A demodulation circuit and method are provided. The demodulation circuit includes a transformation circuit which is configured to transform the received signal into a modified signal representation in which both amplitude-varying information and frequency-varying information are converted to a uniform representation; and a processing circuit which is configured to process the modified signal representation to demodulate the received signal based on the uniform representation. The method includes transforming the signal into a modified signal representation in which both amplitude-varying information and frequency-varying information are converted to a uniform representation; and processing the modified signal representation to demodulate the signal based on the uniform representation.

1. Field of the Invention
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to demodulation techniques capable of demodulating a Frequency Shift Keyed (FSK) and/or Amplitude Shift Keyed (ASK) received signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Related art demodulation circuits that are capable of demodulating both FSK and ASK received signals are generally one of two types. A first type of circuit includes two dedicated demodulators, namely a first dedicated ASK demodulator and a second dedicated FSK demodulator, as well as a control switch for selecting an output of either the FSK or ASK demodulator. Examples of such demodulator circuits are known from CA-A-2306846, EP-A-1589714, and US-A-2005/0063491.
A second type of demodulation circuit includes an FSK demodulator and an ASK demodulator, and a logic circuit. Based on results of the demodulation from the two demodulators, the logic circuit selects the valid one. Alternatively, the logic circuit may decide whether to execute demodulation with the second demodulator based on a result from the first demodulator. An example of such a demodulation circuit is known from EP-A-1187346.
Such circuits involve significant hardware resources, occupy significant die space when implemented in an integrated circuit, and/or have a high computation load in order to implement both types of demodulation in parallel or in series.
Both types of demodulation circuit may perform poorly when demodulating a poor quality or damaged FSK signal in which one of the FSK tones may be of low amplitude such as the tone being close to the noise floor. Such a signal is difficult to decode by a related art FSK demodulation technique, and would also not be recognised as a true ASK signal. Such a poor quality FSK signal is not uncommon in remote control applications, because a transmitter will usually be a miniaturized circuit that may be of low cost, low complexity, or have poor operating tolerances or low transmission power. The problem may be compounded when the signal is transmitted or received in a noisy wireless environment.
Although not directed to a dual FSK/ASK capability, reference may be made to the FSK-specific demodulators described in published French patent application Nos. 2846814, 2846815, 2846825 and 2859336. These patent applications are directed to improved reception and demodulation of a wireless FSK signal in a noisy environment.


A method is provided for regulating fluid pump pressures by detecting an elevation differential between a fluid flow control device and the distal end of a fluid line in communication with the fluid flow control device. A fluid flow control device, for instance a peritoneal dialysis device, is at a first height, a distal end of a fluid line is at a second height, and a valved outlet, when open, affords communication between the fluid flow control device and the distal end of the fluid line. The elevation differential is correlatable with a pressure measurable during a calibration procedure provided as a part of the methodology.

A function of fluid flow control systems is to regulate the rate of distribution of transport fluid through a line. Some examples of fluid control devices are peritoneal dialysis machines and intravenous fluid delivery systems. Fluid flow control systems may include a permanent housing which does not come into direct contact with the transporting fluid and into which a fluid-exposed disposable cassette is placed. Flexible membranes, or other structures that respond to pressure, maintain separation between the permanent and disposable components. Examples of such control systems and their sub-components (in particular, valves) are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,778,451, 4,976,162, 5,088,515, and 5,178,182. These patents are all issued to Kamen and are all hereby incorporated herein by reference.
One problem with respect to fluid flow control devices arises in, for example dialysis treatment. Patients want to minimize the time spent hooked up to the peritoneal dialysis machine. In order to satisfy patient demands, the flow rate of the fluid pumped into the patient's catheter may be proportionally increased by increasing the pumping pressure. However, international specifications (for example, EN 50072) regulate the maximum and minimum pressures allowed in the patient's catheter. The maximum positive pressure allowable is set at −150 mm Hg (.about.0.3 psi), and the minimum (or maximum negative, or suction pressure) is set at .about.75 mm Hg (.about.−1.5 psi). Prior art dialysis machines use pumping pressures of about 75 mm Hg (1.5 psi) when pumping fluid into the patient. If the dialysis machine and the patient are at the same elevation, the pressure applied at the pump will be very close to the pressure at the patient's catheter. If, on the other hand, the dialysis machine is elevated above the patient, the pressure at the patient's catheter will be higher than the pressure applied at the pump. Consequently, to insure a margin of safety, the pumping pressure is set well below the maximum allowable pressure to compensate for any uncertainty in the position of the patient relative to the dialysis machine.

Method and device for regulating fluid pump pressures


A video distribution server according to one embodiment of the present invention promotes viewing of live video by a new viewer. The server provides a user with a live video distribution service for distributing and viewing live video via a user terminal communicably connected via a communication network. The server distributes live video provided by a specific distributor such that a viewer having a small value of a predetermined parameter corresponding to the specific distributor is prioritized, and thus a new viewer is prioritized over a regular viewer of the live video provided by the specific distributor. As a result, viewing of the live video by the new viewer is promoted.

A service that enables casual distribution of live video (live distribution, streaming) by various users including a general user has been conventionally provided (for example, see PTL 1 described below). In such a distribution service of live video, a comment and the like by a viewer can be typically input, and communication between a plurality of viewers who are viewing the same live video and a distributor can be achieved through such a comment.
PTL 1: JP 2019-022219A

System, method, and computer-readable medium including program for distributing live video


A hair extension kit may be packaged in such a way that patterns may be readily printed onto the hair using a standard printer. The hair extension may be removable from the kit to easily accessorize a girl's or doll's hair.

Individuals often desire creative ways to express their personalities. One form of expression is the transformation or decoration of one's body or portions of one's body. Forms of bodily decoration include painting finger- or toe-nails or administering cosmetics. Another form includes styling one's hair and the insertion of hair extensions to supplement one's natural hair. One looking to further their creative outlet may look to further customize their hair extensions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,065,969 ("Rifkin") discloses a computer game for designing and printing nail coverings. The computer game includes stored software instructions on a computer that controls operation of a color printer and a series of displayed images on a monitor display screen. The user selects from various icons displayed on the monitor display screen, and the icons are applied to fingernails of a hand image on the screen. A plurality of nail covers, which are formed of a peel and stick self-adhesive structure, are printed upon a blank laminated sheet. The nail covers may be independently removed from the sheet and placed upon a fingernail by the self-adhesive layer. While Rifkin provides an adequate solution for customizing fingernail decorations, Rifkin does not provide a solution for hair extensions.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0000562 A1 ("Cho") discloses decorated hair pieces and a method for decorating hair pieces. A plurality of fiber single-ply threads are grouped such that designs may be created on desired portions of the plurality of fiber single-ply threads. Various dispersion dyes on transcription paper may be applied to the surface of the single-ply threads with a heat pressing process. Cho's process requires specialized equipment, such as transcription paper, specialized dispersion dyes, and a heat-and-pressure source. This specialized equipment lacks convenience and may prove a safety hazard for consumers of a younger demographic.


A method and apparatus for applying network coding in multi-user (MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) control signaling are disclosed. After a pair of wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) transmit channel state information (CSI) to an evolved Node-B (eNodeB), each of the WTRUs receive network coded information from the eNodeB, including the CSI transmitted by both of the WTRUs, and decode the network coded information. The WTRUs transmit CSI on a scheduled basis, and store CSI that was previously transmitted. Each of the WTRUs measure the amount of time that pass since they transmitted CSI, and use the transmitted CSI to decode the network coded information on the condition that the measured time does not exceed a predetermined threshold. If the measured time exceeds the predetermined threshold, the stored CSI is used to decode the network coded information.

