A computer-implemented system and method for providing basic valet parking through centrally-managed parking services is provided. Motor vehicle parking spaces are managed through a server. Smart parking devices physically proximate to the parking spaces are interfaced to the server. Vehicle occupancy sensors also physically proximate to the parking spaces are interfaced to the server. Parking availability indicators associated with the parking spaces are interfaced to the server. Use the parking spaces is reserved for a valet service. A reservation request for the parking spaces is accepted through the server for use by the valet service for a period of time. Occupancy of the reserved parking spaces by a motor vehicle through the nearest vehicle occupancy sensor is sensed during the time period. Availability of each parking space is indicated through the nearest parking availability indicator throughout the time period based upon the current time and use by the valet service.

Public roads primarily facilitate motor vehicle traffic. Vehicle parking is ordinarily offered as a secondary benefit incident to vehicle throughway. Consequently, parking is an inherently limited public resource. Within an urban environment, local government generally regulates parking at curbside, on public roads, in municipal parking lots, and on other public property through a regulatory scheme that both provides revenue generation and promotes public safety and health. Commonly, public parking is regulated through a scheme of fees assessed through parking meters for fixed time period parking, by issuance of permits for residential, commercial, or special use parking, and through zoning that regulates permissible uses of property, including parking. Parking on privately-owned property is often offered through hourly fees or some form of parking contract.
Meeting the parking needs of motorists requires more than simply finding a balance between supply and demand, yet the capability to efficiently allocate and manage on-street parking remains elusive, even when parking needs are significant, recurring, and known ahead of time. For instance, urban parking spaces characteristically undergo periods of widely skewed demand and utilization, with low demand and light use in some periods, often during the night, and heavy demand and use at other times. As well, merely finding available parking is only the start, as subsequent occupancy of a parking space must also be permissible under applicable rules. Parking regulations, though, are often complex and confusing, with time limits on parking in residential and business zones, parking enforcement undertaken during working hours in neighborhood zones, parking enforcement of loading zone rules and rules governing parking near fire hydrants occurring at all hours, and exceptions to parking regulations made to accommodate select holidays, depending upon the municipality.
Consequently, the impact of regulated control over on-street parking affects all motorists, as well as urban residents, local businesses, and other parties that use or rely upon on-street parking, such as businesses that offer valet parking services to their customers. Drivers seeking a place to park their motor vehicles are most immediately impacted by regulated parking control. Looking for a parking space wastes time, contributes to traffic congestion, creates frustration, and generates pollution, while violating parking rules, such as by allowing a parking meter to expire, can result in parking tickets, fines, or towing. Motorists therefore need ways to more conveniently and efficiently determine on-street parking availability and ensure parking regulation compliance once parked.
Valet parking services offer motorists with an alternative to finding parking themselves, which can be particularly helpful in an urban environment. A parking valet is responsible for finding a parking space for a customer's car and often also for retrieving the car upon the customer's return. Typically, valet parking might be provided for a special event, such as a black tie gala, or on a recurring basis by a local business, such as a restaurant, bar, or retail store. Businesses sometimes employ their own valets or contract with a valet parking service. The valets park their customers' vehicles from a drop-off location that is generally located convenient to the business's entrance, which the customer is expected to patronize. Although the customers avoid the hassles of self-parking, valets still face the same problems of locating available on-street parking if reserved parking spaces for valet parking only are unavailable, especially where parking lots are scarce. Thus, many valet services only operate in the evening or during off-peak times to increase parking opportunities for their valets. Conventional valet parking services solutions focus on vehicle location and retrieval and fail to adequately alleviate fundamental concerns by valets over finding suitable parking for their customers' cars, particularly in urban settings.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,557, issued Jan. 20, 1998, to Schuette, discloses a computerized valet parking system. A vehicle tracking system has accounting and operational data gathering functions. A first data transceiver inputs and retrieves a first set of vehicle identification data, and a second data transceiver located at a remote vehicle parking facility inputs and retrieves a second set of vehicle identification data. The first and second sets of vehicle identification data are stored by a central processor and the second data transceiver outputs vehicle pickup data for retrieval purposes in response to a vehicle retrieval command from the central processor, thereby allowing a customer to remain within a building until his vehicle has been retrieved.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0106514, published Apr. 29, 2010, to Cox, discloses travel-related services provided via a satellite digital audio radio system (SDARS). In one embodiment, information on parking garages near a certain location and their available parking spaces is provided as a parking data service to users of SDARS. A parking service may be provided to devices that incorporate a navigation system or as a companion to a traffic data service. The parking service can involve a variety of components, including a parking server, a parking console, a parking protocol, a parking user interface, and parking provisioning. The parking service may provide any suitable information about the parking garages in a garage map or a garage list, such as garage services, including whether valet parking is available.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,805,239, issued Sep. 28, 2010, to Kaplan et al., discloses a method of operating a navigation system to provide parking availability information, including any amenities provided, such as valet parking services. A destination location is obtained and a parking facility proximate the destination location is identified. Historic parking availability information for the parking facility is provided based on past parking availability patterns. A route from an origin to the parking facility may be calculated and guidance for following the route provided through a navigation system.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0309760, published Dec. 17, 2009, to Chew, discloses an apparatus and method for locating, identifying, and tracking vehicles in a parking area. The occupancy status of parking spaces is provided by processing images to provide information regarding locations and numbers of empty and occupied spaces, and guidance information to locate each space. Additionally, live parking lot images can be displayed in a digital map to assist users, such as drivers, customer service personnel, valet services attendants, and others, to visually locate and identify a vehicle of interest.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0276236, published Nov. 5, 2009, to Adamczyk et al., discloses implementing a vehicle locator service. Location identification information indicates the presence of a vehicle at a parking pace and an occupancy record is created that includes object identification information and location identification information. The parking area may provide value-added services, such valet parking. A request to locate a vehicle during an exiting process is received. The location identification information from the occupancy record associated with the object identification information is retrieved and the location identification information of the parking space is presented to the operator. The location identification information is received via a radio frequency identifier associated with the parking space. The parking location may be reserved for preferred customers, such that the automatic identification information provided via the radio frequency identifier includes a unique code that distinguishes the location's occupant from other users.
U.S. patent Application Publication No. 2005/0280555, published Sep. 22, 2005, to Warner, VI, discloses dynamically managing parking, which includes the use of an intelligent software engine that interfaces with a wireless mesh network of multi-channel communication devices. A parking transceiver mesh network node located proximate to one or more parking spaces provides accurate and current data to a database of available parking spaces. Parking availability algorithms are used to analyze this data to select optimal parking spaces for drivers and predict future availability. The databases may include all subscriber information for parking services, including valet services.
Conventional parking solutions typically focus on either determining availability of parking spaces for valet parking use, or identifying where valet parking services are provided. Therefore, there is a need for equipping valet parking services with a comprehensive set of services that allow more flexible types of valet parking, instead of simply a convenient alternative to self-parking.

