The resectoscope apparatus of this invention comprises an elongate hollow sheath to be inserted into a body cavity, an electrode inserted through the sheath and resecting or coagulating tissues within the body cavity by using a high frequency current, an endoscope insertable part inserted through the sheath and having an optical system making the body cavity interior observable and an operating part having a guide tube part through which the endoscope insertable part is inserted and a sheath connecting part connected to the base end part of the sheath and making the electrode operatable from outside the body. At least one of the guide tube part and sheath connecting part is formed of an electric insulating material for electric insulation.

This invention relates to a resectoscope apparatus for resecting and coagulating tissues within a body cavity.
Recently, there is extensively utilized an endoscope apparatus whereby internal organs within a body cavity can be observed by inserting an elongate insertable part into the body cavity or various therapeutic treatments can be made, as required, by using treating instruments inserted through a treating instrument channel.
As the above mentioned endoscope apparatus, there is a high frequency endoscope apparatus for resecting a prostate, uterus interior, ureter interior or renal pelvis interior. As such high frequency endoscope apparatus, there is a resectoscope apparatus whereby such treatment as the resection of a prostate can be made by inserting the insertable part into the bladder through the urethra and passing a high frequency electric current through a resecting electrode as shown, for example, in the publication of a Japanese Utility Model Application No. 149616/1985.
Generally, a resectoscope apparatus comprises a hollow sheath to be inserted into a body cavity, an operating part having a slider removably fitted to the rear end side of this sheath and an observing scope (optical sighting tube) removably fitted from, the rear end side of this operating part which can project out of and retract into the rear end side of the operating part and an electrode made like a loop and branched into two branches at the tip for the resection of tissues within a body cavity. The operating part is provided with a guide tube made of a metal to insert the scope. The guide tube projects forward from a metal sheath connecting part of the operating part where it is inserted into the sheath and is provided on the outer periphery rearward from the sheath connecting part with the above mentioned slider so as to be slidable forward and rearward. An electrode inserting tube inserting and guiding the above mentioned electrode is provided in parallel with the guide tube. The electrode inserted through this electrode inserting tube is inserted further into an electrode inserting hole of the above mentioned slider and is fixed to an electric contact within the slider. When the electrode is contacted with an affected part and the slider is moved forward and rearward while flowing a high frequency electric current, with the forward and rearward movements of the electrode, the affected part will be able to be resected or coagulated.
However, in the resectoscope apparatus of such formation as is mentioned above, such liquid as an irrigating liquid is likely to enter the electrode inserting hole and, in case the liquid comes in, an electric path will be formed between the guide tube and electric contact and the electric current will leak into the guide tube.
In case the slider is moved forward, the slider will be in close contact with the sheath connecting part and therefore the current will leak between the electrode contact and sheath connecting part.
If the current thus leaks between the electric contact and guide tube or sheath connecting part, it will flow from the sheath or operating part to the patient and operator and will be likely to cause a burn or electric shock.


Embodiments include a curable composition comprising an epoxy resin, a non-halogen flame retardant agent comprising at least two of an aryl-cyanato group and at least two of a phosphorus group, and a styrene and maleic anhydride copolymer. Embodiments include method of preparing the curable composition, prepregs that include a reinforcement component and the curable composition, and an electrical laminate formed with the curable composition.

Curable compositions are compositions that include thermosettable monomers that can be crosslinked. Crosslinking, also referred to as curing, converts the curable compositions into crosslinked polymers (i.e., a cured product) useful in various fields such as composites, electrical laminates, and coatings because of, among other things, their chemical resistance, mechanical strength, and electrical properties. For example, curable compositions can be used in electronics as protective films, adhesive materials, and/or insulating materials, such as interlayer insulating films.
To be useful for these applications, a cured product of the curable compositions need to provide ease of handling and certain necessary physical, thermal, electrical insulation, and moisture resistance properties. For example, curable compositions having a low dielectric constant, a high solubility, and a low moisture uptake, as well as a high glass transition temperature (Tg), can be desirable combination of properties for electrical applications.
The use of curable compositions in electronic applications can also influence the electrical signals generated in the electronics. Increases in electrical signal frequency in an electronic system (e.g., a computer system) allows for data to be processed at a higher rate. Curable compositions in the vicinity of such electrical signals, however, can exert a large influence on transmission loss of such electrical signals in a high frequency circuit. To minimize this influence, curable compositions having a low dielectric constant and a low dissipation factor, in addition to the other properties discussed herein, are desired.
Curable compositions, however, can be flammable. As such, different approaches have been made to impart flame resistance to the cured products of the curable compositions. Two main approaches have been taken to providing flame resistance. The first is a "Green" approach in which halogen-free compounds are used. The second approach makes use of halogen compounds. Halogenated compounds have been used for decades in the electronic industry to impart flame resistance to electrical and electronic assemblies. For example, tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBA) has been a workhorse flame resistance in electrical laminates for many years. Halogenated compounds, however, are now being scrutinized by environmental groups due to the possibility of dioxin formation during the incineration of electronic components at their end of life. In many developed countries the burning of the components is regulated and controlled, however, in developing countries, burning is often unregulated, increasing the likelihood of brominated dioxin release into the atmosphere.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An apparatus for generating a stereo output signal includes a manipulation information generator being adapted to generate manipulation information depending on a first signal indication value of a first input channel and on a second signal indication value of a second input channel, and a manipulator for manipulating a combination signal based on the manipulation information to obtain a first manipulated signal as a first output channel and a second manipulated signal as a second output channel. The combination signal is a signal derived by combining the first input channel and the second input channel. Furthermore, the manipulator is configured for manipulating the combination signal in a first manner, when the first signal indication value is in a first relation to the second signal indication value, or in a different second manner, when the first signal indication value is in a different second relation to the second signal indication value.

Audio processing has advanced in many ways. In particular, surround systems have become more and more important. However, most music recordings are still encoded and transmitted as a stereo signal and not as a multi-channel signal. As surround systems comprise a plurality of loudspeakers, e.g. four or five, it has been subject of many studies what signals to provide to which one of the loudspeakers, when there are only two input signals available. Providing the first input signal unaltered to a first group of loudspeakers and the second input signal unaltered to a second group would of course be a solution. But the listener would not really get the impression of real-life surround sound, but instead would hear the same sound from different speakers.
Moreover, consider a surround system comprising five loudspeakers including a center speaker. To provide the user a real-life sound-experience, sounds that in reality originate from a location in front of the listener should be reproduced by the front speakers and not by the left and right surround loudspeakers behind the listener. Therefore, audio signals should be available which do not comprise such sound portions.
Furthermore, listeners desiring to experience real-life surround sound also expect high-quality audio sound from the left and right surround loudspeakers. Providing both surround speakers with the same signal is not a desired solution. Sounds that originate from the left of the listener's location should not be reproduced by the right surround speaker and vice versa.
However, as already mentioned, most music recordings are still encoded as stereo signals. A lot of stereo music productions employ amplitude panning. Sound sources sk are recorded and are subsequently panned by applying weighting masks ak such that, in a stereo system, they appear to originate from a particular position between a left loudspeaker receiving a left stereo channel xL of a stereo input signal and a right loudspeaker receiving a right stereo channel xR of the stereo input signal. Moreover, such recordings comprise ambient signal portions n1, n2, originating, e.g., from room reverberation. Ambient signal portions appear in both channels, but do not relate to a particular sound source. Therefore, the left xL and the right xR channel of a stereo input signal may comprise:
            x      L        =                            ∑          k                                  s          k                    +              n        1                        x      R        =                            ∑          k                                              a            k                    ·                      s            k                              +              n        2            xL: left stereo signalxR: right stereo signalak: panning factor of sound source ksk: signal sound source kn1, n2: ambient signal portions
In surround systems, commonly, only some of the loudspeakers are assumed to be located in front of a listener's seat (for example, a center, a front left and a front right speaker), while other speakers are assumed to be located to the left and to the right behind a listener's seat (e.g., a left and a right surround speaker).
Signal components that are equally present in both channels of the stereo input signal (sk=ak·sk) appear to originate from a sound source at a center position in front of the listener. It may therefore be desirable, that these signals are not reproduced by the left and the right surround speaker behind the listener.
It may moreover be desirable that signal components that are mainly present in the left stereo channel (sk>>ak·sk) are reproduced by the left surround speaker; and that signal components that are mainly present in the right stereo channel (sk<<ak·sk) are reproduced by the right surround speaker.
Moreover, it may furthermore be desirable, that ambient signal portion n1 of the left stereo channel shall be reproduced by the left surround speaker while the ambient the signal portion n2 of the right stereo channel shall be reproduced by the right surround speaker.
To provide the left and the right surround speaker with suitable signals, it would therefore be highly appreciated to provide at least two output channels from two channels of a stereo input signal which are different from the two input channels and which possess the described properties.
The desire for generating a stereo output signal from a stereo input signal is however not limited to surround systems, but may also be applied in traditional stereo systems. A stereo output signal might also be useful to provide a different sound experience, for example, a wider sound field for traditional stereo systems having two loudspeakers, e.g., by providing stereo-base widening. Regarding replay using stereo loudspeakers or earphones, a broader and/or enveloping audio impression may be generated.
According to a first method of conventional technology, a mono input source is processed to generate a stereo signal for playback, thus creating two channels from the mono input source. By this, an input signal is modified by complementary filters to generate a stereo output signal. When being replayed by two loudspeakers, the generated stereo signal creates a wider sound than the unfiltered replay of the same signal. However, the sound sources comprised in the stereo signal are "smeared", as no directional information is generated. Details are presented in:
Manfred Schroeder "An Artificial Stereophonic Effect Obtained From Using a Single Signal", presented at the 9th annual AES meeting Oct. 8-12, 1957.
Another proposed approach is presented in WO 9215180 A1: "Sound reproduction systems having a matrix converter". According to this conventional technology, a stereo output signal is generated from a stereo input signal by applying a linear combination of the channels of the stereo input signal. By applying this method, output signals may be generated which significantly attenuate center-panned portions of the input signal. However, the method also results in a lot of crosstalk (from the left channel to the right channel and vice versa). Crosstalk may be reduced by limiting the influence of the right input signal to the left output signal and vice versa, in that the corresponding weighting factor of the linear combination is adjusted. This however, would also result in reduced attenuation of center-panned signal portions in the surround speakers. Signals, originating from a front-center location would unintentionally be reproduced by the rear surround speakers.
Another proposed concept of conventional technology is to determine direction and ambience of a stereo input signal in a frequency domain by applying complex signal analysis techniques. This concept of conventional technology is, e.g., presented in U.S. Pat. No. 7,257,231 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 7,412,380 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,315,624 B2. According to this approach, both input signals are examined with respect to direction and ambience for each time-frequency bin and are repanned in a surround system depending on the result of the direction and ambience analysis. According to this approach, a correlation analysis is employed to determine ambient signal portions. Based on the analysis, surround channels are generated which comprise predominantly ambient signal portions and from which center-panned signal portions may be removed. However, as both directional analysis as well as ambience extraction is based on estimations which are not always free of errors, undesired artifacts may be generated. The problem of generated undesired artifacts increases, if an input signal mix comprises several signals (e.g., of different instruments) with superimposed spectra. An effective signal-dependent filtering may be used for removing center-panned portions from the stereo signal, which however makes estimation errors caused by "musical noise" clearly visible. Moreover, the combination of a direction analysis and ambience extraction furthermore results in an addition of artifacts from both methods.

