The invention provides a decentration optical system comprising at least five optical surfaces. The optical surfaces are each decentered with respect to an axial chief ray in the Y-Z plane in the XYZ coordinate space, and at least one surface is decentered in the X-Z plane orthogonal to the Y-Z plane. At least two of the multiple optical surfaces are rotationally asymmetric surfaces, and at least one of the at least two rotationally asymmetric surfaces is a rotationally asymmetric surface having an X odd-numbered degree term.

The present invention relates to a decentration optical system using a rotationally asymmetrical surface, and an optical apparatus such as an image display apparatus and an imaging apparatus, each with such a decentration optical system incorporated inside.
So far, it has been known to use a prism having a plurality of optical surfaces as an optical system for viewing an image display device. In such a prism, light exiting out from the display device enters the prism. Then, the light is reflected within the prism, and leaves the prism, arriving at the viewer's eyeball so that an image may be viewed as an enlarged virtual image.
For such an image-viewing optical system, JP(A) 2008-76429 discloses a prism that forms a primary image by at least three reflective surfaces for projection onto the eyeball. JP(A)'s 2007-94175 and 2004-325985 disclose eyeglasses with a hologram device mounted on their lens segment.
For another optical system used on image display devices, JP(A) 2006-3879 discloses projecting light through a light guide and an eyepiece lens onto the eyeball. U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,348 discloses a decentration optical system in which a space surrounded by three surfaces is filled up with a medium having a refractive index of 1 or greater, and at least one surface is defined by a curved surface having no symmetrical plane. Two image display devices are so aligned in line that aberrations can be corrected even when, in a vergence layout, axial chief rays for the image display devices and the decentration optical system are located in a twisted manner.

Decentration optical system, and image display apparatus and imaging apparatus incorporating the same


Example aspects include techniques for implementing a transparent TCP proxy for containerized applications. These techniques may include receiving an outgoing packet from the containerized application via a container bridge and determining, based on a connection associated with the outgoing packet, whether the outgoing packet corresponds to an incoming packet identified by a first marking as being redirected through the TCP proxy. In addition, the techniques may include in response to determining that the outgoing packet corresponds to the incoming packet, adding a second marking to the outgoing packet to indicate that the outgoing packet is to be routed through the TCP proxy, sending the outgoing packet to the TCP proxy based on the second marking, and transmitting an outgoing processed packet to an external device having the destination address, the outgoing processed packet resulting from a performance of a proxy operation by the TCP proxy on the outgoing packet.

Modern applications often require network security and/or other policies to be applied to application traffic. In some instances, instead of adding logic for network security and/or other traffic-related policies to each application, it has becoming increasingly common to implement the logic in a separate proxy process, and configure redirection of the application traffic through the proxy transparently. With the increased deployment of containerized applications for resource efficient virtualization, many systems are now processing containerized application traffic. In some instances, containerized application traffic may also benefit from and/or require redirection of the application traffic through a proxy. However, it has proven difficult to reliably redirect containerized traffic transparently through proxies in existing systems.

Method and system for transparent tcp proxy to containerized applications


An apparatus for proportioning solutions from at least first and second constituent solutions connected to separate inlet ports of the apparatus first detects which constituent solution is being supplied to which port and then properly proportions the finished solution from the constituent solutions irrespective of which constituent solution is connected to which inlet port.

In the medical field alone, huge volumes of solutions are used everyday for uses such as wound irrigation, intravenous administrations, kidney dialysis, etc. Because of the problems inherent in the use of such large volumes of fluids, such as shipping, handling and storage, as well as sterile concerns, which tremendously complicate the other concerns, concentrates are often prepared which contain some or all of the non-liquid constituents of the finished solution. The concentrates are then diluted or proportioned with the appropriate liquid base, generally water, as close in time to the actual use of the solution as is practical. How close in time to actual use a finished solution may be proportioned is affected by a number of factors such as shelf-life of both the concentrate and the finished solution, various sterilization concerns, shipping and storing concerns, etc.
In the treatment of patients suffering acute or chronic renal insufficiency, dialysis therapy is employed. The two general categories of dialysis therapy are hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. In hemodialysis, the patient's blood is cleansed by passage through an artificial kidney in an extracorporeal membrane system. In peritoneal dialysis, dialysis fluid is infused into the patient's peritoneal cavity. This cavity is lined by the peritoneal membrane which is highly vascularized. The metabolites are removed from the patient's blood by diffusion across the peritoneal membrane into the dialysis solution. Excess fluid, i.e. water is also removed by osmosis induced by a hypertonic dialysis solution.
Peritoneal dialysis generally requires large volumes of dialyzing solution. Generally, at each application, or exchange, a given patient will infuse 2 to 3 liters of dialyzing solution into the peritoneal cavity. The solution is allowed to dwell for approximately 3-4 hours, at which time it is drained out and exchanged for fresh solution. Generally, four such exchanges are performed daily. Therefore, approximately 8 to 10 liters of dialyzing solution is required per day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for each patient.
Dialysis solutions have traditionally been provided in sealed, sterilized form, ready for use. However, several substantial problems become immediately apparent. Shipping and storage of the sheer volume of fluids required is both tremendously inconvenient and expensive. Further, the repeated connection and disconnection of so many solution containers creates a very substantial risk of biological contamination at the point of connection. Additionally, tremendous amounts of waste material, in the form of empty containers and packaging, and their proper disposal are increasingly becoming matters of universal concern.
The traditional response to these problems is to use small volumes of concentrated dialysis solutions diluted with ultra pure water at the point of use. Generally, such concentrates are separated into (1) concentrated solutions containing the various appropriate electrolytes and a buffer and (2) concentrated solutions containing dextrose or another appropriate osmotic agent. The various reasons for separating the dialysis solution into two separate concentrates are well known in the art and include a number of concerns relating to sterilization.
The compounding or proportioning of the concentrates with ultra pure water back into a finished, ready to use dialysis solution are generally performed by machine. Such machines require that the user attach the source of each concentrate to a particular inlet port on the proportioning apparatus, which may be integrated into the dialysis machine itself. Generally, if the concentrates are connected to the wrong ports, or improperly connected, or one or the other not connected at all, the machine will either produce incorrectly proportioned dialysis solution or will alarm.
One such prior art apparatus is disclosed in European publication number 311,848; filed Sep. 29, 1988 in the name of Fresenius Ag. The publication disclosed a hemodialysis machine incorporating a mixing arrangement which produces dialyzing fluid by mixing a concentrate with prepared water. The mixing arrangement employs a protective system independent of the mixing system which is based upon monitoring of the conductivity of the dialyzing fluid. The disclosed system employs conductivity measuring cells placed in the concentrate inlet lines to measure the conductivity of the concentrate coming into the machine and compare it with desired values of the conductivity of concentrates to be connected. In this way, the machine will "identify" if the appropriate concentrate is connected to the appropriate inlet port. If the wrong concentrate is attached to the machine or if two concentrate containers with different concentrates are incorrectly interchanged and each connected to the inlet port designated for the other, the mistake will be sensed and the machine will alarm. Coincidentally, the sensors disclosed in the publication also act as filling level sensors.
The primary problem with such a system is that it still requires that each concentrate be connected only to a particular inlet port of the dialysis machine. Therefore, the requirement for more complicated design, and hence more complicated manufacturing, remains because the appropriate inlet port for each concentrate must be somehow identified, color coded, or even uniquely designed to nave a different shape or configuration from the other inlet port. While this prior art system may provide some increased measure of safety in avoiding improperly prepared dialysis solution, it does nothing to facilitate and simplify the proper connection of concentrates in the first place.
Moreover, automated peritoneal dialysis machines are increasingly being used by the dialysis patients themselves in their own homes to effect multiple exchanges of dialysis solutions into and out of their own peritoneal cavities, generally overnight. The individual patient/operator does not have the training and sophistication with the apparatus which is possessed by the nurse or technician. It is not uncommon for them to become confused when faced with complex machinery, particularly that one upon which their very life depends.
Further, while warnings in the event of improper attachment are vital, dialysis patients are often generally quite physically debilitated. These patients often suffer from inter alia, decreased strength and fine motor control in their hands making proper connection of the concentrate solutions, let alone repeated disconnection and reconnection of improper connections, much more difficult than for the trained professional. Their vision is often impaired, further contributing to the likelihood of improper connections.
What is needed is an improved apparatus that will accept the connection of each concentrate at any concentrate inlet port and still properly proportion the finished dialysis solution.

