The efficacy and safety of laser medical treatments are ensured by performing a combination of measurement techniques to examine tissue properties in order to control characteristics of the laser treatments of cartilaginous tissues. In some aspects, a treatment tool is provided that is capable of taking and providing feedback relating to multiple measurements, including temperature measurements (in particular, radiometry), mechanical measurements, light scattering, speckle interferometry, optoacoustic measurements, and monitoring tissue electrical characteristics. The device is capable of providing feedback during the course of laser treatment of tissue to increase the safety and efficacy of treatment.

Non-destructive laser heating has a variety of applications in the field of medicine, including the alteration of tissue stress and structure for cartilage reshaping in otolaryngology and for the activation of reparative processes in joints and spine discs in orthopedics and spine surgery. Existing approaches suffer from significant limitations as a result of overheating of the tissue joining the ablation zone and the undesirable effect on surrounding tissues, which manifest as scarring and/or increased probability of relapse.
The limitations of the existing technologies are associated with difficulties in controlling the modification processes of the tissue structure and the mechanical properties of the tissue. For example, one particularly difficult aspect for nasal septum reshaping is the selection of the optimal treatment site. The area of laser application should ideally be determined according to the initial septum shape and the distribution of initial stress in the tissue, however, these properties vary widely among patients and across a given tissue area. Using existing methods, laser radiation is applied along a bent line, which diminishes efficacy and limits the number of septum deviation types that can be corrected.
Similar issues arise for laser regeneration of disks (LRD). Since the optical properties of the tissue are also individual and depend on the tissue age and condition, in particular the water content, the initial choice of the laser settings and any adjustments to be made to the laser settings in the course of LRD are not systematically selectable using existing methods. In this case, the safety of the laser treatment is defined by the breadth of the therapeutic window, and the initial laser settings are chosen near the lower boundary of the therapeutic window (i.e., in the range of safe laser settings). Thus, there is only a narrow range of laser conditions that are both efficacious and non-destructive to tissues, and existing methods fail to provide adequate guidance regarding the selection of initial laser settings.
During laser irradiation of tissue, the treated area undergoes a number of changes, including without limitation: changes in temperature, porosity, absorptivity, residual stress across an area of tissue, and the like. While methods exist for independently measuring changes in certain individual properties, no known method exists that is capable of comprehensively measuring these characteristics and integrating them for use in a feedback system. Moreover, no known method exists that enables the use of these measurements as feedback to improve the efficacy and safety of the laser treatment of tissue. Existing methods are incapable of providing guidance regarding initial laser settings, including optimized selection of the treatment site. Existing methods also fail to provide real-time measurement of a combination of tissue condition parameters that enable the customization of treatment conditions for improved efficacy and safety.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for improved methods and tools that are responsive to a number of parameters as measured during the course of laser tissue treatment and are capable of taking into account a variety of factors affecting the efficacy and safety of non-destructive laser heating treatments.

Diagnostic and feedback control system for efficacy and safety of laser application for tissue reshaping and regeneration


An infrared imager and a color TV camera view the same scene and the output signals are mixed and fed to a color television monitor so that the scene at night is visible in a black and white format with warm objects appearing dark, and bright colors such as lights appear in natural color superimposed on the black and white image.

Systems for enhancing vision at night have been developed for military use, in particular, and usually comprise an infrared imaging device for producing a black and white television image. The differences in infrared radiation from objects in a scene lead to different responses so that there is sufficient contrast among different objects to produce clearly visible images. Some details, however, are not apparent in an infrared image; e.g. there may be no contrast between the letters and the background of a highway sign. The warm objects in a scene can result, as matter of choice, in either light or dark images according to the mode of electronic processing which is used. Such black and white images are useful in certain applications, particularly when being interpreted by trained observers.
It is desired to provide a night vision system which is not limited to trained observers but which may be readily used by the general public. For example, the operators of automotive vehicles or aircraft or water craft may benefit from night vision systems which allow viewing objects or events which are not visible to the unaided eye. In such applications, however, it is useful to recognize colors in the scene, particularly colored lights which are characteristic of traffic signals, vehicle directional or brake signals, navigation markers and the like. The colors can also make highway signs legible. It has previously been proposed to use false color display techniques to distinguish between images discerned by infrared and visible light cameras to aid in image interpretation, however, that too requires trained personnel to interpret the images since they have unnatural colors which can be misleading.

Night vision system with color video camera


In at least some embodiments, a multicast communication system includes sender and a plurality of receivers in communication with the sender. The sender is configured to multicast a data packet to the plurality of receivers. The plurality of receivers are configured to acknowledge the data packet received from the sender based on weakest member selection without a sender-side competitive time window.

In the past few years, numerous research projects have been carried out to explore how to support reliable multicasting in various networking environments. A well-known issue to be addressed in reliable multicasting is acknowledgement (ACK)-implosion (e.g., a sender station and/or network becoming flooded by a large number of ACK messages). As high data loads increase, the ACK-implosion problem increases.

Implementation to avoid the acknowledgement-implosion in a multicast group


An ink-jet ink of the invention is an ink-jet ink using a pigment and includes polymer particles containing an urethane polymer which includes at least repeating units derived from a polycarbonate diol, repeating units derived from an alicyclic isocyanate, and repeating units derived from an acid group-containing diol, which has an acid value of from 5 to 30 mgKOH/gm, and in which the number of urethane groups is 10 times or more the number of urea groups. The content of the polymer particles is from 0.5 to 3 times the content of the pigment.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink-jet ink, an ink cartridge, and an ink-jet recording method.
2. Related Art
Besides printing of business documents including characters, graphic charts, and the like performed on a recording media, such as plain paper, an ink-jet recording method has started to be used for printing performed on textiles and films, and the usage frequency thereof for various types of applications as described above has been increased. In the applications as described above, an image is required to have excellent chromogenic property and toughness (such as scratch resistance, light resistance, ozone gas resistance, and water resistance), and hence, an ink containing a pigment as a colorant has been frequently used.
Compared to an ink using a dye as a colorant, a printed media printed using a pigment ink has a high chromogenic property. The reason for this is that a pigment component is likely to be localized on the surface of a recording medium. The reason for this is that although a dye infiltrates to the inside of a recording medium, a pigment is likely to be agglomerated when a vehicle component evaporates or infiltrates in a step in which an ink is adhered to a recording medium or in a step performed thereafter. However, in the pigment ink, since the pigment functioning as a colorant is likely to be present on the surface of the recording medium, a printed media printed using the pigment ink is disadvantageously inferior in terms of scratch resistance.
Accordingly, in order to improve the scratch resistance of a printed media printed by the pigment ink, the addition of urethane resin particles to the ink has been investigated (for example, see JP-A-2006-22132, 2012-140602, 2013-35897, 2014-240451, 2011-144345, and 2015-45001).

Ink-jet ink, ink cartridge, ink-jet recording method


A fuel overflow collection device having a bag which is placed under a fuel outlet or overflow on a vehicle, such as a boat, to collect fuel spillage or overflow during the refueling process. A first embodiment is attached to a side of a vehicle, such as by adhesive means, underneath a fuel overflow so as to collect fuel therein. A second embodiment attaches to a fuel outlet or overflow so as to collect fuel overflow or spillage during the refueling process.

This invention relates to a collector which may be attached to a vehicle below an existing fuel overflow outlet on said vehicle so as to collect fuel exiting the overflow and prevent discharge of the fuel overflow into the environment.
Vehicles which operate on liquid fuels, particularly petroleum fuels, commonly have fuel overflow means. Fuel is placed into the vehicle, and if excess fuel is placed into the fuel tank, the excess fuel exits the vehicle through an overflow line or tube. Such overflow lines cause the excess fuel to be I discharged into the atmosphere, where such fuels become pollutants.
A common example of such a vehicle is a boat. Boats, which are frequently diesel powered, have such overflow lines. Diesel fuel is placed into the tank, and as the tank becomes full, fuel flows from the tank into an overflow line, with the discharge point of the overflow line being through the hull of the boat, causing the fuel to be discharged into the water. Such discharged fuel constitutes a pollutant which is discharged into lakes, rivers, bays, and other bodies of water.
The present invention is a collector which may be placed underneath a fuel overflow or outlet on a vehicle so as to collect the excess fuel and prevent its discharge into the environment, and particularly into water. After the fuel is collected into the bag, the bag may be removed from the vehicle and sealed for proper disposal. Two embodiments of this device are presented herein.


