The disclosure provides a method and a system for processing an authenticator relocation request. When detecting that initial authentication, re-authentication or authenticator relocation is being performed for a terminal, a network side refuses a new authenticator relocation request from the terminal. When detecting that no initial authentication, re-authentication or authenticator relocation is being performed for the terminal, the network side accepts the new authenticator relocation request from the terminal. Further, when detecting that the initial authentication, the re-authentication or the authenticator relocation is being performed for the terminal, the network side refuses a new re-authentication request from the terminal. According to the technical solution of the disclosure, the complexity of network element processing is reduced and potential safety hazard is avoided.

Taking Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) for example, as a new 4G standard, the WiMAX has attracted much attention of telecommunications operators and equipment manufacturers all over the world and predominated in the wireless broadband field. FIG. 1 shows a diagram illustrating a composition architecture of an existing WiMAX network. As shown in FIG. 1, the WiMAX network mainly consists of a Mobile Terminal (MT), a Base Station (BS), an Access Gateway (AGW, not shown in FIG. 1), an authenticator and an Authentication Authorization Accounting (AAA) server and other network elements, wherein the AGW, the BS and the authenticator are located in an Access Service Network (ASN) and the AAA server is located in a Connection Service Network (CSN).
When an MS accesses a network initially, the network assigns an authenticator in the ASN to perform authentication, together with a Home AAA (HAAA) server, on the MS. Before the life cycle of some security parameters or a timer expires, the MS or a network side may initiate re-authentication, which may be accompanied by authenticator relocation, and accordingly, a new authenticator becomes an anchor authenticator of the MS.
Existing relocation of an anchor authenticator may be accompanied by re-authentication in some scenarios while the re-authentication may not occur in other scenarios, wherein in the anchor authentication relocation accompanied by the re-authentication, an old authenticator performs the re-authentication together with an HAAA sever on a new authenticator after confirming the new authenticator. After the re-authentication is ended, the new authenticator notifies the old authenticator that the authenticator relocation has been completed.
The existing anchor authenticator relocation accompanied by re-authentication has the following problems: a plurality of authenticator relocation processes may be initiated/occur at the same time for the same MS session; or a new authenticator relocation request may be initiated when a re-authentication process has not been completed; or a new re-authentication request may be initiated when authenticator relocation has not been completed. In such cases, not only the complexity of network element processing is increased, but also the potential safety hazard may be caused because a network element needs to deal with a plurality of processes and maintain multiple sets of contexts/information at the same time.
Currently, existing technologies are designed just for a re-authentication process; a new re-authentication request is refused through a re-authentication locked state on an anchor authenticator of an MS, in this way, when the re-authentication locked state is in a locked state and re-authentication of the MS is being performed, a network will refuse the new re-authentication request. However, according to the existing technologies, if there is a new authenticator relocation request, the network will not refuse it, thus the new authenticator relocation request is accepted in a process in which the re-authentication occurs. Or according to the existing technologies, when the MS is performing authenticator relocation and if there is a new authenticator relocation request, the network will not refuse the new authenticator relocation request, thus the new authenticator relocation request is accepted in a process in which the re-authentication occurs. Or according to the existing technologies, when the MS is performing authenticator relocation, and if there is a new re-authentication request, the network will not refuse the new re-authentication request, thus the new re-authentication request is accepted in a process in which the authenticator relocation occurs.
The problem also exists in other communication systems. In an LTE system for example, when relocation occurs but has not been completed in a Mobility Management Entity (MME) or a Serving Gateway (S-GW) corresponding to User Equipment (UE), the system should also avoid recurrence of the relocation on the MME or the S-GW of the same UE. As shown in FIG. 2, UE accesses a network via an Evolved Node B (eNB) in an LTE system, an MME is in charge of a UE-related control plane, and an S-GW is in charge of a UE-related user plane. Corresponding functions of an authenticator are realized on the MME.
Existing methods of processing an authenticator relocation request not only increase the complexity of network element processing, but also brings about potential safety hazard because a network element needs to deal with a plurality of processes and maintain multiple sets of contexts/information at the same time.

Method and system for processing authenticator relocation request


Embodiments of methods, systems, or apparatuses relating to adjusting a brightness level of at least one luminescent body disposed, at least in part, on a side emitting backlight display device are disclosed. In a particular embodiment, for example, one or more values representing a light spreading profile for a particular luminescent body may be accessed. A process, system, or apparatus may adjust a brightness of a particular luminescent body by adjusting one or more brightness values associated with that particular luminescent body based, at least in part, on the accessed values.

1. Field
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to methods, systems, or apparatuses relating to adjusting a brightness level of at least one luminescent body disposed, at least in part, on a side emitting backlight display device.
2. Information
Side emitting backlights may be used as a light source in display devices, such as televisions, handheld devices, computer devices, or the like. While side emitting backlights may be desirable for certain devices, or for certain display features, there may also be some challenges with display characteristics for side emitting backlights. As just one example, luminescent bodies disposed on a side emitting backlight may have light distribution characteristics that affect image display characteristics for the device in ways that may be undesirable for a viewer.
Accordingly, there may be a desire to continue to develop approaches or techniques which may potentially mitigate undesirable display characteristics or improve display characteristics which are believed to be desirable.

Adjusting a brightness level of a side emitting backlight display device using light spreading profiles

Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute, Co. Ltd.


A temperature sensor having a two-state input current, an element whose temperature is sensed based on a change in voltage across the element induced by the two states of the input current, a charge-to-digital converter, and a capacitor continuously connected between the element and the charge-to-digital converter. The capacitor experiences a charge difference due to the change in voltage across the element induced by the two states of the input current, and the charge-to-digital converter converts the charge difference to a digital value indicative of the temperature of the element. A two-state DC-shifting current having opposite polarity of the two-state input current, a pull-down resistor whose voltage varies with the two-states of the DC-shifting current, and a second capacitor continuously connected between the pull-down resistor and the charge-to-digital converter operate to shift down a DC operating point of the charge-to-voltage converter to increase its dynamic range.

Temperature sensors are used to measure temperature in electronic devices, such as integrated circuits, and may be used for various purposes such as to detect and protect devices from potentially damaging high temperatures and for compensating for temperature variations to provide more accurate results.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art temperature sensor described in the paper by A. Aita, entitled "Low-Power CMOS Smart Temperature Sensor With a Batch-Calibrated Inaccuracy of ±0.25° C. (±3σ) from −70° C. to 130° C.," IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 13, No. 5, May 2013 (hereafter "the Aita Paper"), which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes. The sensor includes a first source current I1 that is a proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT) current IPTAT, and a second source current I2, where I2=N*IPTAT. Current I1 is passed through a PNP bipolar junction transistor (BJT) Q1 to generate a base-emitter voltage VBE1, and current I2 is passed through another PNP BJT transistor Q2 to generate a base-emitter voltage VBE2. The bases of Q1 and Q2 are coupled together. The areas of the two transistors are equal, i.e., AQ1=AQ2. The difference of VBE1 and VBE2 is referred to as ΔVBE which may be used to determine temperature of the transistors. The value of VBE is given by
            V              B                E              =                  V        T            *              ln                          (                                                    I                C                                            I                S                                      +            1                    )                      ,and the value of ΔVBE is given by ΔVBE=VT*ln (N), where VT is the thermal voltage, IC is collector current, and IS is the saturation current of the relevant transistor (Q1 or Q2). VBE1, VBE2 and ΔVBE are sampled by a delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC) shown in FIG. 1 that includes an integrating stage and a quantizer with the rest of the loop filter in between them. Voltages VBE1, VBE2 and ΔVBE are sampled by the ADC through switched capacitors Cs that operate as resistors. The ADC generates a digital output Dout. The ADC output Dout, VBE and ΔVBE satisfy the relation: Mean{Dout*(−VBE)+Dout*ΔVBE}=0. Temperature information is provided by the average value of the ADC bit stream output Dout according to the relations Mean{Dout}μ⇒μ*(−VBE)+(1−μ)*ΔVBE=0, where
      μ    =                  Δ                          V                      B                        E                                      V                  R                    E                    F                      ,where VREF is a reference voltage used by the ADC.
A disadvantage of the sensor of FIG. 1 is that it requires two PNP transistors and requires that they be well-matched in order to achieve good temperature measurement. Another disadvantage is that it requires differential sampling of input voltages. Another disadvantage is that it requires a significant number of switches and capacitors.
FIG. 2 illustrates a second prior art temperature sensor described in the paper by X. Pu, entitled "A ±0.4° C. Accurate High-Speed Remote Junction Temperature Sensor with Digital Beta Correction and Series-Resistance Cancellation in 65 nm CMOS," 2013 Symposium on VLSI Circuits, Kyoto, 2013, pp. C214-C215 (hereafter "the Pu Paper"), which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes. The sensor of FIG. 2 is similar in many respects to the sensor of FIG. 1. However, the PTAT currents I1 and I2 of FIG. 2 go through the same PNP BJT transistor Q in a switched fashion. This configuration alleviates the need for transistor matching since there is only one transistor. Another advantage is that fully differential ADC sampling is not required. However, the sensor of FIG. 2 has the disadvantage that it requires an external reference voltage, which is a zero-temperature coefficient (ZTC) reference voltage. Another disadvantage is that it requires a significant number of switches, and the switching of the switched capacitors may introduce switching thermal noise and kick and settling effects on the transistor Q, as may the switched capacitors of the sensor of FIG. 1.


