A magnetic head feeding device suitable for mass production while providing a higher tolerance to vibration and shock is provided. A carriage is rotatably and slideably mounted on a guide shaft. A magnetic head is mounted on the carriage as is a rack. A pinion mounted on a motor, engages the rack to move the rack along the guide shaft in a reciprocating fashion when the pinion is rotated. A magnetic coupling between the carriage and a fixed support provides an attractive force which acts as an engagement force between the rack and the pinion without applying a contact force on the carriage. A stop is provided at each end of the rack and is integrally formed with the rack so that the stop prevents the pinion from rotating and the carriage from moving once the carriage has reached a desired outer limit of motion in either direction. A contour wall is integrally formed with the rack at a position opposed to the rack to prevent disengagement of the pinion from the rack.

This invention relates to magnetic head feeding mechanisms in a magnetic recording device, and in particular to a magnetic head feeding mechanism using a rack and a pinion.
Magnetic head feeding mechanisms are known in the art as disclosed in Japanese Utility Second Publication 49-34340 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,012. (See FIGS. 1-6 hereof). This prior art feeding device has a guide wherein a carriage is slideably and rotatably mounted on the guide. The magnetic head is mounted on the carriage. A rack is provided on the carriage parallel to the guide. A pinion, mounted on a rotating output shaft of a rotating motor engages the rack. The magnetic head reciprocates along the guide in conjunction with the rotating pinion.
Reference is made to FIG. 1 wherein a perspective view of the prior art device is provided. A guide shaft 51 is affixed on a frame 60 by elastic press plates 59. A carriage 53, supports a magnetic head 52 at a predetermined position, and supports a rack 55. Carriage 53 is guided along guide shaft 51 and is supported upon shaft 51 by metal bushes 68 (FIG. 6). Accordingly, carriage 53 is slideably and rotatably mounted about guide shaft 51. A step motor 56 supported on frame 60, includes an outwardly extending rotating output shaft 61. A pinion 54 is mounted on output shaft 61 and engages rack 55. A spring 58 biases a roller 57 in the direction of arrow A thereby ensuring engagement of rack 55 with pinion 54. Accordingly, as step motor 56 drives rotating output shaft 61, carriage 53 moves along guide shaft 51 without engagement displacement of the rack 55 relative to pinion 54.
Slideable carriage 53 also acts as a stop as it is guided along guide shaft 51. Adjacent slideable carriage 53 is a portion 60a of frame 60 at the one end, and an adjustable screw 62 is mounted on frame 60 adjacent carriage 53 at the other end. As carriage 53 moves in either direction it will eventually contact either adjustable screw 62 or joint 60a, thereby stopping movement in either direction. Accordingly, movement of slideable carriage 53 is limited to this region.
Reference is now made to FIG. 2 wherein the control of the magnetic head feeding device is graphically and schematically shown. In descending order, FIG. 2 depicts the adjustment range of the carriage movement control (adjustable screw 62), the carriage 53 and adjustable screw 62, the direction of rotation of the step motor 56 and track position, and a torque curve of the step motor 56. In the magnetic recording device, the reference track position 00Tr, corresponds to the outermost peripheral track position, and the track position is then set so as to count nTr towards the inner periphery. At 00Tr the phase-position relationship corresponds to an absolute position of carriage 53 and is at a crossing of the torque curve of the step motor 56 with the abscissa.
Therefore, 00Tr is a standard value and the positive integer multiples of Tr are inside the periphery, while, the negative integer multiples of Tr are outside the periphery. For example using a four phase step motor 56 feeding at a rate of 1Tr/1 step, when step motor 56 is excited to the excitement phase at the 00Tr position, step motor 56 exhibits a continuous torque curve which corresponds to the track position of carriage 53. Stepping motor 56 rotates to any track position of -4Tr, 00Tr, 4Tr, . . . , (n.multidot.4) Tr, which correspond to the same excitement phase. The track position to which step motor 56 rotates, depends upon the state of the phase position before excitement. Namely, step motor 56 rotates toward 00Tr when the state of the phase position before excitement is between 2Tr and -2Tr.
Carriage 53 moves toward 00Tr in the direction of arrow B (FIG. 2) from the inner peripheral side, then stops at the position corresponding to 00Tr. Due to inertial forces of the rotor of step motor 56 on carriage 53, carriage 53 overshoots the 00Tr position Carriage 53 is prevented from moving into the outer peripheral side beyond -2Tr by adjustable screw 62. X2 represents surplus space up to adjustable screw 62, Xl represents surplus space between the 00Tr position and the actual position of carriage 53 and the diagonally sectioned area between the two is the region in which the position of carriage 53 may be adjusted by adjustable screw 62.
Reference is now made to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 in which the rack and pinion of the prior art magnetic head feeding mechanism is shown. FIGS. 3 and 4 show three states of pinion 54 relative to rack 55. In order to simplify the explanation, rack 55 is depicted contacting adjustable screw 62.
In normal use pinion 54 rotates in the direction of arrow C, and when rack 55 comes in contact with adjustable screw 62, rack 55 is stopped. However, although rack 55 stops relatively quickly by colliding with adjustable screw 62, pinion 54 does not stop due to its rotational inertia. As a result pinion 54, displaces rack 55 a distance h against spring 58 which is applying pressure in the direction of arrow A. Thus, pinion 54 stops but not before overrotating through an angle in the direction of arrow C. The above action occurs quite easily during movement of the magnetic recording medium.
While engaged, pinion 54 and rack 55 are often subjected to vibration and shock. Therefore, due to the jumping of carriage 53 during such moments and the resonance of spring 58, momentarily spring 58 cannot apply an engagement force between rack 55 and pinion 54. To minimize the jumping and resonance, the force of spring 58 has been greatly increased in the prior art. However, the stronger the engaging force, the larger the deterioration of step motor 56 due to greater frictional forces, further causing larger electrical consumption in order to improve the property of step motor 56. Therefore, there has been no satisfactory method for preventing the above jumping and resonance, that prevents pinion 54 from over-rotating the stop position by angle .theta. in the direction of arrow C.
Overrotation will occur even after adjusting adjustable screw 62, and even though carriage 53 stops by abutting adjustable screw 62. As a result step motor 56 exceeds the proper phase position of the excitement phase by overrotating to -2Tr. On excitation by a signal having the excitement phase associated with the reference track position 00Tr. (FIG. 2), step motor 56 would rotate in the direction of -4Tr. However, carriage 53 is still adjacent to adjustable screw 62, in a stopped position, therefore carriage 53 cannot move in either of two directions, and suffers from what is known as the "tensile phenomenon."
Moreover, when the overrotation of pinion 54 becomes larger than .theta., the distance h also increases to the state shown in FIG. 4. Thus, although rack 55 stops relatively quickly by contacting adjustable screw 62, as noted above, pinion 54 cannot stop due to rotational inertia of pinion 54 in the direction of arrow C, causing a larger displacement of rack 55 than the distance h discussed above. This larger displacement alters the engagement of pinion 54 and rack 55, and as a result, the fixed regularity in the relationship between rack position and the phase of the exciting signal depicted in FIG. 2 during engagement of rack 55 and pinion 54 disappears. In other words, the fixed regularity exhibited in the phase-position relationship between the absolute position of carriage 53 and the excitement phase of step motor 56 no longer exists, thereby causing the loss of interchangeability of the magnetic recording medium.
Reference is now also made to FIG. 5 in which a sectional view of a magnetic head mounted in accordance with the conventional magnetic head feeding device is provided A gimbal 64 is mounted on carriage 53, which is composed of plastic material or the like. Magnetic head 52 is mounted on gimbal 64. However, in the conventional magnetic recording device background magnetism often leaks from the motor. Magnetic head 52 has an extremely high magnetic sensitivity so that magnetic head 52 is affected even by a very low level leakage of magnetism from the rest of the magnetic head feeding device. When a motor 66 is provided in close proximity to magnetic head 52 as in the prior art, magnetic head 52 reacts with even smaller amounts of magnetic leakage from motor 66, preventing the natural performance of magnetic head 52. To prevent this interaction, the prior art devices have been provided with a magnetic head shield member 67 mounted on gimbal 64 for shielding the periphery of magnetic head 52 and a magnetic shield member 65 mounted below magnetic head 52 for blocking the leakage of magnetism from motor 66.
Reference is now made to FIG. 6 in which a sectional view of the prior art magnetic head feeding device is provided. Carriage 53, while composed of a plastic, supports metal bushes 68 which allow carriage 53 to be slideably and rotatably mounted on guide shaft 51. An important requirement and feature of a magnetic recording device is its ability to securely access a track position upon receiving an instruction to read/write from or onto the medium. To ensure the positional accuracy of carriage 53 it is essential to maintain the hardness of carriage 53 and to prevent the attrition of the slideable portion, namely metal bushes 68 and guide shaft 51 of the feed mechanism. Carriage 53 may be made of plastic and includes glass or the like, thereby ensuring the hardness thereof. Similarly, metal bush 68 is disposed in the slideable portion of the mechanism thereby preventing the attrition of guide shaft 51 due in part to the surface deposition of the glass or the like on the shaft, as well as the attrition of the carriage 53.
This prior art mechanism, as discussed above, suffers from the disadvantages of overrotation of the pinion, the tensile phenomenon and magnetism sensitivity. Another disadvantage is that due to the need of surplus structure to prevent deterioration and attrition, the pieces of the magnetic recording device are not interchangeable. As a result, mass production of the magnetic recording device according to the conventional rack and pinion magnetic head feeding device has yet to be accomplished.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a magnetic head feeding mechanism for a magnetic recording device of simple design to increase position accuracy while enabling mass production of a magnetic recording device having a rack and pinion magnetic head feeding device. By simplifying the magnetic recording device mass production can easily be achieved while providing an improved magnetic memory device having high reliability at a low cost.

