A system for testing a vessel control system includes sensors on board the vessel to send one or more sensor signals over a signal line to the control system; command input devices on board the vessel to send one or more of desired position, course, velocity, etc. over a command signal line to the control system; an algorithm in the control system to compute control signals to based on sensor data, communication lines for sending of one or more simulated signals and/or simulated command signals from a remote test laboratory to the control system; and a simulator including an algorithm for the simulation of the new dynamic state of a vessel model based on a previous state, the control signals, and the dynamic parameters of the vessel. The control system continues to compute the control signals to achieve at least one of desired position, course, velocity, etc. based on real and/or simulated sensor signals and real and/or simulated command signals.

Problem Description
The physical process, in this case in the form of a vessel, may be influenced by external events like a change in wind, waves and current, or by unexpected events like loss of motor power for one or more propellers, or failure in the function of a rudder. It is desired or expected that the control system for the vessel can handle external influence and external events so as for the vessel to maintain a safe state. A safe state may for example be that that the vessel maintains the desired position or velocity, or that it avoids undesired positions (to avoid collision or grounding), that it avoids a situation of uncontrolled drift, that it maintains a desired course, etc. Moreover, it is expected that the control system in the case of loss of sensor signals or errors in sensors should not do undesired and unfortunate compensations like a sudden change in ballast pumping in response to loss of a realistic signal in a roll or pitch sensor, or sudden corrections of an apparent error in position.
Measurements to a Control System
A control system for a ship, with inputs from instruments that give measurements, and with outputs to actuators, propelling devices and control devices that are to be given control signals, is shown in FIG. 1 and in FIG. 3. This type of control system can receive measurements in the form of sensor signals from a number of sources: roll/pitch/heave sensors, anemometer for measuring relative wind speed and direction, gyro compass, GPS sensors or GPS positioning systems, inertial navigation systems that on basis of acceleration measurements calculate velocity by integration with respect to time and position by double integration with respect to time, hydroacoustic position sensors relative to fixed points at the sea-floor, taut-wire system of which the direction and length of one or more tensioned wires from the vessel to points at the sea floor is observed, command signals for change of course or desired course, desired position, or desired velocity of the vessel, shaft or and load on propellers and motors, rudder angle sensor, level sensors for loading tanks, ballast level sensors, fuel level sensors, engine state, cooling water temperature, oil pressure, etc.
The control system is to give control signals to actuators like propulsors and control devices. The propulsors may be ordinary propellers, tunnel thrusters or azimuth thrusters, or in some cases, a mooring system that is designed to pull the vessel to the right position. Control signals can also be given to ballast pumps and associated valves to correct the roll angle or the pitch angle.
Problems Related to Control for Dynamic Positioning, DP.
If the vessel is a petroleum drilling vessel or a petroleum production vessel, for example a drilling ship or a drilling platform, a petroleum production ship or a petroleum production platform, the control system may also receive measurements of the heave motion from a heave accelerometer, and output a control signal to an active heave compensation system for a riser, a drill string, cranes, etc. where mechanical equipment may be connected to the seafloor and of which it may be essential to compensate for the motion of the vessel, in particular heave. A normal use of control systems for petroleum activity at sea is for dynamic positioning of the vessel, that is, that the vessel uses actuators like azimuth thrusters to maintain desired position during drilling or during production of petroleum. A vessel that is moored and may rotate about a rotating turret with mooring lines to the seafloor may also have a control system that gives a varying control signal to propellers or thrusters to assist in keeping the desired position when the vessel is rotated because the direction of the weather or current changes, so that the thrusters contribute with forces to compensate for changes in the tension of mooring lines when the forces turn. Similarly, it may be envisaged that that the control system can give control signals to increase or decrease tension in the mooring lines of the same reason.
Problems Related to Testing of Control Systems of Vessels.
A ship inspector can visit a vessel and conduct a test on board of the control system. The test on board can be performed by disconnecting or connecting sensor systems, and to monitor the response of the system in different failure situations. However, to make a realistic test of the vessel for conditions that are to be expected, it is necessary to wait for or to seek weather situations and sea states that rarely occur or that can be dangerous. It will hardly be considered as an option to expose the vessel to extreme situations, like abnormally large errors in ballast distribution. In order to check if the control system provides control signals for correct compensation of the error, such kind of tests will normally not be conducted.
It is possible to perform a simulation of sensor data to the control system on board and monitor which control signals that the control system gives to actuators like propellers, rudders and thrusters, but this requires a local interconnection of the control system to a test system and is not done presently as far as the applicants knows. A disadvantage of visiting the vessel to be tested is often related to a long way of travel for the ship inspector, that the ship inspector must bring equipment for interconnection to the control system inputs for measurements, and equipment for interconnection to the control system outputs for response in the form of control signals that are normally sent to the actuators of the vessel, and in addition a data library that at least has to include the configuration of the actual vessel to be tested. Moreover, the travel time from a vessel that is to be tested and certified, to a next vessel, can make it difficult for the inspector to perform inspections sufficiently quickly, so that the next vessel will have to wait longer than necessary, with the economic disadvantages caused by the waiting, if the vessel cannot be taken into use without testing and certification. It may also cause a concealed physical danger to use a vessel where lack of testing of the control system does not reveal possible errors.
This means that there is a need for more efficient testing of vessel control systems, in particular because the vessels can be geographically remote from each other, and in practice not easily accessible for an inspector.
In factory production of a control system it is usual to perform a so-called factory acceptance test (FAT) of the control system (including hardware and software) where the manufacturer feeds simulated sensor data to the control system and monitors the control signals the control system gives in response. This type of FAT can only reveal errors where measurements from sources that the manufacturer has foreseen to exist, and where the control signals are only for equipment that the manufacturer have foreseen. Thus, it will not be known with certainty how the control system will interact with equipment, systems, configurations or situations that the manufacturer of the control system has not foreseen. In addition, in a FAT the control system will not be tested in the actual constellation where the control system is installed and connected for use on the vessel.
Example of a Practical Problem in Dynamic Positioning.
In dynamic positioning of a vessel (4) that is held in desired position by propellers, rudders or thrusters of the tunnel or azimuth type, it may be essential for the operation that the vessel keeps its position. Several events may be undesired. One may experience loss of motor power for one or more propellers or rudders, and have to increase the motor power on the remaining propellers and/or thrusters and perhaps rotate the remaining rudders or thrusters. One may also experience serious errors where the control system loses some of the signals from the connected sensors so that an undesired incident may occur. The inventors have knowledge of an instance where a vessel, in this case an drilling platform, was lying at a fixed position in the open sea and was drilling a drilling hole for a petroleum well in the seafloor, where the drilling platform held the desired position by means of so-called dynamic positioning or "DP", that is, the control system was tuned to hold the vessel in the desired position by means of position measurements and motor power, without the use of mooring lines to the seafloor. The drilling platform was equipped with a double set of DGPS receivers that calculate the geographic position of the vessel based on radio signals received from a number of navigation satellites. In addition the drilling platform was equipped with a double set of hydroacoustic position sensors that measured the position of the vessel with respect to transponders at fixed points on the seafloor. At a given time during drilling, with riser connection to the drilling hole and active drilling, an event occurred so that the DGPS receivers showed a sudden change in position of about 75 meters, although no such change in position had actually occurred. The hydroacoustic sensors showed a stable position at the desired position over the drill hole. The control system continued to control propellers and rudders, and the drilling platform was without interruption held at the correct dynamic position, on basis of the signals. However, it turned out that after 5 minutes the drilling platform suddenly started to move towards the desired position according to the then erroneous DGPS signals. It was necessary to discontinue the drilling with the associated emergency procedures that among other things involved disconnection of the riser and cutting of the drill string. This type of situation can involve a risk for blowout of gas and oil, or pollution by spilling of drilling fluid. This type of situation can also present a risk to vessel and crew. This type of discontinued DP-drilling may thus be very expensive to start up again. The applicants assume that the initial sudden change of the position calculated by the DGPS receivers can have been caused by disturbances in the signal transmission from the GPS satellites to the receivers, or by a situation with an insufficient number of available satellites. The loss of the DGPS signal can have been ignored by the control system because of quality conditions in the software of the control system that require that such a calculated position must have been stable in the preceding 5 minutes to be considered to be real. In this way sudden changes in position due to erroneous signals are avoided. However, the new and changed, but nevertheless stable position calculated from the DGPS receivers can after 5 minutes have been regarded as stable and therefore reliable by the control system, and may have been given a higher priority than the measurements from the hydroacoustic transponders. This may be the reason why the control system attempted to control the drilling platform to the new position that the control system had evidently interpreted as the desired position, although drilling was in progress and the hydroacoustic measured position indicated that the position should be kept unchanged.
Problems Related to Changed Configurations in a Vessel: Reprogramming of a Control System
After a control system has been put to use in a vessel there will in many cases be a need for reprogramming or modification of the software in the control system. The purpose for doing this can be a need for changing numerical values related to alarm limits and acceptable variation in a sensor signal in the algorithm of the program, or it can be a need for the introduction of new tests and functions in the control system. When the reprogramming or modification of the software is completed there is a need for testing the control system to see if the changes have given the intended effect, and to check whether new and unintended errors have appeared as a consequence of the modifications. At present, satisfactory test equipment and procedures are not available for the testing of the control systems on a vessel after such changes.
Modifications in an Existing Control System, E.G. when Replacing Cranes.
Marine operations, related to oil and gas exploration and production, are made by vessels with cranes for installation and replacement of modules on the seafloor. This type of crane has control systems that compensate for the vertical motion of the vessel. The mode of operation and the function of the crane in safety-critical situations will to a large extent depend on the detailed design of the software of the control system, which will vary from one crane to another. Procedures have been established for the testing of the mechanical design of such cranes. In contrast to this there are no established systems or methods for the testing of the software of the crane control systems. The reason for this is that the response of the crane will depend on the sea state and the motion of the vessel in addition to the mechanical design and the control system of the crane. A required detailed testing of a crane system on a vessel should therefore involve both the dynamics of the vessel including the relevant control systems of the vessel, and in addition, the dynamics of the crane including the control system of the crane.
Repair/Replacement of Sensors for a Control System.
When sensors for a control system are replaced or modified, there is a need for adjustment of alarm limits for limits for acceptable variations in the sensor signals. It is customary for a control system to have redundant sensor systems so that several sensors may be used to measure the same physical quantity. As an example of this, the position of a vessel can be measured by inertial sensors, two or more GPS-receivers and two hydroacoustic sensor systems. From these measurement data the position of the vessel is determined by means of an algorithm in the control system. This algorithm will depend on the properties of the various sensors with respect to accuracy and properties like long term stability versus accuracy under rapid position variations. Replacement or modification of a sensor introduces the need for testing of the total sensor system to investigate whether the resulting combination of sensors provides acceptable position measurements for use in a control system.
Repair/Modification/Replacement of Actuators.
After replacement or modification of an actuator, a control system may give a significantly different response for the vessel. The reason is that a new or modified actuator may give a different control action to the vessel than what was assumed in the development of the control system. An example of this is in the use of thrusters for dynamic positioning, where the relation between the shaft speed of the thruster and the thrust must be known when the control system is tuned. If a thruster is changed, then the relation between the shaft speed of the thruster and the thrust may be changed, and it will be necessary to test the vessel with the control system to investigate if the system still performs satisfactorily.
Thus there is a need for a more effective testing of vessel control systems, also in the cases where the vessel has been modified from its previous configuration, and where old and new components of the vessel have not been previously combined, and has to be tested in the new combination.
Known Art in the Field.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,318 "Real-time IMU signal emulation method for test of guidance navigation and control systems" describes an emulation method for testing of a plane by emulating the motion using a so-called 6 degrees-of-freedom (6 DOF) flight simulator and where signals from a so-called inertial navigation module to a guidance, navigation and control system on board the aircraft are generated by simulation. This U.S. patent does not discuss problems related to dynamic positioning of a vessel in drilling operations or some other form of stationary operation, it does not mention the use of cranes, navigation of connected underwater equipment, integration of hydroacoustic positioning equipment, problems related to ballasting, and does not consider ocean waves. A ship will normally not have 6 DOF, but instead 3 DOF as it has restoring action in heave/roll/and pitch motion.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,791 "Automated test apparatus for aircraft flight controls" describes an automated test apparatus for the testing of flight control systems of an aircraft as part of an integrated system for testing a plurality of flight control systems. The automated test apparatus includes a system controller having memory for storing programmed instructions that control operation of the automated test apparatus, and for storing resulting flight controls system test data. The automated test apparatus includes a keyboard, a touch-screen, and a tape drive for entering programmed instructions and other information into the automated test apparatus, and for outputting test data from the system controller. Instruments included in the automated test apparatus and controlled by the system controller generate test signals that are input to the aircraft's flight controls system, and monitor resulting test data signals that are produced by the flight controls system. The automated test apparatus is connected by an interface cable to an onboard central maintenance computer included in the aircraft. The central maintenance computer includes a non-volatile memory that is programmed to run onboard tests of the flight controls system, and is controlled by the system controller during testing in accordance with the programmed instructions to run the onboard tests.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,863 "Virtual integrated software testbed for avionics" describes a virtual integrated software testbed for avionics which allows avionics software to be developed on a host computer using a collection of computer programs running simultaneously as processes and synchronized by a central process. The software testbed disclosed uses separate synchronized processes, permits signals from an avionics device to be generated by a simulation running on the host computer or from actual equipment and data bus signals coming from and going to actual avionics hardware is connected to their virtual bus counterparts in the host computer on a real-time basis.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,874 "Aircraft flight emulation test system" describes an aircraft test system that generates stimuli that emulate the stimuli received by an aircraft when in flight. The aircraft test system includes a number of instruments for generating the number of processor-controllable instruments for generating stimuli received by an aircraft when in flight. The system also includes a number of instruments that monitor the response of the various aircraft components to the stimuli to which the aircraft is exposed. A processor in response to the output signal from the aircraft components directs the stimuli generating instruments to produce stimuli that emulate those received by the aircraft as it moves through the air. The system thus generates an initial set of stimuli similar to what an aircraft would be exposed to when in flight; monitors the response of the aircraft to the stimuli to which it is exposed; and, in response generates an updated set of stimuli to the aircraft. The system also records the response of the output responses of aircraft components so that they could be monitored by personnel charged with insuring that the aircraft is functioning properly. The system can also be used to train flight crews since it can be used to place the aircraft "in the loop" during a flight emulation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,574 "A vertical motion compensation for a crane's load" describes a method and a system for reducing sea state induced vertical motion of a shipboard crane's load using winch encoders, boom angle sensor, turning angle sensor and motion sensor that all feed measurements into a central processor that controls the crane on basis of the measurements and the commands from a crane operator.

