text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Nov 23, 2004
|Filing date
|Aug 26, 2003
|Priority date
|Feb 1, 2000
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Simon Raab, Daniel Perreault, Shaun Mymudes, Scott Adams, Orlando Perez, Ken Steffey, Robert Pearce, Paul Atwell
|Original Assignee
|Faro Technologies, Inc.
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (19), Non-Patent Citations (3), Referenced by (28), Classifications (22), Legal Events (3)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/775,236, filed Feb. 1, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,044 the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/178,926 filed Feb. 1, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/229,423 filed Sep. 5, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates in general to coordinate measurement machines (CMMs) and in particular to method and system for providing an executable program to a controller for use in coordinate measuring system.
The manufacturing industrial marketplace took on a new face during the 1980's with the introduction of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). While CAD allowed engineers to produce 3-D images in the front end of the design process, which shortened the production cycle and led to tremendous gains in productivity, CAM software and equipment increased the efficiency and quality of machined single parts. In essence, these new technologies revolutionized the marketplace by increasing productivity, improving quality and reducing costs.
Despite these technological advances in design and manufacturing, something important was missing from the production cycle: a highly accurate, efficient, and convenient measurement methodology for ensuring that the products and components—both on and off the production line—met the original CAD specifications. The design process, with the help of CAD, had become innovative and sophisticated; so too, had the machining process through CAM. Yet measuring the assemblies made of these parts against the CAD model, for the most part, has continued to remain unwieldy, expensive and unreliable. Traditionally, the measurement and quality inspection function in the manufacturing process has been time-consuming and limited in size, scope, and effectiveness for a number of reasons. Manual measurement tools, such as calipers and scales may be slow, imprecise, and always one-dimensional. Analog test fixtures are costly and inflexible. Standard, non-portable coordinate measurement machines (CMM), while providing a high degree of precision, are generally located in quality control labs or inspection departments at a distance from the manufacturing floor. Parts must be removed one at a time and transported to the lab for inspection. As a result, these CMMs measure only small, readily-moved subassemblies and components—which often translates into significant "down time" for the production line. In essence, traditional measurement techniques—also known as metrology—have lagged far behind in the technological advance of the production process.
The CAD/CAM and metrology markets, as well as a worldwide emphasis on quality in all aspects of the manufacturing process, are driving the need for an extension of the CAD/CAM techniques which is referred to as computer-aided manufacturing measurement. Computer-aided manufacturing measurement is CAD-based total quality assurance technology. This last phase of the CAD revolution has remained incomplete because of the significant technical demands for adaptive measurement hardware and usable CAD-based measurement software for the difficult manufacturing environment. Computer-aided manufacturing measurement takes conventional metrology from a single-parts-only, high-level precision testing methodology—behind the door of the quality control lab—to a whole products, intermediate-level precision measurement system at every step of the manufacturing process—at any location on the factory floor. Measurements of part dimensions and/or characteristics may be made on the production floor to determine compliance with specifications and ensure quality.
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a conventional, portable CMM 10 comprised of a manually operated multi-jointed arm 12 and a support base or post 14, a serial box 16 and a host computer 18. It will be appreciated that arm 12 electronically communicates with serial box 16 which, in turn, electronically communicates with host computer 18. Additional detail of the conventional three-dimensional measuring system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,582, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
An improvement to the three dimensional coordinate measuring system of FIG. 1 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,748, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. This patent discloses a system in which a controller is mounted to the arm and runs an executable program which directs the user through a process such as an inspection procedure. In such a system, a host computer may be used to generate the executable program. The controller mounted to the arm is used to run the executable program but cannot be used to create executable programs or modify executable programs. By way of analogy to video gaming systems, the host computer serves as the platform for writing or modifying a video game and the arm mounted controller serves as the platform for playing a video game. The controller (e.g., player) cannot modify the executable program. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,748, this results in a lower cost three dimensional coordinate measurement system by eliminating the need for a host computer for each articulated arm. There is a need, however, for a method and system for delivering executable programs to users of coordinate measurement systems. Such a method and system would render the coordinate measurement system more versatile and readily adaptable to computer-aided manufacturing measurement.
An exemplary embodiment of the invention is a method of providing an executable program from an executable program provider to a customer for use in a controller of a three dimensional coordinate measurement system. The method includes receiving a request to create an executable program from a customer and obtaining information related to the executable program. The executable program is developed which guides an operator through a number of measurement steps to be performed with the three dimensional coordinate measuring system. The executable program is delivered to the customer.
The above-discussed and other features and advantages of the present invention will be appreciated and understood by those skilled in the art from the following detailed description and drawings.
Referring now to the drawings wherein like elements are numbered alike:
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a conventional coordinate measurement system;
FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view of a coordinate measurement system in an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the coordinate measurement system of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a process for developing and delivering an executable program;
FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic view of a system for delivering an executable program;
FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view of an executable program provider web site;
FIGS. 7-15 are exemplary user interface screens for interacting with an executable program provider system;
FIG. 16 depicts an exemplary user interface screen for measuring a feature of a part; and
FIG. 17 depicts a number of coordinate measurement systems coupled to a network.
FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view of a coordinate measurement system shown generally at 10 in an embodiment of the present invention. The coordinate measurement system 10 is also referred to as a control station and is operated by a human operator to inspect a part. The system 10 includes an articulated arm 12 mounted to a base or post 14. The arm 12 includes a plurality of rotational transfer housings each providing a degree of freedom to the articulated arm 12 to allow articulated arm 12 to measure points in three dimensional space. A serial box 16 is shown mounted directly to the arm 12 as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,782, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The serial box 16 conditions signals from the transfer housings for processing by a controller. The serial box 16 may be removably mounted to the arm 12 or completely separate from the arm 12. A user interface 20 is connected to base 14 of arm 12 through a mechanical linkage 22. The user interface 20 provides instructions to the user and receives input from the user as described in detail herein with reference to FIG. 3. A controller 40 (FIG. 3) may be included in the housing of the user interface or may be a stand-alone device separate from the user interface 20. The user interface 20 may be mounted (either permanently or removably) to the arm 12, including the base 14. The controller 40 may also be mounted (either permanently or removably) to the arm 12, including the base. Alternatively, one or both of the controller 40 and the user interface 20 may be separate from the arm 12.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the coordinate measurement system 10. As known in the art, one or more of the transfer housings includes a transducer which generates signals indicating a location of the arm in three dimensional space. These signals from the transducers are provided to a serial box 16 for processing. The controller 40 receives the processed signals from the serial box 16. In an alternative embodiment, the serial box 16 is eliminated and the controller 40 is programmed to process signals directly from the transducers in the arm 12. Controller 40 may be similar to the controller described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,748 or may be a more complex device such as a stand-alone general-purpose computer.
The controller 40 includes a processor 26 and static random access memory (SRAM) 28 for storing instructions to be executed by processor 26. One or more executable programs may be stored in memory 28. An exemplary executable program is an inspection protocol that directs the operator through an inspection procedure. Another type of executable program is a tutorial for introducing an operator to the arm 12 and its operation. It is understood that other types of executable programs (calibration, diagnostic, etc.) may be stored in memory 28. The executable programs typically direct a human operator to manipulate the arm 12 to record certain measurements. The user can select a particular executable program from a menu presented on the user interface 20 as described herein. Controller 40 also stores reference (e.g. CAD) data. The reference data may be an entire CAD file corresponding to an entire object to be measured or just portions of the CAD data. As described in further detail, the controller 40 compares measurements from the arm 12 to reference data to generate reports.
A communication device 30 (for example a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter) enables communication from the controller 40 to outside devices such as a computer storing an executable program for upload onto controller 40. This allows the executable programs to be uploaded into the controller 40 through communication device 30. In addition, the actual measurement data and the results of the comparisons of the actual data to reference data can be downloaded to a host computer and stored. Flash memory 32 stores program instructions and arm parameters permanently. A lattice complex programmable logic device (CPLD) 36 and associated electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) 34 are also included in the controller 24. The CPLD 36 contains interconnection logic between the components of controller 24. The particular memory devices shown in FIG. 3 are exemplary and it is understood that a variety of memory configurations may be used.
