A system, computer readable medium and method for searching for recently altered documents on the World Wide Web is provided. The method selects a server to be searched or crawled by a Web crawler based on a user selected ranking. Servers are ranked by a filter program which compares a user query with the content of a server and the frequency in which content is altered. A top percentage of ranked servers are crawled and the recently altered information, such as hyperlinks, are then provided to the user.

The present invention relates to searching for information and, in particular, searching for information on a computer network.
Computer networks, such as the World Wide Web (the xe2x80x9cWebxe2x80x9d, a.k.a. the xe2x80x9cInternetxe2x80x9d) have resulted in large amounts of information distributed across an enormous number of processing devices or computers. For example, an electronic representation of a document may be stored at a xe2x80x9cwebsitexe2x80x9d of a computer connected to the Web. The document may include multiple pages in which a page is added frequently or a page is altered frequently.
Often, a search engine is used in retrieving a document on the Web. A search engine is typically a remotely accessible software program which indexes Internet addresses (universal resource locators (xe2x80x9cURLsxe2x80x9d), usenet, file transfer protocols (xe2x80x9cFTPsxe2x80x9d), image locations, etc). A search engine typically returns a list of xe2x80x9chyperlinksxe2x80x9d or Internet addresses of information from an index in response to a query. A user query may include a keyword, a list of keywords or a structured query expression, such as boolean query.
A typical search engine contains a special program often called a xe2x80x9ccrawlerxe2x80x9d or sometimes called a xe2x80x9cspiderxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cbotxe2x80x9d. A search engine xe2x80x9ccrawlsxe2x80x9d the Web by performing a search of the connected computers that store the information and makes a copy of the information. Sometime later, the search engine will process a copy of the information and modify the search engines existing index to reflect the new information available on the Web. The search engine may catagorize the information in order to quickly provide a user with relevant information in response to a query.
However, because of the vast amount of distributed information currently being added daily to the Web, maintaining an up-to-date index of information in a search engine is extremely difficult. A user may not obtain the most recent information from a search engine even though the information is at a website which has been recently published or a previously published website which has an altered page. The most recent information will likely be the most valuable, but is often not indexed in the search engine. Also, search engines do not typically use a user""s personal search information in updating the search engine index.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an information system, computer readable medium and method for searching for current relevant information on a processing device network, such as the Web. Relevant information which has been recently published or altered on the Web should be provided by the search engine. User""s personal search information should also be used in order to provide relevant current information.
Generally, an embodiment of the present invention is directed toward selectively searching the Web for relevant current information based on user personal search information (or filtering profiles). By selectively searching the Web, relevant information that has been added recently will more likely be discovered. A user provides personal search information such as a query and how often a search is performed to a filtering program. The filtering program invokes a Web crawler to search selected or ranked servers on the Web based on a user selected search strategy or ranking selection. The filtering program directs the Web crawler to search a predetermined number of ranked servers based on: (1) the likelihood that the server has relevant content in comparison to the user query (xe2x80x9ccontent ranking selectionxe2x80x9d); (2) the likelihood that the server has content which is altered often (xe2x80x9cfrequency ranking selectionxe2x80x9d); or (3) a combination of (1) and (2) (xe2x80x9cboth content and frequency rankingxe2x80x9d). The recently altered relevant information, or hyperlinks to such information, is then provided to the user.
An information system for providing recently altered information on a computer network, such as the World Wide Web, is provided. The information system comprises a user processing device, a first content processing device, and a search engine processing device coupled to the Web. The user processing device includes a processor readable memory storing a user interface program for obtaining user information. The first content processing device has a first type of content information which is altered at a first frequency. The search engine software program includes a Web crawler software program for obtaining content information responsive to (1) a comparison of the first type of information with the user information, and (2) the first frequency.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user information is a query including a keyword, a search interval including a time value, and a percentage searched including a percentage value.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the first frequency is the number of page alterations per day, the number of page alterations per week, the number of page alterations per month, or the number of page alterations per year.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the first frequency is an average of (1) the number of page alterations in the preceding day, (2) the number of page alterations in the preceding week, (3) the number of page alterations in the preceding month, and (4) the number of page alterations in the preceding year.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the search engine software program obtains a content vector of the content information and a comparison is made between the content vector and the user information to obtain a content score.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the information system further comprises a second content processing device coupled to the Web. The second content processing device has a second type of content information which is altered at a second frequency. The search engine ranks the first and second processing devices based on a: (1) comparison of the user information with the first type of content; (2) comparison of the user information with the second type of content; (3) the first frequency; and (4) the second frequency.
According to another aspect of the present invention, an article of manufacture, including a computer readable memory for searching for recently altered documents is provided. The computer readable memory comprises a first software program for obtaining user information. A second software program provides a first content value of a first document at a first processing device address, responsive to a comparison of the user information with the content of the first document. A second software program obtains a first frequency of alterations to the content of the first document.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the article of manufacture further comprises a fourth software program for ranking the first processing device address on a list based on a comparison of the first content value and a second content value of a second document having a second processing device address.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, the first document is stored on a first computer connected to a network and the second document is stored on a second computer connected to the network.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, a method for obtaining information from the World Wide Web is provided. The method comprises the steps of selecting a user and obtaining a query from the user. A content score is then calculated for a document having an address on the World Wide Web. A frequency score for the document is then calculated. The associated address is then stored in a list of addresses based on the content score and frequency score. A subset of the list is selected and the document having the first address on the list is crawled.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the method further comprises the step of notifying the user that the content of the document has changed.

USER QUERY GENERATE SEARCH RESULTS THAT RANK SET OF SERVERS WHERE RANKING IS BASED ON COMPARING CONTENT ON EACH SERVER WITH USER QUERY, FREQUENCY AT WHICH CONTENT ON EACH SERVER IS ALTERED USING WEB CRAWLER IN A SEARCH ENGINE


An endless transfer web is supported by a large diameter drum and at least one small diameter roller. Two or more imaging drums are positioned in transfer relation to the transfer web where it is backed by the large drum. Different color toner images are transferred in registration to the web to form a multicolor image which is transferred to a receiving sheet. The receiving sheet is separated from the web as the web passes around the small roller. The imaging drums can be electrophotosensitive drums with separate electrophotographic stations or drums which hold masters, for example, xeroprinting masters on their periphery.

Pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 304,093 to Mahoney and Benwood and U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,961 show multicolor imaging apparatus in which three or four imaging members are separately charged, exposed and toned to create toner images in different colors and those toner images are transferred in registration to an intermediate web from which they are transferred to a receiving sheet. Apparatus with separate imaging members for creation of separate color toner images is many times faster than present commercial devices in which the images are formed consecutively on a web or drum photoconductor.
As pointed out in the Mahoney et al application, the web intermediate has the advantage of lending itself to single-pass duplexing of consecutive multicolor images. Another advantage of web imaging members per se is that they can be trained around a small diameter roller to assist in separating a receiving sheet.
A number of other references show separate imaging members which create separate color toner images and transfer them directly to a receiving sheet. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,464,501; 4,162,843; 4,662,739; 4,690,542 4,809,037; and 4,835,570. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,889 the transfer sheets are presented to the imaging members by attaching them to the surface of a drum rather than a moving web which is shown in rest of the above references.
Maintenance of cross-track and in-track registration between toner images is a serious challenge in designing and manufacturing color apparatus having a web imaging member. In-track registration is controlled in the Mahoney et al structure by a sprocket and perforation system which automatically adjusts for variations in the speed and manufacture of the web. Reasonably good cross-track registration is obtained since the web has a tendency to follow itself over short distances reasonably well. However, for highest quality work even complex web tracking systems are unable to prevent some noticeable cross-track misregistration. This becomes more critical as materials and exposure systems are improved and provide higer resolution.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,378,154; 4,624,549; 4,497,570; and 3,820,985 show an electrophotographic imaging apparatus in which a protoconductive web is trained around a large roller or drum and at least one or more small rollers. The small roller has the advantage shown, for example, in 4,378,154, of assisting in separation of a receiving sheet. The large roller or drum helps maintain good separation between the image forming stations and the electrophotographic member. FIG. 4 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,985 shows such a drum-web structure in a color imaging device. Registration problems are not addressed or corrected in this structure.


A blowout latch is provided to latch a first panel to a second panel. The latch is coupled to the first panel and engaged with the second panel. The latch includes a biasing mechanism which is disengagable under pressure to move the first panel relative to the second panel. The latch may also be selectively disengaged with a lesser force than that required to overcome the biasing mechanism by bypassing the biasing mechanism. When manually disengaged, the latch maintains a biasing load on a bolt of the latch. A trigger of the latch is provided to bypass the biasing mechanism and disengage a roller assembly of the latch from the second panel.