Computer-implemented system and method for managing on-street valet parking


A process for limiting the growth of microorganisms comprises (a) providing an antimicrobial agent comprising fine-nanoscale gold on a support medium comprising nanoparticulate titania, the fine-nanoscale gold having been deposited on the support medium by physical vapor deposition; and (b) contacting at least one microorganism with the antimicrobial agent.

The potential for the presence of pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and fungi in biological fluids such as saliva, tears, blood, and lymph is of significant concern to health care workers and patients. Surfaces contaminated with bacteria, viruses, and fungi can facilitate the spread of infections. Additionally, the usefulness of valuable food and industrial products can be destroyed by the presence of bacteria and viruses. Methods for minimizing the transmission of pathogens (for example, in the home, in hospitals, and in day-care centers) are therefore important.
Microorganisms can be killed or rendered static by a number of physical and chemical methods. Physical methods include the application of heat and/or radiation. Chemicals that have been used to limit viral, fungal, and bacterial growth include alcohols (usually, 70 percent by volume aqueous ethyl or isopropyl alcohol); phenol and phenol derivatives such as hexachlorophene; formaldehyde; glutaraldehyde; ethylene oxide; ether; detergents; chlorhexidine gluconate; heavy metals such as silver, gold, copper, and mercury; organic compounds of mercury such as mercurochrome; and oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide, iodine, hypochlorite, and chlorine.
Antibiotics, such as bacitracin, the cephalosporins, cycloserine, the penicillins, vancomycin, chloramphenicol, the erythromycins, the tetracyclines, the sulfonamides, and the aminoglycosides (such as streptomycin, neomycin, and gentamycin) have traditionally been defined as chemicals made by microorganisms that can kill bacteria. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses.
Semiconductor photocatalysts (for example, oxides of titanium, zirconium, zinc, tin, iron, tungsten, and molybdenum) have been used for the destruction (by photochemical oxidation) of organic contaminants in fluid media. Titanium dioxide has been widely investigated because of its chemical stability, suitable bandgap structure for ultraviolet/visible photoactivation, and its relatively low cost. Co-catalysts (for example, platinum, palladium, silver, and/or oxides and sulfides of these metals) have been added to titanium dioxide to increase its photocatalytic activity.
More recently, nanosize titanium dioxide particles have been utilized and have been capped with a variety of noble metals to improve their photocatalytic efficiency. Gold-capped titanium dioxide nanocomposites have been formed from a mixture of titanium dioxide solution and a gold salt (for example, HAuCl4) by the reduction of gold on the surface of the titanium dioxide nanoparticles using chemical or photochemical reduction methods. Such nanocomposites have been dispersed in aqueous media and shown to inhibit microbial growth in the presence of light.
Each of the foregoing antimicrobial agents (as well as other known antimicrobials) has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Some are toxic, costly, or otherwise impractical as routine disinfecting compounds. Some are unstable and become inactive over time. Some function such that the target microorganism develops resistance to the antimicrobial agent.

Process for limiting the growth of microorganisms


Examples of artificial intelligence based risk and knowledge management analysis are described. In an example implementation, a data analyzer may obtain entity data pertaining to an entity associated with a risk management instrument. The entity data may include data obtained from an IoT device and/or a risk control and knowledge management database. The entity data may be processed by an intelligent risk management agent to perform a variety of risk control and knowledge management tasks, such as claim processing, notification generation, formulization of risk management instruments, and assisting agents, users, and organization. The claim processing may include, for instance, identification of a similar case from database. The notification generation may include analysis with respect to reference parameters. The formulization of risk management instrument may include analysis with respect to the entity data from multiple domains and/or various external factors.