Method and apparatus for preparation of solutions from concentrates


A digital watermark embedding apparatus divides data to be watermarked into a plurality of data areas on the basis of data characteristics, in time series, or on the basis of user selection and performs digital watermark embedding in which different algorithms are applied to the separate data areas. Unlike schemes that embed digital watermarks using an algorithm that is uniform with all data areas, a digital watermark can be embedded in accordance with each data area of an image. When the algorithm is selected in accordance with user input, the embedding algorithm can be selected in accordance with the characteristics of the human vision or auditory sense. Image/audio quality control and detection performance improvement are thus made possible, and deterioration in data quality can be prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology for embedding/reading additional information such as copyright information and editing information into/from various data such as image data including moving images and still images, music data, and audio data. More particularly, the present invention relates to a digital watermark embedding (may also be referred to as "data hiding") apparatus and method and a computer program for embedding a digital watermark as additional information imperceptible to normal visual or auditory observation into image data or audio data.
2. Description of the Related Art
As digital technology progresses, digital recorder/players that do not cause deterioration in image quality and sound quality due to repetitive recording and playing have become widely used. At the same time, various types of digital content such as images and music content have become distributable through media such as digital VCRs (videocassette recorders), DVDs (digital versatile disks), and CD (compact discs) and networks.
Unlike analog recording and playing, digital recording and playing do not cause deterioration of data even when recording and playing are repeatedly performed. As a result, the same quality as that of the original data can be maintained. The widely spread use of digital recording and playing technology allows for an excess of illegal copying. This is a serious problem in view of copyright protection.
In order to protect digital content against copyright infringement by illegal copying, the following scheme is devised. Specifically, the scheme involves adding copy control information to digital content, reading the copy control information when the content is recorded or played, and performing processing in accordance with the read copy control information, thus preventing illegal copying.
There are various content control schemes. A typical scheme employs, for example, a copy generation management system (CGMS). For an analog video signal (referred to as CGMS-A), the CGMS scheme superimposes copy control information, that is, two bits of 20-bit additional information to be superimposed on an effective video portion of a specific horizontal period, e.g., the 20th horizontal period in case of an NTSC signal, in a vertical blanking interval of a luminance signal. For a digital video signal (referred to as CGMS-D), the CGMS scheme transmits the digital video signal (digital video data) and two bits of copy control information serving as additional information to be inserted into the digital video data.
The two-bit information used in the CGMS scheme (referred to as CGMS information) has the following meanings: "00" means that copying is permitted, "10" means that one copying is permitted (one generation is permitted), and "11" means that copying is prohibited (copying is absolutely prohibited).
The CGMS scheme described above is an example of a typical copy control scheme. There are other schemes for protecting content copyright. For example, digital broadcasting performed by a broadcast station stores a digital copy control descriptor in program schedule information, that is, service information (SI), included in a transport stream (TS) packet forming digital data. When recording data received by a receiver in a recorder, copy generation control in accordance with the descriptor is performed.
The foregoing control information is added as bit data to the header of content and cannot completely eliminate possible illegal alteration of the added data. Digital watermarking is advantageous in eliminating the possibility of data alteration. When content (image data or audio data) is normally played, a digital watermark is imperceptible to vision and auditory senses. Digital watermarks can only be detected/embedded by execution of a specific algorithm or processing by a specific device. A digital watermark is detected when content is processed by a receiver or recorder/player, and processing in accordance with the digital watermark is performed, thus making more reliable control possible.
Information that can be embedded in content by digital watermarking includes not only the above-described copy control information, but also various information such as content copyright information, content processing information, content format information, content editing information, and content playing information.
Information such as a digital watermark that is directly superimposed on an information signal has a strong alteration resistance and is expected to serve as secure additional information. In digital watermarking technology, the quality of a watermarked image may become a problem. Since digital watermarking performs direct signal processing of data to be watermarked (e.g., an image), the quality of the image may deteriorate or the statistic characteristics of the image may be biased, leading to deterioration of the original image. Digital watermarking that does not cause adverse effects on content is highly demanded.
An example of a known method for preventing deterioration of original data involves setting digital watermark embedding parameters in individual data areas in the original data such as an image to be watermarked, and subsequently, again setting a digital watermark superimposing level adjusting parameter (global parameter) in the entire data area taking into consideration the deterioration in image quality.
There are various methods for controlling embedding of digital watermarks. In one method, an amount embedded is increased by utilizing the characteristics of an image. In another method, a digital watermark is embedded at the minimum embedding level so that priority may be given to image quality. There is not yet a digital watermark embedding algorithm, commonly applicable to all information signals such as image or audio data to be watermarked, for both achieving a sufficient digital watermark detecting accuracy and preventing deterioration in image quality. By embedding a digital watermark, the quality of a data signal such as image or audio data may deteriorate, or the reliability of detecting an embedded digital watermark may be reduced.
In the foregoing digital watermark superimposing level controlling method using the global parameter, a first algorithm for determining initial embedding parameters determines substantially an optimal level of superimposing a digital watermark in each data area. Subsequently, the final adjustment involving the global parameter is performed. The optimal parameters initialized by the first algorithm in individual data areas are forcedly changed by setting the global parameter that takes into consideration deterioration in image quality.
Setting the global parameter may not be favorable in view of digital watermark detection. In other words, the initial optimal parameters are set so as to maintain the superimposing level that ensures digital watermark detection. When the initial optimal parameters are changed by setting the global parameter, the sufficient detection level may not be achieved.

Digital watermark embedding apparatus and method, and computer program


A forming tool for pipe ends with a fixing device holding the pipe and a flanging die acting on the projection of the pipe end, where the flanging die has a mandrel which can be driven into the pipe end. A forming die surrounds the mandrel. The mandrel and the forming die are held in a housing. A limiting die surrounding the forming die being provided.

The invention relates to a forming tool for pipe ends with a fixing device holding the pipe and a flanging die acting on the projection of the pipe end, wherein the flanging die has a mandrel driven into the pipe end and a forming die surrounding the mandrel and the mandrel and the forming die are held in a housing.
Forming tools of this type are required to upset or pressure-form pipe ends, i.e., to shape the pipe end. Examples of pipes are primarily hydraulic or pneumatic pipes made of metal, in particular steel or aluminium which are used to carry fluids, in particular, in motor vehicles. These pipes have to be connected in a fluid-tight manner, for which purpose their ends have to be prepared accordingly. The pipe ends are provided with a peripheral bead by plastic shaping, the end face beaded lip directed radially inwardly being formed by the pipe end.
A tool is used for forming as shown, for example, in FIGS. 4 and 5. After the pipe 152 has been fixed in a fixing device 154 in such a manner that the pipe end projects beyond the fixing device 154 by a predetermined amount, this pipe end is plastically formed axially by means of a flanging die 112. In the process, a mandrel 148 is first introduced into the pipe end 150 and subsequently the region of the pipe end 150 located downstream of the end supported by the mandrel 148 is widened by means of a forming die 140. The flanging die 112 is fed axially in the direction of the pipe end 150 until its housing 110 contacts the fixing device 154 or a corresponding stop.
It has been found that owing to the fixing tolerances of the pipe 152, i.e., owing to different projecting amounts of the pipe end 150, a significant number of unusable forming operations are carried out. There is in fact the risk with an excessive projection of a portion of the pipe material being squashed between the housing 110 and the fixing device 154, as shown in FIG. 6. This expelled collar or flash 158 prevents a cap nut from being applied to the pipe end 150.
The object of the invention is therefore to provide a forming tool for pipe ends with which the pipe end can be produced more precisely even if the pipe projection beyond the fixing device has different values.
This object is achieved according to the invention with a forming tool of the type mentioned above in that a flanging die limiting the forming die is provided.
The limiting die provided in the forming tool according to the invention provides the fundamental advantage that the end of the pipe projecting beyond the fixing device is completely enclosed prior to forming so this end can be widened to the maximum during forming until it contacts the limiting die. Consequently the formation of a collar or flash which would prevent slipping-on of the cap nut is avoided.
The limiting die advantageously forms the leading end face of the forming tool facing the pipe end. During the forming process, the free pipe end is therefore completely surrounded by the limiting die and the limiting die contacts the fixing device and thus closes the forming space. In the process the limiting die projects beyond the housing axially in the direction of the pipe end.
In one embodiment, the limiting die is resiliently mounted in the axial direction via a spring. This means that during forming the limiting die is driven into the housing so it does not represent an obstacle to the housing approaching the fixing device. The limiting die is guided in an axial aperture of the housing here. The limiting die is advantageously sleeve-shaped.
In a further embodiment, the fixing device has a receptacle for the limiting die which driven into the fixing device at least during forming, so it does not hinder the axial advance of the housing in the direction of the fixing device.
The limiting die is a sleeve-shaped with, in particular, a circular internal cross-section. This internal cross-section limits the external cross-section or forms this external cross-section of the end bead. A shape different from a circle can also be impressed on this end bead.
In one development, the limiting die forms an axial bearing for the forming die so the forming die is guided axially displaceably in the limiting die. The limiting die in its turn is guided in an axial aperture of the housing. Consequently the pipe material is prevented from being driven between the limiting die and the forming die during forming.
In a preferred variation, the forming die is mounted axially displaceably on the mandrel. A separate axial bearing for the radially inner support of the forming die is dispensed with owing to this measure. Simple central lubrication for the forming die and the limiting die is also possible.
To limit the forming force, the forming die can be driven axially into the housing counter to the force of a spring. Both the spring for the forming die and the spring for the limiting die can be designed as mechanical, magnetic, hydraulic or pneumatic springs. The springs are supported here on the housing and, in particular, can be adjusted.
Simple assembly of the flanging die according to the invention is achieved in that the housing has a three-stage aperture and all components can be inserted into the housing from the end remote from the pipe end. Maintenance and repair work is also facilitated hereby. In addition, additional bearing elements are dispensed with as the individual components are nested and mutually supported.
Relatively simple access to the individual components is achieved in that the end of the housing remote from the pipe end has a screw cap. If one and/or the other spring is supported on the screw cap, the spring force can also be adjusted thereby. This can of course also be changed by changing the fluid pressure or by exchanging the springs used.


