Techniques for correcting miscategorized features excerpted from web pages are provided. For each of several categories and several pages on a particular web site, a separate feature may be excerpted from that page and associated with that page in relation to that category. Often, many of the “high confidence” features that have been associated with the same category are found to be associated with similar characteristics regardless of the pages from which those features were excerpted. Thus, a set of category characteristics, which are often found associated with the “high confidence” features in a particular category, may be determined. For each page, a candidate feature that is associated with the set of category characteristics may be identified in that page. If, in relation to the particular category, a feature other than the candidate feature is associated with that page, then that other feature may be replaced by the candidate feature.

Web sites present information on various topics in various formats. A great amount of effort is often required for a user to manually locate and extract useful data from the web sites. Therefore, there is a great need for value-added services that integrate information from multiple sources. For example, such services include customizable web information gathering robots/crawlers, comparison-shopping agents, meta-search engines and news bots, etc.
To facilitate the development of these information integration systems, good tools are needed for information gathering and extraction. In situations where data has been collected from different web sites, a conventional approach for extracting data from various web pages uses programs called "wrappers" or "extractors" to extract or excerpt data items, or "features," from the contents of the web pages.
For example, an extractor might attempt to categorize different data items that occur within a particular web page. If the web page comprises an advertisement for an employment opportunity, for example, then the extractor might attempt to locate, within the web page, separate data items that fit into "job title" and "job location" categories. The extractor might attempt to categorize data items on multiple separate web pages in this manner. When the extractor locates a data item that the extractor deems to fit a particular category, the extractor may insert that data item into a search index, and establish an association between that data item and the category that the data item is deemed to fit. When a user later queries a search engine, the search engine may consult the search index to find search results in which the user may be interested. The accuracy and completeness of the contents of the search index strongly influences the relevance and value of the results.
For a particular web page and a particular category, the extractor might or might not be able to locate, on that page, a data item that fits that category. If the criteria used to identify a data item that fits a particular category are not well adapted to the construction of the page, then the extractor might mistakenly determine that a data item other than the "correct" data item fits the category. For example, the extractor might mistakenly determine that the "job location" data in a web page (rather than the actual "job title" data in that web page) fits into the "job title" category.
Based on how many of the criteria that the data item selected for a category satisfies, the extractor might assign, to the selected data item, an indication of how likely it is that the data item actually was the "correct" data item on the page—how likely it is that the data item actually did fit the category. This indication is commonly called a "confidence measure." Data items that are very likely to be the "correct" data items may be associated with relatively high confidence measures, while data items that are less likely to be the "correct" data items may be associated with lower confidence measures. If the confidence measure for a particular data item is lower than a certain threshold, then the extractor might refrain from inserting the data item into the search index at all.
After an extractor has automatically populated the search index, the search index may contain some incorrect entries, and may omit some correct entries. One approach for revising the search index involves employing a human being to look through the extracted data items manually, determine which data items have relatively low confidence measures, read the pages from which the low-confidence data items were excerpted, and determine whether any data items in those pages actually do fit the categories at issue. Although human beings are consistent and accurate in some cases, they usually operate slowly, and they can cost a considerable amount of money to train and maintain. Some human beings are less consistent and accurate than others, especially after they have been working uninterrupted for long periods of time. Mistakes happen.
Other approaches for revising the search index rely on the web pages being formatted in a known way, and, as a result, are inapplicable if the web pages are not formatted in that known way or if the structure of the web pages deviates over time from that known way. For example, some approaches might require the web pages to be HTML documents that conform to a specified scheme. These approaches fail when applied to documents that are not in HTML or which depart from the scheme even to a minor extent, sometimes due to changes in the documents after the extraction process has occurred.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

Unsupervised learning tool for feature correction


Disclosed herein is a method of managing a hybrid network including a cellular network and a local network wherein a number of dual mode mobile terminals are connectable to a base station of the cellular network through a direct cellular link and are also connectable, one with respect to the other, through the local network by a radio access technique. The method includes the steps of computing a cost associated with a direct connection established along a path (A) extending from a selected mobile terminal to the base station through the cellular link only, computing a cost (Ccg) associated with at least one indirect connection established along a path (B) extending from the selected mobile terminal to the base station through the local network and the cellular network, and selecting for data transmission the path that minimizes the cost.

In recent years, wireless data networks have made significant progress, with both the world-wide upgrade of cellular networks to support wide-area data access, and the widespread deployment of IEEE 802.11 based wireless local area networks (WLAN).
Those two technologies have significant differences. First of all, they provide different coverage: cellular networks can use large cells and through the support of mobility offer nation-wide service continuity, while wireless local area networks are limited to localized and relatively small hot spots.
Second, data rates offered from the two networks are different, with cellular networks supporting data rates relatively low, in the order of hundreds of kilobits, and wireless local area networks providing data rates significantly higher, reaching up to 54 Mbps in the particular case of IEEE 802.11a and IEEE 802.11g standards.
In particular, while cellular networks operate in infrastructure mode, with fixed base stations serving mobile users, WLAN can operate also in ad-hoc mode, where clients relay packets over multi-hop wireless links. All those differences make wireless LAN and cellular networks complementary technologies that can satisfy different necessities of the users.
For this reason, in the last few years a certain interest arose in the market for so called dual-mode mobile handsets, that provide both cellular (2G/3G) and wireless LAN connectivity. The availability of this kind of handsets offers the opportunity of combining the two technologies and leverages the advantages of each other.
It is therefore felt the need of efficiently integrating the above two technologies in a hybrid communication network enabling both cellular and WLAN connectivity.
An interesting solution for the integration of the cellular system with WLAN operating in ad-hoc mode is described in the paper "UCAN: A Unified Cellular and Ad-Hoc Network architecture" (authors: H. Luo, R. Ramjee, P. Sinha, L. Li, S. Lu), where mobile terminals with both 3G cellular link and IEEE 802.11-based peer-to-peer links are taken into account.
The 3G base station forwards packets for destination clients with poor channel quality to proxy clients with better channel quality. The proxy clients then use an ad-hoc network composed of other mobile terminals employing IEEE 802.11 wireless links to forward the packets to the appropriate destinations, thereby improving cell throughput.
The discovery of the proxy clients is accomplished through on-demand protocols that exploit the 3G infrastructure to reduce complexity and improve reliability. The solution also takes into account that mobile terminals acting as relays should be somehow rewarded for the energy consumption that they experience when they forward data of other users.
A secure crediting system is proposed, where proxy and relay clients are awarded credits that can be redeemed in the form of shared revenue, or increased priority in the future call admission, packet scheduling and/or network traffic engineering.
Moreover, in paper "Profit-Based Routing for Multihop Coverage Extension in Wireless Networks" (authors Y.-J. Choi, J. H. Jun and S. Bahk) relaying nodes receive a revenue R from the operator as a reward for their energy consumption.
Assuming that the energy consumption represents a cost Ci for the user i, the proposed scheme takes into account a path in the ad-hoc network only if the profit for all the terminals that act as relay is positive, i.e. if R>Ci for all i, and if the total cost experienced by the operator, that is the sum of all the revenues R paid to the relaying nodes, is lower than the revenue gained from the established connection.
Under this constraint, the profit-based routing scheme presented in the aforementioned work selects the path that allows reaching the base station with the minimum number of hops, so that the amount of revenues paid from the operator is as small as possible.
The assumption behind this solution is that the ad-hoc network will be used only when it is not possible to directly connect to the base station: when a direct connection is not available the shortest path that allows reaching a terminal in the base station coverage will be selected, given that the cost paid from both the operator and the relaying nodes is not greater than their revenue.

Management of a hybrid communication network comprising a cellular network and a local network


A method may include generating a source transaction description, encoding, by an encoder model of a machine translation model executing on a computer processor, the source transaction description to create a context vector, decoding, by a decoder model of the machine translation model, the context vector to predict a target entity description, generating a transaction including the target entity description, detecting an acceptance, by a user, of an action performed on the transaction, in response to detecting the acceptance, updating a translation accuracy metric for the target entity description, determining that the updated translation accuracy metric satisfies a translation accuracy criterion, and in response to determining that the updated translation accuracy metric satisfies the translation accuracy criterion, adding the target entity description to golden entity descriptions.

