An apparatus including a split housing securable together mounted in surrounding relationship relative to a steering column housing. A multi-angulated actuation lever is mounted overlying the split housing and terminates in a forward first leg pivotally mounted to a collar that in turn is surroundingly secured in a sliding relationship relative to a turn signal lever. The actuation lever is pivotally mounted to the split housing and extends laterally therebeyond in a right-hand orientation. The actuation lever may further include a telescoping section to accommodate variations in physical capabilities and characteristics of a user, and wherein the lever may further include a rotatable coupling to permit angular orientation of the actuation lever relative to the split housing for enhanced positioning of the actuation lever relative to the split housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to hand control apparatus utilized in automotive environments, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved turn signal auxiliary lever apparatus wherein the same is operative to assist individuals of impaired physical characteristics in right-hand control organizations permitting right-hand control of a turn signal lever in an automotive environment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Auxiliary manual controls exist in an automotive environment to assist individual's of impaired physical capabilities in the effective utilization of various controls utilized in automotive operation. While various control organizations have been utilized to assist right-hand manual control of various automotive equipment, the prior art has heretofore failed to provide an apparatus to easily and readily assist individuals of impaired physical capabilities in right-hand manual control of an associated turn signal lever typically directed in a leftward direction relative to an associated steering column. Examples of the prior art include U.S. Pat. No. 3,358,527 to Lake, et al., illustrating the use of a control lever rotatably mounted to a steering column, wherein through a pivot connection, permits alternative actuation of a brake and accelerator pedal utilized in an automotive vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,641,939 to McKee illustrates the use of a pivotally mounted lever relative to an air brake actuation lever to permit ease of access relative to the air brake lever.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,112,804 to Bahr sets forth the use of a brake lever extension, wherein the lever extension is mounted generally orthogonally relative to a brake lever to assist in mechanical manipulation of the brake lever.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,915,915 to McKay sets forth the use of an auxiliary gear shift for particular use with outboard motors, wherein the gear shift lever utilizes an adjustable extension mounted relative to the outboard gear shift lever to provide ease of access and manipulation relative to the outboard gear shift lever.
As such, it may be appreciated that there continues to be a need for a new and improved turn signal auxiliary lever apparatus as set forth by the instant invention which addresses both the problems of ease of use, as well as effectiveness in construction and in this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


An elongated hand held sensor is removable from a strap for use. The strap can also be used to form a loop that is attached to another object, such as a handle or other fixture, such as a bedroom furnishing. The sensor may contain an electrode at one end in signal communication with a capacitive measurement circuit on a circuit board in the sensor device housing. The electrode is optionally shaped to have adjacent portions that match the non-planar shape at the distal end of the housing.

The field of inventions is hand held sensor devices, as well as hand held sensors for detecting moisture, and more particularly moisture sensors for the external detection of urine in diapers.
Hand held sensors are easily damaged, lost or misplaced between uses.
There is a need for an improved hand held sensor that is both durable, and can be placed or attached in a workspace, as well as easily transported without being difficult to access.
The is also a need for moisture sensors for the external detection of urine in diapers that have an appropriate sensitivity to provide the user with practical information that minimize false negative and positive readings for variables unrelated to the need to change of diaper.
The above and other objects, effects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of the embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings


An internal combustion engine variable compression ratio system includes a piston inner, a piston outer that, while being fitted around the outer periphery of the piston inner, so it slides only in the axial direction, is capable of moving among low (L), high (H), and medium (M) compression ratio positions, and two sets of raising means disposed in line in the axial direction between the piston inner and outer. Each set of raising means includes a movable raising member, which can pivot individually between a non-raised position (A) and a raised position (B) around the axis of the piston inner and outer. It is thus possible to provide an internal combustion engine variable compression ratio system that enables the compression ratio to be appropriately switched between at least three stages, that is, between low, medium and high compression ratios, without rotating the piston outer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an internal combustion engine variable compression ratio system and, in particular, to an improvement thereof in which a piston includes a piston inner and a piston outer, the piston inner being connected to a connecting rod via a piston pin, and the piston outer, while being connected to the piston inner and having an outer end face thereof facing a combustion chamber, being capable of moving between a low compression ratio position close to the piston inner and a high compression ratio position close to the combustion chamber, the compression ratio of the engine being decreased by moving the piston outer to the low compression ratio position, and the compression ratio being increased by moving the piston outer to the high compression ratio position.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, with regard to such an internal combustion engine variable compression ratio system, there is a known system (1) in which a piston outer is screwed around the outer periphery of a piston inner, and rotating the piston outer forward and backward so that it approaches and recedes from the piston inner moves it to a low compression ratio position and a high compression ratio position (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-117779), and a known system (2) in which a piston outer is fitted in an axially slidable manner around the outer periphery of a piston inner, an upper hydraulic chamber and a lower hydraulic chamber are formed between the piston inner and the piston outer, and supplying hydraulic pressure alternately to these hydraulic chambers moves the piston outer to a low compression ratio position and a high compression ratio position (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-113330).
Depending on the running conditions of the internal combustion engine, it may be necessary for the compression ratio to be switched between three or more stages, but it is difficult to satisfy such a requirement with the above-mentioned conventional system (1) or (2). Furthermore, in the conventional system (1), since it is necessary to rotate the piston outer in order to switch the compression ratio, the shape of the top face of the piston outer is restricted by the shape of the ceiling of the combustion chamber or the arrangement of intake and exhaust valves, and it cannot be set freely.

