Techniques described herein relate to mobile computing device technologies, such as systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable media for tracking an object from a plurality of objects. In one aspect, the plurality of objects may be similar. Techniques discussed herein propose dynamically learning information associated with each of the objects and discriminating between objects based on their differentiating features. In one implementation, this may be done by maintaining a database associated with each object and updating the dynamic database transferred while the objects are tracked. The tracker uses algorithmic means for differentiating objects by focusing on the differences amongst the objects. For example, in one implementation, the method may weigh the differences between different fingers higher than their associated similarities to facilitate differentiating the fingers.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to computing technologies. In particular, aspects of the disclosure relate to mobile computing device technologies, such as systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable media for tracking objects.
With increasing prevalence of mobile devices in every day operations, future generation of applications will involve identifying and tracking objects. In some instances, it may be desirable to track an object amongst other similar objects. For example, some applications may track a finger from a plurality of fingers. Current techniques for tracking one or more fingers fail to differentiate one finger from another and are also very computationally intensive. Current techniques focus on the features of the finger itself in isolation for the purposes of tracking fingers. Any two fingers (especially from the same person) have more in common than not. Therefore, most algorithms using probabilistic techniques of tracking or matching a finger to a stored/cached image lead to false positives. Other techniques that use relative positioning of fingers are also not very effective for small appliances that have a very small field of view and may not have visibility to significant portions of the hand to continue to track the fingers using relative information associated with the fingers.


Methods and apparatuses for acoustic waveguides are disclosed. In one example, a method for constructing an acoustic waveguide includes forming a first acoustic waveguide component having a first outer surface and a first inner surface, where the first inner surface includes a first groove and a second groove. The method includes forming a second acoustic waveguide component having a second outer surface and a second inner surface, where the second inner surface includes a third groove and a fourth groove. The first acoustic waveguide component and the second acoustic waveguide component are bonded together so that the first groove and the third groove are arranged to form a first acoustic channel and the second groove and the fourth groove are arranged to form a second acoustic channel.

Traditional headsets have employed a design in which a microphone is extended from a boom and positioned close to a sound source, such as a user's mouth, in an attempt to achieve sound reception clarity. Increasing proximity of the microphone to the sound source, however, has required increasing the size of the boom in order to accommodate the microphone at the distal end of the boom near the user's mouth. In addition, placing the microphone at the distal end of the boom may increase the overall weight of the boom. This added weight can be undesirable from a user comfort perspective. From an aesthetic perspective, the increased thickness of the boom required to house a microphone may be undesirable.
Furthermore, manufacturing costs for a boom increase with greater complexity of the boom. Placing the microphone near the distal end of the boom complicates the manufacturing process as more steps are required to properly house the microphone.
Thus, devices for transmitting acoustic signals having improved acoustic, weight, manufacturing cost and/or aesthetic properties are needed.


The present invention provides a positioning method for a touch system that obtains a pair of current correct positions according to the following steps: obtaining two pairs of possible positions from a current frame to be compared with a pair of previous correct positions obtained from a previous frame; or comparing four pairs of possible positions with each other obtained from the current frame. The present invention further provides a touch system.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a touch system and, more particularly, to an optical touch system and a positioning method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Please referring to FIGS. 1a and 1b, FIG. 1a shows a schematic diagram of an optical touch system and FIG. 1b shows a schematic diagram of image windows acquired by the two image sensors included in the touch system shown in FIG. 1a.
The touch system 9 includes a touch surface 90 and two image sensors 91 and 91′. The image sensors 91 and 91′ are configured to acquire image windows W91 and W91′ respectively looking across the touch surface 90. When a finger 81 is hovering above or touches the touch surface 90, the image windows W91 and W91′ acquired by the image sensors 91 and 91′ respectively include finger images I81 and I81′ of the finger 81. A processing unit 92 can calculate a two-dimensional coordinate of the finger 81 with respect to the touch surface 90 according to a one-dimensional position of the finger image I81 in the image window W91 and a one-dimensional position of the finger image I81′ in the image window W91′.
However, when a plurality of fingers are hovering above or touch the touch surface 90 simultaneously, one finger may block other finger or fingers with respect to a part of the image sensors. For example in FIG. 1a, when two fingers 81 and 82 are hovering above or touch the touch surface 90, the image sensor 91 acquires images of the fingers 81 and 82 following a route "a" and the image sensor 91′ acquires images of the fingers 81 and 82 following routes "b" and "c" respectively. To the image sensor 91, as the finger 81 blocks the finger 82, the image window W91 acquired by the image sensor 91 only includes a finger image I81+I82 (i.e. a combined image of the finger images I81 and I82). Therefore, the processing unit 92 is not able to correctly calculate two-dimensional coordinates of different fingers with respect to the touch surface 90 according to the finger images I81′, I82′ and I81+I82.
Accordingly, it is necessary to provide a positioning method for an optical touch system that can correctly position a plurality of pointers.

Touch system and positioning method therefor


A luminous electric display unit having glass tubing, filled with an inert gas, fully or partially enclosed within a protective housing, thereby providing protection both for the glass tubing and the public.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a luminous electric display unit of the inert gas-containing tube type. More particularly this invention is directed to a luminous electric display unit wherein the tube is partially protected with a transparent trough that is visible from all sides of the sign.
2. Description of Related Art
Luminous electric signs of the inert gas-filled tube type have long been employed in commercial and business establishments to provide decoration and/or impart information. Typically, such signs are referred to as "neon signs" and may be hung or placed in various locations, such as storefront windows, to advertise a product, decorate, or provide message information.
The tubular lighting elements of the sign may be conformed into an array of desired letters, logos, symbols, or decorative shapes, as in a glass tube-bending operation. The array is supportably attached by suitable brackets or wires to a rigid open frame, to a support backing, or to some form of housing or box.
In some situations, the housing that supports the lighting elements takes on special importance. For example, in applications such as food service, health care, schools, or any function involving children, safety is a primary consideration. When used in food service settings, the dust, foreign particles, and insects that tend to accumulate in neon signs become more than a mere nuisance, they may pose a contamination threat to food products in proximity. Luminous neon tube type signs, with their bright and varied colors, frequently draw the attention of children and can thus prove problematic because children are tempted to reach for the thin glass tubing. Moreover, governmental entities often place regulations on the use of luminous neon tube type signs in the above applications to guard against injury should the glass tubing break.
Security is another factor that retailers often consider when choosing a sign for advertising in and around their businesses. Many business owners want to maintain unobstructed sight lines to critical areas of their store or property to minimize opportunities for theft or other undesirable activity. Luminous neon tube type signs generally block the sight lines with their housing and thus are not used when unobstructed views are required.
As true of any product, manufacturing expense is always important. Housing for the components of a luminous neon tube type sign usually comes in multiple parts that must then be assembled. The additional assembly cost can add significantly to the manufacturing cost of the sign.
Various types of neon signs are known and found in the prior art. U. S. Pat. Nos. 1,570,980 to Wiegend, and 1,872,428 to Drury, show neon tube type signs where the glass tube is embedded in a groove to form the outline of a character or symbol. U. S. Pat. No. 5,267,404 to Kizy shows a neon tube type sign where the glass tube is mounted on a face plate that is in turn recessed within a rectangular housing. However, none of these signs completely cover the neon tube to protect the glass tubing from damage and to protect the public from injury. Kizy shelters the glass tube by placing the display unit within the housing, but the glass tube is still accessible from the front of the sign. U. S. Pat. No. 1,917,956 to Earley discloses a neon tube type sign where the glass tube is embedded in plaster and wax. While the plaster provides strong support for the tube, the front side of the tube is still exposed to the elements and thus may be soiled with insects, dust, and other foreign materials.
In addition, all of the above signs will block the sight lines wherever they are used and thus are not preferred where security is important.
None of the above signs use a single unit of material to totally encapsulate the glass tubing. Although Earley embeds the tubing in plaster and wax, the manufacturing process requires the plaster to be etched away in front of the tubing thus requiring a labor intensive step that defeats the benefits of complete encapsulation.
In view of the above, and in accordance with the present invention, it is desirable to provide a luminous electric display unit of the inert gas-filled tube type that protects both the glass tubing and the public from harm and keeps the glass tubing free from foreign debris. It is also desirable to provide a luminous electric display unit that is substantially transparent to allow for greater visibility of activities taking place in and around a place of business, for example. In addition, it is also desirable to reduce assembly expense by forming the housing from a single unit of material that encapsulates the glass tubing and is then sealed.


