The present invention relates to a solution-finding method, which finds an approximate solution of an equation having difficulty in obtaining an actual solution and a complicated equation in numerical analysis. The method obtains an approximate solution of an equation having a solution in a predetermined interval. Initial values are calculated based on upper and lower limits of the interval. The initial values are applied to a solution-finding equation, including a sign function and the upper and lower limits, and the solution-finding equation is arranged so that a definite integral formula for the sign function is included in the equation. The definite integral formula in the solution-finding equation is calculated using numerical integration, and results of the definite integral formula are applied to the solution-finding equation, thus obtaining an approximate solution. This performance is iterated until the approximate solution satisfies an allowable error.

(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates in general to numerical analysis or applied mathematics. More particularly, it relates to a solution-finding method which finds an approximate solution of an equation in commercial software required for calculation in mathematics and engineering, and a numerical analysis code using the solution-finding method.
(b) Background Art
Generally, when the shape of a gas turbine is designed or when the appearance of an airplane or a vehicle is designed, an optimal shape is designed using hydrodynamics. With the development of computers, numerical analysis using hydrodynamics has been mainly conducted using computers, and solutions (or roots) of a large number of equations related to hydrodynamics are generally obtained by finding approximate solutions.
Conventional methods of finding approximate solutions may include, for example, a bisection method, Newton's method, and a secant method. A bisection method is a method using the change of the sign of a function in an interval so as to find a solution present in the interval, and is configured to obtain a solution by always bisecting an interval and finding a section in which the sign of a function changes. Such a bisection method is advantageous because a solution can always be obtained, but is disadvantageous because the speed of convergence is low.
Newton's method is a method of obtaining a solution using a derivative, and is advantageous because the speed of convergence is very high near a solution. However, there is a problem in that when an equation has a slope close to '0', it is difficult to obtain a solution, and in that when an initially estimated value is erroneously obtained, Newton's method does not converge on a solution, thus making it impossible to find a solution.
A secant method is a method obtained by modifying Newton's method into a two-point method so as to solve the problem of calculating a derivative in Newton's method. However, this method is problematic in that the speed of convergence is generally slightly lower than that of Newton's method, two initial values are required, and the probability of failing in convergence according to the behavior of a function cannot be excluded.
As described above, the conventional solution-finding methods are problematic in that the speed of convergence is excessively low and the speed of calculation is low, and in that, when an initially estimated value is erroneously set, it is impossible to find a solution, or, alternatively, the time of calculation required to find a solution increases.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Method of finding solution of equation and recording medium storing program for implementing the same

Kunsan National University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation


In various example embodiments, a system and method for providing dynamic bidding notifications and price guidance for buyers are presented. The system receives a selection of a present item listing and accesses historical auction data for a set of historical item listings. The system generates a dynamic bidding model for bidding on the present item and generates one or more bidding notifications based on the dynamic bidding model. The system then causes presentation of the one or more bidding notifications on a client device.

Conventionally, estimating prices for auction items is generally performed by analyzing the average of previous prices paid for comparable items. However, it is often difficult to estimate the price for unique items in live auctions due to the lack of comparable items. As a result, sellers of unique items are often hesitant to utilize live auctions for selling items because of uncertainty related to the eventual selling price of the item.
Live auctions proceed at a fast and often irregular pace. Bidding times on items sold at live auctions may vary based on competition between potential buyers, interest in the item, speed of the auctioneer, the number of potential buyers, and other factors. Because of the uncertainty in timing for when bidding may commence on a specific item, buyers interested in a single item, among a large set of items being sold at a live auction, may feel compelled to sit through the live auction until the item of interest comes up for bid. Further, due to the fast and irregular pacing of live auctions, users often lose out on successfully bidding on an item, particularly those buyers using proxy or absentee bids.
The headings provided herein are merely for convenience and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the terms used.


An electronic communication device is able to be coupled to a sensor and is intended to be installed in the road or embedded in a vehicle. The device includes a determining module configured to determine a tracking list for at least one traffic element detected by the sensor. Each tracking list includes several information elements. The traffic element is located within a geographical zone covered by the sensor. A computer is configured to compute, as a function of at least one determined tracking list, a motion limitation setpoint for each vehicle located in the geographical zone. A transmitter is configured to send the computed limitation setpoint(s) to an electronic supervision equipment item via a data link.

Driving assistance systems for an automobile are known comprising communication devices able to identify obstacles in a road travel zone via sensors and to inform a remote electronic equipment item. The electronic equipment item is able to determine and transmit an instruction to a vehicle traveling in said road travel zone.
However, when many obstacles are located in the zone where the vehicle is traveling, the connection between the communication device and the remote electronic equipment item risks being saturated, which can be critical for the safety of the vehicle and/or surrounding obstacles.

Electronic communication device, related monitoring apparatus, supervision installation, communication method and computer program


An image processing apparatus for processing image data is described. The image processing apparatus comprises:                a compression/decompression part for compressing the image data into code data having a plurality of kinds of formats and decompressing the code data into the image data, the plurality of kinds of formats comprise at least a reversible encoding method and an irreversible encoding method of a JPEG 2000 format; and        a conversion part for performing a conversion of a format of the code data from one format in the plurality of kinds of data formats to another format in the plurality of kinds of data formats using the compression/decompression part, the conversion comprises a conversion of the format of the code data from the reversible encoding method into the irreversible encoding method or from the irreversible encoding method into the reversible encoding method of the JPEG 2000 format.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image processing apparatus, an image reading apparatus and an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 5-75871 discloses a color copying apparatus in which if an external computer can only handle compression data in a standard mode, compression data in an original mode that is internally used in the color copying apparatus is converted into the compression data in the standard mode and the converted compression data with compression parameters are supplied to the external computer.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-168092 discloses a technology in which if input image data can not be compressed to aimed quantity of the data by means of a variable length reversible compression process, then the input image data is compressed by means of a variable length irreversible compression process.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-216349 discloses a technology for storing data in a memory in which if a quantity of compressed document codes exceeds a predetermined value when document data is compressed by means of a variable length reversible compression process and then the compressed document codes are stored in a memory, then the document data is rasterized again with a resolution that is normally used to print document data, and the rasterized data is divided into a certain size of the data and the divided data is compressed by means of the variable length irreversible compression process, and the compressed data is stored in the memory.
According to the technology described in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 5-75871, it is possible to output the compressed data in the standard mode by converting the compression data in the original mode into the compression data in the standard mode even if the color copying apparatus internally handles the compression data in the original mode. Therefore, it is possible to view images stored in the color copying apparatus on a display of the external computer.
However, such technology has a disadvantage in that it is not possible to easily perform the process that converts the compression data in the original mode into the compressed data in the standard mode by means of a simple construction and a simple process.

Image processing apparatus, image reading apparatus and image forming apparatus


In an L2 switch having a VLAN function for configuring a layer 2 network in a star topology, a mesh topology, a ring topology, or the like, a VLAN functional portion maps a frame to a predetermined VLAN, a frame classifying portion assigns to the frame a first tag indicating a priority, and a policing portion assigns to the frame a second tag indicating whether or not the frame can be discarded. Also, an OAM monitor inserts a monitoring frame to the VLAN.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a layer 2 switch (hereinafter, referred to as L2 switch), and in particular to an L2 switch having a VLAN function for configuring a layer 2 network in a star topology, a mesh topology, a ring topology, or the like.
In recent years, as the speed of data communications is increased, demands for a layer 2-based service which is inexpensive and easy to control have been increasing. In the layer 2 service, reliability with assured bandwidth is important in the same way as in, for example, an SDH/SONET transmission apparatus, a WDM apparatus and an ATM apparatus applied in conventional leased line services.
2. Description of the Related Art
The specification of the Ethernet interface is generally a best-effort type. Therefore, in e.g. an Ethernet leased line service using a conventional L2 switch/bridge or a router including a bridge, a frame discard processing occurs unconditionally when a congestion occurs.
Accordingly, it has been required to assure a bandwidth where no congestion occurs in order to guarantee a bandwidth. Also, a link down transfer per user (VLAN) set on an L2 network could not be performed.
Thus, e.g. a layer 2-based Ethernet leased line service has been inadequate for implementation intended for a communication common carrier because the bandwidth could not be effectively utilized and the link down transfer could not be performed.
Therefore, the conventional Ethernet leased line service has been an expensive one composed of two types of platforms including a WDM apparatus, an SDH/SONET transmission apparatus or an ATM apparatus, capable of assuring a bandwidth and highly reliable but highly priced per apparatus, as a relaying apparatus; and an L2 switch/router as an Ethernet interface. Otherwise, the conventional Ethernet leased line service has been a service using a conventional L2 switch/router unable to effectively utilize the bandwidth and impossible to perform a link down transfer.
Moreover, an existing layer 2 switch/router has no function of transferring a link disconnection of an interexchange channel. Accordingly, in order to recognize the disconnection of the interexchange channel, a user himself or herself is required to always confirm the state of the channel by using e.g. a Hello packet or the like.
Namely, problems of e.g. the layer 2-based Ethernet leased line service are that the network is made expensive by using the SDH/SONET transmission apparatus, the ATM apparatus or the WDM apparatus, and that in the layer 2 service applied by the existing communication common carrier, it is unable to effectively utilize the bandwidth and impossible to perform the link down transfer per user (VLAN).