This disclosure relates to latching mechanisms for securing an aircraft panel to an aircraft structure. In particular, the present disclosure relates to latches which disengage when a predetermined load is exceeded.
A disengageable latch, or blowout latch, disengages when the pressure against a panel, to which the blowout latch is mounted, exceeds a predetermined limit. Aircraft employ many types of latches including blowout latches to secure aircraft panels to adjacent aircraft structures. For example, blowout latches are used to secure panels enclosing an aircraft""s engine. When used in such an environment, the blowout latch opens and relieves pressure which is built up inside the engine enclosing structure defined by the panels due, for example, to the jet exhaust stream flowing through the jet engine. The opening of the blowout latch allows the panels to pivot open and vent the excessive pressure thus preventing any damage due to excessive loads on the panels or other structural components.
A variety of such blowout latches are available which include devices which require a tool for opening or have a trigger for opening the latch. Additionally, latches are available which allow the handle to pivot outwardly thereby indicating that the latch has been disengaged by excessive loads or xe2x80x9cblownxe2x80x9d.
One element that is relatively consistent in the blowout latch mechanisms is the use of a biasing mechanism to impose force upon a bolt of the latching mechanism. The biasing mechanism applies a force in relation to the spring force of the spring used in the mechanism. This retains the bolt in engagement against another structure such as the structural portion of the aircraft against which when the panel is closed. When a force which is greater than the biased load against the bolt occurs against an interior surface of the panel, the panel is blown. In other words, the bolt is retained against the blowout force until the blowout force is exceeded whereupon the biasing mechanism is compressed or otherwise exceeded thereby releasing the panel under the force exerted from within the enclosed area.
A problem arises when the latching mechanism must be disengaged in order to open the panel. For example, it is desirable to selectively disengage the panel for maintenance, inspection and other activities. In other words, prior art blowout latches are difficult to selectively disengage because the biasing load or force applied against the bolt must be overcome in order to disengage the latch. For example, if the spring loaded force on the latch is 150 pounds, at least 150 pounds of pressure must be applied to the handle to disengage the latch from the abutting structure. It can be difficult to disengage the handle when overcoming such forces. This situation can be exacerbated depending upon the strength and size of the person opening the panel.
As such it would be desirable to provide a latching mechanism which eliminates the need to overcome the biasing force used to retain the panel against blowout forces.
According to the present disclosure, a pressure relief or blowout latch is provided for latching a first panel to a second panel. The latch is releasable under pressure when overcoming a biasing force of a biasing mechanism of the latch or by selective disengagement by bypassing the biasing mechanism with relatively little force. The latch includes a roller movable between an engaged position in contact with the second panel and a disengaged position spaced-away from the second panel. The latch further includes a shaft coupled to the roller for rotational movement with the roller about an axis along the shaft. A handle support of the latch is provided for rotational movement with the shaft and the roller. A bolt is coupled to the shaft and includes a channel for receiving at least a portion of the handle support. The handle support is rotatable relative to the bolt. The latch further includes a trigger and a biasing mechanism. The trigger includes a pin normally engaged with the bolt and the handle support and is selectively movable to release the pin from engagement with the handle support and the bolt. Release of the pin permits the handle support to move relative to the bolt to rotate the shaft and roller to move the roller to the disengaged position. The biasing mechanism is normally engaged with the bolt to prevent the bolt from rotating about the axis. The bolt is configured to disengage the biasing mechanism when internal pressure on the roller is translated to the bolt through the shaft, handle support, and pin.
The latch of the disclosure further includes a roller assembly rigidly coupled to the shaft for rotation therewith. The roller assembly includes a generally xe2x80x9cL-shapedxe2x80x9d arm having a first end coupled to the shaft and a second end coupled to the roller.
The latch further includes a second roller assembly.
The bolt of the latch includes an aperture and a portion of the shaft is received within the aperture for rotational movement of the shaft relative to the bolt. The bolt further includes a notch and a portion of the biasing mechanism is received within the notch. The biasing mechanism includes a pin received within the notch of the bolt, a slide coupled to the pin, a spring configured to bias the pin into engagement with the bolt, and an adjuster to adjust the compression of the spring. The adjuster as disclosed is a threaded screw.
The bolt further includes a ledge normally engaged with the pin of the trigger and the handle support includes a ledge normally engaged with the pin to position the pin between the handle support and the bolt.
The latch further includes a housing coupled to the first panel and a handle pivotally coupled to the housing. The trigger is pivotally coupled to the handle and includes a spring to bias a body of the trigger to an upright position where the pin of the trigger is engaged with the bolt and the handle support. Pivoting movement of the trigger against the spring of the trigger from the upright position to a depressed position disengages the pin from the handle support and the bolt to permit the handle to rotate relative to the housing. The handle support is pivotally coupled to the handle. Movement of the handle carries the handle support and urges the handle support to pivot about the axis to rotate the shaft to move the roller to the disengaged position.
The handle support as disclosed includes an aperture for receiving a portion of the shaft. The shaft includes an aperture generally perpendicular to the axis and the latch further includes a pin received within the shaft to rigidly couple the shaft to the handle support.
The blowout latch as disclosed includes structures which function to disengage the biasing force within the latch, thus, allowing the latch to be disengaged with relatively little force. The latch, even though disengaged, maintains the biasing load on the bolt even when the latch is selectively opened and disengaged from the corresponding aircraft structure. In use, the blowout latch as disclosed allows a person to activate the trigger disengaging the handle support, coupled to the releasable handle to disengage corresponding roller assemblies which are coupled to the handle support. When the handle and handle support are returned to a closed position the associated roller assembly can once again be engaged with the corresponding second panel. The bolt is not disengaged when the blowout latch is selectively opened. Instead, the bolt is retained in the loaded position with the biasing mechanism maintaining a load on the bolt. When excessive forces are exerted on an interior surface of the first panel to which the latch is attached, the biasing forces of the biasing mechanism are exceeded thereby causing the roller assembly to operate to move the bolt to disengage the handle causing disengagement of the first panel from the second panel.
Additional features of the disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of an embodiment exemplifying a mode of carrying out the disclosure as presently perceived.


A supporting mechanism supporting an electrophotographic photosensitive drum having a photosensitive layer formed through a dip-coating on a peripheral surface of a cylindrical member, said supporting mechanism includes a bearing member supporting the electrophotographic photosensitive drum while contacting such a portion of the photosensitive layer as is away from one axial end of the electrophotographic photosensitive drum which have taken a lower position in the dip-coating, toward an axially central part.

In the following description of the present invention, an "electrophotographic image forming apparatus" means an apparatus which forms an image on recording medium with the use of an electrophotographic image forming method. Examples of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus include an electrophotographic copying machine, an electrophotographic printer (laser beam printer, LED printer, and the like, for example), a facsimile machine, and the like.
A "drum supporting mechanism" means a mechanism for supporting an electrophotographic photosensitive drum employed by an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
A "process cartridge" means a cartridge which integrally contains an electrophotographic photosensitive drum and a least one among charging means, developing means, and cleaning means, and also, is removably mountable in the main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus (which hereafter will be referred to simply as image forming apparatus), such as an electrophotographic copying machine or a laser beam printer, forms an image through the following image formation sequence: First, it uniformly charges the peripheral surface of its electrophotographic photosensitive member (which hereafter will be referred to simply as photosensitive member), and forms an electrophotographic latent image by selectively exposing the points (pixels) of the uniformly charged portion of the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum. Then, it develops the electrostatic latent image into a visible image with the use of its developing means, and transfers the visible image, that is, image formed of toner (which hereafter may be referred to simply as developer image or toner image), onto recording medium. Then, it fixes the transferred image to the recording medium. After the transfer, the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum is cleaned by the cleaning means: the toner remaining on the peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum after the transfer is removed by a cleaning means.
In the field of an image forming apparatus, various image forming apparatuses which employ a process cartridge system have been in practical usage. A process cartridge system integrally places a photosensitive member and one or more processing means in a cartridge so that they can be removably mountable in the main assembly of an image forming apparatus. Thus, a process cartridge system makes it possible to provide an image forming apparatus which is significantly smaller in size and easier to maintain than an image forming apparatus which does not employ a process cartridge system.
Generally, an electrophotographic photosensitive drum is supported by a drum supporting mechanism within the main assembly of an image forming apparatus. More specifically, a photosensitive drum is supported by the drum supporting mechanism, with the presence of a stopper between the photosensitive drum and the main assembly of the image forming apparatus. The stopper is attached to the inward surface of the photosensitive drum (cylindrical member). However, as means for improving an image forming apparatus in terms of the accuracy with which a photosensitive drum is rotated, it has been proposed to directly support a photosensitive drum by its peripheral surface (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application H10-149056).
There has been proposed another drum supporting mechanism (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 4110128). In the case of this drum supporting mechanism, the main assembly of an image forming apparatus is provided with a pair of flat portions for supporting a photosensitive drum by the shaft portion of the photosensitive drum. The two flat portions bear the combination of the multiple forces applied to the photosensitive drum by the multiple processing means which are in contact with the photosensitive drum. This drum supporting mechanism also is intended to improve an image forming apparatus in the accuracy with which a photosensitive drum is rotated.
As for a method for coating the peripheral surface of a cylindrical component (as substrate of photosensitive drum) with photosensitive substance to form a photosensitive layer on the peripheral surface of the cylindrical component, generally, the cylindrical component is dipped into a solution of the photosensitive substance, in such a manner that the axial line of the cylindrical component remains vertical (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application 2004-94108). This method (dip-coating) is problematic in that a photosensitive drum manufactured with the use of this method is not uniform in diameter in terms of its axial direction. More specifically, the lengthwise end portion of a photosensitive drum, which was the bottom end during the manufacture is slightly different (larger) in diameter than the rest. This problem is attributable to the downward settling of the photosensitive substance which occurs after the coating of the substance, and/or the unevenness in the line of separation between the body of photosensitive substance on the peripheral surface of the cylindrical substrate, and the body of photosensitive substance in photosensitive substance container. As one of the solutions to this problem, it has been proposed to coat the peripheral surface of the cylindrical substrate beyond the area of contact between a cleaning member and the peripheral surface of a photosensitive drum, and the portion of the photosensitive drum, which is to be fitted with a seal, in terms of the axial direction of the photosensitive drum (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application H08-292642).

