strips 130 are all transparent indium-tin oxide (ITO) films, and are provided respectively with plural conductive layers 122, 132, wherein the conductive layers 122 in any one vertical conductive strip 120 are electrically connected with one another, and the conductive layers 132 in any one horizontal conductive strip 130 are electrically connected with one another.
The chip 140 is provided with plural input-output contacts 142 which are one-to-one electrically connected to the vertical conductive strips 120 and the horizontal conductive strips 130. Therefore, a total number of the vertical conductive strips 120 and the horizontal conductive strips 130 will be equal to a number of the input-output contacts 142, and the chip 140 is electrically connected to the vertical conductive strips 120 and the horizontal conductive strips 130.
When a touch pen P1 contacts the upper surface 112 or the conductive layers 122, a capacitance value of the vertical conductive strip 120 or the horizontal conductive strip 130 that corresponds to the touch pen P1 will be changed. At this time, the chip 140 will be aware of a position of the touch pen P1 according to the changed capacitance value, so as to move a cursor which is displayed on the screen of the electronic equipment, allowing a user to operate the electronic equipment such as the hand-held electronic device or the computer from the touch panel 100.
Accordingly, each vertical conductive strip 120 and each horizontal conductive strip 130 can serve as a sensor to detect the position of the touch pen P1, respectively. Hence, a number of the sensors that the touch panel 100 is provided with are equal to the total number of the vertical conductive strips 120 and the horizontal conductive strips 130. Taking FIG. 1A as an example, the touch panel 100 includes 5 vertical conductive strips 120 and 4 horizontal conductive strips 130; thus, there are 9 sensors in the touch panel 100.
In general, the more sensors the touch panel 100 has, the higher the accuracy of the touch panel 100 will be provided with; that is, the touch panel 100 can more accurately detect the position of the touch pen P1, so as to accurately control the movement of the cursor. In order to improve the accuracy of the touch panel 100, many companies, factories, enterprises and academic institutes nowadays are developing toward increasing the numbers of the vertical conductive strips 120 and the horizontal conductive strips 130, in the research of the touch panel 100.


The disclosure relates to a deep-drawing packaging machine with a forming station for deep-drawing trays into a film, a loading stretch for filling products into the trays, and a sealing station for sealing the trays. The deep-drawing packaging machine further comprises at least one vacuum cooling station which is disposed in a direction of transport upstream of the sealing station and which is formed for vacuum cooling the products placed into the trays along the loading stretch. The disclosure furthermore relates to a method for vacuum cooling products.

Such deep-drawing packaging machines are used to manufacture packagings in the shape of trays, where the products packaged therein are filled into the manufactured trays along a loading stretch of the deep-drawing packaging machine and the filled trays are then transported to a sealing station for sealing the trays.
If the products placed in the trays are hot products, for example pre-cooked filled pasta squares, they can be slightly cooled way of by an evacuation process carried out within the sealing station. However, it may be that the associated cooling effect is not sufficient to cool down the products to a desired temperature level prior to the sealing process, since the evacuation phase employed within the sealing station does not last long enough. Enclosing products that are too hot, however, can lead to undesirable precipitation settling inside the sealed packagings.
DE 296 07 689 U1 discloses a deep-drawing packaging machine with a sealing station having downstream in the direction of transport a mechanical cooling device which by use of cooling cushions mounted thereon presses on sealed packagings from above and below in order to cool them down after the sealing process downstream of the sealing station.
The disclosure is based on an object of providing a deep-drawing packaging machine and a method with which, in particular, products to be hot-packaged can be packaged with a uniform packaging quality and at an increased machine output rate.

Deep-drawing packaging machine with vacuum cooling station and method for vacuum cooling hot-packaged products


In a particular embodiment, a network device receives, from a first device, a first call request for a second device. The network device may then send the first call request to a redirect server, which can determine where to send the call. The network device receives a response from the redirect server indicating an address to redirect the call request to. The network device then determines a redirect ID for the redirect. The network device sends a message to the first device with the redirect ID where the message indicates that a redirection occurred to the third device. The network device then receives a second call request from the first device that includes the redirect ID. The network device determines if the call was part of a previous redirect. If so, the second call request is sent to the address associated with the redirect ID.

In Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks, interworking various supplementary services may be necessary. For example, one service is a redirect, which is commonly used in VoIP networks including session initiation protocol (SIP) and H.323 networks. Typically, a session border controller (SBC) may receive a call request from a first end device for a second end device. A redirect server is used to keep track of addresses for various end devices. The call request is sent to the redirect server, which can then determine the correct address for the end device. In cases where a call is redirected, the redirect service sends back a redirect message with a third end device's address. One of the main functions of an SBC is to provide address hiding. Address hiding is where each side of the communication does not know the other side's address. Thus, the SBC keeps track of each end device's address. When the SBC sends communications to end devices, the SBC's address is included as a respond-to address instead of the other end device's address.
When the SBC gets a redirect to the third end device, the SBC may not just redirect the call request to the third end device. Rather, the SBC may have to send a message back to the first end device such that the first end device can decide whether it wants to initiate a call to the third end device. Reasons that the first end device may not want the call directly redirected may be because the redirection may be to an international call or may be a long-distance call where the first call to the second device was a local call. When the SBC sends the message back to the first device, the SBC includes its own address as a respond-to address. The message also indicates that a redirect to a third end device is requested. If the first end device wants to initiate a call to the third end device, then an invite for the third end device is sent to the SBC. This is treated as a new invite and it is sent to the redirect server again. The redirect server then responds with another redirect message. Since this is another redirect, the SBC will send another message back to the first end device. This causes an infinite loop that does not redirect the call to the third end device.
Further, if the third end device's address is included in the message back to the first end device, this would break the address hiding, which is one of the main functionalities of the SBC. This may cause security issues in that the first end device may end up establishing a call directly to the third end device and bypassing the SBC. This may cause potential revenue loss and also may cause security issues in bypassing the SBC. Further, the call may fail because the first end device is not configured to make direct connections.


