A method of refining cyber threat intelligence data, comprising: sending a first version of a threat list to a first cyber threat intelligence source and to a second cyber threat intelligence source; obtaining original first cyber threat intelligence data from the first source; obtaining original second cyber threat intelligence data from the second source; creating a second version of the threat list based on at least the original first cyber threat intelligence data and the original second cyber threat intelligence data; sending the second version of the threat list to the first source and to the second source; obtaining new first cyber threat intelligence data from the first source; obtaining new second cyber threat intelligence data from the second source; and creating a third version of the threat list based on at least the new first cyber threat intelligence data and the new second cyber threat intelligence data.

Persistently changing and evolving threats and threat agents are driving up risks and elevating the need for new security capabilities to counter new risks. These are largely related to a new breed of malicious software (malware) designed and distributed for criminal profit, state sponsored offensive activities (spying) or ideological offensive purposes (terrorism and sabotage). This software manifests itself as the most successful form of crime and "violence" on the Internet: identity theft, credit card and banking fraud, spamming, phishing, and denial of service attacks.
It is known that malware increasingly passes undetected through firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS) and anti-virus (AV) systems. In some cases, these controls are less then 30% effective against known (previously identified) malware; in virtually all cases, vendors now include "generic" signatures for heuristic analysis (guessing) as a safeguard against the (previously unidentified) threats they cannot keep up with.
In the early 1990's to early 2000's, malware developers wrote viruses and worms that wreaked havoc by destroying data and systems, but it was more of a game. They claimed credit for bigger and more malicious infections and took pride in watching information technology (IT) managers scramble to stop the damage and fix systems, at huge expense. At that time, malware developers would share and publish exploit code. Now there is money to be made and strategic advantages to be gained through malware exploitation. Exploit code is shared less and the best code is not shared at all, rather it is guarded like an industrial secret. Prior to release, malware code is carefully and professionally tested against all known AV/IDS signatures using publicly available tools, and released into the wild in secret. Malware code and testing is more the work of highly educated and well-coordinated teams than of brilliant loners working from basements.
What is therefore needed is a real-time system for information and intelligence sharing, in order to identify threat agents and threatened assets on the Internet rather than to perpetuate the endless cycle of vulnerability patching and signature scanning.

System and method for generating and refining cyber threat intelligence data


In an on-board communication system, an on-board device transmits processing start signals and detection signals from a plurality of antennas provided in a vehicle, and a portable device receives the processing start signals and the detection signals and transmits a response signal that includes information corresponding to the received detection signals. Position detection of the portable device is performed based on the response signal. The processing start signals start reception processing of the detection signals by the portable device. The detection signals are successively transmitted from the plurality of antennas, at a different timing for each of the plurality of antennas. Various vehicle processing, such as engine start processing, may be performed based on the detected position of the portable device, such as whether the portable device is inside or outside the vehicle.

Smart start systems are being utilized, which enable starting of motors installed in vehicles without the use of a mechanical key. Smart start systems are constituted by a portable device possessed by a user, and an on-board device that detects the position of the portable device when an engine start switch is depressed, or when the user grasps the door handle, and performs motor start processing or vehicle door locking or unlocking processing.
When the user depresses the engine start switch, the on-board device transmits wake-up signals from a plurality of LF transmitting antennas provided inside the vehicle, and activates the portable device. The activated portable device transmits to the vehicle a specified signal indicating its existence. When the on-board device receives the specified signal, it transmits, from the LF transmitting antennas, detection signals for detecting the position of the portable device. The portable device receives the detection signals transmitted from the various LF transmitting antennas, and measures the received signal strengths. The portable device then transmits information regarding the measured received signal strengths to the on-board device. The on-board device receives the information regarding the measured received signal strengths from the portable device, determines whether the portable device is inside the vehicle, and performs processing corresponding to the determination result. For example, if the portable device is positioned inside the vehicle, the on-board device performs motor starting processing.
In Publication JP-A-2010-236346 (P2010-236346A), an on-board device and a portable device are disclosed that can shorten processing time. The on-board device improves communication processing speed by simultaneously transmitting signals, with a phase difference provided, from a plurality of LF transmitting antennas inside the vehicle.
Meanwhile, in a conventional smart start system, when there are a plurality of portable devices, a portable device is activated for each LF transmitting antenna, and transmitting and receiving of information necessary for determining whether the activated portable devices are inside or outside the vehicle is separately performed for each portable device.
FIG. 11 is a timing chart that shows signals transmitted and received in conventional portable device position detection processing. In a vehicle, there are provided first through fifth LF transmitting antennas that transmit detection signals for detecting the position of portable devices, and an on-board device transmits various signals such as detection signals from each LF transmitting antenna, and thereby detects the position of the portable devices. There are six portable devices that constitute the smart start system, and the respective portable devices are labeled the first portable device through the sixth portable device. In FIG. 11, "on-board device" is a timing chart showing the processing execution state of an on-board control unit provided in the on-board device. In FIG. 11, "first LF transmitting antenna" through "fifth LF transmitting antenna" are timing charts showing the timing of transmitting signals from the various LF transmitting antennas, and "first portable device" through "sixth portable device" are timing charts showing the timing of transmitting signals from the first through sixth portable devices.
As shown in FIG. 11, in specified cases, the on-board device transmits a wake-up signal from the first LF transmitting antenna. In FIG. 11, the rectangular portions with downward-left hatching show the timing at which the wake-up signal is transmitted. The wake-up signal is transmitted toward the first through sixth portable devices. Each portable device for which the wake-up signal is successfully received is activated from a sleep state, and transmits to the on-board device an ID signal indicating its own existence. In FIG. 11, the rectangular portions with an x-mark show the timing at which ID signals are transmitted. In the example shown in FIG. 11, the first portable device and the second portable device have successfully received the wake-up signal, and each portable device is transmitting its own ID signal to the on-board device.
The on-board device, which has received the ID signals, separately sends detection signals to each activated portable device. For example, when the first portable device and the second portable device have been activated, the on-board device first sends detection signals to the first portable device from the first through sixth LF transmitting antennas. In FIG. 11, the solid black rectangular portions show the timing at which detection signals for detecting portable device position are transmitted. The first portable device measures the received signal strength of the detection signals, and transmits to the on-board device a response signal that includes the received signal strengths obtained by the measurements. In FIG. 11, the rectangular portions with downward-right hatching show the timing at which response signals are transmitted. The on-board device receives the response signal from the first portable device, and performs position detection for the first portable device. That is, the on-board device performs a determination of whether the first portable device is inside the vehicle or outside the vehicle. If the first on portable device is not inside the vehicle, the on-board device sends detection signals to the activated second portable device from the first through sixth LF transmitting antennas, and in the same manner performs position detection for the second portable device.
If the first portable device and the second portable device activated by the wake-up signal from the first LF transmitting antenna are not inside the vehicle, the on-board device next transmits a wake-up signal from the second LF transmitting antenna, and similarly transmits detection signals to the activated portable devices and, based on response signals from the activated portable devices, performs position detection for each portable device. In the example shown in FIG. 11, the third portable device has been activated through the wake-up signal transmitted from the second LF transmitting antenna, and the on-board device performs position detection for the third portable device.
Thereafter, in the same manner, wake-up signals are transmitted from the third through sixth LF transmitting antennas, detection signals are transmitted to the activated portable devices, and position detection is performed for the activated portable devices. The on-board device repeatedly performs the above processing until a portable device is detected inside the vehicle.

On-board communication system, and on-board device


A reading pen (or input and output hand held device) that includes both digital and mechanical features. Digital features include a scanner for scanning printed information, including "selecting" information, pictures, etc., for color and/or patterns, a microphone for receiving dictated information, a digitizer for digitizing the scanned and dictated information, a computer processor, a storage, a visual display (or visual output), a printer, and a speaker (or audible output). Mechanical features include a lens for magnifying the printed information being scanned and a marking or coloring instrument such as a highlighter for marking the printed information being scanned. One simple electrical feature is a light for illuminating the printed information being scanned.

The present invention relates generally to a "reading pen" that has both mechanical and digital functions. As to digital functions, the reading pen scans, digitizes, stores, and/or reads back instantaneously desired text, data, pictures, graphics and other material. As to mechanical functions, the reading pen may highlight (color) and magnify text, data, pictures, graphics and other material. As to simple electrical functions, the reading pen includes a light to illuminate the material being scanned.


A lithographic apparatus includes a stage to hold an object, the stage being moveable relative to a reference structure in a motion range; a magnet structure to provide a spatially varying magnetic field in at least a part of the motion range, the magnet structure being moveable relative to the reference structure and the stage; a first position measurement system to provide a first measurement signal corresponding to a position of the stage and/or the object in a measurement direction relative to the reference structure; a second position measurement system to provide a second measurement signal corresponding to a position of the stage relative to the magnet structure; and a data processor to correct the first measurement signal with a value dependent on the second measurement signal to provide a corrected first measurement signal representative of the position of the stage and/or the object relative to the reference structure in the measurement direction.

