There is provided an image processing apparatus comprising an image signal generator having a first processing unit for processing the image signal in a first mode and generating a first processed signal, a discriminator for discriminating characteristics of the image signal, the discriminator having a selector for selecting the first processed signal according to a discrimination result; and a pulse width modulated signal generator for processing the first processed signal from the selector by using a pattern signal and for generating a pulse width modulated signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for reproducing an image of high quality.
2. Related Background Art
Dither and density pattern methods using a threshold matrix have been known as typical conventional methods of binarizing images including halftone areas. If an image consisting of a character/line image and a halftone image is binarized, the character/line image is partially omitted. Even if a screen dot image is binarized, a moire pattern is formed by a beat between the periodic dot pattern and the periodic threshold matrix pattern, thus greatly degrading the image quality.


A miniaturised half-wave balun comprises a single-ended I/O port comprising a first signal carrying terminal for connection to a source impedance and a differential I/O port comprising second and third signal carrying terminals for connection to a load impedance. First and second transmission line sections of equal length and characteristic impedance are connected together at a common end and at opposite ends to the second and third terminals. The first signal carrying terminal is coupled to the first transmission line section. The combined length of the first and second transmission line sections is substantially less than one half of the wavelength of an RF signal at the operating frequency. First and second loading shunt capacitors are connected to respective first and second transmission line sections. A shunt capacitive element is connected at the common end of the transmission line sections. The capacitance of the shunt capacitive element is chosen so that the common mode impedance of said differential I/O port at a selected frequency is substantially zero Ohms.

Conventional electronic circuits for RF and telecommunications applications comprise one or more input ports to which input RF signals of the electronic circuit are fed, and one or more output ports from which output RF signals of the electronic circuit are emitted. Single-ended input/output ports have a pair of connection terminals: a signal terminal and a ground terminal, where the input and output RF signals of the electronic circuit are carried on the signal terminal and where the ground terminal provides a reference against which the RF signal on the signal terminal is defined.
In RF and telecommunications applications it is sometimes preferable to employ electronic circuits where the input/output (hereinafter referred to as I/O) ports of the device comprise a pair of signal carrying terminals where each terminal carries part of an input or output electrical signal of the electronic circuit.
The pair of RF signals carried on each terminal described above can be individually referenced to ground, or can be described mathematically as a linear combination of two signals: a differential mode signal and a common mode signal. A differential mode signal is divided between two terminals so that the amplitude of the signal on each terminal is the same, and so that there is a phase difference of 180° between both signals; thus the two parts of a differential signal carried on a pair of terminals are out of phase. A common mode signal is divided across two terminals so that the amplitude of the signal on each terminal is the same, and so that both signals are in phase; thus the two parts of a common mode signal carried on a pair of terminals are identical.
RF circuits comprising a pair of signal carrying terminals for each I/O port of the circuit are usually designed to process differential signals and are usually referred to as differential circuits. Sometimes RF circuits comprising a pair of signal carrying terminals for each I/O port of the circuit are referred to as "balanced circuits".
Differential mode signals are less susceptible to noise than common mode signals and consequently circuits designed to accept differential mode signals are often preferred for applications where a very high signal to noise ration is required. However, it is sometimes more practical to realize a particular device in a single-ended topology (for example single-ended antennae are often preferred to balanced antennae). A device which can convert a single ended signal to a differential mode signal is referred to as a balun.
The simplest type of balun is the half-wave balun. FIG. 1 shows a prior art half-wave balun 10, comprising a single-ended I/O port P1, and a differential I/O port P2. The balun has an operating band characterized by a lower frequency limit FL and an upper frequency limit FU. I/O port P1 comprises a signal carrying terminal T1, and I/O port P2 comprises a pair of signal carrying terminals T2 and T3. Signal carrying terminal T1 is connected to a circuit node 13, which is also connected to signal carrying terminal T2, and which is connected to signal carrying terminal T3 via a length of transmission line 14 with an electrical length E of 180° at the centre frequency of the operating band of the balun.
An RF signal which is incident on terminal T1 is divided into two parts with the same amplitude at circuit node 13, one part of the RF signal is fed directly to terminal T2 and another part of the RF signal is fed to terminal T3 via transmission line 14 so that the RF signals which are emitted at terminals T2 and T3 will have the same amplitude, and will have a phase difference of 180° at the centre of the operating band of the balun. Thus, it is apparent that the half-wave balun of FIG. 1 has the required properties, i.e. a single ended signal incident at I/O port P1 will be emitted as a differential mode signal from I/O port P2 and a differential mode signal incident at I/O port P2 will be emitted as a single ended signal from I/O port P1.
The half-wave balun of FIG. 1 has the drawback of being very large at the operating frequencies of typical commercial cellular and W-LAN applications. For example, at an operating frequency of 2.45 GHz, the centre of the band specified in IEEE 802.11b/g for W-LAN applications, a half wavelength transmission line will have a length of 61.22 mm in air and will have an electrical length given by the expression below for a transmission line fabricated in a dielectric material.
                    λ        2                          f      =              2.45                                                  GHz              =            61.22                        ɛ          r                                            mm                  where ∈r is the relative dielectric constant of the material.
Other balun designs have been proposed for applications requiring a compact solution.
FIG. 2 shows a Marchand balun with capacitive loading at the input and output terminals such as that disclosed in "A semi-lumped balun fabricated by low temperature co-fired ceramic"; Ching-Wen Tang, Chi-Yang Chang; 2002 IEEE MTT Symposium Digest, Volume: 3, pp: 2201-2204. A similar balun is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,483,415, "Multi-layer LC resonance balun", Tang. The Marchand balun 20 of FIG. 2 comprises a first pair of coupled transmission line sections 23A and 23B and a second pair of coupled transmission line sections 24A, 24B where each of transmission line sections 23A, 23B and 24A, 24B has substantially the same electrical length and where the even mode and odd mode impedances of first pair of coupled transmission line sections 23A and 23B are substantially the same as the even mode and odd mode impedances of second pair of coupled transmission line sections 24A and 24B. The Marchand balun 20 of FIG. 2 further comprises a single-ended I/O port P1 comprising a signal carrying terminal T1 connected to an end of coupled transmission line section 23A, and differential I/O port P2 comprising a pair of signal carrying terminals T2 and T3 connected to ends of coupled transmission line sections 23B and 24B as shown in FIG. 2. Loading capacitors 26, 27, 28 and 29 are also connected to ends of coupled transmission line sections 23A, 23B and 24A, 24B as shown in FIG. 2. The effect of loading capacitors 26, 27, 28 and 29 being to allow the use of coupled transmission line sections which have an electrical length E which is less than 90° at the centre of the operating band of the balun 20.
FIG. 3 shows an LC balun according to FIG. 1C of U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,299: "Multilayered balance-to-unbalance signal transformer", Harada. The LC balun 30 of FIG. 3 comprises inductor 34, capacitor 35, inductor 36 and capacitor 37 connected together at circuit nodes 33A, 33B and 33C as shown in FIG. 3. The LC balun 30 of FIG. 3 further comprises a single-ended I/O port P1 comprising a signal carrying terminal T1 connected to a first circuit node 33A, and differential I/O port P2 comprising a pair of signal carrying terminals T2 and T3 connected to second and third circuit nodes 33B and 33C respectively.
The LC balun 30 of FIG. 3 can be realized in a compact form, for example using a multilayer low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) structure as described in Harada.
A procedure for the analysis of electronic circuits or devices comprising one or more differential I/O ports is outlined by D. E. Brockelman, W. R. Eisenstadt; "Combined Differential and Common-Mode Scattering Parameters: Theory and Simulation"; IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 43, No. 7, July 1995, pp 1530-1539. For a device with a single-ended I/O port and a differential I/O port the relevant parameters are:
SDS21, the differential mode response at the differential port for a stimulus at the single-ended port;
SCS21, the common mode response at the differential port for a stimulus at the single-ended port;
SDD22, the differential mode reflection coefficient at the differential port for a differential mode stimulus at the differential port;
SCC22, the common mode reflection coefficient at the differential port for a common mode stimulus at the differential port;
SSS11, the single-ended reflection coefficient at the single ended port.
FIG. 4A shows typical through responses of the LC balun 30 of FIG. 3 where inductors 34 and 36 both have inductances of 0.65 nH, and where capacitors 35 and 37 both have capacitances of 6.5 pF. The balun is designed to convert a single ended signal to a differential mode signal within a passband from 2400 MHz to 2500 MHz in line with the IEEE 802.11b/g standard for W-LAN applications. It can be seen that the differential mode response of the LC balun 30 of FIG. 3 is excellent (offering very low insertion loss within the passband). The maximum value of the common mode response within the passband is −33 dB approx; this is an acceptable level, though ideally, for a balun, the common mode response would be lower.
FIG. 4B shows the through responses of the LC balun 30 of FIG. 3 over a wide frequency range and with the same parameters as FIG. 4A. It can be seen that the common mode response of the LC balun 30 of FIG. 3 increases monotonically with increasing frequency above the passband and increases monotonically with decreasing frequency below the passband. Consequently, the balun of FIG. 3 is unsuitable for applications where a high common mode signal level far outside the passband of the balun gives rise to problems in the circuitry to which the balun is connected.
Another drawback of the LC balun 30 of FIG. 3 is that it requires two inductors 34 and 36. Unfortunately, if the circuit is to be fabricated using LTCC materials with a high dielectric constant, the realization of high Q inductors is difficult, and the insertion loss of the circuit becomes high.
For example, multilayer LTCC substrates with a layer thickness of 40 μm and a dielectric constant of 75 are typical for RF applications at 2.45 GHz. The resulting capacitance between mutual windings of an inductor is sufficiently large to lower the self resonant frequency of the inductor to a frequency below 2.45 GHz.
A further drawback of the LC balun 30 of FIG. 3 is that a pair of bias-tee networks are required in order to apply a DC bias to signal carrying terminals T2 and T3 of I/O port P2.


