A mutliview video decoding apparatus including: a decoding unit which decodes one of coded videos without reference to a coded video to generate one of decoded videos, and decodes an other one of coded videos with reference to the one of the coded videos to generate an other one of decoded videos; an error detecting unit which detests an error-source image in the decoded videos; and a decoded image replacing unit which replaces the error-source image with an image generated using a previous image that is decoded before the error-source image, without using the second decoded video that is other than the first decoded video that includes the error-source image, and replaces an associated error image that is associated with the error-source image with an image generated using an associated previous image that is associated with the error-source image, without using the first decoded video.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multiview video decoding apparatus, a multiview video decoding method, a multiview video decoding program, and a multiview video decoding integrated circuit for decoding a plurality of multiview coded video streams having a reference relationship.
(2) Description of the Related Art
There have been proposed three-dimensional image coding methods for enabling three-dimensional visual recognition by humans.
Examples of such methods include a method of preparing two kinds of videos including at least one video for the left eye and one video for the right eye captured in mutually different directions, coding the videos such that the two kinds of videos have a mutual reference relationship, and multiplexing the coded video streams to generate a multiview video.
This method has been recently standardized as the Multiview Video Coding (hereinafter referred to as MVC) in Non-Patent Reference 1 (International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) Recommendations "H.264", issued in March, 2009).
Each of FIGS. 14A and 14B is a diagram illustrating MVC according to the conventional art.
MVC defines coded video streams in which two kinds of videos from a plurality of viewpoints have a mutual reference relationship.
The MVC defines two kinds of multiview coded video streams: one of which is at least one coded video stream (hereinafter referred to as a coded video stream at the base view side) that does not refer to another coded stream and thus can be independently decoded by the coded video stream itself, and a plurality of streams (hereinafter referred to as coded video streams at the dependent view side) each of which has a mutual reference relationship with the base view.
The following exemplary descriptions are given assuming that the coded video stream at the base view side coded based on the left-eye viewpoint is a coded video stream for L, and that the coded video streams at the dependent view sides coded based on the right-eye viewpoints are coded video streams for R.
FIG. 14A is an illustration related to MVC, and shows an exemplary picture structure of the image for L (a decoded image resulting from the coded video stream at the base view side) and an exemplary picture structure of an image for R (a decoded image resulting from the coded video stream at the dependent view side).
In the diagram, images for L and images for R are shown in decode orders. In the diagram, I denotes a picture (hereinafter referred to as an I-picture) composed of intra coded images. In addition, P denotes a picture (hereinafter referred to as a P-picture) including inter coded images. In addition, B denotes a picture (hereinafter referred to as a B-picture) including bi-directional coded images.
As for the I-picture among the pictures, it is possible to reconstruct the original image data of the I-picture based only on the decoded data of the I-picture itself. However, the remaining P-picture and B-picture require a reference image and reference images, respectively, in addition to the result of decoding the pictures themselves so that the original image data of the pictures themselves can be reconstructed. Here, smaller numbers show images output earlier. In addition, (L) and (R) denote images for L and R, respectively.
FIG. 14B is an illustration related to MVC, and is a diagram showing the pictures in FIG. 14A in display order.
Each of the arrows in the diagram denotes a reference relationship, and more specifically, shows that, in inter coding, the image as a source of the arrow is referred to in order to reconstruct the image indicated by the arrow. For example, the diagram shows that, in order to decode B-picture B0 (L), I-picture I2 (L) as a reference image is required in addition to the result of decoding the B-picture B0 (L) itself. This is true of the other images for L that are Pictures B1 (L), B4 (L), and P5 (L).
The diagram shows that, among the images for R, each of images (pictures) B0 (R), B1 (R), B3 (R), B4 (R), and P5 (R) refers to a corresponding one of the images for R in the same manner as in the case of the images for L, and that these images (pictures) and image (picture) P2 (R) can also refer to the image for L that is displayed at a substantially the same display time as the display time of each of the pictures for R. In other words, the diagram shows that the images for R have reference relationships with images for L. In this case, the coded video stream for R shows a coded video stream at the dependent view side.
FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating coded video streams in the conventional art coded according to the MVC Standard. In other words, the diagram shows an example of MVC-based reference relationships between the images for L and the images for R.
In the diagram, the upper sequence represents output images for the left eye, and the lower sequence represents output images for the right eye. In other words, L-1 to L-6 denote output images generated by decoding a coded video stream for the left eye, and R-1 to R-6 denote output images generated by decoding a coded video stream for the right eye. Here, smaller numbers show images output earlier.
In addition, the image name L-5 underlined denotes an output image generated by decoding an intra coded image, and the other image names denote output images generated by decoding inter coded images.
Each of the arrows shows that, in inter coding, the image that is the source of the arrow is referred to in order to decode the image indicated by the arrow. For example, the diagram shows that Images R-2 and L-3 are referred to in order to decode an image R-3.
In the cases where multiview coded video streams generated in this way are input from an optical disc or a hard disc, are transmitted using wireless communication, and are subjected to streaming distribution, there is a possibility that errors such as a bit reverse, a bit loss, and a bit inclusion occur before the multiview video streams reach the decoder sides. This causes a problem of degrading the image quality of the resulting decoded images.
Patent Reference 1 (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application
Publication No. 2003-319419) discloses a multiview video decoding apparatus which solves this problem.
The decoding apparatus disclosed in Patent Reference 1 is an apparatus which generates reproduced images by reading out and decoding coded video streams from a recording medium having thereon coded video streams generated by imaging a subject in imaging directions.
This multiview video decoding apparatus includes: a recording medium reading circuit which reads out coded video streams from a recording medium having recorded thereon image data generated in the respective imaging directions when the subject is imaged in the respective imaging directions; and a decoding circuit which saves the coded video streams read out from the recording medium reading circuit and then decodes the coded video streams. The multiview video decoding apparatus further includes: a decoding error detecting circuit which detects whether or not any one of the coded video streams includes an error; a decoded image buffer in which the decoded images generated by the decoding circuit are stored for the respective imaging directions; and an error image concealing circuit which performs, in the case where one of the coded video streams includes an error, error concealment by replacing, in units of an image, decoded error images with a decoded image of another channel, and outputs the replacement as the output images.
The multiview video decoding apparatus disclosed in Patent Reference 1 has a structure as shown in FIG. 16. In other words, FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a structure of a multiview video decoding apparatus 1000 according to the conventional art. It is to be noted that the following descriptions are given assuming that the multi-channel coded streams are two-channel coded video streams that are an L-channel coded stream for the left eye and an R-channel coded stream for the right eye.
As shown in the diagram, the input multi-channel coded video streams are decoded by a decoding unit 1010 first to be decoded images. In the case where no error is found up to this process, the L-channel decoded image is sent to a decoded image buffer L1041 for the L channel as an output image L to be a final L-channel output image. Likewise, the R-channel decoded image is sent to a decoded image buffer R1042 for the R channel as an output image R to be a final R-channel output image.
These output images are sent to a display device for multiview video (for three-dimensional video) devised such that L-channel output images can be displayed for the left eye of a user and R-channel output images can be displayed for the right eye of the user. This allows the user to recognize the images as a three-dimensional video.
Here, if the error detecting unit 1020 detects an error in one of the channels, for example, in the R channel, and judges that accurate decoding is impossible, only the output image for the right eye may be lost, or an image including the error may be displayed.
In order to prevent this, the error detecting unit 1020 outputs, to an output image determining unit 1030, an instruction for causing the L-channel decoded image having substantially the same display time to be transferred also to the error image concealing unit R1060 for the R channel. The output image determining unit 1030 receives this instruction, and causes the L-channel decoded image to be output as an output image R from the decoded image buffer L1041, via the error image concealing unit R1060.
This makes the output image for the right eye and the output image for the left eye become identical to each other, but makes it possible to prevent a situation in which an image is lost or an image including an error is displayed.
Furthermore, Patent Reference 2 (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. 7-322302) discloses error concealment by copying a previous image of a channel in which an error is found.
In FIG. 16, the arrow from the buffer 1040 (the decoded image buffer L1041 and the decoded image buffer R1042) to the decoding unit 1010 shows that decoded images are referred to in inter decoding of a coded video stream.