As shown in FIG. 3, the controller may also include a network interface 31 (e.g. an Ethernet card) for allowing the controller 40 to communicate over a network such as a local area network, wide are network, intranet, internet, etc. The network serves as a communication path and does not perform functions associated with the conventional host computer described above. A conventional host computer would control the measurement process whereas the network simply provides a communications path for operations such as uploading executable programs and/or reference data into the controller 40 or downloading the actual measurement data and the results of the comparisons of the actual data to reference data.
A storage device 50 is coupled to the controller 40 for multiple functions. The storage device 50 may be any type of storage device including a floppy disc drive, compact disc drive, etc. The storage device 50 may be used to upload executable programs and/or reference data to the memory 28 in controller 40. In addition, the controller 40, in performing an executable program, may access the storage device 50 to present video and/or audio to the operator. This reduces the amount of memory required in controller 40 due the large memory requirements for video.
The user interface 20 includes a visual display 62, an input device 64 and an audio output device 66. The visual display 62 may be any type of display device such as a CRT (including flat CRT's), an LCD display, etc. The input device 64 may be any type of known input peripheral such as a keyboard, mouse, track ball, etc. Alternatively, the input device 64 can be implemented in conjunction with the visual display 62 by using a touch screen which provides visual information to the operator and receives input from the operator. The audio output device 66 may include a speaker and associated components such as a sound card.
To operate the arm through an inspection process, the controller 40 runs an executable program stored in memory 28. The controller 40 presents the operator with instructions through the user interface 20. To perform such a process, an executable program needs to be provided in the controller 40. FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting a process for installing an executable program in a controller 40. The process begins at step 100 where a customer requests an executable program. This step may include a request for a new executable program or a request for a modification to an existing executable program. The customer may initiate a request for an executable program using known techniques such as phone, e-mail, mail, etc.
Once the provider of the executable program has received the request, the executable program is developed at step 102. The executable program provider may be the supplier of the coordinate measuring system 10 or a third party commissioned solely to generate executable programs. A variety of information may be used to create the executable program. Exemplary information includes engineering drawings (e.g., blueprints, CAD drawings, etc.) of the part to be measured. Additional information includes a description of the features of the part to be measured and a description of reference features, both provided by diagrams, sketches, digital images or a list of features. A description of the measurement environment (i.e., where the arm is to be used) may be provided through drawings, sketches or digital images. The executable program will also generate a report indicating the result of the measurement. Thus, a description of the report or a list of features contained in the report may also be used to generate the executable program. It is understood that the information used to generate the executable program will vary depending on the application of the coordinate measuring system 10.
To generate the executable program, an individual may travel to the customer's site, review the application in which the arm is to be used and develop an executable program. This may involve obtaining video, still images (e.g., from a digital camera), audio, engineering drawings and text to be used in the executable program. For example, if the coordinate measuring system is to be used to inspect an automobile panel, the executable program would be developed to present the operator with a series of images and audio instructing the operator to measure predefined points on the panel. The executable program may initiate comparison of the actual data provided by the arm 12 to reference data stored in the controller 40 to generate a report indicating whether the panel meets specification. The individual may use a portable host computer to generate the executable program at the customer's site.
Generation of the executable program may also be done remotely from the customer site. In this scenario, the customer will acquire the information described above and provide this information to the executable program provider. The transfer of the information may be implemented using a user system 200 coupled to an executable program provider system 202 via network 204 as shown in FIG. 5. The executable program provider will then generate the executable program based on this information and deliver the executable program to the user system 202 as described herein with reference to FIG. 5.
Once the executable program is generated, flow proceeds to step 104 where the customer views the execution of the executable program and approves the executable program. If the executable program provider is at the customer's site, the customer can view the executable using the coordinate measurement system 10 into which the executable has been loaded in memory 28. Alternatively, the executable program can be run on a general-purpose computer at the customer's site for review by the customer. If the executable program is generated at a location remote from the customer's site, the customer can review the executable program remotely via a network such as the Internet. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a system for enabling customer request of a executable program, customer approval of an executable program and delivery of the executable program. The customer can use a user system 200 to access an executable program provider system 202 over a network 204. The user system 200 may be a general-purpose computer executing a user interface application (e.g., a web browser) to contact the executable provider system 202 containing the executable program. The network 204 may be any type of network including a local area network, wide area network, intranet, Internet, etc. After verifying the customer's identity through known techniques such as user name and password, the customer can review and approve executable programs over the network 204.
Once the customer has approved the executable program, flow proceeds to step 106 where it is determined whether the customer already has a coordinate measurement system 10 at its facility. If not, flow proceeds to step 108 where the executable program is installed in a coordinate measurement system 10 and the system 10 is delivered to the customer site at step 110. If the customer has a coordinate measurement system 10 at its facility, step 106 leads to step 112 where the executable program is delivered to the customer. Delivery may occur electronically over a network or by physically delivering a storage medium (e.g., CD ROM) to the customer. The customer then installs the executable program in the controller 40 at step 114. Referring to FIG. 5, the customer can be notified by e-mail that the executable program is available. The customer then contacts the executable program provider system 202 via network 204 and downloads the executable program to user system 200. Alternatively, the executable program can be e-mailed to the customer system. Requiring the user system 200 to contact the executable program provider system 202 provides higher security given that access to the executable program can be controlled through passwords. The executable program can then be transferred to the coordinate measurement system 10 via the network interface 31, the communication device 30 or through storage device 50. Video, still images, audio and/or text may be stored in storage device 50 for access by controller 40 during execution of the executable program.
Once the executable program is installed in the controller 40, an operator may use the coordinate measurement system 10 to measure points in three-dimensional space. When the coordinate measurement system 10 is initiated, the operator is prompted to select an executable program for execution. Controller 40 may include a tutorial executable program which familiarizes the operator with operation of the arm 12. The tutorial executable program guides the operator though a series of steps in which the operator takes measurements with the arm 12. Once the operator has completed the tutorial, the operator selects an executable program and performs the steps dictated by the executable program. This may include measuring points in three-dimensional space on an object by placing a measurement portion of the arm in contact with the object. Alternatively, the measuring may include measuring a characteristic. For example, the measurement portion may include a sensor (e.g., light, oxygen, heat, etc.) and the operator is prompted to measure this characteristic at one or more locations. The term feature is used herein to generally refer to any measurable quantity such as coordinates, dimensions, characteristics, etc. A feature may also include sensed parameters such as presence of oxygen, heat, etc. Additional details regarding measurement of a feature are found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,880, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The operator may also select an experience level for the executable program. For example, the operator may be prompted to specify whether the operator is novice, intermediate or advanced with respect to the tasks to be completed in accordance with the executable program. A separate executable program can be generated for each level of operator experience. Alternatively, a portion of the executable program may be executed based on the level of operator experience. For example, a novice operator may be provided with video and sound (e.g., the operator is audibly instructed to measure the location of a bolt and is presented with a video depicting measurement of the bolt location). An intermediate operator may be provided with still images and sound (e.g., the operator is audibly instructed to measure the location of a bolt and is presented a still picture of the bolt). An advanced operator may be presented with just sound (e.g., the operator is audibly instructed to measure the location of a bolt).
Once the operator has initiated the executable program, the operator takes measurements pursuant to instructions presented on the user interface 20. As described above, the measurements may be three-dimensional coordinates of points or may be a characteristic (e.g., temperature) and a three dimensional location. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,748, the actual data produced by the arm and any sensor (if used) is compared to reference data stored in the controller 40. A report can then be generated indicating whether the actual data meets specified criteria and provide statistical information regarding the measurements. The report can be saved in memory 28 or storage device 50 for subsequent transfer to a host computer. In addition, the report can be displayed immediately to the operator at user interface 20.
In an exemplary implementation, the coordinate measurement system 10 will be rented by a customer. The controller 40 includes an expiration code in, for example, memory 28 which indicates when the rental period expires (e.g., the final day of a one year lease). Once the lease period has ended the coordinate measurement system 10 will not operate. The controller 40 may compare the current date to the date contained in the expiration code. The expiration code may be encrypted so that a customer cannot generate unauthorized expiration codes. The controller 40 notifies the customer a predetermined time period prior to expiration of the lease period that a new code should be obtained. The customer can purchase an updated expiration code over a network as shown in FIG. 5 or by phone. The updated expiration code is then stored in controller 40 enabling operation of the coordinate measurement system 10.