This disclosure may relate to a system and method for calculating the mud angle from a downhole device. A method for estimating a mud angle may comprise: disposing a downhole tool into a borehole; extending an arm of the downhole tool to a first location, wherein a pad is disposed on the arm; taking a first impedance measurement with at least one button electrode, wherein the button electrode is disposed in a button array, wherein the button array is disposed on the pad; extending the arm to a second location; taking a second impedance measurement with the at least one button electrode; transmitting the first measurement and the second measurement to an information handling system; and estimating the mud angle from the first impedance measurement and the second impedance measurement with an information handling system.

Boreholes drilled into subterranean formations may enable recovery of desirable fluids (e.g., hydrocarbons) using a number of different techniques. A downhole tool may be employed in subterranean operations to determine borehole and/or formation properties.
Traditionally, borehole imager tools may be used in obtaining a detailed characterization of reservoirs. These borehole imager tools may provide a resistivity image of the formation immediately surrounding the borehole. In essence, their function is the electrical equivalent of the formation coring, with much higher borehole coverage. Borehole imager tools may be used to determine formation stratigraphy, dips of the formation layers as well as, borehole and formation stress. Borehole imager tools may be particularly important in learning about thin beds and fracture locations. Oil based muds may provide higher performance than the water based muds and may be preferable in deep water environments where high temperature and pressure cause loss of water and in shale zones where water may cause swelling. However, oil based mud may be highly resistive. At low frequencies, this resistance may reduce the sensitivity of the borehole imager tools to the outside formation. To overcome this effect, the tools may operate at high frequencies. At these high frequencies, pads on the borehole imager tools may become capacitively coupled to the formation, reducing the effect of the oil based mud. However, there is an upper limit to the frequencies that may be used, since at very high frequencies the dielectric effect in formations becomes dominant. As a result, the borehole imager tools may operate at multiple frequencies. A final response may be obtained by combining the results where each frequency is most accurate. Although capacitive coupling may reduce the effect of the highly resistive mud, the effect may still be a significant component of the measured impedance. The effect may be larger in low formation resistivities and higher standoffs between the borehole wall and the button arrays of the borehole imager tool (as well as lower frequencies as stated above.) A projection of the measured impedance in a direction orthogonal to the mud impedance may be used to alleviate this issue. This projection may be determined from the phase angle difference between the mud and measured formation impedances.

Calculation of mud angle for imaging wells with oil based muds


Disclosed are a method and apparatus for recovering and/or upgrading hydrocarbons utilizing in situ combustion and horizontal wells. Vertical injection wells are utilized to inject an oxidant into a reservoir for in situ combustion, with the combustion gases vented through vertical wells offset from the injection wells, thus causing the combustion front to travel toward the vertical offset wells. Production of hydrocarbons is through horizontal wells positioned beneath the vertical offset wells. Upgrading occurs when the horizontal wells are shut in and hot fluids injected through the offset wells into hydrocarbons that have accumulated at the bottom of the offset wells.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for the recovery of hydrocarbons. In another aspect, the present invention relates methods and apparatus for the recovery or the upgrading of hydrocarbons utilizing in situ combustion.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many parts of the world reservoirs are abundant in heavy oil and tar sands. For example, those in Alberta, Canada; Utah and California in the United States; the Orinoco Belt of Venezuela; and the U.S.S.R. Such tar sand deposits contain energy potential estimated to be quite great, with the total world reserve of tar sand deposits estimated to be 2,100 billion barrels of oil, of which about 980 billion are located in Alberta, Canada, and of which about 18 billion barrels of oil are present in shallow deposits in the United States.
Conventional recovery of hydrocarbons from heavy oil deposits is generally accomplished by steam injection to swell and lower the viscosity of the crude to the point where it can be pushed toward the production wells. In those reservoirs where steam injectivity is high enough, this is a very efficient means of heating and producing the formation. Unfortunately, a large number of reservoirs contain tar of sufficiently high viscosity and saturation that initial steam injectivity is severely limited, so that very little steam can be injected into the deposit without exceeding the formation fracturing pressure. Most of these tar sand deposits have previously not been capable of economic production.
In steam flooding deposits with low initial injectivity the major hurdle to production is the confinement of steam along preferential flow channels between injection and production wells. Several proposals have been made to provide horizontal wells or conduits within a tar sand deposit to deliver hot fluids such as steam into the deposit, thereby heating and reducing the viscosity of the bitumen in tar sands adjacent to the horizontal well or conduit. U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,557 discloses use of such a conduit with a perforated section to allow entry of steam into, and drainage of mobilized tar out of, the tar sand deposit. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,994,340 and 4,037,658 disclose use of such conduits or wells simply to heat an adjacent portion of deposit, thereby allowing injection of steam into the mobilized portions of the tar sand deposit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,485 discloses a method for continuously producing viscous hydrocarbons by gravity drainage while injecting heated fluids. One embodiment discloses two wells which are drilled into the deposit, with an injector located directly above the producer. Steam is injected via the injection well to heat the formation. A very large steam saturation volume known as a steam chamber is formed in the formation adjacent to the injector. As the steam condenses and gives up its heat to the formation, the viscous hydrocarbons are mobilized and drain by gravity toward the production well (steam assisted gravity drainage or "SAGD"). Unfortunately the SAGD process is limited because the wells must generally be placed fairly close together and is very sensitive to and hindered by the existence of shale layers in the vicinity of the wells. Also, the formation of water-in-oil emulsions which are more viscous than the original bitumen and may slow productivity with steaming methods.
As disclosed by Chu in SPE Paper No. 9772 and SPE Paper No. 9994, the in situ combustion process, ever since its inception in the mid-thirties, has proven to be a significant method for recovering oil, especially heavy oil, and may be undertaken for primary, secondary and tertiary recovery of crude oil, and is employed in situations where the reservoir characteristics and crude oil properties economically justify this recovery approach.
In a conventional in situ combustion process, an oxidant is injected into an input well and combustion is either self-initiated or is initiated by one of many well known methods. It is ideally hoped that the zone of combustion will move as a radial front from the input well and drive the reservoir oil ahead of it to the production well.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,441 to Ware et al., discloses a prior art variation on the conventional in situ combustion recovery process, an in situ hydrogenation process in which the hydrogenation temperature is achieved by means of in situ combustion.
In addition to helping produce hydrocarbons, the in situ combustion process has also been used to upgrade or crack hydrocarbons.
Some crude oils are of such low quality and high viscosity that they are produced only with difficulty at a substantially increased expense over light crudes. And once they are brought to the surface they must be prerefined to reduce asphaltic constituents and inorganic catalyst poisons at a cost amounting to as much as fifty percent of the well head price of the oil in order to put them in condition for conventional refining. It would be economically desirable if such an oil could be pretreated in the reservoir and produced as a prerefined upgraded oil.
Upgrading is a relative term which is used to indicate an increase in both quality and value. The upgraded oil recovered from the reservoir will contain a greater proportion of the more valuable lower boiling distillate material and a smaller amount of the less desired high boiling and asphaltic fractions than the virgin oil and may contain only distillate products.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,332,489 to Morse discloses a process for upgrading oil by in situ combustion, which generally comprises injecting oxidizing gas at a high rate into only the bottom of an oil bearing formation, burning out in situ the upper portion of the formation, reducing the rate of the gas injection to stabilize the combustion front and vaporize an upgraded oil product, transporting the vaporized product through the burned out upper portion of the formation, through perforations adjacent only to the top of the formation and into a remote output well and producing to the surface the fluids entering the output well.
While current methods exist for the recovering and upgrading hydrocarbons which utilize in situ combustion, the current methods suffer from several defects. Most notably, the present in situ combustion methods tend to generate in situ combustion gases faster than they can be vented from the reservoir, thus limiting the rate of combustion propagation. The success of any in situ combustion scheme relies heavily on the ability to consistently and simultaneously produce hydrocarbons and vent in situ combustion gases from the formation. Also, with in situ upgrading, the hydrocarbons surrounding the high temperature region of the combustion front becomes high mobile and generally tends to flow toward the producer before it can be reached by the approaching combustion front and upgraded. As a result, only a very small fraction of the produced oil is submitted to the high temperatures necessary to crack and upgrade the oil.