A pneumatic tool with safety effect, including: a main body formed with an internal flow way for a fluid to flow into the main body to drive a cylinder therein; a press switch disposed in the main body for blocking the flow way in normal state; a trigger disposed on the main body for pressing the press switch; a slide member slidably disposed on the main body; and a linking member disposed on the slide member. In normal state, the slide member is such positioned that a position difference exists between the linking member and the press switch. When activating the pneumatic tool, a user pushes the slide member to move the linking member to a position above the press switch. By means of pressing the trigger, the linking member is driven to press the press switch.

The present invention is related to a pneumatic tool, and more particularly to a pneumatic tool with safety effect. In case a user mis-touches the switch, the pneumatic tool protects the user from getting hurt.
The switch of a conventional small-size pneumatic grinder is controlled by a trigger. The trigger is disposed on top face of the main body of the grinder, while the grinding disc is arranged on bottom face of the main body. The grinder has small volume and can be held by a hand. In operation, the main body of the grinder is held by a user""s hand and the trigger is pressed down by the palm to switch on the switch and turn on the grinder.
When replacing the grinding disc, the user also holds the main body to disassemble the grinding disc. In such procedure, it is quite easy to touch the trigger. In the case that the user does not extract the high pressure air conduit prior to replacement of the grinding disc, when the trigger is touched, the switch will be switched on to rotate the grinding disc. Under such circumstance, the operator may get hurt. Even if the grinding disc is not being replaced, the operator is still easy to mis-touch the trigger and get hurt.
Moreover, the small-size pneumatic grinder is not equipped with any dust collector so that in grinding, the powder tends to scatter and fly around to contaminate the environment.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a pneumatic tool with safety effect. A user is prevented from mis-touching the trigger so that the pneumatic tool will not be unexpectedly activated to hurt the user.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the above pneumatic tool which itself can effectively remove the powder generated in grinding operation.
The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings wherein:


A braze furnace of the inert gas type cooperatively uses the waste heat from the cooling chamber to vaporize liquid inert gas, while using the coolness of the inert gas being vaporized to accelerate the cooling process itself. The walls of the cooling chamber provide a hollow plenum into which stored liquified inert gas is metered and vaporized. From the plenum, vaporized gas is routed wherever needed to purge oxygen from the system. In addition, liquid gas can be injected directly into the cooling chamber for even quicker, direct part cooling and the purge the cooling chamber.

Aluminum heat exchangers are manufactured by a brazing method in which the mating aluminum parts, tubes, cooling fins, and the like, are coated with a braze material that melts and liquifies at a temperature lower than the melting point of the base aluminum. Wherever a small, controlled gap exists, as between a slot in a tank header plate and the end of a tube in the slot, melted braze material is drawn in by capillary action to create a braze seam that becomes rigid and leak free upon later cooling and solidification. To aid in the process, the workpiece is first flux coated, a layer that also melts when heated. Oxygen would chemically interfere with the braze process if it were present, so it is standard practice to provide a controlled inert gas environment within the braze furnace, which is usually nitrogen, since it is nontoxic and relatively easy to handle. However, nitrogen must be stored in a liquid form in bulk, and must be vaporized before it is used in the brazing process. Therefore, some apparatus must be provided to vaporize it. Typically, liquid nitrogen is run through a separate evaporator and preheater before it is ducted into the braze furnace. In addition, braze furnaces, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,847 often contain a separate means, such as a water jacket, to actively cool the brazed workpiece before it is withdrawn back into the atmosphere.

Braze furnace with improved inert gas system


An electronic device includes: a vibrator disposed within a cavity on a substrate and electrically driven; an enclosure wall which has electric conductivity and sections the cavity from an insulation layer surrounding the circumference of the cavity; a first wiring and a second wiring which connect with the vibrator and penetrate the enclosure wall; and a liquid flow preventing portion disposed at the position where the first wiring and the second wiring penetrate the enclosure wall to prevent flow of etchant dissolving the insulation layer from the cavity toward the insulation layer and insulate the first wiring and the second wiring from the enclosure wall.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electronic device, an electronic apparatus, and a method of manufacturing an electronic device, and more particularly to an electronic device which has a cavity.
2. Related Art
An electronic device containing a function element produced by using MEMS (micro electro mechanical systems) technology is known, which element is disposed within a cavity on a substrate. The function element such as a micro vibrator and a micro sensor has a small structure which vibrates, deforms, or performs other actions. The pressure within the cavity is reduced so that the function element can easily operate.
The method of producing the cavity is disclosed in JP-A-2009-105411. According to the method shown in this reference, an interlayer insulation film is initially formed on an MEMS structure prepared on a substrate. Then, a first covering layer having through holes is so formed as to cover the interlayer insulation film around the MEMS structure. After formation of the first covering layer, etchant is introduced through the through holes of the first covering layer to remove the interlayer insulation film and make a movable unit of the MEMS structure movable. Finally, the through holes of the first covering layer are covered with a second covering layer so as to produce a closed cavity around the MEMS structure. The first covering layer is hereinafter referred to as a covering portion.
In case of the MEMS structure which is electrically driven, the covering portion provided thereon is made of material having electric conductivity so as to prevent entrance of electromagnetic wave noise into the cavity. In this case, wires connected with the MEMS structure needs to be insulated from the covering portion so as to allow extraction of electric signals to the outside of the covering portion.
When an interlayer insulation film is disposed between the wires and the covering portion, this interlayer insulation film is dissolved by etchant. In this case, the etchant having dissolved the interlayer insulation film flows toward the area around the covering portion, which may damage components disposed around the covering portion. For example, when an interlayer insulation film is provided around the covering portion, the enchant damages this interlayer insulation film around the covering portion. As a result, the strength of the covering portion lowers to such a degree that the cavity is difficult to be maintained. Accordingly, such an electronic device which can prevent flow of enchant to the outside of the covering portion has been demanded.

Electronic device, electronic apparatus, and method of manufacturing electronic device


A self-contained light source for attachment to a Hertel-type exophthalmometer. The device requires no structural alteration of the exophthalmometer and allows for variable positioning of the light source on the exophthalmometer. The device is designed to provide the exophthalmometer with hands free illumination of the eye area and the measuring scale to allow the operator use of both hands when measuring exophthalmus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to means for illuminating the exterior of the eye and its surrounding structure during ophthalmological examination and measurement. Specifically, the present invention is directed towards a means for illuminating a Hertel-type exophthalmometer, as seen in American Journal of Opthalomology, June 1987.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
There are known various means for illumination of the eye in ophthalmological examination. Such light devices, for example, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,583,795; 3,847,470; 4,265,519; and French patent number 1,583,436.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,583,795 discloses a form of ophthalmoscope having an elongated light-conducting rod. The light from this rod is directed toward and into the patient's eye by means of a mirror. The light-emitting member disclosed is contained within a handheld ophthalmoscope and is used principally for an examination of the interior of the eye, rather than for a light source for examination of the external eye area providing sufficient reflected light to illuminate the measuring scale of an exophthalmometer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,470 discloses an indirect binocular ophthalmoscope having a single prism and lens system connected to an illuminating arrangement contained internally within the ophthalmoscope, and having a motor driven cooling air ventilator located in a single lamp housing. The disclosed device is directed towards illumination of the interior of the eye with a hand held binocular ophthalmoscope, with the light emitting means being contained within the ophthalmoscope. Thus, the disclosed invention is not suitable for attachment to a Hertel-type exophthalmometer without structural modification of the exophthalmometer.
French Patent 1,583,436 discloses an ophthalmoscope having an internally-situated light-emitting means consisting of light-carrying fiber optic material arranged around a contact lens for illuminating and viewing of the interior of the eye. The disclosed ophthalmoscope is therefore not suitable for illuminating the exterior portion of the eye, and would require structural modification of the exophthalmometer in use therewith.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,519 discloses a wide angle indirect ophthalmoscope along the lines of the above-mentioned French patent, including optical fibers built into a contact lens for the viewing of the interior of the eye. The disclosed invention is therefore not directed towards producing sufficient illumination for the exterior of the eye area, and is drawn towards the reduction of reflected illuminating light rather than the production of reflected illuminating light off of the eye surface as in the present invention.
Thus, it can be seen that the relevant art is fundamentally different in purpose, structure and function from the presently disclosed invention.
It is customary in an ophthalmological examination to measure the protrusion of the eyeballs, i.e. exophthalmos, from their surrounding sockets, i.e., orbits, by taking a measurement of the distance from the lateral rim of the orbit to the apex of the cornea. After such measurement is taken, the value may be compared between each eye and compared to normal values for indications of pathology.
These measurements are most often taken with a Hertel-type exophthalmometer. The Hertel-type exophthalmometer is a device for measuring the protrusion of both eyes with one examination. The Hertel-type exophthalmometer is placed before the patient's face and a reflected image of the eye from lateral orbital rim to the apex of the cornea is cast upon a forward facing measuring scale enabling the operator to obtain a measurement of this lateral distance from a frontal observation. However, normal room lighting is often insufficient to fully illuminate the patient's eye area and thereby reflectively illuminate the exophthalmometer's measuring skill. This lack of illumination can result in inaccurate measurement of eye protrusion.
In the past, various sources of additional lighting have been used with the exophthalmometer. These past forms of additional lighting have suffered from either a lack of ability to be concentrated on the area under examination, as with increased indirect lighting, or required a use of the operators hand to direct the light source, thus requiring the removal of the operator's hand from the exophthalmometer, leading to unsteady placement of the exophthalmometer.
While many lighting devices are known and used in ophtholmological examination, ranging from complex fiber optic devices to a simple hand held flashlight, none have been adapted to provide a point specific light source to allow the measurer to use both hands when utilizing the Hertel-type, exophthalmometer until the current invention.

