A method for making slivers of fibers with parallelized fibers from sets of tangled or matted fibers includes the steps of winding a pre-measured amount of partially oriented fiber material onto a first carding drum (3), detaching the annular fiber web from the first carding drum (3) at a specific site and separating the web from the drum. The separated fiber web is wound off the first carding drum by the detached free end of the web, and the fiber web is stretched. The stretched fiber web is wound onto a second carding drum (8) folded over onto itself, and the doubled fiber web is detached from the second carding drum at a specific site. The detached fiber web is wound off the second carding drum (8) by the detached free end of the fiber web and the fiber web is again stretched. The stretched fiber web is wound onto the first carding drum and the winding and stretching steps are repeated until satisfactory parallelization has taken place, whereupon the iteration cycle is ended. An apparatus for performing the method is disclosed.

Many procedures and devices are known to qualitatively and quantitatively test textile fibers. Random fiber material, such as cotton in flock form, cannot be measured directly in many procedures, but instead first must be prepared into slivers of fibers with these fibers being made parallel. Accordingly, such pre-parallelized fibers are the input material to all test means that demand parallelized fibers.
Illustratively such test means are:
fiber aligners implementing the end arrangement of fiber tufts,
brushing stations for fiber tufts without end arrangement,
tension testers determining tear strength and elongating of bundles,
optical scanners such as pictorial data analyzers,
fiber-ripeness testers,
fiber-fineness testers,
fiber grading devices, etc.
Mechanized devices for making such slivers of fibers are already known, illustratively from the special issue by G. Spiridonow in MELLIAND TEXTILBERICHTE 59 (1978). Essentially this known device consists of a plain roller stretcher, that is of a pair of feed rollers and a pair of output rollers. It is clear from this that using such a simple, manually driven device, the manufacture of fiber slivers with parallelized fibers is time-consuming and low in reproducibility. Manual operation demands high skill and moreover entails constant contact between the bare hand and the raw material so that sweat contamination is unavoidable.

Method and apparatus for parallelizing fibers


A washing and drying machine of the present invention includes a water tub elastically supported in a housing; a rotary drum being rotatably mounted in the water tub; a heat pump having a compressor, a heat radiator, a throttle valve, a heat absorber, a pipework, and an air guide duct for guiding air to the heat absorber and the heat radiator; an air passageway provided to the water tub for allowing the air to flow into the rotary drum; a blower for forcing the air heated by the heat radiator to flow through the air passageway into the rotary drum; and a flexible connection member. The flexible connection member connects the air passageway to the air guide duct.

Referring to FIG. 18, there is illustrated a conventional washing and drying machine. Horizontally mounted in housing 1 of the machine is cylindrical water tub 3 which is elastically supported by a plural number of suspensions 2 absorbing vibration of water tub 3 during a washing operation. In water tub 3, cylindrical rotary drum. 5 for holding laundry articles 4 to be washed or dried (referred to as clothes hereinafter) is mounted horizontally and rotatably, which is rotated by rotator 6a of driving motor 6.
Mounted on an inner surface of rotary drum 5 are a plural number of baffles or vanes (not shown) for agitating clothes 4. A plurality of small openings 5a are formed in a cylindrical wall portion of rotary drum 5. Formed in a front wall of housing 1 is door opening 1a for loading and unloading clothes 4 in and from rotary drum 5, which is closed or opened by door 7. Mouth 3a of water tub 3 and mouth 5b of rotary drum 5 face door opening 1a of housing 1, mouth 3a of water tub 3 being connected watertightly to door opening 1a through bellows 8 attached therebetween. Formed on a lower portion of water tub 3 is drain 9 for allowing water therein to be drained, to which one end of drain hose 11 is connected through water outlet valve 10 disposed therebetween, while the other end of drain hose 11 is disposed to outside the machine.
Disposed in front of mouth 5b of rotary drum 5 is air injection opening 14 for allowing drying air heated by heater 13 to flow into rotary drum 5, the heated drying air being forced to flow by blower 12. Disposed beside driving motor 6 is circulation duct 15 for removing moisture from the drying air flowing out of rotary drum 5 and water tub 3, which has one end connected to air outlet 16 formed in the lower portion of water tub 3 and the other end connected to blower 12. Mounted behind water tub 3 is water inlet valve 17 for controlling flow of water supplied through water inlet hose 18.
Washing and drying operations of the aforementioned machine will now be described. Clothes 4 and detergent are placed in rotary drum 5 through door opening 1a, and then the machine is turned on. Water inlet valve 17 opens a passageway to water tub 3 to introduce water into water tub 3 and rotary drum 5. After a predetermined amount of water is supplied to water tub 3 and rotary drum 5, a washing cycle is performed, wherein driving motor 6 starts to rotate rotary drum 5. After a period of time, driving motor 6 is stopped and drain valve 10 is opened, so that used water is drained from rotary drum 5 and water tub 3 through drain hose 11 to the outside of the machine. Next, water tub 3 and rotary drum 5 are refilled with fresh water in a manner as mentioned above to initiate a rinsing cycle. After rinsing clothes, drain valve 10 is opened to drain water from rotary drum 5 and water tub 3. Then, rotary drum 5 is rotated by driving motor 6 to perform dewatering cycle for removing water from the clothes 4.
After the completion of the aforementioned washing operation, a drying operation is initiated. During the drying operation, rotary drum 5 is rotated at a low speed by driving motor 6 to tumble clothes 4, and air, forced to flow in a direction indicated by arrow 19 by blower 12, is heated by heater 13 and then introduced into rotary drum 5 through air injection opening 14. The heated air extracts moisture from the tumbling clothes 4 and then passes through openings 5a, water tub 3 and air outlet 16 to circulation duct 15.
At this time, water inlet valve 17 opens a passageway to circulation duct 15 to introduce water thereto. The water introduced into circulation duct 15 lowers temperature of the heated air containing moisture from clothes 4 to thereby condense the moisture. Then, thus dehumidified air is returned to blower 12. The cooling water and the resulting condensation are drained through drain valve 10 to the outside of the machine. Clothes 4 in rotary drum 5 are dried by forcing the heated air to flow through a circulation path made up of blower 12, heater 13, air injection opening 14, rotary drum 5, water tub 3, air outlet 16 and circulation duct 15.
In this conventional machine, most of heat used in drying clothes 4 is released into surroundings by the drained cooling water and condensation, and radiation of housing 1, without being reused.
Therefore, there has been proposed a drying machine employing a heat pump which is provided with a compressor for compressing coolant, a heat radiator for dissipating heat of the compressed coolant, a throttle valve for lowering pressure of the compressed coolant, a heat absorber for allowing the low-pressure coolant to absorb heat from ambient air and a pipework for allowing the coolant to circulate through the compressor, the heat radiator, the throttle valve and the heat absorber (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 1999-178289).
However, the compressor, the heat radiator, the throttle valve and the heat absorber are connected by the pipework made of, e.g., copper, to circulate the coolant therethrough; and, therefore, if the heat pump experiences severe vibration, connection portions of the heat pump may be structurally weakened by the vibration or fatigue failure of the pipework may take place due to resonance. The washing and drying machine, compared to the drying machine performing only drying operation, provides the dewatering cycle during which rotary drum 5 rotates at a high speed thereby causing severe vibration of the machine. Further, since rotary drum 5 of the washing and drying machine has a horizontal rotational axis, rotational vibration of rotary drum 5 is stronger than that of a rotary drum having a vertical rotational axis. Therefore, it is essential to isolate the heat pump from the vibration of rotary drum.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A light alloy seat back frame for a vehicle seat, including a pair of spaced apart side sections, an upper section interconnecting the side sections, a lower section formed into a substantially plate-shape having a width, the lower section extending between lower regions of rear sides of the side sections and interconnecting the side sections, the upper, side and lower sections being integrally made of light alloy, and a belt-shaped metal plate fixed onto a surface of the lower section. The seat back frame further includes a recliner mechanism for allowing a seat back of the vehicle seat to be pivoted with respect to a seat cushion of the vehicle seat. The recliner mechanism comprises cam devices mounted onto lower regions of outer surfaces of the side sections, and an actuating shaft extending along the lower section and interconnecting the cam devices. A metal pipe member for reinforcing a lower part of the seat back frame is mounted around an axial portion of the actuating shaft. There is also disclosed a vehicle seat provided with the seat back frame.

Hitherto, there has been known a seat back for a vehicle seat, in which a seat back frame made of recyclable light alloy such as magnesium alloy, aluminum alloy or the like is employed (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-114004).
The conventional seat back frame that is made of light alloy includes a frame body that is formed into a substantially inverted U-shape in outline. Recliner means for allowing the seat back to be pivoted with respect to a seat cushion of the vehicle seat is attached to a lower part of the seat back frame. The frame body includes left and right side sections that are spaced apart from each other, and an upper section interconnecting the left and right sections. The frame body further has a lower section that is formed into a flat plate-shape having a width, extending between lower regions of the left and right side sections and interconnecting the lower regions of the left and right side sections.
However, the lower section of the seat back frame that is merely formed into a flat plate-shape having a width is undesirable since when the lower section is subjected to any external force that may be applied to the seat back frame by, for example, crashing, and should the lower section be broken, a broken portion of the lower section may be excessively projected.
Similarly, the lower section of the seat back frame is undesirable in terms of stiffness or resistance to the external force that may be applied to the seat back frame by, for example, the crashing. In order to provide sufficient stiffness for the lower section, the lower section may be heavy-sectioned. However, this is contrary to a demand for weight-lightening of the seat back frame.

