A seawater battery of dissolved oxygen type includes a battery frame (1), n pieces of metal anode plates (2), n pieces of inert cathode plates (3), current collectors and wires (5). The battery frame (1) is consisted of an upper base (6) and a lower base (7), wherein the upper base and the lower base are respectively consisted of an outer ring and a central fixing component. The fixing component is connected with and fixed to the outer ring by a connector, and n pieces of metal anode plates are inserted on the connector so as to construct a cylindrical or frustum-shaped structure. The inert cathode plates are inserted between the metal anode plates along radial direction of the outer ring, and are connected with and fixed to the outer ring and the fixing component of the upper base and the lower base. The metal anode plates are welded in series by wires constituting the anode of the battery and the inert cathode plates are welded in series by wires constituting the cathode of the battery.

Electronic equipment working in the sea or other saline waters, such as marine aids to navigation, hydro-meteorological buoys, underwater detectors, unlimited sensors and so on, need batteries to provide energy as power sources. The electrical equipment above requires battery with higher capacity and better stability. Conventional primary batteries, such as zinc-manganese, zinc-silver etc., have a higher price, but lower quantity/volume energy density and worse storage performance. If lead-acid, nickel metal hydride, or lithium ion secondary battery is used, on the one hand, the continuous using time underwater is limited by the rated capacity; on the other hand, it needs to be sealed in a pressure-resistant container while working in the deep sea, especially for the lithium-ion battery, which further increases the complexity of the system.
Seawater battery of dissolved oxygen is a kind of battery used underwater, which selects metal, such as magnesium, aluminum or the alloy as the anode reactant, oxygen as the oxidant, and seawater or saline water as the electrolyte. The advantages of such batteries are:
1. High energy density. As both of the oxidant and the electrolyte, except the metal anode, are provided by seawater directly, the theoretical energy density in quantity is up to hundreds of watts per kilogram.
2. Rich source of raw materials. Both magnesium and aluminum are rich in earth and low in price.
3. Perfect storage performance. Such battery is inactive when isolated with seawater or saline water. Thus it has a perfect storage performance with a period of time up to several years. However, the dissolved oxygen in seawater is used as oxidant in such a battery and its content is too low (only 0.3 mol/m3), the cathode must be an open structure to ensure its contact with seawater. At the meanwhile, the enlarged cathode area can contribute a relatively large current for such battery.
In order to expand the cathode area of seawater battery, patent CN1543001A disclosed a divergent cathode structure with a magnesium rod in its central. But such structure can't guarantee the smooth flow of seawater throughout the internal battery completely, and the distance between the magnesium anode and the cathode is a little far, which increases the ionic resistance and further lowers the battery performance. Courtesy of Westinghouse Corporation in US disclosed that a circle cathode was placed around the cylindrical periphery of the magnesium anode to ensure the cathode full contact with seawater, while the problem of poor seawater circulation also exists in such structure. Besides, the volume of such battery is too large and the internal space is not fully utilized.
On the whole, the problems, such as small effective area of the electrode, low effective capacity, poor internal flow of seawater, lack of oxygen supply, being wound and polluted by the seawater bliss algae easily, etc., haven't been solved systematically for the battery systems used under seawater. Thus, an effective solution to the above problems is critical to the further application of such battery system used under seawater.

Seawater battery of dissolved oxygen type

DALIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES


A glass plate provided with a conductive layer, which comprises a glass plate, a conductive layer baked to the glass plate and containing a conductive material as the main component, and a glass exudate coating layer formed to substantially cover the conductive layer and containing low melting point glass as the main component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a glass plate provided with a conductive layer, which has a conductive layer formed on a glass plate of e.g. a rear window of an automobile to prevent fogging of such a rear window, a method for its production, a conductive paste which forms a glass exudate coating layer by firing, and a window for an automobile wherein the glass plate provided with a conductive layer is used.
2. Discussion of Background
To prevent fogging of a glass plate used for a rear window of an automobile, a plurality of conductive strips for heating and common power source lines (bus bars) connected to both ends of the conductive strips, are printed and fired on the glass plate. Metallic terminals for lead wires are attached to the bus bars by soldering. A voltage is applied across the metallic terminals to let the conductive strips generate heat so that the surface temperature of the glass plate is maintained at a level higher than the dew point, whereby fogging of the glass plate can be prevented.
The conductive strips are formed on the glass plate by printing a conductive paste on the glass plate and then firing it. In the case of a glass plate for an automobile, the width of such conductive strips is usually at most 1 mm and about 0.4 mm at the center portion of the glass plate, in order to secure the visibility.
Such a conductive paste is prepared usually by mixing a conductive material powder such as a silver powder, a low melting point glass powder, an organic varnish and in some cases, an inorganic refractory filler powder. When the printed conductive paste is fired, the conductive material powder such as a silver powder will be sintered to form a conductive layer. The surface of the conductive layer facing the substrate, is baked to the substrate by low melting point glass formed by melting of the low melting point glass powder. Here, the substrate means the glass plate or a ceramic color layer formed on the glass plate surface.
In recent years, along with the diversification of automobile designs, it is desired to make the rear window or the like provided with conductive strips slidable. If such a rear window or the like provided with conductive strips is made slidable, the conductive layer of the conductive strips is likely to be abraded due to friction between the rear window and the rubber packing, which takes place during the sliding operation. This is likely since the hardness of the conductive layer exposed on the surface of the conductive strips is small.
As a method for preventing such abrasion of the conductive layer, there has been known (1) a method wherein a dense and highly hard copper-nickel layer is formed by electroplating treatment on the surface of the conductive strips printed and fired on the glass plate, or (2) a method wherein a conductive paste to form conductive strips is coated with a predetermined width, then a glass paste is coated with a width wider than the above width, followed by heating for baking to form a glass layer on the surface of the conductive strips (JP-A-50-15514).
These conventional methods involve many process steps and accordingly have had problems such that the operation efficiency tends to be poor, and the cost tends to be high. Further, in the method (2), overflow of the glass layer beyond the conductive strips tends to be substantial, whereby a see-through image is likely to be deformed.

Glass plate provided with a conductive layer, method for its production, conductive paste and window for an automobile


Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture for image comparison using color histograms are disclosed. An example method disclosed herein to compare a first image and a second image comprises obtaining a first color histogram for a first set of pixels sampled from the first image, obtaining a second color histogram for a second set of pixels sampled from the second image, determining a comparison metric based on differences between bin values of the first color histogram and adjusted bin values of the second color histogram, and determining whether the first image and the second image match based on the comparison metric.

Image processing techniques for comparing images can have many practical applications. For example, image comparison techniques that compare an input, or test, image to one or more reference images can be applied to the detection and identification of advertisements in printed and/or broadcast media, the recognition of products in printed media and/or on store shelves, the verification of product placements in television programming, etc. A challenge faced by image comparison techniques is to reliably identify matching images in the presence of image distortion.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A fractional rate LC VCO and compensating divider circuit to avoid bit-rate interference includes an LC PLL having an input for receiving a reference clock signal, an N-stage ring VCO with rotating injection having an input coupled to an output of the LC PLL and an output for providing an output clock signal, a first divider circuit having an input coupled to an output of the N-stage ring VCO and an output coupled to the LC PLL, a second divider circuit having an input coupled to the output of the LC PLL, and an M-stage reference ring PLL having an input coupled to an output of the second divider and an output coupled to the N-stage ring VCO.

In SerDes applications, or any application requiring a low noise (low jitter) master clock of very high frequency, it is usual to require synchronism with a common, distributed, high stability reference clock of much lower frequency. To do this, a VCO and other elements needed to form a PLL are used. However, the reference clock only regulates frequency and jitter in a frequency band much lower than the reference frequency, so the VCO must be responsible for the noise and jitter at all higher frequencies up to the master clock frequency. The type of VCO with lowest noise that is readily available in integrated circuit environments is an LC type, based on the resonance of a capacitor in parallel with an inductor, both of which can be built with relatively high quality (Q) factors, i.e., low energy loss per cycle, using standard available circuit layers. However, the inductor is a relatively large conductor loop which forms an effective antenna that is relatively sensitive to electric and particularly to magnetic fields from any source, particularly nearby electrical circuits. Since the LC circuit is designed to achieve a high Q factor to minimize noise by minimizing bandwidth, the circuit is primarily sensitive to frequencies centered on the LC resonant frequency and lying within the bandwidth of the VCO circuit, which is typically no more than about 0.05% of the resonant frequency. Hence, the best means of avoiding interference is to use a resonant frequency that is not near to any of the primary or secondary frequencies used or produced by nearby circuitry. Because the purpose of the VCO is to provide the clocks for all such nearby circuitry, this means some method of shifting the VCO frequency by some non-trivial factor must be used, and in particular an integer factor such as 2 or ½ must not be used. Rather, a factor of 1.5, 1.2, or even better 0.8 is best to avoid all significant harmonics and sub-harmonics. A relatively low frequency is desirable because generally at high resonant frequencies Q falls with frequency while power increases. For similar reasons, even the master clock does not operate at the full bit-rate; rather, it operates at ½ bit-rate so that each half-period defines one bit-period, and every clock edge is fully and equally used.