Magnetic head feeding device with a rack and pinion


The object is to provide a secure functional encryption scheme having a large number of cryptographic functions. An access structure is constituted by applying the inner-product of attribute vectors to a span program. The access structure has a degree of freedom in design of the span program and design of the attribute vectors, thus having a large degree of freedom in design of access control. A secure functional encryption process having a large number of cryptographic functions is implemented by employing the concept of secret sharing for the access structure.

Non-Patent Literatures 3 to 6, 10, 12, 13, 15, and 18 describe an ID (Identity)-based encryption (IBE) scheme which constitutes one class of the functional encryption scheme. Non-Patent Literatures 2, 7, 9, 16, 19, 23 to 26, and 28 describe an attribute-based encryption (ABE) scheme which constitutes another class of the functional encryption scheme.

Cryptographic processing system, key generation device, encryption device, decryption device, signature processing system, signature device, and verification device

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


The present invention relates to a smart repository that can be used as a refrigerator or the like, the smart repository being characterized by comprising: a repository body having a door installed in an entrance/exit formed in a side surface thereof, the repository body containing an outer column that faces the entrance/exit and an inner column that communicates with the outer column through the upper and lower end portions thereof; multiple storing boxes provided to be contained and stacked inside the outer and inner columns; a plurality of vertical driving devices installed on the outer and inner columns, respectively, and driven so as to lift/lower the multiple storing boxes; an imaging portion comprising a plurality of push means for moving a box on the upper end portion of the inner column toward the outer column and moving a box on the lower end portion of the outer column toward the inner column, the imaging portion being configured to take an image of a to-be-stored object introduced through the door; a display portion for displaying images that correspond to the multiple storing boxes one-to-one; and a control portion configured such that the taken images are matched with a storing box positioned in the entrance/exit, stored, and displayed. Accordingly, the content stored in each storing box is imaged and displayed to the outside such that the contents stored in the repository can be easily recognized at a glance.

Although a refrigerator is a convenient storage medium for storing contents such as foods and food ingredients for a long period of time, from the user's point of view, it is not easy to remember where food is stored in the refrigerator, when the food is stored, and what the food is stored in, and it is difficult to organize contents because there is no information about what someone else has stored. In addition, there was an inconvenience that to find out what kinds of foods are contained in plastic bags in a refrigerator, the plastic bags should be opened individually.
Meanwhile, in order to solve the above problems, in the document of Korean Patent No. 10-1237641, there has been disclosed a "Refrigerator having a date display store unit" (registered Feb. 20, 2013), in which a display device capable of entering and displaying a storage date for each storage space of a refrigerator. However, it is disadvantageous in that since the display device is provided in the refrigerator, a user must open a door every time to check it.
Further, in order to solve the above problem, in the document of Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0290777, there has been disclosed an "Apparatus for managing and displaying expiration date of things in refrigerator" (registered Sep. 17, 2002), in which items are identified through barcode input, and the expiration date is displayed and counted to generate an alarm sound. However, it is disadvantageous in that it is not easy to adopt the apparatus because a separate input means such as a barcode reader is required, and it does not provide information about what item has reached the expiration date and where the item is.


The present disclosure relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and a program that enable appropriate imaging with the front camera of a smartphone or the like in the dark.

A smartphone normally has a camera provided on the back surface and another camera on the front surface on which, for example, a microphone for talking, a speaker, and a display formed with a liquid crystal display (LCD) or the like are provided.
The camera provided on the back surface has relatively high resolution and high sensitivity, and a light or the like may be provided on the back surface. However, the front camera provided on the front surface normally has low precision, and is not equipped with any light or the like. Therefore, the front camera is dark. Although people often take their own face images called "selfies", face images and the like cannot be clearly captured in the dark or the like.
In view of this, a technology has been suggested to capture a clear face image by capturing an image while infrared (IR) light is being emitted and using the luminance level of the image captured in the situation where the infrared light is being emitted (see Patent Document 1).
By the technology disclosed in Patent Document 1, however, strong reflection of infrared light is caused particularly at the irises, and therefore, a face image might generate a feeling of strangeness.
To counter this, a technology has been suggested to eliminate a feeling of strangeness in a face image due to reflection of infrared light when an infrared light image is used. By this technology, imaging in the dark is performed with the use of infrared light, and the luminance level of the irises is corrected and adjusted to a predetermined level (see Patent Document 2).

Information processing device, information processing method, and computer-readable storage medium storing a program that extracts and corrects facial features in an image

Abstract: A visible light image and an infrared light image are captured. A face image is recognized from the infrared light image, and images of respective organs are extracted from the face image. The images of the respective organs are corrected in accordance with each extracted organ, using the visible light image and the infrared light image. The corrected images of the respective organs are combined. The present disclosure can be applied to smartphones.

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation


An apparatus comprising a housing comprising an end wall and side walls defining a first chamber open at one end a slide at the open end a diaphragm in the chamber spaced from the slide and generally parallel to it, defining, with the slide and side walls of the first chamber, a second chamber; and an opening in the first chamber for permitting fluid to enter and exit the first chamber.

Modern paper and paper board is predominantly composed of a matrix of wood fibres. During the consolidation stage of papermaking, individual wet fibres are drawn and entangled together, forming a web structure. The deformability of the wet fibres used is a significant measure of the ability of the fibres to conform to each other by providing bonding contact in the course of dewatering, pressing, and drying. Fibre flexibility is a significant measure of fibre deformability. Fibres which are flexible are more conformable to one another, thus forming more contact area among fibres.
Fibre flexibility determines the total inter-fibre contact area and the voids in the fibre network, and plays a dominant role in determining most paper properties, such as bulk, permeability, opacity, surface smoothness, and physical strength.
There are several prior art apparatus and methods for measuring the flexibility of individual wet fibres.
The measurement of single fibre elastic modulus is usually performed by micro-tensile testing. The difficulties associated with this test are the dimensions of individual wood fibres, which are short (1-5 mm) and thin (10-30 um in diameter) and require careful handling and mounting techniques in sample preparation, and accurate measurements for stress and strain in a very small scale [1]. Because of the heterogeneous nature, a large population of fibres needs to be tested for the statistical analysis. Tedious and time-consuming operations in the fibre scale become a major drawback of this test method and make it impractical for engineering applications.
Some existing prior art methods treat the fibre as a cantilever [2-6]. Most of these methods are based on small deflection beam theory, which involves measuring the displacement of a fibre beam when applying a transverse force or bending moment on the fibre. If the fibre is treated as a beam subject to pure elastic deformation, the flexibility (F) of individual fibres can be defined as the reciprocal of its bending (also sometimes referred to as flexural stiffness) EI, where E is the elastic modulus of the fibre wall and I is the moment of inertia of the fibre cross-section: F=1/EI.
Seborg and Simmonds [8], for example, measured the stiffness of dry fibres by clamping individual fibres into place and then exerting a force on a fibre using a quartz spring to bend it like a cantilever beam. The flexural stiffness EI is determined from the slope of the load-deflection curve. The test suffers from two main disadvantages: (1) it is done on single fibres, making it very tedious and cumbersome; and (2) the clamping can damage the fibre.
James [8] calculated the fibre stiffness by measuring the resonance frequency of a fibre cantilever. Hydrodynamic or bending beam methods have also been developed for the fibre flexibility measurement by hydrodynamic forces generated by water flow and image analysis, so that individual fibre handling can be avoided.
Various apparatus have been developed for supporting the fibres. For example, Samuelsson [2] used a mechanical jaw to clamp fibres. Tam Doo and Kerekes [9] supported fibre on one end of a capillary tube so that mechanical damage to the fibre can be avoided. Like the Seborg and Simmonds method, the Tam Doo and Kerekes method is limited to testing individual fibres.
Kuhn et al. [5] developed a device that bends fibres by a T-junction tube when fibres in water flow out of a capillary. The fibre deformation is observed by a microscope and the force is calculated according to hydrodynamic theory. The Kuhn method is a direct measure of the flexibility of a fibre and may give flexibility results that are higher than expected [5].
Conformability testing as opposed to directly measuring flexibility is another typical method for fibre flexibility measurement. This method was first proposed by Mohlin [3]. In this method, wet pulp fibres are deposited onto a thin glass fibre (diameter=60 μm) that is fixed on a glass slide. The wet fibre arcs over the glass fibre and then is allowed to dry. The non-contact span, or freespan, length of the fibre is determined to calculate the fibre flexibility according to the beam deflection theory. Since only a conventional light microscope is required, and it can provide a numerical measure in an engineering unit, this method has commonly been used for fibre flexibility measurement [10-12]. No pressure, however, is applied to the fibre when taking the measurement and most likely does not approximate what happens in a paper structure of such fibres.
Steadman and Luner [6] have sought to improve upon the Mohlin method by taking the advantage that it does not need to handle individual fibres. In the Steadman method, a wire of 25 μm diameter was used as the support wire for forming the fibre arc over it.
In the Steadman method, fibres are deposited on a filter paper and wet pressed onto a thin support wire that is fixed on a glass slide. The fibre and the support wire are approximately 90 degrees to one another such that when pressed onto the wire, the fibre is subjected to a uniform distributed load and forms an arch-like span over the wire as it deforms. The fibre is then allowed to dry and the sections of the fibre in contact with the slide become adhered to the glass slide. The length of the section of the span not in contact with the glass slide, referred to as the non-contact span or freespan length, is measured from above using a conventional light microscope with incident lights, under which the optical contact zone of the fibre and the glass slide appears in dark, whereas the non-contact zone appears in light, thus the freespan length is measured. The freespan length measurement is then used in the calculation of flexibility according to the following formula:F=1/EI=72d/PWS4 Where E=modulus of elasticity (Nm−2)
I=moment of inertia (m4)
d=wire diameter (m)
P=pressing pressure (Nm−2)
W=projected fibre width (m)
S=mathematical estimate of the loaded span (m)
There are two important assumptions implied with this method: 1) the bonding strength between fibre and glass slide surface are high enough thus fibres are bonded on the glass slide at any place where they come into contact; 2) the freespan length of fibres remain unchanged while fibres are getting dried and after the pressure load is released. In practice, the fibre-glass surface bonding strength is not always sufficient to fix fibre on the glass slide, particularly for mechanical pulp fibres and unrefined chemical pulp fibres, which have much lower bonding strength compared with well refined chemical pulp fibres. Fibres that have high stiffness (low flexibility) have a higher tendency to spring back when external press load is removed, resulting in larger freespan or even totally becoming unbounded from the glass slide. For fibres that have low stiffness (high flexibility), the shape of the fibres arcing over the support can also be altered by the high surface tension while drying. All of these lead to an inaccurate measurement or are unable to conduct measurement for fibres that either have high stiffness and low bonding strength or have higher flexibility.