Compression ratio variable device of internal combustion engine


A transgenic plant transformed by a phosphatase stress-related protein (PHSRP) coding nucleic acid, wherein expression of the nucleic acid sequence in the plant results in increased tolerance to environmental stress as compared to a wild type variety of the plant. Also provided are agricultural products, including seeds, produced by the transgenic plants. Also provided are isolated PHSRPs, and isolated nucleic acid coding PHSRPs, and vectors and host cells containing the latter.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to nucleic acid sequences encoding proteins that are associated with abiotic stress responses and abiotic stress tolerance in plants. In particular, this invention relates to nucleic acid sequences encoding proteins that confer drought, cold, and/or salt tolerance to plants.
2. Background Art
Abiotic environmental stresses, such as drought stress, salinity stress, heat stress, and cold stress, are major limiting factors of plant growth and productivity. Crop losses and crop yield losses of major crops such as rice, maize (corn) and wheat caused by these stresses represent a significant economic and political factor and contribute to food shortages in many underdeveloped countries.
Plants are typically exposed during their life cycle to conditions of reduced environmental water content. Most plants have evolved strategies to protect themselves against these conditions of desiccation. However, if the severity and duration of the drought conditions are too great, the effects on plant development, growth and yield of most crop plants are profound. Furthermore, most of the crop plants are very susceptible to higher salt concentrations in the soil. Continuous exposure to drought and high salt causes major alterations in the plant metabolism. These great changes in metabolism ultimately lead to cell death and consequently yield losses.
Developing stress-tolerant plants is a strategy that has the potential to solve or mediate at least some of these problems. However, traditional plant breeding strategies to develop new lines of plants that exhibit resistance (tolerance) to these types of stresses are relatively slow and require specific resistant lines for crossing with the desired line. Limited germplasm resources for stress tolerance and incompatibility in crosses between distantly related plant species represent significant problems encountered in conventional breeding. Additionally, the cellular processes leading to drought, cold and salt tolerance in model, drought- and/or salt-tolerant plants are complex in nature and involve multiple mechanisms of cellular adaptation and numerous metabolic pathways. This multi-component nature of stress tolerance has not only made breeding for tolerance largely unsuccessful, but has also limited the ability to genetically engineer stress tolerant plants using biotechnological methods.
It is well recognized that reversible phosphorylation of proteins controls many cellular processes in plants and animals. The phosphorylation status of proteins is regulated by the opposing activities of protein kinases and protein phosphatases. Phosphorylation of eukaryotic proteins occurs predominantly on serine and threonine residues, and to a lesser extent, on tyrosine residues. In animals, protein phosphorylation plays well-known roles in diverse cellular processes such as glycogen metabolism, cell cycle control, and signal transduction (Smith, R. D. and Walker, J. C., 1996, Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 47:101-125).
Protein phosphatase activities have been reported in most plant subcellular compartments, including mitochondria, chloroplast, nuclei and the cytosol, and are associated with various membrane and particulate fractions. Some protein phosphatases are poorly characterized and may represent novel enzymes that are unique to plants. Others have biochemical properties that are very similar to well-known mammalian protein phosphatases, such as cytosolic protein serine/threonine phosphatases (MacKintosh C. and Cohen P. 1989 Biochem. J. 262:335-339). Two such plant serine/threonine phosphatases have been identified that function similar to mammalian type-1 (PP1) and type-2 (PP2) protein serine/threonine phosphatases. Biochemical and genetic studies in plants implicate PP1 and/or PP2 activity in signal transduction, hormonal regulation, mitosis, and control of carbon and nitrogen metabolism (Smith, R. D. and Walker, J. C., 1996, Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 47:101-125).
Experimental evidence has implicated the involvement of protein phosphatases in the plant stress signaling cascade, and more particularly, in stress perception and signal transduction linked to physiological mechanisms of adaptation in plants. For example, protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) has been shown to be involved in stress responses in plants (Sheen, J 1998 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95:975-980). It has also been demonstrated that, in yeast, the PP2B phosphatase calcineurin (CaN) is a focal component of a Ca2+-dependent signal transduction pathway that mediates Na+, Li−, and Mn2+ tolerance of Saccharomyces cerecisiae (Cunningham, K. W. and Fink, G. R. 1996 Mol. Cell. Biol. 16:2226-2237). CaN functions to limit intracellular Na+ accumulation by regulating processes that restrict influx and enhance efflux of this cation across the plasma membrane. CaN also participates in cytosolic Ca2+ homeostasis through the positive regulation of Golgi apparatus and vacuolar membrane-localized P-type ion pumps and negative control of a vacuolar H+/Ca2+ exchanger. Interestingly, overexpression of yeast CaN confers salt tolerance in plants, strongly indicating that modulation of stress signaling pathways by expression of an activated protein phosphatase substantially enhances plant stress tolerance (Pardo, J. M. et al. 1998 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95:9681-9686).
Although some genes that are involved in stress responses in plants have been characterized, the characterization and cloning of plant genes that confer stress tolerance remains largely incomplete and fragmented. For example, certain studies have indicated that drought and salt stress in some plants may be due to additive gene effects, in contrast to other research that indicates specific genes are transcriptionally activated in vegetative tissue of plants under osmotic stress conditions. Although it is generally assumed that stress-induced proteins have a role in tolerance, direct evidence is still lacking, and the functions of many stress-responsive genes are unknown.
There is a need, therefore, to identify genes expressed in stress tolerant plants that have the capacity to confer stress resistance to its host plant and to other plant species. Newly generated stress tolerant plants will have many advantages, such as increasing the range that crop plants can be cultivated by, for example, decreasing the water requirements of a plant species.

Phosphatase stress-related proteins and methods of use in plants


The present invention provides a prophylactic or therapeutic agent for an autism spectrum disorder containing compound (I) having melatonin receptor affinity. A compound represented by the formula:

Autistic spectrum disorder is said to be one of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by the symptoms of social disorder (e.g., social communication disturbance, interpersonal mutual reaction disorder and the like), restricted repetitive modalities (e.g., behavior, interests, activities and the like) and the like (non-patent document 1). At present, a treatment method has not been established yet, and improvement of life has been attempted by prescribing drugs. For example, antipsychotic drugs are used for preventing aggressive behaviors and self-injurious behaviors, which are behavioral disorders associated with autism spectrum disorder. However, it is a symptomatic treatment and does not aim at permanent cure.
Therefore, a therapeutic drug effective for an autism spectrum disorder (particularly, medicament effective for social disorder) has been awaited at the medical site.
Non-patent document 2 discloses that ramelteon was administered to two patients with insomnia accompanied by autism to confirm a therapeutic effect of ramelteon on sleep disorder, and evaluates items relating to sleep disorder.
Patent document 1 discloses a combined use of 5HTR agent and the like and ramelteon, and discloses autism as an application.
Patent document 2 discloses (S)—N-[2-(2-methyl-7,8-dihydro-6H-indeno[5,4-d][1,3]oxazol-8-yl)ethyl]acetamide.
Non-patent document 3 suggests that the amount of melatonin decreases in patients with an autistic spectrum disorder and that ASMT involved in melatonin synthesis in the body is involved.
Non-patent document 4 discloses the results that melatonin metabolite (6-SM) in the urine of autism patients decreases during daytime, in the night and throughout the day, the results that the amount of urinary 6-SM at night and the severity of autism such as language ability and the like show a negative correlation, and the results that the amount of urinary 6-SM during the day and the IQ score and the like show a positive correlation.
Non-patent document 5 suggests that melatonin has a therapeutic effect on sleep disorder in children with insomnia and sleep disorder accompanied by autism spectrum disorder and vulnerability X (Fragile X) syndrome.
Non-patent document 6 reports that there are six tests in the past in which improvement of day-to-day behavior by nocturnal administration of melatonin was reported in autistic spectrum disorder patients, and the like.

Prophylactic or therapeutic agent for autism spectrum disorder

Abstract: wherein each symbol is as described in the specification, or a salt thereof.


A seat occupant determining apparatus includes a first load detecting sensor at a right of a seat, a second load detecting sensor at a left of the seat, a third load detecting sensor at a front or a rear of the first and second load detecting sensors, in order to detect a part of the load, respectively, a right-left sum value calculating portion calculating a right-left sum value, a threshold changing portion for changing an occupant determining threshold on the basis of the load value of the third load detecting sensor, and an occupant determining portion determining an occupant of the seat to be an adult when the right-left sum value is equal to or more than the occupant determining threshold and determining an occupant of the seat to be a child in a child seat when the right-left sum value is less than the occupant determining threshold.