Apparatus and method and computer program for generating a stereo output signal for providing additional output channels

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.


According to one embodiment, a shift register memory includes blocks and a control circuit. The blocks each includes data storing shift strings. Each of the data storing shift strings includes layers. The control circuit performs storing and reading data by shifting one layer of the layers, in a direction along each of the data storing shift strings. The reading includes reading data from a first layer of the layers. The storing includes storing data to a second layer of the layers. The control circuit reads first data stored in one or more third layers of the layers, the one or more third layers being successive from the first layer, determines a shift parameter in accordance with the reading of the first data, and performs the reading using the determined shift parameter.

In recent years, memory systems including a nonvolatile memory are widely used. As a type of the memory systems, a solid state drive (SSD) including a NAND flash memory is known.
Recently, shift register type memories in which write and read of the data are carried out using the first-in first-out method or the last-in first-out (LIFO) method are being developed as next-generation nonvolatile memories.


The number of blind decoding operations in a wireless communication receiver is reduced. In one embodiment, a candidate set of transport formats is formed by eliminating one or more allowed transport formats, thus reducing the number of decode operations to be performed. In another embodiment, a received data transmission is partially decoded according to each of a plurality of transport formats, and decode quality metrics associated with each transport format are inspected. Only the transport formats yielding sufficiently high quality metrics are utilized to fully decode the transmission. In other embodiments, upon failure to successfully decode a received transmission, it is assumed to be a retransmission with a missed control transmission, and one or more transport formats specifying the position of a previous transmission in a buffer are added to the candidate set of transport formats. The received retransmission and previously received transmission are then HARQ combined and decoded.

Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third-generation (3G) wireless communication technology. The radio access network of UMTS, the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), provides wireless connectivity for both circuit-switched and packet-switched traffic between User Equipment (UE) and the core network, via Radio Network Controllers (RNC). Each RNC controls one or more Base Stations (BS), which provide the air interface connectivity to mobile UEs. Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) is one technology employed in UTRAN implementation.
High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a mobile telephony communications protocol for delivering packet data at high transfer speed and capacity. Downlink channels (i.e., transferring data from BS to UE) in the HSPDA protocol lack the variable spreading factor and fast power control of traditional CDMA, and instead use adaptive modulation and coding, fast packet scheduling at the BS, and transmit at full residual power. Hybrid Automatic Repeat-Request (HARQ) is employed for fast retransmission of corrupted packets. In particular, HSDPA in WCDMA is supported by a physical control channel, high speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH), and a high-speed physical downlink shared channel, (HS-PDSCH).
Release 7 of the UTRAN specification defines "continuous connectivity for packet data users," or simply, Continuous Packet Connectivity (CPC). The original objective of CPC was to enhance system capacity to support a very large number of packet-oriented users by reducing signaling overhead and uplink interference. This would make it possible to keep many packet data users in the CELL_DCH state for long time periods, without reducing the cell throughput. These packet data users would experience significantly reduced delays as time-consuming reconnections are avoided, providing a user experience similar to fixed broadband.
The objective of CPC has expanded and now includes reduction of the downlink overhead and reduction of the user equipment (UE) power consumption. The CPC solution includes a new uplink dedicated physical control channel (DPCCH) slot format, discontinuous uplink transmission, discontinuous downlink reception and HS-SCCH-less operation.
The HS-SCCH-less operation is intended for low data rate users such as voice over IP (VoIP). The goal is to reduce transmission of downlink HS-SCCH, which would generate a significant amount of overhead for small data packets, by only transmitting the HS-SCCH during retransmissions (maximum two retransmissions). Since the HS-SCCH normally precedes data transmission on the HS-PDSCH and includes information such as the transport format, in CPC mode UE must employ blind decoding among four predefined block sizes. The new feature is supported by a new CRC computation method (Type 2) for the HS-DSCH and a new HS-SCCH format (Type 2). The UE should also be capable of receiving and decoding transmission according to the legacy (Rel-6) HSDPA formats, referred to as Type 1.
HS-SCCH-less operation is configured by the serving radio network controller (SRNC) per UE, by prescribing up to four transport block sizes using up to two HS-PDSCH codes. A UE should still be able to monitor up to four HS-SCCH transmissions (Type 1 and Type 2) and should also be able to detect if a received HS-SCCH transmission is of Type 1 or Type 2. Additionally, a UE should decode up to two HS-PDSCH transmissions of Type 2. Retransmissions should use the same HS-SCCH type and HS-PDSCH type (Type 1 or Type 2) as in the first transmission.
In the HS-SCCH-less mode, the first transmission is not signaled via the HS-SCCH. Instead, the UE must demodulate the symbols on 1 or 2 predetermined HS-PDSCH codes and perform blind decoding of the received symbols. There are four possible transport formats. The UE should perform rate matching corresponding to each of the formats to decode the resulting sequence, and check the CRC that is masked with the UE ID. If the CRC check on a candidate sequence is successful, the sequence is accepted by the UE and an ACK is sent to the BS. If the blind detection of the first transmission is unsuccessful, the BS will signal the subsequent retransmission using the Type 2 HS-SCCH. The Type 2 HS-SCCH transmission thus precedes the second and third HS-PDSCH transmissions in HS-SCCH-less operation.
Part one comprises, as in Release-6,                channelization code set (7 bits)                    only values corresponding to one and two codes                        modulation index (1 bit);                    '0' indicating QPSK
Part two is modified in Release-7, and comprises                special information type (6 bits)                    '111110' indicating HS-SCCH less operation. Note that the first six bits of part 2 in REl-6 HS-SCCH is the transport block size. The value '111110' would correspond to a very high code rate that would not be used in practice.                        the special information (7 bits)                    transport block size (2 bits)            pointer to the previous transmission (3 bits); indicating 6-13 subframes since last transmission            second or third transmission (1 bit)            reserved bit (1 bit)
The redundancy version for the second transmission is three, and for the third transmission is four.
In the case that no HS-SCCH transmission is detected and HS-SCCH-less operation is activated, up to four different HS-DSCH transport formats should be blindly decoded. In addition, in HS-SCCH mode, if an HS-SCCH transmission is not detected by the UE, HS-PDSCH retransmissions must also be blind decoded. Blind decoding up to four transport formats requires significant decoding resources in the UE. By reducing the total number of blind HS-DSCH decoding operations in the UE, both the required hardware resources and power consumption may be reduced.