An injection device for a dental anesthetic or the like is constituted such that the linkage between the rear end side of an operating rod provided so as to freely go in and out of a main body and a drive mechanism operated by a motor provided in the main body is made detachably and the connecting or disconnecting operation of the drive mechanism and the rear end side of the operating rod is carried out by means of a manipulation portion provided in the main body.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improvement in an injection device for a dental anesthetic or the like utilized when a dentist injects an anesthetic into a patient's gingiva for the dental treatment of a patient in dental care.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A means disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 53-43748 has been known with reference to an injection device for a dental anesthetic or the like.
With respect to this means, a main body a is formed by mounting integrally and continuously an operating portion case 2, which is formed in an axially cylindrical form having an axial direction set as a longitudinal direction thereof, on the upper end side a handle portion 1 having a size large enough to be grasped by a hand and formed in an axially cylindrical form having an axial direction set as a longitudinal direction thereof, as shown in FIG. 1. Then, a motor M is internally built in the handle portion 1 of the main body, and a switch lever 10 for controlling a drive circuit of the motor M to be on and off is mounted on the front side of the handle portion. In addition, the switch lever 10 is linked with a control circuit within a control box 11 separately provided so as to variably control the rotational speed of the motor M according to the depth in gripping the handle portion, and a switch 12 is provided on the rear side of the handle portion so as to reverse the rotational direction of the motor M.
In the operating portion case 2, a screw shaft S transmitted from and rotated by the output shaft of the motor M through a worm gear G is accommodated and axially suspended at such a posture that an axial direction thereof is set along the longitudinal direction, and a driver 20 provided so as to slide back and forth within the operating portion case 2 is screwed onto the screw shaft S so that the driver 20 is moved back and forth by the rotation of the screw shaft S. The rear end of an operating rod 21 having the rear end side projected into the operating portion case 2 at such a posture that a longitudinal direction thereof is set along the longitudinal direction is integrally connected to the driver 20 so that the front end side of the operating rod 21 is operated to go in and out of the front end of the operating portion case 2 by operating the motor M. Then, a connection hardware 22 for connecting a cartridge holder 3 to the operating portion case 2 is provided on the front end of the operating portion case in such a ring form as to surround the front end side of the operating rod 21 for making the going in-and-out operation described above, and the front end of the operating portion case is connected with the base end of the cartridge holder 3 loaded with a cartridge 4, in which an injection is sealed. An injection needle 5 having a communicating needle 50 provided on the base end side so as to be projected into the sealed portion of the front end of the cartridge 4 is mounted on an injection needle connection hardware 30 provided on the tip end side of the cartridge holder 3. The injection device of the prior art is constituted so as to inject an injection by operating the switch lever 10 to operate the motor M under the condition that a plug socket 14 at the tip end of a power source cord 13 drawn to the lower end side of the handle portion 1 is plugged in the socket of a commercial power source.
The means described above enables injection of an anesthetic into a patient's gingiva at such an extremely slow speed as to give no pain to the patient by controlling the depth in gripping the switch lever 10 when the anesthetic is injected into the patient's gingiva. However, in case of exchanging the injection needle 5 and the cartridge 4 with a new injection needle 5 and a new cartridge 4 for every patient for the prevention of an infectious disease, it is necessary to return the operating rod 21 in such a projected condition thereof to push a piston 41, which is made of a rubber plug on the rear end side of the cartridge 4, into the cartridge 4 in the operation when a drug is injected into the previous patient, to the condition that the operating rod is drawn in by reversely rotating the motor M by the operation of the reverse rotation switch 12. Since the operation for the process described above is slow and it requires a long waiting time, this prior art has a disadvantage in that the prompt exchange of the injection needle with a new one is not possible.
Since the operation for drawing back the operating rod 21 by operating the switch 12 is assumed as an object for the case that the aspiration operation is carried out for confirming the condition that the needle 5 is pierced into a predetermined portion of the patient's gingiva up to a predetermined depth when the needle 5 is pierced into each patient's gingiva, the speed for the operation of the operating rod 21 is set to be extremely slow.
Since the injection of an anesthetic by pushing out the operating rod 21 is set up in an extremely slow speed to such an extent that no pain is given to each patient, the variable control of the rotational speed of the motor M by the control of the depth in gripping the switch lever 10 cannot also accelerate the drawing-back speed of the operating rod 21, even though this control circuit is used. Furthermore, even though the rotation of the motor M is switched over to a high speed rotation by use of decelerating means composed of the worm gear G for the transmission between the screw shaft S and the output shaft of the motor M, the prior art takes such an impossible mechanism as to move the operating rod at high speed.

Injection device for dental anesthetic or like


A semiconductor device includes a transistor. The transistor includes a source region adjacent to a first main surface of a semiconductor substrate, the source region being electrically coupled to a source terminal via a source contact. The transistor further includes a gate electrode over the first main surface of the semiconductor substrate, a drain region adjacent to a second main surface of the semiconductor substrate, and a conductive plate vertically adjacent to the gate electrode. The conductive plate is in electrical contact with the source terminal. The transistor further includes an insulating material arranged between the conductive plate and the source contact in a direction parallel to the first main surface.

Power transistors commonly employed in automotive, industrial and consumer electronics require a low on-state resistance (Ron) while securing a high voltage blocking capability. For example, a MOS ("metal oxide semiconductor") power transistor should be capable, depending upon application requirements to block drain to source voltages Vds of some tens to some hundreds or thousands Volts. MOS power transistors typically conduct very large currents which may be up to some hundreds of Amperes at typical gate-source voltages of about 2 to 20 V.
Voltage converters e.g. convert a voltage from the common alternating voltage mains network to a direct voltage required for operating an electronic device at a low voltage e.g. in a range of 12 V down to below 1 V. Voltage converters commonly employ MOSFETs ("metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor").
According to concepts of a vertical MOSFET having a planar gate electrode, a source region is disposed adjacent to a first main surface of a semiconductor substrate and a drain region may be disposed adjacent to a second main surface of the semiconductor substrate. A gate electrode is disposed adjacent to the first main surface and over the first main surface.
Ringing effects refer to oscillations of gate and drain voltages. With the miniaturization of power MOSFETs, ringing effects may become more severe. Hence, attempts are being made to develop power MOSFETs causing reduced ringing effects.
It is desirable to provide an improved semiconductor device.

Semiconductor device having a transistor and a conductive plate


In order to separate an overspray of a liquid coating material from an air current flowing through the application region of a coating system, an overspray present in the air current may be charged with a particulate auxiliary material introduced in the air current. The new or fresh auxiliary material may be delivered from a feed container via a line arrangement into a container arrangement located in a region of the fluid flow outlet, e.g., beneath the application region.