Automated download of transactions (e.g., financial transactions) is a useful feature of online business management applications. One obstacle to using downloaded transactions is the variable format of their descriptions, which may vary widely across different transaction sources. Different transaction sources may use different representations of values such as entity names, locations, times, etc. In the case of financial transactions, due to this variability, even the same location of a single entity may be represented using a large number of different formats, depending on which payment method was used (e.g., debit card, Visa, MasterCard, etc.), which payment networks handled the transaction, and which financial institution recorded the transaction. Large dictionaries of commonly used transaction description keywords may be used to address the variable transaction format problem. However, the usefulness of such dictionaries tends to limited to a specific language (e.g., English).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Translating transaction descriptions using machine learning


An image forming apparatus includes a receiving unit configured to receive data via a network, a printing unit configured to print an image based on the data received from the receiving unit, and a control unit configured to control the receiving unit to refuse a data reception based on a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) when a toner remaining amount for the printing unit is less than a predetermined value, wherein the printing unit is configured to print, in the case that the receiving unit receives page description language (PDL) data, an image based on the received PDL data even if the toner remaining amount is less than the predetermined value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming system configured from a data communication apparatus that transmits electronic mail data generated based on facsimile data received via a public line and an image forming apparatus that forms an image based on that electronic mail data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus that has a facsimile function for transmitting and receiving facsimile data via a public line has been generally known. Further, in recent years Internet facsimile apparatuses (hereinafter sometimes also referred to as "Internet FAX apparatus") have been also becoming commonplace as a facsimile apparatus capable of performing facsimile communication via the Internet using an electronic mail protocol. An Internet FAX transmits data by using an electronic mail protocol (simple mail transfer protocol ("SMTP")) instead of a telephone line, and is recommended by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
An Internet FAX apparatus can utilize the Internet or an intranet to transmit and receive a facsimile. Compared with a facsimile apparatus that utilizes a telephone line, an Internet FAX apparatus can realize a reduction in communication costs, can computerize paper documents by a simple operation equivalent to a facsimile, and can attach that computerized document to an electronic mail and transmit it to a personal computer. Under an Internet FAX apparatus standard called "simple mode", image data with an A4 printing paper size and 200 dots per inch (dpi) printing resolution can be transmitted from the Internet FAX apparatus to a printer, and the image data received by the printer can be printed out.
Further, the above-described image forming apparatus can also receive and print out electronic mail other than electronic mail transmitted based on the Internet FAX standard. Moreover, in addition to the electronic mail receiving function, the above-described image forming apparatus may include a function for printing print data generated by a printer driver on a personal computer (PC) received via a network. Such a printer can also print electronic mail and page description language (PDL) data received in parallel.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-64670 discusses a FAX apparatus that restricts printing when a toner remaining amount is less than a predetermined value in order to prevent a print product from becoming faint due to lowering of the toner remaining amount.
When printing the received PDL data, although printing can be repeated by re-transmitting the data from the PC, if the received data is electronic mail data, since the sender and the receiver are different, in many cases it is impossible for the receiver to re-transmit and print the data.
Consequently, if printing is prohibited across the board regardless of the type of data when the toner remaining amount falls below the predetermined value as carried out in the conventional method, when receiving and printing the print data, printing is restricted despite the fact that a few pages can be printed even though the toner remaining amount has fallen below the predetermined value. Consequently, user convenience is dramatically reduced.

Image forming apparatus, image forming system, image forming system control method, and program


A semiconductor module and a cooler capable of cooling a semiconductor element efficiently. The semiconductor module supplies a refrigerant to a water jacket configuring the cooler, to cool a circuit element part disposed on an outer surface of a fin base. This semiconductor module has: a fin connected thermally to the circuit element part; a refrigerant introducing passage in the water jacket, which has a guide part that has one surface and another surface inclined to guide the refrigerant toward one side surface of the fin; a refrigerant discharge passage disposed in the water jacket to be parallel to the refrigerant introducing passage, which has a side wall parallel to another side surface of the fin; and a cooling passage formed in a position for communicating the refrigerant introducing passage and the refrigerant discharge passage with each other in the water jacket. The fin is disposed in the cooling passage.

A semiconductor module has been extensively used in a power converter, such as an electrical system of a hybrid vehicle or an electrical vehicle. The semiconductor module configuring an energy-saving controller has a power semiconductor element for controlling a high current.
The heat generated by such a power semiconductor element when controlling a high current tends to increase especially as miniaturization and power boosting of the power semiconductor element advance. Therefore, a major problem is to cool a semiconductor module having a plurality of power semiconductor elements.
A liquid cooling cooler has conventionally been used in such a semiconductor module. The power semiconductor elements need to be cooled efficiently in order to improve the cooling efficiency of the semiconductor module. The liquid cooling cooler is designed in various ways to improve its cooling efficiency thereof, by increasing the flow rate of its refrigerant, shaping heat radiating fins (cooling body) into a shape to provide good heat-transfer efficiency, and increasing heat-transfer efficiency of materials configuring the fins.
Increasing the flow rate of refrigerant supplied to the cooler or adopting the fin structures providing good heat-transfer efficiency can easily increase a pressure loss of the refrigerant inside the cooler. Especially in a cooler that uses a plurality of heat sinks to cool a large number of power semiconductor elements, the pressure loss of the refrigerant is significant in a passage structure where refrigerant passages are connected in series. To reduce the pressure loss of the refrigerant, it is ideal to construct a cooler in which its cooling efficiency can be enhanced with a low refrigerant flow rate. However, adopting a new fin material for improving the heat-transfer efficiency of the fin material configuring the cooler can lead to increases in costs of the entire cooler.
In a recent cooler, a refrigerant introducing passage for introducing a refrigerant and a refrigerant discharge passage for discharging the refrigerant are arranged parallel to each other, and a plurality of heat sinks are disposed therebetween in a refrigerant circulation direction so as to be substantially perpendicular to the abovementioned passages (for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-35981, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-12722, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-205371, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-251932, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-80211, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-231677, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-295178). In this case, the refrigerant can flow parallel between fins configuring each heat sink, increasing the cooling performance per pressure loss and reducing the pressure loss of the refrigerant inside the passages, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-80211.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-231677 describes a liquid cooling cooler in which the entire rear-side wall of the casing is smoothly inclined forward from the right-side wall toward the left-side wall and in which the cross-sectional area of the passage of the entrance header part decreases gradually from the cooling liquid entrance side toward the left-side wall (see the paragraphs [0024] and [0031] and FIG. 2). Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-205371 describes a liquid cooling cooler in which the connection water paths for introducing and discharging a refrigerant are disposed on the same side surface of the module and in which each of the paths is disposed in a direction perpendicular to the fins without changing the cross-sectional areas thereof (see FIG. 1).
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-295178 describes a heat sink apparatus for use in a computer electronic device and the like. In this heat sink apparatus, the shape of the inflow guide plate extending toward the plurality of passages is configured so as to be inclined into the shape of a curve of a convex surface toward the plurality of passages, as it moves away from the inflow port. In addition, the cross-sectional area of the inflow guide part becomes small gradually from the inflow port. Moreover, the shape of the inflow guide plate is same as that of the inflow guide plate (see the paragraph [0030] and FIG. 6).
In the conventional cooling technologies, however, a drift distribution in which the refrigerant drifts away occurs due to the shapes of the heat sinks and refrigerant passages, the method for disposing the heater elements, or the shapes of the refrigerant introduction/discharge ports, etc. Such drift distribution caused in the conventional coolers disturbs the balance of the cooling performance. Therefore, a uniform and stable cooling performance cannot be accomplished. Another problem is that only the temperatures of heat generated in the semiconductor elements disposed opposing the refrigerant discharge port increase significantly, reducing the lives of the elements or damaging the elements.
As in the coolers disclosed in Patent Documents 6 and 7 in which the cross-sectional areas of the entrance header parts decrease gradually in a direction in which the entrance header parts extend, their flow rate distributions are improving, but the increase in the temperatures of the sections near the refrigerant introduction ports cannot be prevented.


In a SiC-based MISFET and a manufacturing process thereof, after the introduction of an impurity, extremely-high-temperature activation annealing is required. Accordingly, it is difficult to frequently use a self-alignment process as performed in a silicon-based MISFET manufacturing process. This results in the problem that, to control the characteristics of a device, a high-accuracy alignment technique is indispensable. In accordance with the present invention, in a semiconductor device such as a SiC-based vertical power MISFET using a silicon-carbide-based semiconductor substrate and a manufacturing method thereof, a channel region, a source region, and a gate structure are formed in mutually self-aligned relation.

The present invention relates to a technology which is effective when applied to a self-alignment technique in a semiconductor device (or semiconductor integrated circuit device) such as a MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) or MISFET (Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) and a manufacturing method thereof.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No 2008-108869 (Patent Document 1) discloses a technique in which, with regard to a manufacturing method of a SiC-semiconductor-based vertical N-channel MOSFET or MISFET, the width of a resist mask is self-alignedly increased by a heat treatment to form source regions and channel regions (P base regions) by self alignment. The publication also discloses a technique in which, after a heat treatment for the source regions and the channel regions, a gate structure is formed.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-147576 (Patent Document 2) or US Patent Publication No. 2010-35420 (Patent Document 3) corresponding thereto discloses a technique in which, with regard to a manufacturing method of a SiC-semiconductor-based vertical N-channel MOSFET or MISFET, the width of a tungsten hard mask is reduced to form source regions and channel regions by self alignment. The publication also discloses a technique in which, after a heat treatment for the source regions and the channel regions, a gate structure is formed.

Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof


An LED driving device includes: a rectifying circuit for outputting a DC voltage to a string of M LED units; (M−1) first switching circuits each coupled between a corresponding one of first to (M−1)th LED units and ground; and a second switching circuit coupled between an Mth LED unit and ground. When the DC voltage is sufficient to turn on first to kth LED units, where 1≦k≦M, the kth LED unit is coupled to ground through first and second conductive paths provided by a resistor unit, and a corresponding first switching circuit or the second switching circuit, and each of the first to (k−1)th LED units is coupled to ground through a third conductive path provided by a corresponding first switching circuit and the resistor unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a driving device, and more particularly to a light emitting diode (LED) driving device.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional LED driving device 1 disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,081,722. The conventional LED driving device 1 is used to drive a plurality of series connected LED units 10, each of which includes an LED. The conventional LED driving device 1 includes a rectifier 11 for rectifying an AC voltage from an AC power source (Vin) to a DC voltage (Vrec), a voltage generator 12 for generating a reference voltage (Vref), a plurality of switches (S1˜S4), a plurality of operational amplifiers (OP1˜OP4), and a plurality of resistors (R1˜R16).
In operation, initially, the DC voltage (Vrec) is not sufficient to turn on a first LED unit 10, and each of the first to fourth switches (S1˜S4) conduct in response to an output signal from a respective one of the operational amplifiers (OP1˜Op4). Then, when the DC voltage (Vrec) increases enough to turn on the first LED unit 10, the first to fourth switches (S1˜S4) still conduct such that a current flows through the first switch (S1) and the resistor (R1). When the DC voltage (Vrec) increases enough to turn on the first and second LED units 10, the operational amplifier (OP1) senses this condition by monitoring through the resistors (R3, R4) a potential (V2) at a common node between the second and third LED units 10, and turns off the first switch (S1). At the same time, the second to fourth switches (S2˜S4) still conduct such that a current flows through the resistor (R5) and the second switch (S2). Similarly, when the DC voltage (Vrec) increases enough to turn on the first to third LED units 10, the operational amplifier (OP2) senses this condition by monitoring a potential (V3) at a common node between the third and fourth LED units 10, and turns off the second switch (S2). When the DC voltage (Vrec) increases enough to turn on all of the LED units 10, the operational amplifier (OP3) senses this condition by monitoring a potential (V4) at one end of the fourth LED unit 10 distal from the third LED unit 10, and turns off the third switch (S3).
In such a configuration, the operational amplifiers (OP1˜OP4) serve as essential components to control operations of the first to fourth switches (S1˜S4). In addition, if the configuration of one LED unit 10 varies, for example, variation in the number or type of LEDs thereof, the reference voltage (Vref) generated by the voltage generator 12 must be adjusted accordingly.


A method for determining the presence of knots and/or voids in lumber surfaces by uniformly heating the wood and then submitting the wood to an infrared camera, providing a thermal image of the surface of the wood. Knots and voids heat differently from the remaining wood areas, the differential heating being observed by the inspection of the thermal image, or more preferably by conversion of the image to a digital signal which is communicated to a frame grabber and data processor, permitting frame-by-frame inspection of the heat distribution on the surface of the wood. Locations of differential heating corresponding to knots and voids are detected, and can be communicated to subsequent processing devices, to either exclude all or some of the defect areas, or control the use to which the defect-bearing wood is put.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention disclosed and claimed in this application pertains to a method for determining the presence and location of knots or voids in lumber. Specifically, an infrared imaging system is provided which permits the preparation of digital information regarding the thermal profile of heated lumber surfaces, which in turn indicates the presence, and locations, of knots and/or voids in the surface of the lumber so heated. This information may be used to control for wood quality, to program lumber saws or treatment apparatus and operations, etc.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Efforts to improve and automate processes for grading, trimming, and cutup of softwood and hardwood lumber by non-contact, non-labor intensive methods are being widely pursued. Defect detection by non-contact means will allow automated grading, sawing to remove selected defects, and/or other production treatments. Detection of the presence of knots is especially important as knots are the most numerous of the defect types. Voids are also an important defect type that occur in the form of rot, worm or grub holes, and unsound knots that have fallen out.
Existing technology for defect detection has focused largely on the use of CCD scanners or cameras. U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,142, Hatje, is representative of such systems. One obstacle presented in connection with the use of cameras of this type has been the difficulty encountered in differentiating knots from clear wood. Some tree species have dark knots and light colored clear wood that makes knot detection relatively easy. Other species, however, such as the oaks, cherry, basswood, western red cedar, walnut, and others have knots that are nearly the same color as the surrounding clear wood. This difficulty has lead to the use of X-ray devices to detect knots in conjunction with CCD cameras that detect other defect types. See, e.g., International Patent WO 90/11488, Flatman et at, as an example of a system of this type. This reference focuses on real time computer control of the process, which permits programmed control over the lumber edging process.
Other attempts to address the problem caused by the lack of adequate color contrast in CCD cameras are reflected in the use of scanning cameras generating separate colored images of the lumber, the distribution of color intensity for each color being analyzed to detect dark defects such as knots, as reflected in U.S. Pat. No. 4,992,949 Arden. There is no indication that this device solves the knot detection problem for species with knots that are nearly the same color as the clear wood surrounding them.
An additional problem with CCD camera detection of knots as dark objects, aside from inability to detect knots in species without contrasting dark knots and light clear wood, is that stray dark marks are often imparted to the wood surface during manufacturing. Marks from oxidized steel often occur as a result of saws rubbing on the wood surface during sawing. Dirt or scuff marks from handling are often dark. Sticker stain leaves a dark linear mark perpendicular to lumber linear axis. Each of these dark marks as well as others present from various causes may be mistaken by CCD cameras for dark knots.
Voids are generally easy for CCD cameras to detect down to a very small size. However, very small knots of less than 1/8-inch diameter are difficult for this technology to detect.
Several processes have been developed using laser irradiation and photo sensors to determine the presence of knots or other features in lumber being inspected. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 3,976,384, Matthews et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,545, Floyd et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,629, Bogue et al, are all directed to electro-optical scanning systems wherein laser illumination is used to determine grain angle. The location of knots are inferred by the high grain angles that nearly always surround them. These technologies are relatively expensive to implement and no commercial installations of devices based on these principles have been reported.
In industries unrelated to the wood products industry , heat profiles, as determined by infrared cameras, have been used for the inspection of various products. U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,732, Ichijima et al, describes a process for using variable temperature images caused by flaws on the surfaces of inspected articles to identify the flaws and permit corrective measures. The patent is directed to heated metal products. An infrared camera and detector is used to observe moving targets or items, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,482, Duvent, particularly suitable for the detection of intruders and various other moving targets. This system converts the observed thermal image, coupled with an electronic digital signal processor, and means for visualization of the signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,468, Batchelder et al, provides a method for inspecting integrated circuits, which employs a video camera, the video signal from which is first digitized by a high-speed analog digital converter and frame grabber. This is particularly illustrated in FIG. 8, and described at column 7, line 45-column 8, line 30. In this method, the digital information is communicated to a microcomputer or PC, which permits identification of flawed elements. Another system which uses a camera image connected with a frame grabber in turn connects with a computer to measure and digitalize image information as described in SIR H 999, Merkel et al.
A representative system for determining moving objects such as intruders is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,796, Nakamura, which employs an infrared camera, the analog image signal of which is inputted to a write controller, which converts the received image into a digital signal, written into frame units for a frame grabber. Differences in temperature are compared, to determine the shape of the unknown trespasser. Thus, this process, applied to living individuals, uses the infrared camera input to compare, frame-by-frame, the analog signal obtained with the adjacent analog signal, to determine temperature variations.
Thus, other industries have developed surface inspection methods which permit the use of infrared camera images, the analog information from which is converted to a digital signal, connected with a computer, which is employed to localize and identify various surface flaws or modifications.
It remains an object of the wood products industry to provide an automated or substantially automated system for the improved detection of knots on lumber surfaces, coupled with the ability to use that information to control subsequent processing, such as grading, sawing, or other processing needs by a method which provides the speed and reliability of processes applied to heat-yielding objects of the type described above.