In a helical scanning type magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus for selecting one of output signals of two reproducing heads that are disposed at positions different by of 180° and transferring the selected output signal with a rotary transformer of one channel, a rotor side winding of a reproducing signal channel of a rotary transformer is divided into two portions. The divided portions are connected at two positions that are opposite to output terminals of head amplifiers that amplify output signals of reproducing heads and that have self short-circuit switches. Without use of extra wirings, the head amplifiers are directly connected to the rotary transformer. An output signal of the reproducing head is selected by short-circuiting a self short-circuit switch of a head amplifier corresponding to a head that does not reproduce a signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary head drum apparatus having short wirings that is able to transfer higher radio frequency signals. In addition, the present invention relates to a helical scanning type magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus using such rotary head drum apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional rotary head drum apparatus that is used for a magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus of helical scanning type has a pair of recording heads and a pair of reproducing heads, wherein each pair of recording heads and reproducing heads are disposed at positions different by 180° on a rotary drum, respectively. A recording signal and a reproducing signal are transferred through a rotary transformer (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-160201).
The magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus disclosed in the above mentioned Publication has a Read After Write (RAW) function while reproducing recorded information from a tape shaped recording medium so as to check whether or not the information is correctly recorded thereto when recording the information thereto. To accomplish the RAW function, the rotary transformer has a recording signal channel and a reproducing signal channel for supplying recording signals to the recording heads and for deriving reproducing signals from the reproducing heads, respectively.
Next, a signal transferring portion of the magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, a pair of a recording head 4A and a reproducing head 5A and a pair of recording head 4B and a reproducing head 5B are disposed at positions different by 180° on a rotary drum. As shown in FIG. 4, whenever the rotary drum rotates by 180°, the pair of the recording signal channel ch A and the reproducing signal channel ch A and the pair of the recording signal channel ch B and the reproducing signal channel ch B alternately operates.
In FIG. 9, the rotary transformer is designated by reference numeral 7. The rotary transformer 7 transfers (supplies and receives) signals of individual channels. The rotary transformer 7 has recording signal channels 8a and 8b for supplying recording signals to the recording heads 4A and 4B, reproducing signal channels 9a and 9b for receiving signals from the reproducing heads 5A and 5B, a power supply channel 10 for supplying a power to head amplifiers, and short-circuit rings 11 and 11 as shield channels for preventing a cross talk of the power supplying channel 10 from taking place in other signal channels. Each of the channels 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10 and the short-circuit rings 11 and 11 (of the rotary transformer 7) is composed of rotor side coils 8ar, 8br, 9ar, 9br, 10r, and 11r and stator side coils 8as, 8bs, 9as, 9bs, 10s, and 11s. The rotor side coils and the stator side coils of each of the channels and short-circuit rings are disposed in coaxially formed ring-shaped grooves.
The signal transferring portion is structured as shown in FIG. 8. Recording signals are transferred from recording amplifiers 19a and 19b to the recording heads 4A and 4B through the recording signal channels 8a and 8b, respectively. Reproducing signals are transferred from the reproducing heads 5A and 5B to reproducing amplifiers 17a and 17b through head amplifiers 16a and 16b and the reproducing signal channel 9a and 9b, respectively. An operating power is transferred from a power supply amplifier 12 to the head amplifiers 16a and 16b through the power supply channel 10, a rectifying and smoothing circuit 14 and a regulator 15 disposed on the rotor.
The magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus has two recording heads and two reproducing heads. However, there is a magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus of multiple channel type that has more than two channels (for example, see Japanese Patent Examined Publication No. Hei 8-34025).
The magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus of multiple channel type disclosed in the above mentioned Publication has a plurality of reproducing heads arranged with pitches narrower than the widths of tracks. These reproducing heads reproduce signals from recorded tracks. A reproducing signal process circuit of the magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus processes the reproducing signals reproduced by the reproducing heads so as to generate reproducing signals that are free from tracking errors and so forth.
In recent years, the signal transfer frequencies of magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatuses are becoming as high as several 100 MHz. In addition, their rotary drums are becoming miniaturized (for example as small as 18 mmφ).
As shown in FIG. 10, in order to decrease the number of channels of rotary transformer of the reproducing portion, one of output signals of the head amplifiers 16a and 16b that amplify reproduced signals from the reproducing heads 5A and 5B is selected by a switch 20 at timings of switching pulse signal shown in FIG. 4. The selected output signal is supplied to a reproducing amplifier 17 through one reproducing signal channel 9. In this example, the wirings of the reproducing portion on the rotor side of the rotary drum are structured as shown in FIG. 12 to FIG. 14.
Likewise, in order to decrease the number of channels rotary transformer of the recording portion, as shown in FIG. 11, the recording heads 4A and 4B are connected in series to one recording signal channel 8. In addition, head switches SW1a and SW1b that are turned off upon recording are connected to the recording heads 4A and 4B, respectively. Two recording signals A and B are transferred from a single recording amplifier 19 to the recording heads 4A and 4B, respectively, through one recording signal channel 8 (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 11-273183).
The wirings of the reproducing portion on the rotor side of the rotary drum shown in FIG. 12 are structured as follows. A wiring board 21 that has the head amplifiers 16a and 16b and a switch 20 are disposed between the reproducing head 5B and a lead wire portion of a rotor side coil 9r in the reproducing signal channel 9 of the rotary transformer 7. The reproducing heads 5A and 5B and the head amplifiers 16a and 16b are connected with wirings 23 and 24, respectively. A switch 20 is connected to a lead wire 22 of the coil 9r on the rotor side. In this example, since the wiring board 21 is disposed adjacent to the reproducing head 5B, the wiring 23 connected between the reproducing head 5A and the head amplifier 16a adversely becomes longer.
The wirings shown in FIG. 13 are structured in the manner that a lead wire portion of the coil 9r on the rotor side in the reproducing signal channel 9 of the rotary transformer 7 is disposed in a direction perpendicular to the reproducing heads 5A and 5B. The head amplifiers 16a and 16b and a lead wire 22 of the coil 9r on the rotor side are connected with wiring 23 and 24, respectively. The wirings shown in FIG. 14 are structured in the manner that a lead wire portion of the coil 9r on the rotor side in the reproducing signal channel 9 of the rotary transformer 7, the head amplifiers 16a and 16b, and a wiring board having a switch 20 are disposed in a direction perpendicular to the reproducing heads 5A and 5B. The reproducing heads 5A and 5B and the head amplifiers 16a and 16b are connected with wiring 23 and 24, respectively. A lead wire 22 of the coil 9r on the rotor side is connected to the switch 20. In the examples shown in FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, the length of the wiring 23 is the same as the length of the wiring 24. However, the total length of the wirings 23 and 24 shown in FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 is the same as that shown in FIG. 12.
Thus, with the wirings as shown in FIG. 12 to FIG. 14,
1) since the head amplifiers 16a and 16b, the rectifying and smoothing circuit 14, the regulator 15, and so forth are disposed along with the recording heads 4A and 4B and the reproducing heads 5A and 5B on the rotor side of the rotary drum, it is difficult to provide a space for the wiring board for a small diameter rotary drum of multiple channel type,
2) since the wirings become long, they result in inductance and capacity that prevent radio frequency signals from being transferred, and
3) since reproduced output signals are connected in series, even if the number of channels of the rotary transformer is decreased, noises of heads from which signals are not reproduced and amplifiers thereof adversely affect signals. As a result, the SNR (signal to noise ratio) becomes worse.
To solve the foregoing problem, what is needed is a rotary head drum apparatus for allowing wirings on the rotor side to become shorter. In addition, what is needed is a magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus of multiple channel helical scanning type using the rotary head drum apparatus.

Rotary head drum apparatus including a rotary drum having a head and a switch for selecting the head and magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus using the same


A driving tool is provided in which contact arms of the driving tool are symmetrically arranged at lateral sides of the drive passage, and contact portions of the contact arms are movable between an ON position and an OFF position. Further, the driving tool is configured such that each contact portion is independently movable between the ON position and the OFF position, and when both of the contact portions are moved to the ON position, the driving operation of a drive unit is allowed to operate, and when only one of the contact portions is moved to the ON position, the driving operation of the drive unit is not allowed to operate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving tool, for example, for driving nails.
2. Description of the Related Art
In driving tools in which compressed air or combustion gases are used as a driving source, efforts have been made to prevent unintended driving operations. For instance, Japanese Patent No. 4239731 shows a technology in which a tip part (a sensing portion, hereafter termed a contact portion) of a contact member termed a contact arm is arranged around an ejection exit and a push of this tip part of the contact arm to a workpiece only causes the tip to be relatively stroked with regard to the ejection exit and a driving operation (for example, a pulling operation of a switch lever) a user has made becomes effective.
In many cases, the above-described contact arm includes an annular part and an actuating arm part. The annular part surrounds a tip of a drive passage (a driver guide) through which a driven member is driven. The actuating arm part extends to a vicinity of a trigger-type switch lever for a driving operation that is made via the annular part. Both the annular part and the actuating arm part are arranged along the lateral side of the driver guide to allow them to stroke.
However, since a known contact arm has a double layer structure in which an annular part is arranged surrounding a tip of a driver guide around an ejection exit, the tip of the driver guide becomes too thick for a user to easily view a driven area on a workpiece. Consequently, a user has to look into the driven area in a cramped position, and thus there has been a problem of hindering visibility and usability of the driving tool.
Thus, there is a need to present a driving tool equipped with a contact arm that does not hinder visibility of a driven area at the time of driving.