The present disclosure relates to exemplary methods and devices for supplying a coating system with a particulate auxiliary material. This relates, for example, to a system for the automatic painting of vehicle bodies or parts thereof, e.g., by using painting robots.
Methods and apparatuses of this generic type are generally known, for example as described by WO 2007/039276 A1 and WO 2007/039275 A1 as well as from DE 10 2005 013 708 A1, DE 10 2005 013 709 A1, DE 10 2005 013 710 A1 and DE 10 2005 013 711 A1, each of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference in their entireties. In accordance with these systems, the dry separation of the wet paint overspray from the exhaust air stream from the spray booth is effected in a filter apparatus after a flowable, particulate, so-called pre-coat material has been previously dispensed into the exhaust air stream by means of a nozzle arrangement. The purpose of the pre-coat material in these examples is for it to be deposited as a barrier layer on the filter surfaces in order to prevent these surfaces from clogging due to adhering overspray particles. For examples, lime, rock meal, aluminium silicates, aluminium oxides, silicon oxides, powder paint or the like are used as pre-coat material which is separated in the filter apparatus with the overspray. By periodically cleaning the filter apparatus, the mixture consisting of pre-coat material and wet paint overspray enters into reception containers, from where it can be partly directed to a renewed use as a pre-coat material. The reception containers are distributed beneath the application region over the entire horizontal booth cross-sectional surface. The nozzle arrangement dispensing the pre-coat material into the exhaust air stream is supplied by means of an injector from a feed container containing the pre-coat material in a flowable state.
Another method of the generic type mentioned above is generally disclosed by DE 4211465 C2 which is used for the dry separation, recovery and processing of a mist incident in spray painting operations and consisting of sticky paint particles from the exhaust air stream. This method involves the addition of a paint-compatible auxiliary dusty substance geared towards the recovery of the separated mist. Colour pigments or inorganic filler materials are to be used as paint-compatible auxiliary dusty substances. For the purposes of recovery, one part of the recovered auxiliary dusty substance is reintroduced into the circuit through the booth whilst the other part is discharged for processing this proportion to form new paint with the addition of fresh paint raw materials and/or solvents, and is supplemented by a fresh auxiliary dusty substance. The auxiliary dusty substance is injected by way of nozzles into a mixing chamber disposed beneath the application region, where the dust particles accumulate on the overspray particles in the booth air flowing through the mixing chamber. The exhaust air mist, pre-treated in this manner, from the mixing chamber is supplied to a filtering separator via an exhaust line and from there the part of the auxiliary dusty substance reintroduced into the booth circuit enters into an auxiliary dusty substance storage bin where it is mixed with a fresh auxiliary dusty substance which has been supplied in a metered manner. This mixture of fresh and recovered auxiliary dusty substances is forced, by a pneumatic transmitter, into a conveying line leading to the nozzles of the mixing chamber beneath the application region.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and a device for supplying the coating system with the particulate auxiliary material which permit an improved charging of the overspray particles with the auxiliary material and simultaneously enable the auxiliary material to be conveyed in a particularly purposeful manner.

Method for supplying a coating system with a particulate auxiliary material


A method and apparatus for ranking combinations of mutants, test cases and random seeds in mutation testing, comprising obtaining, based on a signal of a test case target, logic gates related to the signal of the test case target and mutants on the related logic gates, for a compiled integrated circuit under test; calculating distances between the mutants and the signal of the test case target; performing a circuit simulation on the compiled integrated circuit under test to obtain activation cycle numbers corresponding to combinations of the mutants, test cases and random seeds; obtaining activation cycle number variances corresponding to combinations of the mutants and the test cases; and ranking the combinations of the mutants, the test cases and the random seeds based on the distances, the activation cycle numbers and the activation cycle number variances. The invention can reduce the probability that the mutation simulation selects equivalent mutants.

Functional verification is a method for ensuring the functional correctness of an integrated circuit, and occupies an important position in an integrated circuit design flow. A high-quality functional verification platform is a premise for ensuring the whole flow credible and reliable, and further ensuring the functional correctness of the integrated circuit. Mutation testing may evaluate the quality of the functional verification platform so that a verification engineer can quantitatively give evaluation criteria.
The basic steps of the current mutation testing are divided into three parts: 1) randomly selecting at least one mutant after generating mutants for multiple logic gates of a compiled integrated circuit under test. Here, the integrated circuit under test may be described with a Hardware Description Language (HDL), and may be compiled with tools such as NCVerilog, NCVHDL, Portals, etc. Here, the mutation refers to changing the function of a certain logic gate in the integrated circuit under test, for example, changing the function of an "AND" logic gate into an "OR/XOR/XNOR" logic gate. In a word, it is called a mutant as long as its function is different from the "AND." Generating mutants for multiple logic gates of the compiled integrated circuit under test is the prior art, and it may be implemented using the existing methods for changing functions of logic gates and changing the number of inputs and outputs of the logic gates.
2) Performing a mutation testing simulation for the integrated circuit under test. The mutation testing simulation is very similar to an ordinary circuit simulation, and the only difference is enabling the mutation during the simulation. During each mutation testing simulation, only one mutant and one test case can be used. Here, the test case refers to, according to a test target, adding a series of inputs to the integrated circuit under test, and observing by a checker whether outputs of the integrated circuit under test conform to the expected states. Each group of input signals plus a corresponding checking policy is called one test case. For example, if it is to test the function of an "AND" logic gate having two input signals, it is necessary to add different values, i.e. <1, 1>; <1, 0>; <0, 1>; <0, 0> to the two input signals of the "AND" logic gate; each group of input values has a desired output check, for example, when the input is <1, 1>, the desired output is 1; when the input is <1, 0>, the desired output is 0, and so on. Here, each group of input values is the test case for the "AND" logic gate.
3) Giving quantitative evaluation criteria for the quality of the functional verification platform by synthesizing a series of logical function changes and their observation results. That is, steps 1 and 2 are executed recurrently to obtain the mutation testing results of a series of logic gates. Based on the obtained results, it is observed whether the functional verification platform can normally check a change in the logical function of the integrated circuit under test. For example, in the above "AND" gate case, if the input signal is <0, 1>, the output result of the "AND" gate should be 0, and the functional verification platform should also expect that the output result is 0. If the function of the "AND" gate is changed into "OR," then the output is now changed into 1, and at this time it is necessary to observe whether the functional verification platform can normally report an error because the functional verification platform deems that the logical function is still the "AND." If the functional verification platform does not report an error, it means that it does not normally detect the change of the logical function, and then there must be something wrong with the checker.
When performing the mutation testing, if it is to accurately observe whether the functional verification platform can detect changes of all logical functions, it is better to test all mutants against all test cases. Supposing that there exist 1 million mutants, using 50 test cases, 4 random seeds, and each simulation lasting 1 hour, then it needs to perform the mutation testing simulation for 200 million hours. When randomly selecting a mutant, if in a certain simulation, since the testing stimulus generated by the current test case cannot activate the mutant, the result of this simulation is consistent with that without mutation, and this simulation becomes an invalid simulation, and the mutant is called an Equivalent Mutant. The cause of the equivalent mutant is that the current test case does not add to the mutant with an input signal that may cause the function of the mutant to change. Again, taking the above "AND" logic gate as an example, if the "AND" is mutated to "OR," while there are only two test cases, one is for the input signal <1, 1> and the other is for the input signal <0, 0>, then the outputs of the two input signals are the same for the "AND" and "OR", and the functions do not change, and thus the mutant is not activated.
In order to improve efficiency for the quality evaluation of the functional verification platform, it is necessary to reduce equivalent mutants.

Ranking combinations of mutants, test cases and random seeds in mutation testing

NTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


An expandable implant having a helical body and first and second securing pieces. Ends of the helical body are connected to the first and second end pieces. The first and second end pieces can be rotated relative to one another to expand the implant from a first dimension to a selected second dimension. The implant further includes a locking arrangement to maintain the implant at the selected second dimension.

A wide variety of configurations of intervertebral implants have been utilized for stabilizing adjacent vertebral elements and facilitating the development of bone union between the vertebral elements. In some configurations, the intervertebral implants are not adjustable by the surgeon during the surgical procedure. Therefore, the surgeon must choose the size that most closely matches the desired dimensions. Because these implants are of a pre-determined size and shape, the implant site must correspond to the implant configuration. This can require extensive site preparation to complete implantation. Extensive site preparation can compromise the success of the implantation procedure by causing excessive damage to the receiving vertebral elements. In addition, procedures requiring extensive site preparation can result in relatively long surgeries that may increase patient risk.
To address this problem, more recent intervertebral implants have been designed to expand from a first height to a second height. One such intervertebral implant is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,334. This implant includes a pair of shells that when assembled form an implant assembly. Teeth are formed on each shell so that the shells can be uni-directionally spaced apart.
In general, improvement has been sought with respect to implantation procedures and devices, generally to provide an expandable implant assembly that reduces the invasiveness of the procedure and to provide an expandable implant that is easily adjusted during an implantation procedure.


In order to provide a tire which is excellent in processability and which is excellent as well in a low fuel consumption, abrasion resistance and fracture resistance, assumed is such a constitution that used for a tire member is a rubber composition which contains a modified natural rubber having a polar group in the rubber molecule and precipitated silica, wherein a cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-adsorbing specific surface area (CTAB) (m2/g) of the precipitated silica and the mode Aac in diameters (nm) of primary aggregates thereof determined by acoustic measurement of particle size distribution satisfy an equation: Aac≧−0.76×(CTAB)+274.

