A micromechanical component has a structure such that a material flow is guided from at least one preferred direction for the purpose of uniformly enveloping the micromechanical component.

German patent application DE 195 37 814 A1 discusses the structure of a sensor-layer system and a method for hermetically packaging sensors in surface micromechanics. The manufacture of the sensor structure is based on available technological methods. Capping is accomplished using a separate silicon cap wafer which is structured using elaborate structuring processes such as KOH etching, for example. The sensor cap is applied to the sensor wafer on the wafer level using a glass solder. For this purpose, a wide bond frame is provided on the edge of each sensor chip to ensure adequate bonding and tightness of the cap.
According to the related art, the sensor element is mounted on a lead frame, contacted using gold wires and sheathed using a known injection molding method. In sheathing, the molding compound, liquid plastic for example, flows from the sprue into a hollow mold containing the element to be sheathed.
The thickness and shape of the sensor prove to be disadvantageous in sheathing. This results in an uneven flow and consequently an irregular filling of the cavity above and below the sensor element and to turbulence of the molding compound behind the sensor. These effects may cause undesirable gas bubbles to be enclosed in the molding compound. V. Motta et al. discussed this effect in Micromachining and Microfabrication Process Technology VI, Proceedings of SPIE vol. 4174 (2000) pp. 377-387.
An object was to find a possibility for avoiding air inclusions and turbulence of the molding compound behind the sensor.


A magnetic drum separator for the separation of ferrous and non-ferrous materials from a material stream that comprises an outer shell that is rotatable by a drive mechanism. The outer shell has a tubular length, a circular cross-section, a traction plate is joined to the outer shell, the traction plate has a traction element. In another embodiment the outer shell has a tubular length, a circular cross-section, and a integral traction element. The traction elements could be a series of negative indentations, raised bumps, perforations, serrated teeth, protruding ridges, segmented protruding ridges, minor cleats, or segmented minor cleats.

Magnetic drum separators are used to sort shredded scrap material streams that comprise various combinations of ferrous material and non-ferrous materials (including non-metals, sometimes known as organic material or fluff, and non-magnetic metals) by extracting the ferrous material from the material stream. Sometimes during this sorting process non-ferrous materials will get stuck to or bound up with the ferrous material while in the material stream and remain with the ferrous material, even after the magnetic drum separator has tried to separate the material stream. This reduces the efficiency of downstream process and subsequently creates a negative economic impact on the resale value of the ferrous material. Ultimately, such a negative economic impact may actually reduce the overall value of the entire plant sorting ferrous and non-ferrous materials. What is presented are devices for agitating the sorted non-ferrous materials to reduce entrapment (i.e. the amount of non-ferrous scrap bound up with the ferrous material) after sorting.

Magnetic drum separator with an outer shell having traction elements


This invention relates to iron-base alloy compositions, nickel containing austenitic ferrous alloy compositions (especially low nickel compositions) and dopants added to low nickel austenitic alloys as a means of improving the elevated temperature oxidation resistance of the resultant material.

This invention relates to iron-base alloy compositions and methods for preparing these compositions. In a preferred embodiment, the compositions and methods relate to nickel containing austenitic ferrous alloy compositions, especially low nickel compositions. In a more preferred aspect, this invention relates to dopants added to low nickel austenitic alloys as a means of improving the elevated temperature oxidation resistance. This invention may be extended to apply to cast alloys.
Low nickel ferrous alloys containing chromium and having nickel present in amounts of about 5 to 15 percent by weight and having manganese, nitrogen and carbon present to aid in forming and stabilizing any austenite present are known.
Compared to traditional cast iron construction, sheet metal automotive exhaust system parts would offer the advantages of both lighter weight and reduced thermal mass. To maximize these advantages, the metal thickness of wrought automotive engine parts such as thermal reactors and turbocharger housings, should be minimized. This can be accomplished by constructing the engine parts from stainless steels, austenitic where hot strength is required, and with alloying suitable for resistance to deterioration by engine exhaust gases on the inside surface of the engine parts and atmospheric air on the outside surface of the engine parts where the surface operating temperature is at a maximum. Such a construction is not cost effective because the resistance to oxidation of the lower cost stainless steel sheet metal alloys at elevated temperatures of 1,500 degrees F to 2,200 degrees F is not sufficient to allow their use in applications where the alloy is exposed to the combustion products normally formed by gasoline fueled internal combustion engines. Because the presently available low-cost alloys do not resist oxidation in elevated temperature combustion environments, it is necessary to use a more expensive alloy with a higher nickel and/or chromium content in automotive emission control devices such as thermal reactors. Therefore, the limitation to using currently available, adequate alloy content stainless steels is the high cost and excessive strategic element content.
Degradation of alloy materials, such as stainless steels, at elevated temperatures is largely dependent on the protective capacity of surface oxide films formed from the alloy during exposure to heat in oxygen containing atmospheres. In one respect, this invention deals with an effective method of improving the protective capacity of oxide scales formed on alloy materials such as low nickel austenitic stainless steels.
By way of summary, the compositions of the present invention relate to the discovery that certain elements can be added to iron-base alloy materials to dramatically improve their resistance to oxidation. More particularly, the invention relates to the discovery that the addition of these elements (referred to herein as "dopants") yields lower cost materials suitable for use in heretofore impractical environments. The compositions of the present invention comprise iron-base alloy compositions exhibiting improved resistance to oxidation comprising:
(i)iron;
(ii) at least one alloy element selected from the group consisting of nickel, chromium, molybdenum, manganese, silicon, carbon, vanadium, cobalt, copper, nitrogen, aluminum, titanium, zirconium, and mixtures thereof; and
(iii) an effective amount of a dopant selected from the group consisting of lithium, sodium, potassium, yttrium, lanthanum, cerium, calcium, magnesium, barium, aluminum, beryllium, strontium, and mixtures thereof.
The oxidation problems of the currently available alloy materials can be overcome by using alloy materials, such as low nickel austenitic (LNA) stainless steel alloys containing chromium and ferritic stainless steel alloys containing medium to high levels of chromium with the additions of an effective amount, preferably at least about 0.02, and more preferably about 0.1 to 2 percent by weight, of the dopants or doping elements or alloys disclosed herein. Alloy compositions of the present invention would be made in a conventional manner, i.e., typical of the alloy content without the dopant of the present invention, but with provision for the addition of dopant elements, in the melt process or later, in later alloy processing, or by surface treatment.
In the preferred alloys of the present invention, according to this invention, barium, calcium, lithium, lanthanum/cerium, magnesium, potassium and sodium or mixtures thereof are added to the alloy as dopants.
The methods disclosed herein involve the addition of small quantities of elements (appearing for the most part in Groups IA, IIA, and IIB of the Periodic Table of Elements) to the base alloy composition. These elements, as ions, enter into the protective oxide scale and modify predominantly anion and to a lesser extent cation transport through the oxide scale, greatly reducing the amount of oxidation observed due to elevated temperature exposure.
Research leading to this invention was based upon low nickel austenitic (LNA) compositions and was guided by extensive use of experimental design. Initially, a 28 run balanced orthogonal array fractional factorial scheme according to Plackett and Burman was employed as a screening method to identify main-effect influences on oxidation resistance of 26 constituents from the Periodic Table of Elements. For this work, reference was made to an article entitled "The Design Of Optimum Multifactorial Experiments" by R. L. Plackett and J. P. Burman (Biometrika, 1946, pages 305-327) which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference; an article entitled "Some Generalizations In The Multifactorial Design" by R. L. Plackett (Biometrika, 1946, pages 328-332) which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference; and to an article entitled "Table Of Percentage Points Of The T-Distribution" by Elizabeth M. Baldwin (Biometrika, 1946, page 362) which is also hereby expressly incorporated by reference. Selection criteria for elements to be considered included commercial availability in quantities sufficient to support volume alloy production, cost and subject reasoning as to the elements' ability to be a stable part of the alloy composition. Fitting these 26 constituents into the 28 run experimental design left 2 columns for random variation or error determination. The Table I lists these constituents by Periodic Table groupings. Note that La-Ce is considered as one constituent because these two elements co-exist as a commercial rare-earth product. Table II lists elements considered as part of the base composition and therefore not included in the oxidation improvement design scheme.
TABLE I ______________________________________ Periodic Table Group Constituent ______________________________________ IA Li, Na, K IIA Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba IIIA B, Al IVA Si, Sn VA Pb, Sb, Bi IB Cu IIB Zn IIIB Y, La--Ce IVB Ti, Zr VB V, Nb, Ta VIB Mo, W ______________________________________
TABLE II ______________________________________ Periodic Table Group Constituent ______________________________________ IVA C VA N VIB Cr VIIB Mn VIII Fe, Co, Ni ______________________________________
Elements associated with improvements in oxidation resistance, as determined by the Plackett-Burman experimental design, were then incorporated in full factorial experimental designs of the form 2.sup.3 to 2.sup.6 for identification of interactions and 3.sup.2 to 3.sup.3 for quantifying certain effects. The notation Y.sup.X refers to X factors evaluated at Y levels each for a total of Y.sup.X test runs. Similar notations and documentation of full factorial experimental designs and analysis can be found in the literature. For this work, reference was made to "Industrial Statistics" by W. Volk (Chemical Engineering, March 1956) which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference. Interactions in this context are those situations wherein the main effect between certain variables change as a function of changes in other variables.
In the course of this research, it was found that elements within the alloy functioned in three identifiable ways: Austenite Stabilizers, Oxide Formers and Oxide Dopants. Understanding of these functions is helpful in describing the alloys of this invention.
Austenite Stabilizers. Alloys of this invention are designed to maintain a stable austenitic matrix at use temperatures up to 2200 degrees F. Elements identified as promoting this austenite stability are Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, C, Sn, Sb, Bi and N. Throughout the course of this alloy development, it was necessary to periodically adjust the choice and quantity of austenite stabilizer elements to balance the counteracting effects of La-Ce, Ti, Zr, V, Cr, Al and Si as these elements were introduced or changed in concentration as part of the effort to determine their effect on oxidation resistance.
Oxide Formers. An object of this invention is to improve the protective nature of surface oxides formed during exposure to elevated temperatures and, therefore, a stable surface oxide is required. Elements identified as significant contributors to stable surface oxide formation on these iron base alloys are: Cr, Co, Ni, Al and Si. The elements Cr, Co and Ni were, individually or in combination, part of the base composition, Table II, and therefore not subject to evaluation during the fractional factorial phase of this investigation. Al and Si were incorporated into the initial experimental design (Table I) and were determined to contribute to improved oxidation resistance through interaction with dopant elements. This interaction is interpreted to be due to the contribution of Al and Si in formation of stable surface oxides.
Dopants. Dopants are elements found to have a major effect on the protective nature of the host oxide. Typically, they are found in groups IA, IIA and IIIB of the Periodic Table of Elements and include, without limitation, those described herein, as well as mixtures of these materials. Their function in improving oxidation resistance is judged to be due to their effect on predominantly anion and to a lesser extent cation transport through the surface oxide film.