A semiconductor device for ESD protection includes a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type and a well region of a second conductivity type formed within the substrate. The well region is characterized by a first depth. The device includes an MOS transistor, a first bipolar transistor, and a second bipolar transistor. The MOS transistor includes a first lightly doped drain (LDD) region of a second depth within the well region, and a drain region and an emitter region within in the first LDD region. The emitter region is characterized by a second conductivity type. The first bipolar transistor is associated with the emitter region, the first LDD region, and the well region, and is characterized by a first trigger voltage. The second bipolar transistor is associated with the first LDD region, the well region, and the substrate, and is characterized by a second trigger voltage.

The present invention is directed to integrated circuits and their processing for the manufacture of semiconductor devices. More particularly, the invention provides a method and device for an ESD device incorporating a high voltage LDD structure for the manufacture of integrated circuits. The invention provides techniques for an ESD device which has a lower trigger voltage and offers more effective protection to the integrated circuit than conventional devices. Merely by way of example, the invention has been applied to ESD protection of high voltage I/O circuit for the manufacture of integrated circuits. But it would be recognized that the invention has a much broader range of applicability.
Integrated circuits or "ICs" have evolved from a handful of interconnected devices fabricated on a single chip of silicon to millions of devices. Current ICs provide performance and complexity far beyond what was originally imagined. In order to achieve improvements in complexity and circuit density (i.e., the number of devices capable of being packed onto a given chip area), the size of the smallest device feature, also known as the device "geometry", has become smaller with each generation of ICs. Semiconductor devices are now being fabricated with features less than a quarter of a micron across.
Increasing circuit density has not only improved the complexity and performance of ICs but has also provided lower cost parts to the consumer. An IC fabrication facility can cost hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars. Each fabrication facility will have a certain throughput of wafers, and each wafer will have a certain number of ICs on it. Therefore, by making the individual devices of an IC smaller, more devices may be fabricated on each wafer, thus increasing the output of the fabrication facility. Making devices smaller is very challenging, as each process used in IC fabrication has a limit. That is to say, a given process typically only works down to a certain feature size, and then either the process or the device layout needs to be changed. An example of such a limit is electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection devices used for the manufacture of integrated circuits in a cost effective and efficient way.
Fabrication of custom integrated circuits using chip foundry services has evolved over the years. Fabless chip companies often design the custom integrated circuits. Such custom integrated circuits require a set of custom masks commonly called "reticles" to be manufactured. A chip foundry company called Semiconductor Manufacturing International Company (SMIC) of Shanghai, China is an example of a chip company that performs foundry services. Although fabless chip companies and foundry services have increased through the years, many limitations still exist. For example, in a high voltage process, it is difficult to fabricate efficient electrostatic discharge (ESD) bipolar junction transistor (BJT) devices. Because in a high voltage process deep N-type and P-type wells are used, conventional ESD bipolar devices built in these deep wells cannot be easily triggered by high voltage pulses caused by ESD events. Conventional high voltage ESD devices which include simple N+/P-well or P+/N-well diodes suffer from large areas and poor ESD performance.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view diagram of a conventional bipolar ESD clamp device. As shown ESD clamp device 100 includes a bipolar transistor 140 formed with P-type double diffused drain (DDD) 130, high-voltage N-well 120, and P-type substrate 110. To provide device protection, an ESD bipolar transistor needs to trigger at a moderate voltage, for example 10-15 volts for some applications. Then a large current is allowed to flow through the bipolar transistor at a substantially reduced voltage, thus avoiding damages to other devices in the integrated circuit. In the conventional ESD clamp device shown in FIG. 1, the base width of bipolar transistor 140, which is determined by a depth of the HV N-well region 120 in FIG. 1, can be as large as 3 um. Therefore it would take a very high voltage for the bipolar transistor to trigger. As a result ESD protection is only provided by a diode junction breakdown in bipolar transistor 140. When operation voltage is higher than the junction breakdown voltage, for example, 30V, the energy of junction break down during the ESD pulse, which can be expressed as a product of voltage and current (V*I), can be very large. FIG. 2 is a simplified drawing of a current-voltage curve during a junction breakdown of a conventional bipolar ESD clamp device. Large devices are therefore needed to increase ESD junction area to avoid junction burnout. These and other limitations are described throughout the present specification and more particularly below.
From the above, it is seen that an improved technique for processing semiconductor devices is desired.

Integrated electrostatic discharge (ESD) device

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation


Method for the segmentation and classification of seismic or other geophysical data. Curves or surfaces are identified in the geophysical data (10), then pairs of the curves or surfaces (12) are matched up according to a selected measure of shape similarity (13) such as the Hausdorff distance between members of a pair. The matched curves or surfaces (15) are used to define geobodies or faults in the geophysical data volume (16). The same inventive concept may also be used to warp/align (register) two different data volumes (72).