The present invention provides a rapid, sensitive method for forensic drug testing in a post-mortem subject or a live or a post-mortem animal using oral fluid collected from the post-mortem subject or live or post-mortem animal. The method comprises collecting a sample of oral fluid from a post-mortem subject or a live or a post-mortem animal, analyzing the oral fluid sample qualitatively to detect the presence of one or more non-naturally occurring drugs, analyzing the oral fluid sample quantitatively to determine concentration of the one or more non-naturally occurring drugs in the post-mortem subject or in the live or the post-mortem animal, and identifying the one or more non-naturally occurring drugs in the post-mortem subject or in the live or the post-mortem animal. The detection and quantification in oral fluid is more sensitive and faster than detection and quantification of the non-naturally occurring drugs in blood, urine, bile, and liver tissue collected from the same post-mortem subject. Further, the qualitative and quantitative results are obtained in as little as three hours.

In recent years, overdose from both licit and illicit drugs has been an increasingly common cause of death in persons fifteen to seventy years of age. After a suspected drug death, a major objective at autopsy is to determine whether any drugs measured in the decedent have played a role in the cause of death. Currently, post-mortem forensic drug analyses rely upon traditional biological matrices such as blood, urine, bile, and liver tissue. The specific matrix used for specimen retrieval depends, in part, on the time after death that the sample is collected and the consistency of collection, which may vary due to differences in clotting time, fluid movement and changes in cellular components. Once death has taken place, many drugs are released from their binding sites in tissue as pH decreases and the process of autolysis proceeds. By the time a sample has reached the clinical chemistry laboratory for analysis, it may be unsuitable for analysis. For example, drug concentrations in blood taken from an individual at one site may be twice the concentration as that taken at the same time from a different site (e.g., sublingual region versus femoral vein). In addition, in decaying cadavers, viable sample matrices typically are hard to retrieve and oftentimes are limited solely to putrefactive fluid in pleural cavities and blisters. Sample collection from blood, urine and body tissues also requires the use of protective gear to prevent possible spread of infection. Further, sample analyses typically are time-consuming, as various instrumentalities usually are employed for both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the samples.
Further, methods to detect and quantify non-naturally occurring drugs in live and post-mortem animals have long been needed. The number of animals that inadvertently ingest, or intentionally have been given, licit or illicit drugs has risen through the years. Currently, urine testing has been successful to detect barbiturates, opiates, benzodiazepines, and amphetamines/methamphetamines in dogs. However, urine testing is not able to quantify the concentration of these and other non-naturally occurring drugs in animals.
There exists a need, therefore, for a fast, sensitive, and less invasive method to conduct forensic toxicology in post-mortem subjects, as well as in live and post-mortem animals, than what is currently available.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Rapid and sensitive method of forensic toxicology in post-mortem subjects and in live and post-mortem animals using oral fluid testing


A method for detecting the operating mode of a hybrid vehicle using roadside cameras, said method including the analysis of thermal images of parts of the vehicle and/or exhaust fumes, in combination with associated images of the number plates obtained using visual camera(s) operating in synchronism with said thermal camera and used for vehicle make inference and driver identification. The inferred make of the car is used for aforementioned analysis of thermal images. In a variant, the method is used to verify an operating mode reported by, or obtained from information reported by, the vehicle itself. The method can be used in a pollution management system for calculating financial charges to vehicle drivers in a low-emission zone of a Smart City for example.