Drum supporting mechanism, process cartridge, and electrophotographic image forming apparatus


The present invention provides a hybrid biocompatible carrier (hybridosome) which comprises structural and bioactive elements originating from at least one biocompatible delivery module (BDM) and at least one engineered drug encapsulation module (EDEM) comprising at least one tunable fusogenic moiety. The invention further provides pharmaceutical compositions comprising said hybridosomes, processes for their manufacture, as well as pharmaceutical uses and pharmaceutical methods based thereon.

Contemporary drug therapy approaches are mainly based on the development of new therapeutic molecules as well as on the advancement of combined treatment schedules. However, clinical efficacy of these approaches is inherently limited by their physical-chemistry, pharmacokinetics and cross-reactivity attributes, inadvertently arising from a restricted concentration at the intended site of action and an extensive overall bio-distribution.
In an effort to address this challenge, the emerging command of nanotechnology is facilitating the delivery of drug molecules to non-healthy organs, tissues and/or cells. The most advanced nanotechnology inspired drug delivery platforms are focused on the entrapment of therapeutically active molecules in synthetic lipid-based carrier systems. Encapsulation facilitates the isolation of a drug from the in vivo environment, hereby overcoming a drug's non-ideal properties, including limited solubility, serum stability, circulation half-life and biodistribution.
The ideal synthetic nanocarrier which is composed of non-toxic constituents and is specifically internalized by target cells remains elusive to date. Therefore, these systems don't harness the full potential that nanotechnology can provide. Insights into how molecules are transmitted in nature may provide the blueprint for efficient and biocompatible drug delivery vehicles.
It is known that cells exchange information through the secretion of soluble factors or by direct interaction. Recent studies have come to the conclusions that cells also release membrane-derived vesicles that have an impact on both neighboring and distant cells (Marcus & Leonard, 2013). These extracellular vesicles are secreted by most cells, and are physiological constituents of most biological fluids (Vlassov, Magdaleno, Setterquist, & Conrad, 2012). Extracellular vesicles entail the subtypes apoptotic bodies, microvesicles, and exosomes (EL Andaloussi, Mäger, Breakefield, & Wood, 2013)
Although the research on how extracellular vesicles can act as mediators of intercellular communication is still in its early stages, exploring their inherit role in delivering bioactive cargo from "donor" cells to "recipient" cells is contributing valuable insights into the complexity of optimal drug delivery. Various studies have identified several conditions in which extracellular vesicles can function as therapeutic carriers. There is increasing evidence that these carriers possess distinct characteristics rendering them pharmaceutically superior to synthetic drug carriers. Of particular significance for this superiority is a collection of membrane proteins and distinct lipids integrated in the surface composition of extracellular vesicles.
Several obstacles exist that hinder exploiting or mimicking natures' carriers for efficient drug delivery systems. Most notably, transforming extracellular vesicles from message couriers to drug carriers requires the introduction of therapeutic or diagnostic molecules exogenous to the "donor" cell. The respective engineering methodologies proposed to date include the use of bioengineering procedures on "donor" cells (i.e. genetic modification, viral transfection, toxic cationic lipofection, etc.) as well as vigorous or damaging manipulation mechanisms applied to isolated vesicles (i.e. electroporation, conjugation chemistry, etc.). These methods ultimately raise safety as well as scalability concerns and hamper a translation into the clinic. Other important issues that still need to be addressed include control over structural integrity of the carrier, efficient encapsulation of active cargo and the incorporation of additional targeting moieties.
Ideally, intricate bio-mimetic functionalization approaches requiring numerous bioactive membrane components incorporated into a synthetic nanocarrier could be circumvented if intact extracellular vesicle membranes would be exploited. Conversely, in order to overcome the dire consequences of biotechnological protocols, strategies to introduce therapeutic as well as targeting components exogenous to the extracellular vesicles, should preferably be independent of cellular manipulation. Based on these premises, it may be beneficial to replace bioengineering techniques with nanotechnological strategies employed in modern nano-particular drug delivery systems.
In view of the shortcomings mentioned above, it is an object of the invention to provide a novel pharmaceutical carrier with highly defined attributes, lacking the drawbacks of prior art carriers while synergizing the advantages of ex-vivo generated synthetic nanocarriers and in vivo occurring extracellular vesicles.
It is another object of the invention is to provide a pharmaceutical composition comprising said novel pharmaceutical carrier.
It is a further object of the invention to provide uses and methods based on said novel pharmaceutical carrier or a pharmaceutical comprising it for the treatment, monitoring, prevention, staging and/or diagnosis of a disease or condition
It is a further object of the invention to provide a process for manufacturing said novel pharmaceutical carrier in a controllable way involving stimuli-responsive modules.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for delivering one or more bioactive agents into a cell, more particularly a cell selected from a leukocyte, a glial cell and a stem cell.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method to produce the above pharmaceutical carrier in a controllable way involving stimuli-responsive modules.
Further purposes and advantages of this invention will appear as the description proceeds.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Hybridosomes, compositions comprising the same, processes for their production and uses thereof


An electromagnetic pressure pulse source for generating focused pressure pulses as an electrically conductive membrane and a coil system which drives the membrane by rapidly displacing the membrane from the coil system. The coil system is formed by an annular array having a number of annular zones which can be individually activated to cause the generation of pressure pulses in variable chronological relation to each other, which permits the location of the focus of the resulting shockwave to be adjusted with a range, and/or the diameter of the focus to be changed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an electromagnetic pressure pulse source for generating focused pressure pulses, of the type having an electrically conductive membrane which is rapidly displaced by means of a coil system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electromagnetic pressure pulse sources having a membrane driven by a coil system as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,505, are used for medical purposes in the treatment of calculosis, pathological bone conditions and pathological tissue changes. Such a pressure pulse source is normally applied to the body surface of the patient by means of a flexible coupling pillow, filled with a liquid medium for acoustic coupling. As a consequence of the flexibility of the coupling pillow, the spacing of the pressure pulse source from the body surface can be set, while maintaining contact between the coupling pillow and the body surface, so that the focus of the pressure pulses lies in the zone to be treated. The zone to be treated will be at a different depth below the surface dependent on the individual treatment case. Because the spacing of the focus from the body surface can be varied only to a slight extent in this manner, a number of proposals have been suggested to alleviate this situation. For pressure pulse sources wherein the pressure pulses are focused by an acoustic lens, for example, it is proposed in German OS 37 35 993 to provide two such acoustic lenses with variable spacing between the lenses to displace the focus, or alternatively to provide a lens having a variable focal length in the form of a liquid lens (vario lens).
All solutions heretofore proposed for displacing the focus have significant disadvantages associated therewith. In the aforementioned technique of displacing the focus by adjusting the distance of the pressure pulse source from the body surface of the patient, problems arise if the treatment zone lies immediately under the body surface, because of the small entry area for the pressure pulses which is then available. This results in the skin of the patient, which is sensitive to pain, experiencing high stress, such that hematoma can even occur. In the case of pressure pulse sources having an ultrasound B-scan applicator arranged in a central bore of the pressure pulse source for locating purposes, the B-scan applicator must be retracted if the zone to be treated lies close to the body surface, since it would otherwise be in the propagation path of the pressure pulses. This means that no ultrasound images, or only poor ultrasound images, can be produced while charging the patient with pressure pulses. Additionally, the necessary mechanism for adjusting the pressure pulse source, and possibly the B-scan applicator as well, involves considerable outlay.
The aforementioned pressure pulse source disclosed German OS 37 35 993 also has the above disadvantages, because although the mechanism for adjusting the pressure pulse source can be eliminated, a mechanism must nonetheless be provided for adjusting one of the lenses. This disadvantage can be avoided by using a vario lens for displacing the focus, however, a vario lens permits the focus to be displaced only slightly, and additionally involves a not inconsiderable design outlay and space requirement.


Aspects of the subject technology relate to a method for using a voice command for multiple computing devices. First voice input data is received from a first computing device associated with a user account, where the first voice input data comprises a first voice command captured at the first computing device. Second voice input data is received from a second computing device associated with the user account where the second voice input data comprises a second voice command captured at the second computing device. An intended voice command is determined based on the obtained first and second voice input data. Based on the intended voice command, a first target computing device is determined. First instructions associated with the intended voice command are provided to the first target computing device for execution.

Computing devices have become more varied and ubiquitous with an increasing number of everyday objects gaining the ability to connect to the internet and process information. One way to interact with these types of computing devices is through voice commands. As the number of computing devices capable of recognizing and responding to voice commands increases, multiple computing devices may capture a same command, which may lead to conflicts or redundancies in executing the command. Currently, there are no standards that allow multiple computing devices to work together to determine the intended voice command and to determine the target computing device based on the intended voice command.