A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a substrate, usually onto a target portion of the substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, a patterning device, which is alternatively referred to as a mask or a reticle, may be used to generate a circuit pattern to be formed on an individual layer of the IC. This pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (e.g. including part of, one, or several dies) on a substrate (e.g. a silicon wafer). Transfer of the pattern is typically via imaging onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively patterned. Conventional lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at once, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through a radiation beam in a given direction (the "scanning"-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. It is also possible to transfer the pattern from the patterning device to the substrate by imprinting the pattern onto the substrate.
Generally, a lithographic apparatus includes a stage configured to hold an object, e.g. a substrate or patterning device, the stage being moveable relative to a reference structure. Positioning of the stage is done using a position measurement system to measure a position of the stage relative to the reference structure in a measurement direction, an actuator system to move the stage relative to the reference structure, and a control system or controller providing drive signals to the actuator system based on an output of the position measurement system.
It is desirable to position the stage in a direction in plane of the object, i.e. perpendicular to the radiation beam imparted to the object, for overlay. Overlay is the accuracy within which layers are printed in relation to layers that have previously been formed, and is an important factor in the yield, i.e. the percentage of correctly manufactured devices.
It is desirable to position the stage in a direction out of plane of the object, i.e. parallel to the radiation beam imparted to the object, for focus of the pattern, for instance onto the substrate, and determines the amount of blur of the pattern on the substrate.
It has been found that the positioning accuracy in one or more directions may not be satisfactory, especially not to meet future demands in lithography.

Lithographic apparatus and method for correcting a position of a stage of a lithographic apparatus


A system and method for sharing services provides for generating one or more trigger conditions associated with a process executable in a source container having a source namespace in a source pod, executing the process in the source container, and when a trigger condition occurs, interrupting the executed process and moving the process into a target pod by switching from the source namespace of the source container to a target namespace of the target pod. The trigger condition may be associated with a service executable in a target container having the target namespace in the target pod.

Conventional container technology uses so-called namespaces, a resource scoping mechanism that provides a level of isolation against neighbor containers. Collaboration of containers happens through well-defined interfaces. For example, each container can offer an interface, like a REST API, for providing services.
Today's application environments tend to use containers and microservices as an architectural paradigm. In that scheme, a particular selection of microservices running as containers are grouped together in a pod, thereby forming, for example, an application or solution. Communication between these containers running as a group in a pod is thus optimized through co-location, such that no physical network traffic is used.
One of the most popular container orchestration projects, kubernetes, uses a grouping mechanism to place interacting services next to each other. Technically, using container co-location allows for maximum efficiency in communication. To achieve this, namespaces can be shared across containers. That is, communication between two containers with shared namespaces is very much more efficient than without namespace sharing, e.g., shared namespaces allow for loopback communication, which is significantly more efficient than using the default container networking communication infrastructure, which employs virtual switches.
However, if a container running in a first pod with a first namespace requires the services of a second container running in a second pod with a second namespace, or in other words, if the services of the second container are to be shared between the two pods with different namespaces (i.e., no namespace sharing between these two containers), the two containers are not co-located and communication between the two containers requires logical or even physical network traffic, governed for example, by TCP/IP. Although using network traffic via TCP/IP to enable shared services between two pods may be used, this solution does not leverage intra-pod communication for optimizing communication.
One solution is to break up the shared service, such that an instance of the service is run in each pod, however this solution also requires changes in application breakdown, which is difficult to implement.

System and method for in-process namespace switching

International Business Machines Corporation


The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can facilitate analysis, processing, or reporting in connection with energy consumption data and/or emissions or sustainability factors associated with an automation process. In particular, the architecture can obtain process-level or machine- or device-level energy consumption data collected during execution of an automation process. The data can be analyzed or processed, with general or application-specific results output to a specified recipient and/or formatted (e.g., parsed, filtered, or transformed) according to a general or application-specific scheme.

The impact of environmental changes, current economic climate, and governmental pressures to reduce energy demands and greenhouse gas emission will force manufacturers to explore energy reductions on the plant floor. Generally, industrial energy consumption is impacted by two major variables—environmental changes and production output. Environmental changes (e.g., air temperature, humidity, time of day, and so forth) on facilities' energy consumption can be measured, trended, and controlled through energy tracking software and building automation systems. Production output's impact on energy consumption is generally estimated and not measured.
Currently, there are no direct incentives on the plant floor to reduce energy consumption since energy consumption is not measured against production volumes. Rather, energy costs are fixed allocations (generally, cost estimated at per month per square foot). Advances in automation can allow manufactures to make better production decisions based on energy availability, real time pricing, and emission caps but it does not go far enough. Moreover, various products and solutions provide energy and emission management from the facility or macro infrastructure (e.g., substations, switchgears, emission monitors). These tools apply production related information against the overall facility energy data to infer energy performance. Others focus energy and emission management on a building management level e.g., Data Centers, lighting, chiller and boilers.
To deal with current and future energy demand management issues, much more data relating to energy will need to become available. However, energy monitoring today is done at the facility level. Understanding energy usage patterns is accomplished by reviewing the logged data for obvious discrepancies or trends in consumption. The current demand management systems are nothing more than infrastructure max capacity load shedding applications. Newer systems may include the ability to transfer to on-site generation with auxiliary diesel or natural gas generators. Unfortunately, a general lack of energy information from production and utilities makes true demand management decisions impossible in today's environment.

Real time energy consumption analysis and reporting


Wind power installation for generating electrical energy with at least two components which respectively have sensors and actuators and comprise a control unit, each of the control units being connected to a data network and exchanging with the control units of the other components, signals for the operating conditions of the components, detected sensor values and/or control signals for the other components.

The present invention relates to a wind power installation for generating electrical energy, with at least two components which respectively have sensors and actuators and comprise a control unit. At present, known wind power installations have a central automation system. This system has a central control system which controls the wind power installation via special hardware components, such as for example SPS and bus connections. In this connection, specific functions and specially adapted software are used which make use of a manufacturer-specific functional scope. It is therefore not possible to replace individual pieces of equipment easily in the wind power installation. An alteration to one component necessitates complex alterations to the control system.
The object of the invention is to provide a wind power installation, in the control system of which no, or only small, adaptations are required when replacing individual parts of the wind power installation.