Normally, to have protection against financial losses, which may arise due to damage to resources such as, for example, property, vehicles, and other valuable items, a variety of risk management instruments are provided by various organizations. A risk management instrument may be in form of a contract involving an end user, i.e., a user who wishes to have protection against such damages, and an organization, which provides such risk management instruments. One or more risk management instruments may be offered to a user by an organization based on needs and requirements of the user and the assessment of the user by the organization.
In case of damage to a resource, the user may claim benefits to compensate the financial loss that may have occurred due to the damage. Such losses may be financial or may be reducible to financial terms. The organization, on receiving such a claim settlement request, may assess the extent of damage to the resource; and based on the conditions of the risk management instrument, determine corresponding losses and compensate the user.
The process of determining a suitable risk management instrument and subsequent damage assessment is often complex, cumbersome, requires skilled labor/worker, and is prone to errors. For instance, in case of an inappropriate risk management instrument being selected, either the user may not be adequately covered or the organization may have to bear expenses, which could have been avoided if the risk management instrument was intelligently selected for the user. Likewise, damage assessment involves physical analysis a resource, which may be limited by human resources or their limited knowledge and skills. In case of inappropriate damage assessment, either the organization may have to compensate for losses, that weren't present or a user may be under-compensated.
Moreover, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system and network are applied as ways of gathering and analyzing data within risk management domain as corner bars. However, such a system may also have certain disadvantages and limitations. The network and SCADA system may be a wireless network, a wired network, or a combination thereof. Such networks, as would be appreciated include a variety of network devices, including routers, bridges, servers, computational devices, storage devices, and the like. In this kind of infrastructure and network organizations, the network and SCADA system connections are easily removed, easily disconnected, unreliable, and troublesome oftentimes.
Thus, the selection of an appropriate risk management instrument, damage assessment (also referred to as claim adjudication), and instant repair/recover services often require skilled worker, which may make the entire process costly, time consuming, and resource intensive. Still further, despite possessing highly skilled worker, the knowledge of the worker may be limited to certain domains, thereby making the entire process inefficient. Moreover, such processes are prone to errors due substantial manual intervention and analysis, for instance, due to biased judgments and lack of knowledge.
On the other hand, an automated system, for instance, a systematic implementation of an automated claim adjudication process, may not be able to efficiently replicate human knowledge, which may also result in errors and inefficient utilization of computational resources deployed for automated analysis. Moreover, currently available systems focus on a reactive approach, i.e., compensating when damage has occurred but may lack mechanisms to proactively prevent such damages from occurring.
This presents a technical problem of devising risk management systems that can provide for efficient analysis of risk management instruments to reduce cost (computational and otherwise), minimize computational and other errors, and better utilization of manual and computational resources. This disclosure involves creations and selections of a suitable risk management solution/tool/instrument, reasonable policies/contracts, appropriate determination of damages, proactive prevention of probable damage, and intelligent and prompt damage repairs, which provides protections against losses including financial losses, intangible assets losses, and opportunity costs.