An object of the present disclosure is to provide a highly durable tire using a resin composition, and a solution to the problem is a tire obtained by using a resin composition containing a polyamide resin and an elastomer having a glass transition temperature of 25° C. or less, wherein the melt viscosity ν (Pa·sec) at 240° C. and the average distance between elastomer interfaces, τ (μm), satisfy the relationship of the following expression (1):ν<34.369τ−3.525  (1).

Polyamide resin is known as a resin excellent in processability, chemical resistance, heat resistance, etc., and these properties are used in various resin products such as injection molded articles, extrusion molded articles, and films.
For example, PTL 1 below discloses a polyamide resin composition including a polyamide resin and a modifying polymer having a functional group reactive with the polyamide resin, and discloses the use of the polyamide resin composition for resin products such as an inner liner or a hose of a pneumatic tire.
In order to avoid the occurrence of a puncture, there has recently been proposed a non-pneumatic tire with a framework member thereof being formed from a resin composition, as a tire that does not need to be internally filled with pressurized air.


An SiC semiconductor device includes a semiconductor element formed in an SiC substrate, a source electrode and a gate pad formed by using an interconnect layer having barrier metal provided at the bottom surface thereof, and a temperature measuring resistive element formed by using part of the barrier metal in the interconnect line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a silicon carbide semiconductor device with a temperature detecting element.
2. Description of the Background Art
A semiconductor element using silicon carbide (SiC) is considered as a promising element to function as a next-generation switching element capable of realizing a high breakdown voltage, low loss, and high resistance to heat. Such a semiconductor element is expected to be applied in a power semiconductor device such as an inverter. However, a semiconductor device formed by using silicon carbide (silicon carbide semiconductor device) has problems remaining unsolved.
As an example, it is known that a temperature detecting element for use in control of the operation of a protection circuit is provided in a semiconductor device. If this semiconductor device is a conventional semiconductor device formed by using silicon (silicon semiconductor device), a diode made of polysilicon (polysilicon diode) is often used as the temperature detecting element. The polysilicon diode is formed by ion implantation of impurities (dopants) into a polysilicon film. In order to form the polysilicon diode on the silicon semiconductor device, ion implantation for forming a semiconductor element in a silicon substrate, and ion implantation for forming the polysilicon diode, may be performed at the same time, thereby minimizing increase of the number of manufacturing steps.
Meanwhile, manufacture of a silicon carbide semiconductor device requires ion implantation for forming a semiconductor element, and subsequent thermal processing at a temperature of 1500° C. or higher. So, in order to form a polysilicon diode for temperature detection on the silicon carbide semiconductor device, ion implantation for forming the semiconductor element, and ion implantation for forming the polysilicon diode, should be performed separately. This involves considerable increase of the number of steps, compared to manufacture of a conventional silicon semiconductor device.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-213370 (1988) discloses a semiconductor device of a structure where an insulating layer having heat conductivity is formed on the source electrode of a power transistor, and a thin-film resistive element made of platinum or polysilicon is formed as a temperature detecting resistor on the insulating layer.
As described above, providing a polysilicon diode functioning as a temperature detecting element in a silicon carbide semiconductor device increases the number of manufacturing steps, leading to increase of manufacturing costs. Additionally, a silicon carbide semiconductor device is expected to operate under a high temperature, whereas a polysilicon diode is hard to operate under a high temperature of 200° C. or higher. So, a polysilicon diode cannot be used in a silicon carbide semiconductor device supposed to operate under a temperature of 200° C. or higher.


The present specification describes a smart security management system for managing the flow of people through security checkpoints in order to optimize overall throughput and efficiency. In an embodiment, the system includes a centralized database which is connected to a plurality of security checkpoints and which uses benchmark response data generated by a specific type of screening devices for a set of individuals. In an embodiment, the response data gathered by similar types of screening devices located at security checkpoints is compared with the benchmark response data stored in a centralized database to provide faster security clearance to individuals.