Exophthalmometer light, and methods of constructing and utilizing same

Handler, legal representative; by Bernice


Various techniques are provided to generate a plurality of reference clock signals using a single reference clock signal generator. In one example, a clock signal generation system includes a reference clock signal generator adapted to provide a reference clock signal. The system also includes a plurality of dividers adapted to divide the reference clock signal using different ratios to provide a plurality of communication port clock signals. The system also includes a plurality of different communication ports adapted to receive the communication port clock signals and adapted to operate in accordance with different communication protocols using the communication port clock signals.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to clock signal generation, and more particularly to clock signal generation using a single clock oscillator in systems that may be used to interface with a variety of different devices over various ports.
2. Related Art
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is the most popular and widely used protocol that has been adopted for communications between computers and peripheral devices. A new USB 3.0 protocol has been developed that will open up new designs in next-generation designs such as digital video delivery and display, external media devices such as Blu-Ray drives, personal computers and server market applications, external HDD storage, and other applications. The USB 3.0 protocol has applied learning from other high-speed serial standards such as PCI Express and Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA).
The USB 3.0 protocol has data transfer rates of 5 Gbps, over 10 times faster than the typical USB 2.0. However, these faster rates may pose significant signal integrity issues and clock jitter requirements that impact system stability and performance in next generation designs.

System and method for generating clock signal for a plurality of communication ports by selectively dividing a reference clock signal with a plurality of ratios


A thermoplastic folded honeycomb structure and method for the production thereof A strip of material is plastically deformed perpendicular to the plane of the material and folded in the direction of conveyance until the cell walls meet and are joined.

The invention relates to a preferably thermoplastic folded honeycomb and to a process for producing preferably thermoplastic folded honeycombs.
Folded honeycombs of this type (WO 97/03816) are produced continuously from a single layer (a flat body). The hexagonal cells are folded herein after the introduction of cuts and are bridged by covering-layer connecting surfaces. In all known folded honeycombs of this type, first of all cuts which weaken the flat body have to be introduced. It is generally assumed that without cuts, the three-dimensional structures introduced into the layer will be distorted by the folding in such a way that the cells formed thereby become weaker.
The object of the invention is to be able to produce folded honeycombs with a good attachment to the covering layers without the introduction of cuts. The object set is achieved on the basis of the measures of claims 1 and 6 and further developed by further features of the subclaims.
In the invention, the flat body (a material web) is plastically deformed perpendicularly to the material plane and narrowed (folded) in the conveying direction, until the cell walls meet and can be connected. In this way, a honeycomb layer with closed covering layers is formed. The material comes furthermore to lie alternately doubled in the covering-layer planes and ensures thereby a good, flat attachment of all the honeycomb cell walls to both covering layers.

Thermoplastic folded honeycomb structure and method for the production thereof


RFID tags capable of operating in harsh environments include an RFID chip and antenna positioned on a ceramic substrate are disclosed. Alternatively, in other embodiments an RFID chip may be positioned inside a metal shell and then secured to a work piece in the hazardous environment.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure is directed to a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag adapted for use in extreme environmental conditions, the encasement of the tag within a metal shell for protection, and the use of the metal shell for radio frequency (RF) coupling.
2. Technical Background
Radio frequency identification (RFID) chips are attached to products for a variety of business reasons, including asset tracking, inventory, and other informational purposes. These uses are sometimes called "RFID tagging". RFID tagging has become increasingly common. Since the advent of second generation Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) standards (i.e. ISO-18000-6c), RFID tagging applications have grown at a rate greater than twenty percent (20%) per year according to some estimates. RFID tag volumes have increased to tens of millions per year and are trending upwards.
Many RFID applications entail specific performance requirements depending on environment and other specifications, one of which may be communication range. RFID communication range is often an important requirement that affects antenna design. Currently, many RFID applications use a standard dipole antenna. The dipole antenna RFID tag may use a metal foil antenna that is directly bonded or capacitively coupled to the RFID chip.
Standard RFID tags tend to be fragile and susceptible to cracking at the RFID chip to antenna interface, or within the antenna itself, and are unstable when exposed to elevated temperatures. This instability does not alleviate the need for RFID tags that operate in extreme environmental conditions.

Radio frequency identification tags and methods employing ceramic components, which may be suitable for use in extreme environmental conditions


A power actuator for moving automotive closure panels between opened and closed positions. The actuator is particularly adapted for actuating the rear tailgate of a pickup truck type vehicle and includes an electric drive motor, a flexible cable assembly, and a strut assembly coupled to the hinge of the tailgate. Electrical control signals are applied to cause the opening and closing motion upon appropriate input electrical signals from vehicle mounted switches. The actuator assembly provides controlled opening rotational rate of the tailgate against the force of gravity through the application of a reduced electrical power level applied to the motor by a separate power source or by shunting the motor to an electrodynamic braking effect. Closing of the tailgate is caused by applying full power to the electric motor. The invention also involves the design of a hinge assembly which efficiently transfers torque between the vehicle body and closure panel, while allowing serviceability of the closure panel.

Motor vehicles are increasingly provided with convenience features to provide powered opening and closing of closure panels. Examples include rear hatches and lift gates of van and SUV type vehicles. Similarly, sliding doors of full size vans and mini-van type vehicles are now often provided with power actuators.
Numerous designs of presently available products are used to provide such closure panel actuation. Examples of such systems are described by the assignees commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,516,567; 5,784,833; 5,782,038; 6,553,719 and 6,324,788, which are hereby incorporated by reference. Several of these patents describe devices incorporating an electric motor actuator which transmits driving torque through a flexible cable to a lead screw type actuator unit. Through controlled rotation of the electric motor, opening and closing of the closure panel is provided.
In addition to closure panels designed for allowing occupant ingress and egress for the vehicle, movable windows may also be power actuated. In addition to power window regulators which raise and lower door glass, flip-out vent windows, pick-up truck cab rear windows, or sail panel windows may also be provided with power actuators.
The rear tailgates of pickup truck type motor vehicles have generally not been provided with power actuators for opening and closing the tailgates. However, increases in the strength and features integrated into pickup truck tailgates have led to their becoming increasingly heavy. Also, in the effort to make opening and closing of pickup truck tailgates convenient for a broad range of motor vehicle users, there is increasing interest in providing power actuation for pickup truck tailgates.
The incorporation of power actuation for pickup truck tailgates and other motor vehicle closure panels should preferably be provided in a manner which enables convenient packaging of the actuator into the vehicle and further does not negatively affect manufacturability and servicing of the vehicle. It is further preferred to provide power actuation for existing designs of vehicles without requiring substantial reworking and redesign of the vehicle structure.


A moving method for moving a plurality of objects by repeating a process of capturing an image of objects, recognizing a position of an object using the image acquired by image capturing, and moving the recognized object includes acquiring an image of a plurality of objects randomly placed in a first state in each of a first space and a second space partitioned from each other, setting a first partial area corresponding to the first space and a second partial area corresponding to the second space in an entire area of the image in the first state, recognizing a position of a first object in the first partial area and a position of a second object in the second partial area using the image in the first state, and moving the recognized first and second objects using a robot.