In order to improve a level of performance of a safety equipment such as a seatbelt, an air-bag or the like, an actuation of the safety equipment may be controlled in accordance with a weight of a passenger sitting on a vehicle seat to which the safety equipment is provided. For example, when a passenger sitting on the seat does not fasten the seat belt, the passenger is generally notified of not wearing the seat belt by an alarm or warning. The law in the United States states that, when an adult is sitting on a passenger seat, an air-bag must be deployed in the event of a vehicle collision or the like. On the other hand, the law also states that, when a passenger such as a baby or a child is placed in a child seat fixed on the passenger seat in a manner where the occupant of the child seat faces the seat back of the passenger seat, the air-bag must not be deployed because an impact caused by the deployed air-bag may cause damage to the occupant of the child seat in the event of a car accident. A determination that the passenger sitting on the passenger seat is an adult, is executed on the basis of a value of a weight of an adult female whose weight is relatively light and height is relatively low. A determination that the passenger sitting on the passenger seat is a child, is executed on the basis of a suitable basis. Thus, in view of safety matter, it is important to determine a type of passenger on the basis of a weight of the passenger.
Disclosed in JPH9-207638A is an occupant detecting apparatus for determining an existence of an occupant of a seat by detecting a load acting on the seat. The occupant detecting apparatus includes two load sensors that are provided at two of four seat attaching portions, and the existence of the occupant is determined on the basis of a total of load value detected by the two load sensors. Accordingly, the occupant detecting apparatus includes the load sensors provided at two of four seat attaching portions, where the two portions are a necessary minimum to determine the existence of the occupant of the seat, thereby achieving a simple configuration and low cost occupant detecting apparatus.
Further, disclosed in JP3991740B is an occupant detecting apparatus for determining whether an occupant sitting on the seat is an adult or a child. The occupant detecting apparatus includes first and second load sensors for respectively detecting a load applied to the seat in the vicinity of the buckle of a seat belt and a load applied to the seat at a portion opposite to the buckle of the seat belt, detecting means for detecting an insertion of a tongue plate into the buckle, determining portion for determining the occupant to be an adult in a case where a total of the load values detected by the first and second load sensors are equal to or more than a threshold that is set in advance. Further, the determining portion determines the occupant to be a child in a case where, even when the total of the load values is equal to or more than the threshold, a difference between the load value detected by the first load sensor and the load value detected by the second load sensor has increased to be a predetermined value or more, and the load value detected by the first load sensor has increased before and after a timing where the tongue plate is inserted into the buckle. In this configuration, an error in determination may be reduced, the error would happen in a case where a child whose weight is slightly lower than a threshold sits on the seat, and the seat belt is fasten by other passenger. According to the description of the JP3991740B, the occupant detecting apparatus includes two first load sensors and two second load sensors at four seat attaching portions, so that a total load may be calculated on the basis of the load values detected at four seat attaching portions (all of the seat attaching portions).
According to the occupant detecting apparatus disclosed in JPH9-207638A, the apparatus determines the existence of the occupant of the seat, however, because the apparatus includes a minimum number of the load sensors in view of achieving a cost reduction and a weight reduction, the apparatus may not be able to determine whether an occupant is an adult or a child.
As is the configuration of the occupant detecting apparatus disclosed in JPH9-207638A, where the load sensors are not provided at all of the seat attaching portions and provided at only two of the seat attaching portions, because the load value detected by the load sensor may change depending on a height of a seating surface of the seat and a vehicle tilt angle, a difficulty exists in determining whether the occupant is an adult or a child on the basis of the set threshold. Further, in a case where the seat includes a lifter by which the height of the seating surface of the seat is adjusted upwardly or downwardly, the load value detected by the load sensor may vary depending on the height of the lifter; accordingly a further difficulty exists in determining whether the occupant is an adult or a child.
According to the occupant detecting apparatus disclosed in JP3991740B, although the determination whether the occupant is an adult or a child (an infant) is executed with high accuracy by eliminating the effect of the load value temporally increasing at the time of the seatbelt fastening operation, because the apparatus includes four load sensors provided at four seat attaching portions, a cost and a weight of the apparatus would be increased.
A need thus exists to provide a seat occupant determining apparatus, which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.


The present disclosure describes a point-to-multipoint communication system having a service provider system and one or more subscriber devices. The one or more subscriber devices include multiple physical layer (PHY) devices that can be used for upstream direction and/or downstream direction transfer of information to and/or from the service provider system. The one or more subscriber devices receive subscriber device configuration information from the service provider system indicating which of these multiple PHY devices are to be used for the upstream direction and/or the downstream direction transfer of the information to and/or from the service provider system. In some situations, the subscriber device configuration information identifies various types of information, such as video, audio, and/or data to provide some examples, to be transferred in the upstream direction and/or the downstream direction and/or one or more PHY devices to be used for transferring the various types of information.

Traditionally, service provider systems solely utilize wireline communication standards or protocols, such as a version of a Data Over Cable Service PHY device Specification (DOCSIS) communication standard or protocol, such as DOCSIS 3.0, DOCSIS 3.1, and/or DOCSIS 3.1 Full Duplex to provide some examples, to provide a service to one or more subscriber devices. As more wireline communication standards or protocols and wireless communication standards or protocols become available, it would be advantageous for service provider systems to implement these additional communication standards or protocols to provide the service.
The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Process and apparatus for the purification of water, oxygen/ozone-gas mixture is introduced under high pressure in the water to be purified, and the thus obtained oxygen/ozone-gas mixture enriched water is passed to a purification stage which comprises at least one reactor. Not or insufficiently degraded contaminants are retained by a membrane filter unit and recycled to the purification stage. Thus contaminants, such as hydrocarbon compounds and the like, are recirculated until they are converted to carbon dioxide and water.

The invention relates to an apparatus for the purification of water. Particularly the invention relates to a process for the purification of water in which an oxygen/ozone-gas mixture is introduced in the water to be purified.
A process of this type is known. In this process an apparatus is used equipped with means for introducing an oxygen/ozone-gas mixture and a reactor for the conversion of contaminants, such as hydrocarbon compounds and the like, to carbon dioxide and water. The introduction of oxygen/ozone-gas mixture is carried out under atmospheric pressure. This process has the disadvantage that only low ozone concentrations are reached. Moreover, the reaction of ozone with contaminants to be degraded proceeds very slowly.
The invention aims to improve such a process to degrade in a fast and efficient way pesticides and the like present in the rinse water from the cleansing of agricultural spraying apparatus, the waste water from hydroponic cultivation systems, open field farms, fruit growing and arable farms, etc.


A method of real time magnetic localization comprising: providing an artificial neural network field model that is calibrated and optimized for a predetermined magnet; receiving signals from one or more magnetic sensors; and solving the location of the magnet using the model based on the signals.

Recent advancement in miniaturization and sensitivity in magnetic sensor technology has motivated emerging applications of magnetic tracking and localization techniques in robotics and mechatronics systems. Magnetic field-based positioning systems are compact, low-cost, robust, non-invasive, unobtrusive, energy-efficient, and safe. Magnetic localization involves capitalizing on sensitivity of modern solid-state sensors to detect minute changes in the measured vector magnetic flux density (MFD) due to relative positional changes between the magnetic source and sensors. By affixing the source (or the sensor) onto the moving target and referencing the known position of the sensor (or source), the instantaneous orientation and position of the target can be extracted through active measurement and monitoring of the sensor.
This determination, however, requires a field model, a function that relates position to MFD, and the most commonly used model is the magnetic dipole (MD) model.
One of the key advantages of magnetic field-based localization is that passive magnetic sources exist. This not only allows the localization target to be completely un-tethered but also eliminates the requirement of a power source to generate the field. This results in a very compact sensing system on the target which consists of only a permanent magnet. In addition to sensing across non-ferromagnetic mediums including air and the human body, magnetic fields are invariant to temperature, pressure, radiation and other environmental factors, which make them an excellent choice for tracking and localization applications in medical environments. It is employed in tracking of tongue motion during speech-language therapy, assessing the location of the probe during endovascular catheterisation, assisting in robotic capsule endoscopy and for anatomical mapping and motility studies of the digestive system. The non-contact nature of field-based localization is harnessed in industrial applications for high accuracy sensing as well as feedback control of actuators. In the realm of robotics, it is integrated in UAVs to locate power lines for perching and an integral component of the magneto-elastomeric force sensor in a running quadruped.
Magnetic localization involves tackling the inverse problem and since explicit expression for the inverse model is not available, the forward model (the field model) is used instead. This is achieved by using a nonlinear optimization algorithm to minimize the deviation between measured and modelled magnetic field. A significant proportion of literature on magnetic localization uses the MD model. The issue with the MD model is that it does not take into account the geometrical shape or magnetization of the physical magnet. Due to its formulation, while it is able to adequately characterize the magnetic field at large distances from the source, the model accuracy rapidly deteriorates as it approaches the surface of the magnet. The distributed multi-pole (DMP) model, which consists of a spatial array of dipoles, was conceived to address the shortcomings of the single dipole model. However, it requires a fairly involved and manual process to determine a suitable spatial dipole array.
Thus for many medical applications where the source and sensors are in close proximity, these two models are either not adequate or too tedious to perform high accuracy model-based tracking. While finite element analysis can provide a more accurate location, it is not feasible for real-time localization.

Method and/or system for magnetic localization

Singapore University of Technology and Design

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)


The present invention features an anamorphic apparatus that alters a wavefront of a beam having a wavefront error to form a beam comprising a region having a greatly reduced wavefront error. A beam stop may be used with the anamorphic apparatus to define a portion of the region having a greatly reduced wavefront error that is subsequently detected or launched into a fiber optic. Furthermore, the anamorphic apparatus can be incorporated into an interferometry system to reduce errors associated with wavefront error and beam shear, i.e., non-cyclic non-linearities.