Wind power installation comprising at least two components and a data network


The present invention relates to a method of controlling common call connection and a media gateway for executing the method, which are capable of performing call connection control without a change in a control procedure under different protocols and the interworking of the different protocols. In the method of the present invention, each of a plurality of termination points connected by a call in the media gateway, each of a plurality of multimedia services transmitted and received between the terminations through connection setup of the call and each of a plurality of physical resources per multimedia service in the multimedia are defined as a termination, a stream and a channel, respectively, a call processing request based on one of various media gateway control protocols is mapped into a model defined as described above, and resource allocation, connection setup or release with respect to a channel belonging to a call and a termination are requested according to the type of the call processing request. Accordingly, the method of the present invention accommodates call processing based on various types of protocols.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to call processing in a media gateway and, more particularly, to a method of controlling common call connection and a media gateway for executing the method, which are capable of performing call connection control without a change in a control procedure under different protocols and the interworking of the different protocols.
2. Description of the Related Art
A media gateway is a device for converting the type of a traffic format according to a communication network. The media gateway functions to convert the Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) traffic of a circuit network into the Asymmetric Transfer Mode (ATM) or Internet Protocol (IP) traffic of a packet network chiefly in a next-generation packet voice transmission network. The media gateway is allowed to interwork with a softswitch by a control protocol (for example, Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), Megaco, etc.) and determines traffic flow paths to control calls. The transmission of information between a plurality of media gateways is performed using Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) in the case of IP, or using Permanent Virtual Connection (PVC) or Switched Virtual Connection (SVC) in the case of ATM.
For the control protocols of a Media Gateway, there exist a Megaco/H.248 of International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and MGCP of IETF. For a signaling protocol that can be installed when such a media gateway is used as a gateway, there exist Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) of IETF and H.323 of ITU-T. These protocols are installed in the media gateway, and function to control sources, such as a TDM channel and a RTP channel, the attributes of channels and call connection.
MGCP is a set of rules that governs how information is to be exchanged between a Media Gateway Controller (MGC) and a media gateway. As an MGC and a media gateway were separated from each other by dividing the function of a conventional media gateway in which a signaling plane and a control plane existed in the same system, MGCP was proposed to cope with the separation. MGCP has the functional characteristics of supporting the implementation of various services in the media gateway controller. MGCP is currently used widely on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and has defects in scalability and multimedia service support.
For the new control protocol of a media gateway having functions, such as scalability, to overcome the defects of the MGCP and support various VoIP services, there exists Megaco/H.248. For technology for supporting multimedia services under a Local Area Network (LAN) that does not guarantee Quality of Service (QoS), there exist H.323, which is currently used widely on IP networks to support telephony services. However, H.323 has disadvantages in simplicity and scalability, so that the advantages of SIP are highlighted. Currently, many companies have developed SIP and have applied and used SIP to and on IP networks. H.323 and MGCP have some disadvantages. However, H.323 and MGCP are currently used widely on IP networks to support Internet telephony services, and have advantages in view of service stability.
Since the various control protocols of a media gateway described above are being used, media gateway manufacturers must manufacture media gateways having structures capable of supporting the various protocols.
In particular, methods of controlling call processing are different from each other according to the control protocols of a media gateway, so that methods of controlling call connection in a media gateway are different from each other according to the control protocols. In the past, whenever a new protocol was installed in a media gateway, there was the inconvenience of changing a method of controlling call connection accordingly.
FIGS. 1a to 1e are views illustrating call connection control models based on various protocols. FIG. 1a is view showing a call connection model based on MCGP, which includes 'call' corresponding to a call, and 'endpoint' and 'connection' corresponding to channels that are connected to each other in the call. FIG. 1b is a view showing a call connection control model based on H.323 signal protocol, which includes 'call' corresponding to a call and 'channel' corresponding to a channel. FIG. 1c is a view showing a call connection control model, which includes 'context' corresponding to a call and 'termination' corresponding to a channel.
When call connection is performed between different services, call connection may be controlled by the interworking of different protocols. FIG. 1d is a view showing the interworking of H.323 and SIP. FIG. 1e is a view showing the interworking of H.323 and Megaco.
It can be appreciated from the above that call connection models are different from each other according to the protocols. Accordingly, inconvenience arises in that, whenever a new protocol is applied to a media gateway, a method of controlling call connection must be changed.
Since call connection control Application Program Interfaces (APIs) provided to control a media gateway are different from each other according to manufacturers, it has been further necessary to implement the porting of call connection control APIs according to protocols.
For reference, there has been proposed a VoIP gateway using SIP that can reduce control time by controlling media processing using SIP that is a specific type of call control protocol (Myeonggun LEE, "VoIP gateway design and implementation based on SIP," Proceedings (second volume) of Spring academic thesis conference of Korea Information Processing Society, Vol. 9, No. 1, Apr. 13, 2002).
The thesis discloses a method of controlling call based on a specific call control protocol, and does not solve the problems of the preceding technologies.

Method of control common call connection and media gateway for executing the method

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


An ornamental film reflects an image on the surface of the film with high image clarity and having a deep and glossy jet-black color like the outer appearance of pianos. The film is a multilayered film including at least one resin layer (A layer) containing a black component; and at least one substantially colorless and transparent resin layer (B layer); the A layer having a thickness of not less than 20 μm and not more than 300 μm; the B layer having a thickness of not less than 0.5 μm and not more than 200 μm; the A layer and the B layer being arranged adjacently to each other; surface roughness Ra of at least one side surface of the film being not less than 1 nm and not more than 25 nm.

In various applications such as cellular phones, personal computers, automobiles, televisions, household electrical appliances, pachinko and the like, ornaments and moldings employing a film are used. In these applications, white, metallic and black ornaments are used by preference, and particularly, an ornament film having a deep jet-black color like the outer appearance of pianos is now demanded because of increased preference of high class products.
As black sheets or containers, some proposals have been made. For example, in JP 6-031874 A, a multilayered sheet and multilayered container comprising a masking polyester resin layer, an adhesive resin layer and a polyolefin resin layer containing a shading pigment are proposed.
In JP 6-031875 A, a multilayered container which comprises a polyester resin layer, adhesive resin layer, masking resin layer and shading resin layer is proposed. Although these techniques slightly increase the gloss value of the sheet, the images reflected on the surface of the sheet do not have enough image clarity. Therefore, it was impossible to represent deep and glossy jet-black color like the outer appearance of pianos.
It could therefore be helpful to provide an ornamental film which reflects an image on the surface of the film with high image clarity and having a deep and glossy jet-black color like the outer appearance of pianos.


A walk-in refrigeration room system effective for providing and defining an interior chilled air space includes an outer wall layer, a framing layer defining a series of spaces having a depth of at least 6″ inside the outer wall layer, an outer layer of insulation that has been sprayed into the framing layer spaces, a middle wall layer, an inner foamboard insulation layer, a vapor barrier layer, an optional inner wall layer, a door to permit walk-in access to the interior chilled air space, and one or more functional openings to permit electrical connections and/or chilled air to enter or exit the chilled air space. The inner wall layer forms an air-tight envelope when any doors or windows in the inner wall layer are closed. The outer insulation layer and the inner insulation layer overlap in a manner that does not contain any insulation gaps or thermal bridges.

Convenience stores typically require refrigeration and/or freezing capacity and a source of cool air when ambient temperatures are too warm. Convenience stores also frequently require a source of hot water for store use and/or for use in an associated car wash, laundromat, etc., and may require a source of warm air when ambient temperatures are too cool.
Providing the required cooling and heating capacity can be expensive for convenience stores, or for any facility requiring both cooling and heating. While improvements have been made in energy-efficient cooling and heating, there are still gains and improvements to be made across the various technologies.
A need exists for energy efficient cooling and heating, particularly for use in a convenience store environment. The present invention addresses that need.

Energy efficient refrigerated room with optionally associated geothermal earth loop system


A vibration correction apparatus has a motion vector detection circuit for detecting a motion vector signal at a predetermined sampling period, a signal processing circuit for calculating a correction target value in accordance with the motion vector signal detected by the motion vector detection circuit, a correction system for correcting a motion in accordance with the correction target value, and a control circuit for generating a new correction target value through interpolation of the correction target value, shortening a correction period of correction by the correction system shorter than a sampling period of the motion vector, and making the period of correction by the correction system variable with each image pickup system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vibration correction apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
An image of a subject picked up with a compact video camera vibrates by hand vibrations or other vibrations, and this image becomes very unwatchable. Recently, video cameras using a high magnification factor lens have been used widely, so that a vibration becomes conspicuous particularly when the lens is located in a telephoto side.
A number of video cameras having a vibration correction function of correcting such a vibration have been proposed and manufactured.
For example, a video camera having a vibration correction function (hereinafter simply called a video camera) optically corrects a vibration of an image. To this end, the video camera is provided with an angular velocity sensor for detecting vibrations such as hand vibrations and a variable angle prism (VAP) for correcting the image in accordance with the detected vibration.
In such a video camera, a filtering process is performed in which after the d.c. components of a signal detected with an angular velocity sensor are removed and the signal is amplified, the low frequency components thereof are cut. With this filtering process, a target value of an apex angle of VAP is obtained, and in accordance with the target value, the apex angle of VAP is changed to optically correct a vibration of an image.
There is a video camera whose lens unit can be replaced, the lens unit being constituted of an angular velocity sensor and VAP. This video camera can broaden a photographing range.
However, a sensitivity of detecting a vibration with the angular velocity becomes lower in the lower frequency band. The phase in the low frequency band becomes not ideal because of signal processing or the like. Therefore, the conventional video camera gives a user a poor performance of vibration correction in the low frequency band. This problem becomes more conspicuous if the video camera uses a high magnification factor lens.
In view of this, it has been proposed to improve the performance of vibration correction in the low frequency band by using both a motion between fields of picked-up images and a motion detected with an angular velocity sensor. However, since the sampling period of detecting an image motion is slow and the target value of the apex angle of VAP is changed (renewed) at this period, an image with a low resolution is formed, or since the field period is slow, VAP may vibrate or produce sounds.
In order to solve these problems, the present applicant has filed a method of driving a correction system (VAP) at a shorter period than the motion detection period (JP-A-08-304672) to allow a smooth correction operation.
However, if an interpolator is used for raising an renewing period of the target value of an apex angle of VAP, the interpolator suitable for each television system is required because the sampling period of detecting an image motion changes with the television system. Similarly, in the case of a video camera having a detachable lens unit, if an interpolator is provided in the lens unit, the lens unit matching the television system is required.
With such a configuration, the apparatus structure becomes complicated, and the replacement of the lens unit becomes essential, resulting in a very cumbersome work.
With the further studies after the above-cited application was filed, it has been found that a precision of interpolation calculation is effected by an operation of a correction system so that the calculation precision is required to be improved or other measures are required to be performed.
It has also been found that there is some room in studying the optimization of the characteristics of a panning/tilting operation.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems. It is a first object of the present invention to allow a vibration correction operation to be always good and highly precise, irrespective of what type of an image pickup system is utilized.
In order to achieve the first object of the invention, a preferred embodiment discloses an image pickup apparatus comprising: image pickup means for picking up an image of a subject and generating an image signal; motion detecting means for detecting a motion of the image from the image signal generated by the image pickup means; generating means for generating a correction target value in accordance with a detection result by the motion detecting means; correcting means for correcting a motion of the image in accordance with the correction target value generated by the generating means; and control means for controlling to make variable a sampling period of the correction target value generated by the generating means, in accordance with an image pickup system or a television system.
It is a second object of the present invention to improve the characteristics of a correction system by shortening a correction period shorter than a vibration detection period, and to always allow a high precision correction system control irrespective of any operation state of the correction system.
In order to achieve the second object of the invention, a preferred embodiment discloses an image pickup apparatus comprising: motion vector detecting means for detecting a motion vector signal at a predetermined sampling period; first signal processing means for calculating a correction target value in accordance with the motion vector signal detected by the motion vector detecting means; second signal processing means for storing the correction target value calculated by the first signal processing means and outputting a correction target value obtained through time-division of the stored correction target value until the next sampling time, in accordance with the motion vector signal detected by the motion vector detecting means; and optical vibration correcting means for correcting a vibration of an image in accordance with the correction target value time-divided by the second signal processing means.
It is a third object of the present invention to optimize the control of the correction system during the panning/tilting and camera fixed operations.
In order to achieve the third object of the invention, a preferred embodiment discloses an image pickup apparatus comprising: motion detecting means for detecting a motion vector of an image on an image pickup plane; vibration detecting means for detecting a vibration amount of the image pickup apparatus; first signal processing means for calculating a first correction target value in accordance with a vibration amount signal detected by the vibration detecting means; optical vibration correcting means for correcting a vibration of an image; and second signal processing means for calculating a second correction target value by weighing the motion vector detected by the motion detecting means, in accordance with both or one of output signals from the vibration detecting means and the first signal processing circuit.
Another object of the present invention to improve the precision of a correction system by shortening a correction period shorter than a vibration detection period, and to allow a necessary interpolation process or the like to be performed smoothly and at high precision.
The other objects and features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