1. Field
The present invention relates to detecting the current operation mode of vehicles for the purposes of vehicle emission control, including the operating mode of hybrid vehicles such as, but not restricted to, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs).
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional motor vehicles such as cars and trucks employ an internal combustion engine (ICE) running on petrol or diesel fuel. By contrast, hybrid vehicles use a mixture of power or fuel sources. A subclass of hybrid vehicles is the hybrid electric vehicle, or HEV. Hybrid vehicles use an electric motor, powered by a battery and/or by a generator, in addition to the ICE. So-called "full" hybrids can operate on fuel by running the internal combustion engine, on stored electrical power by running the electric motor, or a combination of both. However, the term "hybrids" in this specification also covers vehicles capable of running an internal combustion engine on alternative fuels, such as liquefied gas in place of petrol or diesel fuel, to reduce vehicle emissions. These various ways of operating a hybrid vehicle are referred to as "operating modes" henceforth.
Hybrid vehicles are viewed as a key contributor to reduction of pollution in urban areas. Nowadays, the majority of air pollution in urban areas comes directly from road traffic rather than industry. Road traffic is considered to be responsible for 25% of all emissions in Europe. Moreover, CO2, which is a major product of ICE car emissions, is a greenhouse gas. Efforts are being made to reduce air pollution and its consequent environmental impacts, especially in urban areas. These efforts include, for example, providing incentives for urban drivers to purchase and drive a hybrid vehicle rather than a conventional ICE-based car. London's congestion charge, which exempts HEVs as well as cars which emit 100 g/km or less of CO2 and which meet the Euro 5 standard for air quality, is one example. However, such incentives to date do not take account of in what operating mode vehicles are actually driven.
Thus, for drivers to run their hybrid vehicles in an operating mode which reduces pollution is of great importance to reducing the emissions of CO2 and other pollutants. The operating mode currently in use is normally set by the driver, although this may include a setting in which the vehicle selects the most appropriate operating mode automatically.
The concept of the "Smart City" is meanwhile receiving attention. This term refers to a city in which various departments and services are interconnected, and in which a large-scale network of sensors is deployed, the sensor readings being used to monitor various parameters such as traffic congestion and pollution. This enables transport and other services to be kept running smoothly and to some extent autonomously: for example traffic congestion information may be used to manage traffic lights.
One aspect of the Smart City is pollution management by, for example, restricting use of vehicles at certain times of day and/or in certain geographical zones (low-emission zones) so as to restrict the buildup of pollutants in the air. This is referred to henceforth as a pollution management system. A conceivable pollution management system might, for example, involve vehicle recognition linked to a database of pollution levels for different types (makes and models) of vehicle. In this way, a driver of a highly-polluting vehicle might find themselves barred from entering a low-emission zone at least during certain periods. Alternatively, it is possible to envisage systems which do not simply either bar or allow certain types of vehicles, but allow many (or even most) vehicles to be driven, provided they operate in a certain mode and/or the driver/owner pays an appropriate fee (below referred to as an "emission charge"). This will give the citizens a greater freedom and flexibility without compromising the environment. Embodiments to be described later will focus on a pollution management system of this type, where vehicle usage is influenced by pricing rather than by barring certain vehicles outright.
With the proliferation of hybrid vehicles (vehicles that use a mixture of power or fuel sources), the distribution of pollution contributions from various makes of cars becomes increasingly variable. If pollution management is to adapt to this trend, it will no longer be sufficient to simply match a vehicle to a single pollution category based on the automated recognition of its number plates at the designated check point (usually a point of entry into a pollution-critical area).
Design of a potential solution is complicated by the fact that various hybrids will contribute a widely varying degree of pollutants depending on the mode they are operating in (dropping down to no pollutants at all when they are operating in an electric-only mode, as in the case of HEVs). It is important to be able to control, or levy financial charges for, vehicle usage based on which operating mode vehicles are actually being driven in, rather than based on the theoretical benefits of an operating mode which might be used only rarely.
Techniques have been proposed for remotely determining vehicle emissions from moving vehicles. Until now, however, there has been no consideration of the various operating modes available to hybrid vehicles, or for providing a pollution management solution which takes such operating modes into account.

Detecting operating mode of hybrid vehicles


One embodiment provides a system that facilitates the execution of a web application. During operation, the system allocates a storage space on one or more storage devices for use by the web application. Next, the system creates, for the web application, a private filesystem comprising a private root directory within the storage space. Finally, the system enables access to the private filesystem for the web application through the private root directory in a manner that does not allow access to a host filesystem associated with the one or more storage devices from the web application.

1. Field
The present embodiments relate to techniques for executing web applications. More specifically, the present embodiments relate to a method and system for providing filesystem access to web applications and native code modules.
2. Related Art
Computer systems may include a number of native applications that perform a variety of tasks for users. Such native applications may include word processors, email clients, media players, image or signal processing modules, and/or web browsers. To run efficiently, native applications are often written in a combination of general purpose programming languages such as C or C++ and low-level languages such as assembly language. Furthermore, native applications may have access to system resources such as graphics hardware, sound cards, filesystems, and/or network resources. Consequently, native applications may provide computationally intensive and/or resource-specific features to users of computer systems on which the native applications are installed. However, the low-level nature of native applications may restrict the applications to specific platforms, incur a lengthy installation process, and/or pose a security risk.
On the other hand, web applications, which have become more prevalent in recent years, are typically written in scripting languages that are more secure and require no installation. However, web applications may lack the performance capabilities of native applications. In particular, a web application may run one or two orders of magnitude more slowly than a native application. Furthermore, web applications are often unable to access low-level system resources that are available to native applications. As a result, web applications may be unable to implement certain features that are available in native applications.
Hence, what is needed is a technique for enabling native performance and functionality in web applications without compromising the security of the web applications.

Filesystem access for web applications and native code modules


A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support user identity verification based on social and personal information of the user. Under the approach, customers/users are required to grant identity verifying party a degree of access to their social network information, including but not limited to, account data and social graph information on social networks. The identity verifying party then acquires information of a current or potential user's online presence in addition to other information of the user and utilizes such information to verify the user's identity in the real world and/or to assess the fraud risk of a specific financial transaction requested by the user.