A cathode-ray tube has an electron gun disposed in its neck in confronting relationship to a phosphor screen through a deflection yoke mounted on the funnel. The electron gun has a cathode assembly for emitting three electron beams, and a main lens for passing the electron beams therethrough. The main lens includes a quadruple lens system responsive to focusing voltages for canceling an astigmatic effect produced on the electron beams when the electron beams are deflected by the deflection yoke, at a peripheral edge of the phosphor screen. The cathode-ray tube also has a first quadruple convergence yoke lens system disposed between the main lens and the deflection yoke for generating an astigmatic effect which is opposite to the deflection-induced astigmatic effect, and a second quadruple convergence yoke lens system disposed between the emitting means and the main lens means for generating an astigmatic effect which is in the same direction as the astigmatic effect generated by the first quadruple convergence yoke lens system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cathode-ray tube, and more particularly to an electron gun for use in a cathode-ray tube.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently available color picture tubes employ deflection yokes of the self-convergence type.
As shown in FIG. 1 off the accompanying drawings, such a self-convergence deflection yoke produces a horizontal deflecting magnetic field with pin-cushion distortion and a vertical deflecting magnetic field with barrel distortion for deflecting and automatically converging three R, G, B electron beams on a phosphor screen.
Since, however, the horizontal and vertical deflecting magnetic fields are distorted in the shapes of a pin-cushion and a barrel, respectively, the spot which is produced by the electron beams on the phosphor screen tends to be defocused or distorted at outer edges of the screen, as shown in FIG. 2 of the accompanying drawings. The electron beam spot is distorted because each of the electron beams, which has a certain finite spatial extent, is subjected to different forces in different locations on the phosphor screen.
The electron beam spot distortion, at an end of the X-axis of the phosphor screen, in the horizontal deflecting magnetic field, which is distorted in a pin-cushion pattern, will be described in greater detail with reference to FIG. 3 of the accompanying drawings. In FIG. 3, an electron beam e passes through the plane defined by FIG. 3 in a direction away from the viewer, and four 90.degree.-spaced points A, B, C, D are assumed to be on the peripheral edge of a cross-sectional plane through the electron beam e. Since the magnetic field is stronger at the point B than at the point A, the electron beam e undergoes lateral forces on its opposite sides. At the same time, forces directed toward the center of the electron beam e are applied to the points C and D.
Therefore, the electron beam spot on the phosphor screen is slightly underfocused, i.e., it would come to a focus beyond the phosphor screen, in the horizontal direction, and is strongly overfocused, i.e., it would come to a focus short of the phosphor screen, and hence diverges to produce a halo, in the vertical direction. FIGS. 4A and 4B of the accompanying drawings schematically show, using an optical lens system simulating the electron gun, how the electron beam is focused at the center and the X-axis end, respectively, of the phosphor screen. The optical lens system includes a main lens 31 and a deflection yoke 32. In FIGS. 4A and 4B, the electron beam is emitted from an object point a on a cathode, and is focused at a focus point f. The vertical lens effect of the optical lens system is shown on the upper side of the Z-axis, and the horizontal lens effect of the optical lens system is shown on the lower side of the Z-axis. The above horizontally underfocused and vertically overfocused condition of the electron beam spot is illustrated in FIG. 4B.
The relationship between the size of the electron beam spot and the focusing voltage applied to the deflection yoke is shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B of the accompanying drawings.
At the center of the phosphor screen, as shown in FIG. 5A, focusing voltages Vfv and Vfh applied to bring the electron beam spot into focus vertically and horizontally are equal to each other. The minimum sizes of the electron beam spots in the vertical and horizontal directions are the same as each other. Therefore, the electron beam spot is substantially circular in shape at the center of the phosphor screen.
At the X-axis end, however, the focusing voltage Vfv applied to focus the electron beam spot vertically is higher than the focusing voltage Vfh applied to focus the electron beam spot horizontally by .DELTA.Vfo (about 1.3 kv in FIG. 5B). Furthermore, the minimum sizes of the electron beam spots in the vertical and horizontal directions are different from each other; the horizontal minimum size of the electron beam spot is about 2.5 times greater than the vertical minimum size of the electron beam spot. The voltage difference .DELTA.Vfo is referred to as an astigmatic difference. The corrective voltage applied in a system which employs a dynamic quadruple structure and a dynamic focusing action (described hereinafter) is proportional to the astigmatic difference .DELTA.Vfo.
Since the electron beam spot comes to the focus f short of the phosphor screen in the vertical direction as described above, a halo is generated above and below the electron beam spot at the peripheral region of the phosphor screen, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4B. As a result, the electron beam spot is distorted due to astigmatism at the peripheral region of the phosphor screen.
Cathode-ray tubes with non-self-convergence deflection yokes usually have a quadruple convergence yoke disposed behind the deflection yoke. The quadruple convergence yoke is supplied with a predetermined current in synchronism with the deflection of the electron beam by the deflection yoke. Usually, the electron beam spot in such cathode-ray tubes is also distorted at the peripheral region of the phosphor screen in the same fashion as with the self-convergence deflection yokes.
One solution to the above problem, employed particularly for low-cost cathode-ray tube models, is to make a portion of the electron gun rotationally asymmetrical to produce an astigmatic effect on the electron beam which is opposite to the astigmatism due to the deflection magnetic field for thereby improving the electron beam spot at the peripheral region of the phosphor screen. Inasmuch as the generated reversal astigmatic effect is fixed, the electron beam spot is necessarily brought out of focus at the center of the phosphor screen.
On the other hand, expensive cathode-ray tube models have an electromagnetic or electrostatic quadruple element near the main lens of the electron gun. The intensity of the converging effect of the quadruple element and the intensity of the focusing effect of the main lens are varied in synchronism with the deflecting action for producing a well-focused electron beam spot on the phosphor screen. Such a system is based on a combination of a dynamic quadruple structure and a dynamic focusing action. More specifically, the intensity of the converging effect of the dynamic quadruple element and the intensity of the focusing effect of the main lens are dynamically adjusted by a circuit arrangement to improve the focus of the electron beam spot at the peripheral region of the phosphor screen while maintaining the electron beam spot in focus at the screen center.
Actually, the above system is supplied with an AC voltage whose waveform is of a quasi-parabolic shape for improving the focus of the electron beam at the peripheral region of the phosphor screen. Since the astigmatic difference .DELTA.Vfo is large, as described above, it is customary to add an AC voltage of about 1 kv to the focusing voltage, which is normally in the range of from 5 to 10 kv. Because of the high voltage requirement, the required circuit arrangement suffers a relatively large burden.
Recently developed cathode-ray tubes for use in EDTV receivers, HDTV receivers, and computer display units employ higher deflection frequencies. As the corrective voltage is high, it is difficult to generate the voltage with a suitable waveform in view of the higher deflection frequencies without a complex circuit design and a high circuit cost.

Cathode-ray tube with convergence yoke lens systems


An apparatus and method for floating such apparatus in the air, such apparatus having at least one cell containing air and a fluid. The fluid in one embodiment is heated to create steam which, in turn, makes the cell lighter than the surrounding air, thereby providing lift to the apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The apparatus and method of this invention reside in the area of lighter-than-air airships such as those used in blimps and dirigibles and more particularly relate to a system of cells having steam or heated combustion byproducts generated therein to provide lift to such airships.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Airships, such as blimps and dirigibles, have long been in use, and lighter-than-air gases such as hydrogen or helium typically have been utilized to cause the craft to be lighter than air. However, helium gas is expensive, and hydrogen gas is highly flammable.

Apparatus and method utilizing cells to provide lift in lighter-than-air airships


The invention provides various systems and methods for establishing an identity confidence scoring system. The method includes gathering identity information about the customers from physical locations and from remote locations. The method updates the identity profiles with the gathered identity information, and based on the gathered identity information, generates an identity confidence score associated with each identity profile.