As described above with respect to FIG. 5, a user system 200 can interact with a executable program provider system 202 over a network 204. In an exemplary embodiment, the executable program provider system 202 includes a server which interacts with user system 200 executing a web browser. FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view of a web site implemented by a server in the executable program provider system 202. The web site includes a variety of "areas" in which a customer can perform certain tasks. It understood that these areas are collections of web pages (e.g., written in HTML and interpreted by a web browser). Access to areas in the web site and functions activated through the web site is controlled by assigning levels of access. Various levels of access are shown in FIG. 6 and include, in order of low to high, a visitor level (no login required), operator level (a user having a login password), administration level (a user entitled to alter aspects of the site) and applications engineer level (a user who creates/edits tools). Each level has access to all the areas and functions of the preceding level. The "user" at user system 200 may be a visitor, an operator, administrator or applications engineer. In addition, user systems 200 may be coupled to the executable program provider system 202 via different networks. For example, an operator may contact executable program provider system 202 via the Internet while an applications engineer may contact the executable program provider system 202 via an intranet.
FIG. 6 includes a main page 300 which is the first screen presented to a user system 200 upon accessing the executable program provider system 202. The executable programs are referred to as "tools" in FIG. 6 and herein. From the main screen 300, a user can view tool product information through tool product information area 310. In the tool product information area 310, a user can obtain general information about tools, view a tool library (but not access tools in the library), contact a tool developer and obtain additional information on the tools and their associated use.
Users can log in and access more features of the executable program provider system 202 through login area 320. As known in the art, a user system 200 submits a user name and password to the executable program provider system 202 over network 204 to gain access to the executable program provider system 202. The user name and password controls the level of access as described herein. The user can review their transaction history and review/edit their user information and company information through a user information area 330.
A technical interview area 340 is used to gather information relating to the executable program or tool to be generated. The user is lead through a series of questions concerning the user's application. Such questions may include a description of the features to be measured, part dimensions, part datum's, CAD data format, etc.
Once the user has defined the requirements for the new tool, the user uploads the tool description along with any associated information (CAD files, images, drawings, etc.) to the executable program provider system 202 through a tools utilities area 350. As shown in tools utility area 350, a user can upload tool construction materials to the executable program provider system 202. An executable program provider (e.g., an applications engineer or A.E.) downloads the tool construction materials from the executable program provider system 202 and creates the tool as described herein. The executable program provider then uploads the completed tool to the executable program provider system 202 and the user can then download the tool. The user can also obtain expiration codes for tools to enable functionality of the tool as described herein.
Once a user has a tool at its site, the tool can be saved in a storage device and executed by controller 40. FIGS. 7-15 depict exemplary screens that are presented display 20 during inspection and reporting. The interface shown in FIGS. 7-15 is a touch screen but it is understood that other input peripherals may be used such as a keyboard or mouse. A touch screen reduces the wiring and number of parts which is beneficial when the system is used in harsh environments such as production areas. FIG. 7 depicts an exemplary log in screen through which an operator selects an operator identifier through a drop down menu and enters a password.
Once the operator logs in, the operator needs to select a tool or executable program for execution. The tool may guide the operator through an inspection procedure. FIGS. 8 and 9 present alternative tool selection screens in which tools are listed in different fashions. The operator selects a tool for execution from the list of tools. The list of tools presented to the operator may be controlled based on an operator identifier as described herein. For example, if the operator will be inspecting fenders for compliance with design specifications, the user selects the fender tool. Once a tool is selected, the operator is prompted to enter a serial number for the part to be inspected. In this way, measurements taken are associated with a particular part.
Once the part serial number is entered, the part can then be inspected. FIG. 10 is an exemplary part measurement screen which provides the operator with instructions on what features are to be measured on the part. For example, the user may be prompted to measure three points to determine if the three points lie in a plane within a required tolerance. To facilitate taking measurements, the tool includes a home-in feature that guides the operator to the point to be measured with arm 12. FIG. 11 is an exemplary home-in screen. Part of the process of measuring a part is aligning the part to the arm coordinate system. This may include placing the part in a test fixture which is aligned with the arm or measuring datums on the part. The user is presented with several measurement indicators aids to facilitate measurement at a point on the part. First is a visual depiction 400 of the part and the location of the point to be measured. Second is the distance to the point 410 provided in total distance and distance for each axis (x, y, z) of the coordinate system. Lastly, a home-in guide 420 is provided that includes concentric rings indicating the position of the measurement location. As the operator moves the measurement end of the arm 12 towards the measurement location, the background of the home-in guide 420 changes as shown in FIG. 11. In addition to the home-in rings changing appearance, the color of the home-in guide may change (e.g., to green) and an audible tone may be produced when the measurement location is reached. These indicators prompt the operator to perform the measurement. The measured features are stored in a database, for example in storage device 50, accusable by controller 40.
Once measurements have been taken, a number of reports can be generated. FIG. 12 is an exemplary report screen through which an operator can select a tool for which to view reports. The tools may be displayed pictorially as shown in FIG. 12 or by name similar to that shown in FIG. 9. Once the user selects a tool in FIG. 12, a report preview screen is provided as shown in FIG. 13. The report preview screen includes a description 500 of the part inspected, a statistical process control (SPC) report window 510 and a table report window 520. Through the SPC report window 15, the operator can specify parameters for the SPC report including the number of samples (e.g., last 5 days measurements), how to display measurements, which operator's measurements to include and which shift's measurements to include. Through the table report window 520, users can specify tabular report data for a specific part by entering a part number.
Selecting an SPC report icon in the SPC report window 510 provides the user with an SPC report such as that shown in FIG. 14. An SPC report 532 may be generated for each feature measured on a plurality of parts to detect trends. A representation of the measurement location 530 for the measured feature is shown on the image 531 of the part. The SPC report 532 is displayed adjacent to the image 531 of the part and is positioned proximate to the representation of the measurement location. Report parameters may be changed through drop down menus 540. The SPC report may include high limits, low limits and a plot of prior measurements for a feature. The feature may be a dimension (a diameter of a hole) or a characteristic (e.g., circularity of a hole, planarity of a surface). The SPC reports can be enlarged to a full screen display by selecting the report. The SPC report allows a user to view trends in measurements which may require corrective action.
Selecting a table report icon in the table report window 520 provides the user with a tabular report such as that shown in FIG. 15. The tabular report 534 may be generated for each feature measured on a single part. A representation of the measurement location 530 for the measured feature is shown on the image 531 of the part. The tabular report 534 is displayed adjacent to the image of the part and is positioned proximate to the representation of the measurement location 530. The user can change the part number through part number field 550. The tabular report for each feature provides the feature specified value, tolerance, feature measured value and an indicator of whether the measured feature is out of specification. The feature may be a dimension (a diameter of a hole) or a characteristic (e.g., circularity of a hole). The table reports 534 can be enlarged to a full screen display by selecting the report.
Execution of the report functions is not limited to controller 40 associated with arm 12. The measurement data in storage device 50 may be accessed by other systems distanced from the inspection area (e.g., factory floor). For example, the storage device 50 may be accessible via a company intranet through personal computers. A personal computer can execute the reporting software application used to generate reports based on the measurement data. For example, a manufacturing engineer remote from the factory floor can generate SPC reports based on measurement data in storage device 50 to evaluate and adjust a manufacturing process accordingly.
FIG. 16 depicts another measurement user interface which directs an operator through the measurement of a part. As shown in FIG. 16, the part 602 is depicted to the operator using a digital image such as a digital bitmap. The bitmap accurately portrays the surface of the part through shading, etc. This is preferable to conventional measurement systems that display parts as CAD wireframes. CAD wireframes are difficult to read and it is often hard for the operator to determine on what surface the measurement point lies due to the transparent nature of wireframes.
The measurement interface also includes an alternate measurement indicator 604. The measurement indicator 604 directs the operator to the proper location on the physical part for measurement. The measurement indicator 604 is also a three-dimensional object such as a colored (e.g., green) ball and can be positioned in any position with respect to the part 602. The part 602 may have an exterior surface and one or more interior surfaces. Thus, the measurement indicator 604 can be placed adjacent to or on an interior surface of the part 602. For example, to measure the interior circularity of hole 606, the measurement indicator 604 is displayed within the hole 606 along multiple positions on the interior surface of hole 606. This accurately directs the operator to measurement positions on the physical part. An instruction window 608 also provides measurement instructions to the operator.