A disclosed managing apparatus and image forming apparatus management system ensure confidentiality of information in an image forming apparatus while usability is maintained. An image forming apparatus acquires IC card identifying information with an IC card reader. A management server acquires a user ID associated with the acquired IC card identifying information and use limit information concerning use of the image forming apparatus. A process is performed in the image forming apparatus in accordance with the use limit information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems for managing processes in an image forming apparatus, such as a multifunction peripheral (MFP). It also relates to image forming apparatus, managing apparatus, terminal apparatus, methods of managing image forming apparatus, and image forming programs.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has become common in corporations and other organizations to connect an image forming apparatus (including an MFP having the functions of a FAX machine, a scanner, a copier, etc.) to multiple computer terminals via a network so that the image forming apparatus can be shared. In such an environment, it is necessary to maintain the confidentiality of image data handled over the network. Further, since the image forming apparatus is shared by multiple users, there is a need to improve the efficiency of its use.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2004-222141 discloses an invention directed to a network scanner apparatus comprising an address information storage unit in which address information is set or registered, the address information being associated with individual addresses to which data is distributed via a network. The address information comprises at least a user name, a password, distribution information, and information about other addresses that a user at a particular address can access. User authentication is performed based on a pair of a user name and a password stored in the address information storage unit, and access is granted only to a successfully authenticated user.
However, in this technology, when the image data of a scanned manuscript is transferred to a terminal at a particular address, the image data could be viewed by unintended persons if the terminal is shared by plural users.
Furthermore, in the technology of the aforementioned publication, use of the network scanner device is allowed to any user who has been authenticated. If such technology is applied to the latest image forming apparatus having the functions of a FAX machine, a copier, and so on as well as a scanner, the image forming apparatus could potentially be used for unintended purposes.

Image forming apparatus management system, image forming apparatus, managing apparatus, terminal apparatus, image forming apparatus managing method, and image forming program


A high-pressure mercury discharge lamp comprises a light-transmitting discharge vessel having a region surrounding a discharge space and seal portion, a spaced apart electrodes disposed in the discharge vessel and defining a discharge path, and a filling contained in the discharge vessel including mercury, halogen and lithium (Li). Components of the filling are selected such that a ratio of relative spectral energies B/A is within a range 0.15 to 0.45; wherein A represents the relative spectral energy of mercury (Hg) within a wavelenth range of 402.5 nm to 407.5 nm, and B represents the rlative spectral energy of lithium (Li) within a wavelength range of 667.5 nm to 672.5 nm.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a high-pressure mercury discharge lamp, which contains an ionizable filling including at least lithium (Li), and a lighting apparatus using the lamp.
2. Description of Related Art
In view of the increasing popularity of LCD projectors, there is increased demand for lighting sources that can be effectively and efficiently utilized in such devices. It is desired that such lighting sources be small, bright, and have the proper color balance. Usually, such light sources are used to back light an LCD. Light passing through the LCD is then projected onto a screen. In order to make the high-pressure mercury discharge lamp as small as possible, it is desirable to minimize the distance between electrodes of the lamp. This arrangement requires that the voltage across the electrodes be lower than the voltage across electrodes that are further apart in other lamp arrangements. Therefore the lamp must be operated at a higher current than lamps whose electrodes are further apart. The higher current requirement, in turn, requires a that a larger ballast be used for starting the lamp. Thus, an LCD projector including the lamp and its required ballast must be made relatively larger.
Japanese Laid Open Patent Application HEI 6-52830 (prior art 1) discloses a high-pressure mercury lamp utilizing an arc discharge shortening technique that does not require lowering the lamp voltage. Rather, the pressure of the filling gas is raised, which allows for higher voltage operation even though electrode spacing is reduced. The lamp of prior art 1 lights up at high-pressure mercury vapor, e.g., 10 Mpa or more during the lamp operation to provide sufficient illuminance and color rendering so as to be suitable for use in a small size projector.
In order to maintain an arc discharge, the lamp which is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application HEI 11-297269 (prior art 2), contains a metal halide including one or more selected form a group of lithium (Li), sodium (Na), cerium (Ce), barium (Ba) and calcium (Ca). A discharge vessel of the lamp contains the metal halide of 2*10xe2x88x924 to 7*10xe2x88x922 xcexcmol/mm3. The ionizing voltage of a metal halide is 0.87 times or less than that of mercury (Hg). Such a lamp radiates more energy in the red portion of the color spectrum, so that the lamp has improved color rendering.
The inventions claimed herein, at least in one respect, feature a high-pressure mercury discharge lamp and a lighting apparatus using the lamp. The lamp and lighting apparatus are able to provide improved color rendering and color temperature without sacrificing luminous efficacy.
In one embodiment of the invention, a high-pressure mercury discharge lamp is provided. It includes a light-transmitting discharge vessel defining a discharge space and having a seal portion. Spaced apart electrodes disposed in the discharge vessel define a discharge path. A gas filling contained in the discharge vessel includes mercury, halogen and lithium (Li), whose relative spectral energy distributions are shown in FIG. 2. It is preferable that the relative spectral energies B/A be in a range of 0.15 to 0.45; wherein A represents the relative spectral energy of mercury (Hg) within the 402.5 nm to 407.5 nm wavelength range, and B represents the relative spectral energy of lithium (Li) within 667.5 nm to 672.5 nm wavelength range.
The inventions also include a lighting apparatus. The lighting apparatus includes a high-pressure mercury discharge lamp, a reflector fixing the lamp focusing the center of discharge vessel on the focal point thereof and a housing accommodating the lamp and the reflector.
These and other aspects of the invention are further described in the following drawings and detailed description of the invention.

High-pressure mercury discharge lamp and lighting apparatus using the lamp

Toshiba Lighting and Technology Corporation


An apparatus for efficiently browsing and selecting media content and reducing computational load of processing audio data may include a processor and a memory storing executable computer program code that causes the apparatus to at least perform operations including obtaining audio signals corresponding to items of media data. The audio data associated with the audio signals is played simultaneously. The computer program code may cause the apparatus to determine whether audio signals correspond to multi channel audio signals when determining whether to generate simplified audio signals. The computer program code may also cause the apparatus to determine directions/locations to output the audio data associated with the audio signals. The determined directions/locations correspond to directions that media data is currently being moved or locations of the media data. Corresponding computer program products and methods are also provided.

The modern communications era has brought about a tremendous expansion of wireline and wireless networks. Computer networks, television networks, and telephony networks are experiencing an unprecedented technological expansion, fueled by consumer demand. Wireless and mobile networking technologies have addressed related consumer demands, while providing more flexibility and immediacy of information transfer.
Current and future networking technologies continue to facilitate ease of information transfer and convenience to users. Due to the now ubiquitous nature of electronic communication devices, people of all ages and education levels are utilizing electronic devices to communicate with other individuals or contacts, receive services and/or share information, media and other content. One area in which there is a demand to increase ease of convenience to users relates to 3D audio rendering for media players on electronic communication devices (e.g., mobile phones). At present, many users utilize electronic communication devices to play audio data such as music (e.g., albums) that may be contained in music libraries, audio associated with movies, video clips or the like. The audio data may be coded to achieve 3D audio (e.g., spatial audio) effects. However, the audio data may be in any format such as for example multi channel, stereo, monophonic, etc.
Since many users utilize electronic communication devices to play media content, it may be desirable to provide a mechanism for a communication device to facilitate efficient browsing of a collection of media data (e.g., musical items such as songs) and selection of a media item (e.g., a song from a music library (e.g., album) from the collection. For instance, the increasing memory resources of communication devices have enabled users to store a wide selection of media content consisting of for example thousands of music items. As such, selecting and finding a desired media item is becoming more difficult since a user typically needs to browse through long lists of media items (e.g., musical libraries, movie libraries, etc.).
FIG. 1 presents an example of a tree structure of a media collection in which a user of a communication device may navigate to find desired media content. As shown in FIG. 1, typically, the media content is indexed based on the name of an album, movie, image, etc. or the media items may be categorized for example by the author, composer, performer or band name. In addition, representative pictures such as album covers (e.g., album covers 1, 2 & 3 of FIG. 2) or movie posters may be viewed by the user on a display of a communication device. As such, the conventional mechanism for browsing the media content on a communication device is based on an indexed list of media items, music albums, authors, composers, genre, etc. However, relying only on visual feedback regarding the selection of media content may not necessarily be the most efficient mechanism of selection. For instance, the user may not be able to concentrate on reading the names of the images for selection while for example walking on a street or driving a car, which may inhibit the user's ability to select media content associated with the images.
Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 2, the browsing of media content may be performed via a graphical user interface, of a communication device, having 3D rendered images of album covers (e.g., album covers 1, 2 & 3), movie posters, etc. The user may see a plurality of items simultaneous on a display of the communication device and may scroll the possible selections for example with a pointing device on a keypad or by sliding a finger or stylus on a touch screen of the display. FIG. 2 also presents an example in which the album covers may be flipped on the display. In this example, the selection of the album covers on the display may be changed by sliding a finger on a touch screen.
The conventional manner in which to select the media data (e.g., album covers 1, 2 & 3) in the example of FIG. 2 is typically by double clicking on one of the album covers (e.g., album cover 1). In response to selecting the desired media content (e.g., an image of album cover 1), the graphical user interface may then play audio (e.g., a song) associated with the selected media data. However, browsing through collections of media items and selecting an item so that audio associated with the selected item is played may not be the most efficient mechanism of browsing a collection of media items (e.g., music library) and selecting a media item for playing the associated audio, especially when the collection of media items is large. For instance, this conventional mechanism of browsing may take a user a long time to get through the playlist and requires visual feedback regarding the selection of the media item.
In view of the foregoing drawbacks, it may be desirable to provide a mechanism that more efficiently facilitates browsing and selection of media items for 3D audio rendering as well as to reduce the high computational load associated with audio coding of 3D audio data.