Multiview video decoding apparatus, multiview video decoding method, multiview video decoding program, and multiview video decoding integrated circuit


A urinalysis stick for animals comprising a chemical reaction agent at an end, a color sample showing the discoloration stage at a rear end, and a half cut portion or a half fold portion provided in the middle of the stick for tearing off or folding the stick into half, so that an owner can easily examine urine of animals such as dog, cat and the like by himself/herself.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a urinalysis stick for animals which makes it possible for an owner of animals to easily examine the pH, protein, glucose, occult blood and the like in the urine of animals such as dog, cat and the like by himself/herself.
2. Description of the Related Art
A person can voluntarily collect his/her urine in a container such as a paper cup or the like. On the other hand, a dog or a cat will not discharge urine even if an owner orders it. Therefore, the owner has to wait until the animal shows a sign of urination, and collect urine rapidly in an instant of urination. In the case of a male dog which urinates outside by raising his one hind leg, it is possible to receive urine by inserting a paper cup in the crotch region. A female dog, however, squats to discharge urine, therefore, there is only a small gap between the ground, and it is not possible to insert a container for collecting urine in the crotch region. Similarly, both male and female cats trained to discharge in a pet toilet bowl in a room squat to discharge urine, therefore, it is not possible to collect urine by inserting a container in the crotch region.
Accordingly, the present inventor considered direct examination of urine instead of collecting urine. That is to say, a urinalysis stick for human urine make use of the animal urinalysis. In this manner, it should be possible to examine fresh urine promptly on the spot, by inserting the urinalysis stick in the crotch region of not only male dogs but also female dogs and cats.
On the actual trial, however, it was found that the commercially available urinalysis stick for a person was inconvenient unexpectedly. That is to say, the urinalysis stick for a person is separated a color sample showing the discoloration stage for judging the examination result from the stick. For instance, the color sample is only printed on the outside of a container for receiving the stick or on the outside of the package for receiving the container. Therefore, if an owner wants to examine the urine during a walk of a dog, he/she has to bring the urinalysis stick held in the container, or bring the color sample by tearing off from the package. Moreover, if the owner tries to receive the urinalysis stick wet by urine in a bag for droppings carried with him/her, the bag may be punctured by the end or rear end of the stick. In this case, clearing becomes a troublesome job.


An adjustable door stop for a hinge mounted door having at least one hinge leaf connected to the door, one hinge leaf connected to a doorway, and a hinge pin. A body receives the hinge pin in order to rotate substantially perpendicular to the axis of the hinge pin. An adjustable mechanism extends from the body and rests against the doorway. A finger extends from the body substantially parallel to the axis of the hinge pin so that the hinge leaf connected to the door may rest against the finger, thereby stopping movement of the door.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adjustable door stop that may be utilized with existing hinge mounted doors. In particular, the present invention relates to an adjustable door stop for hollow core doors that will not mar or damage the door.
2. Prior Art
Door stops are well known devices used to prevent opening doors from causing damage to doors, door knobs, or adjacent walls. While some door stops require special hinge leaves or hinge pins, the present invention is directed to a door stop that may be added to standard, existing, hinge mounted doors.
One popular type of door stop is held in place by a hinge pin and includes a padded, adjustable post that rests against the doorway and a padded post that rests against the door. Many of the doors in use today are hollow core doors with only a thin exterior. Continual pressure against the door by the post resting against the door will result in damage to the door.
A patent search has been conducted and the Applicant is aware of the following U.S. Patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Patentee Issue date ______________________________________ 689,201 Koester Dec. 17, 1901 747,570 Pickop Dec. 22, 1903 1,455,550 Rodell May 15, 1923 1,644,249 Harrison Oct. 4, 1927 2,993,226 Baker et al July 25, 1961 2,280,655 Madsen April 21, 1942 2,592,230 Allen April 8, 1952 ______________________________________
Koester (U.S. Pat. No. 689,201), Pickop (U.S. Pat. No. 747,570), Rodell (U.S. Pat. No. 1,455,550), Harrison (U.S. Pat. No. 1,644,249), and Baker et al (U.S. Pat. No. 2,993,226) each show examples of door stops requiring specially constructed or adapted hinge leaves or hinge pins in order to operate.
Madsen (U.S. Pat. No. 2,280,655) discloses a flange extending from a plate received on the hinge pin. The stop is not adjustable, however, and limits the opening of the door to a single position. The stop is also not reversible, that is it may not be used with either left or right opening doors.
Allen (U.S. Pat. No. 2,592,230) discloses a pair of plates mounted on the hinge pin. The plates have a series of aperatures which receive a pin in order to lock the plates in place and impact against the opening door.
Accordingly, it is a principal object and purpose of the present invention to provide an adjustable door stop that will not impact against the door in order to prevent damage to the door.
It is a further object and purpose of the present invention to provide an adjustable door stop that may be added to and utilized with various hinge mounted doors.


An interior permanent magnet motor in provided which is made up of a permanent magnet, and a rotor core of which an insertion aperture for the permanent magnet to be inserted thereinto is formed in the rotor core. Additionally, the interior permanent magnet motor includes a first end plate which is connected to the rotor core and of which a first seating portion for the permanent magnet is disposed thereto is formed in the first seating portion and a second end plate which is connected to the rotor core and of which a second seating portion for the permanent magnet is disposed thereto is formed in the second end plate.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor. More particularly, the present invention relates to an interior permanent magnet motor and manufacturing method for the same.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a interior permanent magnet (IPM) motors have emerged in recent years as a very strong contender to replace induction motors used in electronically controlled variable speed applications. In most cases, IPM motors can provide superior performance in terms of increased efficiency, improved torque output and reduced noise and thus they are a great candidate for application in a HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle).
IPM motors are wound similarly to the induction motors found in a typical home, but (for high efficiency) they use very strong rare earth magnets in the rotor. These magnets contain neodymium, iron and boron, and are therefore called Neodymium magnets. Along with being highly efficient, IPM motors may also supply an increased amount of torque and thus, they are ideal for use in HEV vehicles.
However, because IPM motors are used for a HEV drive motor which is utilized for, e.g., driving an HEV vehicle forward and backward, repeated engagement with an engine clutch and so on, the construction of the permanent magnet within the IPM motor is considerably important.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Interior permanent magnet motor and manufacturing method for the same


A connector is made from a circular cylindrical body split into a plurality of unit arcuate conductive strip materials in the axial direction. A desired number of the arcuate conductive strip materials are arranged in an annular shape to form a cylindrical socket body defining a plug inserting hole. A plurality of annular grooves are formed along the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical socket body, and a spring band is wound on each of the annular grooves so that a group of the conductive strip materials of the cylindrical socket body are bundled in such a manner as to be able to expand and contract.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector for interconnecting, for example, an electric power source and a piece of equipment, and which is particularly suitable for feeding a large amount of electric power to the equipment.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
As related prior art, there can be listed Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 59-27048. The invention disclosed in this Publication has the following construction. Six conductive strip materials having an equilateral hexagonal configuration in section are bundled together, by a spring band, in such a manner as to form a hollow member so as to form a socket. The arrangement is such than when a plug for a power source and a plug for a piece of equipment are inserted into the plug inserting hole defined by the hexagonal conductive strip materials under pressure from each side, the conductive strip material group is increased in diameter against a binding force of the spring band so as to permit the plugs to be inserted into the plug inserting hole under pressure from each side. At the same time, the respective conductive strip materials are contacted, under pressure, with the plugs by means of the binding force of the band, and when the plugs are withdrawn from each side of the plug inserting hole, the respective conductive strip materials are reduced in diameter by the binding force of the spring band.
The socket is comprised of a plurality of equilateral hexagonal conductive strip material units bundled into a hollow member, and the socket is limited to a six-split structure. In other words, the socket is designed such that it is difficult to increase the contact spots with the plugs by increasing the number of split portions (strips).
For the same reason, the external configuration of each socket is necessarily formed such that humps and valleys are arranged in turn. There is a fear that the conductive strip material group is one sided owing to the provision of the deep valleys, and is not properly increased or decreased in diameter. In addition, because of the structure having humps and valleys arranged in turn, the spring band is wound on the intermittently formed grooves. Accordingly, it becomes an unstable structure in which the binding force is intermittently exerted to the respective conductive strip materials. As a consequence, the valleys act as escape grooves for the conductive strip materials, and the conductive strip materials are easily one sided.
Furthermore, the above-mentioned conductive strip materials are formed by cutting a hexagonal deformed bar material into a predetermined size. The deformed bar material is very expensive. In addition, it is required to obtain a specially deformed bar material having an octagonal shape, or more sides in order to increase the number of splits of the socket. Therefore, it is not commercially practicable. As a result, the above-mentioned conventional product can not expect an increased split number.