Light alloy seat back frame for vehicle seat, and reclining vehicle-seat with the seat back frame


A belt-slippage diagnostic apparatus for a continuously-variable transmission that includes a primary pulley, a secondary pulley and a belt looped over the primary and secondary pulleys. The belt-slippage diagnostic apparatus includes a slippage determination portion configured to determine occurrence of slippage of the belt on at least one of the primary and secondary pulleys, when a first-order derivative of a gear ratio, which is a ratio of a rotational speed of the primary pulley to a rotational speed of the secondary pulley, is not smaller than a first threshold value and a second-order derivative of the gear ratio is not smaller than a second threshold value.

There is well known a belt-type continuously-variable transmission including a primary pulley, a secondary pulley and a belt looped over the primary and secondary pulleys. Such a continuously-variable transmission is disclosed in JP-2003-329126A. This Japanese Patent Application Publication discloses that, in the continuously-variable transmission including an input member (corresponding to a primary pulley described in the present specification), an output member (corresponding to a secondary pulley described in the present specification) and a transmission member (corresponding to a belt described in the present specification) looped over the input and output members, a degree of deterioration of the transmission member is detected based on a correlation between slippage of the transmission member on one of the input and output members and a drive force transmitted through the transmission member.

Belt-slippage diagnostic apparatus for belt-type continuously-variable transmission


Methods and devices permit a user to insert multiple virtual objects into a real world video scene. Some inserted objects may be statically tied to the scene, while other objects are designated as moving with certain moving objects in the scene. Markers are not used to insert the virtual objects. Users of separate mobile devices can share their inserted virtual objects to create a multi-user, multi-object augmented reality (AR) experience.

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. The increasing popularity of modern powerful mobile devices combined with the expanding transmission bandwidths have enabled a wide variety of mobile AR applications, which provides modern users a variety of enriched experiences. Some stand-alone mobile applications may have been developed to help users semi-automatically insert virtual two-dimensional (2D) images or videos into the captured 2D photos or videos. The insertion points for the images typically are predefined markers.

Markerless multi-user, multi-object augmented reality on mobile devices


A wire storage rack comprising an adjustable plastic coated wire rack which can be mounted on any planar base. The wire rack has side posts provided with a threaded end and an upper offset end. A xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped cross piece connects the side posts. The cross piece has transverse legs which are secured to a respective side post and extend outward therefrom with the portion of the leg adjacent to the xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped portion forming a curved indentation which serves as a lid seat. The xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped portion is curved backward toward the side posts past the lid seat to securely hold a lid placed therein in place.

The present invention generally relates to a storage rack unit and more specifically is directed toward a wire storage rack unit which can be mounted into a cabinet or any flat planar surface for holding the lids of cooking pots, pans and skillets.
Most cooks have accumulated a collection of covered cookware that range over many sizes of pots and pans and containers with lids. Even those persons who do not consider themselves as real cooks have an assortment of lids for the various containers in which they cook food, both on top of a stove, in a microwave and in an oven. Thus almost all kitchens contain significant numbers of pots, pans and other cooking containers and lids for same. The lids must be stored when they are not in use generally stacked one upon the other.
Where and how these cooking container lids are stored may vary substantially from kitchen to kitchen. In some instances, pots and cooking containers are stacked in a nested fashion with the largest diameter pot on the bottom and successively smaller pots on top. While this might be a relatively efficient way to store pots, pans and other cooking vessels such as casseroles, the lids and covers usually cannot be stored effectively in a nested stack. Most kitchens which use this nesting stack storage method for pots also have a disorganized pile of lids and covers. The cook then must rummage through the pile to locate the correct lid for the container he or she wants to use and move stacks of containers. In a home kitchen this exercise is very frustrating and can be quite chaotic when people and children gather in the kitchen during cooking of the meal.
Some cooks simply cover their pots and pans with the lids and store them side-by-side on cabinet shelves. Although this method allows the cook to locate the correct lid quickly, it requires significantly more storage space than stacking or nesting the containers.
The present inventive wire storage rack device is useful for holding the lids of pots, pans, skillets and containers for easy access to same. In the prior art, shaped wire stands have been used to provide open storage for related use utensils lids and other similar items.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,516,088 issued Jul. 18, 1950 is directed toward a folding dish drying rack formed from round wire stock which has a protective coating of rubber or synthetic resin. A plurality of elements are pivotally supported between an adjacent pair of longitudinal rods. Each element is mounted with a crank portion positioned outwardly and a lug portion positioned inwardly for attachment to and manipulation by a push bar. A push bar is slidably mounted in slots formed in a pair of mounting plates secured to the ends of a base.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,284 issued Aug. 26, 1997 is directed toward a storage rack for holding and storing cooking container lids and like shaped objects. The rack has a base with a pair of feet allowing it to be placed in a vertical or horizontal position. A plurality of adjustable crosspieces forming rests or steps are positioned at desired locations along the edges of the bracket members to hold the container lids at a storage angle.
Other commonly used types of stands are a wire rack with legs and supports such as that shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,190,065, 2,891,676, 3,013,670, 3,164,108, 4,592,471, 4,756,582 and 4,943,029.
The prior art, therefore, has failed to provide a wire storage rack or holder for cooking container lids and covers that may be easily mounted in a cabinet or on any flat surface by the purchaser or by a consumer to hold and store a number of containers and lids of varying and different dimensions. Consequently, there is a need for such a holding rack in the home kitchen to allow storage areas to be organized effectively and allow easy access to the correct lid for specific cooking containers.
Accordingly, the novel wire storage rack unit has been developed to hold pot, pan, and skillet lids which resolves the problems of counter and cabinet space, cluttered storage, mislaid lids, matching lids to containers, hereby allowing lids to be consolidated and hidden from sight in a cabinet or enclosed area.
The present invention is directed toward an adjustable plastic coated wire lid storage unit comprising a wire rack which can be mounted on any planar surface. The wire rack has side posts provided with a threaded end and an upper offset end. An inverted xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped cross piece with a curved base connects the side posts below the upper offset end. The cross piece has legs which are secured to the respective side post and extend transversely outward therefrom with a leg section adjacent to the xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped portion forming a curved recess to seat the edge of a lid. The xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d shaped cross piece is curved backward toward the side posts to securely hold a lid placed therein in place.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a wire storage rack for cooking container covers and lids which can be easily mounted by the purchaser or consumer to a base, such as a shelf or planar platform to accommodate a specific collection of cooking containers lids with the minimum need of tools, fasteners or adhesives.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a wire storage rack for cooking container lids that can be sized and/or spaced to hold all the lids for a selected set or brand of cookware as well as providing a contained area for the pots, pans, skillets, and cooking containers.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a wire storage rack which can be easily mounted to a flat surface with a minimum of instructions and general lack of mechanical skill by the consumer.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a wire storage rack which may be easily and inexpensively fabricated from round; wire stock or other suitable materials having strength and durability.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a wire storage rack which is coated to protect the cooking ware and allow the,e rack to be easily cleaned.
In the accompanying drawings, there is shown illustrative embodiments of the invention from which these and other objectives, novel features and advantages will be readily apparent.


Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to circuits, systems and methods that can be used to detect light beam misalignment, so that compensation for such misalignment can be performed. In accordance with an embodiment, a circuit includes a photo-detector (PD) having a plurality of electrically isolated PD segments. Additionally, the circuit has circuitry, including switches, configured to control how currents indicative of light detected by the plurality of electrically isolated PD segments are arithmetically combined. When the switches are in a first configuration, a signal produced by the circuitry is indicative of vertical light beam alignment. When the switches are in a second configuration, the signal produced by the circuitry is indicative of horizontal light beam alignment. The signals indicative of vertical light beam alignment and horizontal light beam alignment can be used detect light beam misalignment, so that compensation for such misalignment can be performed.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary miniature projector display device 100, sometimes referred to as a picoprojector. The miniature projector device 100 can be integrated with or attached to a portable device, such as, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a portable computer (e.g., a laptop or netbook), a personal data assistant (PDA), or a portable media player (e.g., DVD player). The miniature projector device 100 can alternatively be integrated with or attached to a non-portable device, such as a desktop computer or a media player (e.g., a DVD player), but not limited thereto. The miniature projector device 100 can alternatively be a stand alone device.
Referring to FIG. 1, the projector display device 100 is shown as including a video source 102, a controller 104 (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit and/or a micro-controller), a laser diode driver (LDD) 108 and a voltage regulator 110. Depending on the type of video source, a video analog-font-end (AFE) can be included between the video source and controller, and the video AFE may include, e.g., one or more analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). For example, if the input is a Video Graphics Array (VGA) input, then a video AFE may be included. However, a video AFE may not be needed where the video source is a digital video source.
The controller 104 can perform scaling and/or pre-distortion of video signals before such signals are provided to the LDD 108. The voltage regulator 110 (e.g., a quad-output adjustable DC-DC buck-boost regulator) can convert a voltage provided by a voltage source (e.g., a battery or AC supply) into the various voltage levels (e.g., four voltage levels V1, V2, V3 and V4) for powering the various components of the projector display device 100.
The LDD 108 is shown as including three digital-to-analog converts DACs 1091, 1092 and 1093 (which can be collectively referred to as DACs 109). The LDD is also shown as including a serial interface 122 which may receive, via a serial bus 103, a serial enable (SEN) signal and a serial clock signal (SClk) from a serial interface of the controller 104. Additionally, a bi-directional serial data input/output (SDIO) line of the serial bus 103 allows the controller 104 to write data to and read data from registers within the LDD 108. Alternative serial buses and interfaces can be used, such as, but not limited to, an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) or an Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus and interface. The LDD 108 also includes registers, and the like, which are not shown.
The DACs 109 of the LDD 108 drive laser diodes 112, which can include, e.g., a red, a green and a blue laser diode, but are not limited thereto. Where the LDD 108 is used to drive a red (R), a green (G) and a blue (B) laser diode, the LDD can be referred to as a RGB triple laser diode driver.
The light produced by the laser diodes 112 can be provided to beam splitters 114, which can direct a small percentage of the light toward one or more calibration photo-detectors (PDs) 120, and direct the remainder of the light toward projector optics 116, which include lenses, mirrors, reflection plates and/or the like. The light output by the optics 116 can be provided to one or more micro mirror(s) 118. The mirror(s) 118 can be controlled by the controller 104, or another portion of the system, to raster-scan reflected light onto a surface, e.g., a screen, a wall, the back of a chair, etc. Because of the scanning of laser beams performed using the mirror(s) 118, the projector 100 can be referred to as a laser based scanning projector 100. In one configuration, a single mirror 118 that can be controlled in both the X and Y directions is used for scanning of the laser beams. In another configuration, a first mirror 118 is used for controlling horizontal scanning (i.e., scanning in the X direction), and a second mirror 118 is used for controlling vertical scanning (i.e., scanning in the Y direction). These are just two exemplary configurations, which are not meant to be limiting. It is also possible that more than two mirrors 118 be used.
In a laser based scanning projector, at each clock cycle, the R, G, and B lasers diodes output a pixel intensity at a location set by the linear speed of the scanning mirror(s) 118 and a clock time base, as can be appreciated from the exemplary timing diagram of FIG. 2A. In the exemplary timing diagram of FIG. 2A, there are only 8 pixels per horizontal line, and there is no output during each blanking period (B). However, it is noted that there are typically many more pixels per line in a normal display. At each clock cycle, each color data pixel intensity can be either controlled using a pulse width modulation (PWM) scheme, where the R, G and B lasers diodes are turned on for different durations, or by amplitude modulation (AM), where the R, G and B laser diodes may all be driven at the same time but with different current levels.
Over time, a laser beam pointing direction might shift for various reasons, which causes misalignment among pixel colors. This is illustrated in timing diagram of FIG. 2B, which represents the observed timing relative to the image being displayed (as opposed to the timing of the data being sent from the controller 104 to the LDD 108). FIG. 2B attempts to illustrate that the blue laser shifts to the right hand side (RHS) by one pixel (or close to one pixel), resulting in a color offset in the displayed image, which is undesirable.
The laser beams produced by the R, G and B laser diodes can be or become misaligned for various reasons. For example, there will be some inherent misalignment that results from imperfect mechanical manufacturing of a projector system. Further, misalignment can occur due to mechanical modifications that occur to a projector system, e.g., if the projector system is dropped. Additionally, misalignment can also result from the thermal changes to the laser diodes, as well as aging of the laser diodes.

Circuits, systems and methods for vertical and horizontal light beam alignment


A method and device for tracking a region-of-interest in a sequence of image frames, wherein the boundary of the target region of a previous frame is projected onto the current frame so that a search area in the current frame can be established. For every pixel in the search area in the current frame, a search window is established in the previous frame so as to find a matched pixel within the search window. If the matched pixel is within the ROI of the previous frame, then the corresponding pixel in the current frame is preliminarily considered as a pixel within the ROI of the current frame. This backward matching is carried out using a low pass subband in the wavelet domain. The preliminary ROI in the current frame is then refined using edge detection in a high frequency subband.