Locations must often be secured to ensure public safety and welfare. For example, places where there are large concentrations of people, such as airports or entertainment events, places that are of particular governmental importance, such as courthouses and government buildings, and other places where the threat of violence is high, such as prisons, require security measures to thwart dangerous or illegal activities. The primary security objective is to prevent the unauthorized entry of weapons, dangerous materials, illegal items, or other contraband into the location, thereby securing it. This is often achieved by requiring all people and items to enter into the location through defined checkpoints and, in those checkpoints, subjecting those people and items to thorough searches.
Currently, various devices are used to perform such searches. Regardless of the place of use, these detection systems are employed to detect the presence of contraband on the body or luggage of individuals entering the secure area. Contraband is not limited to weapons and arms, but rather it includes explosives (fireworks, ammunition, sparklers, matches, gunpowder, signal flares); weapons (guns, swords, pepper sprays, martial arts weapons, knives); pressurized containers (hair sprays, insect repellant, oxygen/propane tanks); poisons (insecticides, pesticides, arsenic, cyanide); household items (flammable liquids, solvents, bleach); and corrosives (acids, lye, mercury).
People screening systems such as metal detectors are deployed at defined checkpoints to detect threat items such as weapons, explosives, and other dangerous objects concealed under clothing and within clothing. Such conventional security systems rely on data independently recorded at the time of screening to evaluate the possibility of a concealed threat item. There exist a wide range of threat items, which are difficult to be automatically and conclusively detected by automated algorithmic-based detection systems thereby necessitating a need for physical search of personnel. A full physical or a body pat-down search is often time-consuming, resource-intensive, and uncomfortable for both the security personnel and the subject under inspection. The time consumed in performing full-body pat-downs further decreases throughput, thus making the process slow and inconvenient for other subjects who are in queue for security screening.
The conventional security systems such as metal detector systems do not rely on any kind of data driven artificial intelligence. These devices are not intelligent and do not relate the search results during a screening process with the past screening history of an individual. Every screened passenger is evaluated in the same way irrespective of the things he or she normally carries or the way he or she dresses. A typical metal detector system works to detect the presence of any conducting object present with the screened person in his or her clothing or belongings. In several instances, people normally wear or carry conducting objects such as metal ornaments or keys or a writing instrument. A typical metal detector is unable to conclusively distinguish between a threat element and a metal based non threat element such as a writing instrument leading to false alarm during the screening process. This generally requires the security personnel to perform a full body pat-down search of the screened personnel leading to inconvenience and reduced throughput.
In addition, screening checkpoints used in current security systems predominately operate using a single input and single output line approach. Because the metal detectors are unable to conclusively distinguish between threat items and non-threat items which are made of conducting materials, the complex security protocols being instituted require individuals to get many of their belongings such as wallets, mobile phones, keys and other items, scanned by an X-ray scanner. Usually this is done because some of these non-threat items can trigger false alarms when the individual passes through the metal detector. It takes a considerable amount of time for individuals to divest themselves of their belongings and to place them for separate screening. This divestiture process tends to happen serially with individuals waiting in line until they have access to the machine. Contributing to the lag associated with the divestiture process, current systems employ a single conveyor belt, upon which each of the individual passenger items must be placed in order for the items to pass through the x-ray machine. Once the items are scanned, they accumulate on the opposite side of the scanning machine, thus creating "traffic" on the belt until retrieved by the passenger/owner. The belt must often be stopped by the operator to prevent the backlog of unclaimed baggage from reversing into the x-ray machine.
U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 14/944,067, 14/859,647, 14/531,485, 14/293,233, 14/280,774, 14/149,473, 14/104,508, 13/942,563, 13/903,598, 13/365,114, 13/175,785, 12/887,510, and 12/643,021 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,182,516, 8,995,619, 8,774,362, 8,766,764, 8,654,922, 8,638,904, 8,576,982, 8,199,996, 8,135,112, 7,826,589, 7,796,733, 7,660,388, and 7,418,077 all disclose people screening systems and are all incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Despite the prior art efforts to improve methods, apparatuses, and systems for scanning individuals and carry-on baggage, the abovementioned problems have not been solved. The prior art methods fail to disclose methods and systems that reasonably alleviate delay during the divestiture process. In addition, the prior art does not improve the overall efficiency and throughput of the system.
Accordingly, there is need for an integrated system and process for effectively managing the flow of people through screening procedures. There is a need for an improved security check station that reduces the waiting time for individuals and has improved throughput and efficiency. Such a system would reduce over-staffing of security personnel, facilitate automation of the metal detector, curtail idle time of machine operators, and significantly increase throughput of the machines.
There is a need for an intelligent screening system that is able to evaluate the possibility of threat items based on the past screening history or a benchmark screening pattern for any individual. There is a need for an intelligent screening system where the plurality of information is centrally processed for yielding specific outputs to different users.


A modular wheelchair assembly is adapted to be reconfigured between a fixed angle of tilt, a dynamically adjustable tilt-in-space configuration with the tilt axis being near the user's knees and a dynamically adjustable tilt-in-space configuration with the tilt axis being near the user's center of gravity. The reconfiguration is achieved by modifying a limited number of selectively removable components of the support assembly or the pivot assembly of the wheelchair.

The designs of most wheelchairs are optimized to accommodate a particular level of disability. Persons with low disability tend to use relatively inexpensive wheelchairs that have no seat tilt or a fixed seat tilt and a footrest assembly that easily accommodates self-propulsion using the occupant's feet.
Persons with moderate disability may prefer a wheelchair that allows for optional self-propulsion but that can be tilted to offer a range of seating angles. Tilting the seat provides pressure relief to the occupant, reduces discomfort associated with sitting for long periods of time, and provides passive correction for deformities. The ability to self propel using the feet may be preserved despite various tilt angles by providing the axis of rotation near the front of the seat such that the distance from the knees to the ground remains relatively constant. A disadvantage of such a configuration is the force required in order to move the weight of the occupant about the axis of rotation. This is sometimes compensated for by a pneumatic assist mechanism extending between the base of the chair and the seat frame as described in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,447,064.
High disability individuals typically require a wheelchair with deeper tilt angles to improve trunk stability and head control. Some such wheelchairs also use mechanical actuators to accommodate the significant force sometimes required to move the weight of the occupant through deep tilt angles. It is also known in the prior art to minimize the effort required to tilt the occupant by providing a pivot point as close as possible to his center of gravity. U.S. Pat. No. 7,007,965 provides an example of such a system.
While various tilt configurations may be suited to particular types or levels of disability, many individuals suffer from disabilities that progress over time. Over the course of such a disability, the occupant may graduate through 3-4 different types of wheelchairs, each having different attributes. For example, a no-tilt or fixed tilt wheelchair may be used at the early onset of disability, a self-propellable tilting wheelchair can be used when the disability becomes moderate, and a deep tilt wheelchair can be used in the later stages of disability.
The present invention addresses the need for a reconfigurable modular wheelchair that is capable of being selectively configured in a fixed tilt configuration, a dynamic tilt-in-space configuration with the axis of rotation near the occupant's knees, or a dynamic tilt-in-space configuration with the axis of rotation near the occupant's center of gravity, as required to accommodate the evolving needs of the occupant.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A heated air makeup unit comprising a heating chamber with a modulated furnace one or more non-modulated furnaces air temperature control and efficient furnace operation over a wide heating rate range. The utilization of indirect fired furnaces in the heated air makeup unit is disclosed. A control system is included to provide control of heated air temperature to within +/−1 F.° using continuous control of the heating rate of the modulated furnace and stepwise activation and de-activation of the non-modulated furnaces in response to heating demand. A programmed combustion air flow controller programmed to provide optimal airflow for any gas flow in a flow range of a modulating gas valve is provided to assure combustion efficiencies of at least 83%.