A media tray includes a cleaning mechanism that is fed into the media feed system of a printer automatically when the media tray is emptied of print media and then retracted when the media tray is accessed.

Many imaging devices, such as printers, photocopiers, and multi-function imaging devices, store a supply of media sheets, such as paper sheets, in one or more internal trays. The sheets are vertically stacked within the trays by a user or service technician. Media trays are sized and configured to hold hundreds or thousands of sheets. A media feeding system is used to extract the top sheet from the stack of print media in the tray and deliver the top sheet into a media transport system of the printer.
Media feeding systems often utilize rollers or similar structures to frictionally engage the print media and move the print media in a desired direction. Over time, paper dust, debris, and contaminants can build up on the rollers of the feed system. This dust buildup can degrade the frictional properties of rollers of the media feed system and, as a result, negatively impact performance. As a result, the media feeding systems of imaging devices require periodic cleaning to remove the dust and contamination from the rollers in order to maintain consistent and reliable feed performance.
Some previously known imaging devices require that the media feed system be cleaned manually by an operator of the device. Typically, this manual cleaning requires that the operator be able to identify the need to clean the rollers and have the knowledge to access the feed rollers for cleaning. Other previously known imaging devices have been configured to utilize a cleaning sheet that is fed through the system to clean the rollers. Using a cleaning sheet requires dedicated times when the printing operations are stopped so the cleaning sheet can be fed through the system and can generate faults, which have to be cleared before resuming operations. Some imaging devices have been equipped with dedicated roll cleaners that are added to the feed system. The roll cleaners are continuously in use and can add cost and complexity to the media feed system.
Cleaning rollers in a media feeder of an imaging device without requiring operator intervention or device downtime would be beneficial.


A multilayer plastic film has a series of component layers and bonding layers bonding said component layers together, the component layers including an inner hydrolysed ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVOH) layer, an adjacent polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) layer, and outer layers comprising a polyolefin homopolymer, copolymer or ionomer.

There is a need in the food packaging industry for packing film with improved structural integrity and which can be made into bags. Food products such as cheese, processed meat and raw meat are preferably packed by using film with high barrier resistance to moisture and oxygen. A typical way of protecting such food products from moisture and oxygen is by shrink packaging in high barrier film. A useful film with good moisture and oxygen barrier properties for this purposes comprises a copolymer of vinylidene chloride with a monomer such as methyl acrylate, vinyl chloride or other unsaturated monomer or hydrolysed ethylene vinyl acetate (EVOH) or any other barrier polymer which can be fabricated in the form of film and has good oxygen and moisture barrier properties.
It is known to provide a multilayer shrink film with the following structure, namely a first outer layer, a bonding layer, a barrier layer, a further bonding layer and a further outer layer to achieve the desired properties. A known multilayer film of this kind having good moisture and oxygen barrier properties for use in packaging food products has a core layer of a barrier polymer such as a copolymer of vinylidene chloride or hydrolysed ethylene vinyl acetate (EVOH) or other barrier polymer. A multilayer plastic film from which bags are to be manufactured must meet a number of criteria, such as being heat sealable, delamination resistant, and have good moisture and oxygen barrier properties. For heat shrinkable uses, the film must also be capable of shrinking from about 30 to about 50 percent at 90 degrees C. in both longitudinal and transverse directions. The film should also be capable of withstanding physical abuse during transportation.
A significant property of EVOH and polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) based films is their barrier resistance to oxygen and other gasses. Compared to PVDC based films, EVOH based films have better barrier properties at low relative humidity, i.e. 30 to 40 percent, than commonly used multilayer films.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,742 (Oberle et al) describes a multilayer cook-in film with six layers. The middle barrier layer is of EVOH, selected because of its superior oxygen barrier properties compared to PVDC.
However, EVOH is hydrophillic, and therefore EVOH based films are moisture sensitive. As the moisture content of an EVOH based film increases, the permeation rate increases, i.e. barrier properties decrease, which is in contrast to PVDC based films because the permeability of PVDC does not vary with humidity, i.e. PVDC is not moisture sensitive. Accordingly therefore, EVOH based films are often produced in a multilayer structure or buried under moisture barrier materials such as polyolefins or sometimes with polyamides in order to protect an EVOH layer from moisture.
If a material with a much higher barrier layer for moisture compared to polyolefins or polyamide is used to protect an EVOH layer in a multilayer film from both the environmental and product sides thereof, the barrier properties and consequently the shelf life of the product can be increased significantly.
However, U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,562 (Yoshikawa et al) teaches that, in multilayer barrier films, a barrier layer of crystalline polymers such PVDC or EVOH has a tendency to crack if the thickness exceeds 15 microns, due to low temperature brittleness of these polymers.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a multilayer plastic film which is at least substantially free from the problems referred to above.


Agitator provided with floating element with blades applied in washing machine, more particularly, it's about an agitator of the type applied in clothes washing machines, preferentially with top load, conventionally provided with a water reservoir or tank, a perforated basket with pulsing/alternated spin movement, configuring the place where the clothes are accommodated; the agitator element is from type installed at the bottom of the basket and in the center of the same, and it can be followed by an accessory, provided with vertical blades, integrated to the pulsing rotating system of the basket, the agitator includes a base sector with skirt shape configuration which surface is multi-perforated and provided with radial threads, equidistantly distributed; from the interior face of the plan is developed the tubular body that, along with the lateral wall of the skirt configures space for the assembly of a floating element with radial vertical blades dimensioned for acting at the respective radial threads; referred floating element has a vertical displacement course foreseen between the internal face of the surface and the bumper ring appropriately fixed at the base of the tubular body for allowing the blades to adopt a projecting position in projection or a collected position with regards to the surface based on the existence or not of water inside the reservoir/basket of the clothing washing machine.

