Digital image processing apparatus is provided with a monitor for displaying an image, a moving picture reader for reading moving picture data, a memory for storing still image data obtained from the moving picture data, a display controller for displaying on the monitor a specified number of still image frames of the still image data, an image designator for allowing an operator to designate a still image frame for print among the specified number of still image frames, and an image outputter for outputting still image data corresponding to the designated still image frame as print data. The apparatus is further provided with an image converter for converting compressed moving picture data into still image data having a number of still image frames. Designation of a desired still image from moving picture data can be user-friendly performed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a digital image processing apparatus for processing a still image or images obtained from moving picture data, a digital image processing method, a program product for processing digital image, and a digital image printing system provided with a digital image processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, digital cameras or digital still cameras have been widespread thanks to development of the technology of image pick-up devices such as Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs). As the development of image pick-up devices has been progressed, a variety of digital image printing apparatus for printing digital images photographed by digital cameras onto printing paper have been developed. Also, digital cameras capable of photographing moving pictures as well as still images have been developed. An operator, even if having a poor photographing technique, can timely photograph a moving picture of a desired motion with such a digital camera by setting the camera at a moving picture mode, thereby effectively photographing a timely scene or a necessary scene.
In the above conventional digital image printing system, a desired frame image of a moving picture photographed by a digital camera cannot be printed on printing paper as it is as a still image without performing a specified image processing due to a difference in file format between a moving picture and a still image. Specifically, moving picture data is processed according to a moving picture format such as Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), and is compressed in such a manner that a difference between raw data and reference data exists as image data in each moving picture frame. Accordingly, such a moving picture frame cannot be printed on printing paper as a still image frame without performing a specified image processing. In view of the above, demanded is production of user-friendly or handy digital image processing apparatus capable of converting a moving picture frame in the form of compressed image data into a desired still image frame to be printed on printing paper, and a digital image printing system provided such a digital image processing apparatus. Further, it should be preferable that such image processing apparatus is applicable for a moving picture comprised of a series of still image frames in which image data of all the frames of the moving picture are recorded without compression.

Digital image processing apparatus, digital image processing method, digital image processing program product, and digital image printing system


A method for optically detecting biomarkers in a biosensor is disclosed, wherein the optical detection obtains spatially and spectrally resolved optical signals from a sample on a biosensor, and one or more of these spatially and spectrally resolved optical signals can be analyzed in parallel with image acquisition. The image analysis comprises reading data of the acquired images, correcting them to reduce inhomogeneities and noise, localizing particles in the images, characterizing each particle individually to obtain its position and characterization parameters, and classifying the particles based on their characterization parameters. Using the number of particles per class for all the acquired images of the sample, a statistical value is calculated per sample and each statistical value is correlated with an indication of the presence of a biomarker in the sample.

A biosensor measures the physical changes that a biological recognition layer bound to a solid transducer undergoes when it interacts with a sample containing molecular targets.
An example of a biosensing platform is disclosed in EP3153844 and provides an ultra-sensitive detection of protein biomarkers deposited onto a surface. The key features of this biosensing platform are listed below:                1) Each biomarker is labeled with a specific type of plasmonic nanoparticle (nanospheres, nanorods, nanocubes, nanoprisms, etc.)        2) Plasmonic nanoparticles are deposited onto a functionalized suspended multi-dielectric substrate that allows at the same time:                    i. to strongly enhance the weak scattering signal coming from plasmonic nanoparticles (optoplasmonic effect),            ii. to weigh the mass of the nanoparticles.                        3) The biosensing platform presents a dual transduction mechanism:                    a) Optical detection: plasmonic nanoparticles are optically detected with standard dark-field microscopy.            b) Mechanical detection: the mass of the plasmonic nanoparticles is detected by measuring the change of the resonance frequency of the suspended mechanical substrate after the deposition of the nanoparticles.
The main drawbacks of this biosensing platform disclosed in EP3153844 are that it is not possible: i) to distinguish different types of nanoparticles, because the optical signal is averaged over all the surface area; and ii) to extract fundamental spectral properties of the nanoparticles on the surface, because the optical recognition is performed with standard dark-field microscopy. In the same way, the mechanical transduction cannot yield any information about individual nanoparticles, because in this mode only integral mechanical properties of the sensor are measured.
Therefore, it is highly desirable to provide an optical scanner with a robust and fast method to detect biomarkers in a biosensor and not dependent on the experimental variability observed during the measurement process (inhomogeneity of the sample illumination, variations of the biosensor substrate and variations of the nanoparticles).

Method for optically detecting biomarkers


This disclosure relates to systems and methods for determining when a user likes a piece of content based, at least in part, on analyzing user responses to the content. In one embodiment, the user's response may be monitored by audio and motion detection devices to determine when the user's vocals or movements are emulating the content. When the user's emulation exceeds a threshold amount the content may be designated as “liked.” In certain instances, a similar piece of content may be selected to play when the current content is finished.

Content consumers may have a wide variety of likes and dislikes regarding the types of content they want to consume. Consumers may arrange their content into playlists to organize their content for specific instances or moods. In certain instances, the consumer may indicate their favorite content and may arrange the favorite content into a playlist. However, when the content is consumed on a random basis (e.g., not on a playlist), the next song is less likely to be consistent with previous song. In this instance, the consumer may not be able to select a similar song without accessing their content device and manually selecting another song or a playlist of similar songs.
Certain implementations will now be described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which various implementations and/or aspects are shown. However, various aspects may be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the implementations set forth herein; rather, these implementations are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. Like numbers in the figures refer to like elements throughout. Hence, if a feature is used across several drawings, the number used to identify the feature in the drawing where the feature first appeared will be used in later drawings.

Systems and methods for determining content preferences based on vocal utterances and/or movement by a user


A fixing member including a substrate and an elastic layer provided on a surface of the substrate. The elastic layer includes a fluorosilicone rubber including carbon fibers and voids.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixing member. In addition, the present invention also relates to a fixing device and an image forming apparatus using the fixing member.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The mainstream of electrophotographic image forming apparatuses such as copiers and printers are switching from monochrome to full-color recently. A typical full-color electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes an image forming part that forms a full-color toner image comprising cyan, magenta, yellow and black toner images on a recording medium, and a fixing device that fixes the full-color toner image on the recording medium. The fixing device includes a heating device that heats a toner image on a recording medium, a fixing member that fixes the toner image on the recording medium, and a pressing member that forms a fixing nip between itself and the fixing member. When a recording medium having a toner image thereon passes through the fixing nip, heat and pressure are applied to the toner image, thereby fixing the toner image on the recording medium.
Belt-shaped and roller-shaped fixing members are widely used so far. For example, a substrate such as a metallic roller or a resin seamless belt on which an elastic layer made of a heat-resistant rubber, etc. is provided, and that on which a release layer is further provided on the elastic layer have been widely used as fixing members. A roller-shaped fixing member may be integrated with a heating device. The resulting heating fixing roller may include a heating device interiorly. A belt-shaped fixing member may also be integrated with a heating device. In this case, the heating device may be provided in the interior of the seamless belt stretched taut by rollers.
Fixing members are supposed to evenly heat a full-color toner image which generally comprises four color toner images. Therefore, fixing members are required to flexibly and intimately contact toner images to effectively transmit heat thereto. To respond to this requirement, silicone rubbers are widely used for fixing members because of having both flexibility and heat resistance. However, since silicone rubbers have low thermal conductivity, the speed of heat conduction to toner images may be low. When heat is conducted slowly, it may take a long time until the surface of a fixing member is heated to a temperature sufficient to fix toner images. In particular, with regard to high-speed image forming apparatuses, sufficient heat may not be supplied to toner images within an appropriate time. Additionally, warm-up time of image forming apparatuses may also be lengthened because warm-up speed of fixing members generally controls that of image forming apparatuses.
In attempting to solve the above-described problem, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. (hereinafter JP-A) 2005-292218 and JP-A 2006-133576 disclose fixing members having an elastic layer including a silicone rubber. The silicone rubber contains a filler having high thermal conductivity, such as aluminum nitride and a high-density carbon fiber, to improve thermal conductivity of the elastic layer. This approach advantageously increases the heat supply speed on the one hand, but disadvantageously increases the specific density of the fixing member on the other. As a result, heat capacity of the fixing member may be so large that warm-up time may not be shortened.
JP-A 2008-191557 and JP-A 2008-197585 disclose fixing members having an elastic layer including a silicone rubber, carbon fibers and voids, and a release layer including a fluorine-based resin on the outermost surface. Advantageously, fluorine-based resins have excellent releasability from toner owing to their low surface energy and nonadhesive property. At the same time, fluorine-based resins have high hardness. Therefore, when heat and pressure are applied to toner particles at a fixing nip to fix them on a recording medium, the toner particles may be excessively compressed, which results in deterioration of the resultant image resolution. Additionally, such an elastic layer with high hardness may not precisely follow roughness of the surface of a recording medium, which results in unevenness of the resultant image.
JP-A 2006-18173 further discloses a fixing member having a rubber-made elastic layer having both flexibility and toner releasability. However, this fixing member still has not solved the problem of thermal conduction.