Following is a partial list of published methods for reservoir characterization using different metrics.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,438,493 ("Method for Seismic Facies Interpretation Using Textural Analysis and Neural Networks") to West and May discloses a method for segmentation based on seismic texture classification. For a prescribed set of seismic facies in seismic data volume, textural attributes are calculated and used to train a probabilistic neural network. This neural network is then used to classify each voxel of the data, which in practice segments the data into the different classes.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,560,540 ("Method for Mapping Seismic Attributes Using Neural Networks") to West and May disclose a method for classification of seismic data during the seismic facies mapping process.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,949 ("Method for Multi-Attribute Identification of Structure and Stratigraphy in a Volume of Seismic Data") to Alam discloses a method for the visual exploration of a seismic volume without horizon picking or editing, but that still displays all horizons with their stratigraphic features and lithologic variations. Seismic data are processed to generate multiple attributes at each event location with a specified phase of the seismic trace. Subsets of multiple attributes are then interactively selected, thresholded, and combined with a mathematical operator into a new volume displayed on a computer workstation. Manipulation of attribute volumes and operators allows the user to visually recognize bodies of potential hydrocarbon reservoirs.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,631,202 ("Method for Aligning a Lattice of Points in Response to Features in a Digital Image") to Hale discloses a method for generating a lattice of points that respect features such as surfaces or faults in a seismic data volume. Hale and Emanuel further disclosed methods ("Atomic Meshing of Seismic Images", SEG Expanded Abstracts 21, 2126-2129 (2002); and "Seismic interpretation using global image segmentation", SEG Expanded Abstracts 22, 2410-2413 (2003)), to segment a data volume by creation of a space-filling polyhedral mesh based on this lattice.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,024,021 ("Method for Performing Stratigraphically-Based Seed Detection in a 3D Seismic Data Volume") to Dunn and Czernuszenko discloses a method for performing a stratigraphically-based seed detection in a 3-D seismic data volume. The method honors the layered nature of the subsurface so that the resulting geobodies are stratigraphically reasonable. The method can either extract all geobodies that satisfy specified criteria or determine the size and shape of a specific geobody in a seismic data volume.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,248,539 ("Extrema Classification") to Borgos et al. discloses a method for the automated extraction of surface primitives from seismic data. The steps include construction of seismic surfaces through an extrema representation of a 3D seismic data; computation of waveform attributes near the extrema, and classification based on these attributes to extract surface pieces. Pieces are then combined into horizon interpretations, used for the definition of surfaces or the estimation of fault displacements.
U.S. Patent Application 2007/0036434 ("Topology-Based Method of Partition, Analysis, and Simplification of Dynamical Images and Its Applications") by Saveliey discloses a method for the topological analysis and decomposition of dynamical images through computation of homology groups to be used, for example, for image enhancement or pattern recognition. A dynamical image is an array of black-and-white images (or frames) of arbitrary dimension that are constructed from gray scale and color images, or video sequences. Each frame is partitioned into a collection of components that are linked to the ones in adjacent frames to record how they merge and split.
U.S. Patent Application 2008/0037843 ("Image Segmentation for DRR Generation and Image Registration") by Fu et al. discloses a method for enhancing the multi-dimensional registration with digitally reconstructed radiographs derived from segmented x-ray data.
U.S. Patent Application 2008/0140319 ("Processing of Stratigraphic Data") by Monsen et al. discloses a method of processing stratigraphic data, such as horizon surfaces, within a geological volume. The method assigns to each stratigraphic feature a relative geological age by construction of a graph structure which is used for interpretation.
U.S. Patent Application 2008/0170756 ("Method for Hierarchical Determination of Coherent Events in a Seismic Image") by Beucher et al. discloses a method for the determination of coherent events in a seismic image which employs a hierarchical segmentation based on the watershed algorithm to track coherent surfaces.
U.S. Patent Application 2008/0243749 ("System and Method for Multiple Volume Segmentation") by Petter et al. discloses a method for performing oilfield operations which co-renders a visually-melded scene from two different seismic datasets. The visually-melded scene comprises a visualized geobody that is used to adjust oilfield operations.
U.S. Patent Applications 2010/0149917, 2010/0161232, 2011/0002194, and 2011/0048731 ("Seismic Horizon Skeletonization") by Imhof et al. disclose a method that extracts all surfaces from a seismic volume simultaneously. The resulting seismic skeleton is stratigraphically and topologically consistent.
Pitas and Kotropoulos ("Texture Analysis and Segmentation of Seismic Images", International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1437-1440 (1989)) propose a method for the texture analysis and segmentation of geophysical data based on the detection of seismic horizons and the calculation of their attributes (e.g. length, average reflection strength, signature). These attributes represent the texture of the seismic image. The surfaces are clustered into classes according to these attributes. Each cluster represents a distinct texture characteristic of the seismic image. After this initial clustering, the points of each surface are used as seeds for segmentation where all pixels in the seismic image are clustered in those classes in accordance to their geometric proximity to the classified surfaces.
Simaan (e.g., "Knowledge-Based Computer System for Segmentation of Seismic Sections Based on Texture", SEG Expanded Abstracts 10, 289-292 (1991)) discloses a method for the segmentation of two-dimensional seismic sections based on the seismic texture and heuristic geologic rules.
Fernandez et al. ("Texture Segmentation of a 3D Seismic Section with Wavelet Transform and Gabor Filters", 15th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, 354-357 (2000)) describe a supervised segmentation (i.e., classification) of a 3D seismic section that is carried out using wavelet transforms. Attributes are computed on the wavelet expansion and on the wavelet-filtered signal, and used by a classifier to recognize and subsequently segment the seismic section. The filters are designed by optimizing the classification of geologically well understood zones. As a result of the segmentation, zones of different internal stratification are identified in the seismic section by comparison with the reference patterns extracted from the representative areas.
Valet et al. ("Seismic Image Segmentation by Fuzzy Fusion of Attributes", IEEE Transactions On Instrumentation And Measurement 50(4), 1014-1018 (2001)) present a method for seismic segmentation based on the fusion of different attributes by using a set of rules expressed by fuzzy theory. The attributes are based on the eigenvalues of the structure tensor and measure total energy and dip-steered discontinuity. The final result is segmentation into high-amplitude continuous layers, chaotic regions, and background.
Monsen and Ødegård disclose a method for the segmentation of seismic data in "Segmentation of Seismic Data with Complex Stratigraphy Using Watershedding—Preliminary Results" in the proceedings of IEEE 10th Digital Signal Processing Workshop, and the 2nd Signal Processing Education Workshop (2002). The seismic data are treated as a topographic map. All the minima in the relief are slowly flooded. When the water level from different floods merges, dams are built to stop the flood from spilling into different domains. The flooding is continued until all of the relief is covered. The ultimate segmentation is then given by the dams that have built. The problem with the watershed algorithm is its inherent tendency to over-segment due to small, local minima. Progressive removal of small minima yields a hierarchical multiresolution segmentation of nested segments.
Further, Monsen et al. ("Multi-scale volume model building", SEG Expanded Abstracts 24, 798-801 (2005)) disclose a method for automated hierarchical model building with the promise of multi-scale model consistency. No further details are disclosed, however.
Faucon et al. ("Morphological Segmentation Applied to 3D Seismic Data", in Mathematical Morphology: 40 Years On, Computational Imaging and Vision, Volume 30, 475-484 (2005)) present the results obtained by carrying out hierarchal segmentation on 3D seismic data. First, they performed a marker-based segmentation of a seismic amplitude cube constrained by a previously picked surface. Second, they applied a hierarchical segmentation to the same data without a priori information about surfaces.
Lomask et al. ("Application Of Image Segmentation To Tracking 3D Salt Boundaries", Geophysics 72, P47-56 (2007)) present a method to delineate salt from sediment using normalized cuts image segmentation that finds the boundaries between dissimilar regions of the data. The method calculates a weight connecting each pixel in the image to every other pixel within a local neighborhood. The weights are determined using a combination of instantaneous amplitude and instantaneous dip attributes. The weights for the entire date are used to segment the image via an eigenvector calculation.
Kadlec et al., ("Confidence and Curvature-Guided Level Sets for Channel Segmentation", SEG Expanded Abstracts 27, 879-883 (2008)) present a method for segmenting channel features from 3D seismic volumes based on the local structure tensor.
Patel et al., ("The Seismic Analyzer: Interpreting And Illustrating 2D Seismic Data", IEEE Transactions On Visualization And Computer Graphics 14(6), 1571-1578 (2008)) disclose a toolbox for the interpretation and illustration of two-dimensional seismic slices. The method precalculates the horizon structures in the seismic data and annotates them by applying illustrative rendering algorithms such as deformed texturing and line and texture transfer functions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,757,217 ("Method for time-aligning multiple offset seismic data volumes") by Eastwood et al. discloses a method to time align multiple seismic data volumes based on the cross-correlation of the data volumes at a plurality of time shifts.
Bronstein, Alexander M et al., ("Efficient Computation of Isometry-Invarient Distances Between Surfaces", SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 28(5), 1812-1836 (2006)) describe an efficient computational framework for isometry-invariant comparison of smooth surfaces.
Zhu, Binhai, ("Protein Local Structure Alignment Under the Discrete Fréchet Distance," J. of Computational Biology 14(10), 1342-1351 (2007)) studies the complexity and algorithmic aspects of local protein structure alignment under the discrete Fréchet distance.
Alt, Helmut and Maike Buchin, ("Can We Compute the Similarity Between Surfaces?," Discrete and Computational Geometry 43(1) (2010)) provide an introduction and disclose the limitations of the Hausdorff distance metric and provide a computable characterization of the weak Fréchet distance in a geometric data structure called a free space diagram.

Shape-based metrics in reservoir characterization


A method is provided for monitoring a supply of a cleaning agent. The method includes performing a check of whether the supply of the cleaning agent is likely to be used up. The check is based, at least in part, on quantity information which is representative of an amount of the cleaning agent in a user's supply and on consumption information which is indicative of the user's expected consumption behavior with respect to the cleaning agent. Further, a device is provided for performing the method for monitoring the supply of the cleaning agent.

Cleaning agents are used in a domestic setting for cleaning various objects, for example, or for assisting or complementing the cleaning process. For example, a cleaning agent, e.g. a detergent, is used in washing machines to clean textiles.
When automatic domestic washing machines of this type are used for textiles, the detergent is generally metered from a storage container. In this case, the detergent is generally poured into the washing machine by employing a dispensing apparatus. Alternatively, the detergent can also be poured in by employing a metering aid, or even introduced directly into the washing drum with the laundry. In each case, the amount to be metered is simultaneously set by the user during the pouring process. The detergent is generally metered before the washing process begins, i.e. before water flows through the dispensing apparatus.
In this case, the detergent is stored in the storage container. The user generally has to monitor the supply in the storage container and, if necessary, repurchase the appropriate detergent if the supply is used up.
EP 2 784 205 A1 discloses using a storage container in a receiving apparatus on the household appliance and coupling said container to the household appliance, instead of pouring in the detergent manually. This can simplify the metering process and prevent too much or too little detergent being metered, for example.
However, in each case, it may be that it is only when the user wishes to use the detergent that they notice that the detergent has been used up, or has almost been used up, and can therefore not be used as planned.
Another issue is that there is sometimes a plurality of detergents. For example, there is often a general-purpose detergent, a color detergent, a bleaching agent, a detergent for black laundry, and/or a softener available. It may therefore be difficult simply to get an appropriate overview. The user also has to note precisely which type of detergent has run out so that the correct detergent is repurchased.
In order to address this issue, the prior art in WO 01/96645 A2 discloses providing a storage container for a detergent comprising a fill-level sensor or weight sensor in order to monitor the current supply of detergent in the storage container. It is provided here that an inventory module can order replacement detergent electronically when the detergent fill level reaches a predetermined fill level in the storage container. This means that, in the prior art, the detergent is supplied directly by a fill level measurement, and reordering can be triggered at a predefined absolute fill level.
Different variants of sensors for determining fill levels of containers for different goods are also known, for example from WO 2015/076952, EP 2 718 679, EP 2 282 184 or WO 2015/187545.
However, if the user requires e.g. a larger amount than can be metered using the remaining fill level or uses the cleaning agent regularly, then despite the fact that a reorder has been made, a delivery may sometimes not be sufficient or not come on time and might therefore be considered unreliable by the user.
Against the background of the described prior art, the problem addressed by the present disclosure is therefore to at least partially reduce or prevent the above-described issues, i.e. in particular to provide for simple and reliable reordering of cleaning agent for the user.


The present invention relates to a floor treatment system, comprising a mobile floor treatment apparatus and a docking station therefor, wherein the floor treatment apparatus comprises a control device, at least one control line coupled thereto, and an electrical energy storage device for supplying energy to the floor treatment apparatus, and the docking station comprises at least one actuator and at least one control line coupled thereto; wherein, when the floor treatment apparatus is in a docked position on the docking station, the control lines are coupled to one another in contact-based manner by way of control line connection elements, wherein the floor treatment system comprises a detection device for determining whether the floor treatment apparatus is in the docked position, and wherein, if this is determined positively, at least one of the actuators of the control device is actuatable or controllable by way of the control lines. The present invention further relates to a method for operating such a floor treatment system.