System and method for testing a control system of a marine vessel


An outer ring has a tapered tubular portion having a tapered raceway surface, a small diameter side extension portion that extends radially outward from a small diameter side edge of the tapered tubular portion, and a large diameter side extension portion that extends from a large diameter side edge of the tapered tubular portion in a direction away from the axis of the outer ring. The small diameter side extension portion and the large diameter side extension portion are larger in thickness than the tapered tubular portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an outer ring of a tapered roller bearing, and a tapered roller bearing.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-48805 describes a conventional tapered roller bearing. This tapered roller bearing is provided in a differential gear unit, and supports a pinion shaft such that the pinion shaft is rotatable relative to a housing of the differential gear unit.
The tapered roller bearing described above includes an outer ring, an inner ring, and a plurality of tapered rollers. The outer peripheral face of the outer ring is fixedly fitted onto the inner peripheral face of the housing. The inner peripheral face of the inner ring is fixedly fitted onto the outer peripheral face of the pinion shaft. The tapered rollers are arranged at given intervals in the circumferential direction, between the tapered raceway surface of the outer ring and the tapered raceway surface of the inner ring. The tapered rollers are retained by a cage. The outer ring of the tapered roller bearing described above is solid.
However, weight reduction of the conventional tapered roller bearing described above is difficult because the outer ring is solid. If this tapered roller bearing is used in a vehicle, its large weight results in a higher operating cost and a higher material cost.
In addition, because the outer ring of the conventional tapered roller bearing described above is solid, the outer ring requires a large amount of machining, making the machining work more time-consuming. That is, the manufacturing cost of such an outer ring is high, which is not desirable.

Outer ring of tapered roller bearing and tapered roller bearing


A method is provided for handling synchrophasor measurements relating to an electrical power system. The method includes: (a) acquiring a plurality of synchrophasor measurements containing data representing at least one power system event; (b) inserting and storing the event related synchrophasor measurements in a database as a partitioned binary large object (BLOB); (c) reading and transferring the synchrophasor measurements related to a user selected current or historical event from the database to a client computer partition by partition; and (d) processing the event data at the client computer on a partition-by-partition basis such that the client computer will be able to start a replay of the event replay as soon as processing of the first partition of the event BLOB data is completed.