Recovery and upgrading of hydrocarbon utilizing in situ combustion and horizontal wells


A kit assembly for packing writing utensils and the like comprises a body hingedly connected to a lid member. The body includes a writing utensil which is a mechanical pencil with an integral ball-point pen in one end thereof, a holder for the writing utensil, which holder is fixable at a desired angle, a note holder placed in a binder mechanism holder, and the lid member includes upper and lower packing bodies hingedly connected in a similar manner as mentioned above, upper and lower pocket portions adapted to receive cards, etc., a so-called marker ruler designed to be slidably removable and a holding piece for holding clips, stamps and so on both being disposed on the back sides of the packing bodies. Male and female latch members are formed on the edges of the body and the lid member.

The present invention relates to a novel kit adapted to compactly pack therein various articles such as writing utensils.
Heretofore, various kits have been available for packing therein writing utensils, etc. However, such existing kits are designed to pack therein only a few articles, typically writing utensils. Not until now has there been available a packing kit of a novel structure capable of packing therein various articles including writing utensils.

Kit for packing writing utensils, note pads and other accessories


A glasses apparatus and a controlling method thereof, and a display apparatus are provided. The glasses apparatus is configured to operate with the display apparatus, and includes a communicator configured to perform communication with the display apparatus; an osteophony speaker configured to output audio received from the display apparatus; and a controller configured to control the communicator to receive contents audio from the display apparatus if the display apparatus provides a contents image, and to receive call audio from the display apparatus if the display apparatus performs a call function with an external user, and to output one of the received contents audio and call audio to the osteophony speaker.

1. Field
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the exemplary embodiments relate to a glasses apparatus, a method for controlling the glasses apparatus, and a display apparatus, and more particularly, to a glasses apparatus which performs various operations using an osteophony speaker and a controlling method thereof, an audio apparatus, an audio signal providing method, and a display apparatus thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as various functions (for example, three-dimensional (3D) functions and game functions) are being adopted for display apparatuses, 3D glasses apparatuses are being provided that operate in an interlocked manner with display apparatuses.
Specifically, in the related art, a glasses apparatus may be provided with a speaker or audio output terminal (for example, an earphone terminal etc.), so as to provide various audio such as contents audio or call audio to a user.
However, in the case of providing call audio to a user using a speaker while performing a video call, an echo phenomenon occurs where the call audio is input to the microphone again. In addition, in the case of providing call audio to a user using an earphone, there is a problem that the user may not hear other sounds besides the call audio.
Therefore, there is a need for a way to provide call audio or contents audio to a user by adopting a osteophony speaker in a glasses apparatus so as to perform a video call. In addition, there is required a way for the glasses apparatus to perform various functions using an osteophony speaker.

Glasses apparatus and method for controlling glasses apparatus, audio apparatus and method for providing audio signal and display apparatus


Provided is a tangible, non-transitory, machine readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor effectuates operations including: capturing visual readings to objects within an environment; capturing readings of wheel rotation; capturing readings of a driving surface; capturing distances to obstacles; determining displacement of the robotic device in two dimensions based on sensor readings of the driving surface; estimating, with the processor, a corrected position of the robotic device to replace a last known position of the robotic device; determining a most feasible element in an ensemble based on the visual readings; and determining a most feasible position of the robotic device as the corrected position based on the most feasible element in the ensemble and the visual readings.

Mobile robotic devices are being used with increasing frequency to carry out routine tasks, such as vacuuming, mopping, cutting grass, painting, etc. It may be useful to track the displacement and rotation of a mobile robotic device for reasons such as, accurately generating one or more maps of the environment, accurately locating the position of the robotic device within a map of the environment, and thorough coverage of an environment or area of an environment.

Method for tracking movement of a mobile robotic device


A method for controlling power supply to the liquid contents of a cooking vessel or the like, particularly for controlling the electrical power supply in an induction heating system, wherein a predetermined thermodynamic state is detected and the user is alerted, comprises maintaining a predetermined high power condition after reaching the predetermined thermodynamic state for a predetermined time and then reducing the power supply to a predetermined level.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for controlling power supply to a cooking vessel and the liquid contents thereof, particularly for controlling the electrical power supply in an induction heating system, wherein a predetermined thermodynamic condition, for instance the start of boiling, is detected and the user is alerted.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the technical field of cooking appliances it is well known how to detect the boiling of water and to detect a boil dry condition. Known methods are disclosed in EP 1378807 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,469,282.
Previous methods as disclosed by such documents or used in the market just detect the boiling of water and signal it to the user. If the power is reduced just after the boil detection, the boil conditions deteriorate due to the insertion of food and it takes time for water to boil again. If the power level is never reduced, an excessive amount of steam is produced and too much of energy is spent for a task that could be done by spending much less energy. In order to have an optimum arrangement of power level during cooking, it is required a control system capable of delivering an high power level in order to reduce time for reaching boiling and then reducing the power level when a higher power level is no longer necessary.

Method for controlling power supply to the liquid contents of a cooking vessel


A sheave support system for supporting the sheaves of a multiple sheave assembly relative to a support structure, such as a ski lift tower, which comprises at least two sheave members rotatably mounted on the sheave assembly in spaced parallel relationship for supporting the ski lift cable; at least one main support shaft for movably supporting the sheave assembly relative to the ski lift tower; at least two intermediate support arms mounted on the main support shaft; and at least two intermediate support shafts mounted on opposite ends of the intermediate support arm for rotatably supporting the sheave. The support shaft means comprises a support shaft, a hub member mounted circumjacent the support shaft, and an elastic bushing device mounted between the support shaft and the hub member for connecting the hub member to the shaft member while enabling limited relative rotative movement therebetween of less than approximately 15 degrees and also limiting transmission of vibration therebetween.

Various cable transportation systems, such as chair lifts, gondola lifts, etc. are used to transport skiers from the bottom to the top of a ski run. Such lift apparatus typically comprises spaced tower structures having sheave train assemblies mounted thereon with multiple sheave units for engaging a movable endless haul cable which is driven by suitable drive means at the top and/or bottom of the ski lift. Some sheave units supportively engage the bottom of the cable and other sheave units may depressively engage the top of the cable. Passenger carrying devices such as chairs, gondolas and the like are suitably connected to the haul cable for movement between the bottom and top of the ski run. Such cable transportation systems are often operated in extreme low temperature weather conditions.
In general, the prior art sheave train assemblies comprise a plurality of rotatable sheave members which are rotatably mounted on associated support shaft members by bearing devices with associated lubrication apparatus. Typical sheave train assemblies may comprise 4, 6 or 8 sheave members. Pairs of the sheave members and sheave support shaft members are mounted on opposite ends of sheave support rocker arm apparatus pivotally movable about a central pivot axis. Pairs of the sheave support rocker arm apparatus are pivotally mounted on opposite ends of intermediate pivotal rocker arms which, in turn, may be mounted on a central main pivotal rocker arm. Each rocker arm is pivotally supported by central axle apparatus including grease-type lubrication apparatus. The central axle apparatus comprises a hub member rotatably mounted on a shaft member by axially spaced sleeve-type metallic bearing members with an annular grease chamber therebetween. In order to lubricate the axle assemblies, maintenance personnel must climb the lift towers which is a difficult, laborious procedure. In use, the rocker arm members ordinarily are subject to only very limited pivotal movement of no more than about 10.degree. to 20.degree.. Thus, the lubrication may not be uniformly applied to the entire circumference of the parts subject to relative rotation. Other problems with current apparatus are vibrations and noise created by relative movement between various parts and lack of cushioning between such parts.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide sheave train assembly which requires minimum lubrication with increased durability and decreased wear.
Another object of the invention is to also provide cushioning and vibration dampening means.
Another object of the invention is to reduce cost of construction and maintenance and repair.
In general, the objects of the present invention have been achieved by use of an elastomeric bushing means to couple relatively movable parts without use of lubricant. Each elastomeric bushing means comprise an elastomeric sleeve member mounted in compression in an annular chamber between an outer metallic sleeve member and an inner metallic sleeve member in a manner which enables limited relative arcuate torsional movement therebetween while also absorbing vibration and shock loads and reducing operational noise.

Sheave train assembly for cable transportation systems


A transparent display device includes a color filter substrate, a driving substrate and a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) layer. The color filter substrate includes a substrate, a light shielding structure and a plurality of color filter patterns. The light shielding structure is disposed on the substrate to define a plurality of sub-pixel regions and a blank sub-pixel region of the substrate. The color filter patterns respectively cover the sub-pixel regions of the substrate, but the blank sub-pixel region is not covered by the color filter patterns. The driving substrate corresponds to the color filter substrate. The PDLC layer is interposed between the color filter substrate and the driving substrate.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a transparent display device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a transparent display device including a color filter substrate, a driving substrate and a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) layer.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device may be generally classified into a transmissive LCD device, a reflective LCD device and a transflective LCD device. With the increasing of display device applications, transparent display devices have gradually been developed. A viewer may see not only an image displayed by the transparent display device but also background information behind the transparent display device, and thus heavy sense of the visual is not generated. Such transparent display device may be used in a vehicle windshield or a showcase.
The transparent display device generally includes a LCD panel, a polarizer plate and a backlight module. However, the polarizer plate makes transmittance of the transparent display device be significantly declined. In another aspect, the LCD panel includes a color filter substrate, a driving substrate and a liquid crystal layer, in which each color filter of the color filter substrate has a certain thickness and significantly absorbs light, such that an amount of light out is decreased so as to decrease transmittance of the transparent display device. In view of the above, how to enhance transmittance of a transparent display device becomes an important issue.