Method for determining the presence of knots or voids in wood

Mississippi State University: Forest Products Laboratory


Embodiments for use of an apparatus and method for alerting an occupant within a vehicle are provided. An apparatus may include a lidar unit configured to detect an oncoming intruder approaching a stationary vehicle. The lidar unit is mounted to an external surface of the stationary vehicle or coupled to an emergency vehicle warning device. An alarm is sounded or warning lights are triggered when the oncoming intruder approaches within a zone surrounding the vehicle. A method may include providing a controller unit and a lidar unit configured to detect the motion of any oncoming person, animal, or object approaching a stationary vehicle. The lidar unit rotates to scan the region surrounding the stationary vehicle and provides detection data. Upon detecting an oncoming intruder, the detection data is transmitted to the controller unit within the vehicle, and an alarm may be sounded to warn an occupant located within the vehicle.

For many people, a great deal of time is physically spent located in one's vehicle, even if the vehicle is not in motion and is stationary. It may be necessary to do a variety of tasks that may be accomplished while located in a vehicle. For example, such tasks may include checking one's email or messages on one's smartphone or other computing device, making and receiving phone calls, eating, sleeping, and engaging in a variety of tasks within one's vehicle. In addition to the above, many people spend an inordinate amount of time in their work vehicles as part of their occupational duties and obligations. For example, police officers or other law enforcement usually spend a great deal of time within their police vehicles because of their occupational obligations and assignments. When police officers are not driving their police vehicles, they are often found parked in various locations, during the day time and the night time. Such locations may include located on or adjacent to roadways and highways, parking lots, residential neighborhoods, and a variety of venues and locations. Furthermore, it is noted that other working professionals may also spend a great deal of time located within their vehicles, including security officers, public safety, construction, roadside assistance, and service repair professionals.
In general, when someone is working or concentrating on a task while located in their vehicle, he or she is not aware of his or her surroundings. This also means that a person inside the vehicle is probably not aware when other individuals are walking near or approaching his or her vehicle. If someone is approaching a stationary vehicle with an intent to harm the operator or occupants within the stationary vehicle, it may be easily accomplished because the occupants of the stationary vehicle usually have no warning and no means of detecting the movement of these oncoming individuals, particularly at night.
In the case of police officers, there have been too many tragedies that involve fatalities and serious bodily injury to the police officers that have occurred when these officers were simply parked within their police vehicles and were not aware of their outside surroundings or were otherwise focused on other tasks, and someone with an intention to harm these police officers, is able to walk up to the police vehicles undetected and open fire using guns and other weapons to attack the police officers within their vehicles.
Because such tragic situations are so frequently occurring to police officers, and also to many other types of individuals while located in their stationary vehicles, there is an immediate need for a system and apparatus that may be used to monitor an area around a vehicle and to alert the occupants located within a vehicle when a potential intruder approaches the vehicle.

360 degree intrusion detection and warning system


An across-file-system file access system and method for accessing files across different computer operating systems and file systems is disclosed. The across-file-system file access system includes a file resource table generator and a file resource table reader. The file resource table generator creates and up-dates a file resource table, which associates file markers for files stored in a given partition with the physical addresses of the files within the given partition. The file resource table generator is run on top of a first operating system, and the given partition is managed by a file system that uses a file system table. The file resource table reader run on top of a second computer operating system, which cannot access the file system table of the file system. The file resource table reader reads the file resource table to provide access to the files listed in the file resource table.

There exists many computer operating systems such as Windows operating systems (Windows 3.1™, Windows 95™, Windows 98™, Windows 2000™, Windows NT™, Windows XP™), Macintosh operating systems (Macintosh System 7™, Macintosh System 8™, Macintosh System 9™, Macintosh OSX™), Unix based operating systems (FreeBSD, IRIX, OpenBSD), Linux, and others.
Regardless of the computer operating system employed on a modern computer, a modem computer system typically includes a mass storage device for storing files. Frequently, the mass storage device has a single partition, but the mass storage device can also be subdivided into several partitions. A partition is managed by a file system, and the type of file system depends upon the computer operating system. Among other things, a file system determines the layout of files and metadata in the partition in terms of blocks, allocates blocks, handles read and write system calls, maintains buffer cache, and handles input/output operations for movements of blocks to/from the partition.
A computer operating system will generally support (read and write) several file systems, but generally no single computer operating system supports every file system. Thus, it is difficult to share and access files across different computer operating systems when the files are stored in a partition that is not supported by the different computer operating systems. For example, a computer running the Linux computer operating system cannot access files stored in a New Technology File System (NTFS), which is native to the Windows 2000™ computer operating system. Similarly, a computer running the Windows 2000™ computer operating system cannot access files stored in a Unix File System (UFS), which is native to the Linux computer operating system. Thus, a dual boot computer system that can boot-up in either Windows 2000™ or Linux, where the Windows 2000™ computer operating system uses a NTFSpartition and the Linux computer operating systems uses a UFSpartition, cannot access files stored in the NTFS partition when the computer system is running the Linux computer operating system nor access files in the UFSpartition when the computer system is running the Windows 2000 computer operating system.
Thus, a heretofore-unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

System and method for providing access to computer files across computer operating systems


The disclosed seat belt retractor and seat belt apparatus may be used to provide a technology effective for reducing the risk of making a vehicle occupant uncomfortable with regard to the seat belt winding action. A seat belt retractor and seat belt apparatus may comprise an electric motor, a spool capable of winding and unwinding a seat belt for occupant restraint, and a controller configured to perform a control mode in which the electric motor is controlled to rotate in a belt winding direction based on the status of a wearing of the seat belt on a vehicle occupant and the status of a vehicle door corresponding to the seat belt.

The present invention relates to a seat belt retractor to be installed in a vehicle.
Conventionally, a seat belt apparatus is known, which is structured to protect an occupant in a vehicle by a seat belt (or webbing) restraining the occupant. For example, Japanese PCT International Application Publication 2003-507252 (the '252 Publication) discloses a structure of a seat belt retractor of a seat belt apparatus in which a spool (or a winding shaft) can be rotated for the winding and unwinding of a seat belt by an electric motor.
The technology described in the '252 Publication proposes a possibility of using an electric motor to conduct the seat belt winding action of the spool in the structure of the seat belt retractor. When this structure is used for the control (or the seat belt storing control) of the winding up of a seat belt in order to prevent the seat belt from being kept in the unwound state, the control is required to prevent making the vehicle occupant uncomfortable as much as possible.
Specifically, if the seat belt storing control employs such a structure that the seat belt winding action is conducted on the condition that the wearing of the seat belt is cancelled by releasing a tongue from a seat belt buckle, the control may make the vehicle occupant uncomfortable when the vehicle occupant releases the tongue from the seat belt buckle to cancel the wearing of the seat belt but changes his or her mind and decides to wear the seat belt again. In this case, the vehicle occupant must withdraw the seat belt against the winding force of the seat belt winding action, thus causing discomfort.
Therefore, the present disclosure has been made in view of the above problem and it is an object of the present application to provide a technology which relates to a seat belt winding action using an electric motor for preventing the seat belt from being kept in the unwound state and which is effective for reducing the risk of making the vehicle occupant uncomfortable.
For achieving the object, the present application is made. The present disclosure can be typically adapted to a seat belt retractor to be installed in an automobile. In addition, the present disclosure can be adapted to a technology for developing a seat belt retractor to be installed in a vehicle other than the automobile, such as an aircraft, a boat, a train, or a bus.

Seat belt retractor and seat belt apparatus


A system for tracking balls in sports in which players kick, pass, bounce, strike or carry a ball. The ball is equipped with two beacons pulsing in the 5-10 Hz range at a frequency which is not attenuated by the body of the players. one beacon has a very short range of 40-120 cm and the other has a range of 1-5 meters. A data logger worn by the players includes a clock, location and speed sensors, a receiver for the beacon signals and a micro controller to record the data from all the sensors. The micro controller is able to record whether the player is in possession of the ball or is contesting the ball. The path of the ball from player to player is tracked relative to the playing field. An impact or pressure sensor may be fitted to the players footwear, glove or a bat stick, club or racquet to register a kick or ball strike.

The idea of locating beacons in balls has been proposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,031 discloses a ball with a sound emitter for the visually impaired.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,210 discloses a hockey puck with a transmitter which is turned on when the puck is struck using a shock sensor and turned off using a timer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,976,038 discloses a foot ball with a transmitter at each end transmitting different frequencies. These are detected by antennas off the field of play to detect line crossing as in out of bounds or a score.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,091,863 discloses a football with a readable sensor which can be read by readers located on the periphery of a playing field. The readers communicate with a computer so that the ball can be tracked as it moves over the field. The sensor in the ball may be a transmitter or transceiver and includes GPS, radio frequency tag, infra red or laser transmitter.
These systems are expensive as they rely on powerful transmitters and receivers that need to be located around the playing field. They also use expensive electronic equipment within the balls. Sport balls usually experience rapid wear and tear during a game and need to be replaced often.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,762,005 and 4,824,107 disclose a piezo based transducer arrangement to be incorporated into the gloves, headgear or body suit of the participants in martial arts. Wireless transmission of the piezo signals sends the data to a computer for analysis and display. The devices simply measure the number of impacts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,702 discloses a force pad also for recording impacts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,959 uses a piezo film to locate the point of impact of a ball.
WO 99/10052 discloses a boxing training system with sensors on gloves or a punching bag to record the number of hits.
It is an object of this invention to provide an inexpensive means of locating the travel path of a ball and also detect possessions and the methods by which it is propelled.