The present invention relates generally to a method for analyzing electrical power systems, and more particularly to a method for managing, transferring and visualizing synchrophasor measurement data related to power system events.
Generally, electrical power originates at a generation station and is transmitted to a load by a system of conductors and other equipment that make up an electrical power system. The equipment that makes up an electric power system can include generators, transmission lines, busbars, switches, reclosers, insulators, capacitors, and the like. Over time, or as the result of some particular incidents, the generators, transmission lines, or other equipment can cease to operate normally or fail. Sometimes a failure results in an abnormally high current that can further damage the power system, injure end users, or damage end user devices and equipment or cause large scale cascading power system outages. Failures also sometimes result in degraded power quality or loss of electric service.
In an effort to identify failures or conditions that may lead to failure, utilities may monitor the operation of an electrical power system by evaluating one or more signals indicative of power system properties such as voltage magnitudes, voltage phase angles, currents, phase angle differences between two buses, etc. One such method is using synchrophasor measurements for real-time security monitoring and post event analysis.
A "phasor" is a complex number representation of magnitude and phase angle in AC electrical signals. Phasors can be measured using commercially available phasor measurement units ("PMUs") located at or near the substations or generation stations of an interconnected electric power system being monitored. Typically, multiple PMUs will be installed at geographically spread-apart locations within an electrical power system. The PMUs may be synchronized by global positioning system ("GPS") clock signal so that simultaneous measurements may be taken by a group of PMUs, which are then transferred to a phasor data center. These are referred to as "synchrophasors".
Once synchrophasor data is collected it may be transferred to a user's computer equipped with a software visualization application that creates a graphical representation of the data, and evaluated by a power system operator or operational planning engineers or reliability coordinator for improving their situational awareness of interconnected power systems. Typically, synchrophasor measurements are taken at a scan rate of 30 samples per second. A power system event or a sequence of power system events, such as large generator outages or transmission line outages, generate a large volume of synchrophasor measurements related to the events in a specified time period (typically one minute to several minutes).
Prior art power system visualization applications using PMU data are mainly based on client-server technology in which each power system event is stored and transferred within the system as a data object. They lack high fidelity event replay with dynamic voltage or frequency contour calculations 30 times per second and cannot support a large number of simultaneous users. Furthermore, using existing visualization technology, it can take a long time (for example 30 to 50 minutes) for a user to be able to start the event replay for a current event or for a selected previous event and therefore it was not possible to perform near real-time event replay for monitoring and analyzing the on-going events.

Method of handling large volumes of synchrophasor measurments for real time event replay


A printing apparatus is described for two-sided colour proofing with improved registering of front- and back-side images. Improved registering is performed by:

The present invention relates to an printing apparatus capable of handling large size sheets. More specifically the invention is related to a colour proofing apparatus having a dual-side mode.
Printed products contain not only printed text but many photographic illustrations are included in all sorts of printed products such as leaflets, magazines etc . . .
Nowadays text and illustrations are usually provided in electronic form in order to electronically compose the publication wherein the photographs are used.
The photographs provided in an electronic format are usually provided as a continuous tone image. A continuous tone image is an image containing multiple grey (colour) levels with no perceptible quantization to them.
In order to reproduce the continuous tone images by a printing process having only a limited number of grey levels, a halftoning process is used.
Digital halftoning refers to the process whereby a digital (continuous tone) image is rendered with a computer-controlled graphics output device that is capable of generating only a limited number of grey (colour) levels. The input image is electronically screened to obtain a halftone image for each colour.
In order to inspect the correctness of the digital halftoning process on the final product printed on a printing press, the printed result is simulated using a colour proofing apparatus.
A modern colour proofing apparatus is capable of not only providing a simulated print of the photographs but of the whole printed product. Several large size colour proofers use an inkjet printing process to render the halftone images on a large sheet of paper or other receiving media. Sheet sizes used may vary but a used format may be typical 109.22 mm (43 inch)xc3x9776.2 mm (30 inch). The medium is usually of a paper type, typically 100-130 g/mm2, but also other media type can be used e.g. polyester supports which can be coated with appropriate ink receiving coatings etc . . .
These large sheets can be fed from a magazine but are frequently dispensed from a web coupled to the machine enabling the use of different lengths of receiving material which is cut at appropriate length. Depending on the form of the receiving medium, it can hereinafter be named receiving web or receiving sheet and is given the same number in the drawings of the application.
Recently, in order to completely imitate the final product, colour proofers having dual-side capabilities have emerged. With these apparatuses it is possible to imitate the dual-side printed output product and to control the imposition scheme, i.e. order and orientation of different pages or a large sheet which e.g. is folded and cut to render a small booklet or folder with numbered pages. One such apparatus is the Spinjet(copyright) sold by Techsage(copyright).
A new problem emerging is the lack of registering of the front- and backside images on the proofing product giving unsatisfactory results. In some colour proofers one can manually turn the receiving sheet and feed it again into the printer by hand using e.g. a registration edge as an aid. In other printers the medium is turned over automatically. Hitherto it has been a problem providing a good registering of the output image on the large size output media in use. Especially registering correctly the images on the front and back side of large output media used in the colour and imposition proofing apparatus has been a problem. The curl remaining in the paper further causes problems in feeding the paper correctly.
Until now non easy an reliable solution has been provided to this problem.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a apparatus having a mechanism capable of reliable and correctly registering an output image on a receiver.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a front to back registering system for a dual-side printing apparatus.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved reversing mechanism for large size receiver media in a dual-side printing apparatus.
The above mentioned objects are realised by a apparatus having the specific features defined in claim 1. Specific features for preferred embodiments of the invention are set out in the dependent claims.
A printing method according to the invention is defined in claim 9.
Further advantages and embodiments of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and drawings.

Abstract: web feeding device with de-curling system

Abstract: tumbler unit for turning the receiving medium

Abstract: alignment sensing and correction system.


Methods for projecting and backprojecting rays with respect to pixels/detector bins to attenuate/eliminate high-frequency artifacts, are disclosed. The first two methods are adaptations of pixel-driven and ray-driven linear interpolation techniques respectively. In these techniques, the window or shadow of each pixel/bin is dynamically adjusted and projected onto the detector bin/pixel to eliminate gaps between the shadows. This allows the effect of each pixel on a given detector bin (or vice versa) to be appropriately weighted. A third is a distance-driven technique wherein the transitions of the pixels and the detector bins are respectively projected onto a common axis. This allows a determination of the contribution of each of the pixels/bins for each of the bins/pixels with lower computation time and improved artifact free images.