Methods, apparatuses and computer program products for facilitating efficient browsing and selection of media content and lowering computational load for processing audio data


Extruded films comprising ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) with substantially no blow holes therein, are formed by using a pellet feed to the extruder wherein 90-100 wt. % of the pellets pass through an ASTM size 5 sieve and 0-10 wt. % of the pellets are finer than a number 10 mesh (ASTM Sieve size). Uniform feeding to and through the extruder with a lack of bridging of the EVOH pellet feed have been observed.

Ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer is a well know polymer that can be produced by a two-step process of polymerization and saponification as follows:

As a result of this two-step process of polymerization and saponification, polymer can be produced in pellet form. However, the production of the pellet is not uniform in size. When attempting to utilize the EVOH pellets of the prior art, there is a problem of poor delivery efficiency in feeding the extruder used to produce films of the EVOH. This poor efficiency and instability in feeding the extruder can be observed in an unstable operating electric current in the motor turning the extruder screw; and blow holes or translucent irregularities as evident by visual or instrument inspection of the final product. Because ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer is a semi-crystalline random copolymer of ethylene and vinyl alcohol and has high transparency, it is widely and most commonly used as packaging structures for perishable foods. However, one of the most important properties required for this use is its superior barrier properties to oxygen. Ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer films that have translucent irregularities and/or low oxygen barrier properties caused by blow holes in the film are therefore not acceptable films.
As a result of observing these phenomena, the present inventors realized that production of inferior ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer films was attributable to bridging occurring in the mass of pellets being introduced into, and/or conveyed by the extruder screw. Bridging among the mass of individual pellets means that there is a non-uniform, or even absence, of conveying pellets immediately downstream of the bridging phenomena. Bridging is also one of the reasons that unstable operating electric currents are observed in the electric motor turning the extruder screw. Bridging among the mass of pellets also accounts for the occurrence of blow holes in the final product as the result of unequal metering and conveying of the mass of pellets through the extruder.
Prior art attempts at solving bridging problems were directed at mixing pellets of circular or elliptical cross-section pellets (A1) with pellets of cylindrical shape (A2) in a specified ratio of pellets of A1:A2 being from 99:1 to 20:80 as described in Taiwanese published patent application TW 201531489A. The problem with such a solution required two production lines to form pellets of two distinctive shapes, plus the additional step of mixing the pellets of two different shapes in a specific ratio. Another attempt at extrusion of EVOH copolymer resin can be found in Chinese patent CN 1262595C in which an EVOH copolymer resin was fed into an extruder and while maintain the temperature of the melting resin at 70 to 170° C., and adjusting the amount of water by supplying or removing water in the extruder. Alkali metal salt or alkali earth metal salt was added to the extruder which was the reason that the water content was controlled. However, ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer is a hydrophilic material, so the ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer resin must be dry prior to extrusion processing. Not only is this prior process costly, but the additive and water content in the extruder might reduce the heat resistance and other properties of the final product.
Thus, there currently does not exist any known manner of improving the stability of delivery of EVOH copolymer pellets to an extruder in order to produce high quality film without blowholes, translucent irregularities and/or poor oxygen barrier properties.

Ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer pellet, method for extrusion of the pellet and extrusion molded film produced thereby


A rerouting element for a semiconductor device includes a dielectric film that carries conductive vias, conductive elements, and contact pads. The conductive vias are positioned at locations that correspond to the locations of bond pads of a semiconductor device with which the rerouting element is to be used. The conductive elements, which communicate with corresponding conductive vias, reroute the bond pad locations to corresponding contact pad locations adjacent to one peripheral edge or two adjacent peripheral edges of the rerouted semiconductor device. The rerouting element is particularly useful for rerouting centrally located bond pads of a semiconductor device, as well as for rerouting the peripheral locations of bond pads of a semiconductor device to one or two adjacent peripheral edges thereof. In addition, methods for designing and using rerouting elements are disclosed. Semiconductor device assemblies including one or more rerouting elements that provide contacts adjacent to one or two adjacent peripheral edges of a semiconductor die are also disclosed, as are semiconductor device assemblies in which contacts adjacent to two or more peripheral edges of a lower semiconductor device are exposed laterally beyond peripheral edges of an upper semiconductor device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to elements that reroute the locations of bond pads on semiconductor devices and, more specifically, to rerouting elements that are configured to be secured to the active surfaces of fabricated semiconductor devices to reroute the bond pad locations thereof. In addition, the present invention relates to methods for designing rerouting elements and to rerouting methods. The present invention also relates to multi-chip modules with semiconductor devices in stacked arrangement and including one or more of the rerouted semiconductor devices, as well as to methods for forming and packaging such assemblies.
2. Background of Related Art
In order to conserve the amount of surface area, or "real estate," consumed on a carrier substrate, such as a circuit board, by semiconductor devices connected thereto, various types of increased density packages have been developed. Among these various types of packages is the so-called "multi-chip module" (MCM). Some types of multi-chip modules include assemblies of semiconductor devices that are stacked one on top of another. The amount of surface area on a carrier substrate that may be saved by stacking semiconductor devices is readily apparent—a stack of semiconductor devices consumes roughly the same amount of real estate on a carrier substrate as a single, horizontally oriented semiconductor device or semiconductor device package.
Due to the disparity in processes that are used to form different types of semiconductor devices (e.g., the number and order of various process steps), the incorporation of different types of functionality into a single semiconductor device has proven very difficult to actually reduce to practice. Even in cases where semiconductor devices that carry out multiple functions can be fabricated, multi-chip modules that include semiconductor devices with differing functions (e.g., memory, processing capabilities, etc.) are often much more desirable since the separate semiconductor devices may be fabricated independently and later assembled with one another much more quickly and cost-effectively (e.g., lower production costs due to higher volumes and lower failure rates).
Multi-chip modules may also contain a number of semiconductor devices that perform the same function, effectively combining the functionality of all of the semiconductor devices thereof into a single package.
An example of a conventional, stacked multi-chip module includes a carrier substrate, a first, larger semiconductor device secured to the carrier substrate, and a second, smaller semiconductor device positioned over and secured to the first semiconductor device. Any suitable adhesive may be used to secure the semiconductor devices to one another. The second semiconductor device does not overlie bond pads of the first semiconductor device and, thus, the second semiconductor device does not cover bond wires that electrically connect bond pads of the first semiconductor device to corresponding contacts or terminal pads of the carrier substrate. Such a multi-chip module is disclosed and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,212,767, issued to Tandy on Apr. 10, 2001 (hereinafter "the '767 patent"). Due to the use of bond wires to form electrical connections between bond pads and corresponding terminal pads, this type of stacked multi-chip module has been limited to use with semiconductor devices that include peripherally located bond pads.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,060, issued to Fogal et al. on Jun. 21, 1994 (hereinafter "the '060 patent") shows one example where dice of the same size are stacked on top of one another over a circuit board. Bonding wires are connected from the bond pads of each die to corresponding terminal pads on the circuit board. In order to provide clearance for the bond wires that electrically connect bond pads and corresponding terminal pads, however, adjacent semiconductor devices must be spaced apart from one another a significant distance.
Stacked multi-chip modules of other configurations have also been developed. For example, it is known that stacked multi-chip modules may include large semiconductor devices positioned over smaller semiconductor devices and that adjacent semiconductor devices may be staggered relative to one another or have different orientations.
Different electrical connection technologies, including wire bonding, tape-automated bonding ("TAB"), and controlled-collapse chip connection ("C-4"), which results in a so-called flip-chip arrangement, are but a few of the ways in which discrete conductive elements may be formed in stacked multi-chip modules. Different electrical connection technologies have also been used in single multi-chip modules, with the bond pads of one semiconductor device being electrically connected to corresponding contact areas of a carrier substrate of the multi-chip module with a different type of discrete conductive element than that used to form electrical connections between the bond pads of another semiconductor device and their corresponding contact areas of the carrier substrate.
Many semiconductor devices include bond pads that are arranged at central locations on an active surface thereof. Examples include semiconductor devices that are configured for use with leads-over-chip (LOC) type lead frames, in which the bond pads are arranged substantially linearly along the centers thereof, as well as semiconductor devices with bond pads disposed in an "I" arrangement. While it may be desirable to use such semiconductor devices in stacked multi-chip modules, the central bond pad placements thereof do not readily facilitate the use of bond wires or other laterally extending discrete conductive elements to electrically connect the bond pads with their corresponding terminal pads of a circuit board that underlies the semiconductor device stack.
Accordingly, there are needs for apparatus and methods that facilitate the use of semiconductor devices with centrally located bond pads in stacked multi-chip modules. There are also needs for apparatus and methods for reducing the heights of stacked multi-chip modules that include semiconductor devices with peripherally located bond pads.