Fractional divider for avoidance of LC-VCO interference and jitter


A low-cost, high-reliability polarization-independent optical waveguide interferometer is proposed which does not bring about any additional job involved in the insertion of a half-wave plate or excess loss of light. In an optical multi/demultiplexer utilizing optical interference of light waves passing through a plurality of optical waveguides with different lengths, such as an AWG and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, longitudinal integral values of birefringence values of the individual waveguides, which values are variable or invariable along the waveguides, are made equal for all waveguides 201 and 202. Thus, simply varying the waveguide width can implement polarization-independent operation, or on the contrary implement a polarization beam splitter. For example, the polarization-independent can be implemented by making the core widths, which are averaged in a longitudinal direction of a plurality of optical waveguides with different lengths, wider in a shorter optical waveguide, and narrower in a longer optical waveguide.

The present invention relates to an optical waveguide interferometer composed of planar optical waveguides, and more particularly to a technique that compensates for the polarization sensitivity of the optical interferometer, or on the contrary enhances the polarization dependence, by utilizing the dependence of waveguide birefringence on waveguide core width.
Today, optical wavelength division multiplexing communication systems (WDM systems) utilizing a plurality of optical wavelengths are being developed intensively to increase communication capacity. In the optical wavelength division multiplexing communication systems, arrayed waveguide grating optical wavelength multi/demultiplexers (abbreviated to AWGs from now on) are widely used as optical wavelength multi/demultiplexers for multiplexing a plurality of optical signals with different wavelengths at a transmitting side, and for demultiplexing a plurality of optical signals passing through an optical fiber to different ports at a receiving side.
FIG. 18 shows a circuit configuration of a conventional AWG. Light launched into an input waveguide is diffracted in parallel with a substrate 3 in a first slab optical waveguide 2, and coupled to a plurality of arrayed waveguides 4. Since the adjacent arrayed waveguides 4 have a fixed optical path difference, a plurality of light beams have phase differences depending on the wavelengths when they are coupled to a second slab optical waveguide 5. As a result, the focal points made by the interference between the plurality of light beams change their positions depending on the wavelength. Thus, disposing a plurality of output waveguides 6 at the points of focus in advance makes it possible for the AWG to function as an optical wavelength multi/demultiplexer for multiplexing or demultiplexing the plurality of optical wavelengths in the block.
In the reported AWGs at present, the plurality of arrayed waveguides 4 are designed to have the same core width. The AWGs are fabricated using waveguides of a variety of materials such as glass, polymer and semiconductors, and their results are reported (M. K. Smit, xe2x80x9cNew focusing and dispersive planar component based on an optical phased array,xe2x80x9d Electronics Letters, vol. 24, no. 7, pp. 385-386, March 1988; Y. Hida, et al., xe2x80x9cPolymeric arrayed-waveguide grating multiplexer operating around 1.3 mm,xe2x80x9d Electronics Letters, vol. 30, pp. 959-960, 1994; and M. Zirngibl, et al., xe2x80x9cPolarization compensated waveguide grating router on InP,xe2x80x9d Electronics Letters, vol. 31, no. 19, pp. 1662-1664, 1995).
Generally, an optical waveguide formed on a planar substrate has different effective refractive indices for the TM light with an electric field component vertical to the substrate and for the TE light with an electric field component parallel to the substrate. The difference between the effective refractive indices is called waveguide birefringence, and defined by the following equation (1).
B=nTM=nTExe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
where B is the waveguide birefringence, and nTM and nTE are the effective refractive indices of the TM light and TE light. The waveguide birefringence is caused by stress-induced birefringence, structural birefringence or the like.
AWG center wavelengths of the TM light and TE light are expressed by the following equations (2) and (3).                               λ          TM                =                                                            n                TM                            ·              Δ                                                  xe2x80x83                                    L                    m                                    (        2        )                                          λ          TE                =                                                            n                TE                            ·              Δ                                                  xe2x80x83                                    L                    m                                    (        3        )
where xcexTM and xcexTE are the AWG center wavelengths of the TM light and TE light, xcex94L is the length difference between adjacent arrayed waveguides, and m is a diffraction order (integer).
As seen from the foregoing equations (1)-(3), when the waveguide birefringence B is present, the AWG center wavelengths xcexTM and xcexTE of the TM light and TE light differ from each other. Basically, a silica-based glass waveguide has little dependence of a propagation loss on the polarization. However, since the center wavelengths differ for the TM light and TE light, the AWG has a problem of the polarization sensitivity that its characteristic changes depending on the polarization state of incident light.
(First Example of Conventional Technique)
FIG. 19 shows a method of eliminating the polarization dependence. It inserts into the arrayed waveguide 4 a half-wave plate 7 whose principal axis inclines 45xc2x0 at the center of the AWG via a groove 8 (Y. Inoue, et al., xe2x80x9cPolarization sensitivity elimination in silica-based wavelength-division multiplexer using polyimide half waveplate,xe2x80x9d IEEE J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 15, no. 10, pp. 1947-1957, October 1997).
The half-wave plate 7 operates as a polarization mode converter between the TM light and the TE light so that the polarization sensitivity is eliminated by exchanging the TM light and the TE light at the center of the AWG to average the overall characteristic.
(Second Example of Conventional Technique)
Another method of eliminating the polarization sensitivity of the AWG is reported. It reduces the thermal stress in the fabrication process of the AWG by providing the silica-based glass with a thermal expansion coefficient corresponding to the thermal expansion coefficient of the silicon substrate by adding much dopant to the silica-based glass, thereby eliminating the polarization sensitivity (S. Suzuki, et al., xe2x80x9cPolarization-insensitive arrayed-waveguide gratings using dopant-rich silica-based glass with thermal expansion adjusted to Si substrate,xe2x80x9d IEE Electron. Lett., vol. 33, no. 13, pp. 1173-1174, June 1997).
More specifically, adjusting the stress imposed on the silica-based glass layer from the silicon substrate to a value between xe2x88x921 Mpa and 1 Mpa enables the absolute value of the waveguide birefringence to be limited equal to or less than 2xc3x9710xe2x88x925, where the negative sign designates compressive stress and the positive sign designates tensile stress.
The second method of the conventional technique is a more promising candidate than the first method of the conventional technique because it obviates the additional step involved in inserting the half-wave plate 7, and prevents excess loss as well. The second method, however, has a problem of readily causing cracks in the silica-based glass layer during the fabrication process of the AWG because the compressive stress of the glass is very weak. In addition, since the silica-based glass layer contains a lot of dopant, it is poor in long term weather resistance, and brings about crystallization in the waveguide which will increase the optical insertion loss of the waveguide. The low reliability is a critical problem with the optical communication component to be solved urgently.
In summary, the two methods of achieving the polarization-independence described in the conventional techniques have the problems to be solved. The first conventional method using the half-wave plate has a problem of requiring the additional step involved in inserting the half-wave plate, and of bringing about the excess loss of light. On the other hand, the second conventional method of eliminating the thermal stress of the glass by increasing the dopant of the silica-based glass has a problem of its reliability.
The present invention is implemented to solve the foregoing problems. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a low cost, high reliability, polarization-independent optical waveguide interferometer.
We found that the waveguide birefringence varies depending on the core width. Utilizing this phenomenon, the present invention solves the problem of polarization sensitivity of the AWG without additional job or component. More specifically, the polarization sensitivity of the AWG is eliminated by varying the effective core widths of the waveguides of the arrayed waveguide one by one.
To accomplish the object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical waveguide interferometer composed of optical waveguides on a substrate, wherein the optical interferometer comprises an optical branching section, a plurality of optical waveguides with different lengths, and an optical coupling section, and wherein core widths averaged in a longitudinal direction of the plurality of optical waveguides with different lengths differ from one another.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical waveguide interferometer composed of optical waveguides on a substrate, wherein the optical interferometer comprises an optical branching section, a plurality of optical waveguides with different lengths, and an optical coupling section, and wherein core widths averaged in a longitudinal direction of the plurality of optical waveguides with different lengths are wider in shorter optical waveguides and narrower in longer optical waveguides.
Here, longitudinal integral values of birefringence of the plurality of optical waveguides with different lengths may be equal to one another among the plurality of optical waveguides.
The optical waveguide interferometer may be an arrayed waveguide grating optical wavelength multi/demultiplexer including two slab waveguides and a plurality of arrayed waveguides with different lengths each other interconnecting said slab waveguides, and core widths of the plurality of arrayed waveguides may differ from one another depending on lengths of the arrayed waveguides, and each core width may be fixed except for connecting sections with the slab waveguides.
The optical waveguide interferometer maybe an arrayed waveguide grating optical wavelength multi/demultiplexer including two slab waveguides and a plurality of arrayed waveguides with different lengths each other interconnecting said slab waveguides, and the plurality of arrayed waveguides may be each composed of waveguides with two-types of core widths except for connecting sections with the slab waveguides, and a ratio between lengths of the waveguides with the two-types may differ from one another among the plurality of arrayed waveguides.
The optical waveguide interferometer may be an arrayed waveguide grating optical wavelength multi/demultiplexer including a first slab waveguide, a second slab waveguide, a plurality of arrayed waveguides that interconnect them and have different length from one another, at least one input waveguide connected to the first slab waveguide, and at least one output waveguide connected to the second slab waveguide, and core widths averaged in a longitudinal direction of the plurality of arrayed waveguides may be wider in shorter optical waveguides and narrower in longer optical waveguides, and as a result of this, longitudinal integral values of birefringence of the plurality of arrayed waveguides may be equal to one another among the plurality of arrayed waveguides.
The plurality of arrayed waveguides may each have a constant core width in their longitudinal directions except for connecting sections with the first and second slab waveguides.
The plurality of arrayed waveguides may be each composed of waveguides with at least two-types of core widths except for connecting sections with the first and second slab waveguides, and a ratio between lengths of the waveguides with the at least two-types may differ from one another among the plurality of arrayed waveguides.
The waveguides with the at least two-types of the core widths may be interconnected by a tapered section that continuously changes its width.
A tapered section interconnecting the waveguides with different core widths may be composed of a plurality of waveguides that have different widths and are connected serially to one another.
The plurality of arrayed waveguides with different lengths from one another may each include a straight line waveguide at their central section.
The optical waveguide interferometer may be a Mach-Zehnder interferometer including two optical couplers, and two optical waveguides that interconnect them and have different lengths, and the two optical waveguides may have core widths different from each other at least in part, and an averaged core width of the shorter waveguide may be wider than an averaged core width of the longer waveguide.
The optical waveguide interferometer may be a Mach-Zehnder interferometer including two optical couplers, and two optical waveguides that interconnect them and have different lengths, and the two optical waveguides may have core widths different from each other at least in part, and longitudinally integral values of birefringence of the two optical waveguides may differ from each other by half optical wavelength used.
The optical waveguide interferometer may be composed of silica-based glass optical waveguides on a silicon substrate.
An internal stress of a core film constituting each optical waveguides of the optical waveguide interferometer may be two times greater than an internal stress of an upper cladding film.