Presently, particularly in developing countries, identity verification systems are marginal at best. Often in developing countries residents do not have identification (ID) cards (e.g., driver's licenses, social security number (SSN) cards, military IDs, etc.) to verify identity. Furthermore, such countries typically lack banking or other financial networks established in order to adequately gather identification information.
In addition, many laws and guidelines require financial and lending institutions to "know your customer" (KYC) before entering into financial transactions. Hence, in these developing countries, without proper identification, entering into financial and other similar transactions becomes increasingly more difficult. Accordingly, improvements in the art are needed.

Methods and systems for establishing an identity confidence database


There is provided a method for monitoring paper or other jams of a carriage in a printer by monitoring the current waveshape in a first winding of a stepper motor at or near the time when a second winding of the stepper motor commutates. The current waveshape is received from a low-value sensing resistor, typically within an integrated circuit stepper motor driver device. Changes in the current waveshape during this time window may be interpreted and accurate deductions may be made concerning the loading of the stepper motor. In the case where the stepper motor is the drive motor for a printer carriage, the loading information may be used to detect a paper jam or similar problem in the printer carriage.

This invention relates to jam detection in a printer and, more particularly, to detecting carriage jams by sensing current in a carriage drive stepper motor.
Detecting paper jams in a printer is important for several reasons. First, continued application of driving force to the carriage drive motor after a paper jam may cause physical damage to the print head, its associated mounting structure, or other carriage hardware. Also, paper may be bunched or compacted to the point where its removal is difficult without disassembling the print head or another part of the carriage structure. An improperly detected jam may result in the destruction of a payment document, such as the only personal check a customer may have. In addition, data sent to the printer for printing may be discarded and possibly irretrievably lost if the printer electronics are not notified on a timely basis that the data has not been successfully printed.
Traditionally, paper jams near the print head carriage in a printer have been detected using some combination of interruptive sensors (i.e., see-through sensors) and comb strips. These implementations require additional mechanical hardware as well as extra electrical circuitry. Extra hardware in the carriage area not only adds cost and takes up valuable space within the printer, but it may contribute to paper jams in the carriage area by its very presence. Typical jam detection hardware, monitoring electronics and software are taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,690 for PRINT HEAD CARRIAGE HOMING SYSTEM, issued Dec. 24, 1991 to James R. Del Signore, II, et al.
Many small, low-cost printers such as those used in point-of-sale (POS) checkout stations use stepper motors to drive their carriages. Typically, only a subset of the multiple stepper motor windings are driven simultaneously. This allows current induced in other, undriven windings to be monitored and the instantaneous status of the stepper motor movement deduced. Monitoring electrical current provided to a motor, whether stepper, DC, AC, etc., has long been used as a technique to deduce the motional status of the motor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,209 for CONTROL SYSTEM FOR TRANSDUCER POSITIONING MOTOR, issued May 10, 1983 to Martyn A. Lewis, teaches a control system for a stepper motor in which both voltage and current are sensed in a closed-loop controller. The thrust of the LEWIS circuit, however, is to enhance the positional accuracy of a transducer such as a read head in a disk drive. Both a constant voltage and a constant current source are provided with seamless switching, while coarse seeking the constant current source provided the motor drive. During fine seeking of the track position, the constant voltage source provides the motor drive. LEWIS, however, teaches no monitoring of either current or voltage to determine a stalled condition such as would be experienced during a carriage jam in a printer.
The system of the present invention monitors phase current to derive a logic signal indicating to the printer controller that a carriage jam has occurred.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,781 for METHOD AND CIRCUIT FOR OPERATING A STEPPER MOTOR, issued Jul. 16, 1991 to Klaus Kronenberg, teaches another stepper motor controller wherein an induced voltage in a winding, which is not required at the time to produce a propulsive force, is evaluated and a stopped motor condition detected. KRONENBERG stores the instantaneous position of the motor in memory for later recovery.
In contradistinction, the inventive system monitors the current waveform of a driven winding of the carriage stepper motor. An amplifier and a comparator are used to digitize the analog voltage waveform from across a sense resistor in the stepper motor""s drive line. An operational amplifier having its gain optimized for the application is used to ensure that digitization of the current waveform corresponds accurately with known values in a digital count table.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,690 for PRINT HEAD CARRIAGE HOMING SYSTEM, issued Dec. 24, 1991, to James R. Del Signore II, et al., teaches using a ribbon timing strip and a sensor for printer jam detection. No current sensing in a stepper motor winding is disclosed.
Another stepper motor drive system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,239 for PRINTER CARRIER DRIVING METHOD, issued Nov. 22, 1994 to Tsuyoshi Matsushita, et al. MATSUSHITA, et al., teaches a stepper motor drive where improved control of acceleration and deceleration is achieved from a single-voltage power source. Stored data corresponding to acceleration, constant speed printing, and deceleration are used to generate a current reference voltage. There is, however, no teaching of jam detection through monitoring of either current or voltage supplied to the stepper motor.
The inventive system, on the other hand, monitors current in a single winding of the stepper motor at the commutation time of another winding to derive highly accurate jam detection (i.e., stalled carriage) information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,502 for CARRIAGE MOTOR CONTROLLER FOR PRINTER, issued Jul. 11, 1995 to Yasunori Orii, et al., teaches yet another stepper motor controller for a printer carriage. ORII, et al. use a rotary encoder to generate position data and generate acceleration/deceleration commands based upon both absolute position data from the encoder as well as from stored motor characteristic data. The stored motor characteristic data is periodically updated to reflect the current operating characteristics of the stepper motor. There is, however, no teaching of carriage jam detection through voltage and/or current monitoring.
The inventive system, on the other hand, develops a jam signal from the A to D conversion of a voltage signal obtained from a low value series resistor in one of the stepper motor winding drive lines. An operational amplifier having a carefully selected gain functions to provide a signal indicative of operational current levels that can be read by commercial A/D converters. The inventive system monitors the current waveshape in the xe2x80x9cPhase Axe2x80x9d winding at the time when the xe2x80x9cPhase Bxe2x80x9d commutation occurs. By selecting this time window, the accuracy of the detection is greatly enhanced.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,150,789 for STEPPER MOTOR CONTROL, issued Nov. 21, 2000 to Robert Pulford, Jr., teaches sensing current in one winding of a stepper motor for control purposes. PULFORD discloses no sampling of current specifically during the commutation of a different motor phase winding. Neither does PULFORD specifically teach jam detection in a printer carriage.
None of these patents taken individually or in any combination teaches or suggests the carriage jam detection method of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a carriage jam detection method for use in a printer which requires neither a comb nor flag and sensor mechanism to reliably detect carriage jams.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a carriage jam detection method for use in a printer which monitors current in a single, active winding of a stepper motor driving the printer carriage.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a carriage jam detection method for use in a printer which monitors current in a first stepper motor winding at approximately, but not limited to, the time that a second winding of the stepper motor commutates.
It is another object of the invention to provide a carriage jam detection method for use in a printer which does not necessarily require an additional, external motion sensor.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a carriage jam detection method for use in a printer which utilizes a small resistor in the motor drive circuit as a sensing resistor to obtain a voltage waveform representative of the instantaneous motor winding current.
The present invention is a method for monitoring the current waveshape in a first winding of a stepper motor at or near the time when a second winding of the stepper motor commutates. The current waveshape is received from a low-value sensing resistor, typically within an integrated circuit stepper motor driver device. Changes in the current waveshape during this time window may be interpreted and accurate deductions may be made concerning the loading of the stepper motor. In the case where the stepper motor is the drive motor for a printer carriage, the loading information may be used to detect a paper jam, similar problem, or reference position in the printer carriage. No external monitoring sensor is required, nor is there any need for traditional comb or similar look-through structures for use in combination with a light source and sensor for detecting carriage jams.

Printer carriage jam detector using sensed motor current


An imaging system and method for imaging an immobilized object. The imaging system includes a support member adapted to receive the object in an immobilized state. The system also includes means for imaging the immobilized object in various imaging modes to capture images of the object. The imaging system further includes a movable phosphor screen. The phosphor screen is adapted to be movable without moving the immobilized object and support member.