FIG. 17 depicts a number of coordinate measurement systems 10 or control stations coupled to a network 650. As described above with reference to FIG. 3, the coordinate measurement systems 10 include a network interface 31 that allows the coordinate measurement system 10 to communicate over a network. In an exemplary embodiment, network 650 is a local area network. The coordinate measurement system 10 may be connected to network 650 in a wireless manner.
A server 652 is also connected to the network 650 and provides for storage of executable programs. The server 652 may store executable programs for an entire facility. An operator can log onto a coordinate measurement system 10 and be presented with a list of executable programs authorized for that operator. The server 652 controls access to executable programs through the operator's identifier (e.g., user identification and password). For example, a database accessed by server 650 correlates operator's identifiers with executable programs. Only executable programs associated with the operator identifier may be transferred to the requesting coordinate measurement system 10. Through this mechanism, operator access to executable program is controlled.
Each coordinate measurement system 10 may also be identified by a unique coordinate measurement system identifier (e.g., serial number) which is accessible by server 652. When an operator logs in through a coordinate measurement system 10 and requests an executable program from server 652, the server 652 compares the coordinate measurement system identifier to a database correlating coordinate measurement system identifiers to executable programs. Only executable programs associated with the coordinate measurement system identifier may be transferred to the coordinate measurement system 10.
The executable program can then be transferred to controller 40 in the coordinate measurement system 10 for execution. This architecture is helpful in managing executable programs. As described above with reference to FIG. 5, server 652 can retrieve executable programs from an executable program provider 202 over a network 204. Having the executable programs stored in a central location, such as server 650, ensures revision control of the executable programs. Thus, an update to an executable program is stored in server 652 which can then be retrieved by coordinate measurement system 10.
In another embodiment of the invention, the user of the coordinate measurement system 10 can generate executable programs using an executable toolkit provided by the executable program provider. The executable toolkit is a software application that allows a user to generate executable programs without having to contact the executable program provider.
In a preferred embodiment, the executable toolkit is provided to a user and licensed for use in generating executable programs for a single facility. For example, an executable toolkit may be licensed to an auto manufacturer for developing executable programs for a single factory. The license would not allow the user to generate executable programs for multiple sites. To ensure compliance with the license terms, each coordinate measurement system 10 can be programmed with an unalterable, site identifier prior to shipment to the user. The site identifier may be stored in read only, non-volatile memory in controller 40. Similarly, the executable toolkit includes a software routine that inserts an executable program site identifier in each executable program generated using the executable toolkit. When a coordinate measurement system 10 accesses an executable program for execution, the coordinate measurement system site identifier in the coordinate measurement system 10 is compared with the executable program site identifier. If these identifiers do no match, execution of the executable program by the coordinate measurement system 10 is prevented. Thus, executable programs generated at a first site cannot be executed by coordinate measurement system 10 at a second site.
As described above, the present invention can be embodied in the form of computer-implemented processes and apparatuses for practicing those processes. The present invention can also be embodied in the form of computer program code containing instructions embodied in tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, or any other computer-readable storage medium, wherein, when the computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. The present invention can also be embodied in the form of computer program code, for example, whether stored in a storage medium, loaded into and/or executed by a computer, or transmitted over some transmission medium, such as over electrical wiring or cabling, through fiber optics, or via electromagnetic radiation, wherein, when the computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. When implemented on a general-purpose microprocessor, the computer program code segments configure the microprocessor to create specific logic circuits.
While preferred embodiments have been shown and described, various modifications and substitutions may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the present invention has been described by way of illustration and not limitation.
|Cited Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Mar 4, 1988
|Feb 13, 1990
|Renishaw Controls Limited
|Communications adaptor for automated factory system
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|Certificate of correction
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|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|Apr 25, 2012
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 8


text: Best NJ Day Trips: Seaside Heights Boardwalk (Flickr: joiseyshowaa) [ Soak Up Some Rays with the Kids at the Seaside Heights Boardwalk – Daily Day Trip By Kristen Gilmartin July 23, 2012 Beat the summer heat with a trip to Seaside Heights Boardwalk for a family-friendly experience by the sea. Read More|Comment Category: New Jersey News, News, Popular Posts Tags: boardwalks, Central Jersey, daily day trip, Newsletter, NJ, outdoors Send to a friend! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it! Reddit This! Share on Tumblr!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Kohl's Department Stores in Selma
Get to know your Selma Kohl's store
Your Kohl's Forum Northeast, located at 8098 Agora Pkwy, is
stocked with everything you need for yourself and your home -
apparel, shoes & accessories for women, children and men, plus home
products like small electrics, bedding, luggage and more. At your
Kohl's Forum Northeast, we not only offer the best merchandise at
the best prices, but we're always working to make your shopping
experience enjoyable.
Take advantage of the Buy Online Pick-Up in Store feature the Kohl's Forum Northeast location has made available for your convenience. By choosing this option, you'll save on shipping charges and you won't have to wait for it to be delivered!
Explore kohls.com and find the product you are interested in. Click the Buy Online Pick-Up in Store button to see if the product is available at the Kohl's Forum Northeast location. Once your order is placed and the item is ready for pickup, a confirmation email will be sent to you. Bring a valid photo ID and your pickup confirmation to the customer service desk to pick up your items.
* Only select products are available to pick up in store. This service is only available when using your desktop and is not supported on tablets or mobile devices.
- Wifi Enabled
- EV Charging Station
Search for other
Kohl's locations
Both To and From email addresses are required.


text: If you head over to BDTV you can check out the first two clips from 20th Century Fox's Shutter, the remake to the classic Thai horror film arriving in theaters March 21, courtesy of IGN. In the film a newly married couple discovers disturbing, ghostly images in photographs they develop after a tragic accident. Fearing the manifestations may be connected, they investigate and learn that some mysteries are better left unsolved. Click the title for pics and trailers.


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USD Owned Computers
ITS does not support Windows 8 on any USD owned computers and has standardized on Windows 7. A majority of universities and other organizations have decided to hold off on upgrading their computers to Windows 8 due to a variety of usability and compatibility issues. Our department is currently testing applications and monitoring industry trends to determine when to begin support for Windows 8. Please check back later!
Student Owned Computers
ITS offers basic support of Windows 8 for current students through the ITS Help Desk. While we cannot guarantee that all USD services and applications will work on your new computer, we have confirmed that 'usdconnect' wireless access and most student services (MySanDiego, Torero Mail, etc) will work on your computer.
Staff/Faculty Personally Owned Computers
The ITS Help Desk offers limited support for staff and faculty owned computers on a "pay for use" model. Contact the Help Desk for pricing or for any other questions.
Related Knowledge Base Articles
- Windows 7 training link
- How do I turn on automatic updates for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS X?
- Windows 7 Missing Briefcase fields
- Apple Migration Assistant Time Zone Fix
- USD Owned Computers and OS X Yosemite
- How do I turn on Automatic updates for Windows XP?
- What Operating Systems are supported by the ITS Help Desk?


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A world without referees
In an invited contribution to the last ISBA Bulletin, Larry Wasserman discusses the "almost 350 years old" peer review system (paper). Have a look on it, it's quite thought provoking!
We should think about our field like a marketplace of ideas. Everyone should be free to put their ideas out there. There is no need for referees. Good ideas will get recognized, used and cited. Bad ideas will be ignored. This process will be imperfect. But is it really better to have two or three people decide the fate of your work?
A world where you put your work on arXiv or on your web page, where you save so much time, isn't it tempting?
Rochebrune Workshop 2012
Last week I attended Rochebrune workshop for the second time. The genius organizers' idea (Liliane Bel and Eric Parent from AgroParisTech, Jean-Jacques Borreux from Liège University) is to mix ski, stats and spirits (mostly Genepi and Chartreuse) around a remote alpine chalet on top of Megève ski resort.
Most of the attendees are (young) Bayesians working in applied fields, ranging from biology, ecology and epidemiology, to meteorology and climatology. We had great talks about fishes, trees, birds (Joël's busard cendré), drugs and avalanches. More methodological talks dealt with extremes, Bayesian model averaging, and simulations: variational approximations, INLA, ABC, and MCMC in general. We had a tutorial about JAGS and WinBugs/OpenBugs as well (and how to interface them with R using rjags and R2WinBUGS). I presented my work about Multidimensional covariate dependent Dirichlet processes (all presentations here).