Polarization desensitized optical waveguide interferometer

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


A finger sensing device may include a mounting substrate having a recess in a top surface thereof and having conductive through-vias extending from the top surface to a bottom surface. The conductive through-vias may extend laterally adjacent to the recess. The finger sensing device may also include a finger sensing integrated circuit (IC) die within the recess and may include a finger sensing area on a top surface thereof and bond pads on the top surface laterally adjacent the finger sensing area. The finger sensing device may also include a dielectric layer over the mounting substrate and the finger sensing IC die. The finger sensing device may further include a conductive pattern carried by the dielectric layer and coupling the conductive through-vias to respective ones of the bond pads.

Fingerprint sensing and matching is a reliable and widely used technique for personal identification or verification. In particular, a common approach to fingerprint identification involves scanning a sample fingerprint or an image thereof and storing the image and/or unique characteristics of the fingerprint image. The characteristics of a sample fingerprint may be compared to information for reference fingerprints already in a database to determine proper identification of a person, such as for verification purposes.
A particularly advantageous approach to fingerprint sensing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,441 to Setlak and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference. The fingerprint sensor is an integrated circuit sensor that drives the user's finger with an electric field signal and senses the electric field with an array of electric field sensing pixels on the integrated circuit substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,114 to Mainguet, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporated in its entirety by reference, discloses a fingerprint sensor that includes a finger sensing integrated circuit (IC). The finger sensing IC includes a layer of piezoelectric or pyroelectric material placed between upper and lower electrodes to provide electric signals representative of an image of the ridges and valleys of the fingerprint.
A particularly advantageous approach to multi-biometric fingerprint sensing is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,361,919 to Setlak, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporated in its entirety by reference. The Setlak patent discloses a multi-finger sensing device sensing different biometric characteristics of a user's finger that have different matching selectivities.
A fingerprint sensor may be particularly advantageous for verification and/or authentication in an electronic device, and more particularly, a portable device, for example. Such a fingerprint sensor may be carried by the housing of a portable electronic device, for example, and may be sized to sense a fingerprint from a single-finger. For example, the AES3400 sensor from AuthenTec, Inc. of Melbourne, Fla., the assignee of the present invention, is widely used in a variety of notebooks, desktops and PC peripherals. Other fingerprint sensors, for example, the AES850, also from AuthenTec, Inc. of Melbourne, Fla., is a multi-function smart sensor that expands touch-based functionality of touchscreen and QWERTY smartphones with a reduced impact on sensor performance or durability. Thus, a fingerprint sensor may be particularly advantageous for providing more convenient access to the electronic device without a password, for example, and, more particularly, without having to type the password, which is often time consuming. A fingerprint sensor may also be particularly advantageous for starting one or more applications on the electronic device.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0175703 to Benkley, III discloses an electronic imager using an impedance sensor grid array mounted on or about a switch. More particularly, Benkley, III discloses a switch being incorporated into a sensor assembly that allows integration of sensor operations, such as, fingerprint sensor operations. A fingerprint sensor can be used for authentication while being used together with a power switch or navigation selection switch. The authentication may be used to access the device entirely or access different levels of information.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0083850 to Fadell et al. discloses an embedded authentication system in an electronic device. More particularly, Fadell et al. discloses authenticating a user via a fingerprint to provide access to resources or content that was previously not available. The electronic device may allow a user to authenticate for a particular amount of time for accessing restricted resources.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,809,168 to Abiko et al. discloses a biometric information input device. More particularly, Abiko et al. discloses a movement direction detection means for detecting a movement direction of a finger with respect to the fingerprint sensor, based on partial fingerprint images collected by the fingerprint sensor.
While a fingerprint sensor used in an electronic device may be particularly advantageous for authentication, navigation, etc., it is generally desirable that these sensors have a reduced size to accommodate the relatively small amount of space in the housing of the portable electronic device. However, making a fingerprint sensor smaller may make it more susceptible to breakage, and increase production costs.

Finger sensing device including finger sensing integrated circuit die within a recess in a mounting substrate and related methods


Disclosed herein are a system and method for transmitting content, a service server, a mobile communication terminal and a storage medium. The system includes an end device connected to a first mobile communication terminal via a local area communication network, and configured to transmit content to be transmitted to a second mobile communication terminal, together with a message transmission request, to the first mobile communication terminal; and the first mobile communication terminal connected to the end device via the local area communication network, connected to a service server via a mobile communication network, and configured to display a message transmission window for inputting a message and a recipient's number on a screen when the message transmission request is received from the end device, and to transmit a Multimedia Message Service message (MMS), to which the content received from the end device is attached, to the second mobile communication terminal.

With the development of information and communication technology, a variety of end devices capable of playing back documents, images motion pictures, etc. (hereinafter 'documents, images and moving pictures, etc.' is simply referred to as 'content' for convenience of description), such as MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3) players, Personal Multimedia Players (PMPs), and Ultra-Mobile Personal Computers (UMPCs), have been used. The end devices enable users to download desired content from Personal Computers (PCs) and play the downloaded content. However, the end devices have a problem in that users cannot download desired content onto the end devices when they are moving or the end devices cannot be connected with a PC.
In order to overcome this problem, there was proposed a technology for adding communication means capable of accessing LANs, such as a Bluetooth or UltraWideBand (UWB) network, to the end devices and connecting the end devices and mobile communication terminals via a local area communication network.
Meanwhile, a user may need to transmit content being played using an end device to another person's terminal. In this case, the user copies the content of the end device to a computer or downloads the content from an application server, and transmits the content to another person's computer via e-mail. Another person receives the e-mail using his or her computer, copies the content to a desired playback device and uses the content. As described above, in the case where the content of an end device is transmitted to the outside, a complicated procedure must be performed, so that the performance thereof is inconvenient.