Electronic imaging systems are well known for enabling molecular imaging. An exemplary electronic imaging system (shown in FIG. 1 and diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 2) is the Image Station 2000MM Multimodal Imaging System 10 available from the Eastman Kodak Company. System 10 includes a light source 12, an optical compartment 14 which can include a mirror 16, a lens/camera system 18, and a communication/computer control system 20 which can include a display device, for example, a computer monitor 22. Camera/lens system 18 can include an emission filter wheel for fluorescent imaging. Light source 12 can include an excitation filter selector for fluorescent excitation or bright field color imaging. In operation, an image of an object is captured using lens/camera system 18. System 18 converts the light image into an electronic image, which can be digitized. The digitized image can be displayed on the display device, stored in memory, transmitted to a remote location, processed to enhance the image, and/or used to print a permanent copy of the image.
Applicants have recognized a need for an apparatus and method for enabling analytical imaging of an object in differing modes.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus and method for multi-modal imaging


An auto-focus method includes steps of receiving a first image from an image capturing unit, wherein the first image conforms to a first resolution of the image capturing unit; setting a focus frame in the first image; converting the first image into a second image, wherein the second image conforms to a second resolution of a display unit and the second resolution is smaller than the first resolution; and displaying the second image and the first image within the focus frame in the display unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image capturing device and, more particularly, to an image capturing device with auto-focus function and an auto-focus method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As digital camera module is getting more and more popular, so far most of electronic devices, such as cell phones, flat computers, personal digital assistants, etc., are equipped with a digital camera module. Furthermore, the resolution of the digital camera module is increasing continuously. However, the resolution of a display panel is limited due to current technology such that the display panel cannot render image information captured by the digital camera module completely. For example, the maximum resolution of a display panel on a cell phone is only about 1280*720 (i.e. 1M) but the resolution of a digital camera module has achieved about 3264*2448 (i.e. 8M). Since the resolution of the display panel is smaller than that of the digital camera module, a user cannot determine whether a focus frame displayed by the display panel has caught correct focus by his or her eyes. In other words, the user cannot know whether an image is defined while focusing or taking the image. To ensure the definition of the image, the user has to open and zoom in parts of the stored image or use zoom in/out function while taking the image. However, the aforesaid manners are inconvenient and waste time.

Image capturing device with auto-focus function and auto-focus method


The invention is directed to a method for operating an x-ray installation having an x-ray radiator, which comprises an x-ray tube accepted in a housing filled with an electrically insulating liquid. The electrically insulating liquid is thereby degasified at intervals in order to prevent gases arising as a consequence of the decomposition of the electrically insulating liquid caused by the generated x-ray radiation from deteriorating the high-voltage strength of the x-ray radiator.

The invention is directed to a method for the operation of an x-ray installation having an x-ray radiator, which comprises an x-ray tube within a liquid-filled housing.
The problem arises in such x-ray installations, whose x-ray radiators usually contain an electrically insulating liquid, namely an insulating oil, that the oil decomposes under the influence of the x-radiation. As a result thereof, gases, including hydrogen, are released, these first entering into solution in the oil and appearing in the form of gas bubbles after saturation has been reached. The occurrence of gas bubbles is disadvantageous, first, because the obtainable image quality suffers when employing the x-ray installation for imaging purposes when gas bubbles are located in the region of the useful x-ray beam. Second, the insulating effect is reduced due to the presence of gas bubbles in the insulating oil, so that the risk of voltage arc-overs and, thus, of the outage of the x-ray radiator is present.
German Patent 892 032 and DE-UM 17 11 479 disclose x-ray radiators with an x-ray tube located in a liquid-filled housing wherein measures are undertaken with which gas bubbles present in the liquid in the region of the x-ray tube are to be eliminated. These measures, however, can only be undertaken when larger gas bubbles have already formed. They are ultimately ineffective in view of the afore-mentioned disadvantages.

Method for the operation of an X-ray installation having an X-ray radiator


A biosensor device (10) for in situ monitoring of deep-water sea-floor biological patterns (30), which biosensor platform (10) comprises a plurality of cameras (12) and a lightening system (14), wherein a plurality of coral nubbins (16) with a plurality of polyps (18) are prepared and fixed to a platform (11) of the biosensor platform (10) with a distance to each other such that there is no overlap on a picture frame (22) thereof, and wherein the cameras (12) and the lightening system (14) are arranged so as to take coral-silhouette-pictures (CSP:s) of the plurality of nubbins (16) in the picture frame (22). In this way, there is provided a biosensor device based on coral, or other deep-sea species, behavioural for surveillance and monitoring of a deep-water sea-floor.

Because of requirements on Oil and Gas (O & G) operators, typically from environmental authorities to monitor environmental impacts during Oil and Gas (O & G) drilling activities in sensitive environments such as a deep-water sea-floor with corals, there is a need to monitor coral status and impact on this environment, especially during such activities. Guidelines have been prepared to mitigate the environmental risk of drilling activities in areas with coral populations (Den Norske Veritas, DNV, 2012). In areas where drilling activities are close to coral populations, such as areas with coral reefs, the O&G operators typically have to apply costly mitigation actions to protect the corals. This often leads to applying a precautionary principle as there is no current technology known to document impact and monitor coral, or other deep-sea species, status during drilling activities.
Until now, according to our best understanding, there are no known techniques to measure effect on coral status or other deep-sea species continuously. Current techniques to assess impact of drill cutting plumes used by O&G operators are based on current measurements, turbidity measurements, sediment traps, sediment samples and visual mapping, all techniques typically not being continuously.
References describing known techniques and background are listed under the heading "list of references" in this disclosure.
Regarding monitoring such as visual mapping, for instance, the Guidelines (DNV, 2012) states that in general it is difficult to find an appropriate parameter for monitoring directly of corals, which will reflect any influences from drilling activities. High resolution still photos have from experience not been able to identify change in polyp behaviour on corals such as Lophelia pertusa when exposed to drill cutting sedimentations such as drill cutting plumes.
In particular, none of the known techniques are providing an actual measurement of the impact or changes of coral end-points from drill cutting sedimentations, but are only proxy measurements of drill cutting potential exposure, not their effect.

Biosensor device, system and method for monitoring a deep-water sea-floor


In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, a polysilicon resistance film is directly or indirectly formed on a semiconductor substrate. A first insulating film is formed on the polysilicon resistance film, and a second insulating film is formed on the first insulating film. An opening portion is formed to pass through the first insulating film and the second insulating film to expose the polysilicon resistance film. The first insulating film has an etching rate equal to or smaller than 1/8 of an etching rate of the second insulating film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device in which a resistance layer is formed of polysilicon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many resistance layers are formed in a semiconductor device, and a polysilicon layer is used as the resistance layer for high integration and high density. As shown in FIG. 1, a polysilicon film 103 is formed on the insulating films 101 and 102 formed on a silicon substrate 100 to have a desired pattern. An interlayer insulating film 106 is formed on the polysilicon layer 103. Contact holes are formed in the interlayer insulating film 106 so that wiring films 107 are connected to the polysilicon layer 103. Thus, the resistance film 103 of the polysilicon is formed.
It is conventionally known that the polysilicon resistance films formed thus have a variance in resistance. A method of suppressing the resistance variance is described in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 9-232521).
Also, it is known that the resistance values of the polysilicon films have a variance when hydrogen atoms are diffused into the polysilicon resistance film. To prevent the resistance variance due to the diffusion of hydrogen atoms, a technique is known in which a silicon nitride film is formed on the surface of the polysilicon resistance film.
However, impurity ions which have been implanted into the polysilicon resistance film to decrease a contact resistance are diffused into a resistance region of the polysilicon resistance film in a thermal process for the forming of the silicon nitride film. As a result, the resistance variance occurs. A method of preventing such a resistance variance is known in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 9-121024).
The resistance variance of the polysilicon resistance film is also based on a variance of contact resistance. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, when the contact hole is formed by a plasma etching method, an opening portion of the polysilicon resistance film is cut because of over-etching, so that the contact resistance variance occurs.
Therefore, it is desired that the damage of the polysilicon resistance film because of the over-etching in the case of forming the contact hole is restrained so that the variance in contact resistance of the polysilicon film is retrained.

Method of etching to form high tolerance polysilicon resistors


Systems, methods, and software described herein manage the deployment of applications across multiple provisioning layers. In managing the applications, a management service may monitor resource usage by the applications that are executing in a first provisioning layer, wherein the first provisioning layer comprises physical nodes such as airborne or spaceborne nodes. While monitoring the resource usage, the management service may determine when the resource usage by the applications satisfies migration criteria and, when the applications satisfy the migration criteria, select one or more of the applications to be offloaded to another provisioning layer. Once selected, the management service may initiate deployment of the one or more applications in the other provisioning layer.