Fixing member, and fixing device and image forming apparatus using same


A piezoelectric transducer (PZT) device operating at a relatively high frequency is coupled to the backside of a somewhat flexible imaging surface to cause localized vibration at a predetermined amplitude, and is positioned in close association with a cleaning enhancing electrostatic charging or discharging device associated with the imaging surface cleaning function, whereby residual toner and debris (hereinafter referred to as simply toner) is fluidized for enhanced electrostatic discharge of the toner and/or imaging surface, and released from the mechanical forces adhering the toner to the imaging surface.

In electrophotographic applications such as xerography, a charge retentive surface is electrostatically charged and exposed to a light pattern of an original image to be reproduced to selectively discharge the surface in accordance therewith. The resulting pattern of charged and discharged areas on that surface form an electrostatic charge pattern (an electrostatic latent image) conforming to the original image. The latent image is developed by contacting it with a finely divided electrostatically attractable powder referred to as "toner". Toner is held on the image areas by the electrostatic charge on the surface. Thus, a toner image is produced in conformity with a light image of the original being reproduced. The toner image may then be transferred to a substrate (e.g., paper), and the image affixed thereto to form a permanent record of the image to be reproduced. Subsequent to development, excess toner left on the charge retentive surface is cleaned from the surface. The process is well known and useful for light lens copying from an original and printing applications from electronically generated or stored originals, where a charged surface may be imagewise discharged in a variety of ways. Ion projection devices where a charge is imagewise deposited on a charge retentive substrate operate similarly.
Although a preponderance of the toner forming the image is transferred to the paper during the transfer step, some toner invariably remains on the charge retentive surface, it being held thereto by relatively high electrostatic and/or van der Waals forces. Additionally, paper fibers, Kaolin and other debris have a tendency to be attracted to the charge retentive surface. It is essential for optimum operation that the toner and debris (hereinafter commonly referred to in common as "toner") remaining on the surface be cleaned thoroughly therefrom.
Numerous cleaning methods have been proposed to accomplish effective toner release from the imaging surface, including blades supported in doctoring or wiping modes, rotating or sweeping neutral or electrically-biased fiber brushes, magnetic brushes, vacuum systems and various combinations thereof. However, toner components and debris are tightly adhered to the surface by electrostatic and mechanical forces, and tend to resist release. Accordingly, particularly when the shape of a particle is not optimum, e.g. a flat toner particle, prior cleaning methods do not achieve optimum cleaning operation. Additionally, it has been noted that even when pre-clean charging, the charge at the toner and photoreceptor surface interface is not neutralized to the extent desirable for subsequent toner release. This problem is believed to arise from the failure of neutralizing ions from the pre-clean charging device to reach all the charged areas on the toner and photoreceptor. Even when precleaning illumination is provided, to dissipate charge on the surface, by flooding the back side of a translucent photoreceptor, tightly bound charge remains at the particle/imaging surface interface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,546 to Maret proposes enhancing cleaning by applying high frequency vibratory energy to an imaging surface with a vibratory member, coupled to an imaging surface at the cleaning station to obtain toner release. The vibratory member described is a horn arrangement excited with a piezoelectric transducer (PZT element) at a frequency in the range of about 20 kilohertz. However, such an arrangement is rather noisy, and requires a relatively high power supply to obtain optimum vibration. U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,242 to Schultz describes a cleaning apparatus that provides a magnetically permeable cleaning fluid held within a cleaning chamber, wherein an ultrasonic horn driven by piezoelectric element is coupled to the backside of the imaging surface to vibrate the fluid within the chamber for enhanced cleaning. U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,982 to Stange provides a cleaning blade with an edge vibrated at a frequency to substantially reduce the frictional resistance between the blade edge and the imaging surface, preferably at ultrasonic frequencies. U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,947 to Hemphill provides an arrangement which vibrates a photoreceptor to dislodge toner particles by entraining the photoreceptor about a roller, while rotating the roller about an eccentric axis. Xerox Disclosure Journal "Floating Diaphragm Vacuum Shoe, by Hull et al., Vol. 2, No. 6, November/December 1977 shows a vacuum cleaning shoe wherein a diaphragm is oscillated in the ultrasonic range. U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,758 to Trimmer et al., suggests that transfer of toner from an imaging surface to a substrate may be enhanced by applying vibratory energy to the backside of an imaging surface at the transfer station. U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,503 to Snelling discloses the use of a PZT device for the enhancement of development in a color printing system.

High frequency vibratory enhanced cleaning in electrostatic imaging devices


A packet switching device can allocate memory resources dynamically in order to utilize the memory resources efficiently. The packet switching device can include at least one ingress port that receives incoming packets from a network, a plurality of egress ports that transmit outgoing packets to the network, a storage unit configured to temporarily store the outgoing packets before transmission by the plurality of egress ports, the storage unit being coupled to the plurality of egress ports, so that a portion of the storage unit is dynamically allocated to an egress port, and a controller configured to dynamically allocate the portion of the storage unit to the egress port based on a network status.

A packet switching device may include a plurality of communication ports, such as ingress ports that can receive incoming packets, egress ports that can transmit outgoing packets, and the like. In addition, the packet switching device may include resources, such as memory, CPU, and the like, that can be utilized for processing the received packets. The resources can be allocated to the plurality of communication ports. For example, a descriptor memory block can be allocated to an egress port. The egress port can then utilize the descriptor memory block to buffer control information (descriptor) of an outgoing packet. For another example, a data memory block can be allocated to an egress port. The egress port and then utilize the data memory block to buffer data of an outgoing packet.
In an allocation technique, resources can be allocated to the plurality of communication ports statically. For example, a storage unit having 100 memory blocks can be evenly allocated to four egress ports. Therefore, each egress port can have 25 memory blocks during operation.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for switch port memory allocation


An apparatus and a method for manufacturing semiconductor devices is disclosed for selectively disconnecting a fuse element out of plural fuse elements formed on a semiconductor wafer substrate which is provided with the plural fuse elements and a dielectric layer having at least one opening corresponding to the location for the plural fuse elements. The method includes processing steps implemented onto the wafer substrate, such as (a) forming a layer of etching barrier resin by scanning at least one discharging nozzle for discharging the raw etching barrier resin while suitably discharging droplets of raw etching barrier resin to replenish the opening corresponding to the location of the fuse element not to be disconnected, (b) hardening the raw etching barrier resin to be a layer of etching barrier resin, and (c) the fuse element in the prescribed disconnecting area without overlying portion of the etching barrier resin layer is selectively disconnected by etching using the dielectric layer and the etching barrier resin as a mask.

With the increased use of resistance hybrids and various circuits incorporating resistance hybrids in the field of integrated analog circuitry, precise resistance adjustment in the resistance hybrid, without undue increase in hybrid circuit area, is of great importance.
One method for adjusting the electronic characteristics in semiconductor circuitry that includes analog circuits, involves the method of laser trimming, which is known in the art. Generally, laser trimming utilizes some of the fuse elements among those formed on a semiconductor wafer substrate and disconnects those elements by irradiating laser beams prior to dicing into chips (as shown in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-323576). The semiconductor apparatuses are exemplified by incorporating a constant voltage generation circuit and a voltage detection circuit.
As illustrated in FIG. 7, for example, a constant voltage generating circuit 59 is provided to supply a stable power from DC power source 55 to load 57. The constant voltage generating circuit 59 includes an input terminal (Vbat) 61 to which the DC power source 55 is connected, a reference voltage (Vref) generator 63, an operational amplifier 65, a P-channel MOS transistor 67 (hereinafter referred to as "PMOS") to serve as an output driver, and a voltage divider consisting of resistors R1 and R2 and an output terminal (Vout) 69.
The operational amplifier 65 is incorporated into the constant voltage generating circuit 59 such that the output terminal of the amplifier 65 is connected to the gate terminal of PMOS 67, the noninverting terminal is input with the reference voltage Vref from the reference voltage generator 63, and the inverting terminal thereof is input with the output voltage (Vout) divided by the resistors R1 and R2. The constant voltage generating circuit 59 is therefore controlled to bring the voltage divided by the resistors R1 and R2 to be equal to the reference voltage Vref.
FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary electrical schematic diagram of a voltage detection circuit used in the prior art. An operational amplifier 65 is incorporated into the voltage detection circuit 71 for the inverting terminal of the amplifier 65 to be input with a reference voltage Vref from reference voltage generator 63. The voltage Vsens, which is input to an input terminal 73, is divided by the resistors R1 and R2. The divided voltage is then input to the noninverting terminal of the amplifier 65. In addition, the output of the amplifier 65 is forwarded to exterior by way of an output terminal 75.
The voltage detection circuit 71 is therefore operated such that the output level of the amplifier 65 remains high ("H"), if the voltage Vsens is high enough to bring the voltage, divided by the resistors, R1 and R2, higher than the reference voltage Vref. In contrast, the output level turns low ("L"), if the voltage Vsens decreases so as to bring the voltage, divided by the resistors, lower than the reference voltage. In the constant voltage generating circuit of FIG. 7 and the voltage detection circuit of FIG. 8, a scattering of the reference voltage Vref is encountered, primarily due to scattering of working parameters created during manufacturing process steps.
This scattering is compensated by means of a device, such as a resistance hybrid. The resistance value of the resistance hybrid can be adjusted by disconnecting its component fuse element and thereby serve as a voltage divider having desirable resistance value.
FIG. 9 is a circuit diagram illustrating dividing resistors used in the prior art. The resistance hybrid of FIG. 9 includes an Rbottom resistance element, which is coupled to (m+1) portions of setting resistance elements (RT0, RT1 . . . RTm), with m being a positive integer. An Rtop resistance element is connected in series to the setting resistance elements. The setting resistance elements RT0, RT1 . . . RTm are coupled in parallel to respective fuse elements RL0, RL1 . . . RLm. Such dividing resistors have been disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-150799.
Using the above configuration of dividing resistors, the accuracy of the resistance ratio of the setting resistance can be improved. In practice, the accuracy is improved during fabrication by first forming a setting resistance element and a fuse element as a pair, and subsequently arranging a plurality of such pairs in ladder-shaped manner, as shown in FIG. 9. The desirable value of the resistance can be obtained by disconnecting arbitrary fuses which are properly selected among RL0, RL1 . . . RLm path by irradiating laser beams.
The dividing resistors of FIG. 9 may be utilized as the voltage divider, consisting of resistors R1 and R2 in the constant voltage generating circuit of FIG. 7, in which an end terminal on the Rbottom side is grounded. Furthermore, an end terminal on the Rtop side is connected to the drain of PMOS 67, and the junction terminal Node L, which is formed between Rbottom and RTO, is connected to the noninverting terminal of operational amplifier 15.
The voltage divider may also be used in the constant voltage generating circuit of FIG. 7, in which the end terminal of the resistance hybrid on the Rbottom side is grounded, the end terminal on the Rtop side is connected to the drain of PMOS 67, and the junction terminal Node M, which is formed between Rbottom and RTm, is connected to the noninverting terminal of operational amplifier 65.
The resistance hybrid of FIG. 9 may also be utilized as the voltage detection circuit illustrated in FIG. 8, in which the end terminal on the Rbottom side is grounded, the end terminal on the Rtop side is connected to a direct current source, and the junction terminal Node L is connected to the noninverting terminal of operational amplifier 65. The voltage divider may also be used in the voltage detection circuit, in which the end terminal on the Rbottom side is grounded, the end terminal on the Rtop side is connected to the direct current source, and the junction terminal Node M is connected to the noninverting terminal of operational amplifier 65.
In the noted laser irradiation method, however, there are encountered several drawbacks in disconnecting fuse elements such as (1) the costliness of laser trimming apparatus and high running costs for implementing the beam irradiation, (2) damage caused by the irradiation onto surrounding portions such as protective layer and substrate and (3) sputtering of fuse element materials and others in the vicinity of opening for the beam irradiation caused by the laser beam.