A method, a system, a User Equipment (UE) and an application platform for exchanging application information between a presence entity and a watcher, wherein the presence entity publishes application information or commands destined to a certain application, in the form of a presence tuple. The watcher subscribes to presence information associated with the certain application, and once authorized, receives the tuple with the application information or command. An UE or an application platform run several applications, and comprise a SUBSCRIBE Dispatcher module and a PUBLISH Handler module for sending presence SUBSCRIBE messages and presence PUBLISH messages for requesting or providing the application information and commands.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the exchange of information among service applications in a telecommunications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
One new service application offered by the telecommunications world is the so-called "presence" technology. Presence is a type of application that makes possible to locate and identify a terminal device, herein called a User Equipment (UE), including, for example, handheld computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), laptops or personal computers (PCs), mobile phones, etc, wherever they might be, as soon as the user connects to the network. One application of presence technology, Instant Messaging (IM), is already very popular. Presence technology is expected to be an integral part of third generation (3G) wireless networks, and is likely to be employed across a wide variety of communication devices, as mentioned. A significant number of wireless application service providers are developing platforms for mobile presence applications.
Presence is also, and mainly, a way for a user to express his willingness to communicate with other users, and to publicize in the network the communication means that he may employ. Among other possibilities, users of the technology may automatically set up an impromptu teleconference by connecting all the parties as soon as they are detected to be available, or present. Privacy issues can be addressed by allowing a high degree of user-defined control, for example by allowing people to select conditions in which they would be seen as present, i.e. detectable.
However, presence technology is not really new. The "finger" service and protocol have been around since the mid-1970s. It was a way to tell who was on a given host and what program they were executing. But for security reasons, nearly everyone has disabled this service and blocked its ports. Today, presence is most often found in the Instant Messaging world, where services such as AOL's AIM™, Microsoft's Messenger™ and Lotus' Sametime™ give friends, family and colleagues the ability to know whether someone is at their computer in addition to the quick text messaging. Predictably, a significant percentage of companies have blocked these services as well.
What is relatively new is the interest in merging instant messaging, IP-based Telephony, and the presence technology. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) have a number of drafts and specifications in the work, including the Common Presence and Instant Messaging (CPIM) and SIMPLE, which is the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions. These drafts and specifications define presence-related features and associated signaling protocols allowing network operators to provide presence services to their subscribers. They usually make use of a network entity called a presence server that receives and composes presence information about a user (or even a group of users or a service), which is also called, in the context of a presence-related application, a presence entity. The present server further provides presence information to watcher entities, also called herein watchers, interested in the presence information relating to a presence entity. Watchers can either fetch or monitor the presence information.
Presence information can originate from the network, e.g. from a registration status, activity, or location, or from a number of presence user agents publishing information on behalf of the user, e.g. mobile and fixed devices, application servers, etc.
The presence information associated with an UE may be distributed in the network as an XML document comprising one or more tuples. Reference is now made to FIG. 1 (Prior Art), which depicts an exemplary illustration of such a presence XML document 100 with two tuples 102 and 104. A tuple 102 comprises a tuple identifier 105 for identifying the tupple, and status information 106 related to the presence entity UE, such as for example OPENED or CLOSED status, wherein the status information defines the current status of the communication means described by the tuple. The tuple 102 further comprises other communication means information 108, such as for example short message service (SMS), that defines through which communication means the UE 10 can communicate, and contact address information 110 identifying the UE. Finally, the tuple 102 may comprise one or more attributes 112 that may define various parameters associated with the UE, including data files or links to files. The watcher interested in the presence information of the UE 10 may filter information it is interested in. For example, in a particular SMS broadcast application, a watcher may request from a presence server only UEs' identities which i) tuples' communication means are set to SMS, or ii) tuples' contact addresses are set to a specific value, or are of a specific type (e.g. SIP URI).
Reference is now made to FIG. 2 (Prior Art) that shows an exemplary nodal operation and signal flow diagram of a network 200 implementing an exchange of presence information. Shown in FIG. 2 is a presence server 202 that manages presence information for one or more UEs and a watcher 200 that is interested in presence related information about a given UE from the one or more UEs. First, the presence server 202 receives via the IP Multimedia Subsystem Core Network (IMS, IP multimedia network (IPMM) based on the SIP protocol, such as the one specified by 3GPP) network 211 a SIP PUBLISH message 210 with a presence XML document 212 that comprises one or more tuples with presence information about a given UE (not shown). The PUBLISH message 210 may come from several different sources publishing presence information on behalf of the user, including from the user terminal itself, form a registration action of the user terminal or from other entities of the network. In action 214, the presence server 202 registers the tuples comprised in the XML file 212. In action 216, the watcher 204 sends a SUBSCRIBE message addressed to one of the public contact addresses 218 of the user in the IMS (a SIP URI), and a filter 220. The filter 220 may be in the form of another XML document and may contain any filtering information provided by the watcher 204, defining the presence information it is interested in receiving from the presence server. In action 222, the present server 202 authenticates the message 216. The presence server may need to perform authentication by itself, using standard IETF mechanisms (e.g. HTTP digest), then it applies authorization policies to the request (is the watcher allowed to see presence information?), which may lead to its rejection. Finally, the presence server checks the access rights associated to the watcher, and filters its presence information based on the access rights of the watcher and the filter 220. The presence server 202 returns to the watcher 202 a NOTIFY message with the XML file 212, which is in the present situation contains the result of the filtering 222, action 224. The tuples provided are the intersection between the tuples identified by the filters and those the watcher is allowed to access.
So far, in the existing presence applications, the exchange of presence information is limited to exchanging presence information associated with contact addresses and communication means of UEs. Very recently, a committee of the 3GPP has discussed the possibility of including an application identifier in the text attributes field 112 of a tuple 102, as shown in FIG. 1 (Prior Art). However, no mention was made on the purpose of such inclusion, nor was it mentioned what advantages can be obtained.
The present invention proposes to use an application identifier stored in presence tuples for enabling the exchange of information and commands between applications or components of distributed applications running in terminals (e.g. UEs) and application servers. The exchanges may take place between terminals, between application servers, and between terminals and application servers.

Transmission of application information and commands using presence technology


An information processing apparatus is disclosed which includes: a retrieving element for retrieving storage medium information and image data information from a memory formed integrally with a storage medium having image data recorded thereon; a recording element for recording to a database the image data information in conjunction with the storage medium information, the image data information having been retrieved by the retrieving element; and a displaying element for displaying the storage medium information and the image data information recorded by the recording element.

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program. More particularly, the invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program whereby the contents of image data recorded on a storage medium such as a cassette tape are readily verified.
Image data picked up by a digital video camera are recorded on a DVC (digital video camera) cassette tape loaded in the camera. At a later date, a user may wish to verify the contents of the image data recorded on the cassette tape. In such a case, a personal computer may be used to display a list of image data retained on the cassette tape. A program for running the computer for the purpose performs a number of steps: playing back the cassette tape on fast forward so as to acquire the image data therefrom, detecting discontinuities in the acquired image data, and displaying images representative of the discontinuities so as to indicate a list of the image data held on the cassette tape.
One disadvantage of the arrangement above is that the program does not guarantee the quality of the image data reproduced from the tape on fast forward. That is, some data required for detecting the discontinuities can get lost, which makes discontinuity detection inaccurate. Another disadvantage is that if the discontinuities were detected from normally reproduced image data, the detection would be performed with precision but it would take an inordinately long time because the entire range of the cassette tape needs to be played back normally.
Furthermore, when thumbnail (bit map) images are obtained from the image data to represent their contents in a visually easy-to-understand manner, the quality of the thumbnails tends to be poor since they are based on the image data reproduced on fast forward. On the other hand, using the normally reproduced image data to prepare thumbnail images would require too much time.
Although it is possible to enter a list of image data recorded on each cassette tape into a database or like facility, the cassette tape in question cannot be associated automatically with that image data list because cassette tapes are given no unique definition information (i.e., identifiers) in a format readable by a personal computer. To ascertain whether an image data list corresponds to a given cassette tape has so far required that the user visually check the label or other indications on the cassette tape in question. The proceedings have proved bothersome and time-consuming.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program


A device and method for detecting fluorescent evidence, including fingerprints. The device and method use a pair of matched filters, a source of noncoherent light, and a light intensifier to detect the wavelength-shifted reflections from fluorescent substances. The light source and a first filter illuminate the substances with a light of predetermined band width. The second filter and the light intensifier detect and increase the luminance of the reflected light, shifted to a longer wavelength by reflection from the florescent substances. The device may be hand-held and portable.