Bond pad rerouting element and stacked semiconductor device assemblies including the rerouting element


According to one embodiment, a file system (FS) of a storage system is partitioned into a plurality of FS partitions, where each FS partition stores segments of data files. In response to an input and output (IO) request for accessing a first of the FS partitions, a second of the FS partitions is selected that is currently in a ready state for access. The second FS partition is then removed from the ready state for access. The first FS partition is brought into a ready state for access.

There is an ever increasing demand for building larger storage systems, driven by primary data growth and by the advent of new workloads such as disk-based backup. Backups which were traditionally stored on tapes are now being stored on disk-based storage systems for better performance and cost effectiveness. Such backup systems have huge footprints often several times larger than traditional primary storage systems and yet are unable to meet the requirements of the biggest enterprise customers.
Unfortunately, scaling file system capacity is not a trivial problem particularly for de-duplicated systems because of their huge memory requirements. De-duplicated file systems maintain some metadata in memory for every block of physical data. This metadata overhead ranges from few bits per block for optimized file systems to over a dozen bytes for more rudimentary implementations. It is not trivial to add memory to a system to scale with capacity. Traditional server class motherboards have limits on the amount of memory that can be attached to them. Main memory is also a "premium" resource; not only is it one of the most expensive components in the system, it is often one of the most energy consuming one. Hence there is always the need to reduce the memory footprint of a file system.

Resource efficient scale-out file systems


A visual line detecting device is arranged to detect the Purkinje image position of an illuminated eye of an observer through light reflected by the eye and to detect the direction of the visual line of the observer from the Purkinje image position and the position of the pupil center of the eye. The device estimates the pupil diameter of the eye from the luminance of external light and determines the position of the center of the pupil by determining the position of a boundary between the pupil and the iris of the eye on the basis of the pupil diameter estimated.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a visual line detecting device and to a camera having the visual line detecting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A visual line detecting device which optically detects the line of sight (visual axis) of an observer has been disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. SHO 61-172552.
This device is arranged to detect the visual line of the observer on the basis of the position of the center of a pupil and a first Purkinje image which is a reflection image obtained from the front surface of a cornea and which is generated by irradiating the eyeball of the observer with parallel rays of light. FIG. 9 of the accompanying drawings shows this.
Referring to FIG. 9, the illustration includes a cornea 501; a sclera 502; an iris 503; a light source 504; a light projecting lens 506; a light receiving lens 507; an image sensor 509; a half-mirror 510; a rotation center O' of the eyeball; the center of curvature O of the cornea 501; end parts "a" and "b" of the iris 503; the center "c" of the iris 503; a point "d" where a first Purkinje image is generated; the optical axis "h" of the light receiving lens 507, which coincides with the X-axis shown in FIG. 9; and the optical axis "i" of the eyeball.
The light source 504 is an infrared ray emitting diode which is arranged on the focal plane of the light projecting lens 506 to emit infrared rays insensible to the observer. The infrared rays emitted from the light source 504 become parallel rays through the light projecting lens 506 and are then reflected by the half-mirror 510 to illuminate the cornea 501. A part of the infrared rays reflected by the surface of the cornea 501 passes through the half-mirror 510 to be formed into an image at a point d' on the image sensor 509 by the light receiving lens 507. The end parts "a" and "b" of the iris 503 are imaged through the half-mirror 510 and the light receiving lens 507 at points a' and b' on the image sensor 509. Assuming that the Z-coordinates of the end parts "a" and "b" of the iris 503 are Za and Zb, the coordinate Zc of the center point "c" of the iris 503 can be expressed as follows when the rotation angle .theta. of the optical axis "i" of the eyeball relative to the optical axis "h" of the light receiving lens 507 is small: ##EQU1##
Further, assuming that the Z-coordinate of the first Purkinje image generating point "d" is Zd and a distance from the curvature center O of the cornea 501 to the center "c" of the iris 503 is oc, the rotation angle .theta. of the optical axis "i" of the eyeball approximately satisfies the following formula: EQU oc.multidot.sin .theta..apprxeq.Zc-Zd (1)
Therefore, the rotation angle .theta. of the optical axis "i" of the eyeball can be found by detecting specific points (the first Purkinje image Zd' and the end parts Za' and Zb' of the iris 503) projected and obtained on the image sensor 509. Formula (1) above is rewritten as follows: EQU .beta..multidot.oc.multidot.sin .theta..apprxeq.Za'+Zb'/2-Zd'
wherein: .beta. represents a magnifying rate determined by a distance l1 between the first Purkinje image generating point "d" and the light receiving lens 507 and a distance l0 between the light receiving lens 507 and the image sensor 509. This rate .beta. is normally a constant value.
The direction of the line of sight is detectable according to the principle described above.
However, the visual line detecting device described has presented the following problem: The reflection factor of the cornea is about 2.5%. The light quantity of the reflection image of the cornea is large enough to have its location detected without fail. Whereas, the reflection factor of the iris is very small and a contrast at the boundary between the iris and the pupil is insufficient. Therefore, in actuality, it has been difficult to accurately determine the position of the pupil center.
Further, assuming that the visual line detecting device is employed in a camera and arranged, for example, to detect a point looked at by the photographer within the viewfinder of the camera and that a focusing action is carried out according to the result of detection, a distance between the eye and the visual line detecting system in the direction of the optical axis of the viewfinder optical system varies with the camera holding state of the photographer. As a result, therefore, a reflection image coming from the eyeball might blur to further deteriorate the characteristic of a detection signal thus obtained. A camera actually using such a visual line detecting device for automatic focusing has been known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,314 (Weinblatt).

Visual line detecting device and camera having the same


A light-emitting device is provided. The light-emitting device comprises a substrate; an insulating layer on the substrate, wherein the insulating layer comprises a first hole; a light-emitting stack on the insulating layer and comprising an active region comprising a top surface, wherein the top surface comprises a first part and a second part; and an opaque layer covering the first part of the top surface and exposing the second part of the top surface, wherein the second part is directly above the first hole.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are widely used as solid-state light sources. Compared to conventional incandescent light lamps or fluorescent light tubes, light-emitting diodes have advantages such as lower power consumption and longer lifetime, and therefore they gradually replace the conventional light sources and are applied to various fields such as traffic lights, back light modules, street lighting, and medical equipment.

Light-emitting device and manufacturing method thereof


Disclosed herein is a method of monitoring 3G video telephony through a DM port. The method is performed using monitoring equipment in a state in which the monitoring equipment, provided with a driver module capable of opening the DM port of a mobile communication terminal for measurement, is connected to the mobile communication terminal. The method includes the steps of (a) opening the DM port of the mobile communication terminal, (b) setting up connection between the mobile communication terminal and a counterpart terminal by sending a key press command through the DM port, (c) sending H.324M protocol-based log commands through the DM port in order to receive voice or video data from the counterpart terminal, and receiving the voice or video data from the mobile communication terminal, (d) decoding and decompressing payload data of the received voice or video data, and (e) analyzing the decompressed voice or video data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of monitoring third generation video telephony through a Diagnostic Monitoring (DM) port and, more particularly, to a method of monitoring 3G video telephony through a DM port which enables an H.324M setup process or received voice/video to be automatically monitored through a DM port without installing the H.324M protocol stack, which is a video telephony and conference terminal system protocol, in monitoring equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the help of the rapid development of the information/communication fields, mobile communication terminals have been popularized to the extent that they are regarded as items that must be carried by people today. Furthermore, it was a long time ago when voice calls or the transmission and reception of text messages were the principal functions of mobile communication terminals. With the advent of new technology, new models of mobile communication terminals having various functions have been marketed and have rapidly replaced old models of mobile communication terminals. In particular, a third generation (hereinafter simply referred to as '3G') communication network, that is, a W-CDMA network, capable of supporting video telephony or a video conference system, has been constructed, and video telephony service capable of enabling voice and video to be exchanged with a counterpart terminal through a mobile communication terminal in a stationary or moving state been introduced.
Meanwhile, terminal manufacturers need to check the quality of actually received voice/video using terminals, manufactured by them, in order to provide high-quality voice/video quality to customers, and mobile communication service providers need to check the quality of actual voice/video passed through a network in order to check and optimize the performance or state of a mobile communication network operated and maintained by them. In order to meet such needs, a system for automatically monitoring voice/video quality has been proposed. In the prior art automatic voice/video quality monitoring system, in order to perform 3G video telephony tests and voice/video data extraction on a notebook computer, which is used as monitoring equipment, the H.324M protocol, which is a protocol for 3G video telephony, must be ported to an application program and a video telephony emulator function is set for a mobile communication terminal.
However, the above-described automatic voice/video quality monitoring system has problems in that high costs are incurred in the construction of the system because the H.324M protocol stack is very expensive, and in that it is possible to perform a 3G video telephony test and received voice/video quality measurement only on mobile communication terminals in which a video telephony emulator function is installed.