It's general acknowledgment that the contemporary machines are manufactured in two basic models: front load or top load. The top load machines receive the clothes in a cylinder vertically assembled, with a central agitator and having an articulated lid at the superior base. The front load machines, in turn, have an horizontally assembled cylinder, without central agitator, but with a rotating basket which washes the clothes by tipping; it has a front airtight door provided with glass viewer.
The object of the present description is applied to top load type machines that, in general, are supplied with a water reservoir which is fixedly assembled, provided with a perforated basked with alternated/pulsing movement where the clothes are accommodated. At the bottom of the basket and at the center of the same the agitator element is assembled, integrated to the pulsing rotation system of the machine which also includes a washing system comprising power feeding mechanism assembled below and outside the reservoir which transfers the power necessary to the washing, as well as the duct for water inflow and outflow.
The agitating elements, in turn, present different configurations and they are very important for these types of washing machines, because, along with the pulsing movement of the basket, they promote a water eddy able to move the clothes in different directions, making possible to the detergent and water perform the washing along with the friction between the clothes. A preferential standard for washing a load of clothes, produced by the pulsing movement of the basket and agitator, specially by the fins practiced on the agitator and, in some cases, also at the internal surface of the basket, comprises the action of revolving the clothes items initially downward (to the bottom of the basket), then radially outside (against the basket's wall) and finally upward, along the peripheral wall of the basket, completing a cycle which is continued and repeated during a certain time of the washing program.
In a general modality, the agitator comprises a base portion, generally in a cylinder shape, which from the center, a central tower is elevated, so that, both at base surface and peripheral surface of the tower can have multiple fins or external projections, generally distributed in a radial way.
The clothes washing machines market reveals a certain diversity of models of fins applied both at the agitator and basket's wall, because the shape and quantity of them, applied to the system, have big influence on the type of wash that the machine can perform, in other words, which type of clothes that model of machine is able to wash, as well as the effectiveness of that machine's washing.
It's known, among the qualified ones, that the height of the fins is also object of studies, because higher fins, in other words, more elevated with regards to the surface of the base and tower, have a good function during the clothes washing, in other words, they produce bigger agitation of the water and, consequently, bigger movement and friction between the clothes, but they are not a good option during the clothes' centrifugation or pre-drying, because, in this step, the higher fins can damage or even shred some pieces which tissue is fragile or more delicate.
For this reason, is common to find washing machines which fins present dimensioned height between the average and low graduation, up to 8 mm, aiming to produce certain agitation during the washing, at a rate of aggressiveness which objective the cleaning of the clothes, avoiding, however, that when drying, the height of the fins does not damage the tissue during the pre-drying (centrifugation). However, the average height of the fins does not meet a wide range of tissues which need bigger efforts during washing.
Therefore, it's agreed between the manufacturers that the average height, currently employed on clothing washing machines, is not the ideal one, mainly when it's about washing clothes which tissues have bigger resistance to deceleration, such as jeans, wool coats, sneakers and others and then, there is not a constant search for improvements related to this subject.
An example is found on document n. PI 9601531-4, of claimant's own ownership, which is presented one or more mobile devices or accessories to be fit in corresponding inferior fins of the agitator. The referred mobile devices are coupled when it's necessary to wash clothes of more resistant tissue and/or sneakers which can be withdrawal after accomplishment of the service, when the fins come back to their original configuration.
Although the effectiveness on meeting the users' needs, it's noted that the mobile devices depend, necessarily, on the action of the user for their installation and withdrawal, which is not always performed by the same who, when not installing the mobile devices, does not use the ideals proposed by the object.
Another document, n. PI 983785 presents means which aim to obtain the result of a less aggressive wash when on pre-drying or centrifugation, comprising, for such, a perforated basket for clothing containment and inside a tank, being such tank vertically displaceable with regard to the wash liquid level in the tank, between centrifugation and an agitation position, where it remains rotationally stationary. Such characteristics reveal a direction for reducing the efforts over the clothes during pre-drying, but it depends on a complex mechanism for vertically moving the basket, employing gears and other components of addable costs to the final value of the machine.
Verifying the current state of the art, it was certified that some clothes washing machines known by 'wash-dry', in other words, from the type which use devices for drying the clothes with hot air after washing, are equipped with mobile fins internal to the washing basket, and where the said fins or ribs are elevated or collected with regards to the basket's wall, aiming to detach the clothes from the wall soon after the centrifugation, in other words, just before starting the hot air drying, providing a better clothes accommodation.


A corner system for log cabin siding construction over building frame walls and corners gives the appearance of full log construction. Elongate wall siding pieces are applied over the walls with a flat inner side facing the wall and a curved outer side for simulated "log" appearance. Corner siding pieces are applied over the corners with wall covering portions in horizontal alignment with wall siding pieces, and projecting log end portions extend beyond the building corner. Each corner siding piece is cut from a single piece of wood without a joint or seam and with continuous grain between the wall covering portion and the projecting log end portion of a corner siding piece. Wall siding pieces and corner siding pieces are formed with edge configuration of overlapping "ship-lap" siding or interfitting tongue and groove siding.

In conventional building construction with log cabin siding, elongate siding pieces are formed with a flat inner face for covering the walls of the building frame, and a rounded or curved surface on the outer face to simulate the log cabin appearance. Such simulated log cabin siding is used over stud frame buildings, post & beam frames, and other conventional framing systems. An aesthetic problem with log cabin siding is that the elongate fractional simulated "logs" or slabs do not give the appearance of authentic log construction at the corners where the fractional "log" siding pieces terminate. As a result a variety of cornering systems, simulated log cabin corner units, and "false tenon" structures have been devised to present the appearance of full log cabin construction for simulated log cabins, log houses, and log cabin siding construction generally. The prior art references of which applicants are aware were found in a search, conducted in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Class/Subclass 52/233.
According to one approach described for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,627,204 (Smith) and 4,320,610 (Rupp), simulated log end pieces or full log end pieces are arranged in a vertical column and secured to the corner of the building to simulate full log corner joints. Similarly in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,096,674 (Koller et al.) and 2,005,921 (Reither) false mortise and tenon structures may be secured to a building corner to present the appearance of full log structures.
According to another arrangement set forth in the Felser U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,592,182 and 4,640,069, the simulated log cabin siding pieces alternately extend beyond the building corner. Elongate blocks are secured to the siding pieces or slabs where they project beyond the corner to give the appearance of full log construction. A disadvantage of this construction arrangement is that extra labor is required and a visible joint or seam remains in the log end projections without continuity of the grain. In the King U.S. Pat. No. 1,996,735, thin or narrow blocks are secured to ends of the siding pieces.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,973 Marklund et al. describe a more conventional log cabin construction with self supporting half round logs terminating in full round ends. In this respect Marklund et al. do not address the particular problems of log cabin siding construction over conventional frame buildings. Other examples of conventional log cabin construction are found in the Farmont U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,500 and the Post U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,647.


A light efficiency enhancing optical device is disclosed, including a cholesteric liquid crystal film, a quarter wave plate disposed on a light out-going surface of the cholesteric liquid crystal film and an optical compensating film disposed on a light out-going surface of the quarter wave plate, wherein the optical compensating film includes a positive birefringence C-plate, and a composite optical compensating film with combination of the optical compensating film and the quarter wave plate has in-plane phase retardation R0 of 100 nm˜170 nm and out-of-plane phase retardation Rth of 0 nm˜400 nm.

Since LCD is a non-self-emissive display, a back light unit (BLU) is designed to be a light source of a LCD and will consumes about 50˜70% of battery power of a portable 3C device depending on the nature and design of the devices.
A conventional LCD functions by utilizing a polarized light switching mechanism to display images. Polarization occurs as natural light passes through a polarizer, which absorbs one of the polarization states and pass through the other polarization state of the light. In this process, substantially more than half of the incident light is absorbed by the absorptive polarizer. This makes a system low in energy efficiency.

Light efficiency enhancing optical devices

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A permanent magnet generator consisting of a stator including a pendulating master permanent magnet and a push button. The master permanent magnet is restricted in its oscillation. The master permanent magnet is oriented with a predetermined polarity towards a rotor. The rotor including a plurality of oscillating slave permanent magnets and an axel. The slave permanent magnets are equivalently spaced around an outer edge of said rotor. The slave permanent magnets are restricted in their oscillations and the slave permanent magnets are oriented with the predetermined polarity the outer edge of the rotor. When the push button is engaged, the master permanent magnet and a first of the plurality of the slave permanent magnet's magnetic fields come into contact and repel each other, driving a circular rotation of the rotor. When the circular rotation of the rotor aligns the master permanent magnet and the plurality of the slave permanent magnet's magnetic fields in sequence.

Due to the high cost of energy production and high demand of energy consumption internationally, efficient energy conversion methods have been of great interest to the energy conversion industry. Magnetic motors used for energy conversion are commonly employed, frequently using permanent magnets within the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,365 (Presley) discloses a magnetic motor comprising three equivalently spaced permanent magnets stationed on a rotating disk. The rotating disk is coupled with two adjacently aligned permanent magnets that are stationed on a rocking bracket to repel the rotating disks magnets. Displacement of the bracket magnets is performed by an actuator that is powered from a separate electrical input. This is responsible for the initial and continued force.
U.S. Pat. No. 10,326,350 B2 (Sadler) discloses a magnetic motor comprising one or more magnets stationed on a rotating wheel. The rotating wheel is coupled with a shielded magnet that is stationed on a lever moving back and forth. Displacement of the shielded magnet a pulsed device that is powered from a separate electrical input. This is responsible for the initial and continued force.
However, these systems require some form of electrical power input, which render the device useless in power outages. Additionally, these systems often suffer energy conversion losses in the form of cogging torque, which is derived from opposing magnetic fields approaching one another prior to direct alignment.
There exists a need for a permanent magnet generator system that does not require additional electrical power input and reduces energy conversion losses in the form of cogging torque.