In addition to the 10 talks per day, a sacrosanct 5-hour skiing slot was reserved in the afternoon, with lessons from crazy Mégevan instructors. They must be really good: Pierre, don't be afraid, I jumped and felt significantly less than two years ago. Have a Chartreuse, cheers!
Valentine Day and lonely people in France
Insee published recently a paper (in French), well in line with the Valentine Day, which characterizes people living alone or in couple by socio-professional category, along with the data.
Between 1990 and 2008 (two population surveys), the proportion of people living alone mostly increased for people under 60. After 60, 38% of women live alone, for only 17% of men, because women are married to older men, and live longer than them, in average. See that proportion by age:
Spatially, there is a kind of South/North opposition. During the working life, lonely people live in the South (left), while lonely retired people live in the North (right), with an exception for Île-de-France (Paris) with a high proportion whatever the age:
Daily casualties in Syria
Every new day brings its statistics of new deaths in Syria… Here is an attempt to learn about the Syrian uprising by the figures. Data vary among sources: the Syrian opposition provides the number of casualties by day (here on Dropbox), updated on 8 February 2012, with a total exceeding 8 000.
We note first that the attacks accelerate, as the cumulated graph is mostly convex (click to enlarge):
Plotting the numbers by day shows the bloody situation of Fridays, a gathering day in the Muslin calendar. This point was especially true at the beginning of the uprising, but lately any other day can be equally deadly:
There are almost twice as much deaths on Fridays as any other day in average:
Here are boxplots for the logarithm of daily casualties by day of the week:
and their density estimates, first coloured by day of the week, then by Friday vs rest of the week:
Here is the code (with clumsy parts for fitting the data frames for ggplot, do not hesitate to comment on it)
library(ggplot2) input=read.csv("http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1391912/Blog%20statisfaction/data/syria.txt", sep="\t",header=TRUE,stringsAsFactors=FALSE) input$LogicalFriday=factor(input$WeekDay =="Friday",levels = c(FALSE, TRUE), labels = c("Not Friday", "Friday")) input$Date=as.Date(input$History,"%d/%m/%Y") input$WeekDays=factor(input$WeekDay, levels=unique(as.character(input$WeekDay[7:13]))) # trick to sort the legend qplot(x=Date,y=cumsum(Number), data=input, geom="line",color=I("red"),xlab="",ylab="",lwd=I(1)) qplot(x=as.factor(Date),y=Number, data=input, geom="bar",fill=LogicalFriday,xlab="",ylab="") qplot(log(Number+1), data=input, geom="density",fill=LogicalFriday,xlab="",ylab="",alpha=I(.2)) qplot(log(Number+1), data=input, geom="density",fill=WeekDay,xlab="",ylab="",alpha=I(.2)) qplot(WeekDays,log(Number+1),data=input,geom="boxplot",xlab="",ylab="",colour=WeekDays)
Coming R meetings in Paris
If you live in Paris and are interested in R, there will be two meetings for you this week.
First a Semin-R session, organized at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle on Tuesday 7 Feb (too bad, the Museum is closed on Tuesdays). Presentations will be about colors, phylogenies and maps, while I will speak about (my beloved) RStudio. The slides of previous sessions can be found here (most of them are in French).
The following day, 8 Feb, a group of R users from INSEE will have its first meeting (13-14h, INSEE, room R12), about SQLite data in R, maps, and in R.
I guess anyone can join!
UPDATE: Here is a colorful map to access INSEE . Come with an ID, and say you are visiting the meeting organizer Matthieu Cornec. Room R12 is on the ground floor (left).
Psycho dice and Monte Carlo
Following Pierre's post on psycho dice, I want here to see by which average margin repeated plays might be called influenced by mind will. The rules are the following (exerpt from the novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt):
You take four dice and call out four numbers between one and six–for example, a four, a three, and two sixes. Then you throw the dice, and if any of your numbers come up, you leave those dice standing on the board. You continue to roll the remaining dice until all the dice are sitting on the board, showing your set of numbers. You're eliminated if you roll three times in succession without getting any of the numbers you need. The object is to get all four numbers in the fewest rolls.
Simplify the game by forgetting the elimination step. Suppose first one plays with an even dice of 1/p faces. The probability of it to show the right face is p (for somebody with no psy power). Denote X the time to first success with one dice, which follows, by independence, a geometric distribution Geom(p) (with the starting-to-1 convention). X has the following probability mass and cumulative distribution functions, with q=1-p:
Now denote Y the time to success in the game with n dice. This simultaneous case is the same as playing n times independently with 1 dice, and then taking Y as the sample maximum of the different times to success. So Y's cdf is
Its pmf can be obtained either exactly by difference, or up to a normalizing constant C by differentiation:
As it is not too far from the Geom(p) pmf, one can use the latter as the proposal in a Monte Carlo estimate. If 's are N independent Geom(p) variables, then
The following R lines produce the estimates and .
Created by Pretty R at inside-R.org
Now it is possible to use a test (from classical test theory) to estimate the average margin with which repeated games should deviate in order to detect statistical evidence of psy power. We are interested in testing against , for repeated plays.
If the game is played k times, then one rejects if the sampled mean is less than , where is the 95% standard normal quantile. To indicate the presence of a psy power, someone playing times should perform in 2 rolls less than the predicted value (in 1 roll less if playing times). I can't wait, I'm going to grab a dice!
Create maps with maptools R package
Baptiste Coulmont explains on his blog how to use the R package maptools. It is based on shapefile files, for example the ones offered by the French geography agency IGN (at départements and communes level). Some additional material like roads and railways are provided by the OpenStreetMap project, here. For the above map, you need to dowload and dezip the files departements.shp.zip and ile-de-france.shp.zip. The red dots correspond to points of interest longitude / latitude, here churches stored in a vector eglises (use e.g. this to geolocalise places of interest). Then run this code from Baptiste's tutorial
library(maptools) france<-readShapeSpatial("departements.shp", proj4string=CRS("+proj=longlat")) routesidf<-readShapeLines( "ile-de-france.shp/roads.shp", proj4string=CRS("+proj=longlat") ) trainsidf<-readShapeLines( "ile-de-france.shp/railways.shp", proj4string=CRS("+proj=longlat") ) plot(france,xlim=c(2.2,2.4),ylim=c(48.75,48.95),lwd=2) plot(routesidf[routesidf$type=="secondary",],add=TRUE,lwd=2,col="lightgray") plot(routesidf[routesidf$type=="primary",],add=TRUE,lwd=2,col="lightgray") plot(trainsidf[trainsidf$type=="rail",],add=TRUE,lwd=1,col="burlywood3") points(eglises$lon,eglises$lat,pch=20,col="red")
Google Fusion Tables
A quick post about another Google service that I discovered recently called Fusion Tables. There you can store, share and visualize data up to 250 MB, of course in the cloud. With Google Docs, Google Trends and Google Public Data Explore, it is another example of Google's efforts to gain ground in data management. Has anyone tried it out?
France open data at data.gouv.fr
Today is launched the (beta version of the) brand new French website for open data, at data.gouv.fr (do not misunderstand the url, it is in French!). On prime minister's initiative, it collects data from various ressources, among which the institute for statistics INSEE, most of the ministries (Finance, Culture, etc), several big companies (like the state-owned railway company SNCF) for an open, transparent and collaborative model of governance. Datasets are available in CSV or Excel spreadsheet, under open licence for most of them, and should be updated frequently (monthly).
Some of the datasets you can find: list of 3000+ train stations with geolocalisation (later with traffic?); geolocalisation of road accidents; the comprehensive list of books in Bibliothèque Nationale de France (which scans and stores each and every book published in France); the number of students in Latin and ancient Greek classes; France national budget, etc… among 350 000 others.
I have added the link in our datasets page.