A system for driving a lamp module (13) includes a converter (11), a driving circuit (12), and a pulse width modulation (PWM) controller (14). The lamp module includes a plurality of lamps. The converter converts a received voltage to a direct current (DC) voltage. The driving circuit converts the DC voltage to an alternating current (AC) voltage. The PWM controller is connected between the converter and the lamp module, for regulating the DC voltages outputted from the converter according to current flowing through the lamps of the lamp module. In one embodiment, the system includes a bus inverter controller. The bus inverter controller is connected between the driving circuit and the lamp module, for regulating a working frequency thereof and controlling the AC voltage outputted from the driving circuit when the lamps are turned on. The system has a reduced number of PWM controllers and a relatively low cost.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems for driving plural or multiple lamps, and particularly to a system typically used for driving plural or multiple lamps of a backlight module of a liquid crystal display (LCD).
2. Related Art
Generally, a discharge lamp used as a light source of a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel has a terminal voltage characteristic that varies according to the frequency of alternating current applied to the discharge lamp. The discharge lamp also exhibits a negative impedance characteristic whereby the impedance decreases upon an increase in input power. A circuit for driving the discharge lamp can for example be an inverter. The circuit should be configured with a controllable alternating current power supply and a feedback loop, for monitoring the current flowing through the lamp to ensure stable operation and to regulate the load as well.
A conventional system for driving plural lamps normally requires two pulse width modulation (PWM) controllers. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional system for driving plural lamps. The system comprises a converter 1, a bridge driving circuit 2, a lamp module 3, a PWM controller 4, and a bridge controller 5. The converter 1 converts a received direct current (DC) voltage or alternating current (AC) voltage to a DC voltage. The bridge driving circuit 2 converts the DC voltage received from the converter 1 to an AC voltage. The AC voltage is used for igniting lamps in the lamp module 3. The PWM controller 4 receives the DC voltage outputted from the converter 1, and generates a feedback signal to control the converter 1 to output a fixed DC voltage. The bridge controller 5 is another PWM controller, which is connected between the lamp module 3 and the bridge driving circuit 2. The bridge controller 5 is used for controlling the bridge driving circuit 2, in order to regulate current flowing through the lamp module 3.
Thus, the conventional system for driving plural lamps uses two PWM controllers. The two PWM controllers respectively receive different feedback signals to control the system. One is used for regulating current flowing through the lamps, and the other is used for fixing the DC voltage outputted from the converter 1. A PWM controller is expensive, especially a PWM controller used for driving a multi-lamp module. Therefore, the cost of the conventional driving system requiring two of the PWM controllers is inevitably high.
It is desired to provide a system for driving plural or multiple lamps such as those of an LCD, the system having a reduced number of PWM controllers and a relatively low cost.


A method for producing an optical information recording medium includes the steps of: coating a solution for forming a dye recording layer onto a surface of a rotating disc-shaped resin substrate; and discharging a cleaning solution from a nozzle onto a peripheral edge to remove the dye recording layer from the peripheral edge, wherein discharge of the cleaning solution is initiated 1.0 to 300 seconds after completion of the coating, and the nozzle is disposed on a plane that extends in a normal line direction of the substrate and includes a straight line representing a discharge direction of the cleaning solution, so that an angle defined by the discharge direction and the normal line is 0 to 60°.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing an optical information recording medium, and more particularly, to a method for producing an optical information recording medium that includes a disc-shaped resin substrate having a peripheral edge disposed with an non-recording region.
2. Description of the Related Art
A CD-R is a writable, optical information recording medium (optical disc) on which information can be written only once by irradiation with laser light, and is widely known. CD-Rs are advantageous in that, in comparison with conventional CDs in which information is recorded by forming pits on a substrate by injection molding, a small number of CDs can be manufactured rapidly and at a reasonable cost. Moreover, the demand for CD-Rs has been escalating recently with the spread of personal computers.
CD-Rs typically comprise a transparent disc substrate having successively disposed thereon a recording layer formed of an organic dye, a metallic (e.g., gold) reflective layer, and a resin protective layer. Information is recorded on the optical disc by irradiating the optical disc with a laser in the near infrared region (ordinarily laser light having a wavelength in the vicinity of 780 nm). Specifically, the portion of the dye recording layer that is irradiated absorbs the light, whereby temperature increases at the irradiated portion. The local increase in temperature deforms the recording layer (e.g., to form pits) at the irradiated portion, whereby information is recorded. The recorded information is ordinarily reproduced by irradiating the optical disc with a laser having the same wavelength as that of the laser used to record the information, and by detecting a difference in reflectance between the region of the recording layer that has been thermally deformed (recorded portion) and the region of the recording layer that has not been deformed (unrecorded portion).
Recently, writable digital versatile discs (DVD-Rs) have also been put to practical use as media having a larger recording capacity than CD-Rs. DVD-Rs typically comprise two transparent disc substrates that each have successively disposed thereon a recording layer formed of an organic dye, a reflective layer, and a resin protective layer, with the discs being adhered together so that the recording layers face inward, or comprise the transparent disc substrate and a protective substrate having the same disc shape as the disc substrate that are adhered together. In each transparent disc substrate, there is formed a guide groove (pre-groove) for tracking laser light irradiated during recording. The pre-groove has a width (0.74 to 0.8 μm) that is equal to or less than half the width of the pre-groove of a CD-R.
The outer peripheral edge of a CD-R or DVD-R is a non-recording region where no dye recording layer is disposed. The purpose of the non-recording region is to improve the outer appearance of the disc by covering the dye recording layer with the reflective layer, and to enhance adhesion by directly adhering the protective layer to the substrate. The dye recording layer is formed by spin-coating a dye solution onto the surface of the substrate and drying the dye solution. However, although it is possible to initiate spin coating so that the spin coater begins coating from a somewhat limited position at the inner periphery of the substrate, it is difficult to control the range of coating towards the outer periphery. For this reason, the dye recording layer is generally first disposed on the entire surface of the substrate, and then cleaning solution is jetted onto the dye recording layer at the outer peripheral edge to remove the dye recording layer from the outer peripheral edge and create the non-recording region.
There are generally two ways that the non-recording region is formed in this manner during the process of producing the optical disc. One is by washing/removing the dye recording layer immediately after it has been formed, and the other is by washing/removing the dye recording layer after both it and the reflective layer have been formed. Below, the former may be called "earlier washing" and the latter may be called "later washing".
In the case of earlier washing, there are problems in that droplets of the cleaning solution may be scattered onto portions of the recording layer that are not to be removed, whereby those portions are dissolved and recording errors occur at those portions during recording or playback.
In the case of later washing (i.e., when the dye recording layer is formed by spin-coating the dye solution onto the surface of the substrate and allowing the dye solution to dry, and washing is conducted after the reflective layer is formed only on the recording region of the dye recording layer), the non-recording region is formed by washing only the portion of the recording layer disposed at the outer peripheral edge, where the reflective layer is not formed. However, practical problems arise in that the shape of the edge of the recording layer may become irregular depending upon washing conditions. In addition, because time lapses after coating the dye recording layer, there is the problem that it takes time wash the recording layer.
It is possible to prevent the cleaning solution from being scattered and adhering to the dye recording layer by preforming the non-recording region by spin-coating the dye solution onto the surface of the substrate except for the outer peripheral edge and allowing the dye solution to dry to thereby form the dye recording layer, and then washing after the reflective layer has been formed on the dye recording layer. However, because it is difficult to control the range of coating towards the outer periphery of the substrate, the dye recording layer intrudes into the area where the substrate and the reflective layer should ordinarily be closely adhered together, which reduces adhesion between the substrate and the reflective layer. When adhesion is reduced in this manner, water or oxygen may intrude from outside into the dye recording layer, whereby storage stability of the recording medium is reduced.

Apparatus for producing optical information recording medium


Disclosed is a method for manufacturing a conductive organic thin film device. An air-bridge type of an upper electrode is formed over a lower electrode by using a sacrificial layer and then a gap having a thickness of several nano meter is formed in a part at which the upper electrode and the lower electrode intersect by removing the sacrificial layer. The conductive organic molecules are uniformly adsorbed between the upper electrode and the lower electrode of the nano gap. Adsorption extent of the conductive organic molecules is confirmed by observing a current flowing through the upper and lower electrodes when the conductive organic molecules are adsorbed. Thus, reproducibility of a manufacturing process is improved and mass production is facilitated by adoption of a standardized process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a conductive organic molecular device using organic molecules with a conductivity property and, more particularly, to a method for manufacturing a nano-scale organic molecular device capable of improving reproducibility of a manufacturing process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a conductive organic molecular device that uses organic molecules with a conductive property (or a conductive organic semiconductor) is manufactured in various methods. As an instance, there is a method using self-assembly monolayer as an active layer [see Molecular Nanoelectronics, Chapter M, edited by American Scientific Publishers]. In this method, an insulating film SiN is formed on an upper and lower surface of a silicon (Si) substrate and then a hole with several micrometers diameter is formed in a lower portion of the substrate and the lower insulating film SiN. Also, a nano-sized pore is formed in the upper insulating film SiN at the top of the hole with an electron beam etching technique. The nano-sized pore takes a bowl shape with the opening at the upper edge. Next, a lower electrode is formed by evaporating a metal from the bottom side to fill the nano-sized pore and the substrate is immersed into a solution in which conductive organic molecules are dissolved. At this time, the conductive organic molecules are self assemble onto an exposed surface of lower electrode in the pore and form a highly ordered monolayer. After the conductive organic thin film is formed on the lower electrode, an upper electrode is formed on the conductive organic thin film. At this time, the upper electrode is formed by a method using a shadow mask or an ion milling method of depositing a conductive material on an entire substrate and then leaving only a portion of the conductive material [see Nano-scale molecular-switch devices manufactured by imprint lithography, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 82-10, 2003 1610].
In the related art as described above, it is required to use dry etching equipment such as chemical reactive ion etching (RIE or ICP/RIE) equipment in order to form the nano-sized pore. Further, in order to form a clear pore, the upper insulating film has to be ion-etched for enough time. At this time, a residue such as a polymer may remain in the pore, which disturbs adsorption of a good quality of conductive organic molecules onto the lower electrode. In particular, because most of the conductive organic molecules adsorbed onto the lower electrode are damaged by acetone, solvent or the like, a photo-etching process cannot be implemented using a photoresist that includes the acetone or the solvent, and the like, after the conductive organic molecules are adsorbed onto the lower electrode.