Carbon black has so far been used as a reinforcing filler for rubber. This is because carbon black can provide rubber compositions with high abrasion resistance. In recent years, as resource saving and energy saving are socially requested, low heat build-up of tire rubber has come to be requested as well at the same time for the purpose of saving fuel consumption of cars. When low heat build-up is intended to be achieved by using carbon black alone, it is consider that a compounding amount of carbon black is reduced or that carbon black having a large particle diameter is used, but it is known that in both cases, the reinforcing property, the abrasion resistance and the grip on a wet road are not prevented from being reduced. On the other hand, it is known to use silica as a filler in order to enhance low heat build-up (refer to, for example, patent documents 1 to 4). However, particles of silica tend to be coagulated by virtue of a hydrogen bond of a silanol group which is a surface functional group of silica, and a silanol group is not good in wettability with a rubber molecule due to a —OH group having hydrophilicity to deteriorate dispersion of silica into rubber. The kneading time has to be extended in order to improve the above problem. Also, a Mooney viscosity of a rubber composition is elevated due to insufficient dispersion of silica into rubber, and the defect that the rubber composition is inferior in processability such as extrusion has been involved therein. Further, since a surface of a silica particle is acidic, silica adsorbs a basic substance used as a vulcanization accelerator in vulcanizing a rubber composition to prevent the rubber composition from being sufficiently vulcanized, so that the defect that the elastic modulus is not enhanced has been involved therein as well.
A silane coupling agent has been developed in order to improve the above defects, but dispersion of silica has not yet reached a sufficiently high level, and it has been particularly difficult to obtain industrially good dispersion of silica particles. Accordingly, it is tried to mix silica whose surface is treated with a hydrophobicity-providing agent to accelerate reaction of a silane coupling agent (refer to, for example, patent document 1).
Further, it is disclosed in patent document 5 to use hydrophobic precipitated silica. However, since precipitated silica subjected to complete hydrophobicity treatment is used, surface silanol groups to react with a silane coupling agent disappear, and therefore the defect that rubber is not sufficiently reinforced has been involved therein. Further, silica having an increased particle diameter is used in order to improve low heat build-up, but silica is reduced in a specific surface area by increasing a particle diameter to deteriorate a reinforcing property thereof. It is disclosed in patent document 6 to use silica having a specific form, but low heat build-up and abrasion resistance of the rubber composition are not sufficiently high.
On the other hand, requirement to reduction in fuel consumption of cars is being increased in recent years, and tires having small rolling resistance are required. Accordingly, rubber compositions which have low tan δ (hereinafter referred to as a low hysteresis) and which are excellent in low heat build-up are required as rubber compositions used for a tread and the like in tires. Further, rubber compositions used for a tread are required to be excellent in abrasion resistance and a breaking characteristic in addition to a low hysteresis from the viewpoints of the safety and the economical efficiency. In contrast with this, in order to improve a low hysteresis, abrasion resistance and a breaking characteristic of a rubber composition prepared by compounding a rubber component with a reinforcing filler such as carbon black, silica, it is effective to enhance affinity between the reinforcing filler and the rubber component in the rubber composition.
For example, synthetic rubbers which are improved in affinity with a reinforcing filler by modification of a polymer end (refer to, for example, patent documents 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11) and synthetic rubbers which are improved in affinity with a reinforcing filler by modification of the main chain (refer to, for example, patent documents 12 and 13) are developed in order to enhance affinity between a reinforcing filler and a rubber component in a rubber composition to improve the reinforcing effect by the reinforcing filler.
However, the present inventors have studied low heat build-up, abrasion resistance and a breaking characteristic of rubber compositions prepared by using the modified synthetic rubbers described in the patent documents 7 to 13 described above to find that while the above rubber compositions are excellent in low heat build-up, abrasion resistance and a breaking characteristic as compared with those of rubber compositions prepared by using conventional synthetic rubbers, they are not necessarily satisfactory and that they still have room to be improved.    Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 6 No. 248116    Patent document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 7 No. 70369    Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 8 No. 245838    Patent document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 3 No. 252431    Patent document 5: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 6 No. 157825    Patent document 6: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-37046    Patent document 7: International Publication Laid-Open No. 2003-046020 pamphlet    Patent document 8: Publication of Japanese Translation of PCT International Publication Application No. 2004-513987    Patent document 9: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 11 No. 29603    Patent document 10: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-113202    Patent document 11: Japanese Patent Publication Hei 6 No. 29338    Patent document 12: Publication of Japanese Translation of PCT International Application No. 2003-534426    Patent document 13: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-201310

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method for sending video over a cellular link includes obtaining from a modem layer an uplink buffer status metric. An indication derived from the metric is transmitted from the modem layer to a video source application. The indication is used to adjust a video bitrate.

This relates generally to dealing with congestion in a cellular link between a video source and a video sink where the video source sends video data and the video sink receives the video data.
This relates generally to dealing with congestion in a wireless link between a wireless video device which transmits video data to a wireless base station, where the wireless video device can be decomposed in a video source (Open System Interconnection (OSI) Model layer 7) and a network sink (OSI Model layers 3-2-1) including a modem which transmits video data over a cellular link to the wireless base station.
Congestion may occur in the wireless link unbeknownst to the video sender. This is because the congestion happens in layers 1 and 2 and the information about the congestion may be held at layer 2 (which corresponds to the modem layer that transmits the video data). However, the video source in OSI Model layer 7, or the application layer, which decides what data to send, may be oblivious to the congestion. As a result, the video source can continue to push data from layer 7 to layer 2 but the modem is unable to effectively transmit because of the congestion.
Current cellular specifications for video calls have a bitrate adaptation mechanism. The mechanism attempts to cause the video sender to control its video bitrate based on feedback which the video receiver reports to the sender using a Temporary Maximum Media Stream Bitrate Request (TMMBR) Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTCP) message or by using packet loss statistics from receiver reports. However, the TMMBR does not always achieve successful bitrate adaptation because it may not be supported by devices, may not always be reliable, may be lost, and is not particularly well suited for use in the uplink path. And packet loss based estimation may not be as accurate or as timely as other estimation techniques.

Using uplink buffer status to improve video stream adaptation control


There is provided a wireless communication system which can improve throughputs in wireless communication by effectively using frequency resources. In the wireless communication system including a plurality of wireless communication stations which may operate as wireless communication terminals or wireless base stations, the wireless communication station includes an access right acquisition means of acquiring an access right upon generating transmitting data; a determination means of determining whether or not different data destined to a plurality of wireless communication stations can be transmitted on different channels according to OFDMA; and a data transmitting means of transmitting data to the receivable wireless communication stations using OFDMA when the determination means determines that different data destined to a plurality of wireless communication stations can be transmitted on different channels.