The present invention relates generally to subband decomposition-based image codecs and, more particularly, to the coding of a moving object over a series of images.
It is generally known that image compression is effective in reducing the amount of image data for transmission or storage. In particular, with the introduction of scalable image coding formats like the JPEG2000, it has become possible to send and receive only a fraction of the image file and still reconstruct a high-quality image at the receiving end. The part that is dropped from the image usually contains information that describes the high-frequency components present in the image, corresponding to the details that the human visual system (HVS) is not very sensitive to.
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group for image compression. In 1988 this committee adopted its first standard, known as the JPEG baseline, which is based on discrete cosine transform (DCT) and on Huffman coding. In 2001, the JPEG committee developed a new compression standard, named JPEG 2000. This new standard provides low bit-rate operation, with rate-distortion and subjective image quality performance superior to existing standards, without sacrificing performance at other points in the rate-distortion spectrum. More importantly, JPEG 2000 allows extraction of different resolutions and pixel fidelities of a compressed image from the same codestream representation. It also offers features such as region-of-interest (ROI) coding and random access to image areas. This allows a user to manipulate, store or transmit only the essential information of an image for any target device from its JPEG2000 bitstream representation.
JPEG2000 is a subband decomposition-based bit-plane coders. It uses wavelets at the transform stage. The image is decomposed to multiple resolutions. Each resolution is composed of subbands representing low or/and high frequency components. The samples in the subbands are then coded in bit-planes starting from the most significant bit-plane. The usage of the wavelet transform and the bit-plane coding scheme provide the scalability feature of JPEG 2000.
Motion JPEG 2000 is a method ofvideo compression, based on intra-frame coding using JPEG 2000. In Motion JPEG 2000, frames in video sequences are coded as independent images, i.e., there is no motion prediction between the images. This coding scheme offers important functionalities such as scalability in quality and in resolution, robustness to bit errors, and frame editing. However, it is inefficient in compression performance as compared to other standards, such as MPEG-4, where estimates of motion vectors are used to code inter-frames. On the other hand, the compression performance of Motion JPEG 2000 can be improved using the features of JPEG 2000 such as ROI coding.
ROI coding is a useful functionality in JPEG 2000. It allows the allocation of more bits in an ROI than in other regions in the same image while coding it. By unequally coding the parts of the images so that important objects can be assigned more bits per pixel than the less important objects, a better visual perception of the sequence is obtained, making this feature very useful especially in low data-rate applications. To code important objects in a video sequence as ROIs, tracking of these objects becomes essential for producing a high-quality video stream.
Tracking of ROIs is an important feature in many visual-related applications, such as vision-based control, human-computer interfaces, surveillance, agricultural automation, medical imaging and visual reconstruction. The main difficulty in ROI tracking in video sequences is due to the potential variations in the target region within the frame sequence. These variations are usually due to changes in pose, shape deformations, illumination and partial or full occlusion of the target. The sources of these variations should be taken into account when designing a tracking algorithm in order to guarantee robustness and stability.
In prior art, most of the ROI tracking methods rely on a multi-stage processing strategy, which consists of three consecutive steps. At the first step, color-based foreground segmentation is performed and areas of similar color as the target region are masked. The second step involves localizing the ROI through minimization of estimated vectors, using horizontal and vertical summing projections of the segmented image, or with heuristics based on size, shape, position, aspect ratio and color consistency of the target region. The final stage is refining and smoothing the region boundaries.
Hager et al. (xe2x80x9cEfficient Region Tracking with Parametric Models of Geometry and Illuminationxe2x80x9d, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 20, No. 10, Oct. 1998) makes use of linear models to simplify the optical flow equation, and a set of basis vectors to model the variation in illumination by performing singular value decomposition on a training sequence of the target. Kruger et al (xe2x80x9cWavelet Subspace Method for Real-time Face Trackingxe2x80x9d, Proc. Pattern Recognition, 23th DAGM Symposium, Munich, Germany 2002) uses a larger number of wavelet functions to construct a wavelet network representing the features of the target, and then tracks the ROI based on the Euclidean distance between the wavelet coefficients.
Kundu (U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,192) discloses a method for matching blocks in a sequence of images based on textures, dominant edge pixels as well as intensity and color. Ponticos (U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,067) discloses a method where a xe2x80x9cpotential wellxe2x80x9d is used for preventing large movements of the foreground object using predefined criteria for classifying image regions. Poggio et al (U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,463) discloses a method for searching objects in images where the search system must be trained using a wavelet coefficient template.
The major disadvantage of the prior art methods is computational complexity. Moreover, some of them require the tracking algorithm to be trained for ROI of the same type, color or shape.
Thus, it is advantageous and desirable to provide a method and device for arbitrary shape and type ROI tracking with a low computation complexity and memory cost suitable for Motion JPEG 2000 codecs.
It is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a method and device for tracking at least a portion of an object in a sequence of images, wherein the images are coded as individual images and no template and pre-trained objects are required for tracking. The objective can be achieved by combining boundary detection in the low-frequency band by pixel matching in the chrominance space and refinement of the detected boundary in the high-frequency band by edge analysis using the luminance component.
Thus, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of tracking a target region in an image frame based on a target region of a previous image frame in a sequence of image frames, each of said sequence of image frames comprising a plurality of pixels. The method is characterized by
determining a search area in said image frame based on at least a part of the target region in said previous frame, said search area comprising a plurality of first pixels, each pixel having at least one corresponding first pixel value; and
for the first pixels in the search area:
determining a further search area in said previous frame, said further search area including a plurality of second pixels among the plurality of pixels in the previous frames, each second pixel having at least one corresponding second pixel value and a region status;
finding a match between the first pixel value of said first pixels among the second pixel values for locating a reference second pixel; and determining the region status of at least one of said first pixels based on the region status of the reference second pixel for determining the target region in said image frame based on the region status of said at least one first pixel.
The region status of the second pixel is indicative of whether said second pixel is located within the target region in said previous frame.
Advantageously, said at least a part of the target region in the previous frame has a contour for defining a corresponding contour in said image frame, and the first pixels include pixels adjacent to the corresponding contour in said image frame.
Preferably, the first and second pixel values are indicative of at least one of the chrominance components of the wavelet coefficients in a low subband.
Advantageously, the target region of said image frame includes a boundary and said plurality of pixels in said image frame include a plurality of third pixels adjacent to the boundary, each third pixel having at least one corresponding third pixel value. The method is further characterized by
determining the edge-type of the third pixels so as to modify the target region in said image frame based on the edge-type of the third pixels.
Preferably, the third pixel values are indicative of the luminance component of wavelet coefficients in a high subband.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program for use in an image coder having means for coding a sequence of image frames into a codestream, said sequence of image frames having at least one first image frame and a preceding second image frame, each of the first and second image frames having a plurality of pixels, wherein the second image frame has a target region. The computer program is characterized by
a code for defining a search area in the first image frame based on at least a part of the target region in the second image frame, said search area comprising a plurality of first pixels, each pixel having at least one corresponding first pixel value; and
a code for determining, for the first pixels in the search area:
a further search area in the second image frame, said further search area including a plurality of second pixels among the plurality of pixels of the second image frame, each of the second pixels having at least one corresponding second pixel value and a region status;
a reference second pixel in said further search area based on a match between the first pixel value of said first pixels among the second pixel values; and the region status of at least one of said first pixels based on the region status of the reference second pixel for determining a target region in the first image frame based on the region status of said at least one first pixel.
The region status of the second pixel is indicative of whether said second pixel is located within the target region in the second image frame.
Preferably, the first and second pixel values are indicative of at least one of the chrominance components of wavelet coefficients in a low subband.
Advantageously, the target region of the first image frame includes a boundary and said plurality of pixels in the first image frame include a plurality of third pixels adjacent to the boundary, each third pixel having at least one corresponding third pixel value. The computer program is further characterized by
a code for determining the edge-type of the third pixels so as to modify the target region in the first image frame based on the edge-type of the third pixels.
Preferably, the third pixel values are indicative of the luminance component of wavelet coefficients in a high subband.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image encoder for coding a sequence of image frames comprising at least one first image frame and a preceding second image frame, each of the first and second image frames including a plurality of pixels, the second image frame having a target region, said image encoder having:
means for decomposing each of the image frames into a plurality of subband components; and
means for coding the subband components into a codestream. The image encoder is characterized by
a first algorithm, responsive to the subband components, for defining a search area in the first image frame based on at least a part of the target region in the second image frame, the search area including a plurality of first pixels, each having at least one corresponding first pixel value; and
a second algorithm, responsive to the first pixels, for determining:
a further search area in the second image frame including a plurality of second pixels among the plurality of pixels in the second image frame, each second pixel having at least one corresponding second pixel value and a region status;
a reference second pixel in the further search area based on a match
between the first pixel value of the first pixels among the second pixel values; and a region status of at least one of the first pixels based on the region status of the reference second pixel for determining a target region in the first image frame based on the region status of said at least one first pixel.
Advantageously, the image encoder is adapted to code said target region in the first image frame with higher visual quality than another region in said first image frame.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image coding system having an encoder for coding a sequence of image frames into a codestream, and a decoder for reconstructing the sequence of image frames based on the codestream, wherein the sequence of image frames comprising at least a first image frame and a preceding second image frame, each of the first and second image frames comprising a plurality of pixels, the second image frame having a target region, said image encoder having:
means for decomposing each of the image frames into a plurality of subband components; and
means for coding the subband components into the codestream. The image encoder is characterized by
a first algorithm, responsive to the subband components, for defining a search area in the first image frame based on at least a part of the target region in the second image frame, the search area including a plurality of first pixels, each having at least one corresponding first pixel value; and
a second algorithm, responsive to the first pixels, for determining:
a further search area in the second image frame including a plurality of second pixels among the plurality of pixels in the second image frame, each second pixel having at least one corresponding second pixel value and a region status;
a reference second pixel in the further search area based on a match
between the first pixel value of the first pixels among the second pixel values; and a region status of at least one of the first pixels based on the region status of the reference second pixel for determining a target region in the first image frame based on the region status of said at least one first pixel.
The present invention will become apparent upon reading the description taken in conjunction with FIGS. 1 to 5.

Region-of-interest tracking method and device for wavelet-based video coding


A herapathite has a capillary crystal form in which its iodine atoms are oriented in a major axis direction of the capillary crystal form. The herapathite obtained is expressed by a chemical formula, xC.sub.20 H.sub.24 N.sub.2 O.sub.2.yH.sub.2 SO.sub.4.zHI.sub.3, in which a ratio of a number of the sulfuric acid molecules (y) with respect to a number of the iodine atoms (3z), i.e., (y/3z), is less than 0.5. The production process includes a reaction step, a first separating step, a recrystallizing step and a second separating step. A solvent used in the recrystallizing step is at least one of water and alcohol. A mixing weight ratio of water with respect to alcohol of the solvent is more than 50/50 or less than 10/90. The herapathite does not degrade even after it is heated up to 130.degree. C., and it is applicable to an automobile light shielding glass which should show a high transparency when a voltage is applied thereto.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a herapathite which is utilized in a light controlling device such as an optical valve or the like, and to a process for producing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A clathrate compound which includes quinine and iodine and which is shown in FIG. 15 is called a herapathite. The herapathite has been known that it is useful in optical applications because of its polarizability of light. In the crystal of the herapathite, the iodine atoms are oriented as illustrated in FIG. 15. Hence, there arises a dipole in the orientation direction.
When the herapathite is made into capillary crystals, it is possible to construct a particles dispersion type display device. Namely, the capillary herapathite crystals are floated in an appropriate organic dispersion medium, and the thus obtained suspension is filled into a panel which has electrodes therein. When an electric field of a predetermined direction is applied to the panel, the herapathite crystals which have been floating in the organic dispersion medium are aligned in a predetermined direction because of their dipoles. When the application of the electric field is stopped, the herapathite crystals are disoriented and are mixed each other at random in the organic dispersion medium. Hence, the herapathite can be employed in a light controlling device such as an optical valve or the like by utilizing its characteristics above mentioned.
As for a process for producing the capillary herapathite crystals, there is a process which is disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication (KOKOKU) No. 20560/1973. As set forth in the publication, quinine or preferably quinine sulfate is dissolved into the aqueous solution of sulfuric acid and acetic acid in the presence of iron ions. Then, iodine and potassium iodide are added to the resulting solution to produced a clathrate compound. Thereafter, the thus precipitated crystals are filtered and dried to get the capillary herapathite crystals. The herapathite crystals obtained by this process have iodine atoms which are oriented in parallel with the minor axis of the crystals. This orientation of the iodine atoms result in a problem such as a slow responding speed when the herapathite crystals are applied to the light controlling device or the like.
Further, the herapathite crystals obtained by this process have the problems of the heat deterioration.
For example, one may think of employing the above-mentioned herapathite crystals for an automobile windshield glass so that a driver can control the light transmittance of the windshield glass. For this purpose, it is necessary to fill the herapathite crystals into the laminated glass in the process of producing an automobile windshield glass. However, it has been known that the herapathite crystals obtained by the above-described conventional production process are decomposed or degraded at a temperature of 110.degree. C. or more. Therefore, the herapathite crystals cannot be filled into the laminated glass which is processed to the automobile windshield glass at a high temperature of 130.degree. C. or more.

Heat resistant herapathite and process for producing the same


Methods and systems for removing perchiorate from water are disclosed which involve the use of a plurality of vessels containing an ion exchange resin having affinity for perchiorate ions, and in which perchiorate-contaminated water is passed over the resin in some but not all of the plurality of vessels operating in parallel to one another thereby removing perchlorate ion from the water stream and generating reduced perchlorate content product water streams and in which a subset of the plurality of vessels is removed from service, their resin is removed and replaced and they are returned to service.