Artificial intelligence based risk and knowledge management


A mounting configuration of electric and/or electronic components, in particular electrolytic capacitors, on a printed circuit board is described. The printed circuit board is formed by at least two metallic plates insulated electrically from one another by an insulating layer that preferably conducts heat well and has holes for the connecting pins of the electric and/or electronic components. Through which holes the connecting pins are plugged and connected electrically to the respectively associated metallic plate.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a mounting configuration of electric and/or electronic components on a printed circuit board.
Such a mounting configuration is disclosed in Published, Non-Prosecuted German Patent Application DE 41 07 312 A1. There, an electronic component is disposed on a printed circuit board which is composed of an electrically insulating substrate material which is laminated on both sides with a copper foil and, on its side facing away from the component, is connected via an electrically insulating adhesive layer to a metallic, plate-shaped cooling element. In order to improve the thermal conductivity, the substrate material is provided with holes, which are filled with an electrically conductive material and in this way permit better heat conduction between the two copper films.
In the case of the known mounting configuration, a relatively large number of holes per component are needed through the substrate material in order to achieve adequate heat conduction through the substrate material. This requires a relatively high outlay on production and is therefore costly. In addition, a relatively thick electrically insulating substrate is necessary, which is merely used for mechanical stabilization but provides no contribution to the thermal dissipation.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a mounting configuration of electric and/or electronic components on a printed circuit board which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art devices of this general type, which ensures good thermal dissipation and at the same time can be produced simply and therefore inexpensively.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a mounting configuration. The mounting configuration contains components each having connecting pins and a printed circuit board having an insulating layer and at least two metallic plates insulated electrically from one another by the insulating layer. The two metallic plates and the insulating layer have holes for receiving the connecting pins of the components mounted on the printed circuit board, and through the holes the connecting pins are plugged and connected electrically to one of the two metallic plates. Preferably the components are electrical and/or electronic components such as electrolytic capacitors.
The mounting configuration according to the invention has a printed circuit board that is formed by at least two metallic plates that are connected to one another by an electrically insulating, insulating layer that conducts heat well. In this case, the thickness of the metallic plates can be selected suitably in a simple way in order to ensure the necessary heat transport. One of the two metallic plates will normally be connected to a ground potential and the other to the supply voltage potential.
The special advantage of the configuration resides in the very low-resistance and low-inductive connection of the electric and/or electronic components. Both the thermal dissipation and the inductance are more beneficial the thinner the insulating layer. In addition, the capacitance of the two metallic plates assumes a value in the range of about 1 pF in the case of a very thin insulating layer, as a result of which a filtering effect with respect to electromagnetic interference occurs.
The two plates have substantially concentric holes, through which the connecting pins of electric and/or electronic components, in particular of electrolytic capacitors, are plugged. Holes located one above another advantageously have different diameters in such a way that the hole in the metallic plate which is not electrically connected to the respective connecting pin has a larger diameter. In this way, a contact between a connecting pin and the metallic plate to which it is not to be connected can be avoided better and, the risks that the material with which the contact pins are connected to the respective metallic plates, for example tin solder, will come into contact with the other plate is reduced substantially.
In a development of the invention, the connecting pins have different lengths, so that the connecting pins that are connected to the metallic plate facing the component and belonging to the printed circuit board do not project into the hole in the other metallic plate.
In order to rule out to a great extent contact between the connecting pin which is connected to the metallic plate on the side of the printed circuit board facing away from the component, in a particularly advantageous development of the invention, the connecting pin is provided with an insulating sleeve, which can be connected to the component housing. The insulating sleeve additionally advantageously ensures protection against pole transposition of the component, which is of special importance in particular in the case of electrolytic capacitors, since the connecting pin with the sleeve does not fit through the other hole with a lower diameter.
In a development of the mounting configuration according to the invention, a further metallic plate can be disposed on the side of the printed circuit board facing away from the component, for the purpose of further cooling, and is likewise isolated from the other metallic plate by an electrically insulating layer.
The electrically insulating layers can be any desired adhesives, in particular adhesives that conduct heat well. However, use can also be made of double-sided adhesive films, since these are particularly easy to handle.
An important feature of the mounting configuration according to the invention is that it dispenses with an insulating substrate material, such as is regularly used in conventional printed circuit boards, and the stability of the printed circuit board is effected by the relatively thick metallic plates, while the insulating intermediate layers merely fulfill the function of the mechanical connection.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a mounting configuration of electric and/or electronic components on a printed circuit board, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Mounting configuration of electric and/or electronic components on a printed circuit board


A simple portable telephone set with which the user can talk over the telephone without opening its lid. The simple portable telephone set includes: a telephone set body (15) having a key operating section (13); a liquid crystal section (12) provided in the telephone set body (15); a transmitter section (14) provided on a side surface of the telephone set body (15); an opening and closing lid (17) swingably coupled to the telephone set body (15); a receiver section (19) provided on the inner surface of the lid (17); and a sound generating section (21) provided on an outer surface of the lid (17).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a simple portable telephone set (a cellular phone) in which its telephone set body has an opening and closing cover, and which is used mainly outdoors.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical simple portable telephone set will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the simple portable telephone set, and FIG. 7 is also a perspective view showing the simple portable telephone set which is waiting for a calling signal. In those figures, reference numeral 1 designates the simple portable telephone set for calls through an external antenna (not shown); 2, a liquid crystal section on which, for instance, the telephone number of an addressee is displayed; 3, a key operating section; 4, a transmitter section including an ECM microphone or the like for inputting sounds or voices to be transmitted to a transmitter; 5, a telephone set body including the liquid crystal section 2, the key operating section 3, and the transmitter section 4; 6, a closable lid which is coupled to the telephone set body 5 in such a manner that it is swingable about a shaft 7; and 8, a receiver section including a speaker of the like, provided in the lid 6, for outputting received signals as sounds.
Now, the operation of the simple portable telephone set will be described. The simple portable telephone set is generally used as follows: An addresser or addressee opens the lid 6 and talks over the telephone set with the receiver section put on the ear. After the talk over the telephone set is ended, the lid 6 is closed so that the telephone set is awaiting calling signals again.
With the simple portable telephone set thus designed, during the talks over the telephone set, it is necessary to bring the ear into close contact with the receiver section speaker, and bring the mouth near to the transmitter section microphone. That is, the lid must be kept open during the talks over the telephone set, and in other words, the talks over the telephone set with the lid closed is impossible.
This is a problem to be solved by the invention. That is, an object of the invention is to provide a simple portable telephone set over which enables the talks with the lid held closed.
The foregoing object of the invention has been achieved by the provision of a simple portable telephone set which, according to the invention, comprises:
a telephone set body having a key operating section;
a liquid crystal section provided in said telephone set body;
a transmitter section provided on the side surface of the telephone set body;
an opening and closing lid which is swingably coupled to the telephone set body:
a receiver section provided on the inner surface of the lid; and
a sound generating section provided on the outer surface of the lid.
With the telephone set of the invention, the user can talk over the telephone regardless of whether the lid is open or closed.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


An athletic device for training the muscles of the upper body, in particular the arm muscles, in the course of running and walking, comprising a vest to be worn by a user, an elastically expandable strap removably disposed fastened in place across a back part of the vest and having at its ends two cuff means for connection to the arms of the user.