A sonar system comprises a transmitter adapted to provide pulse sequences, wherein each of the pulse sequences includes pulses that reflect off an object, a receiver adapted to receive the reflected pulses, and a processor. The processor is configured to transmit a first pulse sequence via the transmitter to obtain a first distance to the object in a first distance range and to transmit a second pulse sequence via the transmitter to obtain a second distance to the object in a second distance range. The processor is configured to transmit the second pulse sequence in response to being unable to obtain the first distance to the object in the first distance range.

Sonar systems are used to detect, navigate, track, classify, and locate objects in water using sound waves. Sonar systems can be used in defense and civilian applications. Military applications include using underwater sound for depth detection, navigation, ship and submarine detection, ranging, tracking, underwater communications, mine detection, and guidance and control. Civilian applications include using underwater sound for depth detection, navigation, object location such as fish finding, bottom topographic mapping, underwater beacons, wave-height measurement, underwater imaging, telemetry and control, underwater communications, ship handling and docking, anti-stranding alerts for ships, and vessel velocity measurement.
A typical active sonar system includes a transmitter to generate sound waves and a receiver to sense reflected sound waves. The transmitter includes a transducer that generates sound waves and the receiver includes a transducer commonly referred to as a hydrophone that receives reflected sound waves. A short burst of energy, referred to as a sonar pulse, is generated by the transmitter. The sonar pulse travels to a target object and is reflected by the target object. The reflected sonar pulse is received by the hydrophone and the sonar system measures the time between the transmitted sonar pulse and the received reflected sonar pulse to determine the distance to the object. Often, each sonar pulse is transmitted, reflected, and received before transmitting another sonar pulse.
Typically, a substantial number of transmissions are needed to enable integration of the reflected sonar pulses and to accurately determine the distance to an object. Transmitting and receiving a substantial number of sonar pulses can be a time consuming process. Also, transmitting a substantial number of sonar pulses may give away the transmitters position, which is unacceptable in some military applications. Other problems encountered include high false alarm rates, inaccuracies, and false measurements. These problems may be due to transmission reverberations being received by the hydrophone and interpreted as reflected sonar pulses or sonar pulses bouncing from the bottom to the surface and back to the bottom, in double and triple bounces, before being received by the hydrophone.
For these and other reasons there is a need for the present invention.

Sonar system having multiple pulse sequences


In 3GPP LTE, user equipment must be able to report reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement to the serving cell's base station. A low-complexity method for asynchronous RSRP measurement in an LTE user equipment receiver is provided which includes frequency shifting the received signal so that the upper or lower half band becomes centered around the DC frequency; decimating the received signal to a width of n·2m samples, n being the reference symbol spacing in the received signal; dividing the samples into n sample vectors with a length of 2m each, superimposing the n sample vectors; and performing FFT operation on the superimposed signal.

FIG. 1 illustrates tasks that have to be performed by the physical layer of telecommunications user equipment (UE) according to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard.
When user equipment (UE) enters an LTE network, it has to perform cell search to detect the cell identifiers (IDs) of potential base stations that are referred to as enhanced node Bs (eNBs) in LTE terminology. Also it has to perform measurements on each detected cell and to report reference signal receive power (RSRP) and related Reference Signal Receive Quality (RSRQ). Once the UE has established a connection to an eNB, data reception is possible, and feedback information sent from the UE to the serving eNB helps to optimally utilize the bandwidth available to the eNB and to satisfy quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. Both feedback information as well as uplink payload data is sent via a "data transmission" block.
As shown in FIG. 1, a typical LTE UE implementation has to comprise computation resources for:                cell search (10): PSS (primary synchronization signal) and SSS (secondary synchronization signal) detection to determine cell IDs;        measurement (12): RSRP (reference signal receive power), RSRQ (reference signal receive quality);        data reception (14): PCFICH (physical control format indicator channel), PHICH (physical hybrid ARQ channel), PDCCH (physical downlink control channel), PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel), PMCH (physical downlink multicast channel);        feedback information computation (16): CQI (channel quality indicator), PMI (precoding matrix index), RI (rank indicator);        data transmission (18): PRACH (physical random access channel), PUCCH (physical uplink control channel), PUSCH (physical uplink shared channel).
According to ETSI TS 136 214 V8.7.0, section 5.1.1, "Reference signal received power (RSRP) is defined as the linear average over the power contributions (in Watts) of the resource elements that carry cell-specific reference signals within the considered measurement frequency bandwidth. For RSRP determination the cell-specific reference signals R0 according to ETSI TS 136 211 V8.9.0, section 6.10.1 shall be used. If the UE can reliably detect that R1 is available it may use R1 in addition to R0 to determine RSRP." ETSI TS 136 211 V8.9.0, section 6.10.1 defines cell-specific reference symbols as shown in FIG. 2. An eNB may utilize 1, 2, or 4 transmit (Tx) antennas, each sending a certain pattern of cell-specific reference symbols. R0 and R1 represent the mapping of reference symbols in a resource block for a first and second Tx antenna, respectively, such as defined by the cited standard for an eNB using two Tx antennas.
Each column in the time-frequency plane corresponds to subcarriers of one OFDM symbol. Each of the two rectangular schemes corresponds to one resource block,i.e.12 subcarriers in frequency direction, and to 1 subframe, i.e. 2 slots, 1 millisecond in time direction, for the case of a normal cyclic prefix duration of 14 OFDM symbols. The shaded squares represent OFDM subcarriers carrying the cell-specific reference symbols, and the blank squares correspond to OFDM subcarriers carrying other kinds of symbols, mostly data symbols. The pattern shown in FIG. 2 is repeated in frequency direction to cover the actual transmission bandwidth. The total number of OFDM subcarriers in frequency direction may be up to 1200, for a system operating at 20 MHz bandwidth. This corresponds to 200 reference symbols in frequency direction, per Tx antenna. It is important to note that, within one OFDM symbol, these reference symbols are spaced equidistantly in frequency direction, respectively, for subcarriers below and above DC.
Since the DC carrier is left empty in LTE downlink signals (see ETSI TS 136 211 V8.9.0, section 6.12), this unused, inserted, DC carrier imposes a discontinuity in the otherwise equidistant reference symbol grid. The pattern illustrated in FIG. 2 is shifted in frequency direction in relation to the cell identifier (ID) associated with an eNB. Also different reference symbol modulation phase sequences are applied in dependence of the cell ID.
The frequency re-use factor in an LTE network is one, i.e., all eNBs operate at the same center frequency. The LTE standard does not foresee exact time synchronization between eNBs. Thus, a UE will receive superimposed signals from multiple base stations, with the respective frame structures mutually shifted in time and with respective reference symbol patterns as shown in FIG. 2 shifted to various positions in frequency direction.
Upon UE request, an eNB may permit a time pattern of so-called measurement gaps, which are intervals where a UE will never have to receive any data, which are left to the UE to be used for purposes like RSRP measurement. Configuration options are either 6 ms gap every 40 ms or 6 ms gap every 80 ms. During the gap duration, a UE implementation may utilize resources which are normally reserved for data reception, for other purposes, such as RSRP measurement. However, under certain circumstances an eNB may deny provision of measurement gaps. In a UE implementation this means that RSRP computation has to be performed concurrently with normal data reception. This means that resources from the data reception path will not be freed, and extra resources will be required for RSRP.
Intra-frequency measurement requirements are defined in ETSI TS 136133 V8.10.0, section 126.96.36.199. In particular, "when no measurement gaps are activated, the UE shall be capable of performing RSRP and RSRQ measurements for 8 identified intra-frequency cells, and the UE physical layer shall be capable of reporting measurements to higher layers with the measurement period of 200 ms". These 8 intra-frequency cells will typically be received at different synchronization times. To avoid inter-symbol interference (ISI), each synchronization time corresponds to a specific sample extraction and FFT. Thus, when the goal is to report one RSRP measurement per subframe (i.e., 8 cells over a period of 8 subframes), 4 extra FFT operations are needed per subframe—to extract reference symbols from 4 OFDM symbols—in addition to the 14 FFT operations needed for data reception of this subframe.
FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a straightforward way to implement RSRP measurement functionality for one receive antenna. Basically, blocks 20 to 28 compute a set of channel estimates across the frequency band, and the results are squared and summed in block 30 in order to obtain a single RSRP value.
When using the straightforward implementation depicted in FIG. 3 for RSRP computation, only up to one third of the OFDM subcarriers are actually used after FFT, namely those which actually carry reference symbols, which is quite inefficient.
Due to LTE requirements, under continuous operation conditions without measurement gaps, a UE implementation will have to utilize dedicated resources for data reception (typically together with feedback information computation), and dedicated resources for measurement.
A problem in the described RSRP measurement is that received signals from eNBs of other cells arrive at various different time synchronizations at the UE, compared to the signal arriving from the serving cell eNB. The signal as received in the user equipment is a superposition of the signals received from all eNBs in the surrounding. To perform measurements on multiple cells, the UE has to process the received signal multiple times, which requires memory for buffering purposes as well as extra processing resources. RSRP measurement results from up to 8 neighboring eNBs must be reported simultaneously with data reception. To save energy, the complexity required for RSRP measurement must be kept low.
An object of the invention, therefore, is to provide a low complexity method for RSRP measurement in an LTE UE receiver.