Ecommerce sites, especially those facilitating online payments between users (peer-to-peer payments and money transmitter businesses), as well as credit card processing companies, struggle to verify the identity of their customers. Traditional methods generally include collecting basic personal identifying information from customers, including name, address, social security number and phone number, and cross referencing this data with publicly and privately available databases to ensure that customers are who they say they are. More sophisticated e-commerce businesses will generate "reputation scores" or "risk scores" based on the data they have aggregated regarding particular users. Some businesses use third-parties that specialize in creating these reputation scores based on a variety of publicly and privately available data, including companies (such as Rapleaf) that use membership in certain online social networks and web services as data points.
Web-based businesses will often accumulate additional data about their customers, including machine fingerprints, usage patterns, IP address, history, etc., which they plug into a rules engine—a middleware application that allows the creation and prioritization of rules to be used in managing fraud. These engines allow merchants to create rules that will help evaluate orders and transactions as they come in. The rules engine can have many different names, such as "decision software," "management software" or "order management." Most payment and order management systems will have some of the capabilities to build and apply rules.
As fraudsters become more and more sophisticated, traditional methods of protecting businesses against fraud, identity theft, terrorism and money laundering are becoming increasingly ineffective. Even robust rules engines and reputation scores based on large amounts of user data do not adequately protect businesses from the risks associated with fraud.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.

Systems and methods for user identity verification and risk analysis using available social and personal data


A method and system for detoxification of waste materials, comprising incineration of the waste materials followed by additional contaminant reduction steps. The waste material is separated into solid and liquid portions that are fed separately into a combustion chamber wherein they are exposed to a plasma arc torch to affect combustion, producing a gaseous emissions stream and an obsidian residue. The gaseous emissions stream passes through an emissions control unit to eliminate acid gases, metals, and particulates, producing a cleansed exhaust gas and an emissions residue. The emissions residue is passed through an electroplating unit to reclaim metals. The obsidian residue is pulverized and then treated by a chemical process, or passed through the electroplating unit, to reduce the concentration of unbound barium contained therein, producing an inert obsidian residue that is free of toxic levels of all contaminants.

Waste by-products produced by many industrial processes, and to a lesser extent consumer generated wastes, are often contaminated with toxic organic contaminants and trace metal contaminants. If left untreated, these wastes must be stored in specialized storage containers and deposited in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved landfills to prevent leaching of the contaminants into the ground water. Storage of toxic wastes presents a grave environmental hazard due to the potential for improper storage, or failure of the storage site to contain the toxic leachates. Approved toxic landfill sites are continually growing more scarce, and those remaining are faced with an overwhelming volume of industrially created waste. The costs of shipping toxic waste to the remaining landfills, and fees for interning the waste there, are prohibitive.
Incineration process techniques have been developed over the years in an attempt to treat these toxic wastes by burning off the organic contaminants therein to produce a reduced volume of somewhat less toxic solid waste. The solid waste by-product of such incineration may contain trace metals that failed to oxidize during incineration, and typically must still be handled and stored as a toxic waste. These conventional incineration methods also produced exhaust gas by-products that are toxic in themselves if left untreated, and are harmful to the atmosphere if released.
One example of an industrial waste that must be either decontaminated or stored as a toxic waste is the drilling muds produced by oil industry drilling operations. Drilling muds are gels that are introduced to well bores during drilling of a well to lubricate the drill bit and shaft, and may initially be comprised of water, barite clay, density increasing weighting agents, stabilizers, and an oil base, such as mineral oil. The weighting agents used in these drilling muds may be either mineral or organic materials. During drilling of a well, the drilling mud becomes contaminated with cuttings (bits of rock that have been augered from the earth) and crude oil. In addition, the drilling mud may contain traces of heavy metals that originate from the cuttings, from the weighting agents used in the drilling muds, or from the drilling system itself. The drilling mud is semiliquid in nature and is conventionally stored in reserve pits or boxes as it is produced. Due to the organic and metal contaminants contained therein, the drilling muds must be shipped, handled, and stored as an industrial waste.
The potential utilization of conventional incineration techniques to incinerate drilling mud waste is difficult on a large scale due to the high heat intensity required to melt the minerals contained in the mud and to completely combust the crude oil contaminants contained therein. In addition, the solid by-product that typically results from incineration of such material contains residual trace metal contaminants that still render the waste toxic.

Method and system for incineration and detoxification of semiliquid waste


A mobility scooter conversion kit and method that utilizes a standard mobility scooter as its base frame to make the scooter resemble any motor vehicle. The main frame of the scooter is only altered by adding an extension member with a bracket, replacing a first bolt on the seat frame with a long bolt, and reversing the orientation of a second bolt on the opposite side of the seat frame. The first body member that resembles the front of a motor vehicle has a recess that sits on the steering column of the scooter and is secured into place with a latching mechanism. The second body member that resembles the rear end of a motor vehicle is hooked on to the bracket of the extension member and secured into place using the long bolt and a bolt attachment connecting to the reversed bolt.

This invention relates to mobility scooters. Mobility scooters are typically used by those with problems walking or standing for long periods of time. The main purpose of a mobility scooter is to increase the independence of people with mobility restrictions. Mobility scooters are often used to traverse pavement, grass, or to move through a grocery store. Those with decreased mobility can operate a mobility scooter on their own, similarly to how they would drive a car.
Although there is at least one mobility scooter with a front portion modeled after a vintage vehicle known in the related art, The Gatsby Vintage Mobility Scooter, the components of the scooter that make the Gatsby Scooter look like a vintage vehicle are not removable and interchangeable. See (https://www.topmobility.com/gatsby-vintage-mobility-scooter.htm).