Apparatus and method for manufacturing semiconductor device incorporating fuse elements


Provided herein are methods and compositions for multiplex detection of a large number of actionable gene fusions with very high sensitivity and specificity. The present methods and compositions can detect ALK, RET, and ROS1 gene fusions, optionally in combination with other mutations and fusions.

A number of cancers are associated with gene fusions (Yoshihara et al. (2015) Oncogene 34:4845). Perhaps the earliest reported example is the association of BCR-ABL with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in the '60s (Nowell and Hungerford (1960) J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 25:85). Since then, hundreds more gene fusions have been reported for cancers in many different tissues (Presner and Chinnaiyan (2009) Curr. Opin Genet. Dev. 19:82).
Another example is the tyrosine receptor kinase ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinase). EML4-ALK (echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4-anaplastic lymphoma kinase) fusions are associated with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this case, the N terminal, extracellular portion of ALK is replaced by EML4 (KIF5B, HIP1, KLC1, TFG can also fuse with ALK in a similar manner). The expression of the resulting fusion gene is driven by the strong EML4 promoter, resulting in higher expression of the intracellular tyrosine kinase domain of ALK. In addition, EML4 forms a coiled-coil that results in ligand-independent dimerization, and constitutive activation of the ALK tyrosine kinase domain. Additional examples of activated kinase fusions involve RET (rearranged during transfection) and ROS1.
Detection of a gene fusion can be used to direct therapy. Most methods of detection require biopsy of tumor tissue, which is not feasible for many cancer patients, especially in later stages. Detection in biopsied tissue sections is typically carried out by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) or immunohistochemistry (IHC). The tests have high false positive rates and background, in part because of shearing during the sectioning process. Skilled cytologists are thus required to observe multiple tissue sections, which necessitates a sizable biopsy from a weakened patient. Similarly, a difficulty with using RT-PCR is the amount and quality of genetic material from tumor tissue, e.g., in formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) form. See, e.g., Liu et al. (2015) PLoSOne 10: e0117032.
Because detection is time and resource intensive, the testing rate is relatively low. Cancers associated with ALK fusions are very sensitive to ALK inhibitors such as crizotinib and ceretinib. Gene fusions with Rearranged during Transcription (RET), such as with KIF5B or CCDC6, are also sensitive to therapy, e.g., with vandetanib (see Matsubara et al. (2007) J. Thorac. Oncol. 7:1872). The low rate of testing for gene fusions thus represents a great lost opportunity for treatment.

Multiplex PCR detection of ALK, RET, and ROS fusions


An acceptor-dispenser validator system for accepting bills, vouchers, scrip and/or currency into, and for distributing currency or a currency equivalent from, an electronic gaming machine or alternative type of customer service device is disclosed. The system includes a note acceptor-dispenser assembly to be mounted in or on the machine, the note acceptor-dispenser having a note validator to sense the authenticity, denomination, amount and type of the note passing there through and issue a signal corresponding to the note type to the acceptor-dispenser""s processor and the host machine""s processor for accumulation of credits. A note box is provided to receive deposited notes as is a note hopper to receive and dispense notes intended for payouts.