Buildings or rooms comprising commercial kitchens, research laboratories, and industrial installations often include one or more exhaust fans that vent smoke, steam, and other air-polluting substances from areas where cooking units, chemical process, or manufacturing operations are located. To replace the exhausted air, heated makeup air devices are used to heat and introduce outside air into the building or room. These heated makeup air devices basically consist of a duct structure open to both the outside atmosphere and the building or room, a fan for blowing air through the duct structure into the building or room, heating units to heat the outside air as needed, and a control system for activating and monitoring the heater makeup air device as needed.
In some situations, amount of heating needed to heat outside air before introducing the air into the building or room varies widely over relatively short periods of time. For example, in some climates and at some times of the year, outside air temperatures may be very low in the morning as compared to the desired air temperature within the building or room. However, later in the day, the outside air temperature may rise considerably, perhaps up to about the desired air temperature in the building or room. At night, outside temperatures may again drop significantly. This situation requires highly variable heating rates throughout the day, and it is often the case that heated air makeup units are sized based on the highest heating demand. Likewise, venting requirements may vary over relatively short periods of time. For example, in a restaurant the intensity of cooking activities varies as dining customers come and go. While during a meal rush, venting of cooking fumes is done at a high rate and heated makeup air is consequently needed at a high level, during another period there may be little need for venting and the demand for heated makeup air is consequently low.
In most cases the air in the building or room is conditioned by a building or room heating system that is not interconnected with the heated makeup air unit The degree to which a heated air makeup device functions adequately can have a major bearing on heating load and heating load changes on the building or room air heating system. If heated makeup air is provided at temperatures varying even a little from the control target temperature of the building or room heating system, inefficient cycling of the building or room heating system can occur. However, providing precise control of the temperature of heated make up air using a very high capacity heating unit can be difficult and expensive. Moreover, actively varying the heating rate of a large heated air makeup unit often results inefficient energy conversion in the unit.
There is a need for heated air makeup devices which provide precise control of makeup air temperature and can operate efficiently over wide heating rate ranges.