Power-laws: choose your x and y variables carefully
This is a follow-up of the post Power of running world records
As suggested by Andrew, plotting running world records could benefit from a change of variables. More exactly the use of different variables sheds light on a [now] well-known [to me] sports result provided in a 2000 Nature paper by Sandra Savaglio and Vincenzo Carbone (thanks Ken): the dependence between time and distance in log-log scale is not linear on the whole range of races, but piecewise linear. There is one break-point around time 2'33'' (or equivalently distance around 1100 m). As mentioned in the article, this threshold corresponds to a physiological critical change in the athlete's energy expenditure: in short races (less than 1000 m) the effort follows an anaerobic metabolism, whereas it switches to aerobic metabolism for middle and long distances (or longer…). Interestingly, the energy is more efficiently consumed in the second regime than in the first: the decay in speed slows down for endurance races.
The reason of this graphical/visual difference is simple. Denote distance, time and speed by D, T and S. I have plotted the log T~ log D relation, which gave with . When using the speed S as one of the variables, the relations are and with and to the first order because is close to 1. With Nature paper findings (with the opposite sign convention), the two s are (anaerobic) and (aerobic), ie and . My improper is indeed in between. The slope ratio is much larger (larger than 2) on a plot involving the speed, clearly showing the two regimes, than on my original plot (a few 10%), which is the reason why it appear almost linear (although afterthought, and with good goggles, two lines might have been detected).
Below is the S ~ log D relation (click to enlarge) on which it appears clearly that 100 m and 100 km races are two outliers. It takes time to erase the loss of time due to the start of the race (100 m and 200 m are run at the same speed…), whereas the 100 km suffers from a lack of interest among athletes.Achim Zeileis also provides an extended world records table and R code in his comment.
As an aside, Andrew and Cosma Shalizi also comment and resolve an ambiguity of mine: one usually speaks about power-laws without much precision of context, but there are mainly two separate sets of power-law models. Either power-law regressions, where you plot y~x for two different variables (this is the case here); or power-law distributions, ie the probability distribution of a single variable x is , or extensions of that (with lots of natural examples, ranging from the size of cities to the number of deaths in attacks in wars).


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Kerry Ann Mendez is dedicated to teaching the art of low-maintenance perennial gardening and landscaping. As a garden designer, author and lecturer, she focuses on time-saving gardening techniques, workhorse plants and sustainable practices. She has been featured on HGTV and in numerous magazines including Horticulture, Fine Gardening, Garden Gate and Better Homes & Gardens. Kerry Ann was awarded the 2014 Gold Medal from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, an honorary medal presented to those who have made significant contributions to the enjoyment and appreciation of plants and the environment. She has published three popular gardening books, her most recent The Right-Size Garden, featuring exceptional plants and design tips for time-pressed and aging gardeners, was released in February 2015. For more about Kerry Ann, and her business Perennially Yours, visit her website
Molly Fifield-Murray is the outreach and education manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. She has a master's degree in landscape architecture, studying with Darrel Morrison. Molly has taught landscape restoration and design including Rain Gardening, Savanna Restoration, Landscape Design, Landscaping for Birds, and Gardening for Pollinators.
Brent Hanson, along with his wife Sue, own and operate Hanson's Garden Village in Rhinelander, WI. Started over 30 years ago, Hanson's Garden Village is a full service garden center and nursery focused on both wholesale and retail growing of annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, and native plants. It is well known for its' wide selection of plant material. With Brent as the driving force, Hanson's Garden Village has become a regional leader in native lakeshore restorations, vegetative erosion control and production of local-ecotype native plants. Brent also holds patents on several popular perennials that are marketed worldwide. After graduation from UW-Stevens Point, Brent has mostly learned real-life horticultural lessons through the daily challenge of greenhouse/nursery work, and landscaping and restoration work.
Karen Oberhauser is a Professor at the University of Minnesota, where she and her students conduct research on several aspects of monarch butterfly ecology. Her research depends on traditional lab and field techniques, as well as the contributions of a variety of audiences through citizen science. Her strong interest in promoting a citizenry with a high degree of scientific and environmental literacy led to the development of a science education program that involves courses for teachers, and opportunities for youth to engage in research and share their findings with broad audiences. In 1996, she started a nationwide Citizen Science project called the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project, which continues to engage hundreds of volunteers. Karen is passionate about the conservation of the world's biodiversity, and believes that the connections her projects promote between monarchs, humans, and the natural world promote meaningful conservation action. She is the chair of the Monarch Joint Joint Venture, and a founding officer of the Monarch Butterfly Fund. In 2013, Karen received a White House Champion of Change award for her work with Citizen Science.
Johanna Oosterwyk is the manager of the DC Smith Greenhouse and a horticulture instructor at UW-Madison. She specializes in ornamental plants and growing in controlled environments.
Faye Ryszkiewicz is the owner of Fryszki's Country Gardens LLC, located in Caryville. Greenhouse work was not a life long aspiration; rather was inspired by taking a part time greenhouse job which developed over time into owning and operating her own greenhouse business. To enhance her greenhouse work experience, she earned associate degrees from Chippewa Valley Technical College in Marketing, Business Management and Landscape, Plant and Turf Management in addition to the Computer Information Systems Programmer/Analyst degree she earned years earlier, which was her career prior to being introduced to the wonderful world of plants.
Mary Stewart dba Goin' To Pot Orchids & repotting Srv has grown plants for fifty five years orchids for thirty one. Landscape design in her thirties, interior design in her forties. GTPO offers hands on classes, seminars, work shops, staging for parties, private truck shows on orchids and house plants throughout the Midwest. Her passion for plants and life are well known, enjoy a lively informative class, learn how to grow successfully.
Paul is a Professor of Biological Sciences at UW Marathon County, with graduate degrees in entomology and a plant sciences minor from UW-Madison. At UWMC, he has taught botany, ecology, animal biology, entomology, and an interdisciplinary course on organic agriculture. He has made numerous presentations for master gardeners, garden clubs, community garden groups, and at organic farming conferences. In addition, he serves on as board secretary and member of the Grounds Committee for the Monk Botanical gardens in Wausau. In the summer, he can often be found in his large vegetable garden, admiring the incredible survival and reproductive strategies of weeds and insects before deciding to dispatch them or, in some cases, letting them live.
Rob Zimmer, owner of Rob Zimmer Outdoors, Appleton, is an award winning nature and garden writer and photographer with over 20 years of writing and public speaking experience. His work is featured locally in all 10 Gannett Wisconsin Media newspapers, as well as in many regional and national publications including Wisconsin Gardening, Bird Watcher's Digest, Wisconsin Natural Resources, Country Journal, Wildlife Conservation, Silent Sports, Michigan Out of Doors, Birds & Blooms and more. He is the author of a series of nature and garden books that will be available soon. Find him on Facebook!


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In view of the overall good results in this high risk population, a significant trend to include lower risk patients in Europe has been observed. The last registries have seen their Euroscore decreasing to 15% and some prospective trials are planned to include patients whatever their Score.
"We sought to evaluate the results obtained in our subgroup of patients with a low Euroscore. It does not mean that the patients were at very low risk for TAVI, since they had been considered as having surgical contraindication which did not affect the Euroscore (radiotherapy, corticosteroids, thoracic deformation or porcelain aorta). However, the patients were often less sick and younger and it seemed interesting to assess the results in this population," said Dr Godin.
This study is a retrospective study from all 177 patients implanted with the Edwards prosthesis at the Rouen centre between May 2006 and January 2011. Patients were divided into two groups according to their predictive Logistic Euroscore: High Euroscore (>20%) vs Low Euroscore (<20%).
Results show that procedural success was 100% in the low Euroscore group versus 95.3% in the high Euroscore group (p=0.1).
The most interesting point to observe is the absence of death at one month in the low Euroscore group, versus a mortality rate of 11.1% in the high Euroscore group (>20%), (p < 0.04) and this result is confirmed at 1-year with 5 vs 24.8 %, (p<0.01)
While we were expecting a lower mortality among patients with low Euroscore, the observed difference was much greater than anticipated. In fact the mortality rates have approached the results with conventional surgery.
The results represent a first step towards a broader assessment of percutaneous techniques in populations at lower surgical risk but without forgetting that surgery is currently the gold standard
|Contact: Jacqueline Partarrieu
European Society of Cardiology


text:
Narrow your search
Smart thermostats are one of the more competitive niches in the smart home. Here's how we narrowed down our choices.
At CES 2015, SmartThings unveiled a new hub and sensors designed to launch the brand into a new generation of connectivity and integration.
