Methods and apparatus teach defining an access policy to digital data available on one or more computing devices, including identifying one or more semantic attributes of at least one first digital data set and using the identified attributes to define policy dictating user access privileges. On receipt of a user request to access at least one second digital data set, semantic attributes are compared to the at least one first digital data set and access is allowed or not allowed based on the policy. Semantic attributes are selected from at least one of a closeness attribute, a relatedness attribute, and a semantic vector attribute. Also is taught configuring a policy enforcement agent on the one or more computing devices to undertake the comparing and to allow or not allow access. In turn, computer program products and computing systems for accomplishing the foregoing are provided.

Conventional data storage systems and subsystems typically control use of and access to files, directories, and the data therein primarily using meta data, for example file name, file type, file location, and other like parameters. In such systems/subsystems, users are allowed, or not, access and/or the taking of particular actions based on predetermined meta data criteria. For example, based on specific meta data criteria an individual may be allowed, or not, to create or delete content, read and/or write content, list or browse content, move or copy files or content, open/close files/content, view or navigate, and the like. This type of access control relies only on specific elements found in the individual files, such as file name, path, location, file type, file extension, and other such direct file content. Conversely, conventional methods provide no means for controlling access via other, more flexible parameters where perhaps predetermined meta data criteria have not yet been created. For example, unstructured or semi-structured data may not yet have identified meta data parameters or commonalities allowing a predetermined criteria as to whether an individual is or is not allowed to access a particular file or group of files, or take a particular action, or even further to alter access privileges based on additional criteria such as user location and the like.
In other words, an individual may be allowed or denied access to a particular file based on specific, pre-established meta data criteria identified for that user or user class. However, if the same individual encounters similar, related, or otherwise relevant files that do not share the pre-established meta data criteria indicating that the user should or should not have access, then the individual may still be able to access information to which she has no right, and may even be able to extrapolate knowledge gained thereby to the prior file to which access was denied based on the information in the related file to which she was granted access.
In that regard, recent data suggests that nearly eighty-five percent of all digital data is found in unstructured files and it is growing annually at around sixty percent. In such unstructured or semi-structured data, establishing pre-determined meta data criteria determining whether a particular individual or class of individuals should or should not be allowed access to files or take some action on those files may simply not be possible. One reason for the growth is that regulatory compliance acts, statutes, etc., (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, PCI) force companies to keep file data in an accessible state for extended periods of time. However, block level operations in computers are too low to apply any meaningful interpretation of this stored data beyond taking snapshots and block de-duplication. While other business intelligence products have been introduced to provide capabilities greater than block-level operations, they have been generally limited to structured database analysis. They are much less meaningful when acting upon data stored in unstructured environments.
Unfortunately, entities the world over have paid enormous sums of money to create and store their data, but cannot find much of it later in instances where it is haphazardly arranged or arranged less than intuitively. Not only would locating this information bring back value, but being able to observe patterns in it might also prove valuable despite its usefulness being presently unknown. However, entities cannot expend so much time and effort in finding this data that it outweighs its usefulness. Notwithstanding this, there are still other scenarios, such as government compliance, litigation, audits, etc., that dictate certain data/information be found and produced, regardless of its cost in time, money and effort. Thus, a clear need is identified in the art to better find, organize and identify digital data, especially data left in unstructured states.
As another example, in search engine technology, large amounts of unrelated and unstructured digital data can be quickly gathered. However, most engines do little to organize the data other than give a hierarchical presentation. Also, when the engine finds duplicate versions of data, it offers few to no options on eliminating the replication or migrating/relocating redundancies. Thus, a further need in the art exists to overcome the drawbacks of search engines.
When it comes to large amounts of data, whether structured or not, compression techniques have been devised to preserve storage capacity, reduce bandwidth during transmission, etc. With modern compression algorithms, however, they simply exist to scrunch large blocks of data into smaller blocks according to their advertised compression ratios. As is known, some do it without data loss (lossless) while others do it with data loss (lossy). None do it, unfortunately, with a view toward recognizing similarities in the data itself.
From biology, it is known that highly similar species have highly similar DNA strings. In the computing context, consider two word processing files relating to stored baseball statistics. In a first file, words might appear for a baseball batter, such as "batting average," "on base percentage," and "slugging percentage," while a second file might have words for a baseball pitcher, such as "strikeouts," "walks," and "earned runs." Conversely, a third file wholly unrelated to baseball, statistics or sports, may have words such as "environmental protection," "furniture," or whatever comes to mind. It would be exceptionally useful if, during times of compression, or upon later manipulation by an algorithm if "mapping" could recognize the similarity in subject matter in the first two files, although not exact to one another, and provide options to a user. Appreciating that the "words" in the example files are represented in the computing context as binary bits (1's or 0's), which occurs by converting the English alphabet into a series of 1's and 0's through application of ASCII encoding techniques, it would be further useful if the compression algorithm could first recognize the similarity in subject matter of the first two files at the level of raw bit data. The reason for this is that not all files have words and instead might represent pictures (e.g., .jpeg) or spread sheets of numbers.
Appreciating that certain products already exist in the above-identified market space, clarity on the need in the art is as follows. 1, present day "keyword matching" is limited to select sets of words that have been pulled from a document into an index for matching to the same exact words elsewhere. 2, "Grep" is a modern day technique that searches one or more input files for lines containing an identical match to a specified pattern. 3, "Beyond Compare," and similar algorithms, are line-by-line comparisons of multiple documents that highlight differences between them. 4, block level data de-duplication has no application in compliance contexts, data relocation, or business intelligence.
In modern day "relevancy" systems, most, if not all, utilize explicit user interaction to harvest relevancy data. For example:
Amazon.com: Users purchase books or other products and Amazon suggests other books and products that the user might find interesting based on books/products that were purchased by others who bought the same exact book/product. However, Amazon's relevancy engine would not work if people did not buy books/products specifically at the Amazon website. Also, the more that people make purchases, especially books at the same time, the more data points Amazon has to find relevant data. Conversely, if no one has ever made an exactly similar purchase, Amazon has no mechanism to make suggestions to other people other than by way of keyword associations.
Netflix.com: Users rent movies, and place others in waiting queues, and Netflix suggests other movies that the user might find interesting. Similar to Amazon, however, this approach relies on others watching or selecting those same exact movies. The same is true at Fandango.com, whereby Fandango suggests movies to users based on same ticket purchases by other users.
Online store web analytics: Users browse through online web stores or online catalogs and web analytic software determines a length of stay on a page, how many times the page or site is revisited, what else occurred during visitation, etc. In turn, new merchandise, package deals, coupons, etc. are suggested for purchase/downloading by the user.
Social Networking sites, e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, etc.: These all suggest "friends" that users might want to "connect with" based on meta data and other associations with connections to common friends and their connections/friends, and so on. Similarly, websites such as Flickr, YouTube, pandora.com, etc., offer relevancy services, but they are all founded on structured data as well as input from other users.
At Hunch.com, Hunch offers the tagline: "Hunch helps you make decisions and gets smarter the more you use it." In other words, Hunch develops more knowledge the more it is trained, either explicitly or by people using its services, which is recorded. This is then harvested for finding relevant data.
In ISBN 10: 0-596-52932-5|ISBN 13: 9780596529321, "Programming Collective Intelligence," Toby Segaran, O'Reilly, basic algorithms are used to "demonstrate[ ] how you can build web applications to mine the enormous amount of data created by people on the Internet. With the sophisticated algorithms in this book, you can write smart programs to access interesting datasets from other web sites, collect data from users of your own applications, and analyze and understand the data once you've found it."
While no shortage exists in the art directed to finding relevant data, or not, based on specific user's actions, there is a dearth of knowledge when users involve themselves with unstructured data, a lack of history or other record keeping, and user collaboration, to name a few, especially in real time. As such, a need exists to find relevancy information when no action has occurred by an individual or collaborative team to explicitly or implicitly start the process of finding it. Above and beyond, the need further extends to finding this information in unstructured data where no database, no meta data, etc., exists, as well as finding it in traditionally structured data (e.g., the foregoing movie example with a database storing movie meta data such as type, genre, rating, content, keywords, actors, directors, etc. as well as the number of users who have rented the movie, and indicia of those users).
On a grander scale, the need extends even further to serve advanced notions of identifying new business intelligence, conducting operations on completely haphazard data, and organizing it, providing new useful options to users, providing new user views, providing new encryption products, and identifying highly similar data, to name a few. As a byproduct, solving this need will create new opportunities in minimizing transmission bandwidth and storage capacity, among other things.
Along these lines, a need exists in the art for methods for providing broader-reaching controls on access privileges to and operations on such data, whether unstructured or structured. Such methods will desirably allow implementation of policies for such access to/operations on related files, without the necessity for a direct link between files and groups of files or a specific user history, such as conventional metadata-based controls and/or a specific policy directed to specific users or user classes, as is conventional. Naturally, any improvements along such lines should contemplate good engineering practices, such as stability, ease of implementation, unobtrusiveness, etc.