Method and arrangement for asynchronous RSRP measurement in an LTE UE receiver

Intel Mobile Communications Technology Dresden GmbH


A duty jumping amount at an actual shift-begin point (SB point) during static shifting is calculated dependent on an automatic transmission fluid temperature and a turbine torque. Therefore, an adjustment of hydraulic pressure supplied to an on-coming clutch at the SB point is optimized, and thereby a shift feel of an automatic transmission may be improved.

A typical automatic transmission (AT) includes a torque converter and a powertrain with a multiple speed gear mechanism connected to the torque converter. In addition, a hydraulic control system is provided for selectively operating at least one operational element included in the powertrain, according to the running state of a vehicle.
When it is determined that an upshift is required on the basis of vehicle speed and throttle valve opening, a transmission control unit (TCU) starts upshift control by starting control of a solenoid valve in the AT, which is usually called "shift-start point" and is abbreviated as "SS point". By starting the solenoid valve control, after a certain period, an off-going frictional element begins releasing its hydraulic pressure, and an on-coming element begins to be supplied with a hydraulic pressure, which is usually called "shift-begin point" and is abbreviated as "SB point". The period after the SS point to the SB point becomes a delay period which is not used for an actual shifting operation of the AT. Such a period after the SS point to the SB point is usually called a torque phase.
So, an actual shifting period (also called an inertia phase) of the AT begins at the SB point and finishes at a time point at which the off-going element is fully disengaged and the on-coming element is fully engaged. Such a time point at which the off-going element is fully disengaged and the on-coming element is fully engaged is usually called "shift-finish point" and is abbreviated as "SF point". In this sense, such SB point is understood as an actual shift-begin point at which a shifting operation actually begins.
Generally a vehicle equipped with an AT starts moving forward or rearward by static shifting such as N→D or N→R shifting. Therefore, control of such static shifting is an important part in features of an AT. Regarding conventional duty control in such static shifting, adjustment of a duty begins after a predetermined fill time after an SS point, and the duty is decreased by a predetermined jumping amount at an SB point for enhancing shift feel.
FIG. 1 illustrates a duty control pattern for an on-coming frictional element in the case of a static N-D shifting according to the prior art, and a reducing jumping amount is adopted to enhance a shift feel related to an engagement of an on-coming frictional element. That is, adjustment of a duty begins after a predetermined fill time F after an SS point, and the duty is decreased by a jumping amount Dp at a shift-begin (SB) point for reducing a shift shock. According to such a duty control scheme during static shifting, the duty is controlled in the same manner regardless of whether an accelerator pedal is tipped in.
FIG. 2 illustrates a duty control pattern for an on-coming frictional element in the case of accelerator tip-in during static N-D shifting also according to the prior art. In the case of accelerator tip-in during static shifting, engine torque increases in response to the accelerator operation. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, the same duty jumping amount Dp is applied at the SB point to reduce the duty even though an accelerator is in a tip-in state during static shifting. Accordingly, a turbine speed abruptly increases due to an increased engine torque, and subsequently, the turbine speed abruptly decreases when a target shift-speed is engaged in the AT. Such abrupt changes in the turbine speed imply a shift shock.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Hydraulic control method for an automatic transmission for accelerator tip-in during static shifting and apparatus thereof


A measurement device A includes a display section 10 capable of displaying measurement data obtained by measurement means 12, 13, 14a, a clock function section 16, an event time setting means 14b, 15 capable of setting the time of an event, and an elapsed time display processing means 14c that starts measurement of the elapsed time from the time of the event to the current time when the time of the event is set by the event time setting means and causes the display section 10 to display the elapsed time. With this arrangement, the user does not need to perform a troublesome task of calculating the elapsed time, and the measurement of a sample in a proper period of time after the event is promoted.

An example of conventional measurement device is disclosed in Patent Document 1. The measurement device includes a measurement means capable of measuring a blood glucose level, a means for determining the date and time of the measurement of the blood glucose level, and a display means for displaying the measurement data on the blood glucose level and the data on the measurement date and time. The measurement device further includes an operation means capable of selectively inputting information as to whether the measurement of the blood glucose level is performed before or after a meal. With this arrangement, when the user or a doctor checks the measurement data, the user or the doctor can find whether the measurement data is obtained from measurement performed before or after a meal, which is suitable for proper evaluation of the measurement data.
However, there is still room for improvement in the conventional technique.
Specifically, the user is sometimes instructed by e.g. a doctor to measure the blood glucose level in a predetermined period of time from a meal. However, the above-described measurement device has no function to display the time elapsed from the meal on a screen. Thus, in order for the user to follow the doctor's instruction, the user needs to remember the time at which the user had the meal and calculate how much time has elapsed from the meal based on the time of the meal and the current time. These tasks are troublesome. Further, the user may forget or mistake the time of the meal. In such a case, there is a high possibility that the measurement of the blood glucose level is performed in an improper period of time.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2007-37822


An electronic color filter system for controlling a picture element color signal includes three filter regions which selectively control spectral components of light transmitted sequentially therethrough. Each filter region has a liquid crystal host material and a dye guest component. The orientation of the liquid crystal host, determined by an electric field applied to the filter material, determines the absorption coefficient of the dye guest component to polarized light. By appropriate selection of the guest dye component and control of the electric fields applied to the host liquid crystal, the transmitted light can have a selected radiation spectrum. The transmitted light of a multiplicity of picture elements can be used to provide a full-color visual image display.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices for the display of color information and, more particularly, to multi-color segmented or matrix type displays in which a finite number of discretely addressable picture elements (pixels) are activated in appropriate combination to form a full-color image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Previous segmented or matrix display technologies used for generating full-color alphanumeric, graphic and/or television type video images have relied on additive color synthesis via high-density arrangements of small red (R), green (G), and blue (B) primary color pixels.
Color encoding has become a common feature in visual information displays. Although many types of color display systems and applications presently exist, there are many other potentially useful applications of color which have not been developed due to limitations in existing color display technology. Virtually all existing color displays are additive color systems, in that full color is produced by either the spatial integration of very small primary color points (i.e., very small R, G, and B pixels) or the temporal integration of sequentially presented image fields of alternating primary colors.
Both of these additive approaches to color synthesis have significant limitations. Spatial additive color synthesis requires high pixel density or resolution, since the projected angle substended by of small primary color elements (i.e., R, G, and B pixels) must be encompassed within the spatial integration zones of the human visual system. If primary color elements are too large, then complete color synthesis will fail to occur and color fringes or patterns will be apparent in the image. The requirement for three "populations" of spatially separated primary color elements to produce a full-color image, as in the shadow-mask cathode ray tube, results in a reduction of available image sampling resolution of the display device. For applications requiring full color and very high image resolution, such as systems for the display of sensor video information, spatial additive approaches to color synthesis are generally not feasible due to the resultant losses in image sampling resolution. In addition, many applications for color information displays require only low image resolution, such as color-coded alphanumeric or symbolic displays. For low-resolution displays, spatial additive color technology is generally not appropriate since relatively high pixel resolution or density is required for adequate color synthesis even though image resolution requirements are substantially lower. High pixel density usually incurs high cost, and many potentially useful applications of color in low resolution displays remain undeveloped due to the relatively high cost of spatial additive color display technology.
Temporal color synthesis does not rely on three "populations" of spatially separated R, G, and B pixels to produce a full-color image, but rather achieves color synthesis by rapid sequential alternation of primary color images. This approach to color synthesis does not degrade image resolution, as does spatial color synthesis. Full color control is effectively achieved at each individual image pixel. Temporal synthesis is generally implemented by a broad-band image forming source passing light sequentially in time through three color filters (typically R, G, and B). The image forming source must be synchronized with the three color filters such that appropriate parts of the image with an intended color are displayed while the respective filter or filters are in front of the image forming source. The most popular implementations of such "frame-sequential" color display systems are typified by the use of a cathode ray tube with a broad-band phosphor (i.e., emitting white light) as the image forming source and a rotating color wheel containing R, G, and B filters as the color rendering component. More recently, the color wheel has been replaced by a non-mechanical component consisting essentially of a liquid crystal (LC) switchable optical polarizer and several layers of polarized color filter films.
The disadvantages of color display systems which utilize temporal color synthesis (i.e., frame-sequential color mixing) are rooted in the fact that, in such systems, the individual primary color image fields are separated in time and are only present for one third of the total display viewing period. Since three color image fields must be presented in the same amount of time as a single field in a spatial additive color display or a monochromatic display, frame-sequential displays require an extremely high system bandwidth in order to produce a full-color image at a refresh rate high enough to minimize observable flicker. Even with high system bandwidths and full-color refresh rates equivalent to monochromatic or spatial additive color displays (i.e., three times the refresh rates of non-frame-sequential displays), frame-sequential color displays are prone to image flicker due to the luminance modulation existing between sequential color image fields. A more important limitation of the temporal synthesis approach to color mixture, however, is that mixture colors are often observed to smear or separate into their individual primary color image components during motion of either the displayed image or the observer's eyes.
A need has therefore been felt for color display apparatus that overcomes the problems created by the use of additive techniques.