One of the requirements for long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) is to increase spectral efficiency over existing long term evolution (LTE) wireless systems. In order to fulfill the requirement, there are several candidate techniques considered for LTE-A, including single-user/multi-user (SU/MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), multi-site MIMO, relaying, and the like. Such techniques typically require control signaling associated with the respective technique in uplink (UL), downlink (DL), or both. For example, in a closed loop MIMO system, (e.g., a precoding MIMO system), a receiver sends channel state information (CSI), (i.e., a precoding matrix indicator (PMI)), in a control channel to a transmitter. Then, the transmitter signals to the receiver the precoding vector or matrix information which it uses for transmission precoding. Since this overhead signaling causes spectral efficiency to be reduced, it is desirable to enhance the control signaling technique.
In LTE-A, there may be some cases, techniques, or applications where there is information exchanged between wireless transmit receive units (WTRUs), and evolved Node-Bs (eNodeBs), or relays. For example, in multi-cell cooperative MIMO or MU MIMO in DL, it would be beneficial in the receiver processing if WTRUs exchange their CSI with each other, or if the eNodeB transmits to each of the WTRUs the precoding vectors or matrices applied not only for the respective WTRU but also for other WTRUs, so that each of the WTRUs can use all of the precoding vectors or matrices. However, in this case, the signaling overhead with the legacy LTE signaling scheme may be too excessive to implement.
Thus, it is desired to apply the network coding model in few technology components considered for LTE-A. In order to make the signaling more efficient, the network coding is applied to MIMO related control signaling.
Network coding has been considered as a particular in-network data processing technique that exploits the characteristics of the broadcast communication channel, in order to increase the capacity of the throughput of the network.
FIG. 1 depicts a canonical example of network coding. A source, S, sends data, b1 and b2, to nodes, T and U, respectively, each of which multicasts the received data to other nodes, W, Y and Z. At node W, the received data, b1 and b2, are encoded using network coding and forwarded to node X after applying an XOR operation. Node X then receives the network coded data, b1⊕b2, and multicasts a copy of the network coded data to nodes Y and Z.
Through this network information flow, the nodes Y and Z may receive both b1 and b2 without additional channel resources.
Network coding may be applied in MU MIMO control signaling. FIG. 2 shows a conventional wireless communication system 200 including an eNodeB 205 and a plurality of WTRUs 2101 and 2102.
In MU MIMO, multiple WTRUs 210 are paired (or scheduled), and they are served simultaneously by the eNodeB 205 via MU spatial multiplexing MIMO. That is, the eNodeB 205 simultaneously transmits to the WTRUs 210 through a MU MIMO technique, such as zero-forcing (ZF) MU MIMO. In this case, a signal intended to one of the (paired) WTRUs 210 would be interference to the receiver of another WTRU 210, unless orthogonality of the signals is not maintained at the receiver. To eliminate such interference at a paired WTRU receiver, it is desirable for the eNodeB 205 to signal the beamforming vectors used in MU MIMO to the respective paired WTRUs 210. Regarding the selection of paired WTRUs 210, the eNodeB 205 typically selects WTRUs 210 experiencing similar channel quality, but having CSI that is uncorrelated to each other.
In DL MU MIMO, (e.g., ZF MU MIMO or unitary based MU MIMO), the individual paired WTRUs 2101 and 2102 typically feed back their own CSI, in a form of codebook, PMI, or quantized CSI, to the eNodeB 205. Upon reception of the CSI, the eNodeB 205 determines the beamforming (BF) vectors or precoding matrices used for MU MIMO transmission, and then the eNodeB 205 uses two separate physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) 2151 and 2152 to separately signal the BF vectors, h1 and h2, to the WTRUs 2101 and 2102, respectively.
FIG. 2 is an example of signaling of CSI or PMI considered in MU MIMO. Even though h1 and h2 represent the beamforming vectors, they can also represent CSI, since the BF vectors are derived from the CSI. In some cases, the CSI may be deduced from the BF vectors. Accordingly, the BF vectors and the CSI may be interchangeable with each other.
In order for each WTRU 210 to perform MU interference cancellation effectively at its receiver, it is desirable for the individual WTRU 210 to also have access to the BF vectors of the other WTRUs 210. To do that, the eNodeB 205 needs to send all of the BF vectors h1 and h2 to each of the WTRUs 210. This causes the signaling overhead to be increased by the number of interfering WTRUs, (i.e., number of paired WTRUs).
Therefore, it is desirable to have efficient control signaling mechanisms using the concept of networking.

Method and apparatus for implementing network coding in a long term evolution advanced system


A method includes running a computer simulation that is controlled at least in part by a handheld controller, displaying images generated by the computer simulation on a display, and projecting at least one image generated by the computer simulation from an image projector coupled to the handheld controller. A system includes a display, a handheld controller, an image projector coupled to the handheld controller, and a processor based apparatus. Another system includes a display, a handheld controller, an image projector that is housed in a unit configured to be releasably docked to the handheld controller, and a processor based apparatus. Storage mediums storing one or more computer programs are also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to computer simulation output technology, and more specifically to image, video, and audio output technology that may be employed by computer simulations, such as computer games and video games.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Computer games, such as video games, have become a popular source of entertainment. Computer games are typically implemented in computer game software applications and are often run on game consoles, entertainment systems, desktop, laptop, and notebook computers, portable devices, pad-like devices, etc. Computer games are one type of computer simulation.
The user of a computer game is typically able to view the game play on a display and control various aspects of the game with a handheld controller, such as a game controller, game pad, wand, motion sensing controller, joystick, mouse, or other types of handheld controllers. Computer games typically also include audio output so that the user can hear sounds generated by the game, such as for example, the sounds generated by other players' characters like voices, footsteps, physical confrontations, gun shots, explosions, car chases, car crashes, etc.

Method and apparatus for the projection of images, video, and/or holograms generated by a computer simulation


A method including: receiving a synchronization signal and collecting a rolling shutter image of a modulated light on a sensor, determining a primary frequency from the rolling shutter image, and comparing the primary frequency to an expected primary frequency image to determine a directional movement related to a vehicle.

A vehicle such as an automobile may be configured for autonomous driving operations. For example, the vehicle may include a central control unit or the like, i.e., a computing device having a processor and a memory, which receives data from various vehicle data collection devices such as sensors and generally also external data sources such as navigation information. The central control unit may then provide instructions to various vehicle components, e.g., actuators and the like that govern steering, braking, acceleration, etc., to control vehicle operations without action, or with reduced action, by a human operator.
The vehicle, whether operating in an autonomous mode, a semiautonomous mode, or a manual mode of operation, may require navigational assistance to traverse a path through an area, such as a parking facility or the like. Unfortunately, present mechanisms for navigating an autonomous vehicle or a semiautonomous vehicle in a self-directed way are lacking due to the current limitations of presently available guidance systems.