The present invention relates to a currency acceptor and dispenser intended for use in electronic gaming machines, vending machines and the like.
In the early 1990""s there was a fundamental change in the performance and capability of gaming machines initiated by the incorporation of bill acceptors into such machines. Bill acceptors are devices which receive paper currency or notes and, using a validator having both hardware and software components, the received currency or note is scanned with a variety of sensors and the sensor information is analyzed to determine (1) authenticity and (2) denomination of the currency or note from the scanned data. If the note is determined to be authentic currency, e.g. a United States $1, $5, $10, $20, $50 or $100 bill or other legal tender currency, the note is transported to a cash box within the bill acceptor for storage. Further, based upon the denomination of the accepted currency or note, a signal is sent from the validator to the host machine""s controller or processor to cause the machine to accumulate a corresponding amount of credits within the machine""s credit meter representing the cash value or credits available for purchasing products or wagering, in the case of a gaming machine. As the user purchases products from or plays the machine, the purchase price or wager is debited from the credit meter. In the case of a gaming machine, wins are either accumulated as credits or paid out in coins. Acceptors of this type are known and are discussed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,039 issued Jan. 26, 1999 to Suzuki.
Although the incorporation of bill acceptors into gaming machines has been a tremendous success for casinos, for example by increasing player retention and revenues, the success has proven to create certain unforeseen consequences. Casinos have had to adapt to accommodate a shift in employee resources as a result of the fact that up to eighty-five percent of the money received by a gaming machine, termed the xe2x80x9cdropxe2x80x9d in the industry, is now in the form of currency inserted into the bill acceptor as opposed to coins which have historically been used by customers to accumulate credits and used by the gaming machine to payout wins. This shift from the use of coins to currency by the customers has increased the personnel and logistical demands on the currency collection and counting rooms as well as creating fundamental shifts in how change booths and casino personnel operate. The net effect is that casinos have become an organized note recycling system. Currency or notes go from the player into the bill acceptor of a gaming machine, from which they are periodically collected by a xe2x80x9cdrop crewxe2x80x9d of casino employees and taken to a counting room where the currency is sorted and counted. From the counting room, a significant percentage of the currency or notes is delivered to change booths or floor cashiers for return back to the successful players in the form of change or payouts.
The incorporation of bill acceptors has thus caused a shift in the human resource requirements of casinos and slot machine managers. Although most of the currency or notes deposited into the gaming machines is received in the form of currency as opposed to coins, the predominant method of returning winnings to a customer for amounts less than a couple of hundred credits is in the form of coins or tokens from the machine coin hopper. In current slot machines, a xe2x80x9cpayoutxe2x80x9d condition is triggered when a player wishes to obtain a payout of the cash equivalent of the remaining accumulated credits on a gaming machine by depressing a xe2x80x9ccash outxe2x80x9d button, or the player obtains a large win requiring a xe2x80x9chand payxe2x80x9d by a floor cashier. For payouts in excess of a couple of hundred coins, the preferred method of payout is a hand pay where the patron receives currency from a casino employee or floor cashier. The combination of currency input and coin output from a gaming machine has caused a significant increase in the number of gaming machine coin hopper fills and hand pays the casino must handle. Major casinos may experience as many as 40,000 coin hopper fills and hand pays per month. This activity translates into increased employment expenses, since staff must be provided to service the coin hopper fills and hand pays as well as counting and sorting of the bills accepted by the machines, and thus increased overhead for the casinos.
Furthermore, when a large payout requiring a hand pay occurs, the gaming machine locks up or freezes until the amount is paid by the floor cashier and the machine is reset by the floor cashier. In addition, because the normal payout for relatively small numbers of coins is in the form of coins or tokens from the machine""s coin hopper, the coin hopper must have its inventory of coins or tokens replenished by casino employees because the coin hopper is generally not receiving coins deposited by the customers who prefer to use currency accepted by the bill acceptor. Still further, a lock up condition may cause players to wait for a coin hopper to be refilled, or receive a hand pay, even for relatively small payouts if the coin hopper becomes fully depleted. While in a lock-up condition the machine is not available for play.
Since the utilization of the convenient bill acceptors has caused a dramatic shift in the drop received from a player from coins to currency or notes, it should be appreciated that the casino will need to retrieve the currency or notes received by the bill acceptors, and thus the cash boxes are periodically removed from the bill acceptors in the slot machines and taken to a counting room where the currency is removed and counted. Due to the volume of currency to be counted, this cyclic retrieval of the cash boxes and counting function can result in increased personnel costs as well as increased risk of theft. Accordingly, systems capable of combing the benefits of the bill acceptors and a more efficient method of payout reducing employee expenses and overhead would be tremendously beneficial to the gaming industry. In addition, other devices such as vending machines and paypoint service stations having bill acceptors and coin dispensers can suffer from similar or related problems, such as inability to provide change, running out of change and the like, and such devices could also benefit from an improved bill acceptor system.
The present invention is directed to a currency or note acceptor-dispenser validator and a method for its operation which is adapted to provide for faster payouts to customers, which decreases the frequency of hand pay and machine lock up conditions and which is locally and remotely configurable to anticipate increased play periods or the like. Accordingly an acceptor-dispenser validator system for accepting bills, vouchers, script and/or currency (hereinafter, collectively xe2x80x9cnotesxe2x80x9d) into and for distributing currency or a currency equivalent from an electronic gaming machine or alternative type of customer service device is set forth which includes a note acceptor-dispenser assembly to be mounted in or on the machine, the note acceptor-dispenser having a note validator to sense the authenticity, denomination, amount and type of the note passing there through and issue a signal corresponding to the note type to the acceptor-dispenser""s processor and the host machine""s processor for accumulation of credits. A note box is provided to receive deposited notes, as is a note hopper to receive and dispense notes intended for payouts. There is also included means for transporting notes accepted through the note validator to each of the note box and note hopper and for distributing notes from the note hopper to the customer. The acceptor-dispenser""s processor controls the transporting means to (i) direct notes received through the note validator of a selected type for accumulation of credits to said note hopper and the remainder to the note box for retention thereof and (ii) to control the transporting means to transport notes from the note hopper box and/or coin(s) from the machine coin hopper for distribution in response to a payout condition for the machine.
Thus, as notes (currency or casino script) are inserted through the note validator for accumulation of credits, certain specified notes, e.g. $20 bills or casino script notes, are transported to the note hopper to provide an inventory for dispensing the specified notes to the customer in response to a payout condition. Other note denominations, or the specified notes in excess of a pre-selected number of notes to be routed to the note hopper, are routed to the note box for accumulation and subsequent collection. The note box is periodically removed from the machine for counting of the notes. When a payout is required, the machine""s processor signals the machine""s coin hopper control, note hopper control and note hopper transport means to cause them to dispense a combination of coins and notes to the customer having a combined value equal to the amount of the payout. In this manner, the machine can provide a substantial payout to a customer in either currency or casino coupons without seriously depleting the number of coins in the coin hopper and without requiring a hand pay by a floor cashier.
The note acceptor-dispenser validator preferably has data processor capabilities, and the ability to communicate with the gaming machine""s processor and any remote gaming machine accounting system to allow continuous monitoring and accounting and to confirm the payout to the customer if necessary. In addition, the accepter-dispenser validator""s data processor may be locally (at the gaming machine) or remotely configured to accumulate more or fewer notes in the note hopper. Thus, in anticipation of a high utilization period, for example a busy weekend, the data processor may be instructed to cause the note accepter dispenser validator to accumulate more notes in the note hopper in anticipation of more frequent payouts to customers. Further, the data processor may be reconfigured or instructed to cause the gaming machine to inventory a different denomination of notes or currency in the note hopper or to only inventory certain notes such as casino script or the like.


The difficulty of methylating a hindered piperidinyl, piperazinyl, or diazepinyl group with an Eschweiler-Clarke ("E-C") procedure without using a large molar excess (more than double) of formaldehyde is surprisingly found to be non-existent in the case of a diazacycloalkan-2-one group with a hindered N.sup.4 - or N.sup.5 -atom of its NH group which is to be methylated. The N.sup.4 - or N.sup.5 -atom of a polysubstituted diazacycloalkan-2-one group ("DCA") is substantially stoichiometrically converted even when a conventional E-C procedure is starved of HCHO, that is, with a much smaller molar excess of formaldehyde than deemed necessary. The effective molar ratio of NH groups: HCHO in the starved E-C process is in the range from 1:1 to 1:1.5, in the presence of enough formic acid to function both as reactant and solvent not only for a DCA-containing complex amine ("starting amine") to be methylated, but also for the methylated amine (product). Such a starting amine may have one or more DCA substituents which, in turn, may be connected to any other structure. Because this process is starved of at least HCHO, and usually both HCHO and HCOOH, it is referred to herein as the "starved E-C process". Upon completion of the reaction any excess HCOOH is neutralized with aqueous alkali, and the product separates from the reaction mass. Though the starting amine is often substantially soluble in water, it usually becomes substantially insoluble after it is methylated. Less than 5% of product is lost in the aqueous wash.