The present invention relates to devices and methods for detecting evidence at, for example, the scene of a crime. More particularly, it relates to devices and methods for detecting fluorescent substances and other materials or features which may be made fluorescent, such as fingerprints.
The detection of objects or features not normally visible to the human eye has long been recognized as a significant problem, especially in the field of law enforcement where detection of evidence is of critical importance. In this field the effort has focused on the improvement of the detection of fingerprints.
Devices and methods for detecting fingerprints frequently use lasers because of the laser's high detection rate. The laser excites fluorescent substances carried by the fingerprint making the fingerprint visible. The laser may excite fluorescent substances in the fingerprint residue itself, or fluorescent substances deposited on and carried by the fingerprint such as powders, dyes or chemical reagents. Such devices may also be used to detect fluorescent evidence other than fingerprints such as certain fibers and sweat. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,708,882 and 4,794,260 to Asano, et al.
Lasers, however, present new problems to the crime scene investigator. Their portability is extremely limited and they may be unwieldy in confined spaces because they require a large power supply which must be transported to the scene. They may also be unsafe to operate because the laser beam itself is hazardous and caution must be taken so that it does not reach the human eye either directly or by reflection.
Fingerprints may, of course, be detected without lasers by using dusting powders, fuming and chemical reagents. Viewing may be enhanced by the use of ultraviolet light. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,408 to Morton. These techniques, however, generally have lower success rates than laser detection techniques. Old prints and prints on porous materials are particularly difficult to detect.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a novel device and method for detecting evidence, including fingerprints, that obviates the problems of the prior art and is portable and safe to use.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel device for detecting evidence, including fingerprints, without a laser, but with a relatively high degree of success.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel device for detecting evidence that illuminates fluorescent evidence with noncoherent light and detects the wavelength-shifted reflection from the evidence with a light intensifier.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a novel device for detecting fluorescent evidence without lasers that uses light filters having non-overlapping bandwidths for forming an image of the fluorescent evidence.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel method for detecting fluorescent evidence without laser that includes illuminating the evidence with a specifically filtered light and detecting and intensifying the wavelength-shifted reflection from the evidence.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a novel method for detecting fingerprints using reflections of noncoherent light filtered so that only the images of the fingerprints are received and intensified.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which can be used by police and similar departments for plural purposes in the investigation of crime scenes and criminal activity.
These and many other objects and advantages will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of preferred embodiments.

Portable fingerprint detection method and device


An image processing method and apparatus for subpixel rendering is provided. A display, with an image processing apparatus, may adjust a pixel value of a subpixel based on the position of the subpixel relative to a position of an eye of a viewer. The image processing apparatus may display a three-dimensional (3D) image on a light field display, based on the adjusted pixel value of the subpixel.

1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to an image processing apparatus and method, and more particularly, to an image processing apparatus and method that may render a subpixel based on a viewing position of a viewer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Three-dimensional (3D) image display apparatuses for displaying different images to both eyes of a human are classified into a stereoscopic type and an autostereoscopic type. A stereoscopic display filters a desired image through image division using a polarized light, time division, a wavelength division for differentiating a wavelength of a primary color, and the like, so that a 3D effect may be provided to a viewer when the viewer wears appropriately designed glasses that similarly filter a different divided image to each eye. An autostereoscopic display may enable differing images to be viewed within predetermined space, using a parallax barrier or a lenticular lens. The autostereoscopic display has an advantage of alleviating an inconvenience of having to wear glasses that are necessary with stereoscopic displays.
In particular, the autostereoscopic display may include a display that reproduces a general light field representing plural underlying light fields reproducing selectively different images observable from different directions, for example, to produce the 3D effect.

Image processing apparatus and method for subpixel rendering


A command is received in a cloud-computing environment from an integrated development environment (IDE), where the command is to update runtime software application content in an application container associated with the runtime software application content, and where the command contains new software application content. Without terminating the application container, a connection is opened to the application container using the application container name as an identifier, and at least some of the runtime software application content in the application container is modified using the new software application content.

In cloud-computing environments, software applications are typically run in a managed way within an application container. Application management typically permits external communication with a software application using a communication port. In some cases only one communication port can be used and the communication port is reserved exclusively to application logic of a particular software application. Some software application communications, interactions, or activities may require access to a software application process and execution of the software application process in a manner that is not supported by current cloud-computing environment configurations. This restriction applies to all providers that execute software applications inside particular application containers.

Modification of software application content within a cloud-deployed application container


A master modem is configured to generate a carrier signal for transmission over a wired connection. A slave modem is configured to change an impedance of the wired connection to alter generation of the carrier signal by the master modem. The impedance of the wired connection is changed based on data to be provided by the slave modem. The master modem can demodulate its own carrier signal to obtain the data provided by the slave modem. The impedance of the wired connection could be changed by changing an impedance of a transformer winding or inductor of the slave modem, where the transformer winding or inductor is coupled to the wired connection. The impedance of the wired connection could also be changed by changing a reactance of a circuit coupled to the wired connection.

"Power Line Communication" refers to communications that occur over power distribution lines, including alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) lines. Power Line Communication has been a controversial topic since its inception. It has been established, for example, that Power Line Communication can often be unreliable and can cause interference.
In a photovoltaic (PV) system, photovoltaic panels (solar panels) are used to convert sunlight into electrical energy. In many photovoltaic systems, large arrays of photovoltaic panels are used to generate electrical energy. For example, an array could include a number of photovoltaic panels coupled in series to form a string, and multiple strings can be coupled in parallel. Using Power Line Communication in a photovoltaic system can be problematic since typical Power Line Communication schemes are too expensive, too unreliable, or both. Other wired communication schemes can suffer similar problems.

Distributed modem architectures for power line communication systems and other wired communication systems


A main object of the present invention is to provide a birefringence improving agent that can realize a satisfactory white display even in a liquid crystal display device in which a ferroelectric liquid crystal composition is used and which can reduce the birefringence and has a large cell gap; a ferroelectric liquid crystal composition and a liquid crystal display device that use the birefringence improving agent; and a compound that can be used in a ferroelectric liquid crystal composition.

With the features of being thin and capable of consuming less electric power, liquid crystal display devices have a wide variety of applications ranging from large-sized displays to portable information terminals, and thus development of the liquid crystal display devices is inactive progress. In regard to liquid crystal display devices developed thus far, multiplex drive for the TN mode and STN, active matrix drive using a thin film transistor (TFT) for TN, and the like have been developed and put to practical use. However, since these drive modes use nematic liquid crystals, the response speeds of the liquid crystal materials are as slow as several milliseconds (ms) to several ten milliseconds (ms), and it cannot be said that the liquid crystal materials are sufficiently capable of coping with moving video image displays.
Ferroelectric liquid crystals are liquid crystals which have response speeds that are very short in the order of microseconds (μs), and are appropriate for high speed devices. Since ferroelectric liquid crystals have superiority such as wide viewing angles, it is expected that high performance liquid crystal display devices can be provided.
Since ferroelectric liquid crystals have high birefringence, in a liquid crystal display device which uses a ferroelectric liquid crystal, in order to suppress the occurrence of color shift and thereby obtain a satisfactory white display, it is necessary to make the cell gap very narrow to less than 2 μm. However, with a narrow cell gap, there is a problem that due to the occurrence of thickness unevenness, and to the occurrence of color unevenness or display unevenness caused by thickness unevenness, the yield in production is decreased.
Thus, a ferroelectric liquid crystal which can realize satisfactory white display even in a liquid crystal display device having a large cell gap is desired.
For the purpose of providing a liquid crystal display device which enables a black-and-white display with high visibility by preventing coloration caused by a birefringence effect, for example, Patent Document 1 suggests that a substrate is made to exhibit birefringence, and also, the principal optical axis of the substrate is disposed to be slanting by 30° from the normal line of the smectic layer of the ferroelectric liquid crystal, to thereby adjust the difference in retardation of the substrate and the liquid crystal layer to a predetermined range.
Furthermore, although not related to ferroelectric liquid crystals, in regard to nematic liquid crystals, it is known to add a liquid crystal material in order to improve display characteristics. For example, Patent Document 2 suggests adding a liquid crystal material having a desired birefringence or a liquid crystal material having a relatively high birefringence.
Furthermore, in Patent Document 3, although not related to ferroelectric liquid crystals, in regard to nematic liquid crystals, a tetracyclic ester compound and an ether compound, both of which have a predetermined structure having a benzene ring and three cyclohexane rings in total introduced into the main chain, are disclosed for the purpose of providing a liquid crystalline compound which is suitable for super-twist displays.