The present invention relates generally to the processes of reprojection-backprojection, and more specifically, to reprojection-backprojection techniques/algorithms that includes new interpolation and data access schemes that result in better speed, lower artifacts, lower noise and higher spatial resolution than existing techniques.
In computed tomography, the operation that transforms an N-Dimension image into an N-Dimension set of line integrals is called the forward projection or reprojection. The most evident example of this operation is the physical process that generates an X-ray image of an object. After logarithmic conversion, an X-ray image is well approximated as the line integral projection of the distribution of the object""s linear attenuation coefficient. In practice, a forward projector is required for tomographic simulations or when performing iterative reconstruction.
The transpose operation is called backprojection. This is used in filtered backprojection and in iterative reconstruction, which form the bulk of today""s reconstruction algorithms.
Many methods for reprojection and backprojection exist. In one method each X-ray beam is represented by a line and the intersection length of each line with each pixel is used as weight factor. Another technique performs linear interpolation between two pixels for each row or column that the X-ray beam intersects (see FIG. 1). The latter two methods are ray-driven methods.
In the projection case, all projection lines are looped over, and for each projection line the image weighting and summing image pixel values are run through in order to approximate a ray-integral. The backprojection is defined as the transpose operation: the weight factors remain the same, but the detector values are weighted and assigned to the image pixels.
Another technique is the pixel-driven approach, which is typically used in filtered backprojection (see FIG. 2). All image pixels are looped over, and for each image pixel a line is drawn connecting the source and the image pixel. The intersection of that line with the detector array is then determined. Linear interpolation is performed between the two detector values nearest to the intersection point and the result is assigned to the image pixel. The reprojection operation is defined as the transpose operation. The weights for the left and right detector bin are given by                                                                         ω                l                            =                                                                    d                    r                                    -                  d                                                                      d                    r                                    -                                      d                    l                                                                                ω                r                            =                                                d                  -                                      d                    l                                                                                d                    r                                    -                                      d                    l                                                                                Eqn                          xe2x80x83                                  (          1          )
where d is the location of the intersection, dr and dl are the first detector bin centers to the right and to the left of the intersection.
Other approaches exist, such as methods based on spherical basic functions and methods using nearest-neighbor or no interpolation.
The reprojection and backprojection operations are a computationally intensive but essential part of simulation and reconstruction techniques such as those used in CT or the like. Most existing approaches can be subdivided into ray-driven and pixel driven methods. One drawback to both the ray-driven and pixel driven methods resides in the fact that they introduce artifacts, the first one (viz., the ray driven method) in the backprojection and the latter (viz., the pixel driven method) in the reprojection. Another drawback to both methods resides in the percentage of the data used in each view reprojection/backprojection.
For example, in the case of a ray-driven projection of an image with pixels that are much smaller than the detector bin size, only a fraction of the pixels contributes to the projection at that angle. The same is true for the opposite case of the pixel driven backprojection. In iterative reconstruction, where both a reprojection and backprojection method are required, a combination of a ray-driven reprojection and pixel-driven backprojection could be considered to circumvent previous problems. However, even while this is possible, it is often preferred to use a matched reprojector-backprojector pair. In fact, an important criterion in choosing a reprojector-backprojector approach is speed.
The two main limiting factors on speed are arithmetic complexity and data access time. For the ray-driven approach, the arithmetics is relatively simple. It is therefore much faster than the pixel driven approach for small data sizes. At larger data sizes however, the data access time becomes more important and at this stage the pixel-driven approach starts to benefit from its sequential image access time while the ray-driven approach more or less accesses the data randomly. For the 3D cone-beam case, data sets become even larger and therefore data access time gains importance.
For further disclosure pertaining to these techniques and the types of apparatus which are used in connection therewith, reference may be had to U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,114 issued on Dec. 8, 1998 in the name of Kawai et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,351,514 issued in the name of Besson on Feb. 26, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,339,632 issued in the name of Besson on Jan. 15, 2002. The contents of these patents is hereby incorporated by reference thereto.
More specifically, a first aspect of the present invention resides in a method of image processing comprising: projecting pixels in a pixel grid onto a detector having a plurality of bins, or vice versa; dynamically adjusting a dimension of a square window for one of a pixel and a detector bin so that adjacent windows form a continuous shadow over one of the detector bins of the detector and the image pixels; and determining the effect of each pixel on each bin of the detector or vice versa.
A second aspect of the invention resides in a method of image processing comprising: projecting edges of each pixel of a pixel grid, that is intersected by a ray projected from a source to a detector, in a predetermined linear sequence of pixels in the pixel grid, onto a predetermined line that passes through the grid; projecting the edges of each bin of a detector onto the predetermined line; and determining the contribution of each pixel to a bin of the detector array or vice versa in accordance with the projections of the pixel edges and the detector bin edges on the predetermined line.
A third aspect of the present invention resides in a method of image processing comprising: establishing a pixel grid containing image pixels which are arranged in image rows and columns; continuously mapping respective transitions between image pixels and detector-bins of a detector which has detected radiation from a radiation source comprising: projecting detector bin transitions onto a predetermined line; projecting the pixel transitions onto the predetermined line; and weighting one of the detector bins and pixels with segment lengths on the predetermined line, based on distances between adjacent projections to calculate their contribution.
A fourth aspect of the present invention resides in a computer readable medium encoded with a program executable by a computer for processing an image, said program being configured to instruct the computer to: project pixels in a pixel grid onto a detector having a plurality of bins, or vice versa; dynamically adjust a dimension of a square window for one of a pixel and a detector bin so that adjacent windows form a continuous shadow over one of the detector bins of the detector and the image pixels; and determine the effect of each pixel on each bin of the detector or vice versa.
A fifth aspect of the invention resides in a computer readable medium encoded with a program executable by a computer for processing an image, said program being configured to instruct the computer to: project edges of each pixel of a pixel grid, that is intersected by a ray projected from a source to a detector, in a predetermined linear sequence of pixels in the pixel grid, onto a predetermined line that passes through the grid; project the edges of each bin of a detector onto the predetermined line; and determine the contribution of each pixel to a bin of the detector array or vice versa in accordance with the projections of the pixel edges and the detector bin edges on the predetermined line.
A sixth aspect of the present invention resides in a computer readable medium encoded with a program executable by a computer for processing an image, said program being configured to instruct the computer to: establish a pixel grid containing image pixels which are arranged in image rows and columns; continuously map respective transitions between image pixels and detector-bins of a detector which has detected radiation from a source by: projecting detector bin transitions onto a predetermined line; projecting the pixel transitions onto the predetermined line; and weighting one of the detector bins and pixels with segment lengths on the predetermined line, based on distances between adjacent projections to calculate their contribution.

Reprojection and backprojection methods and algorithms for implementation thereof


A cage for a ball bearing unit comprises two half-cages (51, 52) which are connected to each other and are symmetrical about a mid-plane (P) of the bearing. Each half-cage has an annular body (53) providing two concentric and circumferentially continuous radial ridges (56, 57) extending radially in opposite directions, of which the first ridge (56) extends in a radially outward direction for sealingly engaging a groove (25) formed in the outer ring of the bearing unit, and the second ridge (57) extends in a radially inward direction for sealingly engaging a groove (35) formed in the inner ring of the bearing unit.

There are known bearing units which include a ball retaining cage composed of two symmetrical half-cages coupled together, wherein each half-cage has means for mutual connection with the opposite half-cage, and provides a plurality of partially hemispherical cavities which axially face the hemispherical cavities of the opposite half-cage so as to form, together with the latter cavities, the ball retaining pockets.

Ball retaining cage for bearings and a deep groove ball bearing


A system and method for controllably dispensing a predetermined volume of water at a predetermined temperature. The system and method include at least one heated water source and at least one second water source. Water is controllably dispensed from the heated water source and controllably combined with the controllably dispensed water from the second water source to produce a resultant predetermined volume of water at a resultant predetermined temperature. The system and method also includes controls and/or interfaces which allow a user to control the volume and temperature of water dispensed. The user may directly control the volume and/or temperature or may indirectly control the volume and temperature such as by introducing a control media, control selection, or recipe by which the user selects the choice but does not specify the details of the parameters associated with the choice.

It may be useful to provide a system to controllably dispense water at a predetermined temperature in the food production industry. For example, it may be desirable to use a particular water temperature to produce mashed potatoes in a restaurant environment. However, it may also be desirable to use a different water temperature to produce dough in the same restaurant.
It also could be desirable to provide a system which can controllably dispense desired or predetermined volumes of water at a desired temperature. For example, the mashed potatoes may require one gallon of water at a temperature of 200° F. whereas the pizza dough may only require three cups of water at a temperature of 100° F. Further, it might also be desirable to produce these different volumes at difference temperatures in sequence generally without having to wait for any alteration in the water temperature.
These volumes and temperatures may be achieved by heating water, manually on a stove and monitoring the temperature of the water as it is heated. Alternatively, water can be drawn from a hot water dispensing system at a predetermined temperature, and additional water, manually added, to bring the temperature to a desired range. As one might imagine, this can be a challenging task subject to error. Such errors may be magnified in the resulting waste of food product. For example, if the dough is not mixed with the proper temperature water, the yeast in the dough could be underdeveloped as a result of the water being too cool or overdeveloped and killed as a result of the water being too hot.
It has been known that a water heating system can use a heated water tank and a chilled water tank or a reduced hot water tank to produce a desired end result temperature. However, these systems can be complicated and require a considerable amount of space in order to provide the desired result.
With the foregoing in mind, it could be useful to provide a heated water system which can provide a predetermined volume of water at a predetermined temperature for use in the food preparation environment. Also, it could be useful to provide such a system having a user interface to reduce potential errors in setting temperature and volume. Furthermore, it could be useful to provide such a system having a relatively high degree of accuracy in dispensing the selected volume and temperature of water.

Multiple temperature hot water dispensing system


A method for generating a polycube segmentation of an input object comprises: providing an input mesh of the object comprising a plurality of surface faces; generating an initial polycube labeling for the faces by assigning, to each face, a label which is one of six directions (±X,±Y,±Z) aligned with a set of Cartesian axes, the initial polycube labeling defining a plurality of charts, and generating the initial polycube labeling comprising effecting a tradeoff between competing objectives of: making the initial polycube labeling relatively compact; and making the initial polycube labeling relatively faithful to the input object. The method further comprises generating an updated polycube segmentation by changing the label assigned to each of one or more surface faces and thereby modifying one or more of the charts to provide the charts with monotonic boundaries.