For several decades, the use of the Eschweiler-Clarke ("E-C" for brevity) reaction has been used in laboratory procedures for the methylation of simple acyclic and cyclic amines, with excellent results, the reaction proceeding essentially quantitatively with only a relatively small excess of formaldehyde (HCHO) and enough formic acid (HCOOH) to solvate the amine reactant, typically from a 2-fold to 4-fold molar excess of HCOOH. If a much larger excess of HCHO and HCOOH is necessary, the E-C reaction is not used, as far as we know, commercially. The reason is that it is impractical to recover the unused excess reactants.
Because of the convenient and economical way in which the E-C reaction can introduce a methyl substituent on an amine N atom, the reaction has attracted particular attention for the methylation of the hindered N atom of hindered piperidyl, piperazinyl, piperazin-2-one, diazepine and diazepin-2-one groups, in stabilizer compounds commonly referred to as "hindered amines". Except that, because of the highly hindered N atom to be methylated, the reaction is usually carried out in the laboratory with at least a 2-fold molar excess of HCHO and a much larger excess of HCOOH. Most of the excess HCOOH is recoverable for reuse by an economical distillation but excess of HCHO is wasted. Thus, with a 2-fold molar excess of HCHO, one mole is wasted for each mole used. This is too large an excess of HCHO to be economical. I decided to investigate solutions to this problem, namely the methylation of the hindered N atom in hindered amine light and heat stabilizers for organic compounds.
In UK Pat. appl. GB 2,194,237 (Mar. 2, '88) piperidyl-containing compounds were methylated using the E-C procedure. Example 1 discloses preparation of a tetramine containing plural triazine rings, each substituted with two pentamethylated piperidyl substituents. The amine to be methylated is N.sup.1,N.sup.2,N.sup.3, N.sup.4 -tetrakis-[2,4-bis[N-(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl)-n-butylamino]-l,1,3 ,5-triazin-6-yl]-4,7-diazadecane-1,10-diamine; it has 2 terminal -NH groups and 8 tetramethyl-4-piperidyl substituents, each with a >NH group. To a solution of 0.02 moles of this amine in 100 ml of water is added 0.4 moles of formic acid (two-fold molar excess) and 0.4 moles of a 40% aqueous formaldehyde solution (two-fold molar excess). The solution is heated under reflux for 8 hr; after cooling to room temperature, an additional amount of 0.2 moles (stoichiometric for all NH groups to be methylated) of 40% formaldehyde is added and the solution refluxed for an additional 5 hr. Repeating this reaction with a simpler piperidyl-substituted compound and a two-fold excess of HCHO and HCOOH, I found that methylation proceeded with excellent conversion, albeit relatively slowly. However, when the reaction was starved of HCHO by decreasing the molar excess of HCHO to 50% (in steps, from 200%) the reaction mass was so difficult to work up, that a NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) mass spectrographic analysis of the concentrated reaction mass had to done, and this indicated less than 50% methylation of the >NH group irrespective of how much HCOOH was used.
Several methylated piperazine- and piperazin-2-one-containing stabilizers have been disclosed in Japanese Pat. application No. 63-86711 published Apr. 18 1988. In such PSP-containing compounds, the hindered N.sup.4 atom in the diazacycloalkan-2-one ring is substituted at both the 3-and 5- positions. The N.sup.4 atom is hindered in all such PSPs. This N.sup.4 atom is termed "the hindered N atom" because it is flanked by disubstituted 3- and 5-carbon atoms, either or both of which may have a spiro substituent. Homologous (with the piperazin-2-ones) are diazepin-2-one compounds containing a seven-membered diaza ring. The polysubstituted piperazin-2-one ("PSP") and diazepin-2-one substituents are each diazacycloalkan-2-one substituents which are together referred to herein by the acronym "DCA", for convenience.
A polysubstituted diazacycloalkan-2-one and compounds containing one or more DCA substituents are "DCA-containing" compounds referred to herein as "complex amines". In the Japanese reference, methylated PSP stabilizers are said to improve the color of polyacetals. There is no teaching of how such methylated compounds were prepared, but because such methylated stabilizers are not commercially available, it is expected they were synthesized in the laboratory. Since I was particularly interested in methylating DCA-containing compounds, and more particularly, PSP-containing compounds, my efforts were directed to converting an uneconomical laboratory process for methylating such compounds to an economical one.
The process of this invention exploits the peculiar and unique susceptibility of a DCA group to a starved E-C procedure. The unique configuration of a DCA group imbues it with characteristics which permit easy methylation of only the NH groups in the DCA, while failing to methylate other -NH groups which may be present in complex amines.
Examples of DCAs are those referred to in U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,571 the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference thereto as if fully set forth herein, and the aforementioned Japanese 63-86711. Illustrative of DCA-containing compounds are (a) triazine compounds having PSP substituents such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,480,092; 4,629,752; and, 4,639,479 (referred to as "PIP-T" compounds); and (b) N-(substituted)-.alpha.-(3,5-dialky-4-hydroxyphenyl)-.alpha.,.alpha.-disub stituted acetamides disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,495 (referred to as "3,5-DHPZNA" compounds); the disclosure of each of which foregoing references is incorporated by reference thereto as if fully set forth herein. Methylated PSPs, 3,5-DHPZNAs and PIP-Ts, in each of which the NH groups are methylated, are excellent stabilizers for polyoxymethylene resins, particularly polyacetals.
A typical E-C process is described under the heading "Methylation of Amines with Formaldehyde" in Organic Reactions, Vol V by M. L. Moore, pg 307 et seq., as follows: "One molecular proportion (or slight excess) of formaldehyde and two to four molecular proportions of formic acid are used for each methyl group introduced, indicating that it is mainly the formic acid that supplies the hydrogen involved in the reduction. The reaction is carried out on a steam bath." The HCHO contributes the carbon atom of the methyl group, the HCOOH solvates the amine reactant and provides the hydrogen (proton) for reduction.
This typical E-C reaction, carried out with a primary or secondary amine, results in the methylated amine when the reactants are heated for several hours after the evolution of gas has ceased. The formic acid functions as both a co-reactant and a solvent. The function of formic acid as a solvent is particularly important when the amine to be methylated is poorly soluble in water.
Unhindered amines such as benzylamine and secondary amines such as piperidine and piperazine are expected to be methylated with a slight excess of HCHO to give almost theoretical conversion to the corresponding methylated amines, and in practice, provides a highly acceptable conversion, even if not quantitative. But because hindered amines are so highly hindered, they are not expected to provide essentially complete conversion, are expected to require a large excess of HCHO. The overall yield of the reaction is further reduced by the difficulty of recovering the desired product from the reaction mass ("work-up"). The result is an unacceptably low yield from a high-priced complex amine starting material, and the low yield makes the E-C process uneconomical.
In a text-book procedure for a typical E-C reaction (see Moore, supra pg 323), benzylamine (1 mole) is added with cooling, to 5 moles of 90% formic acid. Then 2.2 moles of 35% formaldehyde solution is added, and the mixture is heated on a steam bath under reflux for 2 to 4 hours after evolution of gas has ceased (8 to 12 hr in all). Slightly more than 1 mole of concentrated hydrochloric acid is then added and the formic acid and any excess formaldehyde are evaporated on a steam bath. The colorless residue is dissolved in water and made alkaline by the addition of 25% aqueous sodium hydroxide, and distilled over sodium. The product, N,N-dimethylbenzylamine is recovered in excellent yield.
Carrying out this reaction commercially is burdened with the costs of recovering the large excess of formaldehyde or formic acid, or both. For example, Czech appln. No. 82/5562 filed July 21, 1982 discloses treating the methylated product with HCl, then distilling under vacuum to remove volatiles. The yield was 66-70% which is commercially unacceptable because of the high cost of a DCA-containing amine to be methylated. Such a distillation process still leaves the problem of separating the large excess of formic acid from the formaldehye.
Separating formaldehyde and formic acid as aqueous solutions of chosen concentration (which may later be diluted) by distillation, is not practical because of the too-close boiling points. For example, USSR appln No. 80/22299, filed Oct 10, 1980 discloses distillation in a column the pressure at the top and bottom of which was 20 mm and 2 atm respectively.
My process is applicable only to the methylation of DCA-containing compounds and not to piperidines or diazacycloalkanes because the latter two are not susceptible to methylation when starved of HCHO. It was surprising that only a DCA group can be methylated with only a bare excess of formaldehyde, much less than the amount one would typically expect to use in a conventional E-C reaction (hence my process is referred to as the "starved E-C process"). The amount of water present during the starved E-C reaction is not critical except for the effect on the time required to complete the reaction. In general, the more dilute the reaction mass, the longer the time for the reaction, and in a commercial process, it is generally desired to run under conditions which provide maximum reactor productivity.
Neither could it have been foreseen that, after the reaction is completed and the formic acid neutralized with sufficient aqueous alkali to make the reaction mass basic ("basified"), the methylated product would separate from solution, and would be so insoluble in water that it could be washed with water without sacrificing any more than 1% of its weight. This ability to wash out essentially all impurities from the solvent phase, including unreacted formaldehyde, formic acid and salt formed upon neutralization, enhances the efficiency of, and vastly simplifies the recovery procedure for the methylated product. It will be recognized that not all methylated complex amines will be so insoluble as to lose less than 5% upon repeated washing with water, so that my process is specifically directed to those which do.
Irrespective of the dilution of the reaction mass with water, the starved E-C reaction is carried out at above about 60.degree. C., and CO.sub.2 formed during the reaction is driven off. A higher temperature shortens the time for the reaction, producing the methylated DCA substantially quantitatively, typically in less than 8 hr.
It will be evident from the foregoing, that the steps under which adequate conversion is obtained in a reasonable amount of time, and the steps of a "work-up", taking advantage of the substantial insolubility of the methylated complex amine in water (under process conditions provided in the recovery system), must together provide a high enough yield of essentially pure product to make the process commercially successful.
The difficulty of methylating the hindered N atom of a piperidyl group, Piccinelli et al (Eur. Pat. appln. 0319480 published June 7, 1989) used an alkylbenzene solvent in a modification of the usual E-C procedure. They methylated triazine compounds containing 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidyl groups. But there is no indication of either what percentage of the piperidyl groups were methylated, or what the yields might have been.
My process relates specifically to methylating the hindered N atom of a DCA group by starving the well-known E-C reaction of HCHO, yet achieving essentially stoichiometrically complete conversion of the >NH group(s) in any DCA-containing compound. This process takes advantage of the discovery that the NH group in a DCA is uniquely susceptible to methylation without a large excess of HCHO. This discovery provides the basis for a commercial process.

Process for methylating a hindered nitrogen atom in a polysubstituted diazacycloalkan-2-one


A plurality of solar cell groups having a plurality of solar cells connected to each other electrically in serial. A plurality of diodes are connected to each of the solar cell groups electrically in parallel. The plurality of diodes are sealed between transmissive front surface members and transmissive rear surface members together with the plurality of solar cell groups.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solar cell module and more particularly relates to a solar cell module having front and rear surface members that are transmissive and which can let in light from both front and rear surfaces.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A solar cell can directly convert photo-energy from the sun that provides clean energy without depletion. Solar cell technology is expected to replace fossil fuel such as petroleum and coal. Since solar energy has been predicted to be the new energy source, a lot of effort has been made to commercialize solar cell technology. When using a solar cell as an energy source in practical general circumstances, a plurality of solar cells are connected electrically in serial or in parallel to increase output.
A description of a conventional solar cell module will be made by referring to FIGS. 13-16. FIG. 13 is a front view, FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view at the A-A' line indicated in FIG. 13, and FIG. 15 is a rear elevation schematically illustrating a rear surface member which will be described later. FIG. 16 is an explanatory view illustrating an enlarged structure of an inside portion of a terminal box.
As shown in these figures, the solar cell module comprise of a front surface member 1 containing transmissive material such as glass and plastic, a rear surface member 2, and solar cells 3 . . . Generally a rear surface member 2 has a three-layered structure sandwiching an aluminum foil between resin films.
The solar cell 3 is, for example, one that contains crystalline Si substrate having p-n junction inside. Seventy-two units of solar cells 3 . . . are disposed in an 8.times.9 matrix shape and are connected electrically in serial with connection members 4 . . . containing a metal thin plate such as a copper thin plate. The solar cells 3 . . . are sealed between the front surface member 1 and the rear surface member 2 with sealing member 5, such as ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), which is transmissive and insulated. A frame 6 formed by processible metal such as aluminum-is mounted around the sealing member.
Electricity generated in the solar cells 3 . . . is drawn to terminal boxes 50, 50 provided on a rear surface of the rear surface member 2 through electricity drawing wires 11, 11. Then, the electricity is output from the terminal boxes 50, 50 through an electric cable (not shown) to the outside.
In the above system which operates a plurality of solar cells connected in serial, the sunlight is sometimes prevented from being incident to a part of solar cells because of shade created from a building or snow drifts. In this case, a total voltage generated by the solar cells, which are normally operating, is applied to the above part of the solar cells as reverse voltage. If the reverse voltage reaches beyond a capacity voltage of the solar cells, the solar cells are broken. Otherwise, the above part of the solar cells generates heat, causing such problems as discoloration or foaming in the EVA sealing member or breakage of solar cells.
Thus, in order to overcome this problem, a common solar cell module has solar cells divided into several groups of a plurality of solar cells, and has means for preventing reverse voltage from being applied, which is connected to these solar cell groups in parallel.
For example, in the above solar cell module, 72 units of solar cells are divided into four groups of eighteen solar cells 3 . . . A diode 21, as means for preventing reverse voltage from being applied, is connected to these solar cell groups electrically in parallel and in reverse via connection wire 12. The diode 21, as shown in FIG. 16, is located in a terminal box 50, thus increasing the size of terminal box 50.
I the interim, a solar cell, which can generate energy from light which is incident not only from a front surface but from a rear surface, has been developed. A solar cell module, which employs such a solar cell that can take light from both front and rear surfaces, has a structure in which light can be incident to a rear surface of a solar cell through a rear surface member consisting of transmissive material such as glass rather than conventional material which is not transmissive.
However, in the solar cell module of the above structure, light which is incident from the rear surface is blocked by the terminal boxes 50, 50, the electricity drawing wires 11, 11, and the connection wires 12 . . . Because of the present configuration of the solar cell module light can not be incident to some parts of the rear surfaces of the solar cells. As a result, the solar cells of those parts generate electric current only by light which is incident from the front surface, and an electric current value of those parts becomes lower than others. Since a plurality of solar cells are connected electrically in serial, an output electric current value of the whole module becomes is lower for solar cells having the above configuration where light is not incident to the rear surface. Accordingly, light which is incident from the rear surface can not be utilized fully.
in addition to the above solar cell which can let in light from both front and rear surfaces, a solar cell module of sophisticated-design using a conventional solar cell, of which rear surface member is made of transmissive material and can transmit a part of light to the rear surface, has been provided. However, the terminal boxes 50, 50, electricity drawing wires 11, 11, and connection wires 12 . . . in such a solar cell module also reduce light transmitting through the rear surface, degrading an effect of the transmissive rear surface.