Provided are an optical correcting system which can form a linear image or illuminating light having a substantially uniform light intensity distribution without reducing the efficiency of use of light, and an exposure head which can perform excellent exposure by using the linear image or the illuminating light. Light flux from a light source is collimated by the function of a collimator lens, and the collimated light flux enters into an optical correcting system for correcting light intensity distribution. The optical correcting system for correcting light intensity distribution changes the width of the light flux at the exit position at which each collimated light flux exits so that the light intensity distribution of a linear image is uniform when the collimated light flux is formed into the linear image. A change of the widths of the light flux allows utilizing the light flux at the midsection generally having a high light intensity distribution for the peripheral having an insufficient light intensity, thereby uniformalizing the light intensity distribution of the linear image without reducing the efficiency of use of light as a whole.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a one-dimensional optical condensing system which condenses light flux in only one direction so as to form a linear image, and an exposure head which performs exposure by using a linear image formed by the one-dimensional optical condensing system. More particularly, the invention relates to an optical lighting system for correcting light intensity distribution which illuminates a spatial modulator or the like, and an exposure head which performs exposure by using illuminating light emitted by the optical lighting system for correcting light intensity distribution.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical correcting system for forming a linear image can comprise, for example, a combination of a collimator lens for collimating light flux emitted from a light source and a cylindrical lens having the function of condensing the collimated light flux in only one direction. The above-mentioned one-dimensional optical condensing system is used in, for example, an apparatus which forms a two-dimensional image on a screen by using another optical correcting system for projecting and scanning a linear image formed by the optical condensing system on the screen. The one-dimensional optical condensing system may be used in an exposure head using a one-dimensional spatial modulator.
The above-mentioned one-dimensional optical condensing system has the following problems. When light flux emitted from the light source is circular or elliptical in cross section, a light intensity distribution (i.e., a light quantity distribution) of a linear image, which is formed by condensing the light flux emitted from the light source in one direction, is high at its midsection and low at its peripheral part as shown in FIG. 9. In FIG. 9, the horizontal axis indicates the coordinate of a linear image in the direction in which the linear image is formed with respect to an optical axis, and the vertical axis indicates a light intensity ratio (%).
When light flux emitted from the light source is rectangular in cross section, the light intensity distribution of a linear image is substantially uniform even if the linear image is formed by condensing the light flux in one direction. A rectangular aperture can be provided as a method for forming the cross section of light flux into a rectangular shape. However, a problem exist: more specifically, when the aperture is inserted so as to change circular or elliptical light flux into rectangular light flux, an eclipse of light occurs due to the aperture, and this causes a decrease in the efficiency of use of light.
Moreover, an optical filter having low transmittance at the midsection and high transmittance at the peripheral part can be inserted as a method for making the light intensity distribution of a linear image substantially uniform. However, also in this case, there is a problem, that is, a decrease in the efficiency of use of light of a light flux at the midsection in particular.
The above-mentioned problems of nonuniformity of the light intensity distribution may be involved in, for example, illuminating light for illuminating a two-dimensional spatial modulator for use in an exposure head, as well as light for forming a linear image. For instance, when a laser light source is used as the light source and light flux emitted from the light source is collimated by a collimator so as to use the collimated light flux as illuminating light, the light intensity distribution of the illuminating light is generally the Gaussian distribution, which exhibits a high light intensity at the midsection and a low light intensity at the peripheral part. Thus, the light intensity distribution is non-uniform, and this may prevent excellent exposure.
The invention is designed to overcome the foregoing problems. It is a first object of the invention to provide a one-dimensional optical condensing system which can form a linear image having a substantially uniform light intensity distribution without reducing the efficiency of use of light, and an exposure head which can perform excellent exposure by using a linear image formed by the one-dimensional optical condensing system.
It is a second object of the invention to provide an optical lighting system for correcting light intensity distribution which can obtain illuminating light having a substantially uniform light intensity distribution without reducing the efficiency of use of light, and an exposure head which can perform excellent exposure by using illuminating light emitted by the optical lighting system for correcting light intensity distribution.
A one-dimensional optical condensing system according to a first aspect of the invention, which condenses parallel light flux from a light source in one direction so as to form a linear image, comprises an optical correcting system for correcting light intensity distribution, which changes the width of the light flux at each exit position so that a ratio of an outgoing-light flux width at a peripheral part to an outgoing-light flux width at a midsection near an optical axis may be smaller than a ratio of an incoming-light flux width at the peripheral part to an incoming-light flux width at the midsection; and an optical condensing system which condenses the light flux from the optical correcting system in only one direction, thereby forming a linear image which has a substantially uniform light intensity distribution.
A one-dimensional optical condensing system according to a second aspect of the invention, which condenses light flux in one direction so as to form a linear image, comprises a light source; a collimator lens which collimates light flux emitted from the light source; an optical correcting system for correcting light intensity distribution, which changes the width of the light flux at each exit position so that a ratio of an outgoing-light flux width at a peripheral part to an outgoing-light flux width at a midsection near an optical axis may be smaller than a ratio of an incoming-light flux width at the peripheral part to an incoming-light flux width at the midsection; and an optical condensing system which condenses the light flux from the optical correcting system in only one direction, thereby forming a linear image which has a substantially uniform light intensity distribution.
In the one-dimensional optical condensing system according to the first and second aspects of the invention, parallel light flux enters into the optical correcting system for correcting light intensity distribution. The optical correcting system changes the width of the light flux at each exit position so that a ratio of an outgoing-light flux width at a peripheral part to an outgoing-light flux width at a midsection near an optical axis may be smaller than a ratio of an incoming-light flux width at the peripheral part to an incoming-light flux width at the midsection, thereby performing correction so that a linear image may have a substantially uniform light intensity distribution when the linear image is formed by the parallel light flux. In other words, the incoming light flux having the same width is changed in such a manner that a light flux width at the midsection is expanded, and a light flux width at the peripheral part is reduced. This makes it possible to utilize the light flux at the midsection for the peripheral part, so that the light intensity distribution of the linear image can be made substantially uniform without reducing the efficiency of use of light as a whole.
In the one-dimensional optical condensing system according to the first and second aspects of the invention, the optical correcting system is configured to have refractive power in only the longitudinal direction of the linear image and have no power in the direction perpendicular to the linear image.
In the one-dimensional optical condensing system according to the first and second aspects of the invention, when the optical correcting system is adapted to provide outgoing light flux having the same overall width as the overall width of incoming parallel light flux, a light flux-width at the midsection is expanded, and a light flux width at the peripheral part is reduced.
In the one-dimensional optical condensing system according to the first and second aspects of the invention, when the optical correcting system is adapted to xe2x80x9creducexe2x80x9d the overall width of incoming parallel light flux so as to provide outgoing light flux having a less overall width, the reduction ratio of a light flux width at the midsection may be smaller than the reduction ratio of a light flux width at the peripheral part.
In the one-dimensional optical condensing system according to the first and second aspects of the invention, when the optical correcting system is adapted to xe2x80x9cexpandxe2x80x9d the overall width of incoming parallel light flux so as to provide outgoing light flux having a larger overall width, an expansion ratio of a light flux width at the midsection may be larger than an expansion ratio of a light flux width at the peripheral part.
As described above, the one-dimensional optical condensing system according to the first and second aspects of the invention is applicable regardless of whether light is expanded or reduced in width as a whole or not.
An optical lighting system for correcting light intensity distribution of the invention comprises a light source; a collimator lens which collimates light flux emitted from the light source so as to form illuminating light; an optical correcting system which changes the width of the light flux at each exit position so that a ratio of an outgoing-light flux width at a peripheral part to an outgoing-light flux width at a midsection near an optical axis may be smaller than a ratio of an incoming-light flux width at the peripheral part to an incoming-light flux width at the midsection, thereby forming the illuminating light having a substantially uniform light intensity distribution on a surface to be illuminated.
In the optical lighting system for correcting light intensity distribution of the invention, the collimator lens collimates light flux emitted from the light source, thereby forming illuminating light. The optical correcting system changes the width of the light flux at each exit position so that a ratio of an outgoing-light flux width at a peripheral part to an outgoing-light flux width at a midsection near an optical axis may be smaller than a ratio of an incoming-light flux width at the peripheral part to an incoming-light flux width at the midsection, thereby forming the illuminating light having a substantially uniform light intensity distribution on a surface to be illuminated. Namely, the incoming light flux having the same width is changed in such a manner that a light flux width at the midsection is expanded, and a light flux width at the peripheral part is reduced. This makes it possible to utilize the light flux at the midsection for the peripheral part, so that the light intensity distribution of the linear image can be made substantially uniform without reducing the efficiency of use of light as a whole.
An exposure head according to the first aspect of the invention comprises a one-dimensional optical condensing system according to the second aspect of the invention; a one-dimensional spatial modulator which modulates a linear image formed by the one-dimensional optical condensing system; and an optical image-forming system which forms light flux modulated by the spatial modulator into an image on an exposure surface.
In the exposure head according to the first aspect, a linear image having a light intensity distribution substantially uniformalized by the optical correcting system for correcting light intensity distribution of the one-dimensional optical condensing system is formed on the spatial modulator, and the linear image is modulated by the spatial modulator. The modulated light is formed into an image on the exposure surface by the optical image-forming system. Thus, the image is used to perform exposure. The linear image having the light intensity distribution substantially uniformalized by the optical correcting system for correcting light intensity distribution is used for exposure, and therefore, excellent exposure can be performed without reducing the efficiency of use of light of the whole optical correcting system.
An exposure head according to the second aspect of the invention comprises an optical lighting system for correcting light intensity distribution of the invention; a two-dimensional spatial modulator which modulates illuminating light from the optical lighting system; and an optical image-forming system which forms light flux modulated by the spatial modulator into an image on an exposure surface.
In the exposure head according to the second aspect, the spatial modulator is illuminated by illuminating light having a light intensity distribution substantially uniformalized by the optical correcting system for correcting light intensity distribution of the optical lighting system for correcting light intensity distribution, and the illuminating light is modulated by the spatial modulator. The modulated light is formed into an image on the exposure surface by the optical image-forming system. Thus, the illuminating light is used to perform exposure. The illuminating light having the light intensity distribution substantially uniformalized by the optical correcting system for correcting light intensity distribution is used for exposure, and therefore, excellent exposure can be performed without reducing the efficiency of use of light of the whole optical correcting system.
Other and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description.