Three-dimensional models of input objects may be digitally modeled (e.g. on a computer system and/or other suitable processor(s)) in volumetric representations known as tetrahedral-meshes or "tet-meshes". There are techniques known in the art for obtaining tet-mesh representations of objects. For example, isotropic volumetric tet-meshes can be generated from isotropic surface meshes using known software, such as Tetgen™. Non-isotropic surface meshes can be re-meshed using known software such as Graphite™ and the re-meshed surface meshes may then be used to generate suitable volumetric tet-meshes.
It can be desirable to generate polycubes (orthogonal polyhedral) or polycube representations of input objects. A polycube is a solid formed by joining several cubes face to face. Polycubes may be used as base complexes for parameterizing closed surfaces and volumes. Non-limiting examples of uses for polycube representations include: surface texture mapping (see TARINI, M., HORMANN, K., CIGNONI, P., AND MONTANI, C. 2004. PolyCube-Maps. ACM Transactions on Graphics 23, 3 (August), 853-860. Proc. of ACM SIGGRAPH 2004; and YAO, C., AND LEE, T. 2008. Adaptive geometry image. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 14, 4, 948-960); hexahedral meshing (see GREGSON, J., SHEFFER, A., AND ZHANG, E. 2011. All-hex mesh generation via volumetric polycube deformation. Computer Graphics Forum (Proc. SGP) 30, 5; and XIA, J., HE, Y., YIN, X., HAN, S., AND GU, X. 2010. Direct product volumetric parameterization of handle bodies via harmonic fields. In Proc. Shape Modeling International, IEEE, 3-12); trivariate spline fitting (see WANG, H., HE, Y., LI, X., GU, X., AND QIN, H. 2007. Polycube splines. In Proc. Symposium on Solid and physical modeling, 241-251); and volumetric texturing (see CHANG, C.-C., AND LIN, C.-Y. 2010. Texture tiling on 3d models using automatic polycube-maps and wang tiles. J. Inf. Sci. Eng. 26, 1, 291-305).
Polycubes are used in computer graphics applications because they may allow for efficient storage of geometry and/or texture information generally, and may specifically provide relatively regular and/or compact representations of graphical objects. Such representations can confer certain advantages in some computer-implemented graphical systems; for example, in some circumstances, such representations may be conveniently cached, allow for relatively straightforward texture filtering, and provide smooth face boundaries for texturing applications. Polycubes also find application in GPU subdivision and multiresolution representations, and can serve as intermediate primitives for quad meshing or hex meshing operations.
There is a general desire for methods and systems for converting input mesh representations of objects (e.g. tet-meshes) into polycube representations. A difficulty associated with generating polycube representations of input objects involves addressing the tradeoff between parametrization distortion and compactness. Parameterization distortion represents the distortion between the surface geometry of the input object and the surface geometry of the polycube representation. There is a general desire to provide a polycube representation with a low amount of parameterization distortion. Compactness may be indicated by the number of polycube faces and/or the number of singularities (corners of the polycube faces) and/or the length of the boundaries between polycube faces of the polycube representation. There is a general desire to provide a compact polycube representation (i.e. correspondingly low polycube face counts and/or singularity counts and/or correspondingly short chart boundaries). Compact polycube representations permit relatively low element counts for applications such as hex meshing, volume fitting and/or surface fitting.
Because of the difficulty associated with managing the tradeoff between parameterization distortion and polycube face or singularity counts, most techniques for generating and using polycube representations rely on manual and/or semi-manual construction of polycubes. Once generated, these (semi-)manually constructed polycubes may be processed by a computer system. However, it is desirable to have a computational approach for generating polycube representations so that computer systems may generate high-quality polycube constructions programmatically.
A prior art technique for programmatically generating polycube representations proposed by Gregson et al. (GREGSON, J., SHEFFER, A., AND ZHANG, E. 2011. All-hex mesh generation via volumetric polycube deformation. Computer Graphics Forum (Proc. SGP) 30, 5) used the angles between normal vectors of the surface vertices of the input mesh and the polycube axes as an implicit measure of parameterization distortion. This measure of distortion estimates the distortion caused by flattening each chart and rotating the charts so that they form polycube faces having ninety degree dihedral angles with one another.
A polycube segmentation of an input model corresponding to an input object may be used herein to describe an assignment of a polycube axis label (±X,±Y,±Z) to each outer surface face (e.g. each triangular surface face in the case of a tet-mesh model) on a surface of the object. Within a polycube segmentation, contiguous groups of surface faces (e.g. surface triangles) that are assigned the same label may be referred to herein as charts. A polycube representation (or, for brevity, a polycube) may be extracted from a polycube segmentation. When a polycube is extracted from a polycube segmentation, the charts of the polycube segmentation become the planar and axis-aligned surface faces of the polycube and the labels of the charts of the polycube segmentation become the directions of the normal vectors of the polycube faces.
When generating polycube representations, an additional source of parameterization distortion comes from the shape and directionality of chart boundaries of the polycube segmentation and the need to map chart boundaries of the polycube segmentation to the axis-aligned straight edges of the polycube. A chart boundary of a polycube segmentation may be defined between a pair of adjacent charts to be a sequence of edges shared by triangles belonging to the two different charts. In a polycube, such a boundary maps to an axially aligned straight boundary between a pair of polycube faces corresponding to the pair of charts. Since the faces of a polycube are oriented to have normal vectors aligned with the Cartesian axes (±X,±Y,±Z), it follows that the boundary between a pair of polycube faces having normal vectors along first and second Cartesian axes, should be oriented along the third Cartesian axis. For example, if two adjacent polycube faces have normal vectors oriented in the +X and +Y directions, the boundary between the pair of polycube faces will be oriented along the Z-axis and should have either a +Z direction or a −Z direction.
The Gregson et al. technique, which does not account for the shape and directionality of chart boundaries, tends to generate polycube segmentations having non-monotone boundaries. For a particular polycube segmentation, non-monotone chart boundaries are chart boundaries where the direction of the boundary switches sign with respect to the axis along which it should be oriented. Following with the preceding example where a pair of adjacent polycube faces has normal vectors oriented in the +X and +Y directions, we would expect that those polycube faces correspond to charts in a polycube segmentation where the charts were assigned +X and +Y labels. As discussed above, the boundary between these polycube faces should be oriented along the Z axis (i.e. either +Z or −Z). Accordingly, we would expect that the boundary between the corresponding charts should be oriented either in a +Z direction or a −Z direction. This chart boundary is considered to be non-monotone if its directionality changes from a +Z orientation to a −Z orientation or from a −Z direction to a +Z direction.
The locations where a non-monotone chart boundary changes sign with respect to the axis along which it should be oriented may be referred to as turning points. FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a number of views of a polycube segmentation 4 of an input object 2 showing the charts of the polycube segmentation (as differently colored regions). The charts of the FIG. 1 segmentation comprise a number of turning points and, consequently, are non-monotone. Mapping a non-monotone chart boundary having a turning point to a corresponding polycube edge (which is straight and axis-aligned) involves introducing extreme distortion.
Accordingly, there is a general desire to generate polycube segmentations that have all-monotone boundaries (i.e. boundaries without turning points). However, computationally generating polycube segmentations with all-monotone boundaries presents significant technical challenges, as the number of possible segmentations (and thus the number of possible boundary definitions) increases exponentially with the number of elements in the tet-mesh. Further, existing approaches can, in some circumstances, provide relatively low gains in compactness for corresponding increases in parametrization distortion (and vice-versa). Accordingly, there is a general desire for computational approaches to polycube segmentation generation which provide improved efficiency and/or improved tradeoffs between parametrization distortion and compactness.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related thereto are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.

Methods and systems for generating polycube segmentations from input meshes of objects


The disclosure provides systems and methods of use of an HVAC graphical interface dashboard. In various embodiments, the dashboard includes a weather tab, wherein invoking the weather tab advances to a weather screen. The dashboard also includes an indoor humidity tab. A programs tab and a home tab are also provided. The indoor humidity tab can further be used to set current indoor humidity setpoints.