Satellites and aircraft can be deployed to provide various task-based operations, such as military and civilian observation operations, communications operations, navigation operations, weather operations, and research operations. Satellites and aircraft can include various sensors and communication equipment that are used to perform these desired tasks. For example, a weather satellite may include one or more cameras or imaging sensors that can be used to take images of Earth, and communication equipment that can be used to communicate the images to a control system on Earth. An aircraft drone might include cameras for imaging portions of the Earth and relaying those images to a control station or system. Although satellites and aircraft can both be configured to perform specialized operations, difficulties can arise from the movement of the satellites and aircraft in gathering the required data for the required operations. Additional difficulties can also occur for operations due to limited processing, storage, and sensor resources on any given satellite.
Overview
The technology described herein enhances the deployment of applications to physical nodes over multiple provisioning layers. In one implementation, a management service monitors resource use of physical nodes that correspond to a first provisioning layer and determines when the resource use satisfies migration criteria. When the resource use satisfies the migration criteria, the management service may identify one or more applications deployed in the first provisioning layer to be offloaded to a second provisioning layer. Once identified, the management service may initiate deployment of the one or more applications to the second provisioning layer.
This Overview is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Technical Disclosure. The Overview is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor should it be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Management of application deployment across multiple provisioning layers


An optical communications network includes a terminal which can simultaneously receive and modulate an optical signal. The terminal includes an optical modulator which is controlled by varying the bias voltage applied to it.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to optical communications systems, terminals for use in systems, to optical links including such terminals, to cellular and radio distribution points and base stations and in particular, but not exclusively, to radio and microwave systems, including cellular radio systems, including such links. 2. Related Art
It is known that one of the principal problems that must be addressed before optical fibre networks can be extended from trunk networks to the local loop is the cost and complexity of the remote terminals. These terminals need to be able to both receive and transmit optical signals. Most solutions to this problem use lasers as optical transmitters but this necessitates the use of control circuitry which increases the cost, complexity and electrical power consumption of the terminals.
A similar problem, although with a slightly different application, exists for optical fibre feeds to antennas for cellular and other radio and microwave systems where the cost and power consumption of terminal equipment used to supply signals to remote antennas are important factors. xe2x80x9cAntenna remotingxe2x80x9d as it is known is of particular interest for cellular and satellite systems. The frequencies involved are typically in the hundreds of Mhz to tens of GHz range. There is also interest in yet higher frquencies, for example for radar. While, strictly speaking, this range extends into what is more properly known as the millimeter wave band, throughout this specification the expression xe2x80x9cradio or microwavexe2x80x9d has been used loosely to cover this wider range. Thus, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the term should be read in a broad way to include the millimeter wave band.
Embodiments of the present invention seek to solve, at least in part, these problems.
In the paper by Frigo et al, xe2x80x9cA wavelength division multiplexed passive network with cost-shared componentsxe2x80x9d, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 1994, volume 6, pp. 1365-1367, it is proposed that subscriber terminals in a passive optical network (PON) each be provided with an optical modulator in place of the conventionally proposed laser. A single, cost-shared tunable laser is provided in the central office which feeds the PON and this is wavelength stepped through the different wavelengths of the various optical network units (ONUs) which feed the subscribers connected to the PON. In each subscriber""s ONU, the laser light received from the shared laser is split by a passive tap, with a portion of the light being detected by a receiver. The remainder is xe2x80x9clooped-backxe2x80x9d towards the central office through the modulator. The relevant subscriber uses the modulator to modulate the time-slice of light received from the shared laser. The up-and-down-stream signals can be separated at the central office by time partitioning, wavelength, sub-carrier frequency, format, modulation depth, gating, coding, etc. The preferred separation technique involves the use of radio frequency sub-carrier modulating the downstream (from the central office) data. As described, half of the packet of light in each ONU""s laser timeslot is modulated at the central office, the other half is modulated at the ONU to provide the upstream data link. The same RF sub-carrier frequency is used for the up and down stream signals. Use of the technique for the transmission of video on demand signals is described. The nature of the modulator used in the ONU is not revealed.
Wood et al describe, in xe2x80x9cBidirectional fibre-optical transmission using a multiple-quantum-well (MQW) modulator/detectorxe2x80x9d, Electronics Letters, 1986, volume 22, pp. 528-529, a bidirectional optical fibre transmission system in which one end of the fibre link has an MQW modulator in place of the more conventional laser and detector pair. At the other end of the single-fibre was a laser, and a beam-splitter was used to divert the return optical signal to an avalanche photodiode receiver. To send data from the MQW modulator to the laser site, the laser was operated quasi-CW and the modulator, which included a gold mirror and was operated in reflection mode, used to intensity modulate the reflected light. In the opposite direction the laser was directly modulated and the MQW modulator was used as a photodetector. While no changes were made to the optical system to achieve reversal of the direction of information flow, it was necessary both to re-arrange the electrical drive components and to modify the DC biases of the laser and of the MQW device. It was thus not possible to have a fully duplex operation (i.e. simultaneous transmission in both directions). Half-duplex operation would have required some electrical switching and bias adjustment function to control the bias level and to effect the re-arrangement of the circuit in synchronism with the half duplex rate. In fact, no such electrical control arrangement is suggested in the paper.
R B Welstand, et al, describe in xe2x80x9cDual-Function Electroabsorption Waveguide Modulator/Detector for Optoelectronic Transceiver Applicationsxe2x80x9d, IEEE Photon, Tech. Lett. Vol.8, No. 11, pp 1540-1542, a bulk (non-MQW) electroabsorption modulator device which is useful both as a modulator and as a detector. The device is referred to as an optoelectronic transceiver. A suggested application of the device is in antenna remoting. Again, the transceiver requires an adjustable dc electrical bias to switch from modulator to detector operation. It is explained that the transmit mode and the receive mode can be remotely switched by control circuitry which can adjust the dc electrical bias with a switching time limited by the associated electronics. Separate experiments were performed to determine the optimum performance of the device as a modulator and as a photodetector. In the modulator assessment, different bias levels were used depending upon the type of performance required. Optimum bias levels of 2.0 and 2.93 volts were found. It was also explained that, in order to maintain high suboctave and multioctave spurious-free dynamic range modulator performance over temperature, active modulator bias control was required. In the detector experiments, the device was biased at 7.0 volts. There is no hint or suggestion that the device could provide both funtions simultaneously. Thus, again it is clear that full duplex operation was not possible.
The present inventors have discovered that it is possible to provide good performance over both transmission directions in an optical link in which an optical modulator is used both as a modulator and as a detector even when the modulator is subject to the same DC operating conditions in both operational modes. That is, as distinct from the above-identified teachings, systems according to the present invention do not need complex electrical bias control. Indeed, for very many commonly available modulators, perfectly acceptable system performance can be achieved with no bias at all, that is with zero bias.
The fact that a single bias level can be used for transmission in both directions makes possible full duplex operationxe2x80x94that is, simultaneous transmission in both directions. Of course, the invention also has application to systems which are not, or are not run, full duplex. The advantages of simplicity, compactness and low-cost of terminal equipment, which all follow from the invention, are all equally useful in systems run half-duplex, e.g. ping-pong (time-division multiplex) systems. Again, for the many installations, which can be run without electrical bias in the remote terminal, the fact that no local power supply is needed is a tremendous benefit. This is especially true in the field of antenna remoting.
Accordingly, in a first aspect the present invention provides a method of communicating between a first node and one or more further nodes in an optical communications system, the method comprising;
i) receiving at the first node, an optical signal transmitted from a first further node over an optical fibre link;
ii) detecting, at the first node, the optical signal using an electro-optic device and producing thereby an electrical signal representing information carried by the optical signal; and
iii) imposing, using said electro-optic device, an information-carrying modulation onto the received optical signal and feeding the thus modulated optical signal into an optical fibre link to transmit it to a second further node; wherein step ii and step iii are carried out with the electro-optic device subject to the same DC operating conditions. Preferably said first further node and said second further node are a single node. Preferably the DC bias voltage applied is zeroxe2x80x94that is no DC bias at all is applied. Preferably, the electrical signal is an RF or microwave signal.
According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided an antenna installation for a radio or microwave transmission system, the installation comprising: antenna means for transmission and reception of radio-frequency or microwave signals; optical input and optical output ports; an optical modulator arranged in the optical path between, the optical input port and the output port and operatively connected to the antenna means and arranged in use to receive RF or microwave signals therefrom and to impose a corresponding modulating onto light received via said input port and which passes to said output port; and optical detection means arranged in use to receive optical signals via said input port and operatively connected to the antenna means so that RF or microwave modulation present in said optical signals is coupled out to said antenna means from which it is then radiated.
Preferably the optical detector means are provided by the optical modulator.
Preferably the optical detector means and the optical modulator are electrically unbiased in operation.
Additionally it is preferred that the modulator is an electro-absorption modulator.
Further preferably the terminal is sited remotely from a base station or central office from which it receives optical signals carrying an RF or microwave component.
According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided an optical communications network featuring a remote terminal characterised in that said terminal comprises an electro-optic device that
(i) detects an incoming optical signal from a first portion of the optical communications network whilst simultaneously
(ii) modulating said incoming optical signal, said optical signal being transmitted to a further portion of the optical communications network.
Preferably the optical signals are analogue signals. In addition it is preferred that the optical communications network uses a frequency division multiplexing system.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided a method of operating an optical communications network, the method being characterised in that an optical signal is respectively received and modulated simultaneously by controlling a single electro-optic device.