A programmable dopant fiber includes a plurality of quantum structures formed on a fiber-shaped substrate, wherein the substrate includes one or more energy-carrying control paths, which pass energy to quantum structures. Quantum structures may include quantum dot particles on the surface of the fiber or electrodes on top of barrier layers and a transport layer, which form quantum dot devices. The energy passing through the control paths drives charge carriers into the quantum dots, leading to the formation of “artificial atoms” with real-time, tunable properties. These artificial atoms then serve as programmable dopants, which alter the behavior of surrounding materials. The fiber can be used as a programmable dopant inside bulk materials, as a building block for new materials with unique properties, or as a substitute for quantum dots or quantum wires in certain applications.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for producing quantum effects, namely a fiber that is capable of carrying energy with an exterior surface populated by quantum dot structures that are controlled by changes in the energy carried by the fiber. The invention has particular, but not exclusive, application in materials science as a programmable dopant that can be placed inside bulk materials and controlled by external signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
The fabrication of very small structures to exploit the quantum mechanical behavior of charge carriers (e.g., electrons or electron "holes") is well established. Quantum confinement of a carrier can be accomplished by a structure whose linear dimension is less than the quantum mechanical wavelength of the carrier. Confinement in a single dimension produces a "quantum well," and confinement in two dimensions produces a "quantum wire."
A quantum dot (QD) is a structure capable of confining carriers in all three dimensions. Quantum dots can be formed as particles, with a dimension in all three directions of less than the de Broglie wavelength of a charge carrier. Such particles may be composed of semiconductor materials (including Si, GaAs, InGaAs, InAlAs, InAs, and other materials), or of metals, and may or may not possess an insulative coating. Such particles are referred to in this document as "quantum dot particles." A quantum dot can also be formed inside a semiconductor substrate, through electrostatic confinement of the charge carriers. This is accomplished through the use of microelectronic devices of various design, e.g., a nearly enclosed gate electrode formed on top of a quantum well, similar to a P-N-P junction. Here, the term "micro" means "very small" and usually expresses a dimension of or less than the order of microns, i.e., thousandths of a millimeter. The term "quantum dot device" refers to any apparatus capable of generating a quantum dot in this manner. The generic term "quantum dot," abbreviated QD in certain drawings in this application, refers to any quantum dot particle or quantum dot device.
The electrical, optical, thermal, magnetic, mechanical, and chemical properties of a material depend on the structure and excitation level of the electron clouds surrounding its atoms and molecules. Doping is the process of embedding precise quantities of carefully selected impurities in a material in order to alter the electronic structure of the surrounding atoms, for example, by donating or borrowing electrons from them, and therefore altering the electrical, optical, thermal, magnetic, mechanical, or chemical properties of the material. Doping levels as low as one dopant atom per million atoms of substrate can produce measurable changes in the expected behavior of the pure material, for example, by altering the band gap of a semiconductor.
Quantum dots can have a greatly modified electronic structure from the corresponding bulk material, and therefore different properties. Quantum dots can also serve as dopants inside other materials. Because of their unique properties, quantum dots are used in a variety of electronic, optical, and electro-optical devices.
Kastner, "Artificial Atoms," Physics Today (January 1993) points out that the quantum dot can be thought of as an "artificial atom," since the carriers confined in it behave similarly in many ways to electrons confined by an atomic nucleus. The term "artificial atom" is now in common use, and is often used interchangeably with "quantum dot." However, for the purposes of this document, "artificial atom" refers specifically to the pattern of confined carriers (e.g., an electron gas), and not to the particle or device in which the carriers are confined.
The term "programmable dopant fiber" refers to a wire or fiber with quantum dots attached to, embedded in, or formed upon its outer surface. This should not be confused with a quantum wire, which is a structure for carrier confinement in two dimensions only.
Quantum dots are currently used as near-monochromatic fluorescent light sources, laser light sources, light detectors (including infra-red detectors), and highly miniaturized transistors, including single-electron transistors. They can also serve as a useful laboratory for exploring the quantum mechanical behavior of confined carriers. Many researchers are exploring the use of quantum dots in artificial materials, and as dopants to affect the optical and electrical properties of semiconductor materials.
Kastner describes the future potential for "artificial molecules" and "artificial solids" composed of quantum dot particles. Specifics on the design and functioning of these molecules and solids are not provided. Leatherdale et. al., Photoconductivity in CdSe Quantum Dot Solids," Physics Review B (15 Jul. 2000) describe, in detail, the fabrication of "two- and three-dimensional . . . artificial solids with potentially tunable optical and electrical properties." These solids are composed of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals deposited on a semiconductor substrate. The result is an ordered, glassy film composed of quantum dot particles, which can be optically stimulated by external light sources, or electrically stimulated by attached electrodes, to alter its optical and electrical properties. However, these films are extremely fragile, and are "three dimensional" only in the sense that they have been made up to several microns thick. In addition, the only parameter that can be adjusted electrically is the average number of electrons in the quantum dots. Slight variations in the size and composition of the quantum dot particles mean that the number of electrons will vary slightly between dots. However, on average the quantum dot particles will all behave similarly.
The embedding of metal and semiconductor nanoparticles inside bulk materials (e.g., lead particles in leaded crystal) is also well established. These nanoparticles are quantum dots with characteristics determined by their size and composition. They also serve as dopants for the material in which they are embedded to alter selected optical or electrical properties. However, there is no means or pathway by which these quantum dot particles can be stimulated electrically. Thus, the doping characteristics of the quantum dots are fixed at the time of manufacture and cannot be adjusted thereafter.
In general, the prior art almost completely overlooks the broader materials-science implications of quantum dots. The ability to place programmable dopants in a variety of materials implies a useful control over the bulk properties of these materials. This control could take place not only at the time of fabrication of the material, but also in real time, i.e., at the time of use, in response to changing needs and conditions. However, there is virtually no prior art discussing the use, placement, or control of programmable quantum dots in the interior of bulk materials. Similarly, there is no prior art discussing the placement of quantum dots on the surface of an electrically or optically conductive fiber.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,200 to Burt (1999) discloses an optical fiber (1) containing a central opening (2) filled with a colloidal solution (3) of quantum dots (4) in a support medium. (See prior art FIGS. 1 and 2.) The purpose of the quantum dots is to produce light when optically stimulated, for example, to produce optical amplification or laser radiation. The quantum dots take the place of erbium atoms, which can produce optical amplifiers when used as dopants in an optical fiber. This fiber could be embedded inside bulk materials, but could not alter the properties of such materials since the quantum-dot dopants are enclosed inside the fiber. In addition, no means is described for exciting the quantum dots electrically. Thus the characteristics of the quantum dots are not programmable, except in the sense that their size and composition can be selected at the time of manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,889,288 to Futatsugi (1999) discloses a semiconductor quantum dot device that uses electrostatic repulsion to confine electrons. This device, as shown in prior art FIGS. 3A and 3B consists of electrodes (16a, 16b, and 17) controlled by a field effect transistor, both formed on the surface of a quantum well on a semi-insulating substrate (11). This arrangement permits the exact number of electrons trapped in the quantum dot (QD) to be controlled, simply by varying the voltage on the gate electrode (G). This is useful, in that it allows the "artificial atom" contained in the quantum dot to take on characteristics similar to any natural atom on the periodic table, and also to transuranic and asymmetric atoms which cannot easily be created by other means. Unfortunately, the two-dimensional nature of the electrodes means that the artificial atom can exist only at or near the surface of the wafer, and cannot serve as a dopant to affect the wafer's interior properties.
Turton, "The Quantum Dot," Oxford University Press (1995) describes the possibility of placing quantum dot devices in two-dimensional arrays on a semiconductor microchip, explicitly as a method for producing new materials through programmable doping of the substrate. This practice has since become routine, although the spacing of the quantum dot devices is typically large enough that the artificial atoms formed on the chip do not interact significantly, nor produce macroscopically significant doping. Such a chip also suffers from the limitation cited in the previous paragraph: its two-dimensional structure prevents its being used as a dopant except near the surface of a material or material layer.
Goldhaber-Gordon et al., "Overview of Nanoelectronic Devices," Proceedings of the IEEE, v. 85, n.4 (April 1997) describe what may be the smallest possible single-electron transistor. This consists of a "wire" made of conductive C6 (benzene) molecules, with a "resonant tunneling device" or RTD inline that consists of a benzene molecule surrounded by CH2 molecules that serve as insulators. The device is described (incorrectly, we believe) as a quantum well rather than a quantum dot, and is intended as a switching device (transistor) rather than a confinement mechanism for charge carriers. However, in principle the device should be capable of containing a small number of excess electrons and thus form a primitive sort of artificial atom. Thus, the authors' remark on page 532 that the device may be "much more like a quantum dot than a solid state RTD." The materials science implications of this, are not discussed.
McCarthy, "Once Upon a Matter Crushed," Science and Fiction Age (July 1999), in a science fiction story, includes a fanciful description of "wellstone," a form of "programmable matter" made from "a diffuse lattice of crystalline silicon, superfine threads much finer than a human hair," which use "a careful balancing of electrical charges" to confine electrons in free space, adjacent to the threads. This is probably physically impossible, as it would appear to violate Coulomb's Law, although we do not wish to be bound by this. Similar text by the same author appears in McCarthy, The Collapsium," Del Rey Books (August 2000) and McCarthy, "Programmable Matter," Nature (05 Oct. 2000). Detailed information about the composition, construction, or functioning of these devices is not given.

Fiber incorporating quantum dots as programmable dopants


When sharing events between users, the sharing users and the recipient users often have different relationships with details of the events. An event structurer enables sharing users to share events via a single user interface with recipients and tailor what aspects of the events are shared, thus ensuring the relevant portions of the events are properly presented to new recipients based on their new relationship with the event's details.