Climate control systems, also referred to as HVAC systems (the two terms will be used herein interchangeably), are employed to regulate the temperature, humidity and air quality of premises, such as a residence, office, store, warehouse, vehicle, trailer, or commercial or entertainment venue. The most basic climate control systems either move air (typically by means of an air handler, or more colloquially, a fan or blower), heat air (typically by means of a furnace) or cool air (typically by means of a compressor-driven refrigerant loop). A thermostat is typically included in the climate control systems to provide some level of automatic temperature control. In its simplest form, a thermostat turns the climate control system on or off as a function of a detected temperature. In a more complex form, a thermostat may take other factors, such as humidity or time, into consideration. Still, however, the operation of a thermostat remains turning the climate control system on or off in an attempt to maintain the temperature of the premises as close as possible to a desired setpoint temperature. Climate control systems as described above have been in wide use since the middle of the twentieth century.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method of use for a user interface dashboard of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning network


A printing system includes a terminal apparatus and a printing control apparatus. The terminal apparatus includes a setting unit for setting a printing condition for a document, a generating unit for generating print data containing data of the document, setting data indicating the printing condition, and instruction information instructing to register the printing condition, and a transmitting unit for transmitting the print data. The printing control apparatus includes a storage unit for storing the printing condition and name information specifying the printing condition, a receiving unit for receiving the print data, a recognizing unit for recognizing that the print data contains the instruction information, and a registering unit for causing the printing condition indicated by the setting data to be stored in the storage unit if it is recognized that the print data contains the instruction information.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing system, a printing control apparatus, and a non-transitory computer readable recording medium stored with a printing control program.
2. Description of Related Arts
There is known a technique that a print job that has been done by a printer is stored in a printer controller to perform reprinting. In this technique, for example, the printer controller that has received print data from a client PC (personal computer) outputs, to the printer, image data obtained by performing a rasterizing process on the print data while the printer controller stores the image data in a hard disk. Reprinting of an image based on the image data is commanded by a user of the client PC by using a reprinting utility installed in the client PC.
Meanwhile, a function of registering a printing condition as a favorite setting while attaching a name to the printing condition is known as a function provided by a printer driver for generating print data. A user selects one favorite setting from a plurality of the settings registered in advance to easily set the desired printing condition. The function of registering the favorite setting is provided in the reprinting utility, as well. According to the reprinting utility, the favorite setting is registered in the printer controller, and read from the printer controller at the time of reprint setting of the print job.
Meanwhile, the favorite setting used more often is used by both the printer driver and the reprinting utility. In this case, for both the printer driver and the reprinting utility, a user needs to set the same printing condition and to register the same printing condition as the favorite setting, and this takes time and effort. For this reason, it is desired to reduce a burden of a user who registers the same favorite setting in both the printer driver and the reprinting utility.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-050059 discloses a technique in which the favorite setting is registered in a server apparatus, and the client PC downloads the favorite setting from the server apparatus to set the printing condition. According to this technique, a user can set the same printing condition without registering the favorite setting, for both the printer driver and the reprinting utility. However, according to this technique, each time the favorite setting is used, it is necessary to download the favorite setting from the server apparatus to the client PC. Accordingly, a waiting time is undesirably required.

Printing system, printing control apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable recording medium stored with printing control program

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


An approach is provided in which a system determines that an amount of times that a set of data was requested by clients from a backend service exceeds a threshold and, in turn, stores the set of data in a local storage area. When the system receives a new request from a client and determines that the new request is requesting the set of data from the backend service, the system retrieves the set of data from the local storage area and provides the retrieved set of data to the client to fulfill the new request.

At times, backend services may become overloaded with client requests, especially during significant events such as large stock market swings, large sales on airline flights. etc. During these times, clients are sending multiple requests to a backend server to try to receive the latest updates in data. Many times, however, the actual backend data does not change in the timespan that the multiple requests are sent. Even though the data may not change, each request is sent to the backend service for the backend service to process, tying up both backend service resources and network resources.

Conversion from massive pull requests to push requests

International Business Machines Corporation


A system for automatically relating the changing information posted on an electronic display 10a, in regard to some ongoing event, to the recorded information, such as video, captured and corresponding to that same ongoing event. Posted information is remotely detected using master camera 50a that is aligned to capture images 12 of electronic display 10a during the event. Current images 12c are subtracted from base image 12b to yield difference image 12fr revealing one or more areas of potential electronic display 10a changes that are pre-calibrated into cells, such as game clock 12-1, which are further calibrated into characters, such as 12-1-1 for the “tens” digit through 12-1-4 for the “hundredths” digit. Using pattern matching algorithms well understood in the art, all changes to any character and therefore any cell are automatically detected and translated into digital information relatable by time to any recordings of the event, such as a video stream.

Within the sports marketplace, and especially at the more elite levels, the ability to review pertinent video sequences from games or training sessions is of high value. Current practices for creating such video breakdowns rely upon a combination of real-time and post-event operator input. Companies such as XOSTech, of Sanford, Fla., provide real-time video capture, edit and display software that has at least a keyboard interface for indicating when important events occur, start and/or end. These events might be the next specific play in football where it is beneficial to know at least when the play began and ended in a time sequence that corresponds to the game video. Such begin-end event time indications may then be used to automatically recall corresponding relevant video. Events may also be instantaneous such as the time of a fumble in football or shot attempt in basketball or ice hockey.
There are several drawbacks with these manually controlled video breakdown systems at least including:                1. Manual operated breakdown of video is tedious and therefore also prone to human error;        2. Operators have limited reflex speed and therefore are limited in their ability to accurately record a real-time event such as the exact end of a period of play with the correct frame in a video stream, which may be of importance when trying to determine if a team scoring attempt was completed within regulation time, and        3. Operators have limited observation skills and typically best respond to only a few real-time events at any given moment, which may be important when they are trying to indicate each time a shot-on-goal has been recorded while they are also trying to record hits, plays, passes, etc.
Hence, what is desirable is a system that automatically determines the exact start and end time of any event that is of importance for later video breakdown and video clip extraction. Some events have minimal duration, such as a shot-on-goal, in which case it is simply important to record when the shot was taken, without a start and end time per se. In any case there are many important events that cannot be determined by automatically reading the venue scoreboard and for this reason the present inventor has already specified inventions for automatically tracking the movement of athletes in a sporting contest and creating an event list correlated to the event video (see Related Applications above.) However, most if not all of the information displayed on the scoreboard may be helpful for at least partially breaking down any and all synchronized game video, especially in youth sporting events where no other viable option exists. Hence, just the ability to breakdown the entire game video into periods is helpful. Furthermore, the ability to jump into periods of video at specific "time-in" and "time-out" sports is also important.
Therefore it is the object of the present invention to provide apparatus and methods for automatically determining the ongoing and real-time character-by-character changes on an electronic display, especially on a game scoreboard being used during a live sporting event. It is still further an object of the present invention not to require any wired or wireless input from the scoreboard or its controlling console but rather to rely solely upon the same scoreboard radiated visible energy used by fans to receive visually presented data. A further object is to provide this ongoing changing character output synchronized to a system counter that itself implies real-time and is itself synchronized to one or more video streams. It is also an object to provide this streaming data in such a way that it can be mixed and compared to other real-time data gathering systems such as a player and game object tracking system so that together their output data may be used to imply important information that may not be otherwise determinable.
Still further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.

System for relating scoreboard information with event video


The present invention relates to novel derivatives of 1-alkyl-6-oxo-piperidine-3-carboxylic acids and 1-alkyl-5-oxo-pyrrolidine-3-carboxylic acids represented by Formula I:

A large number of compounds are known to be useful in providing a cooling sensation in the mouth, in the nasal cavity and/or on the skin. The best known and most widely used of these is menthol, which in addition to olfaction causes a cooling response on cold receptors in the oral cavity, the nasal cavity and on the skin. Unfortunately, menthol also exhibits some undesirable properties, such as the strong mint smell, the bitter taste, and the relatively high volatility. These properties have limited the use of menthol in various applications and, therefore there remains a need for novel cooling compounds which provide strong and substantive cooling and refreshing attributes in the absence of negative aroma, negative taste, and negative cooling attributes.

Derivatives of 1-alkyl-6-oxo-piperidine-3-carboxylic acids and 1-alkyl-5-oxo-pyrrolidine-3-carboxylic acids and their uses as cooling compounds

Abstract: wherein n is an integer of 1 or 2;        R1, R2, R3, and R4 are each independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and methyl;        X is selected from the group consisting of oxygen and nitrogen; and        R5 is hydrogen or a C1-C7 linear or branched acyclic hydrocarbon group, or R5 together with X form a 3- to 8-membered heterocyclic hydrocarbon group, and their uses as cooling compounds.


A tag configured to detect loosening of a fastening member fastened to a fastened part of an apparatus includes: a base sheet including a fastening member attached portion and a fastened part attached portion, the fastening member attached portion being attached to the fastening member, the fastened part attached portion being attached to the fastened part; a RFID chip mounted on the base sheet; an antenna circuit mounted on the base sheet while being connected to the RFID chip; and an electric conductor mounted on the base sheet while being connected to the RFID chip, the electric conductor being configured such that an electric property of the electric conductor changes when the fastening member is displaced relative to the fastened part attached portion.

Conventionally proposed is a method of detecting loosening of a bolt to prevent the bolt from falling off, the bolt fastening a part of a mechanical apparatus. For example, PTL 1 discloses that: an optical fiber cable is extended between a bolt and a base; and the loosening of the bolt is detected by monitoring breaking of the optical fiber cable or a change of light passing through the optical fiber cable, the breaking or the change being caused due to an angular displacement of the bolt relative to the base.