In a floor treatment system of the type mentioned in the introduction, a docking station is provided for the floor treatment apparatus. The floor treatment apparatus can move/be moved to the docking station, autonomously or guided by an operator, and adopt a docked position there. This enables a consumable component to be supplied to the floor treatment apparatus. This is for example electrical energy supplied to the energy storage device. It is also conceivable to supply a liquid, for example the above-mentioned cleaning liquid for the reservoir. Once filling with the consumable component has been performed, the floor treatment apparatus can leave the docking station, and floor treatment can continue.
EP 1 762 165 A2 describes a floor treatment system taking the form of a floor cleaning system. In a filling position, a cleaning robot can transmit a wireless signal to a base station. Then, the base station moves a filling conduit into position in order to fill a liquid container of the robot. As a result, the base station is highly complex. Further, as the consumable component, electrical energy can be supplied to the robot, wherein, in a docked position of the robot, exposed electrical contact elements on the base station and on the robot can make an electrical connection. There is a risk of undesired short circuit by a conductive article, in particular of the contact elements on the station, resulting in damage to the base station.
WO 2015/082017 A1 discloses an advantageous floor cleaning system in which the risk of electrical short circuit of both contact elements on the station and contact elements of the floor cleaning apparatus is reduced.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,423 as well, a floor cleaning system having a cleaning robot and a base station therefor is described, wherein the base station receives optically transmitted signals from the robot for filling it with a cleaning liquid, and consequently is highly complex. Similarly to the floor cleaning system in accordance with EP 1 762 165 A2, there is a risk of malfunction.
An object underlying the present invention is to provide a floor treatment system and a method for operating such a system that is of low complexity. Further, it is preferably desirable for the floor treatment system to have a high level of operational safety, in particular for supplying a consumable component to the floor treatment apparatus.

Floor treatment system and method for operating such a system


The slew rate of switching circuits, e.g. for DC to DC converters, is controlled without unduly sacrificing total switching time, by providing a weaker switching transistor in parallel with each stronger main switching transistor. Switching of the weaker transistor is controlled so as to have a slower slew rate in transitions between switch states than transitions of the main transistor. The main transistor switches at a fast rate for efficiency, but the slower transition by the weaker transistor provides a more gradual transition of the voltage at the desired switching node, so as to reduce EMI and/or input supply noise.

A regulator is a circuit that supplies power from a source at a controlled or regulated level of voltage and/or current. Linear and switching regulators are known, for providing regulated direct current (DC) power for modern electronic devices. A switching regulator uses an energy storage circuit, typically formed by a capacitance, an inductance (e.g. inductor or transformer) or a combination thereof, together with one or more switches to effectively transfer electrical energy from the source to a regulated output. Advantages of switching regulators are well known. One particular advantage of the switching approach is that it is a fairly simple matter to rearrange the energy storage circuit and switches to convert voltage up (boost), convert voltage down (buck) or provide a voltage inversion.
As the DC/DC converter/regulator circuit operates to switch between circuit states, power is transferred in discrete units or packets. Switched power transfer, however, creates noise or ripple in the flow of input current from the power source, which tends to generate on-chip voltage spikes and EMI. As switching rates of DC/DC switching converters are increasing (>IMHz), on-chip transients and radiated EMI due to switch node transition are becoming an issue. Due to higher operating frequencies, it is desirable to minimize the transition time required when switching to minimize power losses and blanking time for switch settling. Blanking time is the time between turn-off of one switch and the time of turn-on of the other switch, typically, to avoid shoot-through. Unfortunately fast slewing of the switch node to minimize the transition time results in high on-chip supply transients and high external radiated EMI. It may be helpful to consider an example.
FIG. 1a is a circuit diagram showing the switch circuit for a DC-DC converter (with energy storage elements omitted, for convenience). Although connection to the energy storage elements will vary depending on the desired application, buck, boost or inverter, the principal elements and arrangement of the switching circuit will be substantially similar.
The circuit diagram shows a buck converter switch configuration with very fast turn on and turn off times. A p-type metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) type field effect transistor (FET) P1 selectively connects input voltage VIN through a small resistance (typically an on-chip metal resistance) to a switch node SW. An n-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) FET transistor N1 selectively connects switch node SW to ground, through small resistance (typically metal-on-chip resistance). The switching transistors P1 and N1 are relatively strong transistors, for efficiency, in that the characteristic impedance from drain to source, when each transistor is on, is very low. Because the impedance is low, the voltage drop across the on transistor is low for a given current through the transistor, and the transistor consumes relatively little operating power. Each switch has to hold the switch node SW at the desired state (connected to VIN through P1, or connected to ground through N1), but it is desirable for the respective transistor to hold the state while consuming relatively little power. Hence, the transistors P1 and N1 are much stronger than would normally be needed to hold the switch node SW in the respective state. Often, the characteristic impedance from drain to source is on the order of 1Ω or less, commonly on the order of tens to hundreds of mΩ, to achieve 90% efficiency for the regulator circuit. Impedance is sized to facilitate desired output requirements of the particular converter application.
The current source load (ILOAD) represents the standing current in the inductor L of the buck converter. The inductor L of the buck converter is connected from the switch node SW to the output voltage (VOUT) node shown. The other elements of the circuit shown in FIG. 1a relate to the logic circuitry to control the timing of the switching on and off of the switching transistors P1 and N1, in response to the high-speed switching signal VCLK.
Because the transistors P1 and N1 are strong transistors, they can transition the switch node SW quickly.
FIG. 1b shows selected switching waveforms for the circuit in FIG. 1a (assuming that VIN=5V and ILOAD=1 A). In FIG. 1b, the upper graph shows the current (I) that flows through resistor RB2, that is, the input current flowing from the source VIN. The upper graph also shows the absolute value of the change (dI/dt) of the current from the input, referred to as ABS(DI(RB2))/dt) (in A/ns) in the drawing. The two spikes in the graph ABS of current change dI/dt, in the example, exceed 4.0 amps/nanosecond (A/ns). These spikes represent the edge rates in the transitions of the current flow I(RB2) in Amps (A), as also shown in the drawing. The first spike corresponds to a transition from high to low in the current trace (I(RB2)) and represents the rate at which the input current I turns off. The second spike in the ABS trace for the change (dI/dt) of the current corresponds to a transition from high to low in the current trace (I(RB2)) and represents the rate at which the input current I turns on. The lower graph in FIG. 1b depicts several of the voltages as they appear at different times in the circuit of FIG. 1a. The time scale of the upper and lower graphs coincide.
Assume that the circuit is in a state in which current I(RB2) is flowing through PMOS transistor P1 (see left portion of FIG. 1b). The waveforms V(P1) and V(N1) of FIG. 1b are the gate voltages of the PMOS (P1) and NMOS (N1) respectively. A PMOS turns on with a negative gate-source voltage. Since the source of P1 is at the input supply, P1 is on (low impedance) when V(P1) is low and off (high impedance) when V(P1) is high. Conversely a NMOS turns on with a positive gate-source voltage. Since the source of N1 is at ground, N1 is on (low impedance) when V(N1) is high and off (high impedance) when V(N1) is low. For the case where transistor P1 is on, and NMOS transistor N1 is off, we see that both V(P1) and V(N1) are both low. The low impedance of P1 drives the switch node voltage V(SW) high.
Now assume that it is time to transition from the state where V(SW) is high to a state in which the switch node voltage V(SW) is low, which means that the NMOS transistor N1 is on and no current is flowing through PMOS transistor P1. The transition must not allow both transistors P1 and N1 to be on at the same time (shoot-through), as this would allow a very large current flow through the low impedance switches and resistances to ground. Hence, the logic of the circuit will turn the PMOS transistor P1 off before turning the NMOS transistor N1 on.
When the SW node transitions low, the input current I(RB2) remains very high as the switch node transitions low and is quickly shut off when the SW node goes low enough to turn on the drain to substrate diode of NMOS (N1). More specifically, the SW node voltage V(SW) does not start slewing down until the drive to the PMOS P1 gate is reduced to the point where PMOS P1 can no longer supply the load current ILOAD (standing inductor current in the case of a buck converter). As the PMOS P1 gate drive is further reduced, the voltage V(SW) on the SW node will start to drop, but parasitic Miller capacitance and SW-to-VIN capacitance on the large PMOS transistor P1 keep the input current I(RB2) high, as the node voltage V(SW) transitions low. However, the input current very abruptly goes to zero as the SW node voltage bottoms out into the NMOS (N1), which is acting as a diode clamp.
The sudden drop in input current produces the spike, shown to the left in the upper graph of the current change. As the waveforms show, the supply pin switching current dI/dt is greater than 5 A/ns. At this rate, 1 nH of bond wire/pin inductance will induce a 5V spike on the input supply of an Integrated Circuit (IC). Additionally, the switch node transitions the full supply range in under 1 ns, which is undesirable from an EMI point of view.
The most common method of controlling the switch node transition is to drive the large switches of a DC/DC converter with weak drivers. The weak drivers slow the turn-on/turn-off time of the large switches, effectively reducing the slew rate of the switching node. However, this can result in undesirably long switch settling times for appreciable reductions in switch node slew rate and on-chip switching transients. Consider the following.
FIG. 2a is a circuit diagram showing a switch circuit for a DC-DC converter (again with the energy storage elements omitted, for convenience) for delivering a 5V output with a 1 A load current. Again, although the connection to the energy storage elements will vary depending on the desired application, buck, boost or inverter, the principal elements and arrangement of the switching circuit will be substantially similar.
The circuit of FIG. 2a is similar to that of FIG. 1a, except that the circuit of FIG. 2a implements the known technique for reducing problematic noise. FIG. 2a shows a buck switch configuration with the gate drive to the large PMOS (P1) and NMOS (N1) switches significantly reduced over that in FIG. 1a. In the example of FIG. 2a, the circuit uses higher impedance (weaker) inverters U5 and U15, to drive the gates of the strong switching transistors P1 and N1. The inverter U5 and U15 that drive the gates of the large PMOS (P1) and NMOS (N1) transistors are smaller, and thus presents a higher drive impedance at the respective gate of P1 or N1, than the comparable elements in the circuit of FIG. 1a. As a result, the higher impedance takes longer to discharge the Miller capacitance (from the source back to the gate) of P1 or N1, and tends to hold the respective transistor on longer in transitions. This tends to slow the slew rate of the switching transistors when transitioning from on to off or from off to on. Reducing the slew rate reduces the spikes in dI/dt that generate undesirable voltage spikes and EMI.
FIG. 2b shows selected switching waveforms for the circuit in FIG. 2a. Limiting the drive to the large PMOS and NMOS switches, as in the circuit of FIG. 2a, reduces the slew rate of the switching node. For example, in the transition of the switch node voltage V(SW) from on to off, the slope of the drop off is not as steep, and when the switch node voltage V(SW) bottoms out into the clamp diode of transistor N1, the current transition will be less abrupt. This effectively reduces the radiated EMI and shrinks the overall dI/dt transients on the supply input. Note that in this topology much of the switching time represents getting to/from the threshold voltage of the PMOS P1 or NMOS N1.
This method of drive control provides reduced supply current spikes, but at the expense of longer drive switch transition times. In the case of FIG. 2b, 2 A/ns dI/dt spikes are induced on the input supply. However, the time it takes the switches to settle out is nearly doubled. A dI/dt of 2 A/ns with 1 nH of bond wire inductance still will induce a 2V spike on the input supply voltage of an IC.
As shown by the example of prior art of FIGS. 2a, 2b, one is fighting a losing battle between total switching time and minimizing supply transients caused by slewing the switching node. Also, as the transition time of the switch node (SW) is not significantly reduced, only a minimal improvement in radiated EMI has been achieved.
The switches of DC/DC converters are generally made very large to reduce their effective impedance, thus reducing switch power loss. Because of this, transition from off to on of the PMOS (P1) and NMOS (N1) for a given inductor current occurs over a small range of the gate voltage swing. Since the actual gate voltage range for switch node transition is a very small portion of the total gate voltage swing, most of the switching time will be wasted transitioning to and from this control point. There are many variants of the prior art discussed above, but all known techniques for mitigating the effects of switching noise are based on reducing the drive to the converter switches (P1, N1) to control the slew rate of the switching node, which is fundamentally flawed for the reasons just presented.
Hence a need still exists for a technique of effectively mitigating the switching noise, that will still provide relatively fast total switching time.