This invention relates to interferometers, e.g., displacement measuring and dispersion interferometers that measure angular and linear displacements of a measurement object such as a mask stage or a wafer stage in a lithography scanner or stepper system, and also interferometers that monitor wavelength and determine intrinsic properties of gases.
Displacement measuring interferometers monitor changes in the position of a measurement object relative to a reference object based on an optical interference signal. The interferometer generates the optical interference signal by overlapping and interfering a measurement beam reflected from the measurement object with a reference beam reflected from the reference object.
In many applications, the measurement and reference beams have orthogonal polarizations and different frequencies. The different frequencies can be produced, for example, by laser Zeeman splitting, by acousto-optical modulation, or internal to the laser using birefringent elements or the like. The orthogonal polarizations allow a polarizing beam-splitter to direct the measurement and reference beams to the measurement and reference objects, respectively, and combine the reflected measurement and reference beams to form overlapping exit measurement and reference beams. The overlapping exit beams form an output beam that subsequently passes through a polarizer. The polarizer mixes polarizations of the exit measurement and reference beams to form a mixed beam. Components of the exit measurement and reference beams in the mixed beam interfere with one another so that the intensity of the mixed beam varies with the relative phase of the exit measurement and reference beams. A detector measures the time-dependent intensity of the mixed beam and generates an electrical interference signal proportional to that intensity. Because the measurement and reference beams have different frequencies, the electrical interference signal includes a xe2x80x9cheterodynexe2x80x9d signal having a beat frequency equal to the difference between the frequencies of the exit measurement and reference beams. If the lengths of the measurement and reference paths are changing relative to one another, e.g., by translating a stage that includes the measurement object, the measured beat frequency includes a Doppler shift equal to 2vnp/xcex, where v is the relative speed of the measurement and reference objects, xcex is the wavelength of the measurement and reference beams, n is the refractive index of the medium through which the light beams travel, e.g., air or vacuum, and p is the number of passes to the reference and measurement objects. Changes in the relative position of the measurement object correspond to changes in the phase of the measured interference signal, with a 2xcfx80 phase change corresponding to a distance change L of xcex/(np), where L is a round-trip distance change, e.g., the change in distance to and from a stage that includes the measurement object.
In dispersion measuring applications, optical path length measurements are made at multiple wavelengths, e.g., 532 nm and 1064 nm, and are used to measure dispersion of a gas in the measurement path of the distance measuring interferometer. The dispersion measurement can be used to convert the optical path length measured by a distance measuring interferometer into a physical length. Such a conversion can be important since changes in the measured optical path length can be caused by gas turbulence and/or by a change in the average density of the gas in the measurement arm even though the physical distance to the measurement object is unchanged. In addition to the extrinsic dispersion measurement, the conversion of the optical path length to a physical length requires knowledge of an intrinsic value of the gas. The factor xcex93 is a suitable intrinsic value and is the reciprocal dispersive power of the gas for the wavelengths used in the dispersion interferometry. The factor xcex93 can be measured separately or based on literature values.
Unfortunately, imperfections in the interferometry system may degrade the accuracy of such interferometric measurements. For example, many interferometers include non-linearities such as what are known as xe2x80x9ccyclic errors.xe2x80x9d The cyclic errors can be expressed as contributions to the phase and/or the intensity of the measured interference signal and have a sinusoidal dependence on phase changes associated with changes in optical path length pnL and/or on phase changes associated with other parameters. In particular, there is first harmonic cyclic error in phase that has a sinusoidal dependence on (2xcfx80pnL)/xcex and there is second harmonic cyclic error in phase that has a sinusoidal dependence on 2(2xcfx80pnL)/xcex. Higher harmonic cyclic errors may also be present.
There are also xe2x80x9cnon-cyclic non-linearitiesxe2x80x9d such as those caused by a change in lateral displacement (i.e., xe2x80x9cbeam shearxe2x80x9d) between the reference and measurement beam components of an output beam of an interferometer when the wavefronts of the reference and measurement beam components have wavefront errors. This can be explained as follows.
Inhomogeneities in the interferometer optics may cause wavefront errors in the reference and measurement beams. When the reference and measurement beams propagate collinearly with one another through such inhomogeneities, the resulting wavefront errors are identical and their contributions to the interferometric signal cancel each other out. More typically, however, the reference and measurement beam components of the output beam are laterally displaced from one another, i.e., they have a relative beam shear. Such beam shear causes the wavefront errors to contribute an error to the interferometric signal derived from the output beam. Moreover, in many interferometry systems beam shear changes as the position or angular orientation of the measurement object changes. For example, a change in relative beam shear can be introduced by a lateral displacement of a retroreflector measurement object or by a change in the angular orientation of a plane mirror measurement object. Accordingly, a change in the position or angular orientation of the measurement object produces a corresponding error in the interferometric signal.
The effect of the beam shear and wavefront errors will depend upon procedures used to mix components of the output beam with respect to component polarization states and to detect the mixed output beam to generate an electrical interference signal. The mixed output beam may for example be detected by a detector without any focusing of the mixed beam onto the detector, by detecting the mixed output beam as a beam focused onto a detector, or by launching the mixed output beam into a single mode or multi-mode optical fiber and detecting a portion of the mixed output beam that is transmitted by the optical fiber. The effect of the beam shear and wavefront errors will also depend on properties of a beam stop should a beam stop be used in the procedure to detect the mixed output beam. Generally, the errors in the interferometric signal are compounded when an optical fiber is used to transmit the mixed output beam to the detector.
The present invention features an anamorphic apparatus that alters a wavefront of a beam having a wavefront error to form a beam comprising a region having a greatly reduced wavefront error. A beam stop may be used with the anamorphic apparatus to define a portion of the region having a greatly reduced wavefront error that is subsequently detected or launched into a fiber optic. Furthermore, the anamorphic apparatus can be incorporated into an interferometry system to reduce errors associated with wavefront error and beam shear, i.e., non-cyclic non-linearities.
In one set of embodiments, an anamorphic apparatus is used to alter the wavefront of a beam in a direction substantially parallel to the plane of the wavefront to reduce effects of changes in beam shear in that direction. In another set of embodiments of the present invention, an anamorphic apparatus is used to alter the wavefront of a beam in two orthogonal directions that are substantially parallel to the plane of the wavefront to reduce effects of changes in beam shear in the two orthogonal directions. Furthermore, in additional embodiments, a series of two or more anamorphic cells can be cascaded with one another to further reduce the effects of changes in beam shear.
In general, in one aspect, the invention features an interferometry system including an interferometer, a detector, and an anamorphic system. During operation, the interferometer directs a reference beam along a reference path and a measurement beam along a measurement path, and then recombines at least a portion of each of the beams to form an overlapping pair of exit beams. The detector measures an interference signal derived from the overlapping pair of exit beams. The anamorphic system is positioned to received the overlapping pair of exit beams and reduce the effects of relative beam shear and wavefront errors on the interference signal measured by the detector.
Embodiments of the invention may include any of the following advantages.
The amplitude of a detected interferometric signal from an interferometric system incorporating the anamorphic apparatus will depend only weakly on the beam shear between the reference and measurement beam components of the output beam, thereby improving the accuracy of the interferometric signal. Furthermore, by reducing the wavefront error in the output beam, the output beam can be more consistently coupled to a detector through an optical fiber. Moreover, interferometry systems using the anamorphic apparatus can be advantageously used for microlithography and beam writing applications.
Other features and advantages will be apparent from the following detailed description and from the claims.

Method and apparatus to reduce effects of sheared wavefronts on interferometric phase measurements


A position controller for electronically monitoring the position and speed of a dredge. The position controller consists of an electric powered line winding spool with an electric encoder to indicate line speed and position to a microprocessor. A drag control assembly with electric control is used to increase, decrease or set the drag at desired setting by microprocessor control. Touch screen microprocessor interface is the preferred method to enter settings into the system and allow display/control through multiple preexisting marine electronic devices throughout a fishing boat.