Oxidation resistant iron base alloy compositions


There is provided an inkjet ink comprising a photo-acid generating agent which is capable of generating an acid as it is irradiated with light, a color component, and an acid-polymerizable compound which can be polymerized in the presence of an acid, wherein at least 40% of the acid-polymerizable solvent is a vinyl ether compound represented by the following general formula (1): R13—R14—(R13)p (wherein R13(s) is a group selected from the group consisting of a vinyl ether group, a group having a vinyl ether skeleton, an alkoxy group, substituted hydroxyl group and hydroxyl group wherein at least one of R13(s) is vinyl ether group or a group having a vinyl ether skeleton, R14 is a group comprising a substituted or unsubstituted cyclic skeleton and having a valence of (p+1), and p is a positive integer including zero).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an inkjet ink.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a situation where a fairly large number of copies of printed matter are required such as in the cases of local advertisement bill, enterprise handout and a postern of large scale, a printing machine utilizing a form plate has been conventionally employed for meeting such requirements. In recent years however, an on-demand printer which is capable of quickly coping with the diversification of needs and of minimizing stocks has been increasingly utilized in place of the aforementioned conventional printing machine. As for such an on-demand printer, an electrophotographic printer where a toner or a liquid toner is employed as well as an inkjet printer which is capable of achieving high-velocity and high-quality printing are expected to be useful.
As in the case of the printing machine utilizing a form plate, the on-demand printer employs a solvent type ink or a solvent type liquid toner both containing a pigment and an organic solvent. This technique of employing a solvent type ink or a solvent type liquid toner is however accompanied with the problem that the organic solvent volatilizes to such an extent that cannot be disregarded when the printing is repeated a certain number of times. Therefore, when this technique is employed, a problem of environmental contamination due to this volatilized organic solvent will be raised, thus necessitating the provision of an exhaust gas processing installation or a solvent recovery system.
On the other hand, in the case of the inkjet printer, since a solvent type ink can be handled in a closed system until the ink is discharged onto the surface of printing matter, it is possible, through the provision of suitable countermeasure for the exhaustion of solvent, to alleviate the aforementioned problem of environmental contamination. However, in different from the ink to be employed in the printing machine utilizing a form plate, the ink to be employed in the inkjet printer is required to have a suitable degree of fluidity for the delivery of ink. Therefore, the ink to be employed in the inkjet printer is required to be sufficiently high in the concentration of solvent, so that even with this technique, it is essentially difficult to overcome the problem of environmental contamination associated with the employment of the organic solvent.
Further, in the case of using a solvent type ink, the quality of printing is greatly influenced by the features of surface of printing matter. For example, if the surface of printing mater is permeable, bleeding is more likely to occur, and if the surface of printing mater is impermeable, it will become difficult to fix printed images. Moreover, since it will take a certain period of time in order to dry completely an ink layer that has been formed on the surface of printing matter, when an image is formed relatively thick on a large surface of printing matter, the image is more likely to collapse due to the fluidity of ink. Moreover, when the solvent type ink is employed, there is high possibility that the printed surface is deteriorated in the drying process of the ink layer. Thus, according to the aforementioned conventional techniques, it is not necessarily easy to obtain a printer matter with high qualities.
Incidentally, a photosensitive ink and a printer system employing the photosensitive ink are now taken notice of as a technique for coping with the aforementioned problem of solvent. The photosensitive ink to be employed this case typically comprises a radical polymeric monomer, a photopolymerization initiator and a pigment. Once this photosensitive ink is delivered onto a printing surface, it can be quickly photo-cured.
According to this technique, since the ink layer that has been formed on a printing surface can be non-fluidized by the irradiation of light, it is possible to obtain a printed matter which is relatively excellent in quality. However, this photosensitive ink includes a large amount of carcinogenic radical-generating agents such as a radical generating agent and still more, a volatile acrylic acid derivative to be employed as a radical polymeric monomer is highly stimulating to skin and badly smelling. Namely, it is necessary to take care in handling a photosensitive ink of this kind. Further, the radical polymerization is considerably obstructed by the presence of oxygen in air atmosphere and additionally, the light for exposure will be lost due to the absorption of light by the pigment included in the ink. As a result, underexposure may occur at a deep region of ink layer, so that the conventional radical polymeric ink is poor in sensitivity to light. Accordingly, in order to obtain a printed matter of high quality by using this conventional technique, it would become necessary to construct a large scale exposure system.
There has been proposed, as an ink which is relatively free from the influence of oxygen, a photosensitive ink which is cation photo-polymerizable. However, since the conventional ink of this type contains a solvent, the problem of the release of the solvent into environment cannot be overcome. Moreover, a cured layer is more likely to be further hardened, thus giving rise to the problem of clogging of the delivery head since this hardened layer is insoluble. Furthermore, there has been proposed a cation-cure type photosensitive composition which is adapted for inkjet delivery and can be employed for the coating of CD-ROM. The composition which has been found capable of performing the inkjet delivery mainly comprises vinyl ether and bisphenol A type epoxy, and hence there is still a serious problem associated with the release of these compounds to the environment.
There has been also proposed an inkjet ink having a specific composition including a cation-curable monomer. Since this ink also contains, as an essential component, a specific kind of vinyl ether compound which is high in volatility, there is the same problem as described above. Further, ordinary vinyl ether compounds are accompanied with the problem that when it is employed in combination with pigment, they become poor in polymerizability.
Additionally, there has been disclosed a photosensitive inkjet ink comprising a polyvalent vinyl ether compound and an alicyclic epoxy compound. The vinyl ethers disclosed are accompanied with various problems that they are poor in polymerizability, that the skeleton of bisphenol A exhibits its specific carcinogenic property, and that since the vinyl ethers are employed in combination with an alicyclic epoxy which is high in solubility and dark-reactivity, they are poor in shelf life and a printed matter to be obtained is not sufficiently resistive to a solvent.
In particular, when the printing surface is constituted by an absorptive medium, there will be raised the problem that the conventional acrylic photo-curable inkjet ink cannot be easily cured in the interior of the absorptive printing surface.
Incidentally, the conventional photo-cation-cure type inkjet ink is accompanied with the problem that the viscosity thereof can be greatly fluctuated. The reason for this can be attributed to the fact that once an acid generates due to changes with time of ink, the acid cannot be easily deactivated, thus giving rise to a great magnitude of dark reaction of ink. In the case of inkjet ink, when the viscosity thereof is caused to change, it will lead to the disturbance of the ejecting shape of ink, to poor reproducibility of printing, and in the worst case, to a critical condition such as defective delivery of ink and clogging of ink. Therefore, this problem is very serious.