In a focus control apparatus of a camera, a luminance signal component having a relatively high frequency is extracted from a video signal by use of a filter so as to accumulate the extracted luminance signal component by an accumulator. A difference circuit computes a difference in the accumulated signal component between two adjacent horizontal scanning lines such that the maximum value of the difference is held by an accumulator unit for a vertical scanning period. The focus of the lens is controlled such that the accumulated value produced by the accumulator unit takes the maximum value. A high focusing accuracy is obtained not only for an image in which the luminance greatly varies in the horizontal direction of the image having a vertical stripe pattern but also for an image associated with a large change only in the vertical direction having an image of vertical stripes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera, and in particular, to a focus controller for focusing an imaging lens by use of a video signal attained from an imaging device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional focus controllers, there has been employed a high frequency detection focus control method in which components of a video signal having a relatively high frequency are used such that the integrated value thereof develops the maximum value and effects the control to focus an imaging lens. Since the high frequency components are extracted from a horizontal scanning line of a video signal in this method. A characteristic of a satisfactory focusing precision is obtained for a pattern or design containing high freqeuncy components in the horizontal direction of the image, such as a pattern of vertical stripes.
In actual cases, there exist various objects ranging from objects having an obscure contour to objects having a clear contour. For a pattern with a clear contour, a large portion of a video signal attained by imaging the pattern is occupied by a high frequency component; and such a large high frequency component cannot be necessarily attained in a case of a pattern having an obscure contour. For a pattern of vertical stripes including clear white and black stripes shown as an example of the former case in FIG. 10A, when an imaging system is focused onto this object, there is attained a luminance signal Y of a rectangular shape as shown in FIG. 10B. When the luminance signal Y becomes similar to an ideal rectangular wave, the higher harmonic spectra thereof are increased. As a result, there is developed a frequency charateristic of FIG. 10D in which the frequency (f)-gain (g) characteristic is indicated by a solid line 400. When the focusing is not appropriately effected onto the object, the luminance signal Y becomes to be a waveform having a small harmonic component as shown in FIG. 10C. As a consequence, the frequency band thereof shifts toward a low frequency zone like a curve 402 of FIG. 10D. In this situation, although the fundamental or dominant wave greatly varies depending on the number of white and black stripes in the screen, if the video signals of the screen include even one impulse component, a focused state can be obtained in a relatively easy manner, for example, by use of a peak detection.
However, this conventional focus control method has a disadvantage that a high focusing accuracy cannot be developed for a pattern in which the luminance of the screen alters through an intermediate gradation. For example, in the case of an object as shown in FIG. 11A where a single light is irradiated onto a surface of a wall slightly having a wave-like contour along a horizontal direction H and there does not exist a reflective image due to a reflection, a luminance signal obtained from this object develops a waveform having a small harmonic wave component even in the focused state as shown in FIG. 11B. If this is an ideal sine or sinusoidal wave, an electric power spectra thereof naturally includes only the fundamental wave as shown in FIG. 11D, namely, the wave cannot be expected to obtain a high frequency component. In a state other than the focused state, as shown in FIG. 11C, only a slight frequency variation of the fundamental wave and a variation in the amount of the fundamental component appears.
In addition, the conventional focus control method has been attended with a disadvantage that a high focusing accuracy cannot be obtained also for a pattern in which the luminance is greately changed only in the vertical direction of the screen. In more detail of the video signal, a lower frequency, for example, a field frequency of 60 Hz is used for the scanning operation in the vertical direction. As a consequence, in the case where there exists only one line associated with the video signal in which a relatively large change takes place in the luminance along the vertical direction of the image, the change appears only in the fundamental wave of the field frequency so as to develop a component of a lowest frequency. Consequently, in a circuit above controlling the focusing operation by extracting the high frequency component, it has been impossible to effectively use such a low frequency component.
For example, as shown in FIG. 12A, in the case of a pattern of a horizontal design associated with an abrupt change in the gradation of the white and black along the vertical direction V, the high frequency component described above cannot be obtained in the video signal. This is because that the scanning is repeatedly achieved for the video signal in the horzontal direction H of the screen and hence the gradation change in the vertical direction V appears only in the dominant wave of the field frequency. As consequence, in the focused state, a focus detection signal is obtained as a luminance variation astriding two lines adjacent to each other as shown in FIG. 12B. In contrast, when the lens is not set to the focused state, as shown in FIG. 12C, the luminance variation gradually occurs through several horizontal scanning lines. Consequently, the frequency as an object of the focus control is completely different from the frequency in the case where the pattern including hrozontal stripes, and hence the focus control processing cannot be effected by use of the conventional focus controller. As described above, it has been impossible for the conventional focus controller to accomplish a sufficient focus control on an object associated with a luminance change in the vertical direction of the screen.

Camera having a focus controller capable of focusing in horizontal and vertical directions of an image


A particular automotive assembly includes a brake line, a plastic clip and a second object. The brake line is a polyamide coated tube. The plastic clip has a tube receiver portion and a connector extension extending from the tube receiver portion. The polyamide coated tube is clipped in the tube receiver portion, and the tube receiver portion further is ultrasonically welded to the tube receiver portion. The connector extension facilitates connection of the plastic clip to another member. The second object is operatively attached to the connector extension of the plastic clip, the second object being one of an automotive frame member and an anti-lock brakes (ABS) wire.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the mounting of fluid lines in motor vehicles, and, more particularly, to the mounting of a brake line relative to a frame member or an anti-lock brakes (ABS) line.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typical applications of fluid tubing in a motor vehicle requires polyamide coated tubing be affixed to the vehicle in such a manner that the tubing remains in its intended routing within the vehicle. A common method for facilitating this includes snapped-on plastic clips or small metallic brackets that are applied to the part either at the assembly plant or by the manufacturer of the bent tube product.
While this produces a currently accepted method for assembling bent tubing within the vehicle, mounting of such tubing with plastic clips or metal brackets has generally not shown acceptable resistance to rotational and/or longitudinal movement. Under extreme conditions, the fastener or clip can move from the intended design position and cause the tubing to foul or contact other parts of the vehicle. Additionally, if the fastener or clip moves from the preferred location during shipment or fabrication, the assembly plant personnel are thus required to reposition the fastener to allow the component to be mated to the vehicle.
Such mounting arrangements employing plastic clips or metal brackets do not provide a consistently acceptable method for positively locating the attachment hardware, which causes problems cited above. Additionally, since the current art employs a snapped-on clip, it is realized that in production, these clips may fall off during shipment, requiring motor vehicle assembly plant workers to install a new fastener, which slows production and requires the plant to get these items in stock at the line. In the instance of configurations where the metallic or plastic clips hold multiple tubes together, the intended shape of the final product may be compromised due to the inability of current moving arrangements to positively hold the tubes in the preferred location.
Another manifestation of potential rotational and linear movement with respect to the fasteners is in the instance where an item such as an ABS cable is required to mate with the preformed tubing. Current art under this scenario again uses a plastic clip that permits a tube held thereby to move linearly and/or rotationally relative thereto. This movement again causes the components to potentially be installed to the vehicle such that they may contact other components, thus potentially causing a reduction in component life.
What is needed in the art is a method of mounting of a brake line relative to a frame member or an anti-lock brakes (ABS) line which permits the brake line to be initially attached using a simple clip action but yet permit the brake line to be positively located relative to another chosen part.
The present invention provides a method of mounting a brake line to a plastic clip that employs an additional ultrasonic welding step after clipping those parts together in order to positively locate the brake line relative to the plastic clip both prior to and after mounting of the clip to a further member, such as an automotive frame member or an anti-lock brakes (ABS) wire.
The invention comprises, in one form thereof, a particular automotive assembly that includes a brake line, a plastic clip and a second object. The brake line is a polyamide coated tube. The plastic clip has a tube receiver portion and a connector extension extending from the tube receiver portion. The polyamide coated tube is clipped in the tube receiver portion, and the tube receiver portion further is ultrasonically welded to the tube receiver portion. The connector extension facilitates connection of the plastic clip to another member. The second object is operatively attached to the connector extension of the plastic clip, the second object being one of an automotive frame member and an ABS wire.
The invention comprises, in another form thereof, a method of positively locating a polyamide coated tube relative to a plastic clip, the plastic clip having a tube receiver portion. The method includes the step of clipping the polyamide coated tube in the tube receiver portion, thereby defining a tube/clip contact zone. An ultrasonic bonding device including an ultrasonic horn is provided. The ultrasonic horn is positioned against one of the polyamide coated tube and the plastic clip proximate the tube/clip contact zone and is used to ultrasonically weld the polyamide coated tube and the plastic clip together.
An advantage of the present invention is that fluid tubing mounted in the manner of the invention is resistant to both rotational and longitudinal (i.e., linear) movement.
Another advantage is that such mounting ensures positive routing or design position of applied components.
Yet another advantage is that, due to the durability of this type of mounting, tubing positioned in such a fashion is resistant to movement (including vibrational movement) through the life of the vehicle.
An even further advantage is that tubing mounted in accordance with the invention is tends to remain intact and in alignment during shipment to assembly plants.
An even yet further advantage is that such a mounting reduces assembly plant labor by including provisions for attachment to the vehicle.