Method for manufacturing organic molecular device

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


Disclosed are a system and method for providing fault isolation in a computer system including a central processing unit ("CPU") capable of issuing a signal to a memory to retrieve a requested instruction from the memory when the CPU is booted. The disclosed invention comprises an interception and substitution circuit, coupled to the CPU, capable of intercepting the signal and providing an alternative diagnostics instruction to the CPU in lieu of the requested instruction, the alternative diagnostics instruction providing an indication of proper functioning of the computer system when executed by the CPU. The circuit allows a user to determine whether the CPU and components proximate the CPU are functioning, even when a fault renders conventional, embedded power-on self-test routines non-functional.

Diagnostics routines consist of a series of instructions executed by the CPU within the computer system to allow self-diagnosis. For years, computers have been provided with diagnostic routines that test and report on the operational status or functionality of components within the computer, allowing an interested party to repair or replace components that are not functioning to the desired degree.
Diagnostics code is sometimes stored on disk and retrieved therefrom for execution by the CPU. One advantage of disk-based diagnostics is that disks provide a relatively large area in which to store code, allowing diagnostics routines to be relatively sophisticated and thorough in their testing and reporting. Unfortunately, diagnostics routines are frequently invoked when components in the computer are not completely functional. To successfully retrieve and execute disk-based diagnostics, the following components must be fully functional: CPU, address and data buses, bus controller, disk drive controller, disk drive and keyboard. If any significant information is to be relayed back to the user, a display device or a printer and their associated interface hardware must also be fully functional. It is apparent therefore that if any one of these components is not fully functional, the diagnostics may not execute or interact with the user properly.
One solution to the above-noted problem with disk-based diagnostics was solved in part by embedding diagnostics code in solid state memory within the computer. Thus, read-only memory ("ROM"), for instance, was employed to store diagnostics as firmware. One type of embedded diagnostics is power-on self-test ("POST") diagnostics, generally stored in basic input-output system ("BIOS") ROM in personal computers. POST is a series of tests that the computer performs on its components each time the computer is turned on. POST begins by reading system configuration information that has either been hard-wired or stored in non-volatile memory. It then checks random access memory ("RAM") by writing to and reading from the RAM to ensure proper operation. POST next examines the disk drives to confirm that they match the system configuration information. Lastly, POST initiates the loading of the operating system, "booting" the computer. Failure during execution of POST isolates the fault area for proper diagnosis. Each phase of the POST routine involves a check of the computer systems major components: the memory, hard-disk drive, diskette drive and operating system.
In contrast to disk-based diagnostics, embedded (or ROM-based) diagnostics require the following components to function: CPU, address and data buses, bus controller and keyboard. Again, if any significant information is to be relayed back to the user, a display device or printer and their associated interface hardware must also be fully functional. Although ROM-based diagnostics are typically required to fit within a smaller space and therefore do not have the luxury of being as thorough as disk-based diagnostics, it is apparent that fewer components need be functional to successfully retrieve and execute embedded diagnostics.
As will be more thoroughly described later, personal computers have a unique bus structure comprising a relatively fast "host" bus that directly connects the CPU and system RAM. A slower input/output ("I/O") bus provides a connection to BIOS ROM and peripheral interfaces (or "slots") that, in typical IBM-compatible personal computers are of an extended industry-standard architecture ("EISA"), allowing peripheral cards to be inserted into the slots to add function to the system. A bus controller joins the host and I/O buses together to allow communication therebetween. The bus controller typically contains interface logic allowing the host and I/O buses to trade data back and forth despite speed differences. The bus controller also contains bus controller memory, usually ROM, that stores data used in conjunction with the interface logic to allow communication between the two buses.
Since the CPU and BIOS ROM are coupled to the host and I/O buses, respectively, retrieval of ROM-based POST diagnostics depends on the full functioning of both buses. If the computer fails to retrieve POST diagnostics, the user must assume that a problem exists either in the CPU, the host or I/O buses, the bus controller, the ROM BIOS, any one of the EISA slots or in the display and its associated interface hardware. Therefore, even ROM-based diagnostics are unable to localize problems to a fewer number of components than this if they cannot be successfully retrieved for execution. (The ability of diagnostics to localize or isolate faults can be thought of as its "resolution," a higher resolution being desirable for obvious reasons.)
The issue of minimizing the number of components required to retrieve and execute diagnostics is not merely theoretical. In practice, EISA peripheral cards introduce many opportunities for faults to occur. These cards are complex, containing many devices per card. Furthermore, these cards reside in physically long slots containing many electrical connections. Failure of any one of the devices on any one of the cards or a fault occurring in any one of the slots can short circuit the I/O bus, potentially completely disabling it. In addition, failure of the BIOS ROM can render POST unloadable and therefore nonexecutable.
Thus, a problem arises when BIOS POST is not available to diagnose the computer. Clearly, there exists a need in the art to more locally diagnose faults in a computer when BIOS POST is unable to load for execution, namely, when a fault prevents the CPU from retrieving POST instructions from ROM.

Computer system having an instruction interception and substitution circuit


A wearable electronic device is disclosed. The wearable electronic device comprises a ring body and a substrate. The ring body has an outer cover and an interface disposed on an exterior of the outer cover, with the ring body defining an annular receiving space within the ring body. The substrate is disposed in the annular receiving space and has a plurality of capacitive plates.

Mobile computing devices, such as mobile phones, are increasingly prevalent. As additional functions are developed for mobile computing devices, users spend more time using the devices. Known mobile computing devices, however, require a user to look at and interact with a screen in order to use the mobile computing device. Although mobile computing devices are useful in a wide range of applications, the increasing amount of time spent looking at the screen of mobile computing devices detracts from social encounters and also diminishes other interactions of the user with his environment. Mobile computing device users have a need to easily and intuitively utilize the benefits of the mobile computing device without spending large quantities of time looking at the screen.

Wearable electronic device with interface


A method for producing a core sand and/or molding sand for casting purposes mixes a basic granular mineral molding material such as silica sand with an additive based on an organic or inorganic component, a binding agent being optionally added. The additive is coarsely ground prior to the mixing process, more than 50 percent by weight of the grains having a minimum size of approximately 0.05 mm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for the production of a core sand and/or molding sand for casting purposes, according to which a basic granular mineral molding material, such as quartz sand, for example, is mixed with an additive based on an organic and inorganic component, if applicable with the addition of a binder, and according to which the mixture essentially has additive grains and basic molding substance grains and/or aggregate grains of the additive and the basic molding material.
The core sand for casting purposes serves, as usual, to define cores in cast pieces. In contrast, molding sand is generally understood to mean a sand that determines the external shape of the cast piece in question. Core sand and molding sand are included in the general category of casting sand. The basic granular mineral molding material is understood to be a mineral basic material in granular form, for representing the desired casting mold. This basic material is generally present in the mixture with the additive and, if applicable, with the binder, in a proportion of 80 to 90 wt.-%, preferably more than 90 wt.-%, and very particularly preferably more than 95 wt.-%. In this connection, the weight data relate to the finished mixture, in each instance. In this connection, the related basic material grains possess an average grain size up to 0.5 mm, mainly in the range between 0.10 mm to 0.30 mm.
2. The Prior Art
A method of the type described initially is disclosed within the scope of DE 196 09 539 A1. This is a composition containing casting sand and an additive, whereby the additive comprises kryolith. Kryolith is known to belong to the mineral class of the halogenides, which characterize the compounds of metals with fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine. Kryolith is used in aluminum metallurgy to a great extent. In addition, a mixture of zeolite (in other words an inorganic component) with at least one component from minerals, wood meals, organic fiber material, hydrocarbons, carbon, etc. (in other words an organic component) are used.
The known method, just like the comparable approaches corresponding to EP 0 891 954 A1, attempts to avoid casting defects, particularly so-called sand expansion defects. These are attributable to expansion of mold substances, i.e. of the mold parts, during casting and solidification within the casting mold, and are known as defect phenomena of cast pieces.
Thus, the metallic material that flows into the casting mold produced from the casting sand, i.e. the core sand and/or molding sand, causes thermally related expansion of the mold piece in question (of the molded casting sand), because of its heat effect due to radiation as well as heat conduction. As a result, there are temperature differences in individual mold part zones, which result in significant differences in tension. If the mechanical/thermal stresses that accompany the tension differences exceed the deformability and the tensile strength of the mold part in the stress cross-section, and if the cast material is sufficiently capable of flow, defect phenomena occur due to liquid material that penetrates into cracks. To put it differently, the actual casting process might result in fine cracks in the molding material, i.e. in the casting sand or casting mold sand, into which the liquid metal can penetrate. The metal therefore leaves its predetermined shape, whereby these defect phenomena are referred to as expansion defects, furrows, leaf ribs, etc.
In this connection, leaf ribs tend to form particularly when using chemically solidified mold substances on the inner contours (cores of the cast parts). Such leaf ribs are consequently difficult to access and require time-consuming and cost-intensive re-finishing by means of polishing the cast part that has been produced. In some cases, the leaf ribs actually cannot be removed at all.
For this reason, in the past, the cores in question have been equipped with a refractory coating, by means of the process of so-called core dressing, by spraying, dipping them, etc. In this way, penetration of the liquid metal into the fine cracks described is supposed to be prevented or at least reduced. However, core dressing is connected with significant effort and expense.
In the state of the art, these defect phenomena, i.e. the leaf rib formation in cast parts, is counteracted in that wood meal, starch, various iron oxides, etc., are added into the quartz sand, i.e. the basic granular molding material. These organic and inorganic additives are able to reduce leaf rib formation, but this is achieved at the cost of a relatively rough casting surface. Here, the invention wants to provide an overall remedy.