A method and system for formulating and dispensing a chemical product to a dispense location is disclosed. The chemical product is formulated using one or more chemical concentrates. The chemical concentrates may be stored in concentrate containers and provided to a formulator by associated concentrate pumps. The concentrates are pulled from the containers through a manifold and to the formulator. The formulator discharges the chemical concentrates through a dispense hose having an outlet valve to the dispense location. The dispense location may be a jug or a drum. A flow meter connected between the formulator and the dispense hose. The flow meter monitors the component chemical concentrates flowing through the dispense hose and measures volumetric information associated with each component chemical concentrate. A flow controller analyzes the volumetric information generated by the flow meter and controls the volume of each component chemical concentrate dispensed to the dispense location.

The invention relates generally to dispensing a chemical product, and more particularly, to monitoring and controlling formulation of the chemical product.
Chemical products composed of various chemical concentrates may be used to clean or sanitize food and beverage production equipment and all associated environmental surfaces in plants that produce food and beverage products. To accomplish this, an on-site formulation system prepares a chemical product by combining one or more component chemical concentrates according to a specialized formula or plan. Conventional formulation systems typically formulate such chemical products from component chemical concentrates in response to instructions that are pre-stored locally on the formulation system.
Conventional formulation systems prepare chemical products using time-based methods to dispense component chemical concentrates to dispense locations wherein the component chemical concentrates combine at the dispense locations to form the chemical products. Such time-based methods for dispensing component chemical concentrates to dispense locations are indirect and may not provide proof of delivery of the component concentrates used to form the chemical products. As such, chemical products formulated by these chemical dispense systems may not be sold to clients on a true per-sale basis. Furthermore, time-based methods may yield inaccurate results if, for example, the supply of a particular component chemical concentrate is used up as the chemical product is being formed at the dispense location.
In accordance with the present invention, the above and other problems are solved by a flow-based chemical dispense system. Generally, the flow-based chemical dispense system formulates a chemical product using one or more component chemical concentrates. The component chemical concentrates are supplied from concentrate containers to a dispense hose having an outlet valve through which the concentrates are dispensed to the dispense location. The flow of component concentrates between the containers and the dispense hose is monitored by the flow-based chemical dispense system to measure volumetric information associated with each component chemical concentrate used to form the chemical product. The volumetric information is then used by the flow-based chemical dispense system to control formulation of the chemical product. The volumetric information is also analyzed and provided to authorized usersxe2x80x94operators and customersxe2x80x94such that the authorized users may monitor various aspects of system operation, such as, without limitation, proof of chemical concentrate delivery.
In accordance with an embodiment, the flow-based chemical dispense system includes a formulator, a fill station operably coupled to the formulator and a flow meter for monitoring flow of component chemical concentrates, i.e., chemical concentrates used to form a particular chemical product, to a dispense location. The dispense location may be either a point-of-use or a storage container, such as a jug situated in the fill station or a drum. In this embodiment, a dispense hose is coupled between the flow meter and the dispense location for direct discharge of the component chemical concentrates to the dispense location. The flow meter senses volumetric information associated with each component chemical concentrate dispensed through the dispense hose to form a specific chemical product.
In further accordance with this embodiment, the flow-based chemical dispense system includes a controller for analyzing the volumetric information sensed by the flow meter. Such an analysis may generate both chemical and account data related to the chemical product as well as each component chemical concentrate of the chemical product. Account data may be provided to authorized users for monitoring ancillary aspects of dispense operations, such as, without limitation, concentrate supply/demand, per-use characteristics, concentrate use relative to a given period of time and chemical product supply/demand. Chemical data may be used by the controller, or alternatively, monitored by an authorized user, for use in controlling chemical product formulation operations as the component concentrates are dispensed through the dispense hose to a dispense location wherein the chemical product is being formed.
In accordance with yet another embodiment, the flow-based chemical dispense system may further include a human-machine interface (HMI) having a graphical user interface (GUI) for facilitating user interaction with the system. In this embodiment, chemical and account data are defined using a web xe2x80x9cfront-endxe2x80x9d function, and are transferred via a file system through a universal communicator to the HMI. The universal communicator is coupled to the HMI thereby providing two-way data transfer from the HMI/GUI to and from a corporate server. As such, an embodiment of the present invention may be a client-server based computer architecture for dispensing component chemical concentrates to form a chemical product using a flow-based control system.
The computer architecture includes communication means for receiving data associated with the chemical product and the component chemical concentrates. This data may be, for example, chemical data or account data. As the component chemical concentrates are dispensed to the dispense location, feedback control is administered by the dispense control system as the control system receives measured volumetric information associated with the chemical product via a flow meter. By providing remote access to chemical data, the communication means enables a user to oversee formulation operations from a remote location thereby monitoring whether the chemical product is being formed with the proper chemical concentrates and the component chemical concentrates are being injected at the proper volumetric flow rate. By providing access to account data, the communication means allows for management control over the business and account aspects of chemical dispensing operations, such as, without limitation, inventory replenishment and monitoring of invoice-related matters.
Embodiments of the invention may be implemented as a computer process, a computing system or as an article of manufacture such as a computer program storage product or computer readable media. The computer program storage product may be a computer storage media readable by a computer system and encoding a computer program of instructions for formulating a chemical product using one or more component chemical concentrates. The computer program storage product may also be a propagated signal on a carrier readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process.
The great utility of the invention is formulation of a chemical product is monitored and controlled by a flow-based control system. As such, accurate proof of delivery of a given volume of component chemical concentrates allows the formulated chemical products to be sold using a conventional per-sale basis. Furthermore, chemical products may be more accurately formulated as flow-related information is provided back to the system during component concentrate dispensing, which typically occurs simultaneous to product formulation. These and various other features as well as advantages, which characterize the present invention, will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings.


A computer readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions is provided. The computer readable instructions control a computer to register site representing information with a communication device which is connectable to a network. The site representing information enables the communication device to obtain content summary information and includes information concerning an information providing site which delivers the content summary information. The content summary information includes location information to indicate a location of an information content provided through the network and a title of the information content. The computer readable instructions control the computer to execute steps of obtaining the site representing information registered with the computer, and registering the obtained site representing information with the communication device.

1. Technical Field
An aspect of the present invention relates to a computer readable storage medium for a computer capable of obtaining content summary information, which includes location information and a title of information contents provided through a network.
2. Related Art
Various kinds of information contents are provided openly to computer users, and the users can download the information contents through networks to view. In order to utilize such network environment, methods for effectively obtaining data through the networks are suggested. For example, techniques to display RSS (Resource Description Framework Site Summary)-formatted data in television receivers and personal computers (PCs) are provided. The RSS-formatted data is content summary information representing a source information content, which is published through a web site, and the summary information includes a title (header), hyperlinks, images, and articles of the source contents described in XML (eXtensible Markup Language).

Computer readable storage medium for registration of site information and a computer to register site information


A method of automatically controlling an image pick-up position of an object includes the steps of compressively coding the derived image data and producing valid image data. An image plane is divided into a plurality of divisional areas by lines passing through the center of the image plane. The number of valid image data are counted, and information is produced on a position to which a calculation of image data is directed, deciding. The direction decided is determined by the highest count among the counting results. A direction of motion of a camera rotation table is based on the direction decision.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for automatically controlling an image pick-up position of an object. The method and apparatus according to the present invention are used for an automatic control of the direction of a camera placed on a camera rotation table as an image picking-up device used in a television conference system, in the camera direction presetting manner.
2. Description of the Related Arts
In a television conference system, the transmission of images is carried out by transmitting the image of the entire scene of a conference room, and by transmitting images of the faces of individuals participating in the television conference.
One method of transmitting the image of the face of an individual is to preregister the positions of the persons on whom a pick-up camera is to be focused, to assign an identification number to each of the preset positions, and to direct the pick-up camera by designating one of the identification numbers for directing the pick-up camera to the person to whom the pick-up camera is to be directed. This method is called the preset system.
In the preset system, often the person does not sit exactly in the registered position but sits at a position slightly away from the registered position. In this case, if a fine control of the direction of the pick-up camera can be made by an operation of a remote control device, but a problem arises in that such a fine control of the direction of the pick-up camera is time-consuming and troublesome, and accordingly, an efficient operation of the picking-up and the transmission of images during a television conference system is impossible.