Apparatus and method for an electronically controlled color filter for use in information display applications


A method of playing a wagering game on an electronic gaming system provides:                i) an image of a virtual playing card having frames within m columns and n rows wherein each of m and n are at least 3;        ii) providing a random distribution of individual numbers within the frames, the individual numbers selected from within a complete defined set of numbers;        iii) recognizing a wager;        iv) selecting a second set of numbers smaller than the complete defined set;        v) identifying on the monitor selected numbers matching individual random numbers within the frames;        vi) identifying when consecutive frames have at least p matched individual random numbers within frames in a column, row or diagonal;        vii) resolving the at least wager such that a) when matched individual random numbers do or do not form at least p adjacent frames.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of wagering games, particularly wagering games in which random selections are distributed onto a defined field according to the number or symbol of the selection, particularly as in bingo or keno.
2. Background of the Art
In the gaming industry, the underlying basis of all games is the provision of random events having determinable measures of outcomes. Wagers are placed against specific outcomes, and those wagers are resolved based upon the final or intermediate outcome of events. Many different gaming elements are used to provide the random outcome of events, including but not limited to playing cards, dice, roulette wheels, candy wheels, random ball selection, and since the introduction of processors to the gaming industry, random event generation through random number generator. The use of random number generators and processors has enabled the generation of random symbols and numbers corresponding to the physical objects traditionally used in wagering games such as the dice, playing cards, roulette wheels and random ball selection (as in bingo and keno). The addition of processors enables more rapid play, and more ability to design variations in game play than with purely physical systems. Many different and new forms of wagers can also be provided and more quickly resolved by the processor than by croupier or dealer manual resolution.
Basically, players buy cards with numbers on them in a 5×5 grid corresponding to the five letters in the word B-I-N-G-O. Numbers such as B-2 or 0-68 are then drawn at random (out of a possible 75 in American Bingo, and 90 in British and Australian Bingo) until one player completes a 'Bingo' pattern, such as a line with five numbers in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal row on one of their cards and wins the prize. There are many possible patterns to play for. There are some variants of Bingo that use 3×3 playing cards.
A bingo Card contains 24 numbered spaces and one free space (blank), with which you play BINGO. The numbers are assigned at random on each card and are arranged in five columns of five numbers each by five rows (5×5=25 in total including the blank square).
The numbers in the B column are between 1 and 15, in the I column between 16 and 30, in the N column (containing four numbers and the free space) between 31 and 45, in the G column between 46 and 60, and in the O column between 61 and 75.
Players have thousands of unique (unduplicated) cards to choose from. Some manufacturers print unduplicated series of 6,000 cards. There are also series of 9,000 cards available. Hard cards and Flimsy cards have a series number printed on them. For example, card number 1252 will always have the same numbers in the same spaces.
Among the variants of Bingo that have been suggested in the art are the following. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20060160603 (Lulek) discloses a video gaming system that combines multi-card bingo play with familiar and desirable entertainment elements such as spinning reels with fruit or other symbols. The game programming produces multiple bingo card representations on monitors at a plurality of game terminals. Drawn numbers ("balls") are displayed one after another. An eight card bingo game pays a prize for a bingo win achieved on a card when less than a predetermined number of balls have been drawn and also when a cover-all or other predetermined game-ending pattern is achieved on a card that has not previously provided a prize affording win. A nine card eight line game displays bingo cards in a three-by-three grid. Prizes are awarded for pre-selected bingo wins accomplished in one of eight three-in-a-row patterns of cards running horizontally, vertically or diagonally. In the nine card, eight line game each winning card is associated with a symbol representative of the bingo win. The symbol is presented by a representation of a spinning reel coming to rest at that symbol.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20040121834 (Libby) discloses a lottery bingo system graphically portraying an animated bingo game. The lottery system includes a bingo game generator which comprises an animation drawing subsystem. The animation drawing subsystem retrieves bingo call video segments corresponding to a sequence of drawn bingo numbers randomly drawn for a bingo game after dispensing of bingo tickets for the bingo game is ended, and compiles the bingo call video segments into a bingo game video.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,070,161 (Ward) describes wagering systems using a game ball has two different game indicia associated therewith. One or more of such game balls may be part of a set of game balls, such as a set of balls used to play a bingo, keno or lottery game where the game indicia may comprise numbers used to play lottery or keno, or combinations of letters and numbers for play of a bingo game. Compared to game balls bearing a single game indicia, selection of a game ball bearing multiple game indicia presents a player with an increased or bonus matching opportunity. The game balls may be physical elements or be electronic representations, such as displayed images, thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,002,623 (Resnick) provides methods and devices for presenting a plurality of game elements on one or more display devices. The game elements may comprise, for example, bingo cards, playing cards, hands of playing cards, etc. Some implementations of the invention involve displaying a plurality of game elements as surfaces of a three-dimensional object. Preferably, the orientation of the three-dimensional object can be varied to display selected game elements. The game elements may be selected by a player and/or by a logic device. In some implementations, the three-dimensional object comprises a "carousel" that can be re-oriented (e.g., rotated) to display game elements.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,794,319 and 7,481,707 (Luciano) disclose a system and method for generating bingo game bonuses that are non-banked, for use with pooled bingo games. The system generates pools of money for use in bingo games by deducting a percentage of the amount used to purchase bingo cards (in the present invention, virtual bingo cards). Each bingo game automatically enrolls active players in one or more bonus games, exemplified by "4 corners," where the amounts to be given away to players as bonuses are calculated to be equal, over time, to the amount taken in from players buying bingo cards. The house has no stake in the bonus awards.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,565,091 (Weingardt) describes a bingo game in which bingo numbers are assigned to at least five different groups. The groups are preferably identified by color, and the size of the groups preferably vary, with the result that a bingo consisting of a combination of numbers from the smallest group will be harder to achieve than a bingo consisting of a combination of numbers from a larger group. The jackpot sizes will vary in relation to the difficulty of achieving a particular bingo. The group sizes are within certain preferred ranges, designed to minimize the risk of premature bingos and thus to increase jackpot size and player excitement. Preferably, image type indicia are also added to certain of the numbers, creating additional bingo combinations and jackpot opportunities.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,695,361 (Lind) describes determination of a pattern probability by for each of a number of target patterns achievable in a bingo-type game. Each pattern probability comprises a probability of achieving the respective target pattern in the bingo-type game. Different pattern sets are then associated with each different prize level in a desired prize distribution. The target patterns and their respective pattern probabilities are assigned or mapped to the different pattern sets so that the probability of achieving any target pattern included in a pattern set comprises a value approximating the desired probability of the prize level with which the pattern set is associated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,002 (Faciglia) describes a device for playing a bingo-style game including an input device for receiving user inputs; a display for displaying a graphic user interface (GUI); and a processor. The GUI includes a five column by five row random number display matrix; five display regions; and a plurality of user-actuatable icons. The processor includes a first random number generator for generating five sets of random numbers for display by the five column by five row random number display matrix, in which the five sets of random numbers are grouped in predetermined ranges. The processor also includes a second random number generator which responds to the user inputs corresponding to actuation of the actuation icon by the user for generating a sixth set of random numbers for display by the five display regions. The processor compares the sixth set of random numbers displayed in the five display regions with the numbers in the columns of the display matrix, and allows the processor to automatically cover the matching number in the display matrix. The processor determines whether the display matrix has five numbers covered in a row, in a column, or in a diagonal, and generates a bingo indication signal for indicating a bingo condition.