Users of email and calendaring applications often share messages that they have received by forwarding those messages to a new recipient. Similarly, new attendees can be invited or assigned action items related to an existing calendar event by forwarding an invitation. As email systems have gained sophistication, one service offered to users is the ability to parse incoming messages to identify relevant event metadata within the message and automatically create events in the user's calendar based on those event metadata. When messages or calendar events are forwarded, these event metadata may have different relevancy for the new recipient/invitee than the sharing user, which causes difficulties in the automatic provision and parsing of the metadata.


A method, a device and a non-transitory computer readable medium for tracking poses of multiple objects. The method includes detecting, by a processor, objects from each of a plurality of consecutive frames in a video sequence; estimating, by the processor, a pose of each of the objects within each of the plurality of consecutive frames; and tracking, by the processor, the poses of each of the objects across the plurality of consecutive frames.

The background description herein is provided for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Multi-object pose tracking is the task of estimating human keypoints of all object instances in a set of images forming a video sequence and assigning unique ids for each keypoint at instance-level across frames in the video sequence. Multi-object pose tracking is one of the most important components in various computer vision applications, such as surveillance, sports video analysis.
Existing approaches for pose estimation of multiple objects can be classified into top-down and bottom-up approaches. The top-down approach [8,16] relies on a detection module to obtain human candidates and then apply a single-person human pose estimator to locate human keypoints. The bottom-up approach [2, 9,18,14], on the other hand, detects human keypoints from all potential human candidates and then assembles these keypoints into human limbs for each individual based on various data association techniques. The advantage of bottom-up approaches is their excellent trade-off between estimation accuracy and computational cost because their computational cost is invariant to the number of human candidates in the image. In contrast, the main advantage of top-down approaches is their capability in disassembling the task into multiple comparatively easier tasks, i.e., object detection and single-person pose estimation. The object detector is expert in detecting hard (usually small) candidates, so that the pose estimator will perform better with a focused regression space.
For the task of multi-object pose tracking, accurate trajectory estimation of human keypoints is useful in human action recognition and human interaction understanding. PoseTrack [12] and ArtTrack [11] primarily introduce multi-object pose tracking challenge and propose a graph partitioning formulation, which transforms the pose tracking problem into a minimum cost multi-cut problem. However, hand-crafted graphical models are not scalable for long and unseen clips. Another line of research explores top-down approach [6, 19, 20] by operating multi-object pose estimation on each frame and linking them based on appearance similarities and temporal adjacencies. A solution is to apply multi-target object tracking on human detection candidates across frames and then estimate human poses for each human tubelet. While this is a feasible method, it neglects unique attributes of keypoints. Compared to the tracked bounding boxes, keypoints can potentially be helpful cues for both the bounding boxes and the keypoints tracking.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved approach to multi-object pose tracking.

Device and method of tracking poses of multiple objects based on single-object pose estimator

Beijing Jingdong Shangke Information Technology Co., Ltd.

JD.com American Technologies Corporation


In a reproducing apparatus for reproducing audio data, a central control section includes detection means for detecting playlists of plural kinds of formats, and detection means for detecting audio data not associated with playlists. The central control section reads out audio data from an audio data storage section, and discriminating the format of the audio data to detect playlists. In addition, the central control section detects the presence/absence of audio data not associated with playlists, and if audio data not associated with playlists is stored, processes a list of such audio data as one playlist. The central control section causes the detected playlists to be displayed on a display section, successively processes the audio data from a first one of the playlists, and outputs the processed data through a sound output section.

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-013237, filed Jan. 21, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates generally to a reproducing apparatus for reproducing digital audio/video data, and more particularly to a reproducing apparatus having a playlist processing function matching with reproduction orders on playlists of plural kinds of formats.
Recently, many types of players capable of recording digital audio data have been marketed. In one type, audio data alone is recorded. In another, data called a playlist in which an order of play is described is recorded and reproduction is performed according to a reproduction order on the playlist.
For reproduction of audio data, the player, in general, has a return function for returning a current position of play. Where the same data range is to be played twice or more, a return operation needs to be performed each time. In this case, the final position of return varies from user to user, since the user refers to a value of a counter, etc. A desired data range is not always played each time. In order to solve this problem, an xe2x80x9cAB repeatxe2x80x9d function is proposed. According to this function, a data range to be played is designated and reproduced repeatedly.
In the prior art, removable media storing audio data produced for one player cannot, in some cases, be reproduced by another player. The reason is that an expected playlist is not present in the removable media or a playlist format is different. In such cases, the user has to prepare a new playlist. Even if the removable media are reproduced, the order of reproduction may differ from that expected.
As regards the AB repeat function provided in the conventional player, a data range to be played needs to be designated. Since the designation is performed after the user has thought of xe2x80x9conce more playxe2x80x9d, the number of operational procedures increases. Thus, the operation becomes very time-consuming and complex.
Besides, in general, a small portable player uses a battery alone as an operational power supply. Thus, the power of the battery is shortly consumed. That is, the lifetime of the battery is short.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and an object of the invention is to provide a reproducing apparatus which permits a removable medium storing audio data or video data to be reproduced by some other player in an expected play order, without preparing a new playlist.
Another object of the invention is to provide a reproducing apparatus capable of automatically memorizing a final return position and starting reproduction from the memorized position by one-touch control.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a reproducing apparatus capable of reducing consumption of power of the battery and increasing the lifetime of a battery, where a reproducing operation is performed in the state in which the apparatus is connected to a host device, by utilizing power from the host device.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a reproducing apparatus comprising:
playlist detection means for reading out digital data on plural kinds of formats compressed and stored in a memory medium and detecting a plurality of playlists of the read-out digital data; and
reproduction means for reproducing the digital data of the playlists detected by the playlist detection means.
Since this apparatus includes the means for detecting the playlists of the plural kinds of formats, even if the memory medium contains playlists of different formats, the data can be reproduced according to the playlists.
According to a second aspect of the invention, in the reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect, the reproduction means reproduces the digital data of each of the plurality of playlists detected by the playlist detection means successively from a first one of the playlists.
With this structure, even if the memory medium contains playlists of plural kinds of formats, the playlists can be discriminated and successively reproduced.
According to a third aspect of the invention, in the reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect, the playlist detection means includes means for detecting data, which is unassociated with playlists, and detects the data unassociated with playlists as one playlist.
When data not associated with playlists is detected, a list of the data is processed as one playlist. Thus, data formed for reproducing apparatuses with no playlists can be reproduced.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect, the playlist detection means detects playlists stored in a plurality of memory media and displays the detected playlists.
With this structure, even where plural memory media are mounted on the reproducing apparatus, the playlists stored in each record medium are successively detected and displayed. Thus, the user can select and reproduce a desired one of the successively displayed playlists, without paying attention to the plural memory media or memory devices.
According to a fifth aspect of the invention, in the reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect, the playlist detection means sets an order of priority on the formats of the detected playlists, and the reproduction means reproduces the digital data of the playlists in the order of the set priority on the formats of the playlists.
With this structure, the order of priority on the formats of playlists for reproduction can be set, and the playlists can be efficiently selected according to the user""s preference.
According to a sixth aspect of the invention, the reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect further comprises select means for selecting a desired one of the playlists detected by the playlist detection means, wherein the reproduction means reproduces the digital data of the playlist selected by the select means.
Since this apparatus includes the playlist select means for selecting a desired one of the playlists detected by the playlist detection means, even if the memory medium contains playlists of different formats, a desired playlist can be selected for the reproduction operation.
According to a seventh aspect of the invention, there is provided a reproducing apparatus comprising:
reproduction means for reading out and reproducing data stored in a memory medium;
return means for returning a position of start of reproduction;
final return position storing means for storing a position to which the position of start of reproduction is finally returned by the return means;
return instruct means for instructing a repeat reproduction operation; and
repeat reproduction means for reading out the final return position from the final return position storing means when a return instruction is issued from the return instruct means, and starting the repeat reproduction operation from the final return position.
The final return position is stored in the final return position storing means. Thus, when repeat reproduction of the same audio data is desired, if the return operation is once performed, reproduction can be exactly performed from the desired point in the following operations only by instructing the return operation.
According to an eighth aspect of the invention, there is provided a reproducing apparatus comprising:
reproduction means for reading out and reproducing data stored in a memory medium;
fast-forwarded means for fast-advancing a position of start of reproduction;
final forwarded position storing means for storing a position to which the position of start of reproduction is finally forwarded by the fast-forwarded means;
return instruct means for instructing a repeat reproduction operation; and
repeat reproduction means for reading out the final forwarded position from the final forwarded position storing means when a return instruction is issued from the return instruct means, and starting the repeat reproduction operation from the final forwarded position.
When fast forwarded is performed, the final forwarded position is stored in the final forwarded position storing means. Thus, if the current position of play is excessively returned beyond the desired point in the first return operation, the position of play is adjusted by the fast forwarded. In this case, too, play can be exactly performed from the desired point by the return instruction.
According to a ninth aspect of the invention, there is provided a reproducing apparatus comprising:
reproduction means for reading out and reproducing data stored in a memory medium;
return means for returning a position of start of reproduction;
return instruct means for instructing return by the return means;
final return position storing means for storing a final return position to which the position of start of reproduction is finally returned by the return means;
skip instruct means for instructing a skip of a track of the data;
first determination means for determining, when the skip has been instructed by the skip instruct means, whether a current position of reproduction is at a beginning of the track or not;
second determination means for determining a relationship among the final return position stored in the final return position storing means, the current position of reproduction, and the track; and
position-of-reproduction determining means for determining a position of reproduction on the basis of determination results of the first determination means and the second determination means.
In the reproducing apparatus with the track skip function, when the skip has been instructed by the skip instruct means, it is determined whether a current position of reproduction is at a beginning of the track or not. In addition, a relationship among the final return position stored in the final return position storing means, the current position of reproduction, and the track is determined. A position of reproduction is determined on the basis of the determination results. Thus, where the number of operation keys is small, even if the return instruct means is not provided, it should suffice if the return operation is once performed. In the next operations, play can be exactly performed from the beginning of the track or the desired point only by instructing the skip operation.
According to a tenth aspect of the invention, there is provided a reproducing apparatus comprising:
reproduction means for reading out and reproducing data stored in a memory medium;
return means for returning a position of start of reproduction;
final return position storing means for storing a final return position to which the position of start of reproduction is finally returned by the return means;
skip instruct means for instructing a skip of a track of the data;
position determination means for determining, when the skip has been instructed by the skip instruct means, whether the final return position stored in the final return position storing means is before or after a current position of reproduction in the track which is being reproduced; and
repeat reproduction means for starting reproduction from the final return position when the position determination means has determined that the final return position is before the current position of reproduction, and for starting reproduction from a beginning point of the currently reproduced track when the position determination means has determined that the final return position is after the current position of reproduction.
According to an eleventh aspect of the invention, there is provided a reproducing apparatus comprising:
reproduction means for reading out and reproducing data stored in a memory medium;
return means for returning a position of start of reproduction;
final return position storing means for storing a final return position to which the position of start of reproduction is finally returned by the return means;
skip instruct means for instructing a skip of a track of the data;
position determination means for determining, when the skip has been instructed by the skip instruct means and a current position of reproduction is at a beginning of the track, whether the final return position stored in the final return position storing means is before or after the current position of reproduction; and
repeat reproduction means for starting reproduction from the final return position when the position determination means has determined that the final return position is in a previous track preceding the track in which the current position of reproduction is present, and for starting reproduction from a beginning point of the previous track when the position determination means has determined that the final return position is absent in the previous track preceding the track in which the current position of reproduction is present.
With this structure, when the host device is connected to the reproducing apparatus, the power from the host device is utilized. Thus, the power consumption in the battery of the reproducing apparatus is reduced, and the lifetime of the battery is increased.
According to a twelfth aspect of the invention, the reproducing apparatus according to the eleventh aspect further comprises setting means for effecting setting as to whether a determination process by the position determination means is effective or not,
wherein if the setting means has effected setting such that the determination process by the position determination means is not effective, the determination process by the position determination means is not performed.
Since there is provided the means for effecting setting as to whether the determination process based on the final return position stored in the final return position storing means is effective or not, the skip instruct function can be selectively used according to the condition of reproduction and the skip process can be performed efficiently.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.