Field
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to an information processing apparatus, a processing system, an object moving system, and an object moving method.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, increasing number of robots are coming to perform an operation for picking out works (objects), which are randomly placed (stacked) without being arrayed, one by one from a pallet (box) and an operation for arranging works, on behalf of human operators in assembly lines of industrial products. A work moving system using such a robot captures an image of a plurality of works randomly placed in various orientations in the pallet (box) (imaging process). Then, the work moving system processes the image obtained by image capturing to acquire two- or three-dimensional information of the works. Then, the work moving system performs calculations for obtaining positions and orientations of the works using the acquired information to recognize positions and orientations of the works (recognition process). Then, the work moving system controls a robot manipulator so that recognized works are picked up from the pallet and arrayed (picking process).
When a specific work among a plurality of randomly placed works is held and moved and in a case where the held work contacts other work or in a case where weight imbalance occurs between the other works due to movement of the specific work, the state of the plurality of the randomly placed other works collapses. Consequently, positions and orientations of the plurality of the randomly placed other works are changed. Therefore, the imaging process and the recognition process need to be performed again before moving the next work. Accordingly, the total time (takt time) for holding and moving a plurality of works is prolonged.
For solving this problem, Japanese Patent No. 4199264 discusses a provision of a determination unit for determining whether a state of randomly stacked works has changed. Japanese Patent No. 4199264 discusses that when the state of the randomly stacked works is determined, to have not changed, the works are detected using an image captured in the past and the next work is picked out without performing an imaging process. Japanese Patent No. 5201411 discusses that after a work is picked out from a pallet, a two-dimensional image of works is captured and, when the difference between the captured image and another two-dimensional image captured before picking out the work is within an allowable range, the next work is picked out without distance measurement performed with laser.
However, according to the inventions discussed in Japanese Patent No. 4199264 and Japanese Patent No. 5201411, there is required a process of capturing images of the randomly stacked works and recognizing positions of the works again and then moving the works, in a case where the state of the randomly stacked works collapses after movement of a work performed from where works are randomly placed. More specifically, it is necessary to perform image capturing and recognition of works each time when the state of randomly stacked works collapses. Further, it takes a time for determining whether the state of randomly stacked works has changed even if the state of randomly stacked works has not collapsed. Therefore, according to the inventions discussed in Japanese Patent No. 4199264 and Japanese Patent No. 5201411, it still takes a long period of time from when a plurality of works is captured until when movement of a work is completed.

Information processing apparatus, processing system, object moving system, and object moving method


Nanoparticle-treated substrates, such as screens, sand beds or proppant beds, may effectively filter and purify fluids such as waste water or fluids produced from a formation, as well as other liquids. When tiny contaminant particles in a fluid such as waste water flow contact the nanoparticle-treated substrate, the nanoparticles will capture and hold the tiny contaminant particles on the substrate due to the nanoparticles' surface forces, including, but not necessarily limited to van der Waals and electrostatic forces or other associative forces. Coating agents such as alcohols, glycols, polyols, vegetable oil, and mineral oils may help apply the nanoparticles to the surfaces of structures in the filter beds or packs.

Many methods and processes are known to clean, purify, clarify and otherwise treat fluids for proper disposal, consumption, use, and other needs. These methods include, but are not necessarily limited to, centrifugation and filtration to remove particulates, chemical treatments to sterilize water, distillation to purify liquids, decanting to separate two phases of fluids, reverse osmosis to desalinate liquids, electrodialysis to desalinate liquids, pasteurization to sterilize foodstuffs, and catalytic processes to convert undesirable reactants into useful products. Each of these methods is well-suited for particular applications and typically a combination of methods is used for a final product.
There are many different known technologies available for the sterilization of liquids. Adsorption, chemical treatments, ozone disinfection, and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation all perform very well for the removal of pathogenic microbes. However, each of these technologies has limitations, including overall efficacy, initial capital cost, operating cost, byproduct risk, necessary pre-treatment of liquid, hazardous compounds used or produced, and which thus must be properly disposed of, and other limitations.
Although chemical methods are the most widespread in use, they have a number of shortcomings. Such drawbacks include increasing microbiological adaptation to their destructive effects, safety hazards associated with chlorine use and storage, and environmental impact. UV is a popular treatment, but the liquid must be clear in order for it to be effective, and it does not break down any biofilm formation; it is also very expensive to install and operate. In industrial and municipal applications such as water and wastewater plants, the three most widely used methods of liquid sterilization are ozone treatment, chlorine treatment, and UV irradiation.
Desalination of liquids is highly useful for drinking water, biological fluids, medicines, chemicals, petroleum and its derivatives, and many other liquids. In addition, desalination of water would be beneficial since less than 0.5% of the Earth's water is directly suitable for human consumption, agricultural, or industrial uses. Consequently, desalination is finding increasing favor to produce potable water from brackish groundwater and seawater since it makes the other approximately 99.5% of the water available. There are five basic desalination methods: thermal, reverse osmosis, electrodialysis, ion exchange, and freezing. Thermal and freezing processes remove fresh water from saline leaving behind concentrated brine. Reverse osmosis and electrodialysis employ membranes to separate salts from fresh water. Ion exchange involves passing salt water over resins which exchange more desirable ions for less desirable dissolved ions. Only thermal and reverse osmosis processes are currently commercially viable. Even so, these two methods tend to be prohibitive due to their expense.
Further, fluids produced from subterranean formations, such as underground reservoirs, including but not necessarily limited to hydrocarbons such as crude oil and gas, and associatively produced water, may contain dangerous or undesirable contaminants and particulates. Produced water from the shale gas plays in North America is becoming especially problematic. Such contaminants may include, but are not necessarily limited to, heavy metals, heavy metal compounds, heavy metal complexes, radioactive metals, radioactive compounds, radioactive complexes and combinations thereof. These radioactive materials include, but are not necessarily limited to naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) such as uranium, thorium, potassium, radium, radon, lead and barium or strontium scales.
Heavy metals are defined herein to include, but are not necessarily limited to, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, uranium, plutonium, lead, vanadium, tungsten, iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, molybdenum, zinc, selenium, and combinations thereof. An alternative definition according to N. I. Sax, et al., Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1987, p. 588 is a "metal of atomic weight greater than sodium (22.9) that forms soaps on reaction with fatty acids, e.g. aluminum, lead, cobalt." It will be understood that the heavy metals are generally present as ions, and thus removing heavy metals from water means removing heavy metal ions. In our lab tests, both arsenic and mercury are ions. Certain of these metals are well known to be dangerous and undesirable due to toxicity concerns including, but not necessarily limited to, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, uranium, and lead. Some of these materials may pose a health, safety and/or environmental (HS&E) risk, and thus exposure of these materials to humans and/or the environment should be minimized or avoided completely.
There is always a need to develop new structures and methods that will help perform these filtration and removal processes more cost effectively than their traditional counterparts. In the area of liquid filtration and purification, any technology that can lower the overall cost, simplify the process, increase safety and improve efficiencies would be very advantageous. It would thus be desirable if methods and/or structures would be devised to filter and purify liquids, such as wastewater and fluids produced during hydrocarbon recovery, using simple methods and devices.

Filtration of dangerous or undesirable contaminants


A device for separating needles (1) includes a receiving element (2) for needles (1) and a separating device (3). The receiving element (2) includes at least one through opening (4). The separating device (3) includes an ejection device (5) which can be passed through the through-opening (4) of the receiving element (2). The ejection device (5) has a contact area (6) on the upper edge which corresponds at least to a needle (1) and detects the needle.

Needle boards are components of needle machines for manufacture of nonwoven fabric or needle felt and are fitted with special needles. The needle machines are used for strengthening/thickening of fibrous materials, fibers and continuous filaments. Products such as spunbond, artificial leather, artificial suede, and needle felt which can contain nonwoven fabric are manufactured. The needles have an L shape due to their fastening hooks, the so-called crutch or crank, and are passed through drilled holes in the needle board and fixed. The needles are subject to major stress and damaged over time.
Besides needles with crutches or cranks, there are also needles with fastening areas, which are formed by the thickening of an end, as is well known, e.g., from JP 11350328 A or DE 10 2011 016 755 B3. The present invention may refer both to the separation of needles, which are used for fitting a needle board, and to needles, such as sewing needles or embroidering needles or knitting needles, nails or nail-like pins in other areas of application.
So that now the needle board can be fitted with the needles, these needles must be removed from a removal site. The removal site is known from the state of the art in very different embodiments.
For example, an oscillating conveyor, which is arranged in a carriage unit of a needle-loading and needle-unloading device and has a receiving element for a supply of primarily unorganized needles appears from DE 3941159 C1. The oscillating conveyor has an outlet, in which the needles are separated and oriented with their crutches or cranks in the same direction. The separated needles oriented in the same direction are then placed at right angles on a belt-like linear conveyor, which advances each time by one step by means of a stepper drive when a new needle shall be driven into the needle board. A gripper grasps the last corresponding needle of the needles fed with the belt conveyor and then pivots to the needle board to carry out the fitting. The separation of the needles to be provided requires two conveying units—an oscillating conveyor and a belt conveyor—and thus is relatively costly. In addition, the prior-art separating device needs a lot of space within the overall device.
Another device for separating and feeding needles, with which a needle board shall be fitted, is well known from EP 1953287 A1. The needle feed comprises a receiving element for the needles in the form of a filling funnel with a vibration device and with a filling device in the form of two parallel threaded spindles, rotating in the same direction, in the motions of which the needles are separated at a desired distance and are placed in groups, such that they can be grasped and picked up by a gripping jaw/multiple gripping jaw. Stepping motors are used for rotating the spindles. The separating device in question requires a high design effort and takes up a lot of space.
DE 10 2011 016 755 B3 shows a device, which, besides other functions, is also used to fit a needle board with needles, and a robot with a tool arm picks up fresh needles from a removal site. Since the robot is equipped with an articulated tool arm and tool, it can remove needles even from a removal site, which is the reason why the labor cost is extremely low. The robot has a high freedom of movement, which allows the free needle pickup selectively, in relation to a selected needle in the removal site. Due to the articulated tool arm at the robot, the design effort of a conventional needle feed is avoided. The removal site is, e.g., arranged on a base plate of the robot. During this needle removal, the removal is preceded by a detection operation by means of a camera or a laser scanner or additional detection devices. The data are electronically collected and processed in a separate computer, such that the position of the needle to be picked up is determined and then the orientation of the tool arm with the gripper takes place. This solution of a robot operating by means of image detection is "binpicking." This type of needle removal is very costly, since the robot has to detect a high-resolution image of the needle. A high-resolution image detection is very costly and requires a costly software. Many programming hours and tests are necessary to calculate the undefined gripping position and the gripping location of the needle to be grasped at the removal site. The gripping position describes where the crutch or crank/hook must be arranged. The gripping location depends on the position of the needle in the removal site. The needle detection and needle grasping take place relatively slowly in the state of the art in question. Approx. 5 seconds pass by from the detection of the image until the picking up of the needle. The computerized selection of a needle, the going there and grasping have, moreover, a hit ratio of approx. 85%, which is in need of improvement. The seconds needed to grasp the needle play a very large role in the goal of fitting a needle board with, for example, approx. 50,000 needles.