A manual controller commands a telescope mount to automatically track a specific bright star after the image of the star is located to center of an electronic eyepiece and a timer is started. The average moving speed of the bright star is calculated after a predetermined elapsed time to acquire the right ascension (RA) and the declination (DEC) coordinates of this bright star. Subsequently, the RA and DEC coordinates are compared with pre-stored data contained within a database used to identify the bright star. The celestial sphere coordinates of the telescope can be determined after a minimum of one bright star is identified. In the auto-tracking procedure, the manual controller controls movement of telescope by feedbacks of the drifting speed and direction of the specific bright star in an electronic eyepiece for the purpose of keeping the specific bright star in the center of the electronic eyepiece.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for automatically aligning an astronomical telescope, specifically to a method for automatically aligning a telescope with feedback control. A motor speed is controlled so as to track a bright star and the coordinates of the telescope.
2. Description of Prior Art
The celestial bodies can be represented by a spherical polar coordinate on the sky. FIG. 1 shows the schematic diagram of a spherical polar coordinate with polar axis OZ, wherein the reference plane is the XOA plane vertical to the polar axis OZ and OX is a reference direction on the reference plane. The projection of OP on the reference plane is indicated by OA. Therefore, a celestial body P can be represented by the angle XOA and the angle AOP, as shown in FIG. 1.
The most common sphere coordinates include celestial sphere coordinates, and altitude and azimuth coordinates, which are described below.
The Celestial Sphere Coordinate
In the celestial sphere coordinate, the observer on earth is located at sphere center O and the polar axis OZ is an axis parallel to the rotation axis O′Z′ of the Earth and the position direction is the direction of north celestial pole. The reference plane is a plane passing the center O and vertical to the polar axis. The reference direction OX on the reference plane is the intersecting line of the celestial meridian plane of the location of the observer on the Earth and the reference plane. The positive direction is the direction pointing from the rotation axis of the Earth toward the observer.
The Altitude and Azimuth Coordinate
In the altitude and azimuth coordinate, the observer is located at the center O and the reference plane XOA is a horizontal plane (the tangential plane to the surface of the Earth) normal to the observer. The reference direction OX on the reference plane is south and the positive direction of polar axis OZ is to the Zenith.
The Telescope Mount, the Telescope Coordinate System and Az-Alt Telescope Mount
In general, the telescope mount is a mechanical system defined by two orthogonal rotational axes. The pointing direction of the telescope can be represented by the angle formed by two of the rotational axes. This is also a spherical coordinate system and is referred to as telescope coordinate system.
Provided that a rotational axis of the telescope mount is coincidental with a polar axis of the altitude and azimuth coordinate, the telescope mount is referred to as an Alt-Az telescope mount. The rotational axis pointing to the Zenith is referred to as the Az (Azimuth)axis, the rotational axis parallel to the ground level is referred to as the Alt (Altitude) axis. The reference plane of the Alt-Az telescope mount is parallel to the horizontal plane.
The Representation of Celestial Objects in Different Coordinates
The coordinate of a celestial object in celestial sphere coordinate can be transformed to the altitude and azimuth coordinates (or the telescope mount coordinate system) by coordinate transform, as shown to FIG. 1.
In celestial sphere coordinates, angle XOA=α and angle AOP=β;
In altitude and azimuth coordinates, angle XOA=α′ and angle AOP=β′;
the angles have following relationship:
      [                                        cos                                                                          α                                                                          cos                                                                          β                                                            sin                                                                          α                                                                          cos                                                                          β                                                            sin                                                                          β                                ]    =            [      M      ]        ×          [                                                  cos                                                                                α                ′                                                                                cos                                                                                β                ′                                                                                sin                                                                                α                ′                                                                                cos                                                                                β                ′                                                                                sin                                                                                β                ′                                                        ]      GOTO Telescope
The GOTO telescope is a motor driven and computer-based telescope. One basic function of the GOTO telescope is to convert a coordinate A(α, β) in celestial sphere coordinates to a coordinate A′(α′, β′) in telescope mount coordinates. The mount is controlled to move from an initial arbitrary position to the coordinate A′(equivalent to the coordinate A), whereby the celestial object at coordinate A appears on field of view in the telescope.
Alignment of GOTO Telescope
To precisely locate the target, the GOTO telescope requires alignment, which comprises following steps:
1. The GOTO telescope points to a first position in the sky and the celestial sphere coordinate (α1, β1) and the telescope mount coordinate (α1′, β1′) associated with the first position are recorded.
2. The GOTO telescope points to a second position in the sky and the celestial sphere coordinate (α2, β2) and the telescope mount coordinate (α2′, β2′) associated with the second position are recorded.
3. The GOTO telescope points to a third position in the sky and the celestial sphere coordinate (α3, β3) and the telescope mount coordinate (α3′, β3′) associated with the third position are recorded.
4. The conversion relationship between celestial sphere coordinates and telescope mount coordinates can be determined by following formula:
      [    M    ]    =            [                                                  cos                                                                                α1                                                                                cos                                                                                β1                                                          cos                                                                                α2cos                                                                                β2                                                          cos                                                                                α3                                                                                cos                                                                                β                                                                                3                                                                          sin                                                                                α                                                                                1                            cos                                                                                β1                                                          sin                                                                                α                                                                                2                            cos                                                                                β2                                                          sin                                                                                α3cos                                                                                β3                                                                          sin                                                          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               -        1            where the telescope mount coordinates (α1′, β1′), (α2′, β2′), (α3′, β3′) can be obtained through the motor control system of the mount; and the method for obtaining the celestial sphere coordinates (α1, β1), (α2, β2), (α3, β3) will be detailed below.How to Obtain the Celestial Sphere Coordinates
Most stars in the sky are documented by relative positions in a celestial objects database, wherein the coordinates of a celestial body in the database are represented by right ascension (RA) and declination (DEC) and RA and DEC are angular coordinates.
Provided that the date and time T0 at zero-degree longitude is known, the Sidereal Time at Greenwich meridian, labeled as LST0, can be calculated and the calculation is omitted here for clarity.
Provided that the longitude of user location is L, the celestial object with known (Ra, Dec) can be expressed in term of HA (hour angle, which is equivalent to angle XOA in FIG. 1) and Dec (equivalent to angle AOP in FIG. 1) with reference to the celestial sphere coordinates of the observer. The hour angle HA can be calculated according to the following formula:HA=LST0−L−Ra
Therefore, the alignment of the GOTO telescope is first performed by pointing the GOTO telescope to three stars, which are referred to as alignment stars. The corresponding RA and DEC data for those alignment stars can be obtained from a database and the celestial sphere coordinates (α1, β1), (α2, β2), (α3, β3) for the telescope can be determined using the longitude and the current local time of the observer.
Difficulty in Identifying Alignment Star
As can be seen in above description, one essential step in aligning the GOTO telescope is pointing the GOTO telescope at an alignment star. However, an error will occur if the coordinates for star A in the database are used, but the actual star pointed at by the GOTO telescope is star B.
Unfortunately, for novice astronomer, this error can happen easily, which might be caused by their unfamiliarity with name or number of the alignment star or erroneous pointing of the GOTO telescope.