Semantic controls on data storage and access


The invention relates to a method at a mobile tele and data communication system, which makes possible for an A-subscriber to transmit data to an application in the B-subscriber""s mobile terminal in connection with the call setup. Examples of transferred data can be information which in the B-subscriber""s mobile terminal executes a specific ringing melody, a personal logotype etc. The invention is characterized in that UUS is used as carrier to, at the setup, transfer this data information to the application in the B-subscriber""s mobile terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method at a mobile tele and data communication system for call setup between an A-subscriber and a B-subscriber.
2. Discussion of the Background
In the GSM of today there is no possibility for a GSM-user to, at calling, transfer a personal ringing signal to a receiving GSM-mobile. In Nokia""s xe2x80x9cSmart Messagingxe2x80x9d-concept a user can collect a ringing signal to his/her own Nokia 8110 via the radio interface, but cannot transmit a ringing signal at calling another GSM-customer. Neither can the user, at the setup of a call, transfer an application which, for instance, might be a personal graphic symbol, a simple moving graphic picture, or a hypertext page, which can be shown on the display of the receiving GSM-mobile. Moreover, there is no possibility to authenticate a user already at the setup of the call. One, or possibly all, of these functions would certainly become very popular services in GSM if they would be realized.
The problem consequently can be summarized in that an A-subscriber cannot transmit data to an application in the B-subscriber""s mobile in connection with the setup of the call. Examples of data may be a specific ringing melody, a personal logotype etc.
The aim of the following invention consequently is to solve this problem.
The above mentioned aim is achieved by a method at a mobile tele and data communication system for setup of call between an A-subscriber and a B-subscriber, where UUS is used as carrier to, at said setup of call, transfer data information to an application at said B-subscriber.
A big advantage of the invention is that it can be used to differentiate the service offering of different operators. Operators can offer new, attractive service functions, which of course will increase their revenues.
Further characteristics of the invention are given in the subclaims.


A GRE tunnel is configured between multiple computing devices of a distributed cloud computing network and a single origin router of the origin network. The GRE tunnel has a first GRE endpoint that has an IP address that is shared among the computing devices of the distribute cloud computing network and a second GRE endpoint that has a publicly routable IP address of the origin router. A first computing device receives an IP packet from a client that is destined to an origin server. The first computing device processes the received IP packet and encapsulates the IP packet inside an outer packet to generate a GRE encapsulated packet whose source address is the first GRE endpoint and the destination address is the second GRE endpoint. The GRE encapsulated packet is transmitted over the GRE tunnel to the single origin router.

On-premises networks such as enterprise networks are conventionally expensive and require several pieces of hardware. To protect against a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, many enterprises pick between performance and security when deploying IP network services that direct traffic to a small number of "scrubbing centers" or rely on on-premises hardware. On-premises networks typically involve purchasing, operating, and maintaining network function specific hardware equipment such as hardware load balancers, firewalls, DDoS mitigation equipment, WAN optimization, and other hardware. Each hardware component costs time and money to maintain and makes the network harder to manage. Thus, conventional network services are expensive; they require high capital outlays, investment in staff to operate, and ongoing maintenance to stay functional.
Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) is a type of tunneling protocol commonly used to deliver traffic across intermediary networks. For example, consider a corporation that has users and servers in a main office and users in a remote office. The servers have IP addresses that users in the main office can access because they are on the same network. However, users in the remote office are on a different network that is separated from the main office by the internet. A GRE tunnel can be established between the router in the main office and the router in the remote office such that the users in the remote office can access the servers in the main office by their local IP addresses. Effectively, the remote office router is configured such that when it receives IP packets from users in the remote office that are destined to IP addresses of the main office, the router wraps those IP packets in encapsulating IP headers plus a GRE header, where the encapsulated packet's destination IP address is the IP address of the router of the main office. When the router of the main office receives the encapsulated packet, it strips off the encapsulating IP header and GRE header and re-issues the original IP packet back into its local network. A similar procedure is followed for traffic from the main office to the remote office.
GRE is typically a stateless protocol. Any IP packet can be encapsulated independently, and any encapsulated packet can be decapsulated independently. There is an extension to GRE which adds sequencing similar to TCP sequence/acknowledgement numbers; in this extension configuration, GRE is not stateless. GRE is sometimes referred to as a "point-to-point" protocol because the configuration of each tunnel endpoint is typically done on a single device, often a router.

Network layer performance and security provided by a distributed cloud computing network


A method for controlling marine vessel speed includes determining a setpoint vessel speed, which is constant while the system is operating in a cruise control mode. The method includes using vessel speed feedback control to adjust operational characteristics of the engine so as to achieve the setpoint vessel speed. The method also includes determining a measured vessel speed and filtering the measured vessel speed. In response to determining that the measured vessel speed is within a given range of the constant setpoint vessel speed, the method includes transitioning to the cruise control mode and comparing the filtered measured vessel speed to the constant setpoint vessel speed for purposes of the feedback control.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,214,110 and 7,361,067 disclose acceleration control systems that allow the operator of a marine vessel to select an acceleration profile to control the engine speed of a marine vessel from an initial starting speed to a final desired speed. When used in conjunction with tow sports, such as wake boarding and water skiing, the use of acceleration profile provides consistent performance during the period of time when a water skier is accelerated from a stationary position to a full speed condition.
U.S. Pat. No. 10,343,758 discloses a method for controlling a speed of a marine vessel, including accelerating the marine vessel in response to a launch command. The method then includes holding the vessel speed at a desired vessel speed with a controller using feedback control. The controller phases in a derivative term of the feedback control in response to determining that the following conditions are true: (a) the vessel speed is within a given range of the desired vessel speed; and (b) an acceleration rate of the marine vessel is less than a given value.
U.S. Pat. No. 10,351,221 discloses a method for controlling a trim position of a marine propulsion device, including receiving operator demands corresponding to propulsion system operating speeds and determining a rate of change of demand versus time between an initial and a subsequent operator demand. When the rate of change of demand exceeds a predetermined rate, the control module uses successively measured operating speeds of the propulsion system and an offset trim profile to determine setpoint trim positions for the propulsion device. As the propulsion system's measured operating speed increases from an initial to a subsequent operating speed, the control module controls a trim actuator to rotate the propulsion device to the setpoint trim positions. An operating speed at which the propulsion device begins trimming up is less according to the offset trim profile than according to a base trim profile, which is utilized when the rate of change does not exceed the predetermined rate.
The above patents and patent applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Systems and methods for controlling vessel speed when transitioning from launch to cruise