Method of mounting a brake line to a frame or an anti-lock brakes wire


The present invention provides an adjustable cinch belt for a saddle. The belt uses two straps designed to slide relative to one another to adjust the length of the belt. A three pronged locking plate secures the straps together to prevent unintentional movement of the straps to stop accidental loosening of the belt. The belt is designed for use as a girth cinch belt as well as a flank cinch belt in another embodiment.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of cinch belts for riding saddles.
2. Statement of the Problem
A riding saddle will normally be secured to a horse by a girth cinch belt and a flank cinch strap. The cinch belts of the prior art are typically of a pre-determined size. This limits the use of a single belt to a narrow range of saddles and horses. Should the saddle be desired to be used on a horse having a girth different than the horse that the original cinch belt was used for or should a different size saddle be used, it is necessary to buy another cinch belt for that horse or saddle. Since a rider will use a particular saddle for a number of years on a variety of horses as well as use a number of different sizes of saddles, the accumulation of a variety of cinch belts can create a large expense for the saddle user.
There currently exists a need for a cinch belt which can be used on a variety of saddles and on a variety of differing sizes of horses.
3. Solution to the problem
The current invention solves this problem and others by providing a cinch belt capable of being securely adjusted to a range of lengths to accommodate the use of either a single saddle on differing sizes of horses or used with a variety of saddles on different sizes of saddles and horses.
The adjustable belt of the current invention is designed not only for use as a girth cinch belt but in another embodiment, also as a flank cinch belt.

Adjustable cinch belt for a saddle and method therefor


A turning device for individual sheets has at least one transport unit transporting individual sheets. At least one turning unit turns the individual sheets by 180xc2x0 to turned sheets while they are being transported to a processing station arranged downstream. At least one vacuum element is arranged proximal to the at least one turning unit and transports the turned sheets in a direction toward the processing station arranged downstream.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a turning device for individual sheets comprising at least one transport unit for transporting the individual sheets and further comprising at least one turning unit with which the individual sheets can be turned about 180xc2x0 during their transport to a station arranged downstream.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such turning devices are known, for example, in folding machines and are used, for example, for combining individual sheets to sheet sets for inserting them into an envelope, respectively. The sequence of the supplied individual sheets is determined by the endless printing process. Accordingly, the further processing in a machine or station arranged downstream can present a problem when the printed image is on the wrong side of the individual sheets.
It is an object of the present invention to configure the turning device according to the invention such that the individual sheets can be transported such that the sheets can undergo further processing without any problems in the station arranged downstream.
In accordance with the present invention, this is achieved in that at least one vacuum element is arranged in the area of the turning unit with which the turned sheet can be transported toward the station arranged downstream.
In the turning device according to the invention, the vacuum element enables a quick further transport of the individual sheet after it has been turned by 180xc2x0. The turning device therefore has a high efficiency. The efficiency can be increased even more when the suction element is adjusted such that the individual sheets to be transported by it overlap one another.


An adhesive system comprises a carrier and an adhesive for attaching objects, such as a wiring harness, to a support surface, such as the structure of a motor vehicle, aircraft or appliance. The adhesive system features two end portions and a strap portion. An opening in one end portion is configured to receive the other end portion. The opening has a width normal to the longitudinal axis of the carrier that is configured to receive the strap portion of the carrier to define a loop. The carrier may be configured so that the loop maintains a closed condition about an object. Pressure sensitive adhesive disposed on one side of the end portions allows the carrier to be securely attached to a support surface.

A. Field of the Invention
The adhesive system and method of the invention are for securing an object to a support surface. An example of an object to be secured is a bundle of wires in a wiring harness for an automobile, aircraft, appliance or other device having wiring as a part of the device. While the adhesive system of the invention may secure a plurality of objects, the adhesive system may be used to secure a single object, such as a wire, to a support surface. The adhesive system of the invention may be used to secure other objects, such as bundles of tubes or hoses. The method is a method of using the adhesive system of the invention.
B. Statement of the Related Art
In the adhesive products industry, an 'adhesive system' is a combination of an adhesive and a carrier. The 'adhesive' is applied to or otherwise disposed on the carrier. The adhesive selectably adheres the carrier to a support surface. The 'carrier' is a polymer tape or other substrate and provides mechanical strength to the adhesive system.
Wiring in a motor vehicle, aircraft or appliance may comprise a single wire or may comprise one or more wiring harnesses to connect various electrical systems to each other, to sources of power and to control systems. The integrity of the wiring is crucial to preserve the operation of those electrical systems. To secure the wiring and to prevent chafing and damage to the wiring, the wiring generally is attached to the structure of the motor vehicle, aircraft, appliance or other device by fasteners that penetrate holes through the structure. The holes must be drilled, punched or otherwise prepared in the structure of the motor vehicle, aircraft, appliance or other device, which may require multiple manufacturing steps. Each hole is in a fixed location, which limits construction flexibility. For structures featuring steel construction, the holes can present opportunities for rust.
The wiring harness usually is constructed separately from the remainder of the motor vehicle, aircraft, appliance or other device. During manufacture of the wiring harness, fasteners are connected to the wiring harness at pre-defined locations and orientations. Because the fasteners will be connected to holes at specific locations on the structure of the motor vehicle, aircraft, appliance or other device, the precise location and orientation of the fasteners on the wiring harness is critical. The unforgiving nature of the fastener location and orientation on the wiring harness results in waste and substantial coordination, inspection, testing and re-work expenses for both the wiring harness manufacturer and the manufacturer of the motor vehicle, aircraft, appliance or other device.
The prior art does not teach the apparatus or method of the Invention.


The present invention is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising: forming a recess in an interlayer insulating film formed on a substrate surface, the recess being configured to be embedded with an upper conductive channel mainly made of copper to be electrically connected to a lower conductive channel; supplying a gas containing an organic compound of manganese, and forming a barrier layer made of a compound of manganese for preventing diffusion of copper to the interlayer insulating film, such that the barrier layer covers an exposed surface of the interlayer insulating film; after the formation of the barrier layer, supplying organic acid to the barrier layer in order to increase a ratio of manganese in the compound of manganese forming the barrier layer; after the supply of the organic acid, forming a seed layer mainly made of copper on a surface of the barrier layer; after the formation of the seed-layer, heating the substrate in order to separate out manganese from on the surface of the barrier layer or from in the barrier layer onto a surface of the seed layer; supplying a cleaning liquid to the seed layer in order to remove the manganese separated out on the surface of the seed layer by the heating; and after the supply of the cleaning liquid, forming the upper conductive channel mainly made of copper in the recess.