Teasers consist of artificial lures, without hooks, that are towed by fisherman along the side of fishing boats to attract fish. There are several teaser reel designs developed through the years including the use of electric reels. It is common for a fisherman to tow several teaser lures alongside a boat to make the boat appear it is attracting a school of fish. For instance, the fisherman may tow 25 teaser lures on each side of a boat, the lures do not include hooks or any other means of securing fish. A teaser assembly includes lures that when towed underwater using weights and/or planers are typically referred to as a "dredge" due to the depth beneath the surface of the water the assembly is operated at. The resulting high towing tension placed upon the assembly due to water resistance is extremely high making it impossible for manual retrieval unless the boat is slowed down or a mechanical advantage is employed. Towing loads depend on the design of the lures, weights, number of lures, speed of the vessel, and so forth. A dredge requires at least a 200 lb test line to assure the teaser lures are not lost during towing or retrieval. The tow loads on dredges are too high for hand retrieval. For instance, when a fish has been hooked it is desirable to retrieve the dredges to prevent interference with fish retrieval. However, stopping of the boat to allow retrieval is unacceptable for any relaxation of the line pressure used to hook a fish can result in loss of the fish.
The underwater lure assembly is towed from an outrigger pole projecting aside the fishing boat with a pulley leading to a winding device. Unless sea conditions are calm the fishing boat movement in response to ocean waves will cause slack and jerking on the tow line. While for fish teasers placed on the ocean surface such movement can be desirable because surface splashing is effective for attracting fish. However, for dredges the jerking can cause serious problems including but not limited to, back lashes of wound line, line tangles, very high tow tension spikes that can break the tow line, and non-natural jerky movement of the teaser lures. To solve the problem a fisherman may manually adjust the drag mechanism to slip at a critical setting conditions to prevent problems. After the drag slips the position must be reset. This procedure can take place often and is disruptive to the fishing process. If set improperly the above-mentioned problems occur, and constant manually adjustment is a burdensome task.
Removing the dredge from a deployed position when a fish is hooked to prevent entanglement during fish retrieval, often the dredge is simply retrieved to discourage an unwanted fish, clean grass, debris, repositioning, and so forth. Current devices require a skilled fisherman to control the dredge which is time consuming and takes valuable time away from other activities.
Known prior art dredges include designs that are effective in attracting fish. Tekinski U.S. Patent Publication No. 2019/0200593 which discloses a dredge rigging device formed from three rod members having a V-shaped central portion with two arms extending therefrom. Adelman U.S. Patent Publication No. 2011/0192071 discloses a collapsible luring dredge comprising a hub assembly having a plurality of separate hub sections each adapted to hold an extended spreader bar and together joined into a stacked unit assembled along a central axis with a pair of spring-loaded detents disposed therein on opposite sides of the central axis. U.S. Pat. No. 10,130,086 to Adelman, discloses a fixed bar luring dredge comprising a core member tubular in form and assembled to hold a plurality of spreader bars extending through and attached to the core member in a fixed radial pattern with each spreader bar being disposed in a separate and distinct plane to enhance the strength and support of the spreader bar members in trolling. U.S. Pat. No. 9,578,862 to Taboada, discloses a dredge having replaceable arms which is configurable to laterally couple at least two hubs with a plurality of arms having at least one teaser attachment and hub configured to removably retain the arms in a radial orientation.
Electric reels are known in the art. Improved electric reels include provisions to reduce the risk of backlash but fail to recognize the problems associated with towing large dredges, or the use of a dynamic control system. U.S. Pat. Nos. 10,165,767; 9,661,855; and 8,770,504 to Sandstrom, disclose a variable speed electric reel with wireless communication.
Casting reels with microprocessors are also known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 10,130,085 to Ishikawa discloses a casting reel with a detector and controller for determination that terminal tackle has landed on water from rotation detector. U.S. Pat. No. 8,398,011 to Kuriyama, discloses a hand crank fishing reel with temperature or torque sensors to send an electric signal to adjust reel spool drag. U.S. Pat. No. 7,905,440 to Takeshi, discloses a wireless communication from a remote fish finder that can display the terminal tackle depth and sea floor depth to display on the fishing reel. U.S. Pat. No. 9,585,375 to Miyamae, discloses radio communications near field of one or more reels via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth including fishing reel ID for control of multiple reels. U.S. Pat. No. 7,757,989 to Huffman, discloses a manual teaser reel that makes a sound. U.S. Pat. No. 7,559,499 to Nakagawa, discloses a tension, torque, speed, and depth detector on a fishing rod with communication to transmit to external apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,793 to Ikuta discloses, a method of communicating data from a circuit board to rotating coils on a wire coil to control braking of a fishing spool in a compact design with insulated circuit board. U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,602 to Scott, discloses a fishing downrigger with a brake actuator for automatic braking. What is lacking in the industry is a dredge position controller.


A support spindle assembly for rotatably supporting a coreless paper roll for dispensing, the support spindle assembly including a spindle base, a spindle element having a central longitudinal axis (X) and having first and second ends, the spindle element being attached to the spindle base at the first end and rotationally fixed in relation to the spindle base and a rotatable sleeve rotatably disposed about the spindle element, and rotatable in relation to the spindle base and to the spindle element. The support spindle assembly includes a resilient member disposed about the first end of the spindle element, which resilient member is arranged to cooperate with the spindle base and with the rotatable sleeve in order to provide the rotatable sleeve with a rotational resistance.

Dispensing from a cored or coreless paper roll without a rotational brake mechanism may result in overspinning of the roll, i.e., the roll spinning freely and the user withdrawing more paper than intended. Such free rotational dispensing leads to paper waste, which is costly and not environmentally friendly. Overspinning may also result in the leading tail of the paper ending up inside the dispenser, and thereby not being readily accessible to the next user.
Solutions have been proposed that utilize a tab that engages a roll of paper during dispensing. A problem with this assembly, however, is the fact that the braking force is entirely dependent on friction between the spindle member and the center of the coreless roll, which makes it difficult to anticipate or control the braking force exerted on to the roll.
Hence, there is a need for a support spindle assembly that allows the exertion of a controlled, predictable braking force and which prevents free-wheeling of a coreless roll mounted on a rotatable spindle member.


A refrigerator having a water storage vessel detachably mounted thereto so that water is supplied to an ice making apparatus or a dispenser, in which includes a bracket unit installed at a rear surface of a door, a water storage vessel detachable to the bracket unit, a pump to pump the water in the water storage vessel, a second passage configured to supply the water in the water storage vessel to the ice making apparatus and the dispenser, and a valve installed at a diverging point of the second passage, in which the water storage vessel includes a body having a storage space and a first passage, at least one portion of which is fixedly installed to intake the water stored in the storage space to supply the ice making apparatus and the dispenser if the water storage vessel is mounted to the bracket unit.

1. Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a refrigerator having an ice making apparatus or a dispenser, and more particularly, to a refrigerator configured to be supplied with water from a water storage vessel that is detachably mounted to the refrigerator instead of receiving water while connected to a faucet from an outside water supply source.
2. Description of the Related Art
A refrigerator is an apparatus provided with a storage compartment therein to store foods and a cool air supply device to supply cool air to the storage compartment to keep food fresh through a cooling cycle.
The refrigerator as such is in the ever increasing trend of becoming larger in size following the change of lifestyle. As to satisfy the demand of users, an ice making apparatus which generates ice or a dispenser configured in a way that the water and the ice may be withdrawn from an outside the refrigerator are being mounted to the refrigerator.
A refrigerator provided with the ice making apparatus or the dispenser mounted thereto as such is needed with a water supply system configured to supply water to the ice making apparatus or the dispenser. The water supply system includes a pipe line that is connected to an outside water supply source, and the water may be supplied to the ice making apparatus or the dispenser by the water pressure applied from the water supply source from an outside.
Meanwhile, instead of the water being supplied from a water supply source from an outside while being connected to a faucet, a refrigerator may receive water from a water storage vessel that is detachably mounted thereto. An example of the refrigerator as such has been disclosed in Korean patent publication No. 10-2010-0033494.
The refrigerator disclosed as such includes a water supplying container, a container connecting part configured to mount the water supplying container, a pump configured to pump the water of the water supplying container, and a second passage configured to connect the water supplying container, the ice making apparatus and the dispenser to one another. The refrigerator is also configured to supply water to the ice making apparatus or the dispenser as the water is pumped by the pump, when the water supplying container is connected to the container connecting part.
However, in accordance with the publication above, in a case when the water supplying container is to be mounted to the container connecting part, a portion of the second passage is needed to be disposed at an inside the water supplying container through the entry of the water supplying container, and thus, the mounting of the water supplying container may not be easily performed.
In addition, since the second passage passes through an injection hole of the water supplying container, the injection of the water to the water supplying container may be difficult in a state when the water supplying container is mounted at the container connecting part. Accordingly, in a case when the water is needed to be injected to the water supplying container, the water supplying container is needed to be inconveniently detached from the container connecting part prior to injecting water.