Methods and systems are provided for decoding. In one exemplary embodiment, the method may include detecting a synchronization code at a position selected from a plurality of synchronization code inserting positions. The plurality of synchronization code inserting positions may be positioned at periodic intervals in an input code string, and the input code string may include a multiplexed code string and information indicative of a delimiter of the multiplexed code string. The information may be arranged just after the multiplexed code string or between the multiplexed code string and a subsequent synchronization code. The method may also include demultiplexing the input code string on the basis of the position of the synchronization code detected by the detecting, to produce kinds of compressed codes. The method may further include decoding the compressed codes to output a reconstructed signal, each of the kinds of compressed codes being a variable length code.

For example, in a system for carrying out the high-efficient compression coding of a picture and/or voice information so as to have a small information content to transmit the compression-coded picture and/or voice information via a radio transmission line, such as a radio visual telephone, a portable information terminal and a digital television broadcast system, it is important how to transmit the obtained code string with a high quality since the transmission line has a high error rate.
In a case where a code string is transmitted and/or stored via such a medium of a high error rate, an error correcting code, such as a Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) code, a Recommended Standard (RS) code and a convolutional code, is often used as means for reducing the error rate. In addition, an error correcting code, such as a check sum and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC), is used as means for enabling the error correction on the receiving side. The aforementioned error correction and/or error detection adds excessive bits (redundancy) to the transmitted and/or stored information in accordance with a predetermined rule to examine whether the transmitted and/or stored code string obeys the rule during decoding, to carry out the error correction/detection on the basis of the results.
However, in such a method for coding a code string obtained by a high-efficiency compression coding into error correcting/detecting codes to transmit and/or store the codes, there is a disadvantage in that it is difficult to be combined with a synchronous recovering technique for recovering a step out caused by a code word error in the transmission line/medium. As a synchronous recovering technique, a method for inserting a uniformly decodable code called a synchronization code to resume the decoding immediately after the synchronization code is detected when a step out occurs is often used.
In order to make a uniformly decodable code word of the synchronization code, the code word must be combined with another code word so as not to form the same bit pattern as the synchronization code. However, in an error correction-/detection coding, it is generally difficult to form a code word so as to prevent a certain bit pattern from occurring. When the same bit pattern as the synchronization code occurs, a pseudo synchronization may be caused by the error detection of the synchronization code.
In order to avoid this problem, there is used a method for preventing the pseudo synchronization by determining whether the same bit pattern as the synchronization code exists in the code string after performing the error correction/detection coding, inserting a dummy bit into the bit pattern in accordance with a certain rule when the same bit pattern exists, and deleting the dummy bit in the same rule in a decoding system. However, in a case where the code string is transmitted and/or stored via a medium in which errors are easy to occur, errors may occur in the inserted bit, so that there is a problem in that a new step out or a new pseudo synchronization may occur.
In addition, in a case where the error correction/detection coding of a code string is carried out to insert a synchronization code, there is also a problem in that the coding efficiency is lowered since it is required to add many inserted bits to the code string in order to compensate an excess of information bits, for which the error detection and/or detection coding is to be carried out, at the end portion of a synchronization interval between the adjacent synchronization codes.
On the other hand, in order to enhance the error correcting/detecting capability, the redundancy of the transmitted and/or stored information may be enhanced. However, if the redundancy is enhanced, the number of bits required to transmit the same information is increased. Therefore, if the error correcting/detecting capability is enhanced, it is required to provide a transmission line of a higher transmission rate, or the number of bits of information to be stored is increased. In addition, if the transmission rate and the stored capacity are the same, the amount of information, which can be transmitted and/or stored, is decreased as the redundancy is enhanced. In a case where a picture and/or voice information is high-efficiently compression-coded to be transmitted and/or stored, in order to add the redundancy to improve the error resistance, the compression coding into a smaller amount of information must be carried out if the transmission and/or storage rate is the same, so that the picture quality and sound quality are lowered.
Therefore, as a method for providing a smaller redundancy and a high error resistance, there is a method called hierarchical coding. This is a method for enhancing the error resistance using the same means redundancy in comparison with when the same error correcting/detecting code is used, by classifying the high-efficiency compression-coded information in accordance with the magnitude of errors influencing the picture quality and the sound quality, using an error correcting/detecting code of a higher error correction/detection capacity while having a high redundancy, for information under a great influence of the error, and using an error correcting/detecting code of a less redundancy while having not so high error correction/detection capacity, for information which is not so greatly influenced by the error.
For example, in a coding system, which is formed by combining the motion-compensated prediction with the orthogonal transform and which is often used for the high-efficiency compression coding of a dynamic image, i.e., in a system for motion-compensation predicting an input dynamic image signal to orthogonal transform its prediction residue by a DCT (discrete cosine transform) or the like, the error correcting/detecting codes of a high error correcting/detecting capability are used for motion vector information, which greatly deteriorate the picture quality if an error occurs, and for lower coefficients of the orthogonal transformation coefficients of the prediction residual signal, and the error correcting/detecting codes of a low error correcting/detecting capability are used for higher coefficients of the orthogonal transformation coefficients of the prediction residual signal, which are under a small influence of the error.
In order to achieve such a hierarchical coding, it is required to switch the error correcting/detecting codes of different error correcting/detecting capabilities in the middle of the output code string. As a method for switching the error correcting/detecting codes of different error correcting/detecting capabilities, there is a method for adding a header information representative of the kind of the error correcting/detecting codes to a code string. FIG. 11 shows an example of a code string, to which the header information is added to switch the error correcting/detecting codes. In this example, two kinds of error correcting/detecting codes FEC1 and FEC2 are switched. The headers 1101 to 1104 have a header information representative of the kind of the error correcting/detecting codes and the number of the code words. In a coding system, code words, which are error correction/detection coded, are arranged after the header information. In a decoding system, the header information is decoded, and the error correcting/detecting codes are decoded in accordance with the decoding of the header information.
However, in the method for switching the error correcting/detecting codes by adding such a header information, there is a problem in that the number of bits of the code string to be transmitted and/or stored by adding the header information is increased. In a case where the picture and/or voice information is high-efficiency compression coded to be transmitted and/or stored, if the number of bits is occupied by the header information, the number of bits used for the high-efficiency compression coding of the picture and/or voice information is decreased, so that the picture quality and sound quality are deteriorated.
As mentioned above, if the error correction/detection coding of the code string, in which the high-efficiency compression coding of dynamic image signals and so forth is performed, is carried out, an optional bit pattern is produced. Therefore, in a case where the error correction-/detection coding is combined with the synchronous recovering technique using a uniformly decodable synchronization code, there is a problem in that a pseudo synchronization is caused by the error detection of the synchronization code. Also in a case where the dummy bit is inserted to prevent the pseudo synchronization, there is a problem in that a new step out or a new pseudo synchroni-zation is caused by the error of the inserted bit.
In addition, in a case where the error correction-/detection coding of the code string is performed and the synchronization code is inserted, it is conventionally required to use many inserted bits to compensate an excess of information bits, for which the error detection and/or detection coding is to be carried out, at the end portion of a synchronization interval between the adjacent synchronization codes, so that there is a problem in that the coding efficiency is lowered.
Moreover, in a coding/decoding system for switching error correcting/detecting codes of different error correcting/detecting capabilities by adding a header information, the number of bits to be transmitted and/or stored by adding the header information is increased. Therefore, in a case where a picture and/or voice information is high-efficiency compression coded to be transmitted and/or stored, there is a problem in that the information content assigned to the picture and/or voice information is decreased to lower the picture quality and the sound quality.