Solar cell module for preventing reverse voltage to solar cells


A low noise nth order filter, system, and method includes a plurality of nested general immittance converters (GICs) operatively connected to one another in successive GIC stages; and a capacitor operatively connected to each of the GICs, wherein a first successive GIC stage begins at a first node located in between a previous GIC stage and a corresponding capacitor operatively connected to the previous GIC stage. A second successive GIC stage begins at a second node located in between the first node and the first successive GIC stage. The filter may further comprise a resistor operatively connected to at least one successive GIC stage, wherein the resistor is preferably located in between the first node and the first successive GIC stage.

1. Technical Field
The embodiments herein generally relate to electrical filters, and, more particularly, to noise shaping active filters.
2. Description of the Related Art
Active filters are often realized using transconductance-C (gm-c) topologies or operational amplifier (opamp) based RC topologies. There are many ways to implement higher order filters using these two techniques; however, both techniques generally suffer from a limited noise performance. This is because the active and passive components in both gm-c and opamp-based active filter are in the signal path, which adds noise directly to the signal at all frequencies (i.e., no noise shaping is employed). Unfortunately, attempting to reduce the noise of such active filters to acceptable levels leads to prohibitively large power and area penalties.
Accordingly, the conventional filter solutions tend to suffer from the following: 1) higher noise that prevents such higher order filters from being used in low noise applications (such as a post-mixer amplifier in a wireless integrated receiver); 2) in many of these topologies increasing the filter order directly increases the noise; and 3) larger area and power consumption. Accordingly, there remains a need for a new noise shaping filter that reduces noise, power consumption, and accommodates a high dynamic range.


A fastening system includes two elongated profile parts, one of which includes a guiding surface or ramp for positioning it with respect to the other profile part, for releasably fastening a carrier to a holder. Deformations of a rib of one profile or a clamping hole of the other profile are adapted to position the one profile in substantially clamped state in the other profile in the longitudinal direction.

The discussion below is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Aspects of the invention relate to a fastening system, more in particular a fastening system comprising two individual profiles, hereafter also referred to as 'profile parts', by which a releasable connection may be made by mutually connecting the profile parts in a clamping manner.
Such fastening systems are known and are used for various purposes.
By pressing the two profile halves into each other, the ribs clamp in the clamping holes provided therefore on the other profile part and a safe connection is created that is releasable if the material is sufficiently elastic. Such a fastening system may be built from two identically shaped (symmetrical) profile parts or two differently shaped profile parts that are usually named male part and female part, depending on the shape of the respective profile part. The profile with a bulge is usually named the 'male' and the profile with a cavity is usually named the 'female'. In profiles that are identical in shape, the naming as male and female is interchangeable.
Where in this document "profile part" is written, either male profile or female profile is referred to.
Fastening systems such as these are used for fastening, or more in particular, for the releasable closing of bags. A very well-known fastening is the "Minigrip" fastening which is applied in reclosable plastic bags, the so-called grip bags. Patent document US 2012014622 shows an embodiment of a Minigrip reclosable plastic bag. The original Minigrip reclosable plastic bag profile, which is the basis for the fastener of said bag, is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,286. Various variants to this profile are known.
Patent document U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,285A discloses a packaging with a pressure closing, provided with elongated gripping profiles. U.S. Pat. No. 7,743,474B2 also discloses a system comprising elongated profile parts that grip into each other for obtaining a closing connection.
These known closings have the problem that the mutual positioning of two elongated profile parts in the longitudinal direction of the profile, is troublesome. A fastening system having two profile parts may for example be used for connecting a holder, provided with the one profile part, to a carrier, provided with the other profile part of the fastening system. The disclosure aims in particular at the mounting of several holders (for example plastic bags or boxes) to a surface that functions as a carrier, and wherein it is important to fasten the bags or boxes at a specific distance from each other (next to or below each other) on the carrier. With an elongated profile having a standard shape, this is difficult.


A circuit and method for soft start of a system compare a feedback signal produced from an output voltage of the system with a ramp signal to generate a comparison signal, and enables the system once the comparison signal indicating the ramp signal reaches the feedback signal, such that the output voltage becomes active from a residual voltage toward a target level.

Many systems employ soft start function for the systems to smoothly start up when system power on to reduce the impact during the start up and to prevent overloading to some components and overvoltage in the systems. FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram of a conventional pulse width modulation (PWM) buck converter 100 with soft start function, in which two switches SW1 and SW2 connected in series between supply voltage Vcc and ground GND are switched by signals CTL and SYN, respectively, to convert the input voltage Vcc to an output voltage Vo for loads Load1 and Load2, sample, and hold unit 102 produces feedback signal VFB from the output voltage Vo, error amplifier 106 has an inverting input connected with the feedback signal VFB and a non-inverting input connected with a reference signal Vr or a ramp signal SS_Ramp from multiplexer 104, multiplexer 108 selects between the output of the error amplifier 106 and ramp signal SS_Ramp, comparator 112 has an inverting input connected with a ramp 110 and a non-inverting input connected with the output of the multiplexer 108, to produce the signals CTL and SYN, and enable signal EN enables the error amplifier 106 and the comparator 112 for the converter 100 to operate.
FIG. 2 is a waveform diagram of various signals in the converter 100 of FIG. 1 during a soft start period, in which waveforms 114 and 116 represent the output voltage Vo, waveform 118 represents the ramp signal SS_Ramp, waveforms 120 and 121 represent the feedback signal VFB, and waveform 122 represents the enable signal EN. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, when the enable signal EN transits from low level to high level as shown by the waveform 122, the error amplifier 106 and the comparator 112 are enabled, and thus the non-inverting input of the error amplifier 106 receives the ramp signal SS_Ramp from the multiplexer 104. Generally speaking, when the converter 100 begins to start up, the output voltage Vo will be zero as shown by the waveform 116, and during the soft start period, the output voltage Vo begins to rise up toward a target level. However, due to the residual charges on the output Vo of the converter 100 resulted from the previous operation, the output voltage Vo may have a nonzero initial level as shown by the waveform 114, and thus the feedback signal VFB will be greater than the ramp signal SS_Ramp as shown by the waveforms 121 and 118. In this case, the converter 100 will first release the residual charges on the output Vo to pull down the output voltage Vo until the feedback signal VFB becomes lower than the ramp signal SS_Ramp, and therefore the residual charges on the output Vo are wasted.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,841,977 to Huang et al. discloses a soft start circuit that maintains the low-side switch at off state until the output voltage reaches a target level so as to remain the residual voltage on the output. However, such circuit can be only applied to buck PWM converter. Solie proposes a soft start circuit in U.S. Pub. No. 2004/0228152, which first charges a soft start capacitor by the residual charges on the converter output before enabling the converter such that on the soft start capacitor and the converter output will have a same voltage, and then uses the voltage on the capacitor as a reference voltage to be compared with the voltage on the converter output when enabling the converter. By this way, it will not require to release to the residual voltage on the converter output. However, this art needs an extra capacitor, and the ramp signal for the output voltage to first compare is an RC discharge curve, which is disadvantageous to the soft start performance.
Therefore, it is desired a soft start circuit and method without requiring to release the residual voltage, without requiring extra component, and with wider application range.