The issue of perchlorate ion contamination of ground water has become a national concern. Perchlorate is a component of certain explosives and has been widely used as an oxidant in solid phase rocket fuels. With each such explosive discharge and each such solid fuel rocket launch amounts of unexpended perchlorate are released into the atmosphere. This perchlorate is extremely water soluble and thus readily enters the ground water. Facilities preparing these explosives and rocket fuels have also been significant sources of perchlorate release. The California Department of Health Services has set an action level for perchlorate ion in drinking water 18 ug/L, based upon the potential for perchlorate to inhibit the uptake of iodine by the thyroid gland.
This perchlorate-contamination problem is a relatively recently identified one and as such a number of competing technologies are under development to solve it.
One approach involves passing the contaminated stream through a bioreactor containing organisms capable of reducing perchlorate to chloride. Another involves the use of ion exchange to remove perchlorate. We have studied the latter approach and have found, as have others, that many ion exchange resins such as common polystyrene/SBA resins have a very high affinity for perchlorate ions. This high affinity, while attractive from the point of view of removing perchlorate from water flows, leads to the problem that it is very difficult to desorb the tightly bound perchlorate from the resin using conventional regeneration techniques such as treatment with concentrated brine. In fact, the amount of sodium chloride needed to regenerate a perchlorate-loaded ion exchange resin can be as much as several hundred pounds per cubic foot of resin. The second regeneration problem is that the spent regeneration brine itself becomes heavily contaminated with perchlorate and the idea of pumping this perchlorate-loaded brine down a disposal well is unattractive in view of the fact that the perchlorate load is likely to eventually reappear in the ground water.
This has led to processes in which the perchlorate ion load in the drinking water stream is adsorbed by ion exchange resin to saturation, the loaded resin is removed and disposed of, such as by burial as hazardous waste or incinerated to destroy its perchlorate content. These disposable resin perchlorate removal processes often function with pairs of beds operated in a "lead-lag" method. In a lead-lag process, the water stream is passed through two resin beds, in series, the first of the two resin beds, the "lead" bed, having a very high affinity for perchlorate, will initially remove virtually all of the perchlorate present in the water stream. The second bed in the series, the "lag" bed will have "nothing to do" during the initial stages of operation as the lead bed is doing such a good job of removing perchlorate. As time passes, the lead bed becomes loaded with perchlorate and gradually begins to loose effectiveness and begins to permit increasing levels of perchlorate to "break through". Fortunately, in this process, the lag bed is still fresh and it removes any perchlorate passing through the lead bed. This can continue for a period as the lead bed's capacity becomes essentially completely used up. At this point, the lead bed is taken out of service and a new "fresh" bed is introduced , in this case in series with the former "lag" bed which has now moved to a "lead" position.
In a commercial scale water treatment unit, there will typically be two or three "lead-lag" pairs of vessels, all of large (multi-thousand gallon) size and each capable of handling many hundreds of gallons of water flow per minute. This large size leads to the necessity of very substantial permanent installations with heavy foundations and the like. It also leads to the necessity of physically removing the large quantities of hazardous perchlorate-laden disposable resin from the large, permanently mounted vessels at the water treatment site.
We have pioneered the concept of using large numbers of small vessels containing small resin beds in combination with computer control in water treatment settings. We have applied this technology to the removal of nitrate, arsenate and perchlorate from drinking water, as used heretofore, we have operated these facilities under computer control to optimize the removal of ions from water supplies and especially to efficiently regenerate and rinse the resin beds.

Process for removing perchlorate ions from water streams


An upwind wind turbine includes a tilting coupling mechanism configured to couple base end portions of blades to a hub such that the blades can tilt between a normal position and a retracted position in which the blades are tilted in a downwind direction relative to the normal position. The upwind wind turbine also includes a tilting drive operating in association with the tilting coupling mechanism to switch the positions of the blades and a rotation stop to stop the rotation of the rotor. When the blades are switched to the retracted position, the rotation stop is actuated to stop the rotor in a predetermined rotational position in which the blades can tilt without interference with the tower, and the tilting drive is actuated to tilt the blades to the retracted position after stop of the rotation of the rotor.

Typically, a horizontal-axis wind turbine includes a tower extending vertically, a nacelle which is attached to the upper end portion of the tower such that the nacelle is horizontally rotatable, and a rotor which is rotatably mounted to the nacelle. The rotor includes a hub provided at a center portion thereof, and plural blades which are attached to the hub and are rotatable within a substantially vertical operation plane. The horizontal-axis wind turbine is classified into an upwind wind turbine including blades directed upwind during power generation and a downwind wind turbine including blades directed downwind during power generation.
A wind load applied to a wind turbine while a strong wind is blowing, for example, in a typhoon, is a main factor for determining strength of a structure of the wind turbine. A ratio of the wind load applied to the blades to the wind load applied to the wind turbine is particularly high. Therefore, by reducing the wind load applied to the blades, a wind pressure resistance of the wind turbine can be improved without increasing a cost to ensure strength of the structure. Various techniques have been proposed to reduce the wind load applied to the blades.
Patent document 1 discloses an upwind wind turbine. This wind turbine is placed in an upwind position in which all blades are directed upwind during power generation. When an anemometer detects a wind speed which is not lower than a cut-out wind speed, all of the blades are switched to be feathered and the rotor stops. Then, the nacelle yaws in a range of 75 to 110 degrees and all of the feathered blades are switched to be reversed. Then, the nacelle yaws and this wind turbine is placed in a downwind position in which all of the blades are directed downwind.
Patent document 2 discloses a downwind wind turbine. This wind turbine includes a blade tilting mechanism for adjusting tilting angles of the blades to tilt the blades in a downwind direction to reduce a blade passage area while a strong wind is blowing. This makes it possible to reduce the wind load applied to the blades without stopping a power generation operation of the wind turbine.
Patent document 3 discloses a downwind wind turbine. This wind turbine includes a blade tilting mechanism for adjusting tilting angles of blades to change tilting angles of the blades according to an average wind speed detected by an anemometer. This makes it possible to reduce the wind load applied to the blades without stopping a power generation operation of the wind turbine and to adjust a blade passage area to increase an output power of the wind turbine.    Patent document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2007-064062    Patent document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2004-108162    Patent document 3: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2004-108163

Upwind wind turbine and operation method thereof


A method for selecting test site locations on a substrate, by a) specifying a subset of all test site locations on the substrate, and b) selecting a desired number of candidate test site locations from within the subset of test site locations on the substrate. c) While selecting one of the candidate test site locations and holding all others of the candidate test site locations as fixed, determining a new location for the selected one of the candidate test site locations, which new location increases a test sensitivity, as estimated by a trace of a variance-covariance matrix. d) Repeating step (c) for each candidate test site location in the subset of test site locations, to produce a finalized set of candidate test site locations, until a desired end point is attained.

Measurements are made on substrates during semiconductor manufacturing in order to control the process. As the term is used herein, "integrated circuit" includes devices such as those formed on monolithic semiconducting substrates, such as those formed of group IV materials like silicon or germanium, or group III-V compounds like gallium arsenide, or mixtures of such materials. The term includes all types of devices formed, such as memory and logic, and all designs of such devices, such as MOS and bipolar. The term also comprehends applications such as flat panel displays, solar cells, and charge coupled devices.
Typically, a pattern of measurements across the substrate is selected that is expected to adequately represent the entire substrate with the minimum number of measurements. Since these measurements are generally made on test structures that are placed in the die scribe lines (the space between active dice) the pattern of the measurement is constrained by the way that the dice are placed on the substrate, and where in the scribe line the measurement structure is located. A minimum number of measurements are desired due to the high cost of measurements. The cost is driven by cycle time, equipment costs, throughput and other factors.
The pattern of measurements across the substrate is assumed to measure the non uniformity of a critical parameter such as film thickness, line width, and other critical dimensions. The hidden assumption is that the pattern across the substrate is relatively smoothly varying, or is detectable according to some other anticipated characteristic.
In practice, a desirable aspect of the substrate measurements is to detect the presence of a characteristic spatial pattern across the substrate that represents a shift in the process. Substrate processes can fail to be uniform in a number of different patterns that are often characteristic of the process or equipment being used. For example, a chemical mechanical planarization process may often deviate from uniformity in a doughnut or ring type of pattern. A photolithography process may deviate from uniformity in a checkerboard pattern, due to factors such as mask misalignment or ill-conditioned light exposure. Oxidation or other high-temperature processes can produce linear thickness gradients across the substrate or spots of thickness variation near boat contacts.
Once a process is established in manufacturing, the objective of taking measurements is often no longer to establish the uniformity of the process, but rather to detect variations from the normal uniformity. The nonuniformity is usually a limitation of the process equipment. The integration of a nonuniform process with a down stream nonuniform process can be beneficial for product yield because the nonuniformities can be controlled to compensate for each other. Early detection of certain patterns that indicate a process drift is valuable. Often the pattern will indicate the specific source of the drift.
Variations in integrated circuit processing on substrates frequently follow patterns across the substrate. Excessive variation can lead to device failure, lower yields, and reduced value of the substrate. In order to monitor and control processes variations, the typical practice in the industry is to reduce the measurement results to summary statistics, such as average and range (maximum value-minimum value). There values are in turn plotted on a statistical process control chart for monitoring and controlling process variation. Countermeasures are taken when these values vary outside of the normal distribution of data.
The problem with this approach is that when processes start to drift out of control, this method might not detect any characteristic pattern that might be dictated by the physical configuration of the process equipment. The measurement sample plan may or may not be sensitive to the changing pattern. In addition, the reduction of the measurement values to simple means and ranges can further reduce the ability to identify a failure or detect subtle patterns.
Statistical process control approaches have also been used to detect process variation, but are not sensitive to the emergence of a specific pattern that is known to signify pending process failure. If the statistical process control limits are set tighter, they may signal the failure, but at the expense of detecting other variations that are normal and do not signal a failure (a false positive).
In current practice, the selection of measurement patterns is heavily weighted towards minimizing the costs of taking the measurement. However, additional consideration should be given to the measurement strategy, if the selected sample plan can actually detect patterns of interest.
Different methods have been developed to compensate for this failure. For example, there is a variety of existing sample plans that are available from metrology tool manufacturers that attempt to capture patterns. However, these are fixed patterns that do not take in to account the die size or location. They are not optimized for specific patterns that are on the substrates.
Another method is user definable custom measurement patterns. Engineers can eyeball the pattern on a substrate with a larger number of measurements and estimate a plan for a reduced number of measurements that appears to represent the typical process pattern. While an informed engineering decision determining sample pattern can be effective, this is not a systematic approach and provides no figures of merit for different sample plans to make a decision with. No algorithms exist for selecting measurement locations.
Finally, increasing the number of measurements across the substrate in an effort to increase the probability of detecting spatial patterns of interest has also been attempted. However, increasing the number of measurements reduces the throughput of the equipment, and may mean that more equipment must be purchased and slows down process cycle times. This adds to the substrate cost.
What is needed, therefore, is a system of inspection site location determination and measurement analysis that overcomes problems such as those described above, at least in part.