Birefringence improving agent, ferroelectric liquid crystal composition and liquid crystal display device using the agent, and compound


Systems, methods, and machine-readable media for processing data transmissions from a plurality of client devices to create composites for transmission to destination addresses are provided. Communications via a network may be received from a set of devices. Each communication may include a digital identifier corresponding to a destination specification. The communication may be processed to identify the digital identifier and to identify the destination specification. A data portion may be selected from the communication and cached. A second format may be identified as corresponding to a second communication medium, where the second format is different from a first format of the communication. A composite may be created according to the second format. The composite may include the selected data portion and the destination specification. The composite formatted according to the second format may be transmitted toward an endpoint device in accordance with the destination specification.

Providing effective notifications under changing conditions of transmitters, receivers, and the devices, applications, and systems therebetween, while maintaining protection of sensitive information, may prove difficult using conventional systems. Generating effective notifications while protecting sensitive information may promote overall resource access and process performance. Therefore, there is a need in the art for improvements that address the limitations and technical challenges that have limited conventional systems. This and others needs are addressed by the present disclosure.

Adaptive authentication and notification system


A probe has internal circuitry capable of operating in a plurality of different modes, for example a variety of filter modes and turn off modes. A switch on the probe sends an input to a controller which is arranged to set the mode in response to operation of the switch. The switch may be a push button which is operated externally of the probe by means of an actuator in the form of a plunger. The probe has a workpiece-contacting stylus mounted on a seat from which it is deflectable. The stylus and the seat may comprise the switch. An indicator, e.g., an LED, indicates the mode in response to an output from the controller. The controller outputs a plurality of indications of different modes in a sequence and a mode is selected by operating the switch once the desired mode is indicated.

This invention relates to probes for use on position determining apparatus such as coordinate measuring machines, measuring robots and in particular machine tools.
An example of such a probe is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,998. Probes intended for use on machine tools, in which there is a wireless signal transmission system between the probe and the controller of the machine tool, are shown in European Patent Numbers 337669 and 337670.
As such probes have become more complex over the years, there has been a need for them to operate in different modes.
For example, it can be desirable for the signal produced by the probe to be filtered prior to transmitting it to the controller, in order to prevent the generation of spurious signals as a result of vibration. Therefore, the probe may be preset to use different types of filtering, or no filtering, depending on the machine tool and the environment into which it has been installed.
Furthermore, on machine tools such probes are commonly battery operated. The wireless signal transmission system also includes a receiver for receiving a switch-on or start signal. This switches the probe on from a sleeping state in which it consumes very low current, ready for normal use. It is then desirable to switch the probe circuitry off (back to the sleeping state) after use. The probe may have different preset modes, giving different manners in which the circuitry is turned off.
In known probes, such modes are preset by the use of DIP switches on a circuit board internally within the probe. This has a number of disadvantages. In order to change the preset mode, the operator has to dismantle the probe to access the DIP switches. There is a risk that the operator will damage the printed circuit board, and the probe has to be designed to permit such dismantling. Where the DIP switches act on a micro controller to preset the mode, there is a restriction on the number of input lines to the micro controller.
With, say, three such input lines from a three-gang DIP switch, a maximum of eight modes can be preset. Any more modes would require a larger number of input lines to the micro controller. Finally, it would be desirable to provide a pre-setting device which is smaller, less expensive and more reliable than DIP switches.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An inkjet printer, which comprises a slide lid slideably connected with the cartridge body, wherein a fixed clamp is formed on both sides of the cartridge body respectively; a movable wall which is engaged and fastened with the fixed clamp at the end is formed on both sides of the slide lid respectively; and a friction force generating component is arranged on one side of the movable wall. Due to the friction forces generated by the friction force generating components, two sidewalls of the movable walls are tightly engaged with the inner wall of the ink cartridge bin of the printer to lock the ink cartridge and fix the ink cartridge into the ink cartridge bin of the printer. The technical problems of poor contact of a chip and abnormal disengagement of an ink container as locking members are loosened when the ink cartridge on the printer can be solved.

The traditional inkjet printer usually adopts an inkjet printhead mounted on a carriage which can transversely move back and forth along a printing medium (such as a piece of paper). When the printhead transversely moves along the printing medium, the printhead is driven by a control system to eject or spray ink drops onto the printing medium, so as to form images and characters.
An ink container which can be replaced separately with the printhead is traditionally used by the printer. When the ink of an ink cartridge is out, the ink cartridge is removed and replaced by a new ink container. By adoption of the ink container, a user can independently replace the ink container and does not need to replace the printhead, and then the printhead can be used for printing until the service life of the printhead is ended.
What is favorable to the user of the printer is that: the information is stored into the ink containers, so that the quality of output images can be best and the useability of the printer can be improved. For example, the American patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,264,301 discloses an ink container provided with a storage device which is arranged on the ink container and used for storing the parameters of a printer.
The convenience of the printer is that: after the ink cartridge is installed on the printer by the user, an internal driver of the printer can automatically adjust the status of the printer for the printer to be suitable for printing. The driving conditions include the driving voltage, the pulse width, the frequency and the scheduled discharge. By adoption of the method, the printer can be at the optimum status for printing specified ink and the driving conditions do not need to be manually adjusted.
The information storage device identified by the printer is arranged on the ink container. The printer can only drive corresponding procedures after reading information from the information storage device. For the information storage device of the ink container to be in good contact with the printer, the Chinese patent CN97123110.9 discloses a technique, wherein locking members on an ink container can be engaged with locking members on a printer, so as to guarantee that an information storage device of the printer can be tightly engaged with a contact of the printer; and the locking members on the printer is made from an elastic steel sheet.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the state when the traditional ink cartridge is installed on a printer, wherein the ink cartridge can be inserted into an ink cartridge installation mechanism 20 of the printer; and an ink cartridge 1 is provided with a given amount of medium printing fluid such as ink.
When the ink cartridge is correctly aligned and installed into the ink cartridge installation mechanism 20, locking members 68 on the printer are engaged with corresponding locking members 64 on the ink cartridge, so as to lock the ink cartridge into the ink cartridge installation mechanism 20. The locking members 68 are made from a steel sheet, and one end of the locking members 68 is fixed on the ink cartridge installation mechanism 20 of the printer. After the ink cartridge is pulled out and inserted in for a plurality of times, an ink level detection component of the printer tends to hit the ink cartridge out of the ink cartridge installation mechanism 20.
The ink level detection of the ink container of the printer adopts the means of hitting, namely using a soft membrane and a pump. When there is ink in the ink container, a detection cavity is sealed by the internal pump; and as there is ink in the detection cavity, the hitting resistance is relatively large when the ink level detection mechanism of the printer hits and a pressure sensor may determine that there is ink in the ink cartridge. When there is no ink in the ink container, the detection cavity is sealed by the internal pump; and as there is no ink in the detection cavity, the volume of internal gas is compressed when the ink level detection mechanism of the printer hits and then the hitting resistance is relatively small, and consequently the pressure sensor may determine that there is no ink in the ink cartridge. As a hitting force of the ink level detection mechanism of the printer is between 1,000N and 1,500N and the hitting direction is consistent with the removing direction of the ink cartridge, the locking members on the printer tends to be loosened after long-term hitting of the printer, and then the problems of poor contact of a chip and abnormal disengagement of the ink container may occur.


A non-power generating current limiting device such as a field effect transistor is provided to output a regulated current in dependence upon a control voltage. An electron field emitter is connected to a drain or output of the non-power generating current limiting device to receive the regulated current. A tip of the electron field emitter emits electrons towards a collector anode. An extractor gate can be provided between the electron field emitter and the collector anode to control the rate of electron emission from the electron field emitter. Because the non-power generating current limiting device regulates the current to the electron field emitter, a maximum current output of the electron field emitter is limited to the regulated current from the voltage controlled current source. The electron field emitter is thus protected from destruction due to excess current. The non-power generating current limiting device can also be used to modulate electron emission from the field emitter.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a regulatable field emitter device and, more particularly, relates to a field emitter device having control of the electron emission therefrom.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electron emission from field emitters has been difficult to control. If too much current is emitted from a field emitter, the field emitter may destroy itself due to excessive heat generation by current induced joule heating. Furthermore, heavily doped semiconductor field emitters or those having an elongated shape which permits avalanche breakdown are susceptible to destruction from too much electron emission due to heating, e.g. the conduction band of the semiconductor is populated with thermally generated carriers.
In the art of field emitters, the term "field emitter array (FEA)" structure is customarily used to generically refer to one or more field emitters, each of which has its own integral extractor gate and associated extraction aperture. Typically, a large number of field emitters are used in the art for tasks such as controlling the luminance on portions of a luminescent screen. Field emitters include metallic field emitters, thin-film field emitter cathodes and semiconductor cones. Known methods to limit the current output of a field emitter have been proposed. A sufficiently high resistance in series with the field emitter is known to restrict current emission from the field emitter. Greene and Gray in U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,308 proposed controlling field emission from a semiconductor device by back-biasing a PN junction. Furthermore, Gray et al. in "A Vacuum Field Effect Transistor Using Silicon Field Emitter Arrays" in the IEDM Technical Digest, Dec. 7-10, 1986, pp. 776-779 and in the proceedings of the Materials Research Society, Volume 76, 1987, p. 25, proposed control by velocity saturation inside the semiconductor field emitter of a vacuum field effect transistor. The vacuum field effect transistor proposed by Gray et al. in these publications uses electron emission from a field emitter, rather than a depletion region under a gate of a solid state field effect transistor, to control the switching of the vacuum field effect transistor. In this vacuum field effect transistor, the velocity saturation inside the field emitter acted to restrict current flow.