System, a method, a service server, a mobile terminal and a storage means for contents delivery


In a vehicle control system performing collision avoiding control when a collision with a preceding vehicle cannot be avoided by normal running condition control, driving safety is improved by prompting a driver to intervene in the vehicle's control in a reliable manner. When a set switch is turned on in the “cancel” state, the transition to the “in-control, inter-vehicle distance control” sub-state occurs and an inter-vehicle distance control is performed. If a collision with a preceding vehicle cannot be avoided by the inter-vehicle distance control (if the collision alarm flag XA=1), transition to the “in-control, collision alarm” sub-state occurs and a collision alarm is generated. If the acceleration required for avoiding collision is further increased (if the collision avoiding control flag XC=1), the state transits to the “in-control, collision avoiding control” sub-state, and a collision avoiding control is performed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle control system for controlling running conditions, such as running speed and inter-vehicle distance, particularly for the purpose of avoiding a collision on the basis of the distance from or relative speed with respect to an object ahead of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, this type of vehicle control system is known as an Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) that detects a preceding vehicle as an obstacle ahead of a vehicle, automatically controls the engine, gears, and brakes of the vehicle to provide a target acceleration that is determined on the basis of the distance from and relative speed with respect to the preceding vehicle, and the running condition of the vehicle. This makes it possible to properly maintain the distance from the preceding vehicle.
The ACC system typically has a limited maximum deceleration (minimum acceleration) that can be used in braking a vehicle for assuring safety of passengers. However, in some instances, even control at that maximum deceleration will not be able to avoid a collision with a preceding vehicle. For this reason, various control devices to be used in conjunction with an ACC system have been proposed for avoiding collision, including, for example, a device for signaling an alarm to a driver to prompt him or her, that is, to the person driving the vehicle, to intervene when it is determined that his or her vehicle is dangerously too close to a preceding vehicle (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-177429); and a device adapted such that braking force generated when a driver intervenes and operates a brake is greater than a normal braking force for helping to avoid a collision (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 11-139278). Further, other devices have also been proposed, which are not used with an ACC system, that detect a possibility of colliding with a preceding vehicle and automatically decrease vehicle speed by generating an acceleration (or deceleration) capable of avoiding the collision (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-338110).
By combining these techniques, it will be possible to envision a control device for avoiding collision, which is used in conjunction with an ACC system, and which, when it is determined that a maximum deceleration of the ACC system is not sufficient to avoid a collision with a preceding vehicle, automatically decreases the vehicle speed by generating a deceleration (or negative acceleration) larger than the maximum deceleration.
However, using this type of device that automatically performs control for avoiding collision in addition to an ACC system, when a vehicle is in a potential collision state, the driver will not even be aware of this fact. Even if the driver is aware, the driver may not bother to intervene in the control, overestimating the effect of the device. These devices are merely for supporting drivers and, without the drivers' intervening in the control, will increase various risks all the more.
Specifically, these conventional control devices may not be able to avoid collision, even after performing any necessary control, depending upon the behavior of a preceding vehicle (e.g. abrupt deceleration) or the condition of the road surface (e.g. ice-covered road surface). Furthermore, if a sensor for detecting the preceding vehicle or obstacle makes a false detection, the control device will perform control for avoiding collision with something like an object on the street side that in fact poses no risk of collision, and will increase the risk of being rear-ended by a following vehicle.
In addition, ACC systems are mostly designed to suppress acceleration or deceleration if an object detected by a sensor is possibly not a vehicle, or if an object detected by a sensor is a vehicle but possibly is not correctly detected. In a case when the ACC system performs such suppression and at the same time a similar suppression is performed by an associated control device for avoiding a collision, it will not be possible to avoid collision with the detected object which is truly a vehicle.


A wireless image processing system includes a splitter software and processing apparatus configured to receive or forward picture element data. Image data in a computer may be split, wirelessly transmitted, and processed to form an any size integrity image/video display on a building or structure, meanwhile no physical damage may be done on or to the building or no physical cabling obstacle for image or video dividing and combining at a lighting show.

Lighting systems are well known in the art and can be effective means of advertising or decorating information or creating artistic displays. Conventional lighting and advertising systems including, but not limited to, digital billboards and wallscapes may not be installed without causing damage to a structure where they are installed. These conventional lighting systems can be an investment that may not provide a return on the investment and can be expensive to install and maintain. Poor weather conditions can damage conventional lighting systems, and limited size can make it difficult to see images and/or video from a distance. Distortion of building architecture can negatively impact a city's skyline or scene and may not be suitable for preserving a historical building when using conventional lighting systems. Accordingly, conventional lighting systems can provide several shortcomings.
Currently, LED video-display boards have similar but proprietary architectures using LED video bricks of different color pixel sizes. The video bricks can be put next to each other to assemble a video wall of a few meters in size on each side (FIG. 1). LEDs and their drivers are mounted close to each other on different printed circuit boards (PCBs) inside of each video brick. LED-driver PCBs also include a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and video-buffer memory chips.
For a video wall, interconnections between video bricks are normally made using coaxial cables. The video wall is then linked to control and video processing units by optical fiber. The control unit is used to configure these video bricks and select the proper video source. The video processor receives the selected video signal, converts its format, and sends the correct data information to the corresponding pixel position. The video processor also may perform data buffering and scaling.
One of the problems commonly associated with the system in FIG. 1 on building structures is that each room and each floor must be perforated for a wired cable to achieve data connection. Another problem is that the displayed area is limited by the attenuation of the connecting cable (i.e., the distance is large, the signal attenuation causes the display pattern to be out of sync or not displayed). The main controller and sub-processing controllers must be connected by cable wire to form an image/video. After the position of the main controller is determined, it cannot be arbitrarily changed to other controllers. Each sub-controller accepts all display content (large amount of data) to transmit and display each element picture of an image. The sub-controller can only transmit data sequentially but cannot implement data forwarding function like the router.


A battery cell, in particular a lithium-ion battery cell, is described, which comprises a negative electrode (25), a separator (24) and a positive electrode (23), wherein the battery cell has a touch sensor element (1) for detecting elements resting on the touch sensor element (1) or exerting pressure on the touch sensor element (1).

The present invention relates to a battery cell, in particular a lithium-ion battery cell, which has a touch sensor element for detecting elements resting on the touch sensor element or exerting pressure on the touch sensor element, and to a method for operating the touch sensor element.
A battery cell is an electrochemical energy store which converts the chemical energy stored into electrical energy by virtue of an electrochemical reaction when it discharges. New battery systems which are subject to very stringent requirements in respect of reliability, safety, performance and life, will be used in the future both in stationary applications such as wind turbines, in motor vehicles, which are configured as hybrid or electric motor vehicles, and in electronic appliances.
Owing to their high energy density, in particular lithium-ion batteries are used as energy stores for electrically driven motor vehicles.
DE202004006598 U1 discloses a touch-sensitive display apparatus (touchscreen) comprising a display unit, in particular a screen, and a sensor element comprising a touch-sensitive surface, wherein the sensor element, when touched, outputs information signals with respect to the touch position to a control apparatus.
DE102011108803 A1 discloses a plastic film with electrical conductors arranged thereon which are electrically insulated from one another but are capacitively coupled at points of intersection for an input apparatus, which links in particular a touch module and an operating element.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,819,316 B2 discloses a flexible, capacitive touch sensor which comprises a thin, flexible, transparent and insulating substrate. A thin, flexible and transparent layer consisting of a resistant material is applied to one side of the substrate, and a thin, flexible, transparent and pressure-sensitive layer consisting of an adhesive material, which is in turn covered by a protective film, is located on the other side of the substrate. The layer consisting of the resistant material comprises integrated electrodes, electrical lines and electrically conductive regions.

Touch sensor element for detecting critical situations in a battery cell


The invention is directed to a method and an arrangement for continuously producing a rubber base compound and a rubber end compound in a single stage for vehicle tires, drive belts, conveyor belts as well as for industrial rubber products. The rubber base compound and the rubber end compound are produced continuously in one and the same mixing arrangement which includes a twin-screw extruder.