Pattern detection for integrated circuit substrates

State of Oregon University Portland State


The invention relates to a self-destructing transdermal therapeutic system (TTS), preferably in the form of a transdermal patch, that includes an active ingredient, an agent rendering the active ingredient useless, and a perforation mechanism. The perforation mechanism allows a mobile phase to reach the agent that is capable of rendering the active ingredient useless after removing the TTS after use. The agent then comes into contact with the active ingredient and destroys the active ingredient in the presence of the mobile phase.

Transdermal administrations of the active ingredients buprenorphine and fentanyl are the drug forms of choice for the treatment of chronic pain in long-term therapy. The continuous delivery of such highly active analgesics via the skin provides a continuous supply of a constant dose of analgesic to a patient with pain, thereby preventing plasma peaks and plasma troughs. This has the advantage that, by virtue of a low but sufficient plasma concentration of the active ingredient, there is occurrence neither of side effects due to overdose nor of avoidable states of pain due to undersupply. The skilled worker is aware, for example, of the commercial products TRANSTEC®, but also DUROGESIC® or DUROGESIC SMAT®, which have proven useful in the therapy of pain for some considerable time.
The disadvantage of the TTS in the therapy of pain, however, is that in order to maintain the so-called concentration gradient and hence the therapeutically desired plasma level of the active ingredient throughout the period of administration of the TTS it is always necessary for the store quantity of active ingredient present in the TTS to be greater than that actually delivered to the patient. A consequence of this is that worn TTS constitute a potential for abuse by, for example, those involved in the drugs scene. These groups of persons are perfectly capable of collecting worn TTS and extracting them with the most primitive of means in order to obtain the residual active ingredient still present and to consume it abusively in order to appease their drug addiction.
In the past, therefore, there has been no lack of attempts to prevent this unregulated misuse by advising patients to shred worn patches and then put them down the toilet into the sewerage system. A disadvantage of this method is that neither legislators nor drug manufacturers are able to guarantee that this recommendation is also reliably followed by the patients; moreover, mass disposal through the sewerage system constitutes an environmental problem which should not be underestimated.
Consequently, TTS were developed which as well as the active ingredient also contained an antagonist (e.g., WO 2004/098576 whose United States equivalent is U.S. Pat. No. 7,182,955; WO 90/04965 and WO 2004/037259 whose United States equivalent is United States Publication No. 2005/214223). The intention was to prevent, or at least significantly hinder, the above-described obtaining or abusive extraction of the active analgesic ingredient from used TTS. These protective measures, however, proved not to be enough to prevent medicament abuse, since it continues to be the case that the active ingredient itself can be separated from the antagonist by relatively simple means, by fractional precipitation.
WO 2007/137732 describes a TTS which in addition to an active ingredient further comprises an agent which is separate from the active ingredient, and which makes the active ingredient useless, in a solution. Additionally present to this end is a means which, following use of the TTS, allows the agent, therefore, to enter into contact with the active ingredient and make it useless. The disadvantage of this otherwise ideal solution, however, is that the agent in solution, on account of its high reactivity, restricts the shelf life, and that, in some cases, the risk exists of damage by liquid leakage in the course of transit as well.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Self-destructing transdermal therapeutic system having improved functionality and efficacy


A device for color-fixing processing on textiles includes a supercritical carbon dioxide fluid unit, a fixing liquid storage tank (2) and a fixing reactor (9). The fixing liquid storage tank (2) is below the fixing reactor (9) and sealed connected by a connecting device (6). The fixing liquid storage tank (2) has a cylindrical cavity in which a fluid distributor (4) is mounted. The fluid distributor (4) is composed of several interconnected pipes which bend down with the nozzles downward, and one of the pipes is used as circulated fluid inlet (1) connected with the supercritical carbon dioxide fluid unit, and the rest of the pipes are used as circulated fluid outlets.

The technology of dyeing in supercritical carbon dioxide fluid has significant characteristics of clean production, such as ecology, environmental protection, energy conservation and emissions reduction, and it is of great importance for changing present situation of high pollution and energy-intensive in the traditional textile printing and dyeing industry. At present, the hydrophobic synthetic fibres such as polyester can obtain a good dyeing effect with disperse dyes in supercritical carbon dioxide fluid. The technology has gradually developed from small sample studied in the laboratory to application of pilot trials, and some commercial samples or products have come onto market (referring to the publications: Pilot trials of supercritical CO2 dyeing of polyester fabric [J]. Dyeing and finishing, 2013 (10):49-53; DyeCoo Textile System B.V., Nike, Inc. announces strategic partnership to scale waterless dyeing technology. Available from: www.dyecoo.com/pdfs/press-release-nike.pdf, 2012).
However, it's much more complex and difficult to dye and fix with the hydrophilic natural fibers in supercritical carbon dioxide fluid. At present, it is generally believed that it's one of the feasible and effective ways to realize natural-fibre textiles dyeing in supercritical carbon dioxide fluid with disperse reactive dyes which are structure-optimized (referring to the publications: Dyeing of cotton fabric with a reactive disperse dye in supercritical carbon dioxide, The journal of supercritical fluids, 2012, 69: 13-20; Solubility of a reactive disperse dye in supercritical carbon dioxide, Coloration technology, 2012, 128: 127-132). One of the difficulties is how to achieve the reaction of dyes and fibres in the weak acidic medium of supercritical carbon dioxide fluid, and reduce the processing conditions while maintaining high fixation efficiency.
Therefor, the research of unit device and process about textile fixing in supercritical carbon dioxide fluid, especially for natural-fibre textiles, has very important significance and a broad market prospect as it facilitates the process of textiles anhydrous dyeing and fixing, and achieves the clean production of enterprises of textile printing and dyeing thoroughly.

Method for colour-fixing processing of textile and device therefor


A vertical array antenna is disclosed. The antenna includes a housing configured to be positioned above a ground plane and a plurality of antenna elements. Each antenna element produces an individual beam pattern. The antenna elements are attached to the housing at different distances from the location of the ground plane such that the amplitudes of the individual beam patterns of the respective antenna elements have local maxima at a common angle and frequency when the housing is positioned above the ground plane.

1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to antennas and, in particular, to vertical array antennas having a ground plane.
2. Description of the Related Art
Maintaining a communication link between a satellite in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and a communication station on the ground is a challenge as the satellite flies by at roughly 17,000 miles per hour. The satellite's communication antenna must be able to either steer the communication beam or have a very broad beam pattern. Some satellites, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, incorporate a physically steerable parabolic dish that can track the ground station. Another type of steerable antenna, referred to as a "phased array", uses multiple fixed antennas and adjusts the timing of the signals from each antenna to steer the beam. Some satellites frequently use a single fixed antenna designed to provide a broad beam. As the majority of the Earth's surface visible from a LEO satellite is at a significant angle to the nadir axis, it is desirable for the satellite antenna to have good coverage at angles of 30-80 degrees from the nadir axis. A null spot in the beam pattern directly on the nadir axis is sometimes acceptable as the amount of ground coverage lost is a very small part of the total contact area.
Antenna size and complexity are also important factors in satellite design. Particularly for small satellites, there may be height or width limits on the size of the antenna to avoid interference with adjacent antennas or to fit inside the launch vehicle fairing. The number of elements of an antenna also drives cost and weight both directly and indirectly, as larger numbers of elements require larger and stronger supporting structure. Minimizing the volume and complexity of an antenna, and thus the number and the size of the elements, is desirable.
Designing an antenna with multiple elements enables the designer to shape the beam and achieve a higher gain than possible with a single radiative element. One design approach is to stack multiple antenna elements in a vertical array. The spacing between elements is limited on the low end by mutual coupling effects, and is limited on the high end by the creation of interfering secondary lobes as the spacing approaches one wavelength. A "rule of thumb" that balances these factors is to use a half-wavelength for the inter-element spacing in vertical arrays.