Dual FET output stage with controlled output DV/DT for reduced EMI and input supply noise


In an embodiment, a user equipment (UE) is disclosed. The UE comprises a cellular radio transceiver, a non-transitory memory, a processor, a third party application stored in the non-transitory memory, and an application stored in the non-transitory memory. When executed by the processor, the third party application causes the processor to attempt to access confidential information of the UE. When executed by the processor, the application causes the processor to determine a status of consent to release confidential information to the third party application and to take action in response to a determination that the status of consent is consent is not granted to release confidential information to the third party application.

A smart phone may download and install third party applications, for example mobile applications that are made by mobile application developers not managed by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of the smart phone or by a wireless communication service provider of wireless communication service to the smart phone. During installation or during execution, a third party application may ask a user of the smart phone to grant consent for the third party application to access and use confidential and/or private information associated with the user and/or the smart phone. For example, the third party application may request consent to look-up a physical location of the smart phone, to read from a contacts list of the smart phone, and/or to send information from the smart phone to the Internet. A developer or owner of the third party application desirably maintains records of consents obtained from users of smart phones, for example to comply with government regulations or best industry practices.
Individuals may provide consent to use their confidential and/or private information to third parties in other circumstances. For example, a car buyer may provide consent to a car dealer to access his or her confidential information to assess a creditworthiness of the buyer. A credit card applicant may provide consent to a financial institution to access his or her confidential information to assess the creditworthiness of the applicant. A consumer completing an on-line Internet retail purchase may provide consent to the on-line retail enterprise to store credit card and shipping information of the consumer. A prescription drug consumer may provide consent to a pharmacy, via an interactive voice recognition (IVR) system, to send unsolicited communications to a mobile phone or an email account associated with the consumer, for example to notify the consumer of prescription drug refill schedules or of sales promotions. Sometimes consent agreements contain a time limit constraint, limiting the validity of the consent to a delimited period of time. Other consent agreements may contain no time limit constraints and remain valid until explicitly cancelled by the individual.

Private information disclosure consent management system


A sense amplifier adapted to amplify a voltage signal representative of a charging current provided to a rechargeable battery. The sense amplifier may include a p-type input sense amplifier and an n-type input sense amplifier, The p-type input sense amplifier may be enabled and the n-type input sense amplifier may be disabled if a battery voltage level of the rechargeable battery is less than an under voltage threshold level. The p-type input sense amplifier may be disabled and the n-type input sense amplifier may be enabled if the battery voltage level is greater than or equal to the under voltage threshold level. A related method and an electronic device having a sense amplifier consistent with an embodiment are also provided.

A variety of electronic devices such as portable computers, portable phones, personal digital assistants, and other portable and non-portable electronic devices may utilize a rechargeable battery. In some instances, the rechargeable battery may be deeply discharged. A deeply discharged battery may be defined as a battery having a battery voltage level less than an under voltage threshold level where the value of the under voltage threshold level may vary with battery type and manufacturer. To avoid stressing such a deeply discharged battery at the start of a battery charging process, a relatively small "wake-up" current may be provided to the deeply discharged battery. The wake-up current may be provided to the battery until the battery voltage level reaches the under voltage threshold level. At that time, the rechargeable battery may no longer be considered a deeply discharged battery and a larger charging current may safely be provided to the battery.
A DC to DC converter and its associated controller may regulate the charging conditions for the rechargeable battery. In order to provide a signal representative of the charging current to the controller of the DC to DC converter, a sensor may be coupled to the path providing a charging current to the rechargeable battery. A sense amplifier may also be utilized in conjunction with the sensor to amplify the signal provided by the sensor. However, a conventional sense amplifier utilizes only an n-type input sense amplifier that will not work when the rechargeable battery is deeply discharged and the wake-up charging current is required. This is because the voltage of the rechargeable battery drops to a value low enough to be out of the common mode voltage of the n-type input sense amplifier.
Since the n-input type sense amplifier will not work when the rechargeable battery is deeply discharged, the conventional sense amplifier does not provide any charging current signal representative of the wake-up charging current to the controller of the DC to DC converter. Rather, upon sensing a deeply discharged battery, the controller disregards any signal from the sense amplifier and rather provides a particular control signal over a particular range to control the charging current when the battery is deeply discharged. For example, the controller may provide a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal to the DC to DC controller having a duty cycle between 0 and a certain value. However, such a conventional method results in a wake-up charging current that may have an inaccurate mean value, may have a large peak to peak ripple current, and may suffer from noise.
Accordingly, there is a need for a sense amplifier that may be utilized even when the rechargeable battery is deeply discharged.

Sense amplifier for use with wake-up charging current


A lockable bolt device for an interior of a door. The lockable bolt device includes a door attachment plate having a horizontal aperture therethrough, configured to securely attach to the door, and a jamb attachment plate having two horizontal apertures therethrough, configured to securely attach to a door jamb. The jamb attachment plate also includes a vertical aperture therethrough, such that the vertical aperture is configured to removably accept an angled bolt therethrough for storage of the angled bolt when the lockable bolt device is in an unlocked configuration. When the door is in a closed position and the horizontal apertures are aligned, the two plates are configured to accept the angled bolt through the horizontal apertures to secure the door in the closed position. The lockable bolt device is useful to prevent an individual from passing through the door from an exterior of the door.

The present invention relates to a lockable bolt device for a door.
Many conventional locking mechanisms for locking a door in a closed position, including deadbolts, knob locks, handle locks, cam locks, safety chains, and the like, can be bypassed by any of a variety of means. Bypassing conventional door locking mechanisms may be achieved by picking, cutting, or breaking the locking mechanism. Bypassing may be part of an attempt by an unwanted or unauthorized individual to gain entry to a building, room, or other structure by passing through the door having the conventional locking mechanism.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a new and improved locking mechanism for securely locking a door in a closed position, such that entry from the exterior is prevented. The present invention addresses this unmet need.
Devices have been disclosed in the art that relate to lockable bolt devices. These include devices that have been patented and published in patent application publications. These devices are often able to be bypassed by methods, devices, or other means known in the art. In view of the devices disclosed in the art, it is submitted that there is a need in the art for an improvement to existing lockable bolt devices. In view of the present disclosure, it is submitted that the present invention substantially diverges in structural and functional elements from devices in the art, and the present invention substantially fulfills an unmet need in the art.