One-dimensional optical condensing system, optical lighting system for correcting light intensity distribution, and exposure head


A circuit includes a signal path having a node between a signal path input and a signal path output. A first inductive element is connected between the signal path input and the node and a first capacitive element whose capacitance is variably adjustable is connected between the node and the signal path output. A second variable-capacitance capacitive element is connected between the signal path input and ground. A second inductive element is connected between the node and ground, and a third inductive element is connected between the signal path output and ground.

Planar antennas are antennas which are not matched to a defined impedance but require a matching network for maximum power transmission.
A connection of a planar antenna to an associated impedance matching circuit is known, for example, from the International publication WO 2006/129239 A1. In addition to a plurality of inductive elements, the impedance matching circuit in the document comprises a plurality of MEMS switches as capacitive elements. The capacitance of a MEMS switch can assume two discrete values, and the plurality of connected MEMS switches enables a sufficient tuning range for impedance matching.
One challenge with of known impedance matching circuits for planar antennas is that either the tuning range is too small or the impedance matching circuit has a high level of complexity and a large number of connected elements. The latter results in a relatively high degree of susceptibility to defects.
In one aspect, the present invention specifies an impedance matching circuit with reduced complexity and a reduced number of circuit elements, which circuit nevertheless enables a sufficient tuning range.
Embodiments of the invention comprise a signal path having a node between a signal path input and a signal path output. A first inductive element is connected between the signal path input and the node and a first capacitive element whose capacitance is variably adjustable is connected between the node and the signal path output. A second adjustable-capacitance capacitive element is connected between the signal path input and ground. A second inductive element is connected between the node and ground, and a third inductive element is connected between the signal path output and ground.
Such a connection whose signal path input can be connected, for example, to transmitting or receiving paths of a front-end circuit for mobile radios and whose signal path output is intended to be connected to a planar antenna is a simple, that is to say not very complex, circuit for matching the impedance of the antenna to that of the front-end circuit. The third inductive element may act as an ESD (electrostatic discharge) protective element of the impedance matching circuit and/or the connected front-end circuit. Current pulses which act via the antenna and could damage the front-end circuit or individual components of the latter are then harmlessly discharged to ground via the inductive element.
The first, second and third inductive elements advantageously have Q factors of greater than 15 and the first and second capacitive elements advantageously have Q factors of greater than 10. In this case, the Q factor is a dimensionless measure of the ratio of amplitude to bandwidth of resonance curves or of energy losses in the circuit. In addition, the elements of the impedance matching circuit are advantageously dimensioned in such a manner that the inductances of the first, second and third inductive elements have values of between 0.5 and 22 nH and the capacitances of the first and second capacitive elements can be adjusted in intervals between 0.5 and 12 pF. Such intervals may cover, for example, the capacitance ranges of 0.5 pF to 1.5 pF, of 0.9 pF to 3.2 pF or of 2.6 pF to 8.5 pF.
In one advantageous refinement, the impedance matching circuit comprises a third capacitive element having a Q factor of greater than 50 and a capacitance of between 1 and 35 pF and a fourth inductive element having a Q factor of greater than 15 and an inductance of between 0.5 and 10 nH, which elements are connected in series with one another between the signal path input and ground. Another variation of the impedance matching circuit involves connecting a fourth capacitive element having a Q factor of greater than 50 and a capacitance of between 4 and 18 pF between the signal path input and ground.
The impedance matching circuit is advantageously used in a mobile communication device, the circuit being connected between a receiving path or a transmitting path and a planar antenna, in particular of the PILA type, in such a manner that the signal path input is connected to the transmitting and receiving paths in an electrically conductive manner, and the signal path output is connected to the planar antenna in an electrically conductive manner via an antenna lead having an impedance of between 10 and 60 ohms.
According to one advantageous refinement of the impedance matching circuit, the standing wave ratio in the transmitting path is better (that is to say less) than 3 and the standing wave ratio in the receiving path is better (that is to say less) than 4.
The invention is suitable for matching the impedances of planar antennas in CDMA, W-CDMA, GSM, DVBH, W-LAN, WIFI or other customary data transmission systems in frequency bands between 500 and 4500 MHz.
The tuning ratio of the first or second capacitive element is between 2.5:1 and 3.5:1, that is to say 3:1, for example, in one variant, but is between 3.5:1 and 4.5:1 or between 4.5:1 and 5.5:1 in other advantageous variants and is between 5.5:1 and 6.5:1 in a particularly advantageous variant. In this case, the tuning ratio is respectively defined as the quotient of the largest adjustable capacitance and smallest adjustable capacitance.
At least one of the capacitive elements is preferably a varactor diode whose dielectric layer comprises barium strontium titanate (BST) or whose dielectric layer comprises bismuth zinc niobate (BZN), or alternatively a capacitive element produced using CMOS technology, a connection of MEMS capacitors or a semiconductor varactor diode.
It is preferred to select, as the fourth capacitive element, an element whose Q factor is greater than that of the second capacitive element.
In another advantageous refinement, a fifth capacitive element is connected in parallel with the first capacitive element between the node and the signal path output. In addition, it is preferred to connect a directional coupler to the signal path input in the signal path. A directional coupler makes it possible to determine the fraction of transmitting energy which is actually injected into the antenna from the transmitting signal path. Impedance matching can therefore be reduced to maximizing this fraction. A similar situation applies to reception signals injected into the receiving signal path from the antenna.
It is also very advantageous if the impedance matching circuit comprises a duplexer connected to the signal path input as part of a front-end module.
The inductive and capacitive elements of the matching circuit are preferably in the form of patterned metallizations in a multilayer substrate which may comprise layers of HTCC, LTCC, FR4 or laminate. As a result, a corresponding component also has a space-saving design in addition to its low level of complexity.
In another refinement, an antenna lead having an impedance of between 10 and 60 ohms is connected between the signal path output and a connected planar antenna.
The following list of reference symbols can be used in conjunction with the drawing    AL: Antenna lead    C1: First capacitive element    C2: Second capacitive element    C3: Third capacitive element    C4: Fourth capacitive element    C5: Fifth capacitive element    FE: Front-end module    KP: Node    L1: First inductive element    L2: Second inductive element    L3: Third inductive element    L4: Fourth inductive element    M: Ground    PILA: Planar Inverted L-Antenna    RK: Directional coupler    SP: Signal path    SPA: Signal path output    SPE: Signal path input