A protective switching device is disclosed for monitoring the electrical current flow to an electrical user, including a switching functionality, an excess current triggering functionality and a short circuit triggering functionality. In at least one embodiment, the protective switching device includes a first microcontroller with a first input signal filter, wherein the first microcontroller is configured for monitoring the excess current triggering functionality and wherein a second microcontroller is provided with a second input signal filter that is configured for monitoring the short circuit triggering functionality, wherein the two input signal filters are designed differently, and wherein the switching functionality is provided in one of the two microcontrollers. A method is further disclosed for monitoring the electrical current flow to an electrical user by way of a protective switching device.

Protective switching devices for monitoring the electrical current flow to an electrical load are, for example, multi-functional low-voltage switching devices within the meaning of standard EN 60947-6-2 and power switches with electronic excess current protection within the meaning of standard EN 60947-2. These are coordinated with what is referred to as a setting current (IE). This should match the rated current (IN) of the electrical load. If the current that is actually flowing exceeds the setting current a trigger signal is transmitted according to duration and flowed current. The protective switching devices either disconnect the downstream load from the supply on the occurrence of such an overload or forward the occurrence to a high-order unit. The limit values of the signal are usually detected via a trigger characteristic curve, see FIG. 1.
Three different scenarios will be considered in this case. If the current that is actually flowing exceeds the setting current (IE) by a relatively small amount, then, depending on the specific values thereof, the current is allowed to continue to flow for a while. A first region I of the characteristic curve according to FIG. 1 is used as a limit value for triggering. A protective device of this type may also be taken to mean an excess current protective device and is normatively identified as a "dependently delayed excess current trigger" to standards EN 60947-6-2 (section 126.96.36.199.2) and EN 60947-1 (section 2.4.24). This dependently delayed excess current triggering is generally used to protect users of electrical power from thermal damage.
If the current exceeds the setting current (IE) by a lot the load must be disconnected from the mains as quickly as possible. A second region II of the characteristic curve according to FIG. 1 is used as a limit value for triggering. The protective device then operates as short circuit protection and is normatively identified as an "undelayed short circuit trigger" to standards EN 60947-6-2 (section 22.214.171.124.1) and EN 60947-1 (section 2.4.26).
Owing to the need for self-protection a third region II may be defined in the transition region between short circuit protection and excess current protection in electronic protective devices, see FIG. 1. This can either be taken to mean an "independently delayed short circuit trigger" to standard EN 60947-6-2 (section 184.108.40.206.2) or an "independently delayed overload trigger" to standards EN 60947-1 (section 2.4.26) and EN 60947-1 (section 2.4.24).
Numerous advantages result if microcontrollers are used in novel electronic devices. Therefore various types of device within a connected family may be implemented using firmware variants without the hardware-side vertical range of manufacture becoming too great. With the aid of the controller it is possible to inexpensively integrate numerous special functions, the protective switching devices can be constructed so as to be adjusted more effectively and to react more accurately to the measured parameters. Furthermore, a gradual improvement in the protective switching devices is often possible without cost-intensive changes in hardware, such as what is known as a relayout, changes to tools, or the like.
However, with such protective switching devices there is the problem of an undelayed short circuit trigger and a dependently delayed excess current trigger making demands of a quite different nature.
The dependently delayed excess current trigger, also called an overload trigger, must therefore be capable of processing a corresponding I2t trigger limit according to the characteristic curve in FIG. 1. After the overload trigger has been triggered it may be activated after expiration of the restoration readiness period. The consequence of all this is that the overload trigger has to detect and evaluate current-time dependencies and periods. Brief cutoffs in the meantime must also take account of the thermal pre-stresses of the load. An advantage of this function is that the relatively large amount of time available can be seen, i.e. overload triggering is not time-critical.
As a rule the short circuit trigger does not have to detect current-time dependencies and periods. Short circuits with very low residual impedances, what are known as hard short circuits, must be detected and evaluated as quickly as possible, however. The load must be disconnected from the mains as quickly as possible in this case in order, as far as possible, to avoid consequential damages and to protect the trigger itself, what is known as self-protection. Normatively the respective rated breaking capacity of the protective switching devices is referred to which the, in part briefly very high, energy densities must withstand. The arc that is produced in the process is consumed in the arcing chambers.
This contrast between short circuit triggering and overload triggering results in quite different demands, so processing in joint groups will always be linked with compromises. A signal input filter therefore has to satisfy both demands. The resolutions required of an analog-digital converter that is used are high as an additional measuring range of the current has to be covered.
Conventional excess current protective devices contain a bimetal through which the current of the load flows. This current heats the bimetal as a function of the current intensity and duration:δQ=12R*t
Alternatively the bimetal can also be heated by indirect heating from adjacent conductors. The different coefficients of thermal expansion of the materials in the bimetal bend the bimetal and provide a message for further processing or trigger a corresponding occurrence.
A trigger that works magnetically is used in conventional devices for the fast short circuit detection mentioned above. If the current increases then the magnetic field in a coil designed for this purpose increases. Owing to the electromagnetic forces this leads, above a certain limit value, to a movement of an armature or needle in the core of the coil. This armature conventionally triggers at a switch latch in the case of a short circuit occurrence and then causes the switch latch to unlatch or be released. In general it may therefore be said that different electromechanical components are used in conventional devices, even if both functions—overload and short circuit triggering—are present. This solution is space-intensive and expensive.
Novel devices work electronically with the aid of a microcontroller. In this case the signal characteristics of the currents of the load or the voltage characteristics are digitally sampled. This time-quantized signal is stored in discrete values. An analog-digital conversion takes place here. It is therefore possible to depict the signal characteristics more accurately and to store various characteristic curves or characteristics in the devices. Different execution algorithms result from the different demands of short circuit triggering and overload triggering. The demands on the corresponding microprocessor are correspondingly high. Mixed forms are also conceivable in which one function is conventionally implemented and the other one is electronically implemented.

Protective switching device for monitoring the electrical current flow to an electrical user and method for monitoring the electrical current flow to an electrical user by way of a protective switching device


The present invention provides a hydrogen-generating apparatus in which the reduction in reforming efficiency associated with an increase in switching frequency to the regeneration reaction can be suppressed, and generation of hydrogen by reforming can stably be performed. In the reforming reaction, a cathode offgas discharged from a hydrogen-separation-membrane fuel cell 30 having a hydrogen-permeating film is supplied to PSR reformers 10 and 20, in which the reforming reaction and the regeneration reaction are performed alternately.

Conventional electric vehicles carry a fuel cell as a power supply for driving a vehicle and a fuel, which is hydrogen or a raw fuel for generating hydrogen, to operate the fuel cell to generate electricity.
When hydrogen itself is loaded on a vehicle, the hydrogen gas is compressed and charged into a high-pressure cylinder, or liquefied to be filled in a tank, or loaded on a vehicle by using a hydrogen-absorbing alloy or a hydrogen-adsorbing material. However, the high-pressure container has a relatively small capacity, resulting in a smaller hydrogen charging amount, even though it requires a greater wall thickness. A liquefying charging method using liquefied hydrogen is inevitably accompanied with vaporization loss, and demands greater energy for liquefaction of the hydrogen gas. The hydrogen-absorbing alloy or hydrogen adsorbing material does not have a sufficiently high hydrogen-storing density necessary for electric vehicles and the like, and control of absorption and/or adsorption of hydrogen is also difficult. Although it is also possible to use a method of obtaining hydrogen by steam-reforming a raw fuel, the reforming reaction is an endothermic reaction, and therefore, additional heat source is required. Accordingly, it is not possible to improve the overall energy efficiency in a system employing an electric heater or the like as a heat source. Thus, it is necessary that a quantity of hydrogen can be stably secured under various environmental conditions.
A method of supplying hydrogen is yet to be technically established, and it is desired that such a hydrogen-supplying method be established, in light of the expected increase in utilization of hydrogen in various apparatuses in the future.
As technology relevant to the above, a fuel cell system having a reforming apparatus in which a steam-reforming reaction for a fuel by using a catalyst, which is an endothermic reaction, and a regeneration reaction of recovering the temperature of the catalyst reduced by the steam-reforming reaction, are alternatively switched therebetween has been proposed (e.g., see U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004-175326).
Other methods have been disclosed in connection with this technology (e.g., see U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2003-235529, 2004-170558, and 2004-170559). In addition, a fuel cell using a hydrogen-permeable material has also been disclosed as an example of a fuel cell generating power in high temperature regions (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-146337).

Hydrogen-generating apparatus and fuel cell system


An improved vacuum absorption device for use in a glass sheet edge chamfering apparatus is disclosed which is characterized in that rubber plates are installed on the tops of the absorption devices to absorption-secure glass sheets, thereby assuring that the introduction of foreign materials into the absorption device can be prevented, and the horizontal posture of the glass can be maintained through the adjustments of the heights of the absorption devices.