Method of monitoring 3G video telephony through DM port


A solid-state image pickup apparatus includes a photoelectric converter, a wiring portion, a micro lens, and an adjustment film. The photoelectric converter is formed on a light incident side in a substrate. The wiring portion is formed on a side of the substrate that is opposite to the light incident side. The micro lens is formed on a light incident side of the photoelectric converter. The adjustment film adjusts variation of a light reception sensitivity in the photoelectric converter with respect to a wavelength of light that enters the photoelectric converter through the micro lens, and the adjustment film is formed between the photoelectric converter and the micro lens.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state image pickup apparatus and an electronic apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to a solid-state image pickup apparatus including a photoelectric converter formed on a light incident side in a substrate and a wiring portion formed on a side opposite to the light incident side and having a film that adjusts light reception sensitivity in accordance with a wavelength on a light incident side of the photoelectric converter, and relates to an electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a semiconductor image sensor typified by a CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensor, the reduction in pixel size and the increase in number of pixels in the same image area are demanded. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-270679 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1), there has been disclosed a technique of reducing an inter-lens area and preventing incident light from entering an adjacent pixel, thereby suppressing colors from mixing with each other in a so-called CMOS image sensor of a back-surface irradiation type.

Solid-state image pickup apparatus and electronic apparatus


A system and method for providing secure exchange of sensitive information with an implantable medical device is presented. A crypto key uniquely associated with an implantable medical device is defined to encrypt sensitive information during a data exchange session. The crypto key is securely obtained over a secure connection from a secure key repository securely maintaining the crypto key. The sensitive information is encrypted using the crypto key and the sensitive information is stored as encrypted data onto the implantable medical device.

Heart diseases refer to several classes of cardio and cardiovascular disorders and co-morbidities relating to the heart and blood vessels. Heart disease is often treated through a combination of medication and lifestyle modification. In severe cases, a monitoring or therapy delivery device, referred to as an implantable medical device (IM), is surgically implanted to collect cardiac performance data and to deliver therapy to the heart, when needed. IMDs are also used in other areas of medicine to provide neural stimulation, dispense drugs, and perform other monitoring and in situ therapeutic functions, as would be appreciated by one skilled in the art.
Static data can be stored on an IMD for retrieval by health care providers and for use by the IMD. In addition, data collected by the IMD can be downloaded for analysis and, if required, new performance instructions can be uploaded to reprogram the IMD. Typically, an IMD communicates with a programmer or a dedicated repeater located outside the body in a data exchange session. To minimize patient risk, wireless telemetry, such as inductive telemetry, is normally used to non-invasively communicate with the IMD.
Inductive telemetry has a few shortcomings. First, inductive telemetry is short range, typically about six centimeters, and requires close proximity between a patient and the programmer or repeater. The patient's movements are limited while data transfer is ongoing. Also, inductive telemetry typically has a slow data transfer rate, which is directly proportional to the carrier signal frequency. Only low frequency signals can be used for carrier signals due to the low-pass filtering effect of the metal casing of the IMD, resulting in a transmission speed of several kilobits per second. This transfer rate is inadequate for modern IMDs, which normally exchange thousands of kilobits of patient physiological data.
Recently, radio frequency (RF) telemetry has emerged as a viable adjunct to inductive telemetry, such as described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,456,256, issued Sep. 24, 2002, to Amundson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,510, to Von Arx et al., issued Jun. 3, 2003; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,614,406, issued Sep. 2, 2003, to Amundson et al., the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference. Unlike inductive telemetry, RF telemetry is long range, extending to 20 or more feet from a patient without using repeaters. This range allows a patient free movement while the IMD is accessed. RF telemetry also offers a higher data transfer rate that can significantly shorten download time.
Although promising, the use of RF telemetry in IMDs potentially raises serious privacy issues. Sensitive information, such as patient-identifiable health information, exchanged between an IMD and the programmer or repeater should be safeguarded to protect patient privacy. Prior to initiating a data exchange session, a clinician preferably first informs the patient and then proceeds only with the patient's knowledge. The short range of inductive telemetry can imply informed consent, but the longer range of RF telemetry can require additional precautions to safeguard any sensitive information against unauthorized disclosure or interception.
Recently enacted medical information privacy laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the European Privacy Directive underscore the importance of safeguarding patients' privacy and require the protection of all patient-identifiable health information (PHI). Under HIPAA, PHI is defined as individually identifiable patient health information, including identifiable demographic and other information relating to the past, present or future physical or mental health or condition, or the provision or payment of health care to an individual that is created or received by a health care provider, health plan, employer or health care clearinghouse. Other types of sensitive information in addition to or in lieu of PHI could also be protectable.
The sweeping scope of medical information privacy laws, such as HIPAA, may affect patient privacy on IMDs with longer transmission ranges, such as provided through RF telemetry, and other unsecured data interfaces providing sensitive information exchange under conditions that could allow eavesdropping, interception or interference. Sensitive information should be encrypted prior to long range transmission. Currently available data encryption techniques, such as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), a FIPS-approved symmetric encryption algorithm, can satisfactorily safeguard sensitive information. These encryption techniques employ crypto keys, which are needed by both a sender and recipient to respectively encrypt and decrypt sensitive information transmitted during a data exchange session.
Encrypted data exchange sessions between an IMD and a programmer or repeater pose special concerns due to a potentially wide disparity in processing capabilities. Performing encryption, although computationally expensive in processing and storage resources, is well within the capabilities of a programmer or repeater. However, the same resource requirements can severely burden IMDs due to the modest, battery-powered processors typically used. The processing disparity can be in the order of four to five magnitudes. For instance, encrypting a 16 Kbyte message with the widely-used Z80 microprocessor running at processing speeds typical for an IMD, for instance, 1 MHz, can take up to 650 msec, which is unacceptably slow and costly in power and transmission bandwidth consumed. Moreover, the program code and data space for the encryption operations can strain limited on-board IMD memory space.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method to safeguard sensitive information, particularly PHI, through preencryption when exchanged via long range telemetry or unsecured data interfaces. Preferably, such an approach would free the IMD from the burdens imposed by active encryption and decryption by preencrypting sensitive information stored but not used by the IMD with a programmer or repeater prior to transmission.

System and method for providing secure exchange of sensitive information with an implantable medical device


Charging an accumulator having an energy storage cell, a data interface and a wake-up circuit. A charging apparatus contains a data interface, a controller, a timer and a switch apparatus. The data interfaces connected to one another via a communication line for differential communication between the accumulator and charging apparatus. Setting the timer to a predetermined period of time; setting the control electronics of the accumulator to a deactivation mode; sending at least one signal from the charging apparatus to the accumulator via the communication line after the predetermined period of time has elapsed; activating the wake-up circuit for activating control electronics by detecting a voltage value from the communication line, the voltage value is consistent with either the dominant or recessive state of the communication line; setting the control electronics to an activation mode; and requesting or releasing a charging current from the charging apparatus using the accumulator.

To store electrical energy in an accumulator (also called storage battery), the accumulator is connected to a mains-operated charging apparatus (also charger). Electrical energy in the form of a charging current flows through the charging apparatus to the accumulator and in particular to the individual storage battery cells of the accumulator.
The charging of an accumulator by means of the charging apparatus can be problematic, however, if the accumulator is almost completely discharged (i.e. less than 20% of the rated capacity) and additionally too hot (i.e. above 45° C.). A relatively long charging process, in which the accumulator is supposed to be almost completely charged again (i.e. more than 70% of the rated capacity), additionally increases the already critical temperature of the accumulator in this case. This problem arises in particular if the accumulator has been used intensively, i.e. with a long and high flow of current, as an energy source for a machine tool.
In order to protect the accumulator against possible damage when charging by means of the charging apparatus, the accumulator should be cooled before recharging and brought to below 45° C.
Possibly, however, a user does not detect the excessive temperature of an accumulator, which means that the excessively hot accumulator is recharged without appropriate cooling. Damage to the accumulator is possible as a result.

Method for controlling an accumulator on a charging device


Excess suture material may be trimmed after knot tying using a device having an elongated shaft, an elongated tubular cutter disposed over the shaft and an elongated tubular barrel disposed over the cutter. A suture loader at a distal end of the shaft that engages suture material may be opened and closed by a first actuator that causes relative motion between the shaft and the barrel. A second actuator may cause relative motion between the cutter and both of the barrel and the shaft to sever suture material engaged by the closed suture loader.