A method for conducting bus arbitration in a hardware tester system comprising a single master controller and a multi-master controller comprises configuring the single master controller with arbitration logic operable to communicate on a bus in the hardware tester system using a same arbitration scheme as the multi-master controller, wherein the single master controller and the multi-master controller are connected to the bus. Further, responsive to a determination by the arbitration logic that the multi-master controller controls the bus, the method comprises withdrawing the single master controller from attempting to control the bus.

NVM Express (NVMe) or Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification is an open logical-device interface specification for accessing non-volatile storage media attached via PCI Express (PCIe) bus. The non-volatile memory is often NAND flash memory that comes in several physical form factors, including solid-state drives (SSDs), PCI Express (PCIe) add-in cards, M.2 cards, and other forms. NVMe, as a logical-device interface, has been designed to capitalize on the low latency and internal parallelism of solid-state storage devices.
NVMe-MI (NVMe Management Interface) specification defines a programmable interface, including a command set and architecture, for managing NVMe storage, thereby, making it possible to discover, monitor, configure and update NVMe devices in multiple operating environments. Communication associated with NVMe-MI may be conducted over a System Management Bus/Inter-Integrated Circuit Bus (SMBus). When an NVMe-MI over SMBus Multi-Master Controller shares the bus with other existing Single Master SMBus/I2C Controllers, there is a potential problem of mixing the Single and Multi-Masters Controllers together as will be discussed in connection with FIG. 1 below.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional FPGA chip layout comprising both single master controllers and multi-master controllers. In a typical scenario, single master controller (e.g., I2C single master controller 110) and multi-master controllers (e.g., NVMe-MI over SMBus Multi-Master Controller 115) should not be mixed together in the same bus because the single master would not understand the multi-master's arbitration process. In the multi-master arbitration process, when two masters are trying to compete to control the bus at the same time, the master that writes '0's to the bus will win the arbitration while other master that writes '1's to the bus will lose the arbitration. But the single master would not understand this special arbitration mechanism required by the multi-master. Therefore, the single master will interrupt the multi-master if both are connected on the same bus. Secondly, in most of the existing systems, the SMBus/I2C multi-master controllers are usually integrated within separate chips which cause chip-to-chip interconnect challenges, for example, when a multi-master controller chips attempts to communicate with chips comprising single masters.

NVMe-MI over SMBus multi-master controller with other SMBus and I2C masters in a single FPGA chip


A heat-developable photosensitive material includes an infrared-sensitive layer having a maximum spectral sensitivity at a wavelength of 700 nm or longer. A silver chlorobromide emulsion from which the infrared-sensitive layer is formed is prepared by adding an iodide at an intermediate stage during silver halide grain formation or later. The photosensitive material exhibits high sensitivity and low fog while the corresponding emulsion coating composition in solution form remains stable with time.

Heat-developable photosensitive material is well known in the art. The heat-developable photosensitive material and its process are described in the literature and patents, for example, "Shasinkougaku No Kiso" --Higinen Shasin-- ("Fundamentals of Photographic Engineering" --Non-Silver Salt Photography--), 1982, Corona Publishing K.K., pages 242-255 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,626 which is incorporated herein by reference. In addition, a method of forming dye images through coupling reaction with an oxidant of a developing agent is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,761,270 and 4,021,240.
It was also proposed to imagewise release or form a diffusible dye through heat development and transfer the dye to a dye fixing element. With this technique, either negative or positive dye images can be obtained by selecting a suitable type of dye-providing compound or a suitable type of silver halide. For detail, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,626, 4,483,914, 4,503,137, 4,559,290; Japanese Patent Application Kokai (JP-A) Nos. 149046/1983, 218443/1984, 133449/1985, and 238056/1986; EP 210660 A2 and 220746 A2; Japan Invention Society's Kokai Giho (Technical Report) No. 87-6199 and the like.
A variety of proposals have been made in the art for producing positive color images through heat development. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,290 proposes a method for forming an image by converting a dye providing (DRR) compound into an oxidized form having no dye releasing ability, preparing a heat-developable material in which the oxidized DRR compound is co-present with a reducing agent or a precursor thereof, carrying out heat development to oxidize the reducing agent in an amount corresponding to the exposure of silver halide, and allowing the remainder of the reducing agent unoxidized to reduce the oxidized DRR compound into the DRR compound to release a diffusible dye. EP-A 220,746 and Technical Report No. 87-6199 (Vol. 12, No. 22) describe a compound capable of releasing a diffusible dye through a similar mechanism, more particularly a heat-developable color photosensitive material using a compound capable of releasing a diffusible dye through reductive cleavage of an N-X linkage where X is an oxygen, nitrogen or sulfur atom.
It is known that the heat-development process often entails fog, known as thermal fog, which is not expectable from conventional wet development or processing in a liquid developer. The thermal fog is a serious problem against image formation. The thermal fog increases the minimum density in heat-developable photosensitive material of the negative type forming color images in proportion to latent images, resulting in white areas becoming tarnished. It decreases the maximum density in heat-developable photosensitive material of the positive type forming color images in counter-proportion to latent images. The thermal fog is one of main factors prohibiting sensitivity increase since it tends to occur particularly when an emulsion containing silver halide grains of a larger size is used in order to provide high sensitivity.
For preventing the thermal fog, it is a common practice in the prior art to use organic compounds known as antifoggants. Conventional antifoggants, however, suffer from several problems since some are less effective for suppressing fog and some suppress fog, but retard development at the same time.
Particularly when a photosensitive material having a spectral sensitivity peak in the infrared region is desired, it is prohibited to use a sufficient amount of an effective antifoggant since infrared sensitizing dyes do not generally provide so strong adsorption to silver halide. Differently stated, if an effective antifoggant is used in a sufficient amount, it would restrain adsorption of the sensitizing dye, resulting in reduced sensitivity. In addition, there is a potential serious problem that aging of an emulsion coating composition in solution form would cause desorption of the dye, resulting in reduced sensitivity. In this way, an attempt to suppress fog would aggravate the stability of an emulsion coating composition during solution form aging whereas an attempt to improve the stability of an emulsion coating composition during solution form aging by reducing the amount of antifoggant used would eventually invite increased fog. It was thus difficult in heat development to achieve fog suppression and to stabilize an emulsion coating composition during solution form aging at the same time.
For this reason and other, there exists no definite design guideline for heat-developable color photosensitive material to achieve high sensitivity and low fog while satisfying manufacturing feasibility. It is thus desired to develop a heat-developable color photosensitive material comprising an emulsion which is characterized by high sensitivity and low fog as well as the stability of its coating solution with the lapse of time.

Heat-developable color photosensitive material


Improved stimulation circuitry for controlling the stimulation delivered by an implantable stimulator is disclosed. The stimulation circuitry includes memory circuitry that stores pulse programs that define pulse shapes, steering programs that define electrode configurations, and aggregate programs that link a selected pulse program with a selected steering program. Each steering program defines the stimulation polarity and the allocation of current of the specified stimulation polarity for each of the pulse generator's electrodes. Each pulse program includes one or more pulse instructions, where each instruction defines the parameters of a single phase of the pulse program. Pulse definition circuits in the stimulation circuitry execute aggregate programs to generate stimulation waveforms, which stimulation waveforms can be generated simultaneously by the different pulse definition circuits.