Recently, high-speed wireless access systems using 2.4 GHz bands or 5 GHz bands, such as the standards of IEEE802.11g and IEEE802.11a, have been spreading remarkably. These systems may adopt orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation methods, i.e. technologies used to stabilize characteristics in multipath fading environments, so as to achieve a physical-layer transmission speed of maximally 54 Mbps (see Non-Patent Literature Document 1).
The above transmission speed indicates a transmission speed on a physical layer. In actuality, due to a transmission efficiency of 50-70% on a MAC (Medium Access Control) layer, the upper limit of an actual throughput may be limited to about 30 Mbps, and therefore characteristics may be further reduced due to the increasing number of wireless communication stations used to send information. The spread of wired LANs (Local Area Network) such as 100 Base-T interfaces of Ethernet (registered trademark) and FTTH (Fiber to Home) using optical fibers in households may promote the spread of high-speed lines at 100 Mbps, which in turn further increases transmission speeds in wireless LANs.
As technologies aiming for higher speeds, the IEEE802.11n standard introduced increased channel bandwidths and spatial multiplexing techniques (MIMO: Multiple Input Multiple Output). In drafting the IEEE802.11ac standard, it has been considered to employ further increased channel widths and multiuser MIMO (MU-MIMO) transmission methods adopting space division multiple access (SDMA) techniques expanding spatial multiplexing techniques (see Non-Patent Literature Document 2). In drafting the IEEE802.11ac standard, it has been considered to employ a new concept of group IDs (GID). Using group IDs, it is possible to concurrently transmit data to all of or part of wireless communication terminals belonging to a group specified via a GID field of each frame.
Among the technologies aiming for higher speeds, it is easy to facilitate speed increasing methods using increased channel bandwidths rather than spatial multiplexing techniques and space division multiple access techniques, and therefore speed increasing functions have been installed in numerous devices. For example, it is possible to increase speeds in such a way that the channel bandwidth of 20 MHz fixed to the IEEE802.11a standard is increased to 40 MHz in the IEEE802.11n standard. Additionally, the IEEE802.11 TGac (Task Group ac) has been currently working on a draft of the IEEE802.11ac standard considering an increase of the channel bandwidth to 80 MHz or 160 MHz. For example, it is possible to use two adjacent channels, each having the bandwidth of 20 MHz, for use in the total bandwidth of 40 MHz while it is possible to use four adjacent channels, each having the bandwidth of 20 MHz, for use in the total bandwidth of 80 MHz.
In wireless LAN systems based on the IEEE802.11 standards, wireless base station devices (which may be referred to as access points, hereinafter referred to as wireless base stations) having broadband transmission/reception abilities or functions at 40 MHz, 80 MHz, or 160 MHz may actually perform transmission/reception using channel bandwidths which should be limited to channel bandwidths supported by wireless communication terminal devices (hereinafter, referred to as wireless communication terminals) under command of wireless base stations. For wireless communication terminals unable to transmit or receive broadband signals at 40 MHz, 80 MHz, or 160 MHz, it is necessary for wireless base stations to transmit or receive data by use of available channel bandwidths for each wireless communication terminal.
The following description is made by taking an example of a wireless base station which is able to transmit or receive data via 80 MHz bands based on the standard (or draft) of IEEE802.11ac. At this time, it is possible for the wireless base station to transmit or receive data via 80 MHz bands with wireless communication terminals, employing 80 MHz modes based on the IEEE802.11ac standard (or draft), under command of the wireless base station. However, it is necessary for the wireless base station to transmit data on a single channel of 20 MHz with wireless communication terminals employing 20 MHz bands based on the IEEE802.11a standard.
In the systems based on IEEE802.11 standards, it is impossible to adequately demonstrate abilities of wireless base stations due to differences of channel bandwidths supported by wireless base stations and wireless communication terminals. Additionally, the increasing number of wireless communication terminals having low functions and abilities may degrade throughput characteristics and frequency usage efficiencies in the entirety of systems.
Next, a wireless data transmission/reception method adapted to a wireless LAN system based on IEEE802.11 will be described. In the wireless LAN system based on IEEE802.11 employing an access control procedure based on CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance), wireless communication stations (hereinafter, wireless base stations and wireless communication terminals will be generally referred to as wireless communication stations) may avoid collision of signals with other wireless communication stations. A wireless communication station receiving a transmission request carries out a series of steps of: monitoring the states of wireless media during the predetermined sensing period (DIFS: Distributed Inter-Frame Space); assuming an unused state of channels (which may be referred to as an idle state) when other wireless communication stations do not transmit signals during the period; and then initiating a random backoff procedure (i.e. a process of deterring transmission for a waiting time which is used to control collision avoidance and determined based on a random number generated within the predetermined range). The wireless communication station continuously monitors wireless media during the random backoff period and then gets an exclusive channel transmission opportunity for the predetermined period (TXOP: Transmission Opportunity) when other wireless communication stations do not transmit signals during the random backoff period. The wireless communication station obtaining a transmission opportunity (TXOP) is called TXOP Holder (hereinafter, referred to as a TXOP-Holder wireless communication station). The wireless communication station serving as TXOP Holder may continuously transmit frames with very short time intervals, called SIFS (Short Inter-Frame Space), without performing CSMA/CA again in the TXOP period.
It is possible to provide "virtual carrier sense" as a method of solving concealed problems of terminals in wireless communications. Upon receiving frames including Duration (i.e. a continuous usable period) information used to notify a usable time of wireless media, wireless communication stations assume that wireless media are occupied in the period corresponding to Duration information (virtual carrier sense), and therefore wireless communication stations determine the period as a transmission suspension period (i.e. a NAV (Network Allocation Vector) period) so as to suspend transmitting frames in the NAV period. Thus, it is possible to guarantee exclusive usage of channels during the TXOP period.
A wireless communication station receiving a frame may implement NAV setting as necessary while simultaneously storing information (e.g. a MAC address) used to identify a TXOP-Holder wireless communication station, i.e. a wireless communication station serving as a source of transmitting the received frame indicating a frame used to start the TXOP period (see Non-Patent Literature Document 3). The wireless communication station deletes the information identifying a TXOP-Holder wireless communication station at the end of the TXOP period. As a frame used to start the TXOP period, it is unnecessary to use a special frame, but it is possible to use a signal which is used to reserve channels by transmitting a control frame such as an RTS (Request To Send) frame.
Upon receiving a frame again in the TXOP period, the wireless communication station confirms whether or not the address of the source of transmitting the received frame matches the MAC address which is stored as the information identifying a TXOP-Holder wireless communication station. When the source address matches the MAC address, the wireless communication station determines that a wireless communication station serving as a source of transmitting the received frame is identical to a TXOP-Holder wireless communication station, thus sending back a reply frame which is needed irrespective of the presence or absence of the NAV setting therein. This makes it possible for a TXOP-Holder wireless communication station to transmit or receive data with a plurality of wireless communication stations in the same TXOP period.
Hereinafter, operations of transmitting and receiving frames conducted between wireless communication stations will be described with reference to FIGS. 52 to 54. FIG. 52 is a schematic illustration of a wireless LAN cell A consisting of one wireless base station AP1 and three wireless communication terminals STA11 to STA13. Both the wireless base station AP1 and the wireless communication terminal STA13 based on the IEEE802.11ac standard are designed to support three types of transmission/reception bandwidths of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, and 80 MHz. The wireless communication terminal STA11 based on the IEEE802.11a standard is designed to support the transmission/reception bandwidth of 20 MHz while the wireless communication terminal STA12 based on the IEEE802.11n standard is designed to support the transmission/reception bandwidths of 20 MHz and 40 MHz.
FIG. 53 is a time chart showing the frame transmitting timings at which a TXOP-Holder wireless communication station transmits frames to other wireless communication stations in the TXOP period. In this drawing, the horizontal axis represents time. Symbols such as (STA11) described in each frame indicate wireless communication stations serving as destinations, for example, wherein (STA11) indicates the wireless communication terminal STA11 serving as a destination. Additionally, NAV(RTS) indicates the NAV setting after receiving RTS not destined to its own station. Among wireless communication stations corresponding to the wireless base station AP1 and the wireless communication terminals STA11 to STA13, the wireless base station AP1 collects data destined to the wireless communication terminals STA11 to STA13 so as to transmit frames to the wireless communication terminals STA11 to STA13. The wireless base station AP1 serving as TXOP Holder transmits data to the wireless communication terminal STA13, employing the largest band among terminals, on a channel of 80 MHz. Upon finishing data communication with the wireless communication terminal STA13, the wireless base station AP1 transmits data to the wireless communication terminal STA12 having the second largest band among terminals. Lastly, the wireless base station AP1 transmits data to the wireless communication terminal STA11 having the smallest band among terminals.
Hereinafter, the operations of the wireless base station AP1 and the wireless communication terminals STA11 to STA13 will be described with reference to FIG. 53. Upon generating data destined to the wireless communication terminals STA11 to STA13, the wireless base station AP1 carries out CSMA/CA so as to obtain a transmission opportunity (TXOP) by confirming and detecting no signals transmitted from other wireless communication stations. The wireless base station AP1 obtaining a transmission opportunity, serving as a TXOP-Holder wireless communication station (i.e. TXOP Holder), starts to transmit frames. The wireless base station AP1 transmits an RTS (Request TO Send) frame, serving as an initiate frame indicating the beginning of a frame sequence, to the wireless communication terminal STA13 utilizing the largest band among terminals sending data (time t111).
The wireless communication terminal STA13 sends back a CTS (Clear To Send) frame to the wireless base station AP1 since the received RTS frame is destined to its own station not having the setting of a transmission suspension period (time t112). Thus, the wireless communication terminal STA13 notifies the data-receivable state thereof to the wireless base station AP1.
The wireless communication terminals STA11 and STA12, i.e. other wireless communication stations receiving an RTS frame from the wireless base station AP1, set a NAV period (i.e. a transmission suspension period), indicated by continuous usage period information included in the RTS frame not destined to their own stations, so as to stop transmitting frames in the NAV period. Additionally the other wireless communication stations detect the beginning of the TXOP period (i.e. a usage transmission opportunity period) due to the RTS frame being received from the wireless base station AP1, while the wireless communication terminals STA11 to STA13 stores that the wireless base station AP1 serves as a TXOP-Holder wireless communication station (i.e. TXOP Holder).
Upon receiving a CTS frame from the wireless communication terminal STA13, the wireless base station AP1 transmits a frame destined to the wireless communication terminal STS13 (time t113). The wireless communication terminal STA13, properly receiving a frame destined to its own station, sends back a BA (Block ACK) frame (or an ACK (Acknowledgement) frame) (time t114), thus exiting transmission/reception of frames.
Next, the wireless base station AP1 transmits an RTS frame destined to the wireless communication terminal STA12 (time t115) in order to transmit data to the wireless communication terminal STA12 having the second largest band among terminals. Herein, the wireless communication terminal STA12, already setting NAV in its own station, receives a frame from TXOP Holder so as to send back a CTS frame destined to a wireless base station AP1 serving as TXOP Holder (time t116).
The wireless communication terminals STA11 and STA13 receive an RTS frame destined to other wireless communication terminals so as to set a NAV period. When the NAV period is set in advance, they update the NAV value. Upon properly receiving a CTS frame from the wireless communication terminal STA12, the wireless base station AP1 transmits a frame to the wireless communication terminal STA12 (time t117). Upon properly receiving a frame from the wireless base station AP1, the wireless communication terminal STA12 sends back a BA frame (or an ACK frame) to the wireless base station AP1 (time t118), thus exiting transmission/reception of frames.
Next, the wireless base station AP1 transmits an RTS frame destined to the wireless communication terminal STA11 (time t119) in order to transmit data to the wireless communication terminal STA11 having the smallest band among terminals. The wireless communication terminal STA11 receives an RTS frame from the wireless base station AP1, serving as a TXOP-Holder wireless communication station, so as to send back a CTS frame to the TXOP-Holder wireless communication station (time t120) regardless of whether or not the current period belongs to the NAV period.
The wireless communication terminals STA12 and STA13 receive an RTS frame not destined to their own stations so as to set a NAV period. When the NAV period is set in advance, they update the NAV value. Upon properly receiving a CTS frame from the wireless communication terminal STA11, the wireless base station AP1 transmits a frame to the wireless communication terminal STA11 (time t121). Upon properly receiving a frame from the wireless base station AP1, the wireless communication terminal STP11 sends back a BA frame (or an ACK frame) to the wireless base station AP1 (time t122), thus exiting transmission/reception of frames.
The above description exemplifies a frame sequence employing a MAC protection method using RTS/CTS exchange before data transmission, but it is possible to transmit frames just after obtaining an access right without RTS/CTS exchange. Additionally, the above description shows an example of transmitting data to a plurality of terminals in the same TXOP period. As described above, it is possible to transmit frames to a plurality of terminals within a range of periods not exceeding the upper limit of TXOP defined based on the IEEE802.11 standards. In this case, it is impossible to perform communication using channel bandwidths larger than channel bandwidths once used in the TXOP period. That is, it is impossible to broaden channel bandwidths used in the TXOP period, but it is possible to reduce channel bandwidths as necessary. In the case of FIG. 53, it is necessary to transmit frames in an order of destinations having larger channel bandwidths among the wireless communication terminal STA11 having Channel 1 (CH1), the wireless communication terminal STA12 having CH1 and CH2, and the wireless communication terminal STA13 having CH1 to CH4.
Next, channel bandwidths used for data transmission among the wireless base station AP1 and the wireless communication terminals STA11 to STA13 will be described with reference to FIG. 54. FIG. 54 shows channel bandwidths used for data transmission among the wireless base station AP1 and the wireless communication terminals STA11 to STA13. The wireless base station AP1 communicates with the wireless communication terminal STA11, solely using 20 MHz bands, on Channel 1 (CH1).
Non-Patent Literature Document 3 defines unit channels, called primary channels, which should be necessarily used to perform communication in a cell configured of a certain access point and terminal stations. Other channels, which are not primary channels but used for communication, are called secondary channels. Alternatively, Non-Patent Literature Document 2 names other channels as secondary xMHz channels (where x indicates any one of 20, 40, 80). In the present specification, arbitrarily unit channels, which are not primary channels within the entire bandwidth of each cell, will be referred to as secondary channels. FIG. 55 shows examples of primary channels and secondary channels on the condition that each unit channel has a 20 MHz band within each cell having the entire bandwidth of 80 MHz. FIG. 55 shows three secondary channels.
The wireless base station AP1 may communicate with the wireless communication terminal STA12, adaptable up to 40 MHz bands, on a primary channel of 20 MHz and another 20 MHz channel (i.e. a secondary channel) adjacent to the primary channel (i.e. CH1 and CH2). Additionally, the wireless base station AP1 may communicate with the wireless communication terminal STA13, adaptable up to 80 MHz bands, on a primary channel and three secondary channels.