The present invention discloses a system for testing microfluid which is made with a disposable disc. The high sensitivity, high sensing accuracy, and quick response microfluidic disc is demonstrated in the present invention. It is note that easy to test microfluid without traditional detecting method, and then reduce energy and simplify procedure. Furthermore, to additive the microfluidic disc is useful to enhance blood typing, and hence raising the sensitivity by the video recognition of blood agglutination.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to the field of fluid testing system, and more particularly, to a multichannel microfluidic disc testing system and utility thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays, the examination of specific biofluid is often needed as a basis for diagnosis in biomedical field. Currently, one of the known blood identification methods is microplate method, which has been used extensively in various medical examinations.
This method requires manual operation on a 96-well plate; therefore, it consumes a lot of time, manpower, specimens and reagents. In all kinds of medical products and researches, such as blood test, body fluid test and medical reagent test, etc, biofluid is often used to run the test, for example, blood typing test, disease diagnostic test and the screening of medicament in development. Generally speaking, these specimens and reagents tend to be few, expensive and are not easy to obtain. If these specimens and reagents are over-consumed and are not run correctly, it will cause failure in examination and prevent the next correct medical treatment from happening; it will also cause failure in the experiment and the development of medical treatment or medicine will be delayed. In order to protect human bodies from being drawn a large quantity of blood or specimens because of the need of test, accurate test and analysis with a small quantity of specimens is extremely important.
The researches of microfluidic method have been used extensively on various kinds of medical tests. Jeong-gun et al. presented their patent "CENTRIFUG MAGNETIC POSITION CONTROL DEVICE, DISK-SHAPED MICRO FLUIDIC SYSTEM INCLUDING THE SAME, AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE COMPACT DISK-SHAPED MICRO FLUIDIC SYSTEM" and disclosed a disposable multichannel microfluidic plate that can be used to run fluid identification. Per Andersson et al. presented their patent "SEPARATION STRUCTURE" and disclosed a disposable multichannel microfluidic plate that can be used to run fluid identification. The following are some drawbacks of the common technological principles of multichannel microfluidic plate: it only runs single test; it requires a large quantity of fluid sample and reagents; it is hard to analyze; it is difficult to test and the test strips are complicated to produce and prepare, etc. These drawbacks have lead to high cost and long testing hours; especially the single test can only focus on one testing target, which is really minute and complicated. Therefore, it is still hard to use the current methods extensively in the fields of medical research, biochemical analyses and clinic diagnoses.
Based on this, the important target of current industries is to develop a biofluid testing system that can simplify these multiple steps and examine many items simultaneously to lower the usage of a large quantity of fluid samples and reagents, to analyze easily, to examine conveniently and to produce and prepare the test strips simply, thus, the cost and the working hours can be lowered.

Microfluid testing system with a multiple-channel disc and utility thereof


A unified device design is described. In an example, a user device can be designed to be permissibly operable with at least two different service providers such that the user device is associated with static features that are applicable for each of the at least two different service providers and the dynamic features that are applicable for individual ones of the at least two different service providers. In an example, a user device can be associated with a subscriber identity module (SIM) that is associated with a service provider. Based at least in part on using a permission to determine that the service provider is one of the at least two different service providers, a subset of dynamic features that are associated with the service provider can be accessed for configuring the user device with the subset of the dynamic features corresponding to the service provider.

Generally, user devices are locked to prevent users of a service provider (e.g., a telecommunications carrier) from using their devices with other service providers. That is, a service provider can lock a user device by "SIM locking," "carrier locking," or "network locking" the user device to a specific service provider such that the user device is operable only with the service provider and settings on the user device are optimized for the service provider. This prevents the user of the user device from terminating their service with the service provider early and using the user device with another service provider (e.g., with less expensive services, better coverage, etc.). Further, SIM locking or network locking can be useful to prevent theft and fraud. For example, a device that is locked is less attractive to theft if it is not useable on another service provider.


The invention provides a machining center having a first main spindle unit and also a second main spindle unit with a ram shaft attached to a vertical machining center. A machining center 1 comprises a rotary table 20 that moves in the direction of an X-axis on a bed 10, and a cross rail 40 supported by a column 30 and moving in the direction of a Z-axis. A first main spindle unit 60 is attached to a saddle 50 supported by the cross rail and moving in the direction of a Y-axis. The first main spindle unit 60 is equipped with a first main spindle 70 that rotates around a B-axis. A second main spindle unit 100 disposed between the first main spindle unit 60 and the saddle 50 is equipped with a ram shaft 110 that moves in the direction of a W-axis and a turning head or a milling head that is replaceably attached to the leading end of the ram shaft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machining center comprising, in addition to a first main spindle, a second main spindle having a long protruding length for providing turning and milling processes to inner bore portions and the like of a work.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-66430 (patent document 1) discloses an arrangement of a complex five-axis finishing machine, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-150256 (patent document 2) discloses a machining center equipped with a turning head disposed separately from a main spindle head.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-130423 (patent document 3) discloses a so-called angle head that converts the rotary force of a tool shank to a right-angle force and transmits the same to a tool.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 11-114759 (patent document 4) discloses a machine tool having a two-step feed driving system and equipped with a main spindle head for replaceably attaching tools on a leading end of a ram, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-966 (patent document 5) discloses a similar type of machine tool.


A meat skinning machine has a frame, an elongated skinning blade with a cutting edge, a rotatable gripping roll positioned adjacent the blade, and a motor operatively connected to the gripping roll. The skinning machine is also provided with a pivotal deflector plate for deflecting a meat product upwardly as the product is fed past the blade. The angle of the deflector plate is adjustable to accommodate different meat products and different operators. In one embodiment, the distance between the deflector plate and the skinning blade is also adjustable. The upward deflection of the meat product allows the product to be flipped forwardly to a position in front of the skinning blade for additional feeding past the skinning blade, without the operator reaching across the skinning blade to pick up or grasp the meat product.

Meat skinning machines adapted to remove skin or membrane from meat, poultry or fish products have long been in existence. These machines include an elongated skinning blade with a sharp cutting edge which is positioned adjacent a gripping roll having a plurality of teeth thereon for pulling the meat product towards the cutting edge of the blade. For certain meats, the meat product must be passed by the cutting edge of the blade several times to completely remove the skin or membrane. With prior art skinning machines, the operator of the meat skinning machine reaches over the blade after the first pass of the meat product, picks up the meat product and brings it back to the forward side of the blade, and turns or flips the meat product before the product is passed a second time over the skinning blade to remove additional skin or membrane. Such operation presents hazards to the operator, since the meat product is typically cold and operator's hands are cold, thus inhibiting the operator's dexterity in handling the meat product. Also, some meat products, such as livers, are heavy and hard to handle, thereby increasing the risk of injury to the operator. Furthermore, the physical characteristics of the operator, such as his or her height and weight, may increase the hazards due to stretching.
More recently, rigid deflector plates have been employed on skinning machines to reduce the risk of injury to the operator. The prior art deflector plates are fixed at a specific angle relative to the blade, and direct the meat upwardly away from the blade after a portion of the meat product passes the cutting edge of the blade. The deflector plate thus allows the operator to flip the meat product, without grasping, to a position in front of the skinning blade such that the second pass of the meat product across the skinning blade can be more readily accomplished with decreased chance of injury to the operator. However, since the prior art deflector plates are not adjustable, different sized operators still are presented with risk of injury. Also, the fixed angular relationship of the deflector plate relative to the blade does not accommodate different types of meat.
Therefore, a primary objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved meat skinning machine having a pivotal deflector plate.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of a deflector plate for a meat skinning machine which can be set at various angles relative to the skinning blade of the machine.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of a deflector plate for a meat skinning machine which can be moved forwardly or rearwardly so as to adjust the distance between the plate and the cutting edge of the skinning blade of the machine.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of a method for skinning meat on a meat skinning machine wherein the angle of a deflector plate is pivotally adjusted relative to the blade prior to feeding the meat into the cutting blade of the machine, such that the meat is deflected upwardly by the deflector plate as the meat passes the cutting blade.
Yet another objective of the present invention is the provision of a deflector plate for a meat skinning machine which is economical to manufacture, and durable and safe in use.

Meat skinning machine with pivotal deflector plate


A driver protection circuit for a push-pull type discharge lamp comprises a discharge lamp with two input electrodes, a driver circuit having two transformer units and two driver units, and a protection mechanism. Two transformer units are respectively connected to the two input electrodes and provide an opposite-phase push-pull type driving power. The front ends of the transformer units are respectively connected to the driver units which are parallel connected to a power source. The combination of the driver unit, the transformer unit, and the input electrode is defined to be a high voltage output section. The protection mechanism has two protection units respectively assigned to the high voltage output sections and can receive an abnormal signal of the corresponding high voltage output section and synchronically transmits the abnormal signal to two driver units and makes the driver circuit simultaneously stop or pause outputting power to the two input electrodes.