A solid electrolytic capacitor that includes a capacitor element laminate, a first external electrode, and a second external electrode. The capacitor element laminate includes capacitor elements, cathode lead-out layers, and a sealing body. At least one capacitor element includes an anode foil, dielectric layers, and cathode layers. The first external electrode is connected to the anode foil exposed at the first end surface of the capacitor element laminate. The second external electrode is connected to the cathode lead-out layers exposed at the second end surface of the capacitor element laminate. A first cathode lead-out layer and a second cathode lead-out layer are both conductive paste layers, and uniformly extend from where the first cathode lead-out layer and the second cathode lead-out layer are disposed on the cathode layers to the second external electrode.

Patent Literature 1 (WO 2018/074408) discloses a solid electrolytic capacitor including a stack of multiple units each including a valve-action metal substrate having a porous layer on a surface, a dielectric layer on a surface of the porous layer, and a solid electrolyte layer on the dielectric layer, wherein a conductor layer is disposed between the units, at least one conductor layer includes metal foil, the units and the conductor layers are enclosed in an exterior resin, an end surface on an anode side of the valve-action metal substrate is directly connected to an anode external electrode on a surface of the exterior resin at one end surface of the solid electrolytic capacitor, and the metal foil is directly connected to a cathode external electrode on a surface of the exterior resin at the other end surface of the solid electrolytic capacitor.


A method for controlling a masking block in a monitoring camera. The method adjusts the masking block to precisely hide an image of a subject with its position and size changed when a zoom magnification is changed under a state where the masking block is set. In addition, the method adjusts a masking block to precisely hide a changed image of a subject when the monitoring camera is rotated to change the position of the image of the subject. In addition, the method measures and corrects a distance between a center axis of a CCD and an optical axis of a lens if the two axes are not coincident with each other. In addition, the method corrects an offset occurring due to an incorrect coupling between the monitor camera and a pan/tilter. Furthermore, a method for setting a masking block when a remotely uncontrollable monitoring camera is used is disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for controlling a masking block overlapped to prevent a particular subject requiring privacy protection from being exposed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with a digital video recorder (DVR) in common use, a monitoring camera installed at a place requiring security takes a photograph of a subject to be monitored and image data of the photographed subject can be stored in the DVR. However, since an image of the subject photographed by the monitoring camera can also include faces of unspecified individuals, denunciation on privacy infringement is being raised.
For the purpose of protecting privacies of the unspecified individuals, there has been proposed a method for displaying a masking block such as a mosaic image in an overlapped way. This method is a method for overlapping an image including the masking block for hiding only a subject with privacy to be protected with the image of the subject to be monitored (hereinafter referred to as "monitor image").
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a general monitoring camera 100 with its zoom magnification adjustable, including a zoom lens 10, a focus lens 11, an iris 12, a charge couple device (CCD) 13, an analog/digital (A/D) converter 14, a digital signal processor 15, a controller 16, and a memory 18.
In addition, the monitoring camera 100 further includes a masking block generator 17 for generating the masking block such as the mosaic image to be overlapped to hide an image of a particular subject included in a monitor image.
As shown in FIG. 2, when privacy protection for a subject A of subjects A, B, C, D and E, which are included in the monitor image to be photographed in a state where zoom magnification is 1 (zoom state=×1) is required, the controller 16 controls operation of the masking block generator 17 and the digital signal processor 15 such that a masking block of a certain size is overlapped with an image of the subject according to a key input by a user.
More specifically, when the user specifies a start position coordinate value (Xs, Ys) and an end position coordinate value (Xe, Ye) of a masking block to be overlapped using a mouse or a directional key, the controller 16 controls the masking block generator 17 to generate the masking block corresponding to the specified coordinate values and controls the digital signal processor 15 to overlap the generated masking block with the monitor image such that the subject A included in the monitor image is not displayed by the masking block.
In addition, for the purpose of photographing a place to be monitored at various angles, the monitoring camera 100 can be mounted on a pan/tilter 200, which is an apparatus for rotating the monitoring camera 100 vertically and horizontally, as shown in FIG. 3. The vertical rotation and the horizontal rotation are referred to as "tilting" and "panning", respectively.
When the monitoring camera zooms in from ×1 to ×4 in zoom magnification, or is tilted vertically or panned horizontally, the size and/or position of an image of the subject appearing in the monitor image are varied between after and before changing the zooming and, tilting and/or panning.
However, under a condition where the masking block for hiding the image of the particular subject included in the monitor image is overlapped with the monitor image, when a zoom lens of the monitoring camera is zoomed and/or the monitoring camera is rotated by the pan/tilter 200 such that the size and/or position of the subject appearing in the monitor image is changed, there is conventionally no method for precisely hiding the particular subject with the changed size and/or position by correspondingly changing the size and/or position of the masking block.
In addition, if the CCD 13 is not correctly mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB), for example, when a center axis of the CCD 13 is not coincident with an optical axis of the zoom lens due to an error in a manufacture process, as shown in FIG. 4, when the zoom magnification is increased, the image of the subject A positioned at the center of the monitor image in FIG. 2 is deviated from the center of the monitor image which is zoomed in while being enlarged in size. Accordingly, even when the size of the masking block is adjusted to correspond to the increased zoom magnification, the masking block with the adjusted size cannot exactly hide the subject deviated from the center of the monitoring image and appearing with its enlarged size.
As shown in FIG. 6, if the monitoring camera 100 is not correctly mounted on the center of the pan/tilter 200, a trace along which the image of the subject A included in the monitor image photographed by the monitoring camera 100 actually moves by the panning or tilting becomes an abnormal trace different from a moving trace in a state where the monitoring camera 100 is correctly mounted on the center of the pan/tilter 200. Accordingly, even when the position of the masking block is changed to correspond to a normal panning or tilting, the masking block with the changed position cannot exactly hide the subject moved along the abnormal trace.
In addition, when the monitoring camera is powered off, since information on a set masking block is not stored, a problem arises in that the user has to repeat a setting operation to display the masking block.
On the other hand, a remotely controllable monitoring camera can hide an image of a particular subject requiring protection of privacy as a remote user specifies the masking block using an input device such as a mouse or a directional key prepared in the DVR to control the monitoring camera. However, since there is conventionally no method for specifying the masking block for a remotely uncontrollable monitoring camera, there arises a problem of insufficient protection of privacy.

Method for controlling masking block in monitoring camera


A method and system is provided for reducing produced water disposal volumes utilizing waste heat generated by thermal oxidation. Waste heat generated by thermal oxidation can be used to vapourize excess water, and to treat and scrub the water vapour for final release into the atmosphere. The system can utilize excess heat remaining after thermal oxidation to produce water vapour.

Considerable volumes of waste water are generated in all industries as a result of processing. In some sectors, such as oil and gas, water is used to fracture reservoirs during wellbore completion activity and then disposed of. Water is also produced during well production along with hydrocarbons and, after separation, disposed of alone with impurities.
Hydrocarbon production typically has a component of water that is associated with its exploration, stimulation, and recovery. This water, which is produced with the hydrocarbon, is generally referred to as "produced water", and must be separated from the produced hydrocarbons to make the produced hydrocarbons salable and usable. With the majority of the high-producing wells and wells located in infrastructure-accessible areas moving into secondary and tertiary recovery modes, the amount of produced water production is increasing, making water disposal a significant component of operating costs. In addition, as producing wells are drilled further away from any infrastructure, trucking and disposal of the produced water present an economic, logistic and production challenge which makes some areas nearly impossible to explore.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide a method and system that reduces the volume of produced water, which reduces transportation and disposal costs and requirements.

System for reducing produced water disposal volumes utilizing waste heat


A contact is received in a contact center. For example, an incoming voice call or email is received by the contact center. A complexity of the contact is determined. The complexity of the contact is how difficult the contact will be to process by an agent. For instance, the agent may have to do additional work outside the call based on the type of contact. In response to determining the complexity of the contact, the contact is routed to an agent of the contact center and a compensation of the agent is adjusted for servicing the contact.