Method for automatically aligning telescope


In a scale model of a lowrider vehicle including a chassis and first and second spaced axles supported on the chassis, a lift assembly includes the chassis being provided with guide structure for maintaining the transverse orientation of the first axle while allowing movement of the axle relative to the chassis within a plane perpendicular to the central longitudinal axis of the chassis. A lifting assembly is provided on the chassis for lifting the chassis relative to the axle between a lowered position and a raised position so as to simulate lifting and lowering movements of the modeled lowrider vehicle. In this manner, it is possible to simulate front and back, side-to-side and hopping moves conventionally performed with actual lowrider vehicles.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to toys and, more particularly, to a scale model of a lowrider car or truck having a lift assembly for simulating the various hopping, rocking, rolling, lowering and lifting moves performed by actual lowriders.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
One of the many ways in which cars and trucks are customized by individuals includes the installation of hydraulic lift assemblies within the suspension systems provided on the vehicles for permitting the operator to alter the orientation of the vehicle relative to the wheels.
Typically, the hydraulic set up in one of these "lowrider" vehicles includes a hydraulic suspension system, hydraulic pumps, dumps and a power source for creating the various desired movements. For example, depending upon the particular hydraulic arrangement employed, the chassis may be moved relative to any or all of the wheels such that either the front or rear end of the vehicle, or both, may be raised from or lowered to the ground, and hopping, side-to-side, and "dancing" movements may be performed.
Although it is known to construct scale models of lowrider vehicles and to customize these scale models by detailing them to appear similar to actual lowriders, these models fail to provide actual simulation of lowrider movements.


An electric field personal seat communication protocol within an inductive charging supporting near field communication (NFC) chipset is positioned in respective portions of a vehicle and a personal communications device. Such a chipset can then be utilized to support safety and security applications including the reduction of driver distraction due to cellular phone use at inappropriate times, improved security of vehicle based wireless network based on occupancy detection (E-field sensor 20) and secondary BAN between the seat sensor and NFC enabled devices held/possessed by the occupant. Alternatively, the E-field sensor function could be integrated directly into an NFC chipset that supports the PSC E-field communication protocol.