Impedance matching circuit for matching planar antennas


A system, method, and computer readable medium for maintaining a work schedule that comprises accepting a forecasted manpower requirement for zero or more agents, setting a recurring schedule for zero or more agents, summing the number of agents currently scheduled for an interval of time, determining a manpower availability based upon the summed current schedules, calculating a manpower delta between the forecasted manpower requirement and the determined manpower availability, offering an uptime adjustment to an agent not currently scheduled if the calculated manpower delta shows additional manpower is required, and offering a downtime adjustment to an agent currently scheduled if the calculated manpower delta shows less manpower is required.

The present invention relates generally to employee management tools and in particular to a system configured to manage the work schedules of a plurality of employees.
Historically, management and scheduling of a large employee workforce has been a complex and time consuming task. With regard to scheduling large groups of employees, it is difficult to predict the number of employees required to adequately staff a particular shift. Once the number of required employees is determined, employees must each be assigned a work schedule. Scheduling employees can be a complex task as many different factors constrain which employees may be selected for a particular shift. For example, scheduling limitations exist regarding hours worked per week, hours worked per day, or other factors. Further, some employees are available to work only certain days and/or certain hours. In addition, employees may wish to take vacation time, or to schedule changes for other reasons. Further, certain shifts may unexpectedly require additional employees to meet unexpected increases in workload, or conversely, certain shifts may require fewer employees than previously anticipated.
Workforce Management (WFM) systems have been developed to assist businesses deal with the challenges of workforce scheduling, particularly in environments where the staffing requirements are variable. Call centers are an excellent example of such an environment. Being correctly staffed is essential to efficient operation of a call center, since too many employees will result in excess labor costs, and two few will results in lost opportunity and/or poor customer service.
The current state of the art for WFM Systems consists of two steps, forecasting how many people will be required for each period of time, and then generating the schedules of the workforce to best meet the forecasted requirements. This results in new schedules for the employees with each new forecast. In order to make the scheduling process friendlier to the employees many systems will allow the manual entry of employee preferences and limitations.
A major deficiency in the current state of the art for WFM systems is that the forecasting/scheduling tasks must be accomplished in enough time to notify the workforce of the required schedules. If the employees schedule will not be fixed, but will be determined by the scheduling system for each period scheduled, you must, as a practical matter, inform people of the schedules they will be expected to work far enough in advance so that they will be available to work their scheduled shifts. This necessitates considerable lead time in the creation of a forecast. Often the schedule is created before all information that would be useful for forecasting is available. Also, any significant change to the forecasting criteria which results in changes to the forecast forces upon management the difficult choice of regenerating schedules for the employees or just trying to adjust the workforce outside of the WFM system.
Another major deficiency with the current state of the art for WFM Systems is that there is often resistance on the part of the employees to work shifts that are (from the employees perspective) arbitrarily assigned by the WFM System. Features like employee preferences, shift bids, and the ability to lock down some of the schedules are attempts to mitigate this problem; however they are not adequate solutions to the problem because loaded information is static and lives are dynamic. The system cannot forecast people's actual preferences because they change from day to day.
State of the art Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) systems are quite sophisticated in how they allow calls to be routed to a population of call center agents. One of the challenges in routing calls to agents is how to achieve economies of scale when call volumes are low. An effective way to address this problem is to employ multi-skilled agents. A pool of agents who are known to the ACD as being able to handle multiple skills, call types, can greatly increase the efficiency of all the agents working the skills. Multi-Skilled (MS) Agents have beneficial impact to the efficiency of agents in a call center that is disproportionate to their numbers in the population.
While the benefits provided by the employment of MS Agents are well established, and the ACD systems provide excellent support for their use, the current state of the art of WFM systems is not up to the task of dealing with the challenges presented by the MS Agent. Most systems make no attempt to deal with MS Agents beyond simply noting that a person scheduled to skill A will also be working skill B.
The real challenge presented by the MS Agents is that the number of agents required is driven by the total number of calls that will be received and must therefore be determined independently for each skill. However the number of agents scheduled is calculated by the particular combination of skills that each agent is working. One agent working three skills is not the equivalent of three agents each works one skill. This makes calculating how many agents are scheduled to work any given skill difficult to calculate when you have MS Agents. Most WFM systems calculate all agents as single skilled for scheduling purposes.
Several attempts have been made to overcome these types of problems however, these attempts do not fully overcome the disadvantages of the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,291, issued to Kepley, describes a scheduling system that communicates an agents schedule directly to the agent at the agent's terminal, thereby preventing the need for manual distribution. The schedule is presented to the agents via video displays that are at each agents actual work station, and thus are available for viewing by a particular agent only when that agent is seated at his or her workstation. Furthermore, the Kepley reference does not provide means to account for schedule changes. Absent these features, a system based on the teachings of Kepley still suffers from many of the disadvantages of the prior art.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,368, issued to Jordan et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,292, issued to Crockett, both of which share a common specification, describe systems and methods used to help schedule employee work shifts. However, the methods and apparatus of these systems still possess several disadvantages of the prior art. Among others, system configured according to the teachings of these references still lack an ability to schedule based on employee and not shift, lack an ability to provide the schedules on an employee distributed basis and lack the ability to conveniently and easily deal with schedule changes.
Therefore, what is needed is a new method, apparatus and computer readable medium for maintaining a work schedule. More specifically, what is needed is a method that grants the agent a greater degree of control over their work schedule while at the same time meeting the staffing needs of the enterprise. As described below, the present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a new method and apparatus for maintaining a work schedule.