During athletic endurance and weight training the intention is to stress portions of the skeletal muscles as large as possible over extended periods of time. This is the case, for example, during cross-country skiing or during swimming, i.e. in the course of types of athletics which have been particularly lauded time and again for their beneficial effects on the body.
During running and walking, which are the natural means of human propulsion, the legs alone are almost exclusively used and the arms perform involuntary load-free motions during running or walking.
In order to put more of a load on the limbs, weights are strapped to the wrist and ankles; however, these weights offer more of a resistance to the corresponding flexor muscles. However, during running and walking the more important muscles are the extensor muscles which support the body and trigger a jump.


A package for dispensing sheet material from a stack includes a novel biasing device for urging the stack of sheet material toward an opening in one side of the package. The biasing device is comprised of a flat sheet of material sized and shaped to be located within the package beneath the stack of sheet material. An elastomeric element having an unstressed length that is less than a diameter of the flat sheet of material is stressed and positioned between opposite edges of the flat sheet of material. As stress is relieved from the elastomeric element, the elastomeric element draws the opposite edges together and elevates a central portion of the sheet of material in the form of an arch to urge the stack toward the opening as the stack of sheet material is depleted.

The present invention relates to an improved package for dispensing individual sheets of material from a stack. In particular the present invention relates to an improvement in biasing devices for urging a stack of sheet material toward an opening of the package.
Packaging previously has been developed to hold a stack of sheet material and permit dispensing of individual sheets of the material one at a time. The packaging characteristics depend on the manner in which the stack of sheet material is formed. For example, where the successive sheets of material in a stack are connected to one another along alternating opposing edges by a peelable adhesive (e.g., in a Z-fold manner), packaging has included a six-sided container with an opening in one side for removing individual sheets from the stack. Successful single sheet dispensing from such package requires that the stack be urged toward the opening, even as the sheets in the stack are being depleted. Various ways of urging the stack toward the opening have been proposed.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,631, which is owned by a common assignee with the present application, a piece of foam material is compressed and placed in the packaging behind the bottom of the stack. The foam material provides a force to urge the stack toward the opening as individual sheets are removed from the packaging.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,666, also owned by a common assignee with the present invention, a spiral wire spring compressed and placed between the stack and the base of the packaging provides the force necessary to lift the stack as individual sheets are dispensed.
The present invention constitutes an improvement over prior biasing devices for dispensing individual sheets from a Z-folded stack of sheet material from a container.
The present invention provides an improved means for biasing a stack of sheet material within a dispensing package, wherein the stack of sheet material comprises a plurality of vertically aligned sheets of material which are releasably adhered to each other along opposite edges of successive sheets by a narrow band of pressure-sensitive adhesive, and wherein the dispensing package comprises a bottom, side walls and a top, the top defining an opening that extends between opposing side walls. The inventive biasing device comprises a sheet of material sized to fit within the dispensing package between the stack of sheet material and the bottom of the dispensing package. An elastomeric element, having an unstressed length that is less than a length of one edge of the sheet of material, is positioned between opposing first and second edges of the sheet, and secured to opposing sections of the sheet. The elastomeric element thereby draws the first and second edges of the sheet toward one another and elevates a central portion of the sheet of material.

Plate spring for pop-up sheet material dispenser


A weighting function is obtained to enhance measured diffraction signals used in optical metrology. To obtain the weighting function, a measured diffraction signal is obtained. The measured diffraction signal was measured from a site on a wafer using a photometric device. A first weighting function is defined based on noise that exists in the measured diffraction signal. A second weighting function is defined based on accuracy of the measured diffraction signal. A third weighting function is defined based on sensitivity of the measured diffraction signal. A fourth weighting function is defined based on one or more of the first, second, and third weighting functions.

1. Field
The present application relates to optical metrology, and, more particularly, to defining a weighting function to enhance measured diffraction signals used in optical metrology.
2. Related Art
Optical metrology involves directing an incident beam at a feature on a wafer, measuring the resulting diffraction signal, and analyzing the measured diffraction signal to determine various characteristics of the feature. In semiconductor manufacturing, optical metrology is typically used for quality assurance. For example, after fabricating a periodic grating in proximity to a semiconductor chip on a semiconductor wafer, an optical metrology system is used to determine the profile of the periodic grating. By determining the profile of the periodic grating, the quality of the fabrication process utilized to form the periodic grating, and by extension the semiconductor chip proximate the periodic grating, can be evaluated.
For a number of reasons, the measured diffraction signal may be weak. For example, the measured diffraction signal may include noise related to the hardware used to obtain the measured diffraction signal and to the feature being measured. A weak measured diffraction signal may decrease the accuracy of the optical metrology process.

Weighting function to enhance measured diffraction signals in optical metrology


A system and method for automating the initiation of a telecommunications session and a calling card to use with the system or the method. In one embodiment, an automated telephony interface system includes a scanner and a session initiator which is coupled to the scanner. The initiator extracts a telephone number from information read by the scanner and transmits a signal containing the telephone number to a telecommunications device in order to initiate a telecommunications session.