The present application relates generally to the field of wireless communication systems between a personal communications device and circuitry positioned with various components of a vehicle, particularly within the vehicle interior. A personal communications device may include, for example, a cell phone, smart phone, personal digital assistant, tablet computer, laptop computer, e-reader, handheld video games, a global positioning system and the like.
The increased use of electronic devices, particularly mobile personal communications devices, currently allows for continuous communication, entertainment, and the transfer of information from nearly any location. As a result, many individuals carry such electronic devices in direct physical proximity to their bodies throughout the day.
Various systems and methods to electromagnetically couple or "pair" a handheld electronic device with a fixed communication network (e.g., a vehicle communication bus) are known in the art. Further, some systems may automatically detect an electronic device, and enable its "hands-free" application use. Such systems may require a user to perform an initial setup process between the fixed communication network and the electronic device (e.g., a setup process may identify a particular electronic device by using a serial code, mobile equipment identifier (MEID), or similar identifier). Further, each new user, and each additional device may be required to undergo an initial setup process.
Such systems that automatically and electromagnetically couple an electronic device may also require that the user has enabled automated pairing between the device and a network. Automated pairing between an electronic device and a network may use an electronic information exchange paradigm, such as Bluetooth®, or a wireless local area network protocol, such as Wi-Fi®. Further, a fixed communications network may initiate a pairing process, and detect every electronic device within the network range that is enabled to communicate within the selected communications paradigm (e.g., Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi®) independently of the location of a specific location of the user or the device. Therefore, current pairing techniques may not independently identify the physical location of the user or the device.
In some situations, there may be a need to control an electronic device based on the location of the user or the device. For example, federal laws and regulations restrict the use of an electronic device on an airplane. Therefore, in accordance with such laws, a system or method may be used to control the use of an electronic device on an airplane.
In addition, a person who is driving a vehicle or operating a machine may be impaired by their concurrent use of an electronic device. Therefore, in order to prevent a vehicular accident, a system or method may be used to control an electronic device based on the actual physical location of either the person or the device.
Various systems and methods that estimate, or determine the proximate location of a device are known in the art. For example, GPS and/or cellular network triangulation may indicate that an electronic device is in motion, and cooperatively-loaded application software on the electronic device may control handheld use of the device. However, these systems and methods cannot distinguish whether the electronic device is in the possession of a driver or a passenger. Therefore, a passenger of a vehicle (i.e., someone other than the driver), whose use of an electronic device does not negatively impact the operation of the vehicle, may have to manually bypass a system or method used to control the electronic device.
Further, various systems or methods used to control an electronic device may not distinguish between different modes of transportation. For example, while it may be desired to control the use of an electronic device by a driver of a vehicle, the same electronic device may not need to be controlled for use on public transportation (e.g., train, bus, taxi, etc.).
In an alternative system, a wireless transmitter for a fixed communications network, such as a vehicle communication bus in a vehicle communications network, may transmit a signal to an electronic device that includes information relating to a condition of a network. In the case of a vehicle, the information in a signal may include whether the vehicle is in motion or in gear. Cooperatively loaded application software on an electronic device may detect the signal from the fixed communications network. Depending on the information included in the signal, the application software may control various features of the electronic device. For example, cooperatively loaded application software on the electronic device may use information from a signal to limit the handheld use of the device, or to provide cellular notification to back-end services (e.g., speed alerts).
A system or method for automated network pairing using electric field coupling may require an electronic device to include hardware that can receive or transmit a signal to the fixed communications network. A system or method for automated network pairing using electric field coupling may also require software to interface with the fixed communications network or detect a signal transmitted by the fixed communications network. Such an electronic device that is in proximity to detect a signal transmitted by the network may be controlled by the cooperatively installed software on the device.
Prior disclosures are already in the art and are based on using electromagnetic fields for occupancy (in seats) or hand detection (in steering wheels), where the use of sufficiently low frequencies of an AC field in these sensors can couple the field to the surrounding space. Qualities and characteristics of the transmission medium within the surrounding space determine the signal strength of transmitted data signals and opportunities for subsequent use of this data in other applications.
For example, the complex impedance of an occupant in a vehicle is favorable to electromagnetic field coupling in free-space, leading to electromagnetic coupling through the human body medium (e.g. establishing a Body Area Network or "BAN"). Through modulation of the electromagnetic field being transmitted through the Body Area Network, information can be coded and sent and/or received through the human body medium by coupling of at least the electric field (as opposed to the corresponding magnetic field) to the electrode.
For example, an electric field sensor (i.e., an "e-field sensor") with an electrode or transceiver positioned in a vehicle seat, transmitting a low frequency signal (such as but not limited to a frequency less than about 31 Mhz), may emit a coded AC signal in proximity to a human occupant sitting in the seat. This electrode will induce a corresponding electromagnetic field that tracks the coded signal. The induced electromagnetic field can be detected/decoded by a second electrode (or, similarly, a second transceiver), when the second electrode is in proximity to and/or touching the occupant and when the second electrode is connected to an appropriate electromagnetic field detector/decoder to extract the coded information. This concept has been designated broadly in the art as a Personal Seat Communications (PSC™), particularly for installations in which the electromagnetic signal is received at an electrode as part of a human-machine interface (HMI), such as a vehicle component that is configured to be touched by the seat occupant. In certain previously published embodiments, the amplitude changes in the electromagnetic field due to an occupant are used to detect the occupancy state, and if the seat is occupied by a human, the coupled signal can be modulated to transfer information through the Body Area Network. Several possible applications have been proposed for such a system, for example, to 1) control the state of HMI content in the vehicle based on driver or passenger touch and the vehicle control state; 2) control the state of a cellular device in the vehicle, based on driver or passenger touch and the vehicle control state; 3) enable/disable access to a wireless network in a vehicle based on the occupancy state of a seat or region inside the vehicle, and the state of a cellular device held by the occupant (e.g. a "secure connection handover"). A wide set of potential related use cases has been disclosed based on the above three concepts.
Prior art as shown in FIG. 1 illustrates the above described embodiments and shows an electric field coupling network 11A, 11B that may be used to electronically couple or pair a fixed communications network, such as a vehicle communications bus 6, with an electronic device 1. A driver 3 of a vehicle 12 may be seated on a vehicle seat 4, and an electronic device 1 may be coupled to the driver (e.g., an electronic device 1 may be held in the hand of the driver 3, in a pocket of the driver's clothes, or in any other location that is sufficiently proximate to the driver to couple an electromagnetic field between the driver and the electronic device). A system 13 used to electronically couple an electronic device to a network, via electromagnetic coupling in a personal seat communications (PSC™) system, may include a capacitive sensor pad 2 provided in a vehicle seat 4 within a vehicle 12. While the sensor pad 2 may be provided in a driver's seat 4 of a vehicle, this disclosure is not intended to limit the possible locations in which a sensor pad may be located. Therefore, according to alternative embodiments of this disclosure, a sensor pad could be located anywhere in a vehicle interior (i.e. in a driver or passenger seat (i.e., any front seat or rear seat), the vehicle floor, an arm rest, the steering wheel, a cup holder, or in a vehicle ceiling or part thereof).
Prior to the disclosure set described and claimed herein, there has been no hardware or software enabled method to implement Personal Seat Communications (PSC™) functions by communicating directly from a transmitting electrode directly to cellular phones. In fact, earlier efforts have omitted the possibility of such direct communication. In one prior attempt, an external antenna was installed in a vehicle along with an electromagnetic signal detector and decoder assembly. The antenna received and configured electromagnetic data, received from a transmitting assembly, as a data stream for subsequent transmission via a USB connection from the decoder assembly to the phone.
Providing a more direct connection between the PSC™ and a user's electronic device is desirable to eliminate the necessity of the above described antenna, detector, decoder, and USB connection. In certain non-limiting embodiments, this disclosure relies in part upon near field communications (NFC) to establish the electromagnetic field data coupling for communicating the requisite information from one vehicle system to another. NFC chipsets have been widely developed and deployed in cellular phones as discussed in numerous references over the years. They have evolved over many years and are used ubiquitously with NFC protocol supporting components in numerous environments. More recently, in a power context, NFC chipsets have been developed which facilitate the necessary communication to establish inductive wireless charging. In these charging embodiments, NFC is used as the initiation protocol to establish a handshake between the charging station and a suitable cellular phone (or similar electronic device) and to initiate a battery charging procedure. Similarly, a charging station uses an inductive coil with NFC protocol to "detect" a presence of a phone, to determine a suitable position/orientation of the phone, and while conditions are valid, uses the NFC electrode to charge the phone inductively. NFC chipsets and NFC protocol currently use several operational modes and amplitude modulation encoding schemes depending on the operational mode being used.
The above described systems and methods for pairing and controlling a personal communications device within a certain area, such as a vehicle cabin, require that the personal communications device first pairs with a fixed communication system installed in the vehicle (e.g., Wi-Fi®, Bluetooth®, or the like). A need continues to exist in the art of personal communications from within a vehicle interior for apparatuses, systems, and methods that accommodate control for personal communications devices independently of fixed communications networks within the vehicle.
A need further exists in the art of vehicle operation with use of personal communications devices for apparatuses, methods, and systems that accomplish the following:                (a) Using an existing, well-established protocol and chipset configured for near field communications (NFC) to include completely new functionality to support a ubiquitous solution to driver distraction due to phone usage;        (b) Supporting optimized phone use for a driver during autonomous driving modes, including the potential to use the phone itself as a warning device to prepare for transition to non-automation modes (e.g. transition to driver in manual control);        (c) Including a separate e-field body area network (BAN) communication protocol into an existing electromagnetic field proximity protocol (such as but not limited to NFC) in a single chipset in which the new e-field protocol can use an existing, validated protocol/security hardware/software stack;        (d) Including occupancy sensors with existing NFC functions and a shared electrode to support inductive charging in vehicle seats when they are empty of occupants, wherein the electrode can also be used as a heater element in a heater as sensor embodiment (HAS), an NFC inductive communication antenna, and an inductive charging electrode.

System and method for near field communication coupling in a vehicle


The present invention is directed to a pneumatic tire with a built-in sealant layer composite where the composite is composed of polyurethane with a thin layer of at least one of particulate filler, short fibers and non-woven microfiber. In one embodiment, said polyurethane sealant composite is comprised of a plurality of circumferentially extending layers comprised of a first polyurethane sealant layer, a second polyurethane sealant layer and a thin layer of polyurethane sealant-containing non-woven microfiber positioned between said first and second polyurethane layers. In another embodiment, said polyurethane sealant is a composite comprised of a polyurethane sealant layer containing a thin layer of at least one of particulate filler and short fibers.

Pneumatic tires have been suggested which contain built in polyurethane based sealant layers which can flow into a tire puncture hole for a purpose of resisting flow of tire inflation air through the tire puncture and to thereby promote a resistance of the pneumatic tire going flat by loss of tire inflation air. For example, see U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0078352.