An artificial ankle joint having a universal joint and shock absorbers is provided. The artificial ankle joint enables distribution of vertically applied weight of a human body to ground, and enables an artificial foot connected to the artificial ankle joint to move in multiple axial directions.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a prosthetic device for a human being. The invention further relates to an artificial ankle joint, referred to herein as an artificial ankle. The invention still further relates to an artificial ankle which operates to enable an artificial foot to move in multiple axial directions.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Problems Solved
It is known that a person who loses a foot and an ankle can employ a prosthetic device to replace the lost foot and ankle to thereby enable the person to stand in an erect position and to walk without extrinsic assistance, such as by use of a cane or a crutch.
It is known that a natural ankle receives the weight of the body transmitted to it by the bones of the lower leg, i.e., the tibia and the fibula, and then distributes the weight to the sole of the foot and ultimately to ground. A problem encountered in the use of an artificial ankle and foot involves the capability of the combination to dampen and/or to absorb shock caused by forces generated by the weight of the body and then to distribute the weight to ground.
It is known that a natural ankle enables a foot to move to a toe down-heel up position, and to a toe up-heel down position. In geometric terms, the toe down position increases the angle between the front of the foot and the leg, and the toe up position decreases the angle between the front of the foot and the leg. These movements in a natural ankle are produced by rotation of the foot in a first vertical plane around a first horizontal axis which passes through the ankle and which is perpendicular to the first vertical plane. The first vertical plane, in anatomical terminology, is called a sagittal plane and is sometimes referred to as a para sagittal plane. A specific sagittal plane, called the mid-sagittal plane, or the median plane, divides the body into right and left halves. Accordingly, for purposes of this disclosure, the sagittal plane which passes through the ankle is parallel to the median plane and divides the foot into right and left halves. The toe down-heel up position is referred to as plantar flexion, and the toe up-heel down position is referred to as dorsiflexion. The bottom of the foot, the sole, is referred to as the plantar, and the top of the foot is referred to as the dorsum or dorsal. Accordingly, another problem encountered in the use of the combination of an artificial ankle and an artificial foot is the capability of the artificial foot to produce plantar flexion and dorsifiexion.
It is known that a natural ankle enables a foot to move in left and right directions. Such movement in a natural ankle is produced by rotation of the foot in a second vertical plane around a second horizontal axis which passes through the ankle and which is perpendicular to the second vertical plane. The second vertical plane, in anatomical terminology, is called a frontal or a coronal plane. A coronal plane of interest herein divides the foot into a front portion, the toe end, and a rear portion, the heel end. The anatomical terms for the left and right movements depend upon the direction of the movement of the foot with regard to the previously mentioned median plane. Movement of the sole of the foot, the plantar, away from the median plane is called eversion, and movement of the sole of the foot, the plantar, towards the median plane is called inversion. Accordingly, still another problem encountered in the use of the combination of an artificial ankle and an artificial foot is the capability of the artificial foot to produce eversion and inversion.
The above mentioned first and second vertical planes are perpendicular each to the other. The intersection of the first and second vertical planes is a vertical line which passes through the ankle, and is, therefor, the line of action through which the weight of the body passes from the tibia and the fibula to the foot and ultimately to ground.
In addition to the intersecting first and second vertical planes, a horizontal plane, referred to as a transverse plane or an axial plane, also passes through the ankle and is perpendicular to each of the first and second vertical planes. The line of intersection of the first vertical plane and the horizontal plane is the above mentioned second horizontal axis. The second horizontal axis accordingly lies in the horizontal plane and the first vertical plane. The line of intersection of the second vertical plane and the horizontal plane is the above mentioned first horizontal axis. The first horizontal axis accordingly lies in the horizontal plane an the second vertical plane. The first and second horizontal axes are perpendicular each to the other and intersect at a point in the center of the ankle.
There is a need for an artificial foot having an artificial ankle with sufficient flexibility to permit distribution of vertically applied weight of the body, and to enable the artificial foot to produce plantar flexion, dorsiflexion, eversion and inversion.


Implementations generally relate to a user interface for an earbud device. In some implementations, a method includes detecting contact of a finger of a user on a touch user interface of an earbud device. The method further includes determining a contact pattern based on movement of the finger on the touch user interface. The method further includes mapping the contact pattern to a predetermined command. The method further includes executing the predetermined command based on the mapping.

As earbuds get smaller in size, it is difficult to place buttons or other user input controls on them. Furthermore, most button controls are counter-intuitive to the underlying features, are complex, and not intuitively related to the resulting system behavior. Many earbuds in the market today have phone and music player controls using a combination of buttons, taps, knobs, and the like. These approaches enable the desired controls, but they are difficult for consumers to fully use because the gestures are unrelated to the underlying control features and are therefore hard to remember. Also, it is difficult to put many buttons or controls on a small earbud.