Hold on to your corsets! These zombie slayers bring weapons to ballroom dances and tea parties in an entertaining twist on author Jane Austen's beloved romantic novel.
Curious about Wi-Fi calling and what it entails? CNET has the rundown on what you need to know.
Google's Nest Labs, Samsung, Big Ass Fans and others came together to tout the burgeoning Thread standard that allows smart home devices to communicate with one another.
Google's Nest names Yale the first Weave-enabled third-party brand and promises the 'Linus Lock' in 2016.
The smartphone landscape has shifted since the last iPhones emerged, and Apple is about to transform it even more.
Thinking about automating your home's lighting? There are a lot of ways to do it -- here's how to pick what's best for you.
Network provider Astrill has warned users that its service may falter as the government increases online restrictions ahead of the 70th Victory over Japan Day celebration.
The country's Roskomnadzor federal agency has instructed Internet providers to block a page about a kind of cannabis, but most can only block the entire site.


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Comprehensive Coaching for Runners of all Levels
"In many ways the sport is beautifully simple. All you do is lace up your running shoes and head out the door. So on the surface it may seem like running must require less learning time, less training time, less equipment and less organization than almost any other fitness routine out there. At one time the logical conclusion was that there should be little need to learn skills, hire an instructor or join a club but times have changed."
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|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Jan 6, 2005
|Filing date
|Jul 1, 2003
|Priority date
|Jul 1, 2003
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Duanfeng He
|Original Assignee
|Duanfeng He
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (6), Referenced by (2), Classifications (8), Legal Events (6)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electro-optical systems for reading indicia, for example, bar code symbols, having parts with different light reflectivities and, in particular, to an arrangement for, and a method of, focusing a light beam directed to the indicia, or focusing return light reflected from the indicia, by performing relative motion between a pair of prisms through which the light beam or the return light is transmitted.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various electro-optical readers and systems have previously been developed for reading bar code symbols appearing on a label, or on a surface of a target. The bar code symbol itself is a coded pattern of indicia. Generally, the readers electro-optically transform graphic indicia of the symbols into electrical signals which are decoded into alphanumeric characters. The resulting characters describe the target and/or some characteristic of the target with which the symbol is associated. Such characters typically comprise input data to a data processing system for applications in point-of-sale processing, inventory control, article tracking and the like.
The specific arrangement of symbol elements, e.g., bars and spaces, in a symbol defines the characters represented according to a set of rules and definitions specified by a code or symbology. The relative size of the bars and spaces is determined by the type of code used, as is the actual size of the bars and spaces.
To encode a desired sequence of characters, a collection of element arrangements is concatenated to form the complete symbol, with each character being represented by its own corresponding group of elements. In some symbologies, a unique "start" and "stop" character is used to indicate where the symbol begins and ends. A number of different bar code symbologies presently exists. The symbologies include one-dimensional codes such as UPC/EAN, Code 39, Code 128, Codabar, and Interleaved 2 of 5.
In order to increase the amount of data that can be represented or stored on a given amount of symbol surface area, several new symbologies have been developed. One new code standard, Code 49, introduced a two-dimensional concept of stacking rows of elements vertically instead of extending elements horizontally. That is, there are several rows of bar and space patterns, instead of one long row. The structure of Code 49 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,794,239. Another two-dimensional code structure known as PDF417 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,786.
Electro-optical readers have been disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,798; No. 4,369,361; No. 4,387,297; No. 4,409,470, No. 4,760,248 and No. 4,896,026, all of which have been assigned to the assignee of the present invention. These readers generally include a light source consisting of a gas laser or semiconductor laser for emitting a light beam. The use of semiconductor devices as the light source in readers is especially desirable because of their small size, low cost and low power requirements. The laser beam is optically modified, typically by a focusing optical assembly, to form a beam spot having a certain size at a focal distance at which a target is located. Preferably, the cross-section of the beam spot at the focal distance approximates the minimum width between symbol regions of different light reflectivity, i.e., the bars and spaces.
In conventional readers, the light beam is directed by a scan component along a light path toward a target symbol. The reader operates by repetitively scanning the light beam in a scan pattern, for example, a line or a series of lines across the target symbol by movement of the scan component such as a mirror disposed in the path of the light beam. The scan component may sweep the beam spot across the symbol, trace a scan line across and beyond the boundaries of the symbol, and/or scan a predetermined field of view.
Readers also include a sensor or photodetector which functions to detect light reflected or scattered from the symbol. The photodetector or sensor is positioned in the reader in an optical path so that it has a field of view which extends at least across and slightly beyond the boundaries of the symbol. A portion of the light beam reflected from the symbol is detected as return light and converted into an analog electrical signal. A digitizer digitizes the analog signal. The digitized signal from the digitizer is then decoded, based upon the specific symbology used for the symbol, into a binary data representation of the data encoded in the symbol. The binary data may then be subsequently decoded into the alphanumeric characters represented by the symbol.
It is known to change the focal distance to increase the depth of focus of the reader and the range of locations at which the target may be located. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,808,804, the laser or the focusing lens may be shifted. A plane parallel plate having sections of different thicknesses may be moved into and out of the path of the light beam to change the focal distance.
It is also known to image a symbol using a two-dimensional array such as a charge coupled device (CCD) sensor. Collection optics including a focusing lens is used to focus the return light onto the CCD sensor. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,587, a bifocal system changes the focal distance between two values by inserting and removing a plane parallel plate radially into and out of the optical path.
Many applications call for a hand-held reader whose arrangement of electro-optical components must be compact, lightweight, structurally robust to withstand rough handling, and energy efficient to increase the working life of an onboard battery. The smaller is the CCD sensor, the shorter is the focal distance. For such miniature optical systems, the thickness of the plane parallel plate becomes necessarily thinner if the range of focal distances is to remain the same. A very thin plate, however, whether made of glass or plastic, on the order of 0.5 mm in some applications, is difficult to manufacture while still maintaining acceptable optical quality. When mounted with either an adhesive or mechanical fasteners, the thin plate sometimes deforms. The strength or rigidity of the plate is insufficient for applications requiring a high resistance to shock forces during expected rough handling.
In addition, the amount of lateral space necessary to radially move the plate into and out of the optical path is relatively large. For example, if the optical aperture at the plate is 3 mm in diameter and a 0.5 mm margin is needed for mechanical tolerance and for avoiding optical irregularity, then the lateral area needed must be at least 8 mm, and this dimension poses a limit on how small the optical system can be miniaturized.
One object of this invention is to provide an improved arrangement for and method of focusing a light beam or return light in a reader for reading a data-encoded symbol.
Another object of this invention is to provide an arrangement which is miniature, compact, lightweight, durable and power efficient in operation, and thus is ideally suited for portable hand-held applications.
In keeping with these objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter, one feature of this invention resides, briefly stated, in an arrangement for, and a method of, focusing a light beam directed along an outgoing path toward indicia to be read for reflection therefrom, or focusing return light reflected along a return path from the indicia in a reader for electro-optically reading indicia, such as one-and/or two-dimensional bar code symbols.
The focusing is achieved by performing relative motion between a pair of optical prisms through which the light beam or the return light passes over optical distances within the prisms. Preferably, the prisms are right triangular prisms, each prism having a cross-section that varies transversely of at least one of the paths. A drive performs the relative motion and changes at least one of the optical distances to focus the light beam or the return light at different focii spaced along said at least one path.
The required movement of one prism relative to the other is very small to achieve a usable wide range of focii. Using the previous example, in which the optical aperture is 3 mm in diameter and the required margin is 0.5 mm, one of the prisms of this invention need only be 4 mm in height, and the other only slightly larger in order to accommodate the required variation in focii. The movement can be in drive directions perpendicular to said at least one path, or along a common plane tilted relative to said at least one path. This minimal movement minimizes power consumption, vibration, noise, and overall size and weight of the arrangement and still achieves a practical range of focal distances.