The present invention is directed, in general, to an information system and, more specifically, to a system and method for automating telecommunications session initiation and a calling card for use with the system or the method.
Communication is essential in any profession. The exchange of information cards is a common way of initiating communication. Information cards are tangible objects which individuals personally exchange and collect from others. These cards are widely used and studies have indicated that individuals may retain approximately 150 of these cards at any one time.
Besides serving as a vehicle of introduction, information cards also serve as compact sources of pertinent information needed to define or provide contact information for an individual associated with the card. Individuals may use these accumulated collection of cards to remind them of the persons they have met, their affiliations and titles or as a resource for certain other subject matters. The information on exchanged cards, however, is primarily used to begin or continue communication between the card""s recipient and the represented individual or organization.
Typically, these information cards contain several communication options in which an individual can contact a represented person or business. Common modes of communication now include a mailing address, phone number, cellular phone number, beeper number, email address and a fax number.
Establishing and maintaining contact with a recipient of a card may be determined upon the information given to the recipient and the way that information is presented. Several types of information cards, therefore, are currently being used to increase the potential for contact by presenting a certain image and providing vital, directed information. Cards are now printed on wood, metal, plastic and ornate paper in an effort for recipients to retain the distributed cards.
Electronic business cards have also surfaced as another alternative. These types of business cards allow individuals with personal digital assistants (PDA)s or cell phones to exchange information without exchanging a tangible object. Essentially all the various types of cards present ways to contact the represented person or organization in a familiar form that is easy to store and retrieve.
Although the information contained on these cards is somewhat limited, their utility is amazingly broad. Though presented in simple format, however, an individual must still correctly read and use the information contained on a card, for it to be useful. For example, one common error occurs while attempting to send a fax but mistakenly reading the phone number from a card instead of the fax number.
Besides being prone to errors, reading a fax number and manually entering it is also time consuming. Though electronic business cards provide a possible improvement for using the distributed information without human error, they are only useful to those who have a machine capable of receiving the information. Thus someone who uses an electronic business card must also have traditional business cards to distribute.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a way to enhance the use of an information card to facilitate the use of the card in desired communications.
To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, the present invention provides a system and method for automating the initiation of a telecommunications session and a calling card to use with the system or the method. In one embodiment, an automated telephony interface system for use with a telecommunications device includes: (1) a scanner and (2) a session initiator which is coupled to the scanner that extracts a telephone number from information read by the scanner and transmits a signal containing the telephone number to the telecommunications device in order to initiate a telecommunications session.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a method of initiating a telecommunications session that includes: (1) parsing information which was scanned from a calling card in order to extract a telephone number and (2) transmitting a signal containing the telephone number to a telecommunications device in order to cause the telecommunications device to initiate the telecommunications session.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a calling card that includes: (1) human-readable information located on the calling card and (2) machine-readable information located on the calling card which is an encoded version of the human-readable information and is employable by an application without requiring a supporting database to contain the user information.
The foregoing has outlined, rather broadly, preferred and alternative features of the present invention so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description of the invention that follows. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims of the invention. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiment as a basis for designing or modifying other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.

System and method for automating telecommunications session initiation and calling card for use therewith


A tiedown hitch for trucks and the like includes a medial body portion having a longitudinal axis, with a hook portion extending from one end and an eye portion extending from the opposed end. An interior hook surface is provided with an insert having a relatively large radius, so that the rope or line cannot be abraded or damaged by engagement with the hook. The hook insert may comprise a channel member bent into an arcuate shape and pressed onto the interior hook surface. Alternatively, the interior hook surface may be chamfered to provide a smooth arcuate exterior face to engage the rope or line secured about the hook portion. The eye portion includes a closed interior slot extending generally coaxially with the longitudinal axis and dimensioned to receive the rope or line therethrough. The medial body portion includes an arcuate closed slot formed therein, the slot defining a single finger that serves as a cleat to secure the rope or line passing thereabout. To use the tiedown hitch, one end of a rope is secured to a cleat on the truck, and passed through the eye slot and wrapped about the cleat finger. The rope is then passed back through the eye slot, so that the tiedown hitch is anchored immovably with respect to the cleat securing the rope. The free end of the rope is then extended over or about the load, and secured about a second cleat on the truck. The free end is then passed around the hook portion of the tiedown hitch, and returned to the second cleat. The rope extends in three plies from the hook to the second cleat, so that a mechanical advantage of three to one is established. The free end of the rope is pulled to tighten the rope to the desired extent, and the free end is then tied to the second cleat or another nearby fixed object.

In the field of transport of goods via truck, trailer, or rail car, it is necessary to secure the load to the vehicle to prevent load shifting. There are known in the prior art a great variety of load tiedown devices for securing loads to a frame or truck bed. Generally speaking, these devices are designed to use only 3/8 inch to 1/2 inch rope and are limited to a 500 lb. tensile load. Such devices usually provide a two to one mechanical advantage at most, and are required to be tied by various methods to jam cleats provided on the truck frame or truck bed.
Prior art tiedown hitches are usually three-dimensional devices that are relatively expensive to produce, considering the large numbers of the devices that are required in the transportation business. It is commonplace for tiedown hitches to be lost from truck loads as the loads are removed piecemeal, or to be dropped carelessly on the ground or pavement. Once a tiedown hitch has been run over by a truck, it is damaged beyond use, and must be replaced.
There is a need in the transport business for a tiedown hitch that is inexpensive to manufacture and cheap to replace. Moreover, the industry is in need of a tiedown device that provides a greater mechanical advantage to secure loads more firmly. It would also be advantageous to have a tiedown hitch that can be used in the absence of jam cleats on the truck frame or bed.