Coding system and decoding system using a multiplexed code string


There is disclosed a video editing apparatus capable of editing video/audio data in which image and sound data are multiplexed at a high rate. The video editing apparatus for editing the video/audio data constituted by multiplexing the image and sound data includes editing control elements for rewriting a packet header of video data in a range designated by a deletion start frame and deletion end frame with respect to the video/audio data which is an editing object to constitute nullified data and for rewriting a packet header of audio data including the same synchronous reproduction time in the designated range to constitute the nullified data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for video editing, and more particularly, to a video editing apparatus which is capable of editing data constituted by multiplexing image and sound data at a high rate.
2. Description of the Related Art
One example of a conventional video editing apparatus is described in JP-A-H11-155128. The conventional video editing apparatus described in this publication will hereinafter be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 6, this conventional video editing apparatus is constituted of a DVD-RAM drive 1 and a host system 2. The DVD-RAM drive 1 roughly includes a main control unit (CPU) 10, an input/output interface 11, a data management table 12, an access control unit 13, a disk (DVD) 14, and an encoder/decoder 15.
An outline of an operation of the conventional video editing apparatus constituted as described above will hereinafter be described. That is, the CPU 10 of the DVD-RAM drive 1 records (telerecords) digital image information transferred from the host system 2 via the input/output interface 11 in the disk 14. Next, in response to a command from the host system 2 accompanying a user's input operation, the CPU 10 reads the recorded image information from the disk 14, and transfers the information to the host system 2 via the input/output interface 11.
Here, it is assumed that a user checks a screen to indicate a cut position for cutting image data in a first half of the image information. The CPU 10 specifies a group of pictures (GOP) corresponding to the indicated cut position, and the cut position in the GOP based on management information of the data management table 12.
The CPU 10 uses the specified cut position of a GOP as a reference position to detect a picture type of a top part of the image data part of a last half. In this case, the CPU 10 refers, for example, to a GOP header to recognize the picture type of the top part. Here, when the picture type of the top part is an I type, the CPU 10 converts the image data part of the first half in which the cut position is the reference position to a reproduction nullified data. This reproduction nullified data means user data which is incapable of being reproduced as the image information. On the other hand, when the picture type of the top part is not the I (intra picture) type, the CPU 10 controls the encoder/decoder 15 to execute a process of converting the picture type of the top part to the I type.
The CPU 10 executes a process of expanding a region of the image data part of the last half to a region of the first half by an increase obtained by the conversion to the picture data of the I type. Moreover, the CPU 10 converts the image data part of the first half to reproduction nullified data to produce a new GOP.
After executing the conversion process in the GOP, the CPU 10 sets a management table A for managing the image information including the newly produced GOP, and a management table B for managing the image information which is a cut object. In the data management table 12, the image information managed by the management table A is managed as continuous reproduction data. On the other hand, the image information which is the cut object is managed as irreproducible data.
However, the above-described conventional video editing apparatus has the following problems.
A first problem is that data in which image and sound data are multiplexed cannot be edited. A reason for this is that means for nullifying the sound data is not disposed.
A second problem is that correct reproduction of the edited data can be guaranteed only on a decoder having a function of interpreting the management table. This is because time information for synchronously reproducing the image and sound is not correct after the editing.
A third problem is that the nullified data region remains on the disk after the editing and a disk capacity is wasted. This is because means for deleting the nullified data region after the editing is not disposed.
A fourth problem is that an editing point needs to be manually designated by the user. This is because means for automatically providing candidates for the editing point to the user is not disposed.


A driver circuit includes a gate capacitance discharge circuit that reduces a resistance value of a resistor for pulling down the gate of a PMOSFET at the output stage for a predetermined period at the timing when an NMOSFET turns on and a pull-down resistor switching circuit that switches pull-down resistors of the gate capacitance discharge circuit, based on a divided voltage into which voltage of the high voltage power supply system is divided, in which the pull-down resistor switching circuit, when the divided voltage is higher than a reference voltage Vref, switches the pull-down resistor for the predetermined period to a resistor and, when the divided voltage is the reference voltage Vref or lower, switches the pull-down resistor to a resistor having a higher resistance value than the resistor.