Wireless communication system, and wireless communication method

Nippon Telegraph And Telephone Corporation


The devices, systems, and methods herein use air pressure to dispense seed into the ground in a controlled manner. In certain embodiments, a valve is actuated to push a single seed out of a seed chamber. The seed can be conveyed from the metering housing and through a seed delivery apparatus to the furrow at high speed. The seed is rapid conveyed from the seed chamber to the furrow by a precisely controlled air pulse to eliminate variation and enable high planting speeds.

As agricultural planting technologies continues to improve, high-speed precision agriculture is fast becoming the industry standard. Under these high-speed parameters, agricultural planters are required to put seeds in the ground with precise and repeatable spacing between the seeds in order to maximize crop health and yield. This seed spacing must be maintained at any ground speed. The ability to turn off seed dispensing or changing the seed dispensing rate on individual rows is also highly desirable to eliminate planting overlap and to keep seed spacing consistent across all rows on a curve.
Existing seed metering designs use mechanical meters to place the seeds at the desired spacing. Generally, seed spacing is determined in these designs by the spacing of the seed slots in the metering disc and the speed at which the meter is operated. The meter speed is typically correlated to the implement's ground speed by means of some method of mechanical transmission tied to ground engaged wheels, or, more recently, electric or hydraulic motors are utilized to decouple the meter's speed and subsequent seed spacing from the ground speed of the planter.
One disadvantage of known mechanical seed metering devices is that numerous complicated actuators, sensors, and mechanical elements are required on each row unit in order to achieve such features as row-by-row shut off, consistent seed spacing across all rows on curves, and compensation for variable ground speeds. As the number and complexity of parts in a system grows, that system inherently becomes more expensive and less reliable compared to a simpler system with fewer parts and elements.
There is a need in the art for improved systems, methods, and devices for metering seeds in high-speed planting implements.

Controlled air pulse metering apparatus for an agricultural planter and related systems and methods


A masonry wall system is constructed of concrete blocks, with interconnected insulation inserts. To provide for increased structural reinforcement, a steel butterfly-shaped plate is locked on an elongated rod passing through periodic courses of stacked blocks. The plate is locked perpendicular onto the rod, to rest on the top of the uppermost block in the course to which the stress or locking is applied. A recess is formed in the top of the block to accommodate the plate, which is bowed upwardly. A nut or threaded insert is used to press the plate downwardly; and when the plate lies flat, the desired amount of pressure or stress is applied to the blocks. Additional courses may be applied on top of the one to which the plate supplies the stress, with additional locking rods and plates being threaded onto the ends of previous rods to accomplish this purpose in additional courses of blocks forming the wall system.

Free-standing masonry walls typically are constructed of concrete blocks or the like, in running courses, using mortar between the courses and between the ends of each of the blocks. Concrete blocks typically have one or more voids extending through them in the vertical direction to create vertical voids through the walls. Reinforcing bars are placed in these voids for inclusion within a continuous vertical grout column, in accordance with building code standards. Such grout columns typically are placed approximately four feet apart along the length of the wall. Normally, the voids in blocks, which are not involved in the formation of a vertical grout column, are left empty. To provide improved thermal insulation qualities for such masonry walls, the empty voids in masonry block walls may be filled with insulation to reduce the thermal energy transfer between the inner and outside walls of the blocks, and thus of the free-standing wall, which is formed from the blocks.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,964 to Johnson is directed to a self-aligned and self-leveled, insulated drystack block wall construction. In the construction blocks disclosed in this patent, insertable cores of insulating material are placed in the voids or openings in the blocks to improve the interlocking of the blocks in forming a wall, and to reduce thermal energy transfer between the inner and outer sides or walls of the blocks used to form the wall. In the Johnson patent, the inserts also assist in self-alignment and self-leveling of a running course of block used to construct the wall. To meet building codes requiring a continuous vertical grout column at periodic intervals along the running length of the wall, various ones of the insulation cores are eliminated from the blocks to form a continuous vertical void in the standing wall. Reinforcing bar then is inserted into the voids established by the removal of the cores, and grout is used to fill the voids to establish the required grout cell. These grout cells are formed in a conventional manner, after erection of the wall, to produce the required structural reinforcement.
In the construction of masonry block or concrete block walls, of the type disclosed in the above mentioned Johnson patent, no pre-stressing or post-stressing of the wall thus formed is employed. The structural rigidity is provided by the reinforcing bar and grout columns formed in the walls subsequent to their erection. The regions where the grout columns are formed have a greater thermal conductivity (and, therefore, provide less insulating qualities) than the regions between the grout columns, where either insulating inserts are provided, or air-filled voids exist.
It is desirable to provide a masonry wall of concrete wall construction which incorporates the advantages of the insulating inserts of the Johnson patent, and which provides the reinforcement typically produced by grout columns, by continuously utilizing installed stress in the wall at periodic intervals along the wall.


A method for producing and for subsequently decrypting a protected stream of compressed video content is described herein. The method includes receiving an input stream of compressed video content containing a sequence of frames. A set of encrypted frames are created by encrypting selected frames of the sequence of frames in accordance with a frame encryption function. The method further includes generating frame decryption information necessary to decrypt the set of encrypted frames. In a particular implementation the protected stream is assembled using the set of encrypted frames, unencrypted frames from the input stream, and the frame decryption information. The decryption process is initiated by receiving the protected stream of compressed video content and the corresponding frame decryption information. In this regard the frame decryption information includes data distinguishing the encrypted frames from the unencrypted frames of the compressed video content within the protected stream. The encrypted frames are then decrypted in accordance with the frame decryption information.