To effectively promote the driving power for discharge lamps and improve the optical performance of discharge lamps, a push-pull type inverter inputs driving powers with a 180 degree phase difference therebetween to two input electrodes of a discharge lamp. Such an approach has been an important technical means in discharge lamp technologies. There are R.O.C. patent publications of No. 557073 and No. 557074 disclosing related technologies.
To obtain the sufficient brightness of liquid crystal panels and achieve the uniformity of the brightness on liquid crystal panels, the push-pull type inverter is usually used to drive multiple discharge lamps. In such a case, the conformability of the currents/the performance characteristics of the lamps is critical. Increasing the number of lamps will increase the number of driver units and will also increase the size of the circuit board of the driver units. Thus, the complexity and cost of fabricating the circuit board rises. There is a piezoelectric conversion/driver unit appearing in the market, wherein a driver unit is used to drive a conversion unit, a plurality of piezoelectric units and a plurality of loads. There are R.O.C. patent publications of No. 559433, No. 588917 and patent No. I242747 disclosing related technologies.
The driver circuit of the discharge lamp usually has arc discharge because of the imperfect contacts, the ambient temperature and humidity and the damaged parts. Therefore, there are various arc discharge protection devices appearing in the market. Refer to FIG. 1 a diagram schematically showing the architecture of a conventional arc discharge protection circuit. As shown in FIG. 1, a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) controller 10, a switch 22 and a voltage booster 24 are arranged before each discharge lamp 26 and used to control the driving power transmitted from a power source to the discharge lamp 26. The region between one switch 22 and the input electrode of the corresponding discharge lamp 26 is defined to be a high voltage output section 20. Each high voltage output section 20 has an arc discharge protection device 30 used to detect arc discharge. Once detecting a signal of arc discharge, the arc discharge protection device 30 sends a power-shutting signal to the PWM controller 10 to entirely stop or pause outputting driving power to the discharge lamp 26. There are R.O.C. patent publications of No. 591976 and No. 591839 disclosing related technologies.
However, when the abovementioned arc discharge protection device is applied to the abovementioned push-pull type inverter or the abovementioned multiple-load driving circuit, it cannot perform an appropriate switch-off action when one single lamp of a liquid crystal panel or the transformer thereof is abnormal. For example, when the abovementioned arc discharge protection device is applied to the abovementioned multiple-load driving circuit, and when any one of the loads is abnormal, the arc discharge protection circuit switches off the multiple-load driving circuit; thus, all the lamps of the liquid crystal panel are shut off, and the whole liquid crystal panel fails. When the abovementioned arc discharge protection device is applied to the abovementioned push-pull type inverter, and when the driver circuit at one input electrode side of a single arc lamp is abnormal, the abovementioned arc discharge protection circuit will only stop or pause the operation of the driver circuit at the abovementioned input electrode side, but the driver circuit at the other input electrode side persists in inputting driving power to the discharge lamp; thus, the related electronic devices are likely to be damaged.

Driver protection circuit for a push-pull type discharge lamp


The surface quality and luster of galvanized wire produced by the gas jet wiping method and cooled by jets of a cooling fluid may be improved by exposing the wire to a reactive gas atmosphere containing sulphide or chloride radicals after the wire has passed through the gas jet wiping nozzle and before it is contacted by the cooling fluid. The wire is exposed to the reactive gas atmosphere for a sufficient length of time to form a protective surface coating of metal sulphide or chloride.

It is known to coat metallic, normally ferrous, filaments such as wire or strip or sheet with molten metals such as zinc, aluminium and zinc/aluminium alloys. The filament is passed through a bath containing the coating metal in a molten condition. After leaving the bath a wiping force is applied to the filament to remove excess coating metal from its surface and to impart a smooth surface to the coating metal remaining on the filament.
It has been known to apply a mechanical wiping force to the filament by a number of methods. In one method wiping pads of asbestos or similar are used to physically wipe excess coating material from the surface. In a second method the filament is passed upwardly through a granular layer of materials such as charcoal, pebbles and glass beads with or without a lubricant such as oil or tallow, which layer floats on the surface of the molten metal bath. Another wiping method is gas jet wiping in which the filament passes through a stream of a suitable gas such as air, nitrogen or steam which applies a wiping force to the filament. Proposals have also been made to apply an electromagnetic wiping force to the filament.
The performance of the granular layer wiping method was improved by the injection of a reactive gas such as hydrogen sulphide into the granular layer in a process known as gas wiping and described more fully in Australian patent specification 421,751. In this process the primary purpose of the reactive gas is to form a layer of metal sulphide on the metal bath and within the granular layer to assist in the physical wiping of the excess metal from the filament.
It has subsequently been proposed to inject a reactive gas into a container, which surrounds the granular layer and at its lower end projects into the metal bath, at a level above the granular layer in order to improve the appearance of the wire (see British patent specification 1,446,861). In a later development it has been proposed to stabilise the surface of a molten metal coating on a filament being wiped by an electromagnetic force by injecting a reactive gas into a container which surrounds the electromagnetic device and which projects into the metal bath (see British patent specification 2,010,917). In each of these cases the reactive gas has been applied within a container positioned directly above, and in contact with the metal bath. This has both prevented the loss of reactive gas from the bottom of the container and has applied the reactive gas to the filament before there has been any possible oxidation of the coating metal.
After the filament has been coated and wiped, it is necessary to solidify the coating metal before it comes into contact with a solid object. Solidification of the coating metal is normally achieved by passing the filament through a cooling fluid, normally water and/or air. It has been found, in the gas jet wiping process, that it can be difficult to cool the filament without causing the resultant coating to have a rough surface. It has also been found that the solidified coating has a dull appearance; both of these characteristics are undesirable.
It has now been found that surprisingly beneficial results can be obtained by the application of a reactive gas to a filament that has been hot dipped and wiped by the gas jet wiping method. The advantages of the present invention are that it is possible to reduce, and in some cases eliminate, surface defects previously observed with gas jet wiped filaments cooled by the direct application of a cooling fluid, and to also give to the filament a relatively shiny lustre. It would not have been expected that the use as a reactive gas atmosphere would have been applicable to gas jet wiping. By its very nature in the gas jet wiping method the jet wiping nozzle is spaced from the metal bath. The container to hold the reactive gas must be positioned above the gas jet wiping nozzle and must have an aperture in its bottom to receive the filament. The process according to this invention thus involves the use of an effectively open bottomed gas container. The container will also be spaced sufficiently above the metal bath that some oxidation of the molten metal coating may occur prior to the wire being contacted by the reactive gas.
The present invention consists in a method for the coating of a metallic filament with a molten metal comprising the steps of drawing the filament from a molten metal bath, passing the filament through a gas jet wiping nozzle having a gas orifice spaced apart from the molten metal bath to direct a wiping gas stream against the filament to wipe excess molten metal from the filament, passing the wiped filament through a gas containment vessel containing a reactive gas atmosphere including sulphide or chloride radicals or materials which will decompose to produce such radicals, the containment vessel being spaced from the gas jet wiping nozzle sufficiently to allow the venting of wiping gas therebetween such that the reactive gas is not adversely diluted and the gas containment vessel being sufficiently long that the filament has a long enough residence time in the container to allow the reactive gas to react with the molten metal on the filament, and then cooling the filament by applying thereto a fluid coolant.
In another aspect the present invention consists in apparatus for the coating of a metallic filament with a molten metal comprising a molten metal bath, means to draw a filament from the molten metal bath, a gas jet wiping nozzle having a gas orifice spaced apart from the molten metal bath and adapted to direct a wiping gas stream against the filament to wipe excess molten metal from the filament, a gas containment vessel containing a reactive gas atmosphere which includes sulphide or chloride radicals or materials which will decompose to form such radicals, the containment vessel being spaced from the gas jet wiping nozzle sufficiently to allow the venting of wiping gas therebetween such that the reactive gas is not adversely diluted and the containment vessel being sufficiently long that a filament passing therethrough will have a residence time in the containment vessel long enough to allow the reactive gas to react with the molten metal on the filament, and cooling means adapted to apply a cooling fluid to a filament after it has emerged from the gas containment vessel.
The present invention enables filaments of acceptable surface quality to be produced over a wider range of conditions than has previously been possible with gas jet wiping. It has been found that, depending on the shape of the filament, the thickness of the coating metal and the flow rate of the cooling fluid, there is a speed of passage of the filament above which the degree of the filament's surface smoothness is unacceptable (which term is taken to mean that the roughness can be felt by scraping ones fingernail longitudinally along the filament) if the invention is not used. The flatter the filament is (i.e. the larger its radius of curvature), and consequently the greater the resistance offered to the flow of the cooling fluid, the slower the filament must be processed in order to achieve acceptable surface quality. Larger thicknesses of coating metal and higher flow rates of cooling fluid, also require slower process speeds in order to produce acceptable levels of surface smoothness. By way of example, it has been found that if a 4.00 mm diameter wire with a molten metal coating thickness of greater than 0.04 mm, is passed through a stream of water jets (each jet with a cross-sectional area of 2 cm.sup.2 and flow rate of 6 liters/minute) the wire will have an unacceptable surface smoothness when processed at speeds above 0.8 m/s. For a 2.50 mm diameter wire under the same conditions the coating quality is unacceptable at speeds above 1.2 m/s. There is also a range of speeds up to this, in which the coating quality progressively deteriorates from being perfectly smooth to unacceptable.
The filament is preferably ferrous wire or rod however the process is also applicable to tubular products, strip products whether planar or shaped in cross-section and to sheet products. The coating metal is preferably zinc however other coating metals such as zinc alloys containing a majority of zinc may also be used.
The jet wiping nozzles for use in the present invention may be any one of the conventional jet wiping nozzles known, for example, from the following patent specifications:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,194,565;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,060,889;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,270,364;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,459,587;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,533,761;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,611,986;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,707,400;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,174;
Australian Pat. Nos.
458,892;
537,944;
539,396;
544,277;
It is preferred, however, to use the jet wiping nozzle the subject of the present applicant's copending Australian patent application No. PJ 0032 entitled "Improved Product and Process" the contents whereof are hereby incorporated in this specification by reference. The wiping gas may be an oxidising gas such as air or, preferably, a non-oxidising gas such as nitrogen.
The containment vessel should be spaced apart from the gas jet wiping nozzle sufficiently for that part of the wiping gas stream that flows in a direction away from the metal bath to be adequately vented between the nozzle and the containment vessel to such an extent that the reactive gas is not adversely diluted. If the two are too close together the wiping effect of the gas jet nozzle may be deleteriously affected and wiping gas entering the containment vessel through the aperture admitting wire into the vessel may adversely affect the formation of a stabilising film on the filament through dilution of the reactive gas. On the other hand some outward pressure from the wiping gas jet may prevent an undue flow of the reactive gas atmosphere out through the aperture which admits the filament into the vessel.
The cooling means may be any one of a number of known types wherein a stream of water or other liquid or a stream of a cooling gas is caused to contact the filament and its still molten coating. The preferred cooling means is that described in Australian Patent Specification 462,301 the contents whereof are incorporated herein by reference.
An air knife is preferably positioned between the reactive gas containment vessel and the cooling means to direct a stream of air across the wire. This air knife serves to prevent droplets of water from dropping into the molten metal bath or from running down the strand if for any reason it is necessary to stop the strand temporarily.
The reactive gas preferred is hydrogen sulfide however any gas that contains or provides the sulphide or chloride radical may be used. For example, chlorine, hydrogen chloride, diethyl disulfide, dipropyl disulfide, dimethyl disulfide, ethyl mercaptan, propyl mercaptan, carbon disulfide, methyl mercaptan and any similar gas.
The reactive gas atmosphere is preferably comprised of reactive gas in a combustible carrier gas such as natural gas, liquified petroleum gas, or propane. The use of such a combustible carrier which can be burnt as it passes out from the gas containment vessel is particularly useful when the reactive gas is hydrogen sulphide or a mercaptan as the sulphide containing material can be combusted together with the combustible gas.
The reactive gas is preferably present in the reactive gas atmosphere in concentration by volume of greater than 0.01%, more preferably 0.5% to 1.5%. The reactive gas containment vessel should be of sufficient length to allow reaction to take place between the reactive gas and the molten metal and to form a protective film on the molten wire. It has been found, for instance, that a containment vessel having a length of 15 cm is satisfactory for the galvanising of a 2.5 mm diameter steel wire at a speed of up to 1.5 m/s at a coating 300 g/m.sup.2 and a hydrogen sulphide concentration of 0.5% by volume. If a larger diameter wire is to be treated or a faster speed or larger cooling mass is desired then a longer gas containment vessel is required.