Automatic control of image pick-up position of object


Embodiments of the invention generally relate to an anchor used to secure a position of a device or component relative to internal tissue of a patient and prevent migration of the component relative to the tissue of the patient. In one embodiment, the anchor is combined with an electrode lead that is configured for implantation in a patient. The electrode lead comprises a lead body having a proximal end and a distal end, a stimulating electrode and the anchor. The stimulating electrode is attached to the lead body at the distal end. The anchor is attached to the distal end of the lead body. In one embodiment, the anchor comprises a plurality of fiber loops each including a fiber having first and second ends attached to the lead body, and an intermediate portion between the first and second ends that is displaced from the lead body.

Implantable electronic stimulator devices, such as neuromuscular stimulation devices, have been disclosed for use in the treatment of various pelvic conditions, such as urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence and sexual dysfunction. Such devices generally include one or more electrodes that are coupled to a control unit by electrode leads. Electrical signals are applied to the desired pelvic tissue of the patient through the electrode leads in order to treat the condition of the patient. The electrode leads are typically secured to the tissue using an anchor in the form of a helical coil. Exemplary implantable electronic stimulator devices and uses of the devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,354,991, 6,652,449, 6,712,772 and 6,862,480, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Urinary incontinence in women has been treated by a surgical method involving the placement of a sling to stabilize or support the bladder neck or urethra of the patient. Varieties of sling procedures are described in U.S. Pub. No. 2002-0161382 A1, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. One type of sling procedure is a pubovaginal sling procedure, which is a minimally invasive surgical method involving the placement (e.g. by the use of a Stamey needle or other ligature carrier) of a sling to stabilize or support the bladder neck or urethra. This procedure does not utilize bone anchors. Rather the sling is anchored in the abdominal or rectus fascia.
U.S. Pub. No. 2007-0260288 A1, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, generally describes a combination of the above devices. One or more electrodes are attached to a mechanical support, such as a sling, that supports a portion of the urethra of the patient. The electrodes are configured to contact tissue of the patient when the mechanical support is implanted in the patient. A control unit drives the electrodes to apply a current to the tissue that treats a pelvic condition of the patient.
The above-describe devices utilize anchors to secure components of the devices, such as electrode leads and/or mechanical supports, in tissue of the patient. It is desirable, for example, that such anchors prevent relative movement between the anchor and the tissue in which the anchor in embedded, are easy to install in the tissue, avoid damaging the tissue during the implantation procedure, operate as electrical stimulators, can be temporarily moved relative to the tissue without significant restriction by the anchor during installation, can be removed without significantly damaging the tissue, and/or have other features or benefits recognized by those skilled in the art.


In order to provide a surface in a gripping region of a dental handpiece that meets the requirements of being optimally smooth for hygienic reasons and also to provide an adequate non-slip surface, the dental handpiece has a plurality of thin lines arranged in line patterns having a roughened surface in the gripping portion. These lines or line patterns extend in a longitudinal direction and may have portions that extend at an angle to the longitudinal portion, and these patterns are arranged at least in two quadrants of the circumference of the grip part that preferably lie diametrically opposite one another.

The present invention is directed to a dental handpiece that contains a grip part having a non-slip surface.
Apart from a few exceptions, dental handpieces are usually held in the fashion of a pencil, for example in a three-finger hold or grip. The surface design in the region of the finger hold, which region is referred to as a gripping region, plays a particular part with the quality of the grip.
For hygienic reasons, particularly because of easy cleaning of the surface of the handpiece, first, one aim is that the entire handpiece should comprise an optimally smooth surface. On the other hand, it is necessary to have adequate gripability in the gripping region to enable the handpiece to lie securely in the hand during a preparation without great finger pressure. This is true both with respect to turning as well as with respect to longitudinal slippage under the influence of axial and radial forces that act on the drill during the use of the drill.
In order to meet these contradictory demands, it has already been proposed to provide a plurality of trough-shaped flattened portions or depressions uniformly distributed over the circumference of the handpiece in the gripping region. Such an arrangement is disclosed in European Patent Application EP-A-00 17 861. With the aim of reducing the manufacturing cost for the surface fashioning of the handpiece, it has also been proposed, in European Patent Application EP-A-00 54 653, to provide the surface of the handpiece in the gripping region with a carrier layer in which grains of a defined size are embedded. The handpiece will exhibit a certain roughness and, thus, gripability in the gripping region.
Although good gripability is obtained with this surface design, the problem or, respectively, the question whether such a surface is not too anti-slip is raised to a great extent, particularly in view of the greater and greater demand currently occurring for the wearing of rubber gloves when using a dental handpiece.


An abatement member for inhibiting formation of oxides of nitrogen in a gas-fired furnace by controlling peak flame temperatures and residence times at the peak flame temperatures is described. The combustion system has at least one heat exchanger conduit having a flow path therethrough and at least one gas burner for burning fuel to produce a combustion flame. The abatement member has a porous refractory body portion having at least one section which is disposed transversely to the direction of flow of gases through the conduit. In one embodiment, the abatement member is a metallic screen having a serpentine shape and positioned within the fire tube. The combustion flame is directed toward and into the inlet of a fire tube and through the screen whereby the screen absorbs thermal energy from the combustion flame at a rate which limits peak flame temperatures to levels which inhibit formation of oxides of nitrogen.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the reduction of pollutants produced by gas-fired combustion systems, and more particularly to a method amd apparatus for inhibiting the formation of oxides of nitrogen (NO.sub.x) in gas-fired forced air furnaces.
2. Background and Related Art
The combustion process for gas-fired furnaces generates gaseous combustion products, including NO.sub.x, which are vented to the atmosphere as flue gases. Since NO.sub.x is a pollutant, it is desirable to limit the emission of NO.sub.x into the atmosphere and toward this end some jurisdictions require that combustion systems meet strict NO.sub.x emission standards. Several techniques have been used to inhibit the formation of pollutants in combustion systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,633, issued Apr. 10, 1973 to A.D. Vasilakis et al, teaches that pollutants from a liquid-fired burner can be reduced by more completely combusting the fuel. In the system of the Patent, air and fuel are supplied to a burner and the flame is directed into a wire mesh cage formed from a cylindrical radiant wire mesh screen bounded at the ends by ceramic plates, one of which has an aperture through which the flame is introduced into the cage. The other end plate of the cylinder is a plain disc of castable firebrick. The screen is described as being made of Inconel, Nichrome 5, silicon carbide fibers or other high-temperature oxidation resistant material (see column 1, lines 61-65). The cylindrical screen is heated by radiation from the combustion flame and by convection from the combustion gases falling through the screen. The screen loses heat to the ambient volume principally by radiation and maintains an equilibrium temperature lower than that at which NO.sub.x is formed. Complete combustion with minimum excess air and low pressure drop is stated to be achieved, resulting in operation at high thermal efficiency with minimal pollutant production.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,320, issued Oct. 11, 1988 to Ripka et al, is directed to a device for use in a combustion system to inhibit formation of oxides of nitrogen. The device is stated to comprise a piece of material positioned relative to the combustion flame produced by a burner to temper the combustion by absorbing thermal energy from the combustion flame. The device, called a flame radiator structure, is a perforated tubular structure having a generally rectangular cross section. The device is shown in FIG. 2, noted number 11. Also, an alternate design for the device is stated to be a stainless steel cylindrical screen shown in FIG. 5. It is made of stainless steel material 30 having mounting flanges 31 as shown in FIG. 5. It is stated that a desirable location for the flame radiator structure relative to the combustion flame produced by a two-zone combustion-type burner is at the periphery of the combustion flame as shown in FIG. 4 where the structure 11 surrounds secondary combustion zone 34 to efficiently and effectively reduce peak flame temperatures and residence time at the peak flame temperatures to desired levels (see column 4, lines 35-60). In single-zone combustion systems the structure 11 may be disposed within the combustion zone (see column 5, lines 18-29). However, the flame radiator structure should not bend into the combustor flame (see column 7, lines 10-30).
U.S. Pat. No. 2,655,944, to Proehl, dated Oct. 20, 1953, discloses a heating tube for use in a deep fat fryer. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, the heating tube may comprise a wire mesh dividing baffle 10. Baffle 10 may be made of Nichrome and it is disposed between burners, parallel to the direction of flow of combustion products in the conduit, so that the burners inject flames into spaces above and below, but not through, the baffle. The baffle is employed to radiate heat from the burners to the sides of the tube (see column 2, lines 25-42). Additional baffles may be disposed downstream of baffle 10 transversely to the direction of flow of combustion gases through the tube, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,187,798 to Pokorny, dated Jun. 8, 1965, discloses a radiant gas burner comprising a conical refractory shell 30 within which a combustion mixture of fuel and air is burned to heat the shell to incandescence. The shell 30 comprises a plurality of holes 40 through which gaseous combustion products escape.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,796, issued Aug. 30, 1977 to Smick, describes a flue gas turbulator which is capable of mixing and directing a heating fluid, such as a flue gas, against the internal walls of a heat exchanger conduit such as a fire tube or the like. The turbulator is stated to be formed of a strip of metal bent into a series of alternating deflection panels successively joined together by bridging sections. The deflection panels along the length of the strip are alternately angling back and forth, thus simultaneously tilting up and down relative to the turbulator axis. The turbulator is particularly shown in the Figures.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,632,888 issued Jun. 21, 1927 to Davis et al is directed to a water heater. As shown in FIG. 1 the water heater comprises a tubular flue 13 through which hot combustion products from burner 14 are passed. The flue is thus heated and in turn heats water in the surrounding storage vessel. Tubular flue 13 contains a heat radiating member 21 that has formed from a strip of suitable sheet material bent into zig-zag form with flat portions directed in various directions. It is stated that the flat portions of the heat radiating member tend to deflect and throw the heat from the burner outward in opposite directions, thus rapidly heating the flue.