Rubber compounds which constitute the starting material of each elastomeric product such as tires, conveyor belts, seals, elastic bellows and the like are complex reactive multicomponent systems which generally comprise rubber, processing (softener) oil to stretch the polymer and to improve the processing characteristics, chemicals for obtaining special characteristics such as fire protection and light protection, bonding agents, reinforcing filler substances such as soot, silicic acid or fibers for increasing the mechanical strength, and vulcanizing systems comprising vulcanizing agents, activators, accelerators and retarders.
Because of the different forms (lumps, granular material, powder, liquid), the extremely different viscosities and the very considerably different parts by weight (for example, one part sulfur to 100 parts rubber), the mixing of these individual substance components constitutes a method and machine task which is most difficult. In addition, a special significance is imparted to the process for producing the compounds since the physical and chemical characteristics of an elastomeric manufactured product is not only dependent upon the formulation of the rubber compound but also on the compounding technology. Accordingly, the sequence of metering of rubber, soot and softener has a considerable influence on the soot dispersion and therefore on the mechanical strength of the manufactured part.
According to the present state of the art, rubber compounds are almost exclusively produced in closed mixers characterized as masticators.
A closed mixer assembly comprises a metering system, weighing system and transport system as well as the closed mixer, an extruder or roller assembly for converting the charge of the closed mixer to rubber sheets, a refrigerating unit for the sheets and a positioning or cutting device.
The actual compounding process takes place in a chamber having two closable openings and two rotors rotating in mutually opposite directions which are arranged parallel and equipped with masticating elements. The walls of the compounding chamber, the rotors, the charging ram and the discharge saddle flap are temperature controlled by circulating liquid. The substance components are supplied with an actuated ram via the feed shaft while liquids are injectable via nozzles directly into the mixing chamber. The edges of the rotating masticating blades define gaps in which the material is sheared and dispersed. The masticating elements are so configured that the mixing charge is forcibly conveyed in the longitudinal and peripheral directions. The flow division resulting from the laminar flow field and the rearrangement cause a distributive mixing effect. At the end of a cycle, the mixing chamber is opened by pivoting the saddle flap and the compounded piece is discharged by the conveying action of the rotors.
The holding time or cycle time required to obtain a homogeneous compound is empirically determined for each formulation. The process is controlled to end when the pregiven values of the time, rotor torque, rotor revolutions, the temperature of the material being mixed or the energy supplied are reached.
The energy supplied via the rotors is for the most part dissipated in the highly viscous polymer mass. Because of the thermally unfavorable surface/volume ratio of the mixing chamber, the dissipation heat can only be transferred to a limited extent. The temperature increase of the material being mixed resulting therefrom forms the basis of one of the most serious disadvantages of the closed mixing process, namely: in order to avoid a premature start of the temperature-dependent vulcanizing reaction, a rubber compound must generally be produced with a closed mixer in several steps. In the first step, all non-reactive constituents are mixed. In the case of high concentrations of a charging substance and thermal instability of the polymers, several cycles can already be required for this purpose.
The premix characterized as the base compound is cooled down from approximately 100.degree. C. to 160.degree. C. to 20.degree. C. to 40.degree. C. after being discharged from the closed mixer and thereafter supplied to the end compound stage. There, the reactive vulcanizing chemicals are mixed into the base compound likewise with a closed mixer with a temperature of approximately 80.degree. C. to 120.degree. C. not being permitted to be exceeded. The end compound contains all constituents after this stage and is, in turn, cooled down to 20.degree. C. to 40.degree. C. In many cases, the end compound is stored in advance of further processing for 20 to 40 hours in order to raise the quality of the material being mixed to the required level via diffusive material transport during this storage time.
The production of rubber compounds with closed mixers is burdened with two substantial disadvantages. On the one hand, a closed mixer can principally be driven only discontinuously. From this, an interruption in the continuous manufacturing sequence results with organizational and logistical problems. On the other hand, the danger is present of fluctuations in quality because start-up effects occur with each cycle because of the intermittent operation.
Secondly, the temperature of the material being mixed is influenced only within narrow limits and it is for this reason that the mixing process must be carried out in several stages and, after each mixing stage, a reshaping and cooling must take place. Because of the multiple stages, the following consequences occur: the mixing time is lengthened, a very large energy requirement has to be satisfied because of the repeated plasticization and cooling of the compound and the necessity arises of providing storage and transport capacities for the intermediate compounds.
Because of these disadvantages of the closed mixer, the development of alternate mixing apparatus was begun already in the 1960s. Thus, the transfer mix extruder known, for example, from published German patent application DE-AS 11 42 839 was investigated as to its suitability as a rubber mixer. The foregoing concerns a single-screw extruder wherein not only the rotating screw but also the stationary cylinder has conveyance paths. The material is transferred several times from the conveying paths of the screw into those of the cylinder and back whereby a good mixing effect is obtained. However, because of thermal reasons, the combination of the production of rubber base compounds and rubber end compounds in a continuous process sequence and achieving this in only one mixing arrangement was not possible.
A twin-shaft machine known from published German patent application DE-AS 16 79 829 is likewise suited only for end mixing. A Farrel continuous mixer comprises essentially two shafts journalled at opposite ends and rotating in mutually opposite directions with the shafts being configured as conveying screws in the input area and as masticating blades in the output area. The holding time can be influenced via the rotational speed of the shafts and a throttle in the output cross section.
Furthermore, a single-shaft machine developed by Buss AG and characterized as a co-masticator has become known for producing rubber compounds. In this single-shaft machine, the blades of the screws in the co-masticator are penetrated over the surface in a manner comparable to a pin extruder. During the rotation, these breakthroughs engage masticating teeth fixed in the cylinder. To increase the mixing action in the longitudinal direction, the shaft carries out an oscillating longitudinal movement with each rotation (Kautschuk und Gummi, Kunststoffe, 38th year, no. 2/85, pages 116 to 121).
Finally, a method and an arrangement for producing rubber compounds is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,291 wherein two closed mixers are arranged in series. The first closed mixer supplies the base compound of the rubber while the second closed mixer takes over the task of the end compound. The second closed mixer is located directly below the mixer for the rubber base compound so that the rubber base compound can be guided directly into the finish mixer as a charge and can be further processed there.
It is true that with this method procedure the very costly cooling and reheating via the intermediate storage of the base compound is avoided, it is however disadvantageous, as with all other methods and arrangements according to the state of the art, that a continuous production of rubber end compounds is not possible. In addition, the capability of cooling the second closed mixer operating as a finish mixer is poor as before because of its comparatively poor ratio of coolable surface to the quantity being mixed disposed in the mixer.
As an alternative to the closed mixer, in actual practice no alternative could prevail for overwhelming technical reasons such as inadequate mixing capacity or thermal problems. The state of the art of producing rubber compounds is as before the closed mixer developed on the basis of a dough masticating machine.

Method and apparatus for the single-stage continuous production of a rubber base compound and a rubber end compound


An imaging apparatus including a ranging device for measuring a distance to a subject, a device for radiating fill-light to the subject, and a re-ranging determining device for determining as to whether re-measurement is executed based on a measured result of the ranging device, when the re-ranging determining device determines that the re-measurement by the ranging device is required, the fill-light radiating device radiating the fill light to the subject based on the determination of the re-ranging determining device, the ranging device having a ranging element mechanism for allowing a light flux from the subject to image thereon to measure the distance to the subject, a ranging arithmetical mechanism for achieving an arithmetic of the ranging based on outputting data of the ranging element mechanism, and an area selecting mechanism for selecting an area based on an arithmetical result of the ranging arithmetical mechanism.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus and an imaging method of a passive type applicable to an automatic focusing device being used for a digital camera, a silver salt camera and the other usual cameras.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there has been proposed a structure capable of measuring easily and accurately a distance to a subject having a shape including a various of contrast edges in an imaging apparatus having a passive type ranging device. The structure includes a plurality of arrays of photoelectric conversion elements disposed upward and downward respectively to a pair of images of the subject, a part for preparing image information for processing image information converted photo-electrically by a plurality of up and down array groups of the photoelectric conversion elements preparing image information in the same direction as a deviated direction in the same portions of the subject, and an image-deviation detecting part for detecting a deviated amount of optical images in the sane portions of the subject based on a pair of right and left image information prepared as described above (for reference, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H8-334681).
In a ranging apparatus or imaging apparatus using fill-light radiating to a subject, there has been proposed a structure using a flash device for flash photograph as a source of fill-light to be capable of using flashing light as fill-light for an auto focus. In the structure, a camera controlling part determines that focus detection is not possible when a brightness of the subject or contrast is low as a result of measurement of light by a light measuring part, at this time, a built-in flash or exterior flash is emitted, and the light is used as the fill-light for an auto-focus ranging (for reference, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H5-34577).
In a camera having an auto-focus (AF) adjusting device, if a difference of brightness between a subject and a background is large as in backlight or the like, there is possibility that erroneous focusing occurs by measuring the background. The erroneous focusing is not considered in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H8-334681 as described above.
On the other hand, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H5-34577, if a subject has a low brightness or low contrast as a result of measurement of brightness of the subject, a strobe for flash photograph is emitted at the time of a ranging to use as fill-light when measuring a distance to the subject. However, if a brightness difference between the subject and a background is large, because the background has a high brightness, there is possibility that the fill-light is not emitted. In this way, the invention disclosed in the patent document has the same problem as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H8-334681.
Causes of the problems in prior art as described above are that the ranging is impossible relating to areas corresponding to the low brightness of the subject, whereas, is possible relating to areas corresponding to the high brightness of the background, as a result, a ranging value in an area of the background is selected, therefore the erroneous focusing occurs. Consequently, there are requested measures to improve a state of low brightness of the subject by any methods, under circumstances generating the brightness difference between the subject and the background.
On the other hand, in a two step SW type release operation in a conventional auto-focusing camera, usually, a sequence is taken that AF (ranging), display of an AF result, and focusing are executed in a half-press (first step), and exposure, namely, shutter control is executed in a full-press (second step). In addition, in case of a camera with fill-light function, the fill-light is emitted simultaneously with an AF operation in the half-press of the release. However, if the fill-light is emitted simultaneously with the AF operation in the half-press of the release, if a subject photographed is a person, there is a problem that the person misunderstands that the photograph has been taken when emitting the fill-light in the half-press. In particular, this tendency is higher in case of using the strobe as the fill-light. Because the fill-light is emitted every the release is half-pressed in these cameras, there is a problem that an operating life of a battery becomes short and so on.
In addition, there have been known an auto-focus camera disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. H7-22648 as a conventional art for driving a photographic lens in a position by measuring automatically a distance to a subject when operating a release or shutter, an illuminating device for photograph disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-207236 as a conventional art for adjusting an emitted amount of light according to a distance to a subject, an auxiliary illuminating device for an auto-focusing camera disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2691206 as a conventional art for carrying out a detection of focusing by radiation of light of the auxiliary illuminating device, and an auto-focusing camera disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2709375 as a conventional auto-focusing camera having a flashing device projecting fill-light to a subject.