A repeatable runout compensator that allows a transducer of a servo system in a storage device employing rotating media to follow the eccentricity on the media is disclosed. In exemplary embodiments, the repeatable runout compensator utilizes error values generated by the servo system, which represent the radial and/or axial eccentricity of the media, to generate an output signal having a sinusoidal waveform that is approximately 180 degrees out of phase with the eccentricities and the harmonics of eccentricities on the media.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to storage devices employing rotating media, particularly optical disc media or the like, and more specifically to a focus and tracking repeatable runout compensator that allows the transducer of an servo system in a storage device employing rotating media to follow the eccentricity on the media.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rotating media, especially removable optical disc media such as compact disc (CD) media, compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) media, digital video disc (DVD) media, or the like, typically have some inherent eccentricity due to manufacturing variances or later damage during use. This eccentricity must be followed by the transducer of storage devices using the media in order to correctly read data from and/or write data to the media. In particular, eccentricity can exist on removable optical disc media that is of such a magnitude that conventional control methods can not follow the eccentricity, causing errors in data read from or written to the media. Similarly, the harmonics of the eccentricity in such media may be too large to be compensated for using conventional control methods. Further, the eccentricity may vary with time or change in frequency depending on whether the storage device is using a continuous angular velocity (CAV) operating mode, wherein the rotational frequency of the media is fixed, or a continuous linear velocity (CLV) operating mode, wherein the rotational frequency changes as the optical transducer moves across the media.
In the past, attempts have been made to compensate for eccentricities in optical disc media utilizing techniques such as discrete Fourier transform algorithms, least mean square algorithms, or estimator based runout compensators. Discrete Fourier transform algorithms learn the media eccentricity and then calculate the magnitude and phase of the eccentricity. A feed-forward correction is then applied corresponding to the learned eccentricity. Least mean square algorithms adjust two weighting factors to find the contribution of sine and cosine functions to be used in correcting for media eccentricity. Estimator based runout compensators converge to the media eccentricity by reducing the position error of an estimator. However, such techniques are not time-variant, and, as a result, require calibration and re-calibration routines. Further, these techniques display greater sensitivity to noise in the focus or tracking signal, require greater computation time, and utilize additional code space for sine and cosine lookup tables.
Consequently, it is desirable to provide a compensator that allows the transducer of a storage device employing rotating media to follow the radial (tracking) and axial (focus) eccentricity on the media. Preferably, the compensator would be time-variant, would not need calibration and re-calibration routines, and would require minimal computation time and code space.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a repeatable runout compensator that allows the transducer of a servo system in a storage device employing rotating media to follow the radial and/or axial eccentricity on the media. In exemplary embodiments, the repeatable runout compensator generates a sine wave output signal that is approximately 180 degrees (or an odd whole multiple of 180 degrees) out of phase with the eccentricity on the media utilizing previous values of the output signal and error values generated by the servo system representing the radial and/or axial eccentricity of the media. The output signal may then be used by the servo system for controlling operation of the transducer to at least partially compensate for the eccentricity in the media. The repeatable runout compensator accommodates time variant runout, requires less computation time and code space than prior art eccentricity compensation techniques and does not utilize extensive sine and cosine lookup tables. Further, the repeatable runout compensator may be easily adaptable to different eccentric frequencies, and, in embodiments of the invention, may be extendable to include correction for eccentric harmonic frequencies.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

Focus and tracking repeatable runout compensator

Infineon Technologies North America Corp.


The present invention provides a motor box for a sea-faring vessel, comprising a skirt, a lid, and a lid cushion. The lid is pivotably attached to the skirt and the lid cushion is pivotably attached to the lid. Accordingly, the lid opens to provide access to the inboard motor of which the motor box encases. The lid cushion pivots to reveal the top surface of the lid, which may be textured. The forward side of the skirt and the lid include a step which allows a user to step onto and over the motor box for easier ingress/egress. An aft step may be disposed adjacent to the aft of the motor box at the transom to provide additional footing when stepping off of or onto the motor box.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to sea-faring vessels and in particular to a motor box or motor housing having integrated steps and a platform.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of pleasurecraft and sport boats, it is common to utilize inboard motors in order to provide a relatively open transom at the stern of the vessel. Inboard motor designs often provide certain advantages compared to outboard motor designs, which typically interfere with and obstruct the transom of a boat. In a typical inboard motor configuration, the entire motor is enclosed within the hull, allowing for the full, unobstructed use of the transom for activities such as waterskiing, knee-boarding, tubing, swimming, and the like. Inboard designs also provide a certain design aesthetic, tending to appear sleeker and more streamlined as compared to outboard motor configurations. However, because the motor is disposed within the hull of the vessel in an inboard configuration, the motor block will often extend forward and upward into the cockpit of the vessel. So while inboard motors provide a relatively unobstructed transom, they obstruct the cockpit and reduce the overall useable space on the deck of the boat.
Typically, the portion of motor block of an inboard motor that extends into the cockpit is covered by a motor box. Many configurations of motor boxes exist, most of which provide some sort of removable or pivoting motor lid, which lid may often be covered with a cushion in order for the motor box to double as a seating surface. Nonetheless, because of the relatively large size of the motor, the arrangement and configuration of the motor box covering the motor block requires users to step on or climb over the motor box should they wish to enter or exit the vessel at the stern. Alternatively, boaters are resolved to climbing or stepping over jump seats or other surfaces at the rear of the boat. Stepping on or over the motor box (or jump seat) can present a substantial safety risk, particularly if it is covered with a cushion that does not otherwise provide significant footing traction. Moreover, the act of stepping over a large motor box is generally difficult, if not impossible for certain individuals. While there have been several attempts are providing improved motor box designs, none have solved the ingress/egress problem described above.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,162,969 to Houlder et al. describes an aft platform unit for an inboard-powered vessel that can be lowered or raised by a powered actuator. The unit is disposed at the transom of the vessel and travels along inclined guides on opposite sides of the stern. The platform can be lowered into to the water to provide improved ingress/egress for a swimmer. Steps formed on the exterior of the hull are revealed as the platform is lowered whereby the steps are accessible through a gap in the aft gunwale. The steps lead down to the platform.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,681,713 to Scott et al. describes a combination engine compartment cover and privacy enclosure which includes a frame member that is rotatable about a pivot adjacent to an engine compartment access through a deck of a pontoon boat. The entire enclosure can rotate upward to an access position or can be used as a privacy enclosure in a closed position. A top cover is provided which is moveable/pivotable between a stowed and upright position. When the assembly is closed, a lounge seat is formed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,724 to Brown et al. describes an aft seating design for vessels which includes a combination of a double bench seat, a hi/low single person seat, and partial sun pad extending transversely in the aft section of the boat. Multiple configurations are provided, including access steps formed into the single seat section which allows ingress/egress to the rear of the vessel. An upper hatch assembly is hinged across the aft end of the seating assembly and can be raised or lowered with electric actuators to gain access to the bilge and motor or engine compartment. The engine hatch assembly does not provide a suitable means for ingress/egress, such as steps or the like.
It is, therefore, to the effective resolution of the aforementioned problems and shortcomings of the prior art that the present invention is directed. However, in view of the motor boxes and motor configurations in existence at the time of the present invention, it was not obvious to those persons of ordinary skill in the pertinent art as to how the identified needs could be fulfilled in an advantageous manner.

Motor box with integrated steps and platform


An exposure adjustment method for night-vision camera includes the following steps. A first image and a second image are shot with an infrared light source of different intensity; the shot first image and second image are divided into a plurality of image blocks, in which positions of the image blocks in the first image are respectively corresponding to those in the second image; a light reflectivity of the image blocks of the first image is compared with a light reflectivity of the image blocks of the second image, and object distances of image objects are determined; the image object having greater object distance obtains a lower light measuring weight, and the image object having smaller object distance obtains a higher light measuring weight; and an exposure parameter of image images is adjusted according to the image weights of the two images and light measuring weights of the blocks.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a parameter adjustment method for a camera, and more particularly, to an exposure adjustment method for a night-vision camera.
2. Related Art
Along with the popularization of monitoring devices, more and more people have monitoring devices installed to secure property safety and personal safety. In order to monitor round the clock, some manufacturers provide monitoring cameras capable of performing shooting at night. During a night-vision state, a night-vision camera may emit infrared light (IR light) invisible to human eyes, so as to irradiate an object to be shot. The IR light is reflected by the object, and enters a lens to be imaged. At this point, an imaged formed by the reflected IR light, instead of an image formed by reflected visible light, is viewed, and therefore, the image invisible to the naked eyes in a dark environment can be shot.
The night-vision camera in the prior art performs the shooting by determining an exposure parameter with a fixed light measuring manner (for example, average light measuring, center light measuring, or spot light measuring). When the shot object is close to the camera, the image of the shot object may have blur details due to too long exposure time. When the shot object is far from the camera, the too long exposure time may also cause a blur image in addition to adding noises in the image.

Exposure adjustment method for night-vision camera


A shoe press belt includes a polyurethane in which a reinforcement base member is embedded, the polyurethane being in one piece with the reinforcement base member. The polyurethane constituting at least an outer circumferential surface of the shoe press belt is a thermosetting polyurethane obtained by curing an urethane prepolymer using a curing agent. The urethane prepolymer includes a first urethane prepolymer (A) obtained by a reaction between an aromatic diisocyanate and a polyol component containing an aliphatic polycarbonatediol represented by a chemical formula (1). In the chemical formula (1), m is a combination of two or more of integers of not less than 2 and not more than 12, and n is not less than 3 and not more than 33.