A multilayer wiring structure of a semiconductor device is formed by embedding a metal wiring in an interlayer insulating film. As a material of the metal wiring, copper (Cu) is used because of its small electro-migration and its small low resistance. A damascene method is generally used for forming the multilayer wiring structure. In particular, a dual damascene method is an advantageous method having lesser steps. In the dual damascene method, Cu is simultaneously embedded into a connection hole and a wiring groove which have been previously formed in an interlayer insulating film.
In the dual damascene method, a trench in which a wiring is arranged in a layer, and a via hole for connecting an upper wiring and a lower wiring, are formed in an interlayer insulating film of a substrate. Then, Cu is embedded into these recesses by a CVD method or an electroplating method. Before each of these recesses is embedded with copper, a Cu seed layer serving as an electrode may be formed along an inside surface of the recess, in order for a suitable embedment of Cu. In addition, since Cu tends to diffuse in the interlayer insulating film, it is necessary to form a barrier layer, which is formed of e.g., a Ta/TaN laminate body, in the recess. Thus, a barrier layer is sometimes formed on the surface of the interlayer insulating film and the inside surface of each recess by a sputtering method, for example, and a Cu seed layer is further formed thereon.
In recent years, as a method for forming a barrier layer, the following method has been regarded as favorable (for example, JP2007-221103A). Namely, a seed layer made of CuMn alloy is formed by sputtering on a recess formed in an interlayer insulating film formed of a SiO2 film or a SiOCH film that is a low dielectric constant film. Then, Mn atoms in the CuMn alloy and oxygen (O) atoms in the interlayer insulating film are reacted with each other, so that a barrier layer made of manganese oxide is self-formed on the surface of the interlayer insulating film.
As compared with the method of forming a barrier layer of a Ta/TaN laminate body, the above method is advantageous in that a barrier layer sandwiched between the interlayer insulating film and a Cu wiring can be made thinner. However, in the method of forming a CuMn-alloy seed layer by a sputtering method, an inside surface of a small recess cannot be well coated, so that the inside surface cannot be well coated with Mn. Thus, Cu diffuses in the interlayer insulating film, which impairs an insulation property of the interlayer insulating film.
Thus, in order to improve a coating property of a barrier layer in the recess, the present inventors have developed a method of forming a barrier layer in which a gas containing an organic compound of manganese is supplied, so as to directly form a barrier layer made of the manganese compound inside the recess formed in an interlayer insulating film. To be specific, a steam of an organic compound of manganese is reacted with oxygen, carbon, or silicon, which is one of the components contained in the interlayer insulating film, so as to form a barrier layer made of the manganese compound inside the recess. Alternatively, a steam of an organic compound of manganese is reacted with an oxygen gas, so as to form a barrier layer made of manganese oxide. However, these methods have the following problems. Namely, after a barrier layer has been formed by these methods, and a Cu seed layer has been formed thereon, a Cu wiring is formed in the recess. In this case, since the barrier layer and the Cu wiring with the Cu seed layer therebetween do not well adhere to each other, the Cu wiring formed in the recess may peel therefrom. Thus, the wiring may be damaged to invite breaking of the wire. In addition, also in a case where the Cu wiring is directly formed on the barrier layer, since the barrier layer does not well adhere to the Cu wiring, the same problem may arise.
In addition, there is another problem. Namely, when a barrier layer is formed, excessive manganese, which did not react with the part of the components contained in the interlayer insulating film or the oxygen gas, may be drawn (taken) into the surface of the barrier layer or into the barrier layer, so that the excessive manganese may diffuse in the Cu wiring. In this case, since electric conductivity of Mn is significantly lower than that of Cu, electric resistance of the Cu wiring may undesirably increase.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor device, semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and storage medium


The exposure device of an image forming apparatus includes a light-emitting device array having light-emitting devices; a switching device array including switching devices connected to the light-emitting devices, the switching device array being divided into a plurality of groups; a first line group for connecting commonly to first terminals of switching devices of each of the groups; a second line group for connecting commonly to second terminals of switching devices of each of the groups; and a circuit for performing simultaneous light emission of the light-emitting device array to expose the photosensitive member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image forming apparatuses such as electrophotographic copying machines. Specifically, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus including an array of photosensitive members that independently form a cyan image, a magenta image, a yellow image, and a black image, and thus form a color image as a result of a combination of these primary images.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known laser image forming apparatus for forming a color image has four arrays of electrophotographic photosensitive members and corresponding laser light sources as image exposure means. Oscillation of four laser light sources is controlled based on cyan, magenta, yellow and black image signals from an image to form four electrostatic latent images on the corresponding electrophotographic photosensitive members. These electrostatic latent images are developed and recombined to form the color image.
Laser beams from four laser light sources must be scanned so that four scanning beams are synchronized in the main and sub directions and thus cyan, magenta, yellow and black images are precisely recombined to form a color image free from color offset. It is, however, difficult to synchronize scanning of the four laser beams in the main and sub directions.
Another type of known color image forming apparatus has four electrophotographic photosensitive members and four LED light sources for forming cyan, magenta, yellow and black electrostatic latent images, in place of the laser light sources. In this apparatus, four scanning beams are relatively readily synchronized. On the other hand, a plurality of expensive LED chips are rearranged into four LED arrays in the apparatus (each LED array is referred to as a combined LED device), resulting in increased production costs of the apparatus. Since individual LED chips have different light emission characteristics, exposition by a combined LED device differs in the main scanning direction. Thus, image reproducibility is unsatisfactory in the main scanning direction.
In the color electrophotographic-copying machine, a combined LED device must be arranged for each of four electrophotographic photosensitive members. Since four combined LED devices also have different light emission characteristics as described above, it is even more difficult to precisely reproduce the original image.


A vehicle includes an engine, a dry dual-clutch transmission (dDCT) having a pair of input clutches and a gearbox containing oddly- and evenly-numbered gear sets, and a transmission control module (TCM). Application of one of input clutches connects the engine to a corresponding one of the oddly- or evenly-numbered gear sets. The TCM includes feed-forward PID-based control logic, and a torque-to-position (TTP) table for each input clutch. The TCM commands a position of a designated input clutch during a power-on upshift using the feed-forward, PID-based control logic, and selectively adapts the TTP table as a function of an inertia and acceleration value of the engine. The TCM may apply an asymmetrical handoff profile to commanded oncoming and offgoing clutch torques during the torque phase of the upshift. The TCM may also adjust the TTP table as a function of the frequency of use of the input clutches.

A dual-clutch transmission combines certain features of manual and automatic transmissions. In a dual-clutch transmission, a first input clutch is applied to engage any odd gear sets of a gearbox, while a second input clutch is applied to engage the even gear sets. An onboard transmission control module predicts the next gear to be selected using available control inputs such as engine acceleration and braking levels, and then commands engagement of the next gear ahead of the impending shift. Use of a dual-clutch transmission can improve the speed of a gear shift relative to those occurring in a conventional automatic transmission, typically with improved shift control and increased power.
A dual-clutch transmission may be either wet or dry. The gearbox and both input clutches of a wet dual-clutch transmission are cooled and lubricated by fluid that is circulated via an engine-driven pump and/or an auxiliary fluid pump. In a dry dual-clutch transmission or dDCT, the gearbox remains lubricated while the two input clutches remain dry. As a result, a dDCT tends to experience greater performance variation relative to a wet DCT design. Such performance variation is due largely to the wider variation in both the bulk temperature as well as the surface temperature of the non-lubricated input clutches.

Upshift control of a dry dual-clutch transmission


An alignment method is provided. A first 3D position and a first IMU calculation 3D position of a position object with an IMU is determined when the IMU enters a steady state. A second 3D position and a second IMU calculation 3D position of the position object is determined when the IMU exits the steady state. A first relative vector is determined based on the first 3D position and the second 3D position. A second relative vector is determined based on the first IMU calculation 3D position and the second IMU calculation 3D position. A rotation matrix is determined based on the first relative vector and the second first relative vector. A coordinate system of the position device is aligned with a coordinate system of the IMU based on the rotation matrix. An electronic device and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium are also provided.

Currently, in the disclosure contexts of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), multiples are applied to the disclosure contexts by information integration to improve user experience. In particular, information integration between a position device and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) is becoming more and more common. Wherein, IMU is a device for measuring Euler angles (or angular velocities) and acceleration of an object. The IMU includes gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer. The information integration of position device and IMU helps to obtain the pose information of a position object in the positioning system, and further realize the function of recentering the position object in the positioning system. The IMU information with high frame rate can compensate for the positioning system with low frame rate. Thus, the position information may be output with a high frame rate, and the fluency of positioning and the user perception can be improved. There are several methods for aligning the positioning system with the IMU may include as follows currently.
1. Aligning Relies on Hardware.
For example, the position device and the IMU of a Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO) are rigidly bound together. However, it requires high hardware process quality for the hardware, and limits application scenarios, and the positioning system cannot be separated from the IMU.
2. Combining Multiple Position Objects to Speculate Pose.
For example, there are multiple position objects on a controller, such as a rigid body marker of OptiTrack, a hand controller of HTC Vive, a controller of Oculus Rift, or the like, wherein OptiTrack is a motion capture studio of creating desktop applications easily of full body motion capture system, and HTC Vive is a VR virtual reality headset display product developed by HTC and Valve. The position objects can be light spots or a plurality of infrared receivers. In theory, the pose of position objects can be derived based on rigid body properties of the multiple objects, and the alignment relationship between the IMU and the controller can be derived based on a corresponding pose relationship of the controller and the IMU when mounted. However, it requires high hardware process quality for the hardware, and limits the structural design when combines multiple position objects, and the price increases exponentially.