Circuit and method for soft start from a residual voltage


A circuit arrangement performs communication with an external device including a second sensor detecting a given event, includes a sensor input unit that processes input from a first sensor detecting the given event and a communication control unit that controls operation of a wireless communication unit, and determines a communication time based on an output of the first sensor and performs communication with the external device via the wireless communication unit according to the communication time.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a circuit arrangement, a communication device, and a communication system.
2. Related Art
In a communication device in related art, synchronization of wireless communication has been performed using timer control with reference clock of a quartz oscillator as a basic technology (for example, see Patent Document 1 (JP-A-7-221743)).
However, in the communication device in related art, because the synchronization shift width depends on the precision of the quartz oscillator, it is necessary to constantly perform communication for synchronization correction at predetermined communication intervals and necessary to constantly and continuously oscillate the quartz oscillator, and there has been a problem that power consumption is greater both at the host side and the terminal side.

Circuit arrangement, communication device, and communication system


A molded fuel rail block for a multiple cylinder engine having a plurality of air conduits connecting the engine's air intake manifold to the individual air intake passageways provided in the cylinder head of the engine. The fuel rail block further has an injector well associated with each air conduit in which the fuel injector valves of the engine are mounted and a pressure regulator well in which a pressure regulator is mounted. A fuel delivery rail is provided in the fuel rail block which is connected to each of the injector wells and to an input of the fuel regulator well. A fuel return rail is provided in the fuel rail block generally parallel to the fuel delivery rail. The fuel return rail is connected to an exit port of the pressure regulator well. In the preferred embodiment, the air conduits, injector wells, pressure regulator well, fuel delivery rail and fuel return rail are molded from a high temperature plastic material having relatively good thermal insulation properties.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to a multi-point fuel injected internal combustion engine and in particular to fuel rails for providing fuel to the engine's fuel injectors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In many of the current multi-point fuel injected internal combustion engines, wells for the fuel injector valves are provided directly in the engine's cylinder head and fuel is supplied to the fuel injectors by external fuel rails. The inclusion of the wells for the fuel injectors in the cylinder head has not only increased the manufacturing cost of the cylinder head but also has resulted in excessive heating of the fuel in the fuel injector valves before it is injected into the engine. The molded high temperature plastic fuel rail disclosed herein removes the fuel injector valves from the engine's cylinder head and reduces excessive heating of the fuel prior to being injected into the engine.

Molded plastic fuel rail for an internal combustion engine

Siemens-Bendix Automotive Electronics L.P.


Disclosed is a method for controlling the quantity of intake air supplied to an internal combustion engine, in which the position of a valve member of a flow control valve having a non-linear valve opening characteristic is converted into an intake air quantity or a virtual valve position proportional to the intake air quantity so as to linearize the non-linear valve opening characteristic of the flow control valve. Application of the method of the present invention to an idle speed control device in an engine equipped with an electronic controlled fuel injection system is advantageous in that the quantity of intake air supplied to the engine can be accurately controlled under various operating conditions of the engine, therely preventing rotation of the engine at an excessively high speed and stalling of the engine, improving the fuel consumption and reducing noise generated from the engine.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for controlling the quantity of intake air supplied to an internal combustion engine, and more particularly to a method of the kind described above by which a fuel-air mixture having a proper mixture ratio can be continuously supplied to the combustion chambers of the engine under whatever operating condition of the engine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An internal combustion engine equipped with an electronic controlled fuel ignition system (abbreviated hereinafter as an ECI) is commonly provided with an idle speed control device (abbreviated hereinafter as an ISC) as a means for controlling an idling rotation speed of the engine. The ISC acts to electrically control the quantity of a fuel-air mixture supplied to the combustion chambers of the engine independently of the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal, so that the idling rotation speed of the engine can be maintained at an appropriate level. The ISC is broadly classified into two types, that is, a direct actuation type and a bypass type. In the ISC of the direct actuation type, a throttle valve is directly actuated by an actuator. On the other hand, in the ISC of the bypass type, a bypass passage is provided in parallel to an intake pipe, and the sectional area of the bypass passage is increased or decreased by an associated valve member.
FIG. 3 shows one form of the ISC of the bypass type. Referring to FIG. 3, an ISC valve 1 acting as a flow control valve is directly mounted on one side of an intake pipe 2. In a valve body 101 of this ISC valve 1, an intake air bypass passage 102 communicating with both an upstream side and a downstream side of a throttle valve 3 in the intake pipe 2 is formed, and a valve seat 103 is press-fitted in a part of the valve body 101 defining the downstream end of the intake air bypass passage 102.
A stepping motor 106 consisting of a stator 104 and a rotor 105 is mounted on the top of the valve body 101, and a valve shaft 107 is coupled at its upper end to the stepping motor 106 through a feed screw mechanism in the form of a screw threaded spline connection. A valve member 108 is formed on the lower end of the valve shaft 107. This valve member 108 is located opposite to the valve seat 103 and makes vertical movement relative to the valve seat 103 thereby increasing and decreasing the sectional area of the intake air bypass passage 102. A coil spring 109 is mounted on the valve shaft 107 so as to eliminate backlash of the feed screw mechanism.
The operation of the ISC valve 1 is controlled by an electronic control unit (abbreviated hereinafter as an ECU) (not shown) in a manner which will be briefly described below.
As compared to idling under a no-loaded condition of the engine, it is necessary to supply the fuel-air mixture of a larger quantity to the combustion chambers of the engine to drive an auxiliary equipment such as a coolant compressor of an air conditioner, an alternator or an oil pump of a power steering mechanism, in order to maintain the same rotation speed of the engine. Also, in the case of fast idling for the purpose of warming up the engine, the fuel-air mixture in a quantity sufficient for maintaining the high rotation speed is required.
The ECU determines the idling rotation speed of the engine on the basis of various operation parameters. For example, on the basis of an output signal of a crank angle sensor, the ECU applies a control signal to the ISC valve 1 for controlling feedback of the engine rotation speed (abbreviated hereinafter as N-feedback) so as to maintain the idling rotation speed. However, the N-feedback described above cannot sufficiently deal with a sharp increase or decrease in the load due to starting or stopping the operation of an auxiliary equipment of the kind described above, and delayed control results in undesirable stalling of the engine or blow-up. Therefore, in such a case, valve position feedback control (abbreviated hereinafter as P-feedback) is carried out in which the opening of the ISC valve 1 is determined on the basis of the factors including the amount of the load, and the ISC valve 1 is controlled to be set at the determined valve opening. This P-feedback mode is the so-called predictive control mode and shifts to the N-feedback mode as soon as the engine starts to operate in its steady operation state.
In each of the N-feedback mode and the P-feedback mode, the ECU supplies a pulse current to the stepping motor 106 after determination of the engine rotation speed to be controlled. In response to the supplied pulse current, the rotor 105 of the stepping motor 106 rotates through a predetermined number of steps to cause vertical movement of the valve shaft 107 thereby changing the position of the valve member 108 relative to the valve seat 103. As a result, a change occurs the quantity of intake air flowing from the upstream side toward the downstream side of the throttle valve 3 while flowing through the bypass passage 102 in the ISC valve 1.
In the air intake system described above, air instead of a fuel-air mixture flows through the bypass passage 102 in the ISC valve 1. That is, the above description refers to a multipoint injection system in which a plurality of injectors are disposed on the downstream side of the throttle valve 3. However, in the case of a single-point injection system where a single injector is disposed on the upstream side of the throttle valve 3, a fuel-air mixture instead of air flows through the bypass passage 102 in the ISC valve 1.
The valve opening of the ISC valve 1 is determined depending on the position of the valve shaft 107 relative to the valve seat 103. In the case of the P-feedback mode, the position of the valve shaft 107 is controlled on the basis of the number of driving steps (abbreviated hereinafter as steps) of the stepping motor 106 from the full closed position of the ISC valve 1. Suppose, for example, that the engine is idling under a no-loaded condition after being warmed up (referred to hereinafter as hot idling), and the valve opening under the hot idling condition (referred to hereinafter as hot-idling basic opening) corresponds to 9 steps. When, for example, the air conditioner or the alternator is driven during the hot idling condition of the engine, the corresponding valve opening (referred to hereinafter as load-dependent opening) must be increased by 5 steps from the number of steps in the hot-idling basic opening. Also, when the power steering mechanism is additionally actuated, the load-dependent opening must be increased by 10 steps. Further, the valve opening under a fast idling condition (referred to hereinafter as fast-idling basic opening) is as large as a number of, for example, 50 steps. Thus, depending on the load imposed on the engine rotating under the hot idling condition, the valve opening is compensated or increased in the manner described above. That is, the valve opening is determined to meet the load imposed on the engine.
FIG. 7 is a map representing the relation between the number of steps required for opening the ISC valve 1 from the full closed position and the corresponding quantity of air flowing through the bypass passage 102 in the ISC valve 1. It will be seen from this map that there is a progressive relation between then. The reason why the ISC valve 1 has such a non-linear opening characteristic will now be described.
When the engine is operating in the hot idling condition, it is necessary to delicately control the rotation speed of the engine so as to stabilize the rotation and to maintain satisfactorily low fuel consumption. For this purpose, it is necessary to minimize the change in the quantity of air supplied per step, that is, to minimize the gain. On the other hand, when, for example, the power steering mechanism is actuated, undesirable stalling of the engine due to an overload tends to occur unless the quantity of air supplied to the engine is sharply increased. Also, when the engine is to be started from its cold condition, the opening of the ISC valve 1 must be increased from the hot-idling opening to the fast-idling opening within a very short period of time so as to avoid trouble such as mal-starting or impossibility of starting. Therefore, the gain is progressively increased from that under the hot-idling condition toward that under the full open position of the ISC valve 1 to satisfy all of those requirements.
The valve opening of the ISC valve 1 in the P-feedback mode is controlled by controlling the number of steps of rotation of the rotor of the stepping motor 106. However, the prior art manner of valve opening control has had a problem which will be described below.
The aforementioned valve opening compensation under the loaded condition (referred to hereinafter as load-dependent compensation) is determined on the basis of the hot-idling basic opening.
It will be seen in FIG. 7 that the basic opening and the quantity of air supplied under the hot idling and no-loaded condition are 9 steps and 0.4 g/sec respectively. Then, when the handle is manipulated with the aid of the power steering mechanism while driving both the air conditioner and the alternator from the above condition, the opening of the ISC valve 1 is increased by 20 steps to be now set at the value corresponding to 29 steps, and the quantity of air is now set at 1 g/sec. That is, the quantity of air for the load-dependent compensation is incremented by 0.6 g/sec.
However, in the fast idling mode of the engine, the basic opening and the quantity of air supplied under the no-loaded condition are set at 50 steps and 2.3 g/sec respectively as shown in FIG. 7. Then, when the handle is manipulated while driving both the air conditioner and the alternator as in the above case, the opening of the ISC valve 1 is increased by 20 steps to be now set at 70 steps, and the quantity of air is now set at 5.0 g/sec.
Thus, in spite of the fact that the required increment of the quantity of air to attain the load-dependent compensation is 0.6 g/sec, the quantity of air is now incremented by 2.7 g/sec, and this means that the excess quantity of air as large as 2.1 g/sec is now supplied. This will result in such an undersirable situation that difficulty is encounted for maintaining the rotation speed of the engine at the required level.