In recent years, in order to increase an effect of dewatering a wet paper web in a press part of a paper-making process, the following method (so-called "shoe press") has been widely used: one surface of the wet paper web disposed on a felt traveling at a high speed is pressed by a press roll and the other surface of the wet paper web is pressed by a pressure applying shoe with an endless belt interposed therebetween, thereby dewatering the wet paper web. In the shoe press, the endless belt (hereinafter, also referred to as "elastic belt"), in which a reinforcement base member is in one piece with a thermosetting polyurethane, has been conventionally used. The elastic belt for the press part normally has an outer circumferential surface provided with a multiplicity of drainage grooves along the circumferential direction. Moreover, in recent years, use of such shoe press and elastic belt has been considered for a calender process in which a surface of paper is smoothened to provide luster. Further, particularly in the paper making at a high speed, a sheet transfer elastic belt for preventing cut of paper and stably transferring the wet paper web may be also nipped in the shoe press.
In the shoe press, the belt is severely bent and pressed repeatedly between the press roll and the pressure applying shoe. Such an elastic belt is replaced due to, for example, occurrence of cracks and reduction of the volume, i.e., VV (void volume) of the drainage grooves. Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-146694 (Patent Document 1), Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-097806 (Patent Document 2), or the like proposes a method of preventing occurrence of cracks. Patent Document 1 discloses a shoe press belt in which a polyurethane constituting the outer circumferential surface of the shoe press belt is constituted of a composition including an urethane prepolymer having an isocyanate group at its terminal and a curing agent containing dimethylthiotoluenediamine. Patent Document 2 discloses to reduce a belt thickness of a shoe press belt at regions, which correspond to respective ends of a pressure applying shoe in the width direction and in which cracks are likely to be generated, as compared with a belt thickness of the central region of the shoe press belt. By using such a method, occurrence of cracks due to short-time use can be prevented. Therefore, based on a degree of reduction of the VV of the drainage grooves, the elastic belt can be replaced as planned.


A method of processing images captured using an endoscope comprising a camera is disclosed. According to this method, regular images captured by the camera are received while the endoscope travels through a human gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The regular images are mosaicked to determine any missed or insufficiently imaged area in a section of the human GI tract already travelled by the endoscope. If any missed or insufficiently imaged area is detected, information regarding any missed or insufficiently imaged area is provided. When a target area in the regular images is lack of parallax, the target area is determined as one missed area and an edge corresponding to a structure of the human lumen is highlighted. For a capsule endoscope, the endoscope can be configured to be controlled or steered to move so as to re-image the missed or insufficiently imaged area.

Devices for imaging body cavities or passages in vivo are known in the art and include endoscopes and autonomous encapsulated cameras. Endoscopes are flexible tubes that pass into the body through an orifice or surgical opening, typically into the esophagus via the mouth or into the colon via the rectum. An image is formed at the distal end using a lens and transmitted to the proximal end, outside the body, either by a lens-relay system or by a coherent fiber-optic bundle. Today, colonoscopy is still the gold standard for colon screening to prevent colon cancer. However colonoscopy is not perfect and sometimes the polyp may be missed.
There are two major types that polyps may be missed. In one type, the doctor visualizes the area where a polyp may exist, but fails to recognize it is a polyp for various reasons. Sometimes, the polyp appearance may be subtle and not easy to be discerned from the background colon mucosa. For the other type, some areas may be missed, i.e., not examined, during colonoscopy due to the inadequate skill or the fatigue of the colonoscopist. This may also be combined with the difficulty to maneuver the flexible tube through a convoluted and torturous colon.
For the first type of problem, there have been various studies and even products using artificial intelligence to help doctors, especially the beginner, to recognize polyp. Such system can provide notices to a doctor to highlight on the display to indicate where the polyp may be. For example, in a published article by Peter Klare, et al. ("Automated polyp detection in the colorectum: a prospective study", Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Vol. 89, No. 3, 2019, pp. 576-82), an application of a real-time automated polyp detection software (APDS) under routine colonoscopy conditions has been disclosed. They have concluded that computer-assisted automated low-delay polyp detection is feasible during real-time colonoscopy. In another article by Daniela Guerrero Vinsard, et al. ("Quality assurance of computer-aided detection and diagnosis in colonoscopy", Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Vol. 90, No. 1, 2019; pp. 55-63), they reviewed both contributions and limitations in recent machine-learning-based CADe and/or CADx (computer-aided detection and diagnosis) colonoscopy studies. They concluded that once the efficacy and reproducibility of AI systems are validated in rigorously designed trials, the machine-learning-based CADe and/or CADx may have a significant impact on colonoscopy practice.
While various studies have been devoted to addressing the first-type problem, the second-type problem (i.e., missed area or insufficiently imaged area during colonoscopy) is yet to be resolved. Accordingly, the present invention is intended to deal with the second-type problem. In particular, the present invention is intended to develop methods that can detect the missed area or insufficiently imaged area in real time or near real-time to assist the colonoscopy procedure. The missed area issue may also happen to capsule endoscope. The detection of the missed area or insufficiently imaged area will be performed using the processing capability of an examination or display station to achieve real-time or near real-time detection. Accordingly, with the help of this invention, the probability of missed area or insufficiently imaged area can be eliminated or reduced.

Method and apparatus for detecting missed areas during endoscopy


An information processing system includes a plurality of information processing apparatuses and a storage apparatus that stores user identification information of a user in association with identification information of at least one of the information processing apparatuses that stores bibliographic information of output data associated with the user. Each of the information processing apparatuses includes a receiving unit that receives output data to be output by a device; a storage unit that stores the received output data and corresponding bibliographic information in association with user identification information of a user; an information acquisition unit that acquires from the storage unit of the information processing apparatus that is associated with the user that is using the device in the storage apparatus, the corresponding bibliographic information associated with the user identification information of the user; and a first transmitting unit that transmits the acquired bibliographic information to the device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing apparatus, and an information processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pull printing is a printing technique that enables a user to use a PC (Personal Computer) or the like to transmit print data to a predetermined server. The server stores such print data. Then, in response to an operation by the user of an image forming apparatus having the predetermined server set up as a reference destination server, the image forming apparatus acquires (pulls) the print data stored in the predetermined server and executes a print job based on the print data (see e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-099714). In pull printing, a print job may be executed when the user is near the image forming apparatus, and in this way, printed paper containing confidential information or the like may be prevented from being left abandoned or exposed to others, for example. Also, in pull printing, a print job relating to the same print data may be executed by any one of a plurality of image forming apparatuses having the same server set up as a reference destination server, for example.
However, in conventional pull printing, it is difficult to enable sharing of print data across image forming apparatuses having different servers set up as their reference destination servers. For example, assuming "user a" registers print data in "server A" corresponding to a reference destination server for one or more image forming apparatuses installed in an office where "user a" works, "user a" may be able to execute a print job relating to the print data using any of the image forming apparatuses located within the office of "user a". On the other hand, when "user a" visits another office having image forming apparatuses designating "server B" as the reference destination server, "user a" may not be able to execute a print job relating to the print data registered in "server A" using the image forming apparatuses located within the other office.

Information processing system, information processing apparatus, and information processing method


Medical devices, plug-ins, systems, and methods for CPR quality feedback are disclosed. The medical devices can calculate peripheral circulation relevant parameters based on measured signals containing at least partial hemodynamic characteristics. Amplitude and area characteristics included in the peripheral circulation relevant parameters can further be determined for providing feedback and control relating to CPR quality during the compression process. Also, compression interruption during CPR can be evaluated based on a pulse waveform generated from the measured signals.