Implantable stimulation devices are devices that generate and deliver electrical stimuli to body nerves and tissues for the therapy of various biological disorders, such as pacemakers to treat cardiac arrhythmia, defibrillators to treat cardiac fibrillation, cochlear stimulators to treat deafness, retinal stimulators to treat blindness, muscle stimulators to produce coordinated limb movement, spinal cord stimulators to treat chronic pain, cortical and deep brain stimulators to treat motor and psychological disorders, and other neural stimulators to treat urinary incontinence, sleep apnea, shoulder subluxation, etc. The description that follows will generally focus on the use of the invention within a Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) system, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,516,227. However, the present invention may find applicability in any implantable medical device system, including a Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) system.
As shown in FIGS. 1A-1C, an SCS system typically includes an Implantable Pulse Generator (IPG) 10 (Implantable Medical Device (IMD) 10 more generally), which includes a biocompatible device case 12 formed of a conductive material such as titanium for example. The case 12 typically holds the circuitry and power source (e.g., battery) 14 (FIG. 1C) necessary for the IPG 10 to function, although IPGs can also be powered via external RF energy and without a battery. The IPG 10 is coupled to electrodes 16 via one or more electrode leads 18, such that the electrodes 16 form an electrode array 20. The electrodes 16 are carried on a flexible body 22, which also houses the individual signal wires 24 coupled to each electrode. In the illustrated embodiment, there are eight electrodes (Ex) on two leads 18 for a total of sixteen electrodes 16, although the number of leads and electrodes is application specific and therefore can vary. The leads 18 couple to the IPG 10 using lead connectors 26, which are fixed in a non-conductive header material 28, which can comprise an epoxy for example.
As shown in the cross-section of FIG. 1C, the IPG 10 typically includes a printed circuit board (PCB) 30, along with various electronic components 32 mounted to the PCB 30, some of which are discussed subsequently. Two coils (more generally, antennas) are shown in the IPG 10: a telemetry coil 34 used to transmit/receive data to/from an external controller (not shown); and a charging coil 36 for charging or recharging the IPG's battery 14 using an external charger (not shown), although the IPG 10's battery may also be non-rechargeable, in which case the charging coil 36 would not be necessary. FIG. 1B shows these aspects in perspective with the case 12 removed for easier viewing. Telemetry coil 34 may alternatively comprise a short range RF antenna for wirelessly communicating in accordance with a short-range RF standard such as Bluetooth, WiFi, MICS, Zigbee, etc., as described in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2016/0051825.
FIG. 2A shows a prior art architecture 40 for the circuitry in IPG 10, which is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publications 2012/0095529, 2012/0092031 and 2012/0095519 ("ASIC Publications"), which are incorporated by reference in their entireties. Architecture 40 includes a microcontroller integrated circuit 50 and an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) 60 in communication with each other by a bus 90. Stated simply, the microcontroller 50 provides master control for the architecture 40, while ASIC 60 takes commands from and provides data to the microcontroller. ASIC 60 provides specific IPG functionality. For example, and as explained in further detail below, ASIC 60 sends stimulation current to and reads measurements from the sixteen electrodes 16. ASIC 60 comprises a mixed mode IC carrying and processing both analog and digital signals, whereas microcontroller 50 comprises a digital IC carrying and processing only digital signals.
Microcontroller 50 and ASIC 60 comprise monolithic integrated circuits each formed on their own semiconductive substrates ("chips"), and each may be contained in its own package and mounted to the IPG 10's PCB 30. Architecture 40 may also include additional memory (not shown) for storage of programs or data beyond that provided internally in the microcontroller 50. Additional memory may be connected to the microcontroller 50 by a serial interface (SI) as shown, but could also communicate with the microcontroller 50 via bus 90. Bus 90 may comprise a parallel address/data bus, and may include a clock signal and various control signals to dictate reading and writing to various memory locations, as explained in the '529 Publication. Bus 90 and the signals it carries may also take different forms; for example, bus 90 may include separate address and data lines, may be serial in nature, etc.
As explained in the above-referenced ASIC Publications, architecture 40 is expandable to support use of a greater number of electrodes 16 in the IPG 10. For example, and as shown in dotted lines in FIG. 2A, architecture 40 may include another ASIC 60′ identical in construction to ASIC 60, thus expanding the number of electrodes supported by the IPG 10 from sixteen to thirty two. Various off-bus connections 54 (i.e., connections not comprising part of bus 90) can facilitate such expansion, and may further (e.g., by bond programming; see inputs M/S) designate ASIC 60 as a master and ASIC 60′ as a slave. Such differentiation between the ASICs 60 and 60′ can be useful, as certain redundant functionality in the slave ASIC 60′ can be disabled in favor of the master ASIC 60. Off-bus communications 54 can allow the voltage at the electrode nodes 61a (E1′-EN′) of one of the ASICs (60′; OUT1, OUT2) to be sent to the other ASIC (60; IN1, IN2) to be measured. Off-bus connections 54 are further useful in generation and distribution of a clock signal governing communications on the bus 90 as well as in the ASIC(s) 60. As these concepts are discussed in detail in the above-referenced ASIC Publications, they are not elaborated upon here.
FIG. 2B shows various functional circuit blocks within ASIC 60, which are briefly described. ASIC 60 includes an internal bus 92 which can couple to external bus 90 and which may duplicate bus 90's signals. Note that each of the functional blocks includes interface circuitry 88 enabling communication on the internal bus 92 and ultimately external bus 90, as the above-referenced ASIC Publications explain. Interface circuitry 88 includes circuitry to help each block recognize when bus 92 is communicating data with addresses belonging to that block. ASIC 60 contains several terminals 61 (e.g., pins, bond pads, solder bumps, etc.), such as those necessary to connect to the bus 90, the battery 14, the coils 34, 36, external memory (not shown). Terminals 61 include electrode node terminals 61a (E1′-EN′) which connect to the electrodes 16 (E1-EN) on the lead(s) 18 by way of DC-blocking capacitors 55. As is known, DC-blocking capacitors 55 are useful to ensure that DC current isn't inadvertently (e.g., in the event of failure of the ASIC 60's circuitry) injected into the patient's tissue, and hence provide safety to the IPG 10. Such DC-blocking capacitors 55 can be located on or in the IPG 10's PCB 30 (FIG. 1C) inside of the IPG's case 12. See U.S. Patent Application Publication 2015/0157861.
Each of the circuit blocks in ASIC 60 performs various functions in IPG 10. Telemetry block 64 couples to the IPG telemetry coil 34, and includes transceiver circuitry for wirelessly communicating with an external device according to a telemetry protocol. Such protocol may comprise Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), or various short-range RF standards such as those mentioned above. Charging/protection block 62 couples to the IPG charging coil 36, and contains circuitry for rectifying power wirelessly received from an external charger (not shown), and for charging the battery 14 in a controlled fashion.
Analog-to-Digital (A/D) block 66 digitizes various analog signals for interpretation by the IPG 10, such as the battery voltage Vbat or voltages appearing at the electrodes, and is coupled to an analog bus 67 containing such voltages. A/D block 66 may further receive signals from sample and hold block 68, which as the ASIC Publications explain can be used to measure such voltages, or differences between two voltages. For example, sample and hold circuitry 68 may receive voltages from two electrodes and provide a difference between them (see, e.g., VE1−VE2 in FIG. 3A, discussed subsequently), which difference in voltage may then be digitized at A/D block 66. Knowing the difference in voltage between two electrodes when they pass a constant current allows for a determination of the (tissue) resistance between them, which is useful for a variety of reasons.
Sample and hold block 68 may also be used to determine one or more voltage drops across the DAC circuitry 72 used to create the stimulation pulses (see, e.g., Vp and Vn in FIG. 3A, explained subsequently). This is useful to setting the compliance voltage V+ to be output by a compliance voltage generator block 76. Compliance voltage VH powers the DAC circuitry 72, and the measured voltage drops ensure that the compliance voltage VH produced is optimal for the stimulation current to be provided—i.e., VH is not too low as to be unable to produce the current required for the stimulation, nor too high so as to waste power in the IPG 10. Compliance voltage generator block 76 includes circuitry for boosting a power supply voltage such as the battery voltage, Vbat, to a proper level for VH. Such circuitry (some of which may be located off chip) can include an inductor-based boost converter or a capacitor-based charge pump, which are described in detail in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2010/0211132.
Clock generation block 74 can be used to generate a clock for the ASIC 60 and communication on the bus. Clock generation block 74 may receive an oscillating signal from an off-chip crystal oscillator 56, or may comprise other forms of clock circuitry located completely on chip, such as a ring oscillator. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2014/0266375 discloses another on-chip circuit that can be used to generate a clock signal on the ASIC 60.
Master/slave control block 86 can be used to inform the ASIC 60 whether it is to be used as a master ASIC or as a slave ASIC (e.g., 60′), which may be bond programmed at M/S terminal 61. For example, M/S terminal may be connected to a power supply voltage (e.g., Vbat) to inform ASIC 60 that it will operate as a master ASIC, or to ground to inform that it will operate as a slave, in which case certain function blocks will be disabled, as the ASIC Publications explain.
Interrupt controller block 80 receives various interrupts (e.g., INT1-INT4) from other circuit blocks, which because of their immediate importance are received independent of the bus 92 and its communication protocol. Interrupts may also be sent to the microcontroller 50 via the bus 90. Internal controller 82 in the ASIC 60 may receive indication of such interrupts, and act as a controller for all other circuit blocks, to the extent microcontroller 50 (FIG. 2A) does not handle such interrupt through the external bus 90. Further, each of the functional circuit blocks contain set-up and status registers (not shown) written to by the controller 82 upon initialization to configure and enable each block. Each functional block can then write pertinent data at its status registers, which can in turn be read by the controller 82 via internal bus 92 as necessary, or by the microcontroller 50 via external bus 90. The functional circuit blocks can function as simple state machines to manage their operation, which state machines are enabled and modified via each block's set-up and status registers.
Nonvolatile memory (NOVO) block 78 caches any relevant data in the system (such as log data). Additional memory (not shown) can also be provided off-chip via a serial interface block 84.
ASIC 60 further includes a stimulation circuit block 70, which includes circuitry for receiving and storing stimulation parameters from the microcontroller 50 via buses 90 and 92. Stimulation parameters define the shape and timing of stimulation pulses to be formed at the electrodes, and can include parameters such as which electrodes E1-EN will be active; whether those active electrodes are to act as anodes that source current to a patient's tissue, or cathodes that sink current from the tissue; and the amplitude (A), duration (d), and frequency (f) of the pulses. Amplitude may comprise a voltage or current amplitude. Such stimulation parameters may be stored in registers in the stimulation circuitry block 70. See, e.g., U.S. Patent Application Publications 2013/0289661; 2013/0184794.
Block 70 also includes a Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) 72 for receiving the stimulation parameters from the registers and for forming the prescribed pulses at the selected electrodes. FIG. 3A shows a simple example of DAC circuitry 72 as used to provide a current pulse between selected electrodes E1 and E2 and through a patient's tissue, R. DAC circuitry 72 as shown comprises two portions, denoted as PDAC 72p and NDAC 72n. These portions of DAC circuitry 72 are so named because of the polarity of the transistors used to build them and the polarity of the current they provide. Thus, PDAC 72p is formed from P-channel transistors and is used to source a current +I to the patient's tissue R via a selected electrode E1 operating as an anode. NDAC 72n is formed of N-channel transistors and is used to sink current −I from the patient's tissue via a selected electrode E2 operating as a cathode. It is important that current sourced to the tissue at any given time equal that sunk from the tissue to prevent charge from building in the tissue, although more than one anode electrode and more than one cathode electrode may be operable at a given time.