Abatement member and method for inhibiting formation of oxides of nitrogen


The disclosure describes technology that includes a charge-port capture detection mechanism, which has a mounting base and a capture gate. The mounting is connectable to a battery electric vehicle (BEV) at a location adjacent to a high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) charge-port. The capture gate is movably attached to the mounting base, the capture gate being moveable, relative to the mounting base, between a closed position in which the capture gate captures a charge connector of a charging cable engaged in the HVDC charge-port and an open position.

A BEV is a type of electric vehicle having an energy source derived from one or more onboard battery packs that are recharged from an external charging source. Some BEVs are externally charged via an external electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) across a cable linking the EVSE to the BEV. In some instances, the EVSE may be an external high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) power source. Unfortunately, when an HVDC power source charges the battery pack of the BEV, a potentially hazardous degree of electrical voltage and current (HV power) is involved. This is sufficiently hazardous to cause damage to equipment and/or an operator of such equipment.
To address this, some charge-cable connectors employ a high voltage interlock loop (HVIL) circuit to protect against unintended access to the HV power of the charge-cable connector. The HVIL circuit is energized by relatively low-voltage power and is provided to protect against unintentional exposure to the HV power generally. Specifically, if the HVIL circuit experiences a change in electrical characteristics (e.g., an open circuit condition) indicating potential exposure to the HV power, then the HVDC power source is disconnected from the battery pack.
The conventional HVIL circuits are designed to detect a disengagement and signal that the charging should cease. However, the time required for the arc potential to dissipate is likely longer than the time afforded from the HVIL system to open internal contactors and thus signal that charging should cease. Therefore, HVIL circuits cannot prevent the danger of an arc flash when the operator removes the charge connector on the order of tens of milliseconds.
Another approach includes the use of internal locking clips in the charge-cable connectors. The internal locking clip locks the connector in-place to the charging outlet of the BEV while the HVDC power source charges the battery pack. To remove the connector, the operator must press a push-button mechanism of the internal locking clips. This action sends a signal to the HVDC power source to cease the charging and physically releases the connector from an outlet of the BEV so that the operator can remove the connector.
The conventional internal push-button locking clips are known to break. Of course, in that situation, the operator can remove the charge connector unimpeded. Especially with HV power, the charge connector is large to accommodate the HV power transmission and their electrical connections. In these instances, the connector may have no room to accommodate an internal locking clip, and there may be no room for an operator to access a push-button on such a connector. So, there is a need for an additional mechanism to reduce the risk to an operator from removing a charge connector from the HVDC charge-port of the BEV.
For example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 10,046,661 (hereinafter, "the '661 patent), is a system that detects a physical connection between charge connectors of charge cables from an external power supply with a charge-port of an electric vehicle.
However, the system described in the '661 patent may not be sufficient to ensure safe disengagement of the charge-cable connectors, especially as the HVDC power source delivers significant HV power. For instance, the detection system of the '661 patent relies on a pilot signal between the HVDC charge-port of the electric vehicle and its charge connectors. The detection system determines that the physical connection is severed when that pilot signal is lost.
However, there is an unavoidable time gap between a physical disconnection and the detection of a loss of the pilot signal that is indicative of that disconnection. This is especially true when the operation quickly removes the charge connector. During this time gap, an arc flash may occur. This is especially dangerous when an HVDC power source is used. As a result, the detection system of the '661 patent cannot prevent a quick removal of a charge connector, and thus, the operator and equipment are subject to damage caused by an arc flash during the time gap between removal and detection.
Example embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward overcoming the deficiencies described above.

Charge-port capture detection mechanism for battery electric vehicle


In an indicating instrument for a vehicle, a light modulation member having variable light transmissivity is disposed on a dial plate. The light modulation member includes a plurality of variable light modulation sections respectively connected to a controller that controls light transmissivity of each one of the variable light modulation sections.

The present application is based on and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application 2001-267931, filed Sep. 4, 2001, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an indicating instrument for a vehicle, particularly an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in an indicating instrument for an automobile, various arrangements have been adopted to provide attractive and novel displays such as an indicating instrument disclosed in JP-A-2-234857. In the disclosed indicating instrument, a so-called black face meter is provided. That is, an electrochromic display device (ECD) is disposed on a dial plate to change the light transmissivity of the ECD according to the operating condition of the dial plate.
Because the light transmissivity of the ECD is changed monotonously in such an indicating instrument, the display is not very attractive and novel.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems.
It is a main object of the invention to provide an indicating instrument for a vehicle that has attractive and novel displays.
According to a feature of the invention, an indicating instrument for a vehicle includes a dial plate, a light modulation member having variable light transmissivity disposed on the dial plate and a control means for controlling said transmissivity. The light modulation member includes a plurality of variable light modulation sections respectively connected to the control means. The control means controls light transmissivity of each one of the variable light modulation sections.
Therefore, a driver can enjoy a gradually changing, novel and attractive display on the dial plate.
According to another feature of the invention, the dial plate has a plurality of display portions, and each display portion is covered by one of the variable light modulation sections. Therefore, the driver can enjoy a plurality of displays changing differently from each other.
According to another feature of the invention, the control means controls each of the light modulation sections according to a predetermined condition. Preferably, the control means controls each of the light modulation sections when an ignition switch of a vehicle is turned on. The control means may control each of the light modulation sections to successively increase the light transmissivity thereof when the ignition switch is turned on, and to successively decrease the light transmissivity when the ignition switch is turned off.
On the other hand, the control means may control each of the light modulation sections to successively decrease the light transmissivity thereof when the ignition switch is turned on, and to increase the light transmissivity when the ignition switch is turned off.


A fishing vest including a retractor pocket which is inverted so that it opens downwardly when the vest is worn is provided by the invention. In a preferred embodiment, the fishing vest includes two retractor pockets. A first retractor pocket is provided between the upper left breast pocket and the neckline, and a second retractor pocket is provided between the upper right breast pocket and the neckline. Each retractor pocket includes a retractor provided within the interior thereof.