Cardiovascular disease has become a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality that annually results in 17 million deaths worldwide, many of which are caused by cardiac arrest. CPR is one of the most commonly used medical procedures for treating cardiac arrest. CPR may generate blood flow by directly increasing a patient's intrapleural pressure (chest compression mechanism) or by directly compressing the heart (heart pump mechanism) so that some life-sustaining blood flow can be maintained to the brain and other vital organs.
The 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for CPR & ECC emphasized that a key to the successful resolution of a patient in cardiac arrest is to perform high-quality CPR as early as possible. High-quality CPR is defined as a compression frequency of at least about 100 times per minute and a compression depth of at least about 5 cm. Even with such high-quality CPR, however, cardiac output (CO) may reach about ¼ or ⅓ of normal CO. In clinical practice, manual or mechanical compression is often used. However, both methods are commonly associated with insufficient compression frequency and/or depth which can lead to poor CPR. Therefore, in the process of cardiac resuscitation, the CPR quality should be monitored. Although the CPR Guidelines recommend end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2) and invasive blood pressure monitoring for determining CPR quality, these methods require either additional specialized medical devices (ETCO2) or time-consuming procedures (invasive monitoring) which make them less practical for routine clinical practice.
High-quality CPR should also involve little compression interruption. In 2013, the AHA recommended that compression time should amount to at least about 80% of an emergency treatment process. During this process, however, compression interruption may often occur due to endotracheal intubation, rescuer changeover and/or electric defibrillation. Moreover, too much compression interruption will bring about reduction in both coronary perfusion pressure and restoration rate of spontaneous circulation (and even in forward neurofunction prognosis after restoring the spontaneous circulation). Until now, there has been no monitoring means convenient for reminding the rescuer of the compression interruption situation. Although blood oxygen monitoring can show pulse oximetry waveforms caused by compression for a patient exhibiting cardiac arrest, judgment is still required as to whether there is compression interruption by manually observing the pulse oximetry waveforms, and it is impossible to measure the compression interruption time early enough for a warning.

Pulse oximetry-based cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) quality feedback systems and methods

SHENZHEN MINDRAY BIO-MEDICAL ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.


Disclosed is a method for automating testing tasks which would otherwise have to be done manually using actual hardware by providing the capability to dynamically create many types of storage devices with different storage media, thus eliminating the need to have test machines with the actual hardware. In one embodiment a virtual storage device driver can be implemented that can be used to simulate various storage devices such as CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, removable disk drives and fixed disk drives. Manual testing tasks such as testing autoplay functionality when a CD is inserted, testing CD burning, and testing CD audio playback can then be automated.

Conducting thorough testing of new hardware and software components is an essential step in developing and releasing products to market. To ensure that a particular component is compatible across as large of a user base as possible it needs to be tested with a wide variety of system configurations. However, maintaining such a large on-hand cache of various hardware and software components can prove to be a technically, financially, and administratively burdensome task. By reducing the number of actual hardware and software components to be maintained many advantages are realized, such as lower total lifecycle infrastructure costs and fewer required software licenses. Moreover, many environmental benefits can also be achieved, including hardware footprint reduction, power reduction, and reduced ambient cooling demands.
In the 1970's the concept of virtual machines was introduced in the VAX VMS environment. A virtual machine appears to be its own operating system running its own applications, but the virtual machine does not actually communicate with the hardware directly. Instead the virtual machine communicates to virtualized hardware and it is an underlying host operating system that actually handles the communication directly to the hardware. While virtual machine technology can be useful in testing software and hardware components and simulating an actual computer environment, virtual machine technology possesses some limitations which can hinder its use in software and hardware component testing. For example, the virtual machine will typically be constrained by the physical machine and hardware that the virtual machine is spooled up on. This can be particularly problematic, for instance, when a test scenario or multiple test scenarios may call for many different types of storage devices and/or storage media.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method or program that is able to dynamically create many types of virtual storage device components with different storage media, and, preferably can be implemented on both virtual and non-virtual machine platforms. The invention provides such a method. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.

Automating the testing of software or hardware components by dynamically creating virtual storage devices on a simulated system bus in a physical computer system


Methods and devices for managing first-in first-out (FIFO) queues in graphics processing are described. A write operation can be executed by multiple write threads on a graphics processing unit (GPU) to write data to memory locations in the multiple pages of memory. Similarly, and/or simultaneously, a read operation can be executed by multiple read threads to read data from the memory locations. The write and read operations include updating a pointer or multiple pointers indicating the point at which all preceding data has been fully written, or fully read. The read and write operations can also include maintaining and advancing one or more allocation pointers, and performing comparisons with the read and write done pointers, and/or various methods of synchronization, to handle overflow and underflow scenarios, to ensure read operations only read valid data, and write operations do not attempt to write to locations which are already in use.

The present examples relate to a computer device, and more particularly, to managing memory for graphics processing on a computer device.
Computer graphics systems, which can render 2D objects or objects from a 3D world (real or imaginary) onto a two-dimensional (2D) display screen, are currently used in a wide variety of applications. For example, 3D computer graphics can be used for real-time interactive applications, such as video games, virtual reality, scientific research, etc., as well as off-line applications, such as the creation of high resolution movies, graphic art, etc. Typically, the graphics system includes a graphics processing unit (GPU). A GPU may be implemented as a co-processor component to a central processing unit (CPU) of the computer, and may be provided in the form of an add-in card (e.g., video card), co-processor, or as functionality that is integrated directly into the motherboard of the computer or into other devices, such as a gaming device.
Typically, the GPU has a "logical graphics pipeline," which may accept as input some representation of a 2D or 3D scene and output a bitmap that defines a 2D image for display. For example, the DirectX collection of application programming interfaces by MICROSOFT CORPORATION, including the DIRECT3D application programming interface (API), is an example of APIs that have graphic pipeline models. Another example includes the Open Graphics Library (OPENGL) API. The graphics pipeline typically includes a number of stages to convert a group of vertices, textures, buffers, and state information into an image frame on the screen. For instance, one of the stages of the graphics pipeline is a shader. A shader is a piece of code running on a specialized processing unit, also referred to as a shader unit or shader processor, usually executing multiple data threads at once, programmed to generate appropriate levels of color and/or special effects to fragments being rendered. In particular, for example, a vertex shader processes traits (position, texture coordinates, color, etc.) of a vertex, and a pixel shader processes traits (texture values, color, z-depth and alpha value) of a pixel. GPUs now also execute compute shaders that can perform highly-parallelized general-purpose computations that may or may not relate to graphics processing.
Memory resources can be allocated for GPUs (e.g., via driver or title executing on a central processing unit (CPU) that manages the memory resources) for performing various graphics processing operations, such as operating shaders or other stages in the graphics pipeline. The driver typically allocates a large amount of memory sufficient for performing the operations. In some cases, however, an amount of memory that is used by a shader or other resource may not be known at the outset of processing, and launching of multiple shaders using the large amount of memory may be prohibitive or wasteful of available system resources.

Techniques for safely and efficiently enqueueing and dequeueing data on a graphics processor


A method of continuously casting thin strip where, at the start of a casting campaign, the side dams are pressed against the end surfaces of the casting rolls with a pressure of less than 3.0 kg/cm2 but more than 1.25 kg/cm2 and after the target casting pool height is reached, reducing the pressure exerted by the side dams against the end surfaces of the casting rolls to below 1.25 kg/cm2 to reduce wear of the side dams against the end surfaces of the casting rolls.