Fastening member loosening detection tag

KAWASAKI RAILCAR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


The present invention discloses a writable storage medium with backup module contained therein to backup important data. With this writable storage medium, the user could automatically duplicate the data in the computer or the peripheral devices coupled thereto into the writable storage medium. All the user has to do is designating the target data to be duplicated, and the backup module will finish the rest. No installation of software is required. The user may recover any part of the target from the writable storage medium if the computer is crash or some important files are deleted accidentally. Hence, a simple and direct way for data backup is provided by the present invention.

With progress of computer technology, users are provided with a greater number of functions. People nowadays are more reliant on computers, utilizing them to accomplish almost everything from everyday needs to work-related matters. With majority of the population relying on computers, the data stored in the computer become very important.
Sometimes, the computer will crash while working on something very important. In such inevitable situation, the hard drive may be damaged, and therefore some important data would be lost. In light of this, users should be provided with a backup mechanism to safeguard their work.
Conventionally, the users will use backup software with a secondary storage medium to back up data, such as a DVD/CD. If the users want to back up data in a computer, they have to install backup software first then run this software to back up data in the computer. To back up data into a storage medium such as a disc, the users will need a burner and burning software. In these situations, two kinds of software must be installed.
For many users, installing software is never an easy task. In addition, using back up and burning programs are complicated that ordinary users might feel frustrated when backing up data. When faced with these frustrations, the users may just disregard the back up process. Therefore, there will be a risk that data would be lost when the computer crashes and no backup data to recover.
Besides backing up files, when people use digital cameras to take pictures or videos, they may want to share them immediately. In the conventional way, photos in the digital camera need to be transferred first to the computer first and then burned onto a disc. Here, the same frustration may happen because installing software or transferring photos to the computer is not as easy as it seems.
Therefore, a direct and simple solution should be provided for ordinary users to duplicate their data from the computer or a peripheral device to a secondary storage medium, such as a disc.

Storage medium for data backup and method for the same


A light fixture including a housing having a longitudinal axis, an open axial end, and a lens door assembly pivotally connected to the housing and permitting the lens door assembly to move between an open position and a closed position. A latch mechanism secures the lens door assembly in the closed position over the open end of the housing. The latch mechanism can include at least one spring clip connected to the housing and engaging a tab of the lens door assembly when in the closed position.

For certain types of light fixtures, it is desirable to pivotally attach a lens door assembly to the front end of a housing so that the lens door assembly can be pivoted between an open position and a closed position. In the open position, access can be gained to an optical enclosure within the housing. A suitable light producing element is mounted in the optical enclosure for emitting light through the lens door assembly.
Conventionally, the lens door assembly is latched in a closed position using pivoting-type latches. A pivoting-type latch usually employs a pivotal member which pivots over the peripheral edge of the lens door assembly at an area remote from the hinge, or at multiple locations remote from the hinge using a plurality of pivotal members.
Generally, pivoting-type latches do not provide positive securement of the lens door assembly. The pivoting member itself, if not latched with a separate latching mechanism, can inadvertently move to disengage the peripheral edge of the lens door assembly, inadvertently opening and damaging to the lens of the lens door assembly.
Positive securement is particularly desirable when the housing is movably mounted to attain various orientations of the housing and thus the lens, particularly where the lens door assembly is inverted or tilted beyond 90.degree.. In those orientations, the lens door assembly would pivot open if the latch mechanism fails inadvertently disengages.
An example of a prior latching mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,974 to Quiogue.
Thus, a continuing need exists for an improved latching mechanism which provides positive securement of a lens door assembly in a closed position.

Spring latching mechanism for light fixture


A light-emitting element disclosed in the present invention includes a light-emitting layer and a first layer between a first electrode and a second electrode, in which the first layer is provided between the light-emitting layer and the first electrode. The present invention is characterized by the device structure in which the first layer comprising a hole-transporting material is doped with a hole-blocking material or an organic compound having a large dipole moment. This structure allows the formation of a high performance light-emitting element with high luminous efficiency and long lifetime. The device structure of the present invention facilitates the control of the rate of the carrier transport, and thus, leads to the formation of a light-emitting element with a well-controlled carrier balance, which contributes to the excellent characteristics of the light-emitting element of the present invention.

In recent years, research and development have been extensively conducted on light-emitting elements utilizing electroluminescence. In a basic structure of such a light-emitting element, a light-emissive substance is interposed between a pair of electrodes. By voltage application to this element, light emission can be obtained from the light-emissive substance.
Since such a light-emitting element is of self-light-emitting type, it is considered that the light-emitting element has advantages over a liquid crystal display in that visibility of pixels is high, backlight is not required, and so on and is therefore suitable as flat panel display elements. Further, other advantages of such a light-emitting element are that the element can be manufactured to be thin and lightweight and the response speed is very high.
Since the light-emitting element can be formed into a film shape, light emission can be easily obtained from a flat surface with large-area. This is a feature which is difficult to be obtained by point light sources typified by an incandescent lamp and an LED or linear light sources typified by a fluorescent lamp. Accordingly, the light-emitting element is extremely effective for use as a flat light source applicable to illumination and the like.
Light-emitting elements utilizing electroluminescence are classified broadly according to whether they use an organic compound or an inorganic compound as a light-emissive substance.
When an organic compound is used as a light-emitting substance, electrons and holes are each injected into a layer including a light-emitting organic compound from a pair of electrodes by voltage application to a light-emitting element, so that a current flows therethrough. The electrons and holes (carriers) are recombined, and thus, the light-emitting organic compound is excited. The light-emitting organic compound relaxes to a ground state from the excited state, thereby emitting light. Based on this mechanism, such a light-emitting element is referred to as current excitation type light-emitting element.
Note that the excited state of an organic compound can be a singlet excited state or a triplet excited state, and luminescence from the singlet excited state is referred to as fluorescence, and luminescence from the triplet excited state is referred to as phosphorescence.
In improving element characteristics of such a light-emitting element, there are a number of problems which depend on a material used, and in order to solve the problems, improvement of an element structure, development of a material, and the like have been carried out.
For example, in Non-patent Document 1: Tetsuo TSUTSUI, and eight others, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 38, L1502-L1504 (1999), a hole-blocking layer is provided, whereby light is efficiently emitted from a light-emitting element using a phosphorescent material. However, as described in Non-patent Document 1, the hole-blocking layer does not have durability and a lifetime of the light-emitting element is extremely short. Thus, it has been desired to develop a light-emitting element of which light-emitting efficiency is high and lifetime is long.

Light-emitting element, light-emitting device, and electronic device

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A portable unit is releasably attachable to a worker, and an electrical network that has fully insulated wires releasably connected to the worker and a workpiece to the portable unit. The unit includes an amplifier and a sensitivity-adjusting element so that breaches in the worker's protective clothing as small as one molecule can be large enough to cause activation of an alarm.