PDAC 72p and NDAC 72n receive digital control signals from the registers in the stimulation circuitry block 70, denoted <Pstim> and <Nstim> respectively, to generate the prescribed pulses with the prescribed timing. In the example shown, PDAC 72p and NDAC 72n comprise current sources, and in particular include current-mirrored transistors for mirroring (amplifying) a reference current Iref to produce pulses with an amplitude (A). PDAC 72p and NDAC 72n could however also comprise constant voltage sources. Control signals <Pstim> and <Nstim> also prescribe the timing of the pulses, including their duration (D) and frequency (f), as shown in the example waveform in FIG. 3B. The PDAC 72p and NDAC 72n along with the intervening tissue R complete a circuit between a power supply VH—the compliance voltage as already introduced—and ground. As noted earlier, the compliance voltage VH is adjustable to an optimal level at compliance voltage generator block 76 (FIG. 2B) to ensure that current pulses of a prescribed amplitude can be produced without unnecessarily wasting IPG power.
The DAC circuitry 72 (PDAC 72p and NDAC 72n) may be dedicated at each of the electrodes, and thus may be activated only when its associated electrode is to be selected as an anode or cathode. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,181,969. Alternatively, one or more DACs (or one or more current sources within a DAC) may be distributed to a selected electrode by a switch matrix (not shown), in which case optional control signals <Psel> and <Nsel> would be used to control the switch matrix and establish the connection between the selected electrode and the PDAC 72p or NDAC 72n. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 8,606,362. DAC circuitry 72 may also use a combination of these dedicated and distributed approaches. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 8,620,436.
In the example waveform shown in FIG. 3B, the pulses provided at electrodes E1 and E2 are biphasic, meaning that each pulse includes a stimulation phase of a first polarity and an active recovery phase of an opposite polarity (along with additional phases that are not therapeutically meaningful that are described below). This is useful as a means of active recovery of charge that may build up on the DC-blocking capacitors 55. Thus, while charge will build up on the capacitors 55 during the stimulation phase, the active recovery phase will recover that charge, particularly if the total amount of charge is equal in each phase (i.e., if the area under the stimulation and active recovery pulse phases are equal). Recovery of excess charge on the DC-blocking capacitors 55 is important to ensure that the DAC circuit 72 will operate as intended: if the charge/voltage across the DC-blocking capacitors 55 is not zero at the end of each pulse, remaining charge/voltage will skew formation of subsequent pulses, which may therefore not provide the prescribed amplitude.
During the stimulation phase, electrode E1 acts as the anode or source for the current pulse, while electrode E2 acts of the cathode or sink for the current pulse. Thus, sourced current of the desired amplitude is issued from the PDAC 72p to E1 while sunk current of that same amplitude is drawn into the NDAC 72n from E2. This causes the current to flow from E1 to E2 through the patient's tissue (R). Notice that the pulses at E1 and E2 during the stimulation phase have the same amplitude (although of opposite polarities) and the same pulse width (pw), so that an excess of charge does not build up in the patient's tissue, R. The stimulation phase is eventually followed by the active recovery phase during which E1 acts as the cathode (sunk current is drawn into the NDAC 72n from E1) and E2 as the anode (source current is issued from PDAC 72p to E2), such that current flows through the tissue R in the opposite direction.
To ensure complete recovery of any stored charge, the active recovery phase is followed by a passive recovery phase. In this passive recovery phase, the decoupling capacitors C1-C2 connected to previously-active electrodes E1 and E2 are shorted to a common potential via passive recovery switches 96 (FIG. 3A). In the example illustrated, this common potential, Vbat, comprises the voltage of the battery within the IPG 100, although other reference potentials could be used as well. Shorting the capacitors to Vbat effectively shorts them through the patient's tissue, and thus equilibrates any stored charge to assist in charge recovery. Some architectures may short only the previously-active electrodes by closing only the passive recovery switches 86 coupled to those electrodes, while other architectures will short all of the electrodes by closing all of the passive recovery switches 96.
Other pulse phases in each period are shown in FIG. 3B. Preceding the stimulation phase is a pre-pulse phase, which is of low amplitude and long duration, and of opposite polarity to the stimulation phase that follows it. Experimentation suggests that the use of such a pre-pulse can help to assist in recruiting deeper nerves in an SCS application, although use of such a pre-pulse is not strictly necessary. An interpulse period between the stimulation and active recovery phases of short duration allows the nerves to stabilize after being stimulated. A quiet phase follows the passive recovery phase, and essentially acts as a waiting phase before the next period issues. The duration of the quiet phase will depend on the durations of the phases that precede it in the period, as well as the frequency (f) at which the pulse issues.
The various phases of each pulse are controlled by the stimulation circuitry 70, which provides digital control signals to the DAC circuitry 72. The stimulation circuitry 70 receives and stores the data necessary to define the various phases in each pulse. Such information is provided to the stimulation circuitry 70 from microcontroller 50 via buses 90 and 92. The microcontroller 50 in turn typically receives information about the structure of the pulses wirelessly from an external device, such as an external controller through which the patient or clinician could select the various pulse parameters (amplitude, pulse width, frequency), the electrodes, and whether they are to act as anodes or cathodes.
As illustrated in FIG. 3C, the stimulation circuitry includes a timer 94 and a register bank 98. The timer 94 stores the durations (pulse widths) of the phases in the pulse, while the register bank 98 stores control, amplitude, active electrode, and electrode polarity information for the phases. Thus, a first register in the timer 94 stores the pulse width of the first pulse phase in the period, the pre-pulse (pwpp) in the example of FIG. 3B, and the corresponding first register in the register bank 98 stores its amplitude (amppp), active electrode, and electrode polarities. A second register in the timer 94 stores the pulse width of the next pulse phase, the stimulation phase (pws), and the corresponding second register in the register bank 98 stores the amplitude (amps), active electrode, and electrode polarity for the stimulation phase. Data for subsequent pulse phases (interphase (ip), active recovery (ar), passive recovery (pr), and quiet (q)) are similarly stored in the timer 94 and register bank 98. The timer 94 may comprise a state machine in one example.
The control data in the registers (cntl) contains information necessary for proper control of the DAC circuitry 72 for each phase. For example, during the passive recovery phase, the control data (cntlpr) would instruct certain passive recovery switches 96 to close, and would disable the PDAC 72p and the NDAC 72n. By contrast, during active phases, the control data would instruct the passive recovery switches 96 to open, and would enable the PDAC 72p and the NDAC 72n.
Each register in the register bank 98 is, in one example, 96 bits in length, with the control data for the phase in the first 16 bits, the amplitude of the phase specified in the next 16 bits, followed by eight bits for each electrode. Each of the eight electrode bits in turn specifies the polarity (P) of the electrode in a single bit, with the remaining 7 bits specifying the percentage (%) of the amplitude that that electrode will receive. Thus, for the pre-pulse phase, the polarity bit P for E1 would be a '1', specifying that that electrode is to act as a cathode, and thus will sink current of the specified amplitude (amppp) to NDAC 72n. The remaining seven bits for E1 would digitally represent 100%, indicating that E1 is to receive the entirety of the cathodic current during the pre-pulse phase. In more complicated examples, the sourced or sunk currents could be shared between electrodes, and thus smaller percentages would be indicated in the trailing seven bits. The polarity bit P for E2 during the pre-pulse phase would be a '0', specifying that that electrode is to act as an anode, and thus will receive current as controlled by PDAC 72p. Again, the remaining seven bits for E2 would digitally represent 100%, indicating that E2 is to receive the entirety of the anodic current during the pre-pulse phase.
The other registers in register bank 98 are programmed similarly for each phase. For example, all of the bits for E3-E8 in all of the registers would be set to zero for the example pulses of FIG. 3B, because those electrodes are not implicated. The amplitudes for the interphase (ampip), passive recovery (amppr), and quiet (amps) phases would be set to zero as those phases do not require the PDAC 72p or NDAC 72n to actively issue any current.
The goal of the stimulation circuitry 70 is to send data from an appropriate register in the register bank 98 to the DAC circuitry 72 at an appropriate point in time, and this occurs by control of the timer 94. As noted earlier, the pulse widths of the various phases are stored in the timer 94. Also stored at the timer is the frequency, f, of the pulse, the inverse of which (1/f) comprises the duration of each period. Knowing this period, the timer 94 can cycle through the durations of each of the pulse widths, and send the data in the register bank 98 to the DAC circuitry 72 at the appropriate time. Thus, at the start of the period, the timer 94 enables the multiplexer 99 to pass the values stored in the first register for the pre-pulse data to the DAC circuitry 72 to establish the pre-pulse phase at electrodes E1 and E2. After time pwpp has passed, the timer 94 enables the multiplexer 99 to pass the values stored in the second register for the stimulation phase to the DAC circuitry 72 to establish the stimulation phase at the electrodes E1 and E2. The other registers are similarly controlled by the timer 94 to send their data at appropriate times. This process of cycling through the various pulse phases continues, and eventually at the end of quiet phase, i.e., at the end of pwq, the timer 94 once again enables the pre-pulse data, and a new period of the pulse is established.
This approach for controlling the DAC circuitry 72 in accordance with each phase of the pulse period is adequate, but the inventors have found that this approach also suffers from certain shortcomings. A significant shortcoming is the lack of flexibility that the stimulation circuitry 70 provides to define more complex pulses. Because the parameters of each phase of a pulse are specified by dedicated registers in the register bank 98, pulses are limited to the number of phases that the register bank 98 is designed to accommodate (e.g., the six phases shown in FIGS. 3B and 3C) each of which specify a constant pulse amplitude. Therefore, more complex pulses having, for example, ramped portions cannot be created using the circuitry 70. The circuitry 70 could be modified to accommodate additional pulse phases to approximate ramped pulse portions using a stair-step approach, but this would require additional registers in the register bank 98. Assume, for example, that to form a suitably-smooth ramp it would be necessary to parse both of the stimulation and active recovery phases into ten smaller phases. The pulse would then comprise 24 different phases: the 20 phases needed in each of the stimulation and active recovery phases, the pre-pulse phase, the inter-pulse phase, the passive recovery phase, and the quiet phase. Because the register bank 98 must contain a register for each phase in the period, that bank 98 would then need 24 different registers. The 96 bits needed for each register in the bank 98 typically comprise flip flops, and so in this example 2304 (96*24) flip flops would be required, or more if the IPG 100 supports further numbers of electrodes.
Flip flops require significant layout area on the ASIC 60. Further, the flip flops consume power when they are clocked, which can lead to complexity in gating the clocks to save power. The problem of excessive layout space is compounded by the fact that the stimulation circuitry 70 may include multiple timer 94/register bank 98/multiplexer 99 units operating in parallel (although only a single example is shown). Based on the existing architecture, the ASIC 60 must either include an undue number of area-intensive registers in register bank 98 to potentially handle the design of complex pulses, or provide a limited number of such registers and forego the use of such complex pulses; neither option is desirable.
A better solution is therefore needed to address the aforementioned problems, and is provided by this disclosure.