This invention relates to continuous casting of thin steel strip in a twin roll caster. More specifically, this invention relates to the operation of and reduction of wear in side dams.
In a twin roll caster, molten metal is introduced between a pair of contra-rotated horizontal casting rolls which are internally cooled so that metal shells solidify on the moving roll surfaces and are brought together at the nip between them to produce a thin cast strip product, delivered downwardly from the nip between the casting rolls. The term "nip" is used herein to refer to the general region at which the casting rolls are closest together. The molten metal may be poured from a ladle through a metal delivery system comprised of a tundish and a core nozzle located above the nip, to form a casting pool of molten metal supported on the casting surfaces of the rolls above the nip and extending along the length of the nip. This casting pool is usually confined between refractory side plates or dams held in sliding engagement with the end surfaces of the rolls so as to dam the two ends of the casting pool against outflow.
When casting steel strip in a twin roll caster, the thin cast strip leaves the nip at very high temperatures, of the order of 1400° C. If exposed to normal atmosphere, it will suffer very rapid scaling due to oxidation at such high temperatures. A sealed enclosure is therefore provided beneath the casting rolls to receive the hot cast strip, and through which the strip passes away from the strip caster, which contains an atmosphere that inhibits oxidation of the strip. The oxidation inhibiting atmosphere may be created by injecting a non-oxidizing gas, for example, an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen, or combustion exhaust reducing gases. Alternatively, the enclosure may be sealed against ingress of an ambient oxygen-containing atmosphere during operation of the strip caster, and the oxygen content of the atmosphere within the enclosure reduced, during an initial phase of casting, by allowing oxidation of the strip to extract oxygen from the sealed enclosure as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,762,126 and 5,960,855.
The length of the casting campaign has been generally determined in the past by the wear cycle on the core nozzle, tundish and side dams. Multi-ladle sequences can be continued so long as the source of hot metal supplies ladles of molten steel, which can be transferred into and out of the operating position by use of a turret. Therefore, the focus of attention to lengthen casting campaigns has been extending the life cycle of the core nozzle, tundish and side dams. When a nozzle, tundish or side dam wears to the point that it has to be replaced, the casting campaign has to be stopped, and the worn out component replaced. This would generally require removing unworn components as well since otherwise the length of the next campaign would be limited by the remaining useful life of the worn but not replaced refractory components, with attendant waste of useful life of refractories and increased cost of casting steel. Further, all of the refractory components would have to be preheated before the next casting campaign can start. Graphitized alumina, boron nitride and boron nitride-zirconia composites are examples of suitable refractory materials for metal delivery components. Since the core nozzle, tundish and side dams all have to be preheated to very high temperatures approaching that of the molten steel, there can be considerable waste of casting time between campaigns. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,184,668 and 5,277,243.
The present invention limits down time for changes of worn refractory components, decreases waste of useful life of refractory components, reduces energy needs in casting, and increases casting capacity of the caster. Useful life of refractories can be increased, and reheating of unreplaced refractory components can be avoided or minimized. The core nozzle must be put in place before the tundish, and conversely the tundish must be removed before core nozzle can be replaced, and both of these refractory components wear independently of each other. Similarly, the side dams wear independently of the core nozzles and tundish, and independently of each other, because the side dams must initially be urged against the ends of the casting rolls under applied forces, and "bedded in" by wear so as to ensure adequate sealing against outflow of molten steel from the casting pool. The forces applied to the side dams may be reduced after an initial bedding-in period, but will always be such that there is significant wear of the side dams throughout the casting operation. For this reason, the core nozzle and tundish in the metal delivery system can have a longer life than the side dams, and can normally continue to be operated through several more ladles of molten steel supplied in a campaign. Thus the duration of a casting campaign is usually determined by the rate of wear of the side dams however the tundish and core nozzle, which still have useful life, are often changed when the side dams are changed to increase casting capacity of the caster. No matter which refractory component wears out first, a casting run will need to be terminated to replace the worn out component. Since the cost of thin cast strip production is directly related to the length of the casting time, unworn components in the metal delivery system are generally replaced before the end of their useful life as a precaution to avoid further disruption of the next casting campaign, with attendant waste of useful life of refractory components.
By the present invention, it is possible to extend casting campaign lengths by minimizing side dam wear and thus, reducing waste of refractory components, operating costs and increasing casting time.
A method of continuous casting thin strip is disclosed comprising the steps of:                a. assembling a pair of casting rolls laterally positioned to form casting pool of molten supporting on casting surfaces of the casting rolls confined by side dams adjacent opposite ends surfaces of the casting rolls metal, and a nip between the casting rolls through which cast strip can discharge downwardly,        b. at the start of a casting campaign, pressing the side dams against the end surfaces of the casting rolls such that the side dams exert a pressure against the end surfaces of the casting rolls of less than 3.0 kg/cm2 but more than 1.25 kg/cm2, and        c. after the target casting pool height is reached, reducing the pressure exerted by the side dams against the end surfaces of the casting rolls to below 1.25 kg/cm2 to reduce wear of the side dams against the end surfaces of the casting rolls, while resisting ferrostatic pressure from the casting pool.
At the start of a casting campaign, the pushing force may be greater than 1.5 kg/cm2 or greater than 1.9 kg/cm2. After the target casting pool height is reached, the pressure exerted by the side dams against the end surfaces of the casting rolls may be below 0.5 kg/cm2 or below 0.25 kg/cm2.
The wear rate of the side dams during casting after the target pool height is reached may range from 0.0001 mm/sec to 0.005 mm/sec, or may range from 0.0008 mm/sec to 0.0032 mm/sec.

Method of continuous casting steel strip


Using phase shifting on a mask can advantageously improve printed feature resolution on a wafer, thereby allowing greater feature density on an integrated circuit. Phase shifting can create an intensity imbalance between 0 degree and 180 degree phase shifters on the mask. An improved method of designing an alternating PSM to minimize this intensity imbalance is provided. Sub-resolution features, called “blockers”, can be incorporated in the alternating PSM design. Specifically, blockers can be formed in the 0 degree phase shifters. In this configuration, the intensity associated with the 0 degree phase shifters approximates the intensity associated with the corresponding 180 degree phase shifters. Intensity balancing using blockers retains image contrast, thereby ensuring printed feature quality.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of alternating phase-shifting masks, and in particular to a method of correcting three-dimensional (3D) effects in alternating phase-shifting masks using sub-resolution features.
2. Description of Related Art
To fabricate an integrated circuit (IC), a physical representation of the features of the IC, e.g. a layout, is transferred onto a plurality of masks. Note that as used herein, the term "mask" includes "reticles". The features make up the individual components of the circuit, such as gate electrodes, field oxidation regions, diffusion regions, metal interconnections, and so on. A mask is generally created for each layer of the IC. To create a mask, the data representing the layout for a corresponding IC layer can be input into a device, such as an electron beam machine, which writes IC features onto the mask. Once a mask has been created, the pattern on the mask can be transferred onto the wafer surface using a lithographic process.
Lithography is a process whose input is a mask and whose output includes the printed patterns on a wafer. As printed patterns on the IC become more complex, a need arises to decrease the feature size. However, as feature sizes shrink, the resolution limits of current optical-based lithographic systems are approached. Specifically, one type of lithographic mask includes clear regions and opaque regions, wherein the pattern of these two regions defines the features of a particular semiconductor layer. Under exposure conditions, diffraction effects at the transition of the transparent regions to the opaque regions can render these edges indistinct, thereby adversely affecting the resolution of the lithographic process.
Various techniques have been proposed to improve this resolution. One such technique, phase-shifting, uses phase destructive interference of the waves of incident light. Specifically, phase-shifting shifts the phase of a first region of incident light waves approximately 180 degrees relative to a second, adjacent region of incident light waves. In this manner, the projected images from these two regions destructively interfere where their edges overlap, thereby improving feature delineation and allowing greater feature density on the IC. A mask that uses such techniques is called a phase shifting mask (PSM).
In one type of PSM, called an alternating PSM, apertures between closely spaced features are processed so that light passing through any aperture is 180 degrees out of phase from the light passing through an adjacent aperture. FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate one embodiment of an alternating PSM 100 including closely spaced opaque (e.g. chrome or some other absorbing material) features 101, 102, 103, and 104 formed on a transparent, e.g. quartz, substrate 105. Thus, apertures 106, 107, and 108 are formed between features 101-104.
To provide the phase shifting in this embodiment, the areas of substrate 105 under alternating apertures can be etched, thereby causing the desired 180 degree phase shift. For example, substrate 105 can be etched in the area defined by aperture 107 to a predetermined depth. In this manner, the phase shift of light passing through aperture 107 relative to light passing through apertures 106 and 108 is approximately 180 degrees.
Unfortunately, the use of an alternating PSM can introduce an intensity imbalance problem. FIG. 1C illustrates a graph 130 that plots intensity (0 to 1.0) versus position on alternating PSM 100. In graph 130, waveforms 131 that are shown nearing 1.0 intensity correspond to apertures 106 and 108, whereas waveform 132 that is shown at approximately 0.84 intensity corresponds to aperture 107. The intensity imbalance between the 180 degree phase shifting region (i.e. aperture 107) and the 0 degree phase shifting regions (i.e. apertures 106 and 108) is caused by the trench cut into substrate 105, thereby causing diffraction in the corners of aperture 107 and degrading the intensity of the corresponding waveform. This industry-recognized diffraction effect is called a three-dimensional (3D) effect.
Intensity imbalance can adversely affect printing features and overlay on the wafer. Typically, a feature on a binary mask has a pair of corresponding phase shifting regions on an alternating PSM. For example, referring to FIG. 1D, a feature 140 can have a corresponding 0 degree phase shifting region (also called a phase shifter herein) 141 placed relative to one side of feature 140 and a corresponding 180 degree phase shifter 142 placed relative to the other side of feature 140. Of interest, if phase shifters 141 and 142 are the same size, the electric field associated with phase shifter 141 is stronger than the electric field associated with phase shifter 142, thereby resulting in the maximum interference of these fields to occur to the right of centerline 143 on feature 140. Thus, under these conditions, feature 140 will actually print on the wafer to the right of the desired location as shown by dotted lines indicating the printed location of feature 150 and its associated centerline 153.
Moreover, any defocus in the system can exacerbate the 3D effect and cause significant deviation from desired feature placement on the wafer. Because any wafer production line requires at least some acceptable range of defocus, e.g. typically within 0.4 microns, feature placement is frequently adversely affected when using an alternating PSM. Therefore, those in the industry have proposed various methods to address the intensity imbalance problem.
In one proposed method shown in FIG. 1E, an additional etching step can be performed on substrate 105, thereby providing an undercut etch 160 of features 101-104. Undercut etch 160 increases the intensity by attempting to localize the diffraction effects under features 101-104. Unfortunately, under-cut etch 160 can also create mechanical instability of features 101-104 on the mask. Specifically, the greater the under-cut etch, the greater the probability of mechanical (e.g. chrome) instability during subsequent processing steps, such as mask cleaning. Thus, undercut etch 160 provides an incomplete solution with the potential of causing complete mask failure.
Another potential solution (not shown) includes biasing the size of the 180 degree phase-shifting region to be larger than the 0 degree phase-shifting region, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,670,082, which issued on Dec. 30, 2003 to the assignee of the present application, Numerical Technologies, Inc. This method ensures mechanical stability, but does typically require determining the appropriate bias for a plurality of 180 degree phase-shifting regions.
Another potential solution (not shown) includes providing a dual trench structure in the PSM, i.e. both the 0 degree and 180 degree phase shifters are formed using trenches. Using this structure, both phase shifters suffer from diffraction effects, which can minimize or even eliminate the undesirable intensity imbalance. Unfortunately, forming the additional trenches in the substrate adds significantly more time to the manufacturing operation, e.g. typically doubling the time, thereby undesirably increasing manufacturing cost.
Yet another potential solution (not shown) includes sloping the sidewalls of the 180 degree phase shifters and providing a layer of chrome on such sloped sidewalls, thereby minimizing diffraction effects. However, this type of mask, called sidewall chrome alternating aperture mask (SCAAM), also suffers from significantly higher manufacturing cost than the standard PSM. Moreover, as features get smaller, the appropriate angle for the sloping sidewalls can become a limiting factor. That is, the angle may result in a de facto minimum feature size.
Therefore, a need arises for a method of correcting 3D effects of phase-shifting masks while ensuring mechanical stability and manufacturing efficiency.