Regulatable field emitter device and method of production thereof

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A multi-band signal is generated by combining two or more input signals separated in frequency. The input signals are combined either before or after predistortion depending on the bandwidth of the multi-band signal. If the bandwidth of the multi-band signal is less than a predetermined bandwidth threshold, the input signals are combined and predistortion is applied to the combined signal to generate the multi-band signal. If the bandwidth of the multi-band signal is greater than the bandwidth threshold, the individual input signals are predistorted and subsequently combined to generate the multi-band signal.

One current trend in radio architecture for wireless transmitters in high data rate networks is using a dual-band power amplifier to simultaneously transmit data on two different frequency bands. It is well known that power amplifiers are non-linear devices. These non-linearities can manifest as intermodulation products that fall inside as well as outside the signal bandwidth. Depending on the severity of the non-linearity, the distortion can result in spectral components that violate spectral masks established by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and other regulatory bodies.
Generally, intermodulation products that fall on frequencies very far away from the signal's center frequency maybe removed by filtering. However, intermodulation products caused by third order non-linearities (IM3) of the power amplifier generally manifest as spectral components close to the center frequency of the signal. These spectral components cannot be easily removed by filtering. Therefore, alternate techniques are needed to remove or reduce these spectral components.
Digital predistortion is one technique used to compensate for the non-linearities of the power amplifier. The general principle behind digital predistortion is to distort the input signal in such a way that the overall system of the predistorter and the power amplifier is linear. In essence, the predistorter models the inverse non-linear characteristic of the power amplifier. As a general rule of thumb, the digital predistorter must support bandwidths that are three to five times the instantaneous signal bandwidth. The high sample rates required make digital predistortion impractical for dual-band signals. For instance, if the goal is to transmit a 20 MHz complex signal, the digital predistorter should run at a sampling rate greater than 100M samples/sec in order to effectively linearize the power amplifier. In the case of dual-band transmission where the signal bands are widely separated in frequency, very high sample rates are required because the total bandwidth of the combined signal is large.
As an example consider an LTE TDD implementation where one needs to transmit a 20 MHz signal (signal A) via band 35 (1850-1910 MHz) and simultaneously transmit another 20 MHz signal (signal B) via band 36 (1932-1990 MHz). Additionally, suppose signal A is centered on 1860 MHz and signal B is centered on 1980 MHz resulting in a total signal bandwidth of 140 MHz (=1990-1850 MHz). Using the rule of thumb, the predistorter will have to support a bandwidth in excess of 700 MHz (=5×140 MHz) for good linearization performance. Such a predistorter may be difficult to implement in current silicon technologies given the complexity of the design.
Another problem associated with multi-band transmission is that of insufficient linearization performance when the input signals are tuned to frequencies that are relatively nearby and when predistortion is being employed for linearization. In order to successfully linearize a power amplifier, the predistorter must be able to resolve and reduce or eliminate the effects of the non-linearity caused by the power amplifier. However, in the case of multi-band transmission, the signal energies may overlap after predistortion which would be impossible to resolve individually in the feedback path.

Linearization for a single power amplifier in a multi-band transmitter


The present invention relates to a balloon catheter. The invention comprises: a first shaft; an expandable balloon which is attached to the front end of the first shaft; an expandable lumen which is formed inside the first shaft and to which a liquid required for expanding the balloon is provided; a second shaft which extends from the front end of the first shaft to which the balloon is attached and has a wire hole through which a guide wire passes; and a guide wire lumen, which is formed inside the second shaft and through which the guide wire passes. According to the invention, the first and second shafts are coaxially connected and the expandable lumen and the guide wire lumen are respectively formed in each shaft in order to reduce the overall diameter of the shaft, thereby facilitating surgery and improving pushability.

In general, a balloon catheter and a stent are medical tools surgically installed within a lumen or blood vessel and configured to expand the lumen or blood vessel when a disease is generated, such as when the unique function of a lumen within the human body is reduced due to the lumen narrowed by various types of diseases generated within the human body or when the circulation of the blood becomes poor due to a narrowed blood vessel.
A coronary artery disease or an ischemic heart disease is a disease generated because fat-forming elements are deposited on the wall of a coronary artery blood vessel, the lumen of the coronary artery is gradually narrowed as an inflammatory response accompanied by the deposition, and the blood is not sufficiently supplied to the heart muscle due to the narrowed lumen size of the coronary artery.
If the blood is not sufficiently supplied to the heart muscle, a pain in the chest, a difficulty in breathing, and other symptoms are generated depending on a degree thereof. Such a coronary artery disease appears as a clinical sign, such as angina, acute myocardial infarction, or a sudden heart failure.
Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) is a treatment method of physically expanding the lumen of the coronary artery that has been narrowed because cholesterol is deposited on a blood vessel wall using a balloon catheter or a stent.
FIG. 1 is a side view showing a conventional balloon catheter. Referring to FIG. 1, a balloon 2 is provided at the front end of the shaft 1 of the conventional balloon catheter. The balloon 2 may be attached to the front end of the shaft 1 using adhesives, etc.
Meanwhile, a wire discharge hole 3 through which a guide wire is discharged is formed on one side of the shaft 1. As described above, in the existing balloon catheter, the cross section of the shaft 1 in which the wire discharge hole 3 is formed is described below. As shown in FIG. 1, a guide wire lumen 4 through which a guide wire passes and an expansion lumen 5 are together formed within the shaft 1.
That is, the guide wire is inserted into the front end (opened) of the balloon catheter and discharged to the wire discharge hole 3 after passing through the guide wire lumen 4 so that the balloon catheter enters and exits along the guide wire. Liquid (i.e., a solution for the transfer of pressure, for example, a contrast medium and a mixture of saline) for expanding the balloon 2 is supplied to the expansion lumen 5. The liquid for expansion is supplied through a connection port 6 provided at the rear end of the shaft 1. The connection port 6 is a port connected to an expansion-contraction device.
However, the aforementioned prior art has the following problems.
The conventional balloon catheter is problematic in that the diameter of the shaft 1 is generally increased because the guide wire lumen 4 and the expansion lumen 5 are overlapped with each other and formed in the shaft 1. If the diameter of the shaft 1 is increased as described above, pushability is lowered when a surgical operator performs a surgical procedure on the catheter, making the surgical procedure difficult. In particular, there is a problem in that a surgical procedure for a tortuous blood vessel, such as the heart blood vessel, is difficult.
Furthermore, if the guide wire lumen 4 and the expansion lumen 5 are formed together, there is a problem in that the time taken to expand and contract the balloon 2 becomes long because the diameter of the expansion lumen 5 is inevitably relatively reduced.

Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, Yonsei University


Self neutralizing compositions and methods for their use are disclosed for treating polyamide fibers, such as nylon or wool carpeting, to render them stain resistant. The compositions are aqueous solutions carbonated to an appropriate acid pH containing one or more dye-resist agents which are condensation products of formaldehyde and a sulfonated naphthol or phenol. When the carbon dioxide escapes or evaporates subsequent to application, the pH rises to about neutral leaving the dye-resist agent ionically bonded to the polyamide fibers. An appropriate amount of a fluorochemical may also be contained in the solution which also physically interacts with the fibers and deters yellowing caused by the presence of the dye-resist agents. The process can be carried out during one or more cleaning, rinsing or subsequent finishing or protectant steps. In each step, the carbonated solution is applied under pressure at a pH of between about 2.5 and 7.0 and preferably between 3.5 and 6.5.