In many industries, a worker may not want any portion of a workpiece to contact any portion of his or her skin. This situation occurs in the chemical industry as well as in several other industries. For this reason, the art contains various examples of protective apparel, such as gloves, aprons, boots, pants, smocks, face shields, gowns and the like.
As more is known of various communicable diseases, more and more workers are using such protective garments in their work. Thus, it is not uncommon to find beauticians or other such workers wearing certain types of protective wearing apparel.
The most notable examples of the use of protective clothing are in the medical field. Thus, nearly all doctors wear some sort of protective apparel when working on a patient. It is not uncommon for even dentists to wear protective gloves, masks, gowns, smocks and pants while performing routine examinations and dental procedures. The use of such protection is not limited to doctors, for technicians, nurses, emergency personnel, dental hygienists, and veterinarians are but a few examples of those in the medical field who now commonly wear some sort of protective clothing while carrying out their work. This list is merely representative of the many workers who will benefit from the use of protective clothing, and many other types of workers will occur to those skilled in the art based on the teachings of this disclosure.
Of course, anyone involved in any way with laboratory work in many fields, especially the medical field, almost always wears some sort of protective clothing.
The surgeon and other operating room and hospital personnel are the most visible examples of medical personnel who wear protective clothing while working. Not only do such personnel wear protective clothing to protect a patient from contamination, with the advent of diseases such as hepatitis, AIDS and the like, many such medical workers wear protective clothing to protect themselves from contamination.
While the integrity of all such protective garments must be ensured, the surgical glove has received much attention in the art. One study has found that as much as fifty-nine percent of tested surgical gloves developed leaks when tested every fifteen minutes during surgery, and leakage occurred twenty-five percent of the time when two pairs of gloves were worn. This leakage is probably even higher for certain operations, such as in orthopaedic surgery, or the like. Any leakage of the surgical gloves can prove to be dangerous, and should be determined on a regular basis so the medical personnel can be warned upon the occurrence of such a breach.
Therefore, the art has included various procedures which are intended to protect the integrity of a worker's gloves, especially surgical gloves. These procedures have included requirements for a worker to change his gloves at a regular interval, or which require a worker to wear several pairs of gloves. Such procedures are not entirely successful because they interrupt the worker from his work and break his concentration. Furthermore, wearing several pairs of gloves may interfere with proper performance of the task. Even then, as the above-mentioned study found, the worker may not be fully protected.
Thus, the art has also included devices and systems which are intended to detect breaches in a worker's gloves. One such device requires the worker to immerse his gloved hands in a vat of electrolyte. However, this device also requires the worker to interrupt his task, move his hands to the vat, and immerse them in the electrolyte. Perhaps, the worker will have to wash his hands thoroughly before using this device to avoid contaminating the vat or the electrolyte, especially if the task may involve a contagious disease. This could be a clumsy and distracting requirement especially for a surgeon where time can be of the essence. Furthermore, the protection occurs only when the worker stops his task and tests the gloves. Breaches in the gloves may have occurred some time before the test, and thus exposed the worker to contamination during the time between the occurrence of the breach and the test. Due to the need to interrupt the work, many surgeons will simply delay testing their gloves until a convenient stopping place during the surgery has arisen thereby possibly increasing the risk of exposure. This is a problem in procedures requiring the surgeon to change gloves as well.
The device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,925 is intended to continuously monitor a surgeon's gloves to warn of any perforations in those gloves. This device includes a contact on the patient, a contact on the surgeon, and an electrical path through the doctor's shoe, and through the operating room floor to and through the base of the operating table and to and through the table.
While this device overcomes some of the above-mentioned problems, it still has several drawbacks.
One drawback occurs because the electrical network which includes the signal means, the contacts, and the power source is not insulated for a portion thereof. Such uninsulated portion of the network includes the operating room floor, the operating table and the table base. Because of this, the characteristics of the circuit are not entirely and accurately predictable and may not be repeatable. For example, if there is a table base floor bolt that accidentally makes electrical contact with some other portion of the floor or room, the overall characteristics of the circuit can be changed enough so that the device which may have been sensitive enough to detect small leaks in the gloves during a particular operation will no longer be sensitive enough to detect such leaks. This situation may also occur if the doctor accidentally steps on some sort of insulating material and thus partially or totally insulates the bottom portion of the shoe heel that is intended to make contact with the floor. The device should therefore be calibrated before each operation, and even during the performance of a single operation to be sure that the desired sensitivity has not changed due to the occurrence of some event outside, or even inside, the operation.
Furthermore, this device is not adaptable to use in areas or environments outside of the specific operating room for which it was designed and calibrated. Thus, if an operation is to be performed on a gurney, or in the patient's bed, or even in a hallway or outside the hospital, such device may not operate in the manner intended. This is especially so in the case of ambulance personnel where operations are routinely carried out using supports that do not include an electrically conductive table which is connected to an electrically conductive floor by an electrically conductive base, all having electrical characteristics that are accounted for in a previously-conducted calibration procedure.
Still further, the patented device requires a specially designed shoe having a special heel. Many surgeons, or other medical personnel, may not wear such heeled shoes.
Still further, the patented device may be costly for several reasons. First, the operating room must be specially designed or retrofitted to use the device. Second, in may cases, once an item of clothing becomes contaminated, it is discarded. Should the special shoes of the patented device become contaminated, they may have to be replaced. Still further expense may be added if one of the elements of the network becomes contaminated, and must be replaced. Such replacement may require the entire network to be dismantled which can be time consuming as well as expensive. Spare parts may be difficult and costly to keep on hand, which is a drawback in an ambulance situation.
Still further, the patented device requires an electrically conductive floor which may not be desirable in some situations as some such floors may become slippery or may be uncomfortable.
Due to the requirement of a special shoe, the doctor may be required to change shoes before beginning a procedure. This may not be desirable, especially in an emergency situation.
While ensuring the integrity of a worker's gloves is quite important, due to the highly contagious and dangerous nature of many diseases and many chemicals, integrity monitoring of a worker's gloves alone may not be sufficient protection. In many situations, including a surgical operating room, any physical contact with the workpiece may prove to be dangerous.
Therefore, even beyond the drawbacks and problems mentioned for the known glove testers per se, they may have shortcomings in that they do not monitor all of the protective clothing being worn by a worker. Should that worker have a breach in is or her face mask, for example, such breach can be dangerous if the worker must bring his or her face in close proximity to a patient, for example to perform the work, as might be the case of an ambulance worker who must find and grasp a patient's tongue to prevent choking.
Therefore, there is a need for a system for continuously monitoring protective clothing to detect any breach in such clothing immediately upon occurrence of such breach, and which can be used to monitor all of the protective clothing worn by a worker, and which is adaptable to a wide variety of situations and environments, does not require the worker to stop work to check the integrity of the clothing, yet which provides repeatable, accurate results and which is easily transported and stored, and which is easily adjusted, donned and is still inexpensive.

Portable system and method for continuously monitoring protective clothing for detecting and signaling the occurrence of a breach therein


The present invention relates to a reusable physical financial instrument and a system and a method for enabling the financial instrument to perform multiple financial transactions. The financial instrument is capable of creating mixed reality experience when it comes in vicinity of the payor or payee device or ATM. Through the created mixed reality experience, the payor and the payee inputs payor-side and payee-side transaction and biometric data which are stored onto smart chip of the instrument and/or on Cloud Storage using cloud computing interface. The stored payor-side and payee-side transaction data are cross-validated and their biometric data is further verified against golden copy at the respective financial institutions or at the Central Authority's repositories for performing the financial transaction. Upon completing the transaction, the payor-side and the payee-side data is erased, deleted or invalidated from the smart chip, thus making the financial instrument reusable for performing another transaction.

Financial instruments have significant importance in finance and trade. Such financial instruments have a monetary value associated with them and hence they are used as a tradable asset. Since these financial instruments carry monetary value vested in them, they are representative of a legal binding and hence used for non-cash payments or transactions between two parties. There are a number of financial instruments available in the market in different shapes, sizes and in appearance such as a check/cheque, traveler's check/cheque, banker's draft, bill of exchange, promissory note, certificate of deposit, money orders, payment cards, demand draft, bonds etc. The financial instruments can be negotiable or non-negotiable. The non-negotiable financial instruments are only intended for a payee whose name is mentioned on the financial instrument. The negotiable instrument however can be claimed by any bearer by presenting his identification during deposit or encashment. These financial instruments may be issued by financial institutions like central banks, commercial banks, investment banks, credit unions etc. to a payor or a drawer. For issuing these financial instruments, the financial institution has to comply with certain set of standards, regulations and has to bear its associated cost during its manufacturing and distribution.
Financial instruments can be used for only one financial transaction that is consummated when settled in cash or electronic funds transfer. Thus, due to their characteristic nature of one-time use, the value of these consummated financial instruments i.e., after completing their transactional cycle, is exhausted to nothing less than a blank paper or blank object. Moreover, a lot of effort is required for securely recycling these consummated financial instruments (usually blank papers) for converting them into new paper products. Also, another concern that arises is maintenance of separate counters and designation of qualified human resources for manning these counters in order to securely issue, dispatch, process, and/or receive these financial instruments for performing the intended financial transactions.
Since, these financial instruments which are issued to the payor are limited in number, yet another concern comes into scenario wherein, the payor has to visit the respective financial institutions in-person. After consuming the financial instruments held, the payor may have to physically visit his respective financial institutions for receiving a new set of financial instruments. Thus, obviating the requirement to physically visit the financial institution and waiting period for issuance of fresh financial instruments is also an unaddressed need in the art. Thus, considering the above limitations which exist in the present scenario, there is a long felt need for a reusable financial instrument, a method and a system for enabling the reuse of such financial instrument for performing multiple financial transactions between two parties. Further, there is also a need to maintain authenticity and security of such reusable instruments and transactions thereof, since such instrument are prone to counterfeiting and fraud. Having only physical instruments or only electronic instruments have not been able to address these concerns. Thus, there is a need for method and system for security of the data and to ensure integrity; confidentiality of the data associated with the financial transactions processed using the financial instruments. Also, there is no mechanism available in the art to aggregate data from various types of financial instruments on a single financial instrument and then complete the transaction using the said single financial instrument. Thus, there is a long felt need to have an article, system and method that securely aggregates data from varied types of financial instruments for a transaction. This includes the need for cross-instrument transfer to a common instrument so that the common instrument acts as a carrier instrument that can be further processed.

System, method, article of manufacture of mixed reality based, biometrically signed reusable physical financial instrument