Method for the production of a core sand and/or molding sand for casting purposes


A technique for selectively frequency translating optical channels in an optical network is disclosed. In one exemplary embodiment, the technique is realized as a method for selectively frequency translating optical channels in a system having W optical frequencies. The method comprises selectively directing an optical channel operating at a respective one of the W optical frequencies based at least in part upon the respective optical frequency of the optical channel. The method also comprises shifting the respective optical frequency of the selectively directed optical channel by an amount defined by xc2x12ixcex94f, wherein xcex94f is an optical frequency spacing between adjacent optical channels, and i=0, 1, . . . log2Wxe2x88x921.

The present invention relates generally to optical switching and, more particularly, to a technique for selectively frequency translating optical channels in an optical network.
All-optical wavelength conversion plays an important role in transparent wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks. For example, it enables better network utilization, network transparency to bit-rates and to packet formats, as well as simpler network management. Until recently, two wavelength conversion techniques have been popular involving either cross-gain or cross-phase modulation. However, these solutions are limited by the single input or output capability of cross-gain or cross-phase converters.
The first proposed wavelength-interchanging cross-connects are based on cross-gain or cross-phase modulation. These designs comprised a central optical space switch and dedicated or shared tunable wavelength converters based on cross-gain or cross-phase modulation. The wavelength converters were placed at inputs, outputs, or shared between inputs and outputs, of the central optical space switch. In this configuration, individual wavelength channels were usually switched in two steps. In one step, the space switch directed individual wavelength channels to the appropriate fibers. In another step, wavelength channels were converted to appropriate wavelengths by a single wavelength conversion operation. For this reason, and for future reference, these previous designs are called single-stage wavelength conversion architectures.
Single-stage designs optimally exploit cross-gain and cross-phase wavelength conversion, while minimizing non-negligible conversion impairments. Yet these single-stage architectures often lead to large photonic wavelength converter requirements. In fact, a non-blocking wavelength-interchanging cross-connect with F fibers and W wavelengths per fiber would require F.W converters based on cross-gain or cross-phase modulation.
Wave-mixing can also provide photonic frequency conversion. Two forms of wave-mixing frequency converters have been demonstrated, which are either based on four-wave mixing or on difference-frequency generation. Four-wave mixing is a nonlinear optical process based on third order nonlinear susceptibilities. It can be described as the interactions of any subset of three waves from a larger set of input waves in a nonlinear medium. For each subset of three interacting waves, a resulting wave is produced with an amplitude proportional to the product of the amplitudes of the interacting waves, and a phase and frequency linearly dependent on the phases and frequencies of the interacting waves.
Four-wave mixing frequency converters have been demonstrated in passive media such as glass fibers and in active media such as semiconductor optical amplifiers. They provide bulk frequency-mirroring and phase conjugation, by mapping each input optical frequency, fin, to an output frequency, fout=2fpxe2x88x92fin, where fp is the frequency of a pump wave. However, the generation of in-band cross-talk severely limits the use of four-wave mixing for bulk frequency-conversion.
Difference-frequency generation is another form of wave-mixing. Unlike four-wave mixing, it is based on second order nonlinear susceptibilities. It is explained by the interaction of each wave from a set of input waves at different frequencies with a high power pump wave in a nonlinear medium. Like four-wave mixing, the interaction of each input wave with the pump wave yields a resulting wave with an amplitude proportional to the product of the amplitudes of the pump and input waves, and a phase and frequency linearly dependent on the phases and frequencies of the input and pump waves. Specifically, difference-frequency generation enables bulk frequency conversion and maps each input wave at some input frequency, fin, to another wave at output frequency, fout=fpxe2x88x92fin, where fp is the frequency of the pump wave. However, unlike four-wave mixing, difference-frequency generation does not generate in-band cross-talk terms. For this reason, difference-frequency generation is a practical alternative to providing wave-mixing bulk frequency conversion, along with other optical signal processing functions.
Bulk frequency conversion, or the ability to simultaneously change the frequencies of several input, waves, is a major advantage of wave-mixing frequency conversion. Unfortunately, this important feature of wave-mixing is unused in single-stage wavelength conversion architectures. Therefore, there is a need for other architectures capable of leveraging the potential of wave-mixing, and of reducing the costs of wavelength-interchanging cross-connects.
One proposed solution involves a family of switches optimized for wave-mixing. These cross-connects provide wavelength conversion in a multi-stage manner, and convert the wavelengths of channels through cascades of elementary frequency conversions. In this proposed solution, 2xc3x972 elements are space switches, while inter-stage connections involve fixed wavelength conversions. This proposed solution is rearrangeably non-blocking, and its converter requirements are half those of dedicated converter architectures (i.e., the all-optical converter requirements are F.W/2). In spite of this improvement, converter requirements remain 0(F.W). This is still too large for practical cross-connects.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a technique for implementing wavelength-interchanging cross-connects which overcomes the above-described inadequacies and shortcomings in an efficient and cost effective manner.
According to the present invention, a technique for selectively frequency translating optical channels in an optical network is provided. In one exemplary embodiment, the technique is realized as a method for selectively frequency translating optical channels in a system having W optical frequencies. The method comprises selectively directing an optical channel operating at a respective one of the W optical frequencies based at least in part upon the respective optical frequency of the optical channel. The method also comprises shifting the respective optical frequency of the selectively directed optical channel by an amount defined by xc2x12ixcex94f, wherein xcex94f is an optical frequency spacing between adjacent optical channels, and i=0, 1, . . . log2Wxe2x88x921.
In accordance with other aspects of this exemplary embodiment of the present invention, wherein the optical channel is a first optical channel and the selectively directed optical channel is a first selectively directed optical channel, the method may further beneficially comprise selectively directing a second optical channel operating at another respective one of the W optical frequencies based at least in part upon the respective optical frequency of the second optical channel, wherein the respective optical frequency of the second selectively directed optical channel is the same as the respective optical frequency of the first selectively directed optical channel after it has been shifted.
In accordance with further aspects of this exemplary embodiment of the present invention, wherein the system comprises a plurality of optical waveguides for communicating the W optical frequencies, and wherein a first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides communicates the first optical channel prior to being selectively directed, the method may further beneficially comprise selectively directing the first optical channel based at least in part upon the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides. Analogously, wherein a second respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides communicates the second optical channel prior to being selectively directed, the method may further beneficially comprise selectively directing the second optical channel based at least in part upon the second respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides.
In accordance with still further aspects of this exemplary embodiment of the present invention, wherein the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides is identified by a first binary representation, the respective optical frequency of the first selectively directed optical channel may beneficially be shifted by an amount defined by xe2x88x922ixcex94f when the first binary representation of the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides has an even value. Alternatively, wherein the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides is identified by a first binary representation, the respective optical frequency of the first selectively directed optical channel may beneficially be shifted by an amount defined by +2ixcex94f when the first binary representation of the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides has an even value. Alternatively still, wherein the first respective one of thee plurality of optical waveguides is identified by a first binary representation, the respective optical frequency of the first selectively directed optical channel may beneficially be shifted by an amount defined by xe2x88x922ixcex94f when the first binary representation of the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides has an odd value. Alternatively even still, wherein the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides is identified by a first binary representation, the respective optical frequency of the first selectively directed optical channel may beneficially be shifted by an amount defined by +2ixcex94f when the first binary representation of the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides has an odd value.
In accordance with additional aspects of this exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the method may further beneficially comprise selectively directing the first selectively directed optical channel based at least in part upon the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides. Analogously, the method may further beneficially comprise selectively directing the second selectively directed optical channel based at least in part upon the second respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides.
In another exemplary embodiment, the technique is realized as an apparatus for selectively frequency translating optical channels in a system having W optical frequencies. The apparatus comprises at least one switching device for selectively directing an optical channel operating at a respective one of the W optical frequencies based at least in part upon the respective optical frequency of the optical channel. The apparatus also comprises at least one optical frequency shifting device for shifting the respective optical frequency of the selectively directed optical channel by an amount defined by xc2x12ixcex94f, wherein xcex94f is an optical frequency spacing between adjacent optical channels, and i=0, 1, . . . log2Wxe2x88x921.
In accordance with other aspects of this exemplary embodiment of the present invention, wherein the optical channel is a first optical channel and the selectively directed optical channel is a first selectively directed optical channel, the at least one switching device may also beneficially selectively direct a second optical channel operating at another respective one of the W optical frequencies based at least in part upon the respective optical frequency of the second optical channel, wherein the respective optical frequency of the second selectively directed optical channel is the same as the respective optical frequency of the first selectively directed optical channel after it has been shifted.
In accordance with further aspects of this exemplary embodiment of the present invention, wherein the system comprises a plurality of optical waveguides for communicating the W optical frequencies, and wherein a first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides communicates the first optical channel prior to being selectively directed, the apparatus may further beneficially comprise at least one other switching device for selectively directing the first optical channel based at least in part upon the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides. Analogously, wherein a second respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides communicates the second optical channel prior to being selectively directed, the at least one other switching device may also beneficially selectively direct the second optical channel based at least in part upon the second respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides.
In accordance with still further aspects of this exemplary embodiment of the present invention, wherein the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides is identified by a first binary representation, the respective optical frequency of the first selectively directed optical channel may beneficially be shifted by an amount defined by xe2x88x922ixcex94f when the first binary representation of the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides has an even value. Alternatively, wherein the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides is identified by a first binary representation, the respective optical frequency of the first selectively directed optical channel may beneficially be shifted by an amount defined by +2ixcex94f when the first binary representation of the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides has an even value. Alternatively still, wherein the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides is identified by a first binary representation, the respective optical frequency of the first selectively directed optical channel may beneficially be shifted by an amount defined by xe2x88x922ixcex94f when the first binary representation of the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides has an odd value. Alternatively even still, wherein the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides is identified by a first binary representation, the respective optical frequency of the first selectively directed optical channel may beneficially be shifted by an amount defined by +2ixcex94f when the first binary representation of the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides has an odd value.
In accordance with additional aspects of this exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus may further beneficially comprise a further switching device for selectively directing the first selectively directed optical channel based at least in part upon the first respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides. Analogously, the further switching device may also beneficially selectively direct the second selectively directed optical channel based at least in part upon the second respective one of the plurality of optical waveguides.
The present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof as shown in the appended drawings. While the present invention is described below with reference to preferred embodiments, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited thereto. Those of ordinary skill in the art having access to the teachings herein will recognize additional implementations, modifications, and embodiments, as well as other fields of use, which are within the scope of the present invention as disclosed and claimed herein, and with respect to which the present invention could be of significant utility.