This invention relates to compositions and methods for imparting stain resistance to polyamide fibers using carbonated solutions containing dye-resist agents made up of condensation products of sulfonated phenols or naphthols and formaldehyde, with or without the presence of added fluorochemicals. More particularly, this invention relates to compositions and methods for (1) regenerating the stain resistant properties of previously treated polyamide fibers and (2) imparting stain resistant properties to polyamide fibers which have not been previously treated with stain resistant chemicals.
The term "stain resistant" as used in the industry means the ability of a polyamide fiber to resist staining when subjected to Food, Drug and Cosmetic Red Dye No. 40 (hereinafter called Red Dye 40). Fibers of polyamides (including natural polyamides such as wool and silk and synthetic polyamides most commonly referred to as nylons) may be woven into carpets and other textile materials which are long wearing and relatively inexpensive. They may be dyed into a variety of colors but tend to become permanently stained when subjected to most artificial colorants normally added to foods, beverages, medicines, cosmetics and the like, and also by chromophores found in most fruits and fruit based drinks, including wines. It is a well known fact that most nylon and wool carpeting is replaced because of staining and not because the carpet is worn.
It has been known for some time that polyamide fibers, which contain free amino groups, can be made stain resistant by applying sulfonated naphthol- or phenol-formaldehyde condensation products which react with the free amino groups forming an ionic bond. These sulfonated condensation products, commonly called "dye-resist agents", are well known in the art and are described in detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,592,940; 4,501,591 and 4,699,812. Typical of these sulfonated naphtholic or phenolic condensation products are those available under the tradenames Wilnostain.RTM. (U.S. Polymeric), Erionol.RTM. NW and Erionol.RTM. PA (Ciba-Geigy), Intratex.RTM. N (Crompton and Knowles), and Misitol.RTM. NBS (Mobay). These and similar products have been sold for several years in the textile trade for use as dye-resist agents or agents to improve wetfastness and are recommended for use at an acidic pH of about 4 to 6. These dye-resist condensation products can be thought of as "colorless dyes" that bind to the free amino dye sites on polyamide fibers so that these sites are not available for reaction with dyes such as Red Dye 40, fruit stains, and similar materials.
The dye-resist products are normally applied to polyamide fabrics, such as carpeting, at the time they are manufactured but have not been well applied to installed carpets or fabrics subsequent to the manufacturing process. Two factors have been largely responsible in preventing the application of stain resistant chemicals to installed polyamide carpeting. The first factor is that, when improperly applied, these materials tend to yellow upon exposure to environmental conditions, such as the presence of NO.sub.2, which is commonly found in the atmosphere. This causes obvious problems, especially on light dye shade fabrics. The second factor is that the normally high pH of cleaning solutions tends to prevent bonding of the stain resistant materials to the free amino groups of the polyamides and increases the yellowing tendency of these sulfonated condensation products.
Stain resistant carpets have been available only since about 1986 and are primarily made of one of the nylons, e.g. nylon 6 (polycaprolactam), nylon 66 (polyhexamethylene adipamide), nylon 11 (polymer of 11-amino undecanoic acid) and others. Carpets installed prior to that time are not stain resistant. It has been conventional practice to coat non-stain resistant fibers with a fluorochemical to prevent wetting of the fiber surface by both oils (hydrophobic) and aqueous (hydrophilic) solutions and minimize contact between the carpet and soiling materials. However, fluorochemicals offer little protection against staining unless the staining substance is immediately removed from the carpet before it has a chance to react with the polyamide fibers. The treatment of textiles with fluorochemical polymers is illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,574,791; 3,728,151; 3,816,167; 3,916,053; 4,043,923; 4,043,964; 4,160,777; 4,192,754; 4,209,610; 4,264,484; 4,317,736; 4,604,316; 4,681,790 and 4,695,497. These fluorochemicals are commonly referred to under the tradenames Scotchgard.RTM. (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.), Teflon.RTM. (DuPont), Zonyl.RTM. (DuPont), Zepel.RTM. (DuPont), MPD 5737 and MPD 6202 (DuPont).
The durability of dye-resist agents and fluorochemicals on polyamide fibers varies greatly. Physical wearing caused by foot traffic on the carpet, abrasive action between fibers and sand or other particulate matter deposited on the carpet, and the like cause some removal of dye-resist agents even through they are chemically bonded to the fibers. Also fluorochemicals, which form a polymeric coating, are also removed over a period of time. Cleaning of the carpet with alkaline cleaning solutions also causes some chemical removal of dye-resist agents and fluorochemicals. Thus, over a period of time, carpets which once were treated to resist stains or resist oil and water solutions are made vulnerable to staining. Even more alarming is the vulnerability of carpet fibers which have never been treated to any type of dye-resist protection, even though they may have been previously treated with fluorochemicals.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a method for regenerating stain resistant polyamide fibers and making non-stain resistant polyamide fibers resistant to stains. However, as previously stated, there has heretofore been no convenient method for treating installed carpeting for such purposes. The dye-resist chemicals must be applied at an acid pH in order for the free amino groups on the polyamide fibers to become protonated and react with sulfonate anions of the dye-resist condensation products. Moreover, in order to have a truly stain resistant carpet, the free amino groups (--NH.sub.2) of all fibers, from the nap to the base, must be protonated (--NH.sub.3 .sup.+) and reacted with sulfonate ions (--SO.sub.3 .sup.-). This is generally done by treating the fibers prior to being woven into a carpet or by submersing the carpet in an acid solution containing the dye-resist agents. The fibers or carpet made of fibers, as the case may be, may then also be immersed in a rinse or neutralizing solution to bring the pH to about neutral followed by drying. A neutral pH is important in that if the acid were to remain on the fibers it could, in the presence of moisture, result in the hydrolysis of the polyamide chain creating more free amino groups as new dye sites rendering the fiber non-stain resistant. The presence of acids can also cause gradual fading of some dyestuffs. Moreover, a neutral fiber is necessary for the safety of those who come into contact with the fibers.
If an acid solution of a dye-resist agent is applied to an installed carpet it is difficult to insure that the fibers are completely contacted by the solution to react with all dye binding sites. Also, it is difficult, if not impossible to rinse the fibers to a neutral pH. One way of doing this would be to subject the fibers to an alkaline treatment, with or without the presence of a detergent. However, any use of an alkaline agent immediately removes some of the dye-resist agent. Also, if the fibers have been treated simultaneously with a fluorochemical, some of the fluorochemical will be removed unless it has first been completely dried prior to the rinsing treatment.

Composition and method for providing stain resistance to polyamide fibers using carbonated solutions


A memory device comprises a memory cell array (1) with a multitude of memory cells (111). Each of the memory cells (111) is assigned to one of a multitude of blocks (15). Each memory cell (111) is accessible by an access signal in order to alter stored information. Each of the memory cells (111) is assigned to one of a multitude of blocks (15). The memory device further comprises a measuring unit (100) coupled to the memory cell array (1) and being operable to identify a selected access characteristic of each of the memory cells (11) and an assignment unit (150) which is coupled to the measuring unit (100) and is operable to assign a performance parameter (215) to each block (15). A performance memory unit (2) is adapted to contain the performance parameters (215) assigned to the blocks (15).