A molded plastic applicator for cosmetics including a plastic panel lying substantially in a mold plane when formed and bent out of the mold plane to surround an extended longitudinal axis when the applicator is assembled. A plurality of openings or projections are formed in or on the panel so as to be oriented substantially in a common pull direction transverse to the mold plane when the panel lies in the mold plane and oriented substantially radially of the longitudinal axis when the panel is bent to surround the axis. A retainer holds the panel, when bent, in surrounding relation to the axis. The panel may be formed as a plurality of free-ended limbs, radiating from a hub through which the longitudinal axis extends, and bent down around the axis.

This invention relates to applicators for cosmetics, such as molded plastic applicators, and to methods of making them. In one important sense, to which detailed reference will be made herein for purposes of illustration but without limitation, the invention is particularly directed to brushes for applying mascara or the like.
Brushes of the type commonly referred to as "twisted-in-wire" brushes, constituted of fibers clamped at their midpoints in a twisted wire core, are well known and widely used in the cosmetics industry. Although acceptable for uses exemplified by the application of mascara, these brushes have certain disadvantages. They are relatively costly, and there are only a limited number of suppliers. Moreover, a conventional twisted-wire brush offers essentially only one kind of brush profile for use both to transfer mascara from a container to the face and to apply the mascara to the eyelashes. To improve application, it would be beneficial to provide mascara brushes having other structures; but the diversity of possible configurations of twisted-in-wire brushes is restricted by the requirement to trim the bristles in order to achieve desired shapes, and the difficulty of forming and positioning cutters to effect such trimming.
It has also been proposed heretofore to employ plastic brushes and combs as mascara applicators. Injection molded product suppliers are quite abundant, the cost of a molded brush can be less than that of a twisted-in-wire brush, and a wide variety of designs is theoretically possible. The production of molded plastic brushes with radiating bristles distributed around a cylindrical or like core, however, has been attended with substantial difficulties in separating the brush from the mold, owing to interference between the divergently angled brush fibers and the mold recesses provided for forming them, unless special and complex multi-part mold structures are employed.

Cosmetic applicators and methods of manufacture


A method and apparatus are provided for estimating motion and sequence of video images. A plurality of fields of a sequence of video images are stored, then, for each of plurality of blocks of pixels in each field, a test is performed on a set of candidate motion vectors to determine which motion vector gives the best fit in determining the motion between adjacent fields for that block. The testing step includes determining the amount of motion blur present in the image and modifying the testing of candidate motion vectors in dependence on this motion blur.

The invention relates to methods and apparatus for motion estimation and the determination of motion vectors between fields of video image sequences.
Motion video consists of a sequence of fields or frames. Motion estimation algorithms exploit the fact that these frames do not change significantly in time. Motion vector fields are calculated that attempt to describe the displacement of each pixel in a frame to an earlier frame. The image is after divided into a grid so that a single motion vector is associated with a group, or block, of pixels to reduce computational complexity.
Motion estimation is useful for several applications including, for example, motion compensated interpolation, where a number of interpolated frames are reconstructed and displayed between original images in a sequence. This reduces the motion judder of moving objects in the image sequence. The motion vectors here can be defined at any point in-between the two images, for example the midpoint, and are also used to reconstruct the interpolated frame using motion compensation.
A further application is video compression, for example, where spatial and/or temporal redundancy is removed. Motion vectors are again used to describe the displacement of image pixels between successive frames and, in this application, are transmitted in place of image data, thereby reducing the amount of data needed to represent the image sequence.
Other applications that use motion estimation to enhance video sequences include de-interlacing and noise reduction.
Motion estimation can be performed using a number of different methods, including, for example:                Block-matching techniques as described in section II of De Haan, G.; Biezen, P. W. A. C. "An efficient true-motion estimator using candidate vectors from a parametric motion model," Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, IEEE Transactions on Vol. 8, Issue 1, February 1998, pp. 85-91.        Gradient based techniques as described in Horn, B. K. P. & B. G. Schunck, "Determining Optical Flow," Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 16, No. 1-3, August 1981, pp. 185-203.
A common goal of motion estimators is to evaluate the suitability of a particular motion vector. This can be achieved, for example, by some form of error function, typically based on a criterion such as the sum of absolute differences (SAD), or the mean squared error (MSE) of intensity values.
Detection and measurement of motion blur is also relevant to the derivation of motion vectors. Motion blur is an effect that occurs in natural image sequences as cameras attempt to capture moving objects. If an object moves while the camera shutter is open, the film acts as an integrating medium and the motion that has occurred is visible as a blur along the trajectory of motion. This effect is shown in FIG. 1.
The faster an object is moving relative to the camera, the greater the motion blur. Hence the sharpness of edges in an area of the image can be used as an indication of the level of motion. This can be extended further by utilising the fact that motion blur occurs only along the trajectory. If sharp edges are detected in a particular direction, it can be deduced that in a perpendicular direction, fast motion is unlikely. FIG. 2 illustrates this point further. In example A there is vertical motion and the vertical edges are sharp whilst the horizontal edges are soft. In example B the motion is horizontal and therefore the horizontal edges are sharp and the vertical edges are soft.
There are numerous well-known methods for measuring the level of motion blur, or strength of edges, within an image. A simple method, for example, measures the intensity gradient of pixels across a small area. High intensity gradients signify strong or sharp edges, whereas low gradients signify soft or blurred edges. An in-depth overview of Edge Detection Techniques is provided in D. Ziou and S. Tabbone, "Edge detection techniques—an overview," Pattern Recognition and Image Anal., vol. 8, no. 4, 1998, but these techniques will be known to those skilled in the art.
Evaluation criteria, for example the SAD or MSE, do not always lead to selection of the correct vector. This becomes particularly important for applications such as motion compensated interpolation where the true motion vectors are desirable. Ambiguities arise, for example, where there are small objects or details in an image sequence. In these areas, erroneous motion vectors could be found that match similar blocks either side of the small detail. This is illustrated in FIG. 3.
Furthermore, many motion estimator schemes operate under the assumption that the intensity of moving objects remains constant. This is not always the case as there are lighting changes in image sequences and these can cause erroneous motion vectors that try to find blocks of a similar intensity.
Other ambiguities arise where there is more than one motion associated with an area of the image, for example, transparent areas or reflections.
In addition, motion estimators are often recursive and several iterations are required before the motion vector field is accurate. This leads to a need for improving the evaluation of candidate vectors.
Some schemes have already been proposed to reduce the ambiguities of vector evaluations. These include penalising candidates depending on their location, for example candidates chosen from a temporal location not yet processed are penalised more than those chosen from a more recently processed location.
Other schemes involve adding a penalty to the error function related to the difference between the candidate and some neighbouring vectors.
A further scheme is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,782,054 where an additional term is added to the error function that is dependent on the overall size and position of the candidate.


An earbud may have a housing with an ear portion and an elongated out-of-ear portion that protrudes away from the ear portion. A speaker may be aligned with a speaker port in the ear portion and may emit sound for a user. Audio playback functions and other operations may be controlled using a controller in the earbud. The controller may gather capacitive sensor data and other data and may use this data in identifying an operating mode of the earbud. Using information such as whether the earbud is in an in-ear state or an out-of-ear state or other sensor data, the controller may take actions such as pausing or resuming audio playback or adjusting playback volume. The capacitive sensor data can be gathered using capacitive sensing electrodes located on the ear portion and the stalk portion of the earbud.

This relates generally to electronic devices, and, more particularly, to electronic devices such as earbuds.
Electronic devices such as earbuds contain audio circuitry and speakers for playing audio content for a user. In a typical scenario, the earbuds receive audio content wirelessly from a cellular telephone.10
It can be challenging to perform music playback operations and other device functions using a pair of earbuds. In some situations, a user's cellular telephone is not accessible, making it difficult to pause and resume audio content when desired. Providing user input to the earbuds to control functions such as audio playback can be difficult due to their small size.


Methods and devices for detecting USB devices attached to a USB charging port including a USB port having a first data line D+, a second data line D−, and a power line are disclosed. A USB device is attached to the USB port; applying power to the USB device by the power line; applying a first voltage to the line D+ at the USB port by a first impedance; applying a second voltage to the line D− at the USB port by a second impedance. The voltages on the line D+ and the line D− are then monitored at the USB port. If the voltage on the line D+ is approximately equal to a first predetermined value for a predetermined period and the voltage on the line D− is below a second predetermined value, then the USB device is determined to be of an alpha type device.

Many different battery-powered devices are charged via a USB connection. Charging a battery in a USB device commences with attaching the USB device to a host device that is capable of providing current to charge the batteries in the USB device. Subsequent to attachment, a determination is made as to the type of USB device and the type of host device that are attached together. If a charging port is detected, the charging port provides current to charge the batteries in the USB device.
Over time, several different battery charging specifications have been developed for different charging ports. The different battery charging specifications have created some conflicts between different charging ports and different USB devices. Accordingly, not all battery-powered USB devices will enter a charging mode when attached to all charging ports.