As is known, modern video display devices are capable of displaying individual of dots of light, or "pixels", of various colors. The term "frame" has been employed to refer to a matrix of pixels at a given resolution. For example, a frame may comprise a 640 by 480 rectangle of pixels containing 480 rows having 640 pixels each. In an uncompressed state, the amount of data required to represent a frame is equal to the product of the number of pixels together with the number of bits associated with each pixel used in color representation. Thus, in a pure black and white image lacking any grayscale shades, a pixel could be represented by one bit where "1" represents white and "0" represents black. More typically, in modern full-color displays a single pixel is represented by 8-bits, 16-bits or 32-bits. Thus, a single uncompressed 32-bit frame at a resolution of 640 by 480 would require (32*640*480) 9.8 million bits, or 1.2 Megabytes of data.
The representation of digital video involves the display of a series of frames in sequence (e.g., a motion picture is composed of 24 frames displayed every second). Thus, one second of uncompressed 32 bit frames at a pixel resolution of 640 by 480 requires 29.5 Megabytes of data (i.e., 1.2*24). As a consequence of the large amount of data associated with uncompressed digital video, various compression techniques have been employed in an effort to reduce the bandwidth required to transmit digital video.
Existing digital video compression techniques are complex processes which rely upon a variety of techniques in transforming (i.e., "encoding") a unit of uncompressed video data into an encoded form. Such encoding permits fewer bits to be used in representing the content of the original uncompressed video data. The resultant encoded data is capable of being transformed using a reverse process (i.e., "decoding") yielding a digital video unit of data that is either visually similar or identical to the original data. Encoding techniques which enable recovery of an identical version of the original data are characterized as "lossless", while those that yield only visually similar versions are categorized as "lossy".
Modern techniques of digital video compression can achieve very high levels of compression with relatively low loss of visual quality. As a general rule, modern techniques of digital video compression are very computationally intensive, with the degree of computational intensity varying directly with the extent of compression. Anything that adds to computational intensity over and above the processing overhead associated with the applicable decoding process is undesirable, since this leads to increased system complexity and expense. In particular, in most efficient forms of modern compression the amount of data in each compressed video frame will vary, sometimes to a great extent. This maximizes compression, but at the cost of making the processing power needed to decode the frames inconsistent.
Turning now to FIG. 1, a block diagram is provided of a conventional digital video encoder 125. As mentioned above, digital video encoders have been used to reduce the size of a stream of uncompressed digital video data. The digital video encoder 125 is comprised of a video processing unit 110 and an entropy compression unit 115. Digital video encoder 125 is configured to generate compressed video output by using motion estimation and motion compensation to exploit temporal redundancy in certain of the uncompressed video frames 120.
During operation of video encoder 125, video processing unit 110 accepts uncompressed video frames 120 and applies one or more video and signal processing techniques to such frames. These techniques may include, for example, motion compensation, filtering, two-dimensional ("2D") transformation, block mode decisions, motion estimation, and quantization. The associated 2D event matrices include some or all of a skipped blocks binary matrix, a motion compensation mode (e.g. intra/forward/bi-directional) matrix, a motion compensation block size and mode matrix (e.g. 16×16 or 8×8 or interlaced), a motion vectors matrix, and a matrix of transformed and quantized block coefficients. Practical implementations of the video processing unit 110 and entropy compression unit 115 generally operate in accordance with one of the accepted video compression standards of the type discussed below.
In the special case of a video encoder employing lossy compression, these video and signal processing techniques aim to retain image information that is important to the human eye. The video processing unit 110 produces intermediate data streams 124 that are more suitable for use by the entropy encoding algorithms executed by the entropy compression unit 115 than are the uncompressed video frames 120. Conventionally, these intermediate data streams 124 would comprise transform coefficients with clear statistical redundancies and motion vectors. As an example, video processing unit 110 may apply a block discrete cosine transform (DCT) or other transform function to the output of motion compensation and quantize the resulting coefficients.
An entropy coding technique such as Huffman Coding may then be applied by entropy compression unit 115 to the data streams 124 in order to produce a compressed stream 130. Entropy compression unit 115 may compress the data streams 124 with no loss of information by exploiting the statistical redundancies therein. The compressed stream 130 output by entropy compression unit 115 is of significantly smaller size than both the uncompressed video frames 120 and the intermediate data streams 124.
As shown in FIG. 2, a conventional digital video decoder 230 may be bifurcated into two logical components: entropy decompression unit 235 and video processing unit 240. Entropy decompression unit 235 receives the compressed data stream and outputs data streams 250, which typically comprise motion vectors and transform (or quantized) coefficients. Video processing unit 240 receives the data stream output 250 from decompression unit 235 and performs operations such as motion compensation, inverse quantization, and inverse 2-D transformation in order to reconstruct the uncompressed video frames.
The Motion Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) and the International Standards Organization (ISO) have produced international standards specifying the video compression and decompression algorithms of the type implemented by the encoder 125 and decoder 230, respectively. These standards include MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.261, H.263, and permit equipment and software from different manufacturers to exchange compressed video formatted in accordance with such standards.
FIG. 3 shows a graph 300 displaying an approximate representation of the relative processing power expected to be required in connection with decoding of frames of different sizes. For example, FIG. 3 shows that certain frame (see, e.g., frame 304) require much more processing power than other frames (see, e.g., frame 302). Any processing of frames required in addition to decoding (e.g., decryption) consumes yet further processing resources.
As is known, various types of encryption schemes may be used to protect data. In the digital realm, encryption is often implemented by using a collection of bits of some length known as a "key" to execute a predictable transform on a unit of data. This yields another unit of data that cannot be "read" without knowledge of the key used to execute the transform. The process of encryption is only easily reversible to the extent the encrypting key or its counterpart (e.g., a "public" key) is available for use in transforming or "decrypting" the encrypted data back into the original form. Video data is often encrypted using a symmetric block cipher conforming to, for example, the Data Encryption Standard (DES) or Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
Turning now to FIG. 4, a graphical representation 400 is provided of the processing power necessary required to both decrypt and decode a sequence of frames. FIG. 4 also depicts graph 300, which illustratively represents the relatively smaller amount of processing power required to decode unprotected (i.e., unencrypted) frames. As may be appreciated by reference to FIG. 4, the maximum processing power required to both decrypt and decode a frame increases proportionally to its size. As a consequence, adequate processing power needs to be provided to ensure that even the largest frames expected to be received may be successfully decrypted and decoded. This requirement may significantly increase system cost and complexity, even though only a relatively small percentage of received frames may necessitate use of the full extent of available peak processing power. Accordingly, a need exists for an adequately secure technique for bounding the resources consumed during decryption, thereby reducing peak processing requirements.

Method and system for securing compressed digital video


The present invention is an entertainment device coupled to a tray table. The present invention includes a tray table, and a display device mounted to the tray table. The display device is rotatably attached to the tray table. The tray table includes a first section that is rotatably attached to a second section and the second section table is slideably attached to at least one of a bulkhead or a seatback. The present invention also includes a processing device coupled to the display, a user interface device coupled to the processing device, a passenger control unit/telephone headset, head phone jack, and personal computer jack (data and power). The processing device is electrically coupled to at least one of an on-board entertainment system or telecommunications system.

Passengers riding in vehicles are able to enjoy video entertainment, such as movies, videos, television, and the like, and perform data communications while underway. However, some passengers riding in vehicles that include row seats may experience some limitations to their abilities to see video entertainment and perform data communications.
In some vehicles, passengers seated in row seats have an ability to use a phone that is mounted in front of them. Most of these phones do not provide an ability to perform data communications, such as sending or receiving electronic mail (email). The phones that do provide data communications services are limited due to limitations of the phone's user interface, i.e. small display and 12 key keypad. Also, the phone is tethered to a phone base, thereby intruding on other passengers' space if the phone is not mounted directly in front of the user. For example, some passengers can view video entertainment by viewing a screen that is mounted in the ceiling above a passageway, or a screen that is mounted overhead the seats. In some vehicles, passengers may attempt to put their heads in somewhat awkward positions to view these screens. Also, the position of screens relative to seats may make it difficult for a passenger to see the screen or the screen may be blocked by the head of another passenger. Further, some passengers may have limited or no choice regarding selection of entertainment for viewing.
Therefore, there exists a need for a device that allows each passenger to easily view video and perform data communications.


A device for feeding cigarettes to a packeting machine. Cigarettes are placed in the lower part of a hopper in stacks mobile stepwise along respective outgoing channels from the hopper. A device is provided for checking the cigarettes descending stepwise along the channels, and another device which ejects faulty cigarettes is controlled by the checking device and includes, for each channel, a pneumatic extractor connectable to a suction source and a withdrawal element able to gain access to the respective channel to extract the faulty cigarettes from the interior of the hopper.

This invention relates to a device for feeding cigarettes to the wrapping line of a packeting machine.
The known practice is for the cigarettes to enter a packeting machine usually via a hopper which is supplied with the cigarettes in appropriate containers or from a belt conveyor, which conveys them in the form of a continuous layer.
When leaving the hopper the cigarettes are grouped into batches, each of which is made up of a number of cigarettes equal to the number in one finished packet.
A check is then made on the characteristics of the cigarettes of each batch, and those batches which contain even a single faulty cigarette are rejected.
In order to reduce the number of batches of cigarettes ejected and thereby obtain a considerable financial saving, a device has been proposed by the present applicant, Messrs. G. D. S.p.A., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,470 which is able to verify the soundness of the cigarettes while these are still in the hopper, and to reject them before they reach the batching station.
In this device the cigarettes are ejected from the hooper by a combination of pneumatic means and mechanical means.
More specifically, when commanded by the means which check the cigarette soundness, a nozzle directs an air blast agains the end of each faulty cigarette.
Under the force of this blast the cigarette begins to emerge from the hopper through an appropriate aperture, so that its opposite end is pierced by a sharp element or needle. This latter, driven with reciprocating movement, withdraws from the hopper to thus complete the removal of the faulty cigarettes.
A device of this type is not however free of problems, which derive both from the pneumatic means and from the mechanical means.
The air blast directed agains the end of the cigarettes tends to expel tobacco particles, which can fall onto the underlying members and hinder correct operation of the machine.
A more serious problem arising in such a device derives from the use of said needles, or sharp elements in general, which can constitute a danger to the operator, particularly if they break.