Generally, as shown in FIG. 1, the conventional glass sheet chamfering apparatus which includes vacuum absorption devices is constituted such that a rotary table 3 is installed by securing a vertical pole 2 on the top of a body 1 in which an absorption pump is accommodated; a plurality of absorption devices 5 are installed on the rotary table 3 in such a manner that they should communicate with the absorption pump; a glass sheet 6 to be chamfered is mounted on the tops of the absorption devices 5 before the absorption pump is activated to vacuum-absorb the glass sheet 6; and a diamond wheel 4 which is disposed at a side of the body 1 is adjusted to the required bevel angle so that the glass sheet 6 can be ground. As shown in FIG. 2A, an O-ring 16 is secured on the top of a cylindrical body 10' of the absorption device 5 conventionally, and then, the glass sheet 6 is mounted on the O-ring in such a manner that the inside of the O-ring should be sealed off with respect to the outside, thereafter the absorption pump being activated to absorption-secure the glass sheet.
When such an absorption device 5 is used for a long time, the O-ring 16 is worn out or contracted due to the continuous contact of the O-ring 16 with the glass sheet 6, with the result that small gaps are generated between the O-ring 16 and the glass sheet 6. In turn, this brings the consequence that glass powders and diamond wheel powders produced during the chamfering are introduced into the cooling fluid to be absorbed into the absorption pump, with the result that the cylinder is worn off or corroded. This again brings the result that the performance of the pump is deteriorated or the life expectancy of the pump is shortened. Further, the horizontal posture of the glass sheet is distorted, and the edge of the glass sheet is chamfered with an irregular form, thereby degrading the commerical merit of the products. Still further, in the case where a glass sheet having a size smaller than the extent of disposition of the absorption devices on the rotary table is to be chamfered, the suction holes 10' a of the cylindrical body 10' of some of the absorption devices 5 are open, so that they have to be closed with separate closures.
In order to overcome these problems, a measure have been attempted recently as described below. That is, as shown in FIG. 2B, an actuation rod 17 having a diameter smaller than that of the suction hole 10' a and provided with an internal packing 19 is installed by means of a spring within the interior of the cylindrical body 10' of the absorption device 5, in such a manner that the leading end of the actuation rod should be located higher than the O-ring 16. Thus, the packing 19 is let to close the suction hole 10' a through the elastic force of the spring 18, while, upon mounting of the glass sheet 6, the actuation rod 17 is lowered due to the gravity of the glass sheet, and at the same time, the glass sheet 6 is adhered on the O-ring 16.
However, in this method also, the suction hole 10' a is open throughout the chamfering process, and therefore, the introduction of the foreign materials can not be absolutely prevented.

Vacuum absorption device for use in glass sheet chamfering apparatus

305-1109 Jugong Apt. 670 Daichi-Dong, Kangnam-Ku


Illustrative embodiments of automated sample workcells and methods of operation are disclosed. The methods may include receiving a first plurality of samples, each of the first plurality of samples being linked to a requested analysis selected from among a plurality of analysis types; assigning at least one centrifugation parameter to each of the first plurality of samples in response to the requested analysis linked to that sample; loading a second plurality of samples into a centrifuge, the second plurality of samples being selected from among the first plurality of samples and comprising samples that have been assigned at least two different centrifugation parameters; determining a centrifugation parameter of highest centrifugation intensity from among the at least two different centrifugation parameters assigned to samples in the second plurality of samples; and centrifuging the second plurality of samples according to a centrifugation protocol comprising the centrifugation parameter of highest centrifugation intensity.

In analytical laboratories and, in particular, clinical laboratories, a multitude of analyses on biological samples are executed in order to determine physiological and biochemical states of patients, which may be indicative of disease, nutrition habits, drug effectiveness, or organ function.
Biological samples used in those analyses may comprise a number of different biological fluids, including, but not limited to, blood, urine, cerebral-spinal fluid, saliva, etcetera. These original biological samples may be processed prior to the analysis. Often the samples are collected in vials which already contain additional substances (e.g., citrate buffer, EDTA buffer, and/or fluids forming a barrier during centrifugation).
Before an analysis can actually be carried out on a biological sample, it is usually necessary to perform a set of pre-analytical steps on the sample. These pre-analytical steps may include, for example, unloading a sample from a sample input station, diluting or concentrating the sample, capping or de-capping the sample, aliquoting the sample, supplementing the sample with various buffers, media and substances, or centrifuging the sample or an aliquot thereof to separate sample constituents. For safety reasons, as well as for reasons of analytical quality, reproducibly, and efficiency, a growing number of such pre-analytical steps and procedures are executed automatically by automated sample workcell systems, also known as "automated pre-analytical systems."
PCT International Publication No. WO 2017/018897 describes a method for processing chemistry and coagulation tests automatically in a laboratory workcell system comprising multiple analyzers and a centrifuge. For the centrifuge, a current centrifuge operation protocol is established. Patient samples are classified at the input station of an automated clinical workcell system and treated differently according to their pre-analysis centrifuging requirements. If a sample has centrifuging requirements which match the currently established centrifuge operating protocol, the sample is loaded into the centrifuge, centrifuged according to the established centrifuge operating protocol, and then forwarded to an appropriate analyzer. If a sample does not have centrifuging requirements which match the currently established centrifuge operating protocol, the sample is retained at the input station until the centrifuge operating protocol is changed appropriately. After the change of the centrifuge operating protocol is completed, the sample is loaded into the centrifuge and centrifuged according to the new operating protocol. According to the disclosed method, only samples requiring the same centrifugation protocol can be centrifuged at the same time in the centrifuge.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2015/0037503 describes a method for automatically operating a sample handling system to conduct assays on a number of patient samples by comparing the assays to be conducted with a set of defined assay rules. A set of analyzers that are part of the sample handling system are subdivided into analyzers that are in compliance with the defined assay rules and analyzers that not in compliance with the set of defined assay rules. If necessary, at least one analyzer is brought into compliance with defined assay rules of an assay to be conducted on a set of patient samples. The patient samples are then supplied to the analyzer being in compliance with defined assay rules.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,718 describes a system and method for operating one or multiple centrifuges using a protocol record database. The user can search the database for the centrifugation protocol necessary for a particular specimen or type of separation desired.
While the foregoing systems and methods have increased the degree of automation of sample handling workflows, several aspects of processing samples are still not flexible enough for many tasks of clinical diagnostics, including the simultaneous centrifugation of samples requiring different centrifugation protocols. As a consequence, centrifugation times of current pre-analytical systems are too long, the sample turnaround numbers are too low, and/or a multitude of centrifuges are necessary to guarantee fast processing of samples requiring different centrifugation protocols by using multiple centrifuges in parallel, which significantly increases the cost of pre-analytical systems.

Automated sample workcell and method of operation


A trusted data store is provided for use with a trusted element of a trusted operating system on a computing machine. In the trusted data store, a storage medium stores data in a pre-determined arrangement, where the data includes trusted data from the trusted element of the trusted operating system on the computing machine. An access controller writes data to and reads data from the storage medium, and a trust controller is interposed between the computing machine and the access controller. The trust controller allows only the trusted element to perform operations on the trusted data thereof on the storage medium.

In at least some circumstances it is desirable to have in a computing machine both a main operating system that controls most processes and devices on the machine, and also a limited-purpose operating system along with the main operating system to perform certain limited tasks, perhaps on behalf of the main operating system. For example, it may be desirable to have as the limited-purpose operating system a trusted operating system that can be trusted to perform certain functions, perhaps on behalf of the main operating system and perhaps with the aid of certain functionality provided by the main operating system.
Such a trusted operating system may be a high-assurance operating system or 'nexus' that is intended to provide a high level of assurance as to the behavior thereof. For example, a nexus might be employed to work with confidential or secret information such as cryptographic keys or other sensitive data that should not be disclosed or divulged externally.
As may be appreciated, such a nexus operates in general by employing restricted memory that cannot be viewed externally from the nexus, and may permit only certain applications to execute under the nexus and to access the restricted memory. Fundamentally, the nexus is expected to behave properly and to provide the aforementioned high level of assurance, as opposed to the main operating system, which has no such expectation. Thus, the nexus should not interact with the main operating system in any way that would allow events happening at the main operating system to compromise the behavior of the nexus. In particular, no entity such as a computer virus, a nefarious trespasser, or the like should be able to interfere with the nexus by way of the main operating system.
Assuming the nexus does in fact behave properly and does in fact provide the aforementioned high level of assurance, it is to be appreciated that the nexus can at times be expected to store certain data generated or employed thereby in a data store external to such nexus, where the data store can be expected to be accessible to elements other than the nexus. For example, if the computing machine is a personal computer, the nexus can at times be expected to store certain nexus data in a hard drive, a memory card, or some other memory device for later retrieval. As may be appreciated, the data store is organized according to a file system which typically may be accessed by most any entity, interfering or otherwise. Accordingly, and also typically, such stored nexus data is in an encrypted form and therefore is not subject to being exposed to an interfering entity merely by being stored in the data store.
Nevertheless, an interfering hardware or software entity may still wreak havoc upon the encrypted stored nexus data in the data store merely by deleting or over-writing such data from such store, or in the case of a log file or the like to which data is periodically appended, by deleting or overwriting at least some of the appended data. Accordingly, a need exists for a method and mechanism for preventing an interfering entity from attacking stored nexus data in a data store by deleting or overwriting such data. More generally, a need exists for a method and mechanism for preventing the data store from honoring any command from an interfering entity with respect to stored nexus data therein. Even more generally, a need exists for a method and mechanism for preventing the data store from honoring any command from any entity other than the nexus with respect to stored nexus data therein.

Trusted data store for use in connection with trusted computer operating system