A stabilized sodium percarbonate is obtained by incorporating therein (A) at least one compound selected from the group consisting of mono- and dicarboxylic acids having not less than four carbon atoms and salts thereof; and (B) at least one compound selected from the group consisting of sulfates, nitrates and silicates of alkali metals and alkaline earth metals.

The present invention relates to a stabilized sodium percarbonate composition, particularly a stabilized sodium percarbonate composition suitable for use as a bleaching agent in detergents, etc.
Sodium percarbonate is generally used widely as a bleaching agent, a detergent, or a sterilizer. Sodium percarbonate as a bleaching agent is superior in solubility at low temperatures, exhibits a high bleaching effect, and is a stable compound in an ordinary perserved state. However, sodium percarbonate is disadvantageous in that it is unstable when preserved in a high humidity condition or when incorporated in a detergent. As a household detergent, a product containing a predetermined certain amount of sodium percarbonate as a bleaching agent is particularly preferred. When incorporated in a detergent, however, sodium percarbonate loses its stability upon contact with a zeolite which is used as a builder or with water contained in a very small amount in the detergent, resulting in that not only the sodium percarbonate no longer exhibits the bleaching effect but also there is fear of the detergent losing its effect. Various proposals have heretofore been made for solving these problems. For example in Japanese Patent Publication No. 56167/1988 there is disclosed a method wherein sodium percarbonate is coated with magnesium sulfonate or magnesium salt of sulfuric ester; in Japanese Patent Publication No. 57362/1988 there is disclosed a method wherein sodium percarbonate is coated with such magnesium salt plus sulfate or hydrochloride of an alkali or alkaline earth metal; in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 118606/1085 there is disclosed a method wherein sodium percarbonate is coated with boric acid or a partially neutralized borate and a water repellent; in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 194000/1984 a method wherein sodium percarbonate is coated with a borate and a magnesium compound; and in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 129500/1975 a method wherein sodium percarbonate is coated with a mixture of a surfactant and a water-insoluble compound which is compatible with the surfactant. All of these methods intend to prevent sodium percarbonate from coming into contact with detergent ingredients and to stabilize it by coating it with specific chemical substances. According to these conventional methods, however, when the sodium percarbonate thus coated is preserved in a high humidity condition or when incorporated in a detergent, the stabilization effect is not attained at all to a satisfactory extent in practical use.
It is the object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problem. The present inventors found that the aforesaid problem which had not been solved by the prior art could be overcome by incorporating in sodium percarbonate a mono- or dicarboxylic acid having not less than four carbon atoms or a salt thereof add a sulfate, nitrate or silicate of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal. In this way we reached the present invention.

Stabilized sodium percarbonate composition


A heating time period is decreased by that a valve body including a hollow valve shaft is arranged in a slidable manner in a cylindrical part of a casing on which a nozzle body with a valve seat is mounted at a front end thereof, a fuel is introduced from a fuel outlet port opening on a shaft wall of the valve shaft into a fuel path formed by the valve shaft and the cylindrical part, the fuel is heated to be injected from the nozzle body by a heater arranged at an outside of the fuel path of the cylindrical part, and a sleeve is mounted in the fuel path so that a large diameter part thereof closes the fuel path at an upper area of the fuel outlet port, while a fuel inlet port is formed on a small diameter part of the sleeve to introduce the fuel into the fuel path, so that the fuel path is narrowed to decrease an amount of the fuel to be heated by the heater.