Devices and methods for detecting USB devices attached to a USB charging port


A button assembly is disclosed which includes a spear that is removably connected to the back side of a button head for enabling penetration of a post (or shank) of the button head through a piece of fabric. The post, itself, is threaded so that a locking disc can be screwed onto the post on the back side of the fabric once the spear has been removed and discarded therefrom. The surfaces of the disc and the button head which engage the fabric are also provided with teeth so that the button is not loosened from the fabric once it has been fastened thereto.

1. Field of Use:
The present invention relates to fasteners for attaching or enabling attachment of buttons to fabric materials. More specifically, the invention relates to an article or an assembly having removable means for enabling penetration of a button shank or other member through a fabric to enable attachment of the button.
2. Background Art:
Buttons are believed to have been initially developed as a convenient means for connecting two pieces of fabric together. As buttons have developed, they have been employed throughout all areas of the textile industry. In fact, today, buttons are so common that they are often employed simply for decorative purposes. However, for almost as long as buttons have been known, they have been snapped, popped, lost and broken from the fabric on which they were connected.
Typically, buttons comprise a disc-like member with one or more holes therethrough for "permanently" stitching the button to a piece of fabric by means of needle and thread. Although the thread stitching a button to fabric is typically doubled over time and again to reinforce the stitch, breaking of that thread and subsequent removal of the button from the fabric is commonplace, especially when the thread is subject to excessive stress or as the thread becomes weakened through extended use.
The most obvious way to remedy the removal of a button is to sew it back onto the fabric. That process, though, can be a real nuisance due to the time, patience and skill required. Many would rather go without the button than put themselves through the tedious task of replacing it. Furthermore, once a button is replaced, it is still just as susceptible to being popped from the fabric again. Those consequences may be especially acute when an individual is inexperienced or inept with a needle and thread.
For centuries, medals, ribbons, brooches and a variety of other ornamental articles have been fastened to fabric by means of sharpened pins that are connected to the back of the article and are used to pierce the fabric. Typically, once the pin has pierced the fabric, it is secured at its tip by some form of locking means to complete the attachment. That form of fastener is advantageous since it can be performed quickly and easily. On the other hand, the sharpened pin of such fasteners almost necessarily risk injury, although minor, to an individual who later wears or otherwise comes in contact with the fabric.
Consequently, it is an object of this invention and many others to enable fastening of an article to a piece of fabric through the use of a sharpened member in a manner such that injury is avoided.
It is another object of the present invention to enable fastening of a button to fabric by means of a sharpened member in a manner which minimizes discomfort when the fabric is worn.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a fastening means for permanently fastening a button to a piece of fabric.
Still other objects include producing a simple, easily-manufactured, and low-cost button having means formed integrally therewith for attaching the button to a piece of fabric. Many other objects will be obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the prior art, the following descriptions, the attached drawings and the appended claims.


An image glossing apparatus including a recording sheet feeder feeding a recording sheet bearing a toner image; a glossing device including a heater heating a glossing portion of the toner image to gloss the portion; a glossiness information obtaining device obtaining position information on the position of the glossing portion; and a position detector including a tip detector detecting tip of the fed recording sheet, and a distance measuring device measuring the moving distance of the recording sheet after the tip of the recording sheet is detected. The position detector detects the position of a portion of the recording sheet facing the heater based on the information on the tip of the recording sheet and the information on the moving distance of the recording sheet. When the portion of the recording sheet facing the heater is the glossing portion, the heater heats the portion to gloss the glossing portion.

In general, when a photographic image is printed, the printed image is required to have high glossiness so that the resultant color image has good clearness and high class looking. In attempting to produce such glossy images, techniques of controlling the glossiness of images using a transparent toner have been proposed and used. However, the glossiness (glossiness GS measured at an angle of 60°) of images prepared by using such a transparent toner is 70% at most. In attempting to produce images having glossiness higher than 70%, a print controlling device which heats a recording sheet having a toner image thereon while applying pressure to the recording sheet set on a belt to smooth the surface of the toner image is proposed.
However, a business document, which typically consists of character images, is required to have low glossiness so that the character images are legible. When a photographic image and a character image are formed on one recording sheet using such a print controlling device as mentioned above, the glossing device of the print controlling device has to perform the glossing operation in such a manner that the photographic image is glossed, and the character image is not glossed.
The belt of the print controlling device used for glossing images has so smooth surface that a recording sheet easily slips on the belt, and therefore it is difficult to determine the position of the photographic image on the recording sheet (i.e., the position of a portion of the recording sheet to be subjected to a glossing treatment).
For these reasons, the inventors recognized that there is a need for an image glossing apparatus which can precisely determine the position of a portion of the recording sheet to be subjected to a glossing treatment to perform a glossing treatment only on the image to be glossed.

Image glossing apparatus, image glossing method, and recording medium storing image glossing program


A device for coupling to a fluid connector of an IV administration set to resist contamination of the fluid connector and IV administration set and permit priming of the IV administration set. The device including a cover body having a cavity for receiving the fluid connector, a priming passage for priming fluid from the IV administration set through the fluid connector, and a coupling tab extending from the cover body, the coupling tab permitting the cover body to be coupled to a length of an IV line or other portion of the IV administration set to resist contamination and permit priming of the IV administration set.

The present application relates to intravenous (IV) administration sets and devices used to administer fluids to a patient's vascular system through a needle or catheter inserted into a vein. More specifically, the present application is directed to fluid connector caps that can be used to cover a fluid connector, permit fluid priming, and prevent contamination of a fluid connector and IV administration set.
IV administration sets are devices used to administer fluids from a container to a patient's vascular system through a needle or catheter inserted into a vein. IV administration sets can include a needle or Luer connector, IV line or tubing, a flow regulator, a drip chamber, an infusion line filter, an intravenous set stopcock or valve, connectors between parts of the set, access ports or injection sites, a clamp such as a roller clamp, and an IV spike to penetrate and connect the tubing to an IV bag or other infusion fluid container.


A load sensing device comprise an inner member provided at a front part of a vehicle and a load sensor provided at a position before a front of the inner member, in addition to an outer member and a load transfer member. The outer member is provided at the front part of the vehicle so as to be located more frontward than the load sensor so that a space is formed between the outer member and the load sensor. The outer member is in charge of allowing the load sensor to sense, via the outer member, a load applied to a front of the vehicle. The load transfer member, made of a hard material, is disposed adjacently to the load sensor within the space between the outer member and the load sensor. The load sensor is allowed to move along the inner member in the back-and-forth direction of the vehicle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a load-sensing device which is able to sense a load applied to the front of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, it has been pointed out that a pedestrian collided with a vehicle may often be damaged by the portion near the vehicle's hood. Development of a vehicle has thus been proposed that has an airbag provided near the vehicle's hood to protect the pedestrian when the pedestrian is collided with the vehicle (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-264146).
The airbag as described in the publication No. 2000-264146 and the like needs to be provided with a forward-sensing device provided at the front of the vehicle to sense the collision event. Such a forward sensing device includes a device which uses the infrared sensor and the like to sense the pedestrian approaching the vehicle to predict the collision, and a device which uses the load sensor and the like to sense the pedestrian collided with the vehicle. This specification refers to those of the forward sensing devices that can sense the collision with the load sensor as the load sensing devices.
The load sensor may preferably be provided on the front surface of an inner member such as the bumper reinforcement (or bumper reinforce), which is provided on the front side of the vehicle. An outer member such as the front-bumper cover, which is provided on the vehicle front-end side of the inner member, may preferably cover the vehicle front-side portion of the load sensor. FIG. 4 schematically shows a cross sectional view of such a conventional load-sensing device.
FIG. 4 shows a load sensing device 100 which includes the bumper reinforcement as an inner member 101, which has on its front surface the optical-fiber sensor as a load sensor 102. The front-bumper cover as an outer member 103 covers the vehicle front-side portion of the load sensor 102 and the inner member 101. It is noted that the inner member 101 has predetermined left and right portions that attach to the left and right front ends of a side member 105 of the vehicle frame.
In this load sensing device 100, a pedestrian collided with the vehicle may deform the outer member 103 from the front to back of the vehicle. The outer member 103 may then pressure the load sensor 102 provided on the backside of the outer member 103. This pressure can transmit the load to the load sensor 102 to allow the load sensor 102 to sense the collision. The outer member 103 located over the load sensor 102 may prevent the light load due to such as a pedestrian collided with the parked vehicle from being directly transferred to the load sensor 102, thereby preventing the airbag malfunction and the like.
As shown in FIG. 5, a buffer member 106 is generally provided on the back of outer member 103 to absorb the shock of the collision. In this case, however, the buffer member 106 can transfer the load applied to the outer member 103 to the inner member 101 and may not transfer sufficient load to the load sensor 102. Depending on the arrangement of the outer member 103 and the load sensor 102 and the like, the deformed outer member 103 may contact a portion 107 of the inner member 101 where the load sensor 102 is not provided and prevent the load applied to the vehicle from reliably being transferred to the load sensor 102. These cases may cause a problem that the load sensor 102 cannot reliably detect the load applied to the vehicle.