An outdoor unit includes: first, second, third, and fourth connection terminals all of which are connected to an indoor unit; a power converter; and a switch unit provided between the first connection terminal and the power converter. The indoor unit includes: a first indoor unit terminal connected to the first connection terminal; a second indoor unit terminal connected to the second connection terminal; a third indoor unit terminal connected to the third connection terminal; a fourth indoor unit terminal connected to the fourth connection terminal; and a switch provided between the first indoor unit terminal and the fourth indoor unit terminal. The switch unit includes: a first switch that is closed when receiving power supply from the second and fourth connection terminals; and a second switch connected in parallel with the first switch. AC power is applied to the first and second connection terminals. The indoor unit closes the switch upon receiving a start signal, and the outdoor unit closes the second switch after supply of AC power to the power converter starts.

Patent Literature 1 describes a conventional air conditioner that can reduce power consumption during standby. For the air conditioner described in Patent Literature 1, an outdoor unit includes a switch for interrupting power supplied from a commercial power supply to the outdoor unit, so that no power is supplied from the commercial power supply to the outdoor unit during standby. When the outdoor unit is to start, the switch of the outdoor unit is controlled by an indoor unit so that the power is supplied to the outdoor unit. At this time, a switch within the indoor unit has changed its connection state such that a current passes through a coil in the switch of the outdoor unit to thereby close the switch.


A method of modulating a dynamic range of a plurality of picture elements each containing image information. The method comprises: (a) inputting the plurality of picture elements and extracting, from the image information of a picture element of the plurality of picture elements an intensity level being in a first dynamic range; and (b) for the picture element: (i) defining a surrounding region of picture elements and a remote region of picture elements; (ii) selecting at least one adaptation weight-function; and (iii) using the at least one adaptation weight-function and intensity levels of each picture element of the surrounding and the remote regions, for assigning a new intensity level to the picture element, the new intensity level being in a second dynamic range, thereby modulating the dynamic range of the plurality of picture elements.

The present invention relates to image processing and, more particularly, to a device for and a method of modulation of a dynamic range of an image.
Digital images may contain a huge amount of data, especially for high quality display and printing. Colored images are commonly displayed by three or more channels, such as Red-Green-Blue (RGB) channels (for display) or Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black (CMYK) images (for print). The source of most images is an imaging device, such as a digital camera, a scanner and the like, in which signal is first captured by a light-sensitive device, and digitized thereafter.
In video capture, digital photography and digital scanning, the image is acquired by means of an electronic sensor such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device with cells sensitive to electromagnetic radiation such as visible light, infrared or ultra-violet waves. In medical or astronomical imaging, images may also be acquired by X-ray, sound-wave, magnetic-field, microwave or radiowave sensitive detectors.
Commercially available digital imaging devices based upon CCD detector arrays are known to acquire image information across a wide dynamic range of the order of 2 to 3 orders of magnitude. It is expected that with the rapid technologically development in the field of digital imaging, this range will most likely be broadened in the near future. Typically however, although at the time of image capture the acquired dynamic range is rather large, a substantial portion of it is lost once the image is digitized, printed or displayed. For example, most images are digitized to 8-bits (256 levels) per color-band, i.e., a dynamic range of about two orders of magnitude. The problem is aggravated once the image is transferred to a display or a print medium which is often limited to about 50 levels per color-band.
A novel imaging technology, recently developed, employs CMOS with active pixel sensors [O. Yadid-Pecht and E. Fossum, "Image Sensor With Ultra-High-Linear-Dynamic Range Utilizing Dual Output CMOS Active Pixel Sensors", IEEE Trans. Elec. Dev., Special issue on solid state image sensors, Vol. 44, No. 10, 1721-1724], which are capable of locally adjusting the dynamical range, hence to provide a high quality image with high dynamic range.
In addition, over the past years software solutions were developed for fuse multiple exposures of the same scene at low dynamic range (e.g., 256 levels per color-band) into one high dynamic range image (of about 4 orders of magnitudes). Yet, it is recognized that these solutions are only partially exploited due to the bottle neck of low dynamic range during display.
The motivation for developing imaging devices capable of capturing high dynamic range images is explained by the enormous gap between the performances of the presently available devices and the ability of the human visual system to acquire detailed information from an ultra-high dynamic range scene. Specifically, the human visual system, which is capable of acquiring a dynamic range of 14 orders of magnitude, can easily recognize objects in natural light having a dynamic range of 12 orders of magnitude.
Still, there is a growing gap between the state-of-the-art imaging devices and display devices. High quality images, obtained either with photographical film or by digital cameras, suffer, once displayed on a screen or printed as a hard copy from loss in clarity of details and colors at extreme light intensities, within shadows, dark regions, extremely bright regions and/or surfaces close to a lightening source. For example, as a single sharp edge in natural scene (e.g., a shaded object in illuminated scene) can reach a dynamic range of 2 orders of magnitudes, presently available display devices may not be able to recognize such an edge. Another severe problem is that in a specific exposure a dark region of the image may be seen while a bright region is over exposed, or vise versa.
One method of dynamic range compression of images is found in R. Fattal et al., "Gradient Domain High Dynamic Range Compression", Proc. ACM SIGGRAPH, 2002, where large gradients are attenuated and a low gradient display is constructs by solving the Poisson equation on a modified gradient field.
In an additional method, primarily directed at correcting halo artifacts, high contrast edges are detected while the influence of extreme pixels whose intensity variations are above a factor of 5 are removed, to obtain a dynamic range without the halo artifacts [Pattanaik et al., Proc. SCCG, 24-27, 2002].
The above methods were applied solely on static images (still photography) and shown only limited results, both in terms of the dynamic range being compressed and in terms of the quality of the produced images.
The rational behind the above methods was primarily of mathematical or physical nature. In addition, there are also several methods for compression of a dynamic range of an image, which are based on psychophysiological findings. However, there is no presently known method which is based on physiological mechanisms, such as adaptation.
It is commonly believed that the ability of the human visual system to acquire wide range of illuminations in the same scene is through physiological phenomena known as lightness constancy and lightness gain control. Physiological findings have shown [O. D. Creutzfeldt et al., "The Neurophysiological Correlates of Color and Brightness Contrast in Lateral Geniculate Neurons: I. Population Analysis, and II. Adaptation and Surround Effects", Exp. Brain Res., 87:1-21, 22-45, 1991] that the induction phenomenon is originated in the retinal receptors and ganglion cells, where in addition to central receptors in the receptive field, surrounding and remote regions of receptors, are inputted to the ganglion cells. Additionally it is hypothesized that the peripheral area that extends far beyond the borders of the classical receptive field of the ganglion cells is also inputted to the ganglion cells, thereby affecting the perceived image.
Application of human vision theories to image processing, which is based on the physiological concept of a center/surround retinal cells, has been attempted in the prior art. For example, to mimic the dynamic range compression of human vision, a detector array with integrated processing in analog silicon chips used a logarithm transformation prior to the surround formation [C. Mead, "Analog VLSI and Neural Systems", Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1989].
Another model, commonly known as the Retinex model, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,456. This method is directed at improving a digital image on an RGB scale both in terms of a dynamic range compression and in terms of color independence from the spectral distribution of the scene illuminant, by subtracting logarithms of intensity values, so as to adjust the intensity of a specific pixel using the surrounding pixels (see also, Jobson et al., "A Multiscale Retinex for Bridging the Gap Between Color Images and the Human Observation of Scenes", published in IEEE Trans. Image Processing 6:965-976, 1997; and Rahman, Z et al., "A Multi Retinex for Color Rendition and Dynamic Range Compression", SPIE International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, conference on Signal and Image Processing).
These attempts, however, fail to address the effect of remote regions of the receptive fields cells (in addition to the color coded retinal cells and physiological adaptation mechanism), hence had only partial success in providing a compression of the huge dynamic range (larger than two order of magnitude) of the scene into the low dynamic range of the display, while maintaining the contrast of the image. It is appreciated that the so-called color constancy mechanism of the visual system, which is related to color coded retinal cells (the cones of the retina) is different than the huge dynamic range compression mechanism, which is related to intensity levels of the rods and cones of the retina. Hence, algorithms attempting to combine color constancy with huge dynamic range (e.g., the Retinex algorithm) unavoidably impose some level of compromising on the physiological assumptions and fail to provide high quality results both for color constancy and for huge dynamic range.
Also of prior art of relevance is International Application No. WO 95/33306, which discloses a signal processor that performs a real time approximation of the non-causal feedback Automatic Gain Control model, for natural process occurring in biological sensors.
In all the prior art image processing techniques, the dynamic range compression is still limited, and images processed using the above methods suffer from non-negligible information loses, once displayed on a conventional display device. In addition, prior art methods fail to provide a physiologically inspired high dynamic range compression in moving images (video).
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a dynamic range modulation device and a method of modulating an image having a high dynamic range devoid of the above limitations.