The present invention relates to a vest including a retractor pocket, and to a method for manufacturing a vest including a retractor pocket. More particularly, the invention relates to a fishing vest provided with a retractor pocket which is inverted so that it opens downwardly when the vest is worn, and includes a retractor provided therein.
Fishing vests have been used by fishermen for many years. Generally, fishing vests include pockets for storing fishing accessories while fishing. Exemplary pieces of equipment often used by fishermen include, for example, flies, lures, fishing line, insect repellent, matches, nippers, calipers, jackets, gloves, and the like. A fishing vest is a convenient article of clothing which allows fishermen to carry such equipment with them and use it when needed. Several United States Patents which describe fishing vests include U.S. Pat. No. 1,879,341 to Lapham, U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,707 to Parker et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,359 to Hanson, U.S. Pat. No. to 2,717,391 to Bracken, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,535 to Dobrzenski. Several catalogs showing commercially available fishing vests are available from Simms(copyright) Fishing Products, Inc. of Bozeman. Mont., and L. L. Bean(copyright) of Freeport, Me. A common feature of the fishing vests described in these publications is that they include several pockets for holding fishing accessories.
Certain types of fishing equipment are used frequently by fishermen, and it is desirable to have such equipment easily assessable when their use is required. Exemplary types of frequently used equipment include a hemostat, a clipper, fly dressing, and the like. Rather than storing this type of equipment in pockets, it has been found to be advantageous to attach it to fishing vests using a retractor. In addition, certain types of equipment are easily dropped. When wading in a river, this may result in loss of the equipment. Accordingly, many fishermen use retractors to attach such equipment to a fishing vest to prevent loss. Many forms of retractors are commercially available. Commercially available retractors can be obtained from Simms(copyright) Fishing Products, Inc. These retractors are generally of the type having a spring provided within a rigid housing and with a clip on one end of the spring and which can be pulled out from inside the housing. The housing is attachable to a fishing vest. Fishing equipment can then be attached to the clip. Another style of commercially available retractor is sold under the name Zinge.(copyright)
A vest for holding fishing accessories is provided by the present invention. The vest includes a shell structure having a neckline, a left arm hole, a right arm hole, and a bottom edge. The shell is constructed and arranged to fit over a human chest. The vest includes a plurality of pockets for storing fishing accessories attached to the shell structure. At least one of the plurality of pockets is a retractor pocket provided with an interior region and an opening facing downwardly when the vest is worn by a wearer in an upright standing position. A retractor is secured within the interior of the retractor pocket. Preferably, the retractor is a spring-type retractor formed from a polyurethane material.
A method for manufacturing a vest including a retractor pocket is provided by the present invention. The method includes a step of providing a shell structure having a neckline, a left arm hole, a right arm hole, and a bottom edge, and wherein the shell structure is constructed and arranged to fit over a human chest. The method includes a step of providing a sheath over a portion of the shell structure to provide a pocket which has an opening facing downwardly when the vest is worn by a wearer in an upright standing position. The sheath is secured to the shell, preferably by stitching. The method additionally includes a step of providing a retractor within an interior region of the retractor pocket.

Vest including a retractor pocket and retractor therein; and method of manufacturing vest


A method for correcting a formatting error in a flash memory is disclosed. An error in a first formatting of a first flash memory is discovered, and a second formatting is extracted from a second flash memory storing second data. The erroneous first formatting is replaced with a modification of the second formatting, and first data is stored in the first flash memory with the modification of the second formatting. The first data is different from the second data.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to data processing systems and in particular to flash memory within data processing systems. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a system, method and computer program product for recovery of formatting in repair of bad sectors in flash memory of a data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many microprocessor-based devices and systems use so-called "flash memory" devices, which employ a particular form of EEPROM (Electronically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) to store data. Such devices can include, for example, computers, mobile telephones, electronic toys, cameras, and domestic appliances such as washing machines. Indeed, almost every microprocessor-based product in production today employs flash memory.
Flash memory maintains stored information without requiring a power source. Flash memory differs from typical EEPROM in that EEPROM erases its content one byte at a time, making a typical EEPROM slow to update. Flash memory can erase its data in entire blocks, making flash memory a preferable technology for applications that require frequent updating of large amounts of data, as in the case of a memory stick.
Inside a flash memory chip, information is stored in cells. A floating gate protects the data written in each cell. Tunneling electrons pass through a low conductive material to change the electronic charge of the gate in "a flash," clearing the cell of its contents so that it can be rewritten. This "flash" for clearing cell contents is the basis of the 'flash memory' name.
Unfortunately, one of the largest contributors to the probability of failure for a device incorporating a flash memory is the flash memory itself. As flash memory components are usually soldered to other components such as a main circuit board, a flash memory failure will often result in the need to replace not only the flash memory, but other components as well. The degree to which flash memory has become deeply integrated into devices has caused device designers to create methods for correcting errors in flash memory, most of which depend on manual intervention by a user or on redundant storage of data.
In data processing systems, the formatting for data stored in a flash memory can become corrupted or damaged for a variety of reasons, for example, loss of power during a write or a format operation. As with the error correction methods for other problems in flash memory, prior art methods for recovering from corruption of this formatting data involve the constant maintenance of redundant copies of the data or require that the user corrects the corruption of the formatting through replacement or manual repair.
The state of prior art methods results in several drawbacks. First, maintaining redundant copies of formatting data is not desirable, because such maintenance increases storage requirements. This concern about storage requirements becomes particularly important in embedded systems or other systems in which storage resources are limited. Similarly, prior art methods that require the user to correct the corruption of the formatting through replacement or manual repair involve time costs to the user or information technology personnel. The reduction of such costs is desired.

Method, system and computer program product for recovery of formatting in repair of bad sectors in flash memory

International Business Machines Corporation


A wind turbine braking system including: a wind turbine including turbine blades and a control system; a generator coupled to the turbine blades; a generator converter coupled to the generator and connectable to a utility power grid; at least one dump resistor coupled to the generator and generator converter, and if the utility power grid losses power, the dump resistor applying an electrical load to the generator converter.

The invention relates to the generation and distribution of electric power generated by wind turbines. More particularly, the invention relates to adapting to rapid losses of electrical power loads on a wind turbine, such as the loss of an electrical power grid load.
Power transmission and distribution grids ("power grids") transmit electrical energy from wind turbine generating facilities to electrical power customers. The power grid provides an electrical load for a wind turbine generator. The electrical load on the generator imposes a torque on the rotor of the generator. The rotor is turned by the wind turbine which in turn is rotated by the wind. The torque on the rotor from the grid load results in a torque applied to the wind turbine. The wind turbine is balanced based on the torque from the grid load. If the grid load is loss the wind turbine may become unbalanced.
Loss of the grid unloads the generator and typically results in a rapid loss of a torque load on the generator. This rapid loss of torque can lead to a dramatic and rapid acceleration of the wind turbine rotor. To avoid over speeding of the rotor a severe braking procedure has to be initiated, leading to high load forces and moments acting on the wind turbine structure, such as large bending moments being applied to the tower of a wind turbine.
Wind turbines are traditionally designed to withstand the forces resulting from a grid loss. For example, towers for wind turbines have thick walls and large connection bolts to, in part, withstand large bending moments resulting from an abrupt grid loss. The base for a wind turbine is traditionally designed to adsorb the forces applied to the tower by a loss of grid load. There is a long felt need for structures and methods that accommodate grid loss without applying large forces to the wind turbine.