A system for returning synthetic database query results. The system may include a memory unit for storing instructions, and a processor configured to execute the instructions to perform operations comprising: receiving a query input by a user at a user interface; determining, based on natural language processing, a type of the query input; determining, based on the received query input and a database language interpreter, an output data format; returning, based on a generation model and the output data format, a result of the query input; providing, to a plurality of training models and based on the determined query type, the query input and the result; and training the training models, based on the query input and the result.

Training artificial intelligence systems can require substantial amounts of training data. Where there exists a lack of representative training data, application of synthetic data may be useful for performance and testing of databases. Algorithms used for data mining are currently employed for database testing but are unfortunately limited in size and scope. However, synthetic data may be utilized for effectively testing databases and performing database functions, including for example, returning results to search queries and testing times related to the returned results (real or synthetic) for search queries. For example, a recurrent neural network (RNN) or generative adversarial network (GAN) may be trained upon user input to synthetically generate data results to an input search query. Further, a system pretrained against a database query may be used to increase the speed of training for each database tested. Additionally, for each database, a pretrained system may be hyper-trained on only queries that are specific to a particular database. These advantages and other advantages may improve database testing for customer financial records, patient healthcare data, or other "sensitive data" areas or sectors.
Furthermore, synthetic data can be generally useful for testing applications and systems, beyond databases. However, existing methods of creating synthetic data can be extremely slow and error-prone and may not include statistical characteristics similar to those of the original data, limiting the utility of such data for training and testing purposes. Unfortunately, existing methods of returning real or synthetic results based on user queries are also slow and error-prone.
Therefore, a need exists for systems and methods for creating synthetic data similar to existing datasets, for effectively testing databases using synthetic data, and for training and generating query-originated real and synthetic data from a database.

Systems and methods for synthetic database query generation


An enclosure for housing a radio frequency integrated device (RFID) transponder. The enclosure includes a front surface comprising a non-shielding material, a top surface, a bottom surface, a right-side surface, a left-side surface and a rear surface. The top surface, the bottom surface, the right-side surface, the left-side surface and the rear surface include a shielding material. The enclosure selectively enables and disables communication between the RFID transponder and toll collection units relative to a position of the front surface of the enclosure within a vehicle.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an enclosure for housing a toll fee tracking device and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to an enclosure that selectively enables and disables communication between the toll fee tracking device and toll collection units at toll stations.
2. History of Related Art
The crowding of highways within metropolitan areas has resulted in the development of additional traffic arteries known as toll roads. Toll roads have become increasingly popular, however, they require payment of a toll fee for use. Collection of tolls by conventional means, such as, for example, manned toll stations has had a negative effect upon highway throughput and safety. Congestion and long backups on toll stations are becoming more common. Such conditions involve a significant economic cost, through lost time and reduced productivity. Moreover, serious accidents at toll stations, caused by vehicle operators or mechanical failures, have also increased in frequency.
Certain toll authorities have attempted to respond to these problems by providing coin-operated toll collection devices, or by instituting a toll-plate system in which toll-takers visually inspect each incoming vehicle for an appropriate toll plate or sticker. Coin operated toll collection systems, however, do little to increase throughput, and are susceptible to fraud through the use of counterfeit coins. Toll-plate systems suffer the same deficiencies, requiring each vehicle to slow sharply while entering the visual inspection area. In later years, a development ensued that revolutionized toll road travel. This was the development of the toll fee tracking device.
Various automatic toll collection systems have been proposed to reduce dependency on a manual attendant for collection of toll fees that a vehicle operator must present at toll stations. It has been known for some time to provide special tokens which the vehicle operators may deposit at the toll stations without manual intervention, with a deposit and subsequent processing of the token providing the vehicle with a signal allowing the vehicle to pass through the toll station. Such a system disadvantageously requires vehicle operators to periodically buy a supply of such tokens which are generally only usable at the toll stations.
More recently, individually coded electronic transponders are being supplied for mounting to the vehicle. Toll authorities utilize toll transponders such as, for example, EZPASS® for AVI (Automatic Vehicle Identification)/ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) when vehicles use a toll authority. For example, the transponders are typically mounted and exposed on a vehicle windshield and emit signals identifying a particular vehicle as having an active account with the toll authority. The transponders are issued by the toll authority with pre-paid or post-paid accounts assigned. For example, when a vehicle with the transponder passes through an active toll station on a toll road, a payment for the toll transaction is made though the pre-paid or post-paid account previously established and identified by a transponder identification number.
This toll collection system advantageously simplifies a process of collecting tolls, speeds up traffic flow through the toll stations, and reduces the cost of collecting tolls by dispensing with a need to have attendants at toll stations to make a currency exchange with vehicle operators. However, because of the continued presence of the transponder in an activated mode within the vehicle, there may be situations when the vehicle operators prefer not to use the transponder for toll payment. For example, the vehicle operator may want to pay a particular toll with currency rather than have it automatically debited to the pre-paid or post-paid account set up in association with the transponder. Furthermore, an ability to ascertain an identification of the transponder at a location other than the toll station may subject the transponder to improper cloning, or be a basis for privacy concerns. Accordingly, it would be preferable to limit activation of the transponder to situations in which the vehicle operator passing through the toll station desires to utilize the transponder for automatic toll payment.

Vehicle mounted directionally focused tolling device enclosure


A transducer including a return pole having a return pole tip extending to an external surface of the transducer. The external surface of the return pole tip has an area that is larger than a cross-sectional area of the return pole taken parallel to the external surface but at a back gap region within the transducer a distance from the external surface.

Write heads are used in combination with a magnetic medium to record data thereto. The magnetic medium, which may be in the form of a magnetic disc, includes a storage layer. The write or recording head is configured to generate a magnetic field that aligns magnetic moments of the storage layer to represent the desired bits of data.
Magnetic recording techniques include both longitudinal and perpendicular recording techniques. Perpendicular recording is a form of magnetic recording in which magnetic moments representing bits of data are oriented perpendicularly to the surface of the storage layer of the recording medium, as opposed to longitudinally along a track of the medium as in the more traditional longitudinal recording technique.
Perpendicular recording techniques have the potential to support higher linear areal recording densities than conventional longitudinal designs. One factor that plays a role in the areal density at which a perpendicular write head is capable of recording data to the magnetic medium is the head-media spacing (HMS). The HMS is the distance between the write head and the magnetic medium. Performance of the write head is very sensitive to the HMS. In particular, as the HMS is reduced, the areal recording density capability of the write head increases. However, the HMS must also be large enough to avoid contact between the write head (or the slider supporting the write head) and the magnetic medium.
Perpendicular magnetic write heads typically include main and return poles that are separated by a write gap. The main and return poles each extend from pole tips located at an air-bearing surface (ABS) to a back gap region. A back gap portion typically connects the main and return poles together at the back gap region to form a magnetically conductive path therebetween. A coil typically surrounds the back gap portion and is used to generate magnetic signals through the main and return poles in response to a current conducted therethrough. The magnetic signals are focused at the main pole tip such that they interact with a storage layer of a magnetic medium to orient a vector of magnetization in an up or down direction. The orientation of the magnetization in the storage layer of the magnetic medium represent bits of data. The return pole conventionally has a very large volume relative to the main pole. Additionally, the return pole has a large cross-sectional area taken parallel to the ABS in order to prevent the generation of an erasure field that could inadvertently reorient the magnetization in the storage layer of the magnetic medium. Unfortunately, the large return pole can limit the performance of the write head by limiting the minimum HMS for the write head due to thermal induced protrusion of the return pole.
The write head is generally comprised of a substrate and several metallic and insulating layers. During operation, the head is subjected to increased temperatures due to head dissipation in the head caused by the generation of magnetic recording signals by the passing of a current through a coil of the head. As the temperature of the head increases, the metallic layers expand more than the insulating layers. As a result, the metallic layers tend to protrude closer to the magnetic medium than the insulating layers, which affects the HMS and, thus, the recording capability of the write head.
The change in HMS caused by such an expansion is typically referred to as a thermal pole tip protrusion (TPTP). TPTP has become increasingly significant due to a need to reduce the HMS in order to meet the increasing demands for higher areal density recording capabilities. The return pole is most sensitive to such protrusion due to its large size relative to the main pole. Thermal induced protrusion of the return pole affect the performance of the write head in primarily two ways. First, the protrusion of the return pole at elevated temperatures increases the possibility of head-disc contact, which sets a limitation of the HMS. Second, the return pole can contribute to reduced write head performance, such as a reduction of writeability, write field gradient, and signal-to-noise ratio, as a result of an increase in the HMS due to a recession of the return pole at low temperatures.
Accordingly, a need exists for a return pole of a perpendicular write head having low thermal induced protrusion while reducing the generation of erasure fields.

Return pole of a transducer having low thermal induced protrusion