Pulse definition circuitry for creating stimulation waveforms in an implantable pulse generator

Boston Scientific Neuromodulation Corporation


An isotropic deposition method for trench narrowing of thin film magnetic write head features to be created by reactive ion etching. According to the method, a photolithographically defined photoresist trench is formed over a hardmask and underlying polymer layer as part of tri-layer resist process. Instead of performing the usual hardmask and polymer etching steps using the photoresist mask pattern, a spacer layer is deposited isotropically or directionally at an angle to cover the vertical side walls of the trench. The spacer layer is etchable by the hardmask etch process but resistant to the polymer etch process. When the hardmask etch process is performed, the spacer layer material applied to the trench side walls remains intact, thereby defining a narrowed trench that is extended by the subsequent base layer etch process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to thin film heads for magnetically writing information on data storage media, and particularly to fabrication processes for manufacturing such heads. Still more particularly, the invention concerns the reduction of write head feature size beyond that which can be achieved using conventional photolithography.
2. Description of the Prior Art
By way of background, thin film magnetic write heads for use in data storage devices, such as disk drives, conventionally include features such as P1 and P2 pole pieces that cooperate to record magnetic domains in concentric track patterns on an underlying data storage medium. The configuration of the pole pieces, and particularly the track width feature size, is an important determinant of the track width of the magnetic domains recorded on the underlying medium. Because narrow track width translates to increased data storage capacity, all other things being equal, it is a design goal of disk drive manufacturers to reduce the track width feature size of the pole pieces.
In thin film magnetic head processing, features are constructed using photolithographic processes. For example, to fabricate a pole piece, a photoresist layer is formed, then photo-exposed using a photolithographic mask to define the pole piece geometry, and then photo-developed to form a trench conforming to the defined geometry. The metallic pole piece material (typically a nickel-iron alloy) is deposited in the trench using an electroplating process. The remaining photoresist material is then stripped away, leaving behind the fully formed pole piece. In a tri-layer resist process, a feature is formed in a polymer layer using a xe2x80x9chardmaskxe2x80x9d layer over the polymer material. A standard photoresist layer is spun onto the hardmask and patterned to define the desired etch mask. Two etching processes are used to first etch the hardmask and then the polymer layer. The function of the hard mask is to ensure that the feature is formed anisotropically in the polymer layer during the second etching phase.
The problem with this type of processing is that feature size can only be narrowed photolithographically by using shorter wavelength light and contrast enhancement techniques. Thus, whether conventional photolithography is used, or newer technologies such as deep UV or electron beam lithography, reductions in feature size typically require new and more expensive light sources and exposure technology. An additional disadvantage of photolithographic solutions is that line edge roughness becomes a concern as photolithographic features become ever smaller.
Accordingly, an improved technique for reducing feature size in a thin film magnetic write head is required if improvements in disk drive performance are to be achieved. What is particularly needed is a new technique whereby feature size can be reduced while using any thin film magnetic head photolithographic process, including deep UV or electron beam lithography, without having to invest in higher cost photolithographic resolution enhancement solutions. An additional desirable requirement is that the technique be compatible with a tri-layer resist process in which a hardmask and an underlying polymer layer are separately etched to define features. A further requirement is that of reducing the line edge roughness of the photolithographically defined trenches.
The foregoing problems are solved and an advance in the art is obtained by a novel isotropic deposition method for trench narrowing of thin film magnetic write head features to be created by reactive ion etching. According to the method, a polymer base layer is formed on a substrate, such as an electroplating seed layer. A hardmask layer (hardmask) is applied onto the polymer layer and a photoresist imaging layer is spun onto the hardmask to a desired thickness. A trench is defined in the photoresist layer to form a pattern for the feature. The trench is deep enough to expose the hardmask, and has substantially vertical side walls. Following formation of the trench, a spacer layer is deposited isotropically or directionally at an angle to cover the trench side walls. The material used to form the spacer layer is one that can be deposited isotropically while preserving trench geometry, or directionally at an angle. The material must also be etchable by a subsequent hardmask etch process and resistant to a subsequent base layer etch process.
Horizontal portions of the spacer layer that overlie the bottom of the trench (if any) are anisotropically etched as part of the hardmask etch process to remove such material. Hardmask material is also removed from the trench bottom to expose the polymer layer. Vertical portions of the spacer layer that cover the trench side walls are left intact. This process initiates the formation of a narrowed trench that is reduced in horizontal size according to approximately twice the thickness of the spacer layer as deposited on the trench side walls.
The base layer etch process extends the trench anisotropically through the polymer layer to reveal the underlying substrate. This is done without removing the spacer layer material from the trench sidewalls, so that the narrowed trench size is carried through the polymer to the substrate. A feature, such as a metallic pole piece, may now be formed by electroplating metallic material into the narrowed trench.

Isotropic deposition for trench narrowing of features to be created by reactive ion etch processing

International Business Machines Corporation


The present disclosure provides a method and device for assessing quality of multimedia resource, wherein the method includes the steps of: determining a cumulative distribution vector of the multimedia resource according to indicator data for describing user behavior on the multimedia resource; determining an upper boundary vector and a lower boundary vector of the multimedia resource according to the cumulative distribution vector; and determining a quality score of the multimedia resource according to the cumulative distribution vector, the upper boundary vector, and the lower boundary vector. The present disclosure can better describe the quality of multimedia resource, and has a great operability. Moreover, after the quality of multimedia resource is assessed by using the quality assessment method of multimedia resource in the examples of the present disclosure, the feedback of online behaviors can be reflected on the final dynamic and optimized ranking and recommendation of the multimedia resource.

Native properties (e.g., machine properties) of multimedia resources themselves are used as the main assessment index in existing quality calculations and quality assessment of multimedia resources. For instance, overall quality of multimedia resources may be determined according to such static properties as signal quality, degree of distortion and so on of video and audio resources. Furthermore, the overall quality of multimedia resources could be determined with some properties facing users, such as frame rate, definition or the like, further added.
There also exists some quality assessment methods, in which the overall quality of a multimedia resource is determined by checking network characteristics of the multimedia resource. For example, the characteristics and decoding progress of the data packets transmitted by the streaming media on a network are calculated so as to determine the overall quality of a multimedia resource.
In other words, native properties (e.g., dynamic state and static state) of multimedia resources are used as the main index of quality assessment in some existing quality assessment methods. However, in many cases, users' requirements cannot be met if the quality of a multimedia resource is assessed merely based on the native properties of the multimedia resource. As a result, whether multimedia resources are satisfying or not cannot necessarily be described merely by such native properties as network transmission, definition or the like.

Method and device for assessing quality of multimedia resource


Systems and methods for displaying an image on an image-enabled clothing article are disclosed. A method that can be used with the systems include determining, by a computing device, that at least a first advertisement and a second advertisement are acceptable for a participant. The computing device sends an option to select one of the first advertisement and second advertisement to a participant computing device via a computer network, wherein the option including payment terms for each of the first advertisement and second advertisement. The computing device also receives an indication from the participant computing device of a selected advertisement via the computer network, and sends instructions to the participant computing device to display the selected advertisement on an image-enabled clothing article of the participant via the computer network.