To receive new services including audio or video content for presentation by a cable-compatible digital television or other digital audio/video receiver, a module may be connected to the HOST-POD interface of the digital television. The module has a receiver for receiving audio or video content in a first compression format, a transcoder for converting said audio or video content from the first compression format into a second, different compression format, and a controller for transmitting the audio or visual content in the second compression format to the digital television over a HOST-POD interface. By using such a module, front-end components of the digital television may be bypassed while back-end components may be utilized to decompress and present the content. The module may be a PC card or smart card for example.

In the United States, the Telecommunications Acts of 1992 and 1996 require that cable subscribers be given the option of owning the equipment required to receive cable services. To support competition in the market for so-called "host" devices (i.e. DTV receivers such as set-top boxes or integrated digital televisions), a Report and Order of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted on Sep. 10, 2003 and released on Oct. 9, 2003 entitled "Second Report and Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" (referred to as the "Digital Cable Plug and Play Report and Order"), which is available at World Wide Web address hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-03-225A1.pdf and is hereby incorporated by reference hereinto, requires that cable operators make available security modules which are separable from host devices.
To satisfy the government's separable security requirements and to enable retail availability of host devices, point-of-deployment (POD) modules have been developed. A POD module (also known as a "POD security module" or simply a "POD") is a hardware device (with embedded firmware) provided by a cable provider which is intended to be plugged into a host device (or simply "HOST") to facilitate the display of digital television programs that are otherwise protected by the cable provider's conditional access (CA) scrambling system. When a POD module is plugged into a host device designed to receive such a module, subscribers are able to view the secure digital video services and/or listen to audio services for which they have subscribed, which services may include premium subscription channels. POD modules are sometimes referred to by the trademark CableCARD™. Physically, a POD module may be a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) card or a smart card device, both of which are approximately the same size as a credit card (although PCMCIA cards are thicker than a credit card). PCMCIA card are now also referred to as PC Cards. Specifically, a PC Card is 85.00 millimeters (mm) long (±0.10 mm), 54.00 mm wide (±0.20 mm), and has a 68-pin connector (two rows of 34 pins). A smart card (based on ISO 7810) is 85.72 mm long and 54.03 mm wide. A smart card may have a either 6-pin connector comprising Vcc, reset, clock ground, Vpp, and I/O, or an 8-pin connector comprising Vcc, reset, clock, Reserved, ground, Vpp, I/O, and Reserved.
POD modules serve two functions. First, the POD module acts as a descrambler, allowing the cable provider to be assured that the host device at the subscriber premises is a secure device without which scrambled content will be unviewable. Second, the POD module acts as a translator between the possibly varying out-of-band (OOB) protocols used on different cable provider networks and a single protocol (described below) that is expected by the host device. In other words, by virtue of the POD translation, the host device is only required to understand a single protocol, regardless of the OOB protocol (s) that may be operative on the cable provider network to which the host device is connected. Thus in the event of switching between cable providers or moving between different geographical areas, a subscriber should be able to continue using the same host device, provided that a new POD module is obtained from the new cable provider and plugged into to the host device. As well, this arrangement permits a cable provider to upgrade its network head-end without having to replace numerous set-top boxes at subscriber premises. The cable operator need only provide replacement POD modules in the event of an upgrade.
In a typical arrangement, a cable provider receives programming from various sources at its head-end and assigns it to channels. As defined in the American Nation Standards Institute/Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (ANSI/SCTE) 40 2004 Digital Cable Network Interface Specification standard, each channel is a unique 6 megahertz (MHz) section of the cable provider's bandwidth which in turn carries either a modulated digital signal that has been encoded to the Forward Application Transport (FAT) channel format or a modulated analog signal that has been encoded to the National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) format. At present, the FAT channel format specifies the use of ANSI/SCTE 54 2004 Digital Video Service Multiplex and Transport System Standard for Cable Television standard as the transport stream layer protocol for the digital signal. They are available at www.scte.org/documents/pdf/ANSISCTE402004.pdf and www.scte.org/documents/pdf/ANSISCTE542004DVS241.pdf respectively and are each hereby incorporated by reference hereinto. The numerous 6 MHz channels are then transmitted over cables simultaneously to subscribers in the form of an analog radio frequency (RF) signal.
The ANSI/SCTE 54 2004 standard further specifies the use of the MPEG-2 standard for transport stream formatting and video compression and the Audio Codec-3 (AC-3) standard for audio compression. MPEG-2 is a well-known video compression and transport standard developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group of the International Standards Organization and International Electrotechnical Committee Joint Technical Committee 1 Subcommittee 29 (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29). AC-3 is well-known audio compression standard developed in the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) A/52B Digital Audio Compression (AC-3) (E-AC3) Standard. AC-3 is also referred to a Dolby® Digital which is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. The AC-3 standard is available at www.atsc.org/standards/a—52b.pdf and is hereby incorporated by reference hereinto.
At the host device, an RF signal is received by a tuner within the host device. Depending upon the television channel selected by the subscriber (e.g. via a handheld remote control device), the tuner isolates one of the 6 MHz channels comprising the received signal and converts it to a fixed lower frequency. The output of the tuner is an analog signal representative of the tuned channel. This is referred to as a Forward Application Transport (FAT) channel.
The FAT channel is presented to a Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) demodulator within the host device. As is known in the art, a QAM demodulator converts the analog FAT channel to a baseband ANSI/SCTE 54 transport stream, which is a stream of (digital) packets. A subset of the packets of this stream represent the program content that is to be viewed by the subscriber (with the remaining packets consisting of control packets, "metadata" packets containing information about the network, and possibly other program content, as will be described).
In order to prevent unauthorized viewing of subscription channels, programs transmitted by way of ANSI/SCTE 54 transport streams are typically scrambled by the cable provider using a conditional access scrambling system. This is typically done for all but basic tier cable channels. The term "scrambling" is a legacy term which historically describes a technique developed in the 1970s whereby an analog cable television channel was reduced to a jumbled set of video images through removal of a synchronization signal or insertion of an interfering signal at the network head-end. In the digital ANSI/SCTE 54 transport stream, it is more accurate to refer to a program as being "encrypted" rather than "scrambled", since digital encryption techniques (not the above-described approach) are now employed to encrypt packets. However, the term "scrambled" is still commonly used to refer to this network head-end encryption, and the term "descramble" is still used to describe decryption of this encrypted program.
An ANSI/SCTE 54 transport stream having scrambled content is forwarded to the POD module via the "HOST-POD interface." The HOST-POD interface is also known as the CableCARD™-HOST interface. The HOST-POD interface is an interface governed by a standard known as the ANSI/SCTE 28 2004 HOST-POD Interface Standard. This standard defines the physical interface, signal timing, link interface and application interface of the HOST-POD interconnection (i.e. the interconnection between the POD module and the host device). The ANSI/SCTE 28 2004 HOST-POD Interface Standard is available at www.scte.org/documents/pdf/ANSISCTE282004.pdf, and is hereby incorporated by reference hereinto.
Assuming that a POD module is plugged into the HOST-POD interface of host device, the ANSI/SCTE 54 transport stream output by the QAM demodulator will be received at the POD module. At the POD module, two steps are performed. First, the scrambled program within the ANSI/SCTE 54 transport stream received from the host device is descrambled (i.e. decrypted). Second, the content is "copy protection" (CP+) re-encrypted and is provided back to the host device over the HOST-POD interface. The purpose of this re-encryption is to avoid unencrypted content from being transmitted, and possibly intercepted or copied, between the POD module and the host device. Re-encryption may be performed using the Data Encryption Standard (DES). DES is a method of data encryption which uses a private (secret) key that must be known and used by both the sender and the receiver of the data. DES is defined in the withdrawn U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 46-3 (Electronic Code Book mode of operation). It is available at csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips46-3/fips46-3.pdf and is hereby incorporated by reference hereinto. Packets representing minor channels that are not currently being viewed are passed from the POD module back to the host device unaltered.
At the host device, the CP+ encrypted ANSI/SCTE 54 transport stream is received at a transport demultiplexer. Using the appropriate key, the transport stream is decrypted, and elementary audio and video streams of the tuned channel are extracted and forwarded to audio and MPEG-2 video decoders, still in compressed form. The audio and MPEG-2 video decoders decompress the streams. Once decompressed, audio samples may be forwarded to an audio enhancement processor, which can enhance the samples in various ways, e.g. by applying Dolby Virtual Speaker™ technology, surround sound technology, or by performing sample rate conversion, before the samples are ultimately converted to sound by speakers. Dolby® Virtual Speaker™ technology is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. Decompressed video frames, on the other hand, may be forwarded to a video and graphics post-processor, which can process the video frames/fields in various ways, e.g. by performing color management and contrast control, before they are ultimately displayed as images on a screen. For certainty, "video" refers to the program being watched, while "graphics" refers to, e.g., closed captioning, which is blended into the video.
In addition to stipulating that cable-compatible DTVs are to have a HOST-POD interface, the Digital Cable Plug and Play Report and Order also stipulates that cable-compatible DTVs are to have Digital Visual Interface (DVI) or High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI™) connectors, e.g. on the rear panel of the DTV device. The term HDMI™ is trademarked by HDMI Licensing, LLC. The purpose of these connectors is to permit devices that generate digital audio/video signals, such as Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) players for example, to be connected to the DTV, for purposes of presenting the generated digital audio/video signals at the DTV without any need for digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion (which could result in image and/or sound quality degradation). The United States government is increasing the percentage of televisions through government mandates such as the FCC's Digital Cable Plug and Play Report and Order. In order to be labelled as "Digital Cable Ready", a television will be required to have such interfaces over the coming years. Ultimately, each DTV will have either a DVI connector or an HDMI™ connector. For clarity, the term "DVI/HDMI™ connector" is used herein to refer to either one of these types of connectors.
In a DTV having a DVI/HDMI™ connector, the received signal is an uncompressed video signal, in accordance with the DVI and/or HDMI™ specifications. Signals carried over the HDMI™ connector can also transport uncompressed or compressed audio signals while simultaneously transporting uncompressed video signals. The DVI specification was developed by Digital Display Working Group and can be found at ddwg.org/lib/dvi—10.pdf. The HDMI™ specification is developed by the HMDI Licensing, LLC and can be found at www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/specification.asp. Accordingly, the received digital audio/video signals bypass the above-described audio and video decoders, which perform decompression, as well as the transport demultiplexer. Instead, the digital audio and video signals received at the DVI/HDMI™ connector may be communicated directly to the audio decoder (in the case of compressed audio) or audio enhancement processor (for uncompressed audio), while digital video signals are communicated directly to the video and graphics post-processor, respectively.
If an enterprise other than a cable provider, such as a telecommunications service provider, is desirous of providing new services (e.g., new audio and/or visual content) for presentation at a cable compatible DTV having a DVI/HDMI™ connector, that enterprise faces a dilemma. On one hand, if it is desired for the new service to be received at the DVI/HDMI™ connector, it would be necessary to transmit the relevant video signals in an uncompressed state, which would disadvantageously consume large amounts of bandwidth and therefore limit the amount of content which could be provided. On the other hand, if it is desired for the new service to be received at the existing cable input to the DTV device, this may be technologically infeasible because the modulation, and tuning schemes of the enterprise may be incompatible with those of the cable provider and because the physical medium of the enterprise may be something other than a coaxial cable.
A provider of new services could develop a standalone set-top box which decompresses new programming and sends it to the DTV in uncompressed form via a DVI/HDMI™ connector for display. However a dedicated set-top box is expensive to develop and disadvantageously introduces yet another device into the large set of audio/video components that may already exist in the typical home.