Australian Wire Industries Pty. .Limited


An apparatus includes a memory capable of storing information defining multiple function block types. A combination of instances of one or more function block types is capable of implementing a control process in a controller within a process control system. The apparatus also includes a function block editor capable of allowing a user to dynamically create or modify one or more of the function block types using a graphical user interface. The function block editor is capable of allowing the user to define one or more parameters for a function block type being created or modified.

Processing facilities are often managed using process control systems. Example processing facilities include manufacturing plants, chemical plants, crude oil refineries, and ore processing plants. Among other operations, process control systems typically manage the use of motors, valves, and other industrial equipment in the processing facilities.
In conventional process control systems, controllers are often used to control the operation of the industrial equipment in the processing facilities. The controllers could, for example, monitor and control the operation of the industrial equipment and generate alarms when malfunctions occur.
"Control processes" are often implemented in conventional controllers using "function blocks." Control processes typically represent processes or functions implemented by the conventional controllers to control the industrial equipment in the processing facilities. Function blocks typically represent executable software objects that perform specific tasks. Any of a wide range of functions could be represented by the function blocks. A combination of particular function blocks may be used to implement a specific control process in a conventional controller.
Graphical interfaces may represent the function blocks using symbols (such as rectangles) that have specified parameters (such as inputs and outputs). Control processes may be defined graphically by selecting appropriate function blocks and linking the selected function blocks. For example, a graphical interface could be used to select function blocks and link the inputs and outputs of the symbols representing the selected function blocks. This allows processing facility operators who purchase or use the conventional controllers to create and modify control processes for particular processing facilities. However, the facility operators often have no mechanism for creating or editing the types of function blocks available in the conventional controllers or for creating or editing the parameters associated with those function block types.

System and method for dynamically creating and editing function block types in a process control environment


Systems and methods for fuel dispenser security are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a user seeking access to a protected function of the fuel dispenser is presented with a challenge that is encrypted using a secret key that is unique to the fuel dispenser. To access the secured function, the user must obtain a session password from a server which authenticates the user, decrypts the challenge using a counterpart of the secret key, determines whether the user is authorized to access the secured function, and returns the session password extracted from the challenge only when the user is authorized. The server can thus control access to certain fuel dispenser functions according to a set of user access privileges. The challenge can also include additional information which can be used by the fuel dispenser and/or by the server to store a log of access activity.

A typical fueling environment includes one or more fuel dispensers which can be used by a customer to dispense fuel into a vehicle, a portable fuel tank, or other equipment. From time to time, it is necessary for service personnel, government or regulatory officials, or other parties to access special features of the fuel dispenser, such as service logs, calibration functions, diagnostic functions, and so forth. Existing fuel dispensers employ various security mechanisms in an effort to prevent unauthorized access to such features. For example, some fuel dispensers require a simple password to access certain functions of a computer system in the fuel dispenser. By way of further example, some fuel dispensers include a lockable door that covers the service portion of the fuel dispenser, or a mechanical seal that can provide evidence of tampering if the seal is broken. Most existing security systems and methods, however, can be easily circumvented by malicious parties. Accordingly, a need exists for improved systems and methods for fuel dispenser security.


A communication apparatus with transmitted rate detecting function and the method therefore is provided. The communication apparatus receives an input signal transmitted at a first rate or a second rate from a remote apparatus. The method includes setting the communication apparatus to operate at an initial receiving rate; sampling the input signal by a specific sampling frequency to generate a sample result; estimating the input transmitted rate of the input signal according to the sample result so as to set the receiving rate of the communication apparatus at a working rate; and communicating with the remote apparatus at the working rate. The second rate is higher than the first rate, and the specific sampling frequency is associated with the initial receiving rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a signal processing scheme, and more particularly to a communication apparatus and a method used for signal processing in a Physical layer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Since data transmission/processing rates may be different in different devices, there is a possibility that a conventional communication system is unable to properly establish a data communication link with another communication device. An optical fiber network supports data transmission/processing rates of 125 megabit per second and 1250 megabit per second. A conventional method is provided to manually configure/set the desired data transmission/processing rate of a local communication circuit before the production factory. For example, the conventional method may be used to manually configure the desired data transmission rate as 1250 megabits per second. This, however, introduces some significant defects in certain situations. For instance, when the local communication circuit is connected to an optical fiber network having a different data transmission/processing rate, the data rate of the local communication circuit can not be modified or altered. Accordingly, in this situation, the local communication circuit is unable to properly communicate with a remote communication circuit.

Communication apparatus with transmitted rate detecting function and method thereof