The present invention relates generally to advertising and, more particularly, to methods and systems for advertising utilizing image-enabled clothing articles.
In recent years, an increase in wearable devices has created opportunities in a number of business sectors. One area of interest has been the development of services and technologies related to so-called billboard clothing items, or image-enabled clothing. The increasing use of such items by consumers presents opportunities for sharing ideas through wearable clothing items. There are challenges associated with providing images to consumers in a manner that is beneficial to the consumer and third party entities. Therefore, there is a need for an effective approach for disseminating imagery, particularly in the context of crowd-sourced advertising.

System and method for dynamic advertising

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


An apparatus for filling buckets, pails or other containers with water or other fluid from faucets, and a method of filling containers with fluid using the apparatus. The apparatus comprises an attachment unit or funnel that is placed over a faucet, a hose, and a tip at the opposite end of the hose with a hook to retain the bottom end of the hose in the bucket. The attachment unit is generally cylindrical and made of a solid foam that has a closed cellular structure. The attachment unit can be screwed on and off the upper end of the hose. In a first preferred embodiment the attachment unit is configured for standard faucets, with an opening in the center of its top and a vertical channel. In a second preferred embodiment the attachment unit is configured for contemporary faucets, with an opening in its side and a curved channel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for conveying water from a faucet to a container.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been previous inventions that can convey water from a faucet, but none in the prior art are equivalent to the instant invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,184, issued on Nov. 15, 1988, to Christopher G. Gates, discloses an elastic drip silencer and funnel. The funnel is elastic and fits around and under the faucet. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it has an expandable foam portion that fits around the faucet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,620, issued on Nov. 4, 1997, to David L. Stoltz and Max E. Murphy, discloses a drain cable apparatus, including a hose that may be coupled to a faucet. Again, the instant invention is distinguishable, in that it has an expandable foam portion that fits around the faucet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,690, issued on Jun. 2, 1998, to Jurgen Humpert, Eckhard Gransow and Bernd Bischoff, discloses a hose-type pull-out faucet, in which a spout is connected to a base by a hose that can be pulled out. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it is designed to be attached to the end of a faucet""s spout, rather than between the spout and a base.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,212, issued on Aug. 8, 2000, to James M. Rogan, discloses a plumbing apparatus for aiding in the snaking of drain pipes, with a flushing water tube connected to a flexible hose that can be attached to a faucet. It does not disclose an expandable foam portion that can fit around the faucet, as in the instant invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,345,397, issued on Feb. 12, 2002, to Mark A. Haubrich, discloses an outdoor faucet attachment, which is an S-shaped tube, without an expandable foam portion as in the instant invention.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 454,942, issued on Mar. 26, 2002, to William J. Selby, discloses a design for a safety hose.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.
The present invention is an apparatus for filling buckets, pails or other containers with water or other fluid from faucets, and a method of filling containers with fluid using the apparatus. The apparatus comprises an attachment unit or funnel that is placed over a faucet, a hose, and a tip at the opposite end of the hose with a hook to retain the bottom end of the hose in the bucket. In a first preferred embodiment the attachment unit is configured for standard faucets. In a second preferred embodiment the attachment unit is configured for contemporary faucets.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide an apparatus and method for transferring water from a faucet to a bucket, which reduces the risk of spills and resulting possible personal injury and/or property damage.
It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus for transferring water from a standard faucet.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an apparatus for transferring water from a contemporary faucet.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus and method that may be used to transfer any liquid from a faucet to a suitable container.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof in an apparatus for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.


A system and method of image processing for smoothing, denoising, despeckling and sharpening scanned document images which is performed prior to a compression. The scanned image is selectively smoothed by anisotropic diffusion filtering in a single iteration with a 3xc3x973 kernel, which provides denoising, edge-preserving smoothing. The smoothed image data is then selectively sharpened using variable contrast mapping that provides overshoot-free variable-sharpening and despeckling. Image quality is improvides while increasing compressibility of the image.

The present invention relates to processing of image data and in particular to enhancing quality and compressibility of digital images including combinations of text, graphics, and natural images by selective smoothing/denoising and selective sharpening.
Digital image data is often processed to enhance the visual quality of the image. Common image processing techniques include image smoothing and image sharpening. Smoothing is a technique that is mainly performed for reducing certain types of noise. Non-selective (or linear) smoothing algorithms smooth all features in an image (i.e., areas in the image which can be characterized as flat regions and areas within the image which can be characterized as edges). However, it is undesirable to smooth edges since smoothed edges gives the image a xe2x80x9cblurryxe2x80x9d appearance. Moreover, although smoothing is effective in removing most Gaussian noise, it is less effective in removing high amplitude noise such as speckle noise. Speckle noise can be characterized as a single unintentional black dot in a white region or a single unintentional white dot in a black region.
Generally, sharpening is a technique in which the edges within the image are sharpened to improve the visual quality of an image. This technique is often performed to enhance the visual quality of text or graphics within an image. One disadvantage of non-selective sharpening techniques is that they also tend to amplify noise.
Selective (or non-linear) filters such as selective smoothing or selective sharpening filters overcome the disadvantages of non-selective filters by applying the filtering function only to the features that are to be smoothed/sharpened while preserving the non-selected features. Selective filters include some means of identifying or differentiating between features, so that the filter is applied only to the desired feature. One example of an edge preserving, selective smoothing filter is an anisotropic diffusion filter.
Due to its denoising nature, the anisotropic diffusion filtering technique has recently been considered for enhancing compressibility. Specifically, an anisotropic diffusion filter was iteratively applied to image data between 10 and 20 times to obtain an optimal ratio between a visual quality measure and the bit-per-pixel (bpp) compression rate. It was found that applying 5 iterations produced images that were perceptually equivalent to the original images and the compression bit-rate was improved by 5%-17.5%. Although this technique shows that anisotropic diffusion can be used to improve image compressibility, it is impractical for real-time image processing applications such as image scanning since many time consuming iterations are required to obtain the desired image quality and compressibility. In addition, the conventional anisotropic diffusion technique does not clean speckle noise and other types of high amplitude noise and is thus insufficient for pre-processing scanned document images.
Another denoising/smoothing filtering technique that has been suggested for compression enhancement applications is a Sigma-filter that is even more computationally expensive per iteration than anisotropic diffusion filtering (although it requires less iterations for achieving the same noise reduction). However, this technique is still not fast enough for applications for processing full-page images or real-time image processing. Like the anisotropic diffusion filter, the Sigma-filter also does not remove high amplitude noise.
Finally, in the case of both denoising techniques (i.e., anisotropic diffusion filtering and Sigma pre-processing) each was considered for processing only natural images. However, application of these techniques on document images containing text, graphics, and natural images was not considered since it is well known that denoising filters (particularly applied in many iterations) degrade the quality of textual and graphical images. Specifically, edge sharpness of text features is degraded.
What is needed is an image processing technique which can be applied to combination-type (i.e., text, graphical, natural) document images and which increases compressibility while enhancing image quality with low computational complexity for real-time applications.
A system and method of enhancing image data and increasing compressibility of data by selectively smoothing the image data while preserving edges and selectively sharpening image data using variable contrast stretching. In one embodiment, variable contrast stretching is performed by clipping those pixel intensity values outside of a variable range and mapping those pixel intensity values within the variable range. In another embodiment, selective smoothing is performed using a robust anistotropic diffusion (RAD) filter.

Method for enhancing compressibility and visual quality of scanned document images

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A diagnostic tool and method are provided wherein a faulty part and its part number is determined based on a retrieved DTC for a specific vehicle. The part number may include the original manufacturer's number and a generic equivalent manufacturer's number (if available). The diagnostic tool can search a parts database of various parts suppliers for their pricing and location. The diagnostic tool can also provide suggested fixes to the user based on the retrieved DTC.

Modern vehicles typically have one or more diagnostic systems, generally having separate computer control modules, such as an electronic control unit (ECU) to control various functions of the vehicle. Some examples include a powertrain control module (PCM), an engine control module (ECM), a transmission control module (TCM), an anti-locking brake system (ABS), and supplemental restraint system module (SRS). The vehicle diagnostic systems, such as OBD II (On-Board Diagnostic) have self-diagnostic capabilities to detect and alert the driver of problems that the vehicle may be encountering. When a problem is detected, a diagnostic trouble code (DTC) is set within the module's memory. DTCs are as general or as specific as the manufacturer desires for a particular vehicle.
To retrieve and decipher DTCs, an auto repair technician needs a diagnostic tool, such as a scan tool. The diagnostic tool is connected to the OBD II via a data link connector (DLC) to access and retrieve the DTCs. Diagnostic tools are equipped to communicate in various communication protocols used in the vehicle such as Controller Area Network (CAN), J1850 VPM and PWM, ISO 9141, Keyword 2000 and others. These communication protocols may be specific to each of the various vehicle manufacturers. The diagnostic tool will help the technician to diagnose and repair the vehicle based on the information the tool retrieves from the vehicle.
The diagnostic tools have limited and dated diagnostic information in their database stored on the diagnostic tool. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus that allow a diagnostic tool to have the most up to date diagnostic information available in order to provide accurate diagnoses of the vehicle and to identify the part numbers that may be at fault.

Method and apparatus for identifying related fix information and parts number