An image forming apparatus including an image bearing member, a charging member, and a measuring member. The image forming member is configured to bear an image. The charging member is configured to charge a surface of the image bearing member when a direct current bias voltage is added to at least an alternating bias voltage which is applied to the charging member, and has a frequency fc of the alternating bias voltage. The measuring member is configured to measure a potential of the surface of the image bearing member, and has a drive frequency fvsen. The relationship of the frequency fc and the drive frequency fvsen is expressed as fc≠fvsen×n and fc×n≠fvsen.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for image forming, and more particularly to: an image forming apparatus applying an electrophotographic process for effectively preventing resonance of a frequency of an alternating bias voltage and a drive frequency of a potential measuring member by adding a direct-current bias voltage to the alternating bias voltage as a charging bias voltage; a method processed by the image forming apparatus; and a process cartridge used by the image forming apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Typically, an image forming apparatus applying an electrophotographic process includes a photoconductive element as an image bearing member, and operates to charge the surface of the photoconductive element, to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photoconductive element, to develop the electrostatic latent image by supplying toner to the surface of the photoconductive element, to transfer the developed toner image onto a recording medium, to fix the developed image on the recording medium, and to then output the recording medium. After transferring the developed image onto the recording medium, the surface of the photoconductive element is cleaned with a cleaning unit so that residual toner does not exert a negative influence on the next image forming process. It is generally known to use a cleaning blade including elastic bodies, such as rubber, to remove incrustations such as remaining toner as the cleaning unit.

Method and apparatus for image forming capable of effectively preventing resonance of frequencies


An instant hot water delivery system includes a thermal storage bin that receives hot water from a water heater via a hot water supply conduit and stores the hot water therein. The thermal storage bin is disposed adjacent a point of demand to deliver the hot water instantly to the point of demand responsive to a demand. The thermal storage bin is configured to retain a thermal energy of the hot water for a prolonged period using a phase change material. When the hot water stored in the thermal storage bin cools down below a threshold temperature, the cooled down hot water is recirculated to the water heater via a cold water supply conduit using a crossover valve. The recirculation is based on thermosiphon. Fresh hot water from the water heater replaces the cooled down hot water that is displaced from the thermal storage bin.

Traditional hot water delivery systems include a hot water distribution pipe that distributes hot water from a water heater to different points of demand such as faucets, showers, dishwashers, etc. In said traditional hot water delivery systems, when there is no demand for the hot water and consequently no hot water is being drawn at the points of demand, the idle hot water that sits in the hot water distribution pipe cools down. Thus, when there is a reoccurrence of hot water demand at any one of the points of demand, the water initially exiting at the point of demand is the cooled down water in the hot water distribution pipe. A user will have to let the water run until the idle and cooled down water is drained from the hot water distribution pipe and fresh hot water from the water heater reaches the point of demand. Such draining of water while waiting for the fresh hot water to reach the point of demand results in wasted water which is undesirable from an environmental and water conservation perspective. Further, it may be time consuming, inconvenient, and frustrating for the user to have to wait for the cooled down water to drain before receiving hot water.
Conventional technology such as tankless water heaters, hot water recirculation units, instant hot water faucets, etc., that address said issues of the traditional hot water systems do exist. While said conventional technology does improve the water temperature, said conventional technology (e.g., tankless water heaters) may not provide instant hot water. Further, said conventional technology may not be configured for cheap, easy, and/or a plug and play installation. Instead, the installation of said conventional technology may require extensive changes to the existing plumbing and electrical systems. For example, conventional hot water recirculation units may need recirculation piping which may require extensive redesign of the existing plumbing. Further, the conventional hot water recirculation units use recirculation pumps that operate based on electrical power, thereby requiring power outlets (e.g., 220V outlets) at the installation location. Even conventional instant hot water faucets may need to be plugged to a power outlet to power the heating elements thereof. Such power outlets may not be readily available at the installation location, e.g., under the sink, in the shower, etc. So, electrical lines may need to be drawn and new power outlets may need to be installed. Accordingly, the installation of said conventional technology may require both a professional electrician and a professional plumber, which in turn makes the installation process complex, time-consuming, and cost-intensive. Such installation complexities also make said conventional technology incompatible for retrofit installations.
It is noted that this background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present disclosure. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present disclosure.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A three-dimensional position estimation device includes: a feature point detection unit detecting feature points from images captured by an image capturing device mounted in a moving object; a position-posture change amount calculation unit calculating change amounts of a position and a posture of the moving object; a feature point association unit associating feature points using a feature amount indicating a feature of the feature point; a three-dimensional position acquisition unit acquiring three-dimensional positions of the feature points and acquires a position and a posture of the image capturing device; a graph structure data generation unit generating graph structure data configured with feature point and image nodes, and a feature point and image capturing edges; an error function setting unit setting first and second error functions; and a graph structure data optimizing unit optimizing the three-dimensional position and the position and the posture of the image capturing device.