The present invention relates to a fuel injection valve to be mounted on an internal combustion engine, particularly to a technique for atomizing a fuel injected at a start of an operation of the internal combustion engine.
A fuel injection valve to be mounted onto an internal combustion engine controls an amount of the injected fuel and atomizes the fuel to be injected from an injection port into an intake manifold or combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine. Particularly, since a temperature of the engine is low when the operation of the internal combustion engine is started, there is a probability of that the injected fuel adheres to a wall surface of the intake tube or combustion chamber to decrease a combustion efficiency so that an exhausted amount of unburnt component such as Hydro-carbon or the like is increased. Therefore, the pressurized fuel is injected while decreasing the pressure thereof or the heated fuel is injected so that the atomization and vaporization are accelerated to decrease the exhausted amount of Hydro-carbon.
For example, in a fuel injection valve disclosed by JP-A-2002-4973, an inside of a valve shaft is made hollow, and the valve shaft is formed by a base portion slidable in a cylindrical part of a valve body casing and a shaft portion whose diameter is smaller than that of the base portion to form a fuel path between the shaft portion of the smaller diameter and an inner surface of the valve body casing to communicate with a valve seat so that the fuel is supplied into the fuel path from a fuel outlet port formed on a wall of the valve shaft. Particularly, it is proposed that a heater is arranged on an outer surface of the valve body casing over the fuel path to heat the fuel, and a diameter of a part of the valve shaft over which the heater is arranged is increased to narrow the fuel path to increase a thermal conductivity to the fuel.


An intrinsically safe firearm may include a handle and a frame connected by a pivot pin. One or more latches of the firearm can temporarily fix the firearm in a stowed orientation or a deployed orientation. In the deployed orientation, a magazine of the firearm can be removed from the handle; a slide of the firearm can be removed from the frame; a magazine safety allows a firing pin to strike a primer of a round in the firearm; and a trigger of the firearm is accessible to discharge the round in the firearm. In the stowed orientation, the magazine is not removable from the handle; the slide is not removable from the frame; the magazine safety prevents the firing pin from striking the primer; and the trigger of the firearm is not accessible.

Firearms are ubiquitous in the United States and tragic events related to accidental or unintentional discharge of these firearms are a subject of much concern to the populous as a whole. In one such tragedy, a young mother was killed while shopping when her two year old toddler accidently discharged a firearm. In this example, the mother was licensed to carry the firearm and it was stored in a zipped pocket of the mother's purse. This pocket was specifically designed for carrying concealed firearms, but the toddler unzipped the pocket and retrieved the concealed firearm before causing the discharge of one fatal round.
The problem of accidental firearm discharge is particularly acute in the context of personal defense firearms because these firearms are generally designed for concealment and to fire quickly and easily. In particular, firearms for personal defense are usually designed with limited safety features so that a user can quickly and easily fire rounds in response to an unexpected threat which makes personal defense firearms inherently less safe than firearms for hunting or recreational activities. In other words, reducing a risk of accidental discharge can increase a risk that a personal defense firearm will not be effective when used for self-defense. For example, storing a personal defense firearm separate from its ammunition would greatly reduce the risk that the firearm will discharge accidently; however, this would also increase an amount of time and effort involved in preparing the firearm to discharge the ammunition in response to an identified threat.
Conventional personal defense systems typically support rudimentary safety measures to prevent unintentional discharge. These conventional personal defense firearms may include a "safety" which can refer to any single means of prevention of an accidental discharge but which commonly refers to a minimum magnitude of an applied force to actuate a trigger or a button which can be actuated to release a lock. However, because of concerns that the firearm will not be effective when it is used for personal protection, many users carry firearms with the available safety features disengaged. This tends to further increase accident rates related to personal defense firearms. While the number of known accidents is significant, an actual number of unintentional discharges of these types of firearms is not known since "near-miss" scenarios are frequently not reported.
This problem is compounded by the nature of personal defense in that incidents involving use of a firearm for protection are largely unpredictable. Because of this unpredictability, personal defense firearms are typically worn by a user or stored in close proximity to the user. As a result, an amount user interaction, both intended and unintended, with personal defense firearms is substantially greater than an amount of user interaction with firearms intended for recreational use. The significant amount of time that users interact with their personal defense firearms creates a demand for lighter, smaller, and concealable firearm designs. However, these features can also create situations which may increase a risk of unintentional discharge.
For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0242329 to Carr et al. (hereinafter "Carr") describes a compact foldable handgun. Carr describes that a handgrip is movable between a firing position and a storage position and that the handgrip can pivot relative to a frame. Can's handgrip is also movable along the frame in a direction aligned with a barrel. The design described by Can utilizes both rotational and axial movement of the handgrip to move between the firing position and the storage position. Can's ammunition is exposed in the storage position and Cares design is capable of discharging in both the firing position and the storage position.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0377361 to Osborne (hereinafter "Osborne") describes a collapsible pistol. Osborne describes a pistol which may be opened into a ready-to-fire position with a single hand. Osborne further describes that manipulation of the pistol into and out of the open, ready-to-fire position can be accomplished by a user having relatively small hands and/or relatively low grip strength. Thus, Osborne presents an example of design features for quick and easy operation of a personal defense firearm but which also increase a risk that the firearm may be unintentionally discharged by a child.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0321981 to Voigt (hereinafter "Voigt") describes a folding pocket pistol. Voigt describes that the design of the pocket pistol is for the purpose of being easily carried and stored without resembling a firearm. The design described by Voigt is capable of discharging in both the folded and the unfolded configuration.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0356710 to Full (hereinafter "Full I") describes a folding compact pistol. Full I describes that a handle actuates relative to a frame and also rotates relative to the frame to fold the pistol. Full I's ammunition is exposed in the folded position and Full I's design is capable of discharging in both the folded position and the unfolded position.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0033026 to Full (hereinafter "Full II") describes a folding pistol. Full II describes modifications to an existing pistol which detaches a handgrip of the existing pistol from a frame of the existing pistol. Full II further describes a grip is movable between an extended position in which the pistol is operable and a stowed position in which the free end of the grip is adjacent to the frame. Full II's ammunition is exposed in the stowed position and Full II's design is capable of discharging in both the extended position and the storage position.
Thus, these conventional personal defense firearms suffer from a variety of challenges that may render the firearms unsafe in practice. Conventional systems designed specifically for concealment have increased risks of unintentional or accidental discharge. Further, many of the conventional firearms have sacrificed safety features in favor designs that are quick to operate and easy to discharge. Moreover, conventional firearms are typically capable of being operated by a small child such as the toddler in the tragic example above. Specifically, a small child that has the coordination, strength, and reach to operate the conventional systems may be able to unintentionally discharge a round intended for use in personal defense.


Provided are wearable glasses including a display and a method of operating the same. The wearable glasses include: a display configured to display an image; a sensor configured to acquire wear state information representing a state in which a user currently wears the wearable glasses, while the image is being displayed on the display; and a processor configured to determine an inclination of the wearable glasses with respect to the user based on the acquired wear state information, and to adjust, based on the determined inclination, the image that is displayed on the display.

1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with one or more exemplary embodiments relate to image display apparatuses and methods, and more particularly, to wearable glasses and a method of displaying an image on the wearable glasses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wearable glasses are a type of wearable device that is worn on the head, like eyeglasses. In particular, wearable glasses are a type of head mounted display (HMD) that is worn on the head of a user and displays an image in front (e.g., directly in front) of the eyes of the user.
Since wearable glasses are temporarily fixed onto the head of a user by a frame or the like, a location or position of the wearable glasses on the head of the user may change due to movement of the user. In general, wearable glasses include a near-to-eye display system that displays an image within several centimeters from the eyes of a user. Thus, an output image is greatly distorted even by a fine position change of the wearable glasses.

Wearable glasses and method of displaying image via the wearable glasses


A rear sight assembly is disclosed. The rear sight assembly contains a housing defining a first opening, a second opening, and a third opening, a rear sight mechanism containing a thumb wheel positioned in the first opening, at least partially threaded support member positioned in the second opening and the third opening, wherein the at least partially threaded support member is threaded through the thumb wheel, and a rear aiming point member adjustably coupled with the at least partially threaded support member.