Correcting 3D effects in phase shifting masks using sub-resolution features


The systems and methods of seamlessly connecting an internet of things (“IoT”) device to one or more intelligent voice assistants, comprising: configuring a manager module to manage an IoT device connected to a network; receiving a speech command for the IoT device at the manager module through a mobile application, a smart speaker, a web interface or any other user interface; connecting to a central Speak-to-IoT cloud service; receiving a map to connect to a customer specific Speak-to-IoT cloud service based on the customer, IoT device type and manager module; authenticating with the customer specific Speak-to-IoT cloud service; communicating and executing the speech command on the IoT device. The systems and methods further comprising adding or replacing one or more IoT device with another device type or manager module of another type.

In order to participate in the intelligent voice assistant ecosystem, today's IoT devices need to have their own Speaker and Microphone or they can leverage IoT Hub Devices' hardware, use existing smart speakers, or applications from Amazon Alexa, Google Home Assistant, Apple HomePod, Microsoft Cortana, etc. In most of the cases, device manufacturers have to deal with not only the hardcore device functionality, but the corresponding voice AI programming as well. Connecting an internet-enabled smart device with any of the voice service providers is a highly challenging, time & resource intensive, customized task; that needs to be repeated for every single voice service provider. It often requires smart device manufacturer to create and operate on some cloud-based software components, including dealing with their security implications. With most of the current approaches, it is practically impossible for device manufacturers to enable additional voice commands to unlock new features or capabilities in smart devices once they are sold to and deployed by their end-consumers. Any changes to APIs or protocols from any of the voice service providers could practically make the end user's smart device useless.
IoT Device Manufacturers, also known as Vendors or Customers of the Speak-to-IoT cloud service have a strenuous path towards voice enablement. There are three approaches, a customer can take: (1) Bundle approach, (2) Hub approach and (3) Do it Yourself Approach. The bundle approach requires self-contained hardware and software within the device including an on-board AI agent and Internet connectivity is optional. The bundle approach may not include high-quality microphone/speaker, requires higher device cost due to extra hardware, may not provide remote operations, requires dealing with many AI agents, i.e., 1 per voice service provider, and not much flexibility for software Maintenance, Upgrade or Patch.
The Hub Approach has AI Brain and internet connectivity via the hub using multi-protocol (Zigbee etc.). It may not include open hub protocol and hence results in customer lock-in, provides limited remote operations, mandates dealing with many AI agents—1 per voice service and no capability for Maintenance, Upgrade or Patch. Similarly, the Do it Yourself (DIY) approach also has drawbacks. While you can leverage off the shelf speakers, there is no AI-Brain in device. It requires dealing with multiple 1-per voice agent integrations, skillset or resources to operate cloud, cyber security vulnerability, time-to-market and no capability for maintenance, upgrade or patch.

Systems and methods to seamlessly connect internet of things (IoT) devices to multiple intelligent voice assistants


The protective structure comprises a at least in one direction curved support rib structure of a material or a material composition that is suited for injection molding, which support rib structure is formed of an outer frame and of inner frames fitted into the interior space of the outer frame and being fixed to each other and/or to the outer frame. The material thickness of the support rib structure varies in a direction perpendicular to a surface formed by the support rib structure so that the material thickness is greater at the middle of the support rib structure compared to the material thickness at the edges of the support rib structure.

Protective structures for sporting equipment have traditionally been made from sheet like material by die-cutting and by shaping the die-cut piece as it is subjected to heat to a desired shape. Also bends have been done to the sheet like material during die-cutting in order to achieve stiffness to the piece. Also openings could have been done to the piece during die-cutting in order to make the piece lighter. Plastic has normally been used as the material. Such protective structures have been used in the outer surface of sporting equipment e.g. ice hockey leg shields or within the sporting equipment between softer protective structures e.g. between foamed plastics. The purpose of the protective structure is to receive shocks from the outside and to distribute the energy of the shock to a wider area.
A protective structure made of sheet like material by die-cutting becomes fairly heavy. The thickness of the material is the same throughout the whole piece and the ability of the piece to distribute shocks effectively to a wider area remains rather limited.
FI-patent 103862 shows a protective pad for an outfit equipped with separate protective pads that are inserted into pockets. The protective pad is composed of a flexible cellular protective pad material which retains its shape and comprises interconnected walls which extend from an outer surface to an inner surface of the protective pad, said walls having a width in the direction of the surface of the pad which is smaller than the height of the wall in the thickness direction of the protective pad. The walls form cells with a closed periphery such that between the walls of the cells there remain holes extending through the pad. The pad is advantageously made from a sheet like cellular material by cutting the material into a shape having the appropriate contour. The width of the walls increases advantageously from the outer surface towards the inner surface of the pad. The pad can be manufactured e.g. by injection molding or by producing a cellular sheet, where cells needed for the pad are on a big sheet. The height of the walls i.e. the thickness of the pad is the same on the whole area of the pad.

Protective structure for sporting equipment


Techniques of providing spatiotemporal visualizations are disclosed. In some example embodiments, a spatiotemporal visualization of at least a portion of data of a dataset is generated and displayed to a user in a graphical user interface of a device. An embodiment comprises receiving data comprising a plurality of measures and a plurality of dimensions; calculating a minimum and maximum magnitude of velocity for measures in the data; defining intervals in a range defined by the minimum and maximum velocity; selecting configuration settings for rendering a spatiotemporal visualization corresponding to the data and the intervals; generating the spatiotemporal visualization, the spatiotemporal visualization comprising a graphical representation of at least a portion of data comprising at least one of the measures and at least one of the dimensions over the defined intervals; and causing display of: the spatiotemporal visualization, and a plurality of selectable interaction controls corresponding to the spatiotemporal visualization.