The thinness of a plane parallel plate is no longer an issue. The prisms are readily manufactured with high optical quality and have sufficient thickness and strength to resist deformation in mounting and shock forces encountered during rough handling. A continuous focal change is achieved since the moving prism can be moved to an infinite number of positions.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Reference numeral 20 in
In use, an operator holding the handle 21 aims the housing at the symbol and depresses the trigger. The light source 26 emits a light beam which is optically modified and focused by optics or focusing lens 35 to form a beam spot on the symbol 24. The beam passes through a beam splitter 34 to a scan mirror 36 which is repetitively oscillated at a scan rate of at least 20 scans a second by a motor drive 38. The scan mirror 36 reflects the beam incident thereon to the symbol 24 and sweeps the beam spot across the symbol in a scan pattern. The scan pattern can be a line extending lengthwise along the symbol along a scan direction, or a series of lines arranged along mutually orthogonal directions, or an omnidirectional pattern, just to name a few possibilities.
The reflected return light 31 has a variable intensity over the scan pattern and passes through the window 30 onto the scan mirror 36 where it is reflected onto the splitter 34 and, in turn, reflected to the photodetector 27 for conversion to an analog electrical signal. As known in the art, the signal processing circuitry 28 digitizes and decodes the signal to extract the data encoded in the symbol.
In accordance with one embodiment of this invention, a pair of prisms 40, 42 (see
Prism 40 has a first planar face 46 perpendicular to the path 44, a second planar face 48 parallel to the path 44, and a tilted planar face 50 extending at an angle of inclination A relative to the face 46 across the path 44. Prism 40 is a right triangular prism and, as shown, faces 46, 48 are the legs of the triangle, whereas face 50 is the hypotenuse.
Analogously, prism 42 has a first planar face 52 perpendicular to the path 44, a second planar face 54 parallel to the path 44, and a tilted planar face 56 extending at an angle of inclination B relative to the face 52 across the path 44. Prism 42 is also a right triangular prism and, as shown, faces 52, 54 are the legs of the triangle, whereas face 56 represents the hypotenuse.
A light beam emitted by the source 26 passes through a first optical distance within prism 40 and thereupon through a second optical distance within prism 42 before being focused by lens 35 to a first focus F1 on the optical path 44. The symbol 24 is preferably located at or adjacent the focus F1 so that the symbol can be read.
If the symbol 24 is located at a different location, for example, at or adjacent the focus F2 in
Due to the wedge shape of each prism, the movement of one or both prisms causes the pair of prisms to emulate a plane parallel plate of variable thickness since a different equivalent thickness is presented to the light beam. The equivalent thickness is the sum of the thicknesses of the prisms in the path of the light beam.
The drive direction of the drive 58 could be perpendicular to the optical axis as represented by the double-headed arrow C, or could be along the common plane as represented by the double-headed arrow D.
As depicted in
The use of a pair of prisms reduces the total space required in the reader. It is no longer necessary for a plate to be entirely removed from or entirely replaced in the optical path 44. If the total equivalent thickness variation is 0.3 mm, and if the tangent of the inclination angle A or B equals ⅓, then the difference in sizes between the prisms is about 0.9 mm, which makes for a very compact, focus-changing arrangement.
Drive sensitivity is determined by the inclination angle. If the sensitivity is too small, then extra space is required for the arrangement.
Unlike the bifocal focusing arrangements of the known art, this invention provides continuous focal change, because one or both prisms can be moved to an infinite number of relative positions. The range of focal change is determined by the equivalent minimum and maximum prism cross-sections.
The movement along the slanted common plane in the directions of arrow D insures that any air gap between the faces 50, 56 is constant. If the air gap were to change, as is the case when there is movement in the directions of arrow C, the optical center of the light beam or the return light will shift, which either must be used to advantage, or compensated for, or be designed so as to not adversely impact performance.
One way to use a shifting optical center is in the case of an imaging reader or camera which uses an aiming laser beam. The aiming beam is used to visually indicate to an operator where the reader is aimed. However, the aiming beam is usually not coaxial with the imaging system and, hence, the location where the aiming beam is incident on the target changes as a function of target distance. If the air gap changes as a result of prism movement in the directions of arrow C, then the center of the image shifts, as does the focus. If the shifts are coordinated, the aiming beam can be arranged to always fall on the center of the image wherever the imaging system is focused.
The drive itself can be any electromechanical, electromagnetic or electro-static drive. A stepper motor could also be used for step-wise control over the prism movement.
It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, also may find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the types described above.
While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a focusing arrangement in electro-optical readers operative by movement of one prism relative to another, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.
Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims.
|Cited Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|May 14, 1971
|Mar 13, 1973
|Avco Corp
|Optical field curvature corrector
|Mar 29, 1988
|Aug 8, 1989
|Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
|Light beam recorder with an afocal anamorphic optical amplifier
|Oct 16, 1989
|Mar 26, 1991
|Eastman Kodak Company
|Beam splitter for color imaging apparatus
|Mar 27, 1992
|Jul 13, 1993
|Khattak Anwar S
|High resolution laser beam scanner and method for operation thereof
|Jun 7, 1994
|Jun 11, 1996
|Opticon Sensors Europe B.V.
|Scanning device
|Oct 17, 1995
|Dec 9, 1997
|Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
|Color image reader with two-step color dispersion
|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Jun 7, 2004
|May 30, 2006
|Ncr Corporation
|Bar code scanner with laser beam oscillator
|Jun 7, 2004
|Dec 8, 2005
|Ncr Corporation
|Bar code scanner with laser beam oscillator
|U.S. Classification
|235/454, 235/462.23
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Jul 1, 2003
|Sep 18, 2008
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|Oct 4, 2012
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 8
|Oct 31, 2014
Owner name: MORGAN STANLEY SENIOR FUNDING, INC. AS THE COLLATE
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Effective date: 20141027
|Jul 8, 2015
Owner name: SYMBOL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, NEW YORK
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|Aug 17, 2015
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Free format text: RELEASE BY SECURED PARTY;ASSIGNOR:MORGAN STANLEY SENIOR FUNDING, INC.;REEL/FRAME:036371/0738
Effective date: 20150721


text:
Re: "At Denver International Airport, dining soars beyond grab-and-go [1]," April 9 Food story.
The article about dining options at Denver International Airport, which include fine dining establishments, brought memories of the early days of Stapleton Field. Long before one needed to line up to go through security, Denverites had a "food destination" that did not require an airline ticket or passage through security: a restaurant good enough to take your date before prom or for a special family occasion. Is all this an example of "What goes around comes around"?
Carl L. Hansen, Lakewood
This letter was published in the April 13 edition.
For information on how to send a letter to the editor, click here [2]. Follow eLetters [3] on Twitter to receive updates about new letters to the editor when they're posted.


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Two Coats Colder
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The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) uses larvicides and pesticides to control mosquitoes, which can transmit the West Nile Virus.
Spraying takes place on scheduled dates from 6:30 PM to 6 AM the following morning unless otherwise noted on the schedule. For residential areas, the City provides at least 24 hours advance notice of spray events through the media, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's (DOHMH) website, 311, and other organizations. In the event of rain or wind, spraying may be postponed.
DOHMH recommends the following precautions to residents of areas that are scheduled for spraying:
Residents are not expected to experience adverse reactions to mosquito spray. Some people who are sensitive to pesticides may experience temporary effects such as skin, eye, and mucous membrane irritation, as well as the worsening of conditions such as asthma and other respiratory illnesses if directly exposed to spraying. Anyone experiencing an adverse reaction to pesticides should seek medical help or call the NYC Poison Control Center at (212) 764-7667.
The City does not accept reports of mosquitoes or requests for spraying from the public.
Get the current West Nile Virus mosquito spraying schedule.
Environment Animal Control & Welfare Information & Assistance


text:
ScentBlocker Men's Waterproof Insulated Jacket
$69.98 to $99.99
Product Information:
Lock out the elements with the Waterproof Insulated Jacket. It is designed to take on the cold, wind, and water with 100% RainBlocker® protection. A layer of insulation is combined with a full front zipper to lock in your body heat on bitterly cold days. The flexible waist and adjustable sleeve cuffs create a versatile fit. The ScentBlocker® Waterproof Insulated Jacket fights the elements so you can focus on the hunt.
- Waterproof, insulated jacket for cold weather hunting
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- Insulated layer and inner rib cuff provide warmth and lock in body heat
- Full front zipper with storm flap
- Elastic at wrist holds in body heat
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- License loop enables you to easily attach your license to your jacket
- System Layer 3
- Style: D3005
- ScentBlocker
Country of Origin: ImportedWeb ID: 23068516
Customer Reviews:
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