An EEPROM or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory is a non-volatile storage unit used in computers or other devices. An EEPROM can be programmed and erased electrically multiple times. Each bit is set by quantum tunneling electrons across a thin dielectric barrier. Because of this it may be erased and reprogrammed only a certain number of times, but an EEPROM can be read for an unlimited number of times.
EEPROM memory cells may comprise different kinds of memory cells, for example a floating gate cell or a so-called nitride programmable read-only memory (NROM) cell. The NROM cell is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,011,725, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The NROM cell has two doping areas and a channel that is located between the doping areas. A gate electrode is arranged above the channel region insulated by a dielectric layer that is arranged between the channel region and the gate electrode. The dielectric layer includes an oxide-nitride-oxide layer comprising a nitride layer serving as a charge-trapping layer sandwiched between the insulating oxide layers, which avoid vertical retention. Two bits are stored in physically different regions of the nitride layer. A first bit region is located near the first doping area and a second bit region is located near the second doping area.
The bits are programmed by means of channel hot electron programming. Electrons may be injected from the channel into the charge-trapping region according to applied voltages. Programming of a first bit may be performed by applying a programming voltage to the first doping area and the gate while grounding the second doping area. The electrons are injected and trapped in the first bit region. Likewise programming of a second bit may be performed by applying the programming voltage to the second doping area in the gate while grounding the first doping area. For erasing a bit, hot holes or Fowler-Nordheim tunneling can be used. Erasing of the first bit may be performed by applying erasing voltages to the gate or to the first doping area and the gate resulting in a lateral field. Holes are caused to flow through the bottom oxide layer for compensating the charge of the electrons.
The step of applying programming or erasing voltages is performed by applying a sequence of several pulses. The number of pulses that are needed to program or erase the memory cell may differ from cell to cell. Nevertheless, the number of pulses increases with the number of programming or erasing cycles that have already been performed. Programming and erasing a memory cell is a general concept that is not limited to NROM cells.
A bit information stored in the NROM cell is read by applying a reverse voltage between the first and second doping areas compared to the programming voltage that is used to program the bit. Relatively small charges near the grounded one of the first or second doping area prevent or reduce current flow, for example reading of the first bit may be performed by applying reading voltages to the second doping area and the gate. The first doping area may be grounded. The current flows while there are no trapped charges inside the first bit region. While there are trapped charges or electrons inside the first bit region the current flow is reduced or the current does not flow. Reduced current flow represents a first binary value of the programmed bit and normal current flow represents a second binary value of the bit.
In order to perform memory access to the memory cells, the memory device further comprises a controller that is coupled to the memory cell array and executes memory access to the memory cells. Normally the memory cell array is organized in blocks. Each of the memory cells is assigned to one of the blocks. The memory access may be performed block wise. This means that a group of bits is preferably programmed in the same block. Furthermore, the memory cells assigned to the same block may be erased synchronistically.
The memory device is generally tested for functionality by the manufacturer before delivery. Blocks that comprise at least one defect memory cell may be marked as so-called bad blocks or replaced with redundant blocks. The controller does not execute memory access to these bad blocks. Testing may comprise performing memory access to each memory cell by applying an access signal in order to program or erase the memory cells. The access signal may comprise several pulses. The number of pulses needed to perform access, by programming or erasing, to the memory cell is determined during the testing routine. If the memory cell cannot be accessed by a given number of pulses it is assumed that the memory cell is defective. Consequently, the block including the defective memory cell is marked as a bad block.
During normal operation mode of the memory device, programming and erasing of the memory cells is performed many times. Due to deterioration of the memory cells, blocks that are programmed and erased more often than other blocks wear much faster. The lifetime of a block may be defined by a given number of programming or erasing cycles that can be performed to the memory cells of the block. After having performed the given number of programming or erasing cycles, the memory cells possibly become defective because of their limited lifetime. The block may be marked as a bad block resulting in not using it any more. Consequently, the storage capacity of the memory device decreases block wise during its lifetime if more and more blocks are marked as bad blocks.
The controller may perform memory access using so-called wear leveling. Wear leveling is a technique in order to spread wear caused by repeated programming or erasing evenly across the memory cell array and thus avoid wearing out specific blocks of the memory cell array. The wear leveling technique can be done by the controller. The controller selects the block for executing memory access based upon the number of writing or erasing cycles that have been performed so far. After having reached the given number of writing or erasing cycles the block is marked as a bad block.
Marking does not depend on the real state of the block but only on the number of writing or erasing cycles. Consequently, if the given number that defines the lifetime of the block is underestimated, the block is marked as a bad block although it still functions. Sometimes memory access is still executed to a block that has become defective although the given number of writing or erasing cycles has not been reached. The lifetime of a block is defined merely by a given number of writing or erasing cycles, not considering the real state of the memory cells of the block. Consequently, the defined lifetime of the block is based on an underestimation of the real lifetime of the memory cells.

Memory device and method for operating the memory device

Infineon Technologies Flash GmbH & Co. KG


Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a computer-implemented method. The method may include receiving identification information of a vehicle and identification information of a parking space to bind the vehicle with the parking space and generate binding information, receiving a time when the vehicle enters the parking space and a time when the vehicle exits the parking space, calculating a parking fee of the vehicle according to the time when the vehicle enters the parking space and the time when the vehicle exits the parking space, determining identification information of a shopping cart that corresponds to the vehicle according to the identification information of the vehicle, the binding information of the vehicle and the parking space, and a correspondence between the parking space and the shopping cart, and sending the parking fee of the vehicle to the shopping cart that corresponds to the identification information of the shopping cart.

At present, for easy management of shopping carts, shopping carts are generally not allowed to enter into parking lots in most shopping malls. Thus, after users pay all the shopping items, they need to manually bring the items to their vehicles, which greatly increases the shopping burden on them.
Although shopping carts are allowed to enter into parking lots in a few shopping malls, only a few shopping cart return areas are set therein. Therefore, after users bring the purchased products to their vehicles, shopping carts are often littered haphazardly for the sake of convenience, which leads to great management costs and safety hazards to these shopping malls.
Current systems for charging vehicle parking generally capture vehicle parking time through a camera installed at the entrance and exit of a parking lot, and set a toll station at the exit of the parking lot to collect the parking fee. During peak shopping hours, vehicles often line up at the exit of the parking lot due to being charged for vehicle parking. This greatly damages users' shopping experience.

Method and device for charging vehicle parking, as well as shopping cart and system


A dry etching method wherein one compound selected from mercaptan, thioether and disulfide each having a fluorocarbon side chain is used as a main component of an etching gas. These compounds may form CF.sub.x.sup.+ and S on dissociation due to electric discharges, and contribute to high-rate etching and surface protection of a wafer. If a halogen compound such as CO, SOF.sub.2 or NOF is added to the etching gas, a high-rate etching reaction due to extraction of O atoms from SiO.sub.2 and structural reinforcement of carbonaceous polymer become possible. Also, S.sub.2 F.sub.2 may be added for reinforcing deposition of S. These effects lead to a reduction of the deposit amount of polymer necessary for highly selective processing, and contribute greatly to low pollution in a process.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dry etching method applied in the manufacturing field of semiconductor devices, and particularly to a dry etching method for etching a silicon compound layer whereby high selectivity, high etchrate, low damage and low pollution can be achieved in processing a minute contact hole.
(2) Description of the Related Art
As large-scale integration and high performance of semiconductor devices as seen in recent VLSI have proceeded, higher processing precision is required for dry etching of a silicon compound layer represented by silicon oxide (SiO.sub.2).
First, the enlargement of the area of the device chip due to large-scale integration has increased the size of the wafer. Uniform processing within the wafer surface due to high minuteness of the pattern to be formed is required. Also, multiple-kind small-quantity production as represented by ASIC is required. On the basis of these backgrounds, the main stream of dry etching has been shifting from the traditional batch processing toward the single wafer processing. In this case, for maintaining productivity equal to that achieved in the past, the etchrate per wafer must be improved significantly.
In addition, with a shallow junction of an impurity diffused region for attaining high etchrate and minuteness of the device, and thin material layers of various types, an etching technique whereby higher selectivity to the underlying layer and lower damage than in the past is required. For instance, an SiO.sub.2 interlayer insulation film is etched with a silicon substrate or a polysilicon layer as an underlying layer, when a contact is to be formed in an impurity diffused region formed within a semiconductor substrate or in source-drain regions of a PMOS transistor employed as a resistive load element of SRAM.
Etching of an SiO.sub.2 based material layer has been carried out conventionally in a mode of increased ionicity for cutting a rigid Si--O bond. Typical etching gases are CHF.sub.3, CF.sub.4 and the like, and incident ion energy of CF.sub.x.sup.+ released therefrom is used. However, for carrying out high-rate etching, it is necessary to increase the incident ion energy, and the etching reaction becomes close to a physical sputtering reaction. Therefore, high etchrate and selectivity have always been incompatible with each other.
Conventionally, H.sub.2 or a depositional hydrocarbonaceous gas is added to the etching gas, so as to increase an apparent ratio of the number of carbon atoms to the number of fluorine atoms or C/F ratio. Thus, deposition of carbonaceous polymer generated competitively with the etching reaction is accelerated, thereby achieving high selectivity.
Instead of these conventional etching gases, the present applicant previously proposed a dry etching method for etching a silicon compound layer using a saturated or unsaturated high-order chain fluorocarbonaceous gas having two or more carbons, in the Japanese Patent KOKAI Publication Serial No. 3-276626. The proposed dry etching method is aimed at attaining high etchrate by using a fluorocarbonaceous gas such as C.sub.2 F.sub.6, C.sub.3 F.sub.8, C.sub.4 F.sub.10, C.sub.4 F.sub.8 and the like, thus efficiently forming a large quantity of CF.sub.x.sup.+ from one molecule. However, the single use of the high-order chain fluorocarbonaceous gas increases the amount of formed F*, and the selection ratios to the resist and to the underlying layer cannot be set sufficiently large. For instance, in case of etching an SiO.sub.2 layer on a silicon substrate using C.sub.3 F.sub.8 as an etching gas, though high etchrate is achieved, problems remain such as low selectivity to the resist of about 1.3, shortage of etching durability and generation of dimensional losses due to retreat of the pattern edge. Since selectivity to silicon is about 4.2, a problem remains also in overetching durability.
Thus, in order to solve these problems, two-stage etching is carried out in the above-mentioned prior art, wherein etching with a single use of a high-order chain fluorocarbonaceous gas is suspended shortly before exposure of the underlying layer, and wherein, in etching a remaining portion of a silicon compound layer, a hydrocarbonaceous gas such as ethylene (C.sub.2 H.sub.4) is added to the compound so as to accelerate deposition of carbonaceous polymer. The object of this technique is to supply C atoms in the etching reaction system and to increase the apparent C/F ratio by consuming excessive F* with H* formed in a plasma for forming HF.
However, under the status quo wherein design rules of the semiconductor device is highly minute, dimensional losses from the etching mask is hardly allowable. Even though two-stage etching as mentioned above is carried out, it is necessary to further improve selectivity in the etching of the first stage. Also, as further minuteness proceeds, effects of particle pollution due to carbonaceous polymer may become serious. Therefore, it is preferable to minimize the amount of a depositional gas such as a hydrocarbonaceous gas in the etching of the second stage.
In view of the above-mentioned status of the art, the present inventor proposed a technique wherein a silicon compound layer is etched, with the temperature of a substrate to be etched being controlled to not higher than 50.degree. C., using a chain unsaturated fluorocarbon compound having at least one unsaturated bond within a molecule, in the specification of the Japanese Patent Application No. 2-295225. The chain unsaturated fluorocarbon compound is, for example, octafluorobutene (C.sub.4 F.sub.8), hexafluoropropene (C.sub.3 F.sub.6) and the like. Theoretically, since these gases form two or more CF.sub.x.sup.+ from one molecule on dissociation due to electric discharges, high-rate etching of SiO.sub.2 becomes possible. Also, with the unsaturated bond within the molecule, highly active radicals tend to be generated by dissociation, and polymerization of carbonaceous polymer can be accelerated. Furthermore, since the temperature of the substrate to be etched is controlled to not higher than 50.degree. C., the deposition of the carbonaceous polymer can be accelerated.
With this technique, selectivity to the resist and to the silicon underlying layer was improved significantly without using the depositional gas, and the particle pollution was reduced.
Further, the present inventor previously proposed a technique wherein an etching gas containing a saturated or unsaturated fluorocarbon compound having a cyclic portion at least in part of a molecule structure is used, in the specification of the Japanese Patent Application No. 3-40966. The cyclic fluorocarbon compound has at least three carbons, and has a higher C/F ratio than a chain fluorocarbon compound with the same number of carbons. Therefore, high-rate etching due to a large quantity of CF.sub.x.sup.+ and highly selective etching due to efficient formation of polymer become possible.
In this manner, the above-mentioned chain unsaturated fluorocarbon compound or the cyclic fluorocarbon compound rendered it possible to carry out highly selective etching of a silicon compound layer using an etching gas of single composition.
However, in order to provide a process which can be adapted to production of a future ULSI device, it is necessary to further improve selectivity to the resist for the following reason. That is, in such a large-scale integration device, long-time overetching is indispensable due to an increase of surface steps of the silicon compound layer to be etched. At this time, dimensional losses are generated unless the resist is prevented from retreating.
As another problem, it is necessary to further reduce the particle pollution. The technique using the chain unsaturated fluorocarbon compound, the cyclic fluorocarbon compound and the like has no difference from the conventional technique in that the mechanism for securing selective ratios is attained by deposition of carbonaceous polymer proceeding competitively with the etching reaction. Therefore, if the number of wafer processings is increased, carbonaceous polymer is stored in the etching chamber, thereby deteriorating the particle level. Accordingly, under the status quo wherein the particle pollution is reduced, there is only limited improvements such as a reduction in the frequency of maintenance for cleaning the etching chamber.