In conventional data analysis tools, it can be difficult for analysts and business users to know what the best next step to take is or decision to make when navigating or exploring data. This feeling of being lost in the data results in a less powerful analysis experience, as well as a higher degree of frustration and, potentially, wasted time. Traditional data analysis tools provide representations of a snapshot in time for key performance indicators (KPIs) and value drivers that are used to analyze the state of set targets in analytical reporting. For example, in a conventional business report providing year to date (YTD) details about profit and expenses data, various accounting measures can be provided in a 'bullet chart' and other conventional representations. However, such representations are snapshots in time, and do not convey the performance of a plotted measures over the course of time. Conventional analytical and decision support reports merely convey 'what has happened' so far to data up to a point in time, rather than 'how it happened' across time intervals. Such reports are of limited help when an analyst tries to identify key patterns across time and space leading to the current state of the data.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method of providing spatiotemporal visualizations


In a power-driven nailing machine for driving a nail disposed within a discharge port 7 of a nose body 6 into a work, a contact nose 13 giving a leading end discharge port 12 for guiding the nail driven from a discharge port 7 of the nose body 6 toward the work is provided to be protrusively urged toward the leading end of the nose body 6. In the leading end discharge port 12 of the contact nose 13, a guide portion 17, 19 longer than a maximum sized nail is formed from the leading end.

For example, in the nailing machine using the compressed air as a power source, a hollow-cylindrical driving cylinder is arranged within a housing constituting a nailing machine body and a driving piston integrally coupled with a driver for striking the nail is slidably accommodated within the driving cylinder. By impactively driving the driving piston downward from an upper dead center position within the driving cylinder in such a manner that the compressed air is introduced into the driving cylinder, the nail is driven into the work by the driver coupled with the driving piston. Beneath the housing, a nose is integrally formed which serves to guide the driver slidably accommodated and forms a discharge port for guiding the nail to be driven by the driver. The driver coupled with the driving piston, which is accommodated in the discharge port, is slidably guided. By driving the driving piston, the driver coupled with the driving piston is impactively operated in the discharge port so as to strike the nail supplied into the discharge port, thereby driving the nail into the work from the discharge port.
As described above, in the power-driven nailing machine, which is provided with an impact mechanism for impactively driving the driver for striking the nail by the pressure of compressed air or combustion gas and serves to strike the nail by the driver driven through this impact mechanism so as to be driven into the work such as wood, concrete or steel plate, in reaction to impactively driving the driving piston coupled with the above driver within the driving cylinder, a reaction force in a direction opposite to the acting direction of the driving piston is generated within the housing accommodating the impact mechanism. By this reacting phenomenon, the nose integrally coupled with the housing will move upwards. As a result, the nail discharge port leaves the face of the work. Thus, the driver striking the head of the nail strays off from the nail head so that the face of the work is struck and damaged, thus generating a driver mark.
In order that the discharge port for driving/guiding the nail is not isolated from the face of the work even when the nailing machine body has moved upwards from the work because of the reaction during nail striking, the nailing machine has been proposed in which as shown in FIG. 7, a contact nose 31 is slidably provided at a leading end of a nose body 30 and the nail driven out from a discharge port 32 of the nose body 30 is vertically guided by a leading end discharge port 33 formed in the contact nose 31 thereby to drive the nail into the work (see JP-A-2002-337066). In this conventional nailing machine, the contact nose 31 giving the leading end discharge port 33 is held by the nose body 30 so that it is urged slidably along the discharge port 32 of the nose body 30 and protrusively forward from the nose body 30 in its leading end. So, even when the nose body 30 moves upward from the face of the work by reaction, the contact status between the contact nose 31 and the face of the work is kept, thereby preventing occurrence of the driver mark.
Meanwhile, in the nailing machine provided with the contact nose 31, in a state where the contact nose 31 has moved upward against the nose body 30 in order to actuate the nailing machine, the discharge port 32 of the nose body 30 and the discharge port of the contact nose 31 are formed to be continuous to each other. In this case, if the nose body 30 moves upwards by reaction in nail driving, between the leading end discharge port 33 of the contact nose 31 and the discharge port 32 of the nose body 30, a gap 34 having a larger inner diameter than that of these discharge ports will be generated. However, at the upper portion of the leading end discharge port 33 of the contact nose 31, a tapered guide face 35 is formed so that even when the gap 34 is generated as described above, the nail driven from the discharge port 32 of the nose body 30 can be smoothly guided into the leading end discharge port 33 of the contact nose 31.
Generally, the inner diameter of the discharge port of the nailing machine is formed to be slightly larger than that of the head of the nail. So the head H of the nail guided by the discharge port is located at the center of the discharge port whereas the leading end P thereof is placed in a free state within the discharge port. As a result, the nail with a shaft slanted may be driven. Since a concrete nail or steel plate nail N has a relatively short shaft, the slanting angle of the nail shaft may be large within the discharge port. Therefore, for the concrete nail, for example, in order to prevent the nail from slanting within the discharge port, a ring-shaped foot guide G is mounted at the leading end portion of the nail shaft so that the outer peripheral edge of the food guide G is engaged with the inner wall of the discharge port 32. Thus, the leading end P of the nail shaft is arranged at the center of the discharge port 32 so that the nail shaft is kept perpendicularly to the face of the work.
Where the concrete nail or steel plate nail with the foot guide G mounted at the leading end of its shaft as described above is driven through the above conventional contact nose 31, as seen from FIG. 7, the leading end P of the nail shaft is located at the center of the leading end discharge port 33 in such a manner that the foot guide G is fit on the inner periphery of the leading end discharge port 33 of the contact nose 31, whereas the head H thereof may be placed in a gap 34 having a larger inner diameter formed between the lower end of the nose body moved upward owing to reaction and the upper area of the leading end discharge port 33 of the contact nose 31. As a result, the nail N may be driven from the contact nose 31, while the head H of the nail N is deviated from the central position of the discharge port so that with the nail shaft being slanted.

Cylindrical contact arm having a tapered guide section in a power-driven nailing machine


A golf club head includes a face, a club head body, and a hosel. The hosel has a tubular hosel body extending along a longitudinal axis and defining a bore. The bore is configured to receive a golf club shaft or a shaft adapter. The tubular hosel body is molded from a polymeric material that includes a resin and a plurality of fibers, each fiber has a length of from about 0.01 mm to about 12 mm.

A golf club may generally include a club head disposed on the end of an elongate shaft. During play, the club head may be swung into contact with a stationary ball located on the ground in an effort to project the ball in an intended direction and with a desired vertical trajectory.
Many design parameters must be considered when forming a golf club head. For example, the design must provide enough structural resilience to withstand repeated impact forces between the club and the ball, as well as between the club and the ground. The club head must conform to maximum size requirements set by different rule setting associations, and the face of the club must not have a coefficient of restitution above a predefined maximum (measured according to applicable standards). Assuming that certain predefined design constraints are satisfied, a club head design is typically quantified by the magnitude and location of the center of gravity, as well as the head's moment of inertia about the center of gravity and/or the shaft.
The club's moment of inertia relates to the club's resistance to rotation (particularly during an off-center hit), and is often perceived as the club's measure of "forgiveness." In typical driver designs, high moments of inertia are desired to reduce the club's tendency to push or fade a ball. Achieving a high moment of inertia generally involves placing mass as close to the perimeter of the club as possible (to maximize the moment of inertia about the center of gravity), and as close to the toe as possible (to maximize the moment of inertia about the shaft).
While the moment of inertia affects the forgiveness of a club head, the location of the center of gravity behind the club face (and above the sole) generally affects the trajectory of a shot for a given face loft angle. A center of gravity that is positioned as far rearward (away from the face) and as low (close to the sole) as possible typically results in a ball flight that has a higher trajectory than a club head with a center of gravity placed more forward and/or higher.
While a high moment of inertia is obtained by increasing the perimeter weighting of the club head, an increase in the total mass/swing weight of the club head (i.e., the magnitude of the center of gravity) has a strong, negative effect on club head speed and hitting distance. Said another way, to maximize club head speed (and hitting distance), a lower total mass is desired; however a lower total mass generally reduces the club head's moment of inertia (and forgiveness).
In the tension between swing speed (mass) and forgiveness (moment of inertia), it may be desirable to place varying amounts of mass in specific locations throughout the club head to tailor a club's performance to a particular golfer or ability level. In this manner, the total club head mass may generally be categorized into two categories: structural mass and discretionary mass.
Structural mass generally refers to the mass of the materials that are required to provide the club head with the structural resilience needed to withstand repeated impacts. Structural mass is highly design-dependent, and provides a designer with a relatively low amount of control over specific mass distribution. On the other hand, discretionary mass is any additional mass that may be added to the club head design for the sole purpose of customizing the performance and/or forgiveness of the club. In an ideal club design, the amount of structural mass would be minimized (without sacrificing resiliency) to provide a designer with a greater ability to customize club performance, while maintaining a swing weight that is expected by the consumer.