In one aspect, one or more network nodes configured to manage bitrates for dedicated radio bearers (DRBs) allocate (502) respective shares of a pre-determined aggregated maximum bit rate (AMBR) to a plurality of DRBs or to a plurality of sets of DRBs or to a combination of DRBs and sets of DRBs. The one or more network nodes also enforce (504) maximum bit rates on the DRBs and/or sets of DRBs, according to the allocated shares.

FIG. 1 illustrates the current 5G radio access network (RAN), or NG-RAN, architecture, as described in 3GPP TS 38.401, v. 0.3.0. The NG-RAN consists of a set of gNBs connected to the 5G core (5GC) through the NG logical interface, where a gNB may be regarded as a base station for the NG-RAN. An gNB can support frequency division duplex (FDD) mode, time division duplex (TDD) mode or dual mode operation. gNBs can be interconnected through the Xn logical interface. A gNB may consist of a gNB central unit (gNB-CU) and gNB distributed units (gNB-DUs). A gNB-CU and a gNB-DU are connected via an F1 logical interface. One gNB-DU is connected to only one gNB-CU. For resiliency, a gNB-DU may be connected to multiple gNB-CU by appropriate implementation. Note that a "gNB" can be understood as a logical node, which may be implemented in one or several physical nodes. For example, one or several gNB-DUs that make up part of a given gNB may be implemented in hardware that is physically separated (in some cases by large distances) from each other and/or from the gNB-CU. Note that in the discussion that follows, the gNB-CU and gNB-DU may sometimes be referred to as simply "CU" and "DU," respectively.
The NG-RAN is layered into a Radio Network Layer (RNL) and a Transport Network Layer (TNL). The NG-RAN architecture, i.e., the NG-RAN logical nodes and interfaces between them, is defined as part of the RNL. For each NG-RAN interface (NG, Xn, F1) the related TNL protocol and the functionality are specified. The TNL provides services for user plane transport and signaling transport.
The architecture in FIG. 1 can be expanded by spitting the gNB-CU into two entities. As shown in FIG. 2, this includes one gNB-CU-UP 204, which serves the user plane and hosts the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) protocol, and one gNB-CU-CP 202, which serves the control plane and hosts the PDCP and Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocols. The gNB-CU-CP 202 and the gNB-CU-UP 204 are logical entities, and may be implemented in the same or different physical units.
It is possible for a user equipment (UE) to be served by dedicated Radio Bearers (DRBs) via more than one DU. The mapping between traffic flows received by the gNB and the DRBs to be setup to serve the UE is decided by the CU. As an example, the CU may decide to setup two DRBs, one served by DU1 206 and one served by DU2 208, to serve the same UE and to transport traffic that belongs to the same traffic flow. This is referred to as Split DRB. In another example, the CU may decide to command the DUs to setup two DRBs, one in DU1 (FIG. 2 DRB 210) and one in DU2 (DRB 212), to serve the same UE and to each transport data from different traffic flows.
In 5G, network slicing is one of the key capabilities that will enable flexibility, as it allows multiple logical networks to be created on top of a common shared physical infrastructure. This will allow operators to split a single physical network into multiple virtual networks, where each of these virtual networks may be referred to as a "network slice" and may, for example, offer different or overlapping services with a variety of quality-of-service levels. It will be appreciated that with network slicing, gNBs can be handling DRBs associated with multiple network slices, at any given time. These network slices may typically serve different groups of wireless devices, but it is possible that a single device is served by multiple network slices.
In Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks, UE AMBR is a parameter that is part of the subscriber profile and that specifies the maximum total bit rate a UE can be served with, for non-GBR traffic. It has not yet been specified how UE AMBR should be handled by gNBs in the NG-RAN architecture.


A control system for the internal combustion engine is disclosed, in which the operating conditions (such as vehicle speed) and the control conditions (such as throttle opening degree) of the operating elements of the internal combustion engine are used to determine a resistance index (such as an equivalent gradient) for specifying the driving force corresponding to the operating conditions under the prevailing load conditions. Further, this resistance index data is accumulated, so that the operating elements are controlled on the basis of a target operating condition and a corresponding resistance index.

The present invention relates to a control system for an internal combustion engine, or more in particular to an internal combustion engine control system in which a resistance index (such as an equivalent gradient) specifying the driving force for an operating condition (such as vehicle speed) under a prevailing load condition is calculated, thereby to effect an advance control rapidly responding to a target value for any operating condition.
Control systems for an internal combustion engine so far suggested are configured in such a manner that the state feedback control is effected in accordance with such quantities as the amount of supplied air, the amount of injected fuel, the rotational speed of the engine and the airfuel ratio, thereby to control the generated torque, engine speed and air-fuel ratio to optimum conditions as disclosed in JP-A-61-145339 and JP-A-61-171618.
On the other hand, throttle control system in which such an actuator, operating as a servo motor, is driven in accordance with a command from a control system to control the opening degree of the throttle valve is disclosed in JP-A-59-196937 and JP-A-59-196939.
The control systems for internal combustion engines suggested in the aforementioned Japanese patent publications assume that a dynamic model of an internal combustion engine controlled in a manner to attain an optimum gain by feedback control has a linear characteristic in the vicinity of an operating point, and no consideration is given to possible use of dynamic control to change the engine speed to a great measure, thus making it impossible to effect optimum feedback control over the entire range of operating points.
Also, no concept of advance control has been introduced for removing the transmission delay based on the internal structure or power transmission mechanism of an internal combustion engine, or the time delay before a change in the amount of supplied air or the fuel supply reaches a cylinder or the delay of rise time attributable to the complicated mechanisms. As a result, the problem is posed that it is impossible to dampen the vehicle vibrations caused by sudden changes in the amount of air or fuel supply.
A method of advance control has been suggested by JP-A-61-171618 in which a required drive torque is calculated from the difference between a target vehicle speed and an actual vehicle speed, and a fuel injection amount or a gear ratio is set on the basis of the value thus calculated. In view of the many factors involved in the calculation of the drive torque, however, this conventional system is incapable of accurate calculation of the required drive torque, and the amount of fuel injection or the gear ratio cannot be set under other than predetermined conditions.

Control system for internal combustion engine