Electronic devices, such as a television and a personal computer, need power-supply devices that convert input voltage to output voltage optimum for components used in the electronic devices, such as converting AC power to DC power and converting voltage levels of DC power. For this reason, switching power supplies, which have high conversion efficiency, have been widely used conventionally.
A switching power supply is constituted by a switching device, such as a MOSFET and an IGBT, a transformer, and a capacitor, and the like and, by on/off control ng the switching device, converts voltage.
A control circuit that on/off controls a switching device is generally integrated into an integrated circuit (TC) Although the control circuit performs operation processing at a low voltage (for example, 1.8 V to 5.0 V) in order to reduce power consumption, driving a switching device, which is connected to an output of the control circuit, requires high voltage. For this reason, a driver circuit for a switching device has a level shift circuit that converts low power supply voltage in the control circuit to high power supply voltage (for example, 10 V to 60) for driving the switching device. Since the high power supply voltage (hereinafter, referred to as "VCC") for driving varies depending on use, it is preferable that the driver circuit be capable of coping with a wide range of power supply voltage.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrative of an example of a conventional driver circuit including a level shift circuit (see, for example, FIG. 1 in JP 9-214317 A). FIGS. 6, 7, and 8 and 9 are a diagram illustrative of an example of a boost converter, a diagram illustrative of a circuit portion that is a portion extracted from the circuit in FIG. 5, and timing diagrams illustrative of switching operation of the circuit portion illustrated in FIG. 7, respectively.
As illustrated in FIG. 5, a driver circuit 200 includes a level shift circuit 130 and an output buffer circuit 50. To the driver circuit 200, a boost converter 60 is connected as an example of an object to be driven.
As illustrated in FIG. 6, the boost converter 60 includes an input power supply 61, a boost inductor 62, an N-channel type MOSFET 63, a boost diode 64, and a stabilizing capacitor 65. Hereinafter, an N-channel type MOSFET is abbreviated as an "NMOSFET".
The boost converter 60 stores energy in the boost inductor 62 during an ON period of the NMOSFET 63 and supplies the stabilizing capacitor 65 with the stored energy via the boost diode 64 during an OFF period of the NMOSFET 63. This operation causes energy to be supplied to a load 66 via the stabilizing capacitor 65.
That is, the driver circuit 200 has its output terminal connected to the gate of the NMOSFET 63 in the boost converter 60 and serves as a circuit that drives the NMOSFET 63 serving as a switching device described above.
Returning to FIG. 5, the level shift circuit 130 includes a narrowly defined flip-flop circuit FF of a low power consumption type, variable resistance circuits (drain current variable circuits) 32 and 33, Zener diodes 34 and 35 for voltage clamping, and a CMOS inverter 36. In addition, the level shift circuit 130 includes one-shot circuits (monostable multivibrators) 23 and 24. The narrowly defined flip-flop circuit FF and the variable resistance circuits (drain current variable circuits) 32 and 33 constitute a broadly defined flip-flop circuit with the gate terminals of NMOSFETs 19 and 26 used as a set terminal and a reset terminal, respectively.
The flip-flop circuit FF includes a P-channel type MOSFET 18 that is on/off controlled by a signal S3 of a high voltage power supply system (hereinafter, referred to as a "high voltage system") and a P-channel type MOSFET 25 that is on/off controlled exclusively from a MOSFET 3 by a signal S11 of the high voltage system. Hereinafter, a P-channel type MOSFET is abbreviated as a "PMOSFET".
The PMOSFETs 19 and 25 constitute feedback loops with each other via drain nodes (memory nodes) N1 and N2. Specifically, the drain node N1 of the PMOSFET 18 is connected to the gate of the PMOSFET 25 and the drain node N2 of the PMOSFET 25 is connected to the gate of the PMOSFET 18. The PMOSFETs 19 and 25 have the sources electrically connected directly to an output terminal on the high potential side of a VCC power supply of the high voltage system, and the PMOSFETs 18 and 25 have the gates (drain nodes N1 and N2) thereof electrically connected, via the Zener diodes 34 and 35, to the output terminal on the high potential side of the VCC power supply. By setting Zener voltage Vz of the Zener diodes 34 and 35 at less than or equal to a breakdown voltage value of the PMOSFETs 18 and 25, voltage at the drain node N1 does not decrease to less than or equal to "VCC−Vz" because of voltage clamping by the Zener diode 35 even when the NMOSFET 19 turns on. Similarly, voltage at the drain node N2 does not decrease to less than or equal to "VCC−Vz" because of voltage clamping by the Zener diode 34 even when the NMOSFET 26 turns on.
The variable resistance circuit 32 includes the NMOSFET 19 having a high breakdown voltage, series-connected resistors 21 and 22 constituting a source follower circuit in conjunction with the NMOSFET 19, which operates in the non-saturation region, and an NMOSFET 20 for switching source resistance values that shunts the resistor 22, one of the series-connected resistors 21 and 22. Further, to the gate of the MOSFET 20, the output terminal of the one-shot circuit 23 is connected. The one-shot circuit 23 is a circuit that outputs a switching timing pulse signal S5 having a predetermined pulse width ΔT1 at a time point t1 at which a logic input signal S4, which is generated by a 5-V power supply of a low voltage power supply system (hereinafter, referred to as a "low voltage system") and has voltage of the low voltage system (for example, 0 to 5 V), rises. Therefore, at the time point t1, at which the logic input signal S4 rises, the switching timing pulse signal S5 is applied to the gate of the NMOSFET 20.
Because of the configuration described above, at the time point t1 in a state transition process of the flip-flop circuit FF at which the logic input signal S4 of the low voltage system, input from a control circuit 300, rises, the NMOSFET 19 turns on and, in conjunction therewith, generation of the switching timing pulse signal S5 causes the NMOSFET 20 to be maintained in the ON state only during a period of ΔT1. Since, for this reason, only the resistor 21 constitutes the source resistor of the NMOSFET 19, drain current ID1 flowing through the NMOSFET 19 increases to a large value. However, since, after the period of ΔT1 has elapsed, the NMOSFET 20 turns off and the resistor 22 is thereby connected in series to the resistor 21, the drain current ID1 flowing through the NMOSFET 19 rapidly decreases to a minute current sufficient to maintain conduction of the Zener diode 35.
The variable resistance circuit 33 includes the NMOSFET 26 having a high breakdown voltage, series-connected resistors 28 and 29 constituting a source follower circuit in conjunction with the NMOSFET 26, which operates in the non-saturation region, and an NMOSFET 27 for switching source resistance values that shunts the resistor 29, one of the series-connected resistors 28 and 29. Further, to the gate of the NMOSFET 27, the output terminal of the one-shot circuit 24 is connected. The one-shot circuit 24 is a circuit that outputs a switching timing pulse signal S10 having a predetermined pulse width ΔT2 at a time point t2 at which the logic input signal S4 falls. Therefore, at the time point t2, at which the logic input signal S4 falls, the switching timing pulse signal S10 is applied to the gate of the NMOSFET 27.
Because of the configuration described above, at the time point t2 in another state transition process at which the logic input signal S4 falls, the NMOSFET 26 turns on and, in conjunction therewith, generation of the switching timing pulse signal S10 causes the NMOSFET 27 to be maintained in the ON state only during a period of ΔT2. Since, for this reason, only the resistor 28 constitutes the source resistor of the NMOSFET 26, drain current ID2 flowing through the NMOSFET 26 increases to a large value. However, since, after the period of ΔT2 has elapsed, the NMOSFET 27 turns off and the resistor 29 is thereby connected in series to the resistor 28, the drain current ID2 flowing through the NMOSFET 26 rapidly decreases to a minute current sufficient to maintain conduction of the Zener diode 34.
Since, as described above, the drain current ID1 and ID2 of the NMOSFETs 19 and 26 rapidly increase in the transition processes of the flip-flop circuit FF and become minute current while the flip-flop circuit FF is in a stable state, the drain current ID1 and ID2 contribute to secure execution of state transition and reduction in power consumption. Hereinafter, drain current at the time of rapid increase is referred to as "rapidly increasing current".
The CMOS inverter 36 generates, from the logic input signal S4, an inverted signal S2 of the low voltage system (for example, 5 V) that has a reverse phase to that of the logic input signal S4 and applies the generated signal S2 to the gate of an NMOSFET 1, the gate of the NMOSFET 26, and the input terminal of the one-shot circuit 24.
The output buffer circuit 50 includes the NMOSFET 1 and a PMOSFET 2 at an output stage, a Zener diode 6, a gate capacitance discharge circuit 51 that rapidly discharges gate capacitance C3 of the output stage PMOSFET 2 on the occasion when the flip-flop circuit FF transitions to one state, and a gate capacitance charging circuit 52 that rapidly charges the gate capacitance C3 of the output stage PMOSFET 2 on the occasion when the flip-flop circuit FF transitions to the other state.
The NMOSFET 1 has the source, drain, and gate thereof electrically connected to ground, the drain of the PMOSFET 2, and the output terminal of the inverter 36, respectively. The PMOSFET 2 has the source and gate thereof electrically connected to an output terminal on the high potential side of the VCC power supply and the drain of the PMOSFET 3, respectively. Further, between the gate of the PMOSFET 2 and the output terminal on the high potential side of the VCC power supply, the Zener diode 6 for voltage clamping is connected.
The gate capacitance discharge circuit 51 is a circuit that extracts charges from the gate, having the gate capacitance C3, of the PMOSFET 2 and supplies the extracted charges to ground and thereby decreases voltage at the gate. The gate capacitance discharge circuit 51 includes a high breakdown voltage NMOSFET 4 that is on/off controlled in synchronization with the NMOSFET 19 by the logic input signal S4, series-connected resistors 7 and 8 constituting a source follower circuit (constant current circuit) in conjunction with the NMOSFET 4, which operates in the non-saturation region, and an NMOSFET 5 for switching source resistance values that shunts the resistor 8, one of the series-connected resistors 7 and 8. The NMOSFET 5 receives the timing pulse signal S5 from the one-shot circuit 23 and is on/off controlled by the timing pulse signal S5.
Although being named differently due to differences in roles, the gate capacitance discharge circuit 51 can be said to be a variable resistance circuit because of having a similar circuit configuration to those of the variable resistance circuits 32 and 33.
The gate capacitance charging circuit 52 includes the PMOSFET 3 that is a comparatively large element, is connected across the gate capacitance C3, and is on/off controlled by node voltage (signal S3) at the drain node N2. Between the gate of the PMOSFET 3 and the output terminal on the high potential side of the VCC power supply, the Zener diode 34 for voltage clamping is connected.
Meanwhile, a circuit portion illustrated in FIG. 7 that is extracted from the driver circuit 200 having the above-described configuration is configured including the NMOSFETs 1, 4, and 5, the PMOSFETs 2 and 3, the resistors 7 and 8, and the Zener diode 6. VOUT (logic output signal) in FIG. 7 is an output of the driver circuit 200 that is output via the PMOSFET 2 at the output stage and is connected to the gate of the NMOSFET 63 of the boost converter 60 in the circuit example illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6.
Hereinafter, operation of the circuit portion illustrated in FIG. 7 will be described.
In the circuit portion, as illustrated in a timing diagram in FIG. 8, when the signal S2 turns to a high level (5 V) and the NMOSFET 1 thereby turns on and a signal S1 turns to a high level (VCC) and the PMOSFET 2 thereby turns off, a signal of a low level (0 V) is output as VOUT. When the signal S2 turns to a low level (0 V) and the NMOSFET 1 thereby turns off and the signal S1 turns to a low level (VCC-5 V) and the PMOSFET 2 thereby turns on, a signal of a high level (VCC) is output as VOUT.
Although having a high breakdown voltage of 10 V or more with respect to drain-source voltage (hereinafter, referred to as "Vds"), the NMOSFET 1 and the PMOSFET 2 have a low breakdown voltage of 5 V with respect to gate-source voltage (hereinafter, referred to as "Vgs"). Thus, the signals S1 and S2 serve as drive signals in a range from VCC to VCC-5 V and a range from 0 V to 5 V, respectively. The signal S1 driving the PMOSFET 2 is generated in accordance with a timing diagram in FIG. 9. That is, the signal S1 is at the high level when the signals S3 and S4 are at low levels. The signal S5 in FIG. 9 is a one-shot pulse signal that is a signal that rises only for a period of ΔT1 in response to a rise of the signal S4.
When the PMOSFET 2 turns from the OFF state to the ON state, by turning on the NMOSFETs 4 and 5 at the same time only for a short transition period (the period of ΔT1) in which the signal S1 turns from the high level (VCC) to the low level (VCC-5 V), the gate of the PMOSFET 2 is pulled down by the resistor 7.
Specifically, when the signal S1 transitions from the high level to the low level, the signal S4 is turned to a high level and, in conjunction therewith, the signal S5 is turned to a high level (5 V) only for the transition period. Subsequently, when the signal S5 turns to a low level, the NMOSFET 5 turns off and only the NMOSFET 4 maintains the ON state, which causes the PMOSFET 2 to maintain the ON state with an impedance of the series connection of the resistors 7 and 8. On this occasion, a resistor having a low resistance is selected as the resistor 7 in order to extract charges accumulated at the gate of the PMOSFET 2 in a short period of time, and a resistor having a high resistance is selected as the resistor 8 in order to reduce current consumption. This configuration enables the switching device (NMOSFET 63) to be driven with small power consumption. In addition, the source-gate voltage of the PMOSFET 2 is clamped by the Zener diode 6 lest Vgs exceeds a gate breakdown voltage when the gate of the PMOSFET 2 is pulled down.


An enamel coated steel dowel bar and a method of manufacturing said enamel coated steel dowel bar for use in joining together and stabilizing concrete slabs by drilling a first hole at a first end of an axis of the dowel bar, drilling a second hole at a second end of the axis of the dowel bar, configuring a first end plug into the first hole of the dowel bar, configuring a second end plug into the second hole of the dowel bar, attaching a first end cap over the first end plug and the first hole, and attaching a second end cap over the second end plug and the second hole, wherein a pin is removably attached to the first hole and the second hole to mount the dowel bar during an enamel coating process and wherein the dowel bar is slidably attached to the first end cap and the second end cap.