In the related art, there is a technology of capturing an image of the surrounding environment by a camera mounted in a vehicle and creating an environmental maps from the captured image (Jing Wang, Zongying Shi, Yisheng Zhong, "Visual SLAM Incorporating Wheel odometer for Indoor Robots", 2017 36th Chinese Control Conference (CCC), 2017.).
In Jing Wang, Zongying Shi, Yisheng Zhong, "Visual SLAM Incorporating Wheel odometer for Indoor Robots", 2017 36th Chinese Control Conference (CCC), 2017, a feature point is detected from an image, and feature points of images captured at a plurality of places are associated using a local feature amount of the feature point. A position and a posture of a camera and a three-dimensional position of the feature point are calculated from the positions of the associated feature points on the image. Graph structure data configured with feature point nodes for defining three-dimensional positions of a plurality of feature points, camera nodes for defining the position and the posture of the camera at a plurality of image capturing places, a feature point edge for defining the position of the feature point on the image at each image capturing place, and an image capturing edge for defining the change amounts of the position and the posture of the vehicle between camera nodes adjacent to each other is generated. An environmental map is created by optimizing the graph structure data such that the sum of values of an error function calculated from the feature point edge and the image capturing edge is minimized.
However, in Jing Wang, Zongying Shi, Yisheng Zhong, "Visual SLAM Incorporating Wheel odometer for Indoor Robots", 2017 36th Chinese Control Conference (CCC), 2017, a method of setting a weight (information matrix ΣB in Jing Wang, Zongying Shi, Yisheng Zhong, "Visual SLAM Incorporating Wheel odometer for Indoor Robots", 2017 36th Chinese Control Conference (CCC), 2017.) of the error function at the image capturing edge is not described.
Therefore, in a case where it is not possible to acquire the change amounts of the position and the posture of a vehicle by odometry with high accuracy, for example, when the vehicle turns, there is a problem in that graph structure data is optimized such that the error function at the image capturing edge is minimized with respect to the measured value of the position change amount of the vehicle, which is obtained with low accuracy when the vehicle turns, and thus the environmental map created from the image of the in-vehicle camera is largely distorted.
Thus, a need exists for a three-dimensional position estimation device and a program which are not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.

Three-dimensional position estimation device and program


Frequency multiplying delay-locked loop techniques are described in which a plurality of phase shifted signals are generated utilizing a delay-locked loop circuit having a clock multiplication, the phase shifted signals having increased frequency relative to the incoming signal. The phase-shifted signals being generated by the delay-locked loop in order to position the clock to an optimal detection point of incoming data signals.

Clock signals in electronic systems may be used for a variety of purposes such as timing and logical sequencing of integrated circuits. In high speed interconnects used in such electronics system, forwarding a high frequency clock may be a limiting factor of performance. Thus, a lower speed clock may be forwarded on an interconnect followed by recovery of the high frequency clock at a receiving device, using a frequency multiplying device. One traditional technique to perform frequency multiplication is through the use of a phase-locked loop (PLL). However, a PLL may be complex and therefore has cost associated with a relatively large silicon area. Further, PLLs have relatively high jitter (phase noise) which may not be suitable for certain high speed interconnects, particularly those employing forwarded clock architecture.
In another traditional technique for frequency multiplying, the edges of an input clock are cycled multiple times through a multiplexer and using a state machine to control a clock edge before it is compared to a subsequent input edge. However, the multiplexer and/or other circuit elements in this type of cycling frequency multiplier may cause errors in the phases spacing, such that evenly spaced output phases may be difficult or even impossible to obtain. Another traditional technique is to use multipliers after the phase generation. However, this involves use of a separate multiplier for each individual phase which adds complexity and cost.


The method comprises capturing a plurality of images of a single biometric object during a single activation of a biometric sensor and ranking the images based on a ranking metric value of each of the images to determine a highest ranked image and at least one non-highest ranked image. The method comprises comparing, in a first matching attempt for the biometric object, the highest ranked image to templates of a plurality of pre-stored biometric object templates, wherein a matching metric is determined for each compared template, and generating a match indicating signal when it is determined that at least one of the matching metrics exceeds a matching threshold value. When it is determined that none of the matching metrics exceed the matching threshold value, one of the non-highest ranked images is compared, in a further matching attempt, to templates of the plurality of templates based on the matching metrics.

Many fingerprint capture processes have aimed at ensuring capture of one high quality image and performing fingerprint matching (also commonly referred to as fingerprint identification, fingerprint recognition, etc.) based on that one image.
Other strategies may apply capturing of multiple images during a time period that extends from a finger being detected by a sensor and to either the finger being lifted from the sensor or a maximum number of captured images being reached.
Various algorithms available to the skilled person may be applied as suitable before each capture in either of these approaches to provide captures that fulfil some requirement (e.g. regarding image quality).
When multiple images are captured during a single recognition attempt, one approach to fingerprint recognition is to perform one fingerprint matching for each of the multiple images in sequence and grant access (or similar action associated with a recognized fingerprint) when at least one of the images passes a criterion of the matching.
However, such an approach is computationally extensive (and thereby requires more time and/or power than preferable).
Therefore, there is a need for an approach to fingerprint matching when multiple images are available from a single activation of a sensor.