Pneumatic tire with built-in sealant layer composite


A risk of a disadvantage was caused where the entire face of an image subjected to an interpolation or thinning processing causes an increased boundary length between a region including pixels (printing region) and a region not including pixels (paper background region) or causes a broken texture in the image. To prevent this, a transition area is provided in the image so that only the transition area can be subjected to an interpolation or thinning processing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the minute expansion/reduction processing of an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
For image printing apparatuses (printers), there are various printing methods. For example, in the case of an electrophotographic method for fixing toner to a recording medium (e.g., paper) by heat and a pressure, the paper subjected to the heat and pressure undesirably extends or shrinks slightly. The extension of the paper also causes a proportional extension of a printed image. Such an extension of the paper is most remarkably found in the first fixing. Thus, a paper subjected to a double-side printing causes a slight difference in size between the image printed on the front side by the first fixing and the image printed on the back side by the second fixing. Such a slight size difference must be corrected in the field where the printing accuracy is important.
Various means have been known to correct such a difference in the image size caused by the extension of the paper.
For example, in the case of the above-described electrophotographic method, a polygon mirror is rotated to scan laser light. Thus, the extension in the main scanning direction of drawn laser can be corrected by adjusting the oscillation frequency of the pixel clock. The extension in the vertical scanning direction (sub scanning direction) on the other hand can be corrected by changing the rotating speed of the polygon mirror to thereby change the scan density.
In this case, in order to draw the respective pixels on a photoconductive drum correctly and uniformly, the rotation of the polygon mirror must be accurate and stable. When an approach is used to cope with the extension in the sub scanning direction during the double-side printing by changing the rotating speed of the polygon mirror after the printing of a front side of a paper, a fixed time interval is required until the rotating speed is stable. Thus, a declined printing performance is caused by the correction of the extension in the sub scanning direction by the adjustment of the rotating speed of the polygon mirror. Therefore, the correction of the extension in the sub scanning direction by the change of the rotating speed of the polygon mirror is not desired in such an image printing apparatus that is required to continuously maintain a high-speed printing.
In addition to the method for adjusting the drawing density by the printing mechanism-side as described above, there is another method to adjust the image data itself depending on the extension of the paper. Specifically, this is a method to thin out pixels to reduce the image size or to interpolate (or insert) pixels to expand the image size. For example, in the case of image data having 1000×1000 pixels in the main scanning direction and 1000×1000 pixels in the sub scanning direction respectively, the pixels are thinned out to 1000×990 or pixels are interpolated (or inserted) to convert the data to image data of 1000×1010 pixels. As described above, by generating new image data subjected to expansion/reduction so as to compensate the extension of the image undesirably caused during the printing of the front side, images having the same size in appearance can be printed on both sides of the paper.
The method as described above to correct the image data itself depending on the extension of the paper is desirable in the point that the printing mechanism is prevented from having a deteriorated performance. In the case where multivalued image data is subjected to a correction processing for performing an interpolation processing such as a linear interpolation to expand or reduce the image to output the image through a multiple tone apparatus (e.g., display), it is difficult to visually confirm the deterioration of the image due to the correct.
However, in the case where the corrected image data is outputted as a printed matter on a paper, the deterioration of the image can be undesirably visually recognized because the image data is converted from multivalued image data to binary image data and pixel values subjected to the interpolation or thinning are also binary.
The dots occur periodically by performing dither processing etc. to multivalued image data. The texture is generated by these periodic dots in binary image data. The texture of binary image data is more influenced by the interpolation or thinning of a pixel column than in the case of multivalued image data. Thus, when the same coordinates are subjected to interpolation or thinning in a longitudinal or lateral direction, this is easily recognized as a change in the concentration. Furthermore, when the coordinates of a pixel column to be subjected to interpolation or thinning are identical with the coordinates of a fine line of the texture, a phenomenon is undesirably caused where the pixel width is reduced by one pixel and the fine line changes into a thick line or disappears. Furthermore, when a change is caused in the size of the textures such as halftone dots changes arranged on a single line, this is undesirably recognized as a change in the concentration. To prevent this, in a processing for correcting binary image data, a method as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. S61-206065(1986) for example has been used where a position at which a pixel is inserted or a thinning position is varied randomly to thereby suppress a local change in the concentration.
However, when the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. S61-206065(1986) is used to subject the entire face of an image to an interpolation or thinning processing, this has caused a disadvantage of an increased length of a boundary between a region including pixels (printing region) and a region not including pixels (a region of a paper background color) or a broken texture in the image. FIG. 13 illustrates an example where the pixels in the entire face of the image are randomly interpolated. Parts shown by circles show inserted pixels. The reference numeral 1301 denotes a status where inserted pixels cause a difference in the boundary among region including pixels and regions not including pixels. The reference numeral 1302 denotes a status where the insertion of pixels causes a significantly-broken shape of a texture that should be represented by a square composed of 4 pixels in the longitudinal direction and 4 pixels in the lateral direction.
The disadvantage of the increased boundary length means, in an image printing apparatus based on the electrophotographic method, an increased boundary length between a toner-attached region and a no-toner-attached region. This consequently causes a declined stability of the toner attachment, thereby causing disadvantageous scattered toner. The broken shape of the texture also causes an image lacking in smoothness.

Image printing apparatus, image printing method, and storage medium


The present disclosure provides a channel state information report transmission method and a terminal. The channel state information report transmission method includes: obtaining an allocation rule of a channel state information (CSI) report transmitted on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), where the allocation rule is configured by a network device or predefined in a protocol; when there is a collision between at least two CSI reports, allocating some or all of CSI reports with collisions to a first CSI PUCCH according to the allocation rule; transmitting the some or all of CSI reports with collisions. The first CSI PUCCH is configured to transmit the some or all of CSI reports with collisions.

Generally, a channel state information (Channel State Information, CSI) report may be configured as follows:
(1) Periodic (Persistent CSI (P-CSI): transmitted only on physical uplink control channel (Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH);
(2) Semi-persistent CSI (Semi-Persistent CSI, SP-CSI): transmitted on PUCCH or physical uplink shared channel (Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH);
(3) Aperiodic CSI Report (AP-CSI): transmitted only on PUSCH.
Priority rules: when PUCCH resources used by two CSI reports on the same carrier have at least one orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM) symbol overlapping in the time domain, the two CSI reports collide. Each CSI report is corresponding to a priority value. In case of CSI report collision or limited uplink transmission resources, a terminal does not transmit a certain CSI report with a high (or low) priority value.
Therefore, in the related art, when multiple PUCCH-based CSI reports collide, they may be dropped according to priorities of various CSI reports, which may cause a network device to fail to obtain some CSI reports in time or missing CSI reports.

Channel state information report transmission method and terminal