Technique for selectively frequency translating optical channels in an optical network


A miter saw capable of displaying a specific rotation angle of a turntable and a specific tilting angle of a circular saw blade when the turntable is moved to a position within a predetermined specific rotation angle range and when the circular saw blade is moved to a position within a predetermined specific tilting angle range, respectively. Normally, a digital display displays the rotation angle at a rate of a predetermined display unit rotation angle which is an integral multiple of a predetermined unit rotation angle corresponding to a single pulse. However, if the turntable is moved to the position within the predetermined specific rotation angle range, the specific rotation angle which is not the integral multiple of the predetermined display unit rotation angle is displayed at the digital display. The same is true with respect to the tilting angle.

The present invention relates to a miter saw, and more particularly, to such a miter saw having an angularly rotatable turntable, and a circular saw unit laterally tiltable relative to the turntable.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-254817 discloses a miter saw including a base section, a support section, and a circular saw unit. The base section includes a base and a turntable mounted on the base and rotatable about its axis. A workpiece is mounted on the turntable. The support section upwardly extends from the turntable and laterally tiltable. The circular saw unit is positioned above the base section and is pivotally movably supported to the support section. The circular saw unit includes a circular saw blade and a motor for rotating the blade.
For angled cutting, the turntable is angularly rotated about its axis to change the angle of the side surface of the circular saw blade relative to a fence. For slant cutting, the support section is laterally tilted to change the angle of the side surface of the circular saw blade relative to the upper surface of the turntable.
According to up to date electronic technology, it may be conceivable that a digital display portion is provided in the miter saw so as to display an angular rotation angle of the turntable and a tilting angle of the circular saw blade. To this effect, the miter saw must include detection units for detecting a rotation angle of the turntable and a tilting angle of the support section.
As a rotation amount detection unit, an optical sensor unit is conceivable. For example, the optical sensor unit includes a light emitting element, a disc like element, and an optical sensor. The disc like detected element is rotatable in synchronism with the rotation of the turntable and is formed with a plurality of slits arrayed in a circumferential direction of the disc and spaced away from each other by a constant distance in the circumferential direction. The disc like element generates optical pulse each time the light passes through each slit and non slit region shuts off the light. The optical pulse is detected by the optical sensor. If slit distance is configured to generate a single pulse as a result of rotation of the turntable by 0.05 degrees, 900 pulses are theoretically generated if the turntable is angularly rotated from 0 degree to 45 degrees. Such arrangement would be also available for a tilting amount detection unit.
Renewal of the display of the rotation angle of the turntable at the rate of 0.05 degrees in the digital display appears to be too minute. Therefore, renewal of the display at a unit rate of 0.2 degrees appears to be comprehensive or intuitive for the user. For example successive angle display in the order of 34.8, 35.0, 35.2 . . . are conceivable.
Similarly, renewal of the display of the tilting angle of the circular saw blade at the rate of 0.05 degrees in the digital display appears to be too minute. Therefore, renewal of the display at a unit rate of 0.5 degrees appears to be comprehensive or intuitive for the user. For example successive angle display in the order of 34.0, 34.5, 35.0 . . . are conceivable.
However, display of the angles at an integral multiple of the unit rate only may cause another disadvantage. For example, laid open Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H11-254401 discloses a miter saw for cutting a workpiece at a specific angular rotation angle of the turntable and at a specific tilting angle of the circular saw blade for providing an artificial building material such as a molding member which is a decorative member to be obliquely spanned at a corner region, for example between a ceiling and a vertical wall. To attain the cutting, typical specific angular rotation angles of the turntable such as 22.5 35.5 and typical specific tilting angles of the circular saw blade such as 33.9 must be displayed.

Miter saw having digital display capable of displaying specific angle


A vibrating gyroscope according to this invention includes a ring-shaped vibrating body 11 having a uniform plane, a leg portion 15 flexibly supporting the ring-shaped vibrating body and having a fixed end, a fixed potential electrode 16, and a plurality of electrodes 13a, 13b, . . . , 13f formed on the plane with a piezoelectric film sandwiched between an upper-layer metallic film and a lower-layer metallic film in a thickness direction thereof. In this case, in a representative example shown in FIG. 1, when one of driving electrodes 13a for exciting a primary vibration of the ring-shaped vibrating body 11 in a vibration mode of cos Nθ is set as a reference driving electrode, the plurality of remaining electrodes 13b, . . . , 13f are disposed at specific positions. Such disposition allows this vibrating gyroscope to excite a primary vibration in an out-of-plane vibration mode of cos 2θ as well as detect a uniaxial or biaxial angular velocity by adopting a secondary vibration detector in an in-plane vibration mode of cos 3θ.