Method and device for aligning coordinate of position device with coordinate of IMU

GUANGDONG VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A media processing unit, the media processing unit including: (i) an input interface, configured to receive a second media stream, wherein the second media stream includes first access units and second access units; wherein each second access unit lacks decoding parameters sufficient for full decoding of the second access unit; wherein each first access unit includes decoding parameters required for full decoding of at least one first access unit and of at least one second access unit; (ii) a media-processor, configured to select a selected access unit of the second media stream, and to process the second media stream to provide a processed second media stream by writing into the selected access unit decoding parameters that are responsive to decoding parameters of a previous first access unit; and (iii) a transmitter, configured to transmit the processed second media stream to a splicer.

In modern media transmissions, many a time splicing of media streams is required, in which a transmitter that transmits one media stream splices into transmission of another media stream, wherein that transition is required to be as smooth and unnoticeable for a viewer/receiver as possible. By way of example, in television or digital radio broadcasting, advertisements may be inserted into a transmission of another program, wherein the transitions from the program to advertisement, between different advertisements, and back to the transmission of the program should desirably be as seamless as possible. This difficult task is even more difficult in system that implement multicasting and/or unicasting, such as system that implement targeted advertising in which different viewers/listeners receive different advertisement.
In prior art legal splicing between media stream, if stream B is being concatenated to stream A, the decoder must have all the required information to decode stream B upon transition—at the splice point. It is noted that the required information may pertain to different aspects of transmission if implemented, such as video related information, audio related information, and so forth.
For many audio-compression formats (e.g. MPEG audio, Dolby AC3, AAC-LC), any audio access unit (AU) can serve as a legal random access point and includes all required information to immediately start playing the encoded audio. However, the introduction of advanced audio tools e.g. SBR (Spectral Band Replication, ISO/IEC 14496-3:2003/Amd.1) and PS (Parametric Stereo, ISO/IEC 14496-3:2005/Amd.2) has changed this: Some decoding parameters are passed occasionally (in an optional header) and not for every AU. This introduces a new problem of splicing where not every AU is a random access point. Performing a legal splice in the audio domain for such audio formats requires handling a new problem.
Specifically, if the two streams have different decoding parameters (e.g. different advanced audio tools headers), specifying the new set of parameters must appear on the splicing point. Failure to do so will result in invalid decoding of the second audio stream until all parameters are correctly specified. Unfortunately, the second stream doesn't necessarily have these headers on the splice point. In fact the standards don't necessarily specify any requirement on the frequency of sending these headers.
Referring to the example of advertising offered above, it is noted that ads are expected to start with a random access point. Therefore, a splice between two ads should normally result in a legal audio stream since it is expected that upon the start of each ad, headers carrying all decoding parameters will appear prior to the data in order to allow decoding. In such a situation, a problem may still remain in generating a legal splice upon return to primary stream from an ad break. Since the there are no conditions on the repetition of optional headers in the primary, it is likely that there will be no header upon the return point and that the ad and primary decoding parameters will be different.
Another problem rises when splicing encrypted streams. There is no standard or common practice for specifying and synchronizing of audio random access points to transport layers. The existence and contents of optional audio headers are completely unknown when examining streams where the payload is encrypted.
Failure to solve these problems may result in syntax errors, audio high frequency noise and lip sync flaws. It is noted that output stream may become compliant again after appearance of headers specifying all the different parameters. However, the effect of syntax errors on the decoder is unknown.
There is therefore a need for technologies for enabling splicing between media streams wherein some of the media streams includes deciding parameters in only some of its access units.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.

Methods and systems for splicing between media streams


A vehicle is configured to perform shuttle-shifting and comprises an engine and a power shift transmission operably connected with the engine comprising forward and reverse mechanical gears, the power shift transmission having more forward mechanical gears than reverse mechanical gears. The vehicle comprises a processor operably connected to the power shift transmission and to the engine, and is configured to receive a command from a user to establish a relationship between a last forward gear used and a desired reverse performance. The processor is configured to determine a desired reverse ratio based upon the last forward gear used and the established relationship and to select a reverse mechanical gear having a reverse gear ratio which is the same or less than the desired reverse ratio. The processor is configured to control the power shift transmission to shift to the selected reverse mechanical gear and if the reverse gear ratio of the selected reverse mechanical gear is less than the desired reverse ratio, an RPM of the engine is controlled to compensate for a difference between the reverse gear ratio of the selected reverse mechanical gear and the desired reverse ratio.

By way of background, many transmissions contain multiple mechanical gears which apply different degrees of speed reduction or increase to the RPM of the engine coupled to the transmission. Conventionally, the forward gears are numbered sequentially, e.g. F1, F2, etc., in descending gear ratio order so that, for example, F1 provides the highest gear ratio and greatest speed reduction from engine speed for the greatest output torque. Off-road work vehicle transmissions also often have multiple reverse mechanical gears. Again, by convention, they are numbered sequentially, e.g. R1, R2, etc., in descending gear ratio order.
Off road work vehicles, such as agricultural or construction tractors or crawlers, are frequently used in shuttle operations in which the vehicle is driven forward and backward repeatedly and the forward and reverse speeds are related. The desired reverse speed may be the same as or slower or faster than the forward speed used. In some electronically controlled automatic transmissions, this forward/reverse relationship can even be programmed. The forward and reverse gears can be preselected or the reverse gear can be selected to be displaced upward or downward from the forward gear used such that the reverse speed may be one or more reverse gears higher than that of the selected forward gear, or the same as the selected forward gear, or one or more gears lower than that of the selected forward gear. The operation described above is ideal for transmissions that have gear paths that provide reverse gear ratios equal to equally spaced forward gear ratios for each gear ratio in the range of normal shuttling speeds used.
A shuttle shifting configuration in a power shift transmission enables the off-road work vehicle to "shuttle" back and forth (i.e., in forward and in reverse) when doing work or other activities without the operator actually having to identify and find the reverse gear to be used in the shuttle. This relationship between a forward gear and a reverse gear can be preset. A lever can be provided to shuttle shift from forward to reverse and vice-versa, based upon the present relationship, simplifying the procedure for the operator of the off road work vehicle. Some transmissions utilized in shuttle-shifting vehicles have reverse mechanical gears with reverse gear ratios which correspond to the gear ratios of consecutive forward mechanical gears. For example, in a transmission with twelve forward mechanical gears and five reverse mechanical gears, the five reverse mechanical gears will have gear ratios that correspond to five consecutive forward mechanical gears, such as one to five, three to 7, eight to twelve, etc. The shuttle-shifting technique, however, would not work well with a power shift transmission that does not have reverse gear ratios corresponding to the forward gear ratios or where some reverse gear ratios are missing, and the present invention addresses that problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,718 issued on Aug. 6, 1991, is titled "Shuttle Shift Transmissions," and its subject matter is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,690 issued on May 7, 1991, is titled "Programmable Shuttle Shifting in Transmissions," and its subject matter is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,261 issued on Jun. 11, 1996, is titled "Pseudo-Gear Transmission Control System and Method," and its subject matter is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. U.S. Pat. No. 6,845,682 issued on Jan. 25, 2005, is titled "Smoothly Shifting Multispeed Transmission," and its subject matter is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Shuttle strategy for vehicles with electronically controlled transmissions and engines


In some examples, a method for rebuilding a source provider service environment in a target provider environment is described. The method may include identifying, using a service meta-app describing a service in a source provider environment, an internal direct dependency of the service. The method may also include accessing a dependency meta-app describing the internal direct dependency. The method may also include building the internal direct dependency according to the dependency meta-app in a target provider environment. The method may also include fetching an image of the service. The method may also include installing the image of the service in the target provider environment. The method may also include configuring the installed image of the service to depend from the internal direct dependency according to the service meta-app.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described herein are not prior art to the claims in the present application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Cloud computing has become popular in recent years. Cloud computing generally involves executing applications on general purpose servers in a computing environment that is remote from corresponding users of the applications.
There are various cloud computing providers. Different providers often have different provider environments, including different Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and/or infrastructures. For some applications, one provider environment may be incompatible with another provider environment.
Some users may wish to migrate an application from a source provider environment of a source cloud to a different target provider environment of a target cloud. The differences between the source provider environment and the target provider environment may be so substantial that a user may have to substantially rebuild a corresponding application in the target provider environment to migrate the application to the target provider environment. Difficulties associated with rebuilding the application or otherwise migrating the application due to compatibility issues between the source and target provider environments may dissuade the user from migrating the application to the target provider environment even though it might otherwise be beneficial, e.g., in terms of cost and/or performance, to the user to migrate the application to the target provider environment.

Meta-app to depict cloud environment dependencies to faciliate a service environment rebuild