Wind turbine dump load system and method


A system and method of cache replacement for streaming multimedia is provided. A network system includes a content provider connected to local service providers via an interactive distribution network, such as the Internet. The local service providers facilitate delivery of the content from the content provider to multiple subscribers. For each of the data blocks which make up the multimedia stream requested by a subscriber, the local service provider receiving the request determines whether the request can be serviced locally or whether the requested data blocks must be retrieved from the content provider. In the case where the portion of the requested stream must be retrieved from the content provider, the local service provider attempts to cache the requested blocks in its local cache in addition to streaming the data blocks to the requesting subscriber. The local service provider stores two lists to determine which cached block is to be replaced from the local cache memory in the case where the attempt to cache the requested blocks fail because the local cache memory is full. A first list defines those cached blocks for which there are no foreseeable future subscriber requests. The second list defines those cached blocks whose access time from existing suscribers is furthest in the future.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cache memories and methods for increasing the efficiency of cache memories, and more particularly, to a method of cache replacement for streaming media.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer networks such as the Internet are increasingly being used to transmit multimedia data (e.g., audio and video data). The enormous increase in traffic from transmitting such data has severely strained the Internet infrastructure. This network congestion problem is only expected to grow in the future as new multimedia data and new media rich Internet services become widespread. Presently, data caching is a preferred solution to address the network congestion problem. Data caching attempts to move web content closer to the end-user and thus, minimize network and web server load, thereby improving the performance perceived by the end-user.
Data caching has been extensively implemented on the Internet to reduce network load (i.e., bandwith consumption), server load, and high start-up latency. Existing data caching systems typically cache entire web documents, such as HTML documents and images, for example, and attempt to keep the documents and images consistent with the origin server. Current data caching systems are restrictive in that they only support static web objects, such as HTML documents or images. Static web objects are typically small and as such are always cached in their entirety. Current caching systems do not adequately support streaming multimedia data, such as video and audio streaming media objects. Streaming multimedia data, such as video objects, for example, are usually too large to be cached in their entirety. With the recent proliferation of audio/video content on web sites, it is imperative that data caching systems provide efficient support for streaming media. However, the present data caching systems treat multimedia (i.e., audio/video) clips as regular web objects thereby storing them in their entirety. Treating multimedia clips as regular web objects will prove to be adequate only in the short term as the size of multimedia clips on the web currently is relatively small. In the near future, however, faster Internet access technologies such as XDSL, DSL, VDSL and cable-modems will further enable the transmission of high-bandwidth, high resolution media clips that are much longer in duration than present day media clips. It will no longer be efficient and cost effective to cache such large media objects in their entirety.
The size of present day streaming media objects is typically at least an order of magnitude or two larger than that of a static web object, and therefore, do not lend themselves to be cached in their entirety. For example, a single, two hour long MPEG-2 movie requires about 4.5 GB of hard disk space. Given a fixed investment on buffer space, it is apparent that only a few media objects can be stored at a cache, and therefore, the hit ratio and the efficiency of the cache is limited. Given that caches have finite disk space, it is not feasible to statically store more than a few complete SM objects. If there are several simultaneous requests for different SM objects, the cache typically replaces one SM object with another, thus resulting in performance degradation.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved cache block replacement method to provide improved cache performance. It is desirable to provide such improved cache block replacement method that is simple to implement and that takes advantage of the different service times required by multiple streams.
The present invention provides a method of cache replacement for multimedia streams. The cache replacement method of the present invention approximates full-knowledge of all future accesses by considering that future accesses for multimedia objects may be predicted with a high probability. This is based on the fact that in the majority of instances video accesses by clients are sequential, unlike data accesses in classical web caching.
In accordance with the method of the present invention, the cache replacement method operates in successive rounds. In each round, the method serves the streams in accordance with a service list order. Whenever it is determined that cache space must be made available to service a particular stream, an unlocked block list and a victim list are consulted to determine which cached block to release. The cache replacement method generally includes the steps of: in each round, receiving at least one client request for a media clip; constructing at least one service interval from the received client requests; constructing a service list from service intervals constructed in the present round and in previous rounds; and servicing client requests in an order

Method of cache replacement for streaming media


A system and method are disclosed, in which two or more points of a target object from a two-dimensional (2D) image may be “reverse projected” from a 2D plane to a 3D space. The method may comprise receiving a 2D image from a 2D camera, the 2D image including a representation of a physical topography and a target object of a plurality of target objects, the plurality of target objects being associated with a common physical characteristic, the common physical characteristic of the target object being detectable within the 2D image. The method may further comprise determining a position relative to the physical topography of the target object based upon a position of the target object in the image and the common physical characteristic of the target object.

Systems and methods exist for constructing representations of the real world in three-dimensional (3D) coordinate space. For example, some devices and techniques that have been introduced to enable depth perception in a 3D space include 3D cameras, stereoscopic cameras, time-of-flight cameras, light-field cameras, photogrammetry, coded aperture, etc. Applications of these devices and techniques include constructing 3D scans (e.g., scanning a person's face to mimic their facial expressions), measuring the distance from the camera to an object, determining the volume of an object by scanning the object, etc. Another important application includes tracking the movement of objects to and from locations in a real-world 3D space. For example, cameras are used for monitoring the movement of vehicles entering and exiting a parking lot. In one example, customers may park in a parking lot space while their grocery order is being filled, and the 3D camera may be trained to detect when a car has parked in a specific parking lot space. 3D cameras may also be used to track the movements of people to and from a given location (e.g., entering a building).
With rising customer demand for applications such as "grab-and-go" grocery experiences, service providers often need to make large capital expenditures and incur significant operating expenses overhead to maintain a set of monitoring cameras for a given location (e.g., a parking lot with several spaces). These capital expenditures may include purchasing a large number of cameras (e.g., one monitoring camera per parking space), and/or purchasing sophisticated 3D cameras (similar to the devices and techniques described above), whereby each 3D camera may cover a wider range and/or depth in a 3D space than a cheaper off-the-shelf camera may cover. Also, cameras with more sophisticated hardware may require more resources (e.g., human technical resources) to set up and be more expensive to maintain when the camera may require servicing. Therefore, there is a need to improve the process of using a camera to identify objects with known physical characteristics at a specific location within a real-world physical topography.

Identifying parking location using single camera reverse projection


An apparatus and method for providing selective views of on-line surveys are provided. With the apparatus and method, each survey has a survey data structure and a template data structure. In a preferred embodiment, the data structures represent tree structures having nodes, child nodes, links between nodes and child nodes, and the like, for the survey and the template. Changes to the survey are made in the template data structure. The survey data structure and the template data structure are compared to one another, and nodes are either added, subtracted, or modified based on the differences between the survey data structure and the template data structure. In this way, the survey data structure retains the information that is already in present in it, such as the questions and answers previously provided. Thereafter, when the survey is again presented to a user, the user""s previous answers to questions still remaining in the survey are displayed but no answers are displayed for newly added questions. In addition, if the questions are modified, the modified questions are presented with no answers displayed until provided by the user. In this way, answer data for questions that were previously answered and are still remaining in the survey after modification are not lost. In addition, the survey data itself is not corrupted by the modification of the survey.

1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to an improved computing device. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for providing selective view of on-line surveys.
2. Description of Related Art
In web based environments where surveys are conducted at given intervals, the survey may change each time it is given. That is, questions may be added, removed or modified, possible answer selections to the questions may be added, removed, or modified, and the like.
In such surveys, when the survey is updated, the answers to the old questions may be lost. This is because the answers to the questions are typically stored in a separate database from the survey itself. If the survey is modified, the answers will no longer correlate one to one with the survey questions in the updated survey.
In addition, when new data is added to a survey, or data is deleted from the suvey, the old data remaining in the survey may become corrupted. That is the old data may be entirely or partially overwritten or removed by the addition or deletion of data in the survey.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to have an apparatus and method for providing selective views of on-line surveys so that answer data is not lost and survey data is not corrupted when the survey is updated.
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for providing selective views of on-line surveys. With the present invention, each survey has a survey data structure and a template data structure. In a preferred embodiment, the data structures represent tree structures having nodes, child nodes, links between nodes and child nodes, and the like, for the survey and the template.
Changes to the survey are made in the template data structure. The survey data structure and the template data structure are compared to one another, and nodes are either added, subtracted, or modified based on the differences between the survey data structure and the template data structure. In this way, the survey data structure retains the information that is already in present in it, such as the questions and answers previously provided.
Thereafter, when the survey is again presented to a user, the user""s previous answers to questions still remaining in the survey are displayed but no answers are displayed for newly added questions. In addition, if the questions are modified, the modified questions are presented with no answers displayed until provided by the user. In this way, answer data for questions that were previously answered and are still remaining in the survey after modification are not lost. In addition, the survey data itself is not corrupted by the modification of the survey because old data and/or questions that remain in the survey are not overwritten or deleted. These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be described in, or will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of, the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.

Apparatus and method for providing selective views of on-line surveys

International Business Machines Corporation


A handwritten music sign recognition device (10) has: a touch information obtaining part (21) which obtains, as position information, a position of an input means on a screen every time the input means moves, from when the input means touches the screen until when the input means is moved away therefrom; a vector information creation part (22) which creates attributes of a vector indicating a trace of movement of the input means as vector information based on the position information; and a stroke characteristic amount derivation part (23) which derives a characteristic amount of a stroke based on the vector information included in the stroke information.

A tablet terminal corresponding to a handwriting input detects trace information resulted from scanning a touch panel with an input means, such as a finger or a pen, and recognizes a sign, a figure or the like based on the detected information.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a method as follows. A specific sign or figure for converting a character is registered in advance. When a character is inputted in a character box in which a handwritten character is inputted for performing character recognition, this character is converted into a target character based on the information registered in advance.
Further, Patent Literature 2 discloses a method to extract a line component from inputted coordinate data.
Moreover, Patent Literature 3 discloses a method as follows. The end point and the starting point of a writing stroke are linked with virtual lines, and a characteristic amount of a bent position generated in this case is detected. Then, the detected characteristic amount and dictionary data are compared to perform character recognition.

Handwritten music sign recognition device and program


Disclosed is a radiation resistant propylene polymer composition comprising a propylene polymer material and generally from about 0.1 to about 5 pph, of the propylene polymer material, of a rosin material. A hindered amine is present when the concentration of the rosin material is low, i.e., below 1.0 pph. At higher concentrations of rosin material, the hindered amine is optional. Radiation sterilized articles in which at least part of the material construction thereof comprises said radiation resistant propylene polymer composition are also disclosed.