Techniques have been developed to allow an increasing number and variety of procedures to be performed percutaneously as minimally invasive alternatives to conventional "open" surgeries. Such techniques provide the benefits of reducing post-operative pain, decreasing hospital stays and periods of disability, and lowering costs for both hospitals and patients. Generally, these procedures utilize one or more elongated instruments that are introduced through a patient's skin for use in carrying out the procedure, which may include clinical treatments such as percutaneous coronary intervention. As an illustration, the physician may gain vascular access through introducer and introducer sheath to deliver diagnostic or therapeutic device(s) into vessel percutaneously without cutting down the skin and subcutaneous tissue in a percutaneous coronary intervention. Correspondingly, it is desirable to attempt repair the access site or otherwise provide support for the surrounding tissue during the post-operative healing process.
Notably, closing the openings formed to carry out the percutaneous procedure with sutures may reduce recovery time, minimize the risk of infection or provide other benefits. In clinical practices, manual compression and vascular closure devices are standard procedures to achieve hemostasis after interventions. The principle of manual compression is to apply external compression force upon an adjacent area upstream of the access site for a certain period of time to reduce blood flow and control bleeding. However, this is time-consuming, inconvenient, and uncomfortable for the patient. Although other methods of closing wounds have been developed, including the use of staples and clips, suturing remains a beneficial technique that provides advantages over these alternatives. Specifically, suture-based technologies have been developed to improve efficiency and safety of hemostasis. Such suture-based closure devices allow the physician to place, anchor suture(s) around a vessel opening percutaneously, and close the access site after the procedure by forming sliding knot(s) that may be cinched to draw the opening closed. After the knots are delivered and hemostasis is achieved, the excess length of sutures should be trimmed and removed appropriately. As will be described in the materials below, the systems and methods of this disclosure satisfy these and other needs.


A textile has an active outside surface and an active inside surface including optical fibers covering at least partially the active outside surface, wherein the active outside surface captures light, which is transmitted by the optical fibers to the active inside surface.

Seasonal affective disorder, also known as winter depression, winter blues, summer depression, summer blues, or seasonal depression, was considered as a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter.
Winter depression is a common slump in the mood of some inhabitants of most of the Nordic countries.
In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, winter depression is no longer classified as a unique mood disorder, but is now a specifier called with seasonal pattern for recurrent major depressive disorder that occurs at a specific time of the year and fully remits otherwise. Although experts were initially skeptical, this condition is now recognized as a common disorder. SAD's prevalence in the U.S. ranges from 1.4% in Florida to 9.9% in Alaska.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine notes that some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much, have little energy, and may also feel depressed. Though symptoms can be severe, they usually clear up.
There are many different treatments for classic (winter-based) seasonal affective disorder.
Treatments for classic (winter-based) seasonal affective disorder include light therapy, medication, ionized-air administration, cognitive-behavioral therapy and carefully timed supplementation of the hormone melatonin.
Photoperiod-related alterations of the duration of melatonin secretion may affect the seasonal mood cycles of SAD. This suggests that light therapy may be an effective treatment for SAD. Light therapy uses a lightbox emitting far more lumens than a customary incandescent lamp. Bright white "full spectrum" light at 10,000 lux, blue light at a wavelength of 480 nm at 2,500 lux or green light at a wavelength of 500 nm at 350 lux are used, with the first-mentioned historically preferred.
Bright light therapy is effective with the patient sitting a prescribed distance, commonly 30-60 cm, in front of the box with her/his eyes open, but not staring at the light source for 30-60 minutes. But many of patients find lightbox treatment inconvenient and as many stop use because of this.
Dawn simulation has also proven to be effective in some studies.
Light therapy can also consist of exposure to sunlight, either by spending more time outside or using a computer-controlled heliostat to reflect sunlight into the windows of a home or office. Although light therapy is the leading treatment for seasonal affective disorder, prolonged direct sunlight or artificial lights that don't block the ultraviolet range should be avoided due to the threat of skin cancer.
SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants have proven effective in treating SAD, also. Bupropion is also effective as a prophylactic. Effective antidepressants are fluoxetine, sertraline, or paroxetine.
An explanation for winter depression is that vitamin D levels are too low when people do not get enough Ultraviolet-B on their skin. Thus, an alternative to using bright lights is to take vitamin D supplements.
Another disorder of a reduced light exposure is the change of the human skin during the winter period, whereupon the skin dries out and remoisturization of the skin is disturbed due to the reduced light exposure. That results in the consequence often, that humans develop neurodermatitis in the winter.
The problems of the therapies known in the state of the art are beside the undesirable effects during and after the administration of hormones, antidepressants and vitamin D to the humans that many of patients find lightbox treatment inconvenient and as many stop use because of this. Moreover the exposure to sunlight or artificial light needs time and requires the patient removes most of their clothes.
It could therefore be helpful to find a human exposure to light in all situations when light from a light source is available, particularly, to find a possibility that human skin can be exposed to light even though the human is covered with clothes.

Textile covered with an active outside surface and an active inside surface comprising optical fibers


Apparatus and method for backlighting an electronic display with LEDs to control luminosity, radiometric power, and color levels by means of feedback control through a microprocessor, thereby maintaining white backlight at substantially constant levels, which can be chosen by an operator.

This invention relates in general to a backlight system for a liquid crystal (LCD) or other electronic display and, in particular, to controlling the color and lumen level of a red-green-blue (RGB) light-emitting diode (LED) backlight and the sensor(s) that control(s) such a backlight.
Backlighting with white light generated by RGB LEDs is known to those skilled in the art. However, the characteristics of the LEDs vary with temperature, current, and aging. These characteristics also vary from one LED in a batch to another. Thus there is need for a feedback control to maintain within set limits the color and lumen level of such a backlighting system. For the feedback control to work satisfactorily, sensors must be placed properly to provide the necessary optical feedback.
The present invention provides apparatus and method for backlighting an electronic display with LEDs to control luminosity, radiometric power, and tristimulus levels by means of feedback control through a microprocessor, thereby maintaining the white backlight at substantially constant levels, which can be chosen by an operator.
In one embodiment of the invention, apparatus for backlighting an electronic display with white light comprises: a plurality of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), each of the LEDs effective for emitting light of a single color; at least one light source comprised of at least three of the LEDs arranged in a combination that produces white light; a light guide effective for illuminating the display with the white light; and circuitry effective for maintaining the white light at a substantially constant level of color and luminosity by controlling the at least one light source. This embodiment of the invention utilizes a method for backlighting an electronic display with white light comprising the steps of: driving a plurality of LEDs, each of the LEDs emitting light of a single color; combining light emitted from at least three of the LEDs to form white light; illuminating the display with the white light; and controlling the color and brightness of the white light by means of feedback circuitry.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided apparatus for backlighting an electronic display with white light comprising means for driving a plurality of LEDs, each of the LEDs emitting light of a single color; means for combining light emitted from at least three of the LEDs to form white light; means for illuminating the display with the white light; means for controlling the color and brightness of the white light by feedback circuitry; and the means for controlling being subject to an operator""s direction. The present invention addresses one or more of these concerns.

LED-based white-light backlighting for electronic displays


A monopole slot antenna applicable to a mobile communication device includes a dielectric substrate, a first ground plane, a second ground plane, a monopole slot, and a microstrip feedline. The first ground plane is disposed on the dielectric substrate. The second ground plane is in the vicinity of the first ground plane and electrically connected to the first ground plane via a metal wire. A section of the metal wire is disposed on one surface of the dielectric substrate. The monopole slot is disposed on the first ground plane and has an open end disposed near the metal wire that connects the first and the second ground planes. The microstrip feedline is disposed on a surface of the dielectric substrate opposite to the first ground plane with one end of the microstrip feedline extended across the monopole slot and the other end connected to a signal source.

Due to the quick development in mobile communication technology in recent years, light weight, low profile and compactness have become the most important factors in designing current mobile communication devices. Accordingly, the antenna for compact mobile communication devices must also satisfy the requirements of small size, planar structure, and multiband operation. Both U.S. Pat. No. 7,209,087 B2 entitled "Mobile Phone Antenna" and U.S. Pat. No. 7,471,249 B2 entitled "EMC Metal-Plate Antenna and a Communication System Using the Same" disclose a mobile phone antenna that occupies a three-dimensional space. However, the antenna with three-dimensional design usually shows a big volume and still may not fully cover the requirements for five-band wireless wide area network (WWAN) operation of GSM850/900/1800/1900/UMTS.
In this invention, this problem is solved by developing a monopole slot antenna particularly suitable for use in a folder-type mobile communication device or a mobile communication device having an upper cover. The monopole slot antenna according to the present invention is a planar design to occupy only a small area less than 10×40 mm2, and has a simple structure that can be easily printed or etched on the system circuit board of the mobile communication device at low cost; in addition, the monopole slot antenna of the present invention is capable of five-band WWAN operation in the GSM850 (824˜894 MHz), GSM900 (880˜960 MHz), GSM1800 (1710˜1880 MHz), GSM1900 (1850˜1990 MHz), and UMTS (1920˜2170 MHz) bands.