Contact centers use various metrics to quantify performance of agents in the contact center. For example, some contact centers use the average time that the agent takes to handle a contact as a metric to determine the agent's performance. This method of rating the agent's performance in relation to other agents works well when all the contacts are similar. However, in many environments, using these kinds of metrics results in some agents of the contact center being penalized for handling contacts that may be difficult.
For example, if an agent handles a high proportion of contacts that are difficult and thus takes a much longer time to handle the difficult contacts, the end result is that the agent's average time to handle a contact will be higher than another agent that is handling mostly easy contacts. In many cases, the agent that is handling the easier contacts may not be able to work the difficult cases because of lack of expertise. In this example, the agent who handles the easier contacts would be rated higher than the agent that takes the more difficult contacts. This can result in frustration and may ultimately lead to loss of key assets to the contact center. What is needed is a way to fairly account for the complexities of different types of contacts.

Managing transaction complexity in a contact center

Abstract: The systems and methods can also work for multiple contacts that are processed by multiple agents. In addition, the systems and methods will work with outbound contacts.


A control mechanism for an electrical appliance comprises a deformable or elastic control panel, for example, embodied as a frame of an electric cooking hob. Several piezo sensor elements are arranged under the control panel. The piezo sensor elements are arranged on the rear side of a printed circuit board, the opposite front side of said printed circuit board being arranged or fastened to the underside of the control panel in a planar manner. By determining the difference of the signals of the sensor elements arranged next to each other, it is possible to accomplish an extremely good and safe evaluation of a location where a finger is placed with light pressure on the control panel.

From publication DE 198 11 372 A1 it is known to arrange piezo sensor elements as control elements under the stainless steel frame of a cooking hob. These piezo sensor elements can be used to detect a control action by an operator who has placed a finger on the area above the piezo sensor element. The installation of the piezo sensor elements on the underside of the control panel, however, is relatively complex, as is its electric bonding.
Therefore, improved mechanisms and procedures for the piezo sensor elements on the underside of a control panel are required.

Control mechanism for an electrical appliance and evaluation method for the control mechanism


To provide a medical tray which can be made more compact upon discarding, the medical tray has a bottom portion, a side wall provided along an outer periphery of the bottom portion, and a pair of side wall deformation guiding portions provided at opposing positions of the side wall for guiding the side wall when the side wall is deformed into a convex state toward the bottom portion.

In medical diagnosis, medical testing and medical treatment involving the use of catheters, necessary medical devices such as a catheter and a guide wire, drug and so forth are set on a medical tray and then taken out, upon treatment, from within the medical tray and used. After the treatment, the medical tray is no longer necessary and is thus discarded into the trash.
The volume of a trash used in a medical field is determined to some extent based on the shape of the inlet of an incineration system, and the cost required for disposing such trash is in most cases determined in a unit of trash. Therefore, it is desirable to make the medical tray as compact as possible so that a greater number of medical trays can be placed into the trash. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-75511 is an example of a medical tray that can be made more compact upon disposal by folding the same such that a side wall is overlapped with a bottom face.
However, since a medical tray is generally configured such that a bottom portion thereof is wider than a side wall thereof and the area ratio of the bottom portion occupying in the overall medical tray is high, only if the side wall is folded, the medical tray is liable to be bulky in a trash like the medical tray disclosed in Patent Document 1.


The present disclosure describes systems and methods to transition a hearing prosthesis between different stimulation strategies. In accordance with one embodiment, a method is provided and includes operating a hearing prosthesis in accordance with a first parameter, receiving an instruction to operate the hearing prosthesis in accordance with a second parameter, and in response to the receiving, transitioning to operate the hearing prosthesis in accordance with the second parameter by operating the hearing prosthesis in accordance with at least one intermediate parameter. In accordance with another embodiment, the method includes transitioning to operate the hearing prosthesis in accordance with a third operation strategy characterized by alternating between periods of (i) operating in accordance with the first operation strategy, and (ii) operating in accordance with the second operation strategy, and increasing an amount of time in which the hearing prosthesis is operating in accordance with the second operation strategy.

Various types of hearing prostheses may provide persons having different types of hearing loss with the ability to perceive sound. Hearing loss may be conductive, sensorineural, or some combination of both conductive and sensorineural. Conductive hearing loss typically results from a dysfunction in any of the mechanisms that ordinarily conduct sound waves through the outer ear, the eardrum, or the bones of the middle ear. Sensorineural hearing loss typically results from a dysfunction in the inner ear, including the cochlea, where sound vibrations are converted into neural signals, or any other part of the ear, auditory nerve, or brain that is associated with and/or processes the neural signals.
Persons with some forms of conductive hearing loss may benefit from hearing prostheses such as acoustic hearing aids or vibration-based hearing devices. An acoustic hearing aid typically includes a small microphone to detect sound, an amplifier to amplify certain portions of the detected sound, and a small speaker to transmit the amplified sounds into the person's ear. Vibration-based hearing devices typically include a small microphone to detect sound and a vibration mechanism to apply vibrations corresponding to the detected sound to a person's bone, thereby causing vibrations in the person's inner ear, thus bypassing the person's auditory canal and middle ear. Vibration-based hearing devices may include bone-anchored hearing devices, direct acoustic cochlear stimulation devices, or other vibration-based devices. A bone-anchored hearing device typically utilizes a surgically-implanted mechanism to transmit sound via direct vibrations of the skull. Similarly, a direct acoustic cochlear stimulation device typically utilizes a surgically-implanted mechanism to transmit sound via vibrations corresponding to sound waves to generate fluid motion in a person's inner ear. Other non-surgical vibration-based hearing devices may use similar vibration mechanisms to transmit sound via direct vibration of teeth or other cranial or facial bones.
Persons with certain forms of sensorineural hearing loss may benefit from hearing prostheses such as cochlear implants and/or auditory brainstem implants. For example, cochlear implants may provide a person having sensorineural hearing loss with the ability to perceive sound by stimulating the person's auditory nerve via an array of electrodes implanted in the person's cochlea. The cochlear implant detects sound waves and converts them into a series of electrical stimulation signals that are delivered to the implant recipient's cochlea via the array of electrodes. Auditory brainstem implants may use technology similar to cochlear implants, but instead of applying electrical stimulation to a person's cochlea, an auditory brainstem implant applies electrical stimulation directly to a person's brain stem, bypassing the cochlea altogether. Electrically stimulating auditory nerves in a cochlea with a cochlear implant or electrically stimulating a brainstem may enable a person with sensorineural hearing loss to perceive sound.
Typically, at one or more times during the life of a hearing prosthesis, an audiologist or other professional configures or reconfigures the prosthesis with a particular set of operating parameters. Generally, these operating parameters are specially tailored to address the recipient's particular type of hearing loss. However, some recipients are hesitant to accept any new operating parameters because of potential discomfort experienced as a result of the new way in which the hearing prosthesis applies stimulation. Accordingly, it may be advantageous to mitigate this potential discomfort.

Transitioning operating modes in a medical prosthesis


An electrical connector (2) has terminal receiving cavities (48) in which are provided terminals (4). Each terminal (4) has a mating end (10, 12) and a conductor receiving end (26) for receipt of a conductor (6) therein. The terminals have insulating cover means (8) which are positioned over the conductor receiving ends (26). The insulating cover means are secured to the terminals by securing means (22) which are integrally attached to the terminals. The configuration of the insulating cover means is such to eliminate air voids provided in the terminal receiving cavities (48) of the connector (2), thereby protecting the terminals from the corrosion which can occur due to the moisture provided in the air voids condensing when the connector is exposed to temperature fluctuation.

Electrical connectors are known which receive in terminal receiving cavities thereof one or more electrical conductors having terminals terminated on ends thereof. Many of the terminals have wire seals which are disposed around each electrical conductor at the rearward end of the connector to provide a sealing arrangement between the conductor and the connector housing. One such connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,506, in which the conductor is sealingly engaged at locations forwardly and rearwardly from the location where the wire seal sealingly engages the sidewalls of the rearward cavity portion.
Sealing of the conductors is required when the terminals must be isolated from the surroundings. However, it is not required, nor is it practical in all situations to environmentally seal the conductors. In the alternative, if no type of sealing is provided, the air voids provided in the terminal receiving cavities can cause damage to the electrical connection which is effected between the terminals and the conductors. This is a particular problem when the connector is provided in an environment which has frequent temperature changes. As the temperature is reduced, the moisture provided in the air voids condenses onto the terminals and the conductors. The presence of moisture on the surfaces causes the deterioration of the terminals and the conductors, which results in an unreliable and essentially ineffective electrical connection between the respective terminal and conductors.
Consequently, in instances in which it is impractical or impossible to provide an effective wire seal, as was described, it would be beneficial to provide some type of protection to the area in which the electrical connection is effected. The protection should prevent the condensation of the moisture on the surfaces of the terminals and conductors, thereby insuring that the electrical connection between the terminals and the conductors is reliable over time.

Electrical terminal which has means to provide a reliable electrical connection