Method of and device for modulating a dynamic range of still and video images


A reference mark is recorded in an area between one image and the next image sequentially printed on a first surface of a continuous sheet. In a print on a second surface of the sheet, the recorded reference mark is read, and a print position of the image on a second surface of the sheet is set. A plurality of images are sequentially printed on the second surface on the basis of this setting.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print apparatus and a print control method using a continuous sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open NO. 2008-126530 discloses a print apparatus that performs a duplex printing on front and rear faces of a sheet in an inkjet system by using a lengthy continuous sheet wound into a roll. In this apparatus, while an image of a leading edge of the sheet fed from a sheet feeding unit is picked up, print positions for a plurality of subsequent images are set by using this positional information as a reference, and the sheet is cut by a cutter for each image after a print.
As the sheet used in the print apparatus is longer, an accumulation of sheet conveyance errors is larger. Also, in the print apparatus using liquid such as ink, the sheet length itself changes in some cases because of infiltration of moisture into the sheet, evaporation, or heat at the time of drying. As in Japanese Patent Laid-Open NO. 2008-126530, according to a method of picking up an image of a leading edge of the sheet first and using this as a reference for setting a subsequent print position, it is possible to obtain a high accuracy for the print position of the image in the vicinity of the leading edge. However, as being further away from the leading end, an influence of the conveyance error and sheet expansion and contraction is received, and the print displacement becomes larger as the sheet is longer.
In particular, when a plurality of images are disposed and printed sequentially on both faces of a continuous sheet, it is necessary to accurately match the print positions of the images on both the faces to each other, and relative errors of front and rear faces need to be smaller. However, a surface state of the sheet changed upon ink application. In a front face print and a rear face print, the sheet conveyance states are different from each other, and the relative errors tend to be increased. According to the system of Japanese Patent Laid-Open NO. 2008-126530, even when an alignment of the images on the front and rear sides in the vicinity of the leading edge attains a high accuracy, as being further away from the leading end, the influence of the conveyance error and sheet expansion and contraction is received, and an accuracy degradation in the alignment of the image on the front face and the image on the rear side of the sheet is expanded. In other words, as the sheet used in the one-time duplex printing is longer, the displacement of the image on the front face and the image on the rear side tends to be conspicuous.
The present invention has been made on the basis of a recognition of the above-mentioned problems. The present invention provides a print control method and a print apparatus with which when the duplex printing is performed on the continuous sheet, no matter how much the sheet used in the one-time duplex printing is longer, it is possible to suppress the print displacement of the images on the front face and the rear face.

Print control method and print apparatus


A picture-taking lens for forming an image of an object image on a solid picture-taking element, comprising in order from the object side: a first lens having a positive refractive power and directing a convex surface toward the object side; an aperture stop, a second lens having a positive refractive power and a meniscus shape directing a convex surface toward the image side; and a third lens having a negative refractive power and directing a concave surface toward the image side, wherein the picture-taking lens satisfies the following conditional expression: 0.20<R1/f<0.42, 0.10<D2/f<0.40, where R1 is a radius of curvature of the object side surface of the first lens, D2 is an air gap on the axis between the first lens and the second lens, f is a focal length of a whole system of the picture-taking lens.

The present invention relates to a small sized picture-taking lens using a solid picture-taking element such as a CCD type image sensor or a CMOS type image sensor, an image pick-up unit and a hand-held decive provided herewith.
Recently, following the technical advantage, size reduction of an image pick-up apparatus using a solid picture-taking element such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) type image sensor or a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) type image sensor, a mobile phone provided with the image pick-up apparatus or a mobile information terminal is propagating. Further, for the picture-taking lens mounted in these image pick-up apparatus, the requirement for the further size reduction rises.
As an picture-taking lens for such a use, because the technical advantage can be obtained as compared with a lens of single lens or 2-lens composition, a lens of 3-lens composition is well known. A so-called triplet type picture-taking lens composed of, in an order from an object side, the first lens having a positive refractive power, the second lens having a negative refractive power, the third lens having a positive refractive power, is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1.
Further, a so-called tele-photo type picture-taking lens composed of, in order from an object side, the first lens having a positive refractive power, the second lens having a positive refractive power, the third lens having a negative refractive power, is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 2.    [Patent Document 1] Tokkai No. 2001-75006    [Patent Document 2] Tokkai No. 2003-322792
However, the picture-taking lens which is a type disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a type in which, while a wide image angle is secured, aberrations are collected well, however, on the one hand, the total length of the picture-taking lens (a distance on the optical axis from the most object side surface of the picture-taking lens to the image side focal point) is comparatively long, and it can not be said that the lens is not always appropriate for the size reduction. Further, the picture-taking lens which is a type written in Patent Document 2, is a structure which is advantageous for reducing the total length of the picture-taking lens, however, there is a scope of betterment for the further size reduction.