Steel dowel bars have generally been used to join together and restrict concrete slabs and concrete segments in the construction and formation of concrete highways, airport runways, and other concrete structures. During the construction of concrete highways, concrete slabs are formed in sections, and adjacent concrete sections are kept in place in relation to one another using steel restraining dowel bars. These dowels bars are generally made in the form of elongated, cylindrical, high-shear rods, and they are typically made of high strength steel.
For example, in the construction of concrete roadways, multiple concrete dowel bars may be embedded between adjacent concrete slabs and may be spaced intermittently within the slabs at lateral intervals as joints between adjoining concrete slabs. These dowel bars are typically designed to permit horizontal displacement between adjacent segments of the concrete slabs, to allow movement between concrete slabs caused by thermal contraction and extraction. These dowel bars need to be as slippery as possible so that when they are placed within the concrete surrounding the dowel bars, they allow the concrete slabs to move horizontally in relation to each other. If the dowel bars do not easily slide or slip within the concrete cavity in which they reside, contractive and expansive forces caused by thermal heating and cooling will cause the concrete slabs to crack, break, and spall. Damage locally even at one steel dowel bar can cause significant damage to adjacent and nearby concrete slabs, requiring expensive and extensive repairs.
These dowel bars also keep the concrete slabs in relative uniformity against one another and restrict unwanted movement. The dowel bars prevent vertical displacement, twisting and turning, movement to the left or to the right, and rotation, between the concrete slabs, which can cause unevenness or cracking in the pavement surface. Such dowel bars, therefore, assist in maintaining a smooth top surface of the pavement, while simultaneously increasing, the strength of the concrete in the region of the joint.
Additionally, in areas where salt may be applied to a concrete roadway to reduce icing conditions, or in areas where salt may be present in sprays and mists from oceans, the concrete segments that are nearby the mist and sprays may fail, as the salt may increase and accelerate the corrosion of the steel dowel bars. Corroding steel bars, and the rust that builds up on the steel dowel bars, prevents the dowel bars from sliding back and forth within the concrete cavities that surround the dowel bars. Rusting causes steel bars to corrode and expand, resulting in up to six time its original volume. As the steel bars expand due to corrosion, friction within the concrete cavities is increased, thereby failing to allow the concrete slabs to slip and move horizontally in relation to each other. Where salt is applied to the surface of a concrete roadway to reduce the buildup of ice, or may be present in salt spray or mist from oceans, the concrete segments tend to fail quicker over time, as the salt increases corrosion of the steel dowel bars that align the segments.
Additionally, during the manufacturing of the dowel bar, enamel coating may be applied to the dowel bar in a baking process. The enamel coating is typically applied by spraying (or by other surface-application methods) an epoxy coating over the dowel bar. During the application of the enamel coating, the steel dowel bar is held along its exterior cylindrical surface. In the area where the dowel bar is held, the enamel coating will be absent, thus affecting the continuity of the application of the coating. These discontinuity areas may expose the steel dowel bar to small imperfections, scratches, chips, cracks and other flaws, and thereby degrade its integrity and resistance to corrosion and rusting. There is a need in the art for an improved process of manufacture that prevents or decreases failures caused by such manufacturing detects.
In view of the foregoing, an embodiment herein provides a method of manufacturing dowel bars that includes creating holes at disparate ends of the dowel bar to enable the insertion of pins to support and hold in place the dowel bar during the enamel coating process. An embodiment herein also provides a system comprising a dowel bar having holes at the ends of the axis of the dowel bar, end plugs inserted into such manufacturing holes, and caps attached over ends of the dowel bars.
These and other aspects of the embodiments herein will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following descriptions, while indicating preferred embodiments and numerous specific details thereof, are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the embodiments herein without departing from the spirit thereof, and the embodiments herein include all such modifications.

Electro-active vitreous enamel coated dowel bar

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE ARMY


A decontamination device for decontaminating medical apparatus includes a housing and a dispenser within the housing for contacting a portion of the medical apparatus with a decontaminating compound when the portion of the medical apparatus is placed within the housing. Structure for removably engaging the housing to the medical apparatus is provided. The decontamination device can be used with many different medical apparatus, such as stethoscopes. A method for decontaminating medical apparatus is also provided.

The transmission of infectious disease is a matter of increasing concern among healthcare professionals. It has long been known that medical instruments must be decontaminated, in order to prevent the spread of infectious disease among different patients with whom the medical apparatus comes in contact. Decontamination includes the removal of foreign material such as chemical or radiological contaminants, as well as sterilization and disinfection. Sterilization is a form of decontamination in which all forms of microbial life are killed. Disinfection is a relative term meaning that the microbial burden of an instrument is reduced but not eliminated. Some medical apparatus, such as stethoscopes, are decontaminated only infrequently. The design, construction, and expense of the device can impede decontamination procedures. Decontamination of medical apparatus usually requires time consuming procedures or special equipment, which further reduces the likelihood that the medical apparatus will be decontaminated after each and every use. In order to avoid the need for decontamination, the medical industry has increasingly utilized disposable devices or devices with disposable portions, such as covers.


In a gear pump device for rubber extrusion, prolongation of the maintenance intervals is intended by preventing rubber scorch occurring at the gear support-shaft portion. It has a bushing ring 5 inserted in a gear-housing bore 3 of a housing 4. The bushing ring 5 rotatably supports a support-shaft portion 7 of a gear 2 accommodated in the gear-housing bore 3. The bushing ring 5 has a bearing 15 and a sealing means 16 built-in. The sealing means 16 includes a seal ring 22 of which cross section is ]-shaped and which has a first lip portion 22i contacting with the outer peripheral surface of the support-shaft portion 7, a second lip portion 22o disposed outside thereof in the radial direction, and a side wall portion 22m connecting between outer ends in the axial direction, of the first and second lip portions 22i, 22o.

As a gear pump device for rubber extrusion, for example, there have been proposed one described in the following Patent Document 1. This proposed gear pump device has, as shown in FIG. 6, a pair of gears (a, a) engaged with each other, a housing c having a gear-housing bore b for housing a pair of the gears (a, a), and a side plate d inserted in the gear-housing bore b.
In a supporting hole of each side plate d, a ceramic cylindrical bushing e is disposed. Then, a support-shaft portion a1 of each gear (a) is pivotally supported via the bushing e.
This device is configured so that a portion of rubber within a pump chamber b1 defined between the side plates d, d is circulated, toward the pump chamber b1, through a gap between an inner peripheral surface of the bushing e and an outer peripheral surface of the support-shaft portion a1.
In this case, as the rubber flows in the direction of the circulation within the gap, the rubber scorch within the gap can be reduced to some degree. But it is not enough, and maintenance is necessary on a regular basis (for example, every two or three months).Further, depending on the kind of the rubber, the rubber scorch is caused early, and the torque which is increased thereby may possibly lead the drive system to fail.


There is an output buffer which reduces the amount of voltage bounce occurring during the switching of the outputted signal. Uniquely, there is an output buffer/driver which turns on either driver transistor by progressively increasing the voltage on the control gates in a series of steps. Additionally, and simultaneously, the complementary signal is turned off immediately to prevent any possibility of creating current crossing in the output driver. Additionally, the invention has the advantage of avoiding cross current from occurring during switching of the output signals.

Digital logic, in the form of integrated circuits, has found wide spread use in virtually every type of electronic system. The interface function is a basic function of any electronic system; it allows the logic of one IC device to interface with other devices. One important component for this interface function is the output buffer which, when enabled, provides an output which is a function of data received from other logic circuitry of the IC.
FIG. 1 shows a related art CMOS output buffer 10 which provides an output signal at output line 18 based upon a DATA signal received at data input terminal 4 and an ENABLE signal received at enable input line 6. Output buffer 10 includes NAND gates 8 and 21, inverters 23, 25, 27, and 29, and a P-channel FET 14 and an N-channel FET 16. Power for all of the components of the output buffer 10 is provided by first and second power supply terminals Vcc (full voltage from the power supply) 15, and ground 17.
In operation, the main point to understand is that transistors 14 and 16 are large in order to provide enough current to communicate to other devices receiving output signals from the output buffer (or driver) 10 in response to the DATA input.

High speed output buffer with reduced voltage bounce and no cross current


An air conditioner using photovoltaic energy is provided. The air conditioner may include a photovoltaic cell for converting photovoltaic energy into Direct Current (DC) power, an indoor unit for exchanging heat, and an outdoor unit for exchanging heat. Photovoltaic power generated by the photovoltaic cell may be supplied to the indoor unit and used as at least one of standby power in a standby mode, consumption power in an automatic photovoltaic mode, or auxiliary power in a cooling mode.

1. Field
This relates to an air conditioner using photovoltaic energy, and more particularly, to an air conditioner using photovoltaic energy to reduce power consumption.
2. Background
An air conditioner is a home appliance, system or mechanism designed to keep an indoor atmosphere comfortable by controlling temperature, humidity, air purity, and air flow in a space such as a room, an office or a store.
Air conditioners are roughly categorized into an integrated type and a separate type. An integrated-type air conditioner and a separate-type air conditioner are identical in terms of function, but they differ in that the integrated-type air conditioner integrates cooling and condensation and is mounted through an opening in a wall or on a mount bracket through a window, whereas the separate-type air conditioner has an indoor unit installed indoors, for cooling/heating and an outdoor unit installed outdoors connected to the indoor unit by means of a refrigerant pipe, for condensation and compression.

Air conditioner using photovoltaic energy