To provide increased accuracy, firearms known in the art are equipped with a front sight system 1 and a rear sight system 2 as shown in FIG. 1. By aligning front and rear sights, the direction of a fired bullet can be more accurately predicted. As is known, however, a particular setting of the sighting system is only accurate for a particular range of distances because a bullet drops as it travels forward due to the effects of gravity. When the sights are non-adjustable, they must be aimed further and further above the intended target as the distance to the target increases, making the firearm more difficult to accurately aim. This is especially problematic when attempt to aim at distant targets if the sights accurately predict the bullets trajectory at shorter distances, for a user may have to aim far enough above the target so as to make it difficult to determine if the sights are actually aligned with the target. Therefore, there exists a need for an improved sight.
In the following description, like reference numbers are used to identify like elements. Furthermore, the drawings are intended to illustrate major features of exemplary embodiments in a diagrammatic manner. The drawings are not intended to depict every feature of every implementation nor relative dimensions of the depicted elements, and are not drawn to scale.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A GPS navigation receiver channel tracks satellites' Doppler frequencies sequentially during the twenty milliseconds that the signal is coherent in each bit time of the navigation data modulation. It measures frequency by differencing the angles of signal-vector sums weighted by parabolic humps, exploiting the commutativity of linear processing operations to raise the signal-to-noise ratio before the nonlinear operation phase of detection.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to global positioning system devices and navigation receivers and more specifically to methods and apparatus for providing accurate position, velocity, and time solutions in high-acceleration, low-signal applications using only two receiver channels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A unique direct-sequence spectrum-spreading code modulates each global positioning system (GPS) satellite signal by alternating the signal's phase by one hundred eighty degrees. The receiver commonly despreads the signal by multiplying it by a replica of the transmitted code. The despread signal is the sum of a component in phase with a real or hypothetical local-oscillator signal and of a second component ninety degrees out of phase with that local oscillator, which components together constitutes a two-dimensional signal vector whose angle corresponds to the despread signal's phase.
A data message carrying data that describe the satellites' positions and carry other information about the GPS system also modulates the signal by modulo-two addition with the spreading code at a fifty-hertz rate. Since the data message's content is not generally known in advance at the receiver, the receiver design commonly assumes the transmitted signal to be coherent for only the twenty milliseconds of each bit time.
In effect, the satellite's and the receiving antenna's relative motion further modulates the phase of the GPS signal, but in a continuous way rather than in steps of one hundred eighty degrees. The antenna's relative velocity therefore has the effect of a frequency modulation, or Doppler shift. The receiver commonly makes measurements of this motion-caused phase modulation, either as it affects the phase of the spreading-code modulation or the phase of the despread carrier or both.
The receiver commonly tracks the phase of the spreading code by inducing small code misalignments and measuring their effect in order to maximize the amplitude of the despread signal. The receiver also commonly measures or tracks the phase of the despread signal, whether or not those phase measurements also contribute directly to the navigation solution, in order to compute the Doppler shift, by manipulating the frequency or phase or both of the local-oscillator signal. The Doppler shift, which is the rate of change of the signal phase, must be known to tune the receiver, since the possible Doppler shift of many kilohertz is much greater than the narrow bandwidth needed to receive each despread GPS signal.
The receiver commonly averages over time to reduce the noise of phase measurements, either before or after the nonlinear phase-detection operation of measuring the signal vector's phase angle. Because of this operation's nonlinearity, the signal must dominate the noise at the phase detector if the receiver is to recover useful phase information from the signal. This effect, in which signal-to-noise ratios below a certain detection threshold at the antenna cause substantial loss of information, is common to angle-modulation systems, including common frequency-modulation broadcasting.
Detecting phase first in a wide bandwidth to create a phase function .phi.(t), then averaging over a time T which coincides with or is within the twenty-millisecond data-bit time during which the signal is coherent ##EQU1##
has the advantage of eliminating the need to synchronize any pre-detection averaging or band-limiting with the bit edges, since the duration of the contamination of the phase function by the incoherence at each data-bit edge is a negligible fraction of the bit time. This technique is therefore often used when a high signal-to-noise ratio can be relied upon.
Averaging the signal vector first for as long a time as it is coherent, that is, for the twenty-millisecond bit time, ##EQU2##
has the advantage of significantly lowering the detection threshold, for example, by a substantial thirteen decibels when the predetection averaging is lengthened from one millisecond to the full twenty milliseconds. This allows use of much noisier signals. Although the scaling shown is correct for the vector average, the scaling of this or any predetection averaging is actually irrelevant since phase detection discards amplitude information.
Except in special cases in which time, altitude, or other position information is known, a GPS navigation receiver must track at least four satellites to find its antenna's position in three dimensions. A receiver that has enough channels can dedicate a channel to tracking each satellite. When there are more satellites to track than channels to track them, receivers ordinarily resort to time-sharing strategies. Deliberately providing only a few channels to be shared among the satellites tracked reduces size, hardware complexity, and cost, at the expense of loss of signal power or risk of loss of carrier-phase lock.
A "multiplexing" receiver, as referred to herein, completes at least one cycle of channel-sharing during each twenty-millisecond bit time. It operates otherwise much like a multi-channel receiver, receiving phase and data almost continuously from all satellites tracked. However, a four-satellite multiplexing receiver averages the signal for no more than one-fourth of the bit time, and therefore pays a six-decibel detection-threshold penalty.
A "sequencing" receiver, as referred to herein, dwells on each satellite for one or more bit times. Sequencing receivers usually include two channels, one to sequence among the satellites for navigation and one to dwell on one satellite for a longer time to accumulate data, since the sequencing channel misses most of the data bits from any one satellite.
A sequencing receiver that dwells on each satellite for the one bit time needed for optimum linear processing is a "fast-sequencing" type, as used herein. Assuming that it can visit four satellites within one hundred milliseconds, the largest step that a nineteen meter-per-second-per-second acceleration can produce in that 100-millisecond cycle time is ninety-five millimeters or one-half wavelength at the L1 carrier frequency of 1.5754 gigahertz. Thus acceleration of 1.94 times that of earth's gravity, or 1.94 G, is needed before the phase uncertainty exceeds the maximum that can be identified unambiguously.
This does not mean however that it is possible to track carrier phase under two-G acceleration with a single GPS receiver channel. Even though the carrier phase can be determined in a single 100-millisecond interval, the Doppler shift due to velocity is still unknown. So, without a way to remove the effect of the present velocity from the next measurement, the phase-shift due to further acceleration will add to that due to present velocity. The quickest way to measure velocity from phase measurements every one hundred milliseconds is by differencing successive phase measurements to get the average velocity between them. The greatest velocity change that a 0.97 G or 9.5 meter-per-second-per-second acceleration can produce in the one hundred milliseconds between the centers between velocity measurements is 950 millimeters per second, which velocity corresponds to a phase change of ninety-five millimeters in the one hundred milliseconds between phase measurements or one-half wavelength at the L1 frequency. The practical result is to preclude tracking carrier phase per se across the gaps in each satellite's reception except for the most sedate applications with accelerations under one G.
Consequently, sequencing receivers have commonly been designed to reacquire each satellite for each new cycle of the sequence. Such a receiver ordinarily needs about five seconds to sequence a channel around to all the satellites being tracked. Thus it is a "slow-sequencing" type as used herein. The signal strength needed to acquire or reacquire a satellite is much greater than that needed to maintain continuous tracking. Thus the signals must be strong; so conventional slow-sequencing receivers, like multiplexing receivers, are particularly hampered by low signal levels. In summary, slow-sequencing receivers sequence slowly because they must reacquire the satellites; and they must reacquire the satellites because so much time elapses between successive measurements due to their slow sequencing.

Two-channel fast-sequencing high-dynamics GPS navigation receiver


A self-propelled agricultural harvesting machine has at least one height-adjustable pick-up device for adapting an agricultural front attachment which is supported via at least one support wheel which, when in the transport position, is in contact with the ground. A braking device brakes the wheels of the agricultural harvesting machine. A control device regulates the ground pressure of the at least one support wheel on the ground when the braking device is activated.