The present invention provides a semiconductor device in which an adjustable range of a resistance value of a variable resistance circuit is large. The semiconductor device has an output buffer including a plurality of sets of resistance elements and a plurality of sets of transistors, a plurality of replica circuits, and a plurality of sets of operational amplifiers, and drain currents of the plurality of sets of transistors are adjusted so that output impedances of the output buffer become predetermined values. Therefore, even in the case where the resistance values of the resistance elements largely fluctuate due to fluctuations in manufacture process and the like, the output impedances can be set to predetermined values.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and, more particularly, relates to a semiconductor device having a variable resistance circuit.
A related-art semiconductor device has a variable resistance circuit (terminating resistance element) including a first resistance element and a first transistor coupled in parallel, a replica circuit including a second resistance element and a second transistor coupled in parallel, a constant current source for passing constant current to the replica circuit, and an operational amplifier controlling gate voltage of the first and second transistors so that voltage across the terminals of the replica circuit becomes predetermined voltage. In the semiconductor device, even in the case where the resistance value of the resistance element fluctuates due to fluctuations in manufacture process and temperature, the resistance value of the variable resistance circuit can be set to a predetermined value (refer to, for example, patent literature 1).


A clip for holding first and second parts together snaps into an opening in a first part and includes a central housing for receiving and retaining a male portion on a second part using catches. The clip has a spring structure allowing sideways displacement of the catches so that it occupies either a locked position in which it projects into the central housing to prevent axial movement of the male portion, or a position of release of the male portion in which it is withdrawn from the central housing. The clip also includes a mechanism for causing the catches to move to their locked positions automatically by snapping the clip onto the first part.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clip for holding a first and a second part together.
2. Description of the Related Art
These types of mounting clips find numerous applications, in particular in the automotive industry for mounting two pieces of equipment together. In particular, the clip can be used for mounting trim on an element of the vehicle structure. This trim is visible inside the cabin and for esthetic reasons the mounting must be invisible.
A mounting clip of the above mentioned type is described in document EP1482184 in which the mounting clip comprises a summit base from which a pair of external lateral legs is extending and between which is placed a pair of internal lateral legs, also connected to the summit base. The flexible external legs comprise elements that snap in the opening of the first piece. Each internal leg, adjacent to an associated external leg, comprises a first portion connected to the summit base and is extended by a second portion which is bent backward towards the inside of the clip in direction of the summit base. Each second portion is composed of an inside directed folding zone and a blade with free lateral displacement. The blades of the two internal legs, directly opposite of each other, delimit between them a central space for axial insertion of a tang carried by the second piece. Each blade with free lateral displacement carries a catch element for the tang, pointing in direction of the central space in order to retain the tang inside the central space. The catch elements are projecting continually inside the central space, regardless of the status of the clip, in other words whether or not the clip is snapped in the first piece and whether or not the tang of the second piece is inserted in the central space.
Because of this projecting arrangement of the catch elements, the axial insertion of the tang of the second piece results in external deterioration of the tang, in the form of permanent superficial deformations such as cuts or scores, which are axially generated by the catch elements. The deterioration of the tang results in a less reliable mounting of the second piece, which becomes susceptible of vibrating and therefore a source of noise, even resulting in fortuitous detachment of the second piece. In addition, the force for installing the clip on the tang is high taking into account the interaction between the catch elements and the tang.
On the other hand, starting from the normal situation where the second piece is attached to the first piece by means of the clip in snapped position, any axial displacement of the tang (resulting from an axial force applied on the tang) provokes a corresponding axial withdrawal of the clip (thanks to the engagement of the catch elements in the tang) relative to the opening of the first piece. This axial movement of the clip is accompanied by a progressive withdrawal of the catch elements, involving reduced retention relative to the second piece. Therefore, the fastening of the clip to the second piece decreases progressively as soon as the clip starts to withdraw axially, notwithstanding that the clip is still snapped in the first piece. In other words, from the beginning of the axial withdrawal of the clip, the retention quality of the second piece by the clip decreases in inverse proportion to the value of the axial displacement of the clip, with as consequence reduced reliability of the mounting of the second piece, which is susceptible of vibrating and of becoming a source of noise. In case of voluntary disassembly of the mounting between pieces, sliding is even likely to occur between the clip and the mounting tang of the second piece.


A method of targeting receives several granular events and preprocesses the received granular events thereby generating preprocessed data to facilitate construction of a model based on the granular events. The method generates a predictive model by using the preprocessed data. The predictive model is for determining a likelihood of a user action. The method trains the predictive model. A system for targeting includes granular events, a preprocessor for receiving the granular events, a model generator, and a model. The preprocessor has one or more modules for at least one of pruning, aggregation, clustering, and/or filtering. The model generator is for constructing a model based on the granular events, and the model is for determining a likelihood of a user action. The system of some embodiments further includes several users, a selector for selecting a particular set of users from among the several users, a trained model, and a scoring module.

The Internet provides a mechanism for merchants to offer a vast amount of products and services to consumers. Internet portals provide users an entrance and guide into the vast resources of the Internet. Typically, an Internet portal provides a range of search, email, news, shopping, chat, maps, finance, entertainment, and other Internet services and content. Yahoo, the assignee of the present invention, is an example of such an Internet portal.
When a user visits certain locations on the Internet (e.g., web sites), including an Internet portal, the user enters information in the form of online activity. This information may be recorded and analyzed to determine behavioral patterns and interests of the user. In turn, these behavioral patterns and interests may be used to target the user to provide a more meaningful and rich experience on the Internet, such as an Internet portal site. For example, if interests in certain products and services of the user are determined, advertisements, pertaining to those products and services, may be served to the user. A behavior targeting system that serves advertisements benefits both the advertiser, who provides their message to a target audience, and a user that receives advertisements in areas of interest to the user.
Currently, advertising through computer networks such as the Internet is widely used along with advertising through other mediums, such as television, radio, or print. In particular, online advertising through the Internet provides a mechanism for merchants to offer advertisements for a vast amount of products and services to online users. In terms of marketing strategy, different online advertisements have different objectives depending on the user toward whom an advertisement is targeted.
Often, an advertiser will carry out an advertising campaign where a series of one or more advertisements are continually distributed over the Internet over a predetermined period of time. Advertisements in an advertising campaign are typically branding advertisements but may also include direct response or purchasing advertisements.

Method and system for generating a linear machine learning model for predicting online user input actions


An apparatus for successively and automatically teeing up golf balls utilizing a source of vacuum as an operating media. A bank of golf balls are loaded on an inclined ramp in a reservoir positioned at one side of the tee position. Axially aligned, vertically disposed sleeves disposed below an opening in a horizontal base, slidably support an elongated tube having a golf ball supporting tubular tee on its upper end movable to a position above and below the plane of the base. A cylindrical wall diaphragm on the depending end of the elongated tube when evacuated, retracts the tube and tee for receiving a golf ball on the tee by golf balls successively rolling down an inclined ramp from a reservoir above the base to the top of the tee where a golf ball interrupts the air flow through the elongated tube reducing air pressure therein and contracting the diaphragm wall to elevate the tube to a teed-up golf ball driving position above the base.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to golf ball driving practice and more particularly to an apparatus which automatically positions a golf ball in teed-up position substantially as quickly as the user drives a ball off the tee of this apparatus.
A basic requirement for improving golfing skill is repetitious use of various clubs, stances, and hand grips in practice.
It is desirable in such golf driving range practice that the ball be automatically teed-up in position for the golfer to again drive a ball following each driving stroke, thus, eliminating the necessity of releasing the grip on the golf club and manually placing a ball on a tee for the next and subsequent driving stroke.
This invention provides an apparatus which automatically and in succession places a golf ball on a tee in position for being driven.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art discloses numerous golf tee positioning apparatus for use on driving ranges. Most of these devices are gravity operated or incorporate mechanical leverage systems including electrically operated cylindrical tee elevators substantially all requiring some movement or action on the part of a golfer, as by closing a switch or moving a lever by the golf club in hand or a foot operated trigger, in order to actuate the tee and ball elevating mechanism.
The most pertinent prior patent is believed to be U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,537 which discloses a spiral inclined ramp, gravity feeding a succession of balls to a tee position with a golfer operated trigger mechanism interposed in the path of ball movement, allowing one ball at a time to be positioned over the tee. The tee comprising a positive air pressure operated piston vertically moved in a cylinder in response to the ball being positioned over the cylinder.
This invention is distinctive over this patent by eliminating the necessity of any movement or change of stance by the golfer for successively addressing a teed-up ball following each driving stroke.