A method for processing a coating film includes the steps of forming a silica group coating film having a low dielectric constant on a substrate, conducting an etching process to the silica group coating film through a photoresist pattern, and processing the silica group coating film with plasma induced from helium gas. With this, it is possible to prevent the silica group coating film from being damaged when a wet stripping process is conducted to remove the photoresist pattern as a subsequent process, and to maintain the low dielectric constant of the coating film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for processing a silica group coating film having a low dielectric constant, and more specifically to a method for processing a silica group coating film having a dielectric constant equal to or less than 2.7 in the formation of a multi-layer wiring structure using a copper damascene method.
2. Description of Prior Art
The need for high integration of semiconductor devices is increasingly rising, and now we are entering into a generation of 0.13 xcexcm gate lengths. It is already recognized that, by using Cu as a wiring material in such instances in place of the conventional Al, the characteristics of manufactured semiconductor elements can be improved in the following is aspects.
Cu is superior to Al in tolerance for EM (i.e., electromigration). Also, Cu has low resistance, and thereby it is possible to reduce signal delay due to wiring resistance. The use under high current density can be achieved, that is, an allowable current density can be improved by three (3) times or more by the use of Cu as described herein, and thereby the width of wiring used can be fine.
However, since it is difficult to control the etching rate of Cu compared to Al, a copper damascene method attracts attention as a method for realizing multi-layer wiring of Cu without any etching process. Proposals have been made (for example, Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. 2000-174023 and Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. 2000-174121).
Explanation of the copper damascene method will be given with reference to FIG. 7.
First, as shown in FIG. 7(a), an intermediate insulating film, being comprised of SiO2 deposited through a CVD method or of SOG and having a low dielectric constant, is formed on a substrate, and a resist mask having a pattern is provided thereon. By etching, as shown in FIG. 7(b), trench pattern is formed. Next, as shown in FIG. 7(c), the trench pattern is lined with barrier metal, and as shown in FIG. 7(d), Cu is embedded into the trench by means of electrolysis plating so as to form a lower layer wiring. After polishing the barrier metal and Cu by chemical polishing, another intermediate insulating film is formed thereon as shown in FIG. 7(e). In the same manner, by selectively etching the intermediate insulating film through a resist mask having a pattern, as shown in FIG. 7(f), via-holes (or contact holes) and trench holes (i.e., gutters for an upper layer wiring) are formed (dual damascene). As shown in FIG. 7(g), the via-holes and the trench-holes for an upper layer wiring are lined with barrier metal and, as shown in FIG. 7(h), Cu is embedded into the via-holes and the trench-holes for an upper layer wiring by means of electrolysis plating or the like, and thereby an upper layer wiring is formed.
In the above-mentioned explanation, copper is used for forming wiring in a damascene method. However, a damascene method forming can be conducted with aluminum. The present invention can be applied to a damascene method using various conductive metals as alternatives to copper.
When multi-layer wiring is formed by a damascene method, it is required that an aspect ratio (i.e., height/width) of via-holes should be increased for fine wiring. However, if SiO2 formed through a CVD method is used for an intermediate insulating film, the aspect ratio will be at most 2. Also, the dielectric constant of SiO2 is relatively high (xcex5=4.1), which is not satisfactory.
The use of organic or inorganic SOG having a lower dielectric constant has been examined as a means of overcoming this drawback. Further, it is desired to make organic or inorganic SOG having a lower dielectric constant.
It is recognized that the dielectric constant of an intermediate insulating film can be decreased by making the intermediate insulating film porous. However, the lower dielectric constant of such an intermediate insulating film corresponds to a decrease in the density of the film. As a result, alteration or corrosion occurs in the surface of the intermediate insulating film when wet stripping of a resist film is conducted as a subsequent process, and thus it is difficult to obtain a reliable semiconductor element thereby.
It is supposed that the reason for alteration in the surface of the intermediate insulating film in this case is that Sixe2x80x94R group (R refers to lower alkyl group or hydrogen atom) is decomposed (R group is separated) by the wet stripping process and a Sixe2x80x94OH bond is produced.
For example, in the case of organic SOG, a Sixe2x80x94CH3 bond (CH3 is an example) is broken to be Sixe2x80x94OH. In the case of inorganic SOG, a Sixe2x80x94H bond is broken to be Sixe2x80x94OH.
As a treatment applied to such an intermediate insulating film, prior arts have been known which are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication Hei 11-162969, Japanese Patent Application Publication Hei 11-40813 and Japanese Patent Application Publication 2000-352827.
Japanese Patent Application Publication Hei 11-162969 discloses that a lower SOG layer is formed, plasma processing using inert gas such as Ar, Kr, Ne, N2, He or the like is conducted to the lower SOG layer, and thereby the adherence with respect to an upper SOG layer is increased. Japanese Patent Application Publication Hei 11-40813 discloses that plasma processing using low reactivity gas such as N2, Ar, He, O2 or the like is conducted to the surface of a semiconductor element in which a contact region is formed by a dry etching process, residual etching gas or a reaction product is removed, and defect in the semiconductor element is reduced. Japanese Patent Application Publication 2000-352827 discloses that a silicon nitride film is formed on a substrate, an etching process is conducted to the silicon nitride film through a photoresist mask, plasma processing is conducted using hydrogen, ammonia, nitrogen, inert gas, or mixed gas thereof, and thereafter a cured surface layer of the photoresist mask is removed by a wet process.
However, in a case where a material having a dielectric constant equal to or less than 2.7 is used in the above-mentioned prior arts, there is a likelihood that alteration or corrosion is caused to the surface of the SOG at the time of a subsequent stripping process because the effect of controlling alteration of the Sixe2x80x94H bond in the surface of the SOG is not sufficient, and thereby the substrate finally obtained has a serious defect.
According to the present invention, to solve the problems as mentioned above, there is provided a method for processing a coating film comprising the steps of forming a silica group coating film having a dielectric constant equal to or less than 2.7 on a substrate, conducting an etching process to the silica group coating film through a photoresist pattern, processing the silica group coating film, to which an etching process has been conducted, with plasma induced from helium gas, and removing the photoresist pattern by a wet stripping process.
It is possible to prevent damage resulting from a wet stripping process by conducting a pre-treatment for a wet stripping process with plasma induced from helium gas. It is supposed that the reason for this preventive effect is that plasma induced from helium gas attacks the coating film having a Sixe2x80x94H group and the Sixe2x80x94H bond in the surface layer is changed into a Sixe2x80x94Oxe2x80x94Si bond.
The dielectric constant equal to or less than 2.7 is preferable for an intermediate insulating film used in a damascene method. The silica group coating film is not limited to a particular one as long as it has such a dielectric constant. The silica group coating film having such a dielectric constant can be achieved by forming with coating liquid as follows:
The coating liquid can include a condensation product which is obtained through hydrolysis of trialkoxysilane within an organic solvent under an acid catalysis. In particular, it is preferable to obtain the coating liquid by dissolving trialkoxysilane having a concentration of 1%-5% by weight in a case of conversion into SiO2 using alkylene glycol dialkyl ether, adding water of 2.5-3.0 mols per 1 mol of the trialkoxysilane to this solution and adjusting the content of alcohol produced through a reaction in a reacting mixture to be less than or equal to 15% by weight after conducting a hydrolytic condensation under an acid catalyst.
An intermediate insulating film having a ladder structure can be obtained by using trialkoxysilane having a concentration of 1%-5% by weight in a case of conversion into SiO2. Independent of being organic or inorganic, by making a ladder structure, a film which is dense and has a low dielectric constant can preferably be formed.
As the above-mentioned trialkoxysilane, it is possible to list trimethoxysilane, triethoxysilane, tripropoxysilane, tributoxysilane, diethoxy monomethoxysilane, monomethoxy dipropoxysilane, dibutoxy monomethoxysilane, ethoxy methoxy propoxysilane, monoethoxy dimethoxysilane, monoethoxy dipropoxysilane, butoxy ethoxy propoxysilane, dimethoxy monopropoxysilane, diethoxy monopropoxysilane, and monobutoxy dimethoxysilane. Among these, compounds preferable in practice are: trimethoxysilane, triethoxysilane, tripropoxysilane, and tributoxysilane. In particular, trimethoxysilane and triethoxysilane are preferable.
As the solvent, in order to increase the stability of preservation, it is necessary to use alkylene glycol dialkyl ether. By using this, it is possible to control a decomposition reaction of a Hxe2x80x94Si group in trialkoxysilane or a substitution reaction of a hydroxy group for an alkoxy group in silanol produced as an intermediate product, which occurs in the conventional art using lower alcohol as a solvent, and thereby it is possible to prevent the gelation.
As the alkylene glycol dialkyl ether, it is possible to list a dialkylether type of alkylene glycol such as ethylene glycol dimethylether, ethylene glycol diethylether, ethylene glycol dipropylether, ethylene glycol dibutylether, diethylene glycol dimethylether, diethylene glycol diethylether, diethylene glycol dipropylether, diethylene glycol dibutylether, propylene glycol dimethylether, propylene glycol diethylether, propylene glycol dipropylether, and propylene glycol dibutylether. Among these, a preferable compound is a dialkylether type, in particular, dimethylether of ethylene glycol or propylene glycol. These organic solvents may be used alone or by combining two or is more kinds thereof. Also, these organic solvents are used at a ratio of 10-30 times mol with respect to 1 mol of alkoxysilane.
It is necessary that water used for hydrolysis of trialkoxysilane be within a range of 2.5-3.0 mols with respect to 1 mol of trialkoxysilane, preferably within a range of 2.8-3.0 mols, so as to increase the degree of hydrolysis. If it is beneath this range, although the stability in preservation is increased, the degree of hydrolysis is deteriorated, the content of organic groups in the hydrolysis product is increased, and thereby gas is generated at the time of forming a coating film. If it is above this range, the stability in preservation is deteriorated.
Even if at least one kind of alkylene glycol dialkyl ether is used as a solvent rather than alcohol, since alcohol corresponding to the alkoxy group is inevitably generated in the course of hydrolysis of alkoxysilane, it is necessary to remove the generated alcohol from the reaction system. Specifically, it is necessary to remove the alcohol to be less than or equal to 15% by weight, preferably to be less than or equal to 8% by weight, in the coating liquid. If the alcohol exceeds 15% by weight, the Hxe2x80x94Si group and the generated alcohol react with each other, an ROxe2x80x94Si group is generated and the crack limit is deteriorated. In addition, gas is generated at the time of forming a coating film and the above-mentioned trouble is caused.
As a method for removing the alcohol, it is preferable to conduct distillation under reduced pressure for 2-6 hours in a temperature of 20-50xc2x0 C. in a degree of vacuum of 30-300 mmHg, preferably 50-200 mmHg. The coating liquid obtained in this manner has characteristics of showing the increase in the weight of the film-forming component after the removal of the solvent in a thermogravimetric analysis, and not having a peak at 3,000 cmxe2x88x921 in the infrared absorption spectrum. The conventional coating liquid, which is described in Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. Hei 4-216827(1992), shows a decrease in the weight in a thermogravimetric analysis, and has a peak in the vicinity of 3,000 cmxe2x88x921 in the infrared absorption spectrum, which indicates that alkoxy group still exists therein.
One kind selected from polyalkylene glycol and the end alkylation product thereof may be included in the coating liquid. As a result of this, an intermediate insulating film can be made porous and the dielectric constant can be decreased.
As the polyalkylene glycol, it is possible to list lower polyalkylene glycol such as polyethylene glycol, polypropylene glycol or the like. The end alkylation product means lower polyalkylene glycol in which a hydroxy group in one or both end(s) of the lower polyalkylene glycol is made to be alkoxyl with a lower alkyl group such as a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, or the like.
The addition amount of the one kind selected from polyalkylene glycol and the end alkylation product is 10%-500% by weight, preferably 50%-200% by weight, with respect to the solid component of the coating liquid.
The weight-average molecular weight of the polyalkylene glycol and the end alkylation product is 100-10,000, preferably 200-5,000. This range can easily make the dielectric constant lower without any damage to solubility in the coating liquid.
Further, as a photoresist stripping solution for the wet stripping process, an amine group stripping solution including an amine group such as hydroxylamine, a hydrofluoric acid group stripping solution including ammonium fluoride, or a stripping solution of a mixed group thereof can be used.
A stripping solution for photoresist which is selected from the above-mentioned groups can be used in the wet stripping process of the present invention.
According to the present invention, there is also provided a method for manufacturing a semiconductor element comprising the following steps of:
(1) forming a silica group coating film having a dielectric constant equal to or less than 2.7 on a substrate;
(2) providing a photoresist pattern on the silica group coating film;
(3) conducting an etching process to the silica group coating film using the photoresist pattern as a mask;
(4) processing the silica group coating film with plasma induced from helium gas; and
(5) conducting a wet stripping process to the photoresist pattern.
In the above-mentioned step of forming a silica group coating film, for example, coating liquid is applied onto a substrate such as a semiconductor substrate, a glass substrate, a metal plate, a ceramic substrate, or the like by means of a spinner method, a roll coater method, an immersion coating method, a spray method, a screen printing method, a brush painting method, or the like. It is dried to evaporate the solvent therein, fired in a temperature of 250-500xc2x0 C., and a coating film is formed.
In the above steps (2), (3) and (5), the conventional means and methods can be used.
In the step of processing the silica group coating film with plasma induced from helium gas, a plasma processing apparatus for generating plasma gas from the above-mentioned gas (for example, TCA-7822 manufactured by Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd.) is used. The plasma processing is conducted under pressure of 10-600 mTorr, preferably 100-500 mTorr, and for 30-300 seconds, preferably 30-120 seconds.
Another plasma processing apparatus may be used besides the TCA-7822.

Method for processing coating film and method for manufacturing semiconductor element with use of the same method