Method for controlling the quantity of intake air supplied to an internal combustion engine

Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha


A touch pad with a simple structure to enable an electronic device to be manufactured more slimly and with low manufacturing costs. The touch pad includes a cover having a plurality of function icons a cover frame to support the cover, the cover frame including a plurality of light guide hollows, and a board, which is engaged with the cover frame and includes touch sensors and luminous elements to illuminate the function icons mounted thereon, the touch sensors and luminous elements being respectively mounted at positions on the board corresponding to the plurality of function icons.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an input device of an electronic device, such as a printer, a copier, a multi-function machine, a portable terminal, etc. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to a touch pad and an electronic device having the touch pad.
2. Description of the Related Art
Input devices of electronic devices, such as printers, copiers, multi-function machines, portable terminals, etc., have rapidly changed from being button-based to being touch-based. Touch pads, as an example of touch-based input devices of electronic devices, allow products to be manufactured more slimly, as well as having a diverse range of simple exteriors. Accordingly, touch pads are being increasingly used in electronic devices.
FIG. 1 is an exemplary view schematically illustrating a conventional touch pad used in a conventional electronic device. In FIG. 1, the conventional touch pad includes a cover 1 and a first board 2, which is placed under the cover 1, and comprises a printed circuit board (PCB) or a flexible printed circuit (FPC). A touch sensor 3 is mounted on the first board 2. A second board 4 is spaced away from the first board 2 at a predetermined distance, and includes a light emitting diode (LED) 5 mounted thereon to illuminate the upper side of the second board 4. Additionally, a LED holder 6 and a diffusion sheet 7 are placed adjacent to the LED 5. The LED holder 6 and diffusion sheet 7 are used to diffuse light emitted from the LED 5.
In the conventional touch pad, as constructed above, light emitted from the LED 5 is diffused to the first board 2 and illuminates the first board 2, and accordingly function selection icons may be displayed so that a user may recognize the icons and touch an icon indicating a desired function in order to select the desired function.
However, the conventional touch pad as constructed above requires the first board 2 including the touch sensor 3 mounted thereon, and the second board 4 including the LED 5 mounted thereon, so the structure is complicated. Additionally, since the LED holder 6 and diffusion sheet 7, which are required to diffuse light, are placed between the first and second boards 2 and 4, it is difficult to manufacture the touch pad with a slim design, and manufacturing costs may increase.

Touch pad and electronic device having the same


A flexible optical surface, film or laminate using a non-rigid support substrate with a sufficient modulus of elasticity defining a controllable surface having a flat state so that repeatedly rolling-up the support substrate into a coiled state does not influence the flat state of the optical surface. The controllable surface can have one or more optical layers secured to the support substrate and use an optical pattern with predetermined optical characteristics to modulate incident light energy. One of the optical layers can be a reflective layer for forming a reflective controllable surface. The predetermined optical characteristic can modulate incident light energy to varying degrees such as by using a differential refraction or gain optical pattern according to the laws of optics.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to flexible optical surfaces usable as filters, refractors, reflectors and the like, and more particularly to an improved controllable surface for optical applications with a flat state that is not influenced by repeatedly rolling and unrolling into a coiled state, and to a method for making the controllable surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An optical surface, film and laminate has optical applications in articles of manufacture ranging from a projector screen to a solar film. Various other optical applications include use in a television screen, highway reflector, sign or the like. For a desired application, the optical surface can be formed from a single substrate or from a wide variety of layered constructions. Some optical surfaces can be adapted with a precise optical characteristic or function to modulate incident light energy in accordance with the various laws of optics such as, for example, diffraction, diffusion, dispersion, refraction or reflection. The present invention provides both a controllable surface when unrolled, and permits the use of precision optical characteristics or functions. Furthermore, by forming the controllable surface using flexible, coilable spring-like materials having superior lay-flat characteristics, the present invention can be applied to many articles of manufacture that today use a rigid or non-rigid support substrate.
Some current designs of controllable surfaces use a rigid support substrate. The rigid support substrate is relatively stiff and thus can easily provide a predictable and usable planar surface area to define the controllable surface needed for optical applications. A spherically-curved rigid support substrate can be used to make the controllable surface more orthogonal to the incident light energy generated from a point source as is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,408,132 to Chandler et al., and thus can increase and control the light reflected to an audience viewing zone. The controllable surface formed using rigid support substrates can eliminate the problem of hot spotting as occurs with flat surfaces when the dynamic brightness range exceeds the tolerance of photopic vision. For example, in certain applications an optical pattern can be imprinted in or secured to the controllable surface to modulate incident light energy. The optical pattern can have the precision optical characteristic such as a differential refraction pattern to increase the dynamic range or gain of the optical surface. Patterns using multiple precision optical characteristics can also modulate incident light energy to a greater or lesser degree according to particular areas or zones of the optical surface. However, disadvantages of the rigid support substrate include storage problems where the rigid support substrate cannot be rolled-up and effectively transported. Other disadvantages include the optical surface being permanently secured to the rigid support substrate, being relatively bulky and unmovable, and requiring costly manufacture or installation.
Alternatively, known optical surfaces formed using a flexible or non-rigid support substrate cannot provide the controllable surface for optical applications requiring a pattern of precision optical characteristics because a non-uniform surface such as undulations, edge-curl or other surface deformations can negate the beneficial effects of the pattern. Most known non-rigid support substrates are manufactured from conventional polymeric materials such as nylons, vinyl, acetals, polyolefins, or other fiber reinforced materials with a modulus of elasticity of about 15,000 p.s.i. The resulting flexible optical surface can be rolled-up but does not have a controllable surface when unrolled. This feature of known non-rigid support substrates precludes the use of precise optical functions, particularly if the above-identified materials contain a plasticizer. For this reason, most applications for these optical surfaces using conventional non-rigid support substrates have not included precision optical characteristics or have reduced performance with restricted gains of 2 gains or less.
Projection screens are increasingly more diverse and sophisticated using precision optical characteristics, various combinations of optical patterns and a wide variety of layered constructions. An example of a projection screen is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,451, by the same inventor as the present application, and is hereby incorporated by reference. The patent relates to optical surfaces, and in particular to the forming of the optical layer for a multi-layered optical surface and method for manufacturing the same. The optical layer is formed with a pattern of light affecting elements to control the optical characteristics of the projection screen. The optical layer is secured to either a rigid or flexible support substrate made from conventional materials. However, the present invention overcomes the many disadvantages of known rigid and non-rigid support substrates made from conventional materials to provide a high gain, controllable surface using a non-rigid support substrate and precision optical characteristics.
Optical surfaces have applications in solar films. Solar films are mostly used to change the amplitude, magnitude or direction of incident light energy depending upon the application desired such as to reflect light energy in the summer or absorb light energy in the winter, or both. Known solar films are thin and flimsy requiring these to be permanently secured to a rigid support substrate such as glass in buildings, automobiles, etc. It would be advantageous if an all weather, relocatable roll-up solar film could be formed to function as a window shade and further to have precision optical characteristics incorporated thereon.
Accordingly, there is a need for a flexible optical surface, film or laminate with the advantages of the controllable surface with precision optical characteristics for such applications as roll-up projection screens. There is also a need for a simple, efficient and inexpensive method of producing these flexible optical surfaces to varied specifications. Such a method should be capable of producing high quality, superior controllable surfaces with optics at a reduced cost of manufacture.

Flexible controllable optical surface and method of making the same