The present invention relates to a self-propelled agricultural harvesting machine that includes an installed front attachment which is supported when in a non-working position by at least one support wheel system which is in contact with the ground, and that includes a braking device.
The output of agricultural harvesting machines continues to increase, thereby requiring the use of increasingly larger and heavier front attachments. Typically, headers of combine harvesters are detached from the combine harvester and placed on a carriage in order to be hauled on the road. In contrast, corn headers and corn pickers are typically not detached from forage harvesters in preparation for travel on the road; instead, they remain attached to the forage harvester. In preparation for travel on the road, these front attachments can be folded using different types of folding mechanisms, in order to decrease their width, as is the case with grain-cutting devices.
A disadvantage of this is the fact that, since the front attachment is situated on the carriage and the weight is therefore shifted onto the individual axles, in particular due to the reduction of the load on the front braked drive axle, the harvesting machine requires a longer braking distance once braking is activated, with the result that limits in terms of a maximum permissible braking distance are exceeded. There is also the problem that, when the load on the front braked drive axle is too great, the rear of the harvesting machine is lifted off of the ground during braking.
DE 199 18 551 makes known an agricultural harvesting machine designed as a forage harvester that includes an intermediate attachment on the front side that accommodates an agricultural working device. To ensure that the load of the agricultural working device need not be supported exclusively by the carrier vehicle axle situated at the front relative to the direction of travel, it is provided in at least one embodiment that support wheels are assigned to the intermediate attachment that make it possible for at least a portion of the mass of the agricultural working device to be supported on the ground via these support wheels so that, provided that the support wheel is in contact with the ground, a distribution of axle load is attained that fulfills the applicable requirements. The disadvantage of this, however, is that, given that the available support wheel absorbs a partial load of the installed front attachment, the resultant distribution of axle load negatively affects the braking procedure in that the axle load on the braked drive axle is no longer sufficient, with the result that limits in terms of a permissible maximum braking distance may be exceeded.
Publication DE 10 2005 001 412 A makes known a carriage which is used to support a front harvesting attachment which is installed on a harvesting machine. To relieve weight from the wheels of the harvesting machine, the carriage includes at least one wheel that extends downward and that is installed on the carriage frame using a resilient element. Spring action is attained using a hydraulic cylinder which is connected to a pressure reservoir and forms a closed system which may be separated from the hydraulic system of the harvesting machine for travel on the road. The pressure is adjusted in such a manner that a desired drivability of the carriage may be attained.

Agricultural harvesting machine with height-adjustable support device

CLAAS Selbstfahrende Erntemaschinen GmbH


The present invention relates to compact header structures of various forms used in wireless access systems as well as a method and apparatus for the transmission and reception of data using such headers. The method for receiving data wherein the mobile terminal uses the Persistent Allocation (PA) mode in one of the embodiments of the present invention comprises the step of receiving a Downlink Persistent Allocation MAP Information Element (DL PA MAP IE) from the base station, which contains information relating to the resource region allocated for persistent allocation in the downlink, and the step of receiving the downlink data containing a Compact Medium access control Header (CMH) via said resource region revealed by said information. At this stage, the CMH can contain an indicator that indicates whether the downlink data contains an extended header, and a length field indicating the length of the data payload.

Hereinafter, a header used in a wireless access system will be described in brief.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a normal medium access control (MAC) header used in a wireless MAN mobile communication system based on an IEEE 802.16 system which is one of a wireless access system.
Referring to FIG. 1, a medium access control protocol data unit (MAC PDD) includes six subheaders together with a generic MAC header (GMH). A subheader per PDU is inserted to the rear of the generic MAC header. Each field included in the generic MAC header will be described below.
A header type (HT) field represents a type of a header for a corresponding PDU. For example, the HT field represents whether a corresponding MAC PDU is either a generic MAC header which includes payload at the rear or a signaling header for control of bandwidth request, etc. An encryption control (EC) field represents encryption control, more particularly represents whether payload has been encrypted. A type field represents the presence of a subheader suffixed next to the header and a type of the subheader. An extended subheader field (ESF) field represents the presence of an enlarged subheader suffixed next to the header.
Also, a CRC indicator (CI) field represents whether CRC is suffixed to the rear of payload. An encryption key sequence (EKS) field represents an encryption key sequence number used for encryption if payload is encrypted. A LENgth (LEN) field represents a length of MAC PDU. A connection identifier (CID) field represents a connection identifier to which MAC PDU is transferred. Connection is used as an identifier of a MAC layer for data or message transfer between a base station and a mobile station. The CID serves to identify a specific mobile station or a specific service between the base station and the mobile station. A header check sequence (HCS) is used to detect an error of the header. In FIG. 1, a number in a parenthesis next to each field name represents bits occupied by each field.
Hereinafter, the CID used in the embodiments of the present invention will be described in brief.
In a mobile communication system, a mobile station (MS) can be classified through a user equipment identifier (UE ID) in 3GPP or connection ID (CID in IEEE 802.16). CIDs are used to identify a mobile station that performs communication with a base station if the base station and the mobile station perform communication through a common channel.
Hereinafter, a CID in a system that supports multiple carriers will be described in brief.
In the IEEE 802.16 which is one of portable Internet and wireless access systems, CID of 16 bits can be used. The CID means an address for classification and identification of connection mapped into a service flow required between peers on a MAC sub layer. At this time, the location of the CID can be indicated by the MAC PDU header.
In the wireless access system, connections between the mobile station and the base station are identified by the CID in the MAC header, wherein the CID can be matched with a service flow identifier (SFID) that defines service QoS parameters related to the CID.
The CID is allocated to each of logical connections, and one base station uses each CID set. Since CID has a length of 16 bits, the base station can use a total of 65536 CIDs. Each of the CIDs can be used depending on its use. Accordingly, predetermined CIDs are previously defined for broadcast control, and the other CIDs can be allocated to the respective mobile stations.
Examples of the CIDs allocated to the mobile stations (MSs) include basic CID, a primary management CID, a plurality of transport CIDs, and a secondary management CID. At present, the mobile communication system prescribes that a total of 16 CIDs can be allocated to one mobile station. In this case, about 4000 mobile stations can be represented by one CID set. If one mobile station has five CIDs, about 13000 mobile stations can be managed by one base station (BS) through the current CID structure.
If persistent and fixed resource regions are used for real time data communication and/or voice communication, the base station and the mobile station transmit and receive data units very frequently. At this time, although headers included in the respective data units have various kinds of information, all kinds of information are not always required.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for transmission and reception of data using compact header, which substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide various header structures and methods for transmitting data for efficient data communication.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a compact MAC header of which size is reduced by classifying functions and uses of CID depending on respective layers (for example, MS ID and flow ID) and using identifiers optimized for each function and use.
Other object of the present invention is to provide a method for identifying each service through a MAC layer even without flow ID used in a compact MAC header and normally transmitting each service from a base station and a mobile station to an upper layer even without corresponding flow ID, whereby the size of the compact MAC header can be more reduced.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

Method and apparatus for transmission and reception of data using a compact header


A modular conduit system is provided which includes at least one longitudinally extending shell component including an interior wall and an exterior wall, a first longitudinally extending edge, a second opposed longitudinally extending edge, an engagement tab located adjacent the first longitudinal edge, an engagement slot located adjacent the second longitudinally extending edge, the engagement slot having an enlarged portion and a narrow portion, the enlarged portion configured to receive an engagement tab from another longitudinally extending shell, the narrow portion configured to interfere with removal of the tab in a direction transverse to the slot. The longitudinally extending shells are combinable to form a conduit member which are themselves combinable to form a longitudinally extending array of conduit members. Swiveling elbow joints may be inserted between conduit members to provide changes in direction. Also provided are interengaging panels that cooperate to form containment barriers and which are configured to allow conduit members to pass into or out of the containment barriers.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to conduit containment systems for cables, ducts and pipes.
2. Related Art
Electrical cables, fiber optic cables, gas pipes, water pipes can be delicate and subject to damage, or be hazardous under certain circumstances. For example, electrical utilities may repair damaged or failed electrical cables located in conduits underground. In some instances it may be necessary to place a high voltage electrical cable bypass on a road or sidewalk surface when, for example, pulling the damaged cable or trenching and installing a new cable is not feasible. A bypass may also be referred to as a shunt. In some instances, a bypass can be used to reroute a cable transmission around a problem area while repairs are made to the problem area. In many instances the bypass must be protected against external elements. For example, the presence of a bypass on open ground may present a hazard for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Accordingly, a protective conduit may be used in an attempt to protect the bypass and/or pedestrians from tripping and falling over the bypass or from electrocution. A protective conduit may also be used to help guard the bypass against snagging or collision with motor vehicles. Another problem that a protective conduit may guard against is cable theft by preventing access to the cable.