In recent years, vibrating gyroscopes using piezoelectric materials have been widely developed. There have been conventionally developed a gyroscope as described in Patent Document 1, including a vibrating body itself made of such a piezoelectric material. On the other hand, there is a gyroscope using a piezoelectric film that is formed on a vibrating body. For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a technique for, using a PZT film as a piezoelectric material, exciting a primary vibration of a vibrating body as well as for detecting partial distortion of a gyroscope, which is caused by a coriolis force generated when an angular velocity is applied to the vibrating body.
Reduction in size of a gyroscope itself is also an important issue as a wide variety of devices mounted with gyroscopes have been quickly reduced in size. In order to reduce the size of a gyroscope, significant improvement is required to accuracy of processing each member of the gyroscope. Desired in the industry are not only simple size reduction but also further improvement in performance of a gyroscope, namely, in accuracy of detecting an angular velocity. However, the configuration of the gyroscope described in Patent Document 2 does not satisfy the demand over the last few years for reduction in size or improvement in performance.
In view of the above technical problems, the applicants of the present invention propose a technical idea of basically performing all the manufacturing steps in a dry process to realize high processing accuracy as well as to satisfy the demand for high performance as a vibrating gyroscope (Patent Document 3).
In addition to the above technical problems, expectations are being increased for a vibrating gyroscope that measures an angular velocity of multi rotational axes (Patent Document 4, for example). Nevertheless, satisfactory development has not yet been made to a vibrating gyroscope that has a simple and useful configuration to realize reduction in size.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H08-271258
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-9473
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-28835
Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-529306
Patent Document 5: Japanese Published Patent Publication No. 2002-509615
Patent Document 6: Japanese Published Patent Publication No. 2002-510398

Vibratory gyroscope using piezoelectric film


The present invention provides an apparatus for measuring thickness of thin materials used for batteries such as an electrode and a separator, the apparatus including an inductive sensor for measuring a length displacement, wherein the sensor comprises a sensor tip having a spherical surface that is retracted by vacuum; a bottom tip disposed on an opposite side of the sensor tip with respect to a sample to support the sample and having a spherical surface; a decompression unit includes a pump to apply a reduced pressure to retract the sensor tip, a motor, a power source, and a control unit; a body including a top surface on which the sample is placed, at a center of which the bottom tip is disposed; and a fixing unit disposed on the body, wherein the sensor is fixed to the fixing unit.

With the recent progress in the weight reduction and functionality increase of portable devices such as smart phones, notebooks, tablet PCs, portable game machines, the demand for secondary batteries as driving power sources is changing. Although nickel-cadmium, nickel-hydrogen, nickel-zinc batteries, or the like were used in the past, lithium secondary batteries, which have high operating voltages and high energy densities per unit weight, are the most popular at present. In recent years, attempts to reduce the thickness of their materials are underway to further increase the energy density.
The electrodes of lithium secondary batteries are manufactured by applying a paste containing a cathode active material or an anode active material and a binder to the surface of a current collector such as an aluminum or copper thin film, and then compressing and drying it. The separator is manufactured by mixing inorganic particles, a binder, or the like, applying the resultant mixture on at least one side of a polymer substrate, and then drying it.
If electrode materials such as an electrode or a separator are not applied with a uniform thickness, problems occur, such as that current is likely to concentrate on a thick part during charging and discharging, and that a short circuit occurs at a relatively thin part. Therefore, quality control on the application of electrode materials with a uniform thickness is an important factor that determines the stable life of a battery.
The thickness of electrode materials is measured during various processes such as the current collector itself, after the application of active materials, and after coating the separator. For the quality control of the product, the thickness measurement should satisfy both of the two criteria of accuracy and precision. Materials that exceed or fall below the criteria upon measurement should be considered defective and excluded from the manufacturing process. In recent years, due to the thickness reduction of products using secondary batteries, such as smart phones, accuracy and precision higher than in the past are required, and the thickness is increasingly becoming the cause of the product failures.
Non-Patent Literature 1 relates to μHITE, an apparatus for measuring height (thickness) manufactured by TESA, Inc. This apparatus is one of the conventional apparatuses for measuring the thickness of electrode materials. The apparatus is capable of measuring down to 100 mm, with an accuracy of ±1 μm. It has a measurement pressure of 0.63N. Both sides of the contact surfaces for measuring the thickness of a sample are flat. The apparatus has problems that it is not possible to correct measurement errors and that it does not provide enough accuracy and precision to meet the current demand for the thickness reduction.
Nine measurements were made using the apparatus of Non-Patent Literature 1 and standard samples with the standard thicknesses of 100, 150, 200, 500, 1000, and 1500 μm, and the following gage bias and gage linearity were obtained as shown in Table 1. The related measurement results are shown in FIG. 1.
TABLE 1GageGage biaslinearity100 μm150 μm100 μm150 μm100 μm150 μm100 μm0.5440.6670.5440.6670.5440.6670.544
The apparatus of Non-Patent Literature 1 showed a deviation of up to 1.75 μm depending on the measurement object. Analysis of the Gage R&R results showed that the output exceeded the acceptable level of 30% (Table 2). Thus, the apparatus was found to be inapplicable to the recent thickness reduction technologies.
TABLE 2ItemAcceptable levelGauge R&R result% Study variation≤30%38.18%% Tolerance≤30%43.66%Number of distinct categories≥43% Contribution—14.58%% Repeatability—7.22%% Reproducibility—7.36%
Meanwhile, the field application results of the technology of Non-Patent Literature 1 showed deviations of 1-1.5 μm, 0-3.5 μm, and 1.2-4.7 μm depending on the measurement site and the measurer although an identical standard sample of 100 μm was used. These deviations mean that the error caused by a deviation may be 30% or more when determining the defect rate of a product, which exceeds the acceptable level of quality control. Thus, Non-Patent Literature 1 is insufficient for application to the future development and production of electrodes, and needs to be improved.
Patent Literature 1 relates to a method and apparatus for measuring the thickness of sheet-like electrodes. It is to provide a method and apparatus for measuring thickness with high precision by avoiding or minimizing the influence of the surface state and deformation of sheet-like electrodes, vibration during measurement, etc.
In Patent Literature 1, a sheet-like electrode 1 is pressed by a pair of rollers 5 and 5′ arranged on the opposite sides thereof, and a pair of contact-type displacement sensors 2 and 3, each of which perpendicularly faces one side of the sheet-like electrode 1 within the pressed region, are made to abut the sheet-like electrode 1 under a constant pressure to measure the thickness of the sheet-like electrode 1. The invention of the measurement apparatus is also characterized in that it is provided with a conveyer mechanism 4 to convey the sheet-like electrode 1, a pair of contact-type displacement sensors 2 and 3, with the sheet-like electrode 1 interposed therebetween, where the sheet-like electrode 1 is conveyed by the conveyer mechanism 4, and the contact-type displacement sensors 2 and 3 are arranged perpendicularly on surfaces of the sheet-like electrode 1, and a plurality of pairs of pressure roller mechanisms 5 and 5′, which are adjacent to the contact-type displacement sensors 2 and 3 and arranged slidably to press the sheet-like electrode 1. The pressure roller mechanisms 5 and 5′ are arranged slidably at at least one of the front, rear, right and left positions with respect to the contact-type displacement sensors 2 and 3.
Patent Literature 1 is to continuously measure the thickness of a sheet-like electrode that is continuously moved and discharged through rollers. Because it measures the thickness using the relative potential values of the displacement sensors disposed on both sides of the sheet, it allows to obtain stable values even if the discharged sheet moves slightly up and down. However, it does not disclose a specific method for measuring with high precision and high accuracy to meet the demand for thickness reduction as sought by the present invention.
Patent Literature 2 relates to a contact-type apparatus for measuring film thickness and a method of using the same. It is to provide a contact-type apparatus for measuring film thickness, capable of constantly and precisely measuring the average film thickness of a predetermined region, regardless of the surface shape and constituent materials of an electrode material layer on a sheet-like electrode member. To this end, the apparatus of Patent Literature 2 is equipped with a surface plate that includes a flat surface and a measurement device that includes a flat contact surface. Thin film member is sandwiched between the surface of the surface plate and the contact surface of the measurement device, and the thickness of the thin film member is measured. At least the mounting surface of the surface plate is made of ceramics.
The contact portion of the sensor for measuring thickness usually has a probe shape, but in such cases, a deformed portion of a fine portion may be measured depending on the roughness of the surface to be measured. In this case, a measurement error with a large difference from the actual value may occur. For this reason, Patent Literature 2 changed the end portion of the measurement probe into a flat shape to measure the average value. Although Patent Literature 2 presents a method for reducing detailed errors in measurement, it does not provide a specific method for measuring thickness with high precision and high accuracy as sought by the present invention.
Patent Literature 3 relates to a method for measuring the thickness of electrode plates. It is to provide a method for measuring the thickness of electrode plates with high precision. To this end, Patent Literature 3 performs the reference detection process of detecting reference index values of a plurality of reference detection points on a reference surface by a displacement sensor, the reference average calculation process of calculating a reference differential value indicating a distance between a virtual reference average surface obtained by correcting the reference surface into a plane and a first reference detection point, and the electrode detection process of detecting an electrode index value of an electrode detection point on an electrode plate by a displacement sensor and at the same time calculating a reference electrode differential value indicating a difference between the first reference detection point and the electrode detection point based on the reference index value of the first reference detection point and the electrode index value. Further, a displacement amount is calculated from the sum of the reference differential value and the reference electrode differential value. The displacement amount is then used to calculate the measurement of the thickness of the electrode plate.
Patent Literature 3 uses a laser displacement sensor to measure the values of a plurality of detection points. The thicknesses of a sample without an electrode and of a sample with an electrode are measured. Then, the thickness of the electrode is determined using the relative difference between the values. However, Patent Literature 3 does not disclose a specific method for measuring thickness with high precision and high accuracy as sought by the present invention.
Conventional technologies only describe the general principles of measuring distances through physical contact or using ultrasonic waves, laser, etc. without providing a practical method that can ensure high accuracy and high precision. In particular, it can be seen that the technology of Non-Patent Literature 1, which is currently used in the field, does not provide a technology that meets the current demand for thickness reduction of electrodes.