Method and apparatus for using the host-pod interface of a digital television or other digital audio/video receiver for new services


A multiple light source unit includes a plurality of light sources for emitting light beams. There is a condensing lens and the light beams are parallel to an optical axis of the condensing lens. Included is a mirror for directing the light beams from the plurality of light sources to the condensing lens. A light guiding element for receiving the condensed light beams through a light receiving section and for emitting the light beams through a light emitting section is also provided. The light beams from the plurality of light sources are incident, through respective positions on the condensing lens, into the light receiving section of the light guiding element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multiple light source unit and an optical system using the same, and more particularly to a light source apparatus for converting light beams emitted from a plurality of light sources into a single light beam to be emitted from a specific position. For example, the multiple light source unit is used in a particle analyzing apparatus for radiating light onto a particle flowing in a fluid for detection of its scattered light or transmitted light and for capturing an image of the particle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional multiple light source apparatus is known in which light beams emitted from a plurality of laser light sources are converted into light beams having a common optical axis by means of a half mirror (See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. SHO 56(1981)-67756).
However, such a conventional light source apparatus lacks compactness and also requires a cumbersome adjustment. Moreover, loss of light due to the half mirror is inevitable. Further, if an image is captured using laser light, there are generated interference fringes, Fresnel diffraction, Fraunhofer diffraction, and the like due to coherence of the laser light with respect to space and time, thereby degrading an image quality.
On the other hand, the properties required in a light source are as follows:
(A) High uniformity of radiation intensity, PA1 (B) High electro-optical energy-conversion efficiency, PA1 (C) Small size and small weight, PA1 (D) Facility in handling emitted light, and PA1 (E) High output stability and less change with time.
However, these properties are contradictory to each other as shown below.
(A) High uniformity of radiation intensity
A high uniformity of radiation intensity in a field of view means that the coherence is sufficiently low. Therefore, the high uniformity in the radiation light intensity cannot be obtained unless a light beam of a specific angle emitted from a light source having a sufficiently low coherence is used.
(B) High electro-optical energy conversion efficiency
A light source having a high energy-conversion efficiency means a light source having a high coherence. This is contradictory to the property of (A). The reason is that uniformity in the radiation light intensity cannot be obtained unless a light source having a sufficiently low coherence, i.e. a light source having a low electro-optical conversion efficiency, is used.
Moreover, the fact that only a specific light beam from the light source can be used further decreases the conversion efficiency. The electro-optical conversion efficiency of a halogen lamp, a xenon lamp, or a flash lamp to be used as a microscope light source is typically several percent, and the amount of light actually used for capturing images is less than 1%. On the other hand, it is well known in the art that a coherent light source such as represented by a semiconductor laser has a conversion efficiency of 10 to 40%. However, if a light source having a high coherence is used as a light source for capturing images, it is not possible to obtain a clear image due to an influence of diffraction, interference, speckles, or the like.
(C) Small size and small weight
A small size means use of a coherence light source having a high electro-optical energy-conversion efficiency shown in (B). However, this is contradictory to the property of (A). Moreover, it is necessary to compactly arrange optical elements including light source elements and coherence reducing elements, without creating a dead space.
(D) Facility in handling emitted light
This means that the light source has a precise optical axis to be handled with high precision. Therefore, it is necessary that all the light beams from the light source are concentrated within a specific angle range.
(E) High output stability and less change with time
High output stability and less change with time mean adoption of a small and thermally stable structure having a high electro-optical conversion efficiency.
Therefore, light sources including a laser and an SLD can satisfy the items (B), (C), and (D), but not the item (A); whereas incandescent light sources can satisfy the property (A) under limited conditions, but not the other items.

Multiple light source unit and optical system using the same


Integrated opto-electronic oscillators that use micro resonators in the optical section of the opto-electronic feedback loop.

This application relates to oscillators including opto-electronic oscillators.
An opto-electronic oscillator (OEO) may be designed to include at least one closed loop to generate a desired oscillation signal. Some examples of such an OEO are described in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,723,856 to Yao and Maleki, U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,778 to Yao, U.S. Pat. No. 5,929,430 to Yao and Maleki, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,436 to Yao, Maleki, and Ilchenko. In these examples, an OEO includes an electrically controllable optical modulator and at least one active opto-electronic feedback loop that comprises an optical part and an electrical part interconnected by a photodetector. The opto-electronic feedback loop receives the modulated optical output from the modulator and converted it into an electrical signal to control the modulator. The loop produces a desired delay and feeds the electrical signal in phase to the modulator to generate and sustain both optical modulation and electrical oscillation in radio frequency spectrum when the total loop gain of the active opto-electronic loop and any other additional feedback loops exceeds the total loss.
OEOs use optical modulation to produce oscillations in frequency spectral ranges that are outside the optical spectrum, such as in the RF and microwave frequencies. The generated oscillating signals are tunable in frequencies and can have narrow spectral linewidths and low phase noise in comparison with the signals produced by other RF and microwaves oscillators. Notably, the OEOs are optical and electronic hybrid devices and allow for both electrical and optical outputs which can be used for versatile applications.
The optical part of the opto-electronic feedback loop can include an optical delay element to produce an optical delay which constitutes a part of or the majority of the total delay produced by the feedback loop. The optical delay element can be implemented in various configurations. Notably, a high-Q optical resonator may be used as the optical delay element and be disposed in the optical part of the opto-electronic feedback loop or in another optical feedback loop coupled to the opto-electronic feedback loop, to provide a sufficiently long energy storage time and an optical filtering mechanism to produce an oscillation of a narrow linewidth and low phase noise. The mode spacing of the optical resonator is equal to one mode spacing, or a multiplicity of the mode spacing, of the opto-electronic feedback loop. In addition, the oscillating frequency of the OEO is equal to one mode spacing or a multiple of the mode spacing of the optical resonator. The above cited U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,436 describes examples of OEOs with at least one optical resonator in the optical part of the opto-electronic feedback loop.
The optical resonator may be implemented in a number of configurations, including, e.g., a Fabry-Perot resonator, a fiber ring resonator, and an optical resonator operating in one or more whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) such as microsphere, microdisk, and microring WGM resonators. In particular, non-spherical WGM resonators may be used. These and other optical resonator configurations can reduce the physical size of the OEOs and allow integration of an OEO with other photonic devices and components in a compact package such as a single semiconductor chip.