Various additives have been proposed for inhibiting the discoloration, degradation, and/or embrittlement which occur in polymers, such as polypropylene, on exposure to irradiation. Suppression of these deleterious changes in the polymers is necessary to render them suitable for use in articles which are to be sterilized by irradiation, a sterilizing technique commonly practiced on medical articles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,110,185 describes incorporating a low molecular weight, preferably not highly viscous, liquid mobilizer, such as a hydrocarbon oil, into a semi-crystalline polypropylene to increase the free volume of the polymer and allow it to retain its flexibility after irradiation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,932 describes incorporating the mobilizer in a semi-crystalline polypropylene which has been visbroken to give it a narrow molecular weight distribution.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,734, a mobilizing additive, such as a hydrocarbon oil, and a heterocyclic hindered amine are used in combination to stabilize semi-crystalline polypropylene against radiation. A thioester should not be present.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,524 notes that the inclusion of a mobilizing additive as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,110,185 and 4,274,932 produces some undesirable side effects including handling and imprinting problems. U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,524 discloses stabilizing polyolefins against the effects of radiation by incorporating therein a hindered piperidine compound and a light-stabilizing additive, such as a benzophenone precursor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,563,259 describes the addition of from 0.01 to 2.0%, by weight of the polymer, of the polymer of a hindered amine or its salt, N-oxide, N-hydroxide or N-nitroxide to a substantially crystalline polymer of an aliphatic C.sub.2-6 monoolefin.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,438 describes using hindered amines containing a polysubstituted piperazin-2-one moiety without an antioxident to achieve improved strength and discoloration resistance in irradiated propylene polymers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,369 discloses inhibiting the radiation-induced degradation of polypropylene by dispersing therein, prior to irradiation, a synergistic mixture of a hindered amine component, a hindered phenolic component, and a phosphorus-containing component. The polypropylene has a narrow molecular weight distribution, achieved by treating ("visbreaking") polypropylene having its as-prepared molecular weight distribution.

Radiation-resistance propylene polymer composition and radiation sterilized articles therefrom


When an SiC single crystal having a large diameter of a {0001} plane is produced by repeating a-plane growth, the a-plane growth of the SiC single crystal is carried out so that a ratio Sfacet (=S1×100/S2) of an area (S1) of a Si-plane side facet region to a total area (S2) of the growth plane is maintained at 20% or less.

In SiC (silicon carbide), a high-temperature type (α-type) having a hexagonal crystal structure and a low-temperature type (β-type) having a cubic crystal structure are known. SiC is characterized, in comparison with Si, by having a high thermal resistance, a broadband gap, and a high dielectric breakdown electric field strength. For that reason, a semiconductor including an SiC single crystal is expected as a candidate material of a next-generation power device substituting for an Si semiconductor. In particular, α-type SiC has a band gap broader than β-type SiC and hence the α-type SiC attracts attention as a semiconductor material of an ultralow power-loss power device.
The α-type SiC has, as the principal crystal plane, a {0001} plane (to be also referred to as "c-plane" hereunder), a {1-100} plane (m-plane), and a {11-20} plane (a-plane in a narrow sense) the latter two of which are perpendicular to the {0001} plane. In the present invention, "a-plane" means a-plane in a broad sense, that is, "generic name for m-plane and a-plane in a narrow sense". When it is necessary to distinguish the m-plane from the a-plane in a narrow sense, they are referred to as "{1-100} plane" and "{11-20} plane", respectively.
A c-plane growth method has heretofore been known as a method of obtaining an α-type SiC single crystal. The "c-plane growth method" cited here means a method of using as a seed crystal an SiC single crystal in which a c-plane or a plane having an offset angle to the c-plane in a prescribed range is exposed as a growth plane and growing an SiC single crystal over the growth plane by a sublimation reprecipitation method or the like.
The problem has, however, been that, in a single crystal obtained by the c-plane growth method, a large number of defects such as micro pipe defects (tubular voids about several μm to 100 μmin diameter) and threading screw dislocation (hereunder referred to also merely as "screw dislocation") are generated in the direction parallel to the <0001> direction. To realize a high-performance SiC power device, the reduction of a leak current generated in an SiC semiconductor is essential. It is considered that defects such as micropipe defects and screw dislocation which are generated in the SiC single crystal cause an increase in this leak current.
Then, to solve this problem, various proposals have been made.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a growth method of an SiC single crystal for growing an SiC single crystal by using a seed crystal having a plane (for example, {1-100} plane or {11-20} plane) which is inclined at about 60° to about 120° from the c-plane and exposed as the growth plane (this growth method will be referred to as "a-plane growth method" hereinafter).
The above document teaches that:    (1) when SiC is grown on a crystal plane inclined at about 60° to 120° from the c-plane, an array of atomic layers appears on the crystal plane, thereby making it easy to grow a crystal having the same type of a polytype structure as that of the original seed crystal;    (2) when this method is employed, screw dislocation does not occur; and    (3) when the seed crystal includes dislocation having a slip plane on the c-plane, this dislocation is carried over to the growing crystal.
Patent Document 2 discloses a growth method of an SiC single crystal, including the steps of:
growing SiC by using a seed crystal having a {10-10} plane as the growth plane;
taking out a {0001} wafer from the obtained single crystal; and
growing SiC by using this wafer as a seed crystal.
The above document teaches that, by this method,    (1) an SiC single crystal having few micropipe defects is obtained; and    (2) since a much larger {0001} wafer than an Acheson crystal is obtained, it is used as a seed crystal to grow a large-sized crystal easily.
Patent Documents 3 and 4 disclose a method for producing an SiC single crystal, including the steps of:
carrying out a-plane growth in orthogonal directions a plurality of times; and
carrying out c-plane growth in the end.
The above documents teach that:    (1) as the number of repetitions of a-plane growth increases, the dislocation density in the growing crystal decreases in an exponential fashion;    (2) the generation of a stacking fault during a-plane growth cannot be avoided; and    (3) when c-plane growth is carried out in the end, micropipe defects and screw dislocation do not occur and an SiC single crystal having almost no stacking fault is obtained.
Further, Patent Document 5 discloses a growth method of an SiC single crystal in which a seed crystal with a crystal plane having an offset angle of 5° to 30° in the (000-1) C-plane direction from a plane perpendicular to the (0001) basal plane of an SiC single crystal is used in the sublimation reprecipitation method.
The above document teaches that:    (1) when a plane offset to the (000-1) C-plane direction is used, crystal grains having different crystal orientation is hardly obtained as compared with when a plane offset to the (0001) Si-plane direction is used;    (2) when a plane offset to the (000-1) C-plane direction is used, such grains are rarely produced as compared with a nonpolar plane perpendicular to the (0001) basal plane; and    (3) when the offset angle to the (000-1) C-plane direction is too large, the mixture of polytype readily occurs and a large number of crystal defects are produced.
The a-plane growth method has an advantage that an SiC single crystal having a low screw dislocation density is obtained. However, the a-plane growth method has a problem that high-density stacking faults almost parallel to the c-plane tend to be produced. When a stacking fault occurs in the SiC single crystal, electric resistance in a direction across the stacking fault increases. Therefore, an SiC single crystal having such stacking faults at a high density cannot be used as a semiconductor for power devices.
Meanwhile, it is considered that when c-plane growth is carried out after a-plane growth is carried out at least one time, an SiC single crystal having almost no screw dislocation and no stacking faults can be produced.
To manufacture a substrate having a large diameter of the {0001} plane by using a method making use of a combination of a-plane growth and c-plane growth, a crystal which is prolonged in both {11-20} plane growth direction and {1-100} plane growth direction which is inclined at 90° from that plane must be grown. However, in the {11-20} plane growth and the {1-100} plane growth, differently oriented crystals or heterogeneous polytype crystals are often produced on the growth plane.
To solve this problem, as disclosed by Patent Document 5, it is proposed to use a crystal plane having an offset angle of 5° to 30° in the (000-1) C-plane direction from a plane perpendicular to the basal plane. However, when the offset angle is small, it is impossible to completely suppress the production of differently oriented crystals. When the offset angle is large, a heterogeneous polytype layer which grows outward from the end on the C-plane side of a seed crystal expands into the growing crystal along the growth of the crystal. Therefore, the final yield when the {0001} plane substrate is cut out is reduced, and it is difficult to cut out a large-diameter substrate.

SiC single crystal, production method therefor, SiC wafer and semiconductor device