Apparatus for measuring thickness of battery materials


An open-end ratchet wrench includes a gripping handle, an actuating arm, a head base, a ratchet wheel, two ratchet pawls, and a damping member. The head base has an actuating hole, the actuating arm has an offset latch, and the actuating hole has an enough margin. The ratchet wheel includes an outer tooth portion, a holding hole, and an opening shaped and sized to match with the gap. Each of the two ratchet pawls comprises a coupling tooth portion for coupling with the outer tooth portion of the ratchet wheel, an escaping area for escaping from the outer tooth portion of the ratchet wheel, and a resilient member to retain a firmly engagement between the coupling tooth portion and the outer tooth portion, so that the actuating arm drives the ratchet wheel to apply a single direction rotating force.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an open-end ratchet wrench, and more particularly to an open-end ratchet wrench adapted for reducing tooth gaps between a ratchet wheel and a ratchet pawl thereof, and prolonging a lifespan of the wrench.
2. Description of Related Arts
A conventional ratchet wrench is not suitable for operation on a cool air pipe nor an oil-pressure pipe, so that an open-end wrench has to be used instead. Therefore, a conventional open-end ratchet wrench has been developed in view of this inconvenience. But the current open-end ratchet wrench has several disadvantages as follows.
Firstly, when a coupling tooth portion of a ratchet pawl is coupled with an outer tooth portion of a ratchet wheel, tooth gaps are inevitably formed between the coupling tooth portion and the outer tooth portion. Thus, unwanted noise and vibration are produced during operation, and positioning errors and unsatisfied performance are also easy taken place.
Secondly, an opening of the ratchet wheel is not provided at a position along a center line of the wrench handle, so that two ratchet pawls cannot be symmetrically provided at two sides of the center line. Therefore, when a user applies a single direction force to drive the wrench handle, stress is easy to be concentrated on the ratchet pawls and the coupling tooth portion of the ratchet pawls may prone to break up, so that the life span of the wrench is not relatively long.
Thirdly, this kind of open-end ratchet wrench is neither motor driven nor air driven. Accordingly, a user has to manually operate on the wrench handle, so that this kind of wrench is hard to meet a requirement of effective and efficient operation performance.


A switch includes two casings engaged together. Four shafts are extendible through the upper casing. Four pairs of ribs are formed in the lower casing. A contact arm is received in the lower casing. Three conductors are provided in the lower casing. A retaining plate and a control plate are slidably provided between the protrusions and the ribs. Each conductor is caused to contact the contact arm when the shaft is depressed downward. Two or more shafts are prevented from being fully depressed by the control plate. A projection of each shaft slides between the ribs so that the shaft will not be distorted when two or more shafts are depressed simultaneously.

The present invention relates to a switch, and more particularly to a press type electric switch.
There are kinds of electric switches used today. One of them is press type electric switch which is widely used in tape recorders, electric fans or other electric facilities for changing the functions of the recorders or for changing the rotating speed of the fans of the electric fans. The press type switch generally comprises three or more buttons which can be pressed individually. The elements within the switch may be deformed or a short circuit may be generated when two of the buttons are pressed simultaneously by children who do not know this is dangerous. As far as the applicant is aware, there is no safety device provided to prevent deformation or distortion of the elements within the switch.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional press type electric switch.

No. 7, Alley 14, Lane 101, Shyue Fu Rd., San Ho Tsun, Ta Ya Hsiang


A method of reconstructing a tomographic image of a region of investigation with reduced artifacts, said method comprises the steps of (a) reconstructing a first partial image and a second partial image of the region of investigation from first and second projection profiles each of which including projection data collected at first and second different groups of parallel projection lines, resp., wherein the first and second projection profiles are provided such that streak aliasing artifacts in the first and second partial images have different spatial phases, and (b) generating the tomographic image of the region of investigation by superimposing the first and second partial images. Preferably, the first and second projection profiles are constructed such that streak aliasing artifacts in the first and second partial images have opposite spatial phases relative to each other. Furthermore, an imaging method and an imaging device for imaging a region of investigation in an object are described.

The non-destructive investigation of objects by transmission or emission tomography imaging methods is generally known. Applications of tomography imaging, like e.g. CT imaging and PET imaging have been developed not only for medical examinations, but also in other technical fields, like e.g. materials sciences or constructions techniques.
CT imaging is based on an X-ray irradiation through a sample plane of the region of investigation with different projection directions. The collected projection data, which comprise attenuation data are subjected to a reconstructing procedure for obtaining an image function representing an image of the region of investigation.
PET imaging is based on the detection of gamma rays emitted by a positron emitting tracer substance after a positron annihilation event. The gamma radiation is detected along a plurality of projection directions (line of response direction, or coincidence line direction). Again, for obtaining the tomographic image, the projection data are subjected to a reconstructing procedure. The entirety of measured projection data, like the attenuation data of CT imaging or the coincidence data of PET imaging, represent so-called Radon data in a Radon space.
Reconstructing an image function on the basis of Radon data can be implemented with the filtered back-projection (FBP), iterative reconstruction methods or polynomial-based algorithms (OPED algorithm, US 2008 0130974 A1). The detection and the reconstructing methods may cause artifacts in the image function, like e.g. streak artifacts. Those artifacts can occur in images of objects including large contrast gradients, e.g. at sharp edges, or as a result of detector noise (noise induced artifacts). Artifacts in transmission or emission tomography may represent an essential restriction of the application of the imaging method.
As an example, artifacts may result in a wrong diagnosis or even a wrong therapeutic irradiation treatment, which is planned on the basis of CT images. In particular, due to artifact generation, the reconstruction algorithms OPED and FBP cannot be used for applications of PET imaging in nuclear medicine. Typically, PET images are reconstructed with the iterative reconstructing methods, which however have a drawback in terms of time consumption.
Artifact generation in conventional reconstructing methods represents in particular a disadvantage if different imaging techniques are to be combined. Combination of CT and PET imaging suffers from the different processing times as a result of the relatively fast OPED and FBP algorithms used for CT imaging and the slow iterative methods used for PET imaging.
Conventionally, attempts have been made for reducing imaging artifacts on the basis of physical approaches, e.g. by optimizing the scanning system or the scanning procedure. Optimization has been made for adapting the measured projection data to the requirements of both the scanning conditions and the reconstruction algorithms. As the aliasing artifacts are created as a result of an insufficient scanning resolution near the steep contrast gradient, a so-called detector offset technique has been proposed for doubling the sampling density. A further increase of the sampling density can be obtained with the "flying focus"-procedure, wherein an additional degree of freedom of the focus of the beam source of a CT device is used. These conventional techniques have disadvantages in terms of increased processing costs due to the essentially increased amount of data and complexity of the imaging device.
On the image processing side, non-linear adaptive filtering of the projection data has been proposed (see J. Hsieh: "Adaptive streak artifact reduction in computed tomography resulted from excessive x-ray photon noise" in "Med. Phys." vol. 25(11), 1998, pp. 2134-2147; and M. Kachelrieb, O. Watzke, and W. A. Kalender: "Generalized multi-dimensional adaptive filtering for conventional and spiral single-slice, multi-slice and cone-beam CT" in "Med. Phys." vol. 28(4), 2001, pp. 475-490). Parameters of the filters are locally changed in dependency on the projection data. Depending on the application, the non-linear filtering may have essential disadvantages with regard to the time-consuming image processing.
Further disadvantages of the conventional techniques are given by the fact that increasing the sampling density allows an increased resolution of the image reconstruction. Thus, the artifacts are not suppressed, but rather represented with increased resolution as well. Furthermore, practical restrictions exist with regard to the image processing approaches as a result of difficulties for defining the non-linear filters, in particular in medical applications. The main problem occurs if image details of interest are suppressed together with noisy imaging artifacts. Furthermore, the image details of interest cannot be reconstructed after a local application of a non-linear filter.

Reconstructing a tomographic image with reduced artifacts

Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen Deutsches Forschungszentrum fur Gesundheit und Umwelt (GmbH)

State of Oregon Acting by and through the State Board of Higher Education on Behalf of the University of Oregon