Picture-taking lens, image pick-up unit and hand-held device


A layered body of a SAW filter includes a surface dielectric layer having a surface layer electrode pattern formed thereon, and a first dielectric layer having a pair of electrode patterns and a first ground electrode pattern formed thereon. A pair of balanced output terminals of SAW filters of unbalanced input-balanced output are connected respectively to the pair of electrode patterns via the surface layer electrode pattern, and a part of the first ground electrode pattern is disposed between the pair of the electrode patterns.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a layered body of mounting a SAW filter, a high frequency switch, and a radio communication apparatus, which are used for a mobile phone and so on, for example.
2. Related Art of the Invention
In recent years, in view of the increasing number of users of mobile communication and globalization of a system, for example, high frequency switches have received attention. The high frequency switches are provided for using systems of EGSM (Enhanced-Global System for Mobile Communication) DCS (Digital Cellular System), and PCS (Personal Communications Services), which have corresponding frequency bands of FIG. 7, in a single mobile phone and so on. Besides, FIG. 7 is an explanatory drawing showing the corresponding frequency bands of EGSM, DCS, and PCS.
Referring now to FIG. 8, which is a block diagram showing a conventional high frequency switch, the following will discuss the configuration and operation of the conventional high frequency switch used for a mobile phone and so on.
A conventional high frequency switch 800 is provided for triple bands (the above-mentioned EGSM, DCS, and PCS) that comprises transmit-receive switch circuits 801 and 802, a branching filter circuit 803 for connecting the transmit-receive switch circuits 801 and 802 to an antenna (ANT), and low-pass filters 804 and 805 of suppressing high-frequency distortion during transmission. Further, band-pass filters 806, 807, and 808 are connected to a receiving end to extract only a desired frequency band, and a packaged SAW filter is mainly used as a band-pass filter.
The conventional high-frequency switch 800 generally uses PIN diodes as the transmit-receive switch circuits 801 and 802. Inductors and capacitors constituting the transmit-receive switch circuits 801 and 802, the branching filter circuit 803, the low-pass filters 804 and 805 are formed as internal layers serving as electrode patterns in a layered body or a remounted on a surface layer by using chip components. Thus, the branching filter circuit 803, the transmit receive switch circuits 801 and 802, and the low-pass filters 804 and 805 are realized as a single lamination device.
However, a SAW filter and the high-frequency switch 800 on a receiving end need to be connected on a main substrate. On this account, it is necessary to obtain a sufficiently wide packaging area, so that it is difficult to miniaturize mobile phones.
Further, it is considered that a conventionally packaged SAW filter is mounted on a surface layer of the high-frequency switch 800. However, since a packaged SAW filter has a large size of about 3 mm square and has a height of about 1 mm, it has been difficult to achieve a small and low high-frequency switch.
Moreover, it is considered that a SAW filter such as a bare chip is mounted on a surface layer. However, in this case, it is necessary to obtain grounding strength as that of a conventional package of a SAW filter, and a balance characteristic deteriorates. Thus, it has been difficult to realize such a configuration.
In view of the above-described problems, in order to mount a SAW filter on a surface layer of a high-frequency switch and to achieve a low-profile device, the present invention has as its object the provision of small and low-profile layered body of mounting a SAW filter, high-frequency switch, and radio communication apparatus whereby grounding strength can be sufficiently obtained in the high-frequency switch to a degree which has been conventionally obtained in a package, and preferred characteristics are achieved without deterioration in balance characteristic.
One aspect of the present invention is a layered body of mounting at least one SAW filter comprising:
a surface dielectric layer having a surface layer electrode pattern formed thereon, and
a first dielectric layer having a pair of electrode patterns and a first ground electrode pattern formed thereon,
wherein a pair of balanced output terminals of the SAW filter of unbalanced input-balanced output are to be connected respectively to the pair of electrode patterns via the surface layer electrode pattern, and
a part of the first ground electrode pattern is disposed between the pair of the electrode patterns.
Another aspect of the present invention is a layered body of mounting at least one SAW filter comprising:
a surface dielectric layer having a surface layer electrode pattern formed thereon, and
a first dielectric layer having a pair of electrode patterns and a first ground electrode pattern formed thereon,
wherein a pair of balanced output terminals of the SAW filter of unbalanced input-balanced output are to be connected respectively to the pair of electrode patterns via the surface layer electrode pattern, and
a part of the first ground electrode pattern is disposed on both sides of the pair of electrode patterns.
Still another aspect of the present invention is a high-frequency switch having a plurality of signal paths corresponding to a plurality of frequency bands,
the high-frequency switch, comprising:
a branching filter circuit which combines transmitted signals from the plurality of signal paths during transmission and distributes received signals to the plurality of signal paths during reception,
a plurality of transmit-receive switch circuits of switching the plurality of signal paths to a transmitting part and a receiving part, and
a plurality of filters disposed in the signal paths,
wherein at least one of a strip line and a capacitor which constitute the branching filter circuit, the plurality of transmit-receive switch circuits, and the plurality of filters is formed as an electrode in a layered body,
at least one of the plurality of filters is constituted by the SAW filter,
the SAW filter is mounted on a surface of the layered body, and
the layered body is a layered body of mounting a SAW filter.
Yet still another aspect of the present invention is the high-frequency switch, further comprising one or more second ground electrode patterns in the layered body.
wherein the first dielectric layer is disposed directly under a surface layer of a dielectric layer formed on the surface layer of the layered body, and
the first ground electrode pattern is electrically connected to the second ground electrode pattern formed on a back of a first external terminal electrode disposed on a lowest surface of the layered body or to a third ground electrode pattern formed between the first ground electrode pattern and the second ground electrode pattern through a first via hole electrode.
Still yet another aspect of the present invention is the high-frequency switch, wherein the first via hole electrode of electrically connecting the first ground electrode pattern and the second ground electrode pattern is disposed at least on each corner of the first ground electrode pattern.
A further aspect of the present invention is the high-frequency switch, wherein the first via hole electrode is larger in diameter than a second via hole electrode of connecting the strip line and the capacitor electrode which constitute the branching filter circuit, the plurality of transmit-receive switch circuits, and the plurality of filters.
A still further aspect of the present invention is the high-frequency switch, wherein of the strip lines and the capacitor electrode which constitute the branching filter circuit, the plurality of transmit-receive switch circuits, and the plurality of filters, an electrode pattern formed in the layered body is disposed on a dielectric layer between the first ground electrode and the second ground electrode.
A yet further aspect of the present invention is the high-frequency switch, wherein the surface electrode pattern has a first surface layer electrode pattern electrically connected to a ground electrode terminal of the SAW filter, an
the first ground electrode pattern is electrically connected to the first surface layer electrode pattern through the first via hole electrode.
A still yet further aspect of the present invention is the high-frequency switch, wherein the first ground electrode pattern is partially connected to the second or third ground electrode pattern through the first via hole electrode.
An additional aspect of the present invention is a radio communication apparatus, comprising:
a high-frequency switch,
a transmitting circuit of outputting a transmitted signal to the high-frequency switch, and
a receiving circuit of inputting a received signal from the high-frequency switch.

High frequency switch and radio communication apparatus with layered body for saw filter mounting

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) exposure apparatus includes a chamber, an EUV source in the chamber and configured to generate an EUV beam, an optical system above the EUV source and configured to provide the EUV beam to a substrate, a substrate stage in the chamber and configured to receive the substrate, a reticle stage in the chamber and configured to hold a reticle that is configured to project the EUV beam onto the substrate, and a plasma source configured to provide plasma to the reticle to electrically neutralize the reticle charged by the EUV beam.

Embodiments of the inventive concepts relate to apparatus and methods of manufacturing a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) exposure apparatus and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using the same.
Highly integrated semiconductor devices have been developed with the development of information technology. The integration density of semiconductor devices may be greatly affected by a wavelength of a light source of a photolithography process. The light source may be an I-line source, a G-line source, an excimer laser light source (e.g., KrF or ArF), or an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source of which a wavelength is shorter than that of the excimer laser light source. The energy of the EUV light source may be much greater than that of the excimer laser light source. The EUV light source may generate particle contamination of a reticle. The contaminated reticle may be replaced with a new one.

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) exposure apparatus and method of manufacturing semiconductor device using the same


Even if failure, or the like, occurs during the encryption process, the encryption process is surely resumed. A flag changing unit changes an encryption flag of one disk to being encrypted after an encryption request is received and before the encryption of the data stored on the one disk is started. The flag changing unit changes the encryption flag of the one disk to having been encrypted and changes the encryption flag of the other disk to being encrypted before copying the encrypted data from the one disk to the other disk is started. The flag changing unit changes the encryption flag of the other disk to having been encrypted after copying to the other disk is completed.

Ensuring confidentiality of information managed by a computer system is a very significant issue for a company, or the like, that possesses the information. A technology for encrypting data stored in a storage device is known as a technology for improving the confidentiality of information. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-107855, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-302259 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-201038 described below disclose technologies for encrypting data stored in a storage medium such as a magnetic disk. Generally, when the data stored in the storage medium is encrypted, the state of progress of the encryption process is managed by a controller that controls the encryption process.
If information for managing the state of progress of the encryption process is lost during the encryption process due to, for example, failure of the controller, it is impossible to distinguish between the data that has been encrypted and the data that has not been encrypted among the data stored in the storage medium. In this case, the encryption process cannot be resumed or the data cannot be correctly decoded; therefore, the data cannot be restored.