A semiconductor device may have a thickness, such that the semiconductor devices are not flexible, and may be bonded and electrically coupled on a flexible substrate. After this bonding, the semiconductor device may be thinned so as to be rendered flexible.

Flexible electronics is becoming more and more important in the last years. In particular, flexible electronics can be important because it allows the integration of high performance electronic devices to several fields of application where typical electronics on rigid substrates could not be integrated. Flexible electronic devices can be easily integrated on several kinds of curved surfaces. For example, within the healthcare sector, electronic devices and circuits developed on flexible substrates can be exploited to monitor, for example, glucose blood level, temperature, pressure, etc. In such a way, electronic plasters, implantable sensors, etc., can be developed. The method and devices developed with the same may enable such sensors developed on a flexible substrate to be minimally invasive and more easily accepted by the patient since they are better adapted to the shape of the human body than typical electronic devices and systems. Other application fields include ambient intelligence, distributed sensors, electronics on textiles, energy harvesting, power management, and industrial electronics.
One potential issue relating to flexible electronics concerns the fabrication of flexible electronic devices. In particular, the fabrication of flexible electronic devices may be critical because it involves the handling of flexible, and thus fragile, semiconductor devices. Accordingly, the fabrication of flexible electronic devices is costly since it involves the employment of special handling and packaging tools suitable for handling flexible semiconductor devices without damaging them.
According to typical methods for the fabrication of flexible electronic devices, the silicon wafer is typically thinned down to less than 100 micrometers before preparing the single die. In particular, after thinning of the wafer, the die are prepared, for example, by way of solder bumping of the chip pads, and cut using several kinds of typical dicing methods, in order to further allow picking them out of the wafer substrate and placing on the final system, for example, a printed circuit board. However, the dicing of the thin system may be sensitive, and the single die may be damaged during this step. Moreover, the so prepared thin and flexible die may be manipulated using sophisticated pick and place tools and assembled on a flexible substrate. The fragility of the thin die and the sophisticated methods and tools used for carrying out these steps may render this process flow costly.
A further method for the fabrication of flexible electronic devices involves the Pick, Crack & Place® method, developed according to the Chipfilm™ technique to mount flexible die on a flexible substrate. In particular, according to this method, pre-processed wafer substrates having narrow cavities underneath the intended chip areas are fabricated. The cavities are formed at such a depth to obtain flexible die by fracturing the chip areas from the wafer at the level of the cavities. CMOS devices are formed in the chip areas, and trench etch is performed along the chip sides leaving anchors near the edges of the chips. Flexible die are thus obtained and processed by Pick, Crack & Place® in order to assemble the thin flexible dice on a flexible substrate. Also in this case, thin and flexible die are handled by the Pick, Crack & Place® method. The die may be easily damaged, and the method may be costly and difficult to carry out. Moreover, the realization of the electronic connections is also difficult because the thin and flexible die cannot be handled with high accuracy so that the positioning of the flexible dice at the correct connection positions is not readily realized.

Flexible electronic device and method for the fabrication of same


A cigarette pack with a shell (10) and slide (11), the range of movement of the slide (11) within the shell (10) is limited, in particular by stops formed, on the one hand, on a stop tab (30) and, on the other hand, by a recess (34) in the shell (10). The stops help to define a closed position of the slide (11) and an open position.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a pack having a slide and an outer shell which at least partially encloses the slide, is open at both ends and is intended, in particular, for accommodating a cigarette group, the slide having at least one base wall.
2. Prior Art
Cigarette packs configured with shells and slides are known internationally, although up until now they have not been used as widely for cigarettes as hinge-lid boxes or soft-carton packs. In the case of slide and shell packs, the cigarette group is enclosed by an inner blank made of tin foil or paper. The resulting cigarette block is seated in the slide comprising a base wall, side walls and an end flap and closure flap. For removal of the pack contents, the slide is pushed part of the way out of the shell, with the result that the pack contents are exposed in the region of the closure flap.

Cigarette pack comprising a slide and case


A fault tolerant virtual elliptical electric motor has at least four coil elements constrained in a stator case. A drive plate is supported by a fulcrum for nutating motion and has at least four core segments each associated with a respective one of the at least four coil elements for attraction upon activation. A control processor provides independent current control to each of the at least four coil elements for activation responsive to a received position command and a received wobble angle input, inducing the at least four coil elements to operate in a pure torque sum configuration upon the drive plate.

1. Field
Embodiments of the disclosure relate generally to electric motors and more particularly to a three phase virtual elliptical motor with multiple coils for redundant operation allowing one or more coil or controller failures without preventing motor operation.
2. Background
Electromechanical actuators for primary flight control surfaces in large commercial aircraft require complex mechanical couplings in order to provide redundancy. These couplings are heavy and introduce additional failure modes and complex critical assembly tolerance constraints. Typically systems use speed summing of two independent motors. This requires that each motor has a brake and is connected to a differential which allows one motor to drive the load and, under a failure condition, to have its brake applied to allow the other motor to operate. This is a complex mechanical system that includes multiple gear meshes and bearing supports. This precision machine may have lower efficiency reducing the system performance. The brake is additionally a potential failure point and reduces the reliability of the system.
It is therefore desirable to provide an electric motor controlled actuator which does not require motor redundancy, speed summing or brake systems to operate in a